The Enemies of Enlightenment

Lately I've been attempting to leverage cognitive biases to support behavior change. This may seem perverse, because I'm using negative traits such as entitlement and instinctive reaction to aversion to facilitate change.

One of the more interesting biases is loss aversion - our strong preference to avoid loss rather than focus on gain. I have been thinking that if one can create a sense of entitlement for a goal, such as near constant awakeness, and one can clearly see the behavioral enemies of that goal, the natural inclination for loss aversion could be a support, at least initially, for attaining that goal.

As an example, for years my weight yo-yo'd all over the place. I was lean at various times and without being able to figure out why, I'd gain weight. Eventually I learned that my enemies are grains, sugar, and processed foods. I now easily maintain a lean form, which if I examine, I do have a sense of entitlement for that leanness, and I defend that entitlement via my bias of loss aversion against the enemies of grains, sugar, and processed foods.

Right now I am ignorant of what my enemies are towards a sustained awakeness. If I knew what those enemies were, I could train myself to take ownership of awakeness as my right (perverse eh?) and avoid those things.

Does anyone have an idea of what the enemies of enlightenment are?

Thinking in terms of enemies is a bit dicey, Orasis, because aversion is itself one of the "enemies." Nonetheless, the Buddhist teaching of the 5 hindrances and their antidotes covers this topic nicely. Here is a good treatment of the topic:

www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/in-this-...-life/d/doc1545.html

Yes--grains, sugar and the industrial seed oils. I've dropped 40 pounds ditching that stuff. (If only enlightenment were so easy!)

"Thinking in terms of enemies is a bit dicey, Orasis, because aversion is itself one of the "enemies."

www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/in-this-...-life/d/doc1545.html "

Fair enough I'm just trying to slice this thing any which way I can to gain some perspective on my practice.

I was just seeing some parallels with how people tend to spin in circles with weight loss as well as their meditation practice. It seems like what they often lack is not willpower, but the proper perspective.

I feel like I am floundering to gain the right perspective because so much of this is completely abstract to me. Kenneth, your explanations have been extremely helpful, such as focusing concretely on "a happiness that does not depend on conditions" rather than some unfathomable transcendant mystical transformation.

I have been able to notice that when I'm not lost, I do seem to have some happiness that does not depend on conditions. So, my thought is to create more triggers for awakeness in my life to expand the scope.

However, I fully acknowledge that I may be deluded and I am simply abiding in a temporary state. But since this is all that I have and there is no other way I can be in this moment, then I will take this happiness that I occasionally find and accept it as the truth. Otherwise, I am putting off something that I can only ever have in this moment.

I don't know, maybe I'm taking the completely wrong approach. If so, someone please tell me and I will listen.

Orasis, is your primary practice noting aloud at this point? At the risk of oversimplifying things and/or beating a dead horse, maybe the best approach is just to objectify and disentangle from all of the sensate phenomena connected with floundering to gain the right perspective, searching for new ways to slice this thing, etc.
Maybe the suffering you're reporting is just a product of your own mind and is something you can free yourself from by going right to the sensations themselves?

"Does anyone have an idea of what the enemies of enlightenment are?"

Is that meant to be a joke? If not, my answer would be "That which keeps you entangled in ignorance - like pretending ignorance can defeat ignorance."

I think perspective is something, for me at least, that changes so often it can't be relied upon. The way to get this is to practice, 24/7. Thinking about it is of limited use. My advice to myself whenever I realize I'm over thinking this stuff is "Sit down, shut up, meditate!" That is the best perspective for me. Practice well, and don't worry about the rest.

"when I'm not lost, I do seem to have some happiness that does not depend on conditions." -orasis

Right. And that's all you need to do. Steve Armstrong once told me, "You can't be mindful now... for later. But you can be mindful now."

Scheming about ways to sustain my attentiveness in the future is a cruel joke on myself as it only prevents me from being attentive now. Even worse, it conditions more un-attentiveness in the future, because whatever is happening now conditions a future moment; you will reap what you sow. If, on the other hand, I bring all my attention to the experience of this moment... *now*... I am killing two birds with one stone; I am happy now and also conditioning another moment of happiness later. (Unhappiness, I have found, is synonymous with inattentiveness. In other words, if I am lost in the narrative about my life instead of actually experiencing my life, I will suffer. The cure is to attend to the experience of this moment, which suspends both narrative and suffering.)

"However, I fully acknowledge that I may be deluded and I am simply abiding in a temporary state." -orasis

All states are temporary. Abide in attentiveness and be free.

"But since this is all that I have and there is no other way I can be in this moment, then I will take this happiness that I occasionally find and accept it as the truth. Otherwise, I am putting off something that I can only ever have in this moment." -orasis

Perfect. You've got this. Keep doing it. The more often you can remember to be attentive *now*, the more likely that you will remember to do it again later. You are creating a snowball of attentiveness. Keep it rolling and it will naturally get bigger.

cmarti: Not a joke. I'm just trying to see as much of the elephant as I can. Even if it means trying to make sense of its ass first.

"because whatever is happening now conditions a future moment; you will reap what you sow. If, on the other hand, I bring all my attention to the experience of this moment... *now*... I am killing two birds with one stone; I am happy now and also conditioning another moment of happiness later."

Okay, this is HUGELY helpful for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have a mind that often consumes me with trying to understand. When I can feed it some instruction like this it allows me to let go more and focus on the work at hand.

I fear that I waste people's time with my silly questions, but it seems that the wonderful answers make it maybe worth it. Deep gratitude.

-Justin

"I'm just trying to see as much of the elephant as I can. Even if it means trying to make sense of its ass first."

I sort of get that. But it begs a question: why do you have a practice or meditate? What was the reason you became interested? Generally speaking folks who get this far (such as finding, reading and posting on a website like this one) have some notion of suffering or of pain in their lives and that's usually the reason they got started. That pain is very much the obvious "enemy of enlightenment" in their lives, and thus it's most often, if not always, very obvious. So, it was rather incongruous to see someone asking that question here. Make sense?

" I have a mind that often consumes me with trying to understand."
I'm afraid I can completely understand that statement. I seem to be the same, hence my advice. I find if I try to intellectually understand, I never get a satisfactory answer and just become frustrated and confused. The best thing I can do is turn down the brain and turn up the practice.
Good luck, if you hang around you're sure to get help with your practice, and make progress, answering your questions with experience instead of words.

cmarti: My motivation is probably different than most folks here. I'm not coming to this to resolve deep suffering. I simply had some openings when I was a teenager then proceeded to spend about 12 years of my life utterly and completely unconscious. I just don't want to squander the rest of my life.

I also have two young children that I want to be there for and possibly help avoid some suffering in their lives.

"I fear that I waste people's time with my silly questions, but it seems that the wonderful answers make it maybe worth it. Deep gratitude." -Orasis

I love your questions, Justin. I don't find them silly at all. The concepts we work with here are not difficult, but we do have to hear them over and over again, from every possible angle in order to for them to have any chance of really sinking in. After all, we are flying in the face of a lifetime of conditioning that would have us ignore this moment in favor of our ideas about it.

Hi Kenneth, just in case you didn't check your inbox like me, I have replied your PM a while back..

""I fear that I waste people's time with my silly questions, but it seems that the wonderful answers make it maybe worth it. Deep gratitude." -Orasis"

Yes, this has actually been a very helpful thread. It has helped me see a little more clearly how our ideas about things can get in the way of the reality (shocker).
For example, when people first learn of the Buddhist notion of equanimity, they often start raising objections: "Isn't that too passive? Am I supposed to do nothing to help the world?" etc.
I heard a talk by Thanissaro Bhikkhu where he said something along the lines of "people don't have a problem with the actual experience of equanimity; they react to their conceptualization of it." Right. Nobody who really groks what equanimity is has any kind of problem with it.

And as Kenneth said, what causes so much stress is a yogi's conceptual focus on how far he seems to be from maintaining perpetual, self-sustaining, 24/7 mindfulness, how hard that seems, etc. In comparison, paying attention right now is a fairly straightforward matter. It's something all of us can do, so long as we remember to do it.

If we don't have any set idea about what kinds of sensations should be present when we pay attention to this moment, but just accept whatever's there--again, easy.

It's the same with noting aloud. When I started that practice I thought of it as an extremely difficult thing to do, and I patted myself on the back a lot for just making an effort to follow the instructions. What's difficult, though, is just the idea of noting aloud for a whole hour; you can conceptualize the whole hour and all the effort contained therein. Noting itself, though, is as easy as noticing just one object in just this moment; rinse and repeat. It can be approached with ease, relaxation and acceptance.

"What's difficult, though, is just the idea of noting aloud for a whole hour; you can conceptualize the whole hour and all the effort contained therein. Noting itself, though, is as easy as noticing just one object in just this moment; rinse and repeat. It can be approached with ease, relaxation and acceptance. "

(the quote above was so good I wanted to quote it again)

Just like you don't beat yourself up when you stray from the breath, you just notice that you have strayed and go back to the breath, you attend to the present moment and return when you notice you have strayed. If you get into the habit of doing this, over time more and more of the day is spent being mindful.

This is a really great thread, with some golden nuggets of wisdom!

Train that puppy!

It's threads like this which show how insightful and genuinely helpful a community this really is.

"cmarti: Not a joke. I'm just trying to see as much of the elephant as I can. Even if it means trying to make sense of its ass first."

hahahaha you're a good sport, thanks for giving me a solid chuckle!