Upāsikā Day, Sep. 15, 2016
Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley, California and online
5 sessions, 38 excerpts, 2:12:20 total duration
Show featured excerpts (2)
The Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60) describes ten meditation topics/perceptions: 1) impermanence, 2) not-self, 3) unattractiveness, 4) danger, 5) abandoning, 6) dispassion, 7) cessation, 8) non-delight in the entire world, 9) the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena, and 10) mindfulness of breathing.
External websiteSession 1: The First Seven Perceptions
Session 2: Guided Meditation
Session 3: Questions and Answers
Session 4: The Last Three Perceptions
Session 5: Guided Meditation
1. [1:08] Reading: Overview of the Girimāndana Sutta. [Buddha/Biography] [Great disciples] [Sickness] [Recollection] [Healing]
2. [3:37] The meaning of perception (sañña) in the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60). [Perception] [Recollection] // [Meditation] [Tranquility] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Discernment]
Recollection: Ajahn Pasanno gives instruction from the Girimānanda Sutta to the monks on the first four-week retreat at Dtao Dum. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Dtao Dum] [Teaching Dhamma]
Sutta: MN 43.8-9: Conjoined, not disjoined. [Feeling] [Consciousness]
Sutta: AN 10.57: Ten perceptions culminating in the Deathless. [Deathless]
3. [15:33] Lifting up the perception of the aggregates as impermanent or uncertain. [Perception] [Impermanence] [Aggregates] // [Directed thought and evaluation] [Jhāna] [Ajahn Chah] [Habits]
Sutta: AN 10.60.5.
4. [22:44] Reflection: The Buddha rarely divided meditation practice into samatha and vipassanā. [Calming meditation] [Insight meditation]
5. [24:30] Reflection: Seeding the mind with perceptions that hold our attention in a skillful way allows wise attention (yoniso manasikāra) to function. [Perception] [Skillful qualities] [Appropriate attention]
6. [25:54] “To sustain [these perceptions] you need energy, but habitual patterns seem to waste energy so that isn’t available. Any thoughts?” [Recollection] [Energy] [Habits] // [Skillful qualities] [Lunar observance days] [Devotion to wakefulness]
7. [28:31] Question about the meaning of perception, feeling, and consciousness being conjoined (MN 43.8). [Perception] [Feeling] [Consciousness]
8. [30:38] “Is one aspect of this toolkit trying to parse where turmoil is coming from, what you’re holding on to?” [Investigation of states] // [Perception] [Recollection]
Quote: “Usually once we start analyzing it, it’s a rabbit hole.”
9. [35:36] “In daily life, there may not be enough space to apply the perception of not-self. How can one skillfully solidify the sense of self, and when should one not do this?” [Everyday life] [Not-self] // [Suffering] [Protective Meditations] [Recollection] [Perception] [Recollection/Buddha] [Goodwill] [Recollection/Death] [Unattractiveness]
10. [39:54] “What did the Buddha mean by lovingkindness?” [Goodwill] // [Thai]
11. [41:42] “How does the aggregate of perception relate to the activity of perception?” [Aggregates] [Perception]
12. [43:50] The Buddha taught monastics to develop the perception of being a religious seeker. [Perception of a samaṇa ] [Monastic life]
Sutta: MN 39: Mahā-Assapura Sutta.
13. [47:56] “In working with perceptions like unattractiveness and dispassion (AN 10.60.7 and AN 10.60.10), if I don’t feel those things, do I have to conjure them up?” [Perception] [Recollection]
14. [49:15] Contemplating the unattractive nature of the body (AN 10.60.7) soothes the mind and inclines it towards dispassion. [Unattractiveness ] [Tranquility] [Dispassion]
15. [51:34] “What about the energetic perception [of people]?” [Perception] [Sense bases] // [Unattractiveness]
16. [53:26] AN 10.60.8 describes the dangers inherent in the human body. [Drawbacks] [Sickness] // [Aspects of Understanding] [Benefit/gratification] [Escape]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno visits a hospital library. [Ajahn Pasanno]
17. [56:58] The Buddha describes the perception of abandoning (AN 10.60.9) as putting down the three wrong thoughts/intentions. [Right Effort] [Right Intention] [Unskillful qualities]
18. [58:53] The perception of dispassion (AN 10.60.10) is the opportunity to experience what is truly peaceful. [Dispassion] [Recollection/Peace] // [Etymology] [Nature of mind]
19. [1:01:46] The perception of cessation (AN 10.60.11) can be experienced as the non-arising of becoming. [Cessation of Suffering] [Recollection/Peace] [Becoming] // [Translation] [Clinging]
20. [1:05:04] “Can the perceptions of abandoning, dispassion, and cessation (AN 10.60.9-11) be understood as a progression?” [Right Effort] [Dispassion] [Cessation]
Follow-up: “Do the perceptions of dispassion and cessation arise naturally as a result of the earlier perceptions?” [Conditionality]
1. [1:06:20] Guided meditation: Lifting up perceptions that culminate in the Deathless. [Perception] [Recollection] [Deathless] // [Right Effort] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Unattractiveness] [Drawbacks] [Dispassion] [Cessation] [Recollection/Peace]
1. [1:18:10] “Is the purpose of the perception of danger (AN 10.60.8) to change up our usual perception of, ‘Oh, it’s a human body, it’s wonderful, and it’s going to last forever?’” [Drawbacks] [Perception] [Body/form] // [Sickness]
2. [1:21:34] “When meditating on perception (AN 10.60), is the perception a lens through which you view a meditation object?” [Perception] [Meditation]
3. [1:24:00] “Could you speak some more about drowsiness?” [Sloth and torpor] // [Energy] [Recollection]
4. [1:26:26] “Could you talk about the skillful use of perception of abandoning (AN 10.60.9) so that it doesn’t move into aversion?” [Right Effort] [Aversion] [Suffering] // [Relinquishment]
5. [1:29:02] “What about the second part of the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60) about healing?” [Healing] [Sickness] // [Dhamma] [Desire] [Body/form] [Gladdening the mind] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Concentration]
Story: ??? meditates through a malarial fever.
6. [1:36:36] “How would you use any of the perceptions in AN 10.60 in a demanding and fast-paced workplace where performance is important?” [Perception] [Recollection] [Work] // [Tranquility] [Happiness]
7. [1:38:24] “We often seem to be unconsciously looking for eternal existence. Have you seen that happening in Asia as well?” [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Culture/Asia]
8. [1:42:20] “The mind goes into automatic perceptions based on survival instincts. How do you work with this?” [Perception] // [Habits] [Recollection] [Skillful qualities]
Follow-up: “Does this question refer to perception in terms of the aggregates (a noun) while AN 10.60 refers to perception as an activity?” [Aggregates] [Conditionality]
1. [1:46:01] The perception of non-delight (AN 10.60.12) means stepping back from clinging and self-identity. [Perception] [Clinging] [Self-identity view] // [Relinquishment] [Dispassion] [Habits]
2. [1:49:44] The ninth perception of the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60.13) re-emphasizes the importance of the transient nature of all internal and external phenomena. [Perception] [Impermanence] // [Discernment] [Cessation of Suffering]
Sutta: Dhp 277-279 (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 72; A Dhammapada for Contemplation by Ajahn Munindo, p. 102).
3. [1:54:58] The last perception of the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60.14), ānāpānasati, neatly ties up the sutta and is equivalent to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. [Perception] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Right Mindfulness] // [Calming meditation] [Discernment]
Simile: “The still, meditative mind like a tree stump.” [Similes] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Wrong concentration]
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 85).
4. [2:02:30] The ten perceptions in the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60) can be proactively tuned to our own practice to lead to peace, clarity, and understanding. [Perception] [Recollection] // [Healing]
5. [2:04:34] “Why didn’t the Buddha visit Girimānanda himself (AN 10.60)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Buddha/Biography] // [Great disciples] [Personal presence] [Healing] [Recollection/Dhamma]
6. [2:07:06] Comment by Jeanne Daskais: The Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60) is also a sutta about Saṅgha. [Saṅgha]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
7. [2:07:46] Comment: In teaching [the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60)], the Buddha is teaching us to change our views and opinions. [Views]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Outflows] [Proliferation] [Perception] [Recollection]
Sutta: MN 2.8: The thicket of views ...
8. [2:13:26] “When I first read the perception about non-delight in the world, (AN 10.60.12), my first reaction was, ‘I don’t like that one.’ But when I return home after an extended time at Abhayagiri, everything looks fresh and more subtle. Would it be helpful to actively take on a perception like this in meditation?” [Dispassion] [Direct experience] [Perception] // [Proliferation] [Spaciousness] [Liberation]
1. [2:17:12] Guided meditation based on the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118). [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Mindfulness of body]