Touching on the essence of the Foundational Yana

Historically, during the monsoons, the Buddha and his sangha spent 3 months in residence at one place. The monsoon rains were (still are!) relentless and continuous in India, and the wandering monks and nuns stayed in one place to minimise danger to themselves and to other living creatures and plants that come out and grow out in the open during this season.

During one such time, the Buddha sent 500 of his monks to a forest adjacent to a village that had offered to support the monks during the monsoon retreat. The forest seemed suitable for practice and residence for the duration of the retreat. The monks moved into the forest and began practising Vipassana (Insight Meditation).🧘🏾

👻 The spirits and devas of the forests, who lived there were wary and disturbed by the newcomers who were not just here for a visit, but to stay for what seemed like a long time. They wanted the forest back for themselves without these intruders. So, the spirits and the devas created frightening noises, movements, and odours in an attempt to chase these intruders out of their forest.

The monsoon retreat was also considered to be a time of intense practice for the monks. And soon enough, that became impossible as the monks were unable to sustain their concentration and the commotion was interrupting their mindfulness. Some of them were terrified and got sick from the sheer fright of not knowing what or who was causing these disturbances.

Troubled, they went to the Buddha and begged him to find another place for their retreat while relating all their woes. The Buddha encouraged them by saying, “My beloved monks, go back to the same forest and practice your meditation there.” The monks pleaded with him to not let them go back to the forest to practice, as they were terrified.

Emboldened by the teaching and the words of the Buddha, the monks went back to the forest to practice Metta. As they practised Metta, for a while they continued experiencing feelings of fear and anxiety. They stayed with those feelings and practised Metta diligently. 💗

The forest spirit and devas began to feel the metta emanating from the monks, and their sense of separation began to be transformed into one of connection. They experienced friendliness, respect, welcome and a sense of kinship with the monks and were inclined to provide a safe environment for the monks to practice peacefully by protecting them from the dangers lurking in the forest.

It is said that with the benevolence and support of the forest spirit and devas, the 500 monks strengthened their concentration, and deepened their insight while practising Vipassana along with Metta as their foundation. Thus, during the monsoon retreat because of their practice, they all became Arhants (fully enlightened beings).💖

In this edition of the newsletter, we will look at Chapter 2 of the audiobook, “Coming Closer to Ourselves: Making Everything the Path of Awakening” by Ani Pema Chodron. In Chapter 2, Pema presents the Foundational Yana Teachings in detail.

The essence of the Foundational Yana Teachings is curiosity, inquisitiveness, cultivating an open mind and being curious about confusion. Pema emphasises that in this yana, we cultivate the ability to see and to be curious about the confusion that arises in us.

If you’d like to explore the Suttas themselves, or the commentaries by eminent scholars and teachers on the various concepts, you can refer to this page where I will list the resources and books regularly. 

Curiosity is an important trait to cultivate for all Yanas, and we start to cultivate this when we approach the Foundational Yana Practices. We cultivate this trait so that we can be curious about why we suffer and most importantly, why we continue to suffer. With the aid of curiosity, we move closer to our bodies and minds. By being able to see clearly, we are also training in not getting hooked to our “storylines”.📖

Concepts in the Foundational Yana

In this audiobook, Pema offers us a glimpse of three main principles in the Foundational Yana Teachings.

1. Foundations of Mindfulness

2. Five Skandhas or Five Aggregates

3. Three Marks of Existence &  Three Misunderstandings

We will also explore Brahmaviharas, which doesn’t get referenced in this audiobook, but is important for us to understand when we embark on the practices in the Foundational Yana.

In comparison to other books I have read on the Foundational Yana that touch upon these concepts, Pema takes an approach that is practical, down-to-earth and refreshing. She doesn’t give us a scholarly or precise understanding of these topics, instead, she gives us the essence and how can we understand and apply these concepts to our everyday life and practice.

She says that for a long time, she did not understand what this “gap” was, that was described by so many of her fellow meditators and teachers. She was embarrassed that she had no idea what it was nor had she experienced what everyone except her seemed to know.

She goes on to describe the first time she experienced “the gap”. During a meditation retreat that Pema was in, there was a fan in the room which made a buzzing sound when it was running. This was a constant background sound that was ever present, to which everyone meditated. As it happens with many things in life, this was something which was there and barely merited any attention.

Once there was a power cut or something that caused the fan to stop 🪭. When the fan stopped, Pema noticed that the sound was no longer there.

Pema says that we also experience spaciousness as groundlessness. This is something most of us are familiar with on an everyday basis. We could experience it as insecurity, uncertainty, not knowing what is going on and unpredictability. It is interesting how what can be spacious is also groundless. It does make literal sense in a way, space is the open sky with no ground and it can be exhilarating or terrifying.

Pema says that these teachings are meant to be a means of support and help us learn how to relax into groundlessness.

Foundations of Mindfulness

Using the practices in the Foundational Yana, we cultivate mindfulness and insight into the nature of existence. These are cultivated using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (also known as the Satipatthana Sutta) which are

1. Mindfulness of Body (Kaya) - Awareness of breath, posture and physical sensations

2. Mindfulness of Feelings or Sensations (Vedana) - Awareness of various feelings or sensations arising in their present moment experience

3. Mindfulness of the Mind (Citta) - Awareness of the mind itself, its mental states, thoughts and emotions

4. Mindfulness of Phenomena (Dhamma) - Contemplation of mental qualities, factors and principles that encompass and influence our present moment experience

The key practices to cultivate the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are Shamata and Vipassana in Foundational Yana.

We will look at these in greater detail when we review and explore one of the commentaries on Sathipattana Sutta in future editions.

Three Marks of Existence or Three Misunderstandings

The Three Marks of Existence sometimes known as the Three Universal Truths are the nature of all worldly phenomena 🌏. Every aspect of our existence ranging from physical, mental, emotional and psychological shares these three characteristics. They are

1. Impermanence(Anicca): Everything is in a constant state of change. Nothing ever ceases to exist, it just changes form.

2. No Self (Anatta): Nothing has an immutable core essence; nothing is solid. Everything is just energy combined and manifested as physical, mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual structures, creating an appearance of solidity or immutability on the worldly plane.

3. Dissatisfaction(Dukkha): Due to Anicca, no single attainment, possession or life situation can bring us ultimate happiness. Because our mind has a natural grasping quality, we are constantly moving from one object of attachment or desire or aversion.

We, human beings have three misunderstandings that are universal to our experiences in our existence. We mistake

1. Impermanence for Permanence

We believe that things SHOULD BE stable. Hence we are constantly seeking ground, security and stability. Impermanence is the nature of all phenomena which are not static but dynamic. We mistake impermanence for permanence. Pema says, that if we think we are clear in our thinking that all things are impermanent (Anicca), she asks us to check in with ourselves by contemplating the question, “What is your emotional response to not having a resolution to an event/situation?”

2. Egolessness for Solidity

We keep wanting to “fix” ourselves. We believe that our self is separate from all other beings, even if we understand intellectually that we are all in essence the same - atoms, molecules and energy. Yet, we hold onto this belief that we are solid, separate and unchanging. So when we have experiences where our notion of self, images and identities are shaken, we try hard to grasp solidity. When we fix ourselves, it makes us inflexible, and rigid which weakens us. Thus we mistake egolessness as solidity.

3. Suffering for Happiness

We think we need to be satisfied, always. If we are not satisfied, then that needs to be rectified and corrected. We think we ought to be comfortable, and discomfort is something we run away from. We think that the state of happiness is always being in comfort and satisfied. Thus we mistake suffering for happiness. Addictions are particularly of this nature, where we mistake suffering for happiness. We are like moths drawn to the flame. We think more of this will satiate us, and make us happy but it is never enough and happiness is elusive only bringing suffering and pain in its wake.

Our Existential Struggle

Everything we do, every single action, every single moment we have is new and occurs only once. Every moment is precious and unique. And we don’t have to fix ourselves. We struggle against as is, and what is here and now. And that is what causes suffering 😣.

In the Foundational Yana, we train not to struggle. Instead, we move closer to ourselves, to our mind, body and heart. This means we approach our practice and ourselves with the beginner’s mind, which Suzuki Roshi calls the “not knowing” mind. The “not-knowing” mind is curious, playful and ready to come closer to investigate what is in this moment 🤯.

Contemplation on the Teachings

Pema suggests that we contemplate the below questions to understand our source of suffering.

1. What are my particular addictions? Look at it closely. Does it escalate or de-escalate my suffering?

2. When I am edgy and uncomfortable where do I take refuge? Look at it closely. Does it cause more or less suffering?

3. Does it add up to being at home in my body, mind and world?

We think the best way to get happy is to get rid of pain. Pema assures us that this doesn’t work.

Five Skandhas or Five Aggregates

Skandha is a Sanskrit term that means aggregates, collections or groupings. The five skandhas are the five factors that constitute our personality and being. The Sanskrit terms for each of the skandhas are denoted in parenthesis.

First Skandha: Form (rūpa)

Second Skandha: Feeling (vedanā)

Third Skandha: Perception or Impulse (saṃjñā)

Fourth Skandha: Concept (saṃskāra)

Fifth Skandha: Consciousness (saṃskāra)

In this state of duality, we experience a constant undercurrent of tension that never really goes away.

So how do we work this tension? We get curious, move closer and observe this tension as we experience it in our everyday life whenever we catch ourselves solidifying and separating ‘You and Me’, ‘This and That’, ‘Self and Other’.”

Contemplation:

Walk around a city block and notice how your mind separates and classifies as for, against and neutral. Notice the intensity of that classification. Notice how your prejudices manifest from that reality.

Pema asks us to observe how we separate for and against, and to let that tenderise us, and not reinforce the duality by making it a judgment against ourselves.

We are part of the whole, not separate. In the gap, we experience this part of the whole, the ‘non-dual’ nature of things. We get in touch with the direct awareness of the felt quality of our experience. Working with the skandhas is about diving into “for-against” and seeing the true nature of things and whether they escalate or deescalate suffering.

Brahmaviharas

There is a danger that comes from practising just Shamata or Vipassana, which is that we can just get caught in our minds, its narrative and experiences. This can exacerbate our suffering and neurosis, so one of the ways to balance that is to do the practice of cultivation of Brahmaviharas 💓. The Brahmaviharas are described as the sublime states, and the four Brahmaviharas are

1. Metta - Loving Kindness

2. Karuna - Compassion

3. Mudita - Sympathetic Joy

4. Upekka - Equanimity

When we learn meditation traditionally from a teacher, (which I am doing right now), the practices of cultivation of Brahmaviharas are integrated with Shamata and Vipassana instructions.

We will explore the practices and Brahmavihaaras in greater detail when we reflect on the book, “How to be Sick” by Toni Bernhard which follows this book sometime in late December/early January.

Reflection

No matter what practice we use, it is important to understand and examine the attitude which includes both the mindset and the heart space we are using to work with ourselves. Reflection for a few minutes at the conclusion of the meditation practice would be helpful to become aware of whether we are moving closer to ourselves or away from ourselves.

What’s next?

We will examine the Three Prajnas or Three Types of Wisdom/Knowledge in the next edition of the newsletter.

P.S. 🙏🏽 Thank you for subscribing and sticking with me. I’d love to know what parts of this article resonated with you and what did not. I’d love to hear from you what you think.

As a parting thought, I will finish this edition with a story

Zen Story

"Oh boy! Oh boy!" cried the monk-on-probation who had just cracked the Zen Master's favourite (and valuable) drinking cup.

The frightened youngster went to the Zen Master and asked, "Why must there be death?"

The Master answered, "Death is natural. It comes to all persons and things. We should not greet it with fear or meet death with anger. Why do you ask?"

"Because, Master, death has come upon your cup."

Source: Zen Fables For Today

In case you have missed the previous editions and want to read more, you can find them here.