Subject: Mindfulness of Feelings and State of Mind
It seems to me the Satipatthanas advice on feelings and state of mind are very confused :
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under part II mindfulness of feeling - the guide lines are
pleasant painful or neutral feelings and if this is a worldly/flesh or unworldly feeling
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under part III mindfulness of mind - the guide lines are -
mind with
lust, without lust, hate, without hate, delusion, without delusion,
the shrunken state of mind (the expanded mind is not mentioned - I believe the shrunken mind indicates under stress - eg. when we frown)
the distracted state
developed undeveloped
surpassable unsurpassable
concentrated unconcentrated
freed unfreed
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under part IV Mindfulness of Mind Objects - the guide lines - are
the so called 5 hindrances
sense desire - anger/ill will - sloth/laziness and torpor/drowsiness - agitation and worry - doubt (surely these, today, are called feelings not mind objects)
5 aggregates of clinging is for me pure Dharma and has simply lost its place - this belongs in with the four noble truths - at the end of the first noble truth it says that this is "in short the 5 aggregates of clinging" ... this very important stanza is not in the right place for right understanding ...
6 sense bases (I practice this in with my mindfulness of body - (Interesting to note that in Buddhism the 6th sense is the mind being aware of mind objects ie. being aware of thoughts)
and lastly the so called "7 factors of enlightenment" are ;
mindfulness - investigation of realty - energy - joy/rapture - tranquility - concentration - equanimity
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So now ask : is tranquility or rapture a feeling? state of being? a mind set? mental quality?
joy is surely a feeling - an emotion .. not a mental state, and is energy really a mental condition?
And lets ask: do feelings cause and preceed mental states or do the mental states preceed the feelings - or do they happen together ???
hate is listed but where is love? - doubt is listed but where is hope?
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What could we use as our check list? At this point I can only guess. My attempt at a check list is
sense desire - what do I want - want to avoid -
pleasant painful or neutral feelings
mindful - questioning - devoted attitude
concentrated - distracted scared - adventurous
laziness and drowsiness - agitation and worry
hate - love - anger - warmth
doubt - hope - energy - tired - happy - sad
(one soon realises that the text lists 5 hindrances, 7 factors of enlightenment, etc. as a help for memory ... It must be made clear that for the philosophy; the 5 aggregates of clinging, the 4 noble truths and the 8fold path; are exact numbers and important to recognise as such for right understanding ... however the 5 hindrances, 7 factors of enlightenment are merely check lists which are flexible).
There are so many possibilities - and the text is not clear enough to give us the answers ... and, so, we must investigate reality, we must simply ask:
"what is this? what is happening?"
and we must ask
"Is this emotion, or feeling, and/or state of mind, mental quality, or state of being, or mind set"
or, ... at least, .... to start with, ... again, the importance of the 3rd depth: to simply be aware that there are feelings and states of mind and states of being.
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