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    7 Treasures of Awakening: The Benefits of Mindfulness
    7 Treasures of Awakening: The Benefits of Mindfulness
    7 Treasures of Awakening: The Benefits of Mindfulness
    Ebook89 pages1 hour

    7 Treasures of Awakening: The Benefits of Mindfulness

    By Joseph Goldstein

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    About this ebook

    Among the Buddha's many teachings, his instruction on the Seven Factors of Awakening stands alone for the cumulative benefits it makes available to us. When we are firmly established in mindfulness, the Buddha explained, these seven "treasures" serve to steer the mind away from delusion and the causes of suffering, guiding us to the realization of freedom. In 7 Treasures of Awakening, Insight Meditation Society cofounder Joseph Goldstein reveals how each one of these qualities of enlightenment sequentially develop and support each other as our practice of mindfulness matures.


    Program highlights:

    • Mindfulness, discrimination of states, energy, rapture, calm, concentration, and equanimity: the seven "treasures" of awakening
    • The four qualities of mindful attention
    • Dhammavicaya, or "knowing what's what"
    • Viriya (or energy), the root of all accomplishment
    • Well-balanced effort
    • Pīti, the antidote to anger and ill will
    • Reflecting on the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha
    • The role of calm on the path to awakening
    • Jhāna and the four developments of concentration
    • Sīla, ethical conduct
    • Equanimity versus indifference
    • The "great way" of non-preferential awareness
    • The deep delight born of peace
    • Excerpted from Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Joseph Goldstein's masterwork on the Buddha's instructions for a life lived consciously
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSounds True
    Release dateJun 1, 2014
    ISBN9781622034239
    7 Treasures of Awakening: The Benefits of Mindfulness
    Author

    Joseph Goldstein

    Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the resident guiding teachers. He is the author of The Experience of Insight and Insight Meditation and has coauthored books with both Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. He has studied and practiced meditation since 1967 under the guidance of eminent teachers from India, Burma, and Tibet. He lectures and leads retreats around the world.

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      Book preview

      7 Treasures of Awakening - Joseph Goldstein

      Copyright

      Introduction

      THE SATIPAṬṬHĀNA SUTTA DESCRIBES MINDFULNESS of the seven factors of awakening. These qualities of mind are referred to as the seven treasures of a Tathāgata, the term used by Buddhas when speaking of themselves, and they are said to be unique to the teachings of a Buddha.

      All those Arahant Buddhas of the past attained to supreme enlightenment by abandoning the five hindrances, defilements of mind which weaken understanding, having firmly established the four foundations of mindfulness in their minds, and realized the seven factors of awakening as they really are.¹

      The Buddha called these seven factors antihindrances because they counteract those forces in the mind that keep us in delusion. They are called factors of awakening because they incline the mind toward nibbāna, toward freedom. What are these seven factors? They are mindfulness, discrimination of states, energy, rapture, calm, concentration, and equanimity.

      There is an entire section of the Samyutta Nikāya, the Connected Discourses, devoted to these seven links of awakening. A few excerpts from these texts will give some sense of the importance the Buddha placed on them:

      Bhikkhus, I do not see even one thing that, when developed and cultivated, leads to the abandoning of the things that fetter, so effectively as this: the seven factors of enlightenment.²

      Bhikkhus, the seven factors of enlightenment, when developed and cultivated, are noble and emancipating; they lead the one who acts upon them to the complete destruction of suffering.³

      Then a certain bhikkhu approached the Blessed One . . . and said to him: Venerable sir, it is said, ‘an unwise dolt, an unwise dolt.’ In what way, venerable sir, is one called ‘an unwise dolt?’

      Bhikkhus, it is because one has not developed and cultivated the seven factors of enlightenment that one is called ‘an unwise dolt.’

      Venerable sir, it is said, ‘wise and alert, wise and alert.’ In what way, venerable sir, is one called ‘wise and alert?’

      Bhikkhus, it is because one has developed and cultivated the seven factors of enlightenment that one is called ‘wise and alert.’⁴

      The instructions in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta for contemplating these factors follow a format analogous to the one for contemplating the hindrances, except instead of abandoning them, one cultivates them.

      "Again, monks, in regard to dhammas one abides contemplating dhammas in terms of the seven awakening factors. And how does one in regard to dhammas abide contemplating dhammas in terms of the seven awakening factors?

      Here, if the mindfulness [and all the others in turn] awakening factor is present, one knows ‘there is the mindfulness awakening factor present in me’; if the mindfulness awakening factor is not present, one knows, ‘there is no mindfulness awakening factor in me’; one knows how the unarisen mindfulness awakening factor can arise, and how the arisen mindfulness awakening factor can be perfected by development.⁵

      How do we put these instructions into practice? The Buddha said that just as the dawn is the forerunner and precursor of the arising of the sun, so too, good friendship, association with the wise, and careful attention are the forerunners and precursors of the arising of the factors of enlightenment. This is where we start: hearing the teachings and paying attention. Many discourses teach that the four foundations of mindfulness, when developed and pursued, bring the factors of awakening to perfection. And, as we will see, these seven factors form a progression, each one leading to the next. So if we prime the pump of the enlightened mind and practice the first of the awakening factors, all the rest follow along.

      1

      Mindfulness

      NOT SURPRISINGLY, THE FIRST OF the factors of enlightenment, and the one that starts the wheel of awakening rolling, is mindfulness. In order to know whether, as the instructions of the sutta indicate, mindfulness is present or not, we first need to know what mindfulness actually is. As mentioned earlier, mindfulness is the translation of the Pali word sati, a word profoundly rich in meaning and application. Sati is derived from the root meaning to remember, but its meaning goes far beyond our usual notion of memory.

      THE FOUR QUALITIES OF MINDFULNESS

      R. M. L. Gethin, a highly regarded contemporary Buddhist and Pali scholar, carefully analyzed all the ways sati is used in the suttas and the Abhidhamma, and he summed up the various expressions and manifestations of mindfulness in four basic applications. Although in its most general sense, mindfulness signifies attentiveness to the present, this attentiveness expresses itself in some very specific ways. And as we look at each one of these aspects of mindfulness, we can understand why it is the one factor of mind that is useful in every situation. While the other factors of enlightenment can be out of balance with one another, there can never be too much mindfulness. In fact, it serves to both bring about and balance all the other factors.

      Not Forgetting

      The first application of mindfulness is the quality of not forgetting, not losing what is before the mind in the present moment. Mindfulness stays firmly with the object without wobbling or drifting off. We could call this aspect the stability of awareness because it stays as steady as a post set firmly in the ground. It also serves to bring us back to the object each time we get lost, like a signpost. When the momentum of mindfulness is well developed, it works like a boomerang; even if we want to distract ourselves, the mind naturally rebounds to a state of awareness.

      Presence of Mind

      The second aspect of mindfulness is its quality of standing near the mind, which manifests as being face-to-face with whatever is arising, rather than giving it only sidelong glances. Directly facing what is arising guards the gates of the sense doors. In street parlance, we might say that by standing near, mindfulness is watching our backs—or perhaps more accurately, watching our fronts—so that we’re not seduced by the show of passing phenomena. The Genjo Koan, a well-known teaching in the Zen tradition, says, To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

      Remembering

      The third aspect of sati is one that we don’t often associate with mindfulness, but, in fact, it hearkens back to its root meaning of remembering. Here, mindfulness

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