{"id":443,"date":"2009-02-19T17:03:30","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T17:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/02\/hardcore-dharma-says-it-with-suttas.html"},"modified":"2009-02-19T17:03:30","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T17:03:30","slug":"hardcore-dharma-says-it-with-suttas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/02\/hardcore-dharma-says-it-with-suttas.html","title":{"rendered":"Hardcore Dharma Says it With Suttas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week’s Hardcore Dharma\u2019s early sutta readings about relinquishing desire to attain enlightenment weren\u2019t my favorites.\u00a0 The idea of not wanting filled me with dread.\u00a0 The thought that the enlightened response to the loss of a loved one would be unflappable equanimity seemed more android than awakened.\u00a0 In\u00a0 last week’s post I wrote <\/a>that sometimes, when I think of enlightenment as void of desire\/attachment then maybe I feel as though I don\u2019t want to become enlightened.
\nHowever this week, HC Dharma\u2019s reading of the early suttas, collected and organized in Bhikku Bodhi\u2019s In The Buddha\u2019s Words<\/em>\u00a0were teachings\u00a0grouped\u00a0under the heading \u201cMastering the Mind.\u201d\u00a0 Hello.\u00a0 I mean, enlightenment in accordance to last week\u2019s reading seemed lonelier than a Hank Williams song.\u00a0 But the concept of mind mastery?\u00a0 In the words of Ric Okasek: I think you\u2019re just what I needed.
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\nFirst and foremost, I strongly recommend this collection of suttas from the Pali Canon.\u00a0 For anyone who sometimes loses patience with modern soft-core namby Buddhist speak, it\u2019s pretty liberating to read these early teachings for yourself, draw your own conclusions, develop your own interpretations.\u00a0 The language is interesting, forcing a reconsideration of various Buddhist catchphrases.\u00a0 The repetition is super catchy.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing to contemplate, as one tends to do more readily while reading olden-timey sounding text, that this level of insight about our minds was not only understood but written down over 2000 years ago.
\nEspecially when it comes to the suttas that deal with mastering the mind: because these texts are not about renunciation, which seems typically ancient.\u00a0 They\u2019re not speaking of asceticism, which is practically archaic.\u00a0 They\u2019re not talking about the all time classics of moral conduct or sin or reward. They\u2019re talking cognitive psychology.\u00a0 They provide take home exercises to help one get wiser, happier and more concentrated.\u00a0 They offer antidotes for almost every problem one could have with said exercises.\u00a0 They make those New York Science Times neurological breakthrough studies look like kindergarten.\u00a0 To me, knowing and harnessing the mind is the gleaming carrot on the Buddhist path.\u00a0 Developing completely clear seeing, clearing the mind of all the gunk that prevents seeing the truth of a situation, the truth of a relationship, the truth of limitations or potentiality is so exciting.\u00a0 The first time that\u00a0I, in a systematically Buddhist way, discarded an obsessive thought like a gum wrapper, was a moment of profound liberation.\u00a0 Reading these sutta\u2019s reminded me once again how impressionable the mind is, in the best sense of the word, and how effective the mindfulness practice is in helping one to grab hold of their mental reigns and steer one’s non-self self toward a better tomorrow.
\nSo let me ask you this: is mastering the mind the same thing as enlightenment?\u00a0 Is it simply different wording that suits Western conditioning better?\u00a0 Frankly, mind control sounds more interesting and fun than detachment from desire.\u00a0 I also wonder what people\u2019s experience is with early texts \u2013 do you find them inspiring?\u00a0 Too distant?\u00a0 Other?\u00a0\u00a0How\u00a0do\u00a0you feel about\u00a0The Cars?
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