Sam Vara wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:25 am
I have known meditation teachers who talked of "leaving sounds at the ear-door" or "door of the ear", which means something like not mentally proliferating over sounds that we hear during meditation.
Does this phrase occur in the suttas or commentaries? Is there an expression translatable as "ear door", and are we told to leave sounds there? There are general accounts like this:
Six gates’ is a term for the six interior sense fields.
‘Cha dvārā’ti kho, bhikkhu, channetaṁ ajjhattikānaṁ āyatanānaṁ adhivacanaṁ.
but I was wondering whether any meditation instructions in the Pali were precisely "to leave things at the sense door", or whether this is a modern English coinage.
"The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering.
The result of the mind sent outside is suffering.
The mind seeing the mind is the path.
The result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering."
Ajahn Dune Atulo
The Båhiya Instruction
and Bare Awareness
Bhikkhu Anålayo∗
Malunkyaputta
“On having seen a form with the eyes
If right mindfulness is lost,
Then in the form that is seen
One grasps its sign (nimitta) with thoughts of
craving.
“For one who grasps the sign with craving and
delight
The mind will then be constantly in bondage to
attachment.
It will give rise to various kinds of craving
For the countless forms that manifest.
“Thoughts of lustful desire, ill will, and harming
Will bring about the mind’s debasement
And foster a host of afflictions;
One is forever far from Nirvåˆa.14
“[If] on seeing a form one does not grasp its sign,
And the mind conforms to right mindfulness,
Craving will not defile the mind with what is
detrimental,
And the bondage of attachment will also not arise.
“Not givine rise to cravings
For the countless forms that manifest,
Thoughts of lustful desire, ill will, and harming
Will be unable to afflict the mind.
“Diminishing [what] fosters a host of afflictions,
One gradually draws close to Nirvåˆa.
As taught by the kinsman of the sun:
‘Being apart from craving is Nirvåˆa.’15
“On hearing sounds with the ear
If the mind has lost right mindfulness,
The sign of sounds is grasped;
It is held firmly and not relinquished.
“With the nose and odours, with the tongue and
flavours,
With the body and tangibles, and with the mind and
thoughts of mental objects,
Right mindfulness being forgotten
One also grasps the sign, it is just the same.
“The mind gives rise to craving and delight
And the bondage of attachment is firmly established;
Various kinds of craving arise
For countless mental objects that manifest.
“Thoughts of lustful desire, ill will, and harming
Will debase and harm the mind,16
And increasingly nourish a host of afflictions;
One is forever far from Nirvåˆa.
“Not being defiled by mental objects,
Established in right knowledge and right
mindfulness,
The mind is not contaminated
And no longer delights in them with attachment.
“Not givine rise to various kinds of craving
For the countless mental objects that manifest,
Thoughts of lust, ill will, and harming
Do not debase the mind.
“The host of afflictions consequently decreases
And one gradually draws close to Nirvåˆa.
‘The eradication of craving is Nirvåˆa’,
This has been taught by the Blessed One.17
And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.