Address & contacts

May 2nd, 2013 by Ratna

The Minding Centre

170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
hp (65) 8211 0879
(Contact Ratna)
Email: themindingcentre@gmail.com

MAP & DIRECTION

 

Piya’s Weekly Reflection (9 Jan 2013)

December 13th, 2009 by admin

Accept yourself, reject your self[1] (more reflections)

1  Self-made rut. In many ways, we are what we think. We are the totality of our sense-experien­c­es (what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think, especially the last). This is what we really are, but we do not often realize it. We almost always collect or remember only those sense-experiences that we like (defined as what we recognize as a past pleas­ur­able experience) and ignore those we dislike (what we re­call as an unpleasant past), and with these tidbits we build our world: we are a very limited edition of a living book, in that

we only see                                               what we want to see,

we only hear                                             what we want to hear,

we only sense (smell, taste, touch)         what we want to sense, and

we only know                                            what we want to know.

In other words, we superimpose our own memories, hopes, views and biases onto our sense-experiences, hiding the true reality of things. Like the proverbial ostrich, we often simply leave our heads buried in the sands of a mishmash of distort­ed and pervert­ed sense-experiences. Then we begin to wonder why we are suffocating.

2  The three levels of perversion. The Buddha says that we often fall into 3 levels of perversion (“distorted or twisted ways of  looking at things”), that is,

(1)     distorted perception: how we “see” ourself, others, and things;

(2)     distorted thoughts: the kinds of things we like to think about;

(3)     distorted views: the ideas that we hold dear, even inviolable.

What we see as “self,” “soul,” some “essence” or anything abiding has to do with how we perceive things, how we think, and how we view ourselves.

The perversion of perception (how we “see” ourself, others and things) is the most fun­damental (that is, the pro­b­lem begins there). The per­vers­ion of thought (the things we like to think about) intro­duces a more reflective and habitual note to the distorted per­cep­­tion, and the per­version of view (the ideas that we hold dear, even inviolable) trans­­­forms our thoughts into fixed ideas or truths.

Ancient Indian philosophy gives this analogy: a man sees a coiled up piece of rope in the semi-darkness and perceives it as a snake (perversion of perception); he assumes that what he has seen is a snake (perversion of thought); he fashions the view that the coil­ed up object he has seen in the dark is a snake (perversion of view).

As a result, he might never take that way again, or he tell others to avoid that path. Or, per­haps, for some reason, he might look for a stick or stone, and try to kill that snake. If he is observant enough, he would realize, after all, that it is only a coil of rope. However, in real life (ironically), we would blindly (in our hate. fear or ignorance) thrash up the “snake” in the dark, and get rid of it.

Then we move away, thinking that we have got rid of some­thing dangerous and disgust­ing, and tell our friends about it. The point is that we need to really and carefully check out these “snakes” in our lives before we make any decisive or destructive moves. Other­wise, we would only be fooling ourselves and not even know it.

3  The four modes of perversion. Each level of perversion, in turn, see things in four wrong ways—the four modes of perversion—or, psychological inversion,[2] that is,

what is impermanent                 we take to be permanent;

what is painful                             we take to be pleasurable;

what is without self                     we take to be a (or the) self; and

what is impure (or “evil”)          we take to be pure (or “good”).

We tend to take what is impermanent to be permanent. For example, we tend to collect and keep things as if they do not have a shelf life; or we treat others, especially our child­ren or loved ones, as if they would not mature or change.

We tend to take what is painful to be pleasurable. We keep chasing after pleasures, seek­ing for a higher fix or a constant relationship (meaning that we derive sensual pleasure from it), but the result is always the same: we keep missing what we thought is pleasur­able. In this sense (for us at least), the roots of pain lie in pleasure itself.

We tend to take what is without any abiding self to be a self (something eternal). Because we fear death, for example, we hope that there is something “permanent” that survives death, and goes to a place of “ever­last­ing” bliss. But whatever exists can only exist in time, and is as such impermanent. Any idea of something “eternal” must be only imagin­a­tive or theoretical. This is all right if we tell stories, but we should be able to tell the difference. This mix-up or inability to tell the difference between reality and imag­ination makes an idea (no matter how religious or sacred) psychologically and socially harmful.

We tend to take what is impure (“evil”) to be pure (“good”). The point is that we do not even have full control of “our own” bodies; so where is this abiding entity called “self” or “soul”? And we think we can improve our “luck” or cheat “fate” by performing rituals to “purify” ourselves, or taking up a certain life-style or status that makes us special. The reality is that this is all in the mind, often reflecting some emotional lack.

4 The 4 modes and 3 levels of perversion.  The perversion of perception is said to be fun­da­mental because mental perversion begins with how we recognize or relate to sense-expe­ri­ences. We tend to superimpose our past conditionings, memories and notions upon present events, so that we never truly see what really is going on before us. We see what we want to see: this is the perversion of percep­tion.

A good example of the perversion of perception is how we regard sensual pleasure, especially sex­uality (or money, power, or status). As we mature from infancy into adoles­cence, our perception of sexuality is formed (depending of the kind of values we are exposed to and imbibe). Sexual feelings are very impermanent, but we perceive that we can “always” or “only” some­how experience in a phy­sical sense, that is, through our body or that of another. This is the perception of what is impermanent to be permanent.

On the other hand, if we keep thinking about sexuality (or money, or power, or status), about how much we want it, this preoccupation only worsens the situation: this is the per­vers­ion of thought. Thoughts tend to proliferate, to grow in leaps and bounds, and drive us to seek for more and more desirable experiences. Now it will be quantity that counts: we have taken an experience to be a thing.

If we do not make an effort to stop this perversion of thought, but continue to re­gard sexuality, money, power, or status as being lasting (or everlasting), pleasurable, self-empowering or good in itself, then we are caught in a rut of the perversion of view, which is the deep­est end of the perversion trap. In fact, it is the level of addiction.

The bottom line for mental health is to constantly remind ourselves that everything —especially sex­uality, money, power, and status—are impermanent, painful, non-self, and impure, in the sense we have reflected here. When we relate to these things of the world in this manner, we begin to understand them for what they really are. They can be good servants, even bring us pleasure in a healthy way, until such time we out­grow all desire for them, and seek a higher pleasure and self-fulfillment—that of spiritual bliss, awaken­ing and liberation.

R274  Simple Joys 102

Piya Tan ©2013

 


[1] Based on the Introduction to Vipallasa Sutta (A 4.49/2:52) = SD 16.11: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/16.11-Vipallasa-S-a4.49-piya.pdf

[2] See Jack Engler, “Therapeutic aims in psychotherapy and meditation,” 1984: 44. Download from http://www.hakomiinstitute.com/Forum/Issue9/TransformationCn.pdf.

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Free books by Piya Tan (2009-2011)

October 17th, 2009 by admin

(1) Simple Joys by Piya Tan, 2009, 2nd rev 2011.

 

Simple Joys: a collections of weekly reflections by Piya Tan, 2nd rev 2011.


[download: Simple Joys by Piya Tan 2nd rev 2011 (ebook, low resolution, size 783 KB)]

[download: Simple Joys by Piya Tan 2nd rev 2011 (high resolution, size 1553 KB)]

(2) Revisioning Buddhism by Piya Tan, 2011.

Revisioning Buddhism: an inspired re-look at the Buddha’s example and teachings by Piya Tan, 2011.

Download Revisioning Buddhism Piya Tan, 2011

 

(3) Simple Joys 2: Healing Words by Piya Tan, 2011.

FOREWORD to the book: This is a book of readings for thinking people, for those who value self-understanding. We might see this as self-help servings of heal­ing words from early Buddhist recipes for emot­ion­al health, a full life and spiritual liberation. Read more…

 

Bhante Sujato — Piya Tan is “a rare teacher in the Buddhist world. Based on his own extensive experience, his authentic, intelligent inquiry in­to the Buddha’s words is applied to the urgent task of discover­ing how to best live in a changing and challenging world.”

I have often used his detailed studies of Buddhist scriptures as guides for my own classes.

In Simple Joys, however, he speaks not as a scholar, but as a practitioner. In this he shows the paradoxical truth of a genuine spiritual path: as complex and demanding as it may be, the deepest truths are always simple.

Bhante Sujato

Abbot of Santi Forest Monastery

Australia

 

Free copies of Simple Joys 2 is available at The Minding Centre and Buddhist Fellowship. Please call 8211 0879 (Ratna) or email us at: themindingcentre@gmail.com if you are interested.

Download soft copy here.

Simple Joys 2: Healing Words

Dharma talks (videos) & others

July 12th, 2009 by admin

 

BBC Interviews Piya:

Smartphones make religion mobile (2nd Sep 2011): Link

 

Dharma Talks at Buddhist Fellowship, Singapore:

  1. Little Dust in Their Eyes (1 Nov 2009).
  2. Happiest Moments in My Life (3 Jan 2010).
  3. What is Vipassana Meditation? (4 Apr 2010).

 

Others recommended videos:

  1. Stroke of Insight: Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened — and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery.
  2. Buddhism in A Global Age of Technology by Prof Lewis Lancaster at UC Berkley
  3. Life of the Buddha from BBC.

 

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