Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha. An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book - [11]

hallucinogens can. They can also bring up lots of our psychological

“stuff.” This last limitation could be a benefit if we are in a mood to deal with this stuff. Perhaps the most important limitations of concentration practices is that they do not lead directly to the insights and permanent understandings that come from training in wisdom, as much as we might like them to. That brings us to the third training…

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4.WISDOM, THE THIRD TRAINING

The third training in the list is wisdom, in this case a very special kind of wisdom that I will often call “ultimate” or “fundamental”

wisdom. This may also be rendered as “understanding” or “insight.”

The whole trick to this training is to understand the truth of the sensations that make up our present experience. The great mystics from all traditions have reported that there is something remarkable and even enlightening about our ordinary experiences if we take the time to look into them very carefully. Those that undertake training in wisdom have decided to do the experiment and see for themselves if this is true or if those old dead dudes were just making it all up.

Obviously, the first assumption that must be made is that there is some understanding that is completely beyond any ordinary

understanding, even beyond the altered states of consciousness that can be attained if we train in concentration. The next assumption is that there are specific practices that can lead to that understanding if we simply do them. The third and perhaps most vital assumption is that we can do them and be successful.

The assumption that is rarely stated explicitly but often implied is that we must be willing to stay on a sensate level, at the level of the actual sensations that make up experiences, if we wish to gain the insights that are promised by the mystics. The corollary of this assumption is that we must be willing to set aside periods of time during which we abandon the ordinary way of working in the world that is called training in morality and even the unusual way of working with altered states of consciousness that is called training in concentration.

We assume that the teachings on wisdom point to universal truths, truths that can be perceived in all types of experience without exception.

We assume that if we can simply know our sensate experience clearly enough, then we will come to understand for ourselves.

The primary agenda for doing insight practices is to increase our perceptual abilities so that the truths mentioned by the great mystics become obvious to us. Thus, rather than caring what we think, say or do, or caring about what altered state of consciousness we are in, when training in wisdom we actively work to simply increase the speed, precision, consistency and inclusiveness of our experience of all the

Wisdom, The Third Training

quick little sensations that make up our experience, whatever and however they may be.

Thus, the esse

ntial formal insight meditation instructions are : find a

place where the distractions are tolerable, pick a stable and sustainable posture, and for a defined period of time notice every single sensation that makes up your reality as best you can. Just as with concentration practices, more time and more diligent practice pays off. These simple instructions can easily seem overwhelming, vague or strangely trivial to many people, and so I am going to spend a lot of time laying out a large number of empowering concepts and more structured practices that have helped countless practitioners over thousands of years to follow these basic instructions.

While the Three Trainings all contain some similar elements, there are some important contrasts that must be made between them. The gold standard for training in morality is how kind and compassionate our intentions are and how well we lead a useful and moral life. The gold standard for training in concentration practices is how quickly we can enter into highly altered states of consciousness, how long we can stay in them, and how refined, complete and stable we can make those states. The gold standard for insight practices is that we can quickly and consistently see the true nature of the numerous quick sensations that make up our whole reality, regardless of what those sensations are, allowing us to cut to a level of understanding that goes utterly beyond specific conditions.

It is absolutely vital that the differences between these gold standards be understood. Considered this way, these gold standards do not overlap and may even seem to contradict one another. This is a very practical assumption. As these differences seem to be extremely difficult to explain clearly, I will make this basic point again and again throughout this book.

So, having gained enough morality to be temporarily free of

excessive negative mind states and enough concentration to steady the mind somewhat, look into the bare truth of the sensations of this moment. This is called insight meditation and other names, and it is designed to produce wisdom.