Friday, December 14, 2007

Beyond enlightenment - buy or read on line !@#?


While I browsed through some books on Buddhism I came across this USD120 book by Richard Cohen called "Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion, Modernity (Routledgecurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism)". Obviously, this is another Buddhologist book, where the author only produced a few commercial copies, and not that many people would probably buy them so they have to settle on selling it commercially with a very high price tag (no sarcasm intended).

Anyway, I did a little googling afterward, and found this web sit on the author, which seems legitimate: " Richard Cohen's CV "
where there is a link to the probably all the non-commercial version of the "Beyond Enlightenment" book!

Here is a the "Table of Contents", which seems to be the same...

Have a good, free and legitimate reading!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Prince Siddhatta's family - father side













(Also don't know where I got this from)

Click on the diagram to enlarge !
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Prince Siddhattha's family - mother side
















(don't know where I got this from)
Click on the diagram to enlarge !
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Tinnitus and white noise

If you find tinnitus troubling you during meditation, you can play white noise background at the level that do not "mask" the tinnitus, but at the same level as it is. Here is a 10-mins MP3 white noise that you can play on repeat using computer and speakers.

White Noise Download


The best thing, IMO, is not to have any negative attitude toward it. It can simply disappear when you no longer pay any attention to it. Or you can still hear it and it does not bother you.

A lot depends on attitude toward the noise, which is actually no different from straying thoughts or some other sights or sounds you experience during meditation.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

The 4th Noble Truth

The Noble Eightfold Path, the 4th Noble Truth, may be a wide 20-lane path that allows for more "right views", rather than only 1 right view that has to be identical for everyone, everywhere, anytime.

Perhaps the path starts off wide, but get narrower as one comes closer to total liberalization, when all the 10 fetters have been eradicated.

Twins




Casper and Jade

Named by

My daughter











Just like having more amazingly active kids :-)
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Mini samsara

Last weekend I went back to Thailand to attend a friend's wedding. I also saw a few close friends that I have not seen for sometime.

One of my close friends, who has also ordained at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee for a few years, was there too. It's amazing how he lives his life, which is like a mini cycle of samsara. For a few months, he would be a party animal, going out every night and spending most of the day sleeping; and when he felt he could not take it any longer, he would spend the next couple of months sobering up and stayed at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee for a week or so, probably meditating like crazy. Then he would be off to do his partying thing again. And another mini samsara cycle repeat itself.

I wonder how long he will be like that. Now he is near 40, and has been doing his mini samsara thing for about 15 years already. Perhaps it is rooted in his childhood, as he was sent off to boarding school in England since he was eight, and has not see his dad much until even today. May be he is still lost, after all these years. It is amazing how we don't know how much influence parents can have on kids until we have a few kids of our own, ....and also how much influence kids have on their parents, on how we choose to live our lives....which is mostly for them.

Wat Pah Nanachat via ThaiPulse

A link via ThaiPulse to Wat Pah Nanachart, which can be translated into "International Forest Monastery".

The atmosphere looks like other forest monasteries that I have been to in Thailand, which are mostly in the Northeast of Thailand or in the Eastern Coast of the country (like Rayong and Chantaburi).

Recently, many forest monasteries or branches of forest monasteries have been established in areas around Kao Yai as well. My teacher, Ajahn Baen (who is the student of Ajahn Kongma, one of the students of Ajahn Mun who was the Master of the Masters of the Thai Forest Tradition) also spend a few months of the year in Kao Koh, near Kao Yai, while spending the rest in Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee in Sakon Nakorn (also in Northeast of Thailand).

These areas in Kao Yai are good for practice because they are quit serene and full of forests. Also, it is convenient for people who live in or near Bangkok to visit Ajahns because it only takes about 2-3 hours drive each way, so we can make one-day visits during weekends. Having said that, I have not seen Ajahn Baen for over a year now since I came to work in Hong Kong.

Well, as for myself, although I do visit other Ajahns in the Forest Tradition (both Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Chah's lineages, which to me are the same) when people go, I am content with studying with Ajahn Baen at Wat Doi Dhamma Chadee. I am sure that are many great and fully liberated teachers both in Thailand and elsewhere, but, really, what is the need if I have already found the teacher who can see right through my kilasa (defilements) and give great advices, even without words....

Brain or dependent origination as the cause of consciousness

Every consciousness, hearing, sensing, etc, requires no proof. A billion people cannot convince that there is sight that can be experienced. The brain, however, is the content of consciousness, a theory, a concept, which can be refuted.

They are of different levels.

Each consciousness is real, cannot be refuted that they are experienced, but they also arise and cease. So they have the characteristic of impermanent, stressful, and not-self.

What gives rise to consciousness, again, is a theory, that can be debated. Some may say that it is due to the brain. Buddhism says that they arise due to "dependent origination", the root of which is "ignorance" or avijja.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Bodhidharma


The Zen master....

Cittas and their contents

The problem with observing the changing cittas (not individual ones, of course) is that there is no proof that the "contents", which includes everything in life, can be said to truly exist. What can be experienced that also arise and fall are cittas that belong to samsara. The Buddha also taught that lokutara cittas can arise and fall. The impact of lokutara cittas on the stream of mundane cittas are of course, immense.

But can we prove that there is more to this? Do we have to believe in conventional teachings that involved "contents" of citta on faith?

(a post on e-Sangha, which hopefully won't be deleted).

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Security and Buddhism

The map that we call “Buddhism” takes us from "insecurity" to "security". It’s pretty simple, really. The whole of the Buddha’s teachings can be summarized into "the four Noble Truths” (BTW, I really don’t quite understand why there is a need to add any more to this).


The First Noble Truth is about the nature of samsara, about life, about our world of “insecurity”. The Second Noble Truth is about the reasons why we are so insecured. The sources of "insecurity" are due to our attachments, our silly egos and conceits and any kinds of delusion - or put simply, about the root cause, “ignorance” - clueless of what life is all about.


Ignorance about life? It’s the ignorance of our individual worlds we live in that we call samsara – the cycle of existence, of never-ending births and deaths.


The Third Noble Truth is the “security” that we seek. It’s where no suffering can be found. It’s not of samsara, and it is also not touched by samsara. Nor can it touch samsara. This is "security", non-self, independent by itself from anything (and that is why it is somtimes called the "unconditioned").


The Forth Noble Truth is simply the way to know the first three Noble Truths – “the eightfold path”. As we travel along this path, we initially take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as the sources of security.


During our journey along the Buddhist path, we may stop to “do merits” for a while; get stuck to some experiences in meditation for a bit longer; or even mistake some stages of concentration to be the Third Noble Truth, nibbana. But eventually we should pull ourselves through.


And "security"? I believe what we do in Buddhism is simply to practice in order to know what life is all about - what the first three Noble Truths really are. And as we go on, our eyes should be clearer and eventually, if we walk in the right direction and don’t stop here or there too often, we should finally know all about life. We should know about the world of existence – samsara – and the other side of samsara – what we sometimes call the”unconditioned”, “deathless”, “unborn”, “nibbanna”, etc. This is "security".


The knowledge of both sides of life - samsara and non-samsara - frees us from attachments. It is liberalization from attachments, liberalization from cycle of births and deaths. There is no tiny bit of attachment left, no tiny egos or tiny conceits remained. As there is clearly nobody, not even a tiny pride, where can we find "insecurity"? That pure knowledge of the Four Noble Truth gives us “security”.


The Third Noble Truth is where “security” can be found.

To me, Buddhism isn't only about getting way from suffering, or even to find security, it is also the knowledge of what life is all about.

Monday, December 3, 2007

The importance of "openness"

It is probably a part of being human: when we study and learn something, we get better understanding of it. We are transformed from being "clueless" to become "experts" who can teach others about our specialized fields.

Is it different in Buddhism? After years of learning, studying and practice, years become decades, and decades becoming multi-decades. Buddhist students and practitioners learn a lot of things, some from books, some from practice, and some from listening to others talking about their experiences. Some "meaningless words" and "states in meditation" that we were clueless become clear, or at least they seem to become clear, and we can talk and talk about this and that, all day all night.

Mystified words like jhanas and attainments and nibbana and unconditioned and deathless and unborn and the rest become words that we use everyday. Sometimes we use them because people want to know what they are, and as experts we tell them what they are, even though deep down we are still clueless. Sometimes we use these wonderful words and explanations because we have learned so much about them that they are imprinted in our minds.

But do we really know them? Be truthful, do we really know them at all? As we grow older, and we practice longer, and as we went through periods of intense practice and relaxed practice, or even went from one tradition to another and to another. Do we really know what Buddhism is all about?

We may think we know them all - we are the experts. But what if what we believe we know are still concepts, drilled down into our minds due to years of learning, readings, debating, and practicing, but not by any tiny nanoseconds of true realizations of the Truths that really lead to eradication of defilements.

It seems to me that the longer we spend studying and practicing Buddhism, we face the danger of becoming "narrow-minded". We don't except others' points of view. Ours are the only right one. Others are wrong. We have learned so much.

Is this what it should be? Buddhism is, in my opinion, an "open religion". We only know the Truths by keeping an open mind. Why? Because the Buddha's teachings are not barely concepts that we have to understand and one day say "oh, I get it"...

Buddhism is all about something deeper. Concepts are ways into the realization of non-concepts, and in my opinion, the heart of Buddhism is in the non-conceptual parts; the transcendent parts; the part that lead us to liberalization.

But that part, in my view, requires an "open mind", not a "shut mind", not the "I know best mind". Because the non-concept is so out-of-this world than we can imagine.

Openness is, in my opinion, a very important part of the way to practice - if we want to really know what Buddhism is all about, we have to keep our minds open.

After all, what happened after people become "brain-dead"? All concepts are gone. All memories of non-conceptual realizations are gone. What are left, however, are the "results" on the series of cittas due to those non-conceptual realizations. What exactly are these "results" on the series of cittas that I probably am cluelessly going on about? It's simply the lack of defilements as they have been eradicated by correct practice, that have been eradicated by the breaks in mundane cittas by supramundane cittas, that have severed the chain of samsara forever. Any lokutara realizations become memories, and memories are anicca -they end. What is important, however, is that these lokutara realizations have left the permanent marks on the streams of cittas. Even though an individual may not be able to recall their experiences as a result of correct practice, unwholesome intentions and wrong views can never take place in these mindstreams again.

As we have not come across any non-conceptual realizations, or we may mistake some mundane realizations as supramundane/lokutara realizations, we still need open mind. In my view, it is vital that we maintain open mind.

Perhaps, those who have experienced lokutara realizations may hold no view at all! Their minds may be completely open, completely free and open to realizations that us worldlings have unknowingly shut ourselves the chance by closing out minds because we know best.

Just a thought.

A few words on "enlightenment"

The word "enlightenment", in my opinion, is used rather loosely in the West, and probably loosely in the East like in some places in Thailand when people get drunk and love to discuss dhamma into the middle of the night.


If you go to Amazon.com, and search the word "enlightenment" in the book section, you will get close to 100,000 results. That may tell something. Perhaps the word is great for marketing, and perhaps it is oversold. If we assume that one person writes about 5 of these books, you can make a rough estimate that there must be about 20,000 writers who know something or believe they know something about real enlightenment ... out there (don't forget to subtract a few cons).


Anyway, the word"enlightenment" seems to point to something like sainthood or something like that. But those who have really been liberated, there is not a tiny bit of ego or conceit left. For them, they are probably more down to earth than most of us unenlightened beings. For all I know, some real liberated beings might be sleeping on pieces old planks on monastery floors while other monks are busy teaching lay visitors the path to enlightenment.

Another aspect of enlightenment is that some people wants to believe that they are enlightened so bad so that they make themselves act like one. And believe that they are one. This is a sad bit.

Better getting rid of defilements first.

Sockaroo avarta


On our trip back from Bangkok to Hong Kong this afternoon, my 10-year-old daughter played with the notebook and drew a few kid drawings. I asked her to save them on the notebook because I find them so refreshing and imaginative in an innocent way.
I particularly like this sock image which she called "sockaroo", as it was supposed to be a mixture of a sock and kangaroo. I really don't know how sock can be mixed with kangaroo though. But it seems that kids find it very natural!!
So I put this up as the avarta for my e-Sangha account. :)

Friday, November 30, 2007

Waiting

I am now waiting for an airplane to go back to Thailand. It seems a kind of silly to go back just for the weekend to attend one of my closest friends' wedding, but I guess that is a part of life. One of the mini episodes that we keep on doing until the day we die...

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dalai Lama offers his flock a vote on whether he should be reincarnated

From - Buddhist Channel - by Jeremy Page, The Times, November 28, 2007

Amritsar, India -- Faced with Chinese plans to seize control of his reincarnation, the Dalai Lama has come up with two revolutionary proposals — either to forgo rebirth, or to be reborn while still alive.

The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader proposed yesterday to hold a referendum among his 13-14 million followers around the world — before his death — on whether he should be reincarnated or not.

If the majority vote against it he said he would simply not be reborn, ending a lineage that tradition dictates dates back to the late 14th century, when a young shepherd was appointed the first Dalai Lama.

If the vote was in favour he said that he might appoint a reincarnation while he was still alive, breaking the 600-year-old tradition of being reborn as a small boy after his death.

His proposals not only raise some mind-bending metaphysical questions: they put China’s atheist Communist leaders in the unusual position of claiming to be the protectors of Tibetan Buddhist tradition.



The 1989 Nobel Peace laureate, 72, said that he was in good physical condition, that detailed discussions on his succession had yet to begin, and that several options were being considered.

But he admitted that his proposals were designed to thwart China’s plans to select the next Dalai Lama and thus tighten its grip on the Himalayan region it has controlled since 1950. “Yes, a referendum, yes, it’s possible,” the Dalai Lama told The Times at an interfaith conference in the north Indian city of Amritsar.

“When my physical [condition] becomes weak and serious preparation for death [has started], then that should happen,” he said. “According to my regular medical check-up it seems another few decades, I think, are there, so no hurry.”

The Dalai Lama has traditionally been chosen by senior monks who interpret signals from the last reincarnation, scour the region for promising young candidates and then set a number of tests.

The current Dalai Lama — the 14th — was born into a farming family and identified at the age of 2 after passing tests, including identifying his predecessor’s rosary from among several others. He fled Tibet in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and has been living in India ever since, heading a 200,000-strong Tibetan exile community from the northern town of Dharamsala.

He now campaigns for greater autonomy within China, but Chinese leaders accuse him of still seeking independence for Tibet, which they see as an integral part of their territory.

They have tried to cultivate friendly lamas, but the 10th Panchen Lama — the second-most-senior Tibetan Buddhist figure — famously turned on them in a speech in 1989, soon after which he died. The young Karmapa Lama, the third-highest ranking, escaped to India in 1999.

In August China’s Government claimed exclusive rights to approve all Tibetan lamas’ reincarnations in one of its strongest moves yet to establish control over the region’s clergy.

Yesterday it condemned the Dalai Lama’s proposals. “The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions,” the Foreign Ministry statement said. “The Dalai Lama’s statement is in blatant violation of religious practice and historical procedure.”

The Dalai Lama said there was a historical precedent for a lama being reincarnated while still alive, giving the example of one of his teachers who died last year. He did not say how the referendum would be conducted, but said that it should include all those in the Himalayan region, Mongolia and elsewhere who have traditionally followed Tibetan Buddhism.

The six million Tibetans inside China would almost certainly be unable to participate, but another seven to eight million follow Tibetan Buddhism in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, Russia and the West.

“If the Tibetan people, the majority of Tibetan people and concerned people feel OK, then the Dalai Lama institution will cease,” he said. If a majority voted to continue the tradition, he said that he would choose one of several succession options to try to protect his lineage from Chinese interference.

One is to handpick a successor outside Tibet — perhaps an adult, more qualified to represent Tibet on the world stage than a small boy. Another is to hold an election with a group of senior lamas along the lines of the “college of cardinals” that selects the Pope. A third option is to allow power to pass to the next most-senior lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy outside Tibet, who is the Sakya Lama, based in India. A fourth option is to follow the traditional method.

“If my death comes while we are still as refugees then my reincarnation logically will come outside Tibet,” he said. “But the Chinese Government may appoint another Dalai Lama. So like the present Panchen Lama’s case . . . in fact it creates more confusion.”

What the Dalai Lama said

On succession plans

As early as 1969 I made it clear that [whether] the very institution of the Dalai Lama continue or not, is up to the Tibetan people. So [if] the majority of the Tibetan people should feel the centuries old institution of the Dalai Lama [is] no longer much relevant then the Dalai Lama institution automatically will cease.

Then there’s no question of succession of Dalai Lama. On the other hand, should the Tibetan people and also some concerned people like the hundreds and thousands of people in the Himalayan range traditionally sharing same Tibetan Buddhism... want to keep this institution, then the question is, if you want to keep this institution, then the succession could be different methods or ways like the Pope’s election among his elder, experienced and respected senior leaders.

Then another thing like seniority - that is also a possibility. Another possibility is the previous sort of traditional way - after the death of the person, then search the rebirth. Whether it’s the same person or same being or not, I don’t know. It’s not very important, but some karmic, certain spiritual factors. Someone who can succeed the previous life’s work.

Then another thing - in Tibet in the past and even in my generation, there are cases of the person who before death is already choose his or her own reincarnation...

The very purpose of reincarnation is to carry the task which started by previous life, which is not yet accomplished. If my death comes while we are still as refugees then my reincarnation logically will come outside Tibet, who can eventually carry the work which I started.

But meanwhile the Chinese government may appoint another Dalai lama... So like the present Panchen Lama’s case. One is Panchen Lama of Tibetans’ hearts, one is on the official throne. In fact it creates more confusion. So a similar case will happen…

On the timing of the succession

According to my regular medical checkup, it seems another few decades, I think, are there so no hurry.

Anyway occasionally the Tibetan spiritual leaders meet together sometimes, very casually, to talk already, but serious detailed discussion has not yet started.

On a referendum

If the Tibetan people, the majority of Tibetan people and concerned people feel OK, then the Dalai Lama institution will cease.

If the centuries old Dalai Lama institution ceases, the 14th Dalai Lama was not the best one but certainly not the worst one – quite popular Dalai Lama. So if the centuries old institution ceases at such a popular Dalai Lama’s case, I think very good.

Recent few centuries, the Dalai Lama has become an important part of that, but that does not mean that whole Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan nation depends on the Dalai lama institution - no. If I die today, some setback for the Tibetan people’s struggle that will happen, but eventually the national struggle of an ancient nation with a rich cultural heritage, therefore the Tibetan spirit, will not go away with my death.

Reincarnation for beginners

  • Buddhism teaches that the soul is reincarnated as another being - possibly an animal - based on one’s karma, or accumulated actions
  • Tibetan Buddhism is unusual in its belief that a senior lama can be reincarnated as a young child
  • Lamas are believed to be reincarnations of those who have reached Nirvana but chosen to return to the mortal world to teach others
  • The Dalai Lama is believed to be the reincarnation of Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and can choose whether to be reincarnated or not
  • When a Dalai Lama dies, senior monks look for signals about his reincarnation in their own dreams, on his corpse and in the smoke when he is cremated
  • They also go to a holy lake to look for a vision or another sign about where to look for the new Dalai Lama

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Strange rebirth story from the Biography of Ajahn Mun


The story below is a cut/paste from the Biography of Ajahn Mun (from around page 422 of the PDF version with the picture of Ajahn Mun in front).

------:

IN OUR PRESENT TIME, the sort of unusual phenomena that was perceptible to Ãcariya Mun ceased to be mysterious to a few of his contemporaries who possessed an ability similar to his. This is evident in the case of another mysterious affair that, though quite intriguing, is likely to raise doubts among those of us who are self-confessed skeptics. While Ãcariya Mun lived at Ban Nong Pheu monastery, an elderly, white-robed lay woman from the local community, who had great respect for him, came to the monastery and told him about an experience she had in meditation. As she sat in meditation late one night, her citta ‘converged’, dropping deeply into samãdhi. Remaining absolutely still in that state for a time, she began to notice a very fine thread-like tentacle flowing out of her citta and away from her body. Her curiosity aroused, she followed the flow of her citta to find out where it had slipped away to, what it was doing, and why. In doing so she discovered that this subtle flow of consciousness was preparing to reserve a new birthplace in the womb of her own niece who lived in the same village – this despite the fact that she herself was still very much alive. This discovery shocked her, so she quickly brought her citta back to its base and withdrew from samãdhi. She was greatly troubled for she knew that her niece was already one month pregnant.

The next morning she hurried off to the monastery and related the whole affair to Ãcariya Mun. Listening quietly, many of the monks overheard what she said. Having never heard anything like it before, we were all puzzled by such a strange tale. I was especially interested in this affair and how Ãcariya Mun would respond to the elderly lady. We sat perfectly still in breathless anticipation, all eyes on Ãcariya Mun, waiting to hear his reply. He sat with eyes closed for about two minutes and then spoke to the elderly lady, telling her precisely what she should do. “The next time your citta ‘converges’ into calm like that carefully examine the flow of your citta. Should you notice that the flow of your citta has again gone outward, then you must concentrate on severing that outward flow with intuitive wisdom. If you succeed in completely cutting it off with wisdom, it will not reappear in the future. But it’s imperative that you carefully examine it and then fully concentrate on severing it with wisdom. Don’t just do it halfheartedly, or else, I warn you, when you die you’ll be reborn in your niece’s womb. Remember well what I’m telling you. If you don’t succeed in cutting off this outward flow of your citta, when you die you will surely be reborn in your niece’s womb. I have no doubt about this.”

Having received this advice, the elderly lady returned home. Two days later she came to the monastery looking bright and cheerful. It didn’t require any special insight to tell from her expression that she had been successful. Ãcariya Mun began questioning her the moment she sat down.

“What happened? Did you manage to prevent yourself from being reborn within your niece’s womb despite being very much alive?” “Yes, I severed that connection the very first night. As soon as my citta ‘converged’ into a state of complete calm, focusing my attention there, I saw exactly what I had seen before. So I concentrated on severing it with intuitive wisdom, just as you said, until it finally snapped apart. Again last night I examined it thoroughly and couldn’t find anything – it had simply disappeared. Today I could not wait any longer. I just had to come and tell you about it.”

“Well, that is a good example of how very subtle the citta can be. Only someone who practices meditation can become aware of such things – there is no other way. You nearly fell prey to the kilesas, which were preparing to shove you into your niece’s womb without you being aware of it. It’s a good thing you uncovered it in your meditation and managed to correct it in time.” Shortly after the flow of her aunt’s citta to her womb had been severed, the woman’s niece had a miscarriage, thus cutting that connection for good.

Soon the monks in the monastery began pondering two questions related to that incident: one to do with the rebirth of a person who has yet to die, the other to do with miscarriages. The old woman never told anyone in the village about what happened, so no one else knew about it. But having heard the whole affair as it was related to Ãcariya Mun, the monks were well informed about the incident. This prompted several questions, so the monks asked Ãcariya Mun for an explanation. To the question: “How could a person who has not yet died begin to take birth in a womb?”, he answered as follows:

“She was merely preparing to take birth, the process had not been completed yet. It’s quite common for preparations to be made before the work takes place. In this case, she was making the preparations but she had yet to finalize them. So it would be incorrect to say that a person can be reborn while she is still alive. But had she not been so perceptive, she would certainly have established a new home in her niece’s womb.”

To the second question: “Isn’t severing the flow of the citta, connecting the elderly lady to her niece, tantamount to destroying a human life?”, he answered as follows:

“What was there to destroy? She merely severed the flow of her citta. She didn’t cut off the head of a living being. The true citta remained with that woman the whole time; it simply sent a tentacle out to latch on to her niece. As soon as she realized it and cut the outward flow of her citta to break that connection, that was the end of the matter.”

The important point here was, Ãcariya Mun did not contradict the old woman when she described how the flow of her citta had stolen out to reserve a place in her niece’s womb. He did not dispute the truth of her experience, telling her that she was mistaken or that she should reconsider the nature of her assumptions. Instead, he responded by addressing her experience directly.

This story is very intriguing because there was in fact a good reason why her citta flowed out to her niece. The woman said she had always been very fond of her niece, keeping in constant touch and always doting on her. But she never suspected that anything mysterious lurked in their relationship, waiting to sneak out and cause her to be reborn as her niece’s child. If Ãcariya Mun had not helped to solve this problem, she would have ended up in that young woman’s womb for sure. Ãcariya Mun stated that it is far beyond the average person’s capabilities to fathom the cittas extraordinary complexity, making it very difficult for them to properly look after the citta and avoid jeopardizing their own well-being. Had that woman possessed no basis in samãdhi meditation, she would have had no means of understanding the way the citta functions in relation to living and dying. Consequently, samãdhi meditation is an effective means of dealing correctly with the citta.

This is especially true at critical junctures in life when mindfulness and wisdom are extremely important aids to understanding and caring for the citta. When these faculties are well developed, they are able to effectively intervene and neutralize severe pain so that it does not overwhelm the heart at the time of death. Death is an absolutely crucial time when defeat means, at the very least, a missed opportunity for the next life. For instance, someone who misses out at death may be reborn as an animal and be forced to waste time, stuck for the duration of that animal’s life and suffering the agony of that lowly existence as well. If, however, the citta is skillful, having enough mindfulness to properly support it, then a human birth is the least one can expect. Over and above that, one may be reborn in a heavenly realm and enjoy a variety of celestial pleasures for a long time before being reborn eventually as a human being again. When reborn as a human being, the virtuous tendencies, that were developed in previous lives, are not forgotten. In this way, the power of an individual’s inherent virtue increases gradually with each successive birth until the citta gains the strength and ability to look after itself. Dying then becomes merely a process by which an individual exchanges one bodily form for another, progressing from lower to higher, from grosser to ever more refined forms of existence – and eventually from the cycle of saÿsãra to the freedom of Nibbãna. This is similar to the way that the Lord Buddha and his Arahant disciples raised the quality of successive existences over many lifetimes, while steadily altering their spiritual makeup until there were no more changes to be made. Thus it is that a citta trained in virtue through each successive rebirth, is eventually transformed into the treasure of Nibbãna. All of which stems directly from the citta being trained gradually, step by step, in the way of virtue. For this reason, wise, intelligent men and women of all ages never tire of doing good deeds that redound to their spiritual credit, always enhancing their well-being now and in the future.


Monday, November 26, 2007

Abortion from another angle

Look at abortion from another angle, after a fetus is formed, it will become human baby, will be born, will live his or her life according to kamma, as well as creating new kamma in the life he or she is supposed to live. These new kamma that the person perform if he or she is allowed to be born, may be more wholesome than unwholesome.

The act of abortion, even at the early stage, prevents a person from being born, and cut short his or her opportunities to be born as human, at least now. As human, a person has the ability to do wholesome things which can lead him or her to a better life in the next life, and the next life, and the next life.

The Buddha said that being born as a human is very very hard, so why stop the chance of whoever will take birth from living his or her life? That life may be a more fruitful life than any of ours, who knows...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

New family members

Today we had added 2 members to our family.

My daughter has named the two dogs, Yorkshire Terriers, Klutz and Jade. Klutz for the male puppy and Jade for the female puppy. I have taken a few photos of them with my daughter already and will post them on the blog soon.

Initially, we planed to bring only one dog home. But when we went to the "Pet Street" here in Hong Kong, there were these two pups (brother and sister) sitting together in the same cage. Well, we did bring only one home, the female pup. That was around noon.

I guess the two pups were so close together, as they are both (obviously) 3 months old. So they have been together since they were born. Actually there were 3 altogether, but somebody already bought the other female pup. When the female pup came home, she was very quiet, and seemed sad. It was not right to take them apart, so I went back to the store and bought the male pup, who was also very quiet and sad.

It was amazing when the two saw each other. They were so happy, which also made me and my daughter very happy. I believe I have made the right choice. I guess I can call it compassion :)...with some attachment to it !@! If it was Upekka, I would have maintained the original plan of adding only one dog-member to our family!

Anyway, I did something good today at least :)

Mind seeing mind (draft post)

This is a draft reply for Theravada sub-forum at e-Sangha on the topic "what is mind seeing mind". I have not posted it yet because it may be deleted anyway...

[please note that I do not equate this unconditioned non-self primordial nature of mind as "nibbana", only that it does not belong to samsara, and is unconditioned, deathless, unborn....]

[QUOTE PrajnaMind,Nov 25 2007, 12:28 AM]
...
Yet, the words self awareness arises in mind though...

Consider the universe.....vast, open, space....void of
life....or so it seems, but out of that vast, open,
space, life arisen.....How?

(NPR) nation public radio had one who written a new
book on this subject...

He said, to consider the mind element and the life
element.....? Other scientist would not consider such
concepts...While still others say, there must be some
kind of intelligent design....

[/QUOTE]

I don't know how "external world out there" came into being, and exists. Somehow, it really does not matter. As direct knowledge into the primordial nature of mind occurs, I believe that for the practitioner, external world cannot be proved to exist or not exist. So there is some kind of detachment to it. The belief in physical world simply changed.

[QUOTE]

The point here is, out of the mind and life elements
(rigpa?).....there has become self-awareness....mind
seeing mind as it were...intelligence....

[/QUOTE]

As I understand the direct knowledge of primordial nature is "wisdom". In one instant, there is only "unconditioned nature, deathless, timeless, knowing" as the object of knowing. there is no contents like thoughts or visions. This nature does not belong to samsara, and it is not-self and lack any self of any kind, only knows/ aware. Intelligence does not apply.

Yet, it is said to be perfect in itself.

IMHO, intelligence lies in samsara - in the thinking mind, not the primordial nature.

[QUOTE]

Seeking a way out of suffering is the highest use of
intelligence...and here we are...

As you say without the first interpretation one could
not see the second....

Is that air we breath....Is that water we drink.....Is
that food we eat.....
We are interdependent and not seperate from nature....
[/QUOTE]

From this point of view, as the knowing has realized the true nature of itself, the stream of thoughts will change. There are only subjects of knowing, samsara, that continuously changing. That is all.

Contents, like thoughts, tree, a book, are just concepts made by samsara-mind. While you may believe that a piece of rock is solid, it's only solid because of beliefs. On its own, there is only sight. The same hold true for sound, sensations, etc. The sight, sound, taste, and the like, are not glued together with the perceptions, labels or concepts of contents in these experience.


Just from what I have learned...

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Avijja, anatta and avijja - from a deluded mind

Dependent on ignorance arises kamma formations

Isn't it avijja that is the root cause of kamma? The ignorance, not-knowing, of samsara as impermanent, not-self/non-self, and dukkha, that led to delusion and attachment, is the mega cause of kamma formations?

There has never been a self, not that the realization of not-self destroys the self. IMHO, it's the ignorance of the nature of samsara that create the self-belief, craving/attachment for/to existence and conceit/pride that lead to kamma formations.

Because there is ignorance, there is kamma.

When self-belief, craving/attachment for/to existence, and conceit/pride have been uprooted, and when there is vijja (wisdom), avijja is eradicated, there is no more kamma formations.


There has never been a self
, and no-self/not-self has always been a characteristic of samsara. Only ignorance prevents us from seeing the truth, both before and after the 10 fetters have been eradicated, both when kamma is being formed and when there is no condition for kamma to be formed.

Anatta is always a fact of samsara, whether there is avijja or not. Kamma is formed when there is avijja. So is there a link between anatta and kamma?

in my deluded mind...

Metta and Upekka at work

Metta (loving-kindness, compassion) is only one of the four Brahma Viharas. There is also Upekka (equanimity). Sometimes we need both in dealing with office things...

I think we should not expect good treatments from everyone just because we have compassion and do not have any harmful feelings for them. People's actions are driven by goodness, kindness as well as greed, anger, hatred, delusion, etc, so naturally we should expect to see them being nice and sometime being super nasty! If some people at work do not show their negative sides, that is something, and perhaps there is something we can learn from them.

When you have compassion for other beings, don't expect anything in return.

When you are in a position that you have been treated badly, or rudely, and feel confused as to what you should do in such situation, then establish Upekka (equanimity) as the state of mind (but don't fall into a trap of doing unwholesome things under the banner of Upekka though).

Just a bunch of kilasas...

Is science not a religion?

Science is just another form of belief-system that is based on a set of assumptions. We have to accept these assumptions first to begin scientific inquiry.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Metta and defilements

"Metta practice" is not unique to Buddhism, and using common sense, I believe metta meditation has been practiced by non-Buddhists even before the Buddha's time until these days. All religions that I know of teach some types of metta, but non of these faith followers has been enlightened (as in realizing the 4 Noble Truths).

"Metta" is conditioned, subject to change, and while it is wholesome, it is simply a part of samsara. It should be remembered that the belief that metta is good is only a view, although a right view. However, ultimately, metta is simply a tool for getting rid of defilements.

Metta suppresses hatred, jealousy, ill-will towards other beings, so in this way, metta practice paves way to liberalization. So in my opinion, one should practice metta constantly, but not be attached to it (same for all samsara and non-samsara things).

Insights, both mundane and supramundane, are keys to liberalization. Metta is important as it plays a part in clearing the way...

[I don't think hard-core Mahayanists would agree with this post though.]

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Dependent origination

"There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones notices:

"When this is, that is.
From the arising of this comes the arising of that.
When this isn't, that isn't.
From the cessation of this comes the cessation of that."


In other words:

From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications.
From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness.
From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form.
From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media.
From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact.
From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling.
From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving.
From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance.
From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming.
From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth.
From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.



Now from the remainderless fading & cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications. From the cessation of fabrications comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-&-form. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

"This is the noble method that he has rightly seen & rightly ferreted out through discernment."

AN 10.92

"When a disciple of the noble ones has seen well with right discernment this dependent co-arising & these dependently co-arisen phenomena as they have come to be, it is not possible that he would run after the past, thinking, 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past?' or that he would run after the future, thinking, 'Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' or that he would be inwardly perplexed about the immediate present, thinking, 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?' Such a thing is not possible. Why is that? Because the disciple of the noble ones has seen well with right discernment this dependent co-arising & these dependently co-arisen phenomena as they have come to be."

SN 12.20

Noble Eightfold Path

Just a note :)
The 4th Noble Turth..."Noble Eightfold Path"

Is it a 10 lane highway, or a small road???

[Wisdom]
Right View
Right Thought

[Morality (sila)]
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood

[Meditation (samadhi)]
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Contemplation

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Contemplating mind (1)

In a simple way, we use mindfulness to objectively see the arising and ceasing of mental factors and attachments to these mental factors and self - including the "I think", "I am angry", "I am meditating" - to see if they have any solid substances, and if they are real or not.

This is a kind of practice that we do in the forest tradition. The approach is to learn to walk before we learn to run. And when we reach the destination, there is no longer any need for us to walk or run, and at that point we can stop. That is when all the 10 fetters have been eradicated.

Rigpa (Wikipedia)

Rigpa (Tibetan; Sanskrit vidya) is the primordial, nondual awareness advocated by the Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings.


Rigpa is a Tibetan word, which in general means ‘intelligence’ or ‘awareness’. In Dzogchen, however, the highest teachings in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, rigpa has a deeper connotation, ‘the innermost nature of the mind’. The whole of the teaching of Buddha is directed towards realizing this, our ultimate nature, the state of omniscience or enlightenment – a truth so universal, so primordial that it goes beyond all limits, and beyond even religion itself —Sogyal Rinpoche

------------------------------------------

It is amazing that the direct knowledge of the unconditioned knowing nature can be found in places like Northeast of Thailand and other places like Tibet when the two have seemingly different ways of practice. This point to the fact that the Truth is the Truth, where ever and when ever they are or were.

Although Tibetan practitioners may hold a view that their realization is more superior, for those who have directly realized the Truth by themselves, as far as I have learned, would not hold that kind of opinion. Once realized, they would know that all living beings possess this same nature. The unconditioned selfless knowing is the same in small animals as in me as in any Bhikkhus, and may I dare, in all the Buddhas.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Accepting suttras as authentic...

Regarding accepting Mahayana suttras, or any ....teachings for that matter...

From practitioner's point of view, I believe we should balance between the two extremes:

(1) accept only what we believe is true and reject all else, and close our minds to the possibilities that there may be more, and

(2) accept everything as authentic and be utterly confused.

Why do I have to be right and others have to be wrong, or rather I have to be wrong and others have to be right?

Views are views are views.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Varify teaching through practice

I really like this line taught by Ajahn Chah, got it from Suguno's signature at e-Sangha as of today!


'Eventually, you verify the teaching through your own practice and you realise how things change. Your habits change. Your character changes. Your defilements get less. Life gets easier and your mind is more peaceful.'

From:Q&A with Ajahn Khemanando(about the teachings of his teacher—Venerable Luang Por Chah)

The detail of 52 stages of bodhisattva practice: from Jeweled Necklace Sutra

Ref: The detail of 52 stages of bodhisattva practice: from Jeweled Necklace Sutra
I have reformatted this a little bit for easier reading.
(Source)

For the 10 stages of faith are:

(1) Arousing pure faith.
(2) Ever-mindfulness.
(3) Assiduousness.
(4) Concentration.
(5) Wisdom.
(6) Keeping the precept.
(7) Directing previously acquired good fortune toward attaining enlightenment.
(8) Guarding the mind against earthly desires.
(9) Discarding attachment.
(10) Making effort to fulfill one’s vows.

For the 10 stage of security:

(1) Arousing the aspiration for Buddhahood.
(2) Contemplating the non-substantiality of things.
(3) Performing all possible good deeds.
(4) Clearly understanding that, because phenomena exist only in relationship to other phenomena, they have no permanent and unchangeable substance of their own.
(5) Applying all good deeds as a means to developing one's perception of the non-substantiality of things.
(6) Perfecting the wisdom to perceive the non-substantiality of things.
(7) Never retrogressing from the realization of the truth of the non-substantiality of things.
(8) Never harboring false views or losing the aspiration for enlightenment,
(9) Deeply understanding the Buddha's teachings to the point where one is assured of attaining Buddhahood in the future.
(10) Obtaining the wisdom to perceive that, because all things are without substance, there is nothing that is actually born or dies.

For the 10 stage of practice are:

(1) The stage of joyful service, in which one awakens to the non-substantiality of all things and phenomena, and causes others to rejoice by offering them all one's possessions.
(2) The stage of beneficial practice, in which one always instructs and benefits others.
(3) The stage of never offending, in which one engages in the practice of forbearance and frees oneself from anger, not offending others. It is also called the practice of never resenting.
(4) The stage of limitless assiduousness, in which one continues earnest practice in order to lead others to enlightenment, whatever the hardships involved.
(5) The stage of non-confusion, in which one is not hindered by illusions or ignorance.
(6) The stage of appearance in the Buddha land, in which one is always born in a Buddha land. (7) The stage of non-attachment, in which one perceives all things and phenomena as non-substantial and frees oneself from attachment to them.
(8) The stage of attaining the difficult, in which one perfects the practice for accumulating virtues that are difficult to attain. It is also called the stage of praising, in which one praises and promotes the paramitas, or bodhisattva practices for perfection, among the people.
(9) The stage of being a model in the preaching of the Law, in which one's practice of preaching and protecting the Law becomes a model for all others.
(10) The stage of realizing the truth, in which one is awakened to the truth of the Middle Way.

For 10 stage of devotion are:

(1) The stage of saving all people and freeing oneself from the characteristics of a common mortal. In this stage, while practicing the six paramitas among the beings of the six paths, one makes efforts to save all of them and at the same time liberates oneself from the characteristics of a common mortal.
(2) The stage of indestructibility, in which with indestructible faith in the three treasures of Buddhism, one penetrates the true nature of all phenomena, realizing their non-substantiality.
(3) The stage of impartial devotion to all Buddhas, in which one practices, in successive lifetimes, under all the Buddhas of the three existences. In this stage, one increases all kinds of good roots and transfers their benefit to all beings impartially.
(4) The stage of transferring one's benefits to all lands. In this stage, one transfers one's benefits to the Buddhas in all lands, serving and making offerings to them and to all other beings.
(5) The stage of obtaining limitless blessings, in which one directs all one's good fortune to the practice of Buddhism, thereby obtaining limitless good fortune and benefit.
(6) The stage of impartial benefit, in which one benefits all beings equally.
(7) The stage of observing the nature of all people, in which one perceives the coexistence of good and evil inherent in people's lives.
(8) The stage of realizing the true aspect of all phenomena. In this stage, one transfers the benefits one obtains through this realization to others.
(9) The stage of freedom from all attachments. Here, one perceives all phenomena from the standpoints of both difference and equality and frees oneself from all attachments, thereafter leading others to emancipation.
(10) The stage of perceiving all phenomena with infinite wisdom. At this level, one regards all phenomena as manifestations of the Middle Way and, while performing a variety of meritorious acts, uses the resultant benefits for the sake of others.

For 10 stage of development are:

(1) The stage of joy, in which one rejoices at realizing a partial aspect of the truth.
(2) The stage of freedom from defilement, in which one is free from all defilement.
(3) The stage of the emission of light, in which one radiates the light of wisdom.
(4) The stage of glowing wisdom, in which the flame of wisdom burns away earthly desires.
(5) The stage of overcoming final illusions, in which one surmounts the illusions of darkness, or ignorance of the Middle Way.
(6) The stage of the sign of supreme wisdom, in which the supreme wisdom begins to appear.
(7) The stage of progression, in which one rises above the paths of the two vehicles.
(8) The stage of immobility, in which one dwells firmly in the truth of the Middle Way and cannot be perturbed by anything.
(9) The stage of the all-penetrating wisdom, in which one preaches the Law freely and without restriction.
(10) The stage of the Dharma cloud, in which one benefits all sentient beings with the Dharma or Law, just as a cloud sends down rain impartially upon all things.

1 stage of near–perfect enlightenment

1 stage of perfect enlightenment -Anutarra Samyak Sambodai

Buddho by Ajahn Thate

Ajahn Thate's "Buddho" from AccessToInsight.org

When you go to study meditation with any group or teacher who is experienced in a particular form of meditation, you should first make your heart confident that your teacher is fully experienced in that form of meditation, and be confident that the form of meditation he teaches is the right path for sure. At the same time, show respect for the place in which you are to meditate. Only then should you begin practicing.

Teachers in the past used to require a dedication ceremony as a means of inspiring confidence before you were to study meditation. They would have you make an offering of five pairs of beeswax candles and five pairs of white flowers — this was called the five khandha — or eight pairs of beeswax candles and eight pairs of white flowers — this was called the eight khandha — or one pair of beeswax candles each weighing 15 grams and an equal number of white flowers. Then they would teach you their particular form of meditation. This ancient custom has its good points. There are many other ceremonies as well, but I won't go into them. I'll mention only a very simple, easy-to-follow ceremony a little further on.

Only after you have inspired confidence in your heart as already mentioned should you go to the teacher experienced in that form of meditation. If he is experienced in repeating samma araham, he will teach you to repeat samma araham, samma araham, samma araham. Then he'll have you visualize a bright, clear jewel two inches above your navel, and tell you to focus your mind right there as you continue your repetition, without letting your mind slip away from the jewel. In other words, you take the jewel as the focal point of your mind.

If you go to a teacher experienced in meditating on the rising and falling of the abdomen, he'll have you meditate on rising and falling, and focus your mind on the different motions of the body. For instance, when you raise your foot, you think raising. When you place your foot, you think placing, and so on; or else he'll have you focus continually on being preoccupied with the phenomenon of arising and passing away in every motion or position of the body.

If you go to a teacher experienced in psychic powers, he'll have you repeat na ma ba dha, na ma ba dha, and focus the mind on a single object until it takes you to see heaven and hell, deities and brahmas of all sorts, to the point where you get carried away with your visions.

If you go to a teacher experienced in breath meditation, he'll have you focus on your in-and-out breath, and have you keep your mind firmly preoccupied with nothing but the in-and-out breath.

If you go to a teacher experienced in meditating on buddho, he'll have you repeat buddho, buddho, buddho, and have you keep the mind firmly in that meditation word until you're fully skilled at it. Then he'll have you contemplate buddho and what it is that's saying buddho. Once you see that they are two separate things, focus on what's saying buddho. As for the word buddho, it will disappear, leaving only what it is that was saying buddho. You then focus on what it is that was saying buddho as your object.

People of our time — or of any time, for that matter — regardless of how educated or capable they may be (I don't want to criticize any of us as tending to believe in things whose truth we haven't tested, because after all we all want to know and see the truth) and especially those of us who are Buddhists: Buddhism teaches causes and effects that are entirely true, but why is it that we have to fall for the claims and advertisements we hear everywhere? It must be because people at present are impatient and want to see results before they've completed the causes, in line with the fact that we're supposed to be in an atomic age.

Buddhism teaches us to penetrate into the heart and mind, which are mental phenomena. As for the body, it's a physical phenomenon. Physical phenomena have to lie under the control of mental phenomena. When we begin to practice meditation and train the mind to be quiet and untroubled, I can't see that we're creating any problems at that moment for anyone at all. If we keep practicing until we're skilled, then we'll be calm and at peace. If more and more people practice this way, there will be peace and happiness all over the world. As for the body, we can train it to be peaceful only as long as the mind is in full control. The minute mindfulness lapses, the body will get back to its old affairs. So let's try training the mind by repeating buddho.

-------------------------------------

Preliminary Steps to Practicing Meditation

Before practicing meditation on the word buddho, you should start out with the preliminary steps. In other words, inspire confidence in your mind, as already mentioned, and then bow down three times, saying:

Araham samma-sambuddho bhagava
— The Blessed One is pure and fully self-awakened.

Buddham bhagavantam abhivademi
— To the Blessed, Awakened One, I bow down.

(Bow down once.)

Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo
— the Dhamma is well-taught by the Blessed One.

Dhammam namassami
— To the Dhamma, I bow down.

(Bow down once.)

Supatipanno bhagavato savaka-sangho
— The Community of the Blessed One's disciples have conducted themselves rightly.

Sangham namami
— To the Community, I bow down.

(Bow down once.)

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa. (Three times.)

(Think of the virtues of the Buddha, the foremost teacher of the world, released from suffering and defilement of every sort, always serene and secure. Then bow down three times.)

Note: These preliminary steps are simply an example. There's nothing wrong with chanting more than this if you have more to chant, but you should bow down to the Buddha as the first step each time you meditate, unless the place in which you're meditating is unconducive.

-------------------------------------

Now, sit in meditation, your right leg on top of left, your hands palm-up in your lap, your right hand on top of your left. Sit straight. Repeat the word buddho in your mind, focusing your attention in the middle of your chest, at the heart. Don't let your attention stray out ahead or behind. Be mindful to keep your mind in place, steady in its one-pointedness, and you'll enter into a state of concentration.

When you enter into concentration, the mind may go so blank that you don't even know how long you are sitting. By the time you come out of concentration, many hours may have passed. For this reason, you shouldn't fix a time limit for yourself when sitting in meditation. Let things follow their own course.

The mind in true concentration is the mind in a state of one-pointedness. If the mind hasn't reached a state of one-pointedness, it isn't yet in concentration, because the true heart is only one. If there are many mental states going on, you haven't penetrated into the heart. You've only reached the mind.

Before you practice meditation, you should first learn the difference between the heart and the mind, for they aren't the same thing. The mind is what thinks and forms perceptions and ideas about all sorts of things. The heart is what simply stays still and knows that it's still, without forming any further thoughts at all. Their difference is like that between a river and waves on the river.

All sciences and all defilements are able to arise because the mind thinks and forms ideas and strays out in search of them. You'll be able to see these things clearly with your own heart once the mind becomes still and reaches the heart.

Water is something clean and clear by its very nature. If anyone puts dye into the water, it will change in line with the dye. But once the water is filtered and distilled, it will become clean and clear as before. This is an analogy for the heart and the mind.

Actually, the Buddha taught that the mind is identical with the heart. If there is no heart, there is no mind. The mind is a condition. The heart itself has no conditions. In practicing meditation, no matter what the teacher or method: If it's correct, it'll have to penetrate into the heart.

When you reach the heart, you will see all your defilements, because the mind gathers all defilements into itself. So now how you deal with them is up to you.

When doctors are going to cure a disease, they first have to find the cause of the disease. Only then can they treat it with the right medicine.

As we start meditating longer and longer, repeating buddho, buddho, buddho, the mind will gradually let go of its distractions and restlessness, and gather in to stay with buddho. It will stay firm, with buddho its sole preoccupation, until you see that the state of mind that says buddho is identical with the mind itself at all times, regardless of whether you're sitting, standing, walking, or lying down. No matter what your activity, you'll see the mind bright and clear with buddho. Once you've reached this stage, keep the mind there as long as you can. Don't be in a hurry to want to see this or be that — because desire is the most serious obstacle to the concentrated mind. Once desire arises, your concentration will immediately deteriorate, because the basis of your concentration — buddho — isn't solid. When this happens, you can't grab hold of any foundation at all, and you get really upset. All you can think of is the state of concentration in which you used to be calm and happy, and this makes the mind even more agitated.

Practice meditation the same way farmers grow rice. They're in no hurry. They scatter the seed, plow, harrow, plant the seedlings, step by step, without skipping any of the steps. Then they wait for the plants to grow. Even when they don't yet see the rice appearing, they're confident that the rice is sure to appear some day in the future. Once the rice appears, they're convinced that they're sure to reap results. They don't pull on the rice plants to make them come out with rice when they want it. Anyone who did that would end up with no results at all.

The same holds true with meditation. You can't be in a hurry. You can't skip any of the steps. You have to make yourself firmly confident that, "This is the meditation word that will make my mind concentrated for sure." Don't have any doubts as to whether the meditation word is right for your temperament, and don't think that, "That person used this meditation word with these or those results, but when I use it, my mind doesn't settle down. It doesn't work for me at all." Actually, if the mind is firmly set on the meditation word you're repeating, then no matter what the word, it's sure to work — because you repeat the word simply to make the mind steady and firm, that's all. As for any results apart from that, they all depend on each person's individual potential and capabilities.

Once in the Buddha's time there was a monk sitting in meditation near a pond who saw a heron diving down to catch fish and eat them. He took that as his meditation subject until he succeeded in becoming an arahant. I've never seen a heron eating fish mentioned as a subject in any of the meditation manuals, but he was able to use it to meditate until he attained arahantship — which illustrates what I've just said.

When the mind is intent on staying within the bounds of its meditation word buddho, with mindfulness in control, it's sure to grow out of its rebelliousness. We have to train and restrain it, because we're looking for peace and contentment for the mind. Ordinarily, the mind tends to be preoccupied with looking for distraction, as I've already explained, and for the most part it strays off to this sort of distraction: When we start meditating buddho, buddho, buddho, as soon as we focus the mind on buddho, it won't stay there. It'll run out to think of whatever work we are about to start or have left undone. It thinks about doing this and doing that until it gets all worked up, afraid that the work won't come out well or won't succeed. The work we've been assigned by other people or that we're doing on our own will be a waste of time or will cause us to lose face if we don't do as we've been told...

This is one of the distractions that prevent new meditators from attaining concentration. You have to pull your mind back to buddho, buddho, buddho, and tell yourself, "Thoughts of this sort aren't the path to peace; the true path to peace is to keep the mind with buddho and nothing else" — and then keep on repeating buddho, buddho, buddho...

After a moment, the mind will go straying out again, this time to your family — your children, your wife or husband: How are they getting along? Are they healthy? Are they eating well? If you're far apart, you wonder about where they're staying, what they're eating. Those who have left home think about those at home. Those at home think about those who have gone far away — afraid that they aren't safe, that other people will molest them, that they have no friends, that they're lonely — thinking in 108 different ways, whatever the mind can imagine, all of which exaggerate the truth.

Or if you're still young and single, you think about having fun with your friends — the places you used to go together, the good times you had, the things you used to do — to the point where you actually say something or laugh out loud. This sort of defilement is the worst of the bunch.

When you're meditating buddho, buddho, buddho, your defilements see that the situation is getting out of hand and that you'll escape from their control, so they look for things to tie you down even more tightly all the time. Never from the day of your birth have you ever practiced concentration at all. You've simply let the mind follow the moods of the defilements. Only now have you begun to practice, so when you repeat buddho, buddho, buddho to get the mind to settle down with buddho, it's going to wriggle away in the same way that fish try to wriggle back into the water when they're tossed up on land. So you have to pull the mind back to buddho.

Buddho is something cool and calm. It's the path for giving rise to peace and contentment — the only path that will release us from the suffering and stress in this world.

So you pull the mind back to buddho. This time it begins to settle down. As soon as you feel that it's staying put, you begin to get a sense that when the mind stays put, it's rested and at ease in a way different from when it's not still, when it's restless and upset. You make up your mind to be careful and alert to keep the mind in that state and... Oops. There it goes again. Now it's taking your financial interests as an excuse, saying that if you don't do this or search for that, you'll miss out on a really great opportunity. So you focus your mind on that instead of your meditation word. As for where buddho has gone, you haven't the least idea. By the time you realize that buddho has disappeared, it's already too late — which is why they say that the mind is restless, slippery, and hard to control, like a monkey that can never sit still.

Sometimes, after you've been sitting in meditation a long time, you begin to worry that your blood won't be flowing properly, that your nerves will die from lack of blood, that you'll grow numb and end up paralyzed. If you're meditating far from home or in a forest, it's even worse: You're afraid that snakes will bite you, tigers will eat you, or ghosts will haunt you, making all kinds of scary faces. Your fear of death can whisper to you in all sorts of way, all of which are simply instances of you yourself scaring yourself. The truth is nothing at all like what you imagine. Never from the day of your birth have you ever seen a tiger eat even a single person. You've never once seen a ghost — you don't even know what it would look like, but you fashion up pictures to scare yourself.

The obstacles to meditation mentioned here are simply examples. There are actually many, many more. Those who meditate will find this out for themselves.

If you hold buddho close to the heart, and use your mindfulness to keep the mind with nothing but buddho, no dangers will come your way. So have firm faith in buddho. I guarantee that there will be no dangers at all — unless you've done bad kamma in the past, which is something beyond anyone's power to protect you from. Even the Buddha himself can't protect you from it.

When people begin meditating, their confidence tends to be weak. No matter what their meditation subject, these sorts of defilements are sure to interfere, because these defilements form the basis of the world and of the mind. The minute we meditate and make the mind one-pointed, the defilements see that we're going to get away from them, so they come thronging around so that we won't be able to escape from the world.

When we see how really serious and harmful they are, we should make our minds forthright and our confidence solid and strong, telling ourselves that we've let ourselves be deceived into believing the defilements for many lifetimes; it's time now that we be willing to believe the Buddha's teachings and take buddho as our refuge. We then make mindfulness solid and fix the mind firmly in buddho. We give our lives to buddho and won't let our minds slip away from it. When we make this sort of commitment, the mind will drop straight into one-pointedness and enter concentration.

When you first enter concentration, this is what it's like: You'll have no idea at all of what concentration or one-pointedness of mind is going to feel like. You're simply intent on keeping mindfulness firmly focused on one object — and the power of a mind focused firmly on one object is what will bring you to a state of concentration. You won't be thinking at all that concentration will be like this or like that, or that you want it to be like this or like that. It will simply take its own way, automatically. No one can force it.

At that moment you'll feel as if you are in another world (the world of the mind), with a sense of ease and solitude to which nothing else in the world can compare. When the mind withdraws from concentration, you'll regret that that mood has passed, and you'll remember it clearly. All that we say about concentration comes from the mind that has withdrawn from that state. As long as it's still gathered in that state, we aren't interested in what anyone else says or does.

You have to train the mind to enter this sort of concentration often, so as to become skilled and adept, but don't try to remember your past states of concentration, and don't let yourself want your concentration to be like it was before — because it won't be that way, and you'll just be making more trouble for yourself. Simply contemplate buddho, buddho, and keep your mind with your mental repetition. What it does then is its own business.

After the mind has first attained to concentration, it won't be the same way the next time around, but don't worry about it. Whatever it's like, don't worry about it. Just make sure that you get it centered. When the results come out in many different ways, your understanding will broaden and you'll come to develop many different techniques for dealing with the mind.

What I've mentioned here is simply to be taken as an example. When you follow these instructions, don't give them too much weight, or they will turn into allusions to the past, and your meditation won't get anywhere. Simply remember them as something to use for the sake of comparison after your meditation has begun to progress.

No matter what method you use — buddho, rising & falling, or samma araham — when the mind is about to settle down in concentration, you won't be thinking that the mind is about to settle down, or is settling down, or anything at all. It'll settle down automatically on its own. You won't even know when you let go of your meditation word. The mind will simply have a separate calm and peace that isn't in this world or another world or anything of the sort. There's no one and nothing at all, just the mind's own separate state, which is called the world of the mind. In that state there won't be the word 'world' or anything else. The conventional realities of the world won't appear there, and so no insight of any sort will arise in there at all. The point is simply that you train the mind to be centered and then compare it to the state of mind that isn't centered, so that you can see how they differ, how the mind that has attained concentration and then withdraws to contemplate matters of the world and the Dhamma differs from the mind that hasn't attained concentration.

The heart and the mind. Let's talk some more about the heart and mind so that you'll understand. After all, we're talking about training the mind in concentration: If you don't understand the relationship between the heart and the mind, you won't know where or how to practice concentration.

Everyone born — human or animal — has a heart and mind, but the heart and mind have different duties. The mind thinks, wanders, and forms ideas of all sorts, in line with where the defilements lead it. As for the heart, it's simply what knows. It doesn't form any ideas at all. It's neutral — in the middle — with regard to everything. The awareness that's neutral: That's the heart.

The heart doesn't have a body. It's a mental phenomenon. It's simply awareness. You can place it anywhere at all. It doesn't lie inside or outside the body. When we call the heart-muscle the heart, that's not the true heart. It's simply an organ for pumping blood throughout the body so as to keep it alive. If the heart-muscle doesn't pump blood throughout the body, life can't last.

People in general are always talking about the heart: "My heart feels happy... sad... heavy... light... down..." Everything is a matter of the heart. Abhidhamma experts, however, speak in terms of the mind: the mind in a wholesome state, the mind in an unwholesome state, the mind in a neutral state, the mind on the level of form, the mind on the formless level, the mind on the transcendent level, and so on, but none of them know what the real heart and mind are like.

The mind is what thinks and forms ideas. It has to make use of the six senses as its tools. As soon as the eye sees a visual object, the ear hears a sound, the nose smells an aroma, the tongue tastes a flavor, the body comes into contact with a tactile sensation — cold, hot, hard or soft — or the intellect thinks of an idea in line with its defilements, good or bad: If any of these things are good, the mind is pleased; if they're bad, it's displeased. All of this is an affair of the mind, or of defilement. Aside from these six senses, there's nothing the mind can make use of. In the texts they are analyzed into the six faculties, the six elements, the six forms of contact, and all sorts of other things, but all these things lie within the six senses. So these are characteristics of the mind: that which can never sit still.

When you train the mind — or, in other words, practice concentration — you have to get control over the mind that's wriggling after the six senses, as already explained, and make it stop still with one thing: its meditation word, buddho. Don't let it go straying out ahead or behind. Make it stay still, and know that it's staying still: That's the heart. The heart has nothing to do with any of the six senses, which is why it's called the heart.

When people in general talk about the heart of something, they're referring to its center. Even when they talk about their own hearts, they point to the center of the chest. Actually, the heart doesn't lie in any particular place at all — as I have already explained — although it lies right in the center of everything.

If you want to understand what the heart is, you can try an experiment. Breathe in deeply and hold your breath for a moment. At that point there won't be anything at all except for one thing: neutral awareness. That's the heart, or 'what knows.' But if you try to catch hold of the heart in this way, you can't hold on to it for very long — only as long as you can hold your breath — but you can give it a try just to see what the true heart is like.

(Holding the breath can help reduce physical pain. People who are suffering from great pain have to hold their breath as one way — fairly effective — of relieving their pain.)

Once you realize that the heart and mind have different duties and characteristics like this, you'll find it easier to train the mind. Actually, the heart and the mind are really the same thing. As the Buddha said, the mind is identical with the heart. When we practice concentration, it's enough just to train the mind; once the mind is trained, that's where we'll see the heart.

Once the mind has been fully trained by using mindfulness to keep it with buddho as its only preoccupation, it won't go straying after different things, and instead will gather into oneness. The meditation word will disappear without your being aware of it, and you'll feel a sense of peace and ease that nothing else can equal. Those who have never experienced this ease before, when they first experience it, won't be able to describe it, because no one else in the world has ever experienced that kind of peace and ease. Even though other people have experienced it, it's not the same. For this reason, you find it hard to describe — although you can describe it to yourself. If you try to describe it to others, you have to use similes and analogies before they'll understand you. Things of this sort are personal: Only you can know them for yourself.

In addition, if you've developed a lot of potential in previous lifetimes, all sorts of amazing things can happen. For example, you may gain knowledge of heavenly beings or hungry ghosts. You may learn about your own past and future, and that of other people: In that particular lifetime you were like this; in the future you'll be like that. Even though you didn't intend to know these things, when the mind attains concentration it can know on its own in a very amazing way.

This sort of thing is something that really fascinates beginning meditators. When it happens to them, they like to brag to other people. When those people try to meditate, but don't get the knowledge or abilities, they become discouraged, thinking that they don't have the merit or potential to meditate, and they begin to lose faith in the practice.

As for those who see these sorts of things, when that knowledge or ability deteriorates — because they've been carried away by external things and haven't taken the heart as their foundation — they won't be able to grab hold of anything at all. When they think of the things they used to know, their minds become even more stirred up. People who like to brag will take the old things they used to see and talk about them in glowing terms. Avid listeners really love to listen to this sort of thing, but avid meditators are unimpressed — because true meditators like to listen only to things that are present and true.

The Buddha taught that whether his teachings will flourish or degenerate depends on those who practice them. The teachings degenerate when meditators get just a little bit of knowledge and then go bragging to other people, talking about external matters with no substance at all, instead of explaining the basic principles of meditation. When they do this, they make the religion degenerate without their even realizing it.

Those who make the religion flourish are those who speak about things that are useful and true. They don't speak just for the fun of it. They speak in terms of cause and effect: "When you meditate like this, repeating the meditation word in this way, it will make the mind gather into one and snuff out its defilements and restlessness like this..."

When you meditate on buddho, be patient. Don't be in a hurry. Be confident in your meditation word and use mindfulness to keep the mind with its buddho. Your confidence is what will make the mind firm and unwavering, able to let go of all its doubts and uncertainties. The mind will gather in on its meditation word, and mindfulness will keep it solely with buddho at all times. Whether you sit, stand, walk, lie down, or whatever work you do, mindfulness will be alert to nothing but buddho. If your mindfulness is still weak, and your techniques still few, you have to hold on to buddho as your foundation. Otherwise your meditation won't progress; or even if it does progress, it won't have any foundation.

For concentration to be strong, the mind has to be resolute. When mindfulness is strong and the mind resolute, you decide that this is what you want: "If I can't catch hold of buddho, or see buddho in my heart, or get the mind to stay put solely with buddho, I won't get up from my meditation. Even if my life will end, I don't care." When you do this, the mind will gather into one faster than you realize it. The meditation word buddho, or whatever it is that may have been bothering or perplexing you, will vanish in the flash of an eye. Even your body, which you've been attached to for so long, won't appear to you. All that remains is the heart — simple awareness — cool, calm, and at ease.

People who practice meditation really like it when this happens. The next time around, they want it to happen again, and so it doesn't happen again. That's because the desire keeps it from happening. Concentration is something very subtle and sensitive. You can't force it to be like this or that — and at the same time you can't force the mind not to enter concentration, either.

If you're impatient, things get even more fouled up. You have to be very patient. Whether or not the mind is going to attain concentration, you've meditated on buddho in the past, so you just keep meditating on buddho. Act as if you had never meditated on buddho before. Make the mind neutral and even, let the breath flow gently, and use mindfulness to focus the mind on buddho and nothing else. When the time comes for the mind to enter concentration, it will do it on its own. You can't arrange the way it will happen. If it were something you could arrange, all the people in the world would have become arahants long ago.

Knowing how to meditate, but not doing it right; having done it right once, and wanting it to be that way again, and yet it doesn't happen: All of these things are obstacles in practicing concentration.

In meditating on buddho, you have to get so that you're quick and adept. When a good or a bad mood strikes you, you have to be able to enter concentration immediately. Don't let the mind be affected by that mood. Whenever you think of buddho, the mind gathers immediately: When you can do this, your mind will be solid and able to rely on itself.

When you've practiced so that you're adept and experienced in this way, after a while you'll find that your defilements and attachments to all things will gradually disappear on their own. You don't have to go clearing away this or that defilement, telling yourself that this or that defilement has to be removed with this or that teaching or this or that method. Be content with whatever method you find works for you. That's plenty enough.

To have the defilements gradually disappear with the method I've just explained is better than trying to arrange things, entering the four levels of absorption, abandoning directed thought, evaluation, rapture and pleasure, leaving just one-pointedness and equanimity; or trying to arrange the first stage of the path to nibbana by abandoning self-identity views, uncertainty, and attachment to precepts & practices; or by looking at your various defilements, telling yourself, "With that defilement, I was able to contemplate in such-and-such a way, so I've gone beyond that defilement. I have so-and-so many defilements left. If I can contemplate in such-and-such a way, my defilements will be finished" — but you don't realize that the state of mind that wants to see and know and attain these things is a defilement fixed firmly in the mind. When you finish your contemplation, the mind is back in its original state and hasn't gained anything at all. On top of that, if someone comes along and says something that goes against the way you see things, you start disagreeing violently, like a burning fire into which someone pours kerosene.

So hold firmly to your meditation word, buddho. Even if you don't attain anything else, at least you've got your meditation word as your foundation. The various preoccupations of the mind will lessen or may even disappear, which is better than not having any foundation to hold to at all.

Actually, all meditators have to hold firmly to their meditation word. Only then can they be said to be meditating with a foundation. When their meditation deteriorates, they'll be able to use it as something to hold to.

The Buddha taught that people who make the effort to abandon defilement have to act like old-time warriors. In the past, they'd have to build a fortress with strong walls, moats, gates, and towers to protect themselves from enemy attack. When an intelligent warrior went out to battle and saw that he was no match for the enemy, he would retreat into his fortress and defend it so that the enemy couldn't destroy it. At the same time, he'd gather enough troops, weapons, and food (i.e., make his concentration forthright and strong) and then go out to resume his fight with the enemy (i.e., all the forms of defilement).

Concentration is a very important strength. If you don't have concentration, where will your discernment gain any strength? The discernment of insight meditation isn't something that can be fashioned into being by arrangement. Instead, it arises from concentration that has been mastered until it is good and solid.

Even those who are said to attain Awakening with 'dry insight': If they don't have any mental stillness, where will they get any insight? It's simply that their stillness isn't fully mastered. Only when we put the matter this way does it make any sense.

When your concentration is solid and steady to the point where you can enter and leave it at will, you'll be able to stay with it long and contemplate the body in terms of its unattractiveness or in terms of its physical elements. Or, if you like, you can contemplate the people of the world until you see them all as skeletons. Or you can contemplate the entire world as empty space...

Once the mind is fully centered, then no matter whether you are sitting, standing, walking, or lying down, the mind will be centered at all times. You'll be able to see clearly how your own defilements — greed, anger, and delusion, which arise from the mind — arise from this and that cause, how they remain in this or that way, and you'll be able to find means to abandon them with this or that technique.

This is like the water in a lake that has been muddy for hundreds and hundreds of years suddenly becoming clear so that you can see all the things lying along the lake-bottom — things you never dreamed were there before. This is called insight — seeing things as they truly are. Whatever sort of truth they have, that's the truth you see, without deviating from that truth.

Forcing the mind to be still can make it let go of defilement, but it lets go in the same way a person cuts grass, cutting just the part above ground, without digging up the roots. The roots are sure to send up new shoots when rain falls again. In other words, you do see the harm of the preoccupations that arise from the six senses, but as soon as you see it, you retreat into stillness without contemplating those preoccupations as carefully as you do when the mind is in concentration. In short, you simply want stillness, without wanting to spend any time in contemplation — like a ground lizard that relies on its hole for safety. As soon as it sees an enemy coming, it runs into its hole, escaping danger only for a while.

If you want to uproot your defilements, then when you see that defilement springs from the six senses — for instance, the eye sees a visual object or the ear hears a sound, contact is made that causes you to be pleased or displeased, happy or sad, and then you grab onto it as your preoccupation, making the mind murky, disturbed, and upset, sometimes to the point where you can't eat or sleep, and can even commit suicide — when you see this clearly, make your concentration firm and then focus your mind exclusively on examining that particular preoccupation. For instance, if the eye sees an attractive visual object that makes you feel pleased, focus on examining just that sense of pleasure, to find out whether it arises from the eye or from the visual object.

If you examine the visual object, you see that it's just a physical phenomenon. Whether it's good or bad, it doesn't try to persuade you to be pleased or displeased, or to make you love it or hate it. It's simply a visual object that appears and then disappears in line with its own nature.

When you turn to examine the eye that sees the visual object, you find that the eye goes looking for objects and, as soon as it finds one, light gets reflected into the optic nerves so that all kinds of visible forms appear. The eye doesn't try to persuade you to be pleased or displeased, to love or to hate anything. Its duty is simply to see. Once it has seen a visible form, the form disappears.

As for the other senses and their objects, attractive or unattractive, they should be examined in just the same way.

When you contemplate in this way, you'll see clearly that all the things in the world that become objects of defilement do so because of these six senses. If you contemplate the six senses so that you don't tag along after them, defilements won't arise within you. On the contrary: Insight and discernment will arise instead, all because of these same six senses. The six senses are the media of goodness and evil. We'll head for a good or a bad destination in the next life because of the way we use them.

The world seems broad because the mind isn't centered and is left free to wander among the objects of the six senses. The world will narrow down when the mind has been trained in concentration so that it lies under your control and can contemplate the six senses exclusively within it. In other words, when the mind is fully concentrated, the outer senses — the eye seeing forms, the ear hearing sounds, and so on — won't appear at all. All that will appear are the forms and sounds that are mental phenomena present exclusively in that concentration. You won't be paying any attention to the outer senses at all.

When your concentration is fully solid and strong, you'll be able to contemplate this world of the mind, which gives rise to sensory contact, perceptions, preoccupations, and all defilements. The mind will withdraw from everything leaving just the heart, or simple awareness.

The heart and the mind have different characteristics. The mind is what thinks, forming perceptions and preoccupations to the point of latching on, holding them to itself. When it sees the suffering, harm, and stress that come from holding onto all the defilements, it will go and withdraw from all preoccupations and defilements. The mind will then be the heart. This is how the heart and mind differ.

The heart is what's neutral and still. It doesn't think anything at all. It's simply aware of its stillness. The heart is a genuinely neutral or central phenomenon. Neutral with no past, no future, no good, no evil: That's the heart. When we talk about the heart of anything, we mean its center. Even the human heart, which is a mental phenomenon, we say lies in the center of the chest. But where the real heart is, we don't know. Try focusing your attention on any part of the body and you'll feel the awareness of that spot. Or you can focus your attention outside the body — on a post or the wall of a house, for example — and that's the spot you'll be aware of.

So we can conclude that the true heart is still and neutral awareness. Wherever there's neutral awareness, that's where the heart is.

When people in general talk about the heart, that's not the true heart. It's simply a set of muscles and valves for pumping blood throughout the body to keep it alive. If this pump doesn't send blood throughout the body, the body can't live. It'll have to die. The same holds true with the brain. The mind thinks of good and evil by using the brain as its tool. The nervous system of the brain is a physical phenomenon. When its various causal factors are cut off, this physical phenomenon can't last. It has to stop.

But as for the mind, which is a mental phenomenon, Buddhism teaches that it continues to exist and can take birth again. This mental phenomenon will stop only when insight discerns its causal factors and uproots their underlying causes.

None of the various subjects and sciences of the world have an end point. The more you study them, the more they fan out. Only Buddhism can teach you to reach an end. In the first stage, it teaches you to acquaint yourself with your body, to see how it's made up of various things (the 32 parts) put together, and what their duties are. At the same time, Buddhism teaches you to see that the body is inherently unattractive. It teaches you to acquaint yourself with this world (the world of a human being), which is made up of suffering and stress, and which will ultimately have to fall apart by its very nature.

So now that we've received this body — even though it's full of foul and unattractive things, and even though it's made up of all kinds of suffering and stress — we're still able to depend on it for a while, so we should use it to do good to repay our debts to the world before we leave it at death.

The Buddha teaches that although the nature of a person (this world) is to fall apart and die, the mind — the overseer of this world — must come back to be reborn as long as it still has defilements. Thus he teaches us to practice concentration, which is an affair exclusively of the mind. Once we have practiced concentration, we will feel every sensory contact inside, just at the mind. We won't be concerned with our seeing and hearing at the eye or the ear. Instead, we'll be aware of the sensory contact right at the mind. This is what it means to narrow down the world.

The senses are the best means for taking the measure of your own mind. When sensory contact strikes the mind, does it have an impact on you? If it has a lot of impact, that shows that your mindfulness is weak and your foundation is still shaky. If it has only a little impact, or no impact at all, that shows that your mindfulness is strong and you're fully able to care for yourself.

These things are like Devadatta, who created trouble for the Bodhisattva all along. If not for Devadatta, the Bodhisattva wouldn't have been able to bring his character to full perfection. Once his character had been fully perfected, he was able to gain Awakening and become the Buddha. Before gaining Awakening, he had to withstand the massive armies of temptation; and right after his Awakening, the three daughters of temptation came to test him once more. As a result, the people of the world have praised him ever since for having conquered defilement in this world once and for all.

As long as the inner senses still exist, mental contact is still a preoccupation. Thus those who know, having seen the harm of these things, are willing to withdraw from them, leaving just the heart that's neutral... neutral... neutral, with no thinking, no imagining, no fashioning of anything at all. When this is the case, where will this world be formed? This is how the Buddha teaches us to reach the world's end.