Is it the mind that think mind is owned by itself? Can any one provide insights, techniques, meditations that help me to understand that "mind does not belong to me"?
I aware that thoughts are coming from nowhere and we don't intentionally make them. But this is not enough. Can you please provide me a deep explanation, especially a guided meditation to practice no-self?
In my opinion, the linchpin teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of no-self. It is the pillar that holds the entire foundation, and once it falls, enlightenment is inevitable.
You have made a very common jump in logic that will hold you until you free yourself. You have two contradicting beliefs that will never allow you to progress in your path to freedom as long as they remain.
Can any one provide insights, techniques, meditations that help me to understand that "mind does not belong to me"?
You must not ask if mind belongs to you. By asking that question, you have already jumped to the conclusion that there is a “you” it can belong to. Ask instead if your mind is you. The teaching of no self can only be understood if we question the assumptions we make about ourselves. Do not ask if something belongs to you. Try instead to find yourself. Right now it may seem so obvious who you are, but the more you look, the harder it is to find.
Can you please provide me a deep explanation, especially a guided meditation to practice no-self?
No-self is not a practice. It is an instantaneous realization that causes the end of all suffering and a clear view of Nirvana. Understanding it experientially as opposed to logically is the end of the journey and utterly life changing.
All you need to do to inquire deeply about no self is to follow the following steps.
Hopefully at the end of your inquiry, you will come to the conclusion that that thing is not you. If find it essential, send me an email and let me know because I’d love to know. =]
Continue this over time to slowly rid yourself of the beliefs you hold onto that keep you from seeing the world unfiltered. The only way to truly understand no-self, is to realize all the facts you have about who you are are actually beliefs. Then you must understand all your beliefs are incorrect. If you do so, eventually you will see the world as it is, which can not be done from the perspective of a human being.
I hope this was helpful to you in some way. I pray for nothing more than your liberation this lifetime.
It seems to me that I can't own fire, for example.
I might think I own the fuel, which is consumed by fire!
I think Buddhism suggest that thoughts are not entirely uncontrollable -- like you can't control fire -- but you might control how much fuel and air you feed it. So see for example:
Is it the mind that think mind is owned by itself?
Generally speaking, what we label "mind" is usually described as "skandhas" in buddhism.
A very short description of what skandhas are, is to describe them as ever-transforming processes in our body, attention, emotions, thoughts and will impulses. We easily run the risk of mistaking these multiple processes as a singular "mind".
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/khandha.html
Can any one provide insights, techniques, meditations that help me to understand that "mind does not belong to me"?
I would recommend learning the four noble truths in depth, consisting of the nature of suffering (dukkha), the origination of suffering (dependent origination), the cessation of suffering, and how to go about this (the noble eightfold path). I find this is a useful overview in case you have the time and interest:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/truths.html
Parallel to learning these concept, you may want to try "anapanasati" meditation. Instructions are detailed in the satipatthana sutta:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanasatta/wheel019.html
SN22.155 is a short sutta that addresses Identity View, describing how it arises from grasping at the five aggregates.
SN22.155:1.4: “When form exists, because of grasping form and insisting on form, identity view arises. When feeling … perception … choices … consciousness exists, because of grasping consciousness and insisting on consciousness, identity view arises.
The standard remedy is simply not grasping:
SN22.155:1.21: “But by not grasping what’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, would identity view arise?”
However, even for those who understand this, there is still a fetter, a lingering sense of self-existence.
SN22.89:10.11: For when it comes to the five grasping aggregates I’m not rid of the conceit ‘I am’. But I don’t regard anything as ‘I am this’.
Briefly, the self invests in continued-existence. Therefore, the practice of studying impermanence is the directly applicable escape.
SN22.89:12.8: ‘Such is form, such is the origin of form, such is the ending of form. Such is feeling … Such is perception … Such are choices … Such is consciousness, such is the origin of consciousness, such is the ending of consciousness.’ As they do so, that lingering residue is eradicated.”
That practice is part of the fourth stage of Ānāpānassati:
MN118:27.1: Whenever a mendicant practices breathing while observing impermanence,
I found the answer from a video by S N Goenka. 10 day vipassana course - Day 3 (English). But w33t's answer describe this in detail.
The problem is "this is not enough". There are 3 types of panna. 1. suta-maya panna - wisdom obtained from listening to others, from being instructed by others. 2. cinta-maya panna - wisdom obtained from one's own thinking, not just from hearing others . 3. bhavana-maya panna - experiential wisdom.
"I aware that thoughts are coming from nowhere and we don't intentionally make them." Is suta-maya panna and cinta-maya panna. In order to fully understand the "no-self" , we need to have bhavana-maya panna obtained by meditation, the wisdom that comes from the direct experience of the truth. So it can not be post here.
Thanks to Brain Diaz Flores
Please improve this answer.
The mind is a conditioned object; and the mundane, "animal-speech" contents of the ordinary, un-enlightened human mind, are also conditioned. The mind is non-eternal; it is brought about through the cycle of birth and death. The brain is affected by physical substances -- pollution and nutrients, drugs, medicines, allergies and chemical side-effects. Vitamins, and the weather. It is affected by metabolic process, hunger, sleep, disease and aging, and by emotional stimuli as well; flattery, insults and the like. It is clearly not fully under its own control.
Just try to think rationally about, for example, paying bills, or any other mundane obligation, when you are hungry or tired. It's very difficult; it is easy for one's judgment to be impaired.
That doesn't even account for how one's emotions, preferences, opinions, and cravings are affected by misinformation and propaganda from others. How the mind feels about, for example, "my family" or "my romantic prospects" or "my career" or "my political party" -- all of one's biases are deeply influenced, intentionally and unintentionally, by the biases of others. One would have completely different views, if one was (mis)informed differently, and by different people.
Buddhism teaches that all thoughts of the self, by the self, are incorrect. Notions of "I am beautiful", "I am ugly", "I am moral", "I am wicked" and so forth are all based upon self-deception, and incomplete views of reality. One "feels" moral or wicked in the moment, without taking into account all the ways one can potentially be influenced in the opposite direction. (The Eight Winds/Eight Difficulties)
To the extent that "the mind" actually is "correct" and reliable, it is because it adheres to what is objectively true; when the mind decides that two plus two equals four, it decides this because that is verifiably true based upon the inescapable laws of arithmetic. Even the Buddha, when he reached Enlightenment, happened upon the laws of the dharma that had always been so; he did not own or invent anything. The Buddha had no intellectual property in the dharma--and neither does anybody else.
Anything true that the mind happens upon did not originate in the mind, but outside of it. And most of what is untrue also originated from what is outside of it.
No one can own anything. Give up the idea of owning your mind. Give up the idea of ownership. You are not your mind. You are beyond description. Sit, breathe, be.
The path of liberation is not just liberation from ignorance or suffering. The path of liberation is the abandonment of anything that does not serve your own development or the happiness of self and others. Then liberation increases the inner light to the point where you can abandon the thought of abandonment. And just be.
The mind is the sum of all your experiences. You are more than all of your experiences. Much more.
Be at peace, be peace. Be the light you are. This is the message of all Buddhas.
"Am I", "Am I not", these are just thoughts. Simply think something else, just that much. Mental activity is endless, but a "Mind" does not exist, nor a "Self". Just thinking along these - or similar - lines break up the thought processes which generate the feelings which are corresponding objects of identification. When this happens unknowingly, the belief or "view" of a self arises.
