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6. Is there less and less anxiety? We all tend to get caught up in thinking and worried
about things ceaselessly. This will slowly be abandoned until
there is no more of this anxious thinking left to disturb the mind.
7. Do we see that the sentimental, melancholic hold of things past is no longer as strong
as before? Understanding impermanence , we no longer LIVE in the past,
but progressively learn to live fully in the present.
8. Is there a lessening of envy? This envy is progressively abandoned
until there is none left.
9. Is there a lessening of the EGO, that tendency to look down on others, to have a
disparaging or insulting attitude, where we raise ourselves up and look down on others this will fade away until none is left.
10. Are we still highly critical of others? The Buddha made much of this point. He said
that the Tathagata never says a word that is critical or disparaging of others. The Buddha
did not go around saying "you're wrong, I'm right". He would essentially say
"this is the way things are" and proclaim the truth as he saw it.
11. Are we still as possessive, clinging, or Greedy? When the practice of the Buddha
Dhamma is progressing, this kind of possessiveness will gradually disappear.
12. Finally is the ability to see the reality of things as they are. Our inability to see things
the way they are gets us caught up in many misunderstandings, assumptions and
prejudices. These misunderstanding slowly will disappear, and in its place
will grow the steadily increasing awareness of the reality/truth of things.
We can measure whether our practice is progressing or not by these milestones. We
cannot measure progress by how long we can keep our legs crossed,
or by how many days we can stay in a kuti.
The way we measure progress is whether these twelve things are happening or not. These
we can see for ourselves if we simply look into our Minds. A teacher can never look into
our mind and see what is happening there.
(Adapted from a talk by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu)