iMEDITATION

SUTRA CLASS -

Majjhima Nikaya Lectures- Bhikkhu Bodhi

Pali Class Online By Bhikkhu Bodhi

The three kinds of right intention- of renunciation, good will, and harmlessness-- counteract the three wrong intentions of desire, ill will, and harmfulness.  Whenever thoughts of the first kind arose, the Buddha understood those thoughts to be beneficial, conducive to the growth of wisdom, aids to the attainment of Nibbana.  Thus he strengthened those thoughts and brought them to completion. But whenever he noticed thoughts of the second kind arise in him, he understood that those thoughts lead to harm for oneself and others, obstruct wisdom, and lead away from Nibbana. Reflecting in this way he expelled such thoughts from his mind and brought them to an end.

 Before we can arrive at right view and right intention/ thought (at non-returning) , there are 3 kinds of intention the Buddha considers to be beneficial.

PURITY AND SIMPLICITY: The intention of renunciation

Whenever a desire arises, there is also a feeling of discontentment or restlessness that accompanies it. To remove this discontentment we need to remove desire.

The way that many people approach the vague sense of discontentment in life is by trying to fulfill desires. It is true that you get a temporary relief from discontentment by this method, but before you know it another desire arises along with the sense of discontentment. And again, you need to do something to appease the discontentment. This traps you in a vicious cycle instead of providing a permanent solution. That is the reason that whatever you may acquire in life, there is vague under current of discontentment that never leave for good. And happiness is always just around the corner.  What the Buddha suggests is to remove what gives rise to discontentment in the first place, which is desire. And the way to remove desire is the Noble Eightfold Path.

When we understand the nature of desire, when we investigate it closely with keen attention, many desires fall away by itself, without the need for struggle.  For strong desire such as sex and the like one needs to replace it with something stronger , the bliss experienced in jhana. The approach of suppression does not resolve the problem but only pushes it below the surface, where it remains dormant and flares up when the right condition is present.

Worldly Desires and Spiritual Desires

 Six Months of Bliss

LOVING-KINDNESS (METTA): The intention of good will

The intention of good will counteracts the intention of ill will that comes from anger and aversion.  Loving-kindness is an intense feeling of selfless love for other beings radiating outwards as a heartfelt concern for their well-being and happiness. At first the means has to be employed with some deliberation, but through practice the feeling of love becomes ingrained, grafted onto the mind as a natural and spontaneous tendency. 

Expressing and suppressing are ineffective ways of handling ill-will. Suppression merely turns that force around and pushes it inward, where it turns into chronic depression or creates a tendency for irrational outbursts of violence. 

The kind of love implied by metta should be distinguished from sensual love as well as from the love involved in personal affection. Usually, we love a person because that person gives us pleasure, belongs to our family or group, or reinforces our own self-image.  It applies only to a certain person or group of people while excluding others. In metta,it is all encompassing.

WISHING OTHERS BE FREE FROM SUFFERING: The intention of harmlessness

The intention of harmlessness is thought guided by compassion (karuna), aroused in opposition to cruel, aggressive, and violent thoughts.  .  Whereas lovingkindness has the characteristic of wishing for the happiness and welfare of others, compassion has the characteristic of wishing that others be free from suffering, a wish to be extended without limits to all living beings.  Like metta, compassion arises by entering into the subjectivity of others, by sharing their interiority in a deep and total way. It springs up by considering that all beings, like ourselves, wish to be free from suffering, yet despite their wishes continue to be harassed by pain, fear, sorrow, and other form of dukkha.

Cause and Effect