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 …
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.
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”:
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.