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| Sunday, 10 August 2003 |
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Tomorrow is Nikini full moon poya day Insight meditation : The secret of seeing things as they really are Since it is not a belief system, it can be practised by anyone regardless of religion or personal beliefs. It is simply a path of mental purification useful to each and every human being.
"Choose a suitable time - early morning or evening is the best time for most people. Sitting twice for half an hour is better than sitting once for an hour. The optimum is to sit for two hours daily." Resolve to set this time aside for meditation. Choose a suitable place, secluded and quiet. Sit in a comfortable posture without leaning against anything. You can use a well padded cushion or even a chair. Whatever posture you adopt, make sure that before you begin the meditation proper it fulfils these three conditions: Comfort, a straight back and easy natural breathing. Lying down is not advisable since sleep comes too easily. Keeping the eyes gently closed fix your attention on the breathing process. Become aware of the breath as it passes over the upper lip or through the nose. Breathe naturally, just watching the breath as it is. Don't try to control it or change it. Simply observe the rising and falling of the abdomen or the touch of the air in or around the nostrils as you breathe in and out. Emotions When you feel your mind is somewhere steady, become aware of all the passing sensations, feelings, emotions, images and thoughts that come to your attention. As with the breath, do not try to control, change or in any way interfere with the mind. Simply observe what comes to your attention. If your mind begins to wonder a lot, just notice it and bring the mind gently back to the breath, staying there until you have regained your steadiness of observation. This bare attentiveness - simply watching all that arises and passes away in our minds, this choiceless awareness - that does not control or manipulate the mind, this impartial observation - that does not judge or question, this intuitive introspection - fully experiencing each mental and bodily phenomenon as it really is, leads us to the realisation that our lives are impermanent and insubstantial - anicca and anatta. These insights will liberate us from all suffering dukkha, and we shall come to experience the bliss of Nibbana - ultimate peace. Remember to end any meditation period with sharing your merits and developing loving - Kindness, metta towards all living beings. The practice of Vipassana Bhavana, sometimes called insight meditation works on two levels - the psychological and the spiritual. Psychologically it helps us to come to terms with our negative mental states. How does meditation work? By learning to look closely at our changes of mood and accepting them, we come to know our inner selves - the angry, guilty, anxious, sad and depressed states of mind. it teaches us how to deal with them. Being aware of them not by trying to escape from them, but accepting them as they really are. It means we don't develop them either and make things worse by allowing fantasy, day dreaming and thinking to get us caught up in these emotions. Instead, by developing mindfulness and attention, we allow them to be themselves. We then experience exactly what Buddha taught that just by observing and watching, these states of mind lose energy, fade away and over a period of time die out altogether. In this way even deeply repressed subconscious feelings come up and fade away until we have purified the mind of all negative states. Gradually we begin to experience more and more the Positive states of mind - love and compassion, joy, harmony and peace. This has its effect on our relationships and daily life,making us happier people. On the spiritual level, as this process of purifying the mind continues, with concentration and awareness, intuitive wisdom arises and one begins to see the real nature of mind. It perceives and understands the basic characteristics of our human life - it's essential unsatisfactoriness, its ever-changing nature. The awareness continues to do this until, when the conditions are right, it penetrates into the absolute, beyond body and mind Nibbana the Deathless. Spiritual This is a very brief outline of how the meditation works, but remember that we meditate, we don't think about this, we just develop the watchfulness, the awareness. We look at what comes to the attention, not look for something. You will have realised by now that the Buddha did not teach a system that everyone had to believe in before they could start practise. What he did was to teach a theory and give us a method, a technique the meditation practice, whereby we can test that theory. Since it is not a belief system, it can be practised by anyone regardless of religion or personal beliefs. It is simply the path of mental purification useful to each and every human being. Extract from: Introduction to Buddhism, Birmingham Buddhist Vihara, UK. Sent by Tuan Jalaldeen Jayah, in London The contributor is a Muslim by birth, who became an atheist, but is a strong follower of the Buddha. ###### How Buddha solved an inter-state dispute by Padma Edirisinghe (This anecdote has been culled from the book "Greatest & the Great" by Waga Nimal Karunaratne and translated by the writer. The author claims the Tripitaka to be his source.)
The inter-state dispute that turned the terrain criss-crossed by many a river that cascaded down the mighty Himalayas into a battlefield during the time of the Buddha had as its seed the issue of the waters of the river Rohini. And strangely it was the Sakya state where The Buddha was born and bred and ruled by his own aged father, who was the culprit in the misuse of the waters. The Sakyans had built a dam upstream of Rohini river to store water in times of drought thus weakening the supply of the hydraulic treasure to the Koliya state. In the rainy season the Sakyans opened the dam inundating the Koliya state. This double injustice precipitated a war despite the fact that royalties of both states were closely bonded by marriage ties. Massacre Soon erupted a very inflammatory situation and the two parties set up camps intent to massacre each other on either side of Peace Island. This little islet, a sanctuary for birds and animals was sited just at the spot where river Kethakee branched off from the main river Rohini. Utterly oblivious of the tragedy about to begin the river waters bisecting themselves here placidly flowed into the distant bay. Soon the soldiers pregnant with murderous intentions gazed at a strange sight far away. A yellow splendour was radiating the whole area and soon they beheld the son of king Suddhodana of Sakya state, now elevated into Thatahgatha wading through the waters with His disciples. Out of respect to the holy group both the Sakya and the Koliya soldiers put their swords inside the scabbards and made due obeisances. The Great Gauthama queried, "So everything is set for the war?" "Yes Lord," answered C-in-C Mahanama, "The Sakyans are intent to vanquish the arrogance of the Koliyans and assert their rights to what belongs to them" Now spoke the other party. "We are out to fight this injustice, Lord and victory will certainly be ours" Now spoke the Buddha, "So both wish to win but only one will be the victor. Why don't you think of a peaceful solution to this without recourse to cruel war? The victory that each party covets would be at the expense of hundreds or thousands of lives. Your ultimate aim is to irrigate your fields with the waters of Rohini river and live comfortably. But how many of your own kith and kin will lose their precious lives before that by this conflict? Use your human brain and reflect on that". Continued the Great Master, "This river has been fed by the waters flowing down the Himalayas, by rain water and its own tributaries and finally it joins the Ganges before it reaches the ocean. It is a natural treasure that really belongs to nobody. On its borders animals frisk and birds soar. In its deeps men and women bathe and frolic and use the waters for their day to day living. Actually it is something that belongs to nobody and everybody. The dam built by the Sakyas has led to this situation. Shall I give you a practical solution?" "Yes, our Lord" "The Kethakee river, a branch of Rohini flows through the Sakya desha while Rohini river runs along the boundary of Koliya desha. Stop building dams above Sama Island. Sakyans, use the waters of Kethakee river and if that is not enough divert the water of Rohini by building a canal. Thus Koliyas will have enough water". So the Thathagatha supplemented his sublime preachings with very practical advice when the occasion demanded so. "It is a grand idea" exulted the two C-in-C s embracing each other and making a pact of peace. The Sakya and Koliya soldiers imitating them laid aside their swords and embraced each other. The happy trills and chirps of the birds roosting on the trees in Sama island are said to have intensified at this wonderful sight of human camaraderie that saved 1000s of precious human lives. Spiritual No one was happier than king Suddhodana at this turn of events. Aged and ailing he was now more involved with the shafts of spiritual light that illumined the sanctum of his mind and so the hustlings of statecraft especially the sound of war drums just chilled him. On hearing the news of the Sakya-Koliya truce, he blessed the day that his son left the comforts of the palace to wear the robes of a mendicant, instead of going onto become the Chakravarthi of Bhaartha Desha as some sooth sayers predicted. Were the prince Siddhartha to end up in that position of supreme worldy power, he would have just ended up a complete nonentity obliterated from the mind of humans, by now. He would have ruled the massive land with might and power, eaten the most delicious foods and had his harem of queens and enjoyed all mundane pleasures like any other monarch, Oriental or otherwise. But that he abhorred all those luxurious traps (that finally only enhances misery) and turned ascetic and worked for the deliverance of the humans from the morass of eternal suffering, has made His name reverberate down through countless centuries and flash across East and West as the wisest mentor in the world. Even that most brilliant Jew, Albert Einstein had said that he followed no religion but were he compelled to follow one he would definitely opt for that religion of wisdom ie. Buddhism. Incidentally the writer came across Upadana Jathaka re-written for children by one of our teachers where in the introduction the author says that the Buddha embellished His sermon on Sama Island with this Jathaka. The theme is woven around a warring bear and an equally quarrelsome tree-god (Ruk Devatha) whose dispute ended up by a wood cutter skinning the bear and then hacking the tree to pieces that made the tree god completely houseless. War, this Jathaka teaches us again would have as its only result, the ultimate destruction of both parties and the gain of a by-stander. |
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These
are general guidelines for the practise of Vipassana Bhavana insight
meditation. Vipassana means to see things as they really are. Buddha
taught this as a way to liberate us from all sufferings. It is better to
read through the following before meditating.
Border
disputes or crises that occur between neighbouring states are not a modern
day global phenomenon. They were staged centuries, nay, millennia back
mainly over the basic natural resources of land and water. Especially the
land hunger of varied communities has acted as the catalyst for volatile
situations all over. Even in the times of the Buddha, man's avarice loomed
high despite all enunciations of selfless living and annihilation of
craving causing much anguish to the total enmasse of the homosapiens, an
arrogant handful of their leaders taking cudgels over the mentioned issues
without trying to find peaceful solutions.
