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Originally Posted by 7luminaries
A very nice thread on metta and sharing our thoughts...
I liked this discussion on cravings & the "3 cravings" from sky123 (a bit like the more elaborate "7 deadly sins", which are actually just finer grades of cravings).
I have meditated and done lucid meditations, some guided, daily for many years now.
Night before last I had a dream and it became lucid part-way through. I was experiencing it "live" and couldn't see myself, but I wanted to be fully present in it and so I went with it. I was darting out ahead of the superfast passenger transport with another small child...seemed just car or so at a time...white and shiny, mag lev-type stuff in some other time and place, not exactly this one but one I knew well...it was dusk and then getting dark. We knew the route...I ran ahead across the small tracks and nervously waited for him to come quick...said "back" several times as it came round blind corners. Running barefoot in the wet grass...little maniacs we were. Then dropping into a window after dark more than 2 floors ups, probably 3...wet shirts and shoes left in a puddle...into a room for bath where an older boy pretended not to see us sneak into the bath in our shorts.
As the dream snip ended, I took hold at the end and brought us to my meditation place, where I could "see" all round. We were young boys of eight or so, laughing with the sheer joy of being small and free and having snuck out under the radar with your best mate. We looked just alike -- it was my twin brother with me. From another life.
The sense of sheer joy has stayed with me since then. I find myself craving that freedom and that acceptance and that joy...full disclosure. This simple love and friendship and at-one-ness. And not just for myself in this time, but for all beings in all times.
I wish for all beings this simple joy, love, and friendship. 
Peace & blessings 
7L |
Speaking of 'craving' there are simplifications that serve teaching purposes, but the word 'tanha' (craving) includes both aversion and desire, these two being unified and inseparable, and where this concerns suffering, craving is the reactions to sensations. Hence in the discourse on dependent arisings, from vedana (sensations) tanha (craving) arises.
The meditation is sensation based, so breath awareness is actually being aware of the sensation of breathing, and body awareness is awareness of sensations in the body. Mind awareness is slightly different because it means being aware of mental rather than physical phenomena, but on closer examination, the body and mind is a unified aggregate or phenom.
The idea behind mindfulness is to break the link between sensation and craving. Hence be sensation pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, the mind remains the same, balanced, rather than entering into the old habits of reacting with aversion and desire - which are unified by the term 'craving'.
This is achieved by being consciously aware of sensation and seeing for yourself how craving arises from sensation. Then, by looking into the fundamental nature sensation: impermanence; you know, regardless of it being pleasurable, unpleasant or neutral, it changes momentarily and 'this too will pass'.