Buddhism and Healing

by Alfred Bloom, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

Buddhism began in India about 5th century BCE and began its sread
through Asia from about the !rd century BCE when "ing Aso#a sent
out missionaries to $outh Asia and to the %est& In the course of time,
it evolved into two ma'or traditions #nown in ancient times as Hinayana
and (ahayana, the $maller and the )arger *ehicles& +oday, we do not
us the term Hinayana or the $mall vehicle, because it is e'orative& +he
style of teaching of that early tradition is now called by the name
+heravada, which means ,%ay of the Elders&, +here are significant
differences between the two traditions which we will not ta#e u in
detail, e-cet to indicate that (ahayana Buddhism sread largely to
the .orthwest and then .orth and East Asia, including the countries of
China, (ongolia, +ibet, "orea and /aan&
Buddhism is sometimes described as a hilosohy see#ing a religion, in
contrast to Christianity which was a religion see#ing a hilosohy& +he
conse0uence of this difference has been that Buddhism focuses on
certain hilosohic rinciles rather than beliefs& +here are beliefs but
they are not the rimary consideration& +here is, therefore, a
considerable variety of teachings in Buddhist tradition, sometimes
contradictory and confusing if one does not #now the history&
However, Buddhism is a religion of ractice and in its monastic forms
strives to reali1e the rinciles as e-eriences in one2s own life&
Ultimately, they hoe to achieve enlightenment as 3autama
e-erienced& $eculation and doctrine are secondary to e-erience
guided by a teacher and the ma'or rinciles& Hence, meditation is a
central feature of Buddhism&
3autama2s enlightenment e-erience reached after si- years of
intensive siritual search includes basic rinciles that ermeate all
Buddhist traditions& +hese are the (iddle Path between e-tremes of
hedonism and asceticism4 the four noble truths and eightfold ath, and
the rincile of interdeendence, no5soul, and imermanence&
+hese teachings are first e-ressed in what we call now the +heravada
teaching and ractice& As indicated by its name, it is more
conservative& +he (ahayana tradition is more fle-ible and adatable so
that each country and culture where it sread develoed its own
distinctive styles of Buddhism which have been maintained to the
resent time&
(ahayana Buddhism elaborated on the initial rinciles and develoed
a cosmic, universal ersective indicating that all beings have Buddha
nature and all beings will attain Buddhahood& (ahayana has been very
ositive in affirming life in this world, though it also has beliefs about
the afterlife& It has a hilosohy of education that ta#es into account
individual differences whereby the teaching is to be given in harmony
with the level of understanding and siritual develoment of the
student& +his has been the basis of its adatability and integration with
native cultures& It is relete with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who meet
the siritual need of each individual& %hile merging with fol# traditions,
(ahayana also develoed subtle systems of hilosohy focused on the
concet of emtiness and e-loring the nature of reality and our
ercetion of it& +here is a a wide variety of literature&
Buddhism in Hawaii is mainly the (ahayana tradition in its various
forms which we see in the differing denominations& +here are $outh
Asian Buddhists from *ietnam and )aos4 East Asian from China, "orea
and /aan4 and +ibetan Buddhists& +here are +heravada Buddhists
mainly from +hailand and some from Cambodia&
(ahayana Buddhism never denied the +heravada but built its teaching
with that as its foundation and recedent& +hey considered the
+heravada as elementary teaching and bac#ground for the more
advanced (ahayana teachings&
Buddhism has had a concern for health, siritual health, from its very
beginning& 3autama, who became Buddha or Enlightened 6ne, initially
tried to solve the roblem of human e-istence through e-treme ascetic
ractice& He found this harmful and ineffective& He discovered that
enlightenment could come only when there was a healthy mind in a
healthy body& He enunciated the rincile of (iddle Path between
e-tremes& $iritual develoment can only come when one avoids
hedonism, devotion to leasure or asceticism, mortification of the body&
+he Buddha is sometimes described as a hysician because his analysis
for the human condition roceeds as a doctor might in observing the
condition, see#ing the cause, rescribing the cure and alying it& In
Buddhism these are called the 7our .oble +ruths&
+he first truth is that all life is suffering& %esterners often see this
declaration as a negative, essimistic assessment of life& 8ather, it is
realistic, loo#ing at the actual conditions of human life& +he term for
suffering 55 9u##ha 55 refers to a broad sectrum of conditions, namely
dis5ease, not merely disease as a hysical e-erience, an-iety,
frustration, dissatisfaction& It ta#es into account that there is suffering
in arting from things we love and meeting things that are unleasant&
+here is suffering in what we call surfeit or too much of a good thing&
$uffering in Buddhism comrises both hysical and mental features&
Based on the rincile of cause and effect, Buddhism sees the core
roblem in suffering caused by ignorance, not #nowing the true nature
of our life and world& %e avoid facing the imermanence of life in all its
dimensions& %e are deluded by focusing on ermanence and not
reali1ing the non5soul character of all things& .on5soul is one of the
difficult concets of Buddhism and it means that nothing has its own
essence or is totally self e-lainable or contained& Everything is
interdeendent with every other thing and the failure to see this leads
to our egoism and our roblems and conflicts with others who also
ursue their own ego interests& %e see everything only in reference to
ourselves and as self5centered beings4 we encounter resistance in the
world, which increases our unhainess and dissatisfaction&
3oing deeer, the cause of the many forms of suffering is desire,
erhas better craving, lust, thirst or in general assions of hatred,
greed and anger& +hese assions arise from our ego attachments to
things, our ideas, our bodies etc&
However, Buddhism is an otimistic system and rooses a cure or
healing& %hatever has a cause can be remedied by removing the
cause&
+he way to remove the cause is #nown as the .oble Eightfold Path It
includes: 8ight *iew, 8ight Intentions, 8ight $eech, 8ight Action,
8ight )ivelihood, 8ight Effort, 8ight (indfulness, and 8ight
Concentration&
+he system is a total siritual disciline involving the body and mind& It
aims not only at imroving life, but also to liberate one from the
bondage to finite e-istence and reeated reincarnations in the stream
of births and deaths& +he goal is ultimately .irvana&
+hough Buddhism aims at a final solution to the roblems of e-istence,
it also rovides a attern for living holistically in this world& Initially, it
was for mon#s but its rinciles have relevance for ordinary life& +he
system of eight asects of Buddhist sirituality begins with 8ight
*iews, which contributes to mental health& By having a roer and
realistic understanding of the self as a dynamic, evolving rocess, we
may become more adatable and fle-ible confronting life situations&
Acceting the imermanence of life and things, we may become more
tran0uil& +here is a famous story about a mother, "isa 3otami& Her
baby had died and she was distraught& $he leaded with the Buddha to
restore her child& +he Buddha agreed, on the condition that she brings
a mustard seed from a home where there had never been a death& $he
searched but could not find such a home& $he gained insight and
returned to the Buddha, now understanding that her child suffered
death as all others do& $he then acceted the death of her child&
+he five asects of 8ight Intentions, 8ight $eech, 8ight Action, 8ight
)ivelihood, 8ight Effort ta#e u the inner and outer dimensions of our
life activities& Buddhism focuses on the activities of the mind, body and
seech, which are involved in all our activities& +hese should be
integrated and in harmony with our understanding of reality& It involves
ethical, siritual and hysical dimensions of living&
8ight (indfulness and 8ight Concentration are erhas the best #nown
features because we hear so much about meditation in Buddhism and
other traditions& (indfulness is maintaining a focus of attention, an
awareness of what is going on without focusing on a articular ob'ects&
It is a detached observation of what is haening within us and around
us in the resent moment
8ight Concentration describes the unification of all mental functions on
an ob'ect of meditation& It involves dee attentiveness and tran0uility&
Essentially meditation enables a detachment from the distracting flow
of stimuli that assault the mind and ermits an inner unification of the
syche to develo& As /on "abat5;inn has written on mindfulness and
meditation, it is li#e climbing out of a raging current in a stream and
watching the stream from the ban#& +his unification can become the
basis for more creative activity or involvement& %e call it centering or
wor#ing from the inner 0uietude of our minds& In meditation our
egoism and its sta#e in things is set aside, allowing other ercetions
and alternatives to emerge& %hen eole get angry and wish to
retaliate for a hurt, we say count to <=& +hat is, give sace for the
mind to truly assess the situation and find a more roer resonse&
(editation is a more develoed siritual aroach to our roblems&
Buddhism contributes to mental and hysical health through
encouraging the develoment of a unified and centered ersonal
aroach to our life affairs& It assists the well5being of the body
through the body5mind synthesis in which the hysical elements and
the sychological and siritual dimensions are all art of a continuum
and a dynamic interrelation& In the west, we are rone to distinguish
flesh and body, matter and sirit, body and soul, etc& However,
Buddhism sees things as rocess in which all features of e-istence are
interdeendent and ultimately one& According to /on "abat5;inn:
,$ince the mind lays such an imortant art in eole2s e-erience of
their bodies and what2s ossible in their lives, it seemed that a hosital
would be a erfect lace to train eole in meditative awareness& +hey
could otimi1e their inner resources for healing and ta#e resonsibility
for their health&, >,(indful (edicine,?
According to "abat5;inn, meditation5mindfulness can hel in reducing
stress, ain and deression& By letting go of stress, one may even
enhance the body2s self5healing owers& $tudies have shown that
anger and hostility affect our health& According to one study, they
influence heart disease >9alai )ama, 9r& Howard Cutler, ,+he Art of
Hainess,, .ew @or#: 8iverhead Boo#s, <AAB, &CDE&?
+he 9alai )ama states:
,+he destructive effects of hatred are very visible, very obvious and
immediate& 7or e-amle, when a very strong or forceful thought of
hatred arises within you, at that very instant, it totally overwhelms you
and destroys your eace of mind4 your resence of mind disaears
comletely& %hen such intense anger and hatred arises, it obliterates
the best art of your brain, which is the ability to 'udge between right
and wrong, and the long term and short term conse0uences of your
actions&, >Ibid&, & C5=&?F
However, the role of Buddhism in creating healthy life5conditions does
not involve miracle cures, but emloys methods for dealing with the
emotional elements that accomany ain and even intensify it& +he
9alai )ama indicates that hainess is not merely a feeling, but is the
result of right thin#ing& 6ur roblems begin with negative thin#ing&
However, negative thought is not intrinsic to our minds and the mind
can be trained to develo ositive attitudes of love, comassion,
atience and generosity& +his aroach has ta#en form in what is
#nown as cognitive theray, which see#s the source of negative and
self5defeating ideas& 8ight thin#ing is not 'ust a matter of correct
information and belief& 8ight thin#ing in Buddhism means a
transformation in one2s understanding of the nature of e-istence&
Enlightenment is transformation of one2s total being&
I should oint out that there are forms of theray based in Buddhism&
7rom the Pure )and tradition, there is the method of .ai#an theray
which is a system of introsection to ma#e one aware of our
interdeendence with others and to arouse the sense of gratitude for
their contribution to our lives& +his ositive force can offset ersonal
roblems that induce negativity&
+here is also (orita theray based in ;en Buddhism and is reality
theray that is living in harmony with reality as it is& According to
(orita theray, ,the ga between the world as it is and the world as we
thin# it ought to be can fill with ain& %hen we do not loo# the way we
thin# we ought to loo# and when we cannot accomlish our goals as
raidly and effortlessly as we thin# we ought to be able to accomlish
them, we worry that either there is something wrong with us or we are
victims of in'ustice& 8ather than futilely railing against nature or trying
to force it into comlying with our ideals, we can learn to live in
harmony with it& +o live in harmony with nature, we accet as arts of
ourselves our talents, imerfections, ainful feelings and real desires&,
I should conclude by indicating that Buddhism has all the elements of
fol# religions common around the world& +here are Buddhas and
bodhisattvas who offer healing and rayers re0uesting their blessing&
+here are shrines and services where eole see# alleviation and
healing from their illnesses& Among the most common figures are:
@a#ushi Buddha, the Buddha of healing4 "uan5yin, the Bodhisattva of
comassion >a central figure in healing?4 and /i1o Bodhisattva who
cares for children and the dead and also heals& Chater C5 of the )otus
$utra devoted to "uan5yin resents the blessings she gives to her
devotees& +he te-t called the Heart $utra, a rofound hilosohical te-t
which is one age, is often recited in times of disaster and ersonal
roblems& +here are ractitioners who are considered to have secial
owers for healing and are consulted for many roblems& +here are
ractitioners in this community, some well #nown and others not&
In addition, there is the 9aishi5sama cult based in $hingon Buddhism&
+he central figure is "obo 9aishi, a great teacher in ninth5century
/aan who founded the $hingon sect& He became #nown in oular
tradition as a healer, as well as culture hero& (any eole in Hawaii
also ray to "obo 9aishi&
(uch of /aanese religion focuses on healing using different methods&
+he oular religion is focused on benefits in this life of health, wealth
and success 55 though still holding traditional beliefs about the afterlife&
+he modern new religions also maintain this emhasis&
Buddhism is a comle- of siritual rinciles, ractices and
ractitioners all designed to enhance the life of eole corresonding to
the level of their understanding and devotion& +he heart of Buddhism is
the Buddha2s comassion, which ta#es many forms and alications&
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
.ews )etters
<AAA
+oowoomba Buddhist $ociety >+B$?, Australia:
A si1eable Buddhist $ociety is now meeting regularly in +oowoomba&
+he grou evolved out of a course entitled 2+he Buddhist %ay of
Personal 3rowth2 offered through the Adult and Community Education
>ACE? rogram at $HI+ over the last eighteen months& +he $HI+
courses have all recruited well suggesting a great deal of interest in the
community at the moment in Buddhism&
+he interest seems art of a boom Australia5wide& 7igures from the
census bureau indicate a trebling of eole involved between the <AB<
and <AA< census, ma#ing it the fastest growing 2religion2 in the
country& +his growth also seems to be a worldwide trend in %estern
countries and it seems in art to be the result of disillusionment with
materialism& Also Buddhism reresents a 2(iddle %ay2 between the
e-tremes of 2heaven or hell2 in the traditional religions and the nihilism
so tyical of modern materialism& .either of these e-tremes is very
aealing from a Buddhist oint of view& Instead Buddhism emhasi1es
ethical resonsibility and a non5theistic, ractical aroach to direct
contact with the transcendental&
+he $HI+ course stresses the fresh, oen and eclectic aroach of the
emerging %estern Buddhism& Buddhism in the %est at the moment
reresents a uni0ue historical occurrence 5 the coe-istence in one
single country of all the various tyes of Buddhism e-isting in the
world& +he new %estern Buddhism >which has been around only for
about the last three decades? has gone right bac# to the core of the
Buddha2s teachings and tends to be more oen, inclusive, non5
dogmatic and non5hierarchical than the ethnic or cultural Buddhism of
Asia& In articular it transcends the rigid slit between mon#s and laity
so tyical of the latter forms of Buddhism&
+he essential teaching of the Buddha emhasi1es 23oing for 8efuge to
the +hree /ewels2& +he +hree /ewels are the Buddha, the 9harma and
the $angha& +he Buddha is not considered a 3od but rather the
embodiment of human enlightenment, which any human being is
considered to be otentially caable of& +he 9harma is the +eaching or
method of achieving this goal, and the $angha is the grou of fellow
asirants who tread the ath& $o the Buddha reresents the ideal of
human enlightenment or the ossibility of us brea#ing free from the
suffering that is so much a art of the human situation& +he 9harma is
the detailed and ractical methodology of how to do this& +he $angha
functions as a suort grou of li#e5minded eole whom ractice and
study together and suort each other on this difficult ath& +ogether
they are described as 2true2 refuges, as oosed to the 2false2 refuges
thrown u by an immoral and materialistic world& +hey are considered
to be true because they reresent a solution to unhainess as
oosed to the false refuges of short5term leasure and hedonism,
which can not give lasting hainess& $o in a sense Buddhists are
siritual refugees&
+he Buddhist teaching, more commonly described as the Buddha
9harma >+he +eaching or %ay? rather than as a 2religion2, is an
e-ceedingly clear and systematic method of ersonal, sychological
and siritual growth& It is also a very ositive teaching considering the
otential for such growth in any individual to be infinite& It is also
emhatically non5dogmatic even in relation to its own teachings& It
stresses to its followers to try the teachings out to see if they wor# in
an e-erimental fashion and not to accet anything on the basis of
2blind belief2& +he simlest way of describing the essence of a Buddhist
ractice is that it consists of ractising ethics, meditating, and studying
and reali1ing insight or wisdom& +hese characteristics of the Buddha
9harma lus its emhasis on ta#ing resonsibility for oneself and one2s
own actions and its overwhelmingly ractical or alied nature seems
really aealing to the ragmatic nature of Australians&
+he grou is in the rocess of attemting to set u a Buddhist Centre
out of which it will run meditation and other related classes& %hen it
has achieved this then +oowoomba will be one of only three %estern
Buddhist centres in Australia >the other two being in (elbourne and
$ydney? erhas suggesting the ioneering sirit for which this region
is so well #nown&
$ome Asects of %estern Buddhism
(ost eole would be aware of the enormous imact of Buddhism on
Eastern cultures but erhas less so of its imact in the %est, which is
now becoming considerable& Buddhism originated in the Ith century
BCE >Before the Common Era is used now by students of comarative
religion rather than the Christian calendar notation of BC and A9?&
+here is evidence of contact between Buddhism and the %est as far
bac# as the time of Ale-ander the 3reat >!5I5!C!BCE?& In fact as I
understand it the first figures of the Buddha were created in ancient
3reece&
Historically sea#ing, however, the dominant %estern attitude to all
things Eastern, according to $tehen Batchelor2s boo# +he Awa#ening
of the %est, has been blind indifference& Accet for a eriod in the <!th
century, that is, when 3enghis "han made his resence felt over an
enormous amount of Eurasia, from "orea to Poland, the largest land
emire in the history of the world& After this there was much more
communication between East and %est and Buddhism became #nown
in Euroe& 7rom then until the <Bth century the Euroean attitude to
Buddhism Batchelor characteri1es as self5righteous re'ection5it was
dismissed as heathen idolatry >and robably still is in some 0uarters?&
7rom the latter art of the <Bth century a mar#ed interest in Buddhism
began in the %est& +his is when the %estern word 2Buddhism2 was
constructed >and other new words li#e 2Hinduism2?& As I2ve ointed out
in a revious article, Buddhism was not #nown as such in the East& It
was simly referred to as the 9harma, which means variously, 2the
teaching2, 2the truth2 and 2the way2 as in 2the way through the teaching
to the truth2& 9uring this time Buddhism attracted a sectrum of
interest& *ictorian scientists, busily re'ecting the traditional religions
because of their metahysics and lac# of emirically observable facts,
were drawn to Buddhism and considered it as a field of rational,
scientific #nowledge& +he Buddha2s teaching was considered to be
emirical based as it was on inner observation& It also attracted the
eye of missionary and other scholars who translated much of it into
English using cumbersome, %estern Christian style terminology& It also
influenced certain %estern artists and hilosohers, Edwin Arnold2s
oem +he )ight of Asia, for e-amle, being articularly oular&
Buddhism was also central to the early +heosohists such as (adam
Blavats#y& Batchelor describes the +heosohists as romantic fantasists
>not fanatics? in contrast to the more scientific and scholarly interest in
Buddhism& (adam Blavats#y and her artner were the first %esterners
to ublicly embrace Buddhism in $ri )an#a in <BB=& +he +heosohists
were instrumental in bringing Buddhism into Australia at the turn of the
century and I2ve been told that there has been +heosohists in
+oowoomba right u to the resentJ
Interestingly Paul Crouch in his boo# A History of Buddhism in Australia
><BDB5<ABB?, suggests the historical involvement of Australia could
have started much further bac# in time& In fact, he 0uotes A& P& El#in
who wrote a boo# in <AD5 entitled Aboriginal (en of High 9egree >as I
recall he was a rofessor of anthroology at $ydney University at the
time?& In this wor#, which is a fascinating read, El#in suggests that
things li#e aboriginal ignition rights and secial owers were influenced
by +ibetan Buddhism& I can2t hel but feel that such claims at that time
in Australia must have branded him as 0uite an eccentric& +here are
even assertions that certain aboriginal roc#5aintings in .orthern
Australia deict the BuddhaJ 7ar fetched as these may sound Crouch
oints out that it is well #nown that Asian traders were here long
before 9amier and Coo#& It is highly li#ely that navigators from China
and certainly from Indonesia, which was influenced e-tensively by
Buddhism, interacted with .orthern Australia& (aybe these traders
brought Buddhist mon#s with them, who #nowsK
In the five decades since %%C there has been a massive usurge of
interest in Buddhism in the %est& +he 9harma has firmly established
itself in the %estern countries of the .orth Americas, Euroe and
Australasia& Between the <AI=s and E=s Asian teachers, articularly
/aanese 8oshis and +ibetan 8inoches carried out most of the
9harma teaching& 9uring the E=s almost every e-tant form of
Buddhism in the world arrived in the %est& +hese traditions established
urban Buddhist centres and rural retreat centres and widesread
teaching rograms& +he influ- included reresentatives of the +ibetan
3eluga, "agyua, .yingmaa and $ha#yaa traditions& 7rom Central
Asia came /aanese $oto and 8in1ai ;en, Chinese Ch2an >the original
;en?, "orean $on, *ietnamese +hien, as well as teachers from
Burmese, +hai and $ri )an#in +heravada Buddhism&
$ignificantly, at the same time, new %estern Buddhist organi1ations
aeared for the first time& A handful of %esterners who had travelled
to the East and studied Buddhism and become ordained Buddhists
returned to the %est in the I=s and began to establish grous of their
own& Even the Asian Buddhists had already been adating their
teachings for %esterners& >It is a historical fact that Buddhism has
always adated itself to the cultures it2s sread into4 that is why there
are so many varieties?& Peole li#e $anghara#shita, an Englishman who
sent C= years as an ordained mon# in India, founded the 7riends of
the %estern Buddhist 6rder >7%B6?& 6thers included 8obert Ai#en
8oshi, who founded the ;en 9iamond $angha in Hawaii, Phili "aleau
8oshi, founder of the 8ochester ;en center in .ew @or# and )ama
Aangori#a 3ovinda2s >a 3erman national? who founded the Arya
(aitreya (andala in 3ermany& +he 7%B6, as an e-amle, now has
something of the order of EA centres in C! countries including Australia
and .ew ;ealand&
$o what are some of the features of this emerging %estern form of
BuddhismK I2ll only touch on a few of these this wee# as from now on
there will be a regular series of articles aearing in the $tar e-loring
the nature of Buddhism from this ersective& +he first and most
obvious is the coe-istence of all the ma'or Buddhist traditions in
%estern countries for the first time in Buddhist history& $o not
surrisingly %estern Buddhism is eclectic 5 it borrows from a great
range of teachings and techni0ues and adats them to %estern needs&
Again this has been tyical of the whole history of Buddhism as it
encountered different cultures& A simle historical e-amle is the fact
that Buddhism when it first moved from India to China taught its
doctrines using the concets of the indigenous Chinese +aoist
hilosohical tradition& In fact a distinctive Chinese form of Buddhism
#nown as Ch2an >;en in /aanese? resulted from the intermingling of
+aoism and Buddhism&
A second feature that has come from this recent diasora of Buddhist
teachings into the %est is that they are now being translated much
more clearly into English& +here has been an e-losion of scholarly
interest& Conse0uently much more systematic and in5deth #nowledge
is coming through& It2s also being translated much more accurately as
it is stried of its earlier 0uasi5Christian terminology& +he Canons of
Buddhism are monumentally e-tensive dwarfing the Bible and the
"oran and as this detailed #nowledge comes through it imacting on
%estern fields li#e sychology and the new hysics&
%estern Buddhism, as e-emlified by the 7%B6 for e-amle,
consciously addresses issues eculiar to the contemorary %estern
situation& %hat is the relationshi of Buddhism to %estern cultureK
How do contemorary olitical, economic, environmental and social
ethical issues effect its racticeK How does a Christian >or ost5
Christian? ubringing effect one2s attitude to ethics and siritual
mattersK How can one combine having a family with one2s desire to
ractice the 9harmaK As I mentioned in a revious article %estern
Buddhism doe not favour the lay5mon# slit tyical of traditional ethnic
Buddhism5more about that in the ne-t article&
%e live in trying times in the %est& +here is a lot of negativity around&
)ate caitalist societies, li#e Australia and .;, are now riddled with
social roblems& +hese include unemloyment, ine0uities in income
distribution, overty, homelessness, drugs, crime, massacres and right
wing fanaticism to name a few& Contemorary governments obsessed
with an ideology of economic rationalism have elevated the mar#et
lace and the dollar above all else to the neglect of social and
environmental issues and the neglect of their citi1ens& Buddhism
reresents a rofound criti0ue of this trend& But it also offers ractical
advice for eole disillusioned with materialism and loo#ing for ways
out of all the negativity&
+o conclude, one simle meditation ractice, which %estern Buddhism
has discovered to be of articular significance for contemorary eole,
is the metta bhavana ractice& It means 2ma#ing to become2 >bhavana?
2loving #indness2 >metta? and has become a foundation ractice& In the
first stage of it you give rise to a strong feeling of loving #indness to
yourself& +hen you sread it to others and the whole world& A lot of
%estern eole have a great deal of difficulty with the first stage& +hey
discover that they don2t much li#e themselves& At this oint I2ll simly
ose the 0uestion as to why this is the case in %estern societies& It is
worrying if our society has created a situation wherein eole
fundamentally don2t li#e themselves or feel that they are flawed in
some way or are simly outright angry& It2s worrying because we
inevitably ro'ect what we feel inside onto the outside world& +here
does seem to be an undercurrent of disli#e and anger in our societies&
+he metta bhavana ractice hels individuals transform this negative
emotional energy into ositive& +his An1ac wee#end a grou of eole
from the +oowoomba Buddhist $ociety is going on a wee#end
meditation retreat to deeen this tye of meditation ractice& $oon the
society will be offering an introduction to Buddhist meditation course
that includes it&
Beyond +he (on#5)ay $lit:
%hilst the history of Asian Buddhism is largely the history of Buddhist
monasticism, western Buddhism seems to be moving in a different
direction& (ost of the Buddhist organi1ations in the west today concern
themselves with teaching different varieties of 2lay5Buddhism25 they2ve
moved beyond the traditional mon#5lay slit& +hey are trying to create
some #ind of accommodation between the demands of a Buddhist
ractice on the one hand, and those of a modern western lifestyle on
the other& It seems >according to recent scholarly research? the division
between mon# and lay develoed in the early Buddhist sangha as the
result of cultural rocesses and altered the nature of the community
the Buddha himself established&
$o in %estern Buddhism lifestyle is considered secondary to
commitment& In other words it2s ossible to be actually more siritually
committed as a householder than a siritually aathetic mon#& +hat is
not to say, however, that is not ossible to be in a monastery or single
se- community and committed as well& It2s the commitment that is
rimary and the lifestyle that is secondary& +he rincile commitment a
Buddhist ma#es is to 3o for 8efuge to the +hree /ewels5the Buddha,
the 9harma and the $angha&
It2s considered that only these +hree /ewels can give lasting hainess,
eace and security& Peole are usually going for refuge to what we call
the 2false2 refuges, things li#e drugs, gambling, craving material
ossessions and so on& +hey are see#ing hainess in short5term
hedonism and e-ternal material ossessions but because nothing lasts
frustration and suffering are inevitable4 that is why they2re described
as 2false2 refuges& +he Buddha said that 'ust as the ocean has but one
taste that of salt so too the +eaching has but one flavour that of
freedom& $o going for refuge means literally to see# true freedom and
safety, to escae from suffering&
+he first 'ewel, the Buddha, symboli1es the ossibility for any human
being of achieving the emanciation of Enlightenment, as did the
historical Buddha& +he act of bowing to a Buddha figure >rua? is
simly a rituali1ed ac#nowledgment of this fact4 it certainly isn2t
bowing to the Buddha as some sort of a 3od& +he 9harma is the
second 'ewel& It2s the teaching, the hilosohy and the vast array of
ractical tools li#e meditation techni0ues that can hel you become
Enlightened or at least grow& +he $angha is the fellowshi of
ractitioners all striving for the goal who rovide suort for each other
on the ath&
$o in western Buddhist organi1ations li#e the 7riends of the %estern
Buddhist 6rder >7%B6? the order is neither lay nor monastic& $ome
members choose to be celibate, others not& $ome live with their
families and hold regular 'obs, others live in single5se- residential
siritual communities and wor# in 8ight )ivelihood businesses& +here
has been a call as well for a western Buddhist monastic system, which
would be an interesting develoment2
Buddhism 5 Its $tarting Point:
6ne of the distinctive features of Buddhism, comared to the other
traditional 2religions2, is that it starts with the mind& In some resects
that is why the word 2religion2 doesn2t sit easily with Buddhism& (ost
religions involve belief in a creator 3od, and in dogma, and devotional
ractices that celebrate that 3od and those beliefs& Buddhism in
contrast starts with wor#ing directly on the mind, your own every day
mind& It is intensely ractical and this is one of its features that
contemorary westerners find very attractive& +he Buddha in his
teaching said that (ind recedes all things, mind is sureme, mind5
made are they & +he distinctive thing about our secies that
distinguishes us from the other animals is that we have self5
consciousness& %e can loo# into our own minds, we can ma#e choices&
+hat is why we named ourselves homo saiens, 2wise man2& But from a
Buddhist oint of view this ability of human beings for self5
consciousness is a double5edged sword5it cuts two ways& It is the root
of our creativity& However, as we will see in ne-t wee#2s article, it2s also
the root of our destructiveness& %ith it we can choose to behave
ethically& %e can also use it to wor# directly on our own mind by
meditating to eradicate negative mental states and relace them with
ositive ones& +hat2s all, in essence, a racticing Buddhist doesJ
+he (ind 5 A 9ouble5Edged $word:
)ast wee# we established that Buddhism, unli#e other religions, starts
with the mind& +he human mind is uni0ue in that it has self5
consciousness& +his sets us aart from the other animals& %hilst the
other animals are generally sea#ing simly aware through their
senses and driven by their instincts we have what hilosohers and
sychologists refer to as 2refle-ive2 consciousness& If you loo# the word
2refle-ive2 u in a dictionary you2ll find it means to bend bac# on itself&
In other words, we are not simly aware through the senses we are
aware that we are aware& +he mind bends bac# on itself and can loo#
into itself& Because we are aware of something being aware we have
consciousness of a self& %e are taught to label this 2something being
aware2 as the 2self2 or 2I2 from an early age& .ow once we become
aware of ourselves as a self we e-erience that self as searate from
everything else& Because we e-erience ourselves as searate from
everything else we can maniulate the world around us&
+his is where the double5edged sword idea comes in& $elf5
consciousness allows us many advantages and creative otential& %ith
it we have a sense of autonomy and can ma#e choices and engage in
uroseful behaviour to ensure our survival& %e can ma#e and build
things and ass this #nowledge on& %e can reason, remember and
imagine and all of these abilities come from the mind being able to loo#
into itself& However, on the other hand, the e-erience of searation
from everything else >including other eole? is dangerous& If mista#en
for a reality it becomes from a Buddhist oint of view a dangerous
delusion >moha?& In fact, from this ersective nothing can actually be
searated from anything else4 everything is art of an interwoven flu-
of ever changing conditions& Ultimately the human being can not e-ist
searate from the air they breath, the water they drin# and the lant
and animal world that sustains them& +hey are art of the natural
environment& +hey also do not e-ist indeendently of other human
beings4 they deend on them for sychological nourishment and even
our own individual ersonalities are shaed by our interactions with
family and friends&
$o the e-erience of searation is aarent rather than real& Einstein
described it as a sort of otical delusion& 7rom a Buddhist ersective it
is a very useful illusion because it does enable us to maniulate things
and thus hels ensure our survival& However, unless it is grounded in
an actual e-erience of the unity of all things >which is art of the
Enlightenment e-erience? it remains a very dangerous ability&
Consider the conse0uences of maniulating the natural environment on
the basis of a belief that it really is searate from us when in reality it
is notK
+he 9eluded (ind:
In the last article we saw how the fact that humans have self5
consciousness is li#e a double5edged sword& It cuts two ways being, at
one and the same time, the root of our creativity as well as our
destructiveness& %e are in a highly arado-ical osition as a result of
having self5consciousness& %e are art of .ature, art of biological
evolution, but that art which is conscious of itself& Hence we
e-erience ourselves as searate from the rest and yet we are not& +he
e-erience of searation enables us to maniulate the rest to a far
greater e-tent than any other animal& +ogether with self5consciousness
this e-erience of searation, which is inherent in self5consciousness,
means human beings have tremendous ower& %e have more ower in
relation to other secies and our own than any other living being& And
yet we are art of .ature, art of evolution&
$o we are in a difficult and arado-ical osition& 7rom a Buddhist
ersective the e-erience of searation is considered aarent rather
than real& If believed to be true, that is an actual searation or
disconnection from the rest, then it is a delusion >moha?&
Unfortunately, because this redisosition is 2hard wired2 into us >art
of our hysiological ma#e u?, we do as a secies automatically fall foul
of this delusion& However, the Buddha 9harma teaches that it is
ossible to escae the delusion& It is ossible to resolve the arado-ical
osition of humans in a correct fashion&
)ast wee# we osed the 0uestion of considering the conse0uences of
maniulating the natural environment on the basis of a belief that it
really is searate from us, when in fact it isn2tK If it really is searate
from us we can do anything we li#e to it without fear of conse0uence,
li#e for e-amle changing the hysical and chemical roerties of the
atmoshere& +he fact that this inevitably rebounds on us >the
eretrator? as ollution, acid rain and global warming simly indicates
that we are not searate from it in the first lace&
Unfortunately when we loo# around the world today we can only
conclude that our western worldview has reinforced a belief in this
deluded view that we really are searate& Environmental degradation is
occurring on a scale never before witnessed in human history& %hen
we loo# at the larger icture of geological time, there may have been
eco5catastrohes in the ast that drove secies to e-tinction >eg&
meteor imacts?, but never before has this been done by one secies
to other secies and otentially to their ownJ
+he materialistic worldview has also, in defining .ature as nothing
other than collections of dead inert, matter, led to a disresectful
attitude to .ature& In Buddhism .ature is resected as rofoundly alive
and mysterious& %e also live in very selfish times when eole are
encouraged to searate themselves out from each other more than
ever before in human history& .e-t wee# we investigate from a
Buddhist oint of view how the delusion of searation creates these
tendencies within the individual and how they are also the root cause
of our own suffering&
+he +hree Poisons
6nce self5consciousness creates the e-erience of searation between
self and other, as discussed over the last few wee#s, certain negative
tendencies automatically follow& An unfortunate by5roduct of self5
consciousness is that, because we do e-erience ourselves as
searate, a dee, e-istential state of tension follows& It could be
characterised as a dee sense of aloneness , incomleteness and
therefore insecurity& It is very dee in the sense that it is 2hard5wired2
into us& It comes, in other words, from our hysiology, our senses and
our brain, which enables the e-erience of consciousness of self and
erceiving the world dualistically and fragmented into a myriad of
searate ob'ects&
According to the Buddhist teaching >9harma?& in order to overcome
this tension or insecurity two rimal tendencies arise5craving and
aversion& Craving lays the role of attemting to incororate into out
self5system, in order to give us more security, those things we erceive
as leasant& Aversion attemts to reel or ush away the things we
erceive as unleasant and threatening to our self and its sense of
security& +his is what modern sychology describes as aroach5
avoidance tendencies inherent in ercetion& According to some
sychologists we send B=L of our time see#ing 2love stro#es2 and the
other <=L avoiding threatsJ Both these tendencies of craving > ? and
aversion > ? are rooted in the basic delusion >moha? of searation
which generates them& +ogether they are #nown in Buddhism as the
three oisons& $o named because not only do we e-erience world as a
delusion >dualistic and fragmented when in fact a whole but e introduce
as sub'ective filter that brea#s the world u into leasant unleasant
attractive etc5oison the mind&
+he Possibility of Change
)ast wee# we discussed the negative tendencies that automatically
arise in the human mind because of our e-erience of searation from
the 6ther& +he e-erience of searation comes from self5consciousness
and we try to overcome the tension created by this by craving the
leasant and reelling the unleasant& In this way we try to secure our
fragile ego& +raditionally, greed, aggression and ignorance oerating
within the human mind are #nown as the +hree Poisons in Buddhism&
+hese three oisons have now sread beyond the confines of the
human mind to manifest as real, observable oisons effecting the
global environment& +he commentary on the Ca##avattisihananda
$utta of the Pali Canon, >thousands of years old4 a sutta or sutra is a
single teaching given by the Buddha on a secific theme?, sells out
this human5environment lin# between human morality >or lac# of? and
environmental conse0uences:
2%hen humanity is demorali1ed through greed, famine is the natural
outcome4 when moral degeneration is due to ignorance, eidemic is
the inevitable result4 when hatred is the demorali1ing force,
widesread violence is the inevitable outcome&2
+hese tendencies, according to the sutra, contribute to an
unsustainable situation and the end result is devastation and a
shortening of the life san of the oulation& A cursory review of the
world today would suggest that all of the above negative situations are
resent around the world on scales never before witnessed in human
history&
However, the sutra2s discussion of the lin# between the human mind
and the environment continues as follows:
2 &&& If and when humanity reali1es that the large5scale devastation has
ta#en lace as a result of its moral decline, a change of heart ta#es
lace &&& As morality is renewed, conditions imrove through a long
eriod of cause and effect &&&&2
Buddhism has a cyclic view toward all natural henomena& It considers
that when eole wa#e u to the fact that their actions are imacting
negatively on their 0uality of life, there is a change of heart >down in
the emotional realm?& +he situation described in the 0uote also fits
what many eole hoe is haening at the moment throughout the
worldwide community in relation to environmental issues&
Buddhism is >and always has been? very otimistic about the human
condition and its otential to develo higher ethical sensibilities& +his is
ossible within the individual as well as within society as a whole >as in
the 0uote above?& .o matter how uns#ilful we have been, no matter
how much we have allowed craving, aggression and confusion to drive
us, we can always reverse the situation& A Buddhist mon# I met once
in China 0uoted me the following verse, which illustrates this oint
nicely:
.o matter how far you swim out in the bitter sea,
@ou can always return to the beach&
Put down the #illing #nifeJ
In the west we tend to have a fi-ed view of the self 5 we are what we
are what we are4 a leoard can2t change it2s sots, and so on& +he
Buddhist concetion is much more fluid and ositive& +here is literally
nothing we can not ma#e of ourselves&
It is 7ortunate to be born Human >article for 2$tar2 newsaer <DMIMAA
by 8oger Bastic#?:
As we have seen, deely ingrained in the human syche is a
fundamental delusion >moha? that we are aart from everything else&
+his roduces the two rimal tendencies of aroach and avoidance,
craving and aversion& +hese volitional tendencies or sams#aras drive
our habit energies and generates our #arma that results in us
becoming what we are today and what we2ll become tomorrow& All of
this is an unfortunate by5roduct of self5consciousness& But there are
2wholesome roots2 or tendencies as well that are an inherent art of our
nature& In a sense they are deeer still, because #armically they have
resulted in us being born as humans& +he Buddha considered this as
highly fortuitous& He li#ened the robability of being born human to the
robability of a small turtle rising from the floor to the surface of a vast
sea 'ust as a iece of wood with a hole in it floated by& Imagine the
robability that as the turtle stuc# its head out of the water it emerged
through the hole in the wood& +hat2s the robability of being born
human, said the Buddha&
Because humans have self5consciousness we can loo# into and control
our minds if we choose to& In other words, art of our #armic
conditioning is that we have self5awareness and volitional choice itself&
+hus the human otential for growth is unlimited from a Buddhist oint
of view& +he fact that we can all also otentially be very evil means
that the matter can2t be left to chance5the sta#es are too high& 7rom a
Buddhist ersective it2s crucial to accet the challenge of consciously
encouraging our good imulses and transforming the negative&
However, eole tend to be overly cynical about the ability of humans
>including themselves? to grow and be s#ilful& As stated last wee# the
western view of the self tends to be a fi-ed one& +he Buddhist view is
that we can transcend the 2self2, the self that is causing the roblems
and our own suffering& +his 2etty2 self is actually a fraction of our total
being and our otential& In the (ahayana schools of Buddhism this
otential became described as our inherent 2Buddha .ature2& %e all
have it as our birthright5it is the 2embryo2 of Enlightenment& +he latter
may be a long way off but siritual change >a movement toward
Enlightenment? can start immediately if we so chose& %e can thus see
that the Buddhist ersective on our basic human nature is rofoundly
otimistic&
%e need to ta#e heart in the Buddha2s message that all obstacles, no
matter what they might be, really can be overcome& +hat we, whoever
we may be, are caable of overcoming them& In the longer5term course
of one2s life, there is no limit 5 absolutely none, according to the
Buddha5to what men and women can ma#e of themselves& +his is the
ob'ective otential of being human& %e all have this enormous
otential& It2s worth reminding ourselves of this ob'ective fact often4
otherwise our cynicism can undermine our natural self5confidence&
Confidence that we can change ourselves, at least by degrees, is the
foundation of the whole siritual life&
Buddhism distinguishes between 2worldy desire2 >#ammachanda? and
siritual desire >dhammachanda? 5 the aim isn2t to eliminate desire, but
craving&
+he 7our .oble +ruths
+he distinctly human trait of self5consciousness, as we have seen, has
ositive asects to it and negative ones& It enables us to e-erience
ourselves as a searate self and thus enables creative activity such as
autonomous decision5ma#ing, reasoning, imagination and maniulation
of the surrounding environment through the manufacture of tools and
technology& However, it also roduces a sense of discomfort, of
e-istential tension& +his may be at such a dee level that we are
largely unconscious of it >maybe we have hidden it from ourselves?& %e
e-erience ourselves as alone, as searate from the environment
>including other eole?& Hence we feel incomlete& (any a western
tradition, biological, sychological and siritual, recogni1es that only a
sense of connection with the surrounding environment, a sense of
union with the 6ther >usually described as )ove? can rovide a feeling
of comleteness for us& Buddhism agrees entirely&
+he Buddha started his teaching >the 9harma? by addressing this
eculiarly human situation& +he most concise e-osition of the 9harma
that he gave is robably the 7our .oble +ruths& +he 7irst .oble +ruth
states that du##ha, variously translated as suffering, ain and
unsatisfactoriness, is an inevitable and universal art of life for all
sentient beings& +he $econd .oble +ruth is that the origin of du##ha
lies in craving& +he +hird is the +ruth of the end of suffering through
the e-tinction of craving& +he 7ourth .oble +ruth is the Path leading to
the e-tinction or cessation of craving and thus suffering& It2s #nown as
the .oble Eightfold Path&
+he 7irst +ruth is saying that all sentient beings, all beings aware of
things through the senses, are sub'ect to suffering in their lives& It2s an
inevitable by5roduct of being born into a body& +he Buddha stated that
birth is ainful, disease >and accidents? is ainful, aging is ainful and
death is ainful& .ot all sentient beings are thin#ing beings but they
share with us the ain of old age, decay and death& +hey also feel ain
as we do, esecially the more evolved, because of their senses& +hat is
why Buddhists traditionally avoid harming, if ossible, other living
beings and indeed feel a bond with them&
$ome of this suffering is unavoidable& 9isease, old age and death are
unsatisfactory situations that arise unavoidably because we are born
into these bodies& However, humans also create for themselves
2avoidable2 forms of suffering and this is because we are thin#ing
beings& +hese tyes of suffering or unsatisfactoriness are the roducts
of craving, as in the $econd .oble +ruth& According to the Buddha they
are to do with being united with what one disli#es, or searated from
what one li#es and not getting what one wants& +hey are mental or
sychological forms of unsatisfactoriness based on our craving things
and not having that craving satisfied& 7urthermore these tyes of
bodily and mental suffering overla with each other& %e crave to be, to
live on and on, but we don2t, we die& %e get sic# or deressed but we
crave not to be sic# or deressed thereby doubling u the suffering&
However, according to the Buddha, these forms of suffering are
avoidable& %ith the e-tinction of craving they end& +hus Buddhism is
again a rofoundly otimistic teaching& It faces u to the toughness of
life, it doesn2t run away from it, or see# an answer in an afterlife& +he
+hird and 7ourth .oble +ruths say that suffering can be overcome and
offer a detailed Eightfold ath to achieve this in this lifetime& %ith the
end of suffering comes ermanent, lasting hainess& $o the 7our
.oble +ruths are one of the most ositive teachings ever formulated&
+he )aw of Conditionality:
Underinning the 7our .oble +ruths outlined last wee# is a concet of
conditionality& An essential art of the Buddha2s Enlightenment was
insight into what has become #nown as the )aw of Conditioned Co5
Production >Pratitya $amuada?& According to this law everything in
the henomenal world comes into e-istence deendent uon a set of
conditions comle-ly interwoven with each other& %hen these
conditions cease the henomena ceases& +he Buddha himself
e-ressed it thus: +his being, that becomes, from the arising of this,
that arises4 this not becoming, that does not become4 from the ceasing
of this, that ceases&& In many ways this is why Buddhism is so clear in
its teachings& $ome have li#ened it to an almost scientific way of
viewing things&
In relation to the 7our .oble +ruths the law of conditionality wor#s as
follows& +he first .oble +ruth says that a thing e-ists or event occurs&
In this case that the occurrence of du##ha, suffering or
unsatisfactoriness, is a universal characteristic of life& +he second .oble
+ruth says that this thing or event >du##ha? e-ists or occurs in
deendence uon articular causes or conditions5the occurrence of
craving& +he third states that in the absence of these conditions or
causes >craving? the thing ceases to e-ist or occur& +he fourth .oble
+ruth says that there is a way >the Eight 7old Path? to ensure that the
henomenon in 0uestion >suffering in deendence uon craving? is not
roduced and, therefore, no longer e-ists&
+his is retty easy to understand at the intellectual level& However, to
solve the roblem it2s not enough to 'ust understand it at this level&
Instead the truth of du##ha, that suffering, anguish and
unsatisfactoriness are 2art and arcel of life2, and originate from
craving, has to be understood at the emotional level, in our hearts&
+hen its origins have to be let go of, its cessation has to be realised,
and the ath leading to its cessation has to be cultivated& $o in one
way the four truths are challenges to act, to underta#e a course of
action& In this sense the Buddhist ath is one of effort not to be lightly
underta#en&
Practitioners clarify their views through understanding the teaching4
but then must use their own self5awareness to observe these rocesses
in their own minds& +hey need to see if the teaching is correct or true
and if it is, and they really wish to end suffering, they need to commit
themselves to the course of action necessary to end it& +he 9harma
has often, throughout its long history, been li#ened to a healing
rocess& But to achieve the healing the medicine needs to be ta#en&
It2s li#e that old saying Physician heal thyselfJ .e-t wee# we2ll
investigate the nature of craving, the cause of the roblem, in more
deth&
A Healing Process >CMEMAA?:
)ast wee# we saw how the 7our .oble +ruths related to the )aw of
Conditionality or Causality that underins the Buddha 9harma
>+eaching?& $uffering, ain and anguish >du##ha? come into e-istence
because of the resence of craving& %hen this condition or cause is
removed suffering ceases& +he 7ourth +ruth states that the Path
leading to its cessation is the .oble Eightfold Path >wrongly referred to
as the 2right2 7old Path, in last wee#2s article5a tying error?&
+he +eaching has often, throughout its long history, also been li#ened
to a healing rocess& +he 7our .oble +ruths are based, according to
this view, on an ancient Indian medical formula& +he 7irst .oble +ruth
is the disease or its symtoms >du##ha?& +he $econd is the dee
underlying cause that needs to be diagnosed& +he +hird identifies the
cure and the 7ourth rescribes the treatment and rovides the
medicine& +he cure is to e-tinguish or to 2let go off2 of craving& +he
comlete removal of craving is one meaning of the word .irvana,
meaning literally blown out& At a deeer level it means a mind beyond
all conditioning including the way craving conditions the mind&
.ow a crucial distinction between 2desire2 and 2craving2 needs to be
made& Buddhism is not against all desire as is misconstrued in many
0uarters& (any of our natural desires, such as hunger and thirst, serve
the urose of ensuring our survival& If neglected or reressed we will
die& Also desires such as ones li#e the wish to hel others, to become
educated and to grow sychologically and siritually are considered
very healthy in Buddhism&
+here is a world of a difference between healthy desire and craving&
+he latter is selfish, self5centered and imlies a neurotic clinging to the
ob'ect desired& +he roblems start when our inner, sychological
hungers and thirsts get caught u with our normal hysical hungers
and thirsts& %hen we are stuffing ourselves with food or ouring
alcohol down our throats because of a feeling of inner emtiness and
confusion& %hen this is haening our attachment to things li#e these
as well as drugs, gambling, se-ual artners and all sorts of material
things is neurotic& It2s neurotic when we are ro'ecting onto the thing
far more than it can ossibly satisfy& +here is also a world of a
difference between healthy self5interest and unhealthy and destructive
selfishness& Peole seemed confused about the distinction these days&
6r erhas they are 'ust conveniently hiding it from themselvesK
If we feel hunger or thirst and desire for food or drin# and when
consumed feel satisfied and leave it at that, then it2s normal health
desire& If we go comletely to ieces when our artner leaves us, or
the thing is ta#en away from us, then this is a sign that we have been
neurotically attached& 6ur relationshi with it has been based on
craving& Also there is the issue of are our motives based on health self5
interest or selfishnessK How many of us can ass this testK (uch of our
craving is largely unconscious and 0uite subtle& It needn2t be a gross
addiction&
If you don2t ass the test don2t worry& 7rom a Buddhist ersective we
are all considered more or less neurotic, some more, some less, till we
become Enlightened& +he Buddha himself is actually on record as
saying we2re all mad till we2re EnlightenedJ +o overcome the illness, to
achieve healing, medicine needs to be ta#en& And we can only ta#e it
ourselves and willingly& It2s a bit li#e the old saying Physician heal
thyself& +he medicine in Buddhism is the comrehensive Eightfold Path&
+he +hreefold Path >AMEMAA?:
+he 7ourth .oble +ruth, as we have seen, is a comrehensive
rescrition >to continue the medical analogy? for the overcoming of
suffering& It is the cure, the rocess necessary for healing #nown as
+he .oble Eightfold Path& However, it does re0uire effort and it is
challenging because it2s the methodology to be deloyed to e-tinguish
craving& It is so named because if trodden it guarantees the
ractitioner the ermanent end of suffering and residence in the .oble
realm of .irvana& +his is a state of everlasting eace, freedom and
hainess considered by Buddhism as attainable in this life itself&
+he Eightfold Path describes a way to live, thin# and meditate which
will enable a erson to bring the unsatisfactoriness inherent in life
>du##ha? to an end& It2s accomlished by a gradual and interconnected
ractice of eight asects of mainly mental training& +he Path could be
described as one of 2living meditation2 that leads to a gradual slowing
down, calming down and eventual cessation of a erson2s delusions
that cause suffering in the first lace&
Each of the stages of the Eightfold Path are refi-ed with the $ans#rit
word $amyag which means 2roer2, 2wholesome2, 2thorough2, 2integral2,
2comlete2, 2erfect2& However, it is very commonly translated as 2right2,
which has the unfortunate imlication in the west of right versus
wrong, which it is not meant to have& $o I2ll use both translations& +he
Path is not so much a series of stes that must be followed one after
the other, as a set of limbs each of which augments all of the others&
+hey are <? 8ight *iewMComlete *ision, C? 8ight IntentMComlete
Emotion, !? 8ightMComlete $eech, D? 8ightMComlete Action, 5?
8ightMComlete )ivelihood, I? 8ight MComlete Effort, E? 8ight
MComlete (indfulness and B? 8ight (editationMComlete
Concentration >$amadhi?&
+here are two 2short5hand2 versions of the Path as well& 6ne is twofold
brea#ing it into the Path of *ision and the Path of +ransformation& +he
.oble Eightfold Path starts with a *iew or *ision, without which it
simly can not start& Unless a erson has some sort of insight into the
unsatisfactoriness of this life and the desire to end it, they won2t start
on the Path& 7or this reason not everyone comes to Buddhism& 6nce
they have a heart5felt desire to end suffering then the Path of
+ransformation, which incororates the seven other limbs, can begin to
unfold& .ot surrisingly this transformative ath starts with the stage
of 8ight Intent or Comlete Emotion&
+he +hreefold Path, which will be elaborated over the ne-t few wee#s,
consists of <? Ethics, C? (editation and !? %isdom or Insight& Ethics
subsumes the stage of Comlete $eech, Action and )ivelihood in the
Eightfold Path& (editation subsumes Comlete Effort, (indfulness and
Concentration and %isdom, Comlete *ision and Emotion& Again all
three stages of this +hreefold Path augment and reinforce each other&
+he Path of Ethics ><DMEAA?:
+he +hreefold Path mentioned last wee# starts with ethical ractice&
Buddhist ethics is concerned rimarily with the motivational states of
the mind& +he )aw of "arma, which states that any conscious mental
decision will result in reercussions 5 the fruits of #arma, governs this
realm& Actions cause conse0uences& +his tye of #arma is to be
distinguished from the Hindu version where any act has reercussions
on the individual& In Buddhism only consciously motivated volitional
decisions have conse0uences& If one accidentally runs over a dog in a
car >as oosed to consciously deciding to? it doesn2t generate #armic
conse0uences whereas in Hinduism it does& Any thought, word or deed
that is motivated by 2the three oisons2>craving, ill will and delusion? is
considered uns#ilful >a#ausalya? because it will not be conducive to
siritual develoment or self5transcendence& (otives and actions
grounded in loving #indness, generosity and clarity of mind, in so far as
they are conducive to self5transcendence and thus siritual
develoment, are considered ethically s#ilful >#ausalya?& +he words
2s#ilful2 and 2uns#ilful2 are used rather than 2right2 and 2wrong2, which
imly a divine absolute&
Buddhists everywhere ractice a minimum of five basic ethical recets
>anca5sila?& Put simly they consist of refraining from #illing,
stealingMe-loitation, se-ual misconduct, lying and into-ication from
drugs to the oint where mindfulness is lost& +he oosite traits of
loving #indness, generosity, contentment, truthfulness and clarity of
mind are encouraged and also ta#en as recets& +he basic ethical
rincile threading through all the recets is non5violence >ahisma?&
+he first three cover the deeds or acts erformed by the hysical body,
the fourth covers seech and the fifth covers the mind4 thoughts,
words and deeds& +hey also address the three oisons in the sense of
underta#ing to avoid craving, aggression and confusion and cultivating
the oosite states of mind& +he ethical recets in Buddhism are
aimed to encourage the unenlightened, develoing ractitioner to
behave as an enlightened being& +hey also act as safe guards for them
because they may not have yet develoed the clarity of mind through
meditation to distinguish clearly 'ust what the real motives and
volitions are that are going on in their minds& It must be emhasi1ed,
however, that the ethical recets of Buddhism are recommendations
and guidelines rather than a set off commandments delivered by a 3od
which must be obeyed or elseJ By adhering to them a erson is giving
himself or herself a fighting chance of not acting unethically&
Another imortant reason the ethical code is racticed is, as in
accordance with the )aw of Conditionality, because they hel set u the
conditions necessary for successful meditation& A mind dominated by
craving, anger or confusion can2t achieve the calmness, hainess and
concentration >sychological integration? necessary for successful
meditative absortion >dhyana?&
Ethics and Hainess >CIMEMAA?:
+he five ethical recets ractised by Buddhists >discussed last wee#?
in a sense imitate the sontaneous, virtuous behaviour of an
Enlightened being& +he two rimary virtues in Buddhism are %isdom
and Comassion& $o the ethical recets re'ect violence and the Power
(ode, which uses other eole and beings& Instead they endorse the
)ove (ode, which emathises with and cares for the 6ther& In English
the five recets are as follows:
<? I underta#e to abstain from ta#ing life& C? I underta#e to abstain
from ta#ing the not5given& !? I underta#e to abstain from se-ual
misconduct& D? I underta#e to abstain from false seech& 5? I
underta#e to abstain from becoming into-icated&
+he ositive counterarts are stated as follows:
<? %ith deeds of loving #indness, I urify my body& C? %ith oen5
handed generosity, I urify my body& !? %ith stillness, simlicity and
contentment, I urify my body& D? %ith truthful communication, I
urify my seech& 5? %ith mindfulness clear and radiant, I urify my
mind&
As you can see the ositive recets endorse the oosite mental
states to those found in the negative form of the five recets
>negative in the sense of underta#ing not to do something?&
$o the ractice of the ethical recets in Buddhism results in sensitive
and harmonious behaviour toward the 6ther as the result of s#ilful
mental states& Ethical behaviour, in turn, roduces s#ilful mental
states& In Buddhism an ethical lifestyle is seen to be a necessary
rere0uisite for hainess& Hainess doesn2t necessarily mean feeling
elated with 'oy >which can easily collase into the oosite?5it seems to
have more to do with an absence of inner conflict and guilt, and a
feeling of contentment& Ethical behaviour in this sense is about doing
things that romote ositive states of mind& As art of the +hreefold
Path, Ethics therefore also sets u the right conditions for (editation& It
really is only ossible to concentrate with ease when you are hay& A
concentrated erson is a hay erson4 a hay erson is a
concentrated erson& $o there are imortant connections between
ethics, hainess and concentration& +hese factors also effect your
effectiveness in life&
Ethics and Hainess >!=MEMAA?:
As we saw last wee#, the ractice of the ethical recets in Buddhism
results in sensitive and harmonious behaviour toward the 6ther as the
result of s#ilful mental states and motivations& However, the ractice of
ethical behaviour, in turn, hels roduce s#ilful mental states& In
Buddhism an ethical lifestyle is seen to be a necessary rere0uisite for
hainess& Hainess doesn2t necessarily mean feeling elated with 'oy
>which can easily collase into the oosite?5it seems to have more to
do with an absence of inner conflict and guilt, and a feeling of
contentment&
Ethical behaviour in this sense is about doing things that romote
ositive states of mind& Behaviour or action in Buddhism is thought of
as involving the body >eg&, hitting someone, ta#ing something?, seech
and the mind& If you loo# at the five ethical recets that all Buddhists
ractice as a minimum, they cover the body, seech and mind&
$ometimes this is rendered as thoughts, words and deeds& Precets
one to three cover actions with the body, the fourth seech and the
fifth the mind& Even if you do not actually hit someone, therefore, but
still give rise to the ill will toward that erson behind it in your mind,
then you have acted uns#ilfully in Buddhism& All actions have
conse0uences& 7or e-amle, an angry mind is not hay or eaceful&
+hus it is hard for it to concentrate or meditate&
As art of the +hreefold Path, Ethics therefore also sets u the right
conditions for (editation& It really is only ossible to concentrate with
ease when you are hay& A concentrated erson is a hay erson4 a
hay erson is a concentrated erson& $o there are imortant
connections between ethics, hainess and concentration& +hese
factors also effect your effectiveness in life&
3oing Bac# to $iritual "indergarten
As art of the +hreefold Path, Ethics sets u the right conditions for
(editation& It really is only ossible to concentrate with ease when you
are hay& And we tend to be hay and guilt free when we ractice an
ethical lifestyle& +he ne-t stage of the +hreefold Path is meditation&
(editation in turn sets u the right conditions for Insight into 8eality or
%isdom&
(any %esterners come into the Buddhist Path in a bac#5the5front tye
of fashion& +hey tend to start with the %isdomMInsight asect, but only
at the intellectual level, most commonly by reading boo#s on
Buddhism& +here are so many boo#s on Buddhism these days& 9esite
being very interested in the hilosohy, and reading widely in it, they
find that they aren2t changed by it& $o they start to meditate but,
because they are artying to all hours, over indulging in into-icants,
giving into hedonistic craving, sleeing in, and so on, their meditation
ractice is irregular and going nowhere& +heir minds aren2t eaceful
and contented enough to ma#e effective concentration ossible& It2s not
until some form of discilined and ethical lifestyle is established that
rogress in meditation becomes ossible& +his has been referred to this
as going bac# to the siritual #indergartenJ
Buddhism teaches many forms of meditation, there are literally
thousands of ractices& +raditionally, Buddhist meditation is divided into
two tyes, samatha and viassana, or tran0uillity and insight&
+ran0uillity meditation ractices reare the mind for insight by
urifying, integrating and refining it& Insight meditation is the
alication of the mind, made subtle and concentrated by tran0uillity
meditation, to erceive the true nature of reality& +o see things how
they really are& 6ur ordinary mind is unconcentrated& In Buddhist te-ts
there is fre0uent reference to the idea that 2one who is concentrated
sees things as they really are&2 +his is how meditation sets u the right
conditions for the third art of the +hreefold Path&
(editation in Buddhism ><CMB?:
Continuing our review of the +hreefold Path in Buddhism, we2ve seen to
date that the first stage, Ethics, sets u the right conditions for
successful meditation& (editation is the second hase of this ath& It
subsumes 8ight or Perfect Effort, (indfulness and Concentration5the
last three asects of the Eightfold Path& %e2ll return to them in a future
issue&
In essence meditation in Buddhism is wor#ing directly on one2s own
mind& 8emember the starting oint of Buddhism is the human mind& $o
we do not meditate 'ust to rela- or coe with stress, although these
are welcome by roducts of the ractice& )ast wee# we tal#ed of the
two great traditions in Buddhist meditation of samatha >tran0uillity?
and viassana >insight?& $amatha ractices aim at ma#ing us more
calm, tran0uil and concentrated so that we can see things as they
really are and thus gain insight into 8eality&
+he reason we don2t see reality, or things as they really are, is because
we are un5concentrated& 6ur minds are reoccuied and chronically
distracted by discursive thoughts and a cavalcade of emotional
reactions to things and events& (ost of these if dug into reveal
themselves to be concerned with our desires and longings and the
frustrations of not satisfying them& +here is thus a sub'ective filter,
based on our egocentric view and our li#es and disli#es, between us
and how things actually are& 6ur view of things is clouded&
+he aim of meditation is to urify the mind in the sense of clearing
away these clouds of sub'ective distortion& +o do this all the scattered
energies within our syches have to become integrated so that they
are ulling together& +he chaos in our conscious mind is mightily
reinforced by the turmoil in our unconscious and all of this eruts in
the mind to cloud it& +hese scattered energies can2t be integrated until
we become aware of them, or conscious of them& +his is the aim of
meditation&
6nce we2re aware or conscious of what2s going on in our conscious
mind and in the unconscious we2re in charge of ourselves& +hings calm
down and a hitherto un#nown state of tran0uillity can be e-erienced&
6nce this haens we2re on the way to seeing things as they are&
(editation5a Unity E-erience >C=MBMAA?:
%e established at the beginning of this series of articles, that as human
beings we e-erience ourselves as searate from everything else& +his
is a by5roduct of the uni0ue human faculty of self5consciousness& %e
are in fact not searate from the environment and human society so
the e-erience of searation is aarent rather than real& +o mista#e it
for a reality, as we tend to do, is a fundamental delusion from a
Buddhist oint of view& %hen we do, it creates a dee sense of
e-istential unease in us and that2s why we get caught u in craving for
leasant things to secure ourselves& %e feel incomlete and dee down
see# a unity with all things&
6ne function of meditation is to hel overcome this e-erience of
searation and achieve unity& But ironically it starts off based on the
e-erience of searation& +he fact that we can reason and ma#e
choices is because we can searate ourselves out from ourselves5there
is the 2reasoner2 and what is being reasoned about& $o we use this
ability to convince ourselves of the desirability of meditating and then
choose to sit down and meditate& %ithout this meditation cannot begin,
so again it2s a uni0uely human enterrise& 6nce we start meditating on
an ob'ect5the breath, an emotion, a candle5we are actually in an acute
state of searation& +here is you sitting there observing and
concentrating and there is the thing you2re concentrating on&
Parado-ically, if we ersist then the searation disaears and we
become 2one2 with the ob'ect& $o human beings are caable of both
giving rise to an e-erience of searation and of unity& 7urthermore,
once enlightened they are caable of e-eriencing both of these states
simultaneously& .e-t wee# we will tal# about how the unity e-erience
in meditation is one of integrating all our scattered conscious and
unconscious energies and how this in turn gives rise to higher states of
consciousness&
(editation and Integration >CIMBMAA?:
+here are two asects to integration in meditation5a hori1ontal and a
vertical one& Hori1ontal integration refers to the collecting together of
our sychic energies in the conscious mind& *ertical is about integrating
the energies of the unconscious with the conscious mind&
Usually we are in a chronic state of distraction in our conscious minds&
6ur thoughts and emotions are all over the lace and we are not very
aware of them& $o hori1ontal integration is about develoing more self5
awareness of what is going on in our conscious minds& In this way we
become more aware of what we2re feeling and thin#ing& Usually our
energies are scattered and we are driven from one mental state to
another at the mercy of our thoughts and emotions& +hey in turn are
usually simle reactions to e-ternal stimulants of one #ind or another&
In this state we are scattered and reactive4 in what you might call the
guest rather than the host osition in our own minds&
(editation ractices li#e the 2(indfulness of Breathing2 >annaanna
sati? hel to develo more calm, more integration and self5awareness&
In Buddhism this is called mindfulness and is very imortant indeed& It
hels us become the host in our own minds by creating a strong centre
of self5awareness that is, as it were, the master of ceremonies, or the
sheherd that rounds u the rest of the herd and moves them in the
right direction& (indfulness hels to focus and channel our reviously
scattered mental energies& In this way we can become creative in our
resonse to circumstances instead of merely reactive&
3iven that the unconscious is the bul# of our syche it is incredibly
imortant that we also integrate that into our conscious minds& It has
been li#ened in sychology to an iceberg& +he vast bul# of it is under
the surface of the water >unconscious?& +he small bit above the surface
is the conscious mind& 6ften the energies of the unconscious are
ulling us in a very different direction to the one in which we want to
go in our conscious minds& $o, from a Buddhist oint of view, no real
sychological or siritual growth is ossible unless we harness these
energies behind our conscious asirations& (ore about the role of
meditation in achieving this ne-t wee#&
(editation and the Unconscious !MAMAA:
)ast wee# we loo#ed at the notion of meditation and hori1ontal
integration& +his means the sheherding together of our scattered
mental energies in the conscious mind so that we are more self5aware
or mindful, and caable of more concentration and focus& +oday we
loo# at vertical integration, the rocess of bringing more and more of
the deths of our unconscious mind into consciousness&
It2s not easy& +he Buddha himself ac#nowledged that control of the
mind is the most challenging and the most rewarding of human tas#s,
and did not underestimate its difficulties& +he mind has a deth, he
suggested, far greater than the deeest sea, and all the way down it
churns with owerful emotional currents and vortices of which we are
barely conscious, but which virtually dictate thought and behaviour& In
its deths lie untaed sources of great ower: desires and drives of
such magnitude that the mind is rarely under any control4 it simly
moves about as it li#es& +o train these forces to obey the conscious will
is the only way to be free of the mind2s evolutionary inherited urges
and redisosition2s& +he method for training the mind is meditation,
said the Buddha&
As the forces of our conscious and unconscious minds become
integrated through the rocess of focused, conscious self5awareness
>which is meditation? we e-erience higher states of consciousness&
+hese traditionally are #nown as the dhyanas or levels of meditative
absortion in Buddhism& +hey are higher levels of concentration in the
sense of being beyond our normal wa#ing consciousness, which is
scattered, un5integrated, full of discursive thought and a #aleidoscoe
of emotions& +he dhyanas are much more lucid, concentrated and
eaceful& In a word they2re more integrated& Indeed they result from
our sycho5hysical energies becoming more integrated& +he level of
meditative absortion or the state of higher consciousness is a function
of this&
(ore about these ne-t wee#& But one last oint is that meditative
states are not to be confused with child5li#e states, trances, blan# or
induced hynotic states where there is a total absence of self5
awareness& +hey can2t be because they are states of greater and more
concentrated self5awareness&
Higher $tates of Consciousness >AMAMAA?:
+he levels of meditative absortion you get into when you meditate, as
we saw, are #nown as the dhyanas& +hey are levels of rogressively
higher states of consciousness because our sycho5hysical energies
have become more integrated and focused comared to our normal,
2wa#ing2 level of consciousness& A great deal of mental and hysical
tension is released as our energies begin to flow together and hence
they are accomanied by intense rature, bliss and e0uanimity&
+raditionally there are considered to be eight dhyanas&
+he Buddha used four symbolic descritions to characterise the first
four dhyanas& +he first he li#ened to a situation in which soa owder
and water are mi-ed to ma#e a ca#e of soa& +he soa owder is
comletely suffused with water and all the water is absorbed into the
owder& +he second he li#ened to a calm ool of water with a dee
subterranean sring bubbling u into it& +he third was li#e a erfectly
still ond in which a lotus lant had fully blossomed so that its etals
were comletely ermeated by water at the surface of the ond& +he
last was li#e a erson who had steed out of a tan# of water after
bathing and was wraing themselves in a da11ling, white towel&
I wonder if you can deduce what the symbols reresentK (aybe 'ust
close your eyes for a moment and call u the images and reflect on
their meanings& +he first reresents what we have been calling
hori1ontal integration 5 the coming together of all the conscious mind2s
energies& +he second is vertical integration as the unconscious wells u
into the conscious mind, which is now li#e a still ond& +he third is a
state of comlete ermeation of the mind conscious and unconscious
as their full integration has flowered& +he last reflects the fact that
when such total integration of sychic energies has occurred there is a
alable radiation of energy from the erson out into the
environment&
+he ne-t si- wee# Introductory Buddhist meditation courses commence
at the Buddhist Centre at C! Bridge $treet on +uesday night the C<st of
$etember E5Am and during the day on +hursday the C!rd $etember
<=5<Cam&
(ental $tates in (editation <IMAMAA:
)ast wee# we loo#ed at the Buddha2s symbolic descrition of the first
four levels of meditative absortion& +hese higher levels of
consciousness are referred to traditionally as the dhyanas& Again
tradition enumerates five ositive mental states accomanying the
dhyanas #nown as the 2dhyana factors2 >dhyananga?& 9hyana does not
consist only of these factors but contains other ositive 0ualities too&
All five are resent in the first dhyana and they are initial thought,
alied thought, rature, bliss and one5ointedness& 6ne5ointedness
is resent in all the dhyanas because it is our ability to concentrate,
focus and ay attention& It becomes much stronger in the dhyanas&
Initial thought is thin#ing 2of2 something and alied thought is thin#ing
2about2 something& However, unli#e our normal scattered, discursive
thin#ing, this tye of thought in the first dhyana is very lucid and
comletely under our conscious control&
8ature is the e-erience of the hysical enervation2s accomanying
the rocess of integration of our sycho5hysical energies& It2s
sometimes referred to as tension release& As the body releases its
tensions we e-erience 2goose imles2, hairs standing on end, shoc#s
of rature and then intense waves of rature& Bliss is more subtle than
rature and occurs as the enervation2s of rature calm down& In it2s
own 0uite way it is even more intense&
7rom the second dhyana on there is no more thought& In the second
there is rature, bliss and one5ointedness resent& In the third there
is bliss and one5ointedness& In the fourth there is only one5
ointedness but because this comlete concentration is suffused with
bliss it becomes #nown as e0uanimity& $o the dhyana factors are both
2cool2 in the sense of increased concentration as in one5ointedness,
initial and alied thought and 2warm2 in the sense of ositive emotion5
rature, bliss and e0uanimity&
An introduction to traditional Buddhist meditation class has started this
wee# at the Buddhist centre >C! Bridge $treet? on +uesday evening E5
Am and +hursday morning <=5<Cam&
A 3ood (editation CDMAMAA:
If we e-erience the dhyanas or higher states of consciousness whilst
meditating then obviously this is a good or successful meditation& %e
become aware that our normal, 2ta#en for granted2 level of
consciousness is not the full story& +hat our normal, ego5centric
e-erience is not the definitive one& In other words, we become aware
that there is something to us way beyond the usual e-erience of self&
+he ossibility of self5transcendence arises&
However, more often than not, we do not e-erience the dhyanas4 we
do not become absorbed in the ob'ect of concentration as we meditate&
%e do not e-erience the higher states of consciousness& +his is
because certain uns#ilful mental states arise that revent or 2hinder2 us
from becoming absorbed or concentrated& +raditionally they are #nown
in Buddhism as the 2five hindrances2&
Before we describe them the main oint to be made in this article is
that if we send the whole of our meditation sit wrestling with these
hindrances, alying the traditional antidotes, this is also considered a
good or successful meditation& In this way, Buddhist meditation5the
mind wor#ing directly on the mind5is 0uite different from other forms
of meditation& If we become absorbed, concentrated and e-erience
the dhyanas that2s good& If we don2t and send the whole time wor#ing
with the hindrances that2s also good&
+he five hindrances are craving for sense leasure, ill will, restlessness
and an-iety, sloth and toror and indecision and doubt& In a way they
are an elaboration of the three oisons5craving, ill will and delusion >or
confusion?& Inevitably as we become more aware of what is going on in
our conscious and unconscious minds >hori1ontal and vertical
integration? we will e-erience these hindrances& +hey are there in us
inherited from our ast actions and habit tendencies and they underin
the mental states that distract us from becoming concentrated& %e are
the hindrances and will have to deal with them through meditation if
we are to rogress&
.e-t wee# we investigate the traditional antidotes to aly to the five
hindrances&
+he 7ive (ental Hindrances ><M<=MAA?:
+he last coule of wee#s we2ve been tal#ing about the higher states of
consciousness #nown as the dhyanas accessible through meditation&
+he first level of meditative absortion >dhyana? is characterised by the
absence of negative emotions& %e2re going to elaborate on the nature
of the five mental hindrances shortly& Unless the mind is clear not only
of the five mental hindrances but also of fear, anger, 'ealousy, an-iety,
guilt, remorse, at least for the time being, there is no entry into the
higher states of consciousness& +hey have to be eradicated or
susended to achieve them& +hat is why the ath of ethics described
over receding wee#s is the necessary rere0uisite for effective
meditation&
+he first of the five hindrances is desire for sense e-erience >#amma
chandra?& 6ur minds instead of concentrating on the meditation ob'ect
>say the breath? #ee getting drawn to sense ob'ects through any of
the si- senses such as, sounds, smells or colours& But it also includes
images and attractive thoughts, which are ob'ects of what in Buddhism
is #nown as the si-th sense, the mental sense& +he traditional image of
this hindrance is again water obscured by coloured balls&
+he second hindrance is ill will >vyaada?& +his is actually the reverse
side of desire for leasant e-eriences because it wills or desires ill for
something& 6ur minds this time get caught u in some ainful
e-erience& +hey are drawn towards some irritating event or erson
and we can2t sto thin#ing about it or resenting it& Perhas there is
some e-ternal sound or smell that is irritating us& It2s ractically
imossible to get away from sound when one meditates so it2s a
common e-erience to find one2s mind reacting irritably to sounds& +he
traditional image is of water boiling and hissing& In these two
hindrances we are strongly caught u in the ob'ect4 this is less the
case in the ne-t three&
6ver the ne-t coule of wee#s we2ll outline the ne-t three hindrances,
investigate the traditional antidotes to aly to the five hindrances and
how the hindrances are there outside of meditation as well&
+he Hindrances Continued >BM<=MAA?:
As we saw last wee# the first two hindrances to becoming absorbed or
concentrated in meditation are desire for sense e-erience >#amma
chandra? and ill will >vyaada?& +he third hindrance is restlessness
>uddhacca? and an-iety >#u#ucca?& 8estlessness is hysical
restlessness and turbulence4 an-iety is more mental5usually some form
of irrational, discursive thought& +ogether they ma#e us too 2seedy2
and obviously distract us from being able to concentrate&
+he traditional image is water choed u into waves by the wind&
+he fourth hindrance is sloth and toror, the two asects being hysical
sloth >thina? and mental toror >middha?& +he body feels heavy and
the mind vacuous& +he combined result is drowsiness and before we
#now it we2ve tied forward off our meditation cushions as we briefly
fall aslee& %hen sloth and toror gets a gri on us it feels almost
imossible to sha#e off& +he traditional image is stagnant water cho#ed
with mud and reeds& Again both these hindrances are two sides of the
same coin and we can oscillate between them&
+he final one is doubt >vici#icchai? and indecision& %e start to doubt
ourselves, the meditation ractice, and whether we really can get
anywhere in terms of our siritual growth& As a result we have very
little conviction or commitment to meditate& %e sit there caught u in a
crisis of doubt and lac# of involvement in the ractice& +his image is
turbid water, water with a great deal of sediment in susension&
$o these negative mental factors revent us from becoming
concentrated in our meditation session& +hey will inevitably arise for all
who meditate because they are originate in mental tendencies,
imulses and redisositions that have become habitual because they
were built u over long eriods of time& However, there are in
Buddhism traditional antidotes to the five hindrances, but before we
can aly them we have to recognise or ac#nowledge that we are
caught u in a hindrance& +his is a crucial ste and failure to do it
means the antidotes cannot be alied&
+he Antidotes to the Hindrances ><5M<=MAA?:
+he first ste in wor#ing on the hindrances is to ac#nowledge that the
hindrance is actually there& It2s no good carrying on meditating
regardless, trying to ignore it or wish it away& In meditation you need
to ac#nowledge each new mental state as it arises5that2s what self5
awareness is& $o in terms of the hindrances this means to recognise
which of the five mental hindrances >discussed over the last two
wee#s? it is&
Is it desire for sense e-erience, ill will, restlessness and an-iety, sloth
and toror, or doubt and indecision that is reventing you from
deeening your concentrationK +o be able to recognise which hindrance
is resent in your mind ta#es time and ractice& (editation li#e any
other s#ill re0uires ractice and the more you do it the better you
become at it& @ou will become not only more adet at concentrating but
more aware of the nature of the mental events arising in your mind
and whether they are s#ilful or uns#ilful&
It is after all a rocess of gaining self5#nowledge by loo#ing within& But
for most of us this tye of activity is unfamiliar, we are chartering
unfamiliar waters, and so inevitably it involves a learning curve& It2s a
bit li#e the situation alluded to in the old western mottoes of 2"now
thyself2 and 2Physician heal thyself2&
+he traditional Buddhist antidotes that are used to wor# with the
hindrances, after the all5imortant ste of recognition >self5awareness?,
are fourfold& +hey are <? to consider the conse0uences of remaining in
that state, C? cultivating the oosite, !? develoing a s#y5li#e attitude
and D? suression& %e2ll elaborate on them ne-t wee#&
A combined 2dro in2 introductory Buddhist meditation class and brief
introductory tal# on Buddhism will be held at the +oowoomba Buddhist
Centre on $aturday the C!rd of 6ctober& +he meditation will be
between <<am and <Cam and the tal# between <C and <m&
+he Antidotes to the Hindrances >CCM<=MAA?:
After ac#nowledging the e-istence of the hindrance, that it is actually
resent, interfering with our meditative concentration, we can aly
the traditional antidotes& +he first of these is to consider the
conse0uences of allowing the hindrance to continue unchec#ed& %hat if
we simly do nothing and allow the tendency to distraction, to hatred
or to doubt to remainK Clearly, it would increase and our character
would become rogressively dominated by that trait& If we reflect on
this, the imortance of what we2re trying to do will become clearer and
we2ll be more inclined to ignore the hindrance and turn our minds bac#
to what we2re concentrating on&
+he second antidote is to cultivate the oosite 0uality& If there is
anger cultivate loving5#indness >metta?& If there is doubt cultivate
confidence& If there is sloth cultivate energy& If there is restlessness,
cultivate contentment and eace& If the mind is too tense rela- it4 if it2s
too loose sharen it& $o we try and cultivate the oosite 0uality to the
negative mental state that2s interfering with our concentration to
overcome or neutralise it&
+he third is to cultivate a s#y5li#e attitude& $ometimes the more we
resist a hindrance the stronger it gets& If the revious two methods
don2t wor#, we try the 2s#y5li#e2 attitude& %e accet that the hindrance
has 2got in2 and we simly observe it li#e a cloud in a vast blue s#y& In
this way we give it some sace and allow it to lay itself out& By
watching it and not getting involved we allow the fantasies, worries,
the images to arise and dissolve& 3radually they lose their ower and
diserse&
7inally there is suression& %e simly ush the hindrance out of our
minds or 2lea frog2 over it bac# to our concentration&& +his is different
from reression, which is unconsciously ushing something down into
our unconscious& +his antidote is a last resort& %e are convinced of the
ointlessness of laying host to the hindrance and we simly say 2no2
and ush it aside& It2s best used with wea# hindrances& %ith stronger
ones, even if we suress them, we eventually have to come bac# and
deal with them&
Effort and (indfulness >CAM<=MAA?:
+he stage of meditation in the +hreefold ath subsumes the stages of
Perfect Effort, Perfect (indfulness and Perfect (editation in the
Eightfold ath& 6ver the last few wee#s we2ve been loo#ing at
meditation and this would not be comlete if we didn2t refer to effort
and mindfulness&
6f course, any attemt at growth re0uires effort5unremitting effort& %e
may fail again and again, but that doesn2t matter so much& +he
imortant thing is that we ma#e the effort, we try& Each time we fail we
'ust have to ic# ourselves u and try again& Aarently there is a n
old $ufi oem that goes something li#e this: Come, come, no matter
how many times you2ve bro#en the recets, come, come&
6ften when we fail we tend to wallow in irrational guilt and shame& +he
danger with this is that we end u reinforcing a fi-ed view of ourselves
that will revent us from trying to grow& +hen the gravitational ull of
inertia comes in and ulls us down& If we don2t continue to ma#e the
effort, desite having failed, no growth is ossible& %e have to realise
that thin#ing we are a failure and dwelling on a negative view of
ourselves is 'ust as fi-ed and conceited as thin#ing that we2re great
and having an over5inflated view of ourselves& +here is otentially a
much larger self we can e-erience, however, we never will if we stic#
to these lesser fi-ed views of our self& %e have to get beyond them&
It is difficult wor#& But it2s a bit li#e the sec# of dust in an oyster that
becomes a earl& In the same way these irritating >du##ha? asects of
life can rovide the stimulus for ersonal evolution& In many ways it2s
the same thing as wor#ing with the hindrances5each time we become
distracted we have to wor# with the hindrance and then return our
attention to the ob'ect of concentration& +hat re0uires effort&
8ight Effort >5M<<MAA?:
At the moment we are tal#ing about 8ight or Comlete Effort& +his is
the si-th stage of the Eightfold Path and art of the (editation section
of the +hreefold Path& +raditionally in Buddhism the formula for
Comlete or Perfect Effort consists of the following four dimensions& <?
+he revention of the arising of uns#ilful mental states that have not
yet arisen& C? +he eradication of uns#ilful mental states that have
already arisen& !? +he develoment of s#ilful mental states that have
not yet arisen& D? +he maintenance of s#ilful mental states already
arisen&
+hese days sometimes the first and second stes are reversed because
more often than not we find ourselves already in uns#ilful mental
states& /ust to remind you uns#ilful mental states are those motivated
by greed, anger and confusion >the three oisons?& $#ilful ones are
based on generosity, loving #indness and mental clarity&
+raditionally the first effort is carried out by 2guarding the gates of the
senses2& +hrough mindful self5awareness we attemt to maintain
awareness of what is coming in through our si- senses >in Buddhism
the mind is considered to be the si-th sense and mental factors the
ob'ects of this sense?& It2s often li#ened to the historical role of a sentry
at the city gates observing what is coming in& +he main thing is to be
aware of how our minds are reacting to these sensory stimuli and
whether they are uns#ilful reactions or s#ilful, creative resonses&
%e achieve the second effort of eradicating uns#ilful states that have
arisen by alying the antidotes to the hindrances discussed over the
last coule of wee#s& +he best way to erform the third effort of
develoing s#ilful mental states is considered to be by meditating& +he
fourth effort of maintaining these is achieved through erseverance&
+hat is, to use a fashionable word, by sustaining a regular ractice&
(indfulness ><<M<CMAA?:
I thin# the +hreefold Path is an e-cellent formula for the ractice of
Buddhism in contemorary society& It consists of the ractice of Ethics
and (editation with a view to gaining Insight into the nature of 8eality&
(indfulness is the ne-t asect of the (editation art of the +hreefold
Path& It is a very imortant art of this ath, in my oinion, and yet it
can be neglected by ractising Buddhists&
+he Buddha is on record as saying that if you can maintain (indfulness
uninterruted for seven days you will achieve nirvana >the
e-tinguishing of craving5the goal of the Buddhist ath? here and now,
or at least the oint of non5return >from which you cannot sli bac#
and so are guaranteed to gain Enlightenment?& A retty otent
recommendation for ractising mindfulness&
In formal, sitting meditation you2re deeening your #nowledge of
yourself and develoing more integration and tran0uillity& +his is #nown
as samatha& %ith mindfulness you then sread this samatha
>tran0uillity, calmness and integration? into your daily activities and
encounters with the environment >human and non5human?& $o it2s li#e
broadening the vertical wor# of meditation into a more hori1ontal
sreading out of eacefulness and sensitivity into the world& @ou2re
creating a 2rile5li#e2 effect&
However, too often eole who meditate tend to 2cloc#5off2 after the
formal sit& +hey become 'ust as un5mindful as other eole do& Being
unmindful could be described as being forgetful, distracted, having only
wea# owers of concentration and no sense of continuity of urose in
what you2re doing& +he word for mindfulness in Pali is sati and as well
as having the connotation of 2awareness2, it also means 2recollection2
and 2memory2&
$o to be mindful means to be in a state recollection as oosed to
forgetful& @ou remember who you are and what you2re doing and why
you2re doing itJ 7urthermore, it2s a state of undistractedness,
concentration and steadfastness of urose& 6ne could say that it is
also a state of more true individuality because these elements of
mindfulness when resent allow one to ta#e resonsibility for their lives
and thus to grow as an individual& %hen being unmindful we are
merely a bundle of conflicting selves reacting to the world&
An Introduction to Buddhist Philosohy course of si- wee#s starts at
the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre, this +hursday morning ><BM<<MAA? at
<=am in lieu of the $HI+ course, which was cancelled this term&
+he 7our 7oundations of (indfulness ><AM<<MAA?:
In traditional mindfulness ractice we start with the self& %e bring the
self to the self& $o often these days, because of the ressure of wor#,
stress and stimulus overload, eole get so 2seedy2 that they by5ass
themselves& +he traditional ractice of the 7our 7oundations of
(indfulness >sati? is a way of bringing us bac# into contact with
ourselves&
)et2s ta#e an every day e-amle& %e come home from wor#, or loo#ing
after the #ids, and we feel at one and the same time comletely
e-hausted and yet 2het u2& I2m sure we2ve all e-erienced this
condition& Peole in this condition often head straight for the ub after
wor# to rela- and wind down& $tudies have shown that, because
they2re not really in touch with themselves, they tend to throw bac#
the drin#s, their blood sugar levels rise and as a result, after awhile,
they feel energetic, even 2high2& +hey feel that now they2ve wound
down and rela-ed& Actually it2s 'ust the raised blood sugar levels and
the studies conclude that this tye of situation could lead to roblem
drin#ing&
)et2s say that instead we come home and 2do2 the four foundations& %e
sit down or lie down and start with being mindful of the body& %e
deliberately become aware of our body, its osition and movement& %e
scan through it with our awareness and rela- any tension we discover,
erhas starting with the forehead, eyes, mouth, 'aw and gradually
wor# our way through the whole body& By doing this we2re getting out
of our heads and our fast moving thoughts and emotions and
contacting the slowest moving art of ourselves, the body& In this way
we 2ground2 ourselves bac# in ourselves&
+he second foundation is to then become aware of hysiological
sensations or feelings and whether they are ainful, leasant or neutral
and whether they2re strong or wea#& +he third is to send a few
minutes becoming aware of our emotional tone by directly e-eriencing
it >not analysing it?& Are we hay, unhay, tired, an-ious, frenetic
and so onK $o now we2ve shifted our awareness to the faster moving
arts of ourselves& 7inally we become aware of our thoughts and what
is going on in our thin#ing mind&
+o go bac# to our e-amle, by doing this, by bringing ourselves to
ourselves, we usually discover that under the seedy, het u feeling
we2re actually e-hausted& %e may even start to feel sleey and actually
have a rest or na& If, after doing this, we still feel inclined to go to the
ub for a drin# >in moderation?, we find that we don2t feel the need to
throw them bac#& Instead we have a few in a steady, mindful way and
avoid the roblem drin#ing&
(indfulness in Everyday )iving >CIM<<MAA?:
3enerally sea#ing our actions are imulsive& 9esires are immediately
translated into deeds, without a thought being given to the
conse0uences or whether they2re s#ilful or not& %hen we act with
mindfulness, however, we analyse our motives before allowing them to
determine conduct& %hat follows from this are not only the abstention
from uns#ilful courses of action but also the ac0uisition of an
undisturbed and tran0uil state of mind&
If we underta#e even the most commonlace activities of life in a
clearly conscious manner, we introduce sace or a ause between our
thoughts or intentions and the e-ecution of the deed& %ithin this
interval our unwholesome imulses e-end their force& %ith the
ractice of mindfulness the temo of our day to day e-istence slows
down& Behaviour becomes smoother, slower, more sensitive and more
deliberate& +hese days eole are under too much ressure and rush
too much& 6ne of the secrets of longevity is not to rush through life but
to slow down and #ee the mind eaceful& 6ne result of mindfulness is
bodily comosure and gracefulness& +his in return conduces to an ever5
deeer 0uietness of sirit&
+hrough the ractice of mindfulness and self5ossession the most
trivial occasions of life
become art of a siritual ractice& Eating, drin#ing, dressing, the
rocesses of e-cretion and urination even, are transformed from
hindrances into aids to concentration, from interrutions to the siritual
life to its continuation in another form& +he distinction between things
sacred and rofane becomes obliterated&
%hen one is behaving ethically and clear consciousness is established
in all activities, then not a minute is wasted from dawn till dus#& 7rom
morning till night the current of siritual develoment continues
uninterruted& Even in slee, if the ractice is intense enough, the clear
consciousness still shines even as the moon does in the dar#ness of
night&
%ays of Practising (indfulness >!M<CMAA?:
%e can e-tend the ractice of mindfulness into the daily arena of living
in many ways& +he Buddha, for e-amle, so#e of ractising
mindfulness and self5ossession whilst advancing or withdrawing4 in
loo#ing forward or around4 in bending and stretching the limbs4 in
dressing and wearing clothes4 in eating, drin#ing, masticating, and
tasting4 in answering the calls of nature4 in wal#ing, standing and
sitting4 in sleeing and wa#ing4 and, in sea#ing and #eeing silence&
6ne could also add in dealing with ob'ects&
In this way even the most mundane activities can become delightful
routines of incredible recision& +hese days their e-ists a modern
terminology that tal#s of body ballets, time5sace routines, lace
choreograhys and lace ballets& Body ballets are sets of gestures and
movements which sustain a articular tas#, such as, washing u,
dressing, sweeing the floor, loughing, house building and gardening&
+ime5sace routines are habitual bodily behaviours in time and sace
li#e bathing, sewing and coo#ing& Place ballets e-tend time5sace
routines and body ballets into all tyes of environments 5 indoors,
outdoors, streets, neighbourhoods, mar#et laces, cafes and transort
deots& (ost of the time these activities are carried out in a mechanical
and distracted fashion, yet in all them there are oortunities for
ractice&
Another model sea#s of four levels of awareness& <? Awareness of
ourselves using the four foundations of mindfulness to bring ourselves
into contact with ourselves& +hat is awareness of the body and its
movements, of sensations or feelings, of our emotional state, and of
our thoughts& +hen we can e-tend the mindfulness to C? awareness of
+hings or the Environment& +hen there is !? awareness of 6thers&
7inally, there is D? awareness of 8eality& %e2ll tal# more about these
four levels ne-t wee#&
A 2dro in2 meditation class consisting of a led ractice of the (etta
Bhavana ractice which is about generating loving5#indness >metta? for
oneself and others will be held at the +BC on $aturday the <<th of
9ecember at <<am&
Awareness of the $elf ><!M<CMAA?:
As one2s ractice of the Buddha 9harma deeens one attemts to
maintain a degree of self5awareness and self5ossession all the time&
+raditionally it2s so#en of in terms of awareness of the body and its
movements, of sensations or feelings, of our emotional state, and of
our thoughts& $o a ractising Buddhist is continuously monitoring their
sycho5hysical states& +his is the only way we can transform our
mental, verbal and bodily actions from mere, uns#ilful reactions to
circumstances to creative resonses& +his is the only way we can brea#
out of the reactive attern of conditionality that drives us round and
round in circles5what Buddhists refer to as the 2%heel of )ife2&
+o maintain self5awareness li#e this may sound a tall order& However,
the more you ractise it the easier it becomes4 as with any s#ill in life it
ta#es ractice& Buddhism is an alied ractice4 it2s a voluntarily
underta#en, ersonal training or education rogram& 6ne reason why
we recommend 2(indfulness of Breathing2 as a foundation meditation
ractice is simly because it hels you to become more mindful, to be
able to focus your mind and concentrate& $omething eole are finding
increasingly difficult to do these days& 6ne of the main ob'ectives of
starting a daily meditation ractice is to simly develo more
concentration and mindfulnessJ
$o we try and be aware of ourselves all the time& But not in an
alienated wayJ .ot by steing outside of ourselves and watching
ourselves from the outside& +he danger of this is that we do not
e-erience ourselves5this is alienation& +o be mindful means to fill what
we are observing or what we are doing with our mind&
$ome eole set the alarm on their watch to go off hourly to remind
them to be mindful& $ome times it2s a good idea to do the ractice of
mindfulness more systematically& 7or e-amle, 'ust choosing to be
mindful of the body and its ostures for a day& +his can actually be
done as a formal meditation ractice #nown as (indfulness of %al#ing&
6r you might decide on one articular day >or wee#? to concentrate on
awareness of your emotional states, or seech or thoughts& In other
circumstances it might be more aroriate to maintain a more
anoramic form of mindfulness&
C===
9omains of (indfulness ><DMCM==?:
I2ve been away for the whole of /anuary hence the non5aearance of
this column for that month& 7or a large art of that time I was on a
long retreat in .ew ;ealand& It was an intensive study retreat
>although there was lots of meditation too? and rovided me with a
wonderful oortunity for siritual nourishment and the chance to
deeen siritual friendshis&
+he theme of the retreat was the 2+ranscendental Princile25in many
ways the goal of Buddhism& .o doubt we2ll touch on this issue in
ensuing wee#s& But for the time being we need to finish off our
treatment of mindfulness&
Another four fold model of mindfulness consists of <? awareness of
oneself, through the four foundations of mindfulness5osture,
sensations, emotions and thoughts& +hen e-tending this awareness to
C? awareness of eole, !? awareness of things or the environment,
and finally D? awareness of 8eality&
In this way the increased concentration and sensitivity develoed in
formal sitting meditation ractice is e-tended out into the world and
informs one2s relationshis with eole and the environment& A
ractising Buddhist does not 2cloc# off >or ought not to? at the end of
the eriod of sitting ractice& Instead the awareness is carried over into
these relationshis ma#ing them more sensitive and ethical& Indeed it2s
ossible to relate to one2s immediate environment, defined as what one
is conscious of from moment to moment, in this fashion& 6ne could
describe this as the bottom line of an individual2s environmental
resonsibility& Because if everyone was doing this, that is relating
sensitively, mindfully and ethically with other eole and the
environment, we wouldn2t have social and environmental roblemsJ
An Practical Buddhism course starts at the +oowoomba Buddhist
Centre, ne-t +uesday >CCMCM== from Em5Am? in lieu of the
cancellation of the $HI+ course 2+he Buddhist %ay of Personal 3rowth2&
+he Path of %isdom ><BMCM==?:
+o continue our treatment of the +hreefold Path in Buddhism >Ethics,
(editation, %isdom? we now turn to the %isdom or Insight stage& 6ver
the last few months we2ve investigated Ethics and (editation& %e saw
how the ractice of ethics sets u the right conditions for successful
meditation& (editation in turn sets u the right conditions for Insight or
%isdom& Comlete %isdom in Buddhism is of course e-ressed as
Enlightenment or .irvana and involves what is often referred to as
+ranscendental "nowledge&
Prior to Enlightenment more artial Insights can occur building u to
the bigger icture& Insight is an e-erience, and it yields e-eriential
#nowledge, not mere intellectual #nowledge4 it2s #nown in the heart
and as such is ineffable& +he #nowledge it brings cannot be denoted or
catured through concets or the words of any language& $o in that
sense the e-erience is imossible to describe or cature in words&
+he Buddha did use language to indicate the nature of the e-erience&
Also Buddhism itself has develoed elaborate hilosohies over its
history that attemt to articulate the #nowledge of Enlightenment&
However, the aroach is to gain the e-eriential #nowledge first and
then attemt to articulate it, albeit in a necessarily limited way at the
concetual level& 6ne can2t gain enlightenment by reasoning or
intellectualising about it alone& +his is one of the ma'or differences
between %estern and Eastern hilosohy, with the former believing it2s
ossible to comletely comrehend 8eality through reasoning and the
latter considering it imossible&
According to Buddhism one has to rise to a higher level of
consciousness through meditation and use intuition to directly
encounter 8eality and #now it& +hus meditation is the necessary ste to
see 8eality >hence 2in2 2sight2 5 intuitive seeing?& In fact Insight and
even Enlightenment itself is most simly described in the tradition as
2seeing things as they areJ %e will elaborate on this theme ne-t wee#&
9ue to oular demand there is a ossibility that an Practical Buddhism
daytime course will start as well at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre,
ne-t +hursday >CDMCM== ? in lieu of the cancellation of the $HI+ course
2+he Buddhist %ay of Personal 3rowth2&
$eeing +hings As +hey Are >C5MCM==?:
+raditionally Insight and Enlightenment have been described simly as
seeing things as they areJ +he imlication being that we don2t erceive
things as they are& As the result of a mi-ture of hysiological and
socialisation factors we 2construct2 the world we erceive from an early
age& 7or e-amle, at the hysiological level, we have two eyes at the
front of our heads and so binocular vision is 2hard5wired2 into us and as
a result we can see three dimensionally& +hrough socialisation we are
taught to label and thus searate things with names li#e 2me2, 2you2,
2table2, 2chair2, and so on&
+he end result is that we erceive a world of seemingly searate
henomena sread out in sace& %e erceive ourselves as one ob'ect
searate and aart from all the others& 7urthermore we 2essentialise2
things 5 we attribute ermanent essences or a sense of solidity to the
erceived henomena& 7inally, sub'ectively, we refer certain things to
others& $ome give rise to leasant sensations when we erceive them,
others unleasant reulsion, and others still neutral feelings&
.ow in reality nothing is, as it seems& As modern ecology
demonstrates, nothing e-ists indeendently of anything else& %e
cannot be searated from the air we breathe the water we drin# or the
food we eat& If we are for too long we actually go out of e-istence& %e
can2t be searated even from other eole& %e deend on them for
sychological suort and guidance& 6ur education, our ersonalities
and our self5image are all derived from our interactions with other
eole& (odern hysics also demonstrates that far from being a world
of solid ob'ects it2s all 'ust a constant, dynamic, interactive flu- of
energy and matter&
+he views of modern hysics and ecology are congruent with those of
ancient Buddhism& According to the latter, nothing is ermanent and
nothing is searate from anything else& All there is in 8eality is
imermanence and interrelationshi& (oreover, nothing is actually
better >in the sub'ective sense? than anything else, 'ust different& But
we try and live in the other world that we have constructed thin#ing we
are searate and indeendent li#e other ob'ects and ursuing the ones
we li#e and trying to avoid the ones we don2t and hoing for
ermanence in all our activities& As a conse0uence, because we have
mis5matched 8eality and the erceived world, according to Buddhism,
we suffer 5 that2s 8eality& (ore ne-t wee#&
+he +hree Characteristics of Conditioned E-istence >!M!M==?:
+he real world of henomenon, of which we are a art, is a conditioned
world according to Buddhism& As we saw last wee#, modern ecology
agrees in demonstrating that nothing e-ists indeendently of a set of
conditions >eg&, nutrients, air and water?& +hese conditions ultimately
lin# everything in the natural world together& According to the +eaching
>9harma? of the Buddha this conditioned e-istence has three
characteristics >la#sana?: unsatisfactoriness >du##ha?, imermanence
>anicca? and insubstantiality >anatta?&
)et2s deal with them in reverse order because the second and third
e-lain the first& Insubstantiality follows on from what we2ve 'ust been
saying& It means that in so far as no thing >nothing? or henomenon
can e-ist indeendently of anything else it has no searate,
unchanging, inherent 0uality& .othing is discrete in the sense of having
an indeendently e-isting, self5subsistent, inner essence& Everything
>including us? arises in deendence on a networ# of interconnected
conditions& %hen these conditions cease the henomenon ceases& It is
all a rocess in sace, if you li#e&
Imermanence is li#e the rocess of conditionality in time&
+hingsMhenomena arise in deendence on conditions, e-ist for awhile,
and then cease when the suorting conditions cease& .othing lasts
forever indeendent of this rocess of conditionality through time&
According to the Buddha, human beings are no different4 they do not
have a ermanent, everlasting 2soul2 at the core of their being& +hey
are simly an imermanent and insubstantial flu- of mental and
hysical conditions arising and ceasing& $elf5conscious awareness of
these rocesses >which is also a rocess? deludes us into thin#ing we
have some ermanent essence at the centre of our being&
As we saw last wee#, we try and secure the self we are conscious of by
clinging onto what we erceive as the leasant and reelling the
unleasant& And we don2t want to die4 we2d rather last forever >or at
least a bit longer?& But because of imermanence everything leasant
we cling to doesn2t last, and we can2t forever avoid what we erceive
as unleasant or threatening& Also there is ultimately nothing solid or
substantial that we can cling onto& And so we suffer, which is the third
characteristic of conditioned e-istence& Conditioned e-istence, by its
very nature >imermanent and insubstantial?, can2t rovide lasting
hainess, and so is inherently unsatisfactory in that sense& But that
doesn2t mean, according to Buddhism, that there is nothing, 'ust
annihilation at the end of life& (ore ne-t wee#&
+he 3aining of Insight><=M!M==?:
As we have seen the urose of meditation is to learn to concentrate
so that we can see things as they are& +he world we erceive as reality
is an illusion because we see it as consisting of searate fragments,
whereas >in 8eality? it is all interconnected& 7urthermore, there is a
sub'ective distortion overlaid on this ercetion, which is our seeing of
the world as divided into leasant things and unleasant things&
Another erson may see what you erceive as leasant or unleasant
as entirely different4 it is sub'ective in that sense&
In meditation we go beyond our normal ego5centric form of
consciousness by becoming absorbed in the ob'ect of meditation& In
going beyond the normal self5centred, sub'ective way of erceiving
things we have the oortunity to see things more as they are& In this
way Insight may be gained& %e can see that conditioned e-istence has
three characteristics >la#sana? mentioned last wee#: unsatisfactoriness
>du##ha?, imermanence >anicca? and insubstantiality >anatta?&
%e see through our clear ercetion that all conditioned or worldly
things by their very nature cannot give ermanent and lasting
satisfaction& 7or that we2ve got to loo# elsewhereJ %e also see that all
worldly things are imermanent4 we can2t ossess any of them forever&
Also all conditioned things are insubstantial, only having relative
e-istence& +hey have no absolute, indeendent e-istence& .ow
contemlation of these three characteristics can give Insight into
.irvana, the Unconditioned& +hus they2re also #nown as the three
gateways or entrances to liberation >vimo#sa5mu#ha?&
Penetrating unsatisfactoriness one gains #nowledge that is Unbiased
>aranihita? or ob'ective if you li#e& +hings are not erceived on the
sub'ective bases of greed and aversion, but simly as they are&
7athoming imermanence and emerging as it were on the other side
one gains #nowledge of the Unconditioned as Imageless or $ignless
>animitta?& +his means that nothing can be fro1en and delineated by
words, labels or concets& Plumbing insubstantiality leads to #nowledge
of the Emtiness or *oidness >sunyata? of all things& +hough the three
characteristics are ultimately insearable, one can begin by
concentrating on any one of them&
.irvana 5 +he Unconditioned ><EM!M==?:
+he conditioned world is #nown in Buddhism as $amsara& As we have
seen it has the characteristics of unsatisfactoriness, imermanence and
insubstantiality& As conditioned beings ourselves we can never find
lasting hainess as we try and inflict our sub'ective view of the world
on this shifting mass of conditions in an attemt to secure ourselves&
+he goal of Buddhism is, however, to achieve lasting hainess and this
is to be found in .irvana&
$amsara is, according to the technical terminology of the 9harma, 2ut
together2 or 2comounded24 which are e-ressions of the fact that
ordinary e-istence is the result of conditions& %ith the cessation of
these conditions the henomena they suort cease& $o things come
into e-istence or have a birth, live, and then cease or die& +he %heel of
)ife, which we travel around in deendence on these conditions, is
often deicted in Buddhism as being in the 'aws of the )ord of 9eath&
+his is because it involves a never5ending cycle of birth, life and death&
.irvana is therefore described variously as the 2not ut together2,
2uncomounded2, unconditioned and 2the deathless2J But .irvana or
Enlightenment is not something comletely or absolutely searate or
distinct from $amasara& In fact it is stated in the teaching that .irvana
is in $amsara and $amsara in .irvanaJ Buddhism is not about, as
mista#enly assumed in many circles, some sort of search for and re5
ac0uaintance with an absolute, Universal Consciousness& +hat is far too
abstract and vague&
It is about finding the Unconditioned right in the midst of the
conditioned& It doesn2t e-ist anywhere else& In the words of the Heart
$utra 7orm is no other than Emtiness, Emtiness no other than 7orm4
7orm is only Emtiness, Emtiness only 7orm& /ust as, according to
Chinese Buddhism, one can only delineate fingers as solid forms
because of the saces between them and the saces as such because
of the co5e-iting forms of the fingers4 one can2t have the conditioned
without the Unconditioned& $o .irvana in Buddhism is no further away
than within your own, everyday, conditioned mind&
Human Enlightenment >CDM!M==?:
%ith this article we finish our coverage of the Buddhist +hreefold Path5
Ethics, (editation and %isdom >new directions in buddhism ne-t
wee#?& +o finish off the %isdom section it seems aroriate to say a
few words about Enlightenment& .otice that I have used the e-ression
2Human Enlightenment2 in the title& Humans need ideals from which to
gain insiration& +he ideal erson for a Buddhist is an Enlightened
Buddha& But we can relate to the Buddha because he was born human
and became enlightened by his own efforts&
Enlightenment is described in terms of firstly, ure, clear, radiant,
awareness 5 #nowledge of 8eality which transcends sense5based
awareness 5 it is continuous, non5dualistic and free of confusion&
$econdly, it consists of an intense, rofound, overflowing feeling of love
and comassion for all living things& +hirdly, it2s an e-erience of
ine-haustible mental and siritual energy&
+hese 0ualities of awareness, love and energy are considered to be
germinal in all of us& +hus Enlightenment is considered to be a natural,
ideal, human state& It2s what we2re all striving for to comlete
ourselves& In the (ahayana traditions of Buddhism it2s so#en of as the
Buddha5.ature within all of us, which is simly obscured by our
sub'ective desires and delusions& It is li#e the sun or moon obscured by
clouds& %e need to clear the clouds away or ierce through them to
discover our true nature&
+he rincile tool to achieve this in Buddhism is meditation& By learning
to concentrate and brea# down the dualism of self and other, and to
enetrate through our sub'ective, desire5based distortions of how the
world is, we can reveal this inner nature& 7or most of us, so e-ternally
oriented, this inner 'ourney is one into unfamiliar territory& +hat2s why
we often avoid it& An Introduction to +raditional Buddhist (editation
course will be starting at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre the first
wee# of Aril&
A Buddhist Easter (essage ><=MDM==?:
Easter dates bac# to re5Christian, Euroean agan associations& +his
time of the year in Euroe is sring, so Easter was a sort of 2sring
festival2 symboli1ing a new 2life2, a 0uic#ening after the 2death2 of
winter& +his tye of sring festival occurs in many different cultures
>eg& China?& Also early Christianity was not so much a religion of
dogma as one of the celebration of 2mysteries2 >the Eastern 6rthodo-
traditions still sea# of these mysteries?& +he mystery celebrated is of
course Christ2s crucifi-ion and resurrection& 7rom a Buddhist oint of
view, whilst acceting that the crucifi-ion may have occurred, the
resurrection and ascension >hysically into heaven? of the $on of 3od
are considered to be myth&
+he rimary significance of such a myth >again found in many different
cultures, including the intiation rites of Australian aborigines? is the
notion of siritual rebirth after a siritual death& In the ;en tradition of
Buddhism it2s so#en of in terms of dying the great death before one
can gain Enlightenment and e-erience the 2mystery2 of .irvana& In
fact the word 2resurrection2 means re5birth& +he word 2Easter2 in the
English language is traceable bac# to the Anglo5$a-on word oestre, the
name of a re5Christian British goddess of fertility >as in estrogen?& +he
Easter 2egg2 is also a universal symbol of fertility& +he unbro#en egg
symboli1es new, renascent life and again is found in most religions&
+he Buddha so#e of the Bodhisattva emerging from the eggshell of
ignorance& +he 7riends of the %estern Buddhist 6rder in Britain often
used the egg as an image in its advertising accomanied with the
admonition to 2brea# out2& $o there2s no harm in celebrating Easter
from a Buddhist viewoint as a triumhant emerging of a new mode of
awareness, or of Being, from the oldJ
Buddhist Easter EggsJ ><DMDM==?:
)ast wee# we tal#ed of the universal siritual symbolism of the egg&
+he unbro#en egg is a universal symbol of a new life found in
ractically all religious traditions& 7or e-amle, in Etruscan tomb
aintings dating bac# to <=== BC the dead are often deicted on the
walls of tombs reclining in couches holding an egg in their outstretched
hands, a symbol of their belief that death wasn2t the end, but would be
followed by a new life&
)ast wee# we established that notions of siritual death and re5birth
are a very common form of myth in many different religions and
cultures& And often such myths are celebrated in association with
sring festivals after the death of winter& +he timing of Easter in our
$outhern hemishere calendar coincides with sring in the .orthern
hemishere& 7rom a Buddhist oint of view, the Christian celebration of
the mystery of Christ2s death and resurrection are mythical rather than
literal& +he symbolism of the myth is one of simly brea#ing out of the
old and being re5born in the new& In other words it2s a symbol of
siritual growth&
In Buddhism we encourage eole to brea# out of a sort of #armic eggJ
+he eggshell symbolises the well5worn habits we have built u over our
lifetime that act to define us and confine us& It reresents a ceiling, or
a set of limitations we have laced on ourselves& And there we stay,
inside, erhas retending to be aslee& +he +ibetans say it2s harder to
wa#e someone u who2s retending to be aslee than someone who
really is asleeJ
6ne thing a regular ractice of ethics and meditation does is bring us
to a fuller awareness of the uns#ilful atterns in our life that revent
our growth& Ultimately meditation itself is a tye of siritual death
because it ta#es us beyond our normal e-erience of ourselves& It
hels us to ta#e the ris# of brea#ing out of the eggshell and moving
beyond our self5imosed limitations& Easter is a fitting time of the year
to reflect on this rocess of siritual renewal&
Consumerism and 3reed >C<MDM==?:
+he tendency for greed in human beings is, from a Buddhist oint of
view, deely rooted& %e have established in many revious articles
that an unfortunate by5roduct of our distinctly human trait of self5
consciousness is a sense of aloneness& In a very dee sense this comes
from the e-erience of searation from everything and everyone else
that accomanies consciousness of being a distinct self& In an attemt
to overcome our basic feeling of insecurity we crave the things we
erceive to be attractive and leasurable& %e try to incororate these
things into the world of our ego5identity to secure it& +his tendency is
hard5wired into all of us as human beings& +his constant under5current
of desire and craving leads to attachment and defines in many ways
what we become&
Ultimately from a Buddhist oint of view, these desires and cravings
can not lead to a lasting sense of satisfaction and so they2re referred to
as uns#ilful& +hey are destined to founder on the roc#s of
imermanence5nothing, in the conditioned world, lasts& Craving 'ust
leads down deeer and deeer into a vorte- of never5ending temorary
leasure and frustration& In the famous words of 2+he $tones2 song, I
can2t get no satisfaction& But still we struggle on loo#ing for one more
hit, reoccuied with gaining more and more leasure to ma#e
ourselves feel comfortable&
Unfortunately, the late caitalist societies we live in reinforce this
tendency toward craving for leasure in the e-ternal world& +hey
reinforce this already dee and uns#ilful tendency& Consumerism, which
is so fundamental to the unfortunate economic machine we2ve inherited
from the ast, is all about stimulating unnecessary wants as oosed
to satisfying necessary needs& +he advertising >or ersuasion? industry,
using the concets of %estern sychology, lays a owerful role in
stimulating these wants& +he 3overnment itself endorses the use of
consumerism as one of the ma'or driving force of the economy& %e2re
made to feel guilty if we don2t send more and more& +here seems to
be no limit to what human beings can want& But there does seem to be
a limit to what the environment can assimilate from our discarded
consumerables and the by5roducts of their manufactureJ
+he 3reedy $ociety >CBMDM==?:
)ast wee# we tal#ed of the insidious force of consumerism reinforcing
our dee tendency toward craving and greed& %e are all rone to
craving from a Buddhist oint of view because we feel insecure and
attemt to secure our ego5identity by feeding it with what we erceive
to be leasant things& 6f course these 2things2 include material
ossessions& It2s well #nown in %estern sychology that we actually
identify with a lot of these ossessions li#e cars and clothes4 we adot
roles and resond to fashion trends& At base these all hel us to
establish our status and sense of belonging amongst our eers and the
wider community& +he advertising industry actually lays uon these
human traits and sychological needs&
3reed is defined in one dictionary I loo#ed at as e-cessive desire for
ac0uisitions, ower, fame, wealth, etc& It2s worth going bac# to basic
definitions li#e this because eole seem confused about these issues
these days& Partly this is due to the rise of the .ew 8ight and economic
rationalism in the last few decades, which has so stressed individualism
and cometition, as an almost 2noble2 ursuit +here2s nothing wrong
with healthy self5interest and healthy cometition, but there2s a lot
wrong with them when they become outright selfishness& .ot long ago
a Harvard rofessor of economics coined the hrase greed is good& %e
live in times that emhasise selfishness 5 loo#ing after number one
>numero uno?& Peole have forgotten that in our traditional Christian
societies greed was always considered fundamental to the seven
deadly sins >gluttony, envy, covetousness?J
An unfortunate art of our modern, %estern, materialistic societies is
that they do emhasise e-cessive desire for what is often described as
2unnecessary wants2 as oosed to satisfying our basic needs& +he
central lace of consumerism and materialism in our societies
reinforces a trend toward an e-ternal, leasure5see#ing orientation in
eole and a neglect of the inner world& A sense of inner
imoverishment is a characteristic of modern humans in the so5called
2develoed2 countries& $ooner or later e-ternal gratification fails to
satisfy these inner needs and eole are left with a 2blac# hole2
consuming them from within5angst, unhainess, restlessness,
confusion, suicide5are rife& According to the Buddha 9harma, it needn2t
be li#e this at allJ
Inner Imoverishment >5M5M==?:
+he emhasis on materialism and consumerism in our modern,
%estern societies >and more and more in the rest of the world?, to
continue the theme of the last coule of wee#s, can encourage inner
imoverishment& +hey romote an irresistible orientation toward
e-ternal leasure5see#ing activity as we gras for more and more
material things, be they ossessions or substances& +his e-ternal focus
is all about sense leasure, about gaining leasure through the
stimulation of the five senses&
+a#e +* for e-amle, one of the most ri1ed of material ossessions
these days >and the bigger the better?& It stimulates our strongest two
senses >vision and hearing? in a most owerful way& +he result is that
some eole literally become addicted to it >the well5#nown 2couch
otato2 syndrome?& At the same time it is a very owerful advertising
agent that stimulates our desires for more and more material
ossessions& +hey dance before our eyes resented in the most alluring
fashion to this strongest of the five senses&
$o we tend to live 2out there2 in the e-ternal world of sense ercetion,
#nown traditionally as the #amalo#a in Buddhism& +his literally means
the realm of sensuous desire, or the territory in which we try to secure
ourselves through the desire for sense leasure& +his becomes so
habitual and so familiar, reinforced continuously by the ressures of
our materialistic society, that our 2inner worlds2 or territories become
neglected, unfamiliar, and thus imoverished& +here2s no one at home
there anymore and so it becomes dar#, dusty and full of cobwebs5
deserted and neglected&
In fact, because we are so used to the world of sensory stimulation to
secure ourselves, to shut this down and 'ourney inwards is erceived to
be >or even e-erienced as? uncomfortable& And yet, from a Buddhist
viewoint, whilst e-ternal leasure5see#ing undeniably roduces
leasures of one form or another, they don2t last, they don2t ta#e us
anywhere& )asting hainess in contrast is an inner e-erience&
Buddhist ractice, esecially meditation, is a direct way of building this
and freeing us from outer addiction&
Buddhism and $ustaining the $elf ><CM5M==?:
+he word 2sustainable2 is very fashionable these days5it basically means
to maintain or to ma#e last& It may seem strange that Buddhism could
be interested in building a sustainable self& Peole often thin# of it as
being about going beyond the self, or even destroying the self >in the
sense of the ego?& But actually it2s very much about building and
becoming a healthy, sane self as well& @es, Buddhism is in many ways
about self5transcendence5but how can you transcend yourself if you2re
not a self in the first laceK
(ore to the oint, in terms of recent articles, there are a lot of
unsustainable selves around these days& Peole are confused,
uncertain, deressed and suicidal& Australia along with countries li#e
the U" and U$A vie year in and year out for the highest youth suicide
rates in the world& And this is occurring in the industrialised, late
caitalist, so5called, 2more develoed2 countries& Along with other
symtoms it indicates that all is not well in our societies in their current
form&
+o commit suicide is the oosite of sustaining the selfJ +he reasons for
it amongst the young >and old? are of course comle-& +he issue of
inner imoverishment mentioned in the last coule of articles is
undoubtedly one of the factors involved& %e2ve so#en of how a
materialistic, consumerist society encourages an e-ternal form of
leasure5see#ing, which in turn leads to a neglect of the inner world&
$ooner or later the leasure see#ing becomes stale and leads nowhere&
%hen it does eole have nothing to fall bac# on, nothing inside to
sustain themselves& In such an e-ternally orientated society we have
lost the s#ills of how to enter within ourselves, to communicate within
and to engage within& %e aren2t trained in develoing a ositive,
fulfilled 2inner2 sense of self&
+his need not be the case& +he Buddhist +eaching >Buddha 9harma?,
for e-amle, is very ractical about this issue& In many ways Buddhism
is a form of training or education that shows you how to enter within
and build a very ositive, stable home caable of withstanding all the
fluctuating and insecure currents that brea# against us in this >or any
other? eriod of uncertain times& (ore on this issue ne-t wee#&
Buddha 9ay ><AM5M==?:
)ast +hursday the +oowoomba Buddhist $ociety >+B$? celebrated
%esa#, the ma'or Buddhist festival of the year& It commemorates the
birth, Enlightenment and death of the Buddha and is usually held on
the first full moon day in (ay >%esa#, or *isa#ah, being the name of
the month in the Indian calendar?& 8egarding the birth of the Buddha
the +B$ noted that it is a relatively rare event for a Buddha to be born
into a world system considering the enormous time san involved in
the evolution and destruction of these systems, which is counted in
aeons >#alas?& $o for us to be born within a mere C,5== years of one
is fortunate indeed&
.ote how I said 2one2, because traditionally the historical Buddha
>usually referred to as 3autama or $ha#yamuni Buddha? is not
considered to be the only one to have been born in the ast& It2s also
considered that there will be Buddhas arising in future times and
worlds& 7urthermore, the teaching of 3autama Buddha, the 9harma,
which he discovered through his Enlightenment e-erience, is
considered a#in to a universal law that each Buddha 2re5discovers2&
3autama Buddha, in his own words said: Even so, mon#s, have I seen
an ancient ath, an ancient trac# traversed by the erfectly
Enlightened ones of the ast&
+he scritures have described the Buddha2s ersonality as a uni0ue
combination of dignity and affability, wisdom and #indliness, ma'esty
and tenderness& His serenity was unsha#eable, his self5confidence
unfailing and he was always mindful and self5ossessed& He faced
oosition and hostility, even ersonal danger, with the calm and
comassionate smile that has lingered down through the centuries& In
debate he was urbane and courteous, but not without a vein of irony&
+he Buddhist Centre at C! Bridge $treet is holding an oen day,
combined with a garage sale, ne-t $unday >CBth (ay? from <=am on&
Buddhist +heory and Practice >CEM5M==?:
(any of us in the %est are attracted to the hilosohy of Buddhism&
%e are the roducts of a culture that has e-tolled the intellect in the
last coule of centuries as the rincile way of 2#nowing2& And yet it is
an a-iom of Buddhism that one must go beyond the intellect to fully
comrehend the +ruth& +he hilosohy or teaching is meant to act 'ust
li#e a raft, according to the Buddha& Its sole urose is to ferry one
across the river, to hel one negotiate the currents of life to get to the
safe refuge of the other shore >.irvana?& It2s a means to an end&
/ust as it would be foolish to stay in the raft being buffeted by the river
currents, if one is truly see#ing safety and eace, so too it2s silly to 'ust
lay around with the hilosohy& +o get to safety, to 2see2 the +ruth,
one must activate a different mode of #nowing& 6ur intellect or reason
wor#s by fragmenting, dividing, delineating, labelling and
concetualising& It cannot see the whole icture because by its very
nature it focuses and fragments and relaces 2things as they are2 with
words, thoughts and concets& +hese latter are constructs of the
thin#ing mind that borrow the ideas and mental formulae of the culture
we have been conditioned by to model the reality of the world&
A model is not the reality& +o see the reality we have to go beyond the
intellectual mind to the intuitive mind that enters into what it2s
addressing and #nows it directly from within& Intellectual #nowledge is
2second5hand #nowledge2, intuitive 2first5hand2& +his re0uires ractice
and it is this ractice, this alied wor# that all the Buddhist hilosohy
and teaching is ointing toward as the necessary rere0uisite to gain
safety and eace& %e are so enamoured with the intellect that we find
it very difficult indeed, even when we have understood the intellectual
message, to go beyond it and ut the message into ractice& In
essence, according to Buddhism, we need to ractice ethics and to
meditate& 6nly the ure in heart and the concentrated can see things
as they are&
A new four5wee# course on bringing together hilosohical theory and
ractice in Buddhism is starting ne-t +uesday night >E5Am? the Ith
/une at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre&
9rugs, Ecstasy N Buddhism >CMIM==?:
+he word 2ecstasy2 is commonly associated these days with a drug of
that name& However, the word itself has much more ancient origins and
much more rofound imlications than the modern day association& It
derives from )atin and 3ree# roots >li#e 2e-2 and 2stasis2? basically
meaning to 2be outside where you stand2 or 2stand outside2 your normal
state of being& +he modern meaning of the word imlies being
overwhelmed or ulifted by leasurable emotion so strong that you feel
you2ve gone beyond your normal sense of self >in this sense, outside of
it?& $o its use can still be related bac# to the original meaning&
%hy do eole ta#e drugsK Is it because they are see#ing this intense
leasure, see#ing ecstasyK Is the attraction so strong that they2re
willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious negative effects that will flow
on from drug ta#ingK If so, why is that the caseK 9oesn2t that imly
that they2re not hay with their resent circumstances, their resent
state of beingK And why is thatK +hese are the sorts of 0uestions that a
Buddhist ersective raises on this issue& Buddhism is about ending
suffering and to do this seriously, comletely and successfully >in other
words, to be 2fair din#um2 about it?, the dee underlying origins of the
symtoms must be addressed&
6ver the ne-t few issues we are going to e-lore some of these
0uestions& +he first thing Buddhism does not do is 2write eole off2&
+his is because it #nows that no matter how uns#ilful you have been, if
you ut the right conditions in lace, you can change5comletelyJ It
does not have a fi-ed view of human nature& Human nature, li#e
everything else in this conditioned world, is sub'ect to change& 3reat
anger can be transformed into great love&
7urthermore, Buddhists themselves are actively see#ing to go beyond
their resent state of being& 9efined in this way there is nothing wrong
with see#ing ecstasy& 6ne could argue that dee down we all are&
However, it all deends where and how you see# it& +o see# it in a
chemical, the effects of which 0uic#ly wear off, and which damages
>oisons? your body, is not satisfactory from a Buddhist oint of view&
%e2re interested in a more ermanent, less damaging form of ecstasy&
(ore ne-t wee#&
Addiction and the .ew Buddhist Centre >AMIM==?:
7rom a Buddhist ersective, all human beings are troubled by a dee
insecurity& +his is because we e-erience ourselves as searate from
everything else 5 an unfortunate, but inevitable, by5roduct of human
consciousness& $elf5consciousness, that distinctly human trait, gives us
all our wonderful creative owers, but it also ma#es us feel incomlete&
%e e-erience ourselves as ultimately alone, slit5off, fundamentally
ill5at5ease and vulnerable&
+his underlying e-istential dilemma is dee, so dee in fact we may be
unaware of it, but it2s there nonetheless and it drives us on and on in a
0uest to find some sort of ultimate security& E-ternal factors may
e-acerbate and deeen this insecurity5how we2re brought u >for
e-amle, our self5esteem?, our education, social forces li#e ressure
from our eers, the seed of change, uncertainty, unemloyment and
so on& But in the end the insecurity is inside us and it acts as a
owerful, but largely unconscious, driving force&
%e can2t escae this force5we2re all driven by it, including Buddhists&
But, according to Buddhism, there is a genuine way and a bogus way
of satisfying itJ +he bogus way is to become attached to, deendent
uon, and eventually addicted to e-ternal leasure5see#ing& +here2s
nothing wrong with en'oying leasure, the roblem is when our need
for it becomes neurotic, driven by the dee insecurity& $ome things we
get addicted to, li#e chocolate or clothes are relatively harmless, others
li#e drugs are very dangerous indeed& Also the leasure is short lived,
stimulates further neurotic desire and suc#s us into a vorte- of never
ending frustration&
+he genuine way forward to achieve security in Buddhism is to solve
the roblem at its source& +o begin by learning to 2enter within2 and
build a sound, unsha#eable latform of calmness, ositive emotion,
serenity, confidence and security that can withstand the e-ternal
buffeting and en'oy leasure without becoming neurotically attached to
it&
Entering %ithin ><IMIM==?:
Addiction can be thought of as a misguided see#ing& As mentioned in
revious articles, we2re all see#ing a tye of 'oy that transcends
everyday reality >ecstasy?& Human beings have a dee need for this
tye of e-erience& %e turn to it for security in this uncertain world
and times, and to fill the siritual vacuum within& +he mista#e is that
we see# it in the e-ternal world and in material substances& +he more
we do this the more we neglect the inner world and the more
unfamiliar it becomes& Ironically, the more we loo# for leasure and
hainess in the outside world the more intense the vacuum or
emtiness within becomes&
8unning from the void within, engaging in 2dislacement activity2, leads
nowhere, e-cet 2u the garden ath2& Also the leasures of the
e-ternal world are short5lived, tend to increase desire >and therefore
frustration?, and if deendent uon drugs are downright dangerous& In
star# contrast, it is ossible to enter within, to become familiar with our
inner world, to build a ositive felt5relationshi with ourselves, to feel
calm, eaceful, content and strong& It2s even ossible to start li#ing
yourselfJ And not only that but to feel this self5li#e 0uite strongly, even
in a hot5blooded sort of way&
6ut of this can come a sense of inner fulfilment and nourishment& As it
does the vacuum within, the 2gnawing2 sense of emtiness, disaears&
+he word 2fulfilment2 suggests filling the emtiness till it becomes full 5
fulfilledJ 3radually we become at ease within ourselves and our
deendency on e-ternal things and 2chea2 thrills lessens& As with
anything worthwhile this does not haen overnight and it re0uires
guidance >as oosed to mis5guidance?& (editation is a very owerful
aid to this rocess and thus overcoming addictions&
Addiction versus Hainess >CIMIM==?:
%e are all see#ing hainess aren2t weK But what is hainessK 7rom a
Buddhist viewoint hainess doesn2t necessarily mean feeling elated
with 'oy& All too often elation is not only short lived but it collases into
its oosite5we go to e-tremes& Hainess seems to have more to do
with a lac# of inner conflict, an absence of guilt, and a feeling of inner
contentment5a more balanced, serene state&
Perhas that2s too tame, not intense enoughK But what would you
rather have, intense thrills now and then that inevitably disaear and
leave a craving for more, or a more steady, ersistent state of serenity,
calmness and contentmentK Buddhism does not deny that there is
leasure to be had in life, but simly oints out that it2s transitory,
ehemeral& If you get attached to it, deendent uon it, addicted to it,
you are going to get frustrated and suffer because it is transient, it
doesn2t last& $o in the Buddhist tradition one is advised to en'oy
leasure li#e lic#ing honey from a ra1or2s edgeJ +o be fully aware of the
dangers that come from being addicted to something that doesn2t last&
+he leasure is undeniable but it doesn2t lead anywhere& If you do
become attached or addicted you become a slave to the ob'ect of
desire, suc#ed into a vorte- of craving, frustration and unfulfilment&
+he more we give into these cravings the stronger they become and
this leads to a state of agitation, restlessness and an-iety& 6ne needs
more and more and you get angry when the desire becomes frustrated&
6ne begins to comromise one2s ethics and morals and the end result
of all of this is guilt, inner conflict and restlessness5a state of constant
discomfort&
It2s actually the oosite of what we defined as hainess& A more
lasting state of hainess is achievable by entering within and building
it u within the core of one2s being by ractising meditation and ethics&
Courses in 2entering within2 >meditation and mindfulness? are held
regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC?& +he Centre is
loo#ing for bigger remises at the moment as demands for it services
grow&
C==<
Buddhist 8etreats >5MCM=<?:
I2m 'ust bac# from retreat& (ost serious Buddhist ractitioners go on
long retreats regularly& I try and ma#e a oint of going at least twice a
year, in the middle of the year and in /anuary& +hey reresent an
oortunity, as the word ,retreat, imlies, to leave the ,mundane,
world behind for awhile to give yourself the oortunity to renew your
ractice in ideal conditions and to e-erience where youOre at yourself
more deely& Usually the retreat centres are in 0uiet, natural settings,
which in themselves are conducive to siritual renewal& +he retreat I
went on was for two wee#s and because it is for eole who have
as#ed for ordination involved 0uite a lot of study as well as meditation&
7or beginners we usually run wee#end retreats that start on 7riday
night and finish on $unday afternoons& +hey2re designed to be a gentle
introduction and usually emhasise a articular theme associated with
meditation andMor reflection& %e have run several of these in
+oowoomba at one of the local Catholic schools retreat centre& +hey2ve
been very successful& 6ther retreats are longer, usually ten days, for
eole who feel u to it, and tend to be run in other centres including
$ydney, (elbourne and .ew ;ealand& +hese retreats may be mi-ed or
single5se-&
Again, when one is ready for it, solitary retreats are highly
recommended to e-erience oneself even more deely4 at the moment
we are loo#ing for a suitable site in the +oowoomba region& /ust being
on retreat in a lovely situation, meditating daily and mi-ing with
siritual friends has an ulifting effect& 6ne definitely e-eriences a
higher, more refined state of consciousness& IOve certainly come bac#
feeling more rela-ed and insired& 6f course, then the art is to try and
maintain this as you renters the mundane world, for you are hit by the
coarseness of this world as soon as you leave the retreat& +he seed,
the noise, the aggression, the ramant consumerism and so on& +he
ractice of loving5#indness towards self and other >metta bhavana ? is
very valuable in this regard&
A new si-5wee# Practical Buddhism course is starting at the
+oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? within the ne-t two wee#s&
In0uiries regarding courses and activities can be directed to the +BC at
DI5A EEI= or our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Entering the $tream ><CMCM=<?:
A model for siritual ractice I often suggest at the +oowoomba
Buddhist centre >+BC? is #nown as the +hreefold Path 5 the Path of
Ethics, (editation and %isdom or Insight& Each of the stages deends
on each of the others they sulement each other 5 you really need to
ractice all of them, not 'ust one of them& 6f course the aim of
Buddhism is to become Enlightened to escae the delusion that binds
us through attachment to the conditioned world& 6nly by fully de5
conditioning ourselves can we achieve total freedom .irvana& +hen we
can live in the midst of the conditioned world unconditionally, not
deendent on the condition of attachment to desires that we use to try
and maintain our security&
%hilst Enlightenment may be a fair way over the hori1on, in the
meantime we can lunge into the stream that will inevitably lead us
there& As has been ointed out in the last several articles in this
column, once our regular ractice begins to brea# us out of the ull of
the conditioned, we can increasingly rely on being drawn on
sontaneously by the ull of the Unconditioned, the siritual& +his ull
is often li#ened to a great river emtying into the ocean& %e2re
standing alongside that river and in the beginning of our siritual
'ourney usually 'ust tiing our toes in the water&
%e could say that the distance from the oint where we are standing to
the edge of the river corresonds with the first stage of the ath, the
stage of ethical ractice& +his needs to be traversed before we can dive
or >wade? into the river& 6nce we2ve ta#en the lunge the distance from
the edge of the river to midstream corresonds to the second stage of
the ath, the stage of meditation& 6nce we2ve reached midstream and
begin to feel the mighty force of the current flowing toward the ocean,
we 'ust have to abandon ourselves to it4 this is the oint of $tream5
entry, the oint of no return& And the distance form there to the ocean
itself is the third stage of the ath, the stage of wisdom& A new si-5
wee# Practical Buddhism course is starting at the +oowoomba Buddhist
Centre >+BC? on +uesday evening the <Ath of 7ebruary C==<& In0uiries
regarding courses and activities can be directed to the +BC at DI5A
EEI= or our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Practical Buddhism:
A new day5time, si-5wee# 2Practical Buddhism2 course starts at the
+oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? on +hursday the C<st 7ebruary
<=am5<Cnoon& +hese courses are for eole who want 2to #now2 more
about Buddhism before erhas e-loring it more& It2s clear that
interest in Buddhism is increasing in the %est& 6ur centre is art of a
ioneering movement that is heling Buddhism sread and adat to
%estern culture 5 and adat it must, as it always has when it moved
into a new culture& 7or e-amle, it adated 0uite significantly when it
moved from India into China, because the Chinese civilisation was so
develoed&
$imilarly, as it moves into the %est, it is encountering for the second
time a highly develoed civilisation& +o survive in this %estern conte-t
Buddhism has to evolve ast its traditional Asian forms& As they e-ist
at the moment they are too difficult to assimilate for the vast ma'ority
of %esterners, who tend to see them as curiosities, or are attracted to
their e-oticness& But if you want to really change and grow
sychologically and siritually you cannot byass your own %estern
sychological and cultural conditioning& All of us brought u in %estern
cultures have been deely, unconsciously, conditioned by its cultural
forces such as Christianity, scientific rationalism, utilitarianism,
materialism, commercialism, democracy, intellectualism, individualism
and the doctrine of rights, to name a few&
Part of the sread of Buddhism into the %est involves an information
e-losion on it >for e-amle boo#s, +* rograms, the internet?& %here
there is lots of information there is the also the danger of ill5informed
views and oinions and simly 2getting the wrong end of the stic#2& $o
the 2Practical Buddhism2 course offered at the +BC goes bac# to the
core teachings of the Buddha >which have become #nown as 2Basic
Buddhism2?, that all ma'or traditions share at their heart& +hese include
formulae li#e +he 7our .oble +ruths, +he Eightfold Path, +he +hree
Characteristics of Conditioned E-istence, +he )aw of Conditioned Co5
roduction, the nature of the human condition and the origin of
suffering& +he course is rimarily designed to clarify views and clear u
misconcetions through discussion and e-osure to eole2s different
oints of view& It is also taught in a clear %estern style of e-ression
and English& 7or information lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddhism and $ociety >C!MCM=<?:
+he teachings of Buddhism have always been alicable to society at
large as well as the individual& @ou can2t ever really fully searate the
individual out from society, so you can2t tal# about individual growth
without ta#ing into account the state of the society& +he historical
Buddha himself had much to say on these matters and was what we
would call today a social reformer&
/ust as the ultimate aim for the individual in Buddhism is to see#
Enlightenment, so too Buddhist social olicy >if we can call it that? is
centred around creating societies that foster siritual develoment&
+his is the bottom line4 this is where society should be heading& +his
may sound overly idealistic but I would argue that its not& In fact I
would say that to have such an aim is realistic because it e0uates with
what, erhas at a retty dee level, eole really want, and need& +he
institutions of government and olicy ignore this at their own eril& It is
dangerous for them to do this because human nature will rebel if their
needs arent metJ
$o the ultimate aim is to create a society that hels siritual growth, or
at least recognises this as a core value of society& (oving bac# from
this ultimate ideal, an 2enlightened2 society at least recognises the
imortance of facilitating the sychological and cultural growth of its
citi1ens& However, it is no use tal#ing about these lofty ideals if eole2s
basic needs of water, food, clothing, shelter, hygiene, health, education
and meaningful wor# are not being met& +here is a hierarchy of
eole2s needs and you can2t satisfy the higher ones when and if the
basic ones are not being met& +his is where Buddhism starts&
%hen we e-amine current olitical and social olicies in Australia >and
in many other so called 2develoed countries2? we have to say that from
a Buddhist ersective they are sadly lac#ing& +hey certainly lac# an
ideal vision for the society for a start& Also I thin# its fairly safe to say
that they have become overwhelmingly and unhealthily obsessed with
economic matters& +hey emhasise and concentrate on matters solely
that ertain to the 2economy2 5 that abstract entity that no one, from
leading economists to oliticians, really understands anymore 5 and
neglect the more concrete, basic needs of human beings& Peole,
citi1ens, the electorate >being human beings? will not ut u with this&
+he signs are everywhere that they are indeed very 2fed u2 with the
current economic obsession& (ore ne-t wee#& 7or en0uiries about
courses and activities at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? can be
directed to the +BC at DI5A EEI= or our website at
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba& An oen dayMgarage sale is lanned for
sunday (arch <<th&
Buddhist $ocial Policy >CM!M=<?
In the last article we introduced the idea that Buddhism has a social
ersective as well as a siritual one& In fact you can never really
searate these two asects from each other& %e ointed out that the
focal oint, therefore, of a Buddhist social olicy is to try and create
social conditions that foster Enlightenment or at least siritual
develoment& However, it is recognised that eole2s more basic
>survival? needs have to be met as a necessary condition before
siritual develoment can be a realistic goal&
+he trouble with the overwhelming orientation towards economic olicy
that seems an 2obsession2 of contemorary government olicy is that it
doesn2t recognise these broader needs of human beings& "arl Polyani in
his boo# +he 3reat +ransformation >ublished in the <AD=s? ointed
out that one of the unfortunate by5roducts of caitalism is that it
turns eole into mere commodities and resources to be aortioned
at the whim of mar#et forces& Prior to the industrial revolution and the
advent of caitalism, Polyani claims that earlier Euroean societies
were organised more around co5oeration and stability >eg& the guild
system?&
%ith the advent of international trade, industrialisation and laisse15
faire caitalism in the <Eth and <Bth centuries, the mar#et lace
became the dominant forces within society& +he Euroean countries
and the Americas had to deloy caital and labour into their new
industries and mar#et their roducts through trade to maintain their
comarative economic advantages over each other& +his is what Polyani
meant by +he 23reat +ransformation2& A transformation from a situation
where societies were organised to meet human needs on a more
cohesive, co5oerative basis to one in which cometition dictated by
mar#et forces was emhasised&
)oo#ing at contemorary society one can only conclude that nothing
much has changed& Cometition and mar#et forces alone, from a
Buddhist ersective, do not create societies that meet eoles
broader human needs, let alone foster their siritual develoment&
En0uires about courses and activities at the +oowoomba Buddhist
Centre >+BC? can be directed to the +BC at DI5AEEI= or our website at
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba& +he oen dayMgarage sale mentioned in
last wee#2s column has been ostoned till Aril due to the +oowoomba
$how where we hoe to have a stall&
+he Unfamiliar $elf >AM!M=<?:
+he other night, in the Practical Buddhism class that is being run at the
+BC currently, we were discussing the nature of self& %e were tal#ing
about how eole become overwhelmingly identified with their
interactions and relations with things in the 2outside2 world& +hings li#e
ossessions, belongings, fashions, friends, grous, beliefs, roles,
0ualifications, status, our rofession or 'ob, and so on& %e use these
e-ternal orientations or interactions to define ourselves, in fact, to
define our identity&
7urthermore, we use their 0ualities or characteristics to distinguish us
from others, to set ourselves aart& Creating our identity also involves
actively 2identifying2 with these things4 that is, e0uating our 2self 2 with
their 0ualities& +o ut it simly, we use these e-ternal relations to give
our self an identity, and then 2identifying2 with the identity becomes a
owerful way of creating and maintaining that sense of self&
But aren2t we 2inside2 tooK Isn2t there an inside world too and where is
our self thereK Here I thin# we become less certain, less sure of our
ground& %e #now the e-ternal dimension of ourselves 0uite well
because we identify so comletely with them they2re more familiar& But
trying to define or describe ourselves from the inside is a lot less
familiar& +he situation has been li#ened to trying to describe a hole in a
iece of wood& +he easiest way is to describe it in terms of the colour,
te-ture and shae of the wood that surrounds it ,it is a brown, round,
smooth hole,& +he hole2s identity >so to sea#? is derived in this way
from the wood around it& But is this really the holeK +he hole is actually
'ust emty saceJ
$o it is with our self& Is the self really all those e-ternal things we
identify withK 6r is it what is inside of themK How familiar is that to usK
%e all agreed in our chat at the +BC that the inside art of ourselves
was not very familiar to us and li#e anything unfamiliar erhas a bit
frighteningJ In some ways it is li#e a hole a sort of emtiness or sace
or even a vacuum& How easy it is for our consumer5driven economy
and society to lay on this and drag us along with it as we fall rey to
all the advertising, because we identify with it& )ess so if we are 0uite
comfortably at home or resident within& +he Chinese have a saying:
,Are you a guest in your own house4 or are you the hostK, 7or
en0uiries about courses >on entering within? and activities at the
+oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? can be directed to the +BC at DI5A
EEI= or our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
How %e Create 6ur $elf ><IM!M=<?:
As well as maintaining our 2self2 by identifying with our e-ternal
relationshis with things 5 ossessions, rofessions, friends, fashions,
beliefs and so on 5 we create ourselves from within with our own
minds& +he human mind is caable of loo#ing into itself or bending
bac# on itself +echnically this ability is #nown as refle-ivity& +his term
shares its meaning with the more common use of the word 2refle-2
describing the rocess of nerve imulses moving from a stimulus to the
central nervous system and then bac# out to a muscle&
Humans are not 'ust aware, they2re aware that they2re awareJ +his is
the mind bending bac# on itself or loo#ing into itself& +he awareness of
something being aware roduces our e-erience of self5hood 5 it is in
fact self5awareness& %henever we thin#, our minds retreat inwardly in
a sort of self5referencing arc& %e can close our eyes and consciously
thin# about ourselves or analyse ourselves& %e can loo# bac# into our
memories and construct a sense of our ast, or we can imagine
ourselves in some future situation >try it?& +his is often called
2reflection2, another word that shares its meaning with refle-ive&
Actually, our mind is doing this bending bac# on itself or referring bac#
to itself all the time& @ou could describe it as a rocess of self5
referencing& +his self5referential rocess is haening continuously and
very fast so that it is largely unconscious& %e2re not aware that we2re
doing it >unli#e when we2re consciously reflecting?& %e2re continually
remembering our self, imagining our self, thin#ing about our self,
generating feelings about our self, forming attitudes toward our self,
and so on& +hat is why we have e-ressions li#e 2ositive or negative
self5image2 or 2low self5esteem2& +hey refer to ersonal e-eriences
roduced by these self5referencing arcs within our own minds&
In this way, according to Buddhism >and other Eastern traditions?, the
mind 2manufactures2 its sense of self& But actually there is no real selfJ
.o self, that is, in the sense of some indeendently e-isting entity,
outside of this rocess& +here is simly the rocess of continuous self5
referencing, which is haening so fast that it2s analogous to a
cinematic film& +he film actually consists of a great number of single
sna shots which when ro'ected onto a screen give the imression of
a continuous event& Each of our mind2s self5referential arcs is li#e a
sna shot which form a series haening so fast we thin# that what
they2re ro'ecting >the e-erience of a self? is a continuity 5 a solidly
e-isting and indeendent entity& But, actually, 2%ho am IK +he one who
as#ed the 0uestion, or the one about whom I as#ed the 0uestionK2 7or
en0uiries about courses >on entering within? and activities at the
+oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? can be directed to the +BC at DI5A
EEI= or our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
3oals in Buddhism >C!M!M=<?:
+he goal of Buddhism is usually described as Enlightenment or .irvana&
+hese are rofound states of being because they involve comlete
freedom or emanciation from the rocess of conditionality& @ou are no
longer at the mercy of these conditioning forces, which are acting on
us all the time& It2s difficult to imagine being comletely free from the
rocess of conditionality in a conditioned world& +his is one of the
reasons .irvana and Enlightenment are described traditionally as
states of being that are incomrehensible to the ordinary, intellectual
mind& @ou can only e-erience them&
In this sense, therefore, Enlightenment may be thought of as a long
way off& In articles over the last coule of wee#s we2ve described
another, more ro-imate goal #nown as $tream5entry& +his is where
you have actually bro#en away from the forces of conditionality to such
an e-tent that you2re guaranteed to eventually achieve Enlightenment&
+his in itself is a retty ma'or goal& But what about in the meantimeK
%ell Buddhism ma#es this guarantee: if you ractice it sincerely and
correctly then you will see results immediately, or at least within five
minutesJ Buddhism teaches that you will definitely see results in this
lifetime& @ou don2t have to wait until after death to rea the fruits of
your siritual ractice&
7or e-amle, if you are utight and you sit down and do a meditation
ractice li#e the mindfulness of breathing you will become calmer& If
you start to meditate and ractice ethics on a daily basis, and you #ee
it u, you will definitely e-erience a change for the better in your
overall state of consciousness: you2ll become more tran0uil and haier
5 guaranteedJ In fact for most eole coming on the courses offered at
the Buddhist centre this is a realistic, initial goal: to become a saner,
healthier and haier human being& (ost eole agree that this is a
worthwhile starting oint& +he +BC is running a stall at the +oowoomba
$how ne-t wee# and then after Easter we2re starting a new
Introduction to (editation course& En0uiries can be directed to the +BC
at DI5A
3iving ><MDM=<?:
)ast wee# we tal#ed of a basic aim of Buddhism in the %est being to
hel eole become saner, healthier human beings asa first ste on the
way to Enlightenment& +he old roverb srings to mind that a 'ourney
of a thousand miles begins with the first ste& Enlightenment may be a
thousand miles away, but whatever you do you won2t get there till you
ta#e that first coule of stes& +he Insight into 8eality that is at the
heart of Enlightenment doesn2t arise till you have become a more
concentrated and haier erson& $o the first stes are usually about
doing things to hel you become more tran0uil and emotionally more
ositive&
+hat is why in Buddhism the ractical ath starts with ethics& If you
ractice an ethical lifestyle you become haier& +his sort of hainess
isn2t a 2high2, or an e-treme state li#e elation& It2s much simler& It2s
the feeling tone associated with the absence of inner conflict, guilt or
shame& @ou have eaceful mind and e-erience contentment& Unethical
lifestyles roduce the oosite: inner conflict, guilt, remorse and
usually the restlessness associated with comulsive craving& $erious
Buddhists ractice a minimum of five ethical recets in their lives& But
the Buddhist ath often starts with something even simler still&
+he first ste is often the ractice of 2giving2 or generosity& $o if
ractising say five ethical recets is too much for you can start with
this simle rincile of dana or giving& +his 0uality of generosity is
something that stri#es %esterners when they visit traditionally
Buddhist countries in Asia& Peole are always giving each other gifts&
+his 2giving2 is something sadly lac#ing in our societies& %e try and
teach children to share, but don2t do it ourselves as adults& %e often
feel embarrassed and don2t #now how to resond when someone gives
us something: it2s unfamiliar to us& 6ur lives have become so
individualistic, so insular that, if anything, we try and rescue ourselves
from the insecurity this has roduced by hoarding our own material
ossessions, which is virtually the oosite to giving and sharing&
+he beauty of giving is that it is something you can do easily and
straight away& It2s not comlicated and it2s something ractical that
anyone can do& And it will have an ulifting effect on your mind& It also
sets u and reares the ground for a more thorough ractice of
ethics& 3ive it a try& A new Introduction to (editation course is starting
at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre on +uesday evening >E5Am? Aril
CDth& En0uiries can be directed to the +BC at DI5A EEI= or our website
at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$imly Hay >IMDM=<?:
+hrough the ractice of Buddhism it is ossible to change from an
unhealthy, neurotic, unhay state to a healthy, hay, human one&
6ften 'ust to achieve this is the starting oint for many eole who
wal# through the doors of a Buddhist centre& )ater it2s ossible to climb
ast this oint and become a 2very2 hay human being e-eriencing
an uninterruted stream of higher levels of consciousness& Actually it2s
interesting to reflect on this a bit more& +here is the suggestion in
Buddhism that we accet far too low a level of consciousness as our
normal one, and that in fact this low level is not the normal, natural,
human state&
Children are often seen to be in a very hay state, and indeed in
many traditions it is encouraged to 2become li#e a child again2& +hat is
not to say that this is a articularly 2siritual2 state because, even
though hay, children are often, if not usually, very self5centred& .o,
what we are tal#ing about here is simly a natural, human state of
hainess that is available to all of us& +his state is often romantici1ed,
as well, as erhas tyical of earlier humans in the so5called rimal
societies& %hen we tal# of hainess in these senses we2re usually
tal#ing about things li#e being care5free, sontaneous, ta#ing 'oy from
living in the resent, laying, laughing and so on&
+he higher states of consciousness accessible through meditation are
#nown as the dhyanas in Buddhism and traditionally there are eight of
them& .ot only can one e-erience them through meditation but also
you can live in the first one as your normal everyday consciousness&
+hey are so#en of as 2higher2 simly because they are haier, more
concentrated and more refined than our normal consciousness, which
tends to be distracted, emotionally stormy, and rone to craving and
aversion&
A new Introduction to (editation course is starting at the +oowoomba
Buddhist Centre on +uesday evening >E5Am? Aril CDth& Also a
daytime course Practical Buddhism is being roosed to start on
+hursday CIth Aril <=am5<Cnoon for those of you at home during the
day& En0uiries can be directed to the +BC at DI5A EEI= or our website
at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddhist Easter (essage ><IMDM=<?
According to the dictionary 2Easter2 was named after the 6ld English
3oddess of 9awn& 9awn or sunset occurs in the east, and in fact the
origins of the word share this connotation of the word 2east2, as in East5
er& 9awn is obviously the start of a 2new2 day and the ancient festival of
Easter is associated with fertility and renewal& In the northern
hemishere the timing of the festival is sring 5 the eriod when new
life aears after the death of winter& $o imlicit in the celebration are
ideas of fertility, rebirth, new5ness and change&
According to Buddhism we tend to have a fi-ed view of our self and this
is one of the biggest hindrances to growth& +he ideas associated with
Easter can challenge this& 6ur fi-ed view of our self is our habitual
accetance of our resent e-erience of 2our2 self as being unchanging
and ultimate& %e can2t believe that we can change, can become a new
self& 6ur whole culture is based on the materialistic view that things
are fi-ed and unchanging& Alied to ourselves we have sayings li#e 2an
old dog can2t change its sots2 and so on&
%e are so familiar, so used to ourselves, so used to thin#ing of
ourselves in a certain way& %e thin#, 2+his is (e& I2ll always be li#e this:
I may change a bit but I2ll still always be the same old me&2 %e 'ust
can2t believe that this $elf, this (e, this 2I2 as we are e-eriencing it
here and now, can ever be comletely changed, transformed,
transfigured 5 consumed as it were by fire, so that out of the ashes of
that old self a new self can arise& %e refuse to accet that this can
haen even once: let alone many times& Ancient celebrations li#e
Easter challenge this way of thin#ing& +hey are, therefore& a useful
oortunity to 2celebrate2 the fact that self change is ossible&
A new Introduction to (editation course is starting at the +oowoomba
Buddhist Centre on +uesday evening >E5Am? Aril CDth& Also a
daytime course Practical Buddhism is being roosed to start on
+hursday CIth Aril <=am5<Cnoon for those of you at home during the
day& En0uiries can be directed to the +BC at DI5A EEI= or our website
at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddha 9ay >!M5M=<?:
+his month we celebrate %esa# a ma'or festival celebrated all over the
world by Buddhists& It usually haens on the day of the full moon in
(ay >%esa# or *eas# is the name of the month in the Indian calendar?&
9uring this day eole celebrate the birth, Enlightenement and death
of the Buddha, thus it is also commonly #nown as ,Buddha 9ay, 5 we2ll
be celebrating it at the +BC on (onday night ne-t&
Usually we tend to thin# of ,the Buddha, as 3autama Buddha, the
historical Buddha born in our time >c&5I!BCE?& But actually he is ,a
Buddha, indicating the fact that that there is not one Buddha but
many& In fact 3autama Buddha himself said to his followers: 2(on#s, it
is 'ust as if a erson wandering through the 'ungle, the great forest,
should see an ancient ath, travelled along by men of former times &&&
$o also mon#s, have I seen an ancient ath, travelled along by fully
Enlightened 6nes of former times &&& And what is that ancient road,
that ancient ath travelled along by fully Enlightened 6nes of former
timesK It is 'ust the .oble Eightfold Path &&&2 >$anyutta .i#aya, <C, I5?&
It is 0uite commonly #nown in (ahayana and +heravadin Buddhist
countries that 3autama Buddha, although historically uni0ue,
cosmologically sea#ing is 'ust one of a long line of Buddhas, ast
resent and future& In fact it is considered that this articular #ala
>Aeon? 5 an infinitely long eriod incororating the e-istence of a
universe >infinite numbers of universes coming and going according to
Buddhist cosmology? 5 that we live in haens to be a ,3reatly
Ausicious, one >mahabhaddha5#aa? in which five Buddhas come
into the world& +hose of the ast were "a##usandha, "onagama,
"assaa, 3autama, and the future Buddha being (etteya >$#t&
(aitreya?& +he attainment of Enlightenment is a constantly reoccurring
event in the universe 5 the rediscovery of a universal law& A Buddha is
someone who rediscovers it and teaches it to others&
An 6en 9ayM3arage $ale will be held at the +BC >D +horn $treet,
+oowoomba? on $unday the CEth (ay <=am 5 Cm& All are welcome&
7or en0uiries about courses and activities being run at the +oowoomba
Buddhist Centre contact the +BC on DI5A EEI= or our website at
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Becoming (ore Positive ><=M5M=<?
In an article a coule of wee#s ago we mentioned the fact that through
the ractice of Buddhism it is ossible to change from an neurotic,
unhealthy, unhay state to a healthy, hay, human one& 6ften this is
the starting oint for many eole who wal# through the doors of one
of our Buddhist centres4 and this is often a rovisional aim of the
courses we offer at the centre& If you #ee u a basic Buddhist
ractice, namely the ractice of Ethics and (editation, then you should
get haier 5 guaranteed& If you are not, you are doing something
wrong, something that is not a truly Buddhist ractice&
Usually it is a case of simly not #eeing it u on a regular, daily basis&
$ometimes it2s because we want sudden, dramatic changes and we2re
not being atient enough with ourselves& +he ractice wor#s slowly and
incrementally and maybe we don2t notice the changes, but they are
haening& %e live in times where the 20uic# fi-2 and gross highs are
emhasised& It is well #nown in natural healing that it often ta#es a
slow, incremental rocess over time for us to become unwell& +o heal
2naturally2 also ta#es a slow, steady, small ste5by5ste rocess& $o we
have to be atient with ourselves and not unrealistically e-ect
dramatic, overnight results&
If you do #ee u a basic ractice you will definitely e-erience results
for the better& $ome of the symtoms are the following: an e-erience
of an inner eace characterised by an absence of inner conflict, guilt
and more contentment4 loss of interest in 2sitting in 'udgement2 on
yourself and others4 an unmista#able ability to en'oy the moment4 a
loss of the tendency to worry4 ta#ing delight in the ordinary4 a
tendency to thin# and act more sontaneously4 rolonged eriods of
feeling hay for no aarent reason& )ater it2s ossible to climb ast
this oint and become a 2very2 hay human being e-eriencing an
uninterruted stream of higher levels of consciousness& Increasingly we
find ourselves having to ma#e allowances for unforseen ositive
events&
An 6en 9ayM3arage $ale will be held at the +BC >D +horn $treet,
+oowoomba? on $unday the CEth (ay <=am 5 Cm& All are welcome&
7or en0uiries about courses and activities being run at the +oowoomba
Buddhist Centre contact the +BC on DI5A EEI= or our website at
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
BU99HI$( .6+ A PA.ACEA:
%ith the fashionable interest in Buddhism these days one gets the
imression that there is a erhas overly5romantici1ed ercetion of it
out there 5 that Buddhism is a anacea or cure5all4 a sort of magic
otion& $ome of the boo#s on Buddhism tend to aint a rosy, 2sugary5
sweet2 version of the teachings& %hat they say about the 9harma is
true but there is usually not much real ractical guidance on how you
ut it into effect in your life& $o the writings seem somewhat
latitudinous and suerficial&
7or the 9harma to wor# it has to be ut into effect in one2s life& It2s not
enough to 'ust read boo#s about Buddhism and to thin# how
interesting or rofound the hilosohy is, or how comforting the noble
sentiments are that it esouses& In reality the ractice of Buddhism
re0uires a lot of effort and 0uite hard wor#& Conventional religion has
been criticised as an 2oiate of the masses2 as something we can drug
ourselves with, as it were, or comfort ourselves with instead of facing
u to reality& +raditional Buddhism is the direct oosite to this4 it2s
about facing reality s0uarely in order to truly escae from suffering& $o
it is not for the faint5hearted, or those deluding themselves by
ro'ecting onto it something that it2s not& In the %est we are all too
good at first unrealistically utting something u on a false edestal
and then, when it doesn2t live u to our ro'ections onto it or our miss5
ercetions of it, we tear it down, usually having totally missed the
oint&
+he ractice of the 9harma re0uires effort, wor#, training, study,
education, meditating a lot of 2doing2& 6ne who 2ractices2 the 9harma
ractices ethics as training rinciles, ta#es recets, and #ees u a
daily meditation ractice day in a day out& 6f course this wor# is not
without its rewards and leasures4 if it wasn2t we wouldn2t #ee it u&
But it does re0uire constant effort a life without effort is ultimately one
of escaism&
.ew si- wee# courses starting in /une at the +BC are, Practical
Buddhism on +uesday evening <Cth /une E5Am and +raditional
(editation during the day +hursday <Dth /une <=am5<Cnoon4 en0uiries
to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Aims 6f the Buddhist Column ><EM5M=<?:
I thought it might be a good idea to discuss some of the aims of this
column on Buddhism, as it2s been going a coule of years now& By and
large the feedbac# from readers has been ositive and suortive&
Peole have reorted things li#e, for e-amle, the articles sar#ing of
some hoe or a bit of insiration for them when life has seemed
somewhat meaningless of late& %hen the 2$tar2 ran a cometition not
long ago for a boo# on Buddhism they said the resonse was good& 6f
course, inevitably, from time to time one also gets negative comments&
An obvious aim of this column is to inform eole about the nature of
Buddhism, what may be for many an 2alternative2 traditional of siritual
develoment& +o do this we draw on 2Basic Buddhism2& +his is the core
teaching or hilosohical formulae that are shared by all Buddhist
traditions and go bac# to the Buddha himself& 8elated to this is a
concern to clarify the Buddhist teaching, #nown as the Buddha
9harma, because there are all sorts of mis5concetions about the
teachings out there& A lot of eole read boo#s about Buddhism
>indeed it has become 0uite fashionable? or study it on their own, and
it2s ossible for misunderstandings to arise, or to read into it a
meaning, which isn2t actually there& 9iscussing these ideas in a study
grou with someone who has more e-erience than you can hel bring
such matters to light& +o foster this tye of interaction is one of the
main functions of our study grous and they seem to go 0uite
successfully in this regard&
A more fundamental aim is simly to try and hel eole& +o rovide
the reader with some ractical advice on how to draw on traditional
Buddhist teachings in a way that ma#es them relevant to dealing with
the comle- and roblematic asects of living in modern, %estern
societies& $o the aim is to hel eole grow sychologically 5 in a word
become haier 5 and siritually& (ay all beings be hayJ
An 6en 9ayM3arage $ale will be held at the +BC >D +horn $treet,
+oowoomba? on $unday the CEth (ay <=am !m& All are welcome& 7or
en0uiries about new meditation and hilosohy courses starting in /une
at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre contact the +BC on DI5A EEI= or
our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$reading the 9harma !<M5M=<:
+o sread the 9harma >the +eaching of the Buddha? has always been
considered imortant in Buddhism& But this is not trying to convert
eole to Buddhism4 actually you can2t convert eole to the 9harma,
they can only convert themselves& +his is because it emhasises trying
the teaching out in your own life to see if it wor#s, not blindly believing
in some doctrine& It is offered to eole as a gift, because it can hel
eole clarify their thin#ing and guide them in their ractice&
%e2ve 'ust finished another si-5wee# meditation course at the +BC
attended by si-teen eole and five eole doing a daytime course on
Buddhist hilosohy& +he feedbac# from both courses has been very
ositive indeed& 6n the Hueen2s birthday long wee#end we2re running a
three day retreat for a mi-ture of beginners and those more
e-erienced in meditation& 6ur wee#end retreats are usually from
7riday nights to $unday afternoons, so this one will be a little longer
>by re0uest?&
6ur aroach on retreats is not to overload eole with too much
meditation initially4 also we rise at around I&!= am or Eam for the first
sit of the day& %e feel that meditation must be en'oyable otherwise
eole won2t #ee it u& 9oing too much too intensely on a retreat can
end u with eole barely surviving the retreat rather than coming
away insired to #ee u a ractice& )ater on as they become more
e-erienced the length and intensity of meditation is built u on ten
day and two wee# retreats in other centres&
+he +BC is also running its first in5service training seminar for some
do1en or so teachers of the $tudy of 8eligion in +oowoomba schools
ne-t (onday afternoon at the centre& +he theme is 2Issues in
Contemorary Buddhism in the %est2& It2s 0uite common for high
school students to do a ro'ect in year <C on Buddhism these days and
as a conse0uence we2ve had a lot of students visit our humble centre
over the last coule of years& $o the 9harma sreads& .ew si- wee#
courses starting in /une at the +BC are, Practical Buddhism on +uesday
evening <Cth /une E5Am and +raditional (editation during the day
+hursday <Dth /une <=am5<Cnoon4 en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$elf5Awareness .ot /ust +hought ><DMIM=<?:
%e were discussing in one of our classes recently 'ust how much we
identify the mind, or self5awareness, with thought& In other words, we
tend to e0uate self5awareness with thin#ing about ourselves& In the
%est we seem less used to moving our awareness inside in a non5
thin#ing way, whereas in the East there is a long tradition of this&
Basically we thin# a lot about everything about ourselves and about
other things& It has become a sort of filter through which we relate to
the world 5 analysing, interreting, and ma#ing 'udgements&
In fact there is a oint of view that we thin# too much& I seem to recall
that it was 8& 9& )aing who coined the hrase the 2athology of over5
thin#ing2& %e also live in a culture that has elevated the intellect to the
main, or even the only, way of gaining #nowledge& $o it2s no wonder
that we are rone to using the intellect as our way of relating to
everything& However, the intellect is limited& 7or e-amle, can you
really 2#now2 yourself by reasoning about yourself alone& +he reasoning
mind by its very nature slits itself into the 2reasoner2 and the thing
being reasoned about& As# yourself the 0uestion ,%ho am IK, Are you
the one as#ing the 0uestion or the one about whom the 0uestion was
as#ed4 or are you the one who 'ust as#ed that 0uestionK
In reality thin#ing is only one asect of self5awareness4 furthermore, it
is ossible to be self5aware without thought& It is ossible to direct
one2s self5awareness, or mind, within >or onto anything for that
matter? and e-erience oneself directly& @ou can e-erience your felt
bodily sensations and your emotions directly without reasoning about
them or analysing them& @ou can even e-erience your thoughts
without thin#ing about themJ +he ractice of meditation deeens an
individual2s ability to use this other, non5thin#ing asect of self5
awareness& Courses on Buddhist meditation and hilosohy are running
regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct
en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddhism in the %est >C<MIM=<?:
+he Buddha 9harma must e-ress itself through the culture in which it
finds itself neither comromising with it nor ignoring it& At the same
time it must remain Buddhism, faithful to the sirit of the tradition&
+hroughout its history this has been its way& As Buddhism sread from
India to $outheast Asia, $ri )an#a, China, /aan, "orea and +ibet the
essential teachings were e-ressed in new ways in the new language
and culture& Its different schools are not so much e-clusive, rival sects
but the resonse of the Buddhist tradition to new climates and
temeraments&
%hat is essential about Buddhism is beyond secific times and
circumstances& It is universal in alication, caable of e-ressing itself
wherever there are conscious beings& In this sense it is no more
Eastern than %estern and is as relevant today as at any time in the
ast& However, the modern west resents circumstances never
encountered by it before& Aart from its entry into China, Buddhism
has never encountered such a highly develoed culture& It would be
naPve of it to ignore this heritage and if it did it would have little
aeal& 7ew would be reared to discard their own culture comletely
to adot that of a /aanese, +hai or +ibetan wayof life& Indeed those
who do erhas hunger after the e-otic and are disenchanted with
their own culture&
+here are also other features entirely new to Buddhism in the %est& 7or
e-amle, in Asia Buddhist institutions, ractices and teachings evolved
within agrarian monarchies& +his form of established Buddhism can2t be
directly transosed into %estern civilisation, which is so thoroughly
secular, industrialised and urban& 8eal Buddhism in the %est must
e-ress the essentially timeless, traditional teaching in a way that
communicates to eole in the %est today& Courses on Buddhist
meditation and hilosohy are running regularly at the +oowoomba
Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
.on5E-istence of $elf >CBM=IM=<?:
At the heart of the Buddha2s Enlightenment was his insight into the
)aw of Conditionality& +he fact that every single henomenon in the
universe has evolved through a gigantic networ# of causes and
conditions& Everything we encounter is but a temorary erturbation of
energy and matter in a vast web of interconnected conditions stretched
out infinitely over time and sace& 6ne henomena deends for its
e-istence on the roerties of another henomena& Everything we
encounter can be analysed and reduced to the conditions that roduce
it, sread out over sace and time&
7or e-amle, this comuter I2m word rocessing on doesn2t wor# with
out the electricity it is using, and that comes from a coal5fired
electricity lant, which burns coal that comes from the earth and was
formed three hundred thousand years ago by vast geological events in
the earth2s history& It also comes from the glass and lastic and the
human ideas that invented and created this technology, and it doesn2t
wor# without human fingers dancing around on the #ey5board and
mouse& Everything in this conditioned world is contingent& Everything
we #now I$ .6+HI.3 in itself4 it has no e-istence aart from the many
conditions that ma#e it ossible it I$ those conditions& (odern hysics
and ecology says much the same thing as the Buddha said two
thousand five hundred years ago&
However, because we have self5consciousness we e-erience ourselves
as searate from everything& As a result we feel incomlete, alone,
insecure& But actually we are insearable from the environment around
us& +a#en to its e-treme imlication this means we do not e-ist as we
thin# we do that is, we are not a comletely indeendent e-isting self&
In fact the imlication is that we, as we normally thin# of our selves,
do not ultimately e-istJ 9ee in our hearts we seem to #now this but
we reress it and crave to be& $o on the one hand we feel searate and
incomlete, on the other, we #now we2re not searate and therefore
don2t ultimately e-ist& +he result is a very dee sense of e-istential
an-iety and discomfort that fuels a 0uest for security& As $ha#eseare
said: ,+o be or not to be, that is the 0uestion&, Courses on Buddhist
meditation and hilosohy are running regularly at the +oowoomba
Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
9harma 9ay >DMEM=<?:
)ast wee# we celebrated 9harma 9ay at the +BC whilst it2s was being
celebrated around the world on or near the night of the full moon in
/uly& +his festival celebrates the first ublic utterance by the Buddha of
the 9harma after his Enlightenment& +he discourse he gave is now
#nown as the 9hammaca##aavattana $utta 2$etting the %heel of the
9hamma in (otion2& +he significance to the Buddhist is that in his 7irst
9iscourse the Buddha made again available the Highest +ruth, a
Universal and +ranscendental +eaching&
A Buddha is actually someone who re5discovers the 9harma and
reveals it again for the first time in that articular era& +he recent,
historical Buddha >3autama Buddha born c&5I! BC? described it as li#e
finding an ancient rac# that had been overgrown in the 'ungle, and that
others had trodden this trac# before him& +he 9harma itself is based on
a universal law the )aw of Conditioned Co5roduction that all things
arise in deendence uon a comle- ne-us of conditions& Although
what is rediscovered is erennialthat articular Buddha e-resses it in
his own terms& 6ther Enlightened beings that follow become
enlightened as a result of learning from the Buddha& $o although they
share the enlightenment e-erience, a Buddha is different in that he
has discovered the truth for himself& But all enlightened beings can
become Buddhas& %e use the festival to ersonally reflect on the
significance of the 9harma coming into the world& (any eole in the
sangha and many eole who come to the courses we run at the +BC
are very drawn to the 9harma& I have seen it insire them, answer
0uestions, give them eace of mind& (any eole reort that when
they encounter the 9harma it2s li#e coming home& I have seen the
9harma have a soft, steady and rofound imact on eole and bring
about unmista#able ositive change, right here in the +oowoomba
community& 6n occasions eole e-ress gratitude for the oortunity
of having been introduced to the 9harma& I have e-erienced the
benefits of the ractice of the 9harma myself and simly can2t go ast
itJ
%henever the 9harma has entered into a culture it has had a rofound
effect on it for the better& +his can give hoe to us as we witness its
raid sread now in the %est with all its social and environmental
roblems& %e consider it fortunate to be born so close to the advent of
the Buddha and to be ioneers in the sread of the 9harma in
Australia& Courses on Buddhist meditation and hilosohy are running
regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct
en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
8ight *iews ><<MEM=<?:
6ne of the ways we secure ourselves is with our views& By this I mean
our oinions, beliefs and values& %e often comletely identify with our
beliefs and blindly believe in them& +he fact that eole use their
beliefs, say religious beliefs, to maintain their ego5identities is one
reason why eole are so defensive about them& If we criticise or
0uestion their beliefs it2s as if we2re attac#ing their very e-istence&
6ne of the imortant teachings that the Buddha is credited with is the
recognition that most of our views, beliefs and oinions are actually at
base simly rationalisations for us following our sense desires& In other
words, they are in fact elaborate constructs, which we create and use
to 'ustify to ourselves our doing 'ust what we want to do& $o for this
reason the clarification of views is considered very imortant in
Buddhism& Also, when we study the 9harma on our own it is ossible
to misunderstand it, or read something into it that isn2t there, or twist
it around to suitourselves&
+his is articularly the case these days with so many boo#s around on
Buddhism and the fact that it has become 0uite fashionable in the
%est& 6ne often encounters, when teaching the 9harma these days,
the fact that eole studying Buddhism want it to be what they want it
to be& 8ather than ta#ing it on its own terms they twist it into
something that suits them& Another e-amle of rationalisation and
what we call wrong views in Buddhism&
$o grou study and discussion >even debate? is an imortant art of
the Buddhist ractice to try and dig out and gradually eradicate these
wrong views, which can lead to confusion and suffering& 8ight views
hel lead to clarity and hainess& +raditionally, views are evaluated in
Buddhism by seeing if they ma#e reasoned sense, elicit an intuitive
resonse, and if their validity can be tested out in e-erience& Courses
on Buddhist meditation and hilosohy are running regularly at the
+oowoomba Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct en0uiries to DI5AEEI=
or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
+he Benefits of Practicing Ethics >CMBM=<?:
6ne of the reasons a Buddhist ractices ethical recets is so he or she
can concentrate effectively in meditation& @ou see there is this simle
relationshi recognised in Buddhism between being hay and being
able to concentrate& +he haier you are the better you can
concentrate and vice versa& 6ne way of #eeing hay is ractising an
ethical lifestyle of non5violence, generosity, loving #indness,
contentment, s#ilful seech and mental clarity&
+he tye of hainess this roduces is not some form of susect
elation, but rather a steady eace of mind with an absence of conflict
and guilt& +he mind of a erson living uns#ilfully, dominated by craving,
anger, aggressive seech and mental confusion, is not at eace 5 it2s
not calm and still, it2s stirred u by these mental states& @ou can2t
describe such a mental state as a hay one&
+he more you ractice ethics the more at ease you feel with yourself&
@ou2ve overcome uns#ilful mental states, you feel hay, triumhant,
more 2together2, more balanced, more satisfied with yourself& +he
Buddha said in one of his discourses you would feel within yourself ,an
unmi-ed ease,& And this sense of ease 'ust gets deeer and deeer&
@ou feel more whole, more comlete in yourself& @ou2re able to coe
better4 you feel you have more strength, more confidence, and more
integrity and so you are less fearful&
@ou now act in a consistent way, you2re not carried away by
distractions or uns#ilful mental states, or uns#ilful actions or words
you2re in control of yourself& @ou feel that you are the host in your own
house, not a guest& It2s very simle really this connection between
ethics and hainess& A new si-5wee# Practical Buddhism starts at the
+BC on +hursday morning August Ath <=am5<Cnoon lease direct
en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
(oney and Buddhism >AMBM=<?:
+he Buddha in his time gave lots of ractical advice on social relations&
6ne of the most famous accounts is the $igala#a $utta: 2+o $igala#a
Advice to )ay Peole2& $ome of the material in it indicates that in
Buddhism there is no rohibition against accumulating wealth& In one
art the sutra says4 ,+he wise man trained and discilined gathers
wealth 'ust as the bee gathers honey, and it grows li#e an ant5hill
higher yet& %ith wealth so gained the layman can devote it to his
eole2s good&,
+he #ey thing in Buddhist ethics is your motive& $o ma#ing money is
6", or not, deending uon whether your motive is greed, ower,
delusion, on the one hand, or generosity, heling others and clarity of
urose, on the other& +raditionally in Buddhist Asia the heads of the
family accumulated wealth to hel suort the family, and this in
situations in which there was no social service system as a bac# u&
+his is still very much the case today and often wealthy Asian
businessmen lead 0uite frugal lives&
+here is nothing wrong in earning money, for e-amle, by roviding a
genuine service for eole& +hus Buddhism is not necessarily against
business, as I susect some eole may assume& It certainly is of
course critical of greedy, e-loitative business4 but there is certainly a
role for ethical business& $ociety couldn2t wor# without businesses
laying a role& %e2re interested at the +BC in setting u team5based
8ight )ivelihood businesses that give Buddhists >and others? the
oortunity to earn a living and at the same time ractice ethics&
In the same $utra the Buddha also gave advice on dividing one2s
wealth >or income? into four arts: one art to ,en'oy at will,4 two
arts to ,ut to wor#,, for e-amle to run the home4 and one art
should be ,set aside as reserve in times of need >in modern terms to
earn interest or invest?,& +here are still vacancies for anyone interested
in 'oining the Practical Buddhism course that started this wee# on
+hursday morning <=am5<Cnoon4 contact the +BC at >=E? DI5AEEI=&
Habit +endencies ><IMBM=<?:
+he 9hammaada is a collection of ractical advice from the Buddha
gathered it seems from direct disciles to reserve what they2d heard&
It2s a sort of ready reference guide or handboo# on a whole range of
issues and is very widely #nown and read in the Buddhist world& It2s
only fitting that we should draw on its advice from time to time& *erse
<C< says: ,9o not underestimate uns#ilful actions, thin#ing, 2+hey will
not effect me&2 A water5ot becomes full by the constant falling of
dros of water& $imilarly the siritually immature erson little by little
ma#es himself uns#ilful&,
+hat2s what haens according to the Buddha 9harma& )ittle by little
our everyday actions accumulate and cut a trac# in our consciousness
building u habit tendencies uon which future reactions to similar
circumstances tend to run& +hese habit5tendencies are #nown as the
sams#aras or #armic tendencies& 7or e-amle, a erson who
reeatedly gives way to anger gradually builds this into their character
and this has conse0uences for others and bac# on the erson, such as,
an-iety, ris# of heart disease and other ailments&
*erse <CC says: ,9o not underestimate s#ilful actions, thin#ing, 2+hey
will not effect me&2 A water5ot becomes full by the constant falling of
dros of water& $imilarly the siritually mature erson little by little
ma#es himself s#ilful&, Because it is easy to follow a well5worn reactive
ath of stimulus and resonse, harmful sams#aras are easy to form
and get traed in& $o the Buddha e-horted eole to actively
encourage the resonses that do not come easily love, forgiveness,
atience, comassion in the face of hatred& Uns#ilful habits are strong
but s#ilful ones are 'ust as strong this what the two verses are saying&
%e always have a choice& If we do not shae our own lives our
sams#aras will shae them for us& Courses on Buddhist meditation and
hilosohy are running regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre
>+BC? lease direct en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$to and 8ealise >C!MBM=<?:
(editation in Buddhism is classified into two main tyes $amatha and
*iassana& $amatha ractices aim to develo tran0uillity, concentration
and integration& *iassana aims to develo Insight into reality& +he
relationshi between the two is that to see reality or, as it is
traditionally e-ressed, ,to see things as they are,, you need to
achieve concentration& In our normal, everyday level of consciousness
we don2t see things as they are& %e see the world dualistically, our self
as searate from everything else, and everything disconnected from
each other&
%e also find some ob'ects leasant and other unleasant >what is
leasant or unleasant for one erson may be different for another?
and this leads to a sub'ectively distorted way of seeing things& In
reality, nothing is searate or disconnected from anything else and
things are neither leasant nor unleasant they 'ust 2are2& $o our minds
are actively engaged in creating this dualistic, fragmented and
sub'ectively distorted view of the world& +hey are stirred u with
thoughts analysing and interreting the ob'ects and they are reacting
with sub'ective emotions of craving and aversion toward the things that
are erceived as leasant or unleasant&
$uch a mind is not calm or concentrated4 it tends to be agitated and
distracted& $o concentration is the first ste in seeing things as they
are and this is the function of samatha ractices li#e mindfulness of
breathing& +hey get you to 2sto2& +he ne-t thing is to 2realise2 and this
is the function of the viassana ractices& A tyical viassana ractice
is to become very concentrated and then to focus on an asect of
reality such as imermanence and to really 2see2 this haening around
you and in your own mind& If you do really 2see2 it then Insight arises
and goes dee into your heart and changes you forever& +his is
realisation& Courses on Buddhist meditation and hilosohy are running
regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre >+BC? lease direct
en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
"arma >!=MBM=<?:
%e at the +BC have 'ust been on a wee#end retreat the study theme of
which was #arma& %hat we discovered was that #arma is a comlicated
toic& +here is also a lot of misunderstanding around about 'ust what it
really is& 6ften the word is emloyed to ma#e it mean both action and
the results of action& But technically the word #arma means action, and
a searate e-ression, #arma5via#a or #arma5hala, is used to
indicate the results of action&
+he basic rincile is that actions have conse0uences& But it is not a
form of fatalism or divine retribution in the Buddhist tradition& 6nly
willed actions of body, seech or mind have conse0uences for us4
involuntary actions do not constitute #arma and thus will not bring
about the results of #arma& +his doesn2t mean that such actions
roduce no results at all4 the unintentional act of droing a bric# on
your foot certainly hurts as much as if you did it intentionally& %hat it
does mean is that unwilled actions do not modify character&
"arma, or acts of will, in the ast >including ast lives? inevitably
results in leasant or ainful results& However, and this is one of the
most common misunderstandings, a leasant or unleasant e-erience
in this life is not necessarily the result of #arma& According to the
Buddhist law of conditionality it may have been roduced by other
causes, for e-amle, oerating on the inorganic, organic or
sychological level& It also may have been the result of #arma4 but this
is only acceted if it cannot be e-lained by conditionality oerating in
these other areas& Courses on Buddhist meditation and hilosohy are
running regularly at the +oowoomba Buddhist centre >+BC? lease
direct en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Actions have Conse0uences >5MAM=<?:
6ne of the eole in our current meditation course at the +BC raised
an interesting oint the other night& %e were tal#ing about dealing with
the hindrances mental states that arise whilst meditating which hinder
becoming concentrated& +here are certain traditional antidotes you can
aly and the very first one, once you2ve become aware that you2re
caught u in a hindrance, is to consider the conse0uences& Consider
the conse0uences, that is, of staying in that uns#ilful state of mind, for
e-amle, anger or ill will& +his erson said that she thought that we did
not tend to do that much in %estern culture consider the conse0uences
of our mental states&
It2s an interesting oint really& +he whole of the Buddha2s teaching
hinges around the notion of conditionality or causality& %e in the %est
can haily aly this rincile of conditionality or causality to the
observable world around us, in the realm of hysics, chemistry and
biologyMecology& But Buddhism says it also alies at the sychological
level and the volitional level, the latter being the mental area of
decision5ma#ing, choices, and so on& +hat is not so familiar to us in the
%est&
8eally that is all the antidote to the hindrance is saying& +hat if you
create certain mental states and motivated by them you ma#e certain
choices and decisions and act on that basis then this chain of mental
conditions or causes is going to roduce further conditions or
conse0uences, li#e actions, which will come bac# on you& $o it is a
good idea to consider what the conse0uences will be on you and others
before acting on the basis of a certain mental state& Anger can have
dire conse0uences on you ranging from unoularity and heart disease
through to revenge, feuds and rison& .ew courses on Buddhist
meditation and hilosohy will be starting at the +oowoomba Buddhist
centre >+BC? after the school holidays4 lease direct en0uiries to
DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
6n Hatred ><!MAM=<?:
After the dreadful events of last wee# it seems unavoidable to ma#e
some sort of relevant comment& In Chater < of the 9hammaada, the
words of the Buddha are e-ressed as follows: ,Hatred can never ut
an end to hatred in this world only loving5#indness can& +his is an
unalterable law& Peole forget that their lives will soon end& 7or those
who remember, feuds come to an end >verses 55I?&, An unalterable
>eternal? law, says the Buddha& )oo# to wherever long running feuds
and wars are occurring >.orthern Ireland, (iddle East, @ugoslavia? and
one can only conclude this is true& 3eneration after generation is
brought u on hatred and eretuate it along with death and
destruction over centuries&
+his is not to say that those who #ill should not be brought to 'ustice&
6f course not you can2t have eole going around e-terminating eole
on a mass scale anymore than murdering individuals& But to loo# at the
situation truly ob'ectively, that is, free of sub'ective distortions li#e
hatred and re'udice, one becomes aware of all the conditions that mi-
together and roduce the never ending cycle of death, retaliatory
stri#es >revenge?, more deathMrevenge and so on& After initial reactions
of anger and shoc# many eole in civili1ed countries do seem caable
of reflecting on the bigger icture and seeing the comle- origins of
these situations, usually in which their own country has layed a role in
contributing to the roblem&
+he enormous rearations >monetary ayments? that the Allies forced
on 3ermany after the 7irst %orld %ar imoverished the country to the
oint of common eole being reduced to eating horseflesh& +his laid
the grounds for the rise of Hitler and the $econd %orld %ar& +o solve
the roblem at its root the solution based on loving5#indness, as some
oliticians already 2seem2 to be saying, is not 'ust military& It is also
dilomatic, olitical and economic& ,+he world will never be the same
again, has been said many times before& Conditioned e-istence by its
very nature is imermanent, uncertain and insecure4 the way out of
this according to Buddhism is to face this fact s0uarely& .ew courses on
Buddhist meditation and hilosohy will be starting at the +oowoomba
Buddhist centre >+BC? after the school holidays >+uesday Ath 6ctober
E5Am and +hursday <<th 6ctober <=am5<Cnoon?& Please direct
en0uiries to DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
.ew Buddhist Courses >C<MAM=<?:
6ur ne-t si- wee# 2Practical Buddhism2 course starts on tuesday night
the Ath of 6ctober from E5Am& In this course we teach what is #nown
as 2basic Buddhism2& +hese are the core teachings of Buddhism that are
common to all traditions >although they may be buried under a great
deal of cultural accretion?& +hey are also 2core2 in the sense that they
are the teachings that Buddha himself taught from the beginning& +hey
consist of +he Princile of Conditioned Coroduction, the 7our .oble
+ruths, the Eight fold Path and the +hree Characteristics of Conditioned
E-istence&
(any eole are learning about Buddhism these days from boo#s and
the internet& +here is a lethora of information out there4 never before
has so much been ublished in English on the sub'ect& It is very easy
to ic# u misunderstandings or to read a certain meaning into
something which isn2t actually there& $o the beauty of these courses is
that you have the oortunity to discuss these core teachings with
someone more e-erienced than yourself and also, through discussion,
to hear other eole2s oints of view and 0ueries& Peole tend to en'oy
these courses very much&
%e2re also starting an 2Introduction to (editation2 si- wee# course on
thursday morning the <<th of 6ctober from <=am to <C noon& In these
courses we emhasi1e two main meditation ractices 5 the (indfulness
of Breathing and the Cultivation of )oving "indness >(etta Bhavana?&
+he ractices are led, which means you are guided through them, and
last about C= minutes& +he grou discusses how they find each ractice
and raise any 0uestions they wish to& A comrehensive set of notes is
rovided and these are studied to hel eole to set u the right
conditions to ma#e a daily meditation ractice successful& +here is also
lenty of information on the higher states of consciousness accessible
through meditation >#nown as the dhyanas? and advise on how to
handle the mental distractions that inevitably arise& Both courses are
QB5 >or QIC conc&?& If you2d li#e to enrol lease contact the +BC on
DI5AEEI=&
$tu
y and Practice at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? >CEMAM=<?:
Buddhism has always stressed both study and ractice& .othing can
substitute for ractice as in meditating4 but study can lay an
imortant role in clarifying mista#en views and influencing the deth of
insight gained from meditating& +he 2Practical Buddhism2 course
starting ne-t wee# >+uesday Ath 6ctober Em? at the +BC is for eole
2who want to #now2 to inform themselves more about Buddhism& After
describing the human condition and loo#ing at the core teachings
>2basic Buddhism2? it focuses on the +hreefold Path of Ethics, (editation
and %isdom&
+he 2Introduction to +raditional Buddhist (editation2 course starting
ne-t wee# >+hursday <<th 6ctober <=am? is for eole 2who want to
do2& It2s more ractical and is oen to anyone wishing to learn how to
meditate& It does of course adot a Buddhist aroach, which mainly
recognises how imortant it is to set u the right conditions to
meditate& If you get these conditions right meditative states should
arise as sontaneously as an ale droing off a tree when it2s rie&
%e emhasise two ractices that the Buddha himself articularly
emhasised the (indfulness of Breathing >annaanna sati? and the
Cultivation of )oving "indness >metta bhavana?&
7inally on $aturday the <!th of 6ctober a senior order member of the
7riends of the %estern Buddhist 6rder >7%B6?, 9evamitra, who has
been ordained for CE years, is giving a series of four, forty5minute tal#s
on the first chater of the 9hammaada, which is oen to the ublic&
+he 9hammaada is an anthology of verses attributed to Buddha long
recognised as one of the masterieces of early Buddhist literature& It
starts by saying that everything is led by the mind and oints out that
a wise erson heedful of this ma#es the necessary effort to train the
mind& 9evamitra is a very e-erienced sea#er who has given
hundreds of tal#s throughout Euroe, U$A, $E Asia and India& 7or
details of these events lease call the +BC on DI5AEEI= or visit our
website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Choices ><BM<=M=<?:
)ast wee# we had a series of tal#s resented at the +BC by a senior
order member of the %estern Buddhist 6rder, 9evamitra& +he ethical
teaching of the 9hammaada is e-ressed in the first air of verses,
often entitled ,Pairs,, although 9evamitra referred rendering it
,Choices,& +he main oint being made in this very early Buddhist
literary masteriece, is that the mind, through its actions >#arma?, is
the chief architect of one2s hainess and suffering both in this life and
beyond& +he first three chaters elaborate on this oint, to show that
there are two ma'or ways of relating to this fact& A wise erson is
heedful enough to ma#e the necessary effort to train hisMher own mind
to be a s#ilful architect& An uns#ilful erson is heedless and sees no
reason to train the mind&
+he 9hammaada elaborates on this distinction, showing in more detail
both the ath of the wise erson and that of the uns#ilful one, together
with the rewards of the former and the dangers of the latter& +he ath
of the wise erson can lead not only to hainess within the cycle of
death and rebirth, but also to total escae into the 9eathless, beyond
the cycle entirely& +he ath of the unwise leads not only to suffering
now and in the future, but also to further entrament within the cycle&
+he urose of the 9hammaada is to ma#e the wise ath attractive to
the reader so that heMshe will follow it& +he choice osited by the first
air of verses is not one in the imaginary world of fiction& It is the
dilemma in which the reader is already laced by being born& %e can
ma#e of ourselves what we want& 6r be dragged around the wheel of
life in endless reactive fashion& +he choice is ours& 7or details of
courses being offered at the +BC lease call DI5AEEI= or visit our
website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Healthy versus .eurotic 9esire >C5M<=M=<?:
Craving is neurotic desire& Healthy desire is not a roblem in
Buddhism& %e all have healthy desires, for e-amle, hunger, thirst and
se-ual desire& +hey2re instinctive and as such if we didn2t satisfy them
we wouldn2t continue to e-ist either individually >food and drin#? or as
a secies >se-ual reroduction?& +hese desires are rooted in our basic
needs for sustenance as well as affection, intimacy and love& %e need
them satisfied and they can be satisfied 0uite simly 5 when we2re
hungry we eat, or thirsty we drin# and then the desire is fulfilled and it
disaears&
9esire becomes neurotic, or turns into craving, when we 2ro'ect2 onto
the ob'ects of desire a role beyond what they2re actually caable of
erforming& In other words, when we want them to satisfy far more,
say, than simle biological hunger or thirst or se-ual desire& %hen
we2re see#ing to satisfy strong, unfulfilled sychological needs and
desires by using the drin#, or food >or substance?, or se-ual artner for
this end& In this way our inner >sychological? hungers and thirsts tend
to become mi-ed u with our hysical ones& (ore often than not this
rocess haens unconsciously and these tendencies become habitual&
+he end result is that we become attached and addicted to these ways
of trying to satisfy our neurotic desires& But of course the underlying
desires aren2t really being satisfied& +he hysical satisfaction is
temorary and doesn2t satisfy the sychological nature of the
underlying desire& And so we need more and more& 6ne test of
whether we2re neurotically attached to something is whether we can do
without it or not& If we find this difficult then that2s usually a sign we2re
deendent in some fashion&
Buddhism accets that we2re all rone to this tendency, because of our
basic insecurity, till we2re Enlightened& 8ecognising this fact, the
ractice of Buddhism involves develoing sufficient self5awareness to
#now whether we are simly satisfying our natural desires in a healthy
way, or being driven by neurotic desire, which is leading to attachment
and deendency& 7or details of courses being offered at the +BC lease
call DI5AEEI= or visit our website at www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
3etting $tuc# >CM<<M=<?:
$omeone ic#ed u on the notion of getting stuc# in ourselves in a
meditation class this wee#& +raditionally in Buddhism there are ten
fetters or chains that bind us to the conditioned world and revent us
becoming enlightened& +hey have to be bro#en to escae into .irvana&
+he first of them is fi-ed view of yourself or ersonality view& +his is
what we get stuc# in& %e thin# that at the core of our being that we
are what we thin# we are& In actual fact we2re simly referring bac# to
ourselves or #eeing u an inner commentary on this idea of ourselves
all the time& +here is no real core self or nucleus searate from this
rocess of constant introsection&
As we2ve said many times human consciousness is refle-ive 5 it can
bend bac# on itself 5 and it2s this rocess of continuous self5referencing
that gives us the illusion that a solid self e-ists& It2s a bit li#e a cine film
5 we see solid moving ob'ects on the screen but actually the film
consist of a series of still hotograhs that are moving very fast to
create the illusion of solid moving ob'ects& In the same way we #ee u
a rocess of continuous refle-ive arcs or inner commentary 5 we thin#
about ourselves, have feelings about ourselves, we create images of
our self, memories and so on 5 and really that is all we are, a mental
rocess&
+his is not to say that the illusion of self is not useful& 6f course it is&
%ithout it we could not be self5directing, uroseful beings& %e
couldn2t ma#e choices about where to ta#e our lives& But to become
overly attached to this sense of self, to really believe it e-ists as a
solidly e-isting, indeendent entity at the core of our being and to fully
identify with it and cling to it is a dangerous delusion from a Buddhist
oint of view& +he reality is as Buddhaghosa, the great teacher of the
+heravada?, ut it: ,.o doer of the deed is found4 .o one who ever
reas their fruit4 /ust bare henomena roll on 9eendent uon
conditions all&, 7or en0uiries about activities at the +oowoomba
Buddhist centre lease hone us on >=E? 5AEEI= or visit our website
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
)earning to (editate >AM<<M=<?:
+he +oowoomba Buddhist Centre will be holding a daytime meditation
course on $aturday the <Eth of .ovember& It will be run as art of a
wee#end retreat stretching over the wee#end of <Ith <Bth .ovember
and held at the local retreat centre we use in +oowoomba& +he idea is
that beginners can attend the whole wee#end retreat if they wish >cost
Q<== or QB= conc&? or 'ust for the $aturday >cost Q!=?& +he $aturday
activity will consist of two, two5hour sessions from <=am5<Cnoon and
Cm5Dm& +hese will consist of led meditation ractices, discussion and
study on setting u the right conditions for a successful mediation
ractice& In between there will be lunch and an oortunity to e-lore
the surrounds and meet eole&
+he two meditation ractices that will be taught are the (indfulness of
Breathing and the (etta Bhavana the Cultivation of )oving5#indness
>metta?& +hese are two meditation ractices that the Buddha himself
emhasised& +hey aim to develo increasing mental clarity, tran0uillity
and ositive emotion 0ualities badly needed in the world today& +hus
the ractices can also hel establish a basis for starting the rocess of
becoming a sane, healthy human being and more of a true individual&
+he calm and concentration the ractices yield also rovide a basis for
develoing insight into reality ,seeing things as they are, a rocess
sometimes summarised as 2sto2 and 2realise2& If you2re interested in
boo#ing in for either the day course or the wee#end retreat lease
hone the +BC on DI5AEEI= or visit our website
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
8eligions are not all the $ame ><5M<<M=<?:
7rom time to time it is imortant to clear u mista#en views& Buddhism
and the Buddha ut a lot of imortance on this& +he Buddha himself
said that most of our views are rationalisations of our desires how we
want things to be& +hese days we live in societies where there are a
great deal of beliefs, values, attitudes and oinions being e-ressed
through the various media& In can be 0uite confusing for young and old
a li#e&
A common view I come across these days is that all religions in
essence are the same& +his is 'ust demonstrably not true& +hey may
have some similarities li#e some asects of their moral codes but there
are fundamental differences& 7or e-amle, the Buddha was not a 3od&
Buddhism does not start from the remise that a creator 3od started
this world and is all5owerful& +he $emitic religions are based on this
notion 5 that their 3od is the one and all mighty& $ome eole would
oint to this as a fundamental cause of war and conflict throughout
(iddle Eastern and Euroean history and it is still going on right u to
the resent& +he Hindus have a totally different notion of 3od again&
In fact Buddhists consider that there is a fundamental roblem with the
3od5idea and the 3od5religions, as the one Buddhist author describes
them >"& $ri 9hammananda?& In essence they fail to encourage eole
to ta#e resonsibility for themselves and their own moral lives& Instead
they hand this over to some e-ternal agent& +his single oint alone has
very dee and rofound sychological imlications on how an individual
conducts their lives, which it would ta#e some time to elaborate uon&
$ome religions try and deict the Buddha as 'ust another rohet of
3od, li#e /esus or (ohammed or certain Persian mystics in more recent
history& +his is of course a ridiculous notion to Buddhists who don2t
believe in the e-istence of a creator 3od in the first lace& +here have
been many attemts to ortray the Buddha li#e this in attemt to
incororate Buddhism into other religions& +here are also many other
imortant differences between the religions, which we will touch on
from time to time& 7or e-amle, the Buddha e-licitly said his teaching
was a means to an end4 many religions become ends in themselves&
+he notion of Enlightenement is the hallmar# of Buddhism and 'ust
what Enlightenement consists of is very clearly outlined& +he ath to it
that the Buddha outlined is also very clear and is simly not found in
the theistic religions& If you2re interested in courses on Buddhist
hilosohy and meditation we offer at the +BC lease hone DI5AEEI=
or visit our website www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
6ther 8ealms >CCM<<M=<?:
%e were discussing 2other realms2 the other night in our Practical
Buddhism course& +he fact that there are considered to be other
invisible realms and beings according to Buddhism came as a surrise
to some of the students& +he Buddha mentioned that there are thirty5
one lanes of e-istence in the universe& 6ne can be reborn into any of
them deending on one2s meritorious or unmeritorious deeds& 8ight at
the bottom you get the duggatis or 2woeful courses2, which consist of a
hell realm, the animal realm and the realm of the hungry ghosts& +hese
are states of unhainess and are also #nown as the aayas or
2downfalls2& .e-t comes the human realm and after that the realms of
the gods or devas >literally 2shining beings2?&
$i- of the god realms >devalo#as? are in the same realm of sense
e-erience that we humans e-erience #nown as the #amma5lo#a, but
are infinitely more blissful states than normal human e-istence& +hen
above these are si-teen realms of fine5material forms >rua5lo#as? and
above that four formless realms >arua5lo#as?& All these higher states
are #nown as the suggatis or 2hay courses2& %hen the Buddha
addressed human beings to give his teachings he was also addressing
the beings in these thirty5one other realms& +hus the Buddha is #nown
as a teacher of gods as well men&
All of these worlds or lanes are still in the conditioned world or
$amsara& .irvana, the goal of the Buddhist life is in another dimension
entirely& 3iven that si- of the god realms are in the same lane that we
as humans share it is considered that we could all be dwelling in a
higher level of e-istence if we but made the effort 5 we settle for too
low a level of consciousness& +hese god realms are also accessible
through the levels of meditative consciousness #nown as the dhyanas,
and ractitioners do tal# of encounters with the inhabitants of these
realms on occasions& If you2re interested in courses on Buddhist
hilosohy and meditation that we offer at the +BC lease hone
DI5AEEI= or visit our website www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba& .ew
course will now be running in 7ebruary of ne-t year& An oen evening
consisting of a led meditation ractice and 0uestion and answer session
will be held at the +BC on (onday evening the !rd of 9ecember E5
Am&
Becoming Integrated >!=M<<M=<?:
6ne of the #ey 2oerational concets2 in relation to sychological and
siritual develoment we use at the +BC is that of integration& +he idea
is that we consist of a bundle of selves or several sub5ersonalities
encomassed in the same hysical body& 6ne self decides to meditate
the ne-t morning but then another self comes on line in the morning
and rolls over and goes bac# to slee& +hese selves can also reveal
themselves, for e-amle, in how differently we behave when at wor#,
when at home and when we are with articular sets of friends& +he
sub5ersonalities are revealed in the arado-es and oositions in our
character&
Usually these different selves are not ulling together& +his is a state of
being 2un5integrated2 our energies wor# against one another& +o
harmonise them or galvani1e them re0uires some element of disciline
and regular meditation ractice suorted by the observance of an
ethical lifestyle& +he aim of a regular meditation ractice is to achieve
first of all what we call 2hori1ontal integration2 so that the various
selves we are aware of in the conscious mind are ulled or sheherded
together& 6nce this haens we attemt to achieve 2vertical
integration2, which involves bringing the unconscious together with the
now integrated conscious mind this is more difficult&
If we ersist there is a gradual build5u of energy, which gains
momentum until finally we are caable of brea#ing free of all habits
whatsoever, esecially the negative and unconscious ones& +he very
fact that our energies are not integrated means it is certain that we are
in conflict about how much effort we want to ut into our siritual
ractice, a lot of us 'ust says ,%hy botherK, $o we have to
continuously remind ourselves of why we are on the ath and of what
we want to become we have to find ways of continuously motivating
and insiring ourselves& (i-ing with siritual friends at a centre is one
good way of doing this& +he Buddhist hilosohy and meditation
courses that we offer at the +BC will now be running in 7ebruary of
ne-t year& Please hone DI5AEEI= or visit our website
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddhism and Uncertainty >AM<CM=<?:
Buddhism is of course about siritual develoment and this is normally
thought of in terms of growing beyond the normal concetion of self in
other words, self5transcendence& +he first fetter that holds us bac#
from this growth is fi-ed self5view& +his can be defined as our habitual
accetance of our resent e-erience of selfhood as being fi-ed,
unchanging, and ultimate& %e are so familiar to ourselves, so used to
ourselves, so used to thin#ing of ourselves in a certain way, so used to
feeling a certain way about ourselves& And our habitually atterned
lifestyle is dedicated, as it were, to maintaining this familiar, felt5sense
of ourselves&
%e thin#, 2+his is (e& I2ll always be li#e this I may change a little but
I2ll still be recogni1ably me&2 %e 'ust can2t accet that this self as we
e-erience it now can be comletely transformed, consumed,
transcended& Indeed we are afraid of this ossibility because it involves
entering a realm of uncertainty& A well #nown arado- of self5growth is
that someone who wants to grow is not hay with how they are at
resent, by definition, but they find it hard to accet that there are
asects of themselves they2re not hay with& Also we2re afraid of the
un#nown otential we have simly because it is unfamiliar& $o we
shrin# bac# from growth to the safety and security of the familiar, the
habitual&
Practising Buddhists accet that they2re not satisfied with how they are
and use this as incentive to #ee striving& +hey are reared, as
daunting as it may seem, to enter into uncertainty, to face insecurity
and the unfamiliar& It2s hard wor#, but what2s wrong with hard wor#K
+his is another ma'or difference between Buddhism and the other
religions& It deals with uncertainty and faces u to insecurity& 6ther
religions try to comfort the insecurity of their followers by roviding
certainty, usually through blind belief& As a guest sea#er at the +BC
recently commented you don2t fly 'ets into s#y5scaers unless you are
certain you2re going to aradiseJ %e had a very successful oen
evening at the +BC recently& +he centre will close on 9ecember <5th
and reoen late /anuary C==C with new si-5wee# courses starting in
7ebruary& 7or information contact us on DI5AEEI= or visit our website
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
C==C
+he Age of An-iety >C!M<M=C?:
$ometimes we hear this age we are living in described as an age of
an-iety& +here are many reasons for this feeling of an-iety in our
societies& +he seed of change, increasing comle-ity of technology,
social disrution and crime, the disaearance of ethics in a climate of
greed where the mar#et and economics has become all, increasing
gas between rich and oor, terrorism one could go on and on& In
many ways these are all symtoms of deeer, underlying cultural
forces 5 the ideologies driving our current aroach to olitics,
economics, science and technology, social issues, education,
international relations and the environment&
+he dominant ethos in our %estern societies at the moment could be
described as materialistic and techno5managerial& %ith it have come
the de5sanctification of .ature and the disaearance of what I call the
mystery5rincile of life, the magical 0uality of e-istence& Peole no
longer have any connection with these 0ualities, with a deeer
underlying mythology& +he emhasis on the intellect as the suerior
faculty has destroyed this& %hat this means is that eole are bereft of
anything that engages their imagination, their intuition, their hearts&
+here is no faith or trust in anything and where there is no faith or
trust there is no confidence& +he word confidence derives from the
)atin roots of 2with2 >con? and 2faith2 >fide?& +his includes no self5
confidence& %e are an-ious&
6n my last ordination retreat we e-lored the imortance of
discovering one2s own ersonal myth4 the unconscious 'ourney you are
already on& 7rom a Buddhist oint of view this myth >if it is a healthy
one? is inevitably about a yearning for self5transcendence& If you
analyse most of our cultural myths or stories they usually have this at
their core, maybe wraed u in a lot of symbolism& )earning to ta
into this myth rather than dismiss it >as 2a bit of a myth2, which our
overly5intellectual contemorary culture tends to encourage? is really
imortant& It hels oen you u to a larger universal myth and can
hel fire u the imagination, insire and bring confidence& +he word for
faith in Buddhism is sraddha and is better translated as confidence5
trust& +he emotional security it brings is always based on intelligent
analysis and testing in Buddhism, not blind belief& If you2re interested
in reading more of these articles you can do so on our website& .ew
Buddhist Philosohy and meditation classes start in Aril& 7or
information on courses and activities, or to enrol, lease contact us at
the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Practical Buddhism ><DMCM=C?:
A new day5time, si-5wee# 2Practical Buddhism2 course starts at the
+oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? on +hursday the C<st 7ebruary
<=am5<Cnoon& +hese courses are for eole who want 2to #now2 more
about Buddhism before erhas e-loring it more& It2s clear that
interest in Buddhism is increasing in the %est& 6ur centre is art of a
ioneering movement that is heling Buddhism sread and adat to
%estern culture 5 and adat it must, as it always has when it moved
into a new culture& 7or e-amle, it adated 0uite significantly when it
moved from India into China, because the Chinese civilisation was so
develoed&
$imilarly, as it moves into the %est, it is encountering for the second
time a highly develoed civilisation& +o survive in this %estern conte-t
Buddhism has to evolve ast its traditional Asian forms& As they e-ist
at the moment they are too difficult to assimilate for the vast ma'ority
of %esterners, who tend to see them as curiosities, or are attracted to
their e-oticness& But if you want to really change and grow
sychologically and siritually you cannot byass your own %estern
sychological and cultural conditioning& All of us brought u in %estern
cultures have been deely, unconsciously, conditioned by its cultural
forces such as Christianity, scientific rationalism, utilitarianism,
materialism, commercialism, democracy, intellectualism, individualism
and the doctrine of rights, to name a few&
Part of the sread of Buddhism into the %est involves an information
e-losion on it >for e-amle boo#s, +* rograms, the internet?& %here
there is lots of information there is the also the danger of ill5informed
views and oinions and simly 2getting the wrong end of the stic#2& $o
the 2Practical Buddhism2 course offered at the +BC goes bac# to the
core teachings of the Buddha >which have become #nown as 2Basic
Buddhism2?, that all ma'or traditions share at their heart& +hese include
formulae li#e +he 7our .oble +ruths, +he Eightfold Path, +he +hree
Characteristics of Conditioned E-istence, +he )aw of Conditioned Co5
roduction, the nature of the human condition and the origin of
suffering& +he course is rimarily designed to clarify views and clear u
misconcetions through discussion and e-osure to eole2s different
oints of view& It is also taught in a clear %estern style of e-ression
and English& 7or information lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
7i-ed $elf5*iew >C<MCM=C?:
%e usually have a fi-ed view of ourselves in the %est& Huite often it2s a
negative one, such as, that I am bad, no good, stuid and won2t ever
be able to change& It2s interesting to reflect uon where in our culture
this negativity srings from, this roblem with areciating ourselves&
%e even have a saying about it that an old dog can2t change its sots&
+he following words from Buddhaghosa, one of the earliest Buddhist
sages after the Buddha, ut 0uite a different slant on it: , .o doer of
the deed may be found4 .o one who ever reas their fruit /ust bare
henomena roll on, 9eendent uon conditions all&,
+his is the idea that we are not fi-ed, that instead we are an ever5
changing flu- of conditions mental, hysical, biological and chemical&
+he fi-ed view of the self is 'ust mental henomena and if we ever sto
to observe our minds we discover that those henomena are 'ust
changing all the time minute to minute and day to day& +hey are
certainly not fi-ed& +hey change in deendence uon conditions and
are thus imermanent& /ust li#e all conditioned henomena in the
world&
%e can use this fact to hel us& If we set u the right conditions it will
change our mental states, for e-amle, from negative to ositive ones&
Instead of a fi-ed view of yourself you can develo a more fluid one,
such as, that you can ma#e of yourself whatever you want by utting
the right conditions in lace& $ome of the best conditions you can build
into your lifestyle from a Buddhist viewoint are the ractice of ethics,
daily meditation and study& 7or information on courses and activities at
the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
+he Buddha2s 9eath:>CBM=CM=C?:
6n last +hursday evening >CBth 7ebruary? we celebrated Para nirvana
day at the +BC& +his festival celebrates the assing away of the
Buddha, which is traditionally #nown as the Paranirvana& @es, we
2celebrate2 the Buddha2s death& +his is because it reresented the
attainment of sureme nirvana, the e-tinguishment of all craving and
conditioning, the ultimate freedom and eace, beyond all conditioned
things, eternal and comlete and self5illuminating& +he aim of the
Buddhist life is to go comletely beyond conditioned e-istence
>samsara?& It2s easy to #ee coming bac# because we are so attached
to the world& It2s much harder to stay away&
But where has the Buddha gone 5 where does an Enlightened being goK
+his is art of the mystery asect of Enlightenment central to the
Buddhist teaching& +raditionally the Buddha having e-erienced
.irvana is so#en of as neither e-isting nor not e-istingJ Also .irvana
is so#en of as in $amsara, and $amsara is in .irvana& +hese are
mysterious words because they cannot be grased, let alone
understood by the intellect& +hese notions are a mystery to the
reasoning mind >this is a root meaning of the word 2mystical2?& And yet
we need mysteries because without them the world becomes a dry,
arid lace if the only way we can relate to it is through the intellect&
%e need the mystery rincile to enchant the world, re5establish its
magical 0ualities& %e need these dimensions to #el oen u our
imagination and to stimulate the emotions of awe and reverence that
can insire and motivate us& %hat Buddhism seems to be saying is that
we are traed in the conditioned world in time and sace but at the
same time we are art of something much larger beyond time and
sace& $ometimes we can sense this& +he more we oen u our
imagination to this mystery, this Cosmic (yth, the more we become
siritual beings that can rise into the un#nown& 7or information on
courses and activities at the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre lease
contact us on DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$iritual 7riendshi: >EM!M=C?
All Buddhists go for refuge to the +hree /ewels& +hat is they see#
security in the Buddha, the 9harma and the $angha& +he Buddha
reresents the ideal condition of human enlightenment& +he 9harma is
the +eaching all the oerational concets of Buddhism and its methods
and ractices of self5growth& +he $angha is the fellowshi of all the
enlightened masters and sages of the ast that have occurred in the
Buddhist tradition and who give us confidence that the goal is
attainable& +he $angha also involves all those Buddhists striving to
ractice the ath and this includes our siritual friends& +his is where
we can find real security or refuge in the Buddhist view&
%e articularly stress siritual friendshi in Buddhism in the %est,
even as a ractice& It is wonderful to have friends with whom one can
fully and fran#ly discuss one2s ideals& $o often our friendshis are
based on more mundane factors, such as, wanting to belong to a
grou, or simly hysical attraction, or because we erceive that
they2re oular and we want to be with someone li#e that& $iritual
friendshi is often with eole who aren2t li#e that at all and it is such a
relief and release of the heart to be able to tal# and oen u about our
siritual ideals, which we often hide in the ordinary world&
Another really imortant asect of siritual friendshi is that human
communication wor#s on our emotions and can transform us& 6ften
after discussing the 9harma with an order member friend I feel very
insired and emotionally ulifted& $o the sangha can rovide suort
for members when they2re down or struggling, as all do who attemt
the siritual life& Also there is a role for criticism from our friends when
we stray from the ath or act uns#ilfully and can2t see it& 7or
information on courses and activities at the +oowoomba Buddhist
Centre lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Contacting 6ur Emotions ><<MDM=C?:
+o manage ourselves s#ilfully it2s imortant to #now how we2re reacting
emotionally to events and circumstances& However, in the %est we
tend to be not very good at this& A oular boo# ublished not long ago
called ,Emotional Intelligence, was all about this& About how
intellectual intelligence is not the only comonent of intelligence and
how imortant it is to educate the young from an early age in
develoing emotional intelligence& Buddhism has always seen
intelligence to be a combination of reason and emotion a combination
of intelligent feelings and 2feeling5full2 intelligence&
6ne of the ways into our emotions is to ac#nowledge the basic feeling
of leasure and ain when they arise& +hese are strong, simle signals
that are often ignored or covered u& But it2s imortant to 2own2 them
because they are the originating oint of emotional reactions& @ou can
ma#e it a ractice to as# yourself throughout the day whether you are
en'oying this e-erience or not, whether you feel something or not&
And if you can feel something is it a leasant feeling or a ainful
feelingK
+his is a very good habit to get into and it will develo emotional
accuracy, truthfulness and mindfulness& If you2re truthful with yourself
about how you feel, then you2ll become more clear5minded and self5
confident& @ou2ll not be retending that you2re en'oying something
when you are not, or convincing yourself that some e-erience will be
unleasant when you #now that you2ll en'oy it& If you don2t retend,
you give yourself more freedom of choice in your emotional reactions&
(ore about emotions ne-t wee# 5 if you2re interested in reading more
of these articles you can do so on our website& +he new si-5wee#
course on Introductory (editation is starting at this stage on thursday
Aril <B <=am <C& 7or details lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
3oing 9eeer into Emotions ><BMDM=C?:
)ast wee# we tal#ed about being able to contact our emotions by being
aware of the rimary feelings of leasure and ain& 6ne of the ways
into our emotions is to ac#nowledge the basic feelings of leasure and
ain when they arise& Another way to get into them, is not so much to
label and analyse them, but to 2e-erience2 them directly& Initially it
may be useful to label them, but to really get into them it2s best to
dro any attemt at analysing them along the lines of ,what tye of
emotion is this that I2m feelingK, +ry and communicate with them using
a different language to that of the concetual or intellectual& Use
sensory language& +ry as#ing yourself what colour they are, what
temerature, te-ture, even what sound and smell they haveK Are they
hot or cold, smooth or rough that sort of thing& 8eally try to ,feel,
them4 what do they feel li#e, what shae and where in the body& 3et a
felt sense of them and stay with the felt sense for a while& As with
meditation as your self5awareness goes deeer and deeer into them
they can begin to change& Eventually you can e-erience them as raw
energy and you can 2unhoo#2 them from whichever art of your
ersonality they2re stuc# with& +his way they can be transformed& +he
raw energy of deression can be changed into a warm, comassionate
feeling for yourself& 3reat anger can be transformed into great love&
+his is the wonderful thing about self5awareness, it2s li#e bringing heat
to water, which changes it from li0uid to a gas& It2s a transforming
agent& .e-t time you2re in a mood try and sit with it, go into it and
e-lore it and let it 2be2& +hen after awhile it will have 2been2 and you2ll
feel different& If you2re interested in reading more of these articles you
can do so on our website& +he ne-t si-5wee# course Practical Buddhism
is now starting on +uesday !=th Aril E5Am and the ne-t Introductory
(editation is starting on thursday (ay Cnd <=am <C& 7or details lease
contact us on DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Unconditional Being >CEMDM=C?:
+here are many schools of Buddhism in the %est these days& In a way
the western cultures have become heirs to the whole tradition because
never before in the ast were all the schools resent in one country or
culture& It seems to me that whether they are viassana >insight?, ;en,
+ibetan, Hinayana or (ahayana schools of Buddhism they all seem to
be emhasising some common themes as they adat to the %est&
6ne of these is that if through the ractice of meditation and
mindfulness we can brea# through or brea# out of our fi-ed, confined,
mechanical mind we e-erience a state of unconditional being& 6ur
mechanical mind is reactive in the sense that it reacts with leasure or
ain, attraction or reulsion to whatever it encounters& +hrough
mindfulness ractice we learn to 'ust watch these reactions and not get
caught u in them& %e create saciousness in our mind in which these
imulses5to5act 'ust die out li#e aircraft vaour trails in the s#y& +his
way we get to #now ourselves in greater detail&
Also through meditation we become more and more familiar with this
fundamental 0uality of saciousness within our mind& $ometimes it is
described as a basic sanity or our otential Buddha5nature within& It2s
the region of our creative otential that can allow us to resond rather
then react to events& It has nourishing 0ualities of freshness,
oenness, and goodness& It2s beyond our normal, limited egoistic view
of ourselves, which we struggle so hard to maintain through desire and
aversion& Because it is unfamiliar territory and beyond our normal
sense of self it ta#es atience and courage to learn to dwell in it&
%hen we can, we discover a bravery within that otentially e-ists
within everyone without e-cetion& It is our unconditional, ure being
and it is where .irvana lives& If you2re interested in reading more of
these articles you can do so on our website& +he ne-t si-5wee# course
Practical Buddhism is starting on +uesday !=th Aril E5Am and the
ne-t Introductory (editation is starting on +hursday (ay Cnd <=am <C&
%e also have a retreat over the (ay long wee#end& 7or details lease
contact us on DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
$ources of Insiration >CM5M=C?:
(editation is a direct way of raising your level of consciousness& Higher
levels of consciousness have 0ualities li#e mental clarity, tran0uillity,
one5ointedness, bliss and 'oy& +here are also many indirect ways of
raising your level of consciousness and these can also be sources of
insiration& 6ne of them is to get away from it all for a while in a
beautiful, natural setting for a retreat from the world& $ome of us are
going on a long wee#end retreat this wee#end in +oowoomba and the
theme of the retreat is 2$ources of Insiration2& It2s being led by one of
our women order members this time her name is *imo#salehi&
6ther ways include leading a regular and discilined lifestyle racticing
moral recets, having regular hours for meals, wor#, recreation, study
and observing moderation in things li#e eating, sleeing and tal#ing&
@oga, tai chi and related discilines li#e flower arranging can also hel
ulift the mind& +hen there is en'oying wor#s of art oetry, music,
literature, and aintings& +hese can wor# on develoing and refining
the emotions& )iving in clean, healthy, aesthetic environments with
good feng shui and communing with .ature are also helful&
Association with siritually minded eole and siritual friendshi can
be very insiring& Heling other eole and even our means of
livelihood can be indirect ways of raising our level of consciousness&
Chanting and ritual worshi, devotional ractices, lighting candles,
stic#s of incense, ma#ing offerings of flowers and other things, bowing,
all of these can also have a owerful effect on our emotions& In fact, if
our everyday lifestyle can incororate a lot of these indirect ways, as
well as include formal meditation, we could be e-eriencing a higher
level of consciousness as our normal one all the time& +hey would arise
as naturally as an ale falling off a tree when it is rie& If you2re
interested in reading more of these articles you can do so on our
website& 7or details of classes and oen evenings and other activities at
the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Clear (ind >AM5M=C?:
6ne of the root, s#ilful mental states in Buddhism is clarity of mind or
lac# of confusion& +he Buddha encouraged his followers to 0uestion and
clarify their une-amined beliefs and oinions& He said not to believe in
his teaching or any teacher2s, 'ust because of the teacher& He was
about the only religious leader in history who said not to blindly believe
in what he taught& His teachings were a means to an end, not an end
in themselves& He advised that we e-amine everything, including his
teachings, and if after due e-amination they were found to conduce to
hainess, the good, the welfare of yourself and others, then to accet
and ractice them&
$ome of the #ey 0uestions that Buddhism raises are: how does one
become hayK How does my behaviour affect meK %hat does the best
in me long forK It2s good to ut aside some time to reflect on such
matters and to search for meaning in your life& @ou can as# yourself
whether it2s ob'ectively ossible to grow and develo& +he answer has
to be 2yes2J +hen you can as# yourself, well do you yourself want to
growK If the answer is again 2yes2, then the obvious thing to do is to
decide to ma#e a little effort towards it& If the answer to either one of
the 0uestions is 2no2, you haven2t thought it through clearlyJ
6r erhas you2re stuc# at the moment and right now you2re not in the
mood& But even that is really evading the issue, because in the long
term, if you understand what ersonal develoment is, you2ll surely
want it& 6r erhas that2s the roblem4 you don2t #now what it means
to 2grow and develo2& But that could be doubt and you need to wor# at
it again and again until you see it more clearly& It can also be good to
tal# to friends about the issues the reflection raises& 7or details of
classes in meditation and hilosohy, oen evenings, our calendar and
retreats lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
+o Be or .ot +o Be ><IM5M=C?:
%e do not e-ist as searate entities& %e are not disconnected to
everything else& +his is the toic we have been wrestling with this wee#
in our Practical Buddhism course& As I2m sure you are aware there are
certain conditions that we deend on for our e-istence and without
them we2d cease to e-ist 5 air, water and food to name three of the
most basic& %e are comletely immersed in or enmeshed with our
environment4 without its inuts into out biological system we wouldn2t
e-ist& If we leave this lanet we have to ta#e an artificial environment
with us to survive&
$o in this sense there is no self searate from everything else& @et we
have a very definite e-erience of self and art of that e-erience is
that we are searate from other things& %hat a u11ling osition to be
in& +he Buddhist teaching on self that describes this arado-ical
situation is that we as self neither e-ist nor do not e-ist& In other
words ultimately we do not e-ist as something disconnected and
comletely searate and self5sustaining4 and yet we do e-ist as a self
that is thrown u by various conditions& 6ur e-istence as self is
contingent on these conditions&
+he rincial condition is that our brains are caable of refle-ive
consciousness a consciousness that can bend bac# on itself and be
aware that it is being aware& It is this continuous awareness of
something being aware that gives us the sense or feeling of being a
self& But actually it is 'ust a continuous rocess li#e a series of sna
shots strung together that give the illusion of solid reality 'ust as a film
does& %hen the film is laying we see what loo#s li#e solid
indeendently e-isting entities& But when we sto the film and loo# at
the reel we find that it consists of a whole lot of single hotograhs&
+his sense of self from a Buddhist oint of view is very imortant&
%ithout it we would not have autonomy and the ability to ma#e
choices, li#e choosing to grow and meditate& But we don2t ta#e it too
seriously& %e accet that the e-erience of searation it bestows on us
is aarent not real& (editation reveals to us how the self has no real
substance and ma#es it transarent& %e use it to hel us mange life
but we don2t ta#e it to be the centre of the universe& (editation also
overcomes the sense of searation and reveals something beyond the
illusion of self& 7or details of classes in meditation and hilosohy, oen
evenings, our calendar and retreats lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
+he Buddha2s Enlightenment >C!M5M=C?:
)ast $unday we celebrated the Buddha2s Enlightenment along with
Buddhists throughout the world on %esa#, the full moon day of the
month of (ay& Before the Buddha became Enlightened he had to
con0uer the demons within himself& +his was a very imortant stage
and he said that many famous sages of the ast failed to roceed ast
this oint& In early accounts of this incident the demons attac#ing the
Buddha were ersonified as all sorts of frightening and ferocious beings
attac#ing the Buddha& +hey also included the seductive daughters of
(ara the Evil 6ne&
In the )ife of the Buddha according to the Pali Canon >the earliest
collection of the Buddha2s teachings?, (ara is said to have sent nine
s0uadrons of demons& It is when we see the list that we realise these
forces are actually ersonifications of the Buddha2s own mental states&
+hey included sense desire, boredom, hunger and thirst, craving, sloth
and toror, cowardice or fear, indecision and doubt >uncertainty?, ill will
and obstinacy, gain, honour and renown, ill won notoriety, self5raise
and denigrating others& I thin# we can all relate to these mental states
and the fact that they threatened the Buddha before his Enlightenment
ma#es him less of an abstract figure to us4 he was 'ust a human being
li#e us&
%hat haened ne-t is often deicted in Buddhist art& All the
monstrous beings or forces attac#ing him when they encounter the
Buddha2s aura are transformed into flowers that fall at his feet& At this
oint (ara dearted in defeat& +his highly symbolic image shows how
the Buddha2s totally imerturbable calm self5awareness was able to
identify and transform these negative energies into ositive ones& +hus
we find in the Buddhist tradition a lot of emhasis on not running away
from one2s negative mental states but atiently wor#ing with them and
caturing their energy in order to transform them into ositive ones&
In fact in the Abidharma, often referred to as a massive treatise on the
sychology of ethics in Buddhism in the Pali Canon, there is a list of
twenty factors of instability or negative mental emotions that we can
use to hel us identify the demons we create for ourselves, some of
which we didn2t even realise e-isted& 6nce we identify them we can
wor# with them& $o don2t run away from them& Indeed as one Buddhist
writer has ut it, without them, without (ara, the Buddha wouldn2t
have awa#enedJ $o she says, weren2t they his best friendsK 7or details
of classes in meditation and hilosohy, oen evenings, our calendar
and retreats lease contact us on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
Buddhism and the Environment >!MIM=C?:
)ast $unday we had a stall at the %orld Environment 9ay celebration
at )a#e Annand Par# 5 so I thought I2d say a few words about
Buddhism in relation to the Environment& I2ve seen Buddhism referred
to as 2siritual ecology2 in the literature on Buddhism and the
Environment what does this meanK %ell, ecology studies organisms
and their relationshi with the environment, in contrast to biology,
which tends to study organisms in isolation& %hat ecology reveals in its
study is that everything is interconnected with everything else and #nit
together by a comle- web of conditions and causal chains occurring
on the biological, hysical and chemical lanes&
Buddhism has always acceted that all henomena are interconnected
and mutually conditioning& However, it considers that this occurs not
only at the material level but at the immaterial level as well& In other
words at the level of the sychological, volitional and siritual as well
as the hysical, chemical and biological& +hus, 'ust as the biohysical
environment for e-amle, the landscae, the weather can affect
human mental states, human mental states can also effect the
environment& +he three oisons of greed, aggression and delusion
oerating in the collective human mind can actually manifest as
oisons or ollution in the biohysical environment& +his is one way
Buddhism can be interreted as 2siritual ecology2 it factors the human
being into an intimate cause and effect relationshi with the
environment& $o the )aws of Conditioned Co5roduction and "arma
>that actions have conse0uences? are very relevant to the analysis of
environmental issues and roblems and their relation to human ethics&
.e-t $aturday wee# the <5th of /une, a %omans2 9harma day is being
led by an order member from $ydney& Her name is $atyaghandi and
she will be further e-loring the theme of 2+he Elemental Path to
Insight2 after giving a tal# on the +hursday night the <!th /une at the
+BC& %e are made u of the elements earth, water, fire, air and sace
and by understanding how the elemental energies manifest in us we
can develo greater awareness and e0uanimity& +he theme will be
e-lored through meditation, guided imagery and discussion& 7or
details of this and other classes in meditation and hilosohy, oen
evenings, our calendar and retreats lease contact the +oowoomba
Buddhist Centre >+BC? on DI5AEEI= or www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba
(ysteries of the Human Psyche >IMIM=C?:
+he human syche is a mysterious thingJ Anyone attemting to grow
siritually sooner or later discovers this& 6ne of the strengths of our
teacher, the *en& $angara#shita, is >in my oinion? that he has gone to
great lengths to oint out how imortant it is for us to become
sychologically integrated before we can ma#e siritual rogress& It2s
almost li#e sychological growth is necessary before siritual& He was
one of the first teachers in the %est to realise how imortant an issue
this is for western eole&
In the early days eole 'umed in at the dee end with aroaches
li#e ;en Buddhism and tried to aroriate e-eriences li#e their own
ultimate non5e-istence, when they weren2t sufficiently sychologically
integrated or 2together2 to assimilate the e-erience& In such
circumstances these e-eriences can be sychologically destabilising or
even downright dangerous& In more recent times this danger has
become increasingly recognised as in the %est the disciline of
sychology and Buddhism e-lore what they have in common& In fact
this danger has now become #nown as 2sychologically by5assing2&
%e are a bundle of different selves all inhabiting the one body& Have
you ever noticed how one self might decide to get u early the ne-t
morning and another comes on duty when you wa#e u and decides to
have a slee inK 6ften as well these different selves or sub5
ersonalities are in conflict with each other and sabotage each other,
often unconsciously as illustrated by the fact that, even though we
wanted to do one thing, before we2re fully conscious of it we2ve done
the oosite& How can we grow or assimilate siritual e-eriences
whilst this state of affairs e-istsK
6ne of the main aims of meditation is to ull all these scattered
energies together& +o harmonise them, or balance them, and this is
what sychological integration means& 6nce drawn together then we
have a chance to galvanise them in the direction of our best interests&
6ne of the most ainful asects of growth is facing 'ust how un5
integrated we are& %e want to change, so we2re not hay with how we
are, but we don2t want to face this fact or the demons within in any
real deth& +he ne-t Introduction to Buddhist (editation course starts
on +uesday C!rd /uly E5Am and the ne-t Practical Buddhism course
+hursday the C5th /uly <=am5<Cnoon& +here2ll be an oen evening
receding them at the +BC on +uesday <Ith /uly E5Am& 7or details
lease contact the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba
Buddhist Centres in +oowoomba >C=MIM=C?:
%e have received some in0uiries lately that suggest that eole don2t
realise that there are now two Buddhist Centres in +oowoomba& 6ur
centre, simly #nown as the +oowoomba Buddhist centre or +BC,
oened in /uly <AAA at Bridge $treet and then in /uly C=== moved to D
+horn $treet where we are currently located& +he other centre, #nown
as the Pure )and )earning College, oened in C==< in %est $treet&
Although both are Buddhist Centres there are very big differences in
their aroaches to Buddhism and their style&
+he Pure )and $chool is a form of Chinese Buddhism that develoed in
China in the third and fourth centuries C&E& >Common Era !rd century
A&9&?& +heir teaching is that if you conscientiously chant the Amitabha
Buddha mantra you can be re5born in the Pure )and and roceed from
there to enlightenment& +he College is a training centre attended by
mainly Chinese mon#s and nuns >and some American ones? who wear
traditional robes and study the wor#s of their teacher (aster Chin "ung
and Pure )and te-ts in Chinese& +hey aim to train their eole to
sread the (aster2s teaching, including over the internet& )i#e many
Asian forms of Buddhism, because of their longer history and suort
from Chinese communities, they have considerable financial assets&
6ur centre is an e-amle of the 2new2 %estern style of Buddhism
ioneering its develoment in the %est& It2s only been around for the
last four decades& +he centre is very 2grass roots2 5 a simle rented
remises with a shrine room and other rooms& +he centre runs classes
in (editation and Introductory Buddhist teachings as well as retreats
and wor#shos, including for the local schools& %e tend to follow the
teachings of the *enerable $anghara#shita who is an Englishman
ordained in the East and who has been one of the ioneers in adating
traditional Buddhist teachings to be relevant to the modern %estern
cultural conte-t& His movement #nown as the 7riends of the %estern
Buddhist order >7%B6? has order members rather then mon#s and
nuns and is very much lay5oriented&
+he +BC is autonomous and art5time in the sense that most eole
attending and running it also wor#& %e rely on the generosity of our
members for our e-istence and some times struggle to ay the rent&
6ur classes are attended mainly by %estern eole >but not only? and
have been of considerable hel to the community& +he Buddhist
courses >in English of course? have heled the healing and
sychological and siritual develoment of community members, as
well the overall develoment of hysical and mental well5being& +he
feedbac# we have received has indicated that our reliminary aim of
heling eole to become hay, sane, healthy individuals has been
successful&
+o hel ay the rent we are loo#ing for eole interested in hiring out
some of our rooms& %e already offer classes in +ai Chi and "arate but
are interested in other indirect ways of wor#ing on consciousness5
raising li#e yoga, massage, Ale-ander techni0ue and related alternative
ractices& If you2re interested in this issue give us a call& +he ne-t
Introduction to Buddhist (editation course starts on +uesday C!rd /uly
E5Am and the ne-t Practical Buddhism course +hursday the C5th /uly
<=am5<Cnoon& +here2ll be an oen evening receding them at the +BC
on +uesday <Ith /uly E5Am come and have a loo#& 7or details lease
contact the +oowoomba Buddhist Centre >+BC? on DI5AEEI= or
www&fwbo&org&auMtoowoomba&
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
A Healing (editation
$ometimes, if we are not comletely swamed under, roblems can
indirectly bring about a deeening of our own wisdom and comassion
for others& +his can occur if we remember that life is a mi-ture of both
good and bad circumstance, and that there are many others who have
very similar55or worse55roblems with 'ust the same issues that we do&
6ne thing that you can do is to offer u your own ain for the benefit
of others& A good techni0ue derived from +ibetan Buddhist ractices is
as follows:
<? Ac#nowledge the roblem and your ain4 oen to being with it4 you
don2t have to arove of ain, but to best handle it, you need to
e-erience it fully so that you are in a osition to let go of it&
C? 8eali1e that ain55along with leasure55is a fundamental asect of
this world that we live in: it2s a ac#age deal55they come together&
!? Understand that lots and lots of fol#s have it as bad, if not much
worse, than you do with e-actly the same roblem&
D? (uster u a little >or as much as you can? emathy for all those
other fol#s4 wish that somehow you could hel them too&
5? 9evelo the wish to ta#e on their sufferings with this roblem
through a #ind of transference& Imagine that your very real ain now
somehow includes a ortion >if even only a tiny one? of their sufferings
and thereby relieves them of some of their ain&
I? *isuali1e that, as well as ta#ing on some of their suffering, you also
give them some of your hainess to hel them as well& @ou can
imagine their roblems coming into your heart as thic# blac# smo#e,
and your goodwill streaming out to them as leasant white light&
E? @ou should feel that the blac# smo#e also hels to utterly destroy
your own confusion and unhealthy relationshis with your roblem&
+his should lead to a feeling of 'oy&
B? If you would li#e, you can coordinate this visualisation and
imagination with your breath& Breathe in their roblems and breathe
out your hainess& Breathe naturally throughout&
A? Continue with this for a while until you feel a sense of comletion&
It is a wonderful ractice and can hel balance out the ersonality& And
don2t worry, it won2t biteJ It may seem ractically ludicrous to go
as#ing for more trouble on to of all that one already has, but due to
the interconnected nature of the world at hysical and metahysical
levels, this ractice hels to oen the heart and can literally contribute
to hysical and emotional recovery&
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
A new ersective on suffering
I write as a hysician, not as a moralist, but any hysician wor#ing in
modern civili1ation cannot hel noticing our cultural deafnss to the
wisdom of the body& +he ath to health, for an individual or a society&
must begin by ta#ing ain into account& Instead, we silence ain when
we should be straining our ears to hear it &&&
5 9r Paul Brand
the gift
By 3illes BRdard
Christine )onga#er has been a student of $ogyal 8inoche >author of
+he +ibetan Boo# of )iving and 9ying? since <AB=, and served for nine
years as the rincial coordinator of 8iga 7ellowshi, the association
sonsoring Buddhist teachings under 8inoche2s guidance in the United
$tates& Her direct e-eriences of caregiving, and of healing her grief
after her husband2s death twenty years ago, led her to become a
ioneer in the hosice movement4 she heled to establish the Hosice
of $anta Cru1 County in California, and became its resident&
$ince ceasing her hosice wor#, Christine has given hundreds of
training seminars on the care of the dying throughout the United
$tates, Canada, and Euroe& $he has taught college courses on death
and dying, rovided training for nurses, ministers, and hosice
caregivers, and counseled the dying and their families for many years&
Currently, she is wor#ing closely with 8inoche to develo the
comrehensive education and training rogram $iritual Care for )iving
and 9ying, which alies the comassion and wisdom of the Buddhism
teachings to the needs of eole today: living, dying, and bereaved& In
addition to Christine2s seminars, the rogram suorts a growing
networ# of study and ractice grous for health5care rofessionals who
are integrating the teachings into their life and wor#&
H: @ou wrote in your boo# 5 7acing 9eath and 7inding Hoe: ,In truth,
facing illness, suffering or death is a fall into 3race&, How can we see
death as a gift, a very secial gift, indeedK
A: %e often go through life half5aslee&
%e don2t really #now what we are doing, or what we want to
accomlish&
%e haven2t clarified what our values are&
%e often ta#e our life and our relationshis for granted&
%e get lost in so many distractions and interesting things&
%e always have a sense that there2s something imortant and secial
about life and even about death but we fail to really ta#e the time to
loo# at it&
And normally, from that oint of view, when we fall ill, go through
some sort of crisis or are facing death, we thin# that this is the worst
thing, that it2s a tragedy& But if we #ee our mind oen when we enter
an e-erience that I would call ,falling out of the healthy world,, we
can as# ourselves:
%hat benefit can this bring meK Can I find a gift in this illnessK
I don2t believe there is a gift or a lesson already given in suffering& But
if we as# ourselves: How can I learn or grow, even as I go through this
change or this loss, we often find very une-ected wonderful treasures
that come to us&
%e reali1e how recious every day and every relationshi is, how
imortant our choices are, how imortant it is to remember our true
values and really ma#e the time to live according to them& And as we
do, we find a richness and meaning that we hadn2t even susected
were there before&
H: @ou also said ,Pain is inevitable but suffering is otional,& %hat is
the difference between the ,unavoidable suffering, and the
,unnecessary suffering, we e-erience through our lifeK
A: Because we are born into this life, we obviously will have
e-eriences, for e-amle, of hysical changes and suffering, in the
rocess of aging or with illness or even with a very dramatic accident&
%e can e-erience discomfort and even a massive amount of ain& As
we are facing death, our body begins to deteriorate and we lose our
ower to do the things that we en'oy in life&
.one of this is ersonal, it2s not haening to us as some sort of
unishment or as a sign we have the wrong #ind of ersonality,
because in fact, suffering is universal& Every human being goes through
unwanted hysical ain as well as the deterioration of aging& All of us
e-erience losses in which we either don2t get something we want or
what we most cherish is ta#en away from us, for e-amle, when the
eole we love leave or die& And this is not easy to go through but it2s
art of human life&
%hat becomes unnecessary suffering, the otional art of that ain, is
if we don2t learn from the losses that we go through in life, if we
continue our old habits of grasing, or neediness, feeling that we have
to have certain things in our life to be hay, then we build for
ourselves inescaable cycles of suffering that #ee us going round and
round&
6ur needs can never be satisfied and even if they are, it2s only
temorary& Everything that we gras after eventually changes,
dissolves or dies4 thus we #ee setting ourselves u for
disaointment, ain, anger and hurt&
@et e-eriences of suffering can oen doors for us, and hel us to see
there is another way to aroach life besides cycling from grasing to
loss and disaointment&
Instead of loo#ing to the e-ternal world for lasting hainess and
eace, we can turn our mind inward and discover the art of our being
that is beyond change, loss and grief 5 our s#yli#e essence that is
already whole, eaceful, radiant with comassion and love&
+hen the losses and deeest ain in our life can become a gift,
roelling us forward in our siritual ath and heling us feel richer as
we go through life, because we become more and more free, at ease,
and naturally hay&
H: How can we change our suffering into a ositive action and see the
ossibility of liberation in our lifeK
A: %hen we are in the midst of very great suffering, sometimes it is
hard to get another ersective, to find a feeling of saciousness or
#indness towards ourselves as we go through the suffering& But in fact
even though it2s hard, we must find a way to do it& 6therwise we 'ust
become more contracted and more frightened as we go through our
life, resisting and having an aversion to the different changes and
losses we go through&
$o, what I found helful in my own life was to aroach through
meditating, through listening to teachings, through tal#ing with friends,
always #eeing this 0uestion in mind: ,How can I understand my
suffering in a different wayK How can I shift my ersective and find
saciousness, freedom and eace again in my beingK,
If we really #ee as#ing this 0uestion and try to learn from life
e-eriences, from stoing and sending the time to 'ust loo# at a
beautiful flower or sit on a hillside ga1ing into the s#y, we start to
reali1e that there are other ossibilities&
%e can let each moment of 'oy nurture us and remind us that there is
another way to aroach life& And slowly, when we #ee these
0uestions in mind, more and more gifts come into our life that will
enrich us and hel us to find a siritual ath&
H: @ou started your siritual ath through a dramatic event, the death
of your husband& Could you tell me about itK
A: In a sense, that was a erfect e-amle 5 when you get really stuc#
and there is no way out 5 then sooner or later, you have to oen
yourself to reali1e that there is another reality, another way to see the
meaning of your life and go through it&
%hen my husband was first diagnosed with acute leu#emia, we were
both very young, I hadn2t had any direct encounters with death before
and I reali1ed that we were facing the very real ossibility of his death&
I remember thin#ing to myself that all I ever heard about death is that
it is something very tragic and unfair, it2s the worst thing that can
haen to you& I said to my husband, ,If that2s all that death is, then
no matter how long you have to live, we2re 'ust going to be in this
tragic story and we2re going to feel helless and victims of our
circumstances&,
.either of us, at that time, had a siritual ath, but I remember saying
to my husband, ,I don2t #now e-actly what death is or if there is
anything after death but maybe we can try to view the fact that we2re
facing death as a gift in our life&,
$o, even though it seems li#e a huge ac#age of unwanted suffering, if
we view death as a gift maybe we can find out what the gift is& %e
didn2t have an answer at the beginning& But we #new that we had been
ta#ing our lives for granted, not communicating well in our relationshi
and not really areciating that our life had any meaning or direction&
By deciding to view death as a gift, even though during that year we
still had a lot of suffering, we made mista#es and often still hurt each
other unconsciously in the things that we did, we had to wor# through
those mista#es very 0uic#ly& %e had committed to our intention to
change and live in a more meaningful and loving way&
$o, 'ust changing our view oint about death was an incredible gift for
us4 even the mista#es that we made became gifts because they forced
us to connect with our love and communicate more genuinely&
At the time my husband died, I felt that art of the relationshi was
comlete, that we had done the best we could& Even before he died,
we were able to aologi1e to each other for the hard times we2d given
each other and also e-ress our gratitude for the year that we2d had,
the love that we2d shared and how much we had grown& $o when he
died, I felt very eaceful and I could really let him go with all my love
because I #new we had lived his last year of life really well, even with
its mista#es&
At the same time, I sensed that there was another, deeer dimension
to death, and that something imortant was haening in that
transition& And I didn2t have a clue what to do for him, how to suort
him siritually, both before and after he died& (y desire to understand
the deeer dimension of death launched me into doing hosice wor# as
well as finding an authentic siritual ath&
H: @ou mention an asect which I found very significative: ,3a1ing
continually into the mirror of death during the year of his illness
encouraged us to find and commit to a meaningful direction in our
lives& 8ather than feeling we were helless victims, we committed to
creating the #ind of life we truly wanted in our final year together& +his
change came about in the way we decided to view death on that very
first day in the hosital&,
A: It is ma#ing that commitment to life& +hat2s what I found beautiful
in this 0uote by Brother 9avid $teindl58ast: ,@ou2re not 'ust given life,
you have to actually choose life, you have to ma#e a commitment to
live and to find a meaning and a direction&, And until you do, you2re
'ust half alive, you 'ust feel li#e you2re wandering around& I felt that
way as a young erson& I thought life was 'ust to en'oy and to have
fun& It didn2t really matter what you did, what you valued& @ou could
'ust fool around, nothing really counted&
But suddenly, when you are face to face with death, you reali1e that
this is a really recious time, this chance that we have in our life is not
going to last&
%hat we do in this life is very significant&
%e can bring a lot of benefit into this world, we can heal a relationshi
with somebody we2ve had a hard time with or change things and give
ourselves meaningful direction& I still ma#e mista#es and am
sometimes very unaware, but I #now that its ossible to contribute and
ma#e a difference in other eole2s lives&
H: 9ying can be a way to share some very recious moments with our
family and loved ones, and develo a secial commitment in our lives&
Is there a way to see death as a guide to bring a sacred environment
into our lifeK
A: @es, there is a way& (any of us who follow a religious tradition tend
to fragment our lives, #eeing the siritual art of our life for one art
of the day or one day of the wee#& +hen our life loo#s li#e small,
unrelated ieces 5 our social life, wor# life, family life, siritual life, and
so on 5 which is why we feel so scattered and e-hausted most of the
time& %e have no unifying rincile or sacred conte-t that gives our
lives and our choices meaning&
$o, if we are already on a siritual ath, we can learn to see that
everything we do in life is art of that ath, every act, every
communication and choice we ma#e hels to form the meaning of our
life& Every e-erience we have, whether hay or ainful, and how we
understand and go through our e-eriences is an e-ression of the
ultimate meaning or destiny of our life&
As we become more aware of the sacred conte-t of our life, we start to
reali1e that even tal#ing with a stranger on the street or washing
dishes could be a sacred act if we do it with a motivation of
comassion, with all our resence and awareness and authenticity& %e
need to establish this integrity in our mind and heart, seeing that
everything we e-erience can become art of our ersonal and
siritual evolution&
+here are many eole who don2t have a religious ath yet have an
intuitive feeling that there is a deeer dimension to death as well as to
life& 6ne way of ma#ing a deeer contact with the sacredness of life is
to contemlate every morning on the suffering unfolding on a daily
basis to so many eole throughout the world, on the suffering we
witness in our friends and family, and even on our own suffering&
As we contemlate on all of this suffering and allow it to touch our
hearts, then we feel more of a connection to others, more comassion,
more committed to ma#ing our lives meaningful and evolving
ersonally and siritually, so that we might be of service to others& $o,
that is another way to begin e-eriencing the sacredness of what we
do&
%e can actually contribute to other eole2s hainess or to relieving
their suffering by living in a meaningful way, by giving to life rather
than 'ust ta#ing&
H: Being aware of our 'ourney through a siritual ath could also be a
way of surrendering and learning imermanenceK
A: +hat2s true& %e constantly e-erience change and loss, and
imermanence& 6ur normal attitude towards these situations is that
they are only negative, or we conclude we are somehow being
ersonally tortured and unished&
%hen we react with negativity or hellessness to change and
imermanence, we are creating more emotion, more grasing and thus
more suffering& Alternatively, if we really use these losses to
contemlate on our own eventual death, and as# ourselves: what can I
ta#e with me when I die, we find that each e-erience of
imermanence and loss is a chance for us to rehearse our death&
Instead of blaming our circumstances, we can loo# inside and as#:
%hat is the most imortant thing, what am I really doing with my time
and my energy that will ma#e a differenceK
$lowly we understand that our worldly situations and leasures are not
lasting, and that we cannot ultimately hold onto them or ta#e them
with us& +his reali1ation hels us learn to let go with grace, and to
begin grasing less in the first lace, which is even better&
+his is how we become more and more free +he most imortant thing
is discovering the deathless, unchanging, innermost essence of our
being, which is already whole, eaceful, oen and free& )oo#ing within
and getting in touch with this essence, which is erfect wisdom and
infinite comassion, is the source of the true hainess and well5being
for which we have been yearning&
H: 6ver your years of wor#ing with death and dying, you develoed
the 7our +as#s of )iving and 9ying 5 Understanding and +ransforming
$uffering, (a#ing a Connection, Healing 8elationshis and )etting 3o,
Prearing $iritually for 9eath and 7inding (eaning in )ife& Could you
summari1e them and tell us how we can integrate them not only into
our wor# but also into our daily lifeK
A: It2s an interesting story how I came to describe these four tas#s& I
was starting to give some in5service wor#shos for hosice caregivers
and I reali1ed that they were already e-erts at understanding the
needs of the dying and the family dynamics&
%hat they needed was to tal# about the really tough situations: how to
deal with angry family members, what to do in cases when nobody will
let the ersons #now that they2re dying, how to hel somebody who
feels deressed and hoeless and has no siritual faith, how to suort
a arent leaving behind young children, and how to connect with a
atient who has dementia or is comatose&
In e-amining the source of these roblems, I started by naming them
+he 7our Princial 9ifficulties or 7ears of 9ying& And then I slowly
reali1ed that actually, these roblems reveal what we need to do in
order to conclude our lives well4 so I re5named them the 7our +as#s of
9ying&
9ying is not a assive time where you give u and give in, it2s actually
a very active time, our last ossibility for growth& I reali1ed that they
were only the tas#s of dying if we never too# care of them when we2re
living, which is why I now call them +he 7our +as#s of )iving and
9ying&
%e face these same tas#s when we are told we have a life threatening
illness and are still wor#ing toward healing, when we are going through
bereavement, or e-eriencing a ma'or life loss4 these are the same
tas#s for caregivers as well as for those who are facing death& +hey
include the need to understand and transform our suffering, because
we e-erience suffering, ain and loss, throughout our entire life 5 not
'ust when we face death&
%e need to have a more ositive conte-t or way to understand why we
suffer, and what oortunity lies in suffering&
6ne of the worst arts about an e-erience of suffering is our fear that
it is meaningless, and that we are helless to overcome it& +he
Buddhist hilosohy of connectedness and comassion hels us see
that we are not alone in suffering& By reflecting on the suffering of
others and dedicating our own suffering or siritual ractice for their
benefit, we can disel much of our own misery, and give a deeer
meaning to our suffering&
As we generate deeer feelings of love and comassion this way, it
oens and heals our heart, heling us evolve as we go through life, and
ultimately, by connecting us to our innermost essence, which is wisdom
and comassion, we can remove the causes of suffering and attain
liberation&
+he second tas#, the need to heal our relationshis, ma#e a connection
and let go, refers to our need to have authentic communication with
others, based on mutual resect, accetance and understanding& +he
dying esecially need fre0uent and genuine reassurance of other2s love
and affection 5 but unfortunately, they often get the oosite& 9uring
life, but esecially before we die, we need to heal ast wounds in our
relationshis, dro all the conditions we normally tac# onto our love,
and learn to accet and love each other e-actly as we are&
+he third tas#, the need to understand death and reare siritually for
death, shows us that death in fact mirrors the meaning of our life&
%hat have we really come into this life to doK %hat is the most
imortant thing, after all, when we come to dieK All the religious
traditions of the world describe that there is an asect to our being, a
siritual essence, which is deathless& And the nature of our e-istence
after death is connected to two things 5 whatever we do in our life, and
how we are 'ust at the moment of death&
7inally, whether or not we have a religious or siritual orientation, each
of us needs to find a meaning in our life&
%e must find a thread or conte-t which allows us to #now that we are
using our life well&
+hat conte-t might be a wish to evolve into becoming more whole, a
better human being, the wish to heal the wounds from our life, or to
give something bac# to life, and to our community&
%e need to feel our e-istence has meaning to at least one other
erson& that we are cared for, or that we are caable of giving love to
others& +his is ossible, with good communication and connection, at
any stage of life, regardless of our hysical or cognitive limitations& And
it is vital to find a meaning in our life as we face death, so that we will
not die emty5handed&
H: Could you tell us about the +onglen and $elf5+onglenK
A: +rue comassion, #nown in $ans#rit as Bodhicitta, is unconditional,
limitless and unbiased in any way, shae or form& Bodhicitta means
,the heart of our enlightened mind&, +he wisdom and comassion that
radiates from our true nature is comared to the sun: the radiance of
the sun is wisdom and the warmth of the sun2s rays are the
comassion and love which are given out freely toward all creation&
+hat is the way the comassion of our wisdom nature really is&
+he comassion ractice #nown as +onglen, which means ,giving and
receiving,, encourages us to connect with our wisdom nature, with this
ure and rofound comassion that is the core of our being& As we
connect with that indestructible wisdom in our meditation, we slowly
find the courage and the 'oy to relieve the suffering of other beings&
In the +onglen ractice, with each in5breath, we imagine ta#ing in the
suffering of other beings in the form of a dar# cloud, and as it touches
the radiant, sun5li#e bodhicitta in our heart it is transformed& +hen,
with each out5breath we give out, in the form of light, all of our love,
all of our forgiveness, all of our hainess and 'oy& +he +onglen is an
e-traordinary ractice of comassion which enables us to become
fearless and confident, because we start to trust in our true nature
rather than our ordinary fearful conditioned mind that is always trying
to #ee suffering at bay&
%hen we first begin doing the +onglen ractice, we may not have this
confidence yet, so it might be helful to train in the $elf5+onglen first,
to ractice ta#ing in our own suffering, our negativity, 'udgments or
aversion of ain and give out all of our love, hainess, understanding,
and forgiveness&
+he best thing we can do is to reali1e that we are facing death right
now& %e have to engage in our siritual ractice very meaningfully, as
though it were our very last day& In this way, we are training ourselves,
allowing our siritual ractice to fully enter our being and become art
of our flesh and bones, so it becomes our whole way of erceiving and
being in the world& And if we were to die une-ectedly or to find out
that we have an incurable illness, our ractice would really be there for
us as a suort& But what if a erson is very close to death and doesn2t
have the chance to develo such a dedicated siritual ractice 5 what
can they doK
It is very good to 'ust call out for hel, to invo#e the sacred resence
of whomever you believe in: 3od, Buddha or Christ& +hen, ray to this
Presence that you might be suorted in your illness and your
suffering, ray that he or she may guide and rotect you fearlessly
through the rocess of dying and hel you let go of your attachment to
this life and turn towards the truth&
Even if a erson has no siritual ath, the bottom line in heling them
to die well is to die not feeling emty5handed but #nowing that their
life has had meaning, that they have contributed to us in their life, or
in their rocess of dying& $o, as we relate to a dying erson and give
our love and invite them to tell us the story of their life, what they
suffered and what they learned, we are actually heling them to not
die emty5handed&
H: How can we hel someone who have difficulty communicating with
his family or loved oneK How can we e-ress them our love and dee
feelings when they are near death and sometimes unconsciousK
A: %ell, there are two things& 7irst, eole sometimes have a hard time
communicating their very dee feelings as they aroach this coming
loss& +hey might find it easier to oen u this communication first with
a counselor or social wor#er& +hat may hel them understand what is
most imortant about their connection, and how to e-ress this to the
dying erson&
I encourage caregivers and family members to remember that if they
#ee rocrastinating and utting off saying what they need to, the
erson that they love might become unconscious and unable to
communicate& +hen they will lose this recious oortunity they have
now4 they will feel doubly bereft, from losing their loved one and the
ossibility they had had to en'oy the relationshi and communicate
fully& $o, I encourage them to ma#e this genuine connection early on
and not be afraid of the natural sadness that will come because that2s
art of their love, it2s all right for it to be there&
+here are other eole who, as you said, have lost the ability to
communicate verbally, though we must remember that on many levels,
communication is haening all the time& +hrough touch, being
together even in silence, the communication is really what we are
feeling in our heart& If we have a hard time using words to e-ress our
feeling, we should slow down, be more eaceful and with awareness
try and see what is really true and then e-ress this to the erson 5
even if he or she has dementia&
%e must try to also listen with our heart and feel what the other
erson may be e-ressing in a non5verbal way&
$ome family members told me that they really had to ush their loved
one, before he or she died, to simly say ,I love you,& But what an
e-traordinary gift it isJ 7or the dying erson2s children or artner,
hearing ,I love you,, ,I am sorry,, or, ,than# you for all you2ve done,
one more time is a memory they can carry with them for the rest of
their life&
H: How can eole deal with the death of a childK
A: I myself don2t have direct e-erience with dying children but I2ve
learned a lot about it from others who do& Children ic# u the feeling
and the view oint about death from their arents&
If they have a very negative or frightening view of death, this is what
the child will feel& If the arents have a more ositive, life5affirming, or
siritual view of death, then a dying child will feel more secure& +hus it
is vital to suort the arents, because when they can come to terms
with the loss of their child, then the child will have an easier time as
well&
It is imortant to ac#nowledge all of the layers of the arent2s ain, to
allow it to be e-ressed and released& 6f course, there are no words to
describe how difficult it is4 there2s nothing, in this life, li#e seeing a
child in ain without being able to do something& But we can also hel
arents to see that their own attachment and fear may ma#e the
child2s ain worse&
$o it is vital for arents to find sources of suort and release 55
erhas through a arent2s suort grou, with a counselor, or by
writing out and releasing their fears and attachment& %e are naturally
afraid to let go, afraid that by acceting the death, it means we do not
love our child& But beyond our attachment, there is still a ure love
there& As Eli1abeth "Sbler58oss says, ,@our child may die, but real love
doesn2t die&,
H: It seems easier for children to die because they don2t have a lifelong
habit of attachment and grasing as we do&
A: +hat2s true& If children are given good suort in their rocess of
being ill and dying, if they have really caring caregivers and a good
communicative family, for them dying is not so difficult& +hey have
often a natural trust or confidence in life and a very natural sirituality&
It ma#es sense for them to ray or to call out for hel&
$o, letting go, as you said, is not so hard for them& +he ain they often
suffer is worrying about their siblings or arents& 6f course, we have to
be #ind to ourselves& It2s natural to have an attachment for children&
It2s e0ually imortant to reali1e that when it2s time to really let
somebody that you love go, we need to thin# about what is best for
them in that moment, and not ma#e them suffer more on our account&
H: @ou ersonally e-erienced two asects of death: first, facing it with
the death of your husband and then doing hosice wor# and giving
wor#shos and lectures& %hat did you learn from deathK
A: I2ve learned that our failures are wonderful fuel for us to change and
become better human beings& +he more I #ee my own death in mind,
the more I2m forced to change and grow and ay attention to what it is
I2m ta#ing refuge in, what my real values are& Because of not #nowing
how to fully suort my husband at the time of his death, I entered a
siritual ath&
I2m very grateful now to the suffering that my husband and I went
though because it brought something far richer and more meaningful in
my life& Because of the siritual ath I found after his death, I now feel
a deeer confidence 5 not 'ust intellectual but a confidence born from
my meditation ractice 5 that death can be something wonderful&
And the gift for me now is that as I travel and teach and give seminars
and resent my boo#, I can assure other eole that there is a siritual
dimension to death and to life& "nowing this is e-tremely helful& In
whatever siritual tradition we follow, if we deeen our connection to
the truth and ma#e it art of our being, we can really give strength to
other eole when they suffer& And the 'oy this brings is beyond words&
T<AAB 3illes BRdard
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Abbot /ohn 9aido )oori2s Presentation
$uffering Caused by $ic#ness and Aging
$r& (ary (argaret 7un#, 6$B, /ohn 9aido )oori
from 3ethsemani Encounter II, Aril C==C
(ary (argaret 7un#: 3ood morning& +oday we have a full day to
stretch our boundaries for the sa#e of our own transformation and the
transformation of others on the theme of the suffering caused by old
age and sic#ness and even death& %e had marvelous salms this
morning& )et me 0uote two verses out of .orman 7ischer2s new
translation of Psalm <=C: ,)et my cry come before you& 9on2t hide your
face from me now& %hen suffering overwhelms me, bend your ear
toward my wailing and answer me swiftly& +he days of my life have
gone u in smo#e& (y bones are smoldering li#e hearth fire logs, and
my heart is as dry as desert grass& I can2t eat& (y groaning bones
chatter inside my flesh& I am li#e a scavenger bird in the wilderness,
li#e an owl amidst the ruins& All hungry& I am li#e a lone bird on a
nighttime roofto&,
%hen 7ather /ames %iseman and I were in +ibet, we were staying at a
hotel near (t& Everest, although because of the different names given
by the Chinese, +ibetans, and .ealese to the area we weren2t 0uite
sure where we were& $o I said to the Chinese cler#, ,%here are weK
%here are weK, And she said, ointing to the ground, ,Here, here&, 6f
course, that didn2t satisfy (eg 7un#, the leader of the band, so I went
to the ma and ointed to it& ,.o,, I said, 2%here are weK, ,I don2t
#now,, said the cler#& ,I2ve never been anylace else&, $o, here we are&
It is my rivilege this morning to introduce a new friend for me and
robably an old friend for many of you5but a great discovery, a 'ewel in
this dialogue, /ohn 9aido )oori 8oshi& He is the siritual leader and the
abbot of ;en (ountain (onastery in (ount +remer, .ew @or#& +rained
in #oan ;en as well as in the subtle school of (aster 9ogen2s ;en, he is
a 9harma heir of Ha#u +ai1an (ae1umi 8oshi& He has received
transmission in both the 8in1ai as well as the $oto lines of ;en
Buddhism& Abbot )oori lives at the monastery year5round and is very
active in its day5to5day activities, ma#ing him highly accessible to
students& 9evoted to maintaining authentic ;en training, he has
develoed a distinctive style called Eight 3ates of ;en, based on the
Eightfold Path, involving both monastic and lay ractitioners in a
rogram of study that embraces every asect of daily life& ;a1en and a
strong teacher5student relationshi form the core of the training,
suorted by art ractice and other areas of study, as was traditional
during the 3olden Ages of Chinese and /aanese ;en&
/ohn 9aido )oori: I2d li#e to begin by 'ust e-ressing my areciation
to everyone who2s here, to the organi1ers of this conference, but
mostly to the articiants& I normally don2t do well at conferences, so I
came reared to be bored senseless& Instead, my heart has been
ried oen by what2s ta#en lace here& I2ve been touched deely by
the oenness and honesty of all the articiants, and I deely
areciate it& +han# you& 6ne other thing I wanted to mention for
future conferences is language& $ometimes I2m not sure if we2re tal#ing
about the same thing& +here are many words in Buddhism that are
translated into English to the closest e0uivalent, and they don2t convey
what2s really behind the word5li#e ra'na into ,wisdom,, #aruna into
,comassion,, and du##ha into ,suffering&, 7or instance, there is much
more to the word du##ha than the English word ,suffering,
encomasses&
As I see it, there are different ways of dealing with suffering due to old
age and sic#ness& 6f course, the basic Buddhist way is that the
e-tinguishing of suffering is essentially the definition of .irvana& +hen
there is alleviation of suffering, which is a different aroach& +hen
there is the transformation of suffering, and I2d li#e to loo# briefly at all
three of those&
+he e-tinguishing of suffering forms the whole basis of training at our
monastery& Peole who enter come with a statement: ,I come here
reali1ing the 0uestion of life and death is a grave matter& I wish to
enter into training&, +hese novices are essentially saying that they
want to resolve those ultimate 0uestions: ,%ho am IK %hat is lifeK
%hat is deathK %hat is truthK %hat is realityK, +hey enter a training
rogram that ta#es lace in eight different areas, and moves through
ten successive stages& It2s clearly defined4 each day and each wee#
these ten areas of ractice are engaged& ;a1en is at the core of
everything that we do& A student tries to develo a single5ointedness
of mind, to deal with the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that come
u& It2s a very slow rocess that ta#es lace over years&
A second area of training is the teacherMstudent relationshi& Because
we are an ancestral lineage, the teachings are conveyed one to one
from teacher to student rather than through scritures or study& It2s
mind5to5mind transmission& 7or that we use #oan study& In our lineage
there are E5= of those #oans that a student needs to go through over a
eriod of between fifteen to twenty years, or sometimes more& +hese
#oans are designed to short5circuit the whole intellectual rocess& +hey
essentially frustrate linear se0uential thought& +hey try to oen u
another asect of consciousness, which is direct, immediate, and
intuitive& +hat2s where religious e-erience and artistic e-ression
ta#es lace& It2s not linear and se0uential& Unraveling these #oans each
day, the teacher and student meet face to face during eriods of 1a1en&
Another area of training is liturgy& )iturgy unctuates our entire day5
not only the services that ta#e lace in the Buddha hall, but services
that we use to begin wor# ractice, or before we ta#e a meal, or before
using the bathroom& Each event of the day has a liturgy that recedes
it to remind us what that activity is about& Another area is moral and
ethical teachings5the recets& It2s not 'ust in the recet ceremony
where eole receive the recets and become Buddhists, but a
continuum that moves through each of those ten stages of siritual
develoment& Because American students have no grounding in
historical Buddhist teachings5we come from a /udeo5Christian tradition5
the tendency is to e0uate what we are doing with the /udeo5Christian
counterart& $o services are misinterreted as being worshi services,
and they are not& Buddha is not a 3od, and the rocess is not a
worshi service& Buddhism is nontheistic& It2s not atheistic4 it doesn2t
say there is no 3od& It2s not agnostic4 it doesn2t say, ,I don2t #now if
there is a 3od or not&, It simly doesn2t ta#e u the 0uestion of
whether there e-ists a 3od or not, which #ees the whole 0uestion
oen in a very interesting way&
%or# ractice is another imortant asect of life and how to ta#e it into
the activity of the world& 6ne of the things that haens during that
eriod of siritual develoment is that some may get to that lace of
the e-tinguishing of suffering, and some may not& But a siritual
maturity does indeed occur& +hat haens at the monastery, and it
doesn2t deal with the roblem of what ta#es lace outside the
monastery& %e have a very broad sangha of lay ractitioners, and here
is where we get into the 0uestion of alleviation of suffering& %hen
eole are sic#, they turn to our lay sangha, and the monastery
resonds& %e resond with the classical #ind of resonse that any #ind
of a religious organi1ation would ma#e5for e-amle, each day we do a
healing service& I remember years ago, when we first started doing this
and eole wanted to #now what it was, I said, ,%ell, we are sending
out healing energy&, Everybody chuc#led& +his was twenty5two years
ago& $ince that time, with the studies that have been going on on the
role of rayer and healing, the chuc#ling has stoed& +here is retty
clear evidence that there is a healing that can ta#e lace when a
community directs their energy to heling eole& +he riestly services,
bedside services, counseling the family, articularly where death is
imminent, last rites, deathbed vigils5those are all of the normal things
that any religion would do& +hen we try to do more than that, and call
uon the broad sangha to give suort to eole who are housebound
and handicaed& $ometimes we rovide legal aid and financial
suort& $ometimes eole need their bills aid, transortation, food,
baby5sitting, and housecleaning& All those things are resonded to with
the <=,=== hands and arms of great comassion&
+here is the e-tinction of suffering, which is reali1ation& +here is the
alleviation of suffering, which is the hysical and siritual suort&
+hen there is another asect& +here is the transformation of suffering&
+he great (aster 9ongshan, who is the founder of our lineage, the
$oto lineage, was not feeling well5there is a #oan that emerged out of
this5and a monastic said, ,(aster, you are not feeling well& Is there
anyone who doesn2t get sic#K, 9ongshan said, ,@es, there is&, +he
monastic said, ,9oes the erson who doesn2t get sic# ta#e care of
youK, 9ongshan said, ,I have the oortunity to ta#e care of that
erson&, +he monastic said, ,%hat haens when you ta#e care of that
ersonK, 9ongshan said, ,At that time I am unable to see my
sic#ness&,
+his is an actual event that became a #oan, right before 9ongshan
died& $eeing that his end was near, he shaved his head and bathed
himself, ut on his robes, and sat cross5legged, rearing to die& As he
began to e-ire, his very large congregation started wailing and
carrying on, and the wailing went on and on& 7inally, he oened his
eyes and he said, ,7or those who have left home, a mind unattached to
things is the true ractice& Peole struggle to live and ma#e much of
death& But what2s the use of lamentingK, +hen he ordered a temle
official to reare what he called a ban0uet for stuidity, and
everybody celebrated, and he 'oined in the celebration& +he
negativeness didn2t sto, so he continued it for seven days& 7inally
9ongshan said, ,@ou mon#s have made a great commotion over
nothing& %hen you see me ass away this time, don2t ma#e a noisy
fuss&, +hen he retired to his room, sat uright, and left his body&
+his sort of a thing not only haens with great ;en masters& (y
grandmother, who was a easant from the mountains of Italy, was in
her late B=s when she was getting ready to ass away& (y mother was
with her, lying in bed, and she e-ired& (y mother told me the story&
(y grandmother had 'ust e-ired and her fingernails and lis started
turning blue& (y mother started wailing5she was, you #now, a very
assionate Italian daughter& And my grandmother suc#ed in air again
and sat uright& +hen my mother calmed her down again, and she laid
bac#, and again she e-ired, and again my mother started wailing&
6nce more, my grandmother returned& Her daughter was crying out to
her& $he couldn2t go& +hen my mother reali1ed that she was reventing
her mother from leaving her body& $he told her, ,It2s o#ay, (om& It2s
o#ay to let go&, And finally she e-ired&
I thin# that2s the great heart of comassion that resides in every one of
us& %e all in this room come from different lineages, all incredible
lineages bac# through history& If we loo# at the eole we reresent,
that we hold the banner for now5the great saints and masters, /esus,
Buddha5we need to reali1e that it is now in our hands& As I have said a
coule of times during this retreat, it2s a hoeless tas#& @et we vow to
do it& I loo# at the four vows that we chant every day: ,$entient beings
are numberless& I vow to save them&, It can2t be done by definition&
+hey are numberless, yet I vow to save them& ,9esires are
ine-haustible& I vow to ut an end to them&, +hey are ine-haustible&
@ou can2t ut an end to them, but I vow to do it& ,+he 9harmas are
boundless& I vow to master them&, +o master them means to ut a
frame around them& It can2t be done, yet I vow to do it& ,+he
enlightened way is unattainable& I vow to attain it&, Imossible, the
imossible dream& All we can do is turn and bow to our ancestors and
ta#e u their call to heal, to administer& %e bow to them, and turn and
enter the fray with that vow that no matter how long it ta#es, how
imossible it is, we vow what needs to be done&
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
An Instruction to daily +raining In (editation and in Activity
3iven In 9harma5+or by Ingrid Hufer5.eu
+his te-t is a translation of the 3erman teaching&
+his ractice, which is demonstrated here, has four arts& It is based
on the traditional mindtraining& It is a rearation for develoment of
Bodhicitta and wor#s to dissolve our habitual tendencies, which cause
so much sufferings&
Prearatory contemlation
+o wor# on our habitual tendencies and #armic concets we must reach
the dee and subtle levels of our mind& It is not enough to thin# about
suffering and our entanglement in suffering& It is not enough to see the
imermanence of hainess, which we lose again and again, and which
we in vain try to hold onto& 6f course first we have to thin# on the
intellectual level, to comrehend and understand these things, to get a
clear view& But then the training follows& After an intellectual
understanding there must be e-erience, and after the e-erience
realisation& +his is liberation from wrong view and from a state of mind
which causes suffering&
All situations, which entangle us in the world, are ultimately ainful,
and all hainess, which we meet in the world is imermanent& +he
more we hold onto hainess and the more we refuse suffering, the
more we become entangled in ainful e-eriences& Hainess
dissolves, because all is imermanent and changes all the time& And we
cannot sto suffering, because everything that aears is changing and
dissolves some time& +his is a natural rocess& But a human being
searches for hainess and doesn2t want to suffer, all beings search for
hainess and don2t want to suffer& +herefore they react by holding
onto hainess and they reress suffering& In this way everything
becomes ainful& Also hainess essentially becomes ainful, because
there is the fear that hainess will diminish& +his is $amsara, the
circle of suffering, in which all beings are entangled&
+he ath to liberation is to try to change our reactions in a way, so that
we no longer suffer& $uffering is always there as long as we are in the
world, because everything is always changing& But we can learn how to
suffer no longer from this changing rocess, from this imermanence&
+here is nobody who does not e-erience great suffering during life,
nobody who does not lose dear ones, nobody who does not e-erience
illness and the suffering of old age& But we can sto to suffer from this
suffering& %e have an imermanent body& Everything we meet in our
life is imermanent because it has develoed interdeendently and is
comosed of different arts& +his we have to understand deely, to
e-erience and to learn to accet& +hen suffering will dissolve& But the
causes of our behaviour are even stored on a very very dee level of
our mind& $o, to become free from suffering we cannot do very much
to change the mechanism of our reactions, our concets, by wor#ing
on the level of the day5consciousness and with intellectual thin#ing&
+herefore we must wor# on ourselves very much with s#illful means,
with mindtraining, to change the mechanism of our reactions& +he focal
oint is how we react on situations& +he 2how2 is imortant& +he
situation is not the roblem but our #ind of reaction& If it was the
situation, different human beings would not react in different ways to
the same situation& And if the situation was the cause, no being could
become free from suffering& But because the Buddha and other beings
were able to become free from suffering, free from $amsara, this ath
out of suffering e-ists&
%e have to wor# on ourselves with atience and diligence to cause a
change& 6n doing so we should create our ractice in a 'oyful way& And
what can bring us more 'oy than a ath to liberation from sufferingK
+he ractice
(editative rearation
)et your breath flow in and out softly till you e-erience a comfortable
calmness&
*isuali1e a small radiant light in the middle of your body&
By breathing out let the air flow through this light& After some time it
begins to radiate more strong&
<& Accet suffering
.ow remember a situation which was ainful for you&
9on2t try to ush away this e-erience or to run away from it& )oo# at
it, go into the ainful feeling& Accet it&
+hin# about all beings who have to e-erience the same suffering&
+hin# about your suffering as the suffering of all beings&
.ow loo# at the light in your body& )et it radiate more and more by
breathing out& It begins to dissolve the suffering as the light of the sun
disels all dar#ness&
)et love and comassion arise in yourself and send out light, love and
comassion&
%ish from your heart that all suffering of beings may dissolve& $end
them your light, your love, and rela- in a liberated, 'oyful state&
C& $hare hainess and 'oy
8emember a situation which has brought hainess and 'oy to you&
+hen go totally into this feeling of hainess and 'oy&
.ow oen your mind widely and fill it with this e-erience&
+hin# about all the many beings who also want so much to be hay&
%ish from your heart that they may e-erience the same hainess,
the same 'oy&
.ow share your hainess, send it out together with your light to all
beings& Be oen and free and give&
E-erience 'oy and hainess of giving and symathetic 'oy&
!& E-erience the ego as cause of suffering
8emember a situation where you have been disagreeing with
somebody, where you have 0uarrelled&
)oo# at this situation as a neutral observer& Esecially loo# at yourself,
your own reaction&
And then ta#e the sting out of this situation& +a#e out the ego, which
wants to be absolutely right&
$ee that you cannot force circumstances to change& $ee that you
cannot change the other erson& If you try it, the sting goes deeer&
But you can change your own behaviour& +his is the chance for
calmness and eace& It is the chance to dissolve suffering& )et go your
e-ectations and then you become free& +hen you become eaceful&
And the situation dissolves&
9on2t see# to change the other erson& He cannot change himself, but
you can change yourself&
9evelo comassion for the other who causes suffering for himself&
D& Become free from e-ectations
8emember a situation where you had great e-ectations which then
were not fulfilled&
3o into the feeling of disaointment& )oo# at the senselessness of the
attitude of e-ectation&
9issolve it, become free from it& 5 Be as you are, oen and free&
En'oy the state of not having to have e-ectations&
Concluding contemlation
+his training shows us very directly that we ourselves are causing the
suffering& %e can revent much suffering for ourselves and for others if
we become familiar with these ractices& %e cannot change the world,
we cannot change other human beings, but we can wor# on ourselves
and change ourselves& If many eole do this, the world will change
too& But we cannot e-ect and wait for the others to begin& %e have to
start in ourselves&
If we let go our e-ectations, if we reduce our ego5thin#ing, and if we
ta#e the sting out of difficult situations, we lant the basis for eace in
ourselves and in our environment& If we sto being so much
vulnerable, we no longer hurt others& %e can choose our behaviour& %e
have a choice in every situation, in every moment& %e will learn to
develo comassion and wisdom& 6ur meditation hels us, the
circumstances in everyday life are our training ground& +his is the
ractice& +his is 9harma ractice for our own well5being and for the
well5being of others too&
+o ractise in this way gives us the gift to go to liberation& It is the
greatest gift we can receive in this life& +here is no greater gift&
,9o not forget the )ama,
Pray to him all the times&
9o not be carried away by thoughts,
%atch the nature of mind&
9o not forget death,
Persist in 9harma&
9o not forget sentient beings,
%ith comassion dedicate your merit to them&,
H&H& 9ilgo "hyentse 8inoche
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Are Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism (ade 7or Each 6therK
by 3ene 3ibas
7o- *alley Unitarian Universalist 7ellowshi
CI== E& Phili )n&
P&6& Bo- <EA<
Aleton, %I 5DA<C5<EA<
>AC=? E!<5=BDA
%ebsite: htt:MMwww&focol&orgMfvuuf
/uly CC, C==<
+his morning I2d li#e to tal# about how I thin# basic Buddhism could
enrich Unitarian5Universalists as a ersonal salvation or redemtion
scheme&
.ow, in my le-icon, a salvation scheme is both a set of beliefs about
human nature and the human condition and the actions and ractices
that stem from these beliefs& 8edemtive beliefs and ractices deliver
us from negative or disabling conditions having to do with our
finiteness, with our own ersonal deaths& +hey deliver us from a
gnawing sense at the core of our beings that our lives and deaths occur
against a bac#ground of aarent nothingness and are without
meaning& +hey deliver us from feelings of e-istential emtiness,
searation, and isolation& A salvation scheme also hels us try to
determine what behaviors harm eole and the sustaining web, and
are thus evil, and should be combated& A salvation scheme hels us to
define and choose that which is good& A salvation scheme frees us from
self5see#ing& %e can turn away from the self and our our abundance
on others and on the world as a healing balm&
I suggest that the need for a salvation scheme, for redemtion, is a
human universal and that there are two main ways UU2s resond to
this universal need& 6ne way is distraction& @ou can so thoroughly
distract yourself with activities of any sort, all of the lures of the
modern world, that you have no time to feel that gnawing an-iety at
your core& (odern, comle- rofessional discilines, for e-amle, are
so consuming that they have the effect of distracting us from
e-istential angst& 6r your basic temerament may be such that you are
indifferent to these issues, you 'ust don2t feel e-istential angst at all,
and you slide through life blissfully indifferent to them, i&e&, you2re
automatically distracted& &
But for many modern eole, eole who cannot accet fundamentalist
religions and outlandish beliefs, the route to salvation is good wor#s&
(any of you here today have rofessional lives where you are actually
aid to contribute to the welfare of man#ind& @ou do so slendidly and
can rest in the conviction that you are contributing to reali1ing a grand
vision of the good& @ou can ultimately lay your head down at the end of
life with a sigh of satisfaction needing no further salvation scheme&
+hat vision of the good, the utoia that UU2s and other religious liberals
strive to bring about, thereby redeeming themselves, is well summed
u in UU2s seven rinciles& +he utoia we wor# to bring about
suorts <? the inherent worth and dignity of every erson4 C? 'ustice,
e0uity and comassion in human relations4 !? accetance of one
another and encouragement to siritual growth4 D? the free and
resonsible search for truth and meaning4 5? the right of conscience
and the use of the democratic rocess4 I? the e-tension of these
rinciles to the whole world, and an ecological E? resect for the
interdeendent web of all e-istence& I have heard UU2s 'o#e that
wor#ing to bring about this utoia is doing ,the )ord2s, wor#&
If you doubt the rimacy of wor#s in the UU aroach to life, 'ust read
the UU %orldJ UU2s are urged to do good wor#s, to become advocates
and activists as much as their time, energy and gifts ermit& But
they2re not told to do wor#s as their way of becoming saved or
redeemed& @et my observation is that the effect is there& $ocial
activism is a form of salvation by wor#s& I2ve seen too much behavior
among UU2s and liberals in general that can only be e-lained this way&
But there are a number of roblems with salvation by wor#s& 6ne is
that desite all of our retensions, we never really #now what the
effects of many of our actions will be over the middle and long range&
Another is that we can never fully redict who will rise in oosition to
our ideas& And when eole rise to oose us, our self5esteem tends to
ush us into (anichean thin#ing& %e easily convince ourselves that
there are forces of good and forces of evil in e-istence, and, of course,
the UU2s are on the side of the good forces and those who oose us
are the evil, benighted, unrighteous ones& 8edeeming oneself through
wor#s also subtly temts one to ob'ectify the very eole one sets out
to hel& (e&& big wise erson, you, ob'ect of my caritas&&& some sort of
failed erson who can hel me feel good about myself&
But a bigger roblem with salvation by wor#s is the wounded healer
issue& Catholicism recogni1ed not long ago, agreeing with )uther, that
wor#s are not the route to salvation, but should roceed from a heart
and mind that is already redeemed& %or#s should our from abundant
hearts, hearts that no longer feel that it is all emty and meaningless,
but that life is a wonderful gift, a bestowed #indness to which any
normal human being must recirocate& %hen this isn2t the order of
things, we get into a strange circularity: feeling the emtiness of life,
feeling life is without meaning, a erson goes forth to hel those
bogged down in life in some way or other, so that those heled then
have the time and ease to feel the emtiness of life, and then try
themselves to escae their own e-istential suffering by going out to
hel others bogged down in the emtiness of life, and so on&
U7rom what I have seen, UU is retty much silent for those of us who
are not so fortunate as to already have achieved a full and abundant
heart& 8un5of5the5mill mortals need a religio, a methodology of
rebinding oneself into the web of e-istence& +hey need an art of living,
some sort of e-tended metahor that doesn2t as# us to ma#e
assertions that insult our intelligence& After reading my way through a
do1en or so boo#s on $outh Asian Buddhism over the last <5 years,
I2ve become convinced that Buddhism, stried of reincarnation
doctrine, is that religio& It thin# Buddhism2s understanding of human
nature and the human condition and the redemtive ractices it has
develoed can hel s#etical modern eole be religious andF develo
the full and abundant hearts that overflow into wor#s and living for
others&
But I also reali1e there are considerable barriers for %esterners to
really areciate how Buddhism could hel them lead a religious life&&
Barrier number one is the tendency of %esterners to force Buddhism
into the terminology and categories of Christianity& If you want to have
the slightest chance of understanding Buddhism, if you want to become
artially Buddhist, you must resist this tendency& @ou have to forego
the idea that the Buddha is the Buddhist Christ, that humans are
basically evil and tainted by 6riginal $in, that the goal of religion is
salvation in the sense of acceting a /esus5li#e figure as savior and
being drawn u into some heaven at death& @ou should set aside terms
li#e sin, faith, belief, grace, and sirituality& I2ll try not to use them at
all in the rest of this tal#& In fact it2s best to start out saying that
Buddhism really isn2t a religion at all& 8ather it is an ,art of living,, or
as a /aanese businessman once told me, ,Buddhism is mental
health&,
+he second barrier to aroaching Buddhism arises from some initial
mis5translations by the first %estern writers about Buddhism& 6ne of
these is the use of the term ,enlightenment, for the culminating
e-erience of Buddhist ractice& 7or %esterners Enlightenment means
that you figure out some roblem or set of roblems so that you can
better understand or control your life and circumstances& +hat2s
absolutely not the goal Buddhism strives to reach&
(ore confusion arises from the terms: meditation and nirvana& $outh
Asian Buddhism does not totally re'ect Hindu forms of meditation but
'ust does not consider them uni0uely useful& +o understand what
Buddhism does consider useful, we should abandon the term
meditation itself& Buddhism reaches bhavana& Bhavana is mental
culture and mental disciline aimed at achieving right mindfulness&
8ight mindfulness is roer awareness of the world and your lace in
it& +his is an awareness not distorted by various forms of delusion,
rideful self5assertion, and self5centered craving& .irvana is nothing
more than achieving this relationshi to the world&
+he fourth barrier arises from the difference between orthodo-y >right
teachings? and orthora-is >right ractice?& (uch of Christianity is
reoccuied with orthodo-y, that is, with right beliefs and teachings,
right creeds& In Christianity, having faith and being admitted to the
"ingdom of Heaven is based on adherence to correct statements about
3od and his relation to humans& +hin# of the .icean Creed& ,I believe
in 3od the 7ather, ma#er of heaven and earth, and in /esus Christ, his
only son our )ord&&&&, Buddhism on the other hand is a religion of
orthora-is, of right conduct& And the oint of the right conduct one
struggles to achieve is to see things as they are, and not to busy
oneself with unanswerable 0uestions li#eF Is there a 3odK Is there life
after deathK Am I doomed to return in another reincarnationK
But the biggest barrier to understanding Buddhism is the direction of
regarding in %estern religion and life& It boils down to this& In the %est
we thin# the individual should be the focus of regard and concern& As
far bac# as 3ree# times the ac0uisition of #nowledge, wealth, ower,
and fame were seen as the #eys to hainess& >Pindar? +hey still are
the main motivations for achievement in modern life& %estern religions
have not been terribly successful as an antidote against this tendency&
3od had a chosen eole, the /ews& Christ came into the world to
redeem you, not to rovide you a model of self5forgetting in service of
your fellow man& @ou, the individual, are the focus of regarding and
concern& +he %est is basically narcissistic&
In modern times 8ene 9escartes2 idea that ,I thin#, therefore I am,
further reinforced this direction of regarding& According to 9escartes
the uni0ue ersonality is the one undoubtable reality and all truth
starts there& +he more the modern erson is able to develo his
consciousness as an agent searate from everything else, the more he
can maniulate ob'ects outside the self for his own selfish uroses&
+hat includes other eole& Buddhism calls this sort of #nowledge
avidya&&&which means ignorance or not5#nowing&
+his ignorance, this alienated maniulative standoffishness by a
fortress self was labeled dualism by +aitet1 $u1u#i, one of the greatest
interreters of Buddhism to Americans& $ince this form of dualism is
the standard oerating mode of %estern )ife, Buddhism sees virtually
everything about %estern )ife as maya, delusion, fundamental error&
Buddhist ractice leads to the e-erience of another sort of
consciousness& It starts from an intuition that everything that e-ists is
one, and everything is an element in the e-istence of everything else&
7or e-amle, your friends and the eole around you are the content
of your life and ma#e you what you are& @ou would be unthin#able
without others& In Buddhism the rule of life is interrelatedness and
interdeendence, as in the UU interdeendent web of all e-istence&
Buddhists develo the intuition of oneness through study and mental
disciline to the oint where awareness of self seems to melt away&
Barriers between you and other eole melt away& 8egarding is turned
outward& All of e-istence is e-erienced as an infinite gift or #indness
that normal eole want to resond to in #ind& $elf is forgotten&
As Buddhists go deeer and deeer into this intuition, they can be said
to be living more and more in .irvana& +he distinction between
ersonal needs and comassionate involvement with others is
overcome& Buddhism in $outh Asia as we saw in the *ietnam war is not
self5centered otherworldly navel5ga1ing& It is a dee, moral, caring,
self5forgetting articiation in the interdeendent web of all e-istence&
.ow those are the most significant barriers I can see that #ee
%esterners from ma#ing sense of Buddhism& $o let2s loo# beyond them
at the few core beliefs that Buddhism, esecially $outheast Asian
+heravadan Buddhism, does hold& $ome of these beliefs have already
been selled out&
Beliefs:
<& &&&@ou cannot ma#e an art of living out of roositions you have to
ta#e on faith, li#e the e-istence of 3od, the divine nature of /esus, or
life after death& +he Buddha urosefully maintained what the
commentators call a 2noble silence2 in resonse to such unanswerable
0uestions& Proer living is to see things as they are in the concrete
here and now&
C& +here may be some ultimate force or ower, but it will remain
forever un#nowable to man#ind& +hat ultimate reality has no attributes
or characteristics we can identify or gras& +hus seculation about the
nature and e-istence of 3od is viewed, in Buddhism, as idle and
ointless& It2s a diversion from the real tas# of life, which is to become
aware of the infinite interrelatedness of things and find oneself within
it&
!& Buddhists #now that the world as ta#en in by the five senses is
really there& But what is really real and really imortant is not what we
can #now through our senses and maniulate with our minds and
hands& +he only thing that is really imortant is to attain a gentle,
oen, submitted relationshi to the world around us&
D& +here is no original sin& But there is a flaw, and that is the tendency
to become deluded about the nature of things& +he goal of Buddhist
ractice is to see things as they are, to wal# away from delusion& %hen
we set deluded ways of thin#ing and acting aside, we discover our true
nature: Buddhists say that is 'oy, comassion, harmony, eace, and
wholeness, a sense of fitting in, a submittedness and oenness of the
erson&
$o how do we escae delusionK How do we become the fully oen,
submitted ersonalityK +he original reaching of Buddha was that we
achieve undeluded, submitted living through mental disciline and
effort >bhavana?&& +he Buddha2s role in this was only to oint out the
way based on his own e-erience& He never claimed to be anything but
an insired teacher& He is the awa#ened or newly budded one, budded
as in a flower2s unfolding& His teaching in a nutshell is that the ultimate
good is to do no harm, by omission or commission, and that selfish
desire and ride of intellect is the root of human suffering, or du##ha&&
+he nearest thing to original Buddhism, called +heravadan Buddhism,
is still racticed in $outheast Asia, and $ri )an#a& It is very clear about
what it thin#s deluded views are& It2s a good lace to start the study of
Buddhism&
+he $outheast Asian core catechism says &&to not live in delusion you
must accet: the +hree Basic 7acts of )ife, the notion of the two selves,
the 7our .oble +ruths, and the .oble Eightfold Path& It also as#s eole
to accet the notion of "arma, the way ast actions influence you here
and now, and the merciful doctrine of reincarnation&
%hat are the three Basic 7acts of )ife we should hold in the front of our
minds at all timesK
A.ICCA >imermanence?& Everything is imermanent& )i#e each one of
us, everything comes into being4 it matures4 it grows old and worn4
and it dies& .ot to see every asect of life at every moment through
this filter is delusion& +o fight this is delusion&
A.A++A >insubstantiality?& +he second fact of life is that nothing in
e-istence has any ermanent features that distinguish it from anything
else& +here is no core enduring substance in anything& +o understand
A.A++A thin# of yourself and what you thin# you are& %ith your aging
and death you will be stried of everything you have, everyone you
#now& %hat is the reality of your ersonality, interests, lin#s to others
and s#illsK If you2re an athlete, an accident could ma#e you a
aralegic& )ive long enough and time will ma#e your e-ertises
outdated and you may or may not learn new ones& %ill you still
remember who you were or areK
%hen you eel away all the changeable distinguishing features of
yourself, Buddhism says, the only thing that is ermanent is the
eaceful sea of consciousness, free of thought and distraction, at the
center of our being, a void identical in every erson& +his is the real
and ermanent $elf with a caital 2$2, as oosed to the ersonal you,
the mortal individual, the self with a small 2s2&
9U""HA& Basic fact V! is that all of life is at bottom suffering, a series
of necessary losses ending in the loss of our very selves in death&
9u##ha or suffering does not refer mainly to outright ain or disease,
or even minor stuff such as discomfort, irritation, and friction& It means
that most eole are aware at some dee level of their incomleteness
and even hellessness in the face of the fleeting nature of life and the
ultimate absurdity of death& $uffering also means that most eole
fre0uently e-erience gnawing dissatisfaction and discontent4 that they
constantly want things to be different than they actually are&
$o how does a Buddhist construct a hay and fulfilled life in view of
these rather austere and harsh facts of lifeK +he Buddhist answer is to
accet the 7our .oble +ruths and their imlications&
&&+he first noble truth is du##ha& )ife is dissatisfaction& )ife is suffering&
&&+he second noble truth is that suffering comes from our deluded
efforts to deny and hide from the facts of anicca and anatta,
imermanence and insubstantiality& %e try to deny these facts of life
by endless self5centered craving, such as the craving of the senses for
e-eriences and the greed of the everyday erson for wealth, ower
and recognition&
But there is an even more subtle craving in the realm of ideas& Peole
try to deny anicca and anatta by concetuali1ing about the nature of
things& +his ma#es the world seem more solid, enduring and
redictable than it really is& In fact, says Buddhism, it is not solid,
enduring and redictable at all&
&&+he third noble truth is that you can end suffering in yourself by
eliminating its cause: self5centered craving and the ride of intellect&
>Pelagian heresy&?
&&+he fourth noble truth is that there is a methodology to accomlish
this: the .oble Eightfold Path&
.ote that the ath to the end of suffering is not through being
redeemed by someone else2s sacrifice& +he whole emhasis in
Buddhism is on the mind and will of the individual, on self5reliance&
9esite the fact that mind and will are some of the temorary facets of
an individual, and this is a contradiction, it is through them that the
individual determines to follow the Eightfold .oble Path to
enlightenment&
Before e-amining the eightfold ath, we should e-amine the way in
which the Buddhists solved the 0uestion of free will versus determinism
and relationshi of this to the doctrine of reincarnation& +he word
"A8(A means volitional action& Buddhists sea# of the fruits of "A8(A
to indicate the influence and weight of ast deeds and events&
+hey say that your ast deeds, the deeds of others, the events of
history, and 'ust lain raw chance do indeed affect your otions now&
But what you choose to do at any given moment adds a new layer of
the fruits of "arma >weight of ast deeds?& @our choice thus oens u
new ossibilities& And these include striving for and attaining the oen
yielded way of life& $o to follow the Eightfold .oble Path is to lay down
new layers of the results of #arma, volitional action& +hat leads
eventually to oenness, yieldedness , submittedness, the rere0uisites
to getting off the endless cycle of rebirth and suffering&&
But discilining and erfecting yourself is very, very difficult& $o
Buddhists and Hindus drew uon their e-erience of sub5troical lants
and animals to find a way to grant a erson more time to develo
better "arma& +hey did this by develoing a doctrine of reincarnation&
If you could not attain the oen yielded way of life in one lifetime, the
wheel of e-istence would come around and your elements would
eventually be reconstituted again for another try& $ohisticated modern
Buddhists tend to see worrying about reincarnation as a form of idle
seculation li#e wondering if there is a 3od and what our relationshi
to 3od is&
$o what is methodology, the .oble Eightfold Path, that ma#es it
ossible to achieve gentleness, oenness, yieldednessK %ell, it2s very
rosaic:
8ight Understanding 8ight Purose or 9esire 8ight $eech 8ight Action
8ight 6ccuation 8ight Effort 8ight Concentration 8ight (editation
,8ight, means ,highest and best imaginable&, +he Buddha taught that
all of the stages of the ath were originally viewed as e0ually
necessary to attain& All of the rest of Buddhist literature can be
understood as an attemt to give meaning to this core doctrine of the
eight arts of the ath to oenness and yieldedness& $o what is the
eightfold ath li#eK
+HE .6B)E EI3H+76)9 PA+H
+he first ,fold, of the ath is 8ight Understanding or *iew, which
means seeing life as it is& +his means getting an intellectual gras of
the basic teachings &&&what the ! Basic 7acts of )ife are, what the 7our
.oble +ruths are&&&what the B stages of the .oble Eightfold Path
are&&&what the self is and is not&&&and what "arma is&&&it means holding
these teachings in the forefront of our minds and interreting life
through them&
+he first fold is 8ight Purose, (otive or 9esire, the desire to slay the
selfish and base within us, to ta#e the love of humanity to heart, to use
one2s gifts in the service of others, to forget the imermanent little self,
to e-erience oneself, others, and everything else as an interrelated
web of cause and effect& +here are four states of mind in 8ight
Purose&
>If you listen u, you2ll reali1e you are hearing one of the few real
arado-es in Buddhism& @ou must want to follow the religion that views
self5centered wanting as the rimary cause of suffering&?
8ight Purose means to constantly and consciously cultivate love,
comassion, symathetic 'oy, and e0uanimity& Peole should wor# to
cause thoughts of love to ervade and suffuse their world& Peole
should struggle to stri selfish desire out of their loving, they should
act on these thoughts through selfless giving, trying to develo the
ability to give without even being aware one is giving& +o foster
comassion, or symathetic sorrow, eole should constantly strive to
see the common core they share with others so as to be able to
identify with them and to imagine oneself in the lace of those who
suffer&&&and act on their comassion&
Peole have an e0ual obligation to cultivate symathetic 'oy or
gladness, which means to ractice re'oicing in the success and good
fortune of others& @ou should ractice filling your heart with the
re'oicing of others so that their 'oy is your 'oy& @ou should also ractice
cutting feelings of 'oy and gladness free from any secific ersons and
events, in effect racticing the e-erience of free floating gladness&
+here are te-ts full of meditation techni0ues that hel the racticing
Buddhist bring about the four states of mind that comrise 8ight
Purose&
Peole also have an obligation, after e-eriencing the e-citement of
the world, to learn how to discover and return to the imersonal
serenity at the core of their beings&&& to see all others imartially
without self5centered aversion or attraction&&& to see all others as a
constituent arts of themselves and their actions&
All of this is 8ight Purose and Buddhists clearly believe that all this is
ossible for humans to achieve& %e have the mental caacity to stri
ourselves of selfish desires and the ride of the intellect& And when we
do so we discover that what is left is love, comassion, 'oy, and
e0uanimity& @ou should note that this an e-tremely ositive and
otimistic view of human nature& It2s essentially ,original goodness&,
+he !MDM5 folds of the ath are: 8ight $eech, 8ight Action, 8ight
6ccuation& All are elaborations of 8ight Purose& +hese are very
imortant elements in the develoment of a Buddhist art of living& (ost
everyday eole send more of their lives ursuing these stages of the
Eightfold Path than the mind disciline stages& +here is nothing here
about escaing or denying this world&
+he si-th fold, 8ight Effort, is the ractice of constant and strenuous
endeavor to train oneself to fulfill the first five stages 'ust outlined& It
means to live, breathe, and eat the basic teachings& It means to train
oneself in these ractices as a chamion gymnast would train for the
6lymics&
Unli#e some American schools of Buddhism and .ew Age teachings,
meditation techni0ues are not the sum total of $outh Asian Buddhism&
+he Buddha taught that each of the eight stages of the eightfold ath
was as imortant as any other& Consciously and intentionally wor#ing to
become a selfless, altruistic, comassionate, 'oyous social being,
dedicated to reducing the suffering of others, comes first& In fact, my
imression is that $outh Asian Buddhists view these first si- stages as
rere0uisites to the mental self5 control techni0ues that ma#e u the
last stages of the .oble Eightfold Path&
If the erson doesn2t become socially oriented, the last two stages of
the ath, the mind5control stages, easily degenerate into self5centered
leasure see#ing, a way to avoid the moral life or build u the self& I
thin# that is why so much of Buddhism in the U&$& seems to start and
sto with the meditation techni0ue of attentiveness to breathing&
Americans ractice this form of meditation for rela-ation& It is 'ust
another s#ill or techni0ue to ma#e their %estern egos more owerful&
It2s 'ust a fragment of a full religious ethical system&
8ight (indfulness, Concentration or Attention is the seventh fold or
element of the Eightfold ath& It is the first of the mind techni0ues
resented in the Eightfold ath for blending the individual into the unity
that underlies the world& +he goal of the techni0ue is to learn through
mental disciline how .6+ to e-erience the world as a set of tools to
gras and maniulate& $atiathana, or mindfulness training, trains you
to be harmlessly resent in the world and comassionately aware& It
teaches you how to arehend the world without scheming to ma#e
use of it, or distorting your awareness of what actually e-ists with
some ree-isting ma of what the world is suosed to be li#e&
I have found different interretations in different boo#s as to what the
eighth fold of the eight5fold ath is& $ome call it %isdom training or
ra'na& +hese are techni0ues to attain transcendental awareness of
emtiness& +he sense in which the world is ,emty, is that is is emty
of our uroses& +his is very close to mindfulness, attending the to
world that is without sub'ecting it to your willfulness or intentions&
.ow why should we be interested in seeing the world this wayK %hen
we learn to sense the emtiness of the world, the givenness or
suchness of the world, we are more oen to erceive it as a vast set of
interrelations without beginning or end, something we2re only a small
art of& Achieving this ersective allows us to set aside the claims of
our own little ersonalities and wants and uts us in a osition to
become the erson who lives for others&
$ome see the eighth stage as 8ight (editation as bodhi, awareness
techni0ues designed to carry us into the moments of consciousness
which lie between thoughts& %e become aware that consciousness is a
sea& +hought is a wave uon the sea& Pure consciousness is li#e a still
la#e, clear, calm, and full of 'oy& @ou glimse even deeer
consciousness& +he glimse is called bodhi&&& awareness of the ultimate
unity& It is said to come li#e a blinding glimse of ure light
accomanied by a flood of 'oy& Continued ractice of meditation and
the reeated e-erience of bodhi lead to the ability to live for long
eriods of time in comlete selfless unity free of suffering& +he
elements of searate ersonality fall away& +his is art of what is
meant by .irvana&
+rouble is that everyone returns to everyday life from these mental
activities& %hen such ersons who have achieved bodhi or ra'na
return to the the everyday world, they are said to ic# u the
aearance of ersonality and sli it on again& But it is the ersonality
of a new erson, urified of searateness and reborn in the love of all
life& +hose few who have reached this stage of siritual develoment
have, according to +heravadan, or $outh Asian Buddhism, achieved the
urose of life and could live out their days in meditative retreat&
But that2s where the (ahayana or northern school of Buddhism arose&
(ahayanists ob'ected, saying ,%ait a minute& %hat do you mean,
meditative retreatK +hat2s selfish& After the Buddha attained full
awareness and oenness, he didn2t run off to be alone li#e a
rhinocerous snorting in the bush& 8ather he chose to become a
bodhisattva, an enlightened being who returns to everyday life,
dedicated to relieving the suffering of others by heling them achieve
the goals of Buddhist living&
%hen Buddhism came to China, the Chinese mahayanists further
elaborated the bodhisattva ideal& +hey saw sending the huge amounts
of time re0uired to achieve wisdom or awareness through mental
e-ercises as selfish and immoral& +he (ahayanists favored the
Bodhisattva notion and gave it a new wrin#le& +hey said that you
achieve nirvana right here in the hustle and bustle of everyday life
ursuing the goals of the first seven stages of the .oble Path&
It should also be noted that centering attention on life here and now
finesses the issue of reincarnation& If you are a Buddhist who believes
in reincarnation, you believe that at death a erson will e-erience
reincarnation again and again until he or she succeeds in achieving
bodhi& %hen that haens the erson, or whatever, goes on to dwell
forever in undifferentiated unity, in the bosom of the )ord, so to sea#&
But if you have truly absorbed the sirit of Buddhism, you find this
irrelevant& 7or you death and imermanence have lost all meaning& @ou
have already merged in this life with the timeless, boundless and
undifferentiated&
$o how is all of this taught to a mass audienceK @ou need scritures,
doctrines, meditation ractices, observances, rituals, ceremonies,
festivals, saints of some sort, monasteries, convents, common sayings,
art, song, hilosohy to rovide many athways to the basic insights
and to #ee things from getting boring& 7ully develoed Buddhist
cultures have this in abundance&
All of this is usually unavailable to the American who might li#e to
follow the Buddhist way of living& %hat we are left with in America are
by and large boo#s and articles about doctrine, hilosohy, and above
all meditation ractices& (ost of this is adated to the U&$& culture of
liberalism >feminist Buddhism is one such fusion?& Buddhist ideas of
self5forgetting get lost as the whole thing becomes yet another self5
hel scheme designed to ma#e the ego more cometent to win out in
the cometition of American life& & It becomes another form of theray
to achieve emowerment and not a full religio, or much of a religio at
all& &
Buddhism as a fully develoed religion has always emhasi1ed that
religion has not only an intellectual dimension, but also a volitional
dimension >you have to will to believe?, an emotional dimension, and a
social dimension& Before closing, I2d li#e to briefly e-lore these
dimensions&
+he notion of ,faith,, or shraddha in Buddhism imlies a determination,
an act of will to concentrate the owers of the mind on an ideal after
one has chosen that ideal as a life goal&
%hen one has loo#ed at the Buddhist art of living and willed it to be
one2s ideal, the intellect follows& 6ne then is willing to give assent to
the very few roositions or assertions that we have already tal#ed
about, such as the three basic facts of life, the four noble truths,
#arma, belief in the efficacy of the eightfold noble ath& Additionally
there is a call for confidence in what Buddhism calls the three refuges:
the Buddha as teacher, the 9harma, or doctrines of Buddhism, and the
$amgha, or community of Buddhists&
Emotionally, Buddhist faith is an attitude of serenity and lucidity, the
oosite of being troubled by many things& A erson who has achieved
shraddha is said to have lost the five terrors of life& He or she ceases to
worry about the necessities of life, to worry about loo#ing foolish in
front of other eole, about loses such as reutation and socio5
economic status, about death, life after death, reincarnation, and so
forth& If there is only the vastness of sace and e-istence, and if we
are woven into that, what is there that should disturb us, e-cet for
the suffering of othersK
+he emotional slides imercetibly into the social in Buddhism&
$ocially, shraddha or faith is trust and confidence in the Buddha, in the
dharma or doctrines, and in the samgha, or community of Buddhists&
As haens in the great religions, the erson who fully gives him or
herself to the ractice of Buddhism brea#s to some degree with the
normal social environment&
+he religious Buddhist 'oins the family of the Buddha, the community
of mahasattvas and bodhisattvas& +he Buddha himself is the father, the
dharma or doctrine is the mother, the community of fellow see#ers are
one2s brothers and sisters, relatives and friends& It is with this
community that satisfactory social relationshis must be established&
It is in this matter of emotional and social relationshis to the Buddha
and the 9harma that some Buddhist schools in /aan clearly go beyond
roviding a cool mental disciline and a collection of meditation
ractices& +hey begin to tal# of the erson Buddha as an e-ression of
a larger Buddha& +he universe is Buddha, the ower that may stand
behind the universe or merely be e-ressed in it, is Buddha, the
concrete individual, the Buddha himself, is an e-ression of that larger
Buddha&
6ne clings to the Buddha not only as a human teacher, but through the
teacher to the ultimate ower of the Universe& 6ne also renders
devotion to the bodhisattvas and allows oneself to be insired by them&
.ow, in case you2re not seeing the resemblance, this is father, son, and
holy ghost lus saints&
But how can one have the same social relation to the dharmaK %ell,
9harma means not only the teachings of Buddhism, but the underlying
sustaining ower of the universe& +he urose of the dharma as
doctrine is to hel you align yourself with the total interrelatedness of
the ower of the universe& @ou are to ta#e refuge in the dharma,
whether universe or doctrine, you are to cling to it as you cling to a
human friend& +his matter of the Buddha and the 9harma as refuge is
as close as Buddhism comes to ositing a ersonal relationshi to
ersonal 3od& @ou relate to the mystery of the Universe as if it were a
comforting and rotecting erson&
All of this reares you to fulfill the wishes of the (etta $utra, the
$ermon on )oving#indness& )et2s end with a reading from that sutra& If
you wish, close your eyes and try to visuali1e yourself living out these
idealsF&
(ay all beings be hay&
(ay all be 'oyous and live in safety&
)et no one deceive another, nor desise another, as wea# as they may
be& )et no one by anger or by hate wish evil for another&
As a mother, in eril of her own life, watches and rotects her only
child, thus with a limitless sirit must one cherish all living beings&
)ove the world in its entirety 55 above, below and all around, without
limitation, with an infinite goodness and with benevolence&
%hile standing or wal#ing, sitting or lying down, as long as one is
awa#e, )et one cultivate )oving5"indness&
+his is the $ureme %ay of )iving&
Coyright T C==< by 3ene 3ibas
+he boo#s that have heled me most in my studies of Buddhism:
ChristmasHumhreys, Buddhism, An introduction and 3uide
+homas (erton, ;en and the Birds of Aetite
%alola 8ahula, %hat the Buddha +aught
Edward Con1e, Buddhism: Its Essence and 9eveloment
Edward Con1e, Buddhist +hought in India
Paul 8es, ;en 7lesh, ;en Bones
.yanaoni#a +hera, +he Heart of Buddhist (editation
9&+& $u1u#i, ;en Buddhism
/& "rishnamurti, +hin# on +hese +hings
Easwaran, 9ammaada .yanaoni#a +hera, +he *ision of 9hamma
8aymond Bla#ney >trans&?, (eister Ec#hart
Charlotte /o#o Bec#, Everyday ;en
+rogyam Chunga, Cutting +hrough $iritual (aterialism
+hich .hat Hanh, +he (iracle of (indfulness
9ainin "atagiri, 8eturning to $ilence
8obert $ohl N Audrey Carr >editors? +he 3osel According to ;en
Christmas Humhreys, +he Buddhist %as of )ife
.yanatilo#a, Buddhist 9ictionary, A (anual of +erms and 9octrines
/oseh Cambell, (yths to )ive By
9&+& $u1u#i, An Introduction to ;en Buddhism
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Are @ou %illing +o Be $urrisedK
+he $hambala %arrior
/oanna (acy
7rom a tal# given by /oanna (acy at (an1anita *illage on /uly C<,
<AA5 during a wee#end wor#sho she led&
(an1anita *illage has been living inside me, an imortant art of my
interior landscae& It holds down southern California in my geograhy&
+he desert& +he s#y& +he lant beings& +he stars& +he fragrances& Have
you noticed how wonderful this feels at nightK $itting here by lam
light, the light on the warm colors of the floor, the low ceiling, the
brown earthen walls& +his room reminds me of the Buddhist cave
temles and western ghats of India& +hey are among the earliest
laces of 9harma ractice& +hey2re carved out of the living roc#& Along
the front are great figures and illars& Inside could be a sace li#e this&
$itting here I feel how ancient the heritage is that we are art of& +he
heritage of the Buddha 9harma, of our ancestors who racticed the
siritual disciline to awa#en to the sacredness of life& +o serve the
sacredness of life& +o be awa#e& +o see connection&
%e come out of different laces and wal#ways of our world in the
closing years of the twentieth century& 6ut of the tumult and hectic
ace of cities and towns& @ou don2t even need to be in a city to feel
driven in this culture of ours& %e come from lives of resonsibility& .ow
we ta#e distance from our daily life& In order, erhas, to see it more
clearly, to embrace it more lovingly, to find insiration for its deeer,
larger meaning& And so that we can feel held by our world, our real
world, our living lanet&
In this time, when the life of our lanet and all beings are endangered,
I feel honored to be here with you, with Christoher and (ichele and
the #angaroo rats& And also with the feelings of the ancestors, those
who wal#ed this art of +urtle Island, those who tended the living earth
of our lanet& In this shadowy room, I can imagine other beings among
us& +hey would include beings of the future& 6ne of my teachers,
8osealie Bertells, says all the beings that are ever going to be born on
lanet Earth are resent on lanet Earth now& +hey are resent in our
9.A& In the stuff of our living organism that we ass on& /ust as we
have been resent, in that sense, from the beginning&
$o I imagine and I call on the resence of the future ones to be with
us& I do that a lot in my life 5 for courage, for endurance, for 'oy& +his is
so critical a moment, this time of turning, at the end of the twentieth
century, at the end of this millennium& How dicey things are for us now,
for life on Earth, for comle- forms of life& Part of the reason for our
being here this wee#end is to find guidance and insiration, ways of
being resent to our world that can hel us ta#e art in healing our
world&
I am going to tell a story& A story that accomanies me into most
wor#shos because it has been for me so dee an insiration for the
#ind of wor# that we do 5 to reare to be art of the self5healing of
our world& It comes from the +ibetan Buddhist tradition& It2s twelve
centuries old& It is not a story as much as a rohecy&
In <AB=, I was in northwest India& I heard eole referring to the
"ingdom of $hambhala& +hey said it2s rohesied in the "alacha#ra5
+antra& It caught my interest because it was tal#ing about a time of
great hardshis and difficulties& I had been wor#ing on issues around
nuclear ower and nuclear energy, and feeling very much the critical
nature of the dangers we faced militarily, ecologically, olitically& $o I
was very curious about this rohecy&
+hey said that it rohecies a hard time, and although it was made
twelve centuries ago, it has to do with this twenty to forty year eriod,
now, in this generation, in which we are living& I got three different
versions& In the first, the coming of the "ingdom of $hambhala was
internal and had to do with our own awa#ening, our own inner siritual
'ourney& +hat didn2t interest me all that much&
+he second version was almost the oosite4 it was governed by what
was haening e-ternally& It didn2t matter what our role was& A )ama
wanted to #now why I wasn2t ready to go into a three5year retreat in a
cave& I said I couldn2t because I had to sto nuclear war& I #new I
couldn2t do it alone, but I felt I needed to articiate in the effort& And
he said, ,/oanna, don2t you #now that the "ingdom of $hambhala is
comingK, As if it could come indeendently of anything we do, and we
could therefore 'ust lie bac#&
+hen I tal#ed with my dear 9harma5brother, friend, and teacher,
Chu'ow58inoche& He recounted to me the third version that has had
such an imact on my life& +hese are retty much his words:
,+here comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger& At this time
great owers have arisen, barbarian owers& Although these owers
have wasted their wealth in rearing to annihilate each other, they
have much in common: weaons of unfathomable devastation and
technologies that lay waste to the world& It is 'ust at this oint, when
the future of all beings seems to be hanging by the frailest of threads,
that the "ingdom of $hambhala emerges&, ,@ou cannot go there,, he
said, ,because it2s not a geoolitical entity& It e-ists in the hearts and
minds of the $hambhala %arriors&, +hat is the word he used,
2warriors&2
,@ou can2t recogni1e a $hambhala %arrior by loo#ing at him or her,, he
said, ,because they don2t wear uniforms 5 no insignias& +hey wave no
banners, they don2t even have barricades on which to climb to threaten
the enemy or hide behind to rest or to regrou& +hey don2t have any
home turf& Ever and always they move on the terrain of the barbarian
owers&,
,3reat courage is re0uired of the $hambhala %arrior& (oral courage
and hysical courage& Because the %arriors are going right into the
heart of the barbarian owers to dismantle the weaons& +hey2re going
into the citadels and the its and oc#ets where the weaons are
stored& %eaons, in every sense of the word& +hey2re going into the
corridors of ower where decisions are made, in order to dismantle the
weaons that threaten all life on Earth&,
,+he $hambhala %arriors are able to do this because they #now these
weaons are mind5made& +he dangers that confront us in this time are
not visited uon us by some e-traterrestrial force, or some satanic
deity, or even by a reordained fate& +hey arise out of our choices, our
relationshis, our life styles& (ade by the human mind they can be
unmade by the human mind& In this time the $hambhala %arriors go
into training&,
%ell, as you can imagine, I as#ed Chu'ow how they train& And he said,
,they train in the use of two weaons&, +hat is the term he used,
2weaons&2
,%hat are theyK, I as#ed& He said, ,6ne is comassion, and the other
is insight into the interdeendence of all henomena&,
,@ou need both,, he said& ,Comassion, because it rovides the fuel
that is the motive ower& +hat is what moves you to engage, to ta#e
art in the healing of the world& +hat oenness to the ain of our world
is essential& .ot to be afraid of it& But by itself it is not enough& By itself
it can 'ust burn you u, burn you out& @ou need the other, you need
that insight into the interdeendence of all beings and all things& %ith
that you #now that the battles we face are not battles between good
and evil, but that the line between good and evil runs through the
landscae of every human heart& Insight by itself is a cool #nowledge4
it must be married with the heat of comassion&,
+his rohecy is an insight into our true nature, into our
interconnectedness, into our dee ecology& It is good to share it while
sitting below the figures of Avalo#iteshvara, the Bodhisattva of
Comassion, and (an'ushri, the Bodhisattva of %isdom& +hey
reresent the two owers, the two resources, the two weaons of the
$hambhala %arrior&
Brothers and $isters, lovers of our world, you have come from so many
different 'ourneys and such different lives to visit (an1anita *illage in
the chaarral5covered hills of southern California, of lanet Earth& 6ur
coming together is in service to the sacred life of this lanet& %e have
come for our own siritual growth but also in service to the larger
whole, to our eole& In our ractice we can discover how to fit
together our ersonal ain and the lanet2s ain, our ersonal healing
and the lanet2s healing 5 a deeer integration which brings a release
of intentions, energy and insight& Be willing to hear the Earth sea#ing
through you and to each other& Be willing to be surrised, esecially to
be surrised by what you hear from within yourself&
Coyright >c? /oanna (acy
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
As# the )ama
)ama $urya 9as
+he $aints of the 9harma
+hey2re not canoni1ed, but Buddhism2s masters and miracle wor#ers
have all the right stuff
Are there saints in BuddhismK If so, who are they and how are they
recogni1edK
+he term ,saint, is more commonly associated with holy ersons in
Catholicism, but there are certainly saints in Buddhism& But because
Buddhism is not centrally organi1ed, as is Catholicism, there is no
official sanctioning body to designate sainthood in the various schools
of Buddhism&
But there are many sages, masters, and wonder5wor#ers, both
historical and contemorary, who are referred to as Buddhist saints&
And each Buddhist tradition and country has its own set who are
recogni1ed not by an official rocess of canoni1ation but through
oular recognition of their attainments& %hat they all have shared,
according to the hagiograhy and lore grown u around their lives, are
the universal siritual virtues of e-traordinary humanity55including
love, comassion, morality, generosity, and selflessness55and
e-traordinary ,otherness,55that is, wisdom and access to a
transcendental, non5dual ersective& In Buddhist terms, they are
often referred to as bodhisattvas or ,selfless siritual awa#eners&,
+he earliest e-amle of Buddhist saints were the arhats >,liberated
sages, in Pali, the language of the earliest Buddhist te-ts?, the
enlightened disciles of the Buddha who had comleted their siritual
ath& +he tradition began with the Buddha2s two rincile disciles,
$ariutra and (audgalyayana, who are often reresented in Buddhist
art as standing on either side of the seated Buddha& $ariutra was
#nown for his e-traordinary wisdom and discernment, and
(audgalyayana was renowned for his sychic owers and abilities& In
the intervening millennia, holy men and women who were masters with
remar#able sagacity and owers in #eeing with the first arhats, have
been recogni1ed as what we in the %est would call saints&
Even the Buddha erformed miracles, such as when he filled the s#y
with myriad erfect relicas of himself during a debate with a Hindu
miracle wor#er& But the Buddha always taught that miracles and
suernatural owers were the showy side effects of siritual
develoment, and should not be used or dislayed e-cet to further
the faith of doubters or to hel those in dire need&
In the later +antric tradition of India and +ibet, beginning in the first
centuries after /esus2 time and sanning a eriod of <,5== years,
ascetics who have come to be #nown as the mahasiddhas >reali1ed and
accomlished masters?, lived saintly lives distinguished by magical
owers& +he best #nown lived during the (iddle Ages, and have been
sanctified as the BD (ahasiddhas& %hat mar#ed them, aart from their
enlightenment, was that they came from wildly divergent bac#grounds
and social classes and used unorthodo- methods to show that sureme
liberation can ta#e many and sundry forms& +he adet +andhea, for
one, started out as a comulsive gambler who lost all his money but
became enlightened when he grased the notion that the universe was
as emty was his oc#ets&
Even today, there are teachers in the +ibetan tradition who fall into the
mahasiddha category& I have had the e-treme good fortune of meeting
and studying with some of them, such as my late root guru, the <Ith
3yalwa "armaa, who was clairvoyant and a miraclewor#er, and the
greatest lama I have ever met&
And then there is the <Cth5century saint (ilarea, +ibet2s greatest
yogi, oet, and miraclewor#er who could reortedly fly as well as #ee
himself warm while wearing nothing but a cotton robe& He also
reortedly turned green from decades of ascetic Himalayan
cavedwelling, subsisting mainly on boiled wild nettle sou,sd which lent
him his fabled hue& 6ne of (ilarea2s contemoraries was (achi#
)abdron, the only female founder of an e-tant +ibetan Buddhist
ractice lineage, Chod >literally ,cutting,, which refers to ego cutting
through radical meditation ractices?& +he two reeminent <Dth5
century scholar and yogi saints )ongchena and +song#haa remain
among the most highly venerated +ibetan sages today& In the same
category is Atisha, the <<th5century Indian abbot who brought the
lo'ong, which means ,mind training, or ,attitude ad'ustment,,
techni0ues to +ibet, stressing the awa#ening of ,buddha5mind,
>bodhicitta? in both ethical living and contemlative life&
6ne of my ersonal favorites is the <5th5century sage and renaissance
man +hangton 3yalo, #nown as the ,(aster of the (ountain
%ilderness&, In addition to being a yogi, alchemist, and meditation
master who reutedly lived to the age of <C5, he was also an engineer
who invented a rocess for refining iron ore and designed and built iron
chain5lin# bridges that still san valleys and chasms throughout +ibet&
As a lama, he disseminated his own visionary revelations on how to
ractice +antric meditations of Avalo#iteshvara, the Buddha of )ove and
Comassion, which were taught to me by the )ama "alu 8inoche and
are still widely racticed today&
As I mentioned, each Buddhist tradition has its own set of saints, holy
ersons, and siritual e-emlars& 6ne of the most rominent of saints
in Chinese and /aanese Buddhism is the si-th5century Indian
atriarch Bodhidharma, who founded the ;en or Ch2an school in China&
In the <!th century, 9ogen ;en'i heled bring ;en from China to
/aan, and widely disseminated it through his lucid, oetic teachings,
writings, and with the establishment of monastic traditions4 he remains
that country2s greatest religious ersonality& 6thers in /aan who are
considered e-traordinarily masterful and loving sages include "u#ai
>"obo 9aishi?, EED5B!5, who was the founder of the +antric *a'rayana
,$hingon, sect and oened the first school for easant children in
/aan4 $hinran, the <Cth5century founder of the /aanese Pure )and
>Amitabha? school4 .ichirin, father of the eonymous .ichiren sect or
)otus $chool $chool in <!th5century in /aan4 and 7u'i5san, the living
head of the .ichiren today&
In the +heravada Buddhist countries of $outheast Asia, the notion of
sainthood is not so readily embraced55most ractitioners loo# to the
historical arhats as e-emlars, and there is no tradition in +heravada
such as that of the mahasiddhas& But some lineages have develoed
cults around the relics of such great masters as A'aan )ee
9hammadaro, a great +hai adet and mon# in the 7orest tradition&
(oreover, there are countless stories of great +heravadin mon#s and
teachers erforming miracles, healings, and mind reading& But they are
not canoni1ed in the way that, say, saints in +ibetan culture have been&
I still feel somewhat s#etical about miracles, though I have witnessed
events for which there is no other e-lanation& 6nce, in the early
<AB=s, my guru, 9ilgo "hyentse 8inoche, erformed longevity
emowerments for my 7rench mon#5brother2s father, who was in the
final stages of cancer, and he remar#ably enough lived another <=
years& (y friend2s father was not a believer but was converted to faith
during the years when this miraculous healing became obvious& +he
<Ith "armaa also healed a +ibetan lady I #new in 3angto#, $i##im, in
a similar fashion4 on another occasion in the <AI=s, at the consecration
of his newly rebuilt monastery in 8umte#, $i##im, the "armaa also
reortedly raised a large flagole, using tele#inesis&
+ibetan Buddhist history is eered with historical saints& 6ne was the
Indian adet $hantideva, who in the eighth century C&E& wrote the
classic (ahayana Buddhist te-t ,Entering the Bodhisattva Path of
Enlightenment, >Bodhicharyavatara?& $till widely used as a teaching
te-t in +ibetan Buddhism, it is a guide for beginners and lay students
to develoing the asiration to free all sentient beings& Another, Padma
$ambhava, whose name means ,)otus5Born, and refers to the legend
of his birth from a lotus blossom, is said to have wal#ed from India in
the eighth century to hel found Buddhism in +ibet and create its
91ogchen tradition&
+hroughout the Buddhist world, the cremated remains of enlightened
beings are said to leave e-traordinary relics, and many can be seen in
reli0uaries at monasteries and temles in Asia and the %est&
E-traordinary events often occur at their cremations and funerals, too&
+he late 91ogchen master 9ud'om 8inoche dislayed countless
rainbows around his embalmed remains, #nown as #uding, at his
funeral in .eal in the late <AB=s& I was among the witnesses, along
with one of my most doubtful friends, who came away with a very
different attitudeJ
+he 9alai )ama of +ibet and the *ietnamese master +hich .hat Hanh
are among the most saintly Buddhist sages we have today&+he <D5
year5old 3yalwa "armaa, who escaed from +ibet to India in /anuary,
is one to watch, too& +hey say that if you chant his name5mantra,
,#armaa "hyenno,, you will generate ausicious #arma, increase your
siritual asirations and devotion, and meet him in this lifetime >I2m
sure that this is true?& By chanting their mantras and invo#ing their
resence, +ibetans ray to Buddhist saints for blessings, insiration,
and guidance55a graceful, devotional ractice #nown as guru yoga&
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
As# %hat %e %ant and Be Consistent
55 +he Buddhist %ay to $ingle5handedly Build a $uccessful 8elationshi
by /eanny Chen
All my essays are aimed at the goal of sharing my ersonal
e-eriences and understanding of a narrow area of this great Buddhist
ractice& +hey are not intended to relace any of the study materials&
Please read them as a reference only& 7or a rofound and thorough
understanding of this Buddhism, I would strongly urge you to study the
3osho, $ensei2s guidance and all $3I ublished materials, if at all
ossible& +han# youJ
8elationshis are robably the number one roblem that all human
beings have to deal with, besides birth, old age, sic#ness and death& As
long as there are two eole involved in an issue, it will rarely be
simle and straightforward& +his is even truer between a husband and
a wife whose lives are tightly bound in almost every asect& +herefore,
a married coule easily finds the need to imrove their relationshi by
seeing a marriage counselor& Eventually, many still have to file for
searation or divorce due to their failure to manage a healthy and vital
marriage&
As ractitioners of .ichiren 9aishonin2s Buddhism, we are so blessed to
have the oortunity to learn the rofound teachings of this Buddhism&
As long as we thoroughly understand and truthfully aly those
teachings, we will be able to single5handedly build a successful
relationshi with confidence and 'oy but without feeling the need to
ma#e concessions, reress grievances or e-erience resistance& +hat is
a rivileged benefit inherent to our ractice, but most of us are not
aware of it& $eemingly, it doesn2t occur to many ractitioners that they
hold the #ey to turning around their situation& +his reminds me of the
arable in the eighth chater of the )otus $utra& A oor man2s friend
sewed a riceless 'ewel in the lining of his robe without his #nowledge&
,He 'ourneyed here and there to other countries, see#ing food and
clothing to #ee himself alive, finding it very difficult to rovide for his
livelihood& He made do with what little he could get and never hoed
for anything finer, unaware that in the lining of his robe he had a
riceless 'ewel&,
55 +he )otus $utra, translated by Burton %atson, & <5C
It may sound too good to be true, but it isn2t& However, it is true only if
we are determined to dissolve conflicts by ta#ing on the resonsibility
and transforming ourselves first& %hen we rec#on our situation as our
sole resonsibility and not someone else2s fault, then we bear
absolutely no grievances inside& In this way, we actively hold the total
control of our lives& %ith such an attitude, we willingly ma#e inner
transformations& Hence, our environment and the eole who surround
us will resond to our lives with ositive energy& But if we choose to
indulge ourselves, and always resent, comlain, blame things on others
and demand others to give in, both our artners and we will for sure
suffer to no end&
6f course, everyone would ursue a hay ending if one #new that one
could single5handedly turn around a relationshi that involves two
souls& +o reach this goal, the remise is that whatever we thin#, say
and do, we have to ma#e sure they all contribute to the fulfillment of
the goal& Anything that will divert us in the slightest from our goal, we
have to cast aside without giving it a second thought& If we watch and
guard very strictly our thoughts, words and deeds, our tas# is literally
half done& %hat is left is for us to wor# on our human revolution, goal
setting, chanting, raying and ta#ing necessary actions, based on our
correct understanding of several Buddhist hilosohies such as #arma,
three oisons and Buddha nature& All efforts we ut forth will benefit
our whole being, not 'ust our relationshi&
A member and I ractice in the same $3I 8egion& $he has as#ed that I
not use her name in this document to rotect the rivacy of her family,
so I will call her Ann& It all started when she finally determined that she
had to do something to brea#through her forever5suffering life& +hen,
we had a long tal# to review every asect of her life, centering on her
then very gloomy marriage&
In an effort to effectively share the results of my #osen5rufu missions, I
humbly thin# that it would demonstrate best if I record item by item,
to the limits of my ability, the entire meeting and her efforts and
struggles towards human revolution4 e-actly as how it went,
straightforwardly, truthfully and oenly:
<& 9etermining %hich %ay to 3o
(y first 0uestion was whether she wanted to overturn her situation or
to give u& Her answer was to win& +he decision thereby determined
how the rest of the conversation would go& %e then discussed only the
aroaches that would lead to her goal of victory& $he agreed from
then on to by no means thin#, say or do anything that would contribute
to the results in the oosite realm&
C& Understanding "arma and +a#ing on 7ull 8esonsibility
As Buddhists, we should learn how to erceive the real asect, in terms
of #arma, of every occurrence that we encounter throughout our lives&
+here is lenty of resource for us to learn from& +he 3osho, President
I#eda and the $3I ublications all tal# about #arma& If we understand
its underlying truth and s0uarely face it with such wisdom in the right
attitude, nothing on earth will ever become a roblem to defeat or
trouble us& In other words, by imlementing this #nowledge alone, we
can minimi1e the imact of our suffering of any #ind&
I have been given various oortunities to hel members figure out
how to overcome their challenges& .o matter what their roblems are,
my e-eriences have convinced me that starting with a thorough
e-lanation about their #arma essentially aves the solid foundation
which leads to their victory&
I therefore, strongly recommended her to seriously loo# into this
matter and become the master of her #arma, transcending it instead of
being enslaved by it& $trengthening her efforts in faith, ractice and
study would lift her life condition and bring her the wisdom and
strength she needed to turn around her situation& Using the story of
my own #arma and suffering, I e-lained to her the real asect of hers&
In the ast, those causes she made through her thoughts, words and
deeds had become the scrit of the lay of her #arma& $he needed
eole and occurrences to lay out her #arma, in the e-act accord with
her scrit, so that she could face it and eradicate it&
+hroughout their marriage, she has been blaming her husband for
everything not to her li#ing& .othing ositive came out of her efforts of
forever wishing and forcing him to change& As time went by, her
frustration deeened and their relationshi worsened to the e-tent that
she eventually #ic#ed him out for several days& .ow she had to reali1e,
from the viewoint of her own #arma, that it was not his resonsibility&
It has been and will be her roblem deely rooted in her life& +o
eradicate one2s #arma through one2s Buddhist ractice is not a mere
abstract concet or assive wish& It is a realistically concrete action
item that if one wor#s on with scrutiny, one will harvest the desired
result& 6nly through racticing .ichiren Buddhism, wor#ing from her
end and from within could she initiate and lead the rocess of changing
her #arma to turn around the relationshi& After all, it is already a huge
tas# to change oneself, let alone to change others& $he had to 0uit
relying on his actions& +his way, she could ta#e the total control of her
destiny&
+he truth is, because of her husband2s mission on her life, he had to
lay a role e-actly according to how she had written the scrit of her
#arma& He had no other choice in terms of his association with her
#arma& )iving his life as an unsuccessful husband and so on, he
suffered too& I therefore suggested her to oen u his and her
Buddhahood, and then communicate with him in her mind and heart,
through her chanting&
In her rayer, she could aologi1e to him that he had to use his life to
go through the struggle due to his association with her bad #arma of
having several failed marriages& 7or the same reason, she also needed
to areciate him& Because otherwise, her #arma could never be
layed out, and could not be eradicated& 7urthermore, in reality and in
their daily lives, there were lain facts that she could detect with
sincerity and comassion, and include in her rayer of areciation and
aology to him&
7rom Buddhist ersective, her deadloc# struggle is in fact an imetus
for her to see# the solution and to determine to change& Her suffering
is also essential for her to develo her caacity to fulfill her mission of
sreading this Buddhism& In other words, her husband functions as a
,1en'ishi#i, >good friend?& %ith the reali1ation of her true mission, a
diligent ractice would come naturally& $uffering would no longer be a
trade5off& In this case, she had ut an end to her suffering from #arma&
Her aology and gratitude for her husband2s mission to manifest her
bad #arma had therefore in a sense released him from acting the role
of an inade0uate husband& By changing her own attitude to embrace
her husband, she had now stoed eretuating her bad association
with him& Instead, she had started to create good causes, out of their
e-isting shared bad #arma, to benefit their relationshi& It was so clear
what she could e-ect for their relationshi in the near future& $he
could then ta#e a further ste to rewrite their collective destiny by:
!& 8eflecting on +he +hree Poisons
I then heled her reflect on herself based on the three oisons 5 greed,
anger and foolishness& Here are some e-amles:
3reed
+o me, it would be hard for her to find another man whose strength
and interests so erfectly sulement her wea#ness, but whose wea#
oints comliment her merits& He is a handyman& He loves to coo#
gourmet food and ta#es good care of house chores, things that she has
no interest in& Because of such traits, he might have somewhat
neglected to develo his ability for career advancement& As a result, he
lost his 'ob several times over the years&
At the same time, shortly after Ann too# this faith, her rimary goal to
imrove their financial situation had resulted in ama1ing benefits& $he
got a big raise, was recruited as an e-ecutive at a new comany and of
course, multilied the amount of her aychec#& Her husband2s
unsuccessful career contrasted with her newly claimed triumh so
sharly that she failed to see and ac#nowledge his contribution
esecially at home& Instead, she became arrogant, thin#ing that she
was suerior to him&
Her smaller self was being greedy, demanding him to be a near5erfect
human being& But fran#ly, was she erfect herselfK $hould he have
been a erfect guy, he might have gone out to loo# for another e0ually
erfect woman& In the final analysis, though in the wrong attitude, she
had been luc#y to be able to ta#e a ,suerior, stance because of the
fact that he was far from being erfect&
Anger
.ichiren Buddhism teaches us to change oison into medicine and to
create value no matter what& How we resond to our environment and
eole around us becomes the substance of our life& As ractitioners of
.ichiren Buddhism, we should be confident that we have all the
wisdom, ower and means it ta#es to not let any situation soil or
uset our life& +his should be the minimum benefit that we can bring to
and rotect our own lives through this Buddhist ractice&
Her husband was very obsessed with sorts rograms on +*& He did
not want to give u his favorite entertainment& +here was no way for
her to regulate his free time& $he could not stand it, therefore, and
made it a big issue to argue with him& %hat good is it to ut the
relationshi at a stalemate and to 'eoardi1e it over a matter of little or
no significanceK
If she loo#ed at it from the bright side, wasn2t it great that he referred
to stay within her sight for hours, sitting on the couch, watching +*K It
was actually a healthier hobby for him to vent his frustration and
ressure with than to go out to fool around with other women or to get
drun# at the bar, not uncommon for men& If she had comassion and
wisdom to embrace him, she could either sit with him and try to learn
from him about those sorts, or simly read her own boo#s or do
something while #eeing him comany at home, but leaving him alone&
Instead, she resonded with anger against the thing that he en'oyed
doing, being a mature adult, a man with dignity and the head of the
household& $he seemed to be acting out of her domineering character
without much resect or consideration for him, her suosedly e0ual
counterart in life& 7eeling hurt, belittled and unworthy, her husband
chose to self5destruct& He had become a man of low self5esteem but
acted assively, confrontationally, rebelliously and resentfully&
Inevitably, he too# it out on her children from her second marriage&
7oolishness
Children from both of their resective revious marriages were one of
the ma'or sources of the conflict in the family& 9ue to the oison of
foolishness, she had no wisdom to see the true asect of their
sufferings: her ast bad causes& Her deluded mind urged her to solve
the roblem by ta#ing her own children2s side in order to rotect them&
Unbe#nownst to her, she was antagoni1ing her husband, which also
harvested his deeer hostility toward them all&
.ow she understood that the confrontational family dramas were none
other than the manifestation of her bad #arma& +hrough her chanting,
she wanted to areciate and aologi1e to her children that, because of
her #arma, they had to be born to her, living in such a family of
comlicated marriages and struggling amidst the sensitive, cold and
unfriendly atmoshere at home& Her sincere rayer to her husband
based on the same viewoint also showed her sirit of ta#ing on the
resonsibility of the family discord and suffering& $he then vowed to
ractice this Buddhism to transform her life, change her #arma and
bring hainess to the entire family&
D& Putting Buddha .ature to %or#
$ince she married her husband, she had shared his #arma and vice
versa& $he could easily choose to desert him in order to run away from
her failing marriage, but it would never hel her escae from her
marriage #arma this way& Because her husband2s destiny meant
everything to her, besides chanting and doing human revolution to
change her own #arma, it was to her best benefit that she also
nurtured his life by racticing this Buddhism on his behalf, since he had
not had the fortune to embrace this Buddhism& $uch a transformation
from both within and without could only be achieved by chanting .am5
myoho5renge5#yo& And it wouldn2t be hard if she #new how to ut her
Buddha .ature into full lay&
7ortunately, from one of President I#eda2s boo#s >7aith into Action?
alone, we could easily find lenty of guidance regarding the traits of
Buddhahood that she could aly to carry out her e-citing new goal&
%isdom
,Buddhism is wisdom& As long as we have wisdom, we can ut all
things to their best use and can turn everything in the direction of
hainess&,
55 President I#eda, 7aith into Action, & <E=
*iewed with Buddha wisdom, the real asect of all henomena was
crystal clear to her& +herefore, self5attachment was renounced, the
three oisons 0uarantined and #arma transcended and eradicated&
+here was no more self5centered unfair 'udgment or damaging
criticism, no one5sided oinion and no irresonsible imutation against
her husband& Her wisdom enabled her to embrace all occurrences in life
and ,$uffer what there is to suffer, en'oy what there is to en'oy&
8E3A89 B6+H $U77E8I.3 A.9 /6@ A$ 7AC+$ 67 )I7E, and continue
chanting .am5myoho5renge5#yo, no matter what haens&, >%.9 &
IB<? Any time now she could begin with her endeavor of reconstructing
a healthy and solid relationshi, willingly and 'oyously without any
hang5us&
Comassion
,Comassion is the very soul of Buddhism& +o ray for others, ma#ing
their roblems and anguish our own4 to embrace those who are
suffering, becoming their greatest ally4 to continue giving them our
suort and encouragement until they become truly hay5it is in such
humanistic actions that the 9aishonin2s Buddhism lives and breathes&,
55 President I#eda, 7aith into Action, & <A
%ith tremendous Buddha comassion, it is natural that she resect and
embrace her husband for who he is, and ut herself in his shoes to
understand where he2s coming from and defend his behaviors, discover
and raise his good deeds and virtues, enhance and assist his ability
for self5develoment, insire and guide him for the correction of his
flaws, loo# after and ray for his well5being and hainess, cherish his
comany, and live 'oyously together under all circumstances& He was a
dear ally, an intimate comrade and a sweetheart along their shared
'ourney of destiny& His struggle is her ain, his suffering her wound, his
confidence her ride and his success her fortune& +he two lives of a
coule are as close as a body and shadow& By overthrowing her selfish
and destructive attitude and ill feeling toward him, he would no doubt
resond with arallels, according to the rincile of oneness of life and
its environment& +hus, she was now altering the drama of her #arma
from bad to good, sour to sweet, holding his hand, directing him to act
out his art according to the revised scrit&
Absolute Hainess
,Buddhism teaches the rincile that earthly desires are
enlightenment& +o e-lain this very simly, earthly desires refers to
suffering and to the desires and cravings that cause suffering, while
enlightenment refers to attaining a vast, e-ansive state of absolute
hainessF But .ichiren 9aishonin2s Buddhism teaches that only by
igniting the firewood of earthly desires can the flame of hainess be
attained& +hrough chanting daimo#u, we burn this firewood of earthly
desires&,
55 President I#eda, 7aith into Action, & !A
Her greatest fortune was to encounter and embrace .ichiren Buddhism
in this lifetime& +he fortune her ractice alone builds u is immense
enough to benefit her entire family seven generations front and bac#&
7rom her chanting .am5myoho5renge5#yo, all her sufferings turn into
absolute hainess& "nowing what she is getting into and how she can
come out of it no matter what, she is therefore able to encomass and
embrace any situation in life& Her husband, though not a ractitioner of
this Buddhism, is endowed with the e0ual Buddha .ature& He should
never, in her eyes of wisdom and heart of comassion, be a roblem, a
ain5in5the5nec# or a stumbling bloc# in her way to leading the whole
family to attain absolute hainess&
)ife 7orce
,%e can attain a hay life state that shines li#e a diamond, solemn
and indestructible under all circumstances& And we can do so in this
lifetime& +he )otus $utra e-ists to enable all eole to attain such a
state of life&,
55 President I#eda, 7aith into Action, & AE
Accomanied with Buddha wisdom, comassion and absolute
hainess, her life force is unsha#able and undefeatable because every
occurrence is within her erfect control& +he issues with her husband,
children, arents and wor#4 nothing is ever frustrating, usetting,
irritating or destructive any longer& $he sees the light of infinite
rogress and holds the strength for the unlimited advancement in
every asect of her life, everything that is associated with her& Armed
with such a diamond5strong life force, it is 'ustified only if she ta#es
courageous actions to bring out its amrita and fruits&
5& +a#ing Unrecedented Actions
In conclusion, she had determined to ta#e action on every area we had
discussed& %e both #new that AC+I6. was the ultimate solution&
%ithout solid action, hoe, dreams, romises, desires, and goals were
all merely an illusion& It is absolutely emty and meaningless&
$he has since been ainsta#ingly following through with her detailed
lan to transform her life which of course e-tends to her environment
and eole associated with her& Here2s a brief outline of her action
items:
A& E-ert herself on faith, ractice and study&
B& Plunge into the develoment of her $3I grou& >After half a year,
now turning into a district?
C& Earnestly e-ecute her grand ro'ect of human revolution&
9& $eriously set a comlete goal for her life and wor# on it&
E& Comassionately ractice this Buddhism on her husband2s behalf to
change his #arma:
<& In'ect daimo#u into his life to elevate his life condition and add
fortune to it&
C& $et his desired goals secifically and chant for them&
!& Communicate with him through her chanting to urify their
relationshi&
Her communication with him by oening u both of their Buddhahood
and dialogue with him in her mind during her chanting covered the
following asects:
a& Aologi1e and areciate him regarding everything in his life having
to do with her bad #arma&
b& Aologi1e in secific details for her misbehavior and deluded attitude
towards him in the ast&
c& Activate her Buddha comassion to list his good merits and dig out
all his contributions to the family and to anyone else, no matter how
trifle and insignificant they are& Ac#nowledge, raise and than# him
wholeheartedly to strengthen his self5confidence&
d& 8eflect on his childhood and his life in the ast, namely, his #arma&
It e-lains where he is coming from& $hare with him her understanding
and care& +ell him in details her resolve and actions to hel him change
his destiny by racticing this Buddhism on his behalf&
e& )et him #now secifically all the efforts she is going to ut forth on
her own imrovement and develoment& Present to him what she
reares to offer for the benefit of the entire family&
f& Promise him that she will ma#e him the luc#iest and haiest man in
the world& As his fortune and hainess are her very own, she will then
en'oy the same state of life&
+he ower of daimo#u and rayer chanted out of eole2s Buddha
nature is unfathomable& Her sincere message is guaranteed to reach
and touch his life, and conse0uently, insire his ositive resonse&
%hen she sees fit, she will also communicate with him face5to5face and
heart5to5heart& If she does so, he will be so over'oyed to start to
wonder whether it is real or merely a dream&
+en days after our meeting, I received her first udate& It read in art:
9ear /eanny,
I 'ust wanted to write to udate you on my rogress& I went to wor#
immediately, increasing my time chanting, and focusing on a rayer
that included everything we tal#ed about& In 'ust a few days of
chanting in this new way I have felt and seen a rofound change in my
environment& +he change in my life state when I chanted my aology
to my husband for the way he has had to suffer because of my #arma
was ama1ing& I set goals for him and have been chanting for them&
Here are my short5term results:
<& He was offered a 'ob at a great comany& (y rayer was for him to
find a 'ob by 9ecember < that would fit him li#e a glove& It had to
ma#e him so hay and everyone at the 'ob must loo# u to him& It
had to be a 'ob where he could hel eole and feel a sense of
fulfillment& It also had to eventually earn an income greater than mine
so he would have self5confidence and ride&
C& I have been chanting my aology to my son as well& I reali1ed that
the ma'or roblem in my marriage had been his issues with my son& I
sent my areciation to my son as well for the role he has chosen to
lay in my troubled marriage so that I could wor# out my #arma& After
the first wee# of chanting in this way I saw dramatic changes in my son
and my husband2s relationshi& +hey have begun tal#ing more and
both are being very considerate of the other& +his was not the situation
in my home before&
I am facing my negative asects and chanting about them daily& I have
as#ed for inut from my family and friends about what they see as my
negative tendencies& I am resolved to only create ositive causes in my
life going forward& I feel for the first time in my life that I am on the
ath to become hay, no matter what haens&
+hings are not erfect, my husband still gets angry at me, but my
reaction is much different& I have comassion for him when he gets in
this state& I see his anger as my BA9 #arma coming out& %e have to
bleed the oison out so we can turn it into medicine& $o I face each of
these eisodes as a benefit for me to ractice my new 3669 causes
for #osen rufu& I am dedicated to fulfilling my mission in this life&
)ove, Ann
Hence, her ,rogress reorts, #et flowing in non5sto:
<<M<CMC==<
9ear /eanny,
I loo# forward to my total victory in this matter and I am very e-cited
about using my human revolution to encourage others& +he idea that I
might be able to hel others find hainess in their marriages after I
have e-erienced so much failure in this area of my life seems
ama1ing&
In fact I met with a friend on $unday who is having real marriage
roblems& $he was drawn to me because she #new I was having
similar roblems& I was able to relate e-actly to her suffering& $he was
surrised to hear that my husband was bac# at home and we were
doing much better& $he wanted to #now how we did it& I said it was my
Buddhist ractice that had made the difference& $he as#ed to come to
an $3I meeting with me& I told her that through chanting she could
overcome any obstacle& $he as#ed for some information on our
organi1ation and she has already visited our web site and started
learning about our hilosohy& $he lives in another district&&&I am going
to try to ta#e her to a meeting in her area since my grou won2t meet
this monthF
)ove, Ann
<CM=5MC==<
9ear /eanny,
I 'ust wanted to share with you some rogress& +his ast wee#end I
had a few setbac#s in my rogress towards changing my relationshi
#arma& (y husband got angry about everything and so#e in some
harsh words to me& I really tried not to react to his anger with more
anger& It too# all my courage& I #et thin#ing in my mind that I needed
to defend his bad behavior li#e a lawyer& I told myself he was nervous
due to his new 'ob and stressful over a arty we are having for his
whole family in a coule wee#s& 6nce when he yelled at me I got so
uset that I went to my room and sat on the floor and 'ust chanted& He
came in then and said he was sorry& All in all things went much better
than they would have before I began to change my #arma& Before we
would have fought and yelled and he would have slet on the couch&
+his time the roblems 'ust went away when he reali1ed I loved him
even if he was uset and angry&
6n $unday I started to send more time in my chanting focusing on his
feeling love for my children and feeling that it was his blood running
through their veins& I also chanted for the #ids to feel the same for
him& )ast night I came home and my husband had dinner coo#ing& +he
#ids were in the #itchen tal#ing to him and heling& Even my son, who
usually hides in his room was out tal#ing and laughing& As we were
dishing the food onto our lates my husband said ,I love you&,
+hin#ing he was tal#ing to me I said, ,I love you too&, He then said, ,I
was tal#ing to the #ids, I love you #ids,& +hey loo#ed so surrised& He
had never been one to tell them he loved them, esecially to my son&
+hen both #ids said: ,we love you too&, I was shoc#ed& +his was
e-actly the scene I had ictured in my mind as I was chanting&
+his ractice holds so many benefits& I must continue to challenge
myself and reali1e that it is always dar#est before the dawn&
A member emailed me today, she seems to be in a lot of ain& I hoe
this rocess of mine can hel her as much as it has heled me&
+han#s,
Ann
<CM=5MC==<
9ear /eanny,
I sent a short email to the member I told you about, giving her some
reort on my benefits from this new aroach you showed me towards
my life& I 'ust gave her my results without any advice& $he did say she
was chanting != minutes each day with little rogress& I resonded
that when I felt li#e I was ma#ing little rogress with < hour I ushed
myself to chant more& Always when I made this effort I reali1ed 0uic#
benefits& I hoe she will see some benefits soon so she will be
encouraged& Healing her relationshi would bring such hainess to her
life&
I reali1e that the way I used to chant for my relationshi was not
delivering results& %hen I changed my focus from fi-ing my husband to
fi-ing me, all the benefits began to flow& +his is a owerful ractice, but
determination is the #eyF
)ove, Ann
<CM<=MC==<
9ear /eanny,
A woman came to me at wor# today and confided that her relationshi
with her husband is very bad, and her <=5year5old daughter is
screaming and crying and yelling all the timeF
+here are so many eole in the world who live in a state of hell
because of their relationshis with those closest to them& I am
convinced this is the ma'or suffering for eole in our world& I am
determined to show actual roof of this rocess so that my e-eriences
will encourage others who need helF +his wor# must be brought to
eole so our homes will be filled with the eace, love and harmony&
)ove, Ann
CM=DMC==C
9ear /eanny,
I am chanting heavily for my husband& He ta#es a ma'or e-am at wor#
on 7eb <AJ He must ass to move forward with his comany& I am
chanting that each minute he studies has the effect of anyone else
studying for <== minutes& I hoe it is consistent with his own #arma to
attain this goal& %ish me success&
)ove, Ann
CM<5MC==C
9ear /eanny,
I 'ust had to email you to share the results of my chanting camaign
for my husband to ass the test& As you #now he has been studying for
the test for ! months& If he did not achieve a grade of E= or above on
the test he would be immediately fired& He had only one chance to
ass the test& As you suggested, I chanted that one minute of study
would e0ual <== minutes of a normal erson& I chanted that all the
0uestions would be from material he had studied& And I chanted for
him to ma#e the highest score of all the eole who started the
rogram with him& He got a bad cold on (onday and I was worried that
this would affect his test& He too# the test yesterday for I and <MC
hours& He called me half way through the test and said he didn2t thin#
he was doing well& I encouraged him that if he cleared his mind of
doubt and oened himself to the #nowledge he had stored from all
those hours of study that he would triumh&
+he result is that he assed the test with a score of BAJ +his was the
highest score of all the eole in his grou& He #new of my chanting
camaign and I thin# he is believing that there is really something to
this ractice&
)ove, Ann
CMC5MC==C
9ear /eanny,
I was so hay that so many eole showed u at our %9 meeting& (y
hoe is that the enthusiasm and sincere efforts of my grou will draw
many new members to this ractice& I continue to chant for my
husband2s success in his new venture& He too# another test last 7riday
and I chanted for him to ma#e a high A on the test& He scored AE out
of <== ointsJ He continues to challenge himself and win& I am focusing
my chanting on creating income from his 'ob as soon as ossible&
)ove, Ann
!M<DMC==C
9ear /eanny,
I 'ust had to share with youF my husband has 'ust comleted his final
test towards his goal at wor#& He has assed all the tests with flying
colors& It is a clear victory for him&
He has many obstacles yet to face before turning around his negative
rofessional #arma&&&but I am confident that he will succeed& I am
ta#ing him out for a secial dinner tonight to celebrate& +han# you for
heling me see the ultimate ower of the 3ohon1on and to direct my
chanting for his life so that my #arma could be eradicated& His self5
esteem is absolutely shinning on his face& I was the first erson he
called after the test and I felt such warmth and comassion for him
and his accomlishment&
7aith e0uals daily life&&&& I am sure of it&
)ove, Ann
!MCCMC==C
9ear /eanny,
I went to the introductory meeting last night at the $/CC and my
sha#ubu#u received her 3ohon1on& It was a great moment& $everal
eole from her district were there to suort her& I am thin#ing of
suorting a new member in my grou in setting u her 3ohon1on at
her house and heling her in beginning her ractice& I feel she is very
studied and may need some suort in ta#ing the ractice literally
>meaning4 you have to chant? and not 'ust intellectually& $hould I ta#e
the lead hereK
I am also going to try to get another member to come to my house on
$aturday to chant for a coule hours& I need the daimo#u and I thin# if
I am chanting she will as well&
)ove, Ann
5M=<MC==C
9ear /eanny,
I am doing great, very busy with my grou& I am so hay to be
connecting with members of my grou& It is my benefit that I can be
art of their life& I feel li#e I am finally really living President I#eda2s
guidance to ma#e my first riority to suort my grou members& If I
can hel create strong grou members filled with hainess, who are
armed with the mystic law, then this ractice will surely roagate to
others and #osen rufu will be reali1ed& It seems so clear nowFhow to
do it& I than# you for showing me how to do my human revolution so I
could overcome my #arma and my own suffering and oen myself to
heling others&
.ow all I have to do is find more time so I can visit more eole& I am
filled with energy to do #osen rufu&
Have a great tri& Be safe&
)ove, Ann
5MCBMC==C
9ear /eanny,
%elcome bac#&
(y chater leaders want my grou to become a district& +hey have
as#ed me to be vice district leader& I said great&
I am doing great& (y husband continues to advance and hit all his
goals& I am so e-cited about this aroach to the ractice& I feel
wor#ing for this new district will ma#e my ractice even stronger&
Hoe you had a safe and fun tri& )oo#ing forward to seeing you and
hearing all about it&
)ove, Ann
IM<DMC==C
9ear /eanny,
I 'ust wanted to write and share another benefit of this great #arma
changing rocess you have taught me& )ast wee#end my husband and
I were getting ready to go to a birthday arty for a member of his
family& I was getting ready and he came in the room very uset& He
started comlaining about my son who had left some dirty dishes in
ne-t to the comuter& (y husband had gone to use the comuter and
found the mess& He was very uset and wanted to #now what I was
going to do& I immediately went to the room and cleaned u the mess&
But this didn2t reduce my husband2s anger& He #et comlaining and
as#ed how I was going to ma#e sure this never haened again& I tried
to calm him by saying that I would sea# to my son and ma#e it clear
that this was not to haen again or he would lose his comuter
rivileges& (y husband2s face still burned with anger& As we were
getting in the car to leave my husband said, ,If you don2t want to go,
you don2t have to&, I was surrised4 I never said I didn2t want to go& I
e-lained that I really wanted to go to the arty& (y husband then got
out of the car, slammed the door and wal#ed into the garage& I sat for
a few moments to try and figure out what was haening& In the ast
we had often had these tyes of ,blow u, fights& +hey usually
contained a lot of yelling and ended u with one of us leaving the
house for several hours& .ormally when my husband behaved li#e this I
would become very angry and start telling him how mean and unfair he
was behaving& But this time I didn2t feel any anger& Instead of blaming
him for treating me badly I immediately tried to thin# of what was
causing this anger within him& I became his attorney again trying to
defend his oor behavior by identifying the cause, li#e finding the thorn
in the lions aw&
I reali1ed that it was $unday, my husband2s only day off wor#& He was
feeling frustrated that he had to give his only free day to the family
arty& He loves his family but he was feeling a lot of stress over getting
chores done around the house& (y son2s mess 'ust made him see one
more chore for him to do& %ith this in mind I went into the garage& He
was still very mad& He said to me, ,(aybe I should 'ust ac# u my
stuff and move out,J I couldn2t believe he could even thin# this way& I
ran to him and held his hands and told him that I loved him deely,
that what ever needed to be done around the house I would do, that
he should 'ust ta#e the day and rela- in anyway he wanted& He then
loo#ed at me and his whole face changed& I had given words to the
frustration he was feeling& At that moment his love for me was so clear&
He gave me a big hug and said he was sorry& %e went to the family
arty and sent a restful afternoon beside the ool&
+his e-erience really made clear for me how the ten worlds could
aear in our lives& Because of my raised life state, I was able to see
my husband suffering in the world of Hell& He felt traed by all his
resonsibilities& But instead of 'oining him in Hell and fighting with him
in that world, I was able to stay firmly fi-ed in the higher world and at
the same time connect with him& 6nce he listened to my message of
love and comassion from this higher state, he immediately 'oined me
there& +he hainess he felt as he e-ited the world of Hell was visible
on his face& It is really true that where the Buddha resides will become
the Buddha land& I had an immediate affect on my environmentJ In
fact I never felt anger or 'udgment or resentment towards him& I felt
only comassion and love& I can see now how .ichiren 9aishonin was
able to meet even his e-ecutioners with love& He saw their hate and
anger from his elevated life state of Buddhahood and felt only
comassion&
+his really wor#s&&&& I must chant, chant, and chant to #ee my life
condition high&
All my love,
Ann
%ith her continual udates, Ann2s advancement in her ractice and her
life has unfolded gracefully but astonishingly& 6n the day when she
oened u her life to discuss with me, I #new very clearly what her
results would be because I have the absolute faith in .ichiren
Buddhism based on her sincerity& However, each time I received her
email udates, my heart still ounded with e-citement and cried with
'oy&
+han#s to her tremendous comassion, she has agreed to share her
above rocess in great details, on her way to become hay and bring
hainess to her family and many others& After all, this is how her life
long struggle finds its ultimate meaning&
home W essays W e-eriences W about us W lin#s W contact
htt:MMwww&hay'eanny&comMessaysMas#XwhatXweXwantXandXbeXcon
sistent&html
All rights reserved& T C==C5C==D /eanny Chen& )ast udated
=!&CB&C==!
CommentsK Email /eanny Chen
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Biograhical .otes on )ama 3angchen +ul#u
+he Healing )ama )ama 3angchen&was born in %estern +ibet in <AD<&
He was recognised at an early age to be a reincarnate lama healer and
was enthroned at 3angchen Choeeling monastery at the age of five&
%hen he reached the age of twelve he received the 2"achen, degree
which is usually conferred after twenty years of study& Between the
ages of thirteen and eighteen, he studied medicine, astrology,
meditation and hilosohy in two of the ma'or monastic universities of
+ibet: $era and +ashi )humo& He also studied in 3angchen Coma,
+rou 3oma, and .eytsong (onastery& His root guru was HH +ri'ang
9or'e Chang, the 'unior tutor to HH, the 9alai )ama& 6ther main
teachers were HH )ing 8inoche, the senior tutor of the 9alai )ama as
well as HH ;ong 8inoche, who was one of his ma'or gurus for healing
and astrology&
In <AI! he went into e-ile to India where he continued his studies for
the ne-t seven years at the *aranasi $ans#rit University >Bishwa
*hidhyiana? in Benares& In <AE= he received the 3eshe 8igram diloma
from $era (onastic University situated in $outh India& After his
graduation, he wor#ed as a reincarnate lama healer among the +ibetan
communities in .eal, India and $i##im, during which time he saved
the lives of many eole and was named rivate hysician to the 8oyal
family&
In <AB<, )ama 3angchen visited Euroe for the first time& In the same
year he also established his first Euroean centre: "aruna Choetso# in
)esbos, 3reece, where he is #nown to have lanted a bodhi tree in the
2Buddha 3arden2, and in the centre of which he consecrated what was
to become the first of a long line of %orld Peace Buddha statues,
than#as and images&
$ince <ABC he has travelled e-tensively, both healing and teaching in
Italy, $ain, 3reece, $wit1erland, 3ermany, Holland, Belgium, 7rance,
England, Ireland, U&$&A&, Bra1il, Chile, Argentina, .eal, (alaysia,
$ingaore, +hailand, Indonesia, $ri )an#a, India, (ongolia, China,
+ibet, 8ussia, and Buriyatia& 9uring these years he has lead many
ilgrimages to some of the most imortant holy laces of the Buddhist
tradition, in India, Indonesia, China, +hailand, (ongolia, .eal, $ri
)an#a and +ibet, guiding large grous of friends and disciles from all
over the world, the ma'ority of whom have reorted many hysical and
mental benefits from the e-erience& In addition to these ilgrimages
to Buddhist holy laces, )ama 3angchen has visited many holy sites in
Euroe, including that of Assisi, Italy the home of $aint 7rancis4 the
ancient temles of 9elhi and Athens in 3reece& In England he has
visited the sites of $tonehenge and Avebury as well as visiting many
%estern Buddhist centres and temles& 9uring all these ilgrimages he
has met many high lamas, both in the East and the %est& In <ABB he
oened his first residential dharma centre outside of Asia: 2$hide Choe
+so#2 Peace 9harma Centre, in $ao Paulo, Bra1il& At resent he has B5
Inner Peace Education Centres worldwide&
$ince coming to the %est in <ABC, and later becoming both a resident
in Italy and and eventually an Italian citi1en, )ama 3angchen2s
activities have ta#en on an ever increasing worldwide scoe towards
the achievement of %orld Peace& (ainly, it began with the founding of:
+he "unen )ama 3angchen Institute for the roagation and
reservation of the +ibetan (edical +radition in (ilan, Italy in <ABA&
Here )ama 3angchen has initiated the first e-tensive rogrammes of
Himalayan medical and astrological studies for %estern students& Also
concerned with the reservation of the Himalayan culture, the centre
holds courses in Buddhist hilosohy, than#a ainting and other arts&
)ama 3angchen has invited many grous of +ibetan mon#s to Euroe
such as the 3anden $hartse mon#s, the $era5(e mon#s, the .yalam
Phengyeling mon#s and the $egyua mon#s to ma#e sand mandalas
and erform sacred Cham dances4 all of their activities are dedicated to
world eace& +he Institute is also the %estern Head0uarters of )ama
3angchen2s activities and his %estern residence& +he )ama 3angchen
%orld Peace 7oundation >)&3&%&P&7&?, International 7riendshi for the
$uort of +ibetan (edicine, *a'rayana Buddhist Philosohy and $elf
Healing to 9evelo %orld Peace, established in <AAC following an
International conference of doctors, healers and theraists held in
(ilan, Italy& +he 7oundation has its main seat in $ain and was
officially recognised by the $anish government in .ovember <AA!&
Each year the )&3&%&P&7& holds an International congress m (adrid,
$ain, which rovides a forum for discussion between scientists,
doctors, theraists and hilosohers& 6ne of the ma'or aims of the
7oundation is to rovide documented scientific evidence about the
benefits of ancient +ibetan Himalayan healing methods, other natural
healing methods and the energetic 0ualities of siritual healing& +he
7oundation also gives a base for constructive dialogue between
different cultures in order to create and romote educational methods
to develo Inner Peace and %orld Peace&
+he Himalayan Healing Centre in "athmandu, .eal which rovides
minimal cost %estern medical care alongside traditional +ibetan and
Ayurvedic medical care for local inhabitants& +he Healing Centre offers
many different facilities enabling the use of many theraeutic systems,
sace to hold residential courses in +ibetan medicine, lectures,
conferences and so on, with the aim to create a base for the e-change
of verbal information and clinics for the actual medical ractice
between the Eastern and %estern medical sciences& In <AAD, the
"unen )ama 3angchen Institute and the Himalayan Healing Centre
'ointly financed a one year ro'ect of a lerosy station in "athmandu
and another station which is lin#ed to the $an#u hosital, C=#m
outside of "athmandu& )ama 3angchen financially suorts the
construction and u#ee of schools, clinics and monasteries in India,
.eal and +ibetMChina, sulying them with different theraeutic
systems, trained %estern doctors and facilities, materials and
medicines& In <AAD, )ama 3angchen founded Peace 8adio 2)a 8adio
della Pace2 and )ama 3angchen Peace Publications, both situated in
(ilan, Italy& +heir aim is, resectively, to broadcast and sread ositive
information about Inner and %orld Peace Education, $elf5Healing, self5
resonsibility and self5morality4 natural theraies, environmental
awareness and inter5religious cooeration&
3angchen +ul#u, A 3reat @ogi and +antrician
5 $ome Personal 8emar#s by Chama )egshe
&
Being fascinated by a secial and very rare Buddhist deity called
.agara#sha (an'ushri >a wrathful naga5#ing emanation of (an'ushri?
we as#ed several lamas if they would #now somebody who could give
teachings and emowerments on this tantra& +hrough the mediation of
)ama Panchen Ytrul 8inoche we came in contact with )ama 3angchen
+ul#u, who 'ust had established a Buddhist centre in (ilanoMItaly, and
who finally agreed to come to Ireland >/une <AA=? to give a series of
tantric emowerments and teachings at our home >(an'ushri
(andala?& It was his first visit to .orthern Euroe and everybody was
very e-cited to meet this outstanding tantrician, healing lama and
astrologer& %ith him he brought some of his closer students, a
translator and a whole harmacy sho of +ibetan medicine& 7or a few
days +homas2 hysiotheray clinic was transformed into a +ibetan
healing centre and many came to see for the first time in their life a
+ibetan Healing )ama and to get medical advice& 7or us it was nothing
new& But imagine the Irish eole, living in rural 9onegal, and coming
to a doctor, who not 'ust made a ulse diagnosis and rescribed herbal
medicine ills but also erformed strange rituals, so#e some magical
mantras on them and on to of all they had to reeat Buddhist rayers
and to memori1e the mantra of $ha#yamuni Buddha as the most
imortant art of the healing rocessJ But due to their Celtic ast and
living in a country full of magic laces, haunted houses and holy wells,
they behaved 0uite naturally&
&
+he healing sessions too# art in the morning& Afternoon, evening an
nights were reserved for teachings, emowerments and occasionally
for sightseeing tours and discussions& It was not easy to #ee a tight
time schedule for a grou of !=5D= students arriving for this event
from various laces of the world and getting lost in a welter of
languages& It was the first time in Euroe 8inoche gave such a series
of high emowerments and teachings and acting redominently as a
tantrician and yogi, which he is by nature and by his secial education,
trained by highly e-erienced +ibetan gurus& +wo of his ma'or gurus,
HH ;ong 8inoche and HH "yab'e )ing 8inoche were also my teachers
during the seventies and early eighties, and being also an astrologer
>even though from the %estern tradition?, having wor#ed as a 2healer2
in the mid5seventies >homoeoathy, acuuncture, herbal medicine?,
and being a tantrician and Buddhist by heart, we had something in
common which made this event so secial for me& 5Anyhow, the outer
rearations #et us all busy: getting the ritual ob'ects together,
ma#ing heas of hotocoies with the various sadhana te-ts and
illustrations and ta#ing care to cature all those events on video, audio
and hoto, organi1ing rivate interviews or rearing refreshments and
snac#s etc& +his usual 9harma5cra1iness I #new so well from living at
different Buddhist monasteries and running a Buddhist centre for many
years, creates a secial flair and feeling of being art of a real and
lively e-erience and it trains the art of imrovi1ing and enhances the
anticiation :5? In addition, reaching the e-tremes of one2s caacity
hels to enforce the necessary sensitivity for receiving some 2out of the
normal2 esoteric teachings& $o there is even some wisdom behind all
thisJ It is an imortant art of the +ibetan mentality to imrovi1e and
to ma#e sontaneous decisions, using the energy and temorary
2weather situation2 of the mind instead of a strict and fi-ed #ind of
lanning& In this conte-t I remember a situation where a teacher of
mine mentioned incidentally and 'ust an hour before a ma'or teaching,
that he needs a rosary with <=B green beads as if it would be the most
normal thing that every household has a deot of green beads& $o in
no time I organi1ed several e-edition teams which swarmed out all
over the town to find that <=B green beads& $weating all over, close to
a hysterical fallout and having searched at least a do1en shos, one
team discovered the beads in a warehouse nearly ris#ing a car accident
to bring them in time& 5 +he astrological informed reader may be
reminded that this airy disosition may come from +ibet2s libra
influence& (any old sources assign +ibet to the cardinal air element
sign libra, which mirrors also in +ibet2s natural attachment to art,
beauty, esotericism and the loving #indness of it2s eole&
&
But it was worth all this& After giving a short introduction into the
basics of Buddhist hilosohy, the nature of mind and of Buddhist
tantra, he transmitted the emowerment of the blac# .agara#sha
(an'ushri >/amel .agara#sha?, a wrathful emanation of the water5
element >A#shobhya family? and a owerful naga #ing with ten heads,
eighteen arms, a sna#e2s tail and adorned by the eight great .agas
>serent #ings? of the four ma'or directions and four sub5directions
>.orthwest, $outheast etc&?, standing amidst a mass of wisdom
flames& >5 see also .agarad'a and )ama @eshe, A (ilestone in (y )ife?
+he urose of this deity yoga is to overcome magical hindrances of
lower sirits and nagas disturbing the meditator2s concentration or
causing various diseases& +han he gave the initiation of %hite +ara
>9Zlma "haro?, a eaceful emanation of the fire element which
generates a calm mind, tran0uility, fearlessness and longevity& $read
over the ne-t days 8inoche gave emowerments and e-lanations on
the mandala of the I5armed and three5headed yabMyum asect of
(ahacha#ra *a'raani >Chana 9or'e "horlo Cheno?, a wrathful
emanation of the water5element, transforming hate energy into
wisdom activity, the two5armed form of @amanta#a >9or'e /i#che?, a
wrathful emanation of (an'ushri >water element, transforming hate
into wisdom5#nowledge activity?, 6range (an'ushri >/amyang (arser?,
a eaceful emanation of highest wisdom #nowledge and wisdom
activity >water element?, %hite 91ambhala riding on the tur0uoise
dragon >91ambhala "haro?, generating wealth and magical owers
>siddhis? as well as the (edicine Buddha, "ing of A0uamarine )ight
>Bhaisha'aguru or ([nlha?, acifying all #ind of naga diseases and
atron of +ibetan medicine& Assisted was 3angchen +ul#u by )ama
Panchen Ytrul 8inoche, his former friend from India, now a resident in
.orthern Ireland and a teacher and friend of +homas, me and
(an'ushri (andala, who gave additional emowerments on %hite
(an'ushri and 91ambhala& $ome short blessings on Chenre1ig and
3reen +ara as well as blessings to every single room of our house,
garden and our grounds comleted the official art of the visit&
&
7or a few days we en'oyed the vital and uni0ue energy which goes
along with all +ibetan festiveties of this #ind& In 3angchen +ul#u we
had found not 'ust an enthusiastic and owerful Healing )ama, but also
an e-erienced and souvereign tantrician and magician, well aware of
his secret talents& A man full of energy and vision, comlete dedicated
to #ee the Buddhist sirit of +ibet alive and using his ower to hel
wherever hel was needed& .ot a theoretical scholar but a man of
action, combining the charm of a young boy with the dignity of a
Buddhist master& A mi-ture I discovered in most +ibetan teachers I
came in contact with& Also generous in giving, with a good sense of
humor, and a bit of cra1y wisdom, a 2by5roduct2 of so many tantric
ractitioners& 9ue to the short visit I couldn2t test his medical, healing
or astrological talents, but I certainly #now that he was honestly
devoted to tantric reality& /ust a little story to illustrate this& 9uring a
wal# together with all course articiants we assed a holy well,
situated directly beside a street, and decorated by the Irish with all
#ind of little souveniers >from childrens combs to hand#erchiefs to
some coins or ersonal wishes, written on a iece of aer?& Peole say
that the Irish $aint 3lencolum#ill gave some teachings at this lace in
I== A9& It must have reminded 3angchen +ul#u on +ibet, where all
wells are seen as secial magical laces& Anyhow, after having
insected the well very carefully, he so#e a long series of mantras to
honor or enlighten the nagas and sirits of this lace and than started
a twenty minute ritual and u'a, bloc#ing comlete the street& But all
cars waited atiently, watching this cra1y grou of Buddhists, chanting
and raying to the sirits of this historical sot& 6ne could feel that
3angchen +ul#u was comletely in his element and not retending& He
simly did his best to bless and honor the well or even communicate
with it& He did the same in blessing our grounds, not missing a s0uare
yard and even climbing u the highest oint, which is very difficult to
reach, because it2s heavily overgrown with gorse& %e felt relieved when
he finally stated that our lace is free of magical hindrances& It2s great
to #now that in a time of hi5tech and comuter5magic eole li#e
3angchen +ul#u remind us of even finer and further reaching realities
which we are in danger to ignore or even forget& (ay this old
#nowledge, once #nown by so many cultures have a continuation and
may the wisdom and ractice of Buddhist tantra stay alive, resenting
itself in a modern language and accetable for a wider audience& +he
archetyal essence of tantra will never change, but we can try to find
new words and allegories to attract more eole& *a'rayana should
never become a curiosity or cultural nature reserve for curious
%esterners, who stare at some e-otic lama dances as art of a tourist
attraction, getting a #ic# by watching some mon#s, creating a sand5
mandala or listening to some overtone chantings of sacred mantras as
an e-otic sice to o u a second class techno album&
5 Additional ersonal remar#:
5 Beside the classical education in Buddhist monasteries I ersonally
thin#, that a wise, guided and legali1ed handling of sychedelics >)$95
C5, to be e-act?, later relaced by more traditional methods still has
the otential to #ee tantric Buddhism alive& /ust a few will find time to
do the traditional three year retreat to come in contact with the magic
reality of one2s own mind& I thin# Buddhist tantra 2could2 get a fresh
start again by setting5u of some #ind of 2.ature of (ind 8esearch
Centre2s2, in the framewor# of siritual and religious freedom& Here the
siritual and honest see#er of the C<st century should get the legal
chance for sychedelic e-eriencees under the suervision of
e-erienced siritual teachers, tantricians, +ibetan lamas, deth
sychologists etc& But under no circumstances in a clinical
environmentJ 7rom my own biograhy I #now that it is much easier to
come from live5e-eriences, acting li#e eye5oeners, than starting
from mere beliefs& I thin# that the urose of enlightenment 'ustifies
all means& 5 It would give me a bad feeling if I would #ee this
imortant message bac#& 5 Anyhow, the future will show&
7or .on5Buddhists the imortance of this tantric deities and
emowerments are often difficult to understand& 7or those 'ust a
GveryG short e-lanation: All these deities should be understood as
sontaneous emanations of our enlightened mind, evo#ed by sound
>seed syllable?, which then transforms into formless light >in the color
of the according element? and having the otential to manifest into a
secial rainbow5 or dreambody5li#e form >deity? by sea#ing a secial
mantra >sound comosition?& By identifying with the body, seech and
mind of those magical forms of our higher 2self2 one is able to increase
the secial 0ualities of those wisdom5emanations to seed u the
rocess of enlightenment& +hey don2t reresent the ultimate goal of
Buddhahood but have to be understood as recious vehicles towards
the nondualistic mahamudra state of mind& +antric Buddhism states
that there is no final enlightenment ossible without overcoming our
inner magical universe of owerful illusions without temorary magical
rotection and wisdom transmission of the higher mind deities& A bit
confusing, but logical, as soon as you e-et the magical nature of your
2self2, being comosed of a vast amount of magic forces, fighting
against there relativation and deolari1ation of the siritual see#ers
mind& In rincile all this is similar to astrology where we also deal with
deities >/uiter, (ars etc&?, 1odiacal forces etc&, trying to channel their
archaic energies using our wisdom and will ower& Even before the
3ree#s astrology was always a tantric religion In +ibetan tantrism
those wisdom owers 'ust have a secified name, a sound, a form etc&
Easy, isn2t itK :5? I 'ust would li#e to add, that, li#e in astrology, also
tantra understands the microcosmos as a mirror of the macrocosmos
and vice versa& $o it is ossible to envo#e or e-erience certain deities
>or energies? also in the outside& Both methods are common ractice in
Buddhist tantra, even though the advanced ractitioner wor#s more on
harmoni1ing his inner magical reality and as a result of synchronicity
he e-eriences the outer reality according to his inner reali1ations& $o
if he develoed inner harmony he will e-erience automatically the
outer world as being in comlete harmony and beauty too& If he
reali1ed the nature of emtiness of all henomena, he will e-erience
also the outer world as emty and illusionary&&&and so on&
+o overcome our so5called evil forces or #armic hindrances it needs
corresonding, e-tremely owerful antidotes to magically transform
those hindrances and that2s why in tantric Buddhism you find various
wrathful deities li#e @amanta#a, *a'raani etc& which offer their
owers, wisdom and magical 2#now5how2 to hel the siritual see#er&
$o even loo#ing devilish and terrifying their motivation is based on love
and comassion& Peaceful deities have the function to stabili1e the
inner ureness and harmony etc& $o the Buddhist antheon is li#e a
huge harmacy sho, giving the ractitioner the choice to select his
secial deities, custom5tailored to his individual #armic reality& +he
harmacist is the according teacher or yogi& +hat2s how the tantric
2sycho5theray2 or 2#arma5theray2 wor#s& 9uring an emowerment
you not 'ust get the recie and allowance to handle the tantric
2medicine2 but also the magical transmission of the teacher res& the
initial treatment& +o ma#e all this wor#, a mutual trust between teacher
and student >doctor and atient? is essential& 5 +here is another thing
one should understand& Even though it is fundamentally ossible to
reach Buddhahood in one life5san, it is more the e-cetion& But by
racticing a secial deity yoga li#e @amanta#a or %hite +ara and
ma#ing rogress on this ath one could reach a rebirth in their higher
magical realms >or realms of our own mind? which allows a 0uic#er
reali1ation in 'ust a coule of lifes& $o an initiation is always 'ust a start
or ossibility for a better #armic career& It deends comlete on the
motivation of the student if and how he handles this chance by using
the magical medicine on a regular basis& If not, a magical transmission
can2t harm and can be understood as a blessing, initiating a seed into
the mind stream, which can show a result in a much later life5form&
+antra goes even so far to ostulate, that 'ust seeing a deity or Buddha
image will have some ositive results in a later life& $o, 'ust surfing
through our Buddhist ages may once have some wonderful effects, a
magical transmission by millions of i-els, coming through your
telehone line& .ow, that2s what I call an electronic tantra e-erience
of a new dimensionJ?
+ibetan Astrological Prayer 5 7rom the 6uter "alacha#ra +antra
5 E-cert from 3angchen +ul#u2s Boo# 2$elf5Healing II2 Please, )ama
Action *a'ra, great 8igden,
5 Bless me to reali1e my body is the mandala of the universe, and to
transform it into a ure container of siritual and life energy li#e a ure
crystal&
5 Bless me to reali1e that the birth, life and death of my body is the
birth, life and destruction of the cosmos&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my sine is (t& (eru and that the five colors
of my s#in and organs are its five colored faces& (ay my body and
mind become a ure container for this ositive elemental energy& >G?
5 Bless me to reali1e that the flow of the vital energy, dros and winds
rotating in my channels and cha#ras is the cosmic energy flow and the
rotation of the celestial bodies& (ay my body and mind become a ure
container for this ositive, ure celestial energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my right and left channels are the $un and
(oon& (ay my body and mind become a ure container for this
ositive solar and lunar energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my central channel >tsa uma? is 8ahu
>\rising (oon .ode?& (ay my body and mind become a ure container
for this ositive, dee and rofound, essential life energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my CB vertebrae are the CB constellation
divinities >\lunar mansions?& (ay my body and mind become a ure
container for this ositive, divine celestial life energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my seven facial arts >eyes, ears, nose,
mouth, tongue, chin and forehead? are the seven lanets& (ay my
body and mind become a ure container for this ositive lanetary
energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my twelve left and right ribs are the twelve
1odiac houses in the lunar and solar asects& (ay my body and mind
become a ure container for this ositive archetyal energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my countless millions of atoms and cells are
the stars of the heavens& (ay my body and mind become a ure
container for this ositive stellar energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that my cha#ras are the great rotating gala-ies&
(ay my body and mind become a ure container for this ositive
universal energy&
5 Bless me to reali1e that the year is the $hambhala "ing, that the
twenty5four solar and lunar months are his twenty four ministers, that
the days are the army of $hambhala warriors and that the hours and
seconds are their owerful weaons&
+hus, may we become free from linear time, e-erience the ast,
resent and future in the eternal now and dance in the shere of
timelessness&
&s& 8igden \ "ing of the mystical #ingdom of $hambhala, also called
2)ama Action *a'ra2&
Annotations by 3angchen +ul#u based on the outer "alacha#ra tantras:
6ur own body, the microcosm contains all the energies and elements of
the universe, the macrocosm& All outer and inner henomena are
manifestations of our own consciousness and subtle wind energy >5 air
element?, so they are naturally related& 6ur subtle energy winds, uon
which our mind is mounted, is five colored and contains the subtle five
elements& 9ue to ego grasing and collective #arma of living beings,
this subtle wind energy manifests the outer and inner universe in
stages, e&g& the formation of a baby in the mother2s womb and the
formation of the world in sace&
7ormation of the universe due to the collective #arma of living beings:
<& +he sace element allows the outer four elements to dance and
interact& +his is called the 2$ace *a'ra (andala2, formed by the sound
EH&
C& 9ue to the collective #arma of living beings, the wind energy >air
element? rises, called the 2%ind *a'ra (andala2, formed by the sound
@A(&
!& 9ue to the circulation of the wind, friction roduces heat, called the
27ire *a'ra (andala2, formed by the sound 8A(&
D& 9ue to the fire element rising and then cooling, water vaour forms
the 2%ater *a'ra (andala2, formed by the sound BA(&
5& 9ue to the solidification of the water, a cream forms which then
transforms into the 2Earth *a'ra (andala2, formed by the sound )A(&
7ormation of a human body due to contaminated #arma:
<& In the sace of the womb there is the 2$ace *a'ra (andala2, formed
by the sound EH&
C& 9ue to the force of #arma, the subtle energies and consciousness of
the bardo is entering the arent2s serm and ovum and the 2%ind *a'ra
(andala2 forms by the sound @A(&
!& 9ue to the friction of the consciousness inside the serm and ovum,
union heat is roduced: the 27ire *a'ra (andala2 forms by the sound
8A(&
D& 9ue to the fire energy rising and cooling, li0uid is generated: the
2%ater *a'ra (andala2 forms by the sound BA(&
5& 9ue to the li0uid 0uality solidifying, the hysical body begins to
form: the 2Earth *a'ra (andala2 forms by the sound )A(&
5 +hus there is an e-act relationshi between our body and mind, and
the cosmos&
6ur five inner elements are sace, wind >air?, earth, fire, water and our
five organs corresond to the outer five elements&
6ur sine is (t& (eru& >\the a-ial cosmic moutain of Buddhist
mythology?
6ur CB vertebrae corresond to the CB constellations >\CB stars or star
constellations, also #nown as 2lunar mansions2?&
6ur CD ribs relate to the twelve lunar and solar half5months of the year&
6ur seven facial oints corresond to the seven lanets >in +ibetan
astrology the (oon .ode 8ahu is understood as a lanet?&
6ur body is a mandala of the universeJ
%e can find the outer samsaric universe within our own body and
mind&
9ue to the rotation of the celestial bodies, energy is flowing in the
cosmos& 5 6ur vital energy, subtle dros and winds are flowing through
our channels and cha#ras at the same fre0uency, but our body must
consent to the energetic flow of the cosmos, because the greater is
more owerful than the lesser&
$ometimes we are in harmony with the celestial bodies, and we
e-erience their influence as beneficial, but at other times, we may be
in oosition with them and e-erience this as obstacles or roblems&