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Basic Buddhist Teachings 26 - The Warrior
Breathing in, we recognize the presence of our ancestors, mother, father, and spiritual community within ourselves; breathing out, we embrace them with mindfulness. Next is the introduction of the mental formation non-delusion (vô si)—one of the seven precious wholesome mental formations, which means the absence of confusion and the presence of wisdom, right view, and insight. Among the wholesome mental formations, there are:
- Faith (tín)
- Moral shame (tàm)
- Moral dread (quý)
- Diligence, energy (cần)
- No craving (vô tham)
- No ill will (vô sân)
- Non-delusion (vô si)
Delusion (si) is the deep root that gives rise to suffering, craving, aversion, and ignorance; contemplating to uproot delusion, to pull it out completely, brings peace. The energy of mindfulness is concentrated, focused like a great force, shining on the mass of ignorance, breaking it apart, illuminating with transcendent insight (Prajñāpāramitā). A vivid example is the image of Venerable Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation—a ray of compassion exploding the block of collective ignorance, opening up brotherhood. The practice of Vipassanā (insight meditation) contemplates impermanence, non-self, interdependent co-arising… on all phenomena, in every moment, to directly experience the true nature of reality and shatter each seed of delusion.
All wrong perceptions arise from delusion: mistaken perceptions about both the object and the subject. Mindfulness coupled with looking deeply helps us examine, “Are you sure?”, to listen to our true nature, and to transform wrong perceptions into right view. We need to understand the spirit of afflictions are none other than enlightenment (phiền não tức bồ đề), turning around in the dust to unite with awakening (bối trần hiệp giác)—not running away from suffering but looking deeply into it to realize our intrinsic purity right in the midst of afflictions, taking small steps toward non-delusion and true happiness.