Spiritual Traps from The 5th Century

[Joshe]

https://a.co/d/0cVslcI9

"The Fifty Deviant States

Ten states for each of the five skandhas. Every one carries the same verdict: a temporary state, not sagehood — harmless if not claimed as attainment, ruinous if it is.

1. His body can transcend obstructions — the body feels unobstructed, like open space, and it's taken as a spiritual power.
2. Internally the light pervades and he can extract intestinal worms — he can see and reach inside his own body without injury, and takes it as mastery.
3. His essence and souls alternately separate and unite — he hears the dharma being spoken in empty space and assumes an external teacher is speaking.
4. The state changes and Buddhas appear — the world turns gold, all beings appear as buddhas, Vairochana is seen on a light platform, and it's assumed to be real.
5. Space takes on the color of precious things — space appears jeweled and luminous, treated as a realm actually reached.
6. He can see things in the dark — vision in total darkness, taken as a faculty permanently opened.
7. His body becomes like grass or wood — the body goes insensible to pain, fire, or a blade, taken as having transcended the body.
8. He can see everywhere without obstruction — walls and distance stop blocking sight, taken as omniscience.
9. He sees and hears distant things — remote perception, taken as clairvoyance.
10. False visions and false words — visions arrive with speech and doctrine attached, taken as revelation.
11. Suppression of the self leads to sadness — overwhelming grief and self-reproach, read as compassion or purification.
12. He praises himself as being equal to the Buddhas — a surge of energy and certainty, read as parity with the enlightened.
13. Samadhi out of balance brings much reverie — sinking into dry absorption and daydream, mistaken for depth.
14. Wisdom out of balance brings much arrogance — clarity outruns stability, conceit follows, and the conceit is read as authority.
15. Passing through danger leads to anxiety — dread and weariness with living, read as an advanced trial on the path.
16. Experiencing ease leads to joy — uncontainable joy and laughter, taken as confirmation.
17. Seeing the sublime and becoming proud — he glimpses something genuinely fine and becomes proud of having seen it.
18. With wisdom comes lightness and ease, which leads to complacency — effortlessness read as completion; practice stops.
19. Becoming attached to emptiness and slandering precepts — emptiness used to deny cause and effect, which licenses misconduct.
20. Becoming attached to existence and indulging in lust — appetite reframed as teaching, compassion, or transmission.
21. Greed for clever skill — wants brilliance; gets fluency, and speaks doctrine he doesn't actually hold.
22. Greedy for adventure — wants extraordinary experience; becomes a restless seeker of states.
23. Greed for union — wants to merge with something greater.
24. Greed to analyze things — wants to understand everything; produces a totalizing framework.
25. Greed for spiritual responses — wants to be answered; signs and responses duly arrive.
26. Greed for peace and quiet — pursues seclusion well past the point of usefulness.
27. Greed to know past lives — claims knowledge of previous lives and dispenses it to others.
28. Greed for spiritual powers — wants displays and transformations, and sometimes gets real ones.
29. Greed for profound emptiness — wants extinction, and takes extinction for the goal.
30. Greed for immortality — wants longevity or deathlessness.
31. Two theories on the absence of cause — sees no beginning within his range of vision and concludes there was none.
32. Four theories regarding pervasive permanence — mistakes mind, the elements, the consciousnesses, or the cessation of thought for something eternal.
33. Four upside-down theories — splits permanence from impermanence: I am permanent and others aren't, or mind is and body isn't.
34. Four theories regarding finiteness — speculates on limits — of time, of what he perceives, of self and others.
35. Eight kinds of sophistry — evasion elevated to doctrine: only "no," only "yes," both, neither.
36. The sixteen ways in which form can exist after death — projects the self forward as persisting with form.
37. Eight ideas about the non-existence of form — projects the self forward as formless.
38. Eight kinds of negation — neither existence nor non-existence after death.
39. Seven theories on the cessation of existence — annihilation, at one level or another, taken as the truth.
40. Five kinds of immediate Nirvana — declares the present state final, whether it's sense pleasure or one of the four dhyānas.
41. Attachment to causes and that which is caused — takes the source of consciousness as the origin of all beings, making himself in effect their creator.
42. Attachment to an ability that is not actually an ability — identifies with a pervading capacity he does not possess.
43. Attachment to a wrong idea of permanence — takes what he has reached to be permanent.
44. Attachment to an awareness that is not actually awareness — mistakes a residue for pure awareness.
45. Attachment to birth that is not actually birth — mistakes an arising for genuine origination.
46. Attachment to a refuge that is not actually a refuge — takes a resting place for the destination.
47. Attachment to an unattainable craving — fixes on something that cannot be had and calls the fixation attainment.
48. Attachment to truth that is not actually truth — takes a partial truth for the whole.
49. Fixed-nature hearers — settles permanently at a real but lesser attainment.
50. Fixed-nature pratyekas — settles at solitary realization and goes no further.

1–10 form skandha · 11–20 feeling · 21–30 thinking · 31–40 formations · 41–50 consciousness

Headings are the text's own, from Yuan Ying's traditional outline. Descriptions are plain-language summaries. Full text free at cttbusa.org, Volume 8."

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Joshe

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Did you read this?

[Joseph Maynor]

Any reason for the highlighted ones lol.  

[Natasha Tori Maru]

5 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Any reason for the highlighted ones lol.  

Subtle touch 😏

[Jodistrict]

So it looks like these are basically 50 traps that happen to an advanced meditator  that his ego uses to keep him from reaching enlightenment by tricking him into believing that he has already obtained it.  The ego hijak (the trap) of  a real accomplishment (the bait).

[James123]

3 hours ago, Joshe said:

https://a.co/d/0cVslcI9

"The Fifty Deviant States

Ten states for each of the five skandhas. Every one carries the same verdict: a temporary state, not sagehood — harmless if not claimed as attainment, ruinous if it is.

1. His body can transcend obstructions — the body feels unobstructed, like open space, and it's taken as a spiritual power.
2. Internally the light pervades and he can extract intestinal worms — he can see and reach inside his own body without injury, and takes it as mastery.
3. His essence and souls alternately separate and unite — he hears the dharma being spoken in empty space and assumes an external teacher is speaking.
4. The state changes and Buddhas appear — the world turns gold, all beings appear as buddhas, Vairochana is seen on a light platform, and it's assumed to be real.
5. Space takes on the color of precious things — space appears jeweled and luminous, treated as a realm actually reached.
6. He can see things in the dark — vision in total darkness, taken as a faculty permanently opened.
7. His body becomes like grass or wood — the body goes insensible to pain, fire, or a blade, taken as having transcended the body.
8. He can see everywhere without obstruction — walls and distance stop blocking sight, taken as omniscience.
9. He sees and hears distant things — remote perception, taken as clairvoyance.
10. False visions and false words — visions arrive with speech and doctrine attached, taken as revelation.
11. Suppression of the self leads to sadness — overwhelming grief and self-reproach, read as compassion or purification.
12. He praises himself as being equal to the Buddhas — a surge of energy and certainty, read as parity with the enlightened.
13. Samadhi out of balance brings much reverie — sinking into dry absorption and daydream, mistaken for depth.
14. Wisdom out of balance brings much arrogance — clarity outruns stability, conceit follows, and the conceit is read as authority.
15. Passing through danger leads to anxiety — dread and weariness with living, read as an advanced trial on the path.
16. Experiencing ease leads to joy — uncontainable joy and laughter, taken as confirmation.
17. Seeing the sublime and becoming proud — he glimpses something genuinely fine and becomes proud of having seen it.
18. With wisdom comes lightness and ease, which leads to complacency — effortlessness read as completion; practice stops.
19. Becoming attached to emptiness and slandering precepts — emptiness used to deny cause and effect, which licenses misconduct.
20. Becoming attached to existence and indulging in lust — appetite reframed as teaching, compassion, or transmission.
21. Greed for clever skill — wants brilliance; gets fluency, and speaks doctrine he doesn't actually hold.
22. Greedy for adventure — wants extraordinary experience; becomes a restless seeker of states.
23. Greed for union — wants to merge with something greater.
24. Greed to analyze things — wants to understand everything; produces a totalizing framework.
25. Greed for spiritual responses — wants to be answered; signs and responses duly arrive.
26. Greed for peace and quiet — pursues seclusion well past the point of usefulness.
27. Greed to know past lives — claims knowledge of previous lives and dispenses it to others.
28. Greed for spiritual powers — wants displays and transformations, and sometimes gets real ones.
29. Greed for profound emptiness — wants extinction, and takes extinction for the goal.
30. Greed for immortality — wants longevity or deathlessness.
31. Two theories on the absence of cause — sees no beginning within his range of vision and concludes there was none.
32. Four theories regarding pervasive permanence — mistakes mind, the elements, the consciousnesses, or the cessation of thought for something eternal.
33. Four upside-down theories — splits permanence from impermanence: I am permanent and others aren't, or mind is and body isn't.
34. Four theories regarding finiteness — speculates on limits — of time, of what he perceives, of self and others.
35. Eight kinds of sophistry — evasion elevated to doctrine: only "no," only "yes," both, neither.
36. The sixteen ways in which form can exist after death — projects the self forward as persisting with form.
37. Eight ideas about the non-existence of form — projects the self forward as formless.
38. Eight kinds of negation — neither existence nor non-existence after death.
39. Seven theories on the cessation of existence — annihilation, at one level or another, taken as the truth.
40. Five kinds of immediate Nirvana — declares the present state final, whether it's sense pleasure or one of the four dhyānas.
41. Attachment to causes and that which is caused — takes the source of consciousness as the origin of all beings, making himself in effect their creator.
42. Attachment to an ability that is not actually an ability — identifies with a pervading capacity he does not possess.
43. Attachment to a wrong idea of permanence — takes what he has reached to be permanent.
44. Attachment to an awareness that is not actually awareness — mistakes a residue for pure awareness.
45. Attachment to birth that is not actually birth — mistakes an arising for genuine origination.
46. Attachment to a refuge that is not actually a refuge — takes a resting place for the destination.
47. Attachment to an unattainable craving — fixes on something that cannot be had and calls the fixation attainment.
48. Attachment to truth that is not actually truth — takes a partial truth for the whole.
49. Fixed-nature hearers — settles permanently at a real but lesser attainment.
50. Fixed-nature pratyekas — settles at solitary realization and goes no further.

1–10 form skandha · 11–20 feeling · 21–30 thinking · 31–40 formations · 41–50 consciousness

Headings are the text's own, from Yuan Ying's traditional outline. Descriptions are plain-language summaries. Full text free at cttbusa.org, Volume 8."

 

 

This is very true.

İn short, be witness of every thoughts, feelings, experiences, till witness dissolves.

Even when being witness, there is no expectations whatsoever. 

Then witness dies.

3 hours ago, Joshe said:

Greedy for adventure — wants extraordinary experience; becomes a restless seeker of states.

😂 %99 of the people in forum 😂. Let's take psychedelics, contemplate and get enlightened 😂 Fucking ego boost 😂 

[Leo Gura]

The biggest spiritual trap of all: Buddhism

Edited 14 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Mellowmarsh]

1 hour ago, James123 said:

😂 %99 of the people in forum 😂. Let's take psychedelics, contemplate and get enlightened 😂 Fucking ego boost 😂 

Oh let them have their beliefs 😂 

[James123]

3 hours ago, Mellowmarsh said:

Oh let them have their beliefs 😂 

Of course. 

Whatever you think or experience about you as assumption, real You never changes. 

So, not now but many of will see when death comes. 

Enlightenment either happens while alive, or when physical death comes. 

[Joshe]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The biggest spiritual trap of all: Buddhism

lol. We’re extracting nuggets here.

It’s interesting that 5th century “masters” mapped out the most common failure modes of advanced enlightenment seekers. 

It’s clear these failure modes aren’t confined to Buddhism. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Joshe

[Joshe]

8 hours ago, Jodistrict said:

So it looks like these are basically 50 traps that happen to an advanced meditator  that his ego uses to keep him from reaching enlightenment by tricking him into believing that he has already obtained it.  The ego hijak (the trap) of  a real accomplishment (the bait).

Yes, thank you, I should have made that clear. 

[Joshe]

8 hours ago, James123 said:

😂 %99 of the people in forum 😂. Let's take psychedelics, contemplate and get enlightened 😂 Fucking ego boost 😂 

😂😂

[Hojo]

Once you reach a level you realize that life if a gaslighting machine for the ego.

All of these are gaslighting mechanisms for the go.

You will constantly be reading things trying to find something to defend yourself against and by going through this list you are trying to defend yourself.

If you have any so what.

Everyday will be new things that challenge the ego to defend.

Edited 5 hours ago by Hojo

[Breakingthewall]

13 hours ago, Joshe said:

• He can see things in the dark — vision in total darkness, taken as a faculty permanently opened.
• His body becomes like grass or wood — the body goes insensible to pain, fire, or a blade, taken as having transcended the body.
• He can see everywhere without obstruction — walls and distance stop blocking sight, taken as omniscience.
• He sees and hears distant things — remote perception, taken as clairvoyance

Yes those are the typical traps. Seeing in the dark is useful but this isn't enlightenment, same that remote vision. Nice anyway. 

[Jodistrict]

9 hours ago, James123 said:

😂 %99 of the people in forum 😂. Let's take psychedelics, contemplate and get enlightened 😂 Fucking ego boost 😂 

Psychedelics violate the Fifth Buddhist Precept.  They distort clarity and cause heedlessness. When the drug wears off, the state vanishes, leaving the user with an addiction to the experience, severe spiritual pride, or deep existential depression.

[Eskilon]

11 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Any reason for the highlighted ones lol.  

It's a way of saying this forum and even Leo might be trapped on them -- especially the red one lol

Edited 4 hours ago by Eskilon

[Joseph Maynor]

These ones from the list are pretty insightful:

• Attachment to an ability that is not actually an ability — identifies with a pervading capacity he does not possess.
• Attachment to a wrong idea of permanence — takes what he has reached to be permanent.
• Attachment to an awareness that is not actually awareness — mistakes a residue for pure awareness.
• Attachment to birth that is not actually birth — mistakes an arising for genuine origination.
• Attachment to a refuge that is not actually a refuge — takes a resting place for the destination.
• Attachment to an unattainable craving — fixes on something that cannot be had and calls the fixation attainment.
• Attachment to truth that is not actually truth — takes a partial truth for the whole.
• Fixed-nature hearers — settles permanently at a real but lesser attainment.
• Fixed-nature pratyekas — settles at solitary realization and goes no further.

[James123]

2 hours ago, Eskilon said:

It's a way of saying this forum and even Leo might be trapped on them -- especially the red one lol

İt is not @Leo Gura's fault either. Because, he doesn't even know what Enlightenment or Truth is or wtf he is talking about. 

Psychedelics or contemplating nice experiences, yet enlightenment is even transcending the experience, because it is death for experiencer, even experiencer is God or infinite or love.

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Joshe said:

lol. We’re extracting nuggets here.

It’s interesting that 5th century “masters” mapped out the most common failure modes of advanced enlightenment seekers. 

It’s clear these failure modes aren’t confined to Buddhism. 

It's a good post.

Just teasing.

[Breakingthewall]

Enlightenment is the openess to what reality is, not a realization about what reality is. You don't need to die or appear like so special and mystic.

From a logical perspective, it's extremely simple: What reality is is the fact of being. But being totally open to it is not so simple because the system that a human is is programmed by evolution to close. 

 the fact of being is not an entity, it has no form or limits, it's not exactly infinite, it's unlimited, if we want to express proper concepts . But it's everything, if you are open to it, nothing else is lack. But you can't be totally open to it always, and who wants that? We are humans, then let's play deep. Enlightenment is essential to play as deep as being human deserves.