Sherlockian_Holmes
"What you seek is seeking you."
While I understand that many people think that they can reach the same insights (forever) through the use of plant medicines (and in regards to this, I will remain silent as I am still personally exploring them as an aid for meditative insight) it is important to understand that one of the most valuable tools one can use to reach enlightenment is meditation.
Many people hear about meditation, and do not know what it is, and what the point of meditation is, in regards to enlightenment. Gautama Siddharta made a roadmap that is easy to understand and avoids perplexing metaphors (that only those with considerable attainment can understand, e.g. the Bible), however, is often overlooked as a valuable method in psychedelic circles.
To that end, I thought I'd share the outline for those that are interested, as described in DN2 (Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life) shared by my teacher.
1) Understand the 62 wrong views.
* Eternalism, Semi-eternalism, Finitism/infinitism of a self
* Evasiveness of answers (eg. agnostism)
* Chance-originators of self
* Conscious and unconscious post-death survival, neither conscious-nor-unconscious post-death survival
* Annihilation of self after death
* Wrongful nibbana claim in sensory pleasure, first/second/third/fourth jhana
* Understand the correct view, which is interdependent origination. This means that all the previous views were birthed from sensory contact and caused by feeling and hence are speculatory and not direct-wisdom. Interdependent origination is: Senses contact > Craving > Clinging > Becoming > Birth > Ageing and Death, Sorrow/lamentation, sadness and distress.
(2) Restrain in body, speech and thought (sila discipline)
* Perfected in morality
(3) Guarding the Sense-doors
* Watcher of the castle
* Receiving information from senses, do not grasp at signs or characteristics, otherwise, greed and sorrow overwhelms one.
(4) Deep Contentment
* Contentment in solitude
* Contentment with minimum food and clothing
* Removal of greed and sorrow, replaced with contentment
(5) Abandoning the 5 Hindrances
* Desires of the world => free the mind.
* Ill-will and hatred => Compassionate love for welfare
* Sloth-and-torpor => Perception of light, being mindful, being clearfully aware
* Worry-and-anxiety => Calm the mind inwardly (eg. using the breath and being unidentified by the mind)
* Doubt => Understand clearly what is unwholesome, and what is a wholesome state of mind, free of the 5 hindrances.
* Once abandoned, gladness naturally arises, giving rise to delight and joy. Being one-pointed, being detached from unwholesome states and the senses, one then enters first jhana.
(6) First Jhana
* Applying and hence sustaining attention, it becomes one-pointed.
* As joy and bliss arises, one drenches the body with it so that no area of the body is left without joy/bliss.
* After a while, one-pointedness becomes more natural, without the need to sustain. Having this, one gains tranquility and oneness of the mind, entering second jhana.
(7) Second Jhana
* As a result of this oneness mind, one is filled with a different degree of joy and delight. One drenches the body so no area of the body is left without joy/bliss.
* Soon, the delight from this joy/bliss fades, remaining with just joy, and the birth of this equanimity, along with continuous mindfulness, causes one to enter third jhana.
(8.) Third Jhana
* Again, one allows the degree of joy/bliss to permeate the body, so no spot remains untouched.
* One resides in deep equanimity.
* Now having resided in it, one then gives up pleasure and pain, one gives up pleasure and sadness. Having this, one goes beyond pleasure and pain, residing in fourth jhana.
(9) Fourth Jhana
* Being purified, one suffuses the body with deep equanimity, of a higher degree than before. From head to toe, all is wrapped with equanimity.
* Having reached this absorption, the mind is hence ready for the development of deeper insight. One then applies it to the various siddhis (supernormal powers).
(10) Mindfulness of the body, generation of the etheric body
* One directs mind to the inspection of the body, seeing it as material, made of earth/air/water/fire, made of mother and father genetic material, made of food, impermanent (injury, breaking, destruction, dissolution, etc)
* As well as how consciousness is dependent on it and attached to identification of it
* One directs mind to the "generation" of the mind-made body. As if a reed is pulled from the sheath, the mind-made body is pulled from the physical body.
* Having been directed into the mind-made body, physical feelings are lost and one feels empty of the physical body.
* Hence, one directs the mind to the siddhis.
11) Siddhi development
* One explores the capability of the etheric body - duplication, unification, teleportation, passing through matter, walking on water, flight, soaring to great distances, going to Brahma worlds.
* One then applies mind to divine hearing (clairaudience). Having done so, one hears all kinds of things with perfect clarity and knowledge of location.
* One then applies mind to telepathy. One knows the minds of people - with passion, with hate, with delusion, with expansion, surpassing, concentrated, liberated, etc.
* One then applies mind to past-knowledge. Remembering many existences as if one were personally there, one remembers clearly the name and details of the lifetime.
* One then applies mind to passing-away and arising of beings. One sees destinations of beings and where they came from. They know how misconduct produces karma, they know how conduct produces karma. They know how disastrous wrong views can be.
* One then applies mind to how to destroy the corruptions. One then understands the Four Noble Truths to extraordinary depth: Suffering, origin of suffering, cessation, path leading to cessation.
* Once understood, one knows that everything that had to be done, has been done. The ending of birth and death, one is no longer bound by ignorance.
Hope this helps fellow Searchers! I will post a guide for meditation, if people are interested.
Many people hear about meditation, and do not know what it is, and what the point of meditation is, in regards to enlightenment. Gautama Siddharta made a roadmap that is easy to understand and avoids perplexing metaphors (that only those with considerable attainment can understand, e.g. the Bible), however, is often overlooked as a valuable method in psychedelic circles.
To that end, I thought I'd share the outline for those that are interested, as described in DN2 (Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life) shared by my teacher.
1) Understand the 62 wrong views.
* Eternalism, Semi-eternalism, Finitism/infinitism of a self
* Evasiveness of answers (eg. agnostism)
* Chance-originators of self
* Conscious and unconscious post-death survival, neither conscious-nor-unconscious post-death survival
* Annihilation of self after death
* Wrongful nibbana claim in sensory pleasure, first/second/third/fourth jhana
* Understand the correct view, which is interdependent origination. This means that all the previous views were birthed from sensory contact and caused by feeling and hence are speculatory and not direct-wisdom. Interdependent origination is: Senses contact > Craving > Clinging > Becoming > Birth > Ageing and Death, Sorrow/lamentation, sadness and distress.
(2) Restrain in body, speech and thought (sila discipline)
* Perfected in morality
(3) Guarding the Sense-doors
* Watcher of the castle
* Receiving information from senses, do not grasp at signs or characteristics, otherwise, greed and sorrow overwhelms one.
(4) Deep Contentment
* Contentment in solitude
* Contentment with minimum food and clothing
* Removal of greed and sorrow, replaced with contentment
(5) Abandoning the 5 Hindrances
* Desires of the world => free the mind.
* Ill-will and hatred => Compassionate love for welfare
* Sloth-and-torpor => Perception of light, being mindful, being clearfully aware
* Worry-and-anxiety => Calm the mind inwardly (eg. using the breath and being unidentified by the mind)
* Doubt => Understand clearly what is unwholesome, and what is a wholesome state of mind, free of the 5 hindrances.
* Once abandoned, gladness naturally arises, giving rise to delight and joy. Being one-pointed, being detached from unwholesome states and the senses, one then enters first jhana.
(6) First Jhana
* Applying and hence sustaining attention, it becomes one-pointed.
* As joy and bliss arises, one drenches the body with it so that no area of the body is left without joy/bliss.
* After a while, one-pointedness becomes more natural, without the need to sustain. Having this, one gains tranquility and oneness of the mind, entering second jhana.
(7) Second Jhana
* As a result of this oneness mind, one is filled with a different degree of joy and delight. One drenches the body so no area of the body is left without joy/bliss.
* Soon, the delight from this joy/bliss fades, remaining with just joy, and the birth of this equanimity, along with continuous mindfulness, causes one to enter third jhana.
(8.) Third Jhana
* Again, one allows the degree of joy/bliss to permeate the body, so no spot remains untouched.
* One resides in deep equanimity.
* Now having resided in it, one then gives up pleasure and pain, one gives up pleasure and sadness. Having this, one goes beyond pleasure and pain, residing in fourth jhana.
(9) Fourth Jhana
* Being purified, one suffuses the body with deep equanimity, of a higher degree than before. From head to toe, all is wrapped with equanimity.
* Having reached this absorption, the mind is hence ready for the development of deeper insight. One then applies it to the various siddhis (supernormal powers).
(10) Mindfulness of the body, generation of the etheric body
* One directs mind to the inspection of the body, seeing it as material, made of earth/air/water/fire, made of mother and father genetic material, made of food, impermanent (injury, breaking, destruction, dissolution, etc)
* As well as how consciousness is dependent on it and attached to identification of it
* One directs mind to the "generation" of the mind-made body. As if a reed is pulled from the sheath, the mind-made body is pulled from the physical body.
* Having been directed into the mind-made body, physical feelings are lost and one feels empty of the physical body.
* Hence, one directs the mind to the siddhis.
11) Siddhi development
* One explores the capability of the etheric body - duplication, unification, teleportation, passing through matter, walking on water, flight, soaring to great distances, going to Brahma worlds.
* One then applies mind to divine hearing (clairaudience). Having done so, one hears all kinds of things with perfect clarity and knowledge of location.
* One then applies mind to telepathy. One knows the minds of people - with passion, with hate, with delusion, with expansion, surpassing, concentrated, liberated, etc.
* One then applies mind to past-knowledge. Remembering many existences as if one were personally there, one remembers clearly the name and details of the lifetime.
* One then applies mind to passing-away and arising of beings. One sees destinations of beings and where they came from. They know how misconduct produces karma, they know how conduct produces karma. They know how disastrous wrong views can be.
* One then applies mind to how to destroy the corruptions. One then understands the Four Noble Truths to extraordinary depth: Suffering, origin of suffering, cessation, path leading to cessation.
* Once understood, one knows that everything that had to be done, has been done. The ending of birth and death, one is no longer bound by ignorance.
Hope this helps fellow Searchers! I will post a guide for meditation, if people are interested.