Higher Mind Art – Abhidhamma Explorations
Keys to the Abhidhamma System
Many a one would like to increase his own power of attraction, that is, his own capacity to attract whatever he may happen to like. Yet, he does not know how such an end could be pursued intelligently. By repeatedly wanting things, no doubt a certain power builds up and by repeatedly wanting a thing… Continue reading How to develop right attraction?
The fool and the wise often are equally simple natured beings. The main difference therein is, that the fool unconsciously yields to laws which he neither perceives, nor understands. While the wise consciously cooperates with laws he perceives, because he knows, not cooperating with them produces suffering. But what are the laws the wise understands,… Continue reading The Fool and the Wise
Inter-human relationships, although we derive pleasure from them, are very often the greatest sources of suffering for human beings. Antagonism, animosities and conflict situations play a smaller or larger part in pretty much everyone's life. And the growing realisation of this is certainly one of the major reasons for the growing interest in meditation in… Continue reading Overcoming emotional troubles and Learning the meaning of labelling in Meditation
Every person who through proficiency in some skill rises himself up above his fellow human beings, does so through having found some way of cultivating a dynamic interaction of these 5 spiritual faculties. That is through: Inspiration, Exertion or Vigour, Clarity, Inner Unity and Wisdom. But, although it might be easy enough to understand them… Continue reading Five Spiritual Faculties
Here an example of how some understanding of the physiological processes and mental sequences described throughout this website, may be used to describe a meditative process of overcoming some personal problem. The benefit of which should be compared to the benefit of being able to describe music using notes. For example, you find that you… Continue reading Attraction and Unity
Should a person desire to practice Four Elements meditation as a subject for establishing mindfulness, he should frequently recite to himself the names of the primary elements and further on, extend the recitation to include the main characteristics of the elements. Thus he might first recite earth, water, fire, wind,… earth, water, fire, wind… earth,… Continue reading Meditation on The Four Elements
Here I want to show, higher meditation experiences usually will only occur, when at least part of some higher Dhamma knowledge has become intuitive. Below I give one example of a successful meditation; and in regards to it, I want to invite the reader to look if he can not find proves of an intuitive… Continue reading Physiology of the Pathway to Heaven
Conceiving of a past and a future and a good and a bad, the mind seeks to make more often decisions that assure a greater 'good' in the vaster space of the future. Yet, as it may oftentimes be undecided as to the good and the bad of things, it seeks for outside sources of… Continue reading Learning and what Hinders it
Now, our body needs nutriment. When we eat our food, that food gets digested in the stomach and then send further downward to the lower intestines. Along our spine, there are many nerve threads extending forward to the interior of the body, at some places only few, but at some places collecting into vast nerve-bundles.… Continue reading Physiology of a Celibate’s Demon
A concept is a synthesis of mind-objects (bits of information) arrived at through mental processing. Through processing the objects of the 5 senses, as well as through learning, the mind evolves concepts about the world which enters through the senses. These concepts once anchored in him (lit. 'taken in'- tadārammaṇa) will bind him to that… Continue reading Concepts 2
Anger Anger is life resisting life. It is when life is identified with what it is not, that it resists its own flow. But as lives vision of life becomes more complete, life learns to flow with life in an unobstructed manner. Anger is a form of resistance of the higher part of ourselves,...an awareness… Continue reading Anger, Desire and Delusion
EmotionEmotions are the first stirrings of a latent mind seeking manifestation For doing work with/ for collaborating with some of the good forces of this universe,...big or small...we’d better try to learn about their nature and what they can do for us... Here only some example of how such understanding might look when seen from… Continue reading Conditions of Emotions using the Abhidhamma method
If we want to learn how to transcend unwholesome states of mind, we need to make a start in understanding those little understood inner forces that we experience as undesirable emotions. It is only through true understanding, that we may transcend the ignorance which is at the root of all unwholesome emotions. Here only two… Continue reading Unwholesome Emotion
Once a person has acquired an understanding of natural laws and the natural sequence of those laws, he will have to order each item of importance under the functionings of those laws. That is, how anything that he would like to understand properly, is working out or is functioning under the governance of each of… Continue reading Application of the Knowledge of the 5 Niyamas
Dependent Origination as a Formula to Comprehend Life Unfathomable like the deep dark depth of the earth, is the deep dark depth of ignorance, out of which in random fashion sprout formation after formation. Those are the kammical seeds of an unthinkable past, which like little saplings whose planting has been long forgotten pierce through… Continue reading Dependent Origination
For gaining a clearer understanding about the mental process, we might consider about it in the light of human development and its relation to the higher faculties. Example: A person receives an impression from outside...A strong person oppresses a weaker one... First level of development...The third person receives the impression, and after that his mind… Continue reading The Mental process in Human Development
Intention is the minds direction. As the mind has learned to give meanings to the objects surrounding it, and based on that made evaluations along the line of 'good' and 'bad', it begins to make consistent choices. This is how kamma gets accumulated. When the mind makes a certain decision in one direction or another,… Continue reading Intention and Kamma
Boredom seems to be one issue of a great many people…so here some analysis as to what boredom is made up of and how to counterbalance it. Mental Factors:Desire for change Aversion to what is present Mental Life faculty being weakRestlessness Feeling: neutral to slightly unpleasant Perception: dull awareness of lackThought directed at change of… Continue reading A Small Analysis of Boredom
Very often people find it difficult to find a point of contact in their own experience with certain ideas that they yet consider to be somewhat important to know about. So in this blog, I try to give some clue about how to consider about two very important faculties of mind: 'Conscience' and 'Intuition'. Therein… Continue reading Conscience and Intuition (Sila-,Samadhi-,Pañña-Sikkha)
Seeing the frightening nature of a condition where he can hold onto nothing and rely on nothing, man builds up concepts of the world he finds himself in. Then in the course of his development, through upbringing and education, a person learns to respond more to those concepts that he has acquired, than to mere… Continue reading Concepts and Bonds
A human being is a social being,…that is why one of the major sources of human suffering arises through the interaction with other human beings. So, especially people seeking to be a guide for others, have to understand the dynamic of such type of condition and be able to give a possible solution to the… Continue reading Breaking Bonds
Most people never have enough time, rarely have a good time and in general time seems be something that works usually against them. A person working on a spiritual path can not get around the problem of time…acquiring more control over ones life means also acquiring more control over time… For getting a handle on… Continue reading Time
A defilement enters your field of mindfulness...you notice that you have just wasted 1 hour (...1day/1 year) rolling in some nonsensical wandering thought or doing some useless activity... you go through your list of unwholesome mental factors, bonds, fetters etc. (ideally in your mind,...having remembered them) ...and instead of getting angry with yourself or agitated,… Continue reading Understanding Bonds and Fetters
Bhavanga (that wherein one's existence is rooted), includes, so we believe, also blind (unconscious) emotions...wandering thoughts and dreams. All those we take to be the vibrating bhavanga ...which have to be arrested in order that any active mental process can happen. (the model might not contain anything exactly corresponding to the modern idea of an… Continue reading Ever Mind – Abhidhamma Considerations regarding the Mind
All external events count as objects, first of the 5 sense‐bases, than of the mind, therefore without mastering the environment first (for a bhikkhu, the bhikkhus training and way of life, etc.), self‐knowledge can never become complete (yet, perception of the environment, depends in turn again on the perceiving faculty) ¹ Mind-element ² Mind-consciousness-element ...being… Continue reading Mind dependent on Body
The Mental Body is one key concept of some of the esoteric tradition brought to the west*, which will prove very valuable an idea for anyone who wants to study the mind. Here I just want to give a few considerations of my own understanding, to give this valuable knowledge out to the reader of… Continue reading Consciousness and Conscious Experience
By determining and classifying the objects received from the 5 senses...man makes first steps in delineating his environment...through thinking he is mastering it and through registration he is taking it into his being. Technical teachings on the mental process according to Theravadin Buddhist Abhidhamma The Vithi A mental process (vithi) is divided into 16 mind… Continue reading Notes on Mental Process
Using your mind Just repeating something that was said before,... are you using your mind?...If you make a calculator that only shows the input as output..who would buy it? ...Yet, even the most simple calculator seem to have a more functional mind than many a man of the crowd... Reading a book....are you really using… Continue reading 4 Using the Mind
Higher Mind Art - Abhidhamma Explorations 