The Universal and Occasional Mind Conditioners Notes

HOW MIND CONDITIONERS WORK
THE UNIVERSAL AND OCCASIONAL CETASIKAS

In exploring the section of the Anapanasati Sutta related to training oneself to be “…sensitive to mental fabrication…calming mental fabrication”, there’s benefit in understanding the nature of the factors that fabricate each moment of self-awareness. These fabrications emerge from the categories of conditioning factors called cetasikas. The meaning of the term is “that which is associated with the mind”. This term is a kind of categorical listing of what are called sankharas, a term synonymous with karma. Both are derived from the word karoti, which means “to do”. If you imagine the cetasikas to be just the conditioners, then the “action potential” is karma. For me, the basic value of the cetasika “system” is to “deconstruct” the notion of a separate, enduring self.

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Universal and Occasional Mind Conditioners

This talk continues the exploration of the Anapanasati Sutta.  The topic this week is “…sensitive to the mind fabrications…calming the mind fabrications”, regarding the cetasikas, the categorically listed functions of the mind.  Specific attention was given to the universal cetasikas, involved in every moment of cognition, and the particular or occasional cetasikas, which may or may not be involved.  Peter emphasized that these functions were developed over the centuries after the historical Buddha as part of the Abhidhamma, the “higher teachings” of Buddhist psychology.  They can be somewhat dry as a focus of study; their value is in “deconstructing” the belief in a separate, enduring self or soul.

This  was followed by general discussion of how training awareness to discern the emerging formations increases the functional competency of the seven awakening factors, particularly “investigation of mental phenomena”.

Next week’s discussion will review the 14 “unwholesome mind conditioners”.

Calming the Mind Fabricators

During this dhamma dialogue, Peter explored the transition from cultivating a calm and stable focus of attention to the practice of vipassana, insight into the conditioned nature of subjective reality.  He described the meanings of kamma (karma in Sanskrit), sankhara, cetasikas and cetana.  Kamma and sankhara are almost synonymous and the cetasikas are categories of the different functions of the personality that are organized into kamma by cetana, intention.

This was followed by discussion of how kamma functions in action and how breath awareness interrupts the formation of self-states, allowing opportunities to modify the mind conditioners toward more wholesome and adaptive functions.

Next week’s discussion will focus in on the cetasikas, to foster a deepening insight into how self-states are formed, deconstructing the misperception of a separate, enduring self.

Notes For Calming the Mind Fabrications

CALMING MENTAL FABRICATION
This week’s discussion focuses on the next stanza in the Anapanasati Sutta, again downloaded from the Access To Insight site, translated by Thanissaro:
“On whatever occasion a monk trains himself, ‘I will breathe in…&…out sensitive to rapture’; trains himself, ‘I will breathe in…&…out sensitive to pleasure’; trains himself, ‘I will breathe in…&…out sensitive to mental fabrication’; trains himself, ‘I will breathe in…&…out calming mental fabrication’: On that occasion the monk remains focused on feelings in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. I tell you, monks, that this — careful attention to in-&-out breaths — is classed as a feeling among feelings, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on feelings in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.”

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How Feeling Drives The Self

This is the second of two talks about the importance of the practice of mindfulness of feelings.  During this talk, Peter reviewed paticca samuppada, usually translated as dependent origination.  A new rendering of the term was explained, that is, contingent provisional emergence, with clarification of the non-linear, mutually influential functions that affect how the mind overlays a provisional interpretation of raw sense data input, thereby creating a “selfing moment”.  In this creative process, attention becomes fixated on a particular feeling and perception, creating the craving and clinging dynamic that is the driving force of our distresses about life.  Mindfulness of feelings as feelings allows the skilled meditator to avoid “personalizing” the emerging self-organization, providing relief from craving and clinging.