tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-336395052024-03-07T14:52:36.175+08:00Awakening the Buddha in usColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.comBlogger315125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-80967602697604848972010-12-17T22:38:00.001+08:002010-12-17T22:40:24.500+08:00Four Ways of Letting Go<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/USC5MJVZLy8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/USC5MJVZLy8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-82075471371136365772010-11-05T22:07:00.003+08:002010-11-05T22:24:06.491+08:00Living Buddhist mastersBy Jack Kornfield<br /><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=8InEkEp5FtEC&lpg=PR5&dq=rinpoche&pg=PR7&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-56661260623485197312010-11-05T22:04:00.002+08:002010-11-05T22:06:19.499+08:00Tibetan medicine: illustrated in original textsBy Rechung Rinpoche, Ven R. Rechung<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=GLSm9Rwa474C&lpg=PP1&dq=rinpoche&pg=PP9&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-25782560579062326982010-11-05T21:40:00.004+08:002010-11-05T22:06:41.608+08:00The complete book of Buddha's lists - explainedBy David N. Snyder<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=69dNpJa-VzkC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA11&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-58065711879558234962010-10-24T21:14:00.003+08:002010-10-24T21:19:45.457+08:00The process of cognition ~ Thich Nhat Hanh<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S2pPyGhaCFA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S2pPyGhaCFA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/W8uGEO0U1jE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/W8uGEO0U1jE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NwEGdlPbtNk?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NwEGdlPbtNk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uljiyWrGwqg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uljiyWrGwqg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yBeFoEmbv-I?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yBeFoEmbv-I?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DizzemaqnnY?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DizzemaqnnY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Thich Nhat Hanh" target="_blank" rel="tag">Thich Nhat Hanh</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-50611594521010718402010-10-18T09:32:00.001+08:002010-10-18T09:34:32.578+08:00End of Suffering - Thich Nhat Hanh<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NMab_lYY5lE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NMab_lYY5lE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> <br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a><br /> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-20689672191375475092010-10-04T00:54:00.002+08:002010-10-04T00:55:41.139+08:00Ego - Thich Nhat Hanh<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FoVuPTqj7gk?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FoVuPTqj7gk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /> <br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-66975529758801127632010-10-01T01:59:00.004+08:002010-10-04T00:56:17.195+08:00Warm Embrace - The Great Bell Chant<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6518109&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6518109&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/6518109" target="_blank">A Warm Embrace - The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/renss" target="_blank">R Smittenaar</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com" target="_blank">Vimeo</a>.</p>Read by Thich Nhat Hanh, chanted by brother Phap Niem <br /><br />* For smooth playback, let the video first load in its entirety by letting the bar fill up with grey. Press play, wait until you see the bar filling up and press pause. When the entire bar is grey, you can play the video.<br /><br />If you want this chant to play repetitively, right click the video itself and click on 'video loop is off' and switch it to 'on'.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-27967008104445312052010-10-01T01:07:00.003+08:002010-10-04T00:56:47.491+08:00The Six Fondnesses<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://gentlevoice.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/RinpocheBangalow.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 340px; height: 278px;" src="http://gentlevoice.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/RinpocheBangalow.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Bangalow 2010 Photo by Bridget Gebbie<br /><br />DJKR Teachings<br /><br />A Teaching from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in Australia.<br /><br />As many of you will have experienced over the years Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has a particular style of teaching. Very generous and inclusive.<br /><br />During the Uttaratantra Shastra teaching at Bangalow, in Australia this year, there was a particular section in these teachings that caught the mind of many of us as being a most delightful and relatable explanation of the six Paramitas. I have only lightly edited this passage so those of you who have not heard Rinpoche directly can appreciate the humour and deep affection as well as the profound wisdom that infuses Rinpoche’s style of Teaching.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">THE SIX FONDNESSES</span><br /><br />“ For the path dweller to be virtuous and to accumulate virtuous deeds is so important. To think virtuously is very important. However good deeds have so many obstacles. These obstacles can be categorised into the six fondnesses.”<br />“What are they – it is quite interesting – they are the six different kinds of love.”<br />Rinpoche invites a definition. “What is love by the way?” (Audience laughter)<br /><br />Audience responds with some words.<br /><br />“Tenderness, yes tenderness. That is good. Tenderness I think I like. A soft spot. A Fondness.”<br /><br />1. “ There is a certain type of rat that is always collecting things – a pack rat. This kind of attitude, a tenderness towards, a fondness for collecting attacks generosity, the first paramita.”<br /><br />2. “ The next is a tenderness, a fondness towards not staying out of trouble. A very good one, this, I thought. A fondness to trouble.”<br /><br />Mischievous? (Audience)<br /><br />“Mischievous is something kind of good. No? Well according to us it is,” ( Rinpoche and audience laughter) “ This fondness of not staying out of trouble becomes the obstacle to discipline.”<br /><br />3. “The fondness to making the point is the obstacle to patience”<br /><br />4. “ Fondness to carelessness is the obstacle to diligence “ Sloppiness. Yes. Sloppiness is good. Messiness. A fondness to Australians. No, No, No I am just…”<br /><br />5. “ A fondness to be dependent, to be co-dependent. We have a fondness for wanting space, for respecting human rights but that’s all talk. Behind our actions we have a fondness to be dictated to, to be controlled by others. Fondness to be dominated by an object “<br />“ A bit like having a girlfriend or a boyfriend. To have someone who can change their mood faster than lightning. That’s terrible,”<br />(Lots of laughter)<br />“Basically we love dependency even though we talk about independence. This is the obstacle to meditation – samadhi. “<br /><br />6. “Now this is a really good one. Fantastic this one. You know how the French – I hope there are no French people here – love smelly cheese. We love disgusting stuff like pig’s nose. There is tenderness, a fondness for liking bad stuff, or for liking cheap stuff, so that is why we need wisdom.”<br /><br />“ These things, these six fondnesses are the mastermind, the planner, the mover, the fixer of non virtuous deeds. They lead to non-virtuous action. They sustain, they enhance, the non-virtuous action. The six paramitas are there because these fondnesses need to be analysed and attacked.”<br /><br />Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche<br /><a href="http://gentlevoice.org/content/category/djkr/">gentlevoice.org</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-20529725449665322992010-09-14T01:00:00.002+08:002010-09-14T01:08:11.465+08:00Now We See Each Other’s Face Clearly ~ A letter from Thich Nhat Hanh<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://buddhistlinks.org/Images/ThichNhatHanh2.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 345px;" src="http://buddhistlinks.org/Images/ThichNhatHanh2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Letter from Thay, March 7, 2010: “Now We See Each Other’s Face Clearly”<br />Fragrant Source Hermitage<br /><br />March 7th, 2010<br /><br />Now We See Each Other’s Face Clearly<br /><br />Letter to my Bat Nha children and others near and far<br /><br />My dear children,<br /><br />The seven-day monastic retreat in Plum Village has ended, but its reverberation and its energy of joy continue. The monastic brothers and sisters from La Maison de L’Inspir’ in Paris and from the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Walbroel have left to return to their home monasteries. In Plum Village, the community is practicing ten lazy days. Some are doing intestinal cleansing, some are fasting, some are on solo retreats, and some are writing or reading books. Thay hopes that wherever my children are, you can also follow the retreat, listen to the Dharma talks, the Question and Answer session, the Dharma sharings, the news, as well as the photos of the retreat. As you already know, the theme of the retreat was “Renewing the Mind of Love.”<br /><br />The Queen Bee<br /><br />Renewing the Mind of Love? Most likely, all of you feel that your Mind of Love is brand new. Last year’s events have helped us to reflect and see that our beginner’s mind is still whole; not only is it unscathed, but it has become even stronger. The beginner’s mind is so valuable; so long as we still have it, we still have everything. And we all still have the beginner’s mind and we all still have each other. We have each other as a Sangha even though we have been separated. Yet because the beginner’s mind is still there in each one of us, we do not have the feeling of being separated. The beginner’s mind is the Queen Bee. Thanks to the Queen Bee, all the bees always have the opportunity to come back to each other, one way or another, under one form or another. Thay is not worried, and Thay does not want you to be worried either. Smile and see that this is an opportunity to grow up.<br /><br />The Flowing Stream<br /><br />In the retreat, the Sangha listened and practiced the Dharma Door “Seeing that we are a flowing stream.” When we touch the earth, we can be aware of the presence in us of our mother and father, of the Buddha, the Patriarchs and our Teachers. Through them, we can touch the two streams of our spiritual and blood ancestors within ourselves. We are liberated from the confining shell of the ego created by ignorance and habit energy. We see that we are the continuation of our ancestors, that we are a flowing stream, not a pond or a lake stagnant in one place. We can also see the presence of our younger brothers and sisters in us as well as the presence of their children in us. We are transmitting ourselves to our younger brothers, sisters, and to the young people whom we are teaching and caring for, whether they are monastic or lay. We see them in us and us in them. We have the opportunity to transmit to them what is most beautiful and healthy in ourselves, bringing us great joy and fulfilment. Each touching of the earth, each breath, each step, and each smile have the value of transmitting and receiving, helping us see that we are a flowing stream. In moments like that, non-self is not a notion, but it is a living reality: we, our ancestors, and our children are unifying into one flowing stream. There is no separation, no regret, and no isolation. And we feel free-flowing, spacious, at ease and healthy.<br /><br />The Cherry Tree<br /><br />This morning while doing walking meditation by the Fragrant Source, Thay realized that we can also practice as a cherry tree, an apple tree, or a grapefruit tree. In Fragrant Source Hermitage, there are no grapefruit trees, but there are apple and cherry trees. And they will blossom in a few weeks. When the community celebrated Tet [Vietnamese lunar New Year], it was still very cold, and there was still a lot of snow. Now the daffodils in the Upper Hamlet have begun to bloom and the magnolia buds at Fragrant<br /><br />Source are getting bigger. The cherry blossoms are white and the apple blossoms are pink. We can practice as a cherry tree or an apple tree. When doing sitting meditation, walking meditation, breathing, working, Dharma sharing, we nourish ourselves as the cherry tree does — receiving sunlight, warmth, rain, air and nutrients from the earth so that it can prepare to make leaves, flowers and fruits – so that we can have the flowers and fruits of mindfulness, understanding and love to transmit to future generations. It is a process of receiving, offering and transmitting. The cherry tree does that, and we also do that — and, like the cherry tree, we enjoy doing it. Looking at the bright apple tree with thousands of pink blossoms preparing for the birth of heavy, round apples, we hear the apple tree’s song. Looking at a spiritual practitioner who is receiving and transmitting the flowers and fruit of his or her practice, we see that a practitioner’s life is also a song.<br /><br />Standing still by the fence,<br />You smile a wondrous blossom.<br />I look at you silently, and I am shocked<br />To hear you just singing.<br />Your song is eternal.<br />I get down on my knees and bow.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />This poem was written by the young poet Quach Thoai, whom Thay met for the first time at Giac Nguyen Temple, Khanh Hoi, in 1949. The poem is entitled The Thuoc Duoc Flower. Thay visualizes his children as flowers smiling by the fence of our motherland, singing the song of Right Dharma. What’s important is that the flower never stops singing.<br /><br /><br />Now We See Each Other’s Face Clearly<br /><br />In June 2008, Thay ended the visit and teaching tour in our homeland by living and practicing with his Bat Nha children for three weeks. During these three weeks, beginning at the end of May, Thay and Thay’s Bat Nha children had the opportunity to live and practice together at Bat Nha Monastery. In content, this was truly a diligent monastic retreat: every morning, there was sitting meditation, a Dharma talk, walking meditation, and a silent meal in the Garuda Wing Meditation Hall. In the afternoon, there was always Dharma sharing or tea meditation. About thirty monastics from the United States and Europe were present with Thay and the Bat Nha Sangha — there were about 450 of us practising together as a spiritual family. We did not call it a retreat, but it was the most diligent, profound retreat, full of love between brothers and sisters, students and teacher.<br /><br />There were signs letting Thay know that this was the last time Thay would live and practice with his children at Bat Nha. So Thay lived wholeheartedly with Bat Nha and with the Sangha at Bat Nha. Thay thought that perhaps within only a very short time, the sangha would have to leave Bat Nha. But in fact, they were not able to expel us until fourteen months later. During each walking meditation session at Bat Nha, Thay was attentive to every rock, every jackfruit tree, every shrub, knowing that this would be the last time Thay would see them. Thay smiled with every and any thing he saw and was in touch with. Thay felt regret. Not for himself, but for the Venerable Abbot Duc Nghi and for the trees and forests and mountains there, because they would no longer have the fortune to be the home for such a Sangha as the Bat Nha Sangha. Brother Phap Kham reported that the day Thay Duc Nghi refused to sponsor his visa renewal, Thay Duc Nghi lay on his bed facing the wall without saying anything. It was one of the signs letting Thay know we would not be able to continue at Bat Nha. Thay already knew that Bat Nha would become a legend.<br /><br />Bat Nha Is In our Hearts<br /><br />During the time the Bat Nha monks and nuns took refuge at Phuoc Hue Temple in Bao Loc, the Bat Nha novices were still able to publish an edition of their novice magazine Moon on the Front Porch, with the title “Refuge Seeking Season”(Mua Loan Lac). One of the articles talked about two young monastics who missed Bat Nha so much that they secretly went back to visit Bat Nha without the permission of the Sangha. They were local people, so it was not difficult for them to get back there. But as soon as they arrived they felt lost and sad. It was the same place, but so lifeless, vacant and dilapidated! It was just like the moment in the epic poem‘‘Story of Kieu,’’ when the young man Kim Trong returned to visit the house of his beloved Thuy Kieu, after attending his uncle’s funeral. Kieu had already sold herself, and had been taken to foreign lands. Her parents and two siblings had moved to another place, sowing and writing to earn a living.<br /><br />Hurriedly, he went to Kieu’s garden looking around.<br />The place was entirely different:<br />The garden overgrown with grass,<br />Cold moonlight on the window sill,<br />Walls fallen apart from the rain -<br />No one to be seen anywhere.<br />Last year’s Cherry blossoms were still smiling in the East wind.<br />Birds circled the vacant upper floor,<br />Weeds spread on the ground,<br />moss covered the foot prints.<br />Thorny shrubs crawled over the end wall.<br />Returning here to this trail of yester-year,<br />Everything was now vacant and silent.<br /><br />With this turmoil in my heart, who can I turn to now?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The young sisters met Brother Dong Hanh that day. He was busy harvesting tea and coffee. The young sisters realized that Brother Dong Hanh was not their Brother Dong Hanh of the other years, just as the monastic living quarters Warm Hearth, Cloud Over Mountain, and Fragrant Palm Leaves were no longer the monastic living quarters of last year. The Buddha sat alone in the Garuda Wing Meditation Hall, in which there was nothing left, not even the mats and cushions, nor the fish drum, the bell or the incense. The Buddha altar was not even there. Bat Nha was no longer Bat Nha. The soul of Bat Nha, the Bat Nha Sangha, had left the corpse Bat Nha. Bat Nha now is only a corpse without soul. The young sisters felt regret. They returned to look for Bat Nha, but they could not find Bat Nha, even though Bat Nha was standing right there in front of them. It would have been better not to return. It turns out that Bat Nha is not outside of us, but in our hearts.<br /><br />Regret and Yearning<br /><br /><br />One Bat Nha young monastic came to ask for Thay’s advice about the practice of Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment, saying that her regret and yearning for Bat Nha were still so deep that she could not truly benefit from the joy available in the present moment. Thay looked at her with a lot of compassion and said: You are someone very fortunate because you have something to regret and long for. There are those much more unfortunate than you who have nothing to regret and long for — they only have suffering, attachment and hatred.<br /><br />While taking refuge at Phuoc Hue Temple, my Bat Nha children practiced wholeheartedly in order to fully live your days there. You followed the schedule diligently, even though you knew the situation was uncertain, and that you could be forced out of Phuoc Hue any day just as you had been from Bat Nha. Instead of doing sitting meditation twice a day, you sat four times. The abbot of Phuoc Hue Temple, realizing the value of your practice, loved you and protected you with his whole heart. Because you had come to take refuge in his temple, he had the opportunity to know who you were, far more accurately than the unclear notions he had about you before. That is what ‘understanding is love‘ means,. It is the greatest fortune to have a chance to understand and to love. And if we want to understand, we have to release our preconceived notions and our grasping. We’re human, we have the right to regret and to long for something, but we can go further. We can ask ourselves: I miss such and such because it is no longer there, but while it was still around, did I live wholeheartedly with it ? For most of us, our shortcoming is not cherishing and living wholeheartedly with what we already have, whether it be a person, a place or an opportunity. When impermanence arrives, we regret what has gone. But it is too late: that person is already gone or dead; that place no longer is. Thay does not have any regrets about Bat Nha because during the three weeks living with you at Bat Nha, Thay lived wholeheartedly. Thay contemplated every flower, every bamboo grove, and asked: Are we seeing each other’s face clearly? Because of this, Thay does not have regret. Regretting is wishing things had gone differently — that’s all. If you had lived wholeheartedly with Bat Nha as Thay did, you would not regret and yearn for Bat Nha to the point that you are unable to live happily and peacefully in the present moment. In our practice, we should ask ourselves that question: Did we live wholeheartedly with Bat Nha during the moments Bat Nha was manifesting? We will gain many insights when we ask ourselves that question.<br /><br />This path of Yester-year<br /><br /><br />The next question is: The place where we are living now, is it a kind of Bat Nha? Where are you sitting? In the South, North or Centre of Vietnam, in Deer Park, Blue Cliff, France, Germany, the United States, Thailand, Hong Kong or India? Perhaps you are sitting in a Bat Nha with brothers and sisters, with your beloved. If in this moment you are not living truly and wholeheartedly, if you are not cherishing what you are having, then you know that later, you will regret this moment, this place and the people who are present with you right now. You will regret this moment, because this moment will become a legend.<br /><br />‘‘Returning here to this path of yesteryear.’’ If we walk this path with our brothers and sisters, and with Thay, and enjoy it fully, we won’t have any regrets. Tomorrow, even if we come back to this path, it will not be the same path anymore. Our brothers, sisters and Thay will not be there. Even we will not be there, even as we walk it again. We will be unable to recognize the path — it will have already passed into legend. It will be just a corpse without a soul.<br /><br />If in reading these words, you are startled and you wake up, then you will see that Bat Nha is still there, that it has not become a legend, and that it is still alive in you. You are carrying Bat Nha in your hearts and the place where you are sitting, standing, and looking deeply in the present moment is also Bat Nha. Whether the place you are sitting is in the Center or the North, the United States, France, Germany, Thailand, and so on, our Bat Nha is very beautiful, my dear children, and no one can take it away from us, no power is strong enough to do it.<br /><br />If you can wake up, your present place of residence will immediately become a Bat Nha, even if next to you there may only be three brothers or sisters. The Buddha taught that a Sangha must have at least four people. You have learned how to build the Sangha, so you will certainly be able to build a Sangha that has the practice, learning, joy, aspiration, and brotherhood and sisterhood. When Thay left our homeland in 1966, Thay went alone. Going alone is very dangerous. If we are separated from the Sangha, we will dry up like a bee that cannot find its way back to the beehive. We will die like a cell being taken out of the body. However, Thay did not dry up, and Thay did not die. It was because Thay carried the Sangha in his heart. Thay left to call for international awareness to help end the war in Vietnam. Because of that, Thay was forced in exile, and he was not allowed to return home. Suddenly, Thay was separated from all of his friends, his work and his community. When Thay realized he had fallen into that situation, Thay immediately found a way to build a Sangha. Thay looked around to recognize the elements which he could use to build a Sangha. In the end, Thay was able to establish a Sangha, and that Sangha is now present in over 45 countries.<br /><br />You are Thay’s continuation. Thay trusts that you will be able to build Sangha everywhere by one way or another, with one name or another, as long as it is a true Sangha, with mindfulness, with brotherhood and sisterhood, and with the aspiration to help living beings. Thay trusts in the young people, and this is one of the elements that brings Thay great happiness. In a true Sangha, the Dharma will be present, the Buddha will be present and Thay will also be present.<br /><br />The Paradise of Brotherhood and Sisterhood<br /><br />During this last monastic retreat at Upper Hamlet, most of our activities took place in the Still Water Meditation Hall. This meditation hall, in its form as well as in its content, contains so much brotherhood and sisterhood. At our last meal together one brother from the Upper Hamlet said, ‘‘Respected Thay, instead of calling this meditation hall Still Water Meditation Hall, we should call it Still Water Paradise.’’ [In Vietnamese, the words ‘meditation hall’ (Thiền đường) and ‘paradise’ (Thiên đường) only differ from each other by one diacritical mark over the letter ‘e’]. He’s right! This is a paradise of brotherhood and sisterhood. If we really want it, paradise can be available to us right in the present moment. Paradise is now or never. Here is the Pure Land. The Pure Land is here.<br /><br />Bat Nha was also a paradise, because we lived there happily together as teacher and students. The Garuda Wing Meditation Hall could also be called the ‘‘Garuda Wing Paradise” because there we also enjoyed happy moments full of brotherhood and sisterhood. Many of us have written to Thay to share that it was in the Bat Nha environment that you were able to live with your true selves for the first time. We did not have to hide our thoughts or feelings anymore. We could speak truthfully and directly with our brothers and sisters. They had the capacity to listen and understand us, and we were not afraid to be judged as dissidents [literally, ‘‘losing our ground’’] or as reactionaries [or 'diversionists' - literally, ‘‘having ideas contrary to the set path’’]. We were accepted. Out there in society, in school, at work and even in our own family, we could not live true to ourselves. Yet at Bat Nha we could feel at ease.<br /><br />The second condition for our happiness at Bat Nha was the healthy environment. There was no alcohol, no drugs, gambling or sexual misconduct, no corruption, power abuse, hatred or jealousy, nor toxic entertainments and games. Yet we didn’t feel we were missing out on anything. On the contrary, we felt very safe and nourished. The Bat Nha environment was the healthiest environment we’d ever encountered, and living in such an environment we were no longer afraid or worried.<br /><br />The third condition for our happiness at Bat Nha was the brotherhood and sisterhood. That’s right – brotherhood and sisterhood! Many of us hungered for brotherhood and sisterhood before we found Bat Nha. It was the brotherhood and sisterhood that was the most attractive thing at Bat Nha. Once we’ve found it, how can we walk away from it? Who does not need love to survive, to be loved and to love? Brotherhood and sisterhood is healthier and more lasting than all other kinds of love.<br /><br />But that’s not all. Coming to Bat Nha, we discovered the ideal path young people are searching for. We found practices that had the capacity to transform and heal. We had the chance to help others who came to us to practice transformation and healing, including so many young people. It was at Bat Nha that we witnessed many relationships — between fathers and children, between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters – in which, thanks to the practice, people were able to re-establish communication and reclaim their happiness. Some retreats would have over a thousand people. We saw happiness on everyone’s faces when they practiced successfully. We had a beautiful path — the beautiful path that is our life’s deepest aspiration. We had an opportunity to serve, and our lives began to have meaning and purpose.<br /><br />Bat Nha provided us all these conditions of happiness. That is why Bat Nha was our paradise. We saw, heard, felt and lived with the Bat Nha paradise. Bat Nha is truly in us, not outside of us. If Bat Nha is inside us, then wherever we go, we have Bat Nha. Wherever we go, we can establish Bat Nha. Thay was able to do that, and Thay has the confidence that all of you will be able to do that. Fragrant Palm Leaves as well as Bat Nha are in our hearts, because we have seen, heard, felt and lived with them.<br /><br />Your Suffering is My Suffering (Máu Chảy Ruột Mềm)<br /><br />While being expelled, betrayed and threatened, those of us who knew how to breathe and come back to Bat Nha within ourselves still had peace. Many young monks and nuns were able to do that at Phuoc Hue and other temples such as Tu Duc, Dinh Quan, Dieu Nghiem. Thay recalls the years of 1969 and 1977, and the times when Thay was persecuted, harassed and forced out, exactly as Thay’s Bat Nha children were persecuted, harassed and forced out from Bat Nha and Phuoc Hue. For example, at the end of 1971, while Thay was still in Washington D.C. to call for peace, Thay was told by a journalist of The Baltimore Sun that the Vietnamese government [on the American government side] had just sent an official document to the governments of the United States, France and England to inform them that they had annuled Thay’s passport and to request these countries to not accept it anymore. Thay’s intention was to travel around the world to call for a ceasefire and going towards reconciliation and peace. The journalist suggested Thay go underground and hide himself to avoid deportation and imprisonment for daring to call for peace. Back then, Thay had a friend who was also working for peace like Thay; he had been imprisoned, and he also had to go on hiding at different times. That was Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit, who was also a famous writer and poet. Together with his friends, he engaged in non-violent resistance actions such as encouraging others to burn their draft cards, going to places where atomic boms were produced or stored and using red paint as fake blood to pour over those fatal weapons, and so on. They were acting according to the Bible’s teaching: Take the sword and make it into a plough. Father Berrigan went to France to visit, stay and practice three months with Thay at the office of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation in Paris (Sceaux) and in Fragrant Cloud Hermitage (Fontvannes). He also went back several times after that. In Paris, Thay gave him Thay’s room, and Thay slept next door. He had a chance to read the Lotus Sutra in English on Thay’s bookshelf.<br /><br />Thay did not listen to the journalist of The Baltimore Sun. Thay did not want to stay in the United States and seek asylum there because the United States was involved in the war in Vietnam. Thay decided to go to France to ask for political asylum. To avoid deportation at Paris, Thay telephoned his friends in Paris, so that they organized to meet with Thay and to have a press conference at the airport. If necessary, we would request for asylum right at the airport. At that time, Sister Chan Khong was giving talks and calling for peace in Costa Rica, Central America. She was also asked to return to Paris to prepare for the press conference. Fortunately for Thay, not only France did not deport Thay, but they also granted Thay asylum after that.<br /><br />In 1976, while directing the program Máu Chảy Ruột Mềm (literally, ”Your suffering is my suffering”) to save the boat people, Thay was discovered by the Singapore police and ordered to leave Singapore within 24 hours. They surrounded Thay’s office at two in the morning, came inside and confiscated Thay’s passport, saying that they would only return it to Thay when Thay left their territory. Meanwhile, the two boats Leapdal and Roland were full of boat people, and the plan to take them to Australia for refuge had been revealed by the press’s curiosity. The boat Saigon 200, which was responsible for providing water, food and medicine to the boat people, was also captured. Furthermore, a storm was raging out at sea, and the two boats full of Thay’s boat people (over 589) were not allowed to stop in the harbour to avoid the gale. That night, Thay had the feeling that he was floating out there in the waves and the wind with all the boat people. Thay did sitting meditation and walking meditation the entire night to look for a solution. Thay had confidence in the Three Jewels, in the Sangha, and in the end, Thay found the solution. Thay waited until the morning to ask the French ambassador, Mr. Jacques Gasseau, to intervene with the Singapore government to enable Thay could remain for another ten days to complete the program. It was that night Thay meditated on the Koan ‘‘If you want peace, you will be peace.” If we truly want peace, and then there is peace. Peace is in the midst of danger. Thanks to the Sangha, the Three Jewels, the path, the brotherhood and sisterhood, Thay was able to overcome the difficulty.<br /><br />Your elder brother Nhat Tri and many brothers and sisters in the Order of Interbeing in the Youth for Social Service Program in the old days also went through periods like that, just as you have gone through the experiences of Bat Nha, Phuoc Hue and now. Thay trusts that, no matter the situation, you have the capacity to practice “If you want peace, you will be peace.” We have been able to do that at Bat Nha and Phuoc Hue, and we can do it now; our Sangha is still whole, and each one of us carries the Sangha within us.<br /><br /><br />Sadness and Loneliness<br /><br /><br />Just recently, about ten days ago, in a dream Thay saw his friend, Father Daniel Berrigan. He is now over 90 years old. Sitting next to this courageous monk, Thay recognized that he was worthy of all respect and reverence, even though he did not have the outer form of a Buddhist Most Venerable. Thay suggested that the community touched the earth before him. Before the community could do so, suddenly Thay saw that he was sitting alone with Father Berrigan in an open space, and he opened his arms to embrace Thay. Thay also opened his arms to embrace his friend with all his heart in the true spirit of the Plum Village practice of hugging meditation. At first, there was only happiness and the peace of brotherhood, but soon an unsettled energy arose in Thay. It was the energy of sadness, pain and loneliness. It felt strange, but Thay was able to recognize and accept these mental formations. Thay had thought that those mental formations had already been transformed, and if their energy still existed, it would be minimal.<br /><br />But it was not so. Thay’s whole being quaked with the feeling. Thay’s arms were transmitting to the person he was embracing the energy of sadness, pain and loneliness. Thay felt clearly that the other person was also receiving it and responding to it. The time of our embrace was quite long, and Thay allowed himself to express those pains naturally and sincerely. Waking up, Thay knew the dream had helped Thay’s wellbeing, because he’d had the opportunity to recognize and share his sadness and pain with a dear friend who had the capacity to touch and understand that sadness and pain, having gone through similar difficulties, sadness and loneliness. Thay thinks that in our lives, those with whom we can share like that are few, even within our own tradition. When we embrace a brother, a sister, a friend or a disciple, we only want to transmit the energy of peace and love, and the other person may believe that we only have such beautiful and peaceful energy. But we are still human, and even though the energy of sadness and pain may be under control and transformed, it is still there in our human nature. If it would sleep quietly, we would be peaceful enough. But its presence is also very important. Thanks to it, we can recognize and understand other people’s suffering and pain, and we also can acknowledge the good fortunes and wonders available in the present moment in us and around us.<br /><br />Lotus in Our Hearts<br /><br /><br />Over the last four decades, Thay had the opportunity to befriend a number of people Thay considers kindred spirits. Some were not at all known, and some were very famous. Amongst them were Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King, Heinz Kloppenburg, Hannes de Graaf, Alfred Hassler, Arthur Miller, Heidi Vaccaro, etc. They worked hand in hand with Thay in the struggle for peace, for human rights, and for the future of the earth. Thay has not had the opportunity to embrace the Dalai Lama, but if there were one, and they were not surrounded by a crowd, then while embracing him, Thay would also have a chance to share that energy of sadness, because Thay knows the Dalai Lama has also gone through similar sadness and pain. The Buddha also had his deep suffering, and he embraced it and transformed it with his energy of great understanding and great compassion. The Buddha’s life of teaching also had many difficulties, and the Buddha was also wrongly accused, rejected and oppressed. After King Prasenajit passed away, the new king brought his army to destroy the Buddha’s homeland and killed the Sakya family line mercilessly, simply because the king had too much hatred and ignorance. The Buddha did everything he could to stop it, but to little effect. The patriarch Linchi spoke about the interbeing between the Buddha and living beings, and we have heard the teaching ”Buddha and living beings are not two different entities”. As human beings, we have the chance to become Buddhas, and once we have become Buddhas, we can still be human beings. Therefore, the path of the Buddha is truly humanistic.<br /><br />The Buddha had friends and disciples who understood him deeply. The Buddha was not alone. The Dalai Lama is also like that. King Tran Thai Tong was also like that. Thay’s Bat Nha children have been denounced, discriminated against, attacked and persecuted, but you have responded as true children of the Buddha, without hatred, discrimination and despair in your hearts. People in our country and our friends all over the world have been fortunate to witness that, and they have come to love you and vowed to protect you. We are not alone. We are known about, understood and loved. Intellectuals, humanitarians, young people, workers, business people, as well as Venerables all raised their voice on your behalf. You have inspired and offered confidence in the future of Buddhism to our country and to the world.<br /><br />Bat Nha has become an immortal lotus in the hearts of the people. Each of us is carrying this lotus in our heart. No power can destroy it. It will help manifest Bat Nha everywhere, in the future as well as in the present. This lotus is brotherhood and sisterhood, it is aspiration, happiness, love between fellow countrymen and human love. The Buddha was not alone and the Sangha on the Vulture Peak was not alone, even though King Asajit had not woken up. You know very well that in the end, the King Asajit woke up and found his way back to the Buddha. The Dalai Lama is not alone even though his homeland has not yet reclaimed her dependency. The path of the Buddha is also the path of compassion, loving kindness, non-violence, and brotherhood/sisterhood. The Dalai Lama also has the Bat Nha lotus in his heart. He spoke up to protect the Bat Nha Sangha. Certainly, the mental formations of sadness and pain have also manifested in him at times, but he knows how to recognize and embrace them, so that in the end, they nourish his aspiration and determination. My children also need to practice like that.<br /><br />Do not be saddened that the path ahead is without kindred spirits.<br /><br />In this world, who would not know about us?<br /><br /><br /><br />If you need a few minutes to feel the regret, yearning, sadness and pain, then allow yourself those few minutes. We recognize, embrace and smile with that human substance in us. But after that, we must go forward, because we also have the Buddha nature in us. If those bright fresh lotuses need mud to manifest, then our sadness and pain can also nourish our Mind of Love, our Beginner’s Mind. Thay knows that your Beginner’s Mind is very strong, and Thay feels very assured.<br /><br />Dream or Reality?<br /><br /><br />With the Bat Nha lotus in your hearts, you can smile and return to the present moment. You will see that Bat Nha is available right where you are sitting. You will cherish everything you are in touch with in this moment. This is the miracle of mindfulness. With mindfulness, life may be more beautiful than dreams. About a month ago, Thay had a dream that was very ordinary but beautiful. Thay dreamt that he woke up in a temple or in a practice center that seemed very joyful. Thay asked someone nearby, ‘‘What’s happening that’s so joyful, my child?’’ The person replied: ‘‘Dear Thay, some brothers and sisters just came back. We are cooking a pot of rice to enjoy it together.’’ Thay sat up, walked to the court yard of the temple, did walking meditation, acknowledged each orchid, each bamboo, and his heart was full of joy like a festival. What was there really? It was just a few brothers and sisters coming home. A small dream, simple, but it made Thay happy for many days. Is this but a dream? It is a reality. Teacher and disciples, we have each other. Brothers and sisters, we have each other. Regardless of what may happen, that brotherhood and sisterhood is never lost. It is our paradise. We only need to look carefully at the brother or sister who is present. We only need to look carefully at the orchid, the bamboo, and read the mantra written by the great poet Nguyen Du: Now we see each other’s face clearly. Seeing each other’s face clearly today, tomorrow will never become a dream again.<br /><br />Your Teacher,<br /><br />Nhất Hạnh <br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-12536365361739429112010-09-13T23:28:00.004+08:002010-09-14T00:13:04.898+08:00Awareness Itself<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/images/Ajaan_Fuang.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 170px; height: 198px;" src="http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/images/Ajaan_Fuang.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />by Ajaan Fuang Jotiko<br />compiled and Translated by<br />Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff)<br />© 1999–2010<br /><br />Contents<br /><br />Introduction<br />Mind What You Say<br />Mind What You Eat<br />People Practicing the Dhamma<br />Merit<br />Student/Teacher<br />Living in the World<br />The Celibate Life<br />Meditation<br />Breathing<br />Visions & Signs<br />Right at Awareness<br />Contemplation<br />Realization<br />Release<br />Glossary<br />Appendix: The Seven Steps<br />Introduction <br /><br />Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, my teacher, was born in 1915 to a small farming family in the province of Chanthaburi, near the Cambodian border of southeastern Thailand. Orphaned at the age of eleven, he was raised in a series of monasteries and received ordination as a monk when he turned twenty. As he began to study the monastic discipline, though, he realized that the monks of his monastery were not really serious about practicing the Buddha's teachings, and he longed to find a teacher who would give him a training more in line with what he had read. His chance came during his second year as a monk, when Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, a member of the forest ascetic tradition founded by Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto, came to set up a meditation monastery in an old cemetery just outside of Chanthaburi. Taken with Ajaan Lee's teachings, Ajaan Fuang reordained in the sect to which Ajaan Lee belonged and joined him at his new monastery.<br /><br />From that point onward, with few exceptions, he spent every Rains Retreat under Ajaan Lee's guidance until the latter's death in 1961. One of the exceptions was a five-year period he spent during World War II, meditating alone in the forests of northern Thailand. Another was a six-year period in the early fifties when Ajaan Lee left Ajaan Fuang in charge of the Chanthaburi monastery and wandered about various parts of Thailand in preparation for finding a place to settle down near Bangkok. When in 1957 Ajaan Lee founded Wat Asokaram, his new monastery near Bangkok, Ajaan Fuang joined him there, to help in what was to be the last major project of Ajaan Lee's life.<br /><br />After Ajaan Lee's death, Ajaan Fuang was generally expected to become abbot at Wat Asokaram. The monastery by that time, though, had grown into such a large, unwieldy community that he did not want the position. So in 1965, when the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, in residence at Wat Makut Kasatriyaram (The Temple of the King's Crown) in Bangkok, asked him to spend the Rains Retreat at his temple, to teach meditation to him and to any of the other monks at the temple who were interested, Ajaan Fuang jumped at the chance.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />He spent a total of three Rains Retreats at Wat Makut, wandering about the countryside looking for solitude during the dry seasons. Although he had immense respect for the Supreme Patriarch as an individual, he grew tired of the politicking he saw at the higher ecclesiastical levels and so began looking for a way out. It came in 1968, when a woman named Khun Nai Sombuun Ryangrit donated land to the Patriarch for a small monastery in a mountainous region near the coast of Rayong province, not far from Chanthaburi. Ajaan Fuang volunteered to spend time at the new monastery, Wat Dhammasathit, until a permanent abbot could be found. The monastery, though, was in a very poor area where the local people were not enthusiastic about the idea of a strict meditation monastery in their midst, so no one could be found to take on the position of abbot. Thus, shortly before the Supreme Patriarch's death in a car accident in 1971, Ajaan Fuang accepted the position of abbot at Wat Dhammasathit himself.<br /><br />It was soon after this that I first met him, in April of 1974. Wat Dhammasathit had the look of a summer camp down on its luck: three monks living in three small huts, a lean-to where they would eat their meals, a kitchen with room for a couple of nuns, and a small wooden structure on top of the hill — where I stayed — which had a view of the sea off to the south. The land had been donated shortly after a fire had stripped it of all its vegetation, and the hillsides were covered mostly with cogon grass. Yearly fires still swept through the area, preventing trees from taking hold, although the area on the mountain above the monastery was covered with a thick, malarial forest.<br /><br />In spite of the poor conditions, Ajaan Fuang seemed to have a clear-eyed, down-to-earth wisdom that allowed him to transcend his surroundings — an inner peace, happiness, and stability that I envied and admired. After spending a few months practicing meditation under his guidance, I returned to America and then found my way back to Thailand in the fall of 1976 to be ordained as a monk and to begin training under him in earnest.<br /><br />In my absence, he had begun to develop a small but devoted following of lay meditators. In early 1976 the new abbot of Wat Makut had invited him back to teach there on a regular basis, and for the rest of his life — until his death in 1986 — he split his time evenly between Bangkok and Rayong. Most of his students came from the professional classes of Bangkok, people who were turning to meditation for spiritual strength and solace in the face of the fast-changing pressures of modern Thai urban society.<br /><br />During my first years back in Rayong, the monastery was an incredibly quiet and secluded place, with only a handful of monks and almost no visitors. Fire lanes had begun to hold the fires in check, and a new forest was developing. The quiet atmosphere began to change, though, in the fall of 1979, when construction began on a chedi at the top of the hill. Because the chedi was being built almost entirely with volunteer labor, everyone was involved — monks, laypeople from Bangkok, and local villagers.<br /><br />At first I resented the disruption of the monastery's quiet routine, but I began to notice something interesting: People who never would have thought of meditating were happy to help with the weekend construction brigades; during breaks in the work, when the regulars would go practice meditation with Ajaan Fuang, the newcomers would join in and soon they too would become regular meditators as well. In the meantime, I began learning the important lesson of how to meditate in the midst of less than ideal conditions. Ajaan Fuang himself told me that although he personally disliked construction work, there were people he had to help, and this was the only way he could get to them. Soon after the chedi was finished in 1982, work began on a large Buddha image that was to have an ordination hall in its base, and again, as work progressed on the image, more and more people who came to help with the work were drawn to meditation.<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang's health deteriorated steadily in his later years. A mild skin condition he had developed during his stay at Wat Makut grew into a full-blown case of psoriasis, and no medicine — Western, Thai, or Chinese — could offer a cure. Still, he maintained an exhausting teaching schedule, although he rarely gave sermons to large groups of people. Instead, he preferred to teach on an individual basis. His favorite way of getting people started in meditation was to meditate together with them, guiding them through the initial rough spots, and then have them meditate more and more on their own, making way for new beginners. Even during his worst attacks of psoriasis, he would have time to instruct people on a personal basis. As a result, his following — though relatively small compared to that of Ajaan Lee and other famous meditation teachers — was intensely loyal.<br /><br />In May, 1986, a few days after the Buddha image was completed, but before the ordination hall in its base was finished, Ajaan Fuang flew to Hong Kong to visit a student who had set up a meditation center there. Suddenly, on the morning of May 14, while he was sitting in meditation, he suffered a heart attack. The student called an ambulance as soon as he realized what had happened, but Ajaan Fuang was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.<br /><br />Because he had requested a few years earlier that his body not be cremated, plans began immediately to build him a mausoleum. I was given the task of assembling his biography and any tape-recorded talks that might be transcribed and published as a commemorative volume. I found, to my amazement, that I knew more about his life than anyone else. The people with whom he had lived when he was younger had either died or grown so old that their memories were failing them. All of a sudden the anecdotes he had told me during my first years back with him — of his youth and his years with Ajaan Lee — became the substance of his biography. How much I probably missed, given the fact that my abilities in Thai and familiarity with Thai culture were still developing, was disconcerting to think about.<br /><br />Even more disconcerting was to discover how little of his teachings were left for posterity. Ordinarily, he refused to let people tape-record his instructions, as he maintained that his teachings were intended for the people listening to put into practice right then and there, and might be wrong for other people at other stages in their practice. The few tapes that were made came from simple, introductory talks that he gave to first-time visitors who had come to give a group donation to the monastery, or to people who were just getting started in meditation. Nothing of a more advanced nature was on tape.<br /><br />So after we printed the commemorative volume, I started a project of my own, writing down what I could remember of his teachings and interviewing his other students for similar material. The interviewing took more than two years and involved a fair amount of editing to extract teachings that would be helpful for people in general and would work in a written format. The result was a small book entitled, The Language of the Heart. Then, shortly before I returned to the States to help start a monastery in California, another Ajaan Fuang tape was found, a sermon in which he was giving more advanced instructions to one of his students. I transcribed it and arranged to have it printed as a small booklet named, Transcendent Discernment.<br /><br />The book you are holding in your hand is drawn from these three books. Most of the material comes from The Language of the Heart, although parts of that book had to be cut either because they referred to incidents peculiar to Thai culture, or because the puns and wordplay made them untranslatable. Ajaan Fuang loved playing with language — his sense of humor was one of the first things that attracted me to him — and many of his memorable sayings were memorable for just that reason. Unfortunately, most of these passages lose their impact on translation, and the explanations they would require might quickly become tedious, so I have omitted nearly all of them, leaving in a few — such as the "litter" story — to give a taste of his way with words.<br /><br />In addition to the passages from The Language of the Heart, I have included almost all of Transcendent Discernment along with highlights from the commemorative volume. Not everything is a straight translation from these books, for in some cases I have had to retell the anecdotes to make them more accessible to a Western reader. I have been careful throughout, though, to translate the message of Ajaan Fuang's own words as exactly as possible.<br /><br />In putting this book together, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the student/teacher relationship as it exists in Thailand, and in Ajaan Fuang's dealings with his disciples, both lay and ordained. He provided an atmosphere of warmth and respect in which his students could discuss with him the particular problems of their lives and minds without being made to feel like patients or clients, but simply as fellow human beings to whom he was offering a solid reference point for their lives. Since coming to the West, I find that this sort of relationship is sadly lacking among us and I hope that as Buddhism becomes established here, this sort of relationship will become established as well, for the sake of the mental and spiritual health of our society as a whole.<br /><br />A group of Thai people once asked me what was the most amazing thing I had ever encountered in Ajaan Fuang, hoping that I would mention his mind-reading abilities or other supernatural powers. Although there were those — his knowledge of my mind seemed uncanny — I told them that what I found most amazing was his kindness and humanity: In all our years together, he had never made me feel that I was a Westerner or that he was a Thai. Our communication was always on a direct, person-to-person level that bypassed cultural differences. I know that many of his other students, although they would not have phrased the issue quite this way, sensed the same quality in him.<br /><br />I offer this book as a way of sharing some of what I learned from Ajaan Fuang, and dedicate it, with deepest respect, to his memory. He once told me that if it hadn't been for Ajaan Lee, he would never have known the brightness of life. I owe the same debt to him.<br /><br />Thanissaro Bhikkhu<br />(Geoffrey DeGraff)<br /><br />Note: For this new, revised edition, I have reinstated the section entitled "Merit", most of which was omitted from the first edition in 1993.<br /><br />Metta Forest Monastery<br />Valley Center, CA 92082-1409<br />January, 1999<br /><br />Mind What You Say <br /><br />§ Normally, Ajaan Fuang was a man of few words who spoke in response to circumstances: If the circumstances warranted it, he could give long, detailed explanations. If not, he'd say only a word or two — or sometimes nothing at all. He held by Ajaan Lee's dictum: "If you're going to teach the Dhamma to people, but they're not intent on listening, or not ready for what you have to say, then no matter how fantastic the Dhamma you're trying to teach, it still counts as idle chatter, because it doesn't serve any purpose."<br /><br />§ I was constantly amazed at his willingness — sometimes eagerness — to teach meditation even when he was ill. He explained to me once, "If people are really intent on listening, I find that I'm intent on teaching, and no matter how much I have to say, it doesn't tire me out. In fact, I usually end up with more energy than when I started. But if they're not intent on listening, then I get worn out after the second or third word."<br /><br />§ "Before you say anything, ask yourself whether it's necessary or not. If it's not, don't say it. This is the first step in training the mind — for if you can't have any control over your mouth, how can you expect to have any control over your mind?"<br /><br />§ Sometimes his way of being kind was to be cross — although he had his own way of doing it. He never raised his voice or used harsh language, but still his words could burn right into the heart. Once I commented on this fact, and asked him, "Why is it that when your words hurt, they go right to the heart?"<br /><br />He answered, "That's so you'll remember. If words don't hit home with the person listening, they don't hit home with the person speaking, either."<br /><br />§ In being cross with his students, he'd take his cue from how earnest the student was. The more earnest, the more critical he'd be, with the thought that this sort of student would use his words to best effect.<br /><br />Once a lay student of his — who didn't understand this point — was helping to look after him when he was ill in Bangkok. Even though she tried her best to attend to his needs, he was constantly criticizing her, to the point where she was thinking of leaving him. It so happened, though, that another lay student came to visit, and Ajaan Fuang said in a passing remark to him, "When a teacher criticizes his students, it's for one of two reasons: either to make them stay or to make them go."<br /><br />The first student, on overhearing this, suddenly understood, and so decided to stay.<br /><br />§ A story that Ajaan Fuang liked to tell — with his own twist — was the Jataka tale of the turtle and the swans.<br /><br />Once there were two swans who liked to stop by a certain pond every day for a drink of water. As time passed, they struck up a friendship with a turtle who lived in the pond, and they started telling him about some of the many things they saw while flying around up in the air. The turtle was fascinated with their stories, but after a while began to feel very depressed, because he knew he'd never have a chance to see the great wide world the way the swans did. When he mentioned this to them, they said, "Why, that's no problem at all. We'll find a way to take you up with us." So they got a stick. The male swan took one end of the stick in his mouth, the female took the other end in hers, and they had the turtle hold on with its mouth to the middle. When everything was ready, they took off.<br /><br />As they flew up into the sky, the turtle got to see many, many things he had never dreamed about on the earth below, and was having the time of his life. When they flew over a village, though, some children playing below saw them, and started shouting, "Look! Swans carrying a turtle! Swans carrying a turtle!" This spoiled everything for the turtle, until he thought of a smart retort: "No. The turtle's carrying the swans!" But as soon as he opened his mouth to say it, he fell straight to his death below.<br /><br />The moral of the story: "Watch out for your mouth when you enter high places."<br /><br />§ "Litter" is Thai slang for idle chatter, and once Ajaan Fuang used the term to dramatic effect.<br /><br />It happened one evening when he was teaching in Bangkok. Three young women who were long-time friends happened to show up together at the building where he was teaching, but instead of joining the group that was already meditating, they found themselves an out-of-the-way corner to catch up on the latest gossip. As they were busy talking, they didn't notice that Ajaan Fuang had gotten up to stretch his legs and was walking right past them, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and a box of matches in his hand. He stopped for a second, lit a match, and instead of lighting his cigarette, tossed the lit match into the middle of their group. Immediately they jumped up, and one of them said, "Than Phaw! Why did you do that? You just barely missed me!"<br /><br />"I saw a pile of litter there," he answered, "and felt I should set fire to it."<br /><br />§ One day Ajaan Fuang overheard two students talking, one of them asking a question and the other starting his answer with, "Well, it seems to me..." Immediately Ajaan Fuang cut him off: "If you don't really know, say you don't know, and leave it at that. Why go spreading your ignorance around?"<br /><br />§ "We each have two ears and one mouth — which shows that we should give more time to listening, and less to speaking."<br /><br />§ "Whatever happens in the course of your meditation, don't tell it to anyone except your teacher. If you go telling other people, it's bragging. And isn't that a defilement?"<br /><br />§ "When people advertise how good they are, they're really advertising how stupid they are."<br /><br />§ "If something's really good, you don't have to advertise."<br /><br />§ Thailand has a number of monk magazines, somewhat like movie-star magazines, which print the life stories and teachings of famous and not-so-famous monks, nuns, and lay meditation teachers. The life stories tend to be so heavily embellished with supernatural and miraculous events, though, that they are hard to take seriously. From the occasional contact he had with the editors and reporters responsible for these magazines, Ajaan Fuang felt that, by and large, their primary aims were mercenary. As he put it, "The great meditation teachers went into the wilds and put their lives on the line in order to find the Dhamma. When they found it, they offered it free of charge on their return. But these people sit in their air-conditioned offices, write down whatever comes into their heads, and then put it up for sale." As a result, he never cooperated with them when they tried to put him in their magazines.<br /><br />Once a group of reporters from a magazine named People Beyond the World came to visit him, armed with cameras and tape recorders. After paying their respects, they asked for his prawat, or personal history. Now it so happens that the Thai word prawat can also mean police record, so Ajaan Fuang responded that he didn't have one, as he had never done anything wrong. But the reporters were not easily discouraged. If he didn't want to give his life story, they said, could he please at least teach them some Dhamma. This is a request no monk can refuse, so Ajaan Fuang told them to close their eyes and meditate on the word buddho — awake. They turned on their tape recorders and then sat in meditation, waiting for a Dhamma talk, and this was what they heard:<br /><br />"That's today's Dhamma: two words — bud- and dho. Now if you can't keep these two words in mind, it would be a waste of time to teach you anything else."<br /><br />End of sermon. When they realized that that was all, the reporters — looking very exasperated — gathered their cameras and tape recorders and left, never to bother him again.<br /><br />Mind What You Eat <br /><br />§ "We human beings have long tongues, you know. You sit around and suddenly your tongue flicks out to sea: You want to eat seafood. Then it flicks around the world: You want to eat foreign cuisine. You have to train your tongue and shrink it down to size."<br /><br />§ "When you eat, keep your mind on your breath, and contemplate why you're eating. If you're eating simply for the taste of the food, then what you eat can harm you."<br /><br />§ After his trip to America, one of his students asked him if he had had a chance to eat pizza while he was there. He mentioned that he had, and that it was very good. This surprised one of his students who had gone along on the trip. "You ate only two bites," he said. "We thought you didn't like it."<br /><br />"Two bites were enough to fill me up," he answered. "Why would you want me to eat more?"<br /><br />§ Once a woman who had been studying with him for only a short while decided to prepare some food to donate to him. Wanting to make sure it would be something he liked, she asked him straight out, "What kind of food do you like, Than Phaw?"<br /><br />His answer: "Food that's within reach."<br /><br />§ It was a Friday evening, and a group of Ajaan Fuang's students were riding in the back of a pickup truck on their way from Bangkok to Wat Dhammasathit. Another student had sent a bushel of oranges along with them to donate to the monks at the wat, and after a while on the road one of the students decided that the oranges looked awfully good. So he came up with the following argument: "We're Than Phaw's children, right? And he wouldn't want us to go hungry, right? So anyone who doesn't have an orange isn't a child of Than Phaw."<br /><br />Some of the group were observing the eight precepts, which forbid eating food after noon, so they were able to slip through the net. Everyone else, though, helped him or herself to the oranges, even though a few of them felt bad about eating food intended for the monks.<br /><br />When they arrived at the wat, they told Ajaan Fuang what had happened, and he immediately lit into them, saying that anyone who takes food intended for monks and eats it before it has been given to the monks is going to be reborn as a hungry ghost in the next life.<br /><br />This scared one woman in the group, who immediately responded, "But I only ate one section!"<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang replied, "Well, if you're going to be a hungry ghost, you might as well eat enough to fill yourself up while you can."<br /><br />§ During the Rains Retreat in 1977 a couple from the town of Rayong came out to the wat almost every evening to practice meditation. The strange thing about them was that whatever happened in the course of their meditation would tend to happen to both of them at the same time.<br /><br />On one occasion they both found that they couldn't eat, because they were overcome by a sense of the filthiness of food. This lasted for three or four days without their getting weak or hungry, so they began to wonder what stage they had reached in their meditation.<br /><br />When they mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang on their next visit to the wat, he had them sit in meditation, and then told them. "Okay, contemplate food to see what it's made of. Elements, right? And what's your body made of? The very same elements. The elements in your body need the elements in food in order to keep going. So why get all worked up about the filthiness of food? Your body is even filthier. When the Buddha teaches us to contemplate the filthiness of food, it's so that we can get over our delusions about it — not so that we won't be able to eat."<br /><br />That ended their inability to eat food.<br /><br />People Practicing the Dhamma <br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students — a seamstress — was criticized by a customer: "You practice the Dhamma, don't you? Then why are you so greedy, charging such high prices? People practicing the Dhamma should take only enough profit just to get by."<br /><br />Although she knew her prices were fair, she couldn't think of a good answer, so the next time she saw Ajaan Fuang she told him what had happened. He replied, "The next time they say that, tell them — 'Look, I'm not practicing the Dhamma to be stupid.'"<br /><br />§ When I first went to stay at Wat Dhammasathit, the B-52's from Utapao Air Force Base could sometimes be heard high overhead in the wee hours of the morning, flying on their bombing missions into Cambodia. Each time I heard them, I began to wonder what business I had meditating when there were so many injustices in the world that needed to be fought. When I mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, he said, "If you try to straighten out the world without really straightening yourself out first, your own inner goodness will eventually break down, and then where will you be? You won't be able to do anybody — yourself or anyone else — any good at all."<br /><br />§ "As soon as we're born, we're sentenced to death — just that we don't know when our turn will come. So you can't be complacent. Start right in and develop all your good qualities to the full while you still have the chance."<br /><br />§ "If you want to be a good person, make sure you know where true goodness really lies. Don't just go through the motions of being good."<br /><br />§ "We all want happiness, but for the most part we aren't interested in building the causes for happiness. All we want are the results. But if we don't take an interest in the causes, how are the results going to come our way?"<br /><br />§ When I first went to practice meditation with Ajaan Fuang, I asked him if people really were reborn after death. He answered, "When you start out practicing, the Buddha asks you to believe in only one thing: karma. As for things aside from that, whether or not you believe them isn't really important."<br /><br />§ One year, shortly before the Rains Retreat — a time when people traditionally make resolutions to step up their practice of the Dhamma — one of Ajaan Fuang's students approached him and said that she was thinking of observing the eight precepts during the Rains, but was afraid that going without the evening meal would leave her hungry.<br /><br />He retorted: "The Buddha fasted until he didn't have any flesh at all — just skin and bones — so that he could discover the Dhamma to teach us, but here we can't even stand going without one single meal. It's because of this that we're still swimming around in the cycle of birth and death."<br /><br />As a result, she resolved that she'd have to observe the eight precepts on each Buddhist sabbath — the full moon, the new moon, and the half-moon days — during the three months of the Rains. And so she did. At the end of the Rains she felt really proud of herself for having kept to her resolution, but on her next visit to Ajaan Fuang, before she was able to broach the topic at all, he commented, "You're lucky, you know. Your Rains Retreat has only twelve days. Everyone else's is three months."<br /><br />On hearing this she felt so embarrassed that she has observed the eight precepts every day throughout each Rains Retreat ever since.<br /><br />§ Another student was meditating in Ajaan Fuang's presence when — in a spasm of mindlessness — she slapped a mosquito that was biting her arm. Ajaan Fuang commented: "You charge a high price for your blood, don't you? The mosquito asks for a drop, and you take its life in exchange."<br /><br />§ A young man was discussing the precepts with Ajaan Fuang and came to number five, against taking intoxicants: "The Buddha forbade alcohol because most people lose their mindfulness when they drink it, right? But if you drink mindfully it's okay, isn't it, Than Phaw?"<br /><br />"If you were really mindful," he answered, "you wouldn't drink it in the first place."<br /><br />§ There seem to be more excuses for breaking the fifth precept than for any other. One evening another student was conversing with Ajaan Fuang at the same time that a group of people were sitting around them in meditation. "I can't observe the fifth precept," he said, "because I'm under a lot of group pressure. When we have social occasions at work, and everyone else in the group is drinking, I have to drink along with them."<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang pointed to the people sitting around them and asked, "This group isn't asking you to drink. Why don't you give in to their group pressure instead?"<br /><br />§ The seamstress saw her friends observing the eight precepts at Wat Dhammasathit, and so decided to try it herself. But in the middle of the afternoon, as she was walking through the monastery, she passed a guava tree. The guavas looked inviting, so she picked one and took a bite.<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang happened to be standing not far away, and so he remarked, "Hey. I thought you were going to observe the eight precepts. What's that in your mouth?"<br /><br />The seamstress realized in a jolt that she had broken her precepts, but Ajaan Fuang consoled her, "It's not all that necessary to observe the eight precepts, but make sure you observe the one precept, okay? Do you know what the one precept is?"<br /><br />"No, Than Phaw. What is it?"<br /><br />"Not doing any evil. I want you to hold onto this one for life."<br /><br />§ A woman came to Wat Dhammasathit to observe the precepts and meditate for a week, but by the end of the second day she told Ajaan Fuang that she had to return home, because she was afraid her family couldn't get along without her. He taught her to cut through her worries by saying, "When you come here, tell yourself that you've died. One way or another, your family will have to learn to fend for themselves."<br /><br />§ On his first visit to Wat Dhammasathit, a middle-aged man was surprised to see an American monk. He asked Ajaan Fuang, "How is it that Westerners can ordain?"<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang's answer: "Don't Westerners have hearts?"<br /><br />§ A Bangkok magazine once carried the serialized autobiography of a lay meditator who used his powers of concentration to treat diseases. One installment mentioned how he had visited Ajaan Fuang, who had certified that he (the layman) had attained jhana. This didn't sound like Ajaan Fuang's style, but soon after the magazine came out, unusual numbers of people came to the wat under the impression that Ajaan Fuang, like the author of the autobiography, could treat illnesses through meditation. One woman asked him if he treated kidney diseases, and he answered, "I treat only one kind of disease: diseases of the mind."<br /><br />§ A student asked permission to keep a notebook of Ajaan Fuang's teachings, but he refused, saying, "Is that the sort of person you are? — always carrying food around in your pocket for fear there'll be nothing to eat?" Then he explained: "If you jot everything down, you'll feel it's okay to forget what you've written, because it's all there in your notebook. The end result is that all the Dhamma will be in your notebook, and none in your heart."<br /><br />§ "The texts say that if you listen well, you'll gain wisdom. To listen well, your heart has to be quiet and still. You listen with your heart, not just with your ears. Once you've listened, you have to put what you've heard into practice right then and there. That's when you'll reap the benefits. If you don't put it into practice, what you've heard will never become real inside you."<br /><br />§ Once, while the chedi at Wat Dhammasathit was being built, some of the students working on the chedi got into a serious argument. One of them became so upset that she went to tell Ajaan Fuang, who was staying in Bangkok at the time. When she finished her report, he asked her, "Do you know what gravel is?"<br /><br />Taken aback, she answered, "Yes."<br /><br />"Do you know what diamonds are?"<br /><br />"Yes."<br /><br />"Then why don't you gather the diamonds? What good do you get out of gathering gravel?"<br /><br />§ Even in a Buddhist country like Thailand, some young people who practice the Dhamma find that their parents are against it, and feel that they should be spending their time in more practical ways. Once the parents of the seamstress tried to put a stop to her visits to Wat Makut, and this got her very angry. But when she told her feelings to Ajaan Fuang, he warned her, "You owe a huge debt to your parents, you know. If you get angry with them, or yell at them, you're stoking the fires of hell on your head, so watch out. And remind yourself: If you wanted parents who would encourage your practice, why didn't you choose to be born from somebody else? The fact that they're your parents shows that you've made past karma with them. So just use up your old karma debts as they come. There's no need to create any more karma by getting into arguments."<br /><br />§ Channeling spirits has long been popular in Thailand, and even some people who practice the Dhamma also like to attend seances. But Ajaan Fuang once said, "If you want results from your practice, you have to make up your mind that the Buddha is your one and only refuge. Don't go taking refuge in anything else."<br /><br />§ "If you practice the Dhamma, you don't have to be amazed by anyone else's powers or abilities. Whatever you do, say or think, let your heart take its stand on the principles of reason."<br /><br />§ "The truth lies within you. If you're true in what you do, you'll meet with the truth. If you're not, you'll meet only with things that are fake and imitation."<br /><br />Merit <br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students reports that the first time she met him, he asked her, "Where do you usually go to make merit?" She answered that she had helped sponsor a Buddha image at that temple and contributed to a crematorium at this temple, etc. So he asked further: "Why haven't you made merit at your heart?"<br /><br />§ Once Ajaan Fuang had one of his students cut away some of the grass and weeds that were threatening to overgrow the monastery. She didn't really want to do the work, though, and all the while as she was cutting away she kept asking herself, "What kind of karma did I do that I have to work so hard like this?" When she had finished, he told her, "Well, you got some merit, but not very much."<br /><br />"What? After all that work, I still didn't get very much?"<br /><br />"If you want your full measure of merit, the merit has to go all the way to your heart."<br /><br />§ There's another story involving grass. One day Ajaan Fuang pointed out the overgrown grass near his hut and asked the same woman, "Don't you want the grass at the corral gate?"<br /><br />"What do you mean, grass at the corral gate?"<br /><br />"The opportunity to make merit right nearby that everyone else overlooks. That's called 'grass at the corral gate.'"<br /><br />§ Another time, Ajaan Fuang took some of his Bangkok students up the hill to clean the area around the chedi. They found a large pile of trash that someone had thrown away up there, and one of the group complained, "How could anyone be so disrespectful as to do something like this?" But Ajaan Fuang told her, "Don't criticize whoever did it. If they hadn't thrown the trash here, we wouldn't have the opportunity to earn the merit that comes from cleaning it up."<br /><br />§ One day, after Ajaan Fuang's name had appeared in a magazine article, a group of three men from Bangkok took a day off from work to drive to Rayong and pay their respects to him. After bowing down and then chatting for a while, one of them said, "Our country still has monks who practice rightly and well so that we can ask to have a share of their paramis, isn't that true, Than Phaw?"<br /><br />"It's true," he answered, "but if we keep asking for a share of their paramis without developing any of our own, they'll see that we're simply beggars and they won't want to share with us any more."<br /><br />§ A woman in the town of Samut Prakaan, just outside of Bangkok, sent word through one of Ajaan Fuang's students that she'd like to donate a large sum of money to help build the Buddha image at Wat Dhammasathit, but she wanted him to come to her home to give a blessing as she handed over the check. He refused to go, saying, "If people want merit, they have to go looking for it. They can't expect the merit to come looking for them."<br /><br />§ Another woman once telephoned the main office at Wat Makut, saying that she was going to provide a meal for monks at her house and wanted to invite Ajaan Fuang to the meal because she had heard that he was a Noble Disciple. When the invitation was conveyed to him, he refused it, saying, "Is her rice so special that only Noble Disciples can get to eat it?"<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students told him that she'd like to do something special to make merit on her birthday. He replied, "Why does it have to be on your birthday? Do you get less merit if you do it any other day? If you want to make merit, go ahead and do it on the day the thought occurs to you. Don't wait for your birthday, because your deathday may get to you first."<br /><br />§ Referring to people who didn't like to meditate but were happy to help with the construction work at the wat, Ajaan Fuang once said, "Light merit doesn't register with them, so you have to find some really heavy merit for them to make. That's the only way to keep them satisfied."<br /><br />§ Shortly after the chedi was finished, a group of Ajaan Fuang's students were sitting and admiring it, taking joy in all the merit in store for them because they had had a hand in building it. Ajaan Fuang happened to walk by and overhear what they were saying, and so he commented, as if to no one in particular, "Don't get attached to material things. When you make merit, don't get attached to the merit. If you let yourself get carried away, thinking 'I built this chedi with my own hands,' watch out. If you happened to die right now, all you'd be able to think would be, 'This chedi is mine, it's mine.' Instead of being reborn in heaven with everyone else, you'd be reborn as a hungry ghost to guard over the chedi for a week or so because your heart was fixated on material things."<br /><br />§ "If, when you do good, you get stuck on your goodness, you'll never get free. Wherever you're stuck, that's where there's becoming and birth."<br /><br />§ There is an old tradition in Buddhism — based on the Apadana tales — that whenever you make a gift to the religion or perform some other meritorious deed, you should dedicate the merit of the deed to a particular goal. There were times when Ajaan Fuang would tell his students to make similar dedications every time they meditated, although the dedication he'd recommend would depend on the individual. Sometimes he'd recommend the dedication King Asoka made at the end of his life: "In my future lives may I have sovereignty over the mind."<br /><br />Other times he'd say, "There's no need to make any long, drawn-out dedications. Tell yourself: If I have to be reborn, may I always encounter the Buddha's teachings."<br /><br />But it wasn't always the case that he would recommend such dedications. Once a woman told him that when she made merit she couldn't think of any particular goal to dedicate the merit towards. He told her, "If the mind is full, there's no need to make any dedication if you don't want to. It's like eating. Whether or not you express a wish to get full, if you keep on eating, there's no way you can help but get full."<br /><br />Student/Teacher <br /><br />§ "Whatever you do, always think of your teacher. If you forget your teacher, you're cutting yourself off at the root."<br /><br />§ "A person who goes from teacher to teacher doesn't really have any teachers at all."<br /><br />§ On occasion people would present Ajaan Fuang with amulets, and he would hand them out among his students — but only rarely among those who were especially close to him. One day a monk who had lived several years with him couldn't help but complain, "Why is it that when you get good amulets, you never give any to me, and always to everybody else?"<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang replied, "I've already given you lots of things better than that. Why don't you accept them?"<br /><br />§ "Meditators who live close to their teacher, but who don't understand him, are like a spoon in a pot of curry: It'll never know how sweet, sour, salty, rich or hot the curry is."<br /><br />§ Ajaan Fuang's analogy for students who always have to ask their teachers for advice on how to handle even minor problems in everyday life: "They're just like baby puppies. As soon as they defecate they have to run to their mother to have her lick them off. They'll never grow up on their own."<br /><br />§ "Students who get stuck on their teachers are like gnats. No matter how much you chase them away, they keep coming back and won't leave you alone."<br /><br />§ "If a teacher praises a student to his face, it's a sign that that's as far as the student will go — he probably won't be able to practice to any greater heights in this lifetime. The reason the teacher praises him is so that he'll be able to take pride in the fact that at least he's made it this far. His heart will have something good to hold on to when he needs it at death."<br /><br />§ Many of Ajaan Fuang's students were convinced that he was able to read their minds, because time after time he would broach topics that happened to be going through their heads or weighing down their hearts at the moment. I myself had many experiences like this, and many were reported to me while I was compiling this book. In most cases of this sort, though, what he had to say had special meaning only for those directly involved, and so I'll ask to pass over them here. But there are two cases I'd like to mention, since they strike me as being useful for all who practice the Dhamma.<br /><br />Once, one of his students — a young man — took the bus from Bangkok to Rayong to help work on the chedi. He got off at the mouth of the road leading to the wat, but didn't feel like walking the six kilometers it would take to get there, so he sat at the noodle stand by the intersection and said to himself — as a challenge to Ajaan Fuang — "If Than Phaw is really something special, may a car come by and give me a lift to the wat." One hour passed, two, three, and not a single car or truck turned into the road, so he finally had to walk the distance on foot.<br /><br />When he arrived at the wat, he went to Ajaan Fuang's hut to pay his respects, but as soon as Ajaan Fuang saw him approach, he got up, entered his room and closed the door. This shook the student a little, but still he bowed down in front of the closed door. The moment he finished, Ajaan Fuang opened the door a crack and said, "Look. I didn't ask for you to come here. You came of your own free will."<br /><br />Another time, after the chedi was finished, the same young man was sitting in meditation at the chedi, in hopes that a voice would whisper the winning number of the next lottery in his ear. What he heard, though, was the sound of Ajaan Fuang actually walking past and saying, as if to no one in particular, "Exactly what are you taking as your refuge?"<br /><br />Living in the World <br /><br />§ "Ajaan Mun once said, 'People are all alike, but not at all alike, but in the final analysis, all alike.' You have to think about this for a good while before you can understand what he was getting at."<br /><br />§ "If you want to judge other people, judge them by their intentions."<br /><br />§ "When you want to teach other people to be good, you have to see how far their goodness can go. If you try to make them better than they can be, you're the one who's being stupid."<br /><br />§ "Nothing comes from focusing on the faults of others. You can get more done by looking at your own faults instead."<br /><br />§ "How good or bad other people are is their own business. Focus on your own business instead."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students complained to him about all the problems she was facing at work. She wanted to quit and live quietly by herself, but circumstances wouldn't allow it, because she had to provide for her mother. Ajaan Fuang told her, "If you have to live with these things, then find out how to live in a way that rises above them. That's the only way you'll be able to survive."<br /><br />§ Advice for a student who was letting the pressure at work get her down: "When you do a job, don't let the job do you."<br /><br />§ Another one of Ajaan Fuang's students was having serious problems, both at home and in her work, so he appealed to her fighting spirit: "Anyone who's a real, live person will have to meet up with real, live problems in life."<br /><br />§ "When you meet with obstacles, you have to put up a fight. If you give up easily, you'll end up giving up all your life long."<br /><br />§ "Tell yourself you're made out of heartwood, and not out of sapwood."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students — a young nurse — had to put up with being the brunt of a lot of gossip at work. At first she tried to ignore it, but as it happened more and more often, her patience began to wear thin.<br /><br />One day, when the gossip was really getting to her, she went to meditate with Ajaan Fuang at Wat Makut. While meditating, she saw a vision of herself repeating back, back, back to infinity, as if she were caught between two parallel mirrors. The thought occurred to her that in her many previous lives she had probably had to endure an untold amount of the same sort of gossip, and this made her even more fed up with her situation. So when she left meditation she told Ajaan Fuang of how tired she was of being gossiped about. He tried to console her, saying, "This sort of thing is part and parcel of the world, you know. Where there's praise, there also has to be criticism and gossip. When you know this, why let yourself get involved?"<br /><br />Her mood was so strong, though, that she argued with him, "I'm not getting involved with them, Than Phaw. They come and get involved with me!"<br /><br />So he turned the tables on her: "Then why don't you ask yourself — who asked you to butt in and be born here in the first place?"<br /><br />§ "If they say you're no good, remind yourself that their words go only as far as their lips. They've never reached out and touched you at all."<br /><br />§ "Other people criticize us and then forget all about it, but we take it and keep thinking about it. It's as if they spit out some food and we pick it up and eat it. When that's the case, who's being stupid?"<br /><br />§ "Pretend you have stones weighing down your ears, so that you don't get blown away by everything you hear said."<br /><br />§ One day Ajaan Fuang asked, as if out of the blue, "If your clothing fell down into a cesspool, would you pick it back up again?"<br /><br />The woman he asked had no idea what he was getting at, but knew that if she wasn't careful about answering his questions, she'd come out looking like a fool, so she hedged her answer: "It depends. If it was my only set of clothing, I'd have to pick it up. But if I had other sets, I'd probably let it go. What are you getting at, Than Phaw?"<br /><br />"If you like to hear bad things about other people, then even though you have no part in the bad karma of their acts, you still pick up some of the stench."<br /><br />§ If any of his students were bearing a grudge about something, he would tell them: "You can't even sacrifice something as minor as this? Think of it as making a gift. Remember how many valuable things the Buddha sacrificed during his life as Prince Vessantara, and then ask yourself, 'This anger of mine has no value at all. Why can't I sacrifice it, too?'"<br /><br />§ "Think first before you act. Don't be the sort of person who acts first and then has to think about it afterwards."<br /><br />§ "Beware of fall-in-the-well kindness: the cases where you want to help other people, but instead of your pulling them up, they pull you down."<br /><br />§ "When people say something is good, it's their idea of good. But is it always what's really good for you?"<br /><br />§ "If people hate you, that's when you're let off the hook. You can come and go as you like without having to worry about whether or not they'll miss you or get upset at your going. And you don't have to bring any presents for them when you come back. You're free to do as you like."<br /><br />§ "Trying to win out over other people brings nothing but animosity and bad karma. It's better to win out over yourself."<br /><br />§ "Whatever you lose, let it be lost, but don't ever lose heart."<br /><br />§ "If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift. Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity."<br /><br />§ "Their taking what's yours is better than your taking what's theirs."<br /><br />§ "If it's really yours, it'll have to stay with you, no matter what. If it's not really yours, why get all worked up about it?"<br /><br />§ "There's nothing wrong with being poor on the outside, but make sure you're not poor on the inside. Make yourself rich in generosity, virtue, and meditation — the treasures of the mind."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students complained to him, "I look at other people, and they seem to have such an easy life. Why is life so hard on me?" His answer: "Your 'hard life' is ten, twenty times 'the good life' for a lot of people. Why don't you look at the people who have a harder time than you do?"<br /><br />§ Sometimes when any of his students were facing hardships in life, Ajaan Fuang would teach them to remind themselves: "How can I blame anyone else? Nobody ever hired me to be born. I came of my own free will."<br /><br />§ "Everything that happens has its lifespan. It won't last forever. When its lifespan is up, it'll go away on its own."<br /><br />§ "To have a partner in life is to suffer. To have a good partner is really to suffer, because of all the attachment."<br /><br />§ "Sensual pleasure is like a drug: One taste and you get addicted. They say that with heroin it's hard to break the habit, but this is even worse. It goes deep, right into the bone. It's what made us get born in the first place, and has kept us circling through birth and death for aeons and aeons. There's no medicine you can take to break the habit, to wash it out of your system, aside from the medicine of the Buddha's teachings."<br /><br />§ "When we see Hindus worshiping Siva lingas it looks strange to us, but actually everyone in the world worships the Siva linga — i.e., they worship sex, simply that the Hindus are the only ones who are open about it. Sex is the creator of the world. The reason we're all born is because we worship the Siva linga in our hearts."<br /><br />§ Once, when one of Ajaan Fuang's students was being pressured by her parents to look for a husband so that she could settle down and have children, she asked him, "Is it true what they say, that a woman gains a lot of merit in having a child, in that she gives someone else the chance to be born?"<br /><br />"If that were true," he answered her, "then dogs would get gobs of merit, because they give birth to whole litters at a time."<br /><br />§ He also told her, "Getting married is no way to escape suffering. Actually, all you do is pile more suffering on yourself. The Buddha taught that the five khandhas are a heavy burden, but if you get married, all of a sudden you have ten to worry about, and then fifteen, and then twenty..."<br /><br />§ "You have to be your own refuge. If you're the sort that has to take refuge in other people, then you'll have to see things the same way they do, which means you have to be stupid the same way they are. So pull yourself out of all that, and take a good look at yourself until things are clear within you."<br /><br />§ "You may think, 'my child, my child,' but is it really yours? Even your own body isn't really yours."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students, when she was suffering a serious liver disease, dreamed that she had died and gone to heaven. She took this as a bad omen and so went to Wat Makut to tell her dream to Ajaan Fuang. He tried to console her, saying that it was really a good omen in disguise. If she survived the disease, she'd probably get a promotion at work. If she didn't, she'd be reborn in good circumstances. As soon as he said this, though, she got very upset: "But I'm not ready to die!"<br /><br />"Look," he told her, "when the time comes to go, you have to be willing to go. Life isn't a rubber band you can stretch out or shrink as you like."<br /><br />§ "If there are any sensual pleasures you really hunger for, it's a sign you enjoyed them before in a previous life. That's why you miss them so much this time around. If you think about this long enough, it should be enough to make you dispassionate and dismayed."<br /><br />The Celibate Life <br /><br />§ "Some people say that monks don't do any work, but actually the work of abandoning your defilements is the most difficult work in the world. The work of the everyday world has its days off, but our work doesn't have any time off at all. It's something you have to do 24 hours a day. Sometimes you may feel you're not up to it, but still you have to do it. If you don't, who's going to do it for you? It's your duty, and nobody else's. If you don't do it, what are you living off the donations of other people for?"<br /><br />§ "Whatever work you're doing, keep an eye on your mind. If you see that it's going off the path, stop whatever you're doing and focus all your attention on it. The work of looking after your mind should always come first."<br /><br />§ "The Buddha's Dhamma is akaliko — timeless. The reason we haven't reached it yet is because we have lots of times: time for this, time for that, time to work, time to rest, time to eat, time to sleep... Our whole life turns into times, and as a result they don't give us a chance to see the truth clearly within ourselves. So we have to make our practice timeless. That's when the truth will appear in our hearts."<br /><br />§ Ajaan Fuang was very meticulous about keeping things clean and in their place, and taught his students to be meticulous too, for that was the way he was taught by his teachers, and he knew that he had benefitted from it. In his words, "If you can't master obvious things like this, how are you going to master the subtle things, like the mind?"<br /><br />§ The monk who attended to his needs — cleaning his hut, boiling the water for his bath, looking after him when he was sick, etc. — had to be very observant, for Ajaan Fuang used the teacher-student relationship as an opportunity to teach by example. Instead of explaining where things should be placed or when certain duties should be done, he left it up to the student to observe for himself. If he caught on, Ajaan Fuang wouldn't say anything. If he didn't, Ajaan Fuang would give him a dressing down — but still wouldn't explain what was wrong. It was up to the student to figure things out for himself. As Ajaan Fuang said, "If it gets to the point where I have to tell you, it shows that we're still strangers."<br /><br />§ One evening, one of the monks at Wat Dhammasathit saw Ajaan Fuang working alone, picking up scraps of lumber around the chedi construction site and putting them in order. The monk ran down to help him, and after a while asked him, "Than Phaw, this sort of work isn't something you should be doing alone. There are lots of other people. Why don't you get them to help?"<br /><br />"I am getting other people to help," Ajaan Fuang answered as he continued to pick up pieces of wood.<br /><br />"Who?" the monk asked as he looked around and saw no one else.<br /><br />"You."<br /><br />§ When I returned to Thailand in 1976 to be ordained, Ajaan Fuang gave me two warnings: 1) "Being a meditator isn't simply a matter of sitting with your eyes closed. You have to be sharp at everything you do."<br /><br />2) "If you want to learn, you have to think like a thief and figure out how to steal your knowledge. What this means is that you can't just wait for the teacher to explain everything. You have to notice for yourself what he does, and why — for everything he does has its reason."<br /><br />§ The relationship of a monk to his supporters is something of a balancing act. One of Ajaan Fuang's favorite reminders to his monk disciples was, "Remember, nobody's hired you to become a monk. You haven't ordained to become anybody's servant." But if a monk complained that the monastery attendants weren't doing as they were told, he'd say, "Did you ordain to have other people wait on you?"<br /><br />§ "Our life depends on the support of others, so don't do anything that would weigh them down."<br /><br />§ "Monks who eat the food that other people donate, but then don't practice, can expect to be reborn as water buffaloes next time around, to till the fields and work off their debts."<br /><br />§ "Don't think that the small disciplinary rules aren't important. As Ajaan Mun once said, logs have never gotten into people's eyes, but fine sawdust can — and it can blind you."<br /><br />§ Western women are often upset when they learn that monks aren't allowed to touch them, and they usually take it as a sign that Buddhism discriminates against women. But as Ajaan Fuang explained it, "The reason the Buddha didn't allow monks to touch women is not that there's anything wrong with women. It's because there's something wrong with the monks: They still have mental defilements, which is why they have to be kept under control."<br /><br />§ For anyone who tries to follow the celibate life, the opposite sex is the biggest temptation to leave the path. If Ajaan Fuang was teaching monks, he'd say, "Women are like vines. At first they seem so weak and soft, but if you let them grow on you, they curl up around you until they have you all tied up and finally bring you down."<br /><br />When teaching nuns, he'd warn them about men. Once a nun was thinking of disrobing and returning home, knowing that her father would arrange a marriage for her. She asked Ajaan Fuang for advice, and he told her, "Ask yourself. Do you want to live inside the noose or out?" As a result, she decided she'd rather stay out.<br /><br />§ "If you find yourself thinking about sex, run your hand over your head to remind yourself of who you are."<br /><br />§ Ajaan Fuang had many stories to tell about his times with Ajaan Lee. One of my favorites was of the time a large group of Ajaan Lee's Bangkok students arranged to go with him on a meditation trip into the forest. They agreed to meet at Hua Lampong, the main train station in Bangkok, and take the train north to Lopburi. When the group assembled at the station, though, it turned out that many of them had each brought along at least two large suitcases of "necessities" for the trip, and even many of the monks from Bangkok monasteries had brought along large loads. On seeing this, Ajaan Lee said nothing, but simply set out walking north along the railroad tracks. Since he was walking, everyone had to walk, although it wasn't long before the members of the group most burdened down began complaining, "Than Phaw, why are you making us walk? We've got so much heavy stuff to carry!"<br /><br />At first Ajaan Lee said nothing, but finally told them, as he kept on walking, "If it's heavy, then why burden yourself with it?" It took a few moments for his message to sink in, but soon the different members of the group had stopped to open their bags and throw everything unessential into the lotus ponds that lined either side of the railroad tracks. When they reached the next train station, Ajaan Lee saw that they had trimmed down their belongings enough that he could let them take the next train north.<br /><br />§ "When you live in a monastery, pretend that you're living alone: What this means is that once you've finished with the group activities — the meal, the chanting, the chores, and so on — you don't have to get involved with anyone. Go back to your hut and meditate.<br /><br />"When you live alone, pretend that you're in a monastery: Set up a schedule and stick to it."<br /><br />§ When I went to Wat Asokaram — a very large monastery — for my first Rains Retreat, Ajaan Fuang told me, "If they ask you questions in Thai, answer in English. If they ask in English, answer in Thai. After a while they'll get tired to talking to you, and will leave you alone to meditate."<br /><br />§ "It's good to live in a monastery where not everyone is serious about the practice, because it teaches you to depend on yourself. If you lived only with people who were serious meditators, you'd get so that you wouldn't be able to survive anywhere else."<br /><br />§ "We keep disagreeable people around the monastery as a way of testing to see if our defilements really are all gone."<br /><br />§ "The purpose of adhering to the ascetic practices is to wear down your defilements. If you adhere to them with the thought of impressing other people, you'd do better not to adhere to them at all."<br /><br />§ On fasting as an aid to meditation: "For some people it works well, for others it works just the opposite — the more they fast, the stronger their defilements get. It's not the case that when you starve the body you starve the defilements, because defilements don't come from the body. They come from the mind."<br /><br />§ "There's a passage where the Buddha asks, 'Days and nights pass by, pass by. What are you doing right now?' So what answer do you have for him?"<br /><br />§ "If you go teaching others before your own practice is up to standard, you do more harm than good."<br /><br />§ "Training a meditator is like training a boxer: You pull your punches and don't hit him any harder than he can take. But when he comes back at you, he gives it everything he's got."<br /><br />§ The first time I was going to give a sermon, Ajaan Fuang told me: "Pretend you have a sword in your hand. If any people in the audience think critical thoughts of you, cut off their heads."<br /><br />§ When I first went to Wat Dhammasathit, the trip from Bangkok was an all-day affair, since the roads were much worse and more roundabout than now. One evening a woman rented a cab and traveled all the way from Bangkok to get Ajaan Fuang's advice on the problems she was having in her family, and after a couple of hours of consultation she took the cab all the way back.<br /><br />After she left, he said to me, "There's one good thing about living way out here: If we were living near Bangkok, people with a lot of free time on their hands and no idea of how to spend it would come and waste our time chatting all day. But here, when people make the effort to come out, it shows that they really want our help. And no matter how many hours it takes to talk things over with them, it's no waste of time at all."<br /><br />§ "When people come to see me, I have them sit and meditate first so that they know how to make their minds quiet. Only then will I let them bring up any other problems they may want to talk about. If you try discussing things with them when their minds aren't quiet, there's no way they'll understand."<br /><br />§ "If people get it into their heads that they're enlightened when they aren't, then you shouldn't waste any breath on trying to straighten them out. If they don't have faith in you 100%, then the more you try to reason with them, the more they'll get set in their opinions. If they do have faith in you, then all it takes is one sentence or two and they'll come to their senses."<br /><br />§ Once the father of one of the monks living with Ajaan Fuang wrote his son a letter asking him to disrobe, return home, continue his studies, get a job, start a family, and have a normal, happy life like everyone else in the world. The monk mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, who said, "He says his kind of happiness is something special, but look at it — what kind of happiness is it, really? Just the same old smelly stuff you left when you ordained. Isn't there any happiness better than that?"<br /><br />Meditation <br /><br />§ Many were the times when people would tell Ajaan Fuang that — with all the work and responsibilities in their lives — they had no time to meditate. And many were the times he'd respond, "And you think you'll have time after you're dead?"<br /><br />§ "All you have to study is the meditation-word, buddho. As for any other fields you might study, they never come to an end, and can't take you beyond suffering. But once you're come to the end of buddho, that's when you'll come to true happiness."<br /><br />§ "When the mind's not quiet — that's when its poor and burdened with difficulties. It takes molehills and turns them into mountains. But when the mind is quiet, there's no suffering, because there's nothing at all. No mountains at all. When there's a lot to the mind, it's simply a lot of defilement, making it suffer."<br /><br />§ "If you're single-minded about whatever you think of doing, you're sure to succeed."<br /><br />§ "When you're thinking buddho you don't have to wonder about whether or not you'll do well in your meditation. If you put your mind to it, you're sure to do well. The things that come to disturb you are simply the forces of temptation, come to put on a play. Whatever the play, all you have to do is watch — you don't have to get on stage with them."<br /><br />§ "What's really essential is that you bring your views in line with the truth. Once your views are right, the mind will immediately come to rest. If your views are wrong, everything is immediately wrong. All the things you need for the practice — the breath, the mind — are already there. So try to bring your views in line with the breath, and you won't have to use a lot of force in your meditation. The mind will settle down and come to rest right away."<br /><br />§ "The mind is like a king. Its moods are like his ministers. Don't be a king who's easily swayed by his court."<br /><br />§ A group of laypeople who had studied the Abhidhamma together came to Ajaan Fuang to try out his version of mental training, but when he told them to sit, close their eyes, and focus on the breath, they immediately backed off, saying that they didn't want to practice concentration, for fear that they'd get stuck on jhana and end up being reborn in the Brahma worlds. He responded, "What's there to be afraid of? Even non-returners are reborn in the Brahma worlds. At any rate, being reborn in the Brahma worlds is better than being reborn as a dog."<br /><br />§ When Ajaan Fuang taught meditation, he didn't like to map things out in advance. As soon as he had explained the beginning steps, he'd have the student start sitting right in his presence, and then take the steps back home to work on there. If anything came up in the course of the practice, he'd explain how to deal with it and then go on to the next step.<br /><br />Once a layman who had known more than his share of meditation teachers came to discuss the Dhamma with Ajaan Fuang, asking him many questions of an advanced nature as a way of testing his level of attainment. Ajaan Fuang asked him in return, "Have you had these experiences in your own meditation yet?"<br /><br />"No, not yet."<br /><br />"Then in that case I'd rather not discuss them, because if we discuss them when they're not yet a reality for you, they'll just be theories, and not the real Dhamma."<br /><br />§ One meditator noticed that his practice under Ajaan Fuang was making quick progress, and so he asked what the next step would be. "I'm not going to tell you," Ajaan Fuang said. "Otherwise you'll become the sort of amazing marvel who knows everything before he meets with it, and masters everything before he's tried his hand. Just keep practicing and you'll find out on your own."<br /><br />§ "You can't plan the way your practice is going to go. The mind has its own steps and stages, and you have to let the practice follow in line with them. That's the only way you'll get genuine results. Otherwise you'll turn into a half-baked arahant."<br /><br />§ "Don't make a journal of your meditation experiences. If you do, you'll start meditating in order to have this or that thing happen, so that you can write it down in your journal. And as a result, you'll end up with nothing but the things you've fabricated."<br /><br />§ Some people are afraid to meditate too seriously, for fear that they'll go crazy, but as Ajaan Fuang once said, "You have to be crazy about meditation if you want to meditate well. And as for whatever problems come up, there are always ways to solve them. What's really scary is if you don't meditate enough for the problems to come out in the open in the first place."<br /><br />§ "Other people can teach you only the outer skin, but as for what lies deeper inside, only you can lay down the law for yourself. You have to draw the line, being mindful, keeping track of what you do at all times. It's like having a teacher following you around, in public and in private, keeping watch over you, telling you what to do and what not to do, making sure that you stay in line. If you don't have this sort of teacher inside you, the mind is bound to stray off the path and get into mischief, shoplifting all over town."<br /><br />§ "Persistence comes from conviction, discernment from being mindful."<br /><br />§ "Persistence in the practice is a matter of the mind, and not of your posture. In other words, whatever you do, keep your mindfulness constant and don't let it lapse. No matter what your activity, make sure the mind sticks with its meditation work."<br /><br />§ "When you start out sitting in meditation, it takes a long time for the mind to settle down, but as soon as the session is over you get right up and throw it away. It's like climbing a ladder slowly, step by step, to the second floor, and then jumping out the window."<br /><br />§ A woman army officer sat in meditation with Ajaan Fuang at Wat Makut until it seemed that her mind was especially blissful and bright. But when she returned home, instead of trying to maintain that state of mind, she sat around listening to a friend's woes until she herself started feeling depressed, too. A few days later she returned to Wat Makut and told Ajaan Fuang what had happened. He responded, "You took gold and traded it in for excrement."<br /><br />§ Another student disappeared for several months, and on her return told Ajaan Fuang, "The reason I didn't show up is that my boss sent me to night school for a semester, so I didn't have any time to meditate at all. But now that the course is over, I don't want to do anything but meditate — no work, no study, just let the mind be still."<br /><br />She thought he'd be pleased to hear how intent she still was on meditating, but he disappointed her. "So you don't want to work — that's a defilement, isn't it? Whoever said that people can't work and meditate at the same time?"<br /><br />§ "Meditating isn't a matter of making the mind empty, you know. The mind has to have work to do. If you make it empty, then anything — good or bad — can pop into it. It's like leaving the front door to your home open. Anything at all can come strolling right in."<br /><br />§ A young nurse practiced meditation with Ajaan Fuang several days running, and finally asked him one day, "Why wasn't today's session as good as yesterday's?"<br /><br />He answered: "Meditating is like wearing clothes. Today you wear white, tomorrow red, yellow, blue, whatever. You have to keep changing. You can't wear the same set of clothes all the time. So whatever color you're wearing, just be aware of it. Don't get depressed or excited about it."<br /><br />§ A few months later the same nurse was sitting in meditation when a sense of peace and clarity in her mind became so intense that she felt she would never have a bad mood infiltrate her mind again. But sure enough, bad moods eventually came back as before. When she mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, he said, "Looking after the mind is like raising a child. There will have to be bad days along with the good. If you want only the good, you're in for trouble. So you have to play neutral: Don't fall in with the good or the bad."<br /><br />§ "When the meditation goes well, don't get excited. When it doesn't go well, don't get depressed. Simply be observant to see why it's good, why it's bad. If you can be observant like this, it won't be long before your meditation becomes a skill."<br /><br />§ "Everything depends on your powers of observation. If they're crude and sloppy, you'll get nothing but crude and sloppy results. And your meditation will have no hope of making progress."<br /><br />§ One day a young woman was sitting in meditation with Ajaan Fuang and everything seemed to go well. Her mind was clear and relaxed, and she could contemplate the elements in her body as he told her, step by step, with no problem at all. But the next day, nothing went right. After the session was over, he asked her, "How did it go today?"<br /><br />She answered, "Yesterday I felt as if I were smart, today I feel like I'm stupid."<br /><br />So he asked her further, "Are the smart person and the stupid person the same person or not?"<br /><br />§ A student came to complain to Ajaan Fuang that she had been meditating for years, and still hadn't gotten anything out of it. His immediate response: "You don't meditate to 'get' anything. You meditate to let go."<br /><br />§ The seamstress, after practicing meditation with Ajaan Fuang for several months, told him that her mind seemed more of a mess than it was before she began meditating. "Of course it does," he told her. "It's like your house. If you polish the floor every day, you won't be able to stand the least little bit of dust on it. The cleaner the house, the more easily you'll see the dirt. If you don't keep polishing the mind, you can let it go out and sleep in the mud without any qualms at all. But once you get it to sleep on a polished floor, then if there's even a speck of dust, you'll have to sweep it away. You won't be able to stand the mess."<br /><br />§ "If you get excited by other people's experiences in meditation, it's like getting excited by other people's wealth. And what do you gain from that? Pay attention to developing your own wealth instead."<br /><br />§ "Good will and compassion, if they aren't backed up by equanimity, can cause you to suffer. That's why you need the equanimity of jhana to perfect them."<br /><br />§ "Your concentration has to be Right Concentration: just right, on an even keel, all the time. Whatever you do — sitting, standing, walking, lying down — don't let it have any ups and downs."<br /><br />§ "Concentration: You have to learn how to do it, how to maintain it, and how to put it to use."<br /><br />§ "Once you catch hold of the mind, it'll stay in the present, without slipping off to the past or future. That's when you'll be able to make it do whatever you want."<br /><br />§ "When you get so that you catch on to the meditation, it's like a kite that finally catches the wind. It won't want to come down."<br /><br />§ One evening, after a work party at Wat Dhammasathit, Ajaan Fuang took his lay students up to the chedi to meditate. One woman in the group felt completely exhausted from all the work, but joined in the meditation anyway, out of deference to him. As she sat there, her awareness got weaker and weaker, smaller and smaller, to the point where she thought she was going to die. Ajaan Fuang happened to walk past and said, "There's no need to be afraid of death. You die with every in and out breath."<br /><br />This gave her the strength to fight off her exhaustion, and to continue meditating.<br /><br />§ "To meditate is to practice dying, so that you'll be able to do it right."<br /><br />Breathing <br /><br />§ When my father came for a visit to Wat Dhammasathit, I got him to sit and meditate with Ajaan Fuang, while I acted as interpreter. Before starting, my father asked if his being a Christian would be an obstacle to the meditation. Ajaan Fuang assured him that it wouldn't: "We're going to focus on the breath. The breath doesn't belong to Buddhism or Christianity or anyone else. It's common property all over the world, and everyone has the right to look at it. So try looking at the breath until you can see your own mind and know your own mind. Then the question of what religion you belong to won't be an issue, because we can talk about the mind instead of discussing religions. This way we can understand each other."<br /><br />§ "When you do anything in meditation, relate it to the breath, for that's the basis of the entire skill we're developing."<br /><br />§ "Catching the mind is like catching eels. If you simply jump down into the mud and try to grab hold of them, they'll slip off every which way. You have to find something they like — as when people take a dead dog, put it in a big clay jar and then bury it in the mud. In no time at all the eels come swimming into the jar of their own free will to feed off the dog, and then all you have to do it put your hand over the mouth of the jar and there you are: You've got your eels.<br /><br />"It's the same with the mind. You have to find something it likes, so make the breath as comfortable as you can, to the point where it feels good throughout the whole body. The mind likes comfort, so it'll come of its own free will, and then it's easy to catch hold of it."<br /><br />§ "You have to know the breath at all times, and then happiness will be yours. The human state, the heavenly state, and nibbana are all here in the breath. If you get carried away with other things, happiness will slip through your fingers, so you have to learn how to observe the in-and-out breath at all times. Pay attention to how it's getting along — don't leave it to fend for itself. When you know its way of life — sitting, standing, walking, everything — then you can get what you want from it. The body will be light, the mind at ease, happy at all times."<br /><br />§ "The breath can take you all the way to nibbana, you know."<br /><br />§ "The first step is simply to look at the breath as it is. You don't have to go fiddling around with it a lot. Just think bud- with the in-breath, and dho with the out. Bud- in, dho out. Don't force the breath, or force the mind into a trance. Simply hold the mind carefully right there with each breath."<br /><br />§ "How do you use your powers of observation to get acquainted with the breath? Ask yourself: Do you know the breath? Is the breath there? If you can't see whether the breath is for real, look further in until it's clearly there. There's no great mystery to it. It's always real, right there. The important thing is whether or not you're for real. If you are, then simply keep at it. That's all there is to it. Simply keep being real, being true in what you do, and your meditation will make progress. It'll gradually grow stronger, and the mind will grow calm. Just be clear about what you're doing. Don't have any doubts. If you can doubt even your own breath, then there are no two ways about it: You'll doubt everything. No matter what happens, you'll be uncertain about it. So be straightforward and true in whatever you do, for everything comes down to whether or not you're true."<br /><br />§ "Once the mind stays with the breath, you don't have to repeat buddho in the mind. It's like calling your water buffalo. Once it comes, why keep calling its name?"<br /><br />§ "Make the mind and the breath one and the same. Don't let them be two."<br /><br />§ "Don't be a post planted in the mud. Have you ever seen a post planted in the mud? It sways back and forth and can never stand firm. Whatever you do, be firm and single-minded about it. Like when you focus on the breath: Make the mind one with it, like a post planted firmly in solid rock."<br /><br />§ "Hold onto the breath the way a red ant bites: Even if you pull its body so that it separates from the head, the head will keep on biting and won't let go."<br /><br />§ When I first heard Ajaan Fuang talk about "catching hold" of the breath, I didn't understand him. I'd sit tensing up my body to catch hold of it, but this simply made me feel tired and ill at ease. Then one day, as I was riding the bus to Wat Makut, I sat in concentration and found that if I let the breath follow its natural course, it felt a lot more comfortable, and the mind wouldn't run away from it. When I reached Wat Makut, being a typical Westerner, I took him to task, "Why do you say to catch the breath? The more you catch it, the more uncomfortable it is. You have to let it go to flow naturally."<br /><br />He laughed and said, "That isn't what I meant. To 'catch it' means to stick with it, to follow it and to make sure you don't wander away from it. You don't have to squeeze or force or control it. Whatever it's like, just keep on watching it."<br /><br />§ "Get so that you really know the breath, not just that you're simply aware of it."<br /><br />§ "Observing the breath is the cause, the pleasure that arises is the result. Focus as much as you can on the cause. If you ignore the cause and get carried away with the result, it'll run out and you'll end up with nothing at all."<br /><br />§ "When you focus on the breath, measure things by how much pleasure you feel. If both the breath and the mind feel pleasant, you're doing okay. If either the breath or the mind feels uncomfortable, that's when you have to make adjustments."<br /><br />§ "The main thing when you meditate is to be observant. If you feel ill at ease, change the breath until you feel better. If the body feels heavy, think of spreading the breath so that it feels light. Tell yourself that the breath can come in and out every pore of your skin."<br /><br />§ "When the book says to focus on the breath sensations in the different parts of the body, it means to focus on whatever feelings are already there in the body."<br /><br />§ "The breath can be a resting place for the mind, or it can be what the mind actively contemplates. When the mind isn't willing to settle down and be still, it's a sign that it wants exercise. So we give it work to do. We make it scan the body and contemplate the breath sensations in the different parts to see how they're related to the in-and-out breath, to see where the energy flows smoothly and where it's blocked. But make sure that your mind doesn't wander outside of the body. Keep it circling around inside and don't let it stop until it gets tired. Once it's tired you can find a place for it to rest, and it'll stay there without your having to force it."<br /><br />§ "Make the breath viscous and then think of it exploding to fill the whole body."<br /><br />§ Ajaan Fuang once told a student who liked to keep in shape with yoga and aerobic exercises every day: "Use the breath to keep in shape instead. Sit in meditation and spread the breath throughout the body, to every part. The mind will get trained and the body will be strong with no need to tie it into knots or make it jump around."<br /><br />§ A nun who practiced meditation with Ajaan Fuang had had poor health since she was a child, and was always coming down with one disease or another. Ajaan Fuang told her: "Every morning when you wake up, sit and meditate to give yourself a physical examination, to see where the aches and pains are, and then use your breathing to treat them. The heavy pains will grow lighter; the light ones will disappear. But don't make a big deal out of whether or not they disappear. Keep on examining the body and dealing with the breath no matter what happens, because the important point is that you're training your mindfulness to stay with the body, to the point where it's strong enough to go above and beyond pain."<br /><br />§ "Adjust the breath until it's perfectly even. If you see a white light, bring it into the body and let it explode out to every pore. The mind will be still; the body weightless. You'll feel white and bright all over, and your heart will be at ease."<br /><br />§ "When the breath fills the body, it's like water filling a jar to the brim. Even though you may try to pour more into it, that's all it can take. It's just right, in and of itself."<br /><br />§ "Meditation needs rapture — a feeling of fullness in body and mind — as its lubricant. Otherwise it gets too dry."<br /><br />§ "When you meditate you have to let go in stages. Like when they go into outer space: The space capsule has to let go of the booster rockets before it can reach the moon."<br /><br />§ "When the mind is really in place you can let go of the breath, and it won't wander off anywhere. It's like pouring cement: If the cement hasn't set, you can't remove the plywood forms, but once it's set, it'll stay where it is without any need for the forms at all."<br /><br />§ "Spread the breath until the body and mind are so light that there's no sense of body at all — just awareness itself. The mind will be clear like crystal clean water. You can look down into the water and see your own face. You'll be able to see what's going on in your mind."<br /><br />§ "When the breath is full and still, you let go of it. Then you think of each of the other elements in the body — fire, water, and earth — one by one. When they're all clear you put them together, i.e., balance them so that the body isn't too hot, too cold, too heavy too light: just right in every way. Now you let go of that and stay with the space element — a feeling of emptiness. When you're skilled at staying with space, look at what's saying "space". This is where you turn to look at awareness itself, the element of consciousness. Once the mind has become one like this, you can then let go of the oneness, and see what's left.<br /><br />"After you can do this, you practice going in and out of the various stages until you're skilled at it, and you can notice the various modes of the mind as you do it. That's where discernment will begin to appear."<br /><br />§ "In contemplating yourself, the six elements have to come first. You take them apart and put them back together again, as when you learn your ABC's and how to make them into words. After a while you can make any word you want."<br /><br />§ "Take your time to make sure that this foundation is solid. Once it's solid, then no matter how many storeys you want to build on top of it, they'll go up quickly and stay in place."<br /><br />§ "If you were to say it's easy, well yes, it's easy. If you were to say it's hard, it's hard. It all depends on you."<br /><br />§ "The basic steps of breath meditation that Ajaan Lee describes in his Method 2 are just the main outline of the practice. As for the details, you have to use your own ingenuity to work variations on his outline so that it fits your experiences. That's when you'll get results."<br /><br />§ "If you're having any problems in your concentration, check what you're doing against the seven steps in Method 2. I've found that if anyone comes to me with problems in their concentration, all I have to do is apply one of the seven steps. They're basic to all meditation."<br /><br />§ "The texts say that breath meditation is right for everyone, but that's not really the case. Only if you're meticulous can you get results from focusing on the breath."<br /><br />§ "A famous meditation teacher once criticized Ajaan Lee: 'Why do you teach people to look at the breath? What is there to look at? There's just in and out. How are they going to gain discernment from looking at just that?' He answered, 'If that's all they see, that's all they'll get.' This is a question that comes from not knowing how to look."<br /><br />§ "People of discernment can take anything at all and put it to good use."<br /><br />Visions & Signs <br /><br />§ One year — when Ajaan Fuang was seeing a Chinese doctor in Bangkok for his skin disease and staying at Wat Asokaram — a group of nuns and laypeople came to practice meditation with him every night. Some members of the group would report having this or that vision in the course of their meditation, and finally one of the nuns complained: "I know that my mind isn't slipping off anywhere; it's staying right with the breath all the time, so why aren't I having any visions like everyone else?"<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang answered her, "Do you know how lucky you are? With people who have visions, this, that, and the other thing is always coming in to interfere. But you don't have any old karma to get in the way of your meditation, so you can focus directly on the mind without having to get involved with any outside things at all."<br /><br />§ "Don't be amazed by people with visions. Visions are nothing else but dreams. There are true ones and false ones. You can't really trust them."<br /><br />§ A Bangkok housewife who was practicing meditation with Ajaan Fuang heard some of his other students say that meditation without visions was the straight path. It so happened that she had frequent visions in her meditation, and so hearing this made her wonder why her path was so winding and convoluted. When she asked Ajaan Fuang about this, he told her: "Having visions in your meditation is like having lots of lush wild greens growing along the side of your path. You can gather them as you go along, so that you'll have something to eat along the way, and you'll reach the end of the path just like everyone else. As for other people, they might see the greens without gathering them, or may not even see them at all — because their path goes through arid land."<br /><br />§ "People who practice concentration fall into two groups: those who have signs via the eyes when their minds settle down, and those who have signs via the body. People in the first group are the ones who see visions of people, animals, whatever. Those in the second group don't have visions, but when their minds settle down, their bodies will feel unusually heavy or light, large or small, etc. When these people focus on the elements in their body, they'll notice them as feelings: warmth, coolness, heaviness, spaciousness, and so forth.<br /><br />"If I'm teaching people like this how to meditate, I don't have to worry about them too much, because there aren't many dangers in their path — aside from the danger of their getting discouraged because they don't see anything happening in their meditation. The ones I worry about are those in the first group, because they have lots of dangers. Their visions can lead them to jump to all sorts of false conclusions. If they don't learn the right way to deal with their visions, they'll get stuck on them and never be able to reach any higher level than that."<br /><br />§ "Visions — or whatever things appear in the course of your meditation: It's not the case that you shouldn't pay any attention to them, for some kinds of visions have important messages. So when things like this appear, you have to look into how they're appearing, why they're appearing, and for what purpose."<br /><br />§ "People who have visions have a double-edged sword in their hands, so they have to be careful. The things that appear have their uses and their dangers. So learn how to squeeze out their uses and leave the dangers behind."<br /><br />§ Usually if any of Ajaan Fuang's students saw a vision of their own body in meditation, he'd have them divide it up in the vision into the four elements — earth, water, wind, and fire — or into its 32 basic parts, and then set fire to it until it was nothing but ashes. If the same vision reappeared, he'd have them deal with it the same way again until they were quick at it.<br /><br />One of his students, a nun, was practicing this sort of meditation every day, but as soon as she had divided the body into its 32 parts and was getting ready to set fire to it, another image of her body would appear right next to the first. As soon as she was getting ready to cremate the second one, another one would appear right next to it, and then another, and another, like fish lined up on a platter waiting to be grilled. As she looked at them she felt fed up with the idea of continuing, but when she mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, he told her, "The whole purpose in doing this is to get fed up, but not fed up with the doing."<br /><br />§ Another technique Ajaan Fuang taught for dealing with an image of one's own body would be to focus on what it looked like the first week in the womb, the second week, the third, and so on to the day of birth; then the first month after that, the second month, the first year, the second year, and so on up until old age and death.<br /><br />One woman was trying this technique, but it seemed too slow to her, so she focused on five- and ten-year intervals instead. When Ajaan Fuang found out, he told her, "You're skipping over all the important parts," and then made up a new set of rules: "Think of your head and then think of pulling out one hair at a time and placing it in the palm of your hand. See how much you can pull out, and then replant it one hair at a time. If you haven't finished, don't leave your meditation until you do. If you want to pull it out in bunches, okay, but you have to replant it one hair at a time. You have to go into the details like this if you want to gain anything good from it."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students asked him, "Why is it that the intuitions I get from my concentration come in such short flashes, without letting me catch the whole picture?" He answered, "When they put a record on a record player, the needle has to keep bearing down continually if you're going to hear the whole story. If you don't keep bearing down, how can you expect to know anything?"<br /><br />§ Another student was sitting in meditation with Ajaan Fuang when she saw an image of a dead person in her concentration, asking for a share of some of the merit from her practice. This made her feel creepy, so she told Ajaan Fuang, "There's a ghost in front of me, Than Phaw."<br /><br />"That's not a ghost," he responded. "That's a person."<br /><br />"No, it's really a ghost," she insisted.<br /><br />"If that's a ghost," he said, "then you're a ghost. If you see it as a person, then you can be a person, too."<br /><br />§ After that he told her to spread thoughts of goodwill if she saw anything like that again, and the image would go away. So from that point on, that's what she'd do, at the drop of a hat, the minute she saw an image of a dead person in her meditation. When Ajaan Fuang found out about this, he taught her, "Wait a minute. Don't be in such a hurry to get rid of them. First look at what condition they're in and then ask them what karma they did to become that way. If you do this, you'll begin to gain some insight into the Dhamma."<br /><br />§ Several weeks later she had a vision of an emaciated woman holding a tiny child. The woman was wearing nothing but dirty rags, and the child was crying without stop. The student asked the woman in her vision what she had done to be so miserable, and the answer was that she had tried to have an abortion, but both she and the child had died as a result. Hearing this, the student couldn't help feeling sorry for them, but no matter how much she spread thoughts of goodwill to them, it didn't seem to help them at all, because their karma was so heavy.<br /><br />This had her upset, so she told Ajaan Fuang. He replied, "Whether or not they can receive your help is their business, and none of yours. Different people have different karma, and some are beyond help for the time being. You give what you can, but you don't have to go back and make an official inquiry into how things turned out. Do your duty and leave it at that. They ask for help, you give them what you can. They appear for you to see so that you'll learn more about the results of karma. That's enough. Once you're finished, go back to the breath."<br /><br />§ She kept following Ajaan Fuang's instructions until one day it occurred to her, "If I keep giving, giving, giving like this, will I have anything left for myself?" When she told her doubts to Ajaan Fuang, he gave her a blank look for a second and then said, "Boy, you really can be narrow-hearted when you want to be, can't you?" Then he explained: "Goodwill isn't a thing, like money, that the more you give, the less you have. It's more like having a lit candle in your hand. This person asks to light his candle from yours, that person asks to light hers. The more candles you light, the brighter it is for everyone — including you."<br /><br />§ Time passed and one day she had a vision of a dead man asking her to tell his children and grandchildren to make merit in such and such a way and to dedicate it to him. When she left meditation, she asked permission to go inform the dead man's children, but Ajaan Fuang said, "What for? You're not a mailman. Even if you were, he doesn't have any money to pay your wages. What kind of proof are you going to give them that what you say is true? If they believe you, you're going to get carried away and think that you're some special kind of psychic. Everywhere you go, you'll keep smiling this little smile to yourself. And if they don't believe you, you know what they'll say, don't you?"<br /><br />"What, Than Phaw?"<br /><br />"They'll say you're crazy."<br /><br />§ "There are true visions and false visions. So whenever you see one, just sit still and watch it. Don't get pulled into following it."<br /><br />§ "You should watch visions the same way you watch TV: Just watch it, without getting pulled inside the tube."<br /><br />§ Some of Ajaan Fuang's students would have visions of themselves or their friends in previous lifetimes and get all excited about what they saw. When they'd report their visions to Ajaan Fuang, he'd warn them, "You aren't still wrapped up in the past, are you? You're foolish if you are. You've been born and died countless aeons. If you took the bones of all your past bodies and piled them up, they'd be taller than Mount Sumeru. The water in all the oceans is less than the water of the tears you've shed over all the sufferings, big and small, you've been through. If you reflect on this with real discernment, you'll feel disenchanted with states of being, and no longer take pleasure in birth. Your mind will aim straight for nibbana."<br /><br />§ In 1976 Ajaan Fuang gained large numbers of new students. One of them wondered why this was the case, and so asked herself about it in her meditation. The answer came to her that Ajaan Fuang had had many children in a previous lifetime, and now they had been reborn as his students.<br /><br />When she left meditation, she asked him why this was so, figuring that he'd tell her that he had once been a king with a large harem, but instead he said, "I was probably a fish in the sea, laying who knows how many eggs at a time."<br /><br />§ One evening a school teacher was meditating at home and began remembering her previous lives all the way back to the time of King Asoka. In her vision she saw King Asoka beating her father mercilessly over a trivial infraction of palace etiquette. The next morning she went to tell Ajaan Fuang about her vision, and it was obvious that she was still furious with King Asoka for what she had seen him do.<br /><br />Ajaan Fuang didn't affirm or deny the truth of her vision. Instead, he spoke to her anger in the present, "Here you've been carrying this grudge for over 2,000 years, and where is it getting you? Go ask forgiveness of him in your mind and have done with it."<br /><br />§ "It's good that most people can't remember their previous lives. Otherwise things would be a lot more complicated than they already are."<br /><br />§ One woman, who at that point wasn't yet a student of Ajaan Fuang, was practicing meditation at home on her own when she had a vision of a sentence — somewhat like Pali, but not quite — appearing in her meditation. So she copied it down and went from wat to wat, asking various monks to translate it for her. No one could until she met one monk who told her that it was in arahant language, and only an arahant could understand what it said. Then he had the gall to translate it for her, after which he told her to bring him any other sentences she got from her visions, and he'd translate them, too.<br /><br />She wasn't completely convinced of what he had said, and happened to mention it to Ajaan Fuang when she first met him. His response: "What? Arahant language? The minds of arahants are above and beyond conventions. What kind of language would a mind like that have?"<br /><br />§ "People for the most part don't like the truth. They prefer make-believe instead."<br /><br />§ There were occasions when some of Ajaan Fuang's students would gain knowledge of one sort or another in their visions, get carried away with it, and yet he wouldn't take them to task. One day the seamstress asked him why he didn't warn such people that their practice was going off course, and he told her, "You have to look at how mature they are. If they're really adults, you can tell them straight out. If their minds are still infants, you have to let them play for a while, like a child with a new toy. If you're too harsh with them, they might get discouraged and give up completely. As they begin to mature they're sure to start seeing for themselves what's proper and what's not."<br /><br />§ "Don't have anything to do with the past or the future. Just stay with the present — that's enough. And even though that's where you're supposed to stay, you're not supposed to latch onto it. So why do think you should latch on to things where you're not even supposed to stay?"<br /><br />§ "You know that you shouldn't believe even your own visions, so why go believing the visions of others?"<br /><br />§ "If you can't let go of your visions, you'll never gain release."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students asked him, "When you see something in a vision, how can you know whether it's true or false?"<br /><br />His answer: "Even when it's true, it's true only in terms of convention. You have to get your mind beyond both true and false."<br /><br />§ "The purpose of the practice is to make the heart pure. All these other things are just games and entertainment."<br /><br />Right at Awareness <br /><br />§ "Whatever you experience, simply be aware of it. You don't have to take after it. The primal heart has no characteristics. It's aware of everything. But as soon as things make contact, within or without, they cause a lapse in mindfulness, so that we let go of awareness, forget awareness in and of itself, and take on all the characteristics of the things that come later. Then we act out in line with them — becoming happy, sad or whatever. The reason we're this way is because we take conventional truths and latch on to them tight. If we don't want to be under their influence, we'll have to stay with primal awareness at all times. This requires a great deal of mindfulness."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students was feeling mistreated by the world, and so went to him for consolation. He told her, "What's there to feel mistreated about? You're the one that's swayed under the events that have hit you, that's all. Contemplate what's happening and you'll see that the mind is something separate. Events come passing in and then go passing by. So why be influenced by them? Keep your mind right at the simple awareness that these things come and soon they'll be gone, so why follow them?"<br /><br />§ "What, really, is yours? When you die, you won't be able to take any of these things with you, so why waste time wanting anything? There's nothing you have to want at all. Make your mind quiet. Make it one. You don't have to concern yourself with your own attainments or those of other people. Simply be aware. That's enough."<br /><br />§ "Whenever anything hits you, let it go only as far as 'aware'. Don't let it go all the way into the heart."<br /><br />§ "All you need to do is keep your sense of simple awareness solid and strong, and nothing will be able to overwhelm you."<br /><br />§ "Stay with awareness itself at all times — except when you sleep. The minute you wake up, stay right at awareness, and it won't be long before discernment arises."<br /><br />§ One woman who practiced meditation with Ajaan Fuang came to feel that she had split into two people: one person acting, and one watching. She felt this way both while sitting in meditation and while she wasn't — to the point where she didn't feel like sitting in meditation at all, because she felt that sitting and not sitting were in no way different. She asked him about this, and he told her, "If you don't want to, you don't have to sit. Just keep this sense of 'the watcher' going at all times. Sitting with your eyes closed is simply an external convention. Just keep watching. When the mind and the body become separate like this, the body can't press on the mind. If the body presses on the mind, the mind will have to be under the influence of what goes on in the body."<br /><br />§ "Right awareness has to be paired with the breath."<br /><br />§ "To be aware means to be aware as soon as defilement arises, to see defilement and not act under its power."<br /><br />§ "There's no past here, and no future, only the present. No man, no woman, no sign of any kind at all. There's nothing, not even self. What self there is, is only in a conventional sense."<br /><br />§ "Once awareness is solid, you have to get above and beyond it."<br /><br />§ In 1978, one of Ajaan Fuang's students had to move to Hong Kong, and so he set up a small meditation center there. In one of his letters he asked Ajaan Fuang to write out a short outline of the main points of the practice, and this was the answer he received:<br /><br />"Focus on all six of the elements: earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness. When you're acquainted with each of them, meld them into one, and focus on them until they grow stable and strong. Your energy will gather together until both the body and the mind feel full. When the physical elements are balanced and in harmony, they'll grow full, and the mind will let go of them on its own and turn to oneness. The elements will be one, the mind will be one. So now you turn your attention to the mind. Focus on the mind until you become fully aware of it. Then let go of that awareness, together with whatever knowledge you've gained, and there won't be anything left. Let go even of the events in the present that you're aware of. That's when intuitive discernment will arise, and meditation comes to an end."<br /><br />§ One night Ajaan Fuang took a group of his students up to sit in meditation at the chedi on top of the hill in Wat Dhammasathit. Looking out to the south, in the inky darkness, they could see the bright lights of the fishing boats far out at sea. He commented, "When you're up on a high place like this, you can see everything." For one woman listening, this had special meaning, because she knew he wasn't referring just to the view from the hill.<br /><br />Contemplation <br /><br />§ "Everything that happens to you has its causes. Once you contemplate it skillfully until you know its causes, you'll be able to get past it."<br /><br />§ "Our defilements have made us suffer enough already. Now it's our turn to make them suffer."<br /><br />§ There are two kinds of people: those who like to think and those who don't. When people who don't like to think start meditating, you have to force them to contemplate things. If you don't force them, they'll simply get stuck like a stump in concentration, and won't get anywhere at all. As for those who like to think, they really have to use force to get their minds to settle down. But once they've mastered concentration, you don't have to force them to contemplate. Whatever strikes the mind, they're sure to contemplate it right away."<br /><br />§ "The discernment that can let go of defilement is a special discernment, not ordinary discernment. It needs concentration as its basis if it's going to let go."<br /><br />§ "For insight to arise, you have to use your own strategies. You can't use other people's strategies and expect to get the same results they did."<br /><br />§ "When insights arise, don't try to remember them. If they're real insights, they'll stay with you. If you try to memorize them, they'll turn into labels and concepts, and will get in the way of new insights arising."<br /><br />§ A meditator in Singapore once wrote a letter to Ajaan Fuang, describing how he applied the Buddha's teachings to everyday life: Whatever his mind focused on, he would try to see it as inconstant, stressful, and not self. Ajaan Fuang had me write a letter in response, saying, "Do things ever say that they're inconstant, stressful, and not self? They never say it, so don't go faulting them that way. Focus on what labels them, for that's where the fault lies."<br /><br />§ "Even though your views may be right, if you cling to them you're wrong."<br /><br />§ The wife of a Navy lieutenant was meditating at home when suddenly she had an urge to give Ajaan Fuang a good tongue-lashing. No matter how much she tried to drive the thought out of her mind, she couldn't. Several days later she went to ask his forgiveness, and he told her, "The mind can think good thoughts, so why can't it think bad thoughts? Whatever it's thinking, just watch it — but if the thoughts are bad, make sure you don't act in line with them."<br /><br />§ A high school student once said that in practicing meditation, if his mind thought good thoughts he'd let them pass, but if it thought bad thoughts he'd put a stop to them right away. Ajaan Fuang told him, "Just watch them. See who it is that's thinking good thoughts and bad thoughts. The good thoughts and bad thoughts will disappear on their own, because they fall under the Three Characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self."<br /><br />§ "If the mind is going to think, let it think, but don't fall for its thoughts."<br /><br />§ "The defilements are like duckweed. You have to keep pushing them out of the way so that you can see the clear water underneath. If you don't keep pushing them aside, they'll move in to cover the water again — but at least you know that the water underneath them is clear."<br /><br />§ A woman complained to Ajaan Fuang that she had been meditating for a long time but still couldn't cut any of her defilements. He laughed and said, "You don't have to cut them. Do you think you can? The defilements were part and parcel of this world long before you came. You were the one who came looking for them. Whether or not you come, they exist on their own. And who says that they're defilements? Have they ever told you their names? They simply go their own way. So try to get acquainted with them. See both their good and their bad sides."<br /><br />§ One day Ajaan Fuang was explaining to a new student how to watch the arising and passing away of the defilements. It so happened that she was a veteran reader of many Dhamma books, so she offered her opinion: "Instead of just looking at them this way, shouldn't I try to uproot them?"<br /><br />"If all you can think of is uprooting them," he replied, "their fruit just might fall on the ground and start growing again."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students told him that she had reached the point in her meditation where she felt indifferent to everything she encountered. He warned her, "Sure, you can be indifferent as long as you don't run into anything that goes straight to the heart."<br /><br />§ "Everyone lives with suffering, suffering, suffering, but they don't comprehend suffering, which is why they can't free themselves from it."<br /><br />§ "Those who know don't suffer. Those who don't know are the ones who suffer. There's suffering in every life — as long as there are the five khandhas, there has to be suffering — but if you really come to know, you can live in ease."<br /><br />§ "When you're sick you have a golden opportunity. You can contemplate the pains that arise from your illness. Don't simply lie there. Meditate at the same time. Contemplate the behavior of the pains as they arise. Don't let the mind fall in with them."<br /><br />§ One of Ajaan Fuang's students was taking cobalt treatments for cancer until she developed an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. The doctors were at a loss as to what to do, so she suggested that they try the treatment without the anesthesia. At first they were reluctant to do so, but when she assured them that she could use the power of her meditation to withstand the pain, they finally agreed to give it a try.<br /><br />After the treatment Ajaan Fuang visited her at the hospital. She told him that she had been able to concentrate her mind so as to endure the pain, but it had left her exhausted. He advised her: "You can use the power of concentration to fight off pain, but it squanders your energy. You have to approach the pain with discernment, to see that it's not you. It's not yours. Your awareness is one thing, the pain is something separate. When you can see it in this way, things will be easier."<br /><br />§ Several months later the same woman went to hear a famous Bangkok monk give a sermon on the cycle of life, death, and rebirth as an ocean of suffering. It had a profound effect on her, and afterwards she went to visit Ajaan Fuang and told him about it. As she was speaking, the image of the ocean struck her as so overwhelming that tears came to her eyes, so he said, "Now that you know it's an ocean, why don't you just cross over to the other side?" That was enough to stop her tears.<br /><br />§ "The Buddha didn't teach us to cure our pains. He taught us to comprehend them."<br /><br />§ "It's true that illness can be an obstacle to your meditation, but if you're intelligent enough to take illness as your teacher, you'll see that the body is a nest of illnesses, and that you shouldn't cling to it as yours. You can then uproot the attachments that are concerned about the body — because nothing in it is yours at all. It's simply a tool for you to use to make good karma and pay off your old bad karma debts as you are able."<br /><br />§ "When you focus on seeing pain and stress, you have to get to the subtle levels — to the point where you see that stress arises the instant you open your eyes and see things."<br /><br />§ Advice for a woman who had to live with one illness after another: "Use your mindfulness to contemplate the body until you can visualize it as bones falling down in a heap, and you can set them on fire until there's nothing left. Then ask yourself: Is that your self? Then why does it make you suffer and feel pain? Is there any 'you' in there? Keep looking until you reach the true core of the Dhamma — until there's nothing of yours at all. The mind will then see itself as it really is, and let go of its own accord."<br /><br />§ "Tell yourself: The reason I still feel suffering is because I still have an 'I'."<br /><br />§ "The day will arrive when death comes to you, forcing you to let go of everything of every sort. That's why you should practice letting go well in advance so that you can be good at it. Otherwise — let me tell you — it's going to be difficult when the time comes."<br /><br />§ "You don't have to be afraid of death. You'd do better to be afraid of birth."<br /><br />§ "When you die don't get caught up on the symptoms of dying.<br /><br />§ "Lift the mind above what it knows."<br /><br />§ "Whatever dies, let it die, but don't let the heart die."<br /><br />Realization <br /><br />§ A tape-recorded talk given to one of his students who had reached an impasse in her meditation.<br /><br />Once the mind is firmly established in the breath, you then try to separate the mind from its object — from the breath itself. Focus on this: The breath is an element, part of the wind element. Awareness of the breath is something else. So you've got two things that have come together. Now, when you can separate them — through realizing the breath's true nature as an element — the mind can stand on its own. After all, the breath isn't you, and you aren't the breath. When you can separate things in this way, the mind gains power. It's set loose from the breath, and is wise to the breath's every aspect. When mindfulness is full, it's wise to all the aspects of the breath, and can separate itself from them.<br /><br />Now if it so happens that your mind is strong and your mindfulness sharp while you're doing this, that's when insight occurs. The knowledge will arise in that moment, letting you know that you've really let go. If your mindfulness is still weak, though, you won't be able to let go. Only when your mindfulness is really resilient will you have mindfulness and insight arising together.<br /><br />This is something you have to keep contemplating whenever you have the chance. When you can separate the mind from its objects, it'll be freed from all its burdens. So focus your attention right down, in the area of the heart. Keep it focused there, and then observe the breath and what it is that's aware of the breath. Be as observant as you can, and eventually you'll see that they separate from each other. When they've separated, that gives you the chance to investigate further inside. And once you've investigated this one element, you'll find that what you learn applies to everything else.<br /><br />When you investigate the breath, you'll find that it's not a being, not a person — so what is there to latch on to? You can't latch on to it as your self, for it simply goes its own way. When you look at the breath you'll see that it doesn't have a body — no head, no legs, no hands, no feet, nothing at all. When you see this, you let go of it, in line with the way it really is.<br /><br />The texts say, 'Cago patinissaggo mutti analayo': You move out of the breath. You remove your concerns for it. You don't make it your home any longer — because it's not yours. You let it go in line with its original nature. You give it back. Whatever it's got, you give it back to nature. All of the elements — earth, water, wind, fire, and space — you give back to nature. You let them return to what they originally were. When you examine all five of these things, you'll see that they're not a being, not a person, not 'us', not 'them'. You let them all return to their original nature in every way.<br /><br />This then brings us to the mind, what it is that's aware of these five elements. What is it going to stay with now? Turn your powers of observation on this knowing element that is now standing on its own, with nothing else left. Examine it to see what's what, and that's when another level of insight will arise.<br /><br />If you want to gain the insight that will let go of all things in line with their original nature, there has to be a special realization that arises in the act of letting go. If there isn't this realization, your letting go is simply an ordinary, everyday label or perception. It's mundane discernment. But when this special realization arises in the act of letting go — the instant you let go, the result comes right back at you, verifying, certifying what's happened for what it really is: You know. You've let go. You then experience the purity within you.<br /><br />This is called transcendent discernment. When the realization arises within you, verifying what you've seen and what you've done, that's called transcendent discernment. As long as this realization doesn't arise, your discernment is still mundane. So you keep working at your investigation into things until all the conditions are ripe. Then when they're ripe, there's nothing more you have to do, for transcendent discernment penetrates things completely the very instant it arises. It's not like mundane discernment at all.<br /><br />The path we follow, then, is to be observant, to investigate things. Keep making a focused investigation until you reach the strategic point. When the mind reaches that point, it lets go on its own. What happens is that it reaches a point of fullness — the Dhamma within it is full — and it lets go. Once it lets go, the results will appear immediately.<br /><br />So. Keep on practicing. There's nothing to be afraid of. You'll have to reap results, there's no doubt about it. You reap results all along the way. Like right now, while you're sitting in meditation here. You know that the breath and the mind are comfortable with each other. That's a result of the practice. Even though you haven't yet reached the end of the path, you're still gaining a sense of comfort and ease in your meditation. The mind is at peace with the in-and-out breath. As long as the mind and breath can't separate from each other, they have to help each other along. The mind helps the breath, and the breath helps the mind until they can get fully acquainted. Once the mind gets fully acquainted, it can let go. When it knows, it lets go. As long as it doesn't really know, it won't really let go.<br /><br />What this means is that you have to associate with the breath, spend time with it, and gradually come to know it. As the mind gets more and more acquainted, it will be able to unravel its attachments to body, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, and consciousness. Its identity-views — seeing these things as the self — will fall away. This is the way to freedom. The moment this transcendent discernment arises, you'll be free. You'll be able to disentangle yourself from all the conventional truths of the world that say, 'person', 'self', 'man', 'woman', 'us', 'them', and so on.<br /><br />But as long as you can't yet let go, you still have to depend on these things. They're your resting spots, but not your refuge. You simply lean on each other, and help each other along, so that you can make progress on your way. You can't abandon these things, for they're the path of your practice. As long as you stick with the practice, you won't fall back. But as soon as you let up on the practice, you'll start back-sliding immediately. You'll fall prey to doubts, wondering whether or not the Dhamma is true.<br /><br />You have to keep being observant of the mind: awareness itself. It's not the case that the mind isn't aware, you know. Its basic nature is awareness. Just look at it. It's aware of everything — aware, but it can't yet let go of its perceptions, of the conventions it holds to be true. So you have to focus your investigation on in. Focus on in until the mind and its objects separate from each other. Simply keep at it. If you're persistent like this, without let-up, your doubts will gradually fade away, fade away, and eventually you'll reach your true refuge within you, the basic awareness called buddha that sees clearly through everything. This is the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha appearing within you as your ultimate refuge.<br /><br />This is when you'll know what's actually within, what's actually without, what's actually a resting spot, and what's really your refuge. You'll be able to distinguish these things.<br /><br />Things outside are simply resting spots. Like the body: It's a resting spot. For the brief moment that the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire stay balanced together, you can rest with the body. But as for your true refuge, you've already seen it. It's this basic awareness itself, within the mind. Your awareness of the breath is a refuge on one level. When it separates from the breath, it's a refuge on another level. And as for your true refuge — buddha — that's the awareness that lies further within. Once you realize this, that's all there is. It's sovereign in and of itself. It knows clearly and truly, all around. That's the true refuge within you.<br /><br />As for things outside, they're just temporary supports, things you can depend on for a little while, like a crutch. As long as there's the breath to keep them alive, you make use of them. When there's no more breath, that's the end of the problem. The physical elements separate and no longer depend on each other, so the mind returns to its own true refuge. And where is that? Just where is that buddha awareness? When we've trained the mind to be its own refuge, there will be no sorrow at that moment in the meditating heart.<br /><br />The Buddha's own search was for this refuge. He taught all of his disciples to take refuge in themselves, for we can depend on others only for a little while. Other people merely show us the way. But if you want what's really true and good in life, you have to depend on yourself — teach yourself, train yourself, depend on yourself in every way. Your sufferings come eventually from you. Your happiness, eventually from you. It's like eating: If you don't eat, how are you going to get full? If you leave it up to other people to eat, there's no way you're going to get full. If you want to be full, you yourself have to eat. It's the same with the practice.<br /><br />You can't let yourself latch on to things outside you. Things outside are inconstant. Impermanent. Undependable. They change with every in-and-out breath. This holds not only for you, but for everyone. If you don't part from one another while you're still alive, you part when you die. You part from things with every in-and-out breath. You can't base the meaning of your life on these things — and you don't have to. You can simply tell yourself that this is the way things are all over the world. The world offers nothing lasting. We don't want things to be that way, but that's the way they are. They don't lie under anyone's control at all. This is true not only with things outside, but also with things within you. You want the body to stay alive, you don't want it to die, but it's going to die. You don't want it to change, but it changes, constantly.<br /><br />This is why you have to get your mind in shape so that it can take refuge in itself, in line with the principles of the skill the Buddha taught. And you don't have to feel doubts about the practice, for all the qualities you need to develop in the practice are already present within you. All forms of good and evil are present within you. You already know which path is the good one, which path is the shoddy one, so all you have to do is train your heart to hold onto the good path. Stop and take a look at yourself right now: Are you on the right path? Whatever is wrong, don't latch onto it. Let go of it. Past, future, whatever, let go of it, leaving only the present. Keep the mind open and at ease in the present at all times, and then start investigating.<br /><br />You already know that things outside aren't you or yours, but inside you there are many levels you have to examine. Many levels you have to examine. Even the mind isn't really yours. There are still inconstant and stressful things inside it. Sometimes it wants to do this, sometimes to do that, it's not really yours. So don't get too attached to it.<br /><br />Thought-constructs are the big issue. Sometimes they form good thoughts, sometimes evil thoughts, even though you know better. You don't want to think those things, and yet they keep appearing in the mind, in spite of your intentions. So you have to regard them as not being yours. Examine them. There's nothing dependable about them. They don't last. They're impersonal events, so let them go in line with their own nature.<br /><br />And what is there that's lasting, solid, dependable, and true? Keep looking on in. Focus your mindfulness on the breath, and ask yourself right there. Eventually you'll come to see what's what within you. Whenever you have any doubts or problems in the practice, focus down on the breath and ask the mind right there, and understanding will arise, to loosen up your wrong views and help you past your impasse.<br /><br />But even this understanding is inconstant, stressful, and not-self. Sabbe dhamma anatta: Everything that arises, the Buddha said, is inconstant and not self. Even the understandings that arise in the mind aren't constant. Sometimes they arise, sometimes they don't. So don't get too attached to them. When they arise, take note of them, and then let them follow their own course. Let your views be Right Views: i.e., just right, not going overboard. If you go overboard with them, you latch on tight to them, and then they turn wrong on you, for you've lost sight of what you're doing.<br /><br />What this all boils down to is that the more mindfulness in your practice, the better. As your mindfulness gets more and more mature, more and more complete, it turns into something transcendent. The transcendent discernment we mentioned above arises from the power of your mindfulness as it becomes more and more complete.<br /><br />So keep training your mindfulness until it's Great Mindfulness. Try to keep it constant, persistent, and focused, until you see all things for what they are. That's how you'll advance in the Buddha's teachings.<br /><br />Release <br /><br />§ "Our practice is to go against the stream, against the flow. And where are we going? To the source of the stream. That's the 'cause' side of the practice. The 'result' side is that we can let go and be completely at ease."<br /><br />§ "The stages of the practice... Actually the different stages don't say what they are. We simply make up names for them. As long as you stay stuck on these made-up names, you'll never get free."<br /><br />§ "When teaching people, you have to teach them in line with their temperaments and aptitudes, but eventually they all come to the same point: letting go."<br /><br />§ "Nibbana is subtle and takes a lot of discernment. It's not something that the force of desire can reach. If we could get there through the force of desire, everyone in the world would have gotten there by now."<br /><br />§ "Some people talk about, 'temporary nibbana, temporary nibbana,' but how can nibbana be temporary? If it's nibbana, it has to be constant. If it's not constant, it's not nibbana."<br /><br />§ "When they say that nibbana is empty, they mean that it's empty of defilement."<br /><br />§ "Right where there's no one to be pained, no one to die. Right there. It's in each and every person. It's as if your hand were palm-down, and you turn it palm-up — but only people of discernment will be able to do it. If you're dense, you won't see it, you won't catch on to it, you won't go beyond birth and death."<br /><br />§ "The heart when it's released is like the fire element in the air. When fire goes out, it isn't annihilated anywhere. It still permeates space, simply that it doesn't latch onto any kindling, so it doesn't appear.<br /><br />"When the mind 'goes out' from defilement, it's still there, but when new kindling comes, it doesn't catch fire, doesn't latch on — not even to itself. That's what's called release."<br /><br />Glossary <br /><br />Abhidhamma:<br />The third of the three collections forming the Pali canon, composed of systematic treatises based on lists of categories drawn from the Buddha's teachings.<br />Ajaan:<br />Teacher; mentor.<br />Apadana (Avadana):<br />Tales recorded in a late section of the Pali canon, claiming that the Buddha and his disciples embarked on their path to Awakening by making a gift to an earlier Buddha and dedicating the merit of the gift to a particular type of Awakening.<br />Arahant:<br />A Worthy One or Pure One, i.e., a person whose heart is freed from the effluents of mental defilement, and who is thus not destined for further rebirth. An epithet for the Buddha and the highest level of his Noble Disciples.<br />Brahma:<br />An inhabitant of the higher heavens of form and formlessness, a position earned — but not forever — through the cultivation of virtue and meditative absorption (jhana), along with the attitudes of limitless love, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity.<br />Buddho:<br />Awake — an epithet of the Buddha.<br />Chedi:<br />A spired monument, containing relics of the Buddha or his disciples, objects related to them, or copies of Buddhist scriptures.<br />Dhamma (dharma):<br />The teachings of the Buddha; the practice of those teachings; the release from suffering attained as a result of that practice.<br />Jataka:<br />Tales recorded in the Buddhist Canon, said to deal with the Buddha's previous lives.<br />Jhana:<br />Meditative absorption in a single sensation or mental notion.<br />Karma (kamma):<br />Intentional act — in thought, word or deed — holding consequences for the doer of the act based on the quality of the intention.<br />Khandha:<br />Heap or aggregate. The five khandhas are the component parts of sensory experience, the basis for one's sense of "self". They are: physical form or sense data; feelings; perceptions and mental labels; thought-constructs; and sensory consciousness (the mind being counted as the sixth sense).<br />Nibbana (nirvana):<br />Liberation. The extinguishing of passion, aversion, and delusion in the mind, resulting in complete freedom from suffering and stress.<br />Pali:<br />The oldest recension of the Buddhist Canon; also, the language of that recension.<br />Parami:<br />Perfection; ten qualities whose development leads to Awakening: generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truthfulness, determination, good will, and equanimity.<br />Sangha:<br />The community of the Buddha's followers. On the conventional level, this refers to the Buddhist monkhood. On the ideal level, it refers to those of the Buddha's followers — whether lay or ordained — who have practiced to the point of gaining at least of the first of the transcendent qualities culminating in Liberation. The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha together are called the Triple Gem. Taking refuge in the Triple Gem — taking them as the ultimate guides in one's life — is what makes one a Buddhist.<br />Sumeru:<br />A mythical mountain, tremendously tall, said to lie at the center of the universe, north of the Himalayas.<br />Than Phaw:<br />Reverend father. A term of respect and affection used for senior monks in southeastern Thailand.<br />Vessantara:<br />The Buddha in his next-to-last lifetime, in which he perfected the virtue of generosity by giving up his kingdom, together with the things he loved most: his children and his wife.<br />Wat:<br />Monastery; temple.<br />Appendix: The Seven Steps <br /><br />§ From Keeping the Breath in Mind, by Ajaan Lee.<br /><br />There are seven basic steps:<br /><br /> 1. Start out with three or seven long in-and-out breaths, thinking bud- with the in-breath, and dho with the out. Keep the meditation syllable as long as the breath.<br />2. Be clearly aware of each in-and-out breath.<br /><br />3. Observe the breath as it goes in and out, noticing whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable, broad or narrow, obstructed or free-flowing, fast or slow, short or long, warm or cool. If the breath doesn't feel comfortable, change it until it does. For instance, if breathing in long and out long is uncomfortable, try breathing in short and out short. As soon as you find that your breathing feels comfortable, let this comfortable breath sensation spread to the different parts of the body.<br /><br />To begin with, inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull and let it flow all the way down the spine. Then, if you are male, let it spread down your right leg to the sole of your foot, to the ends of your toes, and out into the air. Inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull again and let it spread down your spine, down your left leg to the ends of your toes, and out into the air. (If you are female, begin with the left side first, because the male and female nervous systems are different.)<br /><br />Then let the breath from the base of the skull spread down over both shoulders, past your elbows and wrists, to the tips of your fingers, and out into the air.<br /><br />Let the breath at the base of the throat spread down the central nerve at the front of the body, past the lungs and liver, all the way down to the bladder and colon.<br /><br />Inhale the breath right at the middle of the chest and let it go all the way down to your intestines.<br /><br />Let all these breath sensations spread so that they connect and flow together, and you'll feel a greatly improved sense of well-being.<br /><br />4. Learn four ways of adjusting the breath:<br /><br /> a. in long and out long,<br />b. in long and out short,<br />c. in short and out long,<br />d. in short and out short.<br />Breathe whichever way is most comfortable for you. Or, better yet, learn to breathe comfortably all four ways, because your physical condition and your breath are always changing.<br /><br />5. Become acquainted with the bases or focal points for the mind — the resting spots of the breath — and center your awareness on whichever one seems most comfortable. A few of these bases are:<br /><br /> a. the tip of the nose,<br />b. the middle of the head,<br />c. the palate,<br />d. the base of the throat,<br />e. the breastbone (the tip of the sternum),<br />f. the navel (or a point just above it).<br />If you suffer from frequent headaches or nervous problems, don't focus on any spot above the base of the throat. And don't try to force the breath or put yourself into a trance. Breathe freely and naturally. Let the mind be at ease with the breath — but not to the point where it slips away.<br /><br />6. Spread your awareness — your sense of conscious feeling — throughout the entire body.<br /><br />7. Unite the breath sensations throughout the body, letting them flow together comfortably, keeping your awareness as broad as possible. Once you are fully aware of the aspects of the breath you already know in your body, you'll come to know all sorts of other aspects as well. The breath, by its nature, has many facets: breath sensations flowing in the nerves, those flowing around and about the nerves, those spreading from the nerves to every pore. Beneficial breath sensations and harmful ones are mixed together by their very nature.<br /><br />To summarize: (a) for the sake of improving the energy already existing in every part of your body, so that you can contend with such things as disease and pain; and (b) for the sake of clarifying the knowledge already within you, so that it can become a basis for the skills leading to release and purity of heart — you should always bear these seven steps in mind, because they are absolutely basic to every aspect of breath meditation.<br /><br />Provenance: ©1993, 1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. This Access to Insight edition is ©1999–2010.<br />Terms of use: You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. For additional information about this license, see the FAQ.<br />How to cite this document (one suggested style): "Awareness Itself", by Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, compiled and Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff). Access to Insight, June 7, 2010, <a href="http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/fuang/itself.html" target="_blank">http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/fuang/itself.html</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-53198022237404444422010-09-10T22:13:00.001+08:002010-09-10T22:15:10.957+08:00Monastic Path of Service<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14221608?portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/14221608">Thich Nhat Hanh - Monastic Path of Service</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/brstream">Brother Stream</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /><br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-52138090613297251712010-09-08T23:39:00.003+08:002010-09-08T23:44:56.048+08:00Projecting the Dharma<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/771706" width="400" height="291" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /><br />Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche<br />Projecting the Dharma: Film and the Transmission of Buddhism to the West<br />A public talk at Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut<br />25 January, 2008<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-12931233422170296262010-09-05T00:44:00.002+08:002010-09-05T00:51:12.931+08:00Poem by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1eqnNrWGJVH9PAGr3DYsu_qXtZmWj-YvgBOEN5eRFArpLLOKAWFY0AlmlDD8Dj-BGpxr6Ahcxca9bDkesPl_QDvFFj99ajgh_8WQkIhVdC9WMYVARI2e_k3mj10u1Bs7bisQ/s200/DJKR+Moscow+100715+-+%238.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1eqnNrWGJVH9PAGr3DYsu_qXtZmWj-YvgBOEN5eRFArpLLOKAWFY0AlmlDD8Dj-BGpxr6Ahcxca9bDkesPl_QDvFFj99ajgh_8WQkIhVdC9WMYVARI2e_k3mj10u1Bs7bisQ/s200/DJKR+Moscow+100715+-+%238.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Mind’s ultimate nature, emptiness endowed with vividness,<br />I was told is the real Buddha.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with thoughts of hierarchy.<br /> <br />Mind’s ultimate nature, its emptiness aspect,<br />I was told is the real Dharma.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with thoughts of political correctness.<br /> <br />Mind’s ultimate nature, its vivid aspect,<br />I was told is the real Sangha.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with thoughts of equal rights.<br /> <br />One cannot disassociate emptiness from vividness.<br />This inseparability I was told is the Guru.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with depending on chauvinist lamas.<br /> <br />This nature of mind has never been stained by duality,<br />This stainlessness I was told is the deity.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with the categories of “gender” or “culture.”<br /> <br />This nature of mind is spontaneously present.<br />That spontaneity I was told is the dakini aspect.<br />Recognizing this should help me<br />Not to be stuck with fear of being sued.<br /><br />~ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche<br /><br />~End of Post~<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-29198931477150439372010-08-13T15:49:00.002+08:002010-08-13T15:55:57.605+08:00Undivided Mind<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bookmytrip.in/buddhist-tours/image/buddha1.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 561px; height: 376px;" src="http://www.bookmytrip.in/buddhist-tours/image/buddha1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Becoming Whole<br />By Rodney Smith<br /><br />Over the last half-century, Buddhist practices in the West have grown in popularity. Mindfulness has become associated with stress reduction, enhanced immunological protection, psychological well-being, and profound states of happiness. In many cases, mindfulness has been uncoupled from the Buddha’s teaching altogether and is a stand-alone cognitive therapy for the treatment of various mental difficulties, from depression to obsessive-compulsive disorder.<br /><br />The term anatta, which means “no [permanently abiding] self or soul,” is at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching, but with our Western emphasis on psychological health it is perhaps inevitable that this essential aspect of the teaching is downplayed or even avoided. Emptiness, after all, stands in opposition to many of our most important values such as self-reliance, individual initiative, and the pursuit of pleasure. We want the contentment and happiness promised by the Buddha, but with “me” fully stabilized and intact.<br /><br />This selective approach to Buddhism would seem to allow the best of both the Eastern and Western worlds. We can use the techniques and practices that serve our immediate purpose without asking the deeper spiritual questions concerning our very existence. Best of all, the methods work, and the benefits of greater mindfulness dramatically affect both our mental health and the ease of our life.<br /><br />The story would end happily here, except that there is a rub when we pare back the dharma, the Buddha’s teaching. Externally we see the earth’s environment eroding before our eyes, the population soaring, and our natural resources diminishing. We see unparalleled greed and anger forming greater divisions within an evershrinking planet. At a time when the world pleads for kindness and compassion, we see cultures continuing their ancient bickering while forgetting their shared heritage.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Internally our problems continue as well. We hurt, and we do not understand why. Fear, desire, and grief fill our life. Our psychological sophistication should solve our problems, but therapies and self-improvement methods do not seem to diminish our isolation and separation. We would like to feel compassion for all beings, but our own problems are so demanding that we have little time to include others in our heart. We try to compensate for these shortcomings with more socially engaged activities, but we find that our motivation is often based in righteousness, which further divides the world.<br /><br />Through all our techniques and procedures, the sense-of-I remains the cornerstone of our existence. When we look at our experience, we appear to be the center of the universe. All experiences seem to confirm our central place in life, and every input is interpreted through the lens of self. We hear about the corrupted power of the ego but seem unable to shake off this ever-present sense-ofme. Its authority seems absolute; most of us eventually acquiesce to its rule, and we engage our dharma practice carrying the sense-ofme along within our spiritual development.<br /><br />Many of us incorporate a gentler and kinder spiritual “me” into our practice, which is in opposition to the worldly “me,” the troublemaking twin that needs a resolution. We then play the familiar theme of divide and conquer, pitting our spiritual ideals against our worldly reactions. Eventually we see that calling the ego different names serves to strengthen its overall grip and control, which inevitably leads to greater pain and ill will.<br /><br />Some of us pursue the path of wisdom to weaken the ego’s influence, and we have genuine insights into the ego’s insubstantiality, but we may return from those revelations with the power and force of “me” very much intact. The ego has a way of claiming reference to its own demise by saying, “Oh, I just had an experience of my own emptiness.” No matter what we do, no matter how many revelations we have regarding our true nature, we still seem to organize the world around the basic premise that “I” am in here looking out at everything else. At some point the sincere dharma practitioner realizes that as long as the “I” is the governing force behind thoughts and emotions, then our internal world will be filled with abstract arguments and the external world will be laden with conflict and struggle. We begin to further understand that the cause of our suffering is not what we do but the way we perceive, and until this obstacle is addressed, all actions of body, speech, and mind will predictably reinforce our old perceptions of self and other, problem and solution, and limitation and freedom.<br /><br /><br /><br />Spiritual practice is stepping out of the assumed reality of “me” by understanding what the “me” is and withdrawing energy from its perceptual fixations. The Buddha made the realization and integration of anatta central to his teaching—we are without separate existence; that is a fact. When we align all our practices and efforts with this fact, the spiritual path becomes quite simple and transforms everything we do. All the monasteries, renunciations, restraints, skillful means, full-lotus posture, and nose-tip awareness, all of it, has only this intended purpose. We must be very careful not to carry the assumption of separation to the practices that have the intended purpose of stepping out of self-deception. If we do, we will be reinforcing our egoic conditioning and move in the opposite direction from the freedom of the Buddha.<br /><br />Much of my early practice carried this contradiction. My heart genuinely sought the truth, but I conceived of freedom as a very long and arduous process that needed focused determination and hard work. My efforts were directed toward surmounting myself. “I” was the problem, and “I” would apply effort toward resolving the difficulty of “me.” Often my teachers spoke of lifetimes necessary to achieve awakening and the long cultivation of mental qualities that freedom depended on. I thought of freedom as something that I was working toward but that was not accessible now.<br /><br />After a few years of strenuous retreating, I ordained as a Buddhist monk and went on a pilgrimage to Bombay in January 1980, to visit the renowned sage Nisargadatta Maharaj. I had known of him years earlier through his book I Am That. After a few days of bantering back and forth about my attachment to being a monk, he said, “You are like a man holding a flashlight, trying to run beyond its beam. The view you are holding…is undermining your intent.”<br /><br />“You don’t understand Buddhism,” I retorted.<br /><br />“You do not understand the truth,” he replied.<br /><br />I was righteous, but he was right, and his message stuck. As the days unfolded, I lost my arrogance and my identification with the Buddhist robes, leaving me naked and exposed. By directly pointing to the truth, Nisargadatta destroyed my spiritual structure, purpose, and frame of reference. In their absence, something awoke with an upsurge of energy that seemed impossible to contain. It exploded with the revelation of what the Buddha was pointing to: The path that Nisargadatta revealed was not a search but a find, not a struggle but an abiding, not a cultivation but something intrinsic to all. I had been committed to the long-enduring mind of practice but not the essence, not the inherent freedom that was immediately available. From this vantage point, there seemed far too much methodology in the Buddhism I had been practicing and not enough release.<br /><br />The Buddha’s Eightfold Path can either build upon or dismantle the sense-of-self, depending upon how we use it. When aligned within its proper orientation, the path appears like a perfectly formed diamond, each facet complimenting the beauty of the whole. After my meeting with Nisargadatta, the Buddha’s teaching became breathtaking in its simplicity and elegance. The entire path was, and had always been, accessible. Prolonged retreats in silence or conversations over dinner had the same reference point. Nothing was ever at odds with its opposite. Every practice and action had its place and appropriate time, but never contradicted or enhanced what was already there. Everything was perfectly together, and every movement arose from that perfection.<br /><br />This was the beginning of my understanding of lay Buddhism. A lay Buddhist is one who fully embodies his or her entire life of work, family, and relationships without spiritually prioritizing any activity. From this perspective all moments are equally precious, and whether we are practicing formal meditation on retreat or showing up for ordinary moments of our lay life, freedom is never diminished. The unequivocal resolve not to move away from where we are is essential. Once we abandon the belief that there is a more spiritually useful moment than the one we are in, we have embraced our life and infused it with the energy for awakening.<br /><br />There are three impediments to lay Buddhist practice. The first is the belief that monasticism and long retreats are the only way to realize one’s true nature. In Asia monasteries have served as the central training ground for aspiring Buddhist practitioners, and because of this strong history within a monastic tradition, much of Buddhism is derived from that formal culture. Now, as the Buddhist tradition settles in the West, monasteries have played a diminishing role in the training and teaching of Buddhism, and in their place residential retreat centers have formed as substitute monasteries. The lay Western Buddhist often undertakes intensive training during residential retreats, which last from a few days to several months, much as their predecessors did within monasteries in previous centuries. All of this has given rise to an emphasis on a silent, secluded life as being central to Buddhist training.<br /><br />For a few people, a full lifetime as a monastic or living many years on retreat is a wise direction. Each of us has a unique spiritual design that pulls us toward freedom. The problem arises when we listen to others for our direction, or think we “should” do something because others have done it in the past. Spiritual growth is a fine-tuning of our ear to the needs of our heart.<br /><br />What obscures this understanding in many of us is the belief that the silent retreat is a priority over other expressions of life. When we believe we are not where we need to be for spiritual growth, we relegate our daily life to a secondary tier. We energetically pull out of our spiritual life and wait for the appropriate secluded moment in order to fully engage. Leaning toward or away from any experience creates an anticipation of fulfillment in the future, and the sacred that exists here and now is lost. Discovering the sacred within all moments is the hallmark of awakening.<br /><br />We often feel our everyday existence is a distraction from our spiritual intention. When this happens, life is divided between the sacred and mundane, and the mind pits one concept against the other. But belief shapes reality, and if the belief is maintained that the sacred lies somewhere else other than Now, our spiritual life will be governed by that limitation. The truth is that the sense-of-self is not separate from the moment in which it is arising, any more than the sense-of-self is outside the mind that it thinks it possesses. In fact, realizing the undivided mind also heals the dualistic notion of “me” being outside the moment.<br /><br />We cannot delay fully embracing the moment. To do so maintains the divisions within the mind, the division between the mind and the body, and the division between the organism and its environment. All divisions are attempts to keep us from the truth of what is right here. When this is understood by the sincere practitioner, there can be no more hesitation, no more postponement, and no more pulling back and waiting for a more opportune time. It is literally now or never.<br /><br />Suddenly the Buddha is found in the middle of relationships, work, and family, within all activities, reactions, thoughts, and emotional responses. Nothing is outside Now, because no boundary is drawn to separate Now from then. The message of the Buddha is equally relevant in all locations and at all times. Until this is fully realized and until there is no movement to escape this environment for a better spiritual setting, we will continue to suffer.<br /><br />The second way in which lay Buddhist practice is impeded is through misunderstanding the teaching of the long-enduring mind. Buddhism is full of metaphors of time that disarm us. “You have cried more tears than the waters of the great oceans,” says the Buddha, speaking of our endless lifetimes in terms of inconceivable numbers.<br /><br />I have heard some students express hopelessness with these numbers. They interpret the metaphors to mean that it takes endless reincarnations to achieve freedom. I believe the Buddha uses these analogies to point toward patience. The numbers he uses are so vast that he seems to be taking time away, but he certainly is not discouraging our efforts. When time is removed, so is the future expectation of what and when something might occur. Anticipation is actually counterproductive to the practice, because by waiting to be fulfilled in the future, we drift away from what is immediately present.<br /><br />Perhaps the Buddha’s use of time is also an attempt to motivate us out of complacency. Through these analogies he seems to be pointing out that if we do nothing, nothing will change, and we will spend endless lifetimes lost in our divided mind. These examples are a call toward urgency—but it is an urgency moderated with patience. Patience is essential on the spiritual path, but delay is not. Patience invites the timeless back in, and practicing becomes a waking game, not a waiting game, because patience is the state of full wakefulness.<br /><br />The most important understanding for a lay Buddhist is the immediate availability of awakening. Awakening need not arrive after a long, protracted practice history unless we believe that this is necessary. We deliberately delay our readiness because we are divided about what we really want. We practice until we are tired of preparing for what has always existed here and now, then we become quiet and surrender.<br /><br />The question of readiness is really a question of intentionality. Do we want this or not? If we do, we have to look squarely at our competing interests. We can use our time most skillfully by observing the value and limitation of our opposing desires. A fully engaged lay life allows continuous feedback regarding those interests. Most of us indulge our desires rather than learn about their limitations, but that learning opportunity is always present. Again, it is the sincerity of the student that will determine whether her life is a hindrance or a support to her spiritual growth.<br /><br />A third way a lay approach to spiritual fulfillment can be impeded is by investing the sacred within particular practices and conditions. When I was younger, I followed the example of an experiment once performed by Krishnamurti: I placed a rock that held no special significance on my mantel and bowed to it each day. I did this deliberately to see whether I could infuse a unique quality into something completely ordinary, simply by incorporating the rock within a morning ritual. At the end of a month, the rock held a special, holy place in my perception.<br /><br />The Buddha statue, the zafu [cushion] we sit upon, the saintly picture or poem, the states of mind accessed in meditation, solitude, or even nature itself, can all become accentuated beyond the ordinary by infusing them with special attention. When we invest the sacred into specific conditions, we feel spiritual only when we are having those experiences. The rest of life goes spiritually unnoticed.<br /><br />Spiritual forms and rituals can be very helpful in focusing our intention and providing a doorway to the sacredness of all life. They can awaken a sensitivity of heart and allow our mind to become quiet. Forms and rituals become a problem when they stop representing a gateway into oneself and become an exclusive presentation of the sacred, such as the belief that the only way to commune with God is by going to church or taking a walk in nature, or that the only way to meditate is to be alone in quiet surroundings. When we think of rituals and forms as the only way to access the sacred, the rest of our life is placed on spiritual hold. The lay Buddhist begins to recover the sacred in the most remote areas of life, in the midst of difficulty and dissatisfaction, loneliness and despair. The reality of problems is challenged and investigated, and life begins to thrive free of circumstances and conditions. The heart takes over and is resurrected from the conditioned habits of mind.<br /><br />The lay Buddhist harbors no defense, seeks no shelter, and avoids no conflict for the resolution of wholeness. It is here in the middle of our total involvement that this alchemy of spirit can best be engaged. Our life becomes focused around this transformation as our primary intention for living. We find everything we need immediately before us within the circumstances and conditions we long begrudged ourselves. Spiritual growth becomes abundantly available and is no longer associated exclusively with any particular presentation of form. <br /><br />Rodney Smith is the founding and guiding teacher of the Seattle Insight Meditation Society and a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts. He leads classes and retreats throughout the United States. He is also the author of Lessons from the Dying, a book that grew out of the many years he spent in hospice work. <br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/dharma-talk/undivided-mind?page=0,0&offer=dharma" target="_blank">www.tricycle.com</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-45241411827076776652010-08-13T15:06:00.006+08:002010-08-13T15:29:08.817+08:00Superscience<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dhamma.org/images/sng/sng.gif" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 213px;" src="http://www.dhamma.org/images/sng/sng.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>An interview with S. N. Goenka<br /><br />S. N. Goenka has been teaching Vipassana meditation for thirty-one years and is most widely known, perhaps, for his famous introductory ten-day intensive courses, which are held free of charge in centers all around the world, supported by student donations.<br /><br />Born in Mandalay, Burma in 1924, he was trained by the renowned Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899-1971). After fourteen years of training, he retired from his life as a successful businessman to devote himself to teaching meditation. Today he oversees an organization of more than eighty meditation centers worldwide and has had remarkable success in bringing meditation into prisons, first in India, and then in numerous other countries. The organization estimates that as many as 10,000 prisoners, as well as many members of the police and military, have attended the ten-day courses.<br /><br />S. N. Goenka came to New York this fall for the Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations. He was interviewed there by Helen Tworkov.<br /><br />According to some people, Vipassana is a particular meditation practice of the Theravada School; for others, it is a lineage of its own. How do you use the term?<br /><br />This is a lineage, but it is a lineage that has nothing to do with any sect. To me, Buddha never established a sect. When I met my teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, he simply asked me a few questions. He asked me if, as a Hindu leader, I had any objection towards sila, that is, morality. How can there be any objection? But how can you practice sila unless you have control of the mind? He said, I will teach you to practice sila with controlled mind. I will teach you samadhi, concentration. Any objection? What can be objected to in samadhi? Then he said, that alone will not help—that will purify your mind at the surface level. Deep inside there are complexes, there are habit patterns, which are not broken by samadhi. I will teach you prajna, wisdom, insight, which will take you to the depth of the mind. I will teach you to go to the depth of the mind, the source where the impurities start and they get multiplied and they get stored so that you can clear them out.<br /><br />So when my teacher told me: I will teach you only these three—sila, samadhi and prajna—and nothing else, I was affected. I said, let me try.<br /><br />How is sila generated by watching the mind?<br /><br />When I began to learn Vipassana meditation, I became convinced that Buddha was a not a founder of religion, he was a super-scientist. A spiritual super-scientist. When he teaches morality, the point is, of course, there that we are human beings, living in human society, and we should not do anything which would harm the society. It’s quite true. But then—and it’s as a scientist he’s talking here—he says that when you harm anybody, when you perform any unwholesome action, you are the first victim. You first harm yourself and then you harm others. As soon as a defilement arises in the mind, your nature is such that you feel miserable. That is what Vipassana teaches me.<br /><br />So if you can see that mental defilement is causing anxiety and pain for yourself, that is the beginning of sila and of compassion?<br /><br />If you can change that to compassion, then another reality becomes so clear. If instead of generating anger or hatred or passion or fear or ego, I generate love, compassion, goodwill, then nature starts rewarding me. I feel so peaceful, so much harmony within me. It is such that when I defile my mind I get punishment then and there, and when I purify my mind I get a reward then and there.<br /><br />What happens during a ten-day Vipassana course?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The whole process is one of total realization, the process of self-realization, truth pertaining to oneself, by oneself, within oneself. It is not an intellectual game. It is not an emotional or devotional game: “Oh, Buddha said such and such . . . so wonderful . . . I must accept.” It is pure science. I must understand what’s happening within me, what’s the truth within me. We start with breath. It looks like a physical concept, the breath moving in and moving out. It is true. But on the deeper level the breath is strongly connected to mind, to mental impurities. While we’re meditating, and we’re observing the breath, the mind starts wandering—some memory of the past, some thoughts of the future—immediately what we notice is that the breath has lost its normality: it might be slightly hard, slightly fast. And as soon as that impurity is gone away it is normal again. That means the breath is strongly connected to the mind, and not only mind but mental impurities. So we are here to experiment, to explore what is happening within us. At a deeper level, one finds that mind is affecting the body at the sensation level.<br /><br />This causes another big discovery—that you are not reacting to an outside object. Say I hear a sound and I find that it is some kind of praise for me; or I find someone abusing me, I get angry. You are reacting to the words at the apparent level, yes, true. You are reacting. But Buddha says you are actually reacting to the sensations, body sensations. That when you feel body sensation and you are ignorant, then you keep on defiling your mind by craving or by aversion, by greed or by hatred or anger. Because you don’t know what’s happening.<br /><br />When you hear praise or abuse, is the response filtered through the psychological mind to the bodily sensations, or is it simultaneous?<br /><br />It is one after the other, but so quick that you can’t separate them. So quick! At some point automatically you can start realizing, “Look what’s happening! I have generated anger.” And the Vipassana meditator will immediately say, “Oh, a lot of hate! There is a lot of hate in the body, palpitation is increased, “Oh, miserable. I feel miserable.”<br /><br />If you are not working with the body sensations, then you are working only at the intellectual level. You might say, “Anger is not good,” or “Lust is not good,” or “Fear is not—.” All of this is intellectual, moral teachings heard in childhood. Wonderful. They help.<br /><br />But when you practice, you understand why they’re not good. Not only do I harm others by generating these defilements of anger or passion or fear or evil, I harm myself also, simultaneously.<br /><br />Vipassana is observing the truth. With the breath I am observing the truth at the surface level, at the crust level. This takes me to the subtler, subtler, subtler levels. Within three days the mind becomes so sharp, because you are observing the truth. It’s not imagination. Not philosophy or thinking. Truth, breath, truth as breath, deep or shallow. The mind becomes so sharp that in the area around the nostrils, you start feeling some biochemical reaction that means some physical sensation. This is always there throughout the body, but the mind was so gross it was feeling only very gross sensations like pain or such. But otherwise there are so many sensations which the mind is not capable to feel.<br /><br />Can you say something about the generation of wisdom? Is insight the same as wisdom?<br /><br />Same same same! Insight is not trying to understand the reality within myself merely at the intellectual level, but I understand it now at the experiential level. For anybody who admires Buddha’s teaching—that everything is impermanent, changing—this is at the intellectual level. Yes, everything’s changing. Nothing is permanent. Quite true. But that doesn’t help. When I practice Vipassana, I start with sensation: Look, sensation arises, seems to stay for some time but passes, is not eternal.<br /><br />And after four, five, six days, the sensations get dissolved. There is no more solidity in the entire body. Mere vibration, very subtle vibration. So this impermanence is now experience. What is the purpose of reacting to something when it is changing so quickly? What is the purpose of reacting with craving or clinging? It passes away. Or hatred: it passes away. People who are very angry, or are full of lust, full of fear or full of depression or full of ego—when they keep on observing their sensations, the whole habit pattern changes.<br /><br />Does the object of awareness ever disappear so that there’s only awareness of awareness itself?<br /><br />Exactly. But when I say I am aware of this object, and “I” is there, “I” am aware of this. This is a duality. Slowly as you proceed, “I” goes away. Things are just happening, and the knowing part knows. That’s all.<br /><br />Is that the same as what some teachers call “bare attention”?<br /><br />Yes, this is bare attention.<br /><br />When there’s no object.<br /><br />The object keeps on changing. What is the object this moment may not be the object the next moment. So whatever manifests itself from moment to moment, there is clarity. And there awareness means you are not reacting to it. Say the object, the sensation, is very pleasant. The old habit pattern was that when we feel this sensation we react with, “Ah, Wonderful! I must continue—this must be retained.” Then this is not bare awareness. But if you keep on, just awareness, let me see what happens, it changes. You are just observing the changing nature of the sensations. This sensation or that sensation, makes no difference.<br /><br />Do you move to a place where there’s absolutely no self-consciousness of the awareness?<br /><br />That is a very high stage, the nirvanic stage. As long as we are in the field of mind and matter, sensation is bound to be there. But sensations will become subtler and subtler.<br /><br />Is it possible to transcend awareness itself?<br /><br />Certainly. But that takes time. If you keep on thinking about this, it will be imagination. No imagination is allowed in the whole technique. Be with the present moment as it is. Otherwise you will be thinking: Nirvana, nirvana is like this, I must—You haven’t experienced nirvana. You’ve heard about nirvana, you’ve intellectualized about nirvana, you’ve emotionalized about nirvana. You don’t know what nirvana is. So let it come. Every moment is nirvana for you. Whatever is arising you are observing it—now it is passing away, now it arises. Bare awareness. That will take you to the stage where there is no more sensation, that is beyond mind and matter. Sensations come where there is mind and matter. And where there is no mind and matter there is no horizon, no passing, no sensation. But we can’t imagine it. The moment you start imagining, then it becomes a philosophy.<br /><br />Do you understand this practice to be the essence of Buddha’s teaching?<br /><br />Yes. If proper attention is not given to the sensations, then we are not going to the deepest levels of the mind. The deepest level of the mind, according to Buddha, is constantly in contact with body sensations. And you find this by experience.<br /><br />What is your role as the teacher?<br /><br />A teacher, out of compassion and love, seeing that somebody is suffering, gives a path. But each individual has to walk on the path. There is no magical miracle with the teacher. Totally out of the question. He only shows the path. That is the only role of the teacher, nothing else.<br /><br />You’ve built this worldwide organization, and it seems that you don’t have a successor. So many are coming up, and to appoint somebody a successor will disturb the purity. Buddha never appointed anybody as a successor. Who am I to appoint? All these five hundred or six hundred teachers whom I have trained, they will carry on. If I am not there they will still carry on. Not because they have faith in the teacher—they have faith in the technique, which gives them results. That’s all that will remain. Otherwise they think so long as guru is there you get all of the benefits—guru is no more, it is gone: That is a personality cult. The technique is so great. It will survive. Don’t worry [laughs]. I am very confident. It will survive.<br /><br />I wanted to ask you about criticisms in this country, specifically about your organization’s reported refusal to allow homosexuals to participate in advanced retreats.<br /><br />I don’t know how somebody started this talk, which is, I can say very confidently, totally wrong. We have no discrimination of any kind with anybody. It is totally out of the question. But of course when you go for deeper courses - twenty-day course, thirty-day course, forty-day course - it is a really deep operation of the mind, surgical operation of the mind. Deep-rooted complexes start coming to the surface, so every student must have the facility of privacy, a place to be without getting attracted to the object of passion. If somebody has got passion, and the object of passion is all the time there, then it might create a few difficulties. It has created difficulties sometimes even in ten-day courses. You have to be very careful.<br /><br />I don’t know how this wrong thing started. There are teachers who are lesbians and homosexuals in this country and in Europe. Where there are facilities I teach them. When they go to a center where there’s not much facility and they say, I was refused there, so they write letters and say something bad about the teaching. They can’t understand. What about the facilities we are giving them? Just because one or two started complaining because they were refused - and there are other reasons also for refusing. I have refused those who are not homosexuals, who are not lesbians. Because at present this person is not fit for such deep operation. Even multi-millionaires, even there is one billionaire who is pressing hard to take a long course. I don’t give it to him. I say, No, you are not fit yet.<br /><br />There has been some concern that the idea of not allowing these people into long courses is that they would act inappropriately.<br /><br />No, no, no! Anybody can act in a wrong way. If we separate people it is for their good, not for segregation, or denouncing them, saying: “Oh you’re not good, so I keep you separate.” It is for everyone!<br /><br />Is it true that homosexuals have to renounce their sexual orientation in order to take the longer courses?<br /><br />Totally wrong. Of course we examine every person whether lesbian or not-lesbian, homosexual or not. If you are still a bundle of lust and you can’t control yourself so you can’t do a deeper operation of the mind, wait a little, take a few more courses. That is what we tell everybody. Not because someone is a homosexual.<br /><br />In this country now, traditional practices—like segregating men and women, or variations on that theme—are becoming part of a mix, a melting pot. Some teachers welcome this challenge, but others are quite concerned about maintaining the purity of the various traditions. You are somewhat renowned for taking a strict view of maintaining the integrity of each lineage.<br /><br />Ultimately you have to take one decision. You want water, you dig ten feet, don’t get water, a different ten feet, you keep on digging in different places. Some day you must be sure I will get water here, then dig, come to that stage. I don’t say only remain with me. You try, and whichever path seems more compatible to your ideology, your thinking, go ahead. I don’t condemn.<br /><br />In another example of traditions coming together, the peace summit that you’re attending at the U.N. this week is bringing world religious leaders together to make a declaration committing themselves to global peace. What’s your outlook? Any cause for optimism? When we look at Asia, we look at Burma, Sri Lanka, such violence and suffering in these Buddhist countries—how can we use our practice for peace? In centuries of Buddha’s teaching there is not a single incident where the followers of Buddha were involved in any kind of bloodshed in the name of propagating Buddha’s teachings. Wherever Buddha’s teaching went, it went with love and compassion. So that tradition says that here is a path which does not support violence or bloodshed.<br /><br />Now you come to this millennium conference that is going on. Again, according to Buddha’s teaching and according to science, human science and the reality that we face, we want peace in human society. Certainly everybody, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, wants this. But how can there be peace in society unless there is peace in the individual? If the individual is boiling, agitated all the time, there is no peace. And you expect the entire society to be peaceful? To me it is unsound. Doesn’t sound logical.<br /><br />Is it helpful to not use the word “Buddhism,” so it can become something for everyone? These are two words I have avoided in the last thirty-one years. In the thirty-one years since I started teaching I avoid using the word “Buddhism.” I never use the word “religion,” so far as Buddha’s teaching is concerned. For me Buddha never established a religion. Buddha never taught Buddhism. Buddha never made a single person a Buddhist.<br /><br />Everybody will agree that every religion of the world has got these common factors, which I call the inner core of religion—morality, mastery of the mind, purification of mind. So I say this is the core, the wholesome core of every religion. And then there’s the outer shell. The outer shell differs from one to the other. Let everyone be happy with their rites, rituals—but they should not forget this inner core.<br /><br />If they forget this and say, I am a religious person because I have done this rite, they are deluding themselves, they are deluding others.<br /><br />In terms of this sense of interior peace: There’s a fear in this culture that if you are very peaceful that you’re a little dead. We want to be peaceful but cannot imagine how we can save the world, in terms of ecology, without being angry. We want to engage in life with those kinds of passions.<br /><br />I recognize that. I am not against that. People have not understood the Buddha’s teaching properly. Say a person comes to harm me, and I say, “I am a Vipassana meditator, like a vegetable, come and cut me”—that is not Buddha’s teaching. We will take strongest action wherever necessary, strongest physical and vocal action.<br /><br />But before doing that we must examine ourselves at the physical level, at the sensation level, and the mental level. If I find my mind is very equanimous, I’ve got no anger towards this person. I’ve got love towards this person. But because this person does not understand soft language, I’ve got to use hard language. He does not understand soft action, I will take hard action. In his interest, in her interest. Love is there. Compassion is there. If there is anger, then I’m miserable. How can a miserable person help another miserable person?<br /><br />This question requires a lot of clarification, because this question keeps coming up. That if you are not angry, how will we be able to defend ourselves? If we are not angry, how will be able to be successful in this way or that way? That is because people have not lived a life where they are detached and yet very strong. People feel that only with attachment I can gain my goal. But when they understand and they practice, a detached person is more successful to reach their goal. Because the mind is so calm, so clear. And whatever problem comes you can make a quick decision, a right decision.<br /><br />And the government is introducing Vipassana into the police academy. Even prisoners change. Hard criminals. And every government wants a prisoner to be reformed when he comes to the prison. Instead of that it is a house of crime, where you discuss what kind of crime, and how you did it. They learn much more, and come out as bigger criminals. Now with Vipassana there is a big change.<br /><br />And that is not by giving discourses, giving praises of Buddha. It is by technique, when they start observing. Living in the prison, most of the students have anger: So-and-so gave witness against me, when I get out I’ll kill him. Revenge. When they start observing, “Oh, what am I doing? I’m burning myself,” it goes away. With the other way this person will create more and more violence. Now he can’t do that. He’s full of love, full of compassion.<br /><br />And the person becomes so active. A number of hard criminals when they come out, they get jobs here and there and they don’t return.<br /><br />Do you think in the Buddhist societies today, where violence is being carried out, are they functioning with this detachment or no?<br /><br />If somebody says they are a Buddhist and that is all they do, then I say you are a devotee of Buddha, you are not a follower of Buddha. It’s a real difference. You have great devotion towards Buddha, you say, “Lord Buddha, Lord Buddha, how wonderful!” But you don’t practice. Whether we keep calling ourselves Christian or Hindu or Muslim, it makes no difference. A follower of the Buddha follows the teachings: sila, samadhi, prajna. Those people who simply call themselves Buddhists are not living the life of Buddha. That is why I don’t use the word “Buddhist” or “Buddhism.” Buddha never taught any isms. In all his words, and the commentaries, which number thousands of pages, the word “Buddhism” is not there. So this all started much later, when Buddha’s teaching began to settle. I don’t know when it started, how it started, calling it Buddhism, but the day it happened it devalued the teaching of Buddha. It was a universal teaching, and that made it sectarian, as if to say that Buddhism is only for Buddhists, like Hinduism is for Hindus, Islam is for Muslims. Dharma is for all.. <br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/node/31772?offer=dharma" target="_blank">www.tricycle.com</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/S. N. Goenka" target="_blank" rel="tag">S. N. Goenka</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Vipassana" target="_blank" rel="tag">Vipassana</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-74901114530662179322010-08-05T00:31:00.001+08:002010-08-05T00:34:27.870+08:00Interview with Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche<object width="400" height="293"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5997589&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5997589&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="293"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5997589">Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2139647">Khyentse Norbu</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /><br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-44472673500980010742010-08-03T23:43:00.007+08:002010-08-04T00:04:58.643+08:00The Eye of Discernment<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dhammatalks.org/dhamma/images/AjaanLeesitsmall.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 414px;" src="http://www.dhammatalks.org/dhamma/images/AjaanLeesitsmall.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>This anthology serves as an excellent starting point for newcomers to Ajaan Lee's teachings.<br /><br />An Anthology from the Teachings<br />of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo <br />(Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya) selected and translated from the Thai by<br />Thanissaro Bhikkhu<br /><br /><br />Contents<br /><br />Introduction<br />From Craft of the Heart<br />From Keeping the Breath in Mind: Method 2<br />From The Path to Peace & Freedom for the Mind<br />From Frames of Reference<br />From Basic Themes<br />From The Craft of the Heart<br />From the Autobiography<br />Introduction <br /><br />This anthology, drawn from the teachings of Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, provides an introduction to the basic outlines of his thought and the method of meditation he taught.<br /><br />The first excerpt, from The Craft of the Heart, was written shortly after he had received training from Phra Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto. In it, Ajaan Lee shows how he regarded the state of meditation practice in Thailand at the time, and gives some ideas of why he himself had chosen the path of becoming a meditating monk.<br /><br />The passage from Keeping the Breath in Mind details the method of meditation he developed and taught in the later years of his life. The passage from The Path to Peace and Freedom for the Mind elaborates on a theme he had learned from Ajaan Mun: that there are no sharp boundaries among the practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment, and that all three of these aspects of the path are mutually reinforcing.<br /><br />The three excerpts from Dhamma talks make a similar point: that there is no sharp division between the practice of tranquillity meditation and insight meditation. They also emphasize the role played by experimenting and using one's powers of observation in developing meditation as a skill.<br /><br />The excerpts from Frames of Reference and Basic Themes deal with the development of discernment, particularly with regard to detecting the currents of the mind — both those that flow out and get involved with the world, and those that spin around with reference to the mind in the present — so as to touch the aspect of the mind that doesn't flow, even to the present moment.<br /><br />The next excerpt, from the concluding section of The Craft of the Heart, discusses the goal of the practice as a supreme awareness, beyond all suppositions.<br /><br />The final excerpt, from Ajaan Lee's Autobiography, discusses some of the lessons he learned by living in the forest.<br /><br />My hope is that this anthology will inspire the reader to further explore Ajaan Lee's teachings — both through reading more of his writings and through putting their teachings into practice.<br /><br /> — Thanissaro Bhikkhu<br /><br />From Craft of the Heart <br /><br />Introduction<br /><br />When I first became aware of the conflicting views held by people who practice — and of how ill-informed they are — I felt inspired by their desire to learn the truth, but at the same time dismayed over their views: right mixed with wrong, some people saying that nibbana and the paths leading to it still exist, others maintaining that nibbana has passed away and can no longer be attained. This latter belief is a particular cause for dismay, because a desire for nibbana is what has led us all to submit ourselves to the practice of the Buddha's teachings in the first place. If we don't have such a desire, we aren't likely to be especially sincere in our practice; and if we aren't sincere, our practice will be in vain as far as the benefits the Buddha intended for us are concerned, because the Buddha's sole purpose in teaching was to liberate living beings from suffering and stress. If we were to worm our way in as parasites on his religion, it would run counter to his compassionate intentions toward us. Each and every one of us aims for what is good, so we should pay heed to whatever factors may lead to release from suffering and stress. Don't let the Buddha's teaching pass by you in vain.<br /><br />By and large, from what I've seen of people who practice, a great many of them train themselves in ways that mix right with wrong, and then set themselves up as teachers, instructing their pupils in line with their various theories about jhana, concentration, nibbana, and the stream leading to it. The lowest level are those who get so caught up with their own views and opinions that their teachings can become detrimental — saying, for example, that we don't have enough merit to practice, that we've been born too late for nibbana and the paths leading to it, and so have to give up our practice. (Opinions of this sort run the gamut from crude to middling to subtle.)<br /><br />But no matter what level a person may know, if he doesn't know the hearts and minds of others, he'll have great difficulty in making his teachings effective and beneficial. Even though he may have good intentions, if he lacks knowledge of those he is teaching, progress will be difficult. The Buddha, whenever he taught, knew the capabilities and dispositions of his listeners, and the level of teaching for which they were ripe. He then tailored his teachings to suit their condition, which was why he was able to get good results. Even though he had a lot of seed to sow, he planted it only where he knew it would sprout. If he saw that the soil was barren or the climate harsh, he wouldn't plant any seed at all. But as for us, we have only a fistful of rice and yet we cast it along a mountain spine or in the belly of the sea, and so get either meager results or none at all.<br /><br />Thus in this book I have included teachings on every level — elementary, intermediate, and advanced — leaving it up to the reader to pick out the teachings intended for his or her own level of attainment.<br /><br />In practicing meditation, if you direct your mind along the right path, you'll see results in the immediate present. At the same time, if you lead yourself astray, you'll reap harm in the immediate present as well. For the most part, if meditators lack the training that comes from associating with those who are truly expert and experienced, they can become deluded or schizoid in a variety of ways. How so? By letting themselves get carried away with the signs or visions that appear to them, to the point where they lose sense of their own bodies and minds. Playing around with an external kasina is a special culprit in this regard. Those who lack sufficient training will tend to hallucinate, convinced of the truth of whatever they focus on, letting themselves get carried away by what they know and see until they lose touch with reality, making it difficult for any sort of discernment to arise. For this reason, in this guide I have taught to focus exclusively on the body and mind, the important point being not to fasten on or become obsessed with whatever may appear in the course of your practice.<br /><br />There are a wide variety of meditation teachers who deviate from the basic principles taught by the Buddha. Some of them, hoping for gain, status, or praise, set up their own creeds with magical formulae and strict observances, teaching their students to invoke the aid of the Buddha. (Our Lord Buddha isn't a god of any sort who is going to come to our aid. Rather, we have to develop ourselves so as to reach his level.) Some teachers invoke the five forms of rapture, or else visions of this or that color or shape. If you see such and such vision, you attain the first level of the path, and so on until you attain the second, third, and fourth levels, and then once a year you present your teacher with offerings of rice, fruit, and a pig's head. (The Buddha's purpose in spreading his teachings was not that we would propitiate him with offerings. He was beyond the sway of material objects of any sort whatsoever.) Once the pupils of such teachers come to the end of their observances, they run out of levels to attain, and so can assume themselves to be Buddhas, Private Buddhas or Noble Disciples, and thus they become instant arahants. Their ears prick up, their hair stands on end, and they get excited all out of proportion to any basis in reality.<br /><br />When you study with some teachers, you have to start out with an offering of five candles and incense sticks, or maybe ten, plus so-and-so many flowers and so-and-so much puffed rice, on this or that day of the week, at this or that time of day, depending on the teacher's preferences. (If you can afford it, there's nothing really wrong with this, but it means that poor people or people with little free time will have trouble getting to learn how to meditate.) Once you finish the ceremony, the teacher tells you to meditate araham, araham, or buddho, buddho, until you get the vision he teaches you to look for — such as white, blue, red, yellow, a corpse, water, fire, a person, the Buddha, a Noble Disciple, heaven, hell — and then you start making assumptions that follow the drift of the objects you see. You jump to the conclusion that you've seen something special or have attained nibbana. Sometimes the mind gathers to the point where you sit still, in a daze, with no sense of self-awareness at all. Or else pleasure arises and you become attached to the pleasure, or stillness arises and you become attached to the stillness, or a vision or a color arises and you become attached to that. (All of these things are nothing more than uggaha nimitta.)<br /><br />Perhaps a thought arises and you think that it's insight, and then you really get carried away. You may decide that you're a stream-winner, a once-returner, or an arahant, and no one in the world can match you. You latch onto your views as correct in every way, giving rise to pride and conceit. (All of the things mentioned here, if you get attached to them, are wrong.) When this happens, liberating insight won't have a chance to arise.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />So you have to keep digging away for decades — and then get fixated on the fact that you've been practicing a full twenty years, and so won't stand for it if anyone comes along and thinks he's better than you. So, out of fear that others will look down on you, you become even more stubborn and proud, and that's as far as your knowledge and ingenuity will get you.<br /><br />When it comes to actual attainment, some people of this sort haven't even brought the Triple Gem into their hearts. Of course, there are probably many people who know better than this. I don't mean to cast aspersions on those who know.<br /><br />For this reason, I have drawn up this book in line with what I have studied and practiced, If you see that this might be the path you are looking for, give it a good look. My teacher didn't teach like the examples mentioned above. He taught in line with what was readily available, without requiring that you had to offer five incense sticks or ten candles or a pig's head or puffed rice or flowers or whatever. All he asked was that you have conviction in the Buddha and a willingness to practice his teachings. If you wanted to make an offering, some candles and incense as an offering to the Triple Gem would do — one candle if you had one, two if you had two; if you didn't have any, you could dedicate your life instead. Then he would have you repeat the formula for taking refuge in the Triple Gem as in the method given in this book. His approach to teaching in this way has always struck me as conducive to the practice.<br /><br />I have been practicing for a number of years now, and what I have observed all along has led me to have a sense of pity, both for myself and for my fellow human beings. If we practice along the right lines, we may very likely attain the benefits we hope for quickly. We'll gain knowledge that will make us marvel at the good that comes from the practice of meditation, or we may even see the paths and fruitions leading to nibbana in this present life — because nibbana is always present. It lacks only the people who will uncover it within themselves. Some people don't know how; others know, but aren't interested — and have mistaken assumptions about it to boot: thinking, for example, that nibbana is extinct, doesn't exist, can't be attained, is beyond the powers of people in the present day; saying that since we aren't Noble Disciples, how could we possibly attain it. This last is especially deluded. If we were already good, already Noble Disciples, what purpose would we have in going around trying to attain nibbana?<br /><br />If we don't despise the Buddha's teachings, then we can all practice them. But the truth of the matter is that though we worship the Dhamma, we don't practice the Dhamma, which is the same as despising it. If we feel well-enough situated in the present, we may tell ourselves that we can wait to practice the Dhamma in our next lifetime, or at least anytime by right now. Or we may take our defilements as an excuse, saying that we'll have to abandon greed, anger, and delusion before we can practice the Buddha's teachings. Or else we take our work as an excuse, saying that we'll have to stop working first. Actually, there's no reason that meditation should get in the way of our work, because it's strictly an activity of the heart. There's no need to dismantle our homes or abandon our belongings before practicing it; and if we did throw away our belongings in this way, it would probably end up causing harm.<br /><br />Even though it's true that we love ourselves, yet if we don't work for our own benefit, if we vacillate and hesitate, loading ourselves down with ballast and bricks, we make our days and nights go to waste. So we should develop and perfect the factors that bring about the paths and fruitions leading to nibbana. If you're interested, then examine the procedures explained in the following sections. Pick out whichever section seems to correspond to your own level and abilities, and take that as your guide.<br /><br />As for myself, I was first attracted to the Buddha's teachings by his statement that to lay claim to physical and mental phenomena as our own is suffering. After considering his teaching that the body is anatta — not-self — I began to be struck by a sense of dismay over the nature of the body. I examined it to see in what way it was not-self, and — as far as my understanding allowed — the Buddha's teaching began to make very clear sense to me. I considered how the body arises, is sustained and passes away, and I came to the conclusion that:<br /><br /> (1) it arises from upadana — clinging through mistaken assumptions — which forms the essence of kamma.<br />(2) It is sustained by nourishment provided by our parents; and since our parents have nothing of their own with which to nourish us, they have to search for food — two-footed animals, four-footed animals, animals in the water, and animals on land — either buying this food or else killing it on their own and then feeding it to us. The animals abused in this way are bound to curse and seek revenge against those who kill and eat them, just as we are possessive of our belongings and seek revenge against those who rob us.<br /><br />Those who don't know the truth of the body take it to be the self, but after considering the diseases we suffer in our eyes, nose, mouth, and throughout the various parts of the body, I concluded that we've probably been cursed by the animals we've eaten, because all of these parts come from the food we've made of their bodies. And so our body, cursed in this way, suffers pain with no recourse for begging mercy. Thus, victim to the spirits of these animals, we suffer pains in the eyes, pains in the ears, pains in the nose and mouth and throughout the body, until in the end we have to relinquish the whole thing so they can eat it all up. Even while we're still living, some of them — like mosquitoes and sandflies — come and try to take it by force. If we don't let go of our attachments to the body, we're bound to suffer for many lives to come. This is one reason why I felt attracted to the Buddha's teachings on not-self.<br /><br />(3) The body passes away from being denied nourishment. The fact that this happens to us is without a doubt a result of our past actions. We've probably been harsh with other living beings, denying them food to the point where they've had to part with the bodies they feel such affection for. When the results of such actions bear fruit, our bodies will have to break up and disband in the same way.<br /><br />Considering things in this manner caused me to feel even more attracted to the practical methods recommended by the Buddha for seeing not-self and letting go of our clinging assumptions so that we no longer have to be possessive of the treasures claimed by ignorant and fixated animals. If we persist in holding onto the body as our own, it's the same as cheating others of their belongings, turning them into our own flesh and blood and then, forgetting where these things came from, latching onto them as our very own. When this happens, we're like a child who, born in one family and then taken and raised in another family with a different language, is sure to forget his original language and family name. If someone comes along and calls him by his original name, he most likely won't stand for it, because of his ignorance of his own origins. So it is with the body: Once it has grown, we latch onto it, assuming it to be the self. We forget its origins and so become drugged, addicted to physical and mental phenomena, enduring pain for countless lifetimes.<br /><br />These thoughts are what led me to start practicing the teachings of the Buddha so as to liberate myself from this mass of suffering and stress.<br /><br />From Keeping the Breath in Mind: Method 2 <br /><br />There are seven basic steps:<br /><br />1. Start out with three or seven long in-and-out breaths, thinking bud- with the in-breath, and dho with the out. Keep the meditation syllable as long as the breath.<br /><br />2. Be clearly aware of each in-and-out breath.<br /><br />3. Observe the breath as it goes in and out, noticing whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable, broad or narrow, obstructed or free-flowing, fast or slow, short or long, warm or cool. If the breath doesn't feel comfortable, change it until it does. For instance, if breathing in long and out long is uncomfortable, try breathing in short and out short.<br /><br />As soon as you find that your breathing feels comfortable, let this comfortable breath sensation spread to the different parts of the body. To begin with, inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull, and let it flow all the way down the spine. Then, if you are male, let it spread down your right leg to the sole of your foot, to the ends of your toes, and out into the air. Inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull again and let it spread down your spine, down your left leg to the ends of your toes and out into the air. (If you are female, begin with the left side first, because the male and female nervous systems are different.)<br /><br />Then let the breath from the base of the skull spread down over both shoulders, past your elbows and wrists, to the tips of your fingers and out into the air.<br /><br />Let the breath at the base of the throat spread down the central nerve at the front of the body, past the lungs and liver, all the way down to the bladder and colon.<br /><br />Inhale the breath right at the middle of the chest and let it go all the way down to your intestines.<br /><br />Let all these breath sensations spread so that they connect and flow together, and you'll feel a greatly improved sense of well-being.<br /><br />4. Learn four ways of adjusting the breath:<br /><br /> a. in long and out long,<br />b. in long and out short,<br />c. in short and out long,<br />d. in short and out short.<br />Breathe whichever way is most comfortable for you. Or, better yet, learn to breathe comfortably all four ways, because your physical condition and your breath are always changing.<br /><br />5. Become acquainted with the bases or focal points for the mind — the resting spots of the breath — and center your awareness on whichever one seems most comfortable. A few of these bases are:<br /><br /> a. the tip of the nose,<br />b. the middle of the head,<br />c. the palate,<br />d. the base of the throat,<br />e. the breastbone (the tip of the sternum),<br />f. the navel (or a point just above it).<br />If you suffer from frequent headaches or nervous problems, don't focus on any spot above the base of the throat. And don't try to force the breath or put yourself into a trance. Breathe freely and naturally. Let the mind be at ease with the breath — but not to the point where it slips away.<br /><br />6. Spread your awareness — your sense of conscious feeling — throughout the entire body.<br /><br />7. Unite the breath sensations throughout the body, letting them flow together comfortably, keeping your awareness as broad as possible. Once you are fully aware of the aspects of the breath you already know in your body, you'll come to know all sorts of other aspects as well. The breath, by its nature, has many facets: breath sensations flowing in the nerves, those flowing around and about the nerves, those spreading from the nerves to every pore. Beneficial breath sensations and harmful ones are mixed together by their very nature.<br /><br />To summarize: (a) for the sake of improving the energy already existing in every part of your body, so that you can contend with such things as disease and pain; and (b) for the sake of clarifying the knowledge already within you, so that it can become a basis for the skills leading to release and purity of heart — you should always bear these seven steps in mind, because they are absolutely basic to every aspect of breath meditation. When you've mastered them, you will have cut a main road. As for the side roads — the incidentals of breath meditation — there are plenty of them, but they aren't really important. You'll be perfectly safe if you stick to these seven steps and practice them as much as possible.<br /><br /><br />Now we will summarize the methods of breath meditation under the headings of jhana.<br /><br />Jhana means to be absorbed or focused in a single object or preoccupation, as when we deal with the breath.<br /><br />1. The first jhana has five factors: (a) Directed thought (vitakka): Think of the breath until you can recognize it clearly without getting distracted. (b) Singleness of object (ekaggatarammana): Keep the mind with the breath. Don't let it stray after other objects. Watch over your thoughts so that they deal only with the breath to the point where the breath becomes comfortable. (The mind becomes one, at rest with the breath.) (c) Evaluation (vicara): Gain a sense of how to let this comfortable breath sensation spread and co-ordinate with the other breath sensations in the body. Let these breath sensations spread until they all merge. Once the body has been soothed by the breath, feelings of pain will grow calm. The body will be filled with good breath energy. (The mind is focused exclusively on issues connected with the breath.)<br /><br />These three qualities must be brought together to bear on the same stream of breathing for the first jhana to arise. This stream of breathing can then take you all the way to the fourth jhana.<br /><br />Directed thought, singleness of object and evaluation act as the causes. When the causes are fully ripe, results will appear — (d) rapture (piti): a compelling sense of fullness and refreshment for body and mind, going straight to the heart, independent of all else. (e) Pleasure (sukha): physical ease arising from the body's being still and unperturbed (kaya-passaddhi); mental contentment arising from the mind's being at ease on its own, unperturbed, serene and exultant (citta-passaddhi).<br /><br />Rapture and pleasure are the results. The factors of the first jhana thus come down simply to two sorts: causes and results.<br /><br />As rapture and pleasure grow stronger, the breath becomes more subtle. The longer you stay focused and absorbed, the more powerful the results become. This enables you to set directed thought and evaluation (the preliminary ground-clearing) aside, and — relying completely on a single factor, singleness of object — you enter the second jhana (magga-citta, phala-citta).<br /><br />2. The second jhana has three factors: rapture, pleasure and singleness of object (magga-citta). This refers to the state of mind that has tasted the results coming from the first jhana. Once you have entered the second level, rapture and pleasure become stronger because they rely on a single cause, singleness of object, which looks after the work from here on in: focusing on the breath so that it becomes more and more refined, keeping steady and still with a sense of refreshment and ease for both body and mind. The mind is even more stable and intent than before. As you continue focusing, rapture and pleasure become stronger and begin to expand and contract. Continue focusing on the breath, moving the mind deeper to a more subtle level to escape the motions of rapture and pleasure, and you enter the third jhana.<br /><br />3. The third jhana has two factors: pleasure and singleness of object. The body is quiet, motionless and solitary. No feelings of pain arise to disturb it. The mind is solitary and still. The breath is refined, free-flowing and broad. A radiance — white like cotton wool — pervades the entire body, stilling all feelings of physical and mental discomfort. Keep focused on looking after nothing but the broad, refined breath. The mind is free: No thoughts of past or future disturb it. The mind stands out on its own. The four properties — earth, water, fire and wind — are in harmony throughout the body. You could almost say that they're pure throughout the entire body, because the breath has the strength to control and take good care of the other properties, keeping them harmonious and coordinated. Mindfulness is coupled with singleness of object, which acts as the cause. The breath fills the body. Mindfulness fills the body.<br /><br />Focus on in: The mind is bright and powerful, the body is light. Feelings of pleasure are still. Your sense of the body feels steady and even, with no slips or gaps in your awareness, so you can let go of your sense of pleasure. The manifestations of pleasure grow still, because the four properties are balanced and free from motion. Singleness of object, the cause, has the strength to focus more heavily down, taking you to the fourth jhana.<br /><br />4. The fourth jhana has two factors: equanimity (upekkha) and singleness of object, or mindfulness. Equanimity and singleness of object on the fourth jhana are powerfully focused — solid, stable and sure. The breath element is absolutely quiet, free from ripples and gaps. The mind, neutral and still, lets go of all preoccupations with past and future. The breath, which forms the present, is still, like the ocean or air when they are free from currents or waves. You can know distant sights, and sounds, because the breath is even and unwavering, and so acts like a movie screen, giving a clear reflection of whatever is projected onto it. Knowledge arises in the mind: You know but stay neutral and still. The mind is neutral and still; the breath, neutral and still; past, present and future are all neutral and still. This is true singleness of object, focused on the unperturbed stillness of the breath. All parts of the breath in the body connect so that you can breathe through every pore. You don't have to breathe through the nostrils, because the in-and-out breath and the other aspects of the breath in the body form a single, unified whole. All aspects of the breath energy are even and full. The four properties all have the same characteristics. The mind is completely still.<br /><br /> The focus is strong; the light, aglow.<br />This is to know the great frame of reference.<br />The mind is beaming and bright — <br />like the light of the sun,<br />which unobstructed by clouds or haze,<br />illumines the earth with its rays.<br />The mind sheds light in all directions. The breath is radiant, the mind fully radiant, due to the focusing of mindfulness.<br /><br />The focus is strong; the light, aglow... The mind has power and authority. All four of the frames of reference are gathered into one. There is no sense that, 'That's the body... That's a feeling... That's the mind... That's a mental quality.' There's no sense that they're four, This is thus called the great frame of reference, because none of the four are in any way separate.<br /><br /> The mind is firmly intent,<br />centered and true,<br />due to the strength of its focus.<br />Mindfulness and alertness converge into one: This is what is meant by the one path (ekayana-magga) — the concord among the properties and frames of reference, four in one, giving rise to great energy and wakefulness, the purifying inner fire (tapas) that can thoroughly dispel all obscuring darkness.<br /><br />As you focus more strongly on the radiance of the mind, the power that comes from letting go of all preoccupations enables the mind to stand alone. You're like a person who has climbed to the top of a mountain and has the right to see in all directions. The mind's dwelling — the breath, which supports the mind's freedom — is in a heightened state, so the mind is able to see all things fashioned (sankhara) clearly in terms of the Dhamma: as properties (dhatu), khandhas, and sense media (ayatana). Just as a person who has taken a camera up in an airplane can take pictures of practically everything below, so a person who has reached this stage (lokavidu) can see the world and the Dhamma as they truly are.<br /><br />In addition, awareness of another sort, in the area of the mind — called liberating insight, or the skill of release — also appears. The elements or properties of the body acquire potency (kaya-siddhi); the mind, resilient power. When you want knowledge of the world or the Dhamma, focus the mind heavily and forcefully on the breath. As the concentrated power of the mind strikes the pure element, intuitive knowledge will spring up in that element, just as the needle of a record player, as it strikes a record, will give rise to sounds. Once your mindfulness is focused on a pure object, then if you want images, images will appear; if sounds, sounds will arise, whether near or far, matters of the world or the Dhamma, concerning yourself or others, past, present or future — whatever you want to know. As you focus down, think of what you want to know, and it will appear. This is ñana — intuitive sensitivity capable of knowing past, present and future — an important level of awareness that you can know only for yourself. The elements are like radio waves going through the air. If your mind and mindfulness are strong, and your skills highly developed, you can use those elements to put yourself in touch with the entire world, so that knowledge can arise within you.<br /><br />When you have mastered the fourth jhana, it can act as the basis for eight skills:<br /><br /> 1. Vipassana-ñana: clear intuitive insight into mental and physical phenomena as they arise, remain and disband. This is a special sort of insight, coming solely from training the mind. It can occur in two ways: (a) knowing without ever having thought of the matter; and (b) knowing from having thought of the matter — but not after a great deal of thought, as in the case of ordinary knowledge. Think for an instant and it immediately becomes clear — just as a piece of cotton wool soaked in gasoline, when you hold a match to it, bursts immediately into flame. The intuition and insight here are that fast, and so differ from ordinary discernment.<br />2. Manomayiddhi: the ability to use the mind to influence events.<br /><br />3. Iddhividhi: the ability to display supra-normal powers, e.g., creating images in certain instances that certain groups of people will be able to see.<br /><br />4. Dibbasota: the ability to hear distant sounds.<br /><br />5. Cetopariya-ñana: the ability to know the level — good or evil, high or low — of other people's minds.<br /><br />6. Pubbenivasanussati-ñana: the ability to remember previous lifetimes. (If you attain this skill, you'll no longer have to wonder as to whether death is followed by annihilation or rebirth.)<br /><br />7. Dibbacakkhu: the ability to see gross and subtle images, both near and far.<br /><br />8. Asavakkhaya-ñana: the ability to reduce and eliminate the effluents of defilement in the heart.<br /><br />These eight skills come exclusively from the centering the mind, which is why I have written this condensed guide to concentration and jhana, based on the technique of keeping the breath in mind. If you aspire to the good that can come from these things, you should turn your attention to training your own heart and mind.<br /><br />From The Path to Peace & Freedom for the Mind <br /><br />Virtue<br />There are three levels of virtue —<br /><br />1. Hetthima-sila: normalcy of word and deed, which consists of three kinds of bodily acts — not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct; and four kinds of speech — not lying, not speaking divisively, not saying anything coarse or abusive, not speaking idly. If we class virtue on this level according to the wording of the precepts and the groups of people who observe them, there are four — the five precepts, the eight, the ten, and the 227 precepts. All of these deal with aspects of behavior that should be abandoned, termed pahana-kicca. At the same time, the Buddha directed us to develop good manners and proper conduct in the use of the four necessities of life — food, clothing, shelter, and medicine — so that our conduct in terms of thought, word, and deed will be orderly and becoming. This aspect is termed bhavana-kicca, behavior we should work at developing.<br /><br />Observance of these precepts or rules — dealing merely with words and deeds — forms the lower or preliminary level of virtue, which is what makes us into full-fledged human beings (manussa-sampatti).<br /><br />2. Majjhima-sila: the medium level of virtue, i.e., keeping watch over your words and deeds so that they cause no harm; and, in addition, keeping watch over your thoughts so as to keep them upright in three ways —<br /><br />a. Anabhijjha-visamalobha: not coveting things that do not belong to you and that lie beyond your scope or powers; not focusing your thoughts on such things; not building what are called castles in the air. The Buddha taught us to tend to the wealth we already have so that it can grow on its own. The wealth we already have, if we use our intelligence and ingenuity, will draw more wealth our way without our having to waste time and energy by being covetous or greedy. For example, suppose we have a single banana tree: If we water it, give it fertilizer, loosen the soil around its roots, and guard it in other ways, our single banana tree will eventually give rise to an increase of other banana trees. In other words, if we're shrewd we can turn whatever wealth we have into a basis for a livelihood. But if we lack intelligence — if our hearts simply want to get, without wanting work — then even if we acquire a great deal of wealth, we won't be able to support ourselves. Thus, greed of this sort, in which we focus our desires above and beyond our capacities, is classed as a wrong kind of mental action.<br /><br />b. Abyapada: abandoning thoughts of ill will, hatred, and vengeance, and developing thoughts of benevolence and good will instead; thinking of the good aspects of the people who have angered us. When people make us angry, it comes from the fact that our dealings with them — in which we associate with and assist one another — sometimes lead to disappointment. This gives rise to dislike and irritation, which in turn cause us to brood, so that we develop hurt feelings that grow into anger and thoughts of retaliation. Thus we should regard such people from many angles, for ordinarily as human beings they should have some good to them. If they don't act well toward us, they may at least speak well to us. Or if they don't act or speak well to us, perhaps their thoughts may be well-meaning to at least some extent. Thus, when you find your thoughts heading in the direction of anger or dislike, you should sit down and think in two ways —<br /><br />(1) Try to think of whatever ways that person has been good to you. When these things come to mind, they'll give rise to feelings of affection, love, and good will. This is one way.<br /><br />(2) Anger is something worthless, like the scum that floats on the surface of a lake. If we're stupid, we won't get to drink the clean water that lies underneath; or if we drink the scum, we may catch a disease. A person who is bad to you is like someone sunk in filth. If you're stupid enough to hate or be angry with such people, it's as if you wanted to go sit in the filth with them. Is that what you want? Think about this until any thoughts of ill will and anger disappear.<br /><br />c. Samma-ditthi: abandoning wrong views and mental darkness. If our minds lack the proper training and education, we may come to think that we and all other living beings are born simply as accidents of nature; that 'father' and 'mother' have no special meaning; that good and evil don't exist. Such views deviate from the truth. They can dissuade us from restraining the evil that lies within us and from searching for and fostering the good. To believe that there's no good or evil, that death is annihilation, is Wrong View — a product of faulty thinking and poor discernment, seeing things for what they aren't. So we should abandon such views and educate ourselves, searching for knowledge of the Dhamma and associating with people wiser than we, so that they can show us the proper path. We'll then be able to reform our views and make them Right, which is one form of mental uprightness.<br /><br />Virtue on this level, when we can maintain it well, will qualify us to be heavenly beings. The qualities of heavenly beings, which grow out of human values, will turn us into human beings who are divine in our virtues, for to guard our thoughts, words, and deeds means that we qualify for heaven in this lifetime. This is one aspect of the merit developed by a person who observes the middle level of virtue.<br /><br />3. Uparima-sila: higher virtue, where virtue merges with the Dhamma in the area of mental activity. There are two sides to higher virtue —<br /><br />a. PAHANA-KICCA: qualities to be abandoned, which are of five sorts —<br /><br /> (1) Kamachanda: affection, desire, laxity, infatuation.<br />(2) Byapada: ill will and hatred.<br /><br />(3) Thina-middha: discouragement, drowsiness, sloth.<br /><br />(4) Uddhacca-kukkucca: restlessness and anxiety.<br /><br />(5) Vicikiccha: doubt, uncertainty, indecision.<br /><br />Discussion<br />(1) Ill will (byapada) lies at the essence of killing (panatipata), for it causes us to destroy our own goodness and that of others — and when our mind can kill off our own goodness, what's to keep us from killing other people and animals as well?<br /><br />(2) Restlessness (uddhacca) lies at the essence of taking what is not given (adinnadana). The mind wanders about, taking hold of other people's affairs, sometimes their good points, sometimes their bad. To fasten onto their good points isn't too serious, for it can give us at least some nourishment. As long as we're going to steal other people's business and make it our own, we might as well take their silver and gold. Their bad points, though, are like trash they've thrown away — scraps and bones, with nothing of any substance — and yet even so we let the mind feed on them. When we know that other people are possessive of their bad points and guard them well, and yet we still take hold of these things to think about, it should be classed as a form of taking what isn't given.<br /><br />(3) Sensual desires (kamachanda) lie at the essence of sensual misconduct. The mind feels an attraction for sensual objects — thoughts of past or future sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations — or for sensual defilements — passion, aversion, or delusion — to the point where we forget ourselves. Mental states such as these can be said to overstep the bounds of propriety in sensual matters.<br /><br />(4) Doubt (vicikiccha) lies at the essence of lying. In other words, our minds are unsure, with nothing reliable or true to them. We have no firm principles and so drift along under the influence of all kinds of thoughts and preoccupations.<br /><br />(5) Drowsiness (thina-middha) is intoxication — discouragement, dullness, forgetfulness, with no mindfulness or restraint watching over the mind. This is what it means to be drugged or drunk.<br /><br />All of these unwise qualities are things we should eliminate by training the heart along the lines of:<br /><br />b. BHAVANA-KICCA: qualities to be developed —<br /><br /> (1) Mindfulness (sati): Start out by thinking of an object, such as your in-and-out breathing. Use mindfulness to steady the mind in its object. Vitakka, thinking in this way, is what kills off sensual desires, in that the discipline of mindfulness keeps the mind from slipping off into external objects.<br />(2) Vicara: Evaluate and be observant. Make yourself aware of whether or not you've received a sense of comfort and relaxation from your breathing. If not, tend to the breath and adjust it in a variety of ways: e.g., in long and out long, in long and out short, in short and out short, in short and out long, in slow and out slow, in fast and out fast, in gently and out gently, in strong and out strong, in throughout the body and out throughout the body. Adjust the breath until it gives good results to both body and mind, and you'll be able to kill off feelings of ill will and hatred.<br /><br />(3) Piti: When you get good results — for instance, when the subtle breath sensations in the body merge and flow together, permeating the entire sense of the body — the breath is like an electric wire; the various parts of the body, such as the bones, are like electricity poles; mindfulness and self-awareness are like a power source; and awareness is thus bright and radiant. Both body and mind feel full and satisfied. This is piti, or rapture, which can kill off feelings of drowsiness.<br /><br />(4) Sukha: Now that feelings of restlessness and anxiety have disappeared, a sense of pleasure and ease for body and mind arises. This pleasure is what kills off restlessness.<br /><br />(5) Ekaggata: Doubts and uncertainty fade into the distance. The mind reaches oneness of object in a state of normalcy and equilibrium. This normalcy of mind, which is maintained through the power of the discipline of mindfulness (sati-vinaya), forms the essence of virtue: firmness, steadiness, stability. And the resulting flavor or nourishment of virtue is tranquillity, light-heartedness, and a sense of independence for the mind. When freedom of this sort arises within us, this is called the development of silanussati, the mindfulness of virtue. This is virtue that attains excellence — leading to the paths, their fruitions, and nibbana — and thus can be called uparima-sila, higher virtue.<br /><br />To summarize, there are three levels of virtue: external virtue, intermediate virtue, and internal virtue. In ultimate terms, however, there are two —<br /><br />1. Mundane virtue: virtue connected with the world, in which we maintain the principles of ordinary human morality but are as yet unable to reach the transcendent levels: stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship. We can't yet cut the Fetters (sanyojana) that tie the heart to the influences of all the worlds. This is thus called mundane virtue.<br /><br />2. Transcendent virtue: virtue that's constant and sure, going straight to the heart, bathing the heart with its nourishment. This arises from the practice of tranquillity meditation and insight meditation. tranquillity meditation forms the cause, and insight meditation the result: discovering the true nature of the properties, aggregates (khandhas), and senses; seeing clearly the four Noble Truths, in proportion to our practice of the Path, and abandoning the first three of the Fetters —<br /><br /> a. Sakkaya-ditthi (self-identity views): views that see the body or the aggregates as part of the self or as belonging to the self. Ordinarily, we may be convinced that views of this sort are mistaken, yet we can't really abandon them. But when we clearly see that they're wrong for sure, this is called Right View — seeing things as they truly are — which can eliminate such wrong views as seeing the body as belonging to the self, or the self as the five aggregates, or the five aggregates as part of the self.<br />b. Vicikiccha: doubt concerning what's genuine and true, and what's counterfeit and false. The power of Right View enables us to see that the quality to which we awaken exists at all times; and that the true qualities that cause us to awaken also exist and are made effective through the power of the practices we're following. Our knowledge is definite and true. Our doubts concerning the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are cleared up for good. This is called becoming a niyata-puggala, a person who is certain and sure.<br /><br />c. Silabbata-paramasa: When the heart abandons this Fetter, it no longer dotes on theories concerning moral virtue; it's no longer stuck merely on the level of manners and actions. Good and evil are accomplished through the heart; activities and actions are something separate. Even though people who reach this level do good — taking the precepts, making gifts and offerings, or meditating in line with the good customs of the world — they're not caught up on any of these things, because their hearts have reached the nourishment of virtue. They aren't stuck on the particulars (byañjana), i.e., their actions and activities; nor are they stuck on the purpose (attha), i.e., the meaning or intent of their various good manners. Their hearts dwell in the nourishment of virtue: tranquillity, stability, normalcy of mind. Just as a person who has felt the nourishment that comes from food permeating his body isn't stuck on either the food or its flavor — because he's received the benefits of the nourishment it provides — in the same way, the hearts of people who have reached the essence of virtue are no longer stuck on actions or manners, particulars or purposes, because they've tasted virtue's nourishment.<br /><br />This is thus classed as transcendent virtue, the first stage of nibbana. Even though such people may be destined for further rebirth, they're apart from the ordinary. Anyone whose practice reaches this level can be counted as fortunate, as having received dependable wealth, like ingots of gold. Just as gold can be used as currency all over the world because it has special value for all human beings — unlike paper currency, whose use is limited to specific countries — in the same way, a heart that's truly attained virtue has a value in this life that will remain constant in lives to come. Thus, a person who has reached this level has received part of the Noble Wealth of those who practice the religion.<br /><br />Concentration<br />Concentration has three levels —<br /><br />1. Kamavacara-khanika-samadhi: (momentary concentration in the sensory realm): The mind keeps thinking, coming to rest, and running along after worthwhile preoccupations — either internal or external — on the sensory level (kamavacara-kusala): sights, sounds, smells, flavors, tactile sensations, or ideas. An example of this is when the mind becomes quiet and rested for a moment as we sit listening to a sermon or chanting. In other words, the mind grows still for momentary periods in the same way that a person walks: One foot takes a step while the other foot rests on the ground, providing the energy needed to reach one's goal. This is thus called momentary concentration, something possessed by people all over the world. Whether or not we practice concentration, the mind is always behaving this way by its very nature. This is called the 'bhavanga-citta' or 'bhavanga-pada': The mind stops for a moment and then moves on. In developing higher levels of concentration, we have to start out with this ordinary level as our basis. Otherwise, the higher levels probably wouldn't be possible. Still, this level of concentration can't be used as a basis for discernment, which is why we have to go further in our practice.<br /><br />2. Rupavacara-upacara-samadhi (threshold concentration in the realm of form): This refers to the first jhana, in which the mind comes inward to rest on a single preoccupation within the body, fixing its attention, for example, on the in-and-out breath. When the mind stays with its one object, this is called ekaggata. At the same time, there's mindfulness keeping the breath in mind: This is called vitakka. The mind then adjusts and expands the various aspects of the breath throughout the entire body, evaluating them mindfully with complete circumspection: This is called self-awareness (sampajañña) or vicara, which is the factor aware of causes and results. Mindfulness, the cause, is what does the work. Thus vitakka and vicara cooperate in focusing on the same topic. We are then aware of the results as they arise — feelings of fullness, pleasure, and ease (piti and sukha) for body and mind. At this point, the mind lets down its burdens to rest for a while, like a person walking along who meets with something pleasing and attractive, and so stops to look: Both feet are standing still, stepping neither forward nor back.<br /><br />If we aren't skilled enough to go on any further, we will then retreat. If we see results — such as signs and visions — arising in the mind, we may get excited and so cause our original preoccupation to waver or fade. Like a person sitting on a chair: If he sees something appealing in front of him, he may become so interested that he leans forward and reaches out his hand; he may even begin to budge a bit from his seat or stand up completely. In the same way, if we get engrossed in visions, thoughts, or views when we're engaged in threshold concentration, we can become excited and pleased — we may even think that we've reached the transcendent — and this can cause our concentration to degenerate. If we try to do it again and can't, we may then seize the opportunity to say that we've gone beyond the practice of concentration, so that we can now take the way of discernment — thinking, pondering, and letting go in line with nothing more than our own views and ideas. This, though, is not likely to succeed, because our knowledge has no firm basis or core, like a wheel with no axle or hub: How can it get anywhere? The power of threshold concentration, if we don't watch after it well, is bound to deteriorate, and we'll be left with nothing but old, left-over concepts.<br /><br />3. Rupavacara-appana-samadhi (fixed penetration in the realm of form): This refers to the practice of all four levels of rupa jhana. The first jhana has five factors: thinking, evaluating, fullness, pleasure, and singleness of object. The second level has three: fullness, pleasure, and singleness of object. The third has two: pleasure and singleness of object; and the fourth has two: equanimity and singleness of object.<br /><br />DISCUSSION<br />Fixed penetration in the realm of form means that the mind focuses on the internal sense of the body, remaining steadily with a single object — such as the in-and-out breath — until it reaches jhana, beginning with the first level, which is composed of thinking, evaluating, fullness, pleasure, and singleness of object. When you see results arising, focus in on those results and they will then turn into the second level, which has three factors: fullness, pleasure and singleness of object. As your focus becomes stronger, it causes the sense of fullness to waver, so you can now let go of that sense of fullness, and your concentration turns into the third jhana, in which only two factors are left: pleasure and singleness of object. The mind has few burdens; its focus is strong and the sense of inner light is radiant. This causes the feeling of pleasure to waver, so that you can let go of that sense of pleasure, and the mind attains oneness in a very subtle preoccupation. The preoccupation doesn't waver and neither does the mind. It stands firm in its freedom. This is called equanimity and singleness of object, which form the fourth jhana. Mindfulness is powerful. Self-awareness is complete. Both are centered on a single preoccupation without getting snagged on any other allusions or perceptions. This mental state is called the fourth jhana, which has two factors: Equanimity, or stillness, is the external attitude of the mind; as for the real factors, they're mindfulness and singleness, steady and firm.<br /><br />The mind experiences a sense of brightness, the radiance that comes from its state of fixed penetration. Mindfulness and self-awareness are circumspect and all-round, and so give rise to skill and proficiency in practicing jhana — in focusing, staying in place, stepping through the various levels, withdrawing, going back and forth. When the mind behaves as you want it to, no matter when you practice, only then does this truly qualify as fixed penetration, the basis for the arising of three qualities: intuitive knowledge (ñana), discernment (pañña), and cognitive skill (vijja).<br /><br />Intuitive knowledge here refers to knowledge or sensitivity of an extraordinary sort. For example —<br /><br /> Pubbenivasanussati-ñana: the ability to remember previous lives.<br />Cutupapata-ñana: the ability to focus on the death and rebirth of other living beings — sometimes in good destinations, sometimes in bad — together with the causes that lead them to be reborn in such ways. This gives rise to a sense of weariness and disenchantment with sensations and mental acts, body and mind.<br /><br />Asavakkhaya-ñana: knowing how to put an end to the defilements of the heart in accordance with the knowledge — the clear vision of the four Noble Truths — that accompanies the particular transcendent path reached. And there are still other forms of extraordinary knowledge, such as iddhividhi, the ability to display supernormal powers, to make an image of oneself appear to other people; dibbasota, clairaudience; dibbacakkhu, clairvoyance — i.e., the ability to see objects at tremendous distances.<br /><br />Discernment refers to discriminating knowledge, clear comprehension, knowledge in line with the truth. For example —<br /><br />Attha-patisambhida: acumen with regard to aims and results; thorough-going comprehension of cause and effect; knowing, for example, how stress is caused by ignorance and craving, and how the disbanding of stress is caused by the intuitive discernment that forms the Path; comprehending the meaning and aims of the Buddha's various teachings and knowing how to explain them so that other people will understand — being able, for instance, to summarize a long passage without distorting its meaning.<br /><br />Dhamma-patisambhida: acumen with regard to mental qualities; knowing how to explain deep and subtle points so that other people will understand.<br /><br />Nirutti-patisambhida: acumen with regard to different languages. According to the texts, this includes knowing foreign languages and the languages of various other living beings by means of the eye of discernment (pañña cakkhu).<br /><br />Patibhana-patisambhida: acumen with regard to expression; being fluent in making explanations and quick-witted in debate; knowing the most strategic way to express things.<br /><br />All of these forms of discernment can arise from training the mind to attain fixed penetration. Vijja — clear, open knowledge, free from any further concealments; and aloka — brilliance, radiance streaming out in all directions — enable us to see the true nature of sensations and mental acts, in accordance with our powers of intuitive discernment.<br /><br />Cognitive skill refers to clear, uncanny knowledge that arises from the mind's being firmly fixed in jhana. There are eight sorts —<br /><br /> (1) Vipassana-ñana: clear comprehension of physical sensations and mental acts (rupa, nama).<br />(2) Manomayiddhi: psychic powers, influencing events through the power of thought.<br /><br />(3) Iddhividhi: the ability to display powers, making one's body appear in a variety of ways.<br /><br />(4) Dibba-cakkhu: clairvoyance.<br /><br />(5) Dibba-sota: clairaudience.<br /><br />(6) Cetopariya-ñana: the ability to know the mental states of other people.<br /><br />(7) Pubbenivasanussati-ñana: the ability to remember previous lives.<br /><br />(8) Asavakkhaya-ñana: the ability to put an end to the effluents that defile the heart.<br /><br />Thus, jhana on the level of fixed penetration is extremely important. It can give us support on all sides — on the level of the world and of the Dhamma — and can bring success in our various activities, both in our worldly affairs and in our Dhamma duties, leading us on to the transcendent.<br /><br />To summarize, there are two kinds of concentration:<br /><br /> 1. That which gives rise to mundane knowledge: This is termed mundane concentration.<br />2. That which helps us to fulfill our duties on the level of the Dhamma, leading to vipassana-ñana or asavakkhaya-ñana, the knowledge that enables us — in accordance with the discernment and insight that arise — to abandon or cut off completely the mental tendencies that lean in the direction of the Fetters: This is termed transcendent concentration.<br /><br />Discernment<br />Discernment is of three kinds —<br /><br /> 1. Sutamaya-pañña: discernment that comes from studying.<br />2. Cintamaya-pañña: discernment that comes from reflecting.<br /><br />3. Bhavanamaya-pañña: discernment that comes from developing the mind.<br /><br />DISCUSSION<br />l. Sutamaya-pañña refers to the discernment that comes from having listened a great deal, like the Venerable Ananda. Listening here, though, includes studying and taking interest in a variety of ways: paying attention, taking notes, asking questions, and taking part in discussions so as to become quick-witted and astute.<br /><br />Education of all kinds comes down to two sorts: (a) learning the basic units, such as the letters of the alphabet, their sound and pronunciation, so as to understand their accepted usage; and (b) learning how to put them together — for instance, how to combine the letters so as to give rise to words and meanings — as when we complete our elementary education so that we won't be at a loss when we're called on to read and write in the course of making a living.<br /><br />In the area of the religion, we have to study the letters of the Pali alphabet, their combinations, their meanings, and their pronunciation. If we don't understand clearly, we should take an interest in asking questions. If we have trouble memorizing, we should take an interest in jotting down notes as a way of aiding our memory and expanding our concepts. In addition, we have to study by means of our senses. For example, when we see a visual object, we should find out its truth. When we hear sounds or words, we should find out their truth. When we smell an aroma, we should consider it to see what it comes from. We should take an interest in flavors so that we know what they come from, and in tactile sensations — the heat and cold that touch the body — by studying such things as the way weather behaves.<br /><br />All of these forms of education are ways of giving rise to astuteness — both in the area of the world and in the area of the Dhamma — because they constitute a basic level of knowledge, like the primary education offered in schools.<br /><br />2. Cintamaya-pañña refers to thinking and evaluating so as to learn the meaning and truth of one's beginning education. This level of education draws out the meaning of the knowledge we have gained through studying. When we gain information, we should reflect on it until we understand it so that we will be led by our sense of reason and not by gullibility or ignorance. This is like a person who has used his knowledge of the alphabet to gain knowledge from books to complete his secondary education. Such a person has reached the level where he can think things through clearly.<br /><br />In the area of the Dhamma, the same holds true. Once we have learned the basics, we should research and think through the content of the Teaching until we give rise to an understanding so that we can conduct ourselves correctly in line with the methods and aims taught by the sages of the past. This level of discernment is what prepares us to conduct ourselves properly in line with the true essence of the Doctrine and Discipline. This is classed as an aspect of pariyatti dhamma, Dhamma on the level of theory. By learning the language and meaning of the Teaching, we can become astute as far as theory is concerned; but if we don't use that knowledge to train ourselves, it's as if we studied a profession — such as law — but then went out to become bandits, so that our knowledge wouldn't give its proper results. For this reason, we've been taught still another method, which is the well-spring of discernment or mastery — i.e., the mental activity termed bhavanamaya-pañña.<br /><br />3. Bhavanamaya-pañña: discernment that arises exclusively from the practice of concentration. In other words, this level of discernment isn't related to the old observations we have gained from the past, because our old observations are bound to obscure the new observations, endowed with the truth, that can arise only right at the mind. When you engage in this form of practice, focus exclusively on the present, taking note of a single thing, not getting involved with past or future. Steady the mind, bringing it into the present. Gather virtue, concentration, and discernment all into the present. Think of your meditation object and bring your powers of evaluation to bear on it — say, by immersing mindfulness in the body, focusing on such objects as the in-and-out breath. When you do this, knowledge will arise.<br /><br />'Ñanam udapadi': Intuitive knowledge of things we have never before studied or known will appear. For example: pubbenivasanussati-ñana — the ability to remember our present life and past lives; cutupapata-ñana — the ability to know living beings as they die and are reborn — well or poorly, happily or miserably — knowing the causes and results of how they fare; asavakkhaya-ñana — the ability to cleanse ourselves of the effluents that defile the mind, thinning them out or eliminating them altogether, as we are able. These three forms of knowledge don't arise for people who simply study or think things through in ordinary ways. They form a mental skill that arises from the practice of concentration and are an aspect of Dhamma on the level of practice (patipatti-dhamma).<br /><br />Another aspect — 'pañña udapadi': Clear discernment of the true nature of the properties (dhatu), aggregates, and sense media arises. We can focus on these things by way of the mind and know them in terms of the four Noble Truths: stress (dukkha), which arises from a cause (samudaya), i.e., ignorance and craving; and then nirodha, the ceasing and disbanding of stress, which occurs as the result of a cause, i.e., the Path (magga), composed of practices for the mind. These things can be known by means of the discernment that arises exclusively and directly within us and is termed the eye of discernment or the eye of Dhamma: the eye of the mind, awakening from its slumbers.<br /><br />'Vijja udapadi': The eight forms of cognitive skill, which follow the laws of cause and effect — means of practice that bring us results — can arise in a quiet mind.<br /><br />'Aloko udapadi': Brightness, clarity, relief, and emptiness arise in such a mind.<br /><br />Thus, the discernment that results from developing the mind differs from the beginning stages of discernment that come from studying and reflecting. Study and reflection are classed as Dhamma on the level of theory, and can give only a preliminary level of knowledge. They're like a person who has awakened but has yet to open his eyes. The discernment that comes from developing the mind, though, is like waking up and seeing the truth — past, present, and future — in all four directions. We can clearly see stress, its cause, its disbanding, and the Path to its disbanding, and so can abandon the first set of Fetters. Our hearts will then flow to nibbana, just as the water in a mountain cataract is sure to flow to the sea. Our hearts will flow to their natural truth: the mental fullness and completeness of a person who has practiced mental development until discernment arises within. We will meet with a special form of wisdom — transcendent wisdom — whose power will stay with us always, a quality that's certain and sure, termed certain truth, certain wisdom, making us people certain for nibbana.<br /><br />So this level of discernment — termed the discernment of liberating insight — is especially important. It arises on its own, not from cogitating along the lines of old concepts we've learned, but from abandoning them. Old concepts are what obscure the new knowledge ready to arise.<br /><br />The nature of liberating insight is like an electric light: Simply press the switch once, and things all around are made bright. In the same way, when the mind reaches a stage of readiness, insight will arise in a single mental instant, and everything will become clear: properties, aggregates, and the sense media. We'll know, on the one hand, what's inconstant (aniccam), stressful (dukkham), and not-self (anatta); and on the other hand, what's uncommon, i.e., niccam — what's constant and true; sukham — true happiness, termed niramisa-sukha; and atta — the self. The eye of the mind can know both sides and let go both ways. It's attached neither to what's inconstant, stressful, and not-self; nor to what's constant (niccam), good (sukham), and right (atta). It can let these things go, in line with their true nature. The knowledge that comes from discernment, cognitive skill, and intuitive insight, it can let go as well. It isn't attached to views — for there's yet another, separate sort of reality that has no 'this' or 'that.' In other words, it has no sense of 'I.' It lets go of the assumptions that, 'That's the self,' 'That's not the self,' 'That's constant,' 'That's inconstant,' 'That arises,' 'That doesn't arise.' It can let go of these things completely. That's the Dhamma, and yet it doesn't hold onto the Dhamma, which is why we say that the Dhamma is not-self. It also doesn't hold on to the view that says, 'not-self.' It lets go of views, causes, and effects, and isn't attached to anything at all dealing with wordings or meanings, conventions or practices.<br /><br />This, then, is discernment that arises from the development of the mind.<br /><br />To conclude: The discernment that comes from studying and reflecting is classed as Dhamma on the level of theory. The discernment that comes from developing the mind is classed as Dhamma on the level of practice. The results that arise are two —<br /><br /> 1. Mundane discernment: comprehension — of the world and the Dhamma — falling under mundane influences and subject to change.<br />2. Transcendent discernment: awareness that goes beyond the ordinary, giving rise to clear realization within. People who reach this level are said to have awakened and opened their eyes, which is what is meant by 'Buddho.'<br /><br />Dhamma Talks<br />Insight isn't something that can be taught. It's something you have to give rise to within yourself. It's not something you simply memorize and talk about. If we were to teach it just so we could memorize it, I can guarantee that it wouldn't take five hours. But if you wanted to understand one word of it, three years might not even be enough. Memorizing gives rise simply to memories. Acting is what gives rise to the truth. This is why it takes effort and persistence for you to understand and master this skill on your own.<br /><br />When insight arises, you'll know what's what, where it's come from, and where it's going — as when we see a lantern burning brightly: We know that, 'That's the flame... That's the smoke... That's the light.' We know how these things arise from mixing what with what, and where the flame goes when we put out the lantern. All of this is the skill of insight.<br /><br />Some people say that tranquillity meditation and insight meditation are two separate things — but how can that be true? tranquillity meditation is 'stopping,' insight meditation is 'thinking' that leads to clear knowledge. When there's clear knowledge, the mind stops still and stays put. They're all part of the same thing.<br /><br />Knowing has to come from stopping. If you don't stop, how can you know? For instance, if you're sitting in a car or a boat that is traveling fast and you try to look at the people or things passing by right next to you along the way, you can't see clearly who's who or what's what. But if you stop still in one place, you'll be able to see things clearly.<br /><br />Or even closer to home: When we speak, there has to be a pause between each phrase. If you tried to talk without any pauses at all, would anyone be able to understand what you said?<br /><br />This is why we first have to make the mind stop to be quiet and still. When the mind stays still in a state of normalcy, concentration arises and discernment follows. This is something you have to work at and do for yourself. Don't simply believe what others say. Get so that you know 'Oh! Oh! Oh!' from within, and not just 'Oh? Oh? Oh?' from what people say. Don't take the good things they say and stick them in your heart. You have to make these things your own by getting them to arise from within you. Spending one dollar of your own money is better than spending 100 dollars you've borrowed from someone else. If you use borrowed money, you have to worry because you're in debt. If you use your own money, there's nothing to worry about.<br /><br />Stopping is what gives rise to strength. If a man is walking or running, he can't put up a good fight with anyone, because the advantage lies with the person standing still, not with the person walking or running. This is why we're taught to make the mind stop still so that it can gain strength. Then it will be able to start walking again with strength and agility.<br /><br />It's true that we have two feet, but when we walk we have to step with one foot at a time. If you try to step with both feet at once, you won't get anywhere. Or if you try to walk with just one foot, you can't do that either. When the right foot stops, the left foot has to take a step. When the left foot stops, the right foot has to take a step. You have to stop with one foot and step with the other if you're going to walk with any strength because the strength comes from the foot that has stopped, not from the foot taking a step. One side has to stop while the other side takes a step. Otherwise, you'll have no support and are sure to fall down. If you don't believe me, try stepping with both feet at once and see how far you get.<br /><br />In the same way, tranquillity and insight have to go together. You first have to make the mind stop in tranquillity and then take a step in your investigation: This is insight meditation. The understanding that arises is discernment. To let go of your attachment to that understanding is release.<br /><br />So stopping is the factor that gives rise to strength, knowledge, and discernment — the fixed mind that knows both the world and the Dhamma in a state of heightened virtue, heightened consciousness, and heightened discernment leading on to the transcendent.<br /><br />* * *<br />To get full results from our meditation, the mind has to give the orders. Mindfulness is what does the work and assists in the progress of all our activities, while alertness is what observes the results of what we've done. To speak in terms of the frames of reference, these qualities are called mindfulness and alertness. To speak in terms of jhana, they're called directed thought and evaluation. They're the qualities that give rise to discernment.<br /><br />Discernment comes from observing causes and effects. If we know effects without knowing causes, that doesn't qualify as discernment. If we know causes without knowing effects, that doesn't qualify, either. We have to know both of them together with our mindfulness and alertness. This is what qualifies as all-around knowing in the full sense of the term.<br /><br />The all-around knowing that arises within us comes from causes and effects, not from what we read in books, hear other people tell us, or conjecture on our own. Suppose we have some silver coins in our pocket. If all we know is that other people tell us it's money, we don't know its qualities. But if we experiment with it and put it in a smelter to see what it's made of and to see how it can be made into other things, that's when we'll know its true qualities. This is the kind of knowledge that comes from our own actions. This knowledge, when we meditate, comes in five forms. We find within ourselves that some things are caused by the properties of the body, some are caused by the mind, some causes come from the mind but have an effect on the body, some causes come from the body but have an effect on the mind, some causes come from the body and mind acting together. This kind of knowledge is discernment. So we have to learn from virtue, concentration, and discernment by giving rise to them. If we don't, we'll suffer from unawareness and delusion.<br /><br />Mindfulness is what brings light to the mind, like a candle. If we take a candle into a room at night, close the windows and doors, and fill in all the cracks in the walls, no wind from outside will be able to slip in and make the flame waver. The flame will give off even more light, and we'll be able to see everything in the room clearly. Closing the windows and doors and filling in the cracks means exercising restraint over our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, so that our attention doesn't go straying out after outside perceptions and preoccupations. This is called restraint through mindfulness. Our mindfulness will gather into one. When mindfulness is strong, the results are immediate: a sense of ease and mental well-being. When mindfulness is solid and unflagging, our concentration will become stronger. The mind will be still and upright. Light will arise in one of two ways: from within ourself or from what's reflected off the walls. This is why mindfulness is the cause, the supporting factor, that keeps our concentration progressing.<br /><br />* * *<br />What does discernment come from? You might compare it with learning to become a potter, a tailor, or a basket weaver. The teacher will start out by telling you how to make a pot, sew a shirt or a pair of pants, or weave different patterns, but the proportions and beauty of the object you make will have to depend on your own powers of observation. Suppose you weave a basket and then take a good look at its proportions, to see if it's too short or too tall. If it's too short, weave another one, a little taller, and then take a good look at it to see if there's anything that still needs improving, to see if it's too thin or too fat. Then weave another one, better-looking than the last. Keep this up until you have one that's as beautiful and well-proportioned as possible, one with nothing to criticize from any angle. This last basket you can take as your standard. You can now set yourself up in business.<br /><br />What you've done is to learn from your own actions. As for your previous efforts, you needn't concern yourself with them any longer. Throw them out. This is a sense of discernment that arises of its own accord, an ingenuity and sense of judgment that come not from anything your teachers have taught you, but from observing and evaluating on your own the object that you yourself have made.<br /><br />The same holds true in practicing meditation. For discernment to arise, you have to be observant as you keep track of the breath and to gain a sense of how to adjust and improve it so that it's well-proportioned throughout the body — to the point where it flows evenly without faltering, so that it' s comfortable in slow and out slow, in fast and out fast, long, short, heavy, or refined. Get so that both the in-breath and the out-breath are comfortable no matter what way you breathe, so that — no matter when — you immediately feel a sense of ease the moment you focus on the breath. When you can do this, physical results will appear: a sense of ease and lightness, open and spacious. The body will be strong, the breath and blood will flow unobstructed and won't form an opening for disease to step in. The body will be healthy and awake.<br /><br />As for the mind, when mindfulness and alertness are the causes, a still mind is the result. When negligence is the cause, a mind distracted and restless is the result. So we must try to make the causes good, in order to give rise to the good results we've referred to. If we use our powers of observation and evaluation in caring for the breath, and are constantly correcting and improving it, we'll develop awareness on our own, the fruit of having developed our concentration higher step by step.<br /><br />When the mind is focused with full circumspection, it can let go of concepts of the past. It sees the true nature of its old preoccupations, that there's nothing lasting or certain about them. As for the future lying ahead of us, it's like having to sail a small boat across the great wide sea: There are bound to be dangers on all sides. So the mind lets go of concepts of the future and comes into the present, seeing and knowing the present.<br /><br /> The mind stands firm and doesn't sway.<br />Unawareness falls away.<br />Knowledge arises for an instant and then disappears, so that you can know that there in the present is a void.<br /><br /> A void.<br />You don't latch on to world-fashionings of the past, world-fashionings of the future, or dhamma-fashionings of the present. Fashionings disappear. Avijja — counterfeit, untrue awareness — disappears. 'True' disappears. All that remains is awareness: 'buddha... buddha...'<br /><br />The factor that fashions the body, i.e., the breath; the factors that fashion speech, i.e., thoughts that formulate words; and the factor that fashions the mind, i.e., thinking, all disappear. But awareness doesn't disappear. When the factor that fashions the body moves, you're aware of it. When the factor that fashions speech moves, you're aware of it. When the factor that fashions the mind moves, you're aware of it, but awareness isn't attached to anything it knows. In other words, no fashionings can affect it. There's simply awareness. At a thought, the mind appears, fashionings appear. If you want to use them, there they are. If not, they disappear on their own, by their very nature. Awareness is above everything else. This is release.<br /><br />Meditators have to reach this sort of awareness if they're to get good results. In training the mind, this is all there is. Complications are a lot of fuss and bother, and tend to bog down without ever getting to the real point.<br /><br />From Frames of Reference <br /><br />In using the mind as a frame of reference, there are three aspects to deal with:<br /><br /> A. The mind inside.<br />B. The mind outside.<br />C. The mind in and of itself.<br />'The mind inside' refers to a state exclusively in the heart when it isn't involved with any outer preoccupations. 'The mind outside' refers to its interaction with such outer preoccupations as sights, sounds, etc. 'The mind in and of itself' refers to the act of singling out any aspect of the mind as it appears, whether inside or out.<br /><br />As for the modes of the mind inside, there are three —<br /><br /> 1. Raga-citta: a mental state infused with desire or passion.<br />2. Dosa-citta: a sense of inner irritation and displeasure.<br /><br />3. Moha-citta: a cloudy, murky or confused state of mind, in which it is unable to consider anything; in short, delusion.<br /><br />The mind outside is divided into the same three aspects — states of passion, irritation and delusion — but these are said to be 'outside' because once any of these aspects arises, it tends to go out and latch onto an outer preoccupation that simply serves to further aggravate the original state of passion, irritation or delusion. The mind then doesn't clearly or truly understand its objects. Its knowledge goes off in various directions, away from the truth: seeing beauty, for instance, in things that aren't beautiful, constancy in things that are inconstant, pleasure in things that are painful, and self in things that are not-self.<br /><br />All of these things are aspects of the mind outside.<br /><br />'The mind in and of itself' refers to the act of singling out any one of these aspects of the mind. For example, sometimes passion arises, sometimes anger, sometimes delusion: Whichever aspect may be arising in the present, single it out. With your alertness firmly in place, be mindful of that aspect of the mind, without making reference to any other objects — and without letting any hopes or wants arise in that particular mental moment at all. Then focus unwaveringly on investigating that state of mind until you know its truth. The truth of these states is that sometimes, once they've arisen, they flare up and spread; sometimes they die away. Their nature is to arise for a moment and then dissolve away with nothing of any substance or worth. When you are intent on examining things in this way — with your mindfulness, alertness, and powers of focused investigation firmly in place — then none of these defilements, even though they may be appearing, will have the chance to grow or spread. This is like the baskets or jars used to cover new lettuce plants: If no one removes the baskets, the plants will never have a chance to grow, and will simply wither away and die. Thus you have to keep your alertness right with each mental state as it arises. Keep mindfulness constantly referring to its object, and use your powers of focused investigation to burn into those defilements so as to keep them away from the heart at all times.<br /><br />To put this another way, all of the mental states mentioned above are like lettuce or green-gram seeds. Mindfulness is like a basket. Alertness is the person who scatters the seeds, while the power of focused investigation is the heat of the sun that burns them up.<br /><br />So far, we have mentioned only bad mental states. Their opposites are good mental states: viraga-citta — the mind free from the grip of passion; adosa-citta — the mind free from the annoyance or anger that can lead to loss and ruin; amoha-citta — the mind free from delusion, intoxication and misunderstandings. These are skillful states of mind (kusala-citta), which form the root of all that is good. When they arise, maintain them and observe them so that you can come to know the level of your mind.<br /><br />There are four levels of good mental states —<br /><br /> 1. Kamavacara-bhumi: the level of sensuality.<br />2. Rupavacara-bhumi: the level of form.<br /><br />3. Arupavacara-bhumi: the level of formlessness.<br /><br />4. Lokuttara-bhumi: the transcendent level.<br /><br />1. The level of sensuality: A mental state arises and connects with a wholesome object — any sight, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation or idea that can form the basis for skillful mental states. When it meets with its object, it becomes happy, joyful, and glad. (Here we're referring only to those sensory objects that are good for the mind.) If you were to refer to the Heavens of Sensual Bliss as they appear within each of us, the list would run as follows: Sights that can form the basis for skillful mental states are one level, sounds are another, and same with smells, tastes, tactile sensations and ideas. Together they form the six levels of heaven on the sensual level.<br /><br />2. The level of form: A mental state arises from thinking about (vitakka) a physical object that serves as the theme of one's meditation; and then analyzing (vicara) the object into its various aspects, at the same time making sure that the mind doesn't slip away from the object (ekaggatarammana). When the mind and its object are one in this way, the object becomes light. The mind is unburdened and can relax its sense of concern. Rapture (piti) and ease (sukha) arise as a result. When these five factors appear in the mind, it has entered the first jhana — the beginning stage in the level of form.<br /><br />3. The level of formlessness: The mind lets go of its physical object on the level of form, but is still attached to a very subtle mental notion — the jhana of unbounded space, for instance, in which you are focused on a sense of emptiness and awareness with no physical object or image passing into your field of attention, so that you are unable to know its full range. What has actually happened is that you have curled up and are hiding inside. This isn't the kind of 'going in to know' that comes from finishing your work. It's the 'going in to know' that comes from wanting to run away. You've seen the faults of what arises outside you, but haven't seen that they really lie buried within you — so you've hidden inside by limiting the field of your attention.<br /><br />Some people, when they reach this point, believe that they have done away with defilement, because they mistake the emptiness for nibbana. Actually, it's only the first stage in the level of formlessness, and so is still on the mundane level.<br /><br />If you seriously want to know whether your mind is on the mundane or the transcendent level, then observe it when you turn your awareness inward and make it still — when you feel a sense of peace and ease that seems to have no defilements adulterating it at all. Let go of that mental state, to see how it behaves on its own. If defilements can reappear, you're still on the mundane level. Sometimes that mental state remains unchanged through the power of your own efforts, but after a while you become unsure of your knowledge. Your mind has to keep fondling, i.e., making a running commentary on it. When this is the case, don't go believing that your knowledge is in any way true.<br /><br />There are many, many kinds of knowledge: The intellect knows, the heart knows, the mind knows, consciousness knows, discernment knows, alertness knows, awareness knows, unawareness knows. All these modes are based on knowledge; they differ simply in how they know. If you aren't able to distinguish clearly among the different modes of knowing, knowing can become confused — and so you might take wrong knowing to be right knowing, or unawareness to be awareness, or knowledge attached to suppositions (sammuti) to be freedom from suppositions (vimutti). Thus you should experiment and examine things carefully from all angles so that you can come to see for yourself which kind of knowledge is genuine, and which is counterfeit. Counterfeit knowledge, merely knows, but can't let go. Genuine knowledge, when it goes about knowing anything, is bound to let go.<br /><br />All three levels of the mind discussed so far are on the mundane level.<br /><br />4. The transcendent level: This begins with the path and fruition of entry into the stream to nibbana. Those who reach this level have begun by following the threefold training of virtue, concentration and discernment on the mundane level, but then have gone on to gain their first true insight into the four Noble Truths, enabling them to free themselves from the first three Fetters (sanyojana). Their minds are thus released into the stream to nibbana. The three Fetters are —<br /><br /> a. Self-identification (sakkaya-ditthi): the view that leads us to believe that the body is our own.<br />b. Doubt (vicikiccha): the uncertainty that leads us to be unsure of the good we believe in — i.e., of how much truth there is to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.<br /><br />c. Attachment to precepts and practices (silabbata-paramasa): fondling the good that we practice; being attached to those forms of goodness that are merely external — for instance, observing precepts or practices by clinging simply to the level of bodily action or speech. Examples of this attitude include such things as developing virtue by adhering simply to the precepts; practicing concentration by simply sitting like a post; not being able to free yourself from these actions, always holding onto the goodness that comes from them, happy when you have the chance to perform them in a particular way, upset when you don't; thinking, for instance, that virtue is something you get from monks when they give you the precepts; that the eight precepts are to be observed only on certain days and nights, months and years; that you gain or lose merit simply as a result of external actions associated with your accustomed beliefs. None of these attitudes reaches the essence of virtue. They go no further than simply clinging to beliefs, customs, and conventions; clutching onto these forms of goodness, always fondling them, unable to let them go. Thus this is called 'attachment to precepts and practices.'<br /><br />Such attitudes are an obstacle to what is truly good. Take, for example, the long-held belief that goodness means to practice charity, virtue and meditation on the sabbath days: stream-winners have completely let go of such beliefs. Their hearts are no longer caught up in beliefs and customs. Their virtues no longer have precepts. In other words, they have reached the essence of virtue. Their virtue is free from the limits of time. In this they differ from ordinary, run-of-the-mill people. Ordinary people have to hand goodness over to external criteria — believing, for instance, that virtue lies on this day or that, during Rains Retreat, during this or that month or year — and then holding fast to that belief, maintaining that anyone who doesn't follow the custom can't be virtuous. In the end, such people have a hard time finding the opportunity really to do good. Thus we can say that they don't know the true criteria for goodness. As for stream-winners, all the qualities of virtue have come in and filled their hearts. They are able to unshackle themselves from the conventional values of the world that say that this or that is good. What is truly good they have seen appear in their hearts. Good lies right here. Evil lies right here. Neither depends on external actions. This is in line with the Buddha's saying,<br /><br />mano-pubbangama dhamma<br />mano-settha mano-maya<br />All matters are preceded by the heart,<br />Excelled by the heart,<br />Achieved through the heart.<br /><br />This is what is meant by 'stream-winner'.<br /><br />Stream-winners are like people who have rowed their boats into the main current of the Chao Phraya River, and so are destined to float down to the river's mouth and into the sea of amata — deathless — nibbana. There are three ways they can reach the sea:<br /><br /> (1) The lowest level of stream-winner is like a boatsman who leans back with his hand simply placed on the rudder. This level of stream-winner reaches the goal slowly.<br />(2) The second level is like a boatsman who has his foot on the rudder, his hands on the oars, and rows along.<br /><br />(3) The third level: The boat is equipped with a motor and the boatsman is at the steering wheel, and so he reaches the goal in practically no time at all.<br /><br />This — reaching the stream to nibbana — is the beginning stage of the transcendent level. If you were to simplify the three Fetters, you could do so as follows: To be attached to the body as being one's own is self-identification. To be attached to the actions of the body is attachment to precepts and practices. Not knowing how to separate the mind from the body or from one's actions makes one unable to see clearly and know truly: This leads to uncertainty and doubt.<br /><br />These are simply my opinions on the matter, so you who read this should consider things carefully on your own.<br /><br />This ends the discussion of the transcendent and mundane skillful states of mind.<br /><br />When you know the characteristics of the various mental states, you should use the three qualities mentioned above as your tools: Keep your mindfulness, alertness, and powers of focused investigation firmly in place at the mind. To be able to gain knowledge, you have to use the power of focused investigation, which is an aspect of discernment, to know how mental states arise and fall: pulling out, taking a stance, and then returning into stillness. You must keep your attention fixed on investigating these things constantly in order to be able to know the arising and falling away of mental states — and you will come to know the nature of the mind that doesn't arise and doesn't fall away.<br /><br />To know the arising and falling away of mental states of the past is one level of cognitive skill (vijja), and deserves to be called 'knowledge of previous births.' To know the states of the mind as they change in the present deserves to be called 'knowledge of death and rebirth.' To know how to separate mental states from their objects, knowing the primal nature of the mind, knowing the current or force of the mind that flows to its objects; separating the objects, the current of mind that flows, and the primal nature of the mind: To be able to know in this way deserves to be called 'knowledge of the ending of mental effluents.' The objects or preoccupations of the mind are the effluent of sensuality. The current that flows is the effluent of becoming. Not knowing the primal nature of the mind is the effluent of unawareness.<br /><br />If we were to express this in terms of the four Noble Truths, we would have to do so as follows: The objects or preoccupations of the mind are the truth of stress (dukkha-sacca). The current of the mind that flows into and falls for its objects is the truth of the cause of stress (samudaya-sacca). The mental state that penetrates in to see clearly the truth of all objects, the current of the mind, and the primal nature of the mind, is called the mental moment that forms the Path (magga-citta). To let go of the objects, the mental current, and the primal nature of the mind, without any sense of attachment, is the truth of the disbanding of stress (nirodha-sacca).<br /><br />When the three qualities that assist the mind — alertness, mindfulness, and focused investigation — are vigorous and strong, alertness becomes the awareness of release (vijja-vimutti), mindfulness becomes intuitive understanding (ñana), and focused investigation becomes liberating insight (vipassana-ñana), the discernment that can stay fixed on knowing the truth of stress without permitting any sense of pleasure or displeasure for its object to arise. Intuitive understanding fathoms the cause of stress, and the awareness of release knows the heart clearly all the way through. When you can know in this way, you can say that you know rightly.<br /><br /><br />Here I'd like to back up and discuss the question of the mind in a little more detail. The word 'mind' covers three aspects:<br /><br /> (1) The primal nature of the mind.<br />(2) Mental states.<br />(3) Mental states in interaction with their objects.<br />All of these aspects, taken together, make up the mind. If you don't know the mind in this way, you can't say that you really know it. All you can do is say that the mind arises and falls away, the mind doesn't rise or fall away; the mind is good, the mind is evil; the mind becomes annihilated, the mind doesn't become annihilated; the mind is a dhamma, the mind isn't a dhamma; the mind gains release, the mind doesn't gain release; the mind is nibbana, the mind isn't nibbana; the mind is sensory consciousness, the mind isn't sensory consciousness; the mind is the heart, the mind isn't the heart...<br /><br />As the Buddha taught, there are only two paths to practice — the body, speech, and heart; and the body, speech, and mind — and in the end both paths reach the same point: Their true goal is release. So if you want to know the truth concerning any of the above issues, you have to follow the path and reach the truth on your own. Otherwise, you'll have to argue endlessly. These issues — for people who haven't practiced all the way to clear insight — have been termed by people of wisdom as sedamocana-katha: issues that can only make you break out in a sweat.<br /><br />So I would like to make a short explanation: The primal nature of the mind is a nature that simply knows. The current that thinks and streams out from knowing to various objects is a mental state. When this current connects with its objects and falls for them, it becomes a defilement, darkening the mind: This is a mental state in interaction. Mental states, by themselves and in interaction, whether good or evil, have to arise, have to disband, have to dissolve away by their very nature. The source of both these sorts of mental states is the primal nature of the mind, which neither arises nor disbands. It is a fixed phenomenon (thiti-dhamma), always in place. By the primal nature of the mind — which is termed 'pabhassara,' or radiant — I mean the ordinary, elementary state of knowing in the present. But whoever isn't able to penetrate in to know it can't gain any good from it, like the proverbial monkey with the diamond.<br /><br />Thus the name given by the Buddha for this state of affairs is really fitting: avijja — dark knowledge, counterfeit knowledge. This is in line with the terms 'pubbante aññanam' — not knowing the beginning, i.e., the primal nature of the mind; 'parante aññanam' — not knowing the end, i.e., mental states in interaction with their objects; 'majjhantika aññanam' — not knowing the middle, i.e., the current that streams from the primal nature of knowing. When this is the case, the mind becomes a sankhara: a concoctor, a magician, fabricating prolifically in its myriad ways.<br /><br />This ends the discussion of the mind as a frame of reference.<br /><br />From Basic Themes <br /><br />IV. Mindfulness of Death: Insight Meditation<br />In other words, keep death in mind. This is where the mind advances to the development of liberating insight, taking death as its theme. 'Death' here refers to the death occurring in the present — physical sensations arising and passing away, mental acts arising and passing away, all in a moment of awareness. Only when you're aware on this level can you be classed as being mindful of death.<br /><br />Now that we've brought up the topic of death, we have to reflect on birth, seeing how many ways sensations are born and how many ways mental acts are born. This is something a person with a quiet mind can know.<br /><br />A. Sensations have up to five levels of refinement —<br /><br /> 1. Hina-rupa: coarse sensations, sensations of discomfort, aches and pains. When these arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.<br />2. Panita-rupa: exquisite sensations that make the body feel pleasurable, light, and refined. Focus on what causes them until they disappear...<br /><br />3. Sukhumala-rupa: delicate sensations, tender, yielding, and agile. When they arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.<br /><br />4. Olarika-rupa: physical sensations that give a sense of grandeur, exuberance, brightness, and exultation: 'Mukhavanno vipassidati.' When they arise, focus on finding out what causes them until they disappear...<br /><br />All four of these sensations arise and disband by their very nature; and it's possible to find out where they first appear.<br /><br />5. 'Mano-bhava': imagined circumstances that appear through the power of the mind. When they arise, focus on keeping track of them until they disappear. Once you're able to know in this way, you enter the sphere of true mindfulness of death.<br /><br />An explanation of this sort of sensation: When the mind is quiet and steadily concentrated, it has the power to create images in the imagination (inner sensations, or sensations within sensations). Whatever images it thinks of will then appear to it; and once they appear, the mind tends to enter into them and take up residence. (It can go great distances.) If the mind fastens onto these sensations, it is said to take birth — simply because it has no sense of death.<br /><br />These sensations can appear in any of five ways: —<br /><br /> a. arising from the posture of the body, disappearing when the posture changes;<br />b. arising from thoughts imbued with greed, hatred, or delusion — arising, taking a stance, and then disbanding;<br /><br />c. arising with an in-breath and disbanding with the following out-breath;<br /><br />d. arising from the cleansing of the blood in the lungs — appearing and disbanding in a single instant;<br /><br />e. arising from the heart's pumping blood into the various parts of the body, the pressure of the blood causing sensations to arise that correspond to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. Sensations of this sort are arising and disbanding every moment.<br /><br />Another class of sensation is termed 'gocara-rupa' — sensations that circle around the physical body. There are five sorts — light, sound, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations — each having five levels. For instance, common light travels slowly; in the flash of an eye it runs for a league and then dies away. The second level, subtle light, goes further; and the third level goes further still. The fourth and fifth levels can travel the entire universe. The same holds true for sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. The relationships between all the potentials in the universe are interacting at every moment, differing only as to whether they're fast or slow. This is the inequality that has been termed 'anicca-lakkhana' — inherent inconstancy. Whoever is ignorant is bound to think that all this is impossible, but actually this is the way things already are by their nature. We'll come to know this through vijja — cognitive skill — not through ordinary labels and concepts. This is called true knowing, which meditators who develop the inner eye will realize for themselves: knowing the arising of these sensations, their persisting and their disbanding, in terms of their primary qualities and basic regularity.<br /><br /> Knowing things for what they really are.<br />Release, purity, dispassion, disbanding;<br />Nibbanam paramam sukham:<br /><br />Nibbana is the ultimate ease.<br /><br />B. As for mental acts that arise and die, their timespan is many thousands of times faster than that of sensations. To be able to keep track of their arising and dying away, our awareness has to be still. The four kinds of mental acts are:<br /><br /> — Vedana: the mind's experience of feelings of pleasure, pain, and indifference.<br />— Sañña: recognizing and labeling the objects of the mind.<br /><br />— Sankhara: mental fabrications or fashionings of good and bad.<br /><br />— Viññana: distinct consciousness or cognizance of objects.<br /><br />One class of these mental acts stays in place, arising and disbanding with reference to the immediate present. Another class is termed 'gocara vedana' 'gocara sañña,' etc., which go out to refer to the world. Each of these has five levels, differing as to whether they're common, refined, or subtle, slow or fast. These five levels connect with each other, running out in stages, and then circling back to their starting point, disbanding and then arising again — all without end.<br /><br />When we don't have the skill to discern the primary sensations and mental acts that stay in place, we can't see into the 'gocara' sensations and mental acts that go flowing around. This is termed 'avijja,' the unawareness that opens the way for connecting consciousness (patisandhi viññana), giving rise to the act of fashioning (sankhara), which is the essence of kamma. This gives fruit as sensations and feelings that are followed by craving, and then the act of labeling, which gives rise to another level of consciousness — of sensory objects — and then the cycle goes circling on. This is termed the 'khandha-vatta,' the cycle of the aggregates, circling and changing unevenly and inconsistently. To see this is called aniccanupassana-ñana, the knowledge that keeps track of inconstancy as it occurs. This is known through the inner eye, i.e., the skill of genuine discernment.<br /><br />Thus, those who practice the exercises of insight meditation should use their sensitivities and circumspection to the full if they hope to gain release from unawareness. Fashionings, in this context, are like waves on the ocean. If we're out in a boat on the ocean when the waves are high, our vision is curtailed. Our senses of hearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation are all curtailed. We won't be able to perceive far into the distance. What this means is that when our minds are immersed in the Hindrances, we won't be able to perceive death at all. But once we've been able to suppress the Hindrances, it's like taking a boat across the ocean when there are no waves. We'll be able to see objects far in the distance. Our eyes will be clear-seeing, our ears clear-hearing, our senses of smell, taste, touch and ideation will be broad and wide open. The water will be clear, and the light brilliant. We'll be able to know all around us.<br /><br />In the same way, those who are to know death clearly have to begin by practicing concentration as a foundation for developing liberating insight. How do the five sorts of above-mentioned sensation arise? What are their causes? How do they disappear? How do physical and mental feelings arise? How do they disappear? What are their causes? How do labels and concepts arise? What are their causes? How do they disappear? How do mental fashionings arise? What are their causes? How do they disappear? How does consciousness arise by way of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation? What are its causes? How does it disappear?<br /><br />Altogether there are four levels to each of the five aggregates (khandhas): external and internal, staying in place and streaming outward. These can be known at all times, but only people who have the discernment that comes from training the mind in tranquillity and insight meditation will be able to know death on this level.<br /><br />The discernment that arises in this way has been termed 'pubbenivas-anussati-ñana, i.e., understanding past sensations, future sensations, and sensations in the present. These sensations differ in the way they arise and pass away. To know this is to have mastered one cognitive skill.<br /><br />Cutupapata-ñana: With discernment of this sort, we're able to keep track of the states of our own mind as they arise and disappear, sometimes good as they arise and good as they disappear, sometimes bad as they arise and bad as they disappear, sometimes good as they arise and bad as they disappear, sometimes bad as they arise and good as they disappear. To be able to keep track in this way is to know states of being and birth.<br /><br />Asavakkhaya-ñana: When the discernment of this skill arises, it leads to disenchantment with the way sensations and mental acts arise and disappear and then arise again, simply circling about: coarser sensations going through the cycle slowly, more refined sensations going quickly; coarser mental acts going slowly, more refined mental acts going quickly. When you can keep track of this, you know one form of stress. Now focus attention back on your own mind to see whether or not it's neutral at that moment. If the mind approves of its knowledge or of the things it knows, that's kamasukhallikanuyoga — indulgence in pleasure. If the mind disapproves of its knowledge or of the things it knows, that's attakilamathanuyoga, indulgence in self-infliction. Once you've seen this, make the mind neutral toward whatever it may know: That moment of awareness is the mental state forming the Path. When the Path arises, the causes of stress disband. Try your best to keep that mental state going. Follow that train of awareness as much as you can. The mind when it's in that state is said to be developing the Path — and at whatever moment the Path stands firm, disbanding and relinquishing occur.<br /><br />When you can do this, you reach the level where you know death clearly. People who know death in this way are then able to reduce the number of their own deaths. Some of the Noble Ones have seven more deaths ahead of them, some have only one more, others go beyond death entirely. These Noble Ones are people who understand birth and death, and for this reason have only a few deaths left to them. Ordinary people who understand their own birth and death on this level are hard to find. Common, ordinary birth and death aren't especially necessary; but people who don't understand the Dhamma have to put up with birth and death as a common thing.<br /><br />So whoever is to know death on this level will have to develop the cognitive skill that comes from training the mind. The skill, here, is knowing which preoccupations of the mind are in the past, which are in the future, and which are in the present. This is cognitive skill (vijja). Letting go of the past, letting go of the future, letting go of the present, not latching onto anything at all: This is purity and release.<br /><br />As for unawareness, it's the exact opposite: not knowing what's past, not knowing what's future, not knowing what's present — that is, the arising and falling away of sensations and mental acts, or body and mind — or at most knowing only on the level of labels and concepts remembered from what other people have said, not knowing on the level of awareness that we've developed on our own. All of this is classed as avijja, or unawareness.<br /><br />No matter how much we may use words of wisdom and discernment, it still won't gain us release. For instance, we may know that things are inconstant, but we still fall for inconstant things. We may know about things that are stressful, but we still fall for them. We may know that things are not-self, but we still fall for things that are not-self. Our knowledge of inconstancy, stress, and not-self isn't true. Then how are these things truly known? Like this:<br /><br /> Knowing both sides,<br />letting go both ways,<br />shedding everything.<br />'Knowing both sides' means knowing what's constant and what's inconstant, what's stress and what's ease, what's not-self and what's self. 'Letting go both ways' means not latching onto things that are constant or inconstant, not latching onto stress or ease, not latching onto self or not-self. 'Shedding everything' means not holding onto past, present, or future: Awareness doesn't head forward or back, and yet you can't say that it's taking a stance.<br /><br />Yavadeva ñanamattaya patissatimattaya anissito ca viharati<br />na ca kiñci loke upadiyati.<br /><br />'Simply mindful and aware, the mind remains independent,<br />not attached to anything in the world.'<br /><br />From The Craft of the Heart <br /><br />Now I would like to describe the virtues of the arahants, those who have gained complete insight into the world, abandoning it once and for all. Though their aggregates (physical and mental activities) may still appear to the world, they are pure aggregates, absolutely free from both good and evil, because the mind doesn't claim possession of them. The mind is untouched by the behavior of the aggregates. The ten fetters have been disbanded completely and no longer entangle the heart, which is why this state is called nibbana: liberation. The mind is radiant and clear; passion, aversion, and delusion can no longer cloud it. It has reached the radiance of the primal nature of the heart, to which nothing else can compare.<br /><br />Once this radiance is realized, it obliterates the radiance of all three levels of existence, so that no state of being appears at all. As long as the mind has yet to gain release from defilement, it is bound to regard the three levels of existence as radiant and appealing. Once the mind reaches stream-entry, the radiance of the three levels of existence begins to darken and dim. When it reaches the level of once-returning, that radiance appears even dimmer; and on the level of non-returning, it appears dimmer yet, although it is still there. When arahantship is reached, the radiance of the three levels of existence is so dim that it has virtually vanished. When virtue, concentration, and discernment are gathered at the mind, and unawareness disbands along with the higher levels of the noble path, the world doesn't appear at all. You can't tell what features, colors, or shapes it has, or even where it is. There is only the pure brilliance of nibbana. All the worlds are dissolved in the moments of the path and fruition of arahantship. This brilliance is something always there, but we don't see it because of our own darkness and delusion.<br /><br />This very brilliance, though, can obliterate the darkness of the world so that only nibbana will appear. The radiance of nibbana obliterates the radiance of the world just as the light of the sun, which illumines the world of human beings and common animals, can obliterate at midday the light of the stars appearing in the sky at night. Another comparison is the light of the candle, which in the darkness appears bright to our eyes: If a burning kerosene lantern is brought near the candle, the candle's light will appear to dim. If the lantern's light is really brilliant, the light of the candle won't even appear. If we aren't observant, we may think that the candle isn't shedding any light at all, but actually it's giving off as much light as before, only now no one pays it any attention. So it is with the mind that has reached radiant nibbana, which obliterates the light of the sun and moon, and wipes from the heart the glittering appeal of heaven and the Brahma worlds. This is why nibbana is said to be zero or void: None of the three worlds appears as a preoccupation of the heart; the heart no longer entangles itself. It zeroes itself from the world, i.e., it no longer takes part in birth, aging, illness, and death.<br /><br />Nibbana is something genuine and unchanging. It knows nothing of deterioration. It always stays as it is. As long as there is birth, aging, illness, and death, there will always be nibbana, because birthlessness comes from birth, and deathlessness lies buried in the very midst of dying. The problem, then, lies with those who don't lay the ground-work for realizing nibbana. Nibbana doesn't vacillate back and forth, but most people who practice virtue, concentration, and discernment do. Just like a man who is going to walk to a city but, when he gets halfway there, turns back: Normally he should reach the city in thirty days, but if he walks back and forth like this even for three years, he'll never get there. And when he doesn't reach the city, if he were then to go telling people that it doesn't exist, he would be making a serious mistake.<br /><br />So it is with people who practice virtue, concentration, and discernment in half measures, back and forth, and — when they don't gain Awakening — go telling others that nibbana is null and void, that the Buddha took it with him when he died. This is very wrong. We can make a comparison with a field where our parents have raised rice and always gotten a good crop. If they die, and our own laziness fills their place so that we don't do the work, we're bound to go hungry. And once we're hungry, can we then say that our parents took the rice or the field with them? In the same way, nibbana is there, but if we don't assemble the causes for realizing it and then go denying its existence, you can imagine for yourself how much harm we're doing.<br /><br />If we haven't yet reached or realized nibbana, there's nothing extraordinary about it. But once we have come close to nibbana, the world will appear as if full of vipers and masses of fire. The palaces and mansions of heavenly beings, if you can see them, will look like the hovels of outcastes. You won't be attracted to living in them, because you've already known nibbana.<br /><br />Nibbana is nothing else but this ordinary heart, freed from all the effluents of defilement so that it reaches its primal nature. The primal nature of the heart is something that doesn't take birth, age, grow ill, or die. What takes birth is the act of falling for preoccupations. The heart's nature is clear and shining, but unawareness keeps it clouded and opaque. Yet even on the physical level — to say nothing of the heart — if someone were to come along and say that the water in the ocean is clear by nature, that a person with any intelligence could see the ocean floor, you'd have a hard time trying to find anyone to believe him. But what he says is true. There are plenty of reasons why we can't see the ocean floor — the dust and minute particles floating in the water, the wind and the sea creatures that interact with the water — but if you could get someone to eliminate these factors so that there would be nothing but the nature of the water, it would be crystal clear. You could tell at a glance how deep or shallow the ocean was without having to waste your time diving and groping around. So it is with the heart: If our hearts are still ignorant, we shouldn't go groping elsewhere for nibbana. Only if we cleanse our own hearts will we be able to see it.<br /><br />People who meditate are by and large extremely prone to conjecture and speculation, judging nibbana to be like this or that, but actually there's nothing especially deep, dark, or mysterious about it. What makes nibbana seem mysterious is our own lack of discernment. Nibbana is always present, along with the world. As long as the world exists, there will always be nibbana. But if no one explores the truth of nibbana, it will appear mysterious and far away. And once we give rise to our own misunderstandings, we're bound to start formulating notions that nibbana is like this or like that. We may decide that nibbana is extinguished; that nibbana is null and void; that nibbana has no birth, aging, illness, or death; that nibbana is the self; or that nibbana is not-self. Actually, each of these expressions is neither right nor wrong. Right and wrong belong to the person speaking, because nibbana is something untouched by supposing. No matter what anyone may call it, it simply stays as it is. If we were to call it heaven or a Brahma world, it wouldn't object, just as we suppose names for "sun" and "moon": If we were to call them stars or clouds or worlds or jewels, whatever they really are stays as it is; they aren't transformed by our words. At the same time, they themselves don't announce that they are sun or moon or anything. They are thiti-dhamma — they simply are what they are.<br /><br />So it is with the pure heart that we call nibbana. No matter what we call it, it simply stays as it is. Thus we say that with nibbana there's no right and no wrong. Right and wrong belong to the person speaking. People who don't know drag out their right and wrong to talk about. Nibbana is something known exclusively through the heart. Words and deeds aren't involved. Our talking is merely a matter of the path. The result, once attained, is something completely apart. We thus call it release (vimutti) because it's untouched by supposing, attaining a nature that is pure heartwood: the heart that neither spins forward nor back, the heart that attains a quality that doesn't develop or deteriorate, come or go. It stays as it is — what we suppose as thiti-dhamma, free from the germs of defilement — our very own heart, i.e., the heart's primal nature.<br /><br />Actually, the heart is pure by nature, but various moods and objects — various preoccupations — are mixed up with it. Once these preoccupations are cleaned out, there you are: nibbana. To know nibbana clearly is nothing other than knowing how this one heart takes its preoccupations as itself. The heart by nature is one, but if it hasn't been trained by discernment, it tends to go streaming toward preoccupations, both within and without, and then we say that this state of mind differs from that state of mind, and so they begin to multiply until they're so many that we give up trying to look after them all. They seem many because we count each preoccupation as a state of the mind itself. The problem is that we don't understand the teachings of the ancient philosophers, and so think that the mind can be called many. Take a simple example: Suppose a person has many jobs. Sometimes he sells, so he's called a merchant. If he also grows rice, he's called a farmer. If he works for the King, he's called a government official. If he acquires rank, he's called by his rank. Actually he's only one person, and none of his titles are wrong. They've been given to him simply in line with the work he does. But anyone who didn't understand would think that this man was an awful lot of people.<br /><br />Another comparison: When a person is born, we call it a baby. When it gets older, we call it a child. When it gets still older, we call it a young man or a young lady, and when its hair gets gray and its teeth break, we call it Grandma or Gramps. What gives rise to all these names? One and the same person. So it is with the mind that is supposed to be many. We don't understand what the words are supposed to mean, so we go groping around after our own shadows. When this is the case, we find it hard to practice. We don't understand the states of mind that have been supposed into being, and so don't see the mind that is released, untouched by supposing.<br /><br />When the mind is said to have many states, this is what is meant: Sometimes the mind takes on passion; this is called saraga-citta, a passionate mind. Sometimes it takes on irritation and aversion; this is called sadosa-citta, an angry mind. Sometimes it takes on a deluded state as itself; this is called samoha-citta, a deluded mind. These states are all on the unwise side, and are termed akusala-citta, unskillful mental states. As for the good side: vitaraga-citta, the mind has reached satisfaction and so its desires fade; vitadosa-citta, the mind has had enough and so its anger disappears; vitamoha-citta, the mind is bright and so withdraws from its dullness, just as the sun or moon withdraws from an eclipse and is bright and clear. These are termed kusala-citta, skillful mental states.<br /><br />Some people at this point think that there are six states to the mind, or even six minds. The true nature of the mind, though, is one. To count six states or six minds is to count the preoccupations; the primal mind is radiant. We take a few things to be many and so end up poor, just as when a foolish or poor person thinks that a thousand baht is a lot of money. An intelligent or rich person, though, realizes that it's just a little: You can spend it all in two days. A fool, however, would think that a thousand baht would make him rich and so he'll have to continue being poor. So it is if we see our one mind as many: We'll have to be poor because we'll be at our wits' end trying to train it.<br /><br />The nature of the mind that's clear and one is like clean, clear water mixed with different colors in different bottles. We may call it red water, yellow water, green water, etc., but the water itself is still clear as it always was. If a fool comes along and falls for the colors, he wants to taste them all. He may drink five bottles, but they'll all be just like the first. If he knows beforehand that it's all the same water, he won't feel any desire to waste his time drinking this or that bottle. All he has to do is taste one bottle, and that'll be enough. So it is with the mind: If we realize that the mind is in charge and is the determining factor in all good and evil and in the attainment of nibbana, we won't feel any desire to go saying that the mind is like this or like that. The mind seems to be many because it gets entangled in various preoccupations, and when these preoccupations dye the mind, we count them as states of the mind itself.<br /><br />The pure nature of the heart and mind is like the sun, which shines every day throughout the year but is concealed by clouds during the rainy season. Those who don't know its nature then say that the sun isn't shining. This is wrong. Their vision can't penetrate the clouds and so they find fault with the sun. They suppose that the darkness of the clouds belongs to the sun, get stuck on their own supposings, and so don't reach the truth. The true nature of the sun is always bright, no matter what the season. If you don't believe me, ask an airplane pilot. If you go up past the clouds in an airplane on a dark rainy day, you'll know whether the sun is in fact dark or shining.<br /><br />So it is with the mind: No matter how it may be behaving, its nature is one — radiant and clear. If we lack discernment and skill, we let various preoccupations come flowing into the mind, which lead it to act — sometimes wisely and sometimes not — and then we designate the mind according to its behavior.<br /><br />Because there is one mind, it can have only one preoccupation. And if it has only one preoccupation, then there shouldn't be too much difficulty in practicing so as to know its truth. Even though the mind may seem to have many preoccupations, they don't come all at once in a single instant. They have to pass by one at a time. A good mood enters as a bad one leaves; pleasure enters, pain leaves; ingenuity enters, stupidity, leaves; darkness enters, brightness leaves. They keep trading places without let-up. Mental moments, though, are extremely fast. If we aren't discerning, we won't be able to know our own preoccupations. Only after they've flared up and spread to affect our words and deeds are we usually aware of them.<br /><br />Normally this one mind is very fast. Just as when we turn on a light: If we don't look carefully, the light seems to appear, and the darkness to disperse, the very instant we turn on the switch. This one mind, when it changes preoccupations, is that fast. This one mind is what leads to various states of being because our preoccupations get into the act so that we're entangled and snared.<br /><br />It's not the case that one person will have many minds. Say that a person goes to heaven: He goes just to heaven. Even if he is to go on to other levels of being, he has to pass away from heaven first. It's not the case that he'll go to heaven, hell, and the Brahma worlds all at the same time. This goes to show that the mind is one. Only its thoughts and preoccupations change.<br /><br />The preoccupations of the mind come down simply to physical and mental phenomena that change, causing the mind to experience birth in various states of being. Since the mind lacks discernment and doesn't know the true nature of its preoccupations, it gropes about, experiencing death and rebirth in the four modes of generation (yoni). If the mind has the discernment to know its preoccupations and let go of them all without remainder, leaving only the primal nature of the heart that doesn't fall for any preoccupation on the levels of sensuality, form, or formlessness, it will be able to gain release from suffering and stress. "Once the mind is fully matured by means of virtue, concentration and discernment, it gains complete release from the effluents of defilement."<br /><br />Khandha-kamo — desire for the five aggregates is over and done with. Bhava-kamo — desire for the three levels of being (the sensual plane, the plane of form, and the plane of formlessness) disbands and disperses. The three levels of being are essentially only two: the aggregate of physical phenomena, which includes the properties of earth, water, fire, and wind; and the aggregates of mental phenomena, which include feelings, labels, fashionings, and consciousness — in short, the phenomena that appear in the body and heart or, if you will, the body and mind. Physical phenomena are those that can be seen with the eye. Mental phenomena are those that can't be seen with the eye but can be sensed only through the heart and mind. Once we can distinguish these factors and see how they're related, we'll come to see the truth of the aggregates: They are stress, they are the cause of stress, they are the path. Once we understand them correctly, we can deal with them properly. Whether they arise, fade, or vanish, we won't — if we have any discernment — latch onto them with any false assumptions. The mind will let go. It will simply know, neutral and undisturbed. It won't feel any need to worry about the conditions or behavior of the aggregates, because it sees that the aggregates can't be straightened out. Even the Buddha didn't straighten out the aggregates. He simply let them go, in line with their own true nature.<br /><br />The heart is what creates the substance of the aggregates. If you try to straighten out the creations, you'll never be done with them. If you straighten out the creator, you'll have the job finished in no time. When the heart is clouded with dullness and darkness, it creates aggregates or physical and mental phenomena as its products, to the point where the birth, aging, illness, and death of the aggregates become absolutely incurable — unless we have the wisdom to leave them alone in line with their own nature. In other words, we shouldn't latch onto them.<br /><br />This is illustrated in the Canon, where the Buddha says in some passages that he is free from birth, aging, illness, and death. If we read further, though, we'll notice that his body grew old, ill and then died; his mental activity ended. This shows that the aggregates should be left alone. Whatever their nature may be, don't try to resist it or go against it. Keep your mind neutral and aware. Don't go latching onto the various preoccupations that arise, age, grow ill, and vanish, as pertaining to the self. If you can do this, you're practicing correctly. Aim only at the purity of the one heart that doesn't die.<br /><br />The heart clouded with dullness and darkness lacks a firm base and so drifts along, taking after the aggregates. When they take birth, it thinks that it's born; when they age, it thinks that it's aged; when they grow ill and disband, it gets mixed up along with them and so experiences stress and pain, its punishment for drifting along in the wake of its supposings.<br /><br />If the mind doesn't drift in this way, there is simply the disbanding of stress. The cause of stress and the path disband as well, leaving only the nature that doesn't die: buddha, a mind that has bloomed and awakened. For the mind to bloom, it needs the fertilizer of virtue and concentration. For it to awaken and come to its senses, it needs discernment. The fertilizer of concentration is composed of the exercises of tranquillity and insight meditation. The mind then gains all-around discernment with regard to the aggregates — seeing the pain and harm they bring — and so shakes itself free and keeps its distance, which is why the term "arahant" is also translated as "one who is distant." In other words, the mind has had enough. It has had its fill. It's no longer flammable, i.e., it offers no fuel to the fires of passion, aversion, and delusion, which are now dispersed once and for all through the power of discernment.<br /><br />This is the supreme nibbana. Birth has been absolutely destroyed, but nibbana isn't annihilation. Nibbana is the name for what still remains: the primal heart. So why isn't it called the heart? Because it's now a heart with no preoccupations. Just as with the names we suppose for "tree" and "steel": If the tree is cut, they call it "lumber." If it's made into a house, they call it "home." If it's made into a place to sit, they call it a "chair." You never see anyone who would still call it a "tree." The same with steel: Once it's been made into a car or a knife, we call it a "car" or a "knife." You never see anyone who would still call it a "steel." But even though they don't call it a steel, the steel is still there. It hasn't run off anywhere. It's still steel just as it always was.<br /><br />So it is with the heart when the expert craftsman, discernment, has finished training it: We call it nibbana. We don't call it by its old name. When we no longer call it the "heart," some people think that the heart vanishes, but actually it's simply the heart in its primal state that we call nibbana. Or, again it's simply the heart untouched by supposing. No matter what anyone may call it, it simply stays as it is. It doesn't take on anyone's suppositions at all. Just as when we correctly suppose a diamond to be a diamond: No matter what anyone may call it, its real nature stays as it is. It doesn't advertise itself as a diamond. It simply is what it is. The same with the heart: Once it gains release, it doesn't suppose itself to be this or that. It's still there. It hasn't been annihilated. Just as when we call a diamond a diamond, it's there; and when we don't call it anything, it's still there — it hasn't vanished or disappeared — so it is with the hear that is nibbana: It's there. If we call it a sun, a moon, heaven, Brahma world, earth, water, wind, fire, woman, man, or anything at all, it's still there, just as before. It hasn't changed in any way. It stays as it is: one heart, one Dhamma, free from the germs of defilement.<br /><br />This is why the truest name to suppose for it is release. What we call heart, mind, intellect, form, feeling, labels, mental fashionings, consciousness: All these are true as far as supposing goes. Wherever supposing is, there release can be found. Take a blatant example: the five aggregates. If you look at their true nature, you'll see that they've never said, "Look. We're aggregates," or "Look. We're the heart." So it is with the heart that's nibbana, that has reached nibbana: It won't proclaim itself as this or that, which is why we suppose it to be release. Once someone has truly reached release, that's the end of speaking.<br /><br />From the Autobiography <br /><br />I make it a practice to wander about during the dry season every year. I do this because I feel that a monk who stays put in one monastery is like a train sitting still at HuaLampong station — and everyone knows the worth of a train sitting still. So there's no way I could stay in one place. I'll have to keep on the move all of my life, as long as I'm still ordained.<br /><br />Some of my companions have criticized me for being this way, and others have praised me, but I myself feel that it brings nothing but good. I've learned about the land, events, customs and religious practices in different areas. In some places it may be that I'm more ignorant than the people there; in other places and with other groups, it might be that I know more than they, so there's no way I can lose by traveling about. Even if I just sit still in the forest, I gain by it. Wherever I find the people know less than I do, I can be their teacher. In whatever groups I find that I know less than they do, I'm willing to be their student. Either way I profit.<br /><br />At the same time, living in the forest as I like to do has given me a lot to think about. 1) It was a custom of the Buddha. He was born in the forest, attained Awakening in the forest, and totally entered nibbana in the forest — and yet how was he at the same time able to bring his virtues right into the middle of great cities, as when he spread his religious work to include King Bimbisara of Rajagaha.<br /><br />2) As I see it, it's better to evade than to fight. As long as I'm not superhuman, as long as my skin can't ward off knives, bullets and spears, I'd better not live in the centers of human society. This is why I feel it's better to evade than to fight.<br /><br />People who know how to evade have a saying: 'To evade is wings; to avoid is a tail.' This means: A tiny chick, fresh out of the egg, if it knows how to evade, won't die. It will have a chance to grow feathers and wings and be able to survive on its own in the future. 'To avoid is a tail': This refers to the tail (rudder) of a boat. If the person holding the rudder knows how to steer, he'll be able to avoid stumps and sand bars. For the boat to avoid running aground depends on the rudder. Since this is the way I see things, I prefer living in the forest.<br /><br />3) I've come to consider the principles of nature: It's a quiet place, where you can observe the influences of the environment. Wild animals, for example, sleep differently from domesticated animals. This can be a good lesson. Or take the wild rooster: Its eyes are quick, its tail feathers sparse, its wings strong and its call short. It can run fast and fly far. What do these characteristics come from? I've made this a lesson for myself. Domesticated roosters and wild roosters come from the same species, but the domesticated rooster's wings are weak, its call long, its tail feathers lush and ungainly, its behavior different from that of the wild rooster. The wild rooster is the way it is because it can't afford to let down its guard. It always has to be on the alert, because danger is ever-present in the forest. If the wild rooster went around acting like a domestic rooster, the cobras and mongooses would make a meal of it in no time. So when it eats, sleeps, opens and closes its eyes, the wild rooster has to be strong and resilient in order to stay alive.<br /><br />So it is with us. If we spend all our time wallowing around in companionship, we're like a knife or a hoe stuck down into the dirt: It'll rust easily. But if it's constantly sharpened on a stone or a file, rust won't have a chance to take hold. Thus we should learn to be always on the alert. This is why I like to stay in the forest. I benefit from it, and learn many lessons.<br /><br />4) I've learned to reflect on the teachings that the Buddha taught first to each newly-ordained monk. They're very thought-provoking. He taught the Dhamma first, and then the Vinaya. He'd begin with the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, followed by the five basic objects of meditation: hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth and skin. Then he'd give a sermon with four major points:<br /><br /> a) Make a practice of going out for alms. Be an asker, but not a beggar. Be content with whatever you are given.<br />b) Live in a quiet place, such as an abandoned house, under a projecting cliff face, in a cave. People have asked if the Buddha had any reasons for this teaching, but I've always been convinced that if there were no benefits to be gained from these places, he wouldn't have recommended them. Still, I wondered what the benefits were, which is why I've taken an interest in this matter.<br /><br />c) The Buddha taught monks to make robes from cloth that had been thrown away — even to the point of wearing robes made from the cloth used to wrap a corpse. This teaching made me reflect on death. What benefits could come from wearing the cloth used to wrap a corpse? For a simple answer, think for a moment about a corpse's things: They don't appeal to anyone. No one wants them — and so they hold no dangers. In this point it's easy enough to see that the Buddha taught us not to take pride in our possessions.<br /><br />d) The Buddha taught that we should use medicines near at hand, such as medicinal plants pickled in urine.<br /><br />These teachings of the Buddha, when I first heard them, sparked my curiosity. Whether or not I would benefit from following them, there was one thing I was sure of: that the Buddha was not the sort of person who would hold blindly to anything, and that he would never teach anything without good reason. So even if I wasn't totally convinced of his teachings, I should at least respect them. Or if I didn't yet have confidence in my teacher's ability, I owed it to him and to the traditions of the Sangha to give his teachings a try.<br /><br />I was reminded of the words of MahaKassapa, who asked to be allowed to follow such ascetic practices as living in the forest, eating one meal a day (going out for alms) and wearing robes made from thrown-away rags all of his life. The Buddha questioned him, 'You've already eradicated your defilements. What is there left for you to strive for?'<br /><br />MahaKassapa answered, 'I want to observe these practices, not for my own sake, but for the sake of those yet to come. If I don't follow these practices, who will they be able to take as an example? If a person teaches by example, the students will learn easily, just as when a person teaches students how to read: If he has pictures to go along with the text, the students will learn much more quickly. My observing these practices is the same sort of thing.'<br /><br />When I thought of these words, I felt sympathy for MahaKassapa, subjecting himself to all sorts of hardships. If you were to put it in worldly terms, you could say that he was already a multimillionaire, deserving a soft bed and fine food, but instead he slept and ate on the ground, and had only coarse food to eat. Thinking of his example, I'd be ashamed to look for nothing more than creature comforts. As for MahaKassapa, he could have eaten fine food and lived in a beautiful home with no danger of his heart's being defiled. But — and it's not surprising — he was more concerned with benefiting those who came after.<br /><br />All of these things have given me food for thought ever since I was first ordained.<br /><br />Speaking of living in the forest, I've learned a lot of unusual lessons there. Sometimes I've seen death close at hand and have learned a lot of lessons — sometimes from seeing the behavior of animals, sometimes from talking to people who live there.<br /><br />Once there was an old man who told me of the time he had gone with his wife to tap tree sap deep in a large forest. They happened to run into a bear, and a fight ensued. The wife was able to get up a tree in time and then called down to her husband, 'If you can't fight it off, lie down and play dead. Don't make a move.'<br /><br />When her husband heard this, he came to his senses and so fell back on the ground, lying absolutely still. Seeing this, the bear climbed up astride him, but then let go of him and simply stood looking at him. The old man lay there on his back, meditating on the word, 'buddho, buddho,' and thinking, 'I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die.' The bear pulled at his legs and then at his head, and then used its nuzzle to push him left and right. The old man kept his joints loose and didn't react in any way. After the bear had decided that the man was dead, it left. A moment or so later the man got up and walked home with his wife. His head was all battered and bloody, but he didn't die.<br /><br />When he had finished telling me the story, he added, 'That's the way forest animals have to be. If you can't fight, you have to play dead.'<br /><br />Hearing this, the thought occurred to me, 'No one is interested in a dead person. Since I live in the forest, I should play dead. Whoever praises me or attacks me, I'll have to be still — quiet in thought, word and deed — if I want to survive.' This can also be a good reminder in the way of the Dhamma: To free yourself from death, you have to play dead. This is a good lesson in maranassati, keeping death in mind.<br /><br />Another time, early one morning when I was staying in the middle of a large forest, I took my followers out for alms. As we were going through the forest, I heard a mother chicken cry, 'Kataak! Kataak!' Since she didn't fly away, I figured she probably had some baby chicks, so I sent the boys to run and look. This frightened the chicken and she flew away over the trees. The boys saw a lot of baby chicks running around, but before they could catch them, the chicks scurried into a large pile of fallen leaves. There they hid themselves and lay absolutely still. The boys took a stick and stirred around in the leaves, but the chicks didn't move. They didn't even make a peep. Although the boys kept looking for a while, they couldn't find even a single chick. I knew that the chicks hadn't gone anywhere. They had just pretended to be fallen leaves. So as it turned out, of all those little tiny chicks, we couldn't catch a one.<br /><br />Thinking about this, I was struck by their instincts for self-preservation, and how clever they were: They simply kept themselves quiet in a pile of fallen leaves. And so I made a comparison for myself: 'When you're in the wilds, then if you can keep your mind still like the baby chicks, you're sure to be safe and to free yourself from dying.' This was another good lesson.<br /><br />In addition to the animals, there are other aspects of nature — such as trees and vines — that can set you thinking. Take vines, for instance. There are some that don't turn in any direction but right. Observing this, I've made it a lesson for myself. 'If you're going to take your mind to the highest good, you'll have to act like the vines: i.e., always to the right, for the Buddha taught, 'Kaya-kammam, vaca-kammam, mano-kammam padakkhinam' — going to the right in thought, word and deed. You'll always have to go right — by keeping yourself above the defilements that flare up and consume the heart. Otherwise you'll be no match even for a vine.'<br /><br />Some kind of trees make themselves quiet in ways we can see: We say that they 'sleep.' At night, they fold up their leaves. If you go lie under them, you'll have a clear view of the stars in the nighttime sky. But when day comes, they'll spread out their leaves and give a dense shade. This is a good lesson for the mind: When you sit in meditation, close only your eyes. Keep your mind bright and alert, like a tree that closes its leaves and thus doesn't obstruct our view of the stars.<br /><br />When you can think in this way you see the value of living in the forest. The mind becomes confident. Dhamma that you have studied — or even that you haven't — will make itself clear because nature is the teacher. It's like the sciences of the world, which every country has used to develop amazing powers. None of their inventions or discoveries came out of a textbook. They came because scientists studied the principles of nature, all of which appear right here in the world. As for the Dhamma, it's just like science: It exists in nature. When I realized this I no longer worried about studying the scriptures, and I was reminded of the Buddha and his disciples: They studied and learned from the principles of nature. None of them followed a textbook.<br /><br />For these reasons I'm willing to be ignorant when it comes to texts and scriptures. Some kinds of trees sleep at night and are awake during the day. Others sleep by day and are awake by night. The same is true of forest animals.<br /><br />Living in the forest, you also learn from the vapors that each plant exudes. Some plants are good for your health, some are bad. Sometimes, for example, when I've been feverish, I've gone to sit under certain kinds of trees and my fever has disappeared. Sometimes when I've been feeling well I've gone to sit under certain kinds of trees and the elements in my body have become disturbed. Sometimes I've been hungry and thirsty, but as soon as I go sit under certain kinds of trees, my hunger and thirst disappear. Learning from trees in this way has caused me to think about the traditional doctors who keep a statue of a hermit on their altars. Those hermits never studied medical textbooks, but were able to teach about medicines that can cure disease because they had studied nature by training their minds the same way we do.<br /><br />Similar lessons can be learned from water, earth and air. Realizing this, I've never gotten very excited about medicines that cure disease, because I feel that good medicines are everywhere. The important point is whether or not we recognize them, and this depends on us.<br /><br />In addition, there's another quality we need in order to take care of ourselves: the power of the mind. If we're able to keep the mind quiet, its ability to cure disease will be tens of times greater than that of any medicine. This is called dhamma-osatha: the medicine of the Dhamma.<br /><br />All in all, I can really see that I've gained from living in forests and other quiet places in order to train the mind. One by one I've been able to cut away my doubts about the Buddha's teachings. And so, for this reason, I'm willing to devote myself to the duties of meditation until there's no more life left for me to live.<br /><br />The gains that come from training the mind, if I were to describe them in detail, would go on and on, but I'll ask to finish this short description here.<br /><br />Provenance: ©1999 Metta Forest Monastery. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. This Access to Insight edition is ©1999–2010.<br />Terms of use: You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. For additional information about this license, see the FAQ.<br />How to cite this document (one suggested style): "The Eye of Discernment: An Anthology from the Teachings", of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya), selected and translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, June 7, 2010, <a href="http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/eyeof.html" target="_blank">http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/eyeof.html</a>.<br />Editor's note: Inquiries concerning this book may be addressed to: The Abbot, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082, USA. <br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-9526524088981723362010-08-03T23:33:00.002+08:002010-08-03T23:40:46.366+08:00The Divine Mantra<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thuvienhoasen.org/Ajaan%20Lee%20Dhammadharo.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.thuvienhoasen.org/Ajaan%20Lee%20Dhammadharo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo<br />translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu<br /><br /><br />Introduction <br /><br />I have written this book, The Divine Mantra, as a means of drawing to purity those who practice the Dhamma, because the chant given here brings benefits to those who memorize and recite it, inasmuch as it deals directly with matters that exist in each of us. Normally, once we are born, we all dwell in the six elements. These elements are brought together by our own actions, both good and evil. This being the case, these elements can give a great deal of trouble to those who dwell in them, like a child who can be a constant nuisance to its parents. Repeating this chant, then, is like nourishing and training a child to be healthy and mature; when the child is healthy and mature, its parents can rest and relax. Repeating this chant is like feeding a child and lulling it to sleep with a beautiful song: the Buddhaguna, the recitation of the Buddha's virtues.<br /><br />The power of the Buddhaguna can exert influence on the elements in each individual, purifying them and investing them with power (kaya-siddhi), just as all material elements exert gravitational pull on one another every second. Or you might make a comparison with an electric wire: This chant is like an electric current, extending to wherever you direct it. It can even improve the environment, because it also includes the chant of the Kapila hermit, whose story runs as follows:<br /><br />There was once a hermit who repeated this chant in a teak forest in India. As a result, the forest became a paradise. The trees took turns producing flowers and fruit throughout the year. The waters were crystal clean. Any diseased animal that happened to pass into the forest and drink the water would be completely cured of its illness. The grasses and vines were always fresh and green. Fierce animals that normally attacked and ate one another would, when entering the forest, live together in peace, as friends. Life was joyous for animals in this forest. The smell of dead animals never appeared because whenever an animal was about to die, it would have to go and die elsewhere. This forest is where the Buddha's ancestors, the Sakyan clan, later established their capital, Kapilavatthu, which still stands today within the borders of Nepal.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />All of this was due to the sacred power of the chant repeated by the Kapila hermit. And this is how he did it: First, he faced the east and repeated the chant day and night for seven days; the second week, he faced north; the third week, south; and the fourth week, west. The fifth week, he looked down toward the earth; the sixth week, he raised his hands and lifted his face to the sky, made his heart clear, and focused on the stars as the object of his meditation. The seventh week, he practiced breath meditation, keeping his breath in mind and letting it spread out in every direction through the power of a mind infused with the four Sublime Attitudes: good will, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity. Thus the chant was named the Divine Mantra.<br /><br />When all of this was related to me while I was in India, I couldn't help thinking of the Buddha, who was pure by virtue of the peerless quality of his heart to the point where he was able to invest the elements in his body with power, making them more pure than any other elements in the world. His relics, for example, have appeared to those devoted to him and, I have heard, come and go on their own, which is very strange indeed.<br /><br />All of these things are accomplished through the power of a pure heart. When the heart is pure, the elements also become pure as a result. When these elements exist in the world, they can have a refreshing influence on the environment — because all elements are interrelated. If we Buddhists set our minds on training ourselves in this direction, we can be a powerful influence to the good in proportion to our numbers. But if we don't train ourselves and instead run about filling ourselves with evil, our hearts are bound to become hot and disturbed. The flames in our hearts are bound to set the elements in our bodies on fire, and the heat from these inner fires is certain to spread in all directions throughout the world.<br /><br />As this heat gathers and becomes greater, it will raise temperatures in the atmosphere around the world. The heat from the sun will become fiercer. Weather will become abnormal. The seasons, for example, will deviate from their normal course. And when this happens, human life will become more and more of a hardship. The ultimate stage of this evil will be the destruction of the world by the fires at the end of the aeon, which will consume the earth.<br /><br />All this from our own thoughtlessness, letting nature by and large go ahead and follow this course — which shows that we're not very rational, because everything has a reason, everything comes from a cause. The world we live in has the heart as its cause. If the heart is good, the world is sure to be good. If the heart is corrupt, the world is sure to be corrupt.<br /><br />Thus, in this book I have written down the way to train the heart so as to lead to our happiness and well-being in the coming future.<br /><br />Part I: Worship <br /><br />To pay respect to, and ask forgiveness of, the Buddha's relics, relics of the Noble Disciples, Buddha images, stupas, the Bodhi tree — all of which are objects that all Buddhists should respect, both inwardly and outwardly:<br /><br />Araha.m sammaa-sambuddho bhagavaa.<br />The Blessed One is Worthy & Rightly Self-awakened.<br /><br />Buddha.m bhagavanta.m abhivaademi.<br />I bow down before the Awakened, Blessed One.<br /><br />(BOW DOWN)<br /><br />Svaakkhaato bhagavataa dhammo.<br />The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One.<br /><br />Dhamma.m namassaami.<br />I pay homage to the Dhamma.<br /><br />(BOW DOWN)<br /><br />Supa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho.<br />The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples has practiced well.<br /><br />Sa"ngha.m namaami.<br />I pay respect to the Sangha.<br /><br />(BOW DOWN)<br /><br />Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammaa-sambuddhassa. (Three times.)<br />Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.<br /><br />Ukaasa, dvaara-tayena kata.m, sabba.m apaaradha.m khamatu no (me) bhante.<br />We (I) ask your leave. We (I) ask you to forgive us (me) for whatever wrong we (I) have done with the three doors (of body, speech, & mind).<br /><br />Vandaami bhante cetiya.m, sabba.m sabbattha .thaane, supati.t.thita.m saariira"nka-dhaatu.m, mahaa-bodhi.m buddha-ruupa.m, sakkaarattha.m.<br />I revere every stupa established in every place, every Relic of the Buddha's body, every Great Bodhi tree, every Buddha image that is an object of veneration.<br /><br />Aha.m vandaami dhaatuyo, aha.m vandaami sabbaso, icceta.m ratana-taya.m, aha.m vandaami sabbadaa.<br />I revere the relics. I revere them everywhere. I always revere the Triple Gem.<br /><br />Buddha-puujaa mahaa-tejavanto, Dhamma-puujaa mahappañño, Sa"ngha-puujaa mahaa-bhogaavaho.<br />Homage to the Buddha brings great glory. Homage to the Dhamma, great discernment. Homage to the Sa"ngha, great wealth.<br /><br />Buddha.m Dhamma.m Sa"ngha.m, jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />I go to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sa"ngha as my life & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Parisuddho aha.m bhante, parisuddhoti ma.m, Buddho Dhammo Sa"ngho dhaaretu.<br />I am morally pure. May the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sa"ngha recognize me as morally pure.<br /><br />Sabbe sattaa sadaa hontu, averaa sukha-jiivino.<br />May all living beings always live happily, free from enmity.<br /><br />Kata.m puñña-phala.m mayha.m, sabbe bhaagii bhavantu te.<br />May all share in the blessings springing from the good I have done.<br /><br />(BOW DOWN THREE TIMES)<br /><br />Part II: Chanting <br /><br />Investing the six elements with the Buddhagu.na<br />Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammaa-sambuddhassa. (Three times.)<br />Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.<br /><br />Buddha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />I go to the Buddha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Dhamma.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />I go to the Dhamma as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Sa"ngha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />I go to the Sangha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Dutiyampi buddha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A second time, I go to the Buddha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Dutiyampi dhamma.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A second time, I go to the Dhamma as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Dutiyampi sa"ngha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A second time, I go to the Sangha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Tatiyampi buddha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A third time, I go to the Buddha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Tatiyampi dhamma.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A third time, I go to the Dhamma as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />Tatiyampi sa"ngha.m aayu-va.d.dhana.m jiivita.m yaava-nibbaana.m sara.na.m gacchaami.<br />A third time, I go to the Sangha as my life, vitality, & refuge until reaching Liberation.<br /><br />1. Wind element:<br />Vaayo ca buddha-gu.na.m araha.m buddho itipi so bhagavaa namaami'ha.m.<br />Wind has the virtue of the Buddha. The Awakened One is worthy & so he is Blessed: I pay him homage.<br /><br />Araha.m sammaa-sambuddho,<br />Worthy is the Rightly Self-awakened One,<br /><br />Vijjaa-cara.na-sampanno sugato lokaviduu,<br />consummate in knowledge & conduct, one who has gone the good way, knower of the cosmos,<br /><br />Anuttaro purisa-damma-saarathi satthaa deva-manussaana.m buddho bhagavaati.<br />unexcelled trainer of those who can be taught, teacher of human & divine beings; awakened; blessed.<br /><br />(Think of the Buddha & his purity)<br /><br />Vaayo ca dhammeta.m araha.m buddho itipi so bhagavaa namaami'ha.m.<br />Wind is that quality. The Awakened One is worthy & so he is Blessed: I pay him homage.<br /><br />Svaakkhaato bhagavataa dhammo,<br />The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,<br /><br />Sandi.t.thiko akaaliko ehipassiko,<br />to be seen here & now, timeless, inviting all to come & see,<br /><br />Opanayiko paccatta.m veditabbo viññuuhiiti.<br />pertinent, to be seen by the wise for themselves.<br /><br />(Think of Ven. Sariputta & his wisdom)<br /><br />Vaayo ca sa"nghaana.m araha.m buddho itipi so bhagavaa namaami'ha.m.<br />Wind is given over to the Sanghas. The Awakened One is worthy & so he is Blessed: I pay him homage.<br /><br />Supa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho,<br />The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced well,<br /><br />Uju-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho,<br />the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced straightforwardly,<br /><br />Ñaaya-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho,<br />the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced methodically,<br /><br />Saamiici-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho,<br />the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced masterfully,<br /><br />Yadida.m cattaari purisa-yugaani a.t.tha purisa-puggalaa:<br />i.e., the four pairs — the eight types — of Noble Ones:<br /><br />Esa bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho —<br />That is the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples —<br /><br />AAhuneyyo paahuneyyo dakkhi.neyyo añjali-kara.niiyo,<br />worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect,<br /><br />Anuttara.m puññakkhetta.m lokassaati.<br />the incomparable field of merit for the world.<br /><br />(Think of Ven. Moggallana, his supernormal powers & his compassion.)<br /><br />Dhaatu-parisuddhaanubhaavena, sabba-dukkhaa sabba-bhayaa sabba-rogaa vimuccanti.<br />Through the power of the purity of the element, they are released from all pain, all danger, all disease.<br /><br />Iti uddham-adho tiriya.m sabbadhi sabbattataaya sabbaavanta.m loka.m, mettaa karu.naa muditaa upekkhaa sahagatena cetasaa, catuddisa.m pharitvaa viharati,<br />When one dwells spreading an awareness imbued with good will, compassion, appreciation, & equanimity in this way to the four directions, above, below, around, in every way throughout the entire cosmos,<br /><br />Sukha.m supati sukha.m pa.tibujjhati, na paapaka.m supina.m passati,<br />one sleeps with ease, wakes with ease, dreams no evil dreams.<br /><br />Manussaana.m piyo hoti, amanussaana.m piyo hoti, devataa rakkhanti,<br />Naassa aggi vaa visa.m vaa sattha.m vaa kamati,<br />One is dear to human beings, dear to non-human beings, guarded by divine beings, and untouched by fire, poison, or weapons.<br /><br />Tuva.ta.m citta.m samaadhiyati, mukha-va.n.no vippasiidati,<br />One's mind is quickly concentrated & one's complexion bright.<br /><br />Asammu.lho kaala.m karoti,<br />Uttari.m appa.tivijjhanto brahma-lokuupago hoti.<br />One dies unconfused and — if penetrating no higher — is reborn in the Brahma worlds.<br /><br />Iti uddham-adho tiriya.m avera.m averaa sukha-jiivino.<br />Thus feeling no enmity above, below, & all around, free from enmity, one lives happily.<br /><br />Kata.m puñña-phala.m mayha.m sabbe bhaagii bhavantu te.<br />May all share in the blessings springing from the good I have done.<br /><br />Bhavantu sabba-ma"ngala.m rakkhantu sabba-devataa.<br />May there be every blessing, may divine beings keep guard.<br /><br />Sabba-buddhaanubhaavena sabba-dhammaanubhaavena sabba-sa"nghaanubhaavena sotthi hontu nirantara.m,<br />Through the power of all the Buddhas, Dhammas, & Sanghas may there be well-being without end.<br /><br />Araha.m buddho itipi so bhagavaa namaami'ha.m.<br />The Awakened One is worthy & so he is Blessed: I pay him homage.<br /><br />The chant for each of the remaining elements is identical with the chant for the wind element, i.e., (1) the passage on the Buddha's virtues, (2) the passage on the Dhamma's virtues, (3) the passage on the Sangha's virtues, followed by the passage beginning, 'Dhaatu-parisuddhaanubhaavena....' Only the name of the element is changed:<br /><br />2. Fire element:<br />Tejo ca buddha-gu.na.m...<br />Tejo ca dhammeta.m...<br />Tejo ca sa"nghaana.m...<br />3. Water element:<br />AApo ca buddha-gu.na.m...<br />AApo ca dhammeta.m...<br />AApo ca sa"nghaana.m...<br />4. Earth element:<br />Pa.thavii ca buddha-gu.na.m...<br />Pa.thavii ca dhammeta.m...<br />Pa.thavii ca sa"nghaana.m...<br />5. Space element:<br />AAkaasaa ca buddha-gu.na.m...<br />AAkaasaa ca dhammeta.m...<br />AAkaasaa ca sa"nghaana.m...<br />6. Consciousness element:<br />Viññaa.nañca buddha-gu.na.m...<br />Viññaa.nañca dhammeta.m...<br />Viññaa.nañca sa"nghaana.m...<br />Once you have memorized Section 1, the remaining sections will be no problem, because they are virtually the same, differing only in the name of the element.<br /><br />These six elements exist within each of us, so when you repeat the chant you should also think about the element you are chanting about: Wind — feelings of movement, such as the in-and-out breath; Fire — feelings of warmth; Water — liquid or cool feelings; Earth — feelings of heaviness or solidity; Space — feelings of emptiness; Consciousness — awareness of objects. If you think about these elements while you chant, the chant will be very beneficial.<br /><br />The same chant can be used for the five aggregates, the twelve sense media, and the 32 parts of the body. The method of chanting is the same as with the six elements, simply substituting the names of the various aggregates, sense media, and parts of the body, as follows:<br /><br />The Five Aggregates<br />1. Ruupañca — form, sense data<br />2. Vedanaa ca feelings of pleasure, pain, and indifference<br />3. Saññaa ca names, labels, acts of perceiving and identifying<br />4. Sa"nkhaaraa ca — mental forces and processes<br />5. Viññaa.nañca — consciousness of the six senses<br />The Twelve Sense Media<br />1. Cakkhu ca — eyes<br />2. Sotañca — ears<br />3. Ghaanañca — nose<br />4. Jivhaa ca — tongue<br />5. Kaayo ca — body<br />6. Mano ca — mind<br />7. Ruupañca — forms<br />8. Saddo ca — sounds<br />9. Gandho ca — smells<br />10. Raso ca — flavors<br />11. Po.t.thabbaa ca — tactile sensations<br />12. Dhammaaramma.nañca — ideas<br />The 32 Parts of the Body<br />1. Kesaa ca — Hair of the head<br />2. Lomaa ca — Hair of the body<br />3. Nakhaa ca — Nails<br />4. Dantaa ca — Teeth<br />5. Taco ca — Skin<br />6. Ma.msañca — Flesh<br />7. Nhaaruu ca — Tendons<br />8. A.t.thii ca — Bones<br />9. A.t.thimiñjañca — Bone marrow<br />10. Vakkañca — Spleen<br />11. Hadayañca — Heart<br />12. Yakanañca — Liver<br />13. Kilomakañca — Membranes<br />14. Pihakañca — Kidneys<br />15. Papphaasañca — Lungs<br />16. Antañca — Large intestines<br />17. Antagu.nañca — Small intestines<br />18. Udariyañca — Gorge<br />19. Kariisañca — Feces<br />20. Matthalu"ngañca — Brain<br />21. Pittañca — Gall<br />22. Semhañca — Phlegm<br />23. Pubbo ca — Lymph<br />24. Lohitañca — Blood<br />25. Sedo ca — Sweat<br />26. Medo ca — Fat<br />27. Assu ca — Tears<br />28. Vasaa ca — Oil<br />29. Khe.lo ca — Saliva<br />30. Si"nghaa.nikaa ca — Mucus<br />31. Lasikaa ca — Oil in the joints<br />32. Muttañca — Urine<br />Part III: Meditation <br /><br />There are seven basic steps:<br /><br />Start out with three or seven long in-and-out breaths, thinking bud- with the in-breath, and dho with the out. Keep the meditation syllable as long as the breath.<br /><br />Be clearly aware of each in-and-out breath.<br /><br />Observe the breath as it goes in and out, noticing whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable, broad or narrow, obstructed or free-flowing, fast or slow, short or long, warm or cool. If the breath doesn't feel comfortable, change it until it does. For instance, if breathing in long and out long is uncomfortable, try breathing in short and out short. As soon as you find that your breathing feels comfortable, let this comfortable breath sensation spread to the different parts of the body.<br /><br />To begin with, inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull and let it flow all the way down the spine. Then, if you are male, let it spread down your right leg to the sole of your foot, to the ends of your toes, and out into the air. Inhale the breath sensation at the base of the skull again and let it spread down your spine, down your left leg to the ends of your toes, and out into the air. (If you are female, begin with the left side first, because the male and female nervous systems are different.)<br /><br />Then let the breath from the base of the skull spread down over both shoulders, past your elbows and wrists, to the tips of your fingers, and out into the air.<br /><br />Let the breath at the base of the throat spread down the central nerve at the front of the body, past the lungs and liver, all the way down to the bladder and colon.<br /><br />Inhale the breath right at the middle of the chest and let it go all the way down to your intestines.<br /><br />Let all these breath sensations spread so that they connect and flow together, and you'll feel a greatly improved sense of well-being.<br /><br />Learn four ways of adjusting the breath:<br /><br />in long and out long,<br />in short and out short,<br />in short and out long,<br />in long and out short.<br />Breathe whichever way is most comfortable for you. Or, better yet, learn to breathe comfortably all four ways, because your physical condition and your breath are always changing.<br /><br />Become acquainted with the bases or focal points for the mind — the resting spots of the breath — and center your awareness on whichever one seems most comfortable. A few of these bases are:<br /><br />the tip of the nose,<br />the middle of the head,<br />the palate,<br />the base of the throat,<br />the breastbone (the tip of the sternum),<br />the navel (or a point just above it).<br />If you suffer from frequent headaches or nervous problems, don't focus on any spot above the base of the throat. And don't try to force the breath or put yourself into a trance. Breathe freely and naturally. Let the mind be at ease with the breath — but not to the point where it slips away.<br /><br />Spread your awareness — your sense of conscious feeling — throughout the entire body.<br /><br />Unite the breath sensations throughout the body, letting them flow together comfortably, keeping your awareness as broad as possible. Once you are fully aware of the aspects of the breath you already know in your body, you'll come to know all sorts of other aspects as well. The breath, by its nature, has many facets: breath sensations flowing in the nerves, those flowing around and about the nerves, those spreading from the nerves to every pore. Beneficial breath sensations and harmful ones are mixed together by their very nature.<br /><br />To summarize: (a) for the sake of improving the energy already existing in every part of your body, so that you can contend with such things as disease and pain; and (b) for the sake of clarifying the knowledge already within you, so that it can become a basis for the skills leading to release and purity of heart — you should always bear these seven steps in mind, because they are absolutely basic to every aspect of breath meditation.<br /><br />Worship, chanting, and meditation have to go hand-in-hand before they can truly purify the mind, in line with the basic principles of the Buddha's teachings:<br /><br />Sabba-paapassa akara.na.m<br />Don't let anything corrupt or second-rate<br />find its way into your thoughts, words, or deeds.<br /><br />Kusalassuupasampadaa<br />Develop skill in all of your actions.<br /><br />What this means is that in worship we have acted skillfully with our deeds, in chanting we have acted skillfully with our words, and in meditation we have acted skillfully with our thoughts. Once this is the case, we will be able to reach the heart of the Buddha's teachings:<br /><br />Sacitta-pariyodapana.m<br />Attain purity of heart.<br /><br />Everything in the world comes about solely through the power of the heart. A corrupt heart will abuse this power. A well-trained heart can use this power to uplift others and to gain blessings beyond price.<br /><br /><br /><br />Provenance: ©2006 Metta Forest Monastery. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. This Access to Insight edition is ©2006–2010.<br />Terms of use: You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. <br />For additional information about this license, see the FAQ.<br />How to cite this document (one suggested style): "The Divine Mantra", by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated from the Thai by Access to Insight, June 7, 2010, <a href="http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/divinemantra.html" target="_blank">http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/divinemantra.html</a>.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-43129607685063090622010-07-27T01:24:00.003+08:002010-07-27T01:30:57.707+08:00Heart of Dependent Origination<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lotsawahouse.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Nagarjuna17med.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 302px;" src="http://www.lotsawahouse.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Nagarjuna17med.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>by Arya Nagarjuna<br /><br />In the language of India: pratityasamutpada hridaya karika<br />In the language of Tibet: rten cing 'brel par 'byung ba'i snying po'i tsig le'ur byas pa<br /> <br />Homage to Manjushri, the Youthful!<br /> <br />1. These different links, twelve in number,<br />Which Buddha taught as dependent origination,<br />Can be summarized in three categories:<br />Mental afflictions, karma and suffering.<br /> <br />2. The first, eighth and ninth are afflictions,<br />The second and tenth are karma,<br />The remaining seven are suffering.<br />Thus the twelve links are grouped in three.<br /> <br />3. From the three the two originate,<br />And from the two the seven come,<br />From seven the three come once again—<br />Thus the wheel of existence turns and turns.<br /> <br />4. All beings consist of causes and effects,<br />In which there is no ‘sentient being’ at all.<br />From phenomena which are exclusively empty,<br />There arise only empty phenomena.<br />All things are devoid of any “I” or mine.<br /> <br />5. Like a recitation, a candle, a mirror, a seal,<br />A magnifying glass, a seed, sourness, or a sound,<br />So also with the continuation of the aggregates—<br />The wise should know they are not transferred.<br /> <br />6. Then, as for extremely subtle entities,<br />Those who regard them with nihilism,<br />Lacking precise and thorough knowledge,<br />Will not see the actuality of conditioned arising.<br /> <br />7. In this, there is not a thing to be removed,<br />Nor the slightest thing to be added.<br />It is looking perfectly into reality itself,<br />And when reality is seen, complete liberation.<br /> <br />This concludes the Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination composed by the teacher Arya Nagarjuna. <br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.lotsawahouse.org/heart_dependent_origination.html" target="_blank">www.lotsawahouse.org</a><br /><br />~End of Post~<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Nagarjuna" target="_blank" rel="tag">Nagarjuna</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-29690551438170762632010-07-26T23:23:00.004+08:002010-07-26T23:38:55.383+08:00Abandoning the Eight Worldly Dharmas<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.shambhalasun.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_0809.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 197px;" src="http://www.shambhalasun.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_0809.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Last Updated Apr 7, 2010)<br /><br />How to Practice Dharma: Abandoning the Eight Worldly Dharmas<br /><br />The Importance of Knowing What Dharma Is Happiness Starts When We Renounce This Life The Importance of Knowing What Dharma Is<br /><br />Even though we don’t know any other subject, if we can clearly differentiate between what is Dharma and what is non-Dharma by recognizing the eight worldly dharmas, we are very fortunate. This is the essential point. Knowing this alone gives us a great chance to really put Dharma practice into our daily life and create however much merit we want to create.<br /><br />Buddhism is a house full of treasures—practices for the happiness of future lives, for attaining liberation, for the supreme happiness of enlightenment—but this is the key that will open the door to those treasures. No matter how much we know about shunyata 9, the chakras or kundalini yoga 10, it is all pointless without this crucial understanding of how to practice Dharma, how to correct our actions. There are many people who spend much time thinking that they are practicing Dharma at a very high level, practicing tantra and other great subjects. They spend many lives like that but really never know the border between Dharma and non-Dharma.<br /><br />It is very easy to do Dharma activities, such as reciting mantras, saying prayers, making offerings and things like that, with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. This happens. But in reality, the holy Dharma, which includes all these activities, actually means renouncing this life, and therefore doing holy Dharma and doing worldly dharma can never happen together. Nobody can do these two things at the same time—renounce this life and seek the happiness of this life with the eight worldly dharmas. We can do one and then the other, but never together in one mind at the same time. <br /><br />It’s Better To Practice Dharma<br /><br />Whenever different benefactors wrote to Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo asking for advice, it seems that he always advised them to persuade other sentient beings to practice Dharma, especially lam-rim, as much as possible, by giving the very heart instructions on how to make their life most meaningful.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The eight worldly dharmas are the source of the whole of life’s problems, so therefore if Dharma practice means renouncing the source of the whole of life’s problems it means renouncing the eight worldly dharmas. “I’m practicing Dharma” really means “I’m renouncing all the suffering of this life and all the future lives, I’m renouncing the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.”<br /><br />In previous times, Dromtönpa, Atisha’s close disciple and translator, saw an old man walking around the temple at Reting monastery. The old man thought he was practicing Dharma. So Dromtönpa said, “Circumambulating the temple is good, but isn’t it better to practice Dharma.” After hearing this, the old man gave up going around the temple and started reading the scriptures, thinking that was what practicing Dharma meant. Again Dromtönpa met him and, seeing the old man reading scriptures, mentioned, “Reading the scriptures is good, but isn’t it better to practice Dharma?” So, at that the old man gave up reading Dharma texts, and thinking maybe meditation was practicing Dharma, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate. As he was sitting like that, again the Dromtönpa came to him and said, “Sir, your meditating is good, but wouldn’t it be better to practice Dharma?”<br /><br />The old man was confused. He couldn’t think of any other way to practice Dharma if it wasn’t circumambulating or reading scriptures or meditating, and so he asked Dromtönpa, “What do you mean by practicing Dharma?” Then Dromtönpa answered, “Renounce this life. Renounce it now, for if you do not renounce attachment to this life, whatever you do will not be the practice of Dharma, as you have not passed beyond the eight worldly concerns. Once you have renounced this life’s habitual thoughts and are no longer distracted by the eight worldly dharmas, whatever you do will advance you on the path of liberation.”<br /><br />Dromtönpa advised the old man to renounce this life because without renouncing this life nobody can practice pure Dharma. With renunciation, however, there is pure Dharma practice, which brings happiness in this life and in all future lives. Renouncing this life doesn’t mean running away from home or from material possessions, it means running away from the cause of the suffering. That alone will cut our suffering. As long as we follow the eight worldly dharmas, whether we separate from this physical body or not, without question we will still suffer.<br /><br />In a similar vein, when Lama Atisha 11 was about to pass away, one of his followers, a yogi called Naljor Chaktri Chok, (which means Yogi Meditator), who was Milarepa in a previous life, said to him, “After you have passed away I will dedicate myself to meditation.” Lama Atisha answered, “Give up anything that is a bad action!” Atisha did not say that it was good to meditate; he did not say, “Oh yes, that is very good!” Instead he said, “Give up anything that is a bad action!”<br /><br />Naljor Chaktri Chok then said to Atisha, “In that case, sometimes I will explain Dharma and sometimes I will meditate.” Again Atisha gave the same answer. Naljor Chaktri Chok thought some more, then gave another suggestion. But no matter what he said, Atisha just kept on giving the same answer. Finally, Naljor Chaktri Chok asked, “Well, what should I do?” Lama Atisha answered, “Give up this life in your mind!”<br /><br />Keeping this advice in his heart, Naljor Chaktri Chok lived in a juniper forest rear Reting monastery, no different from the way animals live in a forest. (This is not talking about his mind—just his body.) Living alone, not seeing even one other human face, he passed his life there.<br /><br />Giving up this life—renouncing this life, as Dromtönpa says—doesn’t mean leaving everything behind and escaping from this world, this entire planet, and going somewhere else. Giving away all our possessions—even all the possessions that exist in the world—is not giving up this life. Taking our body away from our home or our country is not giving up this life. Even living in a cave with no possessions at all, with only the body, this is not giving up this life. Even separating from our body—as we do every time we die—is not giving up this worldly life. Giving up this life does not depend on physical things; it is a mental change.<br /><br />The Difference Between the Eight Worldly Dharmas and Dharma <br /><br />Without renouncing the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, any action—going round a stupa, meditating, reading Dharma books—is a negative action, a worldly action. It is not spiritual, it is not Dharma; it is the opposite of Dharma. So the action itself does not determine whether something is Dharma. Dromtönpa shows us clearly that practicing Dharma is nothing more than renouncing the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas.<br /><br />We need to be very clear about what defines Dharma and non-Dharma. We know that anger is negative, of course, but we aren’t angry all the time. What really wastes our precious life isn’t anger but attachment, being attached to the eight worldly dharmas.<br /><br />If we don’t know the distinction between Dharma and non-Dharma, even though we try to practice Dharma our whole life, nothing becomes Dharma, because we are still doing things with the wrong motivation. It can happen. So the definition of non-Dharma is simply anything that is done for the happiness of this life alone. It is whatever we do motivated by the attachment to the eight worldly dharmas. The definition of Dharma is exactly the opposite; it is anything that is done for the happiness of beyond this life, whatever is unstained by attachment to the eight worldly dharmas. I repeat: whatever action we do with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas is not Dharma; whatever we do unstained by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas is Dharma. Every action we do from morning to night is either Dharma or non-Dharma depending on this.<br /><br />When we see clearly the borderline between Dharma and non-Dharma, between a Dharma action and a worldly action, we are so fortunate. Until that point, despite all the suffering we’ve endured and all our attempts to stop it, we haven’t had any way to be really happy, but now we can start to do something about it. We have probably wanted to do many good things in the past, such as meditating, but from lack of this fundamental understanding, we’ve made so many mistakes. Even if we don’t come to understand any other Dharma subjects, just knowing this one thing is like opening a big eye.<br /><br />Pure Dharma is any action that is a remedy for our delusions. Basically, practicing Dharma benefits future lives, unlike the meaningless activities of this life which might possibly bring some temporary happiness in this life. Achieving the happiness of this life is nothing special. Even animals or insects as tiny as ants can achieve the happiness of this life, and therefore being able to gain sense pleasures doesn’t make our life more special than that of an animal. No matter how expert we are, we aren’t fulfilling the potential we have as humans, especially with this perfect human rebirth, qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses.12 The special purposes of having a perfect human rebirth are to achieve the happiness of future lives, to achieve liberation from samsara and to achieve full enlightenment, and this is something we can do because we can create the causes even in each second.<br /><br />Virtue and nonvirtue are defined on this basis. Every action done renouncing attachment to this life is virtue; every action done with attachment to this life is nonvirtue. If we renounce the attachment that clings to this life’s pleasure, our attitude becomes pure, and everything we do becomes Dharma. Nothing we do is done for this life.<br /><br />As soon as we renounce the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas there is peace. There is no need to wait until tomorrow or the day after. It is not as if we renounce the eight worldly dharmas today but we need to wait for a few years or the next life to receive happiness.<br /><br />When we live with the pure thought that is not mixed with the thought of the worldly dharmas, then each single action becomes Dharma, our mind is living purely in the Dharma. The deeper we see the cause of our suffering, the more our wisdom grows and the more we can put Dharma into our everyday life. Then there is so much energy to make any action we do a Dharma action. Even if we live in a big family, with twenty children and many possessions, every action we do becomes the remedy to the delusions, and we are living in the renunciation of this life.<br /><br />Nobody can tell from external appearances who has renounced this life and who hasn’t. Renunciation is a state of mind, and whether or not a person has lots of possessions is no indication at all. Even though someone is a king, with many servants, with stores of jewels and possessions and many rich apartments, that does not mean his mind is not living in renunciation. Renouncing this life is a mental action, not a physical action.<br /><br />If it were only a question of not having anything, all the animals and insects who have no possessions, living in holes, without food to eat, should be regarded as highly renounced beings. At Lawudo retreat center near Everest there are many caves that used to be the homes of great yogis. When I went to see them, they had been used by yaks for sleeping, probably because they are warm, and they were full of kaka. If the definition of a yogi is someone who lives in a cave, perhaps we should consider the yaks great yogis!<br /><br />Another way of defining Dharma is anything that does not accord with the actions of worldly people. If we do something that normal people don’t do, then it’s Dharma. If we do something that normal people do, then it’s not Dharma. This is how the great teacher Dromtönpa explained it to Potowa:<br /><br />It is Dharma if it becomes an antidote to delusions; it is not Dharma if it does not. If all worldly people disagree with it, it is Dharma; if they agree with it, it is not Dharma.13<br /><br />Most worldly people have an interpretation of what constitutes a good life based on attachment and filtered through the ego. And so more wealth, more success, more friends, more children, more cars—such things are seen as part of a good life. We measure our happiness by how many possessions we have, by our external development. Children, and then grandchildren, and then great-grandchildren, the more of everything we have the happier we are.<br /><br />This is entirely the opposite of what a good life is in the view of Dharma wisdom, based on the fundamental understanding of karma and the lam-rim. What attachment doesn’t consider important in its view of a good life is having peace in the heart, having real satisfaction. Actually, this is what we are all looking for, but very few people, lacking Dharma education, know this and so very few people actually know how to achieve it. <br /><br />The Importance of Motivation <br /><br />When I once asked an abbot about the meaning of “worldly dharma”, he replied that it means gambling, working in the fields and so on—these are worldly activities. It is very common to think of worldly actions in this way, relating just to the action and not to the motivation, the attitude. If done with a pure motivation, however, such actions can become pure Dharma.<br /><br />Dromtönpa’s example above is extremely important to keep in mind because it shows so clearly the border between Dharma and non-Dharma. It is easy to think of worldly actions as playing football, smoking, drinking, having sex or these kinds of things, but that’s not what defines a worldly action. We therefore need to become very aware of the motivation for all the actions we do in daily life to see what is and what is not Dharma.<br /><br />If our motivation is worldly concern then the action becomes a worldly activity. It can’t be Dharma, even if the action is reciting prayers, meditating and so on. It can be like Dharma but not Dharma. And a person who “practices” Dharma but with a motivation of worldly concern is like a Dharma practitioner but not a real Dharma practitioner. There’s a big difference.<br /><br />One time, someone gave me plastic ice cream. It looked exactly like ice cream and it even ran down the spoon like melting ice cream does. When Ueli, the director of the FPMT Mongolian projects, came to lunch I offered it to him and he was completely fooled. It was so well made. But of course it was completely inedible. And it’s the same thing with the person who practices Dharma but pollutes it with the mind clinging to this life. His activities might look exactly like Dharma—listening to teachings, reflecting, meditating, going on retreat, even teaching Dharma—but in fact they are not Dharma. He might look like a Dharma practitioner but in fact he is not a Dharma practitioner.<br /><br />Since we are seeking liberation, this is the most important point to know. It’s like the dial of the radio that has the power to tune into all the different stations. Without this understanding of the distinction between Dharma and non-Dharma, no matter how many different spiritual actions we do, no matter how long we do things such as building monasteries, making prostrations and so on—even if we do them until we die—there is a real danger that our whole life will become filled with negative actions and cause us to be trapped in samsara, that they will be the causes of the bondage to suffering. Without this knowledge there is a great danger we will cheat ourselves.<br /><br />By itself, no action can be defined as a worldly action. It can be either holy Dharma or worldly dharma, virtuous or nonvirtuous. It all depends on the motivation. Enjoying sense pleasures can be positive or negative; having wealth can be positive of negative. Two people can do exactly the same thing and one can be positive and the other negative.<br /><br />So it all depends on our attitude. A politician with a good motivation can do a lot of good but if his motivation is the thought of the eight worldly dharmas—the wish for power, reputation, wealth and so on—then his politics become black politics that harm both himself and the people around him. Without the worldly mind, his politics become Dharma. And if the motivation is unstained by self-cherishing and is one of bodhicitta then those politics become pure Mahayana Dharma. It becomes only pure service for other sentient beings, and that becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment.<br /><br />No matter how it looks on the surface, any action done without involvement in the eight worldly dharmas is a Dharma action. Whatever method we use to renounce the thought of the eight worldly dharmas is the method to stop the continuity of bad karma, which leads to escape from suffering and to enlightenment. This is the perfect, true method.<br /><br />And so before we can start any Dharma practice, the most important thing is to cultivate a pure motivation. Just understanding this crucial point is so important. It opens our wisdom eye; it is the first thing we need to do to follow the path. Even if we can’t have pure motivation from the very beginning, just understanding what Dharma means and how it makes life meaningful is very beneficial. As we practice more, we can develop a better and purer motivation based on this understanding. Then we have the chance to do a correct action without mistake.<br /><br />We can’t become like those great yogis of the past within a few days, or even a few months, but it is very beneficial just knowing how they made their life free and peaceful by practicing Dharma. This gives us some insight into how we can start to lead our life. We can watch that all our actions are as pure as possible, that they are not controlled by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. <br /><br /> Notes<br /><br />9 Skt: emptiness.<br /><br />10 The completion stage practice in Highest Yoga Tantra for of bringing the vital energy (Skt: prana, Tib: lung) into the central channel. It is also a common yoga found in non-Tibetan traditions.<br /><br />11 The first part of this section is also found in The Door to Satisfaction, p. 30.<br /><br />12 The eight freedoms are freedom from: 1. being born in the hells (narak), 2. as a hungry spirit (preta), 3. as an animal, 4. as a long-life god (asura), 5. as a barbarian in an irreligious country, 6. deaf, 7.as a heretic, 8. born during a time when Buddha has not descended.<br /><br />The ten richnesses are: 1. being born as a human being, 2. being born in the centre of a religious country, 3. being born with perfect organs, 4. avoidance of the five extreme negative actions (killing your mother, your father, an arhat, wounding a tathagata or causing disunity amongst the Sangha), 5. belief in the practice of Dharma, 6. being born during a non-dark period, 7. being shown the teachings of the Buddha or his followers, 8. the existence of experienced teachings, 9. following the path of the Buddha’s teaching. 10. receiving the kindness and compassion of others. Taken from The Wish-fulfilling Golden Sun. See also Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, pp. 308-311.<br /><br />13 Quoted in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, p. 337.<br /><br />Article Source: <a href="http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=600&chid=1410" target="_blank">www.lamayeshe.com</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-83732574487249359532010-07-22T00:48:00.005+08:002010-07-22T01:07:43.820+08:00Forest Wat, Wild Monks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://das-buddhistische-haus.de/pages/images/stories/pics-content/authoren/buddhadasa-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 400px;" src="http://das-buddhistische-haus.de/pages/images/stories/pics-content/authoren/buddhadasa-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>By Buddhadasa Bhikkhu<br /><br />Today, I'll speak about "Forest Wat Wild Monks." A topic like this is easy to remember and understand. It's straight-forward and clear. Since you only have a month left as monks, I think you ought to live as "forest wat wild monks," correctly and completely, for at least a little while. Later, it will probably be beneficial, that is, it might make you fit and adequate after you have disrobed. Even ordinary householders should know something about "forest wat wild monks."<br /><br />These words may sound ugly, but the Buddha and the Arahants (Worthy Ones, Perfected Ones) lived in this way. Please realize that originally all of the wats, monasteries, and ashrams were outside the cities and villages. None were within the city walls. They were forest wats implicitly and in truth. To say "wild monks" is a bit hard on the ears, because the word "wild" can have bad connotations. Here, however, "wild" means the opposite of cities. Town wats and city monks are the opposite of "forest wats and wild monks." Take the meaning of "wild monk" merely to be the opposite of "city monk."<br /><br />Consider Suan Mokkh a bit. We've intended for it to be a forest wat from the very start. Things I had studied led me to know more about how the Buddha lived. Understanding how he lived, I wanted to have a lifestyle like his. So I thought of supporting the forest style of living. Then, we went even further using the words "to promote vipassana-dhura." We used the phrase that was common then. They called the practice in solitary and quiet places, such as in forests, "vipassana-dhura." 2 We intended to promote vipassana-dhura, or the meditation-duty, to revive it, so we thought of having a place in the forest.<br />Now, although the village is encroaching, we can probably maintain the condition of a forest wat. To do so, the monks must have a discipline or system of living which is most intimate with nature. This means being comrades with nature, to sit and talk, to sit and watch, to sit and listen, together with nature. The meaning of "wild monk" is to live naturally.<br /><br />In the past, the elders and old teachers called the monks who live in the forest "nature monks," while the monks in the towns and cities, especially Bangkok, were called "science monks." This is a rural way of speaking, we need not judge whether it is right or wrong: "science monks" and "nature monks." Here, we are nature monks, living in harmony with nature, close to nature, studying nature, until realizing nibbana, which is the pinnacle of nature. Please understand the words "forest wat" and "wild monks" like this.<br /><br />Please take only the essential meaning of these words. If we take the essence of "forest wat," it means "the most simply way of living" and "wild monks" means "to live most simply." You can blend the two together, they mean the same thing.<br />So, would all of you please live in the most simple way. So far, you're not yet living most simply, although you may be close. Try to readjust things yourself, through the end of the Rains. From now on, make your living even more easy. The more simple, the more natural it is. The more natural it is, the less opportunity for "I" and "mine" to be born. Thus, it automatically becomes correct and beautiful according to our monks' way.<br /><br />This is an extremely important and genuine fact. Live naturally and it will be Dhamma (Natural Truth) and Vinaya (Natural Discipline), or Nature, in and of itself. Living naturally is near to nibbana, more so than living scientifically, because nibbana is already the highest nature: naturally clean, clear, and calm. Live naturally, it helps make us clean, clear, and calm more easily.<br /><br />Now, I want you to hold the general principle that Nature, the Law of Nature, Duty in line with the Law of Nature, and the Fruit received from doing Duty according to the Law of Nature, are the most important matter. This is Buddhism, it's the essence of religion without needing to call it religion. It's better to call it "Truth of Nature" or "Natural Truth."<br /><br />Now, don't have regrets about anything. There isn't much time left, so you won't be missing much. Just sacrifice your pleasures and comforts. Try out this natural living which automatically has lots of cleanness, clarity, and calm. You've had enough time to read, hear talks, and study the basics of being a monk. Henceforth, know especially the things which will have the most benefit. Then your time as a monk will be over, you will have beneficial knowledge which is complete, that is, you know in general and in specifics, you know loosely and strictly, until you know how the Buddha lived.<br /><br />When we speak of the Lord Buddha, never forget that he was born outdoors, awakened outdoors, realized nibbana outdoors, taught outdoors, lived outdoors, had a hut with an earthen floor, and so on. We give it as much of a try as we can. Even now, we see that we're sitting on the ground, which is much different than in the city wats. There they sit on wooden floors, on mats, on carpets, depending on the status of each wat. Some wats spread expensive carpeting in the temple building for all eternity. So they sit in their chapels on carpets. Here, we sit on the seat of the Buddha -- the ground. This is one example for you to understand what nature is like, and how different it is from the cities, and how different are the hearts of those who come sit and interact with Nature.<br /><br />I've tried my best in this matter. When Suan Mokkh was first started, I slept on the ground. I slept next to the grasses in order to know their flavor. I used to sleep on the beach, too. Then, when I first slept in the "middle hut" after it was newly built, I would stretch my hand out the window to fondle the plants next to the window. This completely different feeling is the meaning of "forest wat wild monk."<br /><br />Everything changes. Feelings, sensitivity, standards, what have you, they change by themselves. Matters of food, shelter, clothing, rest, sleep, aches and illness: they changed completely. They caused us to understand Nature more than when we hadn't tried yet, until finally there were no problems at all. Things which I had feared all disappeared. Fear of loneliness in deserted places, fear of spirits, fear of anything, they didn't last more than seven days. They gradually disappeared themselves. This led to mental comfort, ease, and other fruits. The mind became strong, agile, subtle, and refined. Those were its fruits. Thus, whatever I thought of doing, I could do it better than before I came to the forest, better than in the city. There's no comparison between living in Bangkok and living here. They're totally different. I can say there's more ability, more strength, more of everything. One can do anything beyond expectations and personal limitations. Whether writing a book, reading, or thinking, much more can be done.<br /><br />One lives in the lowest way materially and physically, but the mind 3 goes its own separate way. It takes a higher course, because when we live simply the mind isn't pulled in. The heart is released so that it lifts up high. If we sleep comfortably, like wealthy householders, that comfort grabs the heart. It traps the heart, which can't go anywhere, can't escape, is stuck there. So live and sleep more lowly, since humble things won't trap the heart. Live humbly and the mind will rise high, will think lofty things.<br />Living in a humble condition, in one that can't fall lower, the mind can only proceed in a higher way. It's easy because we needn't carry or load down the mind with anything. The mind can be "normal" and free. It is free in its movements, reflections, and actions. Thus, we can freely do anything of the sort which is not like anyone else. Through the power of nature, there isn't any carelessness, we don't make mistakes. Since the mind is heedful there are no mistakes.<br />That the heart can find a way out like this must be considered freedom. Know the mind that is independent, that isn't caught and held by deliciousness and pleasure, by the happiness and comfort of eyes, ears, nose tongue, body, and mind.<br /><br />Here I want to make a distinction. If something is in line with original nature, and there's no indulgence in new pleasures, we'll call it "natural." If it goes after new pleasures, if newly concocted for more tasty pleasures than nature, we'll call it "unnatural." They're truly different. If going naturally, the defilements arise with difficulty, they can't arise. If acting in an unnatural way, it's easy for the defilements to be born, or else it's defilement from the very start. Thus, living as nature's comrade makes it hard for the defilements. It automatically controls and prevents against the defilements (kilesa).<br /><br />This is the spirit of Suan Mokkh, of setting up a place like this. When you want this enough to come here, then you ought to get it. Besides this, there isn't anything. We've tried to prevent other things from happening, so that there are only these things: how to eat, how to live, and how to sleep. We've spoken many times of the specific details of each.<br /><br />I've said it before, but nobody believes me that to take exactly what nature provides is sufficient, is good enough. When we must die, then die. Don't postpone and make it difficult. It's like the medical care that has progressed to the point that people are unable to die, they can't drop. They live inhumanly, but not dead. That's too much. Heart transplants, liver transplants, and all that exceed nature. It's better not to. And please look, it doesn't make humanity any better. It doesn't create peace in the world. If mental matters don't progress, if there's only defilement -- delusion and all -- there'll be no end.4<br /><br />In summary, make things humble so that they don't trap the mind. Then this heart of ours is free to think, consider, decide, and choose. Please use the mindfulness and wisdom that you receive from this style of living to choose and decide what you must in the future.<br /><br />If you were born in Bangkok, you were surrounded by man-made things and raised far from the forest, much more than people born in the forest. Those born in towns and cities hardly know the meaning of "forest" or "wild." Those born in the sticks know something, but don't pay any attention. They must work, must always be doing something according to their moods, so they hardly notice how calm and clean it is. Sometimes they are even dissatisfied with it, although born in the country. Our hearts don't like it and always aim to get into "developed and beautiful" areas in the cities and capital. Thus, we don't know the taste of the forest and of Nature, even if born in the forest, even when splattered with mud, because the mind is occupied in another way.<br />Now you're in robes and needn't work like lay folk. The heart has a chance to know the peaceful flavors and quiet nooks of Nature, which is the cause of the mind's freedom in the first place. You ought to use this final chance here to keep walking until knowing the heart that is naturally pure, which is something like the heart of the Arahant. The Arahant's heart is just like that -- natural -- except it's that way totally. Now, we may have a heart like that, but only momentarily, temporarily. The next moment it changes off in another direction, and we can't pull it back. Try to penetrate this heart of nature.<br /><br />In clear and simple terms, we call it pure nature, nature which isn't concocted ("cooked and seasoned") by anything. And we don't concoct that nature either. It exists simply, humbly, freshly, peacefully, coolly, however you want to describe it. If you know this flavor, you know the flavor of Dhamma, in its aspect of the only fruit worth having, because Dhamma's reality (literally, "body") has been captured. Those who just study and take exams never receive Dhamma's reality. All they can do is holler about it. If somehow you can catch Dhamma itself, it's like catching a crab or fish, it's something tangible. Here we can catch the substance of cleanness, clarity, and calm -- the body of Dhamma. Even temporarily is worth it. To have grasped it and seen it just once is better than never having grasped, known, or seen it at all.<br /><br />The academics only memorize and recite, then take examinations, then memorize and recite some more. They think only according to what they're told. Their minds don't reach cleanness, clarity, and calm at all. From the theoretical studies or scriptures, one just gets stories and information. To phrase it more politely, one gets only a map. Actually, they don't even get the map. I know this well because I've tried that way myself. I've taken the full Dhamma Course, studied the Pali language (in which the Theravada scriptures are written), and researched continuously. It seems I got only complicated stories -- mostly mixed up and confused to boot -- without getting even a map. Those who talk of scholarship, of being Pali experts and Dhamma Masters, of having a map, they make it up, imagine, and arrange it themselves.<br /><br />Actually, the real map is much clearer than all that. We must pass through, must arrive at, and receive "something" -- appropriately and sufficiently -- in order to know the correct and true map. It's as if we're making a map and must wade through that respective subject or area in order to draw the map. If we draw it from guesses and imagination, it will be a mess. If we try to make a map of everything, it's a huge mess. These scholars who have finished their studies end up with a scholarly map that's a mess. It's a mess because it is wrongly explained, wrongly remembered, wrongly taught, and, especially, wrongly interpreted. Who knows what kind of map it is. These literary maps according to the study books are a mess because they're all mixed up.<br />That's not our way. We'll do something, find some method, which takes the heart all the way to that city: the city of peace, the state of peace, the nature which is peace. This short cuts the map. This is the methodology of "forest wat wild monks": keep looking for and aiming at only the peaceful mind.<br /><br />Just this single word "peace" has multitudinous meanings. It's easy to say "peace," but it's hard to understand and difficult to practice. But you must try. Therefore, please try to continually follow and search: "Is this peace? Is this peace?"<br /><br />The word "peace" means "not troubled, not anxious, not agitated, not disturbed, not painful, not pierced." To begin, remember these meanings. On the other hand, the minds of most people are troubled, stabbed, cut, and roasted by desires, by doubts, by worries, by the kind of wishes that build castles in the sky. They usually happen all the time; you ought to get rid of them. I'm not forbidding you to want anything or do anything. I only want things to happen peacefully.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Some people may think that this runs counter to human existence in the world. Listening superficially, it may sound like that. When human beings in this world don't want peace, they will want stimulation, they will want the state that stimulates pleasure through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, whichever way, all ways. They want to get excited, they don't want peace and calm. This makes it somewhat difficult to speak about these matters.<br /><br />We have a choice. Stimulation, the state of having kilesa always waiting to drive and manipulate us, what's that like? And we must ask, which direction will it lead? How far will it reach? It has no end. So we could exploit this and make some money from the fact that humanity has endless wants, make a business out of humanity's endless wants, and get rich ourselves. The rich have wants that never end. They follow after these endless desires, then what kind of world will that be? This is how different it is in the cities, totally opposite from "forest wat wild monks," who want to stop, to be cool, and to be calm.<br /><br />The problem is like this: the world's people don't want peace. How will we pursue peace? And when living in the middle of people who don't want peace, how will we live peacefully? Another way is to live by making money off the people who don't want peace. Now, however, we should focus on the fact that it is necessary to live in the midst of such people. How can we be peace? How can we use our understanding of this peace to solve those problems?<br /><br />I still think that it can work. Please know how to calm the mind; then work with those non-peaceful people in those incredibly chaotic cities and capitals. We can have minds that are under control, are "normal,"5 are on track, are disciplined, are at peace; they do what they should. Finally, if we must work for people who are not calm, we are up to it.<br /><br />In the scriptures there's a story of a woman Stream-Enterer6 whose husband is a hunter. They still were able to live together. It doesn't sound believable, and probably nobody will believe it, but that's what the scriptures say. She wasn't tainted by her husband's sins. They could live as husband and wife without losing her Stream-Entry. Think about it. You must know how to take special care of the heart. Guard the condition of peace according to your own particular skills.<br /><br />Close your eyes and imagine this scene. One person is "normal" and able to smile. He works with another who always acts like a demon or devil. How can he do it? I say he can. If a person is at peace, has sufficiently trained, he can do it. But he probably wouldn't want to bother. He's more likely to find another place to work. Here, we're just trying to show that if one tries, it is possible. If one's heart is secure and "normal," there's nobody who could shake him. If anyone tried to get him to do something wicked, he wouldn't do it and would probably run away.<br /><br />This talk is to help you begin to see that this matter of calmness is no obstacle. Further, it's beneficial in that it gradually transforms those who aren't calm, making them more calm and in love with calmness. One makes blessings without being conscious of it. People with Dhamma who work together with people who lack Dhamma will do good without being aware of it. They'll cure the people without Dhamma, so that Dhamma develops in them steadily.<br /><br />I have seen people who have gone to work as clerks or officials, who are calm, humble, and have Dhamma. They are able to cool down bosses who fly into rages, are hurried, and lack Dhamma. Know that if we have an employee who is cool and calm, and shows it, we can't explode. We would be too ashamed, or else feel pity for him.<br />Even with these wat boys, some have something cool about them and others are almost the opposite. We must have our own sensitivity for this: "Ahhmm, they're totally different. With that boy there we act in one way, with this one we must act another way." Such cool kids will help to cool down the old folks and grey-hairs, if the kids have cool characters.<br /><br />I believe that Dhamma isn't likely to be objectionable for use in a world lacking peace and coolness. A monk coming from correct "forest wat wild monk," who stays at a city wat with a totally different style, will have an immediate influence on the city folk. They'll notice that "we're hot and he's cool." The only question is whether or not the cool monk from the forest can guard that calm and correctness all the time. Mostly they lose it, change, and are swallowed up. If not, they must escape back to the forest. They can't handle the city, it's full of annoyances. No harm done, because we ought to be able to choose in this world. If we want peace, we have the right to find a peaceful place. But wherever the wild monk goes, he automatically teaches the "Peaceful Creed" right there. There will be some success, and some automatic "blessings," too. Make an example of peace for them to see, be truly happy for them to see, they'll be interested and some will even follow. You'll get "merit" and the world becomes a better place.<br /><br />If we speak of the Arahant, various principles show that such a human being can never get hot again. So she can go to the city, to the capitol, to any chaotic place, without dying. He wouldn't die, but probably would get fed up beyond toleration, then have to flee. If she couldn't escape, she might die. But I don't think so, because he'd adjust his heart inside in an unbelievable way. There's no need to get hot with those people. Yet, what's the point of being troubled by it all, avoid it to find an appropriate place.<br /><br />This talking and raising examples back and forth is to increase understanding of "forest wat wild monks." Do you know the difference between living as a forest wat wild monk and living as a city monk? You've never lived as forest wat wild monks. There's only a little time left, you better try it out quickly. Quickly live up to its standard, you'll understand the matter well. Although you return to the city later, you won't be the same. It will change you from how you were. You'll change in a good and useful way, too. So I felt we should talk about this for the sake of the time left in the Rains, that you might get more interested in the "forest wat wild monks" style.<br /><br />At the beginning of the Rains, I already told you about these things, such as, don't laugh a lot, speak only a little, try to stay with Nature. But I understand you couldn't do it, and just let it go. More than enough time has passed, now you ought to be able, at least a little more than before. This means just "live like a monk (Phra) " 7 more and more. You'll know the flavor of the monk's life which we call "forest wat wild monks." You'll never have a chance to try living like a wild monk in the city. You must come to the forest, to a naturally free place, to taste and to try it, to know Dhamma of the sort the Buddha realized and proclaimed.<br /><br />If not that, then why ordain?8 Each of you ought to ask yourself why you ordained? Why did you take leave to do this temporary going forth? To understand what? To sample what? To get what? With certainty -- like pounding a fist into the ground -- we answer, "to get exactly what we've been talking about." Without leaving home, you couldn't get it. You would have no chance even to see or sample or give it a try. Ordination was necessary.<br /><br />Now that you've ordained, to get what the Buddha got, you must live close to how the Buddha lived. He lived and maintained life in such a way that we turn back to the "forest wat wild monks" life-style. If we don't live this way, we couldn't get, experience, or sample the Buddha's life.<br />The monks in the Buddha's time, the Buddha himself, and whichever founder of whatever religion, all got started in a life intimate with Nature. All of them awakened in forests surrounded by Nature. Whether the Buddha, Jesus Christ, or the prophet of any religion, they lived close to nature. To awaken as a Perfectly Self-Awakened Buddha; or to become One with God, to communicate with God, according to the religions that have a God; that moment is living as a comrade of nature. So try to remember the words: how good it is to be nature's comrade."<br />This means that you have accepted, have believed, and have seen that the Lord Buddha is a real Buddha (Awakened Being), the highest sort of person, who knows the best thing that humans ought to know, and you want to know that, too. This is why we make this effort. We shouldn't be tricked into believing that the Buddha taught only "householder virtue" (gharavasa-dhamma) for the lay folk.9<br /><br />If he only taught ordinary household matters, he would have served no purpose, since anybody could and was teaching those things well enough already. Although the Buddha sometimes taught about householder subjects, it was solely the sort of Dhamma fit for lay folk who were looking for nibbana. The lay folk already were being taught well enough. For the Buddha to help teach these matters, he would teach the type of lay person who is ready to discover Dhamma, to reach nibbana. This brings us back to our subject.<br />There's merely a small amount which the Buddha taught lay folk for the sake of being lay folk. But what he taught with the fullest satisfaction of his heart was the matter ofsuññata (voidness). Some householders asked him for the Dhamma most beneficial for the household life and he came back with voidness. He told them to have voidness, namely, a heart void of "I" and "mine." Then they could do anything in the form of a householder, thus becoming householders who are ready to be Arahant, or more than half ready to proceed along the Arahant's line.<br />Thus, that we live like "forest wat wild monks" to understand voidness well is in the same line. It follows the trail of householders who should study voidness. You can read in all the books about voidness that they've printed how the Buddha taught voidness to lay folk.<br />Now, I'm afraid that those who will return to lay life, or already are householders, have not yet found voidness at all. Because the customs and traditions have changed, there's no Buddha to teach voidness to lay folk. Nor are any of the monks in the cities likely to teach voidness to householders. Then, how are lay folk going to understand voidness?<br /><br />I insist that by trying to live like "forest wat wild monks" for a little while, you'll understand voidness. Although you don't call it voidness, although you don't feel you're practicing voidness, you still will get the results of practicing voidness: a heart which is void and cool, which is clean, clear, and calm.<br />Do your work with a heart that doesn't suffer. Receive the fruits of labor without making it a problem, not dancing with joy or going crazy over the benefits received. You can work more, until however wealthy you want, but with a different heart, that is, a cool and peaceful one. It's a heart that always wins, nothing can make it anxious. Nowadays, people can work, earn money, find status, and gain fame, but they're always losing. They're always hot, always made and kept hot. What's good about that? Before long, they'll have some nervous breakdown or drop dead.<br />Very few people are naturally -- "accidentally" or "flukishly" -- cool. That lay folk can have cool hearts naturally in line with Dhamma principles is, of course, possible. It isn't beyond or against their nature, but it seldom happens. It can happen with good surroundings, with good genes, or with a nervous system that nature coincidentally built to be like that. But don't cross your fingers and wait, because it's rare. Let's just say most of us are born ordinary.<br /><br />What can we do to become special individuals, that is, unable to suffer? No matter what happens, we can't suffer and can't get hot. Whether rich or poor, we are unable to get hot or anxious. Who can insure that the wealthy will always be wealthy or that the poor will always be poor? Things change constantly. Especially this modern world, it changes so easily, so fast, so suddenly. Regarding the progress of humanity which is quickly, violently destroying the world with War and what have you, both changing up and changing down, don't be the least hot or anxious about it.<br /><br />Should war erupt and wipe out life on earth, such people don't give it any meaning. They can still laugh because they've reached Dhamma. They've attained the sort of Dhamma that makes further suffering impossible. They have no more problems here. Impoverished for necessary reasons, they don't suffer. Not anxious or miserable, they get out of poverty before you know it. If one has Dhamma, there's no suffering. If one lacks sufficient Dhamma, there's nothing but suffering and anguish. Rich and miserable, poor and miserable: they're hot no matter what. So take the side which is neither hot nor miserable while you've got the chance.<br /><br />This is why I ask you to hurry up and study-practice, hurry to try it out, hurry to find the point where suffering can't exist, the point which can't get hot. Discover as much as you can, so that your life in the future can't get hot, or is hot as little as possible, or once hot can be dropped quickly.<br /><br />They call this "The Noble One" (ariya), but I don't want to talk about that. Before you know it, all kinds of distracting thoughts will come up. To be incapable of hotness is to be a Noble One, according to the particular level or state: Stream-Enterer (sotapanna), Once-Returner (sakadagami), Non-Returner (anagami), or Worthy One(arahant). Ultimately, the mind can't get hot at all. It gets hot less and less until it's unheatable and nowhere hot. The Noble One's feelings 10 are thoroughly cooled. That's the meaning of the highest level of "Arahant," the level of anupadisesa-nibbana-dhatu (the nibbana element with no fuel and heat remaining):11 thoroughly cool. The rest are progressively cool; even when hot, they aren't hot like a thickster (putthujana, worldly person) is hot. The hotness of thicksters is like being singed by fire or scalded with boiling water. The first stages of Noble Ones might feel a bit hot sometimes, but never like the thicksters burn. Nevertheless, I don't want to use these words very much, or get you stuck on or attached to using them. So let's just say "human beings." Just people, just us, all the same. Yet, we can be less hot and more cool, until we can't get hot in ordinary situations, and until we can't get hot in even the worst situations.<br /><br />There are loads of the Buddha's words recorded in the Pali which encourage us to think and train so that we need not get hot. I don't have to quote the Pali any more, you can believe me that they are there. If the scriptures aren't like that, what good would they be? They teach us to be cool.<br /><br />If you get hot through carelessness, be very sorry. If you haven't felt these things, you're heedless, the same as dead. If you feel them but pretend that you don't, you're shameless, lacking in hiri (moral shame) and ottappa (fear of the results of evil). To get hotter with age, to get more angry, to get worse in any way, is to lack hiri-ottappa. You must know spiritual shame and fear. The most frightening thing is to be a human who is hot, just a fool, a lost person who is full of defilement and selfishness. You can't call that a human being. Better call it a "fool."<br />So for the time that remains, test yourself as if taking exams. Is it hot or not? Even a small slip into hotness should make you quite sorry and ashamed. You ought to penalize yourself appropriately. You can do it without anybody knowing. But please penalize yourselves whenever careless, when going wrong on this point and becoming hot. Eventually the mind changes, becomes more careful, and can make progress along the Dhamma way.<br /><br />Hot due to lust or greed is one form. Hot due to anger or hatred is another form. Hot due to delusion or ignorance is a third form. You've learned these names before, I shouldn't have to explain anymore. As soon as mindfulness is missing, ignorance takes over. It lusts and covets, it gets hot with the emotions of avarice and lust. In "negative" situations, it gets angry and hateful. It becomes hot with anger, with aversion, with malice. Then, in some cases we don't know anything: don't know the original cause, don't know what's up, don't know even what we want. We're full of doubts about what we ought to want. There's no certainty about how our life is, what should come of it, how it should be lived. This not knowing is delusion. It too is hot.<br /><br />So if you want to test yourselves, it won't be difficult. The time remaining is enough to do some self-examination. Speak little, keep to yourself, and constantly observe the heart. Call it "constantly guarding the heart." It's automatic mental development, or meditation. When always watching over the heart, that's vipassana, that's meditation. If you find it's hot, then know it's hot, that it's still low, wrong, and must be cured. And you better have some regret. At the same time, know how it is hot and what caused the hotness.<br /><br />In the end, you will find the truth exactly as the Buddha taught. Before, we didn't know it, we just heard about it. Now we know that thing truly. We understand Dhamma from ourselves, without needing to know the Buddha. And if they force us to speak, we automatically will speak the same as the Buddha regarding the nature of greed, hatred, and delusion.<br /><br />This very thing is the Buddha's supreme aim, yet the big monks never talk about it. They usually threaten us not to raise ourselves up as equals to the Buddha, not to insult the Buddha. In this matter, if you want to understand something, I can tell you straight that the Buddha wanted people to reach the Dhamma without needing to believe their teacher, and then are able to explain that Dhamma without needing to repeat their teacher's words. Did you listen right? Listen again: know the Dhamma without believing the Buddha. Because we know personally, then we know the same thing as the Buddha. Then, if we must speak for the sake of others, we needn't repeat after the Buddha, needn't quote Pali, needn't recite the texts. Just speak according to experience. Then it will be identical to what the Buddha said. Then, people needn't repeat after the Buddha, they can speak their own hearts. This state of affairs is what the Buddha himself wanted. You can find it in the Pali, in many places. That they must memorize and recite the Buddha's words, afraid of getting just one word wrong, that's merely a custom, a tradition of people who don't really know, or still don't really know, still don't understand Dhamma.<br />So we hurry to know Dhamma. That itself will be in line with what the Buddha realized. We can speak out according to what we know; it will be identical with what the Buddha said. It might look like one's a Buddha oneself, so they forbid anyone to do such a thing, afraid that one is raising oneself up equal to the Buddha or is disparaging the Buddha. This here is an obstacle preventing us from progressing along the Buddha's path.<br /><br />OK, so we study Dhamma from within, by living in the midst of Nature which reveals and demonstrates the Dhamma all the time. Uphold a form of life which doesn't sound very good at all: live like a forest wat wild monk. It doesn't sound right, but it is most meaningful, most real, and most necessary to live in this way up until you must disrobe. You may change back to the householder's way of life, but this should stick with you: knowledge, understanding, and certainty about the Dhamma which makes us incapable of hotness. Take it with you. By bathing yourself in coolness until understanding coolness, you can't do wrong or get hot. You'll probably get cooler and cooler because it's something naturally attractive: the absence of dukkha (suffering). Please don't forget this short phrase: "forest wat wild monks" is the way of living for the person who wants to reach the Buddha quickly. <br /><br />Translated by Santikaro Bhikkhu<br /><br /><br />Endnotes<br />1. A wat (Thai) is a place were monks (bhikkhus) live, study, and practice. The wat usually serves the local community and is treated as public domain. So, "monastery" or "temple" doesn't quite convey the atmosphere and purpose of a wat. This talk was given 9 September 1976 to a group of temporary monks, who ordained for the three month long Rains Retreat, following an ancient Thai tradition. (Short additions have been made from another talk, "Suan Mokkh and Nature," which was given to a similar group 30 July 1979.) This translation originally appeared in Monastic Studies (No. 19, 1989), The Benedictine Priory of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec. First electronic edition with kind permission.<br />2. Literally, the "burden (or task) of insight development," that is, meditation (as opposed to book study).<br />3. "Heart" and "mind" are interchangeable. Both are partial renderings of the Pali word citta. Similar Thai words don't make a distinction between heart and mind, as we do in English.<br />4. Tragically, when Ajarn Buddhadasa went into a coma just before his 87th birthday, this teaching and his personal wishes were ignored.<br />5. The meaning of "normal" (pakati) here is not "common, typical, ordinary," but refers to the original, natural state of peace when mind is void of "I" and "mine".<br />6. Sotapanna: first stage of "nobility," arises from the first "glimpse of nibbana" which ends belief in oneself as an individual "personality."<br />7. Phra comes from the Pali vara which means "excellent, splendid, best, noble."<br />8. Pabbajja, to leave, to go forth from, the household life and its sensual concerns.<br />9. Gharavasa (household life, lay life) is traditionally opposed and considered spiritually inferior to the homeless life of monks. While admitting the external and social differences, Ajarn Buddhadasa emphasizes that spiritually everyone has the same duty.<br />10. Vedana: basic mental feelings of pleasure, pain, and neither-pleasure-nor-pain. Emotions are not included here.<br />11. The second of two distinctions in how nibbana is experienced. The first is sa-upadisesa-nibbana-dhatu (the nibbana element with fuel remaining). "Fuel" refers to the seeds of positive and negative which are the bases of desire, attachment, and suffering. There is no difference in nibbana itself.<br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/Forest_Wat,_Wild_Monks_by_Buddhadasa_Bhikkhu" target="_blank">www.dharmaweb.org</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-75956362768683195452010-07-12T02:40:00.003+08:002010-07-12T02:50:44.336+08:00Pushing the Limits<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.buddhachannel.tv/portail/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH618/feat_monk_02-d89d4.gif" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 618px;" src="http://www.buddhachannel.tv/portail/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH618/feat_monk_02-d89d4.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>Thanissaro Bhikkhu on desire, imagination, and the Buddhist path.<br /><br />All phenomena, the Buddha once said, are rooted in desire. Everything we think, say, or do—every experience—comes from desire. Even we come from desire. We were reborn into this life because of our desire to be. Consciously or not, our desires keep redefining our sense of who we are. Desire is how we take our place in the causal matrix of space and time. The only thing not rooted in desire is nirvana, for it’s the end of all phenomena and lies even beyond the Buddha’s use of the word “all.” But the path that takes you to nirvana is rooted in desire—in skillful desires. The path to liberation pushes the limits of skillful desires to see how far they can go.<br /><br />The notion of a skillful desire may sound strange, but a mature mind intuitively pursues the desires it sees as skillful and drops those it perceives as not. Basic in everyone is the desire for happiness. Every other desire is a strategy for attaining that happiness. You want an iPod, a sexual partner, or an experience of inner peace because you think it will make you happy. Because these secondary desires are strategies, they follow a pattern. They spring from an inchoate feeling of lack and limitation; they employ your powers of perception to identify the cause of the limitation; and they use your powers of creative imagination to conceive a solution to it.<br /><br />But despite their common pattern, desires are not monolithic. Each offers a different perception of what’s lacking in life, together with a different picture of what the solution should be. A desire for a sandwich comes from a perception of physical hunger and proposes to solve it with a Swiss on rye. A desire to climb a mountain focuses on a different set of hungers—for accomplishment, exhilaration, self-mastery—and appeals to a different image of satisfaction. Whatever the desire, if the solution actually leads to happiness, the desire is skillful. If it doesn’t, it’s not. However, what seems to be a skillful desire may lead only to a false or transitory happiness not worth the effort entailed. So wisdom starts as a meta-desire: to learn how to recognize skillful and unskillful desires for what they actually are.<br /><br />Unskillful desires can create suffering in a variety of ways. Sometimes they aim at the impossible: not to grow old or die. Sometimes they focus on possibilities that require distasteful means—such as lying or cheating to get ahead in your job. Or the goal, when you get it, may not really keep you happy. Even the summit of Everest can be a disappointment. When it’s not, you can’t stay there forever. When you leave, you’re left with nothing but memories, which can shift and fade. If you did mean or hurtful things to get there, their memory can burn away any pleasure that memories of the summit might hold.<br /><br />In addition, desires often pull in opposite directions. Your desire for sex, for instance, can get in the way of your desire for peace. In fact, conflict among desires is what alerts us to how painful desire can be. It’s also what has taught each desire how to speak, to persuade, to argue or bully its way into power. And just because a desire is skillful doesn’t mean it’s more skillful at arguing its case than the unskillful ones, for those can often be the most intransigent, the most strident, the slickest in having their way. This means that wisdom has to learn how to strategize, too, to strengthen skillful desires so that less skillful desires will listen to them. That way desires can be trained to work together toward greater happiness. This is how a mature and healthy mind works: conducting a dialogue not so much between reason and desire as between responsible desires and irresponsible ones.<br /><br />Even in a mature mind, however, the dialogue often yields compromises that don’t really go to the heart: snatches of sensual pleasure, glimpses of spiritual peace, nothing really satisfying and whole. Some people, growing impatient with compromise, turn a deaf ear to prudent desires and tune into demands for instant gratification—all the sex, power, and money they can grab. But when the rampage of gratification wears itself out, the damage can take lifetimes to set right. Other people try their best to accept the compromise among desires, trying to find a measure of peace by not reaching for what they see as impossible. Yet this peace, too, depends on a deaf inner ear, denying the underlying truth of all desires: that a life of endless limitations is intolerable.<br /><br />Both sorts of people share a common assumption that true, unlimited happiness lies beyond reach. Their imaginations are so stunted that they can’t even conceive of what a true, unlimited happiness in this lifetime would be.<br /><br />What made the Buddha special was that he never lowered his expectations. He imagined the ultimate happiness—one so free from limit and lack that it would leave no need for further desire—and then treasured his desire for that happiness as his highest priority. Bringing all his other desires into dialogue with it, he explored various strategies until he found one that actually attained that unlimited goal. This strategy became his most basic teaching: the Four Noble Truths.<br /><br />Most people, when looking at the Four Noble Truths, don’t realize that they’re all about desire. They’ve been taught that the Buddha gave only one role to desire—as the cause of suffering. Because he says to abandon the cause of suffering, it sounds like he’s denying any positive role to desire and its constructive companions: creativity, imagination, and hope. This perception, though, misses two important points. The first is that all four truths speak to the basic dynamic of desire on its own terms: perception of lack and limitation, the imagination of a solution, and a strategy for attaining it. The first truth teaches the basic lack and limitation in our lives—the clinging that constitutes suffering—while the second truth points to the types of desires that cause clinging: desires for sensuality, becoming, and annihilation. The third truth expands our imagination to encompass the possibility that clinging can be totally overcome. The fourth truth, the path to the end of suffering, shows how to strategize so as to overcome clinging by abandoning its cause.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The second point that’s often missed is that the Noble Truths give two roles to desire, depending on whether it’s skillful or not. Unskillful desire is the cause of suffering; skillful desire forms part of the path to its cessation. Skillful desire undercuts unskillful desire, not by repressing it, but by producing greater and greater levels of satisfaction and well-being so that unskillful desire has no place to stand. This strategy of skillful desire is explicit in the Buddha’s explanation of right effort:<br /><br />"What is right effort? There is the case where a monk [here meaning any meditator] generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds, and exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful mental qualities that have not yet arisen... for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen... for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen... for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, and culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This is called right effort." (Digha Nikaya 22)<br /><br />As this formula shows, the crucial elements for replacing unskillful mental qualities with skillful ones are desire, persistence, and intent. Desire gives the initial impetus and focus for right effort, while persistence provides staying power. Intent is the most complex factor of the three. The Pali word here, citta, also means “mind,” and in this context it means giving your whole mind to the work at hand: all your powers of sensitivity, intelligence, discernment, and ingenuity. You don’t want your mind to be split on this issue; you want all of its powers working together on the same side.<br /><br />These three qualities—desire, persistence, and intent—underlie every attempt to master a skill. So it’s useful, in undertaking the path, to reflect on how you’ve used these qualities to master skills in the past. The Buddha made this point in his many similes comparing the person on the path to a master craftsman—a musician, carpenter, surgeon, acrobat, cook. As with any skill, there are many steps to developing the path, but four stand out.<br /><br />The first is to use your ingenuity to fight off the chorus of inner voices trying to dissuade you from making the effort to be skillful in the first place. These voices are like devious lawyers representing strongly entrenched interests: all your threatened unskillful desires. You have to be quick and alert in countering their arguments, for they can come from all sides, sounding honest and wise even though they’re not. Here are some of the arguments these voices may use, along with a few effective responses:<br /><br />Trying to manipulate your desires like this is unnatural. Actually, you’re already manipulating your desires all the time, when you choose one desire over another, so you might as well learn to do it skillfully. And there are plenty of people out there only too happy to manipulate your desires for you—think of every advertisement you’ve ever seen, heard, or read—so it’s better to put the manipulation in more trustworthy hands: your own.<br /><br />Trying to change your desires is an attack on your very self. This argument works only if you give your sense of self—which is really just a grab bag of desires—more solidity than it deserves. You can turn the argument on its head by noting that since your “self ” is a perpetually changing line-up of strategies for happiness, you may as well try changing it in a direction more likely to achieve true happiness.<br /><br />To think of “skillful” and “unskillful” desires is dualistic and judgmental. You don’t want nondualistic mechanics working on your car, or nondualistic surgeons operating on your brain. You want people who can tell what’s skillful from what’s not. If you really value your happiness, you’ll demand the same discernment in the person most responsible for it: yourself.<br /><br />It’s too goal-oriented. Just accept things as they are in the present. Every desire tells you that things in the present are limited and lacking. You either accept the desire or you accept the lack. To accept both at once is to deny that either has any real truth. To try to dwell peacefully in the tension between the two—in a “path of no craving” to be rid of either—is what the Buddha called limited equanimity, and what one Thai forest master called the equanimity of a cow.<br /><br />It’s a futile attempt to resist such a divine and mysterious power. Desire seems overwhelming and mysterious simply because we don’t know our minds. And where would we be if we kept slapping the term “divine” or “cosmic” on forces we didn’t understand?<br /><br />Arguing with unskillful desires is too much work. Consider the alternative: an endless wandering from one set of limitations to another, continually seeking happiness and yet finding it always slipping from your grasp, repeatedly taking a stance with one desire one moment and shifting to another desire the next. Right effort at least gives you one steady place to stand. It’s not adding a more demanding desire to the chaotic mix; it’s offering a way to sort out the mess. And the Buddha’s path holds open the hope of an unlimited happiness, preceded by increasing levels of happiness all along the path. In short, his alternative is actually the one that’s more enjoyable and involves less work.<br /><br />Once you’ve silenced these voices, the next step is to take responsibility for your actions and their consequences. This requires being willing to learn from your mistakes. Several years ago, a sociologist studied students in a neurosurgery program to see what qualities separated those who succeeded from those who failed. He found ultimately that two questions in his interviews pointed to the crucial difference. He would ask the students, “Do you ever make mistakes? If so, what is the worst mistake you’ve ever made?” Those who failed the program would inevitably answer that they rarely made mistakes or else would blame their mistakes on factors beyond their control. Those who succeeded in the program not only admitted to many mistakes but also volunteered information on what they would do not to repeat those mistakes in the future.<br /><br />The Buddha encouraged this same mature attitude in his first instructions to his son, Rahula. He told Rahula to focus on his intentions before acting, and on the results of his actions both while he was doing them and after they were done. If Rahula saw that his intentions would lead to harm for himself or others, he shouldn’t act on them. If he saw that his thoughts, words, or deeds actually produced harm, he should resolve never to repeat them, without at the same time falling into remorse. If, on the other hand, he saw no harmful consequences from his actions, he should take joy in his progress on the path, and use that joy to nourish his continued practice.<br /><br />Although the Buddha aimed these instructions at a seven-year-old child, the pattern they outline informs every level of the practice. The whole path to awakening consists of sticking to the most skillful desire; you progress along the path as your sense of “skillful” gets more refined. If you act on an unskillful desire, take responsibility for the consequences, using them to educate that desire as to where it went wrong. Although desires can be remarkably stubborn, they share a goal—happiness—and this can form the common ground for an effective dialogue: If a desire doesn’t really produce happiness, it contradicts its reason for being.<br /><br />The best way to make this point is to keep tracing the thread from the desire to its resulting actions and their consequences. If the desire causes suffering to others, notice how their corresponding desire for happiness leads them to undermine the happiness you seek. If the desire aims at a happiness based on things that can age, grow ill, die, or leave you, notice how that fact sets you up for a fall. Then notice how the distress that comes from acting on this sort of desire is universal. It’s not just you. Everyone who has acted, is acting, or will act on that desire has suffered in the past, is suffering right now, and will suffer in the future. There’s no way around it.<br /><br />Unskillful desires don’t really give way, though, until you can show that other, less troublesome desires really can produce happiness. This is why the Buddha emphasized learning how to appreciate the rewards of a virtuous, generous life: the joy in fostering the happiness of others, the solid dignity and self-worth in doing the hard but the right thing. It’s also why his path centers on states of blissful, refreshing concentration. Accessing this refreshment in your meditation gives you immediate, visceral proof that the Buddha was no killjoy. The desires he recommends really do produce a happiness that can give you the strength to keep on choosing the skillful path.<br /><br />That’s the next step: patiently and persistently sticking with the desire to do the skillful thing in all situations. This isn’t a matter of sheer effort. As any good sports coach will tell you, hours of practice don’t necessarily guarantee results. You have to combine your persistence with intent: sensitivity, discernment, ingenuity. Keep an eye out for how to do things more efficiently. Try to see patterns in what you do. At the same time, introduce play and variety into your practice so that the plateaus don’t get boring and the downs don’t get you down.<br /><br />The Buddha makes similar points in his meditation instructions. Once you’ve mastered a state of concentration, see where it still contains elements of stress. Then look for patterns to that stress: what are you doing to cause it? Find ways to gladden the mind when it’s down, to liberate it from its confinements, to steady it when it gets restless. In this way, as you learn to enjoy rising to the challenges of meditation, you also gain familiarity with subtle patterns of cause and effect in the mind.<br /><br />The fourth step, once you’ve mastered those patterns, is to push their limits. Again, this isn’t simply a matter of increased effort. It’s more a rekindling of your imagination to explore the unexpected side-alleys of cause and effect. A famous cellist once said that his most exhilarating concert was one in which he broke a string on his cello and decided to finish the piece he was playing on the remaining strings, refingering it on the spot. The most obvious strings in meditation are the specific techniques for fostering stillness and insight, but the more interesting ones are the assumptions that underlie the quest for skill: lack, strategy, dialogue, your sense of self. Can you learn to do without them? There comes a point in your meditation when the only way for greater happiness is to begin questioning these assumptions. And this leads to some intriguing paradoxes: If desire springs from a sense of lack or limitation, what happens to desire when it produces a happiness with no lack or limitation at all? What’s it like not to need desire? What would happen to your inner dialogue, your sense of self? And if desire is how you take your place in space and time, what happens to space and time when desire is absent?<br /><br />The Buddha encouraged these queries by describing the awakened person as so undefined and unlimited that he or she couldn’t be located in the present life or described after this life as existing, not existing, neither, or both. This may sound like an abstract and unreachable goal, but the Buddha demonstrated its human face in the example of his person. Having pushed past the limits of cause and effect, he was still able to function admirably in this life, happy in even the most difficult circumstances, compassionately teaching people of every sort. And there’s his testimony that not only monks and nuns, but also lay people—even children—had developed their skillful desires to the point where they gained a taste of awakening as well.<br /><br />So imagine that. And listen to any desire that would take you in that direction, for that’s your path to true happiness.<br /><br />Thanissaro Bhikkhu is the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery near San Diego, California. He is the translator of Pure and Simple: The Extraordinary Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman [Wisdom Publications, 2005].<br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/dharma-talk/pushing-limits?page=0,0&offer=dharma" target="_blank">www.tricycle.com</a><br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-27689427745383664752010-06-17T23:36:00.003+08:002010-06-18T00:06:30.541+08:00If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://markelt.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/enjoy_the_silence2.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 650px; height: 500px;" src="http://markelt.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/enjoy_the_silence2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Valuable advice from the late Thai master Phra Ajaan Dune Atulo, known to his students as Luang Pu</span><br /><br />In one of Luang Pu’s branch meditation monasteries there lived a group of five or six monks who wanted to be especially strict in their practice, so they made a vow not to talk throughout the Rains Retreat. In other words, no word would come out of their mouths except for the daily chanting and the bi-weekly Patimokkha chant. After the end of the Rains they came to pay their respects to Luang Pu and told him of their strict practice: In addition to their other duties, they were also able to stop speaking for the entire Rains.<br /><br />Luang Pu smiled a bit and said:<br /><br />“That’s pretty good. When there’s no speaking, then no faults are committed by way of speech. But when you say that you stopped speaking, that simply can’t be. Only the noble ones who enter the refined attainment of cessation, where feeling and perception stop, are able to stop speaking. Aside from them, everyone’s speaking all day and all night long. And especially those who vow not to speak: They talk more than anyone else, it’s simply that they don’t make a sound that others can hear.”<br /><br />From Gifts He Left Behind, compiled by Phra Bodhinandamuni and translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.<br /><br />Article source: <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/insights/if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-say?offer=dharma" target="_blank">www.tricycle.com</a><br /><br />~End of Post~<br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br /><br />Technorati:<br /> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33639505.post-44369223315220246402010-05-22T18:28:00.002+08:002010-05-22T18:34:59.394+08:00Meeting the Dharma Alone<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thaipulse.com/buddhist-temples/photos/bad-smell-sign-wat-pah-ajahn-chah.JPG" target="_blank"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 466px; height: 316px;" src="http://www.thaipulse.com/buddhist-temples/photos/bad-smell-sign-wat-pah-ajahn-chah.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />A late Thai master's final advice on walking the path to enlightenment<br /><br />By Ajahn Chah<br /><br />People may look at you and feel that your way of life, your interest in dharma, makes no sense. Others may say that if you want to practice dharma, you ought to ordain. Ordaining or not ordaining isn’t the crucial point. It’s how you practice.<br /><br />Laypeople live in the realm of sensuality. They have families, money, and possessions, and are deeply involved in all sorts of activities. Yet sometimes they will gain insight and see dharma before monks and nuns do. Why is this? It’s because of their suffering from all these things. They see the fault and can let go. They can put it down after seeing clearly in their experience. Seeing the harm and letting go, they are able to make good sense of their position in the world and benefit others.<br /><br />We ordained people, on the other hand, might sit here daydreaming about lay life, thinking how great it could be. “Oh yeah, I’d work my fields and make money, then I could have a nice family and a comfortable home.” We don’t know what it’s really like. The laypeople are out there doing it, breaking their backs in the fields, struggling to earn some money and survive. But for us, it’s only fantasy.<br /><br />The laypeople live in a certain kind of thoroughness and clarity. Whatever they do, they really do it. Even getting drunk, they do it thoroughly and have the experience of what it actually is, while we can only imagine what it’s like. So, because of their experience, they may become tired of things and realize the dharma quicker than monks can.<br /><br />You should be your own witness. Don’t take others as your witness. This means learning to trust yourself. People may think you’re crazy, but never mind. It only means they don’t know anything about dharma. But if you lack confidence and instead rely on the opinions of unenlightened people, you can easily be deterred. In Thailand these days, it’s hard for young people to sustain an interest in dharma. Maybe they come to the monastery a few times, and then their friends start teasing them, complaining: “Since you started going to the monastery, you don’t want to hang out or go drinking anymore. What’s wrong with you?” So they often give up the path.<br /><br />Others’ words can’t measure your practice, and you don’t realize the dharma because of what others say. I mean the real dharma. The teachings others can give you are to show you the path, but that isn’t real knowledge. When people genuinely meet the dharma, they realize it directly within themselves. So the Buddha said that he is merely the one who shows the way. In teaching us, he is not accomplishing the way for us. It is not so easy as that. It’s like someone who sells us a plow to till the fields. He isn’t going to do the plowing for us. We have to do that ourselves. Don’t wait for the salesman to do it. Once he’s made the sale, he takes the money and splits. That’s his part.That’s how it is in practice. The Buddha shows the way. He’s not the one who does it for us. Don’t expect the salesman to till your field. If we understand the path in this way, it’s a little more comfortable for us, and we will do it ourselves. Then there will be fruition.<br /><br />Teachings can be most profound, but those who listen may not understand. Never mind. Don’t be perplexed over profundity or lack of it. Just do the practice wholeheartedly, and you can arrive at real understanding—it will bring you to the place the teachings talk about.<br /> <span class="fullpost"><br />Don’t rely on the perceptions of ordinary people. Have you read the story about the blind men and the elephant? It’s a good illustration. Suppose there’s an elephant, and a group of blind people are trying to describe it. One touches the leg and says it’s like a pillar. Another touches the ear and says it’s like a fan. Another touches the tail and says, “No, it’s not a fan, it’s like a broom.” Another touches the body and says it’s something else again from what the others say.<br /><br />There’s no resolution. Each blind person touches part of the elephant and has a completely different idea of what it is. But it’s the same one elephant. It’s like this in practice. With a little understanding or experience, you get limited ideas. You can go from one teacher to the next seeking explanations and instructions, trying to figure out if they are teaching correctly or incorrectly and how their teachings compare to each other. Some people are always traveling around to learn from different teachers. They try to judge and measure, so when they sit down to meditate they are constantly in confusion about what is right and what is wrong. “This teacher said this, but that teacher said that. One guy teaches in this way, but the other guy’s methods are different. They don’t seem to agree.” It can lead to a lot of doubt.<br /><br />You might hear that certain teachers are really good, and so you go to receive teachings from Thai ajahns, Zen masters, Vipassana teachers, and others. It seems to me that most of you have probably had enough teaching, but the tendency is to always want to hear more, to compare, and to end up in doubt as a result. Each successive teacher might well increase your confusion further.<br /><br />Thus the Buddha said, “I am enlightened through my own efforts, without any teacher.” A wandering ascetic asked him, “Who is your teacher?” The Buddha answered, “I have no teacher. I attained enlightenment by myself.” But that wanderer just shook his head and went away. He thought the Buddha was making up a story and had no interest in what he said. He believed it wasn’t possible to achieve anything without a teacher or a guide.<br /><br />You study with a spiritual teacher, and she tells you to give up greed and anger. She tells you they are harmful and that you need to get rid of them. Then you may practice and do that. But getting rid of greed and anger doesn’t come about just because she taught you; you have to actually practice and accomplish that. Through practice you come to realize something for yourself. You see greed in your mind and give it up. You see anger in your mind and give it up. The teacher doesn’t get rid of them for you. She tells you about getting rid of them, but it doesn’t happen just because she tells you. You do the practice and come to realization. You understand these things for yourself.<br /><br />It’s like the Buddha is catching hold of you and bringing you to the beginning of the path, and he tells you, “Here is the path—walk on it.” He doesn’t help you walk. You do that yourself. When you do travel the path and practice dharma, you meet the real dharma, which is beyond anything that anyone can explain to you. So one is enlightened by oneself, understanding past, future, and present, understanding cause and result. Then doubt is finished.<br /><br />We talk about giving up and developing, renouncing and cultivating. But when the fruit of practice is realized, there is nothing to add and nothing to remove. The Buddha taught that this is the point we want to arrive at, but people don’t want to stop there. Their doubts and attachments keep them on the move, keep them confused, keep them from stopping. So when one person has arrived but others are somewhere else, they won’t be able to make any sense of what he may say about it. They might have some intellectual understanding of the words, but this is not real knowledge of the truth.<br /><br />Usually when we talk about practice we talk about what to develop and what to renounce, about increasing the positive and removing the negative. But the final result is that all of these are done with. There is the level of sekha, the person who needs to train in these things, and there is the level of asekha, the person who no longer needs to train in anything. When the mind has reached the level of full realization, there is nothing more to practice. Such a person doesn’t have to make use of any of the conventions of teaching and practice. It’s spoken of as someone who has gotten rid of the defilements.<br /><br />The sekha person has to train in the steps of the path, from the very beginning to the highest level. When she has completed this, she is called asekha, meaning she no longer has to train, because everything is finished. The things to be trained in are finished. Doubts are finished. There are no qualities to be developed. There are no defilements to remove. This is talking about the empty mind. Once this is realized, you will no longer be affected by whatever good or evil there is. You are unshakable no matter what you meet, and you live in peace and happiness.<br /><br />In this realm of impermanence, there will be times when we cannot find spiritual teachers to point out the path to us. When there is no spiritual guidance for people, we become thickly obscured by craving, and society in general is ruled by desire, anger, and delusion. So at the present time, though the Buddhist religion may be struggling to survive, though in general the way it’s practiced is far from the truth of what really is, we should make the most of the opportunity we do have.<br /><br />When the Buddha passed into final nirvana, the different types of disciples had different feelings. There were those who had awakened to the dharma, and when they saw the Buddha enter nirvana, they were happy: “The Lord Buddha is well-gone; he has gone to peace.” But those whose defilements were not yet finished thought, “The Buddha has died! Who will teach us now? The one we bowed down before is gone!” So they wailed and shed tears. That’s really bad, crying over the Buddha like a bunch of bums. Thinking like fools, they feared no one would teach them anymore. But those who were awakened understood that the Buddha is just this dharma that he has taught us; though he passes away, his teachings are still here. So their spirits were still strong, and they did not lack for means of practice, because they understood that the Buddha does not die.<br /><br />We can easily see that except for the dharma, there is nothing that will relieve the trouble and distress in the world and cool the fires of beings’ torment. Ordinary people of the world are struggling, fighting, suffering, and dying because they are not following a true spiritual path. So let’s make efforts to devote our minds and bodies to discovering virtue and spirituality, to becoming real human beings who live according to the dharma of humans. We don’t have to look at others and be critical of their lack of virtue. Even when those close to us can’t practice, we should do what we can first. Before we worry about the deficiencies of others, those of us who understand and can practice should do that straightaway.<br /><br />Outside of the dharma, there isn’t anything that will bring peace and happiness to this world. Outside of dharma, there is only the struggle of winning and losing, envy and ill will. One who enters the dharma lets go of these things and spreads lovingkindness and compassion instead. Even a little bit of such dharma is of great benefit. Whenever an individual has such qualities in the heart, the Buddha’s way is flourishing.<br /><br />Ajahn Chah (1919—1992) was a beloved Thai Buddhist master who was an important influence and spiritual mentor for a generation of American Buddhist teachers.<br /><br />From Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away by Ajahn Chah, ©2005 by Paul Bretier, translator. Reprinted with permission of Shambhala Publications, Inc.<br /><br />Article Source: <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/dharma-talk/meeting-dharma-alone?offer=dharma" target="_blank">www.tricycle.com</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">--------------------------------------<br />Technorati: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhism" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhism</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddha" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddha</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Buddhist" target="_blank" rel="tag">Buddhist</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dharma" target="_blank" rel="tag">Dharma</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Compassion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Compassion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wisdom" target="_blank" rel="tag">Wisdom</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Religion" target="_blank" rel="tag">Religion</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Meditation" target="_blank" rel="tag">Meditation</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Zen" target="_blank" rel="tag">Zen</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Philosophy" target="_blank" rel="tag">Philosophy</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Spirituality" target="_blank" rel="tag">Spirituality</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Inspiration" target="_blank" rel="tag">Inspiration</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Peace" target="_blank" rel="tag">Peace</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Insight" target="_blank" rel="tag">Insight</a></span> </span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16249142442913268023noreply@blogger.com2