Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0022
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Mindfulness of Breathing","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0022","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores mindfulness. As a Buddhist technique, mindfulness involves sustained attention to particular things in special ways in order to change how an individual experiences the world. The Buddhist concept of mindfulness includes not just attention, but also what we would call memory. To represent this connection with memory, many scholars use the term “retention” instead. This captures the idea of not only fixing attention on something but also keeping it there. There is a wide range of mindfulness techniques. A very common beginning exercise is centered on breathing. Indeed, it is a technique that has become widely taught and practiced outside of Buddhist circles. As such, it will be important to highlight how it works when done as a distinctly Buddhist practice.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122337471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0028
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Sending and Receiving","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0028","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses the technique of sending and receiving. Sending and receiving, sometimes also translated as giving and taking, is an imaginative visualization technique developed in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It aims at altering how an individual responds to negativity and helps that individual to see themselves as a transformational force, one that changes hostility into compassion. In it, the individual imaginatively receives the badness out in the world and changes it into goodwill and compassion, which they send back out. When a person mentally visualizes things, it can change a lot about how that individual feels and what they notice. This technique uses this psychological fact as a tool to deliberately bring about certain changes. In particular, this technique will help to change that individual’s relation to others and the negativity they face every day.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114197019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0021
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Solitude and Meditation","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0021","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes the role of solitude and meditation in Buddhism. Solitude does play an important role in many Buddhist practices. The problem one is out to solve is very difficult and the intellectual, perceptual, and emotional habits that stand in the way are deep-seated. This means that attacking the problem requires focused time and energy. Establishing some distance from the diversions and pace of life allows the space to confront the problem in a sustained way. Many practices involve not only sustained focus, but also a greater degree of perceptual sensitivity to what is happening in the body and mind. It is not just being away from distractions that helps, but being away from the demands of the social world. Buddhists, particularly those who specialize in meditative practices, can take retreats that last for years. For those just starting out, such long periods of solitude can be dangerous. There is a reason that solitary confinement can be traumatic: Being suddenly alone for long stretches without preparation is psychologically risky.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115121452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0019
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Getting Ready","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter argues that, as when starting anything new, it is a good idea to spend some time getting ready in Buddhist practice. It is important to be careful of certain dangers: Developing bad habits early on will make things more difficult later on. Indeed, starting off well gives the best chances for making progress. Some Buddhists think that seeing reality clearly can happen suddenly, in a flash of insight. Other Buddhists have denied this. For them, seeing reality as it really is comes only after long and hard training. Whatever the speed of realization, it is important to practice regularly. Buddhism has a wide range of what are often called preliminary practices. These preliminary practices play an important role: They demonstrate and develop an intention to understand the world and act accordingly. Another common early step involves finding a teacher.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129845652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0027
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Exchanging Self and Other","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0027","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at the technique of exchanging the self and other. This technique originates from Shantideva, an important Buddhist thinker from eighth-century India and was later developed in the Tibetan tradition. It involves imagining the self from different points of view and cultivating certain responses from those imagined perspectives. It aims at changing an individual’s fundamental orientation to the self and others to combat feelings of envy, jealousy, and insecurity at their source. More importantly, the central aim of this exercise is a simple one: to make the self more compassionate. Imaginatively, adopting these different points of view forces the individual to stop and take other people's experiences seriously. Rather than simply accepting the personal take on situations, the individual starts to see more clearly that other people see the same situation very differently.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132961971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0014
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Living Selflessly","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter details how the two truths and emptiness hold the key to living a more compassionate and engaged life. First, it is worth reflecting on the importance of conventions: Conventional truths are still truths and are relevantly different from conventionally false things. Realizing emptiness does not preclude genuine interaction with others on a conventional level. More important, internalizing the emptiness of all things brings with it an important ethical shift. It helps an individual to break out of the confines that the idea of a self imposes, allowing that individual to live a life that is less isolated and more compassionate. This ethical shift is central to a very important concept in many forms of Buddhism: the bodhisattva. This term is used to characterize a particular selfless ideal. The bodhisattva becomes someone who works toward helping others better see reality and live in accordance with it. They aim to solve the problem not just for themselves, but for all beings.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116574499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0031
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Reading, Writing, and Reciting","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0031","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores Buddhist literary practices. A huge number of Buddhist practices focus on the written word. Though early Buddhist teachings were passed on orally, they eventually took the form of written texts, which began to occupy a special place in Buddhist practice. Buddhist texts often function as tools to help us reorient the mental life. We interact with books in many ways; they are things we create, use, neglect, admire, destroy, and contemplate. Buddhists in particular spend huge amounts of time and energy reading, reciting, memorizing, studying, interpreting, and translating texts. These are widespread Buddhist practices and can function not only to preserve and spread Buddhist ideas and techniques but as distinctive practices of their own.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130976577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0032
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Sacred Speech","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0032","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter studies Buddhist practices that make use of sound in general and the human voice in particular. These practices are some of the most popular and widespread in the Buddhist world. They often involve saying a short series of syllables over and over. Sometimes these have linguistic meaning, sometimes not. Other practices involve recalling a particular Buddha by saying their name out loud. Though different in many ways, they all rely on the unique power of the human voice. The chapter then considers mantras. A particular mantra is a particular series of syllables that one repeats over and over. They might be repeated mentally but are usually repeated out loud, though sometimes quietly, as a barely audible murmur. Different mantras are supposed to invoke different buddhas, bodhisattvas, or even texts. This means that Buddhists bring them to mind or appeal to them.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116864158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0033
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Clearing Your Mind","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0033","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses Buddhist practices that aim at a direct experience of the world free from concepts and labels. As an important practice in some schools of Zen Buddhism, koans have many uses and functions, some of which involve moving beyond language and concepts. One important role koans play is as a tool for the teacher to verify that a student has had a certain experience—that they have realized and internalized certain facts about the world. This is not about whether or not they know these things intellectually, but whether they get them on a gut level. Another practice important in Zen is called zazen—literally sitting Zen. These techniques aim at getting into a particular calm and receptive state of mind, free from the misleading effects of thought and categorization. In this state, one can better realize that all experiences are empty; since they are relational and impermanent, they all contain the key to solving the problem.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"192 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121434493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0024
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Flesh and Bones","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0024","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how many techniques in Buddhism involve reflecting in detail on physical bodies, both an individual’s own and those of others. These techniques typically emphasize the disgusting and repulsive aspects of each part of the human body. They also reveal ways in which the individual relates to their own body and subtle ways they are attracted to or repulsed by those of others. In traditional sources, women's bodies in particular are singled out for reflection and represented as impure and undesirable. As modern readers, this is one place where people are forced to consider the context of canonical Buddhist texts: Many were written by and for celibate monks in a cultural context where heterosexuality was assumed as the norm and women's status in society was far from equal to men's. There is no denying that today, such practices as written reinforce harmful body image norms and sexist attitudes. However, rather than pretending that such texts and practices do not exist, we are better off thinking about the underlying purpose of such reflections. This allows us to face up to uncomfortable historical facts while also illuminating how such practices might be adapted to be relevant in our own circumstances.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128946988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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