The Six Beautiful Pairs of Cetasikas October 14, 2020

This talk reviews the benefits of coordinating the previously reviewed Universal Wholesome Cetasikas, resulting in the manifestation of the Six Beautiful Pairs: tranquility of mind and mental factors, lightness of mind and mental factors, pliancy of mind and mental factors, wieldiness of mind and mental factors, proficiency of mind and mental factors and uprightness of mind and mental factors.  The “mind” reflects the reflective capacity of consciousness and “mental factors” represent those categories of mind conditioning factors called cetasikas; when these are skillfully coordinated, one’s consciousness operates at a higher level of clarity, discipline and accuracy in the process of Awakening.  Each of these cetasikas is reviewed individually, with Peter describing the classical Buddhist rendering as well as his personal experience of them, typically fully realized during a residential retreat.  This talk is meant to be accompanied by the recording of the guided meditation presented before this meeting entitled “Guided Alerting The Mind Meditation”, which can be found in the website archives.

Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  SIX PAIRS OF WHOLESOME CETASIKAS

Next week’s talk will focus on the Wholesome Cetasikas of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Mindfulness as they can be understood and applied in the context of current cultural distress and confusion resulting from the pandemic, political turmoil and environmental dysfunction.

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Guided Alerting The Mind Meditation

This training meditation is intended to suggest ways to cultivate awareness of what are called the “Six Beautiful Pairs” of cetasikas, categories of mind that promote self-states that are free from dukkha, distress and confusion.  These qualities are manifested through thorough and persistent investigation of the cycles of breathing in and breathing out mindfully.  The pairs represent beneficial pairings of sankhara, mind conditioning factors and the mind that reflects them in awareness.  The pairs are: tranquility, lightness, pliancy, wieldiness, proficiency and uprightness.  There is an accompanying posted recording entitled “The Six Beautiful Pairs of Cetasikas–October 14, 2020” that reviews and clarifies these cetasikas, which can be found in the archive.

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