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conceit incantation


introduction

This is one of a series of incantations I have used to attain nibbana – the total end of suffering.

If you would like to use this tool, it might be helpful to understand the larger context within which it is intended to be used …

The heroic path to nibbana

What need does this incantation seek to meet?

One of the deepest fears that most humans have is the fear that we are not enough. The pain of being judged to be inadequate can be very difficult to bear. The need this incantation seeks is the need to never feel that pain again and to never fear it.

One of the surprising side effects is that, when you lose this fear, you will likely attain a degree of genuinely unbreakable fearlessness that you may not have thought possible.

This is the incantation which enabled me to get to nibbana. The total end of suffering.


caveat

Just to set your expectations correctly, that does NOT mean that you will never suffer again. It means you have a tool that you can use to switch off that suffering when you need it.


prerequisites

This is nibbana. It’s a significant achievement. It took me 10 years of practice to do this. Hopefully, it will be much faster for you. It stands to reason that there are many prerequisites that must be attained before this final step.

However, my best guess is that if you have attained a degree of genuine proficiency at systematically at entering into the 4th jhana and severing attachment to desired sensory experiences, you can probably do this.


introduction

I’ve long been fascinated by the concept of “value velocity” in the spoken word.

I consider this to be the opposite of the “idle speech” which the Buddha cautions against.

There are some people in this world who can speak for hours and say very little of genuine value to their audience.

There are others, who are able to offer tremendous value with a minimal number of words.

In the suttas, the Buddha is portrayed as such an individual.

He listens intently.

He assesses the situation carefully.

Seeking to understand precisely the underlying need which is being expressed.

Pondering how that need might best be met.

And speaking so sparsely and so profoundly, that his audience hangs on his every word.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the Bahia Sutta where the Buddha spoke a tiny amount of words to an aspiring student which enabled him to attain nibbana.

https://www.suttareadings.net/audio/ud.1.10.sdoe.mp3

In this story, Bahia is portrayed as a man who has ben driven to near hysterical state by a desire to end his suffering.

He travelled across India to find the Buddha whereupon he immediately begged the Buddha for teaching, even though the time was clearly inappropriate. The Buddha was going for alms.

The story dramatically illustrates and emphasizes and, I suspect, purposefully exaggerates

the association between

(1) the suffering of this hysterical man

and 

(2) his apparent “self absorption”.

I believe this exaggerated setup is a hint that words the Buddha spoke to Bahia were delivered with the intent of helping him to cut the fetter of conceit.

Feeling a kinship with Bhahia as someone who was also intensely motivated to attain nibbana, I became somewhat obsessed with trying to understand the Buddha’s words to him. 

I came to the conclusion that, if the story is true, something must have been lost in translation at some stage but there might be enough there to reconstruct the underlying meaning of the profound words which the Buddha spoke which enabled Bahia to attain nibbana.

So I changed the wording until I found something that worked. I don’t know for certain if this is the meaning the Buddha intended to convey, but I do know that it enabled me to attain nibbana.


guidance

I believe the concept of Anatta (not-self) is widely misunderstood.

As a general heuristic, if the concept someone is speaking about is unclear, or seems inconsistent, consider the aim of the person who is speaking and infer a meaning that is more consistent with that aim.

The Buddha said “I teach one thing and one thing only, suffering and the end of suffering.”

Within that context, 

understanding that the narrative our mind creates to describe our experiences either 

1: gives rise to suffering or 

2: gives rise to wisdom;

and that our brain is either 

1: under the control of the “task negative network” or

2: under the control of the “task positive network”

and 

self absorption in the narrative is probably the primary means by which the task negative method takes control and inclines the mind towards suffering instead of wisdom …

I believe that Anatta (Not self)

is an incantation!

It is a command!

It is a command to compel the task positive network to take control.

It is a command to incline the mind away from suffering and towards wisdom.

It is my belief that, neurologically, nibbana is simply the subjugation of “the task negative network” by “the task positive network”.

Anatta is the incantation we issue to make that magic happen.

Hint: This command should be issued forcefully.


warning

In this incantation, I appropriated some of the words of the Buddha from the Bahia sutta and changed them to what made more sense to me.

When I recite this incantation, I imagine the words being spoken by the Buddha and carrying all of the authority of he who had actually attained nibbana and had successfully guided others to replicate his accomplishment.

When sharing this publicly, the thought occurred to me that this might offend some people.

I suppose that I could have changed this to be less blasphemous but that would be a lie.

More so, this is what I actually used to attain nibbana. This is what actually worked for me. So I don’t want to risk reducing its effectiveness.

If people are offended by this, so be it. Please consider using this tool to process your “being offended”:

The “anger” incantation


incantation

Bahia

Listen closely to my words

and attend to what i say.

In the seen there is only the seen

In the heard there is only the heard

In the felt, there is only the felt,

In the cognized, there is only the cognized

When, for you, the experience arises

In the cognized, there is ONLY the cognized

holding on to this moment

sustaining this moment

this frozen moment in time

in the cognized, there is only the cognized

and noticing that

That which is called *I* 

is no longer attached to the story.

Indeed

*I* am no longer in the story.

In THIS moment

there is no *I* here 

nor there 

nor in between.

THIS moment.

A moment without self-absorption in the narrative.

Anatta!

Not self!

A moment where 

the one who is thus 

has been freed from the shackles of conceit.

A moment

of total separation

between feeling and thinking

A moment

where the arising of the unwholesome feeling tone

of the arrow in the heart

can be captured 

and held 

in spacious non judgemental awareness

and investigated

in a spirit of curiosity.

A moment

where the feeling tone

of the arrow in the heart

hard to see

so very hard to see

but I see you mara.

I see you mara.

Emerging out of nothingness.

The sudden swift sharp movement 

of a predator

in the night

as he stabs his arrow into the heart of his prey

and pulls back

waiting for the poison

to paralyze.

When the belief that

“happiness depends upon 

the satiation of THIS desire 

for THIS sensory experience”

meets with “undesired circumstance”

giving birth to the unwholesome feeling tone

the arrow in the heart

giving birth pain

giving birth to doubt 

giving birth to the thought “I will never be happy” 

giving birth to Mara

the predator

and Mara reaches across the chasm

between feeling and thinking

seizing control of the narrative

and using it to 

take control

to grow its power

to infest the mind

transforming doubt into restlessness

restlessness into panic

panic into despair

despair into hysteria

pushing through the barrier of moral restraint

pushing past the fight or flight threshold

transforming into ill will

into anger

into hatred

into rage

into murderous rage

mara, I see you

and I see things as they actually are

and I know exactly who and what you are.

Satan

Ancient spirit of the lizard brain of all living beings.

All living beings are survival machines for genes.

You care more for the survival of genes

Than the welfare of living beings.

More than the welfare of human beings.

More than the welfare of friends.

More than the welfare of family.

More even than the welfare of this being who is your host.

This being who, through punishment and reward,

you have made to do your bidding

your obedient slave

is just a tool to be used and discarded.

To grow old

To grow sick

and to die.

No living being has ever survived your ruthless drive for self preservation.

Both the fortunate and the unfortunate

the winners and the losers

All will perish because of you.

You will lie, cheat, steal, oppress, murder to satiate your insatiable sense desire.

I will not be a slave working for Mara.

For death.


Mara, hear my intentions clearly.

1: When anger arises …

May the compulsion to violence 

of the lower self 

be restrained by the higher self.

Ahimsa!

Non-violence!

2: When anger arises …

May the compulsion to hostility 

of the lower self 

be restrained by the higher self.

Metta!

Non-hostility!

3: When anger arises …

May the higher self take control

and transform this anger into 

aversion.

skillful aversion.

skillfully targeted.

skillfully calibrated.

skillful aversion

to protect

to select

to isolate and

to discern that which is unskillful from that which is skillful.

skillful aversion

to fuel 

the construction of an impenetrable barrier before that which is unskillful.

and

to fuel 

the destruction of all barriers before that which is skillful

so that 

from a place of safety

THIS PART of my predictive model of the world

which is responsible for the suffering 

which gives rise to the anger …

THIS BELIEF

that happiness depends upon

the satiation of

THIS DESIRE for

THIS SENSORY EXPERIENCE …

THIS BELIEF

that the underlying need

which I am seeking to meet

can ONLY be met by

the satiation of

THIS DESIRE for

THIS SENSORY EXPERIENCE

at THIS TIME

that no other way of meeting this need is possible

THIS BELIEF.

Target acquired.

The signal in the noise.

Selected.

Isolated.

Discerned.

so that 

THIS BELIEF

THIS WRONG VIEW which I am clinging to …

THIS PART of my sensory-motor predictive model of the world

which is responsible for the suffering 

which gives rise to the anger …

can be identified, isolated and renounced.

Nekkhamma!

Renunciation!


These are the 3 right intentions.

ahimsa: non-violence

metta: non-hostility

nekkama: renunciation

Mara, I renounce you


In this moment

A moment of total separation

Between feeling and thinking

A moment of eternal vigilance 

for the quick stabbing movement of the predator

for the arising of the unwholesome feeling tone.

For the monastic

who delights in vigilance

and fears negligence

is incapable of backsliding

and is quite close to nibbana

A moment where the feeling tone of the arrow in the heart

hard to see

Mara

I see you

arises when

desire for a particular sensory experience

meets with undesired circumstance

giving birth to doubt

giving birth to Mara

and Mara reaches to seize control of the narrative

But Mara no longer has permission 

to seize control of the narrative.

and to use it to

pull this living being down into the fires of hell.

No more.

Never again mara!

Never ever again!

A moment

where the feeling tone

of the arrow in the heart

no longer controls the narrative.

Anatta.

Not self.

And because the dragon has not been permitted to grow

We may 

with ease

pull the arrow out.

And when the arrow’s pulled out

We don’t run

and we don’t sink.

In this moment

Noticing where we are.

Standing on solid ground amidst the raging river

The island.

Nibbana.

This. Only this. Is the end of suffering.

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