I admit that I've expressed hostility towards Hippy, in this topic, who has blatantly used ad homs against me and so not undeserving, but I've quickly reviewed and can't say that I've expressed or felt hostility towards you. Impatience perhaps, but not hostility. And I did not mean to suggest any nefarious ulterior motives on your part, only an inclination to support a meaningful belief system. — praxis
Very well. Yes, I do have an inclination to support the teachings and try to share them, but you make a good point that I should be supportive of my own practice as well (indeed it can be quite challenging). I'd be happy to keep discussing with you, however I'm weary of what's been happening thus far (even though I was content to play with it a little).
That said, I do remain somewhat wary of going to war with what was installed in my DNA before I was born. I do see the downsides of being a nerd. But I also see that there are pros and cons to any kind of mind I might have been born in to. I'm wary of getting drawn in to a notion that there is some kind of perfection out there somewhere that I should be chasing. — Hippyhead
The perfection is not "out there", that's the thing. Even though we get our ideals and guidance from "out there", it's all "in here". Suffering is here; the "nerd" is here, the mentalities and habits and attitudes are "here"; the "virtue" is here and, over all, the "karma" is here.
The middle way is, simply put, the middle way between happiness and suffering, or indulgence in pleasure and pain. It's often treated as the middle way between severe asceticism and sensual indulgence, but it's not so black and white. Monks, even during the Buddha's time, were praised for their extreme austerities, as long as it bore good fruit in their practice (e.g. Maha Kassapa). And there are a number of indications that it's quite wholesome and "pure" to enjoy the pleasures of nature.
The important thing comes down to the mind, particularly where one seeks happiness. At the time people thought indulgence in sensuality was the best way to be happy; others thought that they needed to torture themselves to realize nirvana by exhausting their bad karma. The Buddha's position was, based on his own realization, that no - one simply needs to abandon the cause of suffering, which sometimes entails austere practice but also entails the enjoyment of pleasure, be it the fruits of one's virtue or the more refined pleasures of meditative absorption. So actually, perhaps it might not be wrong to say that the middle way is a path which is not devoid of pleasure of pain, but rather approaches them from a different vantage point and with a different purpose of mind.
And so, this "nerd" business is indeed a form of pleasure, though there is pain involved, inevitably (e.g. in the sense that from birth comes aging, illness, death). You say there's pros and cons, the Buddha says yes: and therefore it's unsatisfactory, and one ought to abandon that for something more refined, to the point where "happiness" and "suffering" are
both transcended (Ajahn Chah said that happiness was the tail of the snake, suffering its head). If I'm not wrong, it seems that you already have a sense that some pleasures are a bit more refined, such as when you're out in nature. "Being okay with it" is a form of contentment, which is also a form of refined pleasure. This, to my understanding, seems pretty much along the lines of dhamma practice, however in Buddhism, if one really wants to be free, one has to push the envelope just a little bit and say "this is pleasant, but it's not quite there yet. There's still some underlying dis-ease here. My mind isn't free from unskillful attitudes. There's more to be done." This is the kind of discontent which, perhaps like dispassion and a sense of urgency from recollecting one's inevitable death (and uncertain future), incites us to go deeper. Edit: And I must say that truthfulness and honesty are of great importance here.
1) To what degree does human suffering arise from faulty thought content, bad ideas, incorrect understandings etc?
2) To what degree does such suffering arise from the medium of thought itself? — Hippyhead
Having faulty thought content can cause suffering by putting us into conflict with the world or even ourselves. This is, to my understanding, because the processes of our thought-forming are informed by our lack of understanding. Not only that, we attach ourselves (through craving) to these thoughts, and so they keep going. As a result, holding to wrong thinking causes us suffering on different levels.
But thoughts are not easy to tame. Even though thoughts are karma, it's as if we don't intend to think them and they keep coming up. They come up, partly, due to inappropriate attention, which includes the manner in which we assume a "self". It doesn't matter what kind of self it is - the "self" as an internal essence or "soul", the "body as self", the self as "the universe", or even the self as non-existent. Any self-view is a wrong-view, and it comes from wrong-attention. Similarly, sensual desires and ill-will come from inappropriate attention as well. Our thoughts and intentions are quite connected to the way we attend to "experience". Thus the Buddha (in MN 2) advocates for "appropriate attention" or "right view" which means attending to things in terms of the four noble truths: "this is suffering, this is the cause of suffering...". This is the framework which allows us to see everything as something capable of transcending, even total "oneness" (which seems to be the interest of Romantic philosophers and some popular secular Buddhist teachers).
Given that we don't currently have a realization into the four noble truths, we can't say with 100% certainty that our current attention is truly "correct"; it's said the only person who has truly correct attention, or at least practice, is a stream-enterer. Until then, we're really taking the framework of the noble truths to the best of our ability, paying attention to the results and seeking guidance, finding what works and what doesn't.
I would hesitate to say that we need to drop thinking and just "know" (this can be impractical if not self-oppressive or delusional). Also I would hesitate to say that we need to examine all the contents of our thoughts (because thoughts will often just keep coming and complicating themselves). Simply put, we need to learn how to think skillfully. And for this it also helps to
live skillfully, which is why virtue is quite fundamental and the precepts are by no means "beginner stuff". They're the foundation, because just as our attention informs our thinking, so does our behavior. Thus monastics have lots of rules and their way of living is peaceful, simple, and not so entangled into modern society.
But any way, in the context of meditation as I have learned it, one first has to take stock of their mind; going straight to the breath is not so easy (although Goenka retreats advocate this, and not without good reason). If thoughts are just coming, one should actually just go straight to the breath and try to settle. If the mind is kind of dull and lazy or sleepy, one should actually
use thinking to uplift the mind, make it resolute, and then settle it (see SN 46.51). Sometimes it's necessary to look at the content of the thoughts to see in what way it's feeding restless activity, doubt, depression, etc, and then sometimes it's necessary to use thoughts to kind of give the mind the strength to cut through thinking processes - especially after one has understood that those processes are not helpful for one's well-being. Thus, although observing is important (and clarity of vision is desired), thinking is important too. Edit: But also, here is where thinking becomes a mix of verbal and non-verbal; we may use verbal thinking ("Buddho" on the in and out breath) to maintain focus, and we may also engage with the breath to make it more pleasant (modifying our breath by relaxing it, lengthening or shortening it, etc). So there's engagement on different levels according to the mind's needs, and this is developed fundamentally through practice; teachers can't give us all the answers.
So, when I learned from my own teacher and I was asking him all those technical questions, he had a good reason for telling me to "stop asking questions" and just focus on my breath. It was a good way to cut through the crap. :]
And really, it mostly comes down to suffering and not suffering, or you can say happiness and unhappiness. If we're suffering, there's no need to start analyzing it philosophically, or trying to understand right away which form of "inappropriate attention" one is engaged in, or trying to see which chain link of dependent origination went wrong. As I was taught, if going back to the breath isn't helpful, one can just remember: "this is suffering." For me, that's a really good way to get one back to the fundamental point, which is to be free and be at ease. That's a good way to establish a good intention for practice, and a good way to give the mind a reason to let go and relax a little... then get down to business.
It's for this reason that, to some extent, I think "authority" isn't of supreme importance. That said, I respect authority enough to give credit to the Buddha when he said, as per the Dhammapada, that oneself is one's refuge. And indeed, when Thai Forest teachers talk about "taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha," they often point out that these are most importantly
internal. I find it helpful to remember to recollect the "external" Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, but the internal ones need to be remembered as well: one's own "knower", the "truth" of one's present state, and one's virtue and proper methods for practice.
Edit: made some edits above. Also, since you mentioned emptiness, it might be good to look at Bhikkhu Analayo's book on Compassion and Emptiness, if not the cula-sunnata sutta itself. It makes an interesting point that emptiness is not necessarily treated as a metaphysical trait as it is a recgonition of absence: not just of self or ultimate existence, but also of stress. In the sutta, each progressive state of meditation is "empty" of a particular "disturbance," namely the disturbance of the previous state of concentration. As far as I know, it's useful to see stressful "self" oriented thinking along these lines, and pay attention to where it's present and where it can be abandoned so one may enjoy its absence. Similarly with even "pleasant" ways of "self" thinking.