Dinsdale wrote: ↑Sun Nov 18, 2018 10:59 am
auto wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:29 pm
I am walking,
By all means remove the "I am", and just say "walking" - but who or what is aware of "walking"? Who or what is aware of seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking, etc?
who is aware of walking you ask? That is enquiry with mentality. Concentration practice what leads to being alert and mindful.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html
"And what is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to mindfulness & alertness? There is the case where feelings are known to the monk as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Perceptions are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Thoughts are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. This is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to mindfulness & alertness.
maybe,
that 'who' is unmade, it is unarisen.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html
When a monk attends appropriately, unarisen fermentations do not arise, and arisen fermentations are abandoned.
what you try to do is locate the who or self who is aware, that is how you develop concentration by holding the fermentations in check.
how one attends inappropriately
"This is how he attends inappropriately:
'Was I in the past?
Was I not in the past?
What was I in the past?
How was I in the past?
Having been what, what was I in the past?
Shall I be in the future?
Shall I not be in the future?
What shall I be in the future?
How shall I be in the future?
Having been what, what shall I be in the future?'
Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present:
'Am I?
Am I not?
What am I?
How am I?
Where has this being come from?
Where is it bound?'
"As he attends inappropriately in this way, one of six kinds of view arises in him:
The view I have a self arises in him as true & established,
or the view I have no self…
or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self...
or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self...
or the view It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises in him as true & established,
or else he has a view like this: This very self of mine — the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of good & bad actions — is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will stay just as it is for eternity.
This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering & stress.
you need be able to pinpoint it down as truth and reality. Otherwise there are these positions or views because you can't pin down Tathagata as truth and reality.