Originally posted by An Eternal Now:

Dunnu, my friend's online dharma community sent me this through e-mail.

 

Oic. Thank for the sharing.

/\

Originally quoted from AEN:

It is the split, the separation that causes suffering as well the arising of desire, as well as clinging.

Without the insight that there is no-split, the mind continues to divide. Desire is an inner deficiency of the mind created to bridge the gap of separation. But it is precisely this attempt to bridge the gap that is perpetuating the gap, and so we suffer. Aversion is the inner deficiency of the mind created that negatively reacts with or seeks to escape/widen the gap/split from a perceived object due to falsely projecting reality on 'external objects' deemed as unpleasant, etc... but that will never work because the split doesn't exist, but the way we hold our minds as we try to get away from that side is painful. There is only ever the present appearance of life, with no one at its core who could ever escape even if they wanted to. Indeed, all attempts to escape merely serve to reinforce suffering and separation.

When Anatta and Anicca is fully seen, it is seen there is no phenomena graspable nor is there a separate subject/self that can pursue or reject something apparently 'external to himself', which he/she can have a relation with or be at the mercy of the pain... and hence, Dispassion arises. Hence freedom from suffering is achieved, illusion of separation and split ended. The three poisons of desire, aversion, and ignorance is ended.

From my experience and with my limited usage of english language capability, I could like to describe my personal experience of what i have experienced by duality ( or so i think, pls correct me if im wrong ). I have experienced both "pushing and pulling" sensation, where there seems to be presence of a force - I could assume that it is projected by the mind as it is nowhere to be physically found.

Where is the source of this force?

Originally posted by An Eternal Now:

 

 

Song of "How to Gain Happiness & Avoid Suffering"

by Milarepa

He who knows his own nature
And the imminent Truth,
Is ever joyful.
He who wrongly acts
Is ever sad.

He who rests in the state of nature.
And is ever spontaneously pure,
Is ever joyful.
He who surrenders to impulses and environments,
Being subject to hatred and to cravings,
Is ever sad.

He who realizes that all things are the Dharmakaya,
Freed from all fears, hopes, and doubts,
Is ever joyful.
He who is impatient, talkative & rash,
Being overpowered by worldly desire,
Is ever sad.

He who knows that all things are his mind,
That all with which he meets are friendly
Is ever joyful.
He who squanders his life away,
Carrying remorse to his grave,
Is ever sad.

He who has a thorough Realization,
At ease in self-sustaining Reality,
Is ever joyful.
He who is enslaved by his desires,
Insatiable and always longing,
Is ever sad.

He who is freed from all forms without effort,
Always immersed in the Experience,
Is ever joyful.
He who merely follows words,
Unseeing of the mind,
Is ever sad.

He who renounces all worldly things,
Free from worry and consideration,
Is ever joyful.
A Buddhist who measures and stores up grain,
Cherishing the women and relatives he loves,
Is ever sad.

A yogi who discards all worldly ties,
Realizing all is magic and illusion,
Is ever joyful.
He who diverts himself, taxing
His body and mind with sensuality
Is ever sad.

A yogi who rides the horse of diligence
Toward the Land of Liberation,
Is ever joyful.
He who is weighted with a stone
That pulls him to the bottom of Samsara
Is ever sad.

He who avoids misunderstandings,
Amused at the play of his own mind,
Is ever joyful.
He who has sworn to practice the Dharma
But indulges in sinful deeds
Is ever sad.

He who has done away with fears, and hopes, and doubts,
Perpetually absorbed in the State of Origin,
Is ever joyful.
He who submits to the will of others -
Obsequious, artificial, and ingratiating,
Is ever sad.

He who leaves all "this and that" behind
Always practicing pure Dharma
Is ever glad.

"The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa" Pg 459-461

I wonder if the book that you are reading got explaination on the verses ?

hee what book is that ?

Originally posted by D.E.M.O.N.S.W.O.R.D:

it is wondering where it is now

Hmm i have to agreed with you

and the mind isn't the brain.

Originally posted by D.E.M.O.N.S.W.O.R.D:

you're reading this quote with your eyes

Where is the mind that read this quote ?

Originally posted by D.E.M.O.N.S.W.O.R.D:

your fingers are your mind

Yes yes and i'm reading this quote with my mind but where exactly is the mind ?

Originally posted by D.E.M.O.N.S.W.O.R.D:

it is typing this post

To be more precise, your fingers are typing this post.

Hello all,

I could like to touch on the concept of duality.

Define/what is thought projection ?

Why duality actually create suffering ?

Question: When we are watching the movie ?

Where is this mind ?

A) It is in ourselves ( is it at the base of the heart ? )

B) It is on the movie screen when we are watching the movie

C) Neither and where and why ??

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
---------------

The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness.

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

When a man is free from all sense pleasures and depends on nothingness he
is free in the supreme freedom from perception. He will stay there and
not return again.

It is like a flame struck by a sudden gust of wind. In a flash it has
gone out and nothing more can be known about it. It is the same with a
wise man freed from mental existence: in a flash he has gone out and
nothing more can be known about him.

When a person has gone out, then there is nothing by which you can measure
him. That by which he can be talked about is no longer there for him; you
cannot say that he does not exist. When all ways of being, all phenomena
are removed, then all ways of description have also been removed.

 ~ Buddha

A Note To My Thoughts- A Poem by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

A Note To My Thoughts

Past, isn't it simply a fleeting thought?
Future, isn't it just a projection of mind?
Aren't they all simply just happening now?
What there is is only this moment --
So fresh, yet just another fleeting nowness!
The world that you see,
And the sounds that you hear,
Thoughts that arise randomly,
Aren't they all just happening in nowness?
Why don't you just let go of the past and future thoughts?
Why can't you simply relax in this beautiful world now?
Why do you sacrifice your present for your pure imaginations?
Hey! Hey! Wake up you, lazy dzogchen lama!
dpr

April 13, 2007

Miserliness

The normal hand open and closes

A devotee told Chan Master Moxian, "My wife is extremely stingy. She will not spend even a penny on charity. Could you please come to my house and talk to her about engaging in benevolent deeds?" Very compassionately, Chan Master Moxian agreed.

The next day, when he went to the devotee's house, the wife came out to receive him. True to her miserly nature, she did not even offer Chan Master Moxian a cup of tea. Chan Master sat down and held out his fist, asking, "Madame, look at my hand. What would you think if my hand remained constantly in a fist?" The wife responded, "If it remained in a fist, then your hand is deformed! Something must be wrong with it."

Chan Master repeated her words back to her, saying, "It is deformed!" In the meantime, he opened up his fist and held out a flat palm to her, asking, "Were it like this all the time, what do you think?" The wife responded, "That would be deformed too!"

Seizing this opportunity, Chan Master immediately came to the point, saying, "Madame, you are right! A constant closed fist and a constant opened palm are both deformed. It is the same with the way we use money. If we are always close-fisted, only concerned about getting more money, but never consider giving, we are deformed. If we are always open-handed, only thinking about spending but not saving, we are deformed as well. Money should flow like a smooth current. When it comes in, it should flow out too. There should be a balance in your receiving and giving."

A story by Venerable Master Hsing Yun

Once you have completed such contemplations
you should develop experiential wisdom in your process
Among the three paths of trascendence in the three Vehicles
Here you enter the unexcelled, essential import.
First, devote yourself to understanding the nature of reality.

Although it takes many forms, depending on the Vehicle,
The definitive essence is the indivisible reality
Which is the secret treasury of all Buddhas.
It is the natural transparency intuition
Beginninglessly peaceful, free from perplexity.
Like sun and sky, spontaneous and uncreated.

Since its natural great purity is primally present,
It is vision and voidness inseparable,
Free of proof and rejection, going and coming.
Beyond the realm of superficial determinations and distinctions,
Its indivisible reality is neither proven nor unproven,
Experientially vision an voidness are nondual;
This reality is called "indivisible."

When analyzed by the conventional two realities,
All things in cyclic life are mistaken appearances;
Untrue and deceptive, they are superficial realities.
Things of Nirvana are profound peace of translucency,
Accepted as ultimate reality, changeless in nature.

This manifold appearances is thus superficial.
Illusion, like the reflection of the moon in water,
It lacks the intrinsic reality it appears to have.
When examined, it lacks basis, root, and substance,
Free of intrinsic identity, empty as space.
When unexamined, this illusory, enticing diversity
Evolves as a relativistic distortion of instinct.

Thus, just like a datura hallucination,
These things are selfless and unreal.
Since that, in reality, is their way of being,
The "ultimate appears but superficially,
Though appearing, in reality it is unborn;
So naturally its reality is indivisible.

Its natural primal purity
And its transparent ultimacy are nondual,
So the life-cycle and liberation are nondual,
And its reality is indivisible.

Since the life-cycle appears while lacking reality,
In that ultimate realm of realitylessness
Nothing can be distinguished as separate and distinct,
And life-cycle and liberation are taught as equality.
Other ideas are false intellectual notions,
Quite confused about the nature of reality.

Causality exists as it appears to deceptive experience,
So cherish understanding of ethical choice.
The changeless nature of ultimate reality
Is transparency, the Bliss Lord of essence, spontaneity,
Natural indivisible awareness of clarity-void.

This is the mandala of natural spontaneity
Primal natural perfection, essence of enlightenment,
Purity, unfabricated, free from partiality,
Profound peace, body and wisdom inseparable.

It has examples known to all beings;
Known to the wise as like underground gold,
A lamp in a vase, a body in a lotus.
Just as a pauper has a treasure underground
But doesn't know and so stays poor,
Though you possess natural enlightenment,
It is hidden by the earth of body, speech, and eightfold mind,
So you stay poor, impoverished by the ills of life.

Just as a clairvoyant person can see
And find a way to take out the treasure
To perfect the wealth of self and other,
So the holy ones teach that reality
And show how enlightenment can be found within,
The wish-granting gem that fulfills both aims.

Just as a lamp in a vase might be bright
But cannot illuminate, blocked by the vase,
So the essential Truth Body abides within
Yet does not show, blocked by the vase of obscuration.

But it does show when the vase is broken,
Just as the world lamp illumines all lands,
When all obscurations are removed.
Though the Bliss-Lord Body is in the lotus,
It does not show when the lotus is closed
So the thousands petals of subjects and objects block
One's vision of the self-luminous Lord of Victors.

When the petals open, it is clear,
There is great liberation from the lotus of duality.
The three Buddha Bodies become naturally evident.
Thus please understand the reality
That ultimate-realm translucency
Exists within yourself!

This reality has names of many different kinds.
It is "the realm that transcends life and liberation
And the primally present "natural spontaneity,"
As the "essential realm" obscured by defilements,
As the "ultimate truth," the condition of reality,
As the originally pure "stainless translucency,"
As the "central reality" that dispels extremisms,
As the "transcendent wisdom" beyond fabrications,
As the "indivisible reality" clear-void-purity,
As the "Suchness" reality free of death transitions.

Such names are accepted by the clear-seeing wise.
Not understanding this, one adopts a nihilistic voidness,
Though claiming to avoid extremes of being and nothing,
Since one does not know the ground of freedom
And longs to escape to the peak of existence,
One falls outside this profound teaching,
Sits empty-minded, fit to rub with dust!

The Teacher taught the treasury of Dharma,
The path of the pinnacle, clear light, essence of all,
The "reality of the ground spontaneity."
Understanding this ultimate profound view,
Liberates one from resistance and obscuration,
frees from all absolutism and nihilism.

One's practice is fruitful, one soon becomes enlightened,,
One gains the eye to see all Sutras and Tantras.
Therefore be sure to realize the reality of clear light!

We don't see things as they are, we see thing as we are - Anais  Nin, US author and diarist

Sabbasava Sutta

Originally posted by Beyond Religion:

Very poignant! Thanks for posting this Isis, but I have one nagging concern. Throughout the majority of most peoples lives, they work so hard and spent so much time in the pursuit of knowledge that enhances the material comforts of life. Ultimately, the sum total of all knowledges acquired by doctors, accountants, engineers, architects, scientist etc. etc. serve nothing but to enhance the sensory pleasure and material comforts of this "life". If "life" is so short and transient, why are we spending so much time in the pursuit of non-spiritual knowledge?

If I use the analogy of Asoka's brother, if I am put into the shoes of the brother, I defintely wont be able to enjoy the comforts of being an emperor, but by the same token, I wont be able to acquire any skills and knowledge (non-spiritual ones) either?   

I don't think all the knowledge acquired by doctors, engineers and scientist are totally useless. It can be used for the greater good. For instance, engineer build houses for the poor. Scientist research and experiment to find a cure for HIV and cancer. We also need accountant to do audit for charity organisation, school etc. 

Originally posted by angel7030:

whether jessica is a guy or a gal, we all live illusion of time, like it or not, we all shall perish from here one day...dust to dust, ashes to ashes. This is not a permanent place, it is only a refuge, short and full of problems, in short, we try not to get painful or angry over something that is not up to our expectation or satisfaction, and also, we try not to be a dreamer and take things as tho nothing is happening, we should adopt a cool mind, steady, think wisely, be cheerful as alway, and finally learn to forgive as you learn to accept

A good one

Originally posted by ChiBet: ???

is burning joss sticks = praying?

i am a christian but my whole family are devout buddhist who constantly ask me to burn joss sticks + kneel to idols/ ancestors.

i refuse to do it for the idols but i do it for my ancestors as the way i see it, i am paying my respect to my ancestors when i burn joss stick + kneel infront of them. I did not ask/pray to my ancestors for things as i know that only GOD is the provider.

 i really do not understand why some christians insist on not burning joss sticks and paying respect to their ancestors/elders

as a chinese, do i have to abandon my chinese customs just because i believe in jesus christ?

just as some friends of mine asked me why i do not wear a cross to proclaim that i am a christian, i told them that i do not need to as GOD knows i am a christian and my actions speak for themselves. I do not need to wear a cross to let others know that i am a christian.

 

like wise, when i burn joss sticks and kneel infront of my ancestors tablet, i am offering them my respect and holding their memory dear. i am not praying to them. that is why i find some church excuse that burning joss stick and kneeling in front of ancestors = anscestor worship a joke.

 

i think these churches that teaches people not to respect people's elders/ancestors should be monitored as they are just brainwashing their members to be unfilial bastards. What the church need to do is to educate its members that they themselves should know why they are buring the joss sticks and kneeling infront of their elders/ancestors. it should only be a sign of respect and remembrance and not ancestor worship.

Actually most of the chinese rituals practised today, are Chinese folk's tradition and NOT buddhism. Ancestor worshipping that we seem today in a typical chinese's family is a traditional chinese customs. It is not brought from India and not spoken by the Buddha.

Originally posted by Ahm97sic:

Dear Isis,

I am greatly moved by the articles on the contemplation on death.

Do you have more articles that reveal more how the enlightened monks face death in spite of the pain and disabilitites ?

Thank you very much for your kind attention and help.

With Best Regards,

ahm97sic

Hi Ahm97sic,

I'm afraid that i do not have the articles that you are requesting on.

Best Regards,

Isis

Summary and Conclusion

So it's good to be ready. You do that by preparing to let go of this world. This world is useful in as much as it provides a means for the holy life to be lived. This body is useful in that it provides a vehicle for you to be able sit down and meditate, and gain the Jhānas, and the consequent insight the enables one to leave samsāra. That's the whole purpose of the body, the purpose of the senses, and the purpose of this life. However people who don't know the purpose of life, the meaning of life, just waste their time and do foolish things. They go around and around, like children on a merry-go-round, thinking that it's so good, so wonderful and so enjoyable. Doing the reflection on death again and again, allows you to let go of a lot of the useless pursuits in your life.

Even those of you who are senior monks in this monastery, what do you really want to achieve? You might die tonight. What's important to you? Is it finishing off that letter, or is it meditating and getting into Jhāna. You may only have another week or two, who knows? What's really important to you? Just before your death do you want to look back and be able to say: 'I've used this life properly? At least I've had a Jhāna, (or even better) I've got Magga Phala, the Fruit of the Path.' Then you can die at ease, and you've used this life as it's supposed to be used. You've made the best of your opportunities. So be diligent. Know the Path, and know what works!

Make that effort, which is a letting go. Remember, 'this doesn't belong to me'. The body doesn't belong to me. This monastery doesn't belong to me. My letters doesn't belong to me. My family doesn't belong to me. My past, my history, don't belong to me, and neither does my future. You own nothing in this world. Death teaches how little you really own. The body belongs to nature. The past belongs to fantasy. The future belongs to stupidity. You own nothing. All your thoughts belong to your conditioning. You own nothing, nothing, nothing. My robes just belong to the earth. All the possessions in my hut belong to the earth as well. All that is mine will one day go to the rubbish dump. It will be incinerated.

I thought when I first came here, that I would build this monastery strong so that it would last for hundreds and thousands of years. And already you can see it is falling apart. Cracks are appearing in the walls of your huts. The monk who told me he saw cracks appearing in the wall of his hut should look at his own body and see the cracks right down his own body. We're falling apart. We're crumbling. Soon we'll be dust like that hut.

When we look at things in this way, we get everything into perspective. The crack in the wall of your hut is showing you death. You're grateful to the harbinger of death for encouraging you to let go and develop the deep meditations. You are dying to the body, dying to world, and dying to the defilements that keep you in that world. You are liberating yourself, owning nothing, and being content with owning nothing. When you're content, you need nothing. When you're content you're dead to desires. When people die you write on their gravestone, 'Rest in Peace'. When you're in Jhānas you are resting in peace, and Nibbāna is the only true peace.

These are some reflections about death, reflections about Nibbāna, reflections about the body, the world and the mind. So please be diligent, life is fading away so fast.

[1] Adapted from the Asokāvadāna, John S Strong: New Delhi, Motilal Banasidass, 1989.
 
[2] The Ten Reflections of a Monk: (AN10, 48)
 
1.        I have entered a life beyond caste or class.
2.        My life is dependent on the generosity of others.
3.        My conduct must be different from that of a lay person.
4.        Do I reproach myself in regard to virtue?
5.        Do my wise fellow monks reproach me in regard to virtue?
6.        I must be separated and parted from all that is dear and beloved to me.
7.        I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions …
8.        How do I spend my days and nights?
9.        Do I delight in solitude?
10.     If I am questioned about my attainments by my fellow monks at the time of my death shall I be dismayed?
 
[3] The Eightfold Path consists of:
(Wisdom)
1.        Right View or Understanding.
2.        Right Thoughts or Intentions.
(Morality)
3.        Right Speech.
4.        Right Action.
5.        Right Livelihood.
(Mind Development)
6.        Right Effort.
7.        Right Mindfulness.
8.        Right Concentration = Jhāna

A Place of Simplicity

I've been struggling for many years to try and make this monastery a place where you don't need to worry about much. To organise it so that all of the basic human needs are provided for. Out there in the world people have to struggle so much just to survive, to have a house, and food to get by. It's so complex out there. The whole ethos and meaning behind the monastery is to be a place of simplicity. A place where the time you spend looking after this body, feeding it, washing it, and housing it is so little, that you can devote the majority of your time to the deathless, that which lies beyond the body. However people always tend to make life more complex. They always make things more difficult: taking the body from one place to another, getting it healthy, feeding it, and washing it, or whatever else it is that we do with our bodies. There is so little time left for the mind. When we've developed the perception of death, and its opposite, the deathless, we can incline and spend more time on that which is beyond death. Even though you may not have experienced those states yet, in this life anyway, there is something that recognises the existence of the state of mind that is beyond the body. By just knowing that much, it's like a whiff of scent. It is enough to show you what direction to go.

Remember that all the doing, which we think is right effort, keeps us with this body, keeps us with the past and the future; so it is not the correct type of doing. It's effort which leads to more entanglements. The effort which leads to letting go is remembering that this doesn't belong to me. It is cāga, giving up and abandoning. That's why this monastery can be a prison if you don't want to be here. But if you're completely content here, if you're completely happy, then it's not a prison any more. It's contentment that frees you. Letting go is thinking that it doesn't belong to me. I'm content with whatever's happening. Its anālaya, or freedom from attachment. It's the Teflon mind, nothing sticks to it, nothing can land on it, and its patinissagga, always giving up, relinquishing; going in the opposite direction to attaching. It's actually throwing things off rather than allowing things to land on you and to ingratiate themselves with you. That's the effort to let go. That's the effort that leads to the transcending of death.

When you let go of all these things, everything disappears: the body goes, the world goes, the huts go, the books go, the illnesses go, the Buddhist Society of Western Australia disappears. Everything is gone, and you realise what monastic life is all about. The holy life, at least the start of it, is all about going into the realms of the mind. And if you have got into Jhānas, an insight that comes automatically after those Jhāna states is that the stream of mind consciousness has died to the body. There has been a separation. It is just like the Christian idea of the soul leaving the body. It is the stream of consciousness that leaves the body, not physically, because these are different planes. The realm of the mind, mind space, is not something that you can measure in physical space. It is a parallel universe if you like, but that parallel universe, the mind space, is independent. It is completely unaffected, if it wants to be, by the four dimensional world of space and time.

Nibbāna

To know that much means that there will never be a fear of death, because you know what death is. It's the death of the body. It's the death of the five senses, the ending of that entire world outside. Such understanding gives you a different perspective. It is one of the greatest treasures, one of the greatest happinesses, that you have ever found. All the pleasures of the world seem to be so useless, so trivial and petty. You really wonder why you've been messing around: with relationships, with sex, with getting married, with accumulating wealth or keeping wealth. What a foolish thing to do spending your life running around, backwards and forwards, when you could have these beautiful blissful states of mind! That's why I've always encouraged people by hook or by crook, somehow or other, to get a taste of those states. One taste will change your life and give you a different perspective. Even though it may have been only one taste many years ago, you can't forget that. You can't ignore it because it's a powerful transforming experience. It gives you an idea an experience of what is possible, what it means to let go of the kāma loka, the world of the body, the world of, birth, old age sickness and death.

When you look at the world of the mind, you see that the mind doesn't get old, and it needn't get sick. The mind really only gets sick if you let it get sick. That's why the Buddha said that even though the body is sick, the mind does not need to be sick. (Sn III, 1) So even though the body gets sick, don't let the mind get sick too. The stream of consciousness can be completely above that. If you can do just that much and completely let go of the world of the body, then you will at least be an Anāgāmi, a Non Returner. When you die you will go up to the realm of the mind, play around there for a few aeons and from there, Nibbāna. I shouldn't really say this, but it's not a bad way of exiting from samsāra. The Buddha would quite rightly criticise me for advocating any type of existence, even in the Anāgāmi realms. The Buddha says it's just not worth it, it's best to Nibbāna as soon as you can.

Nibbāna is like another level of death. It is the end of the mind. Ordinary death is the death of things relating to the body, the death of this world, the losing of all your possessions, and separation from what you loved. Old age and sickness, they're just the messengers of death, the precursors, just the signs that death is coming. 'Death is coming!' It's just like the first bills you get, the first reminders, saying if you don't pay within a few days you are going to be taken to court. They're the warning notices, and then suddenly it just comes.

Old age and sickness, they are all part of death. It's amazing how people can completely neglect and deny those warning signs. They get old, old, old and they think they're still going to live for a long time, they get sick, sick, sick and they think they are always going to get better. These are the warning signs that: 'Death is coming. Death is coming. Death is coming.' If you've got a bad back today, that's a warning sign that death is coming. If you have a headache, or stomach ache, if you feel a bit low in energy or even if you've just had a cold, that's death coming. Always remember that. These symptoms are like death knocking on the door, you may not be quite ready yet, but it doesn't really matter. Death will just break in, like a home invader, and drag you away, whether you are ready or not.

Continuing...

The Purpose of Life

When you start reflecting on death, everything starts to become so clear. You realize how foolish you have been. During my life I have wasted so much time, when I really didn't have time to waste. When I look back on my early years as a monk, I did waste too much time. But fortunately I had enough good meditation as well. Now as a forty-nine year old monk I can't afford to waste any more time.

I look at all the opportunities young monks have, and sometimes, well, they don't make good use of those opportunities. They don't hang around in their huts, or on their walking paths for hour after hour, walking and sitting, walking and sitting. They don't use the time in between walking and sitting to study the suttas, and to contemplate their meaning. If you are wasting time, isn't that a shame!

Here we have one of the best monasteries in the world and some of the best facilities. Of all the monasteries that I have been to, this is one of the best. It's as good as it gets. Sometimes, just living in a forest takes so much effort. In the forest monasteries that I knew in Thailand, you had to spend so much of the day just walking the long distance for the alms round, and then working in the monastery in the afternoon. The time for seclusion to meditate was very limited.

So, reflect on the following: 'I don't know how long I'll have these facilities. I don't know how long I'll be healthy enough to do this'. There are enough monks here with bad backs or bad knees, bad this and bad that. If you're a healthy monk, or even a reasonably healthy one, if you can sit meditation, cross your legs and straighten your back without too much pain, you are extremely fortunate. You won't always be like that. Use this opportunity now!

It's not just your body that is going to die, your good health will die, your energy will die, and your opportunities will die. So reflect on death, as it says in the suttas, as if your turban was on fire. In other words, death gives precedence to the practice, and it makes the Eightfold Path[3] the most important thing in the world. It gives the Path priority over everything else. It would be wonderful if people had that understanding of death to the degree that they embraced it all the time. It would be wonderful if they had that mindfulness, which remembers that death is always stalking you. Death can happen at any time!

Therefore, what's important to me is to develop the Eightfold Path as much as I can, as deeply as I can, so that I can experience the Jhānas. It's important that I can experience the Paths and Fruits of this practice. It's important that I can be free. Free first of all from the lower realms, and eventually from rebirth altogether. Otherwise death becomes very scary, even for great practitioners. They can fall so easily if they haven't got this security from bondage, this security from all bad rebirths. We use these reflections on death to generate a sense of urgency.

As we travel the Eightfold Path, we should not use force. We don't 'do' the practice, it is something we allow to happen. We renounce all other business in our lives. I've often noticed that if you just allow this path to happen, it happens so beautifully, so powerfully and so effectively. The problem is we don't allow the path to happen. We are too busy doing other things. It's quite clear what we are supposed to be doing.

We know the section of the Eightfold Path about virtuous conduct; Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. Everyone in this monastery, even if you are in this monastery temporarily, can tick off those three parts of the Eightfold Path. You're fulfilling them, that is of course, as long as you are keeping the rules and the precepts of this monastery.

Now as to Right Effort, (it is unfortunate that we have to translate these terms into English), as soon as you say right effort, people think of striving and struggling, and forcing and controlling, and doing. If we can somehow turn our minds to effort without doing, to a practice of letting go, then we have gained some deeper understanding about what right effort truly means. It's the effort to let go, not the effort to add to or to get rid of, that is one of the hardest things for the Western mind to get around. Often people waste so many years and so much of their time just trying too hard.

It's the Arahants, and the people who have great wisdom, who have no difficulty. Those of you who have studied Pāli, come across this again and again. Jhānas are easy for the wise; they are attained with no difficulty. You should reflect on how these states can be attained without difficulty? It is because those people know the path to entering the Jhānas. It is the 'no difficulty' path. So don't make it difficult! If you can let go, disentangle yourself from the past and the future, then there is no difficulty. Let the past and the future die for you, so that you've only got the present moment. Let all thinking die. Then there is no difficulty. What does it mean when you die to all your past? All the things you worried about, and all the concerns about the past, it's all gone. And as for the future who knows?

Into the Light

The present moment is the only thing that you ever have. When you die your body and all your concerns, are taken away from you. What were you worried about? Let it all go. Allow your thinking, thinking, thinking, to die. When a person's dead, they are brain dead, there's no brain activity. When a person dies, often in the first moments after death, there is that silence of the mind, before the mind made body can start to name things, and start to conceptualise about what they are experiencing. For the first few seconds or even longer, it's a time of silence, a different type of perception. This is similar to what one can do in one's meditation, let go of that inner chatter, allow it to die, as if you are dying. Many people when they have been close to death have had spiritual experiences. In many traditions, they have experiences of dying to the world and becoming wise afterwards. The experience which Theravāda monks of our tradition have is that when they get into Jhānas, they die to the body and become wise to the nature of the mind.

That experience of allowing every thing to disappear is so similar to the process of dying, that the reflection on dying can very easily be incorporated into the practice which leads into Jhānas. Die to the past and future. Die to the thoughts. Die to the body, and eventually die to the breath. It's as if you take your last breath as you are meditating. In other words your body becomes as still as a corpse, you completely let go of the breathing, and go into the nimitta. It is just like that when a person dies. They go out of their body into the light that is the same as the nimitta.

Really we're talking about an amata state (a deathless state). Amata is a word that is used in Pāli. The word death, marana, is always about the death of the body. The death of the mind is called Parinibbāna, but the death of the body is always marana. The past participle of that is mata, dead or died. But do you know what really doesn't die? If you've contemplated this through deep meditation, you know it is this stream of consciousness. It's that which carries on after death. In that sense, the stream of consciousness is amata, because that is beyond the physical death. It's that which can be reborn in the rūpa realms (material realms) or the arūpa realms (immaterial realms). However, that's not the end of things. I think that word amata was popular in the time of the Buddha because, like most people even today, when they talked about some sort of salvation, it was very much a materialistic idea. It was the idea of going into a state of amata, of deathlessness, where they could 'be' forever and ever and ever, without having to worry about death. Some sort of heaven realm, some sort of eternity realm. Perhaps the way the Buddha used the word amata was taking it from common usage and giving it a different meaning. But from experience, what doesn't die is the stream of consciousness, the mano viññana or mind consciousness. In Jhānas you can actually know what mind consciousness really is as an experience.

In the Jhānas it is as if the body has died along with all the conceptions of the world, all feelings, everything that is concerned with the world and the body. So really the Jhānas are death-like states, in the sense that the body has gone, it has disappeared. The worlds of the past and future have gone, they have disappeared. All your possessions have gone, they have disappeared. All your thoughts have gone, they have disappeared, along with all the struggling and doing. The coming and going, has gone, they have disappeared. Can you understand me? Can you understand what the word 'death' means? It means transcending this body. It is letting go of the body. The problem is of course, that most people when they die go and get born again, and then they have to die all over again. They keep on doing that because they don't fully die to the world, they die a little bit, but they still want to experience some more.

So you have to learn how to develop the meditation of letting go, that effort which abandons all the plans and busyness, all of those little fetters, those little knots, which tie you to this worldly body. It's fascinating to sometimes reflect on just how wisely you've spent your day. What's occupied your mind today? Do a statistical analysis. How much of your mind has been occupied today with the body, or with the world, or with the monastery, or with your own affairs? And how much has been occupied with the affairs of the deathless? That will give you a good idea of why you're not getting Enlightened. We have to be more occupied with the deathless!

shy shy confession is also kind of sweet esp when he blushes

Know your body and next time have some sufficent sleep before anyy physically demanding activities. It is healthy for you to lose excessive weight and also good for your concentration.  The teacher probably thought that you played tantrum, esp he had asked you not to sleep for the first time. And i thought isn't it against the school's rule for sleeping in class ?

Continuing ....

I Know, but I Don't Know
The Buddha wanted his monks to contemplate their death in the same way. It is as if you are all going to be executed! Life is a death sentence! We are all on death row in this monastery, but we don't know how the execution is going to take place, and we don't know exactly when. A weaver's daughter once responded to a series of questions from the Buddha, by answering, 'I know, but I don't know'. The Buddha smiled and acknowledged her wisdom. Someone asked her afterwards, 'What do you mean by you know, but you don't know?', and she replied that she knew that she would die, but didn't know when she would die (Dhp-a, XIII. 7).

Insight into death rearranges your priorities. So what is important for you? You are soon going to die, and after your death you are going to be carrying the kamma of this life into your future lives.

Any person who doesn't believe in rebirth is going to get a great shock when it happens. It's true. Reincarnation is real. You will soon experience this for yourselves! Embracing the reality of your death and subsequent rebirth gives you a different perspective on how to live your life.

As monks, we have the ten reflections for one who has gone forth. The tenth is a reflection on our deathbed. (An X, 48)[2] It is traditional to ask a monk on his deathbed, 'What states of Jhānas have you achieved? What stages of liberation, or Enlightenment have you reached?'

Good monks do not tell even their friends about such attainments, unless they are close to death. That's why it is an old tradition to ask monks that question only on their deathbeds. I encourage you to do the same. Ask your fellow monks when they are near death, 'What have you achieved? What have you realized?' Such questioning brings back a sense of urgency to what we are doing in this monastery. We don't want to live for years and years in this or other monasteries, going from place to place in the Buddhist monastic world, and then find at the end of our life that we are no further along the Path to Liberation than when we started. We don't want to find that we haven't made proper use of this wonderful opportunity to experience a Jhāna, or to at least achieve Stream Winning. I say this because if you don't realize these things in your life as a monk, after death who knows what might happen?

Throwing Up a Stick
In one of the stories from the suttas, the Buddha said that your future rebirth is so very uncertain. It's like throwing a stick into the air. You can't be sure which end it is going to fall on. In the same way, you can't be certain after death if you will fall into the fortunate realms or the unfortunate realms! (Sn 15. 9)

That impressed me. But it also scared me, when I first read it. We all think that if we make lots and lots of good kamma then we are certain of a happy rebirth. And you do make good kamma, because you are all good monks. You keep the precepts very well. The novices are good, they are great novices. Even the visitors who come here are all very high minded. They are pure minded beings for the most part. As beings in the world go, you are the cream. However, even if you live a very good life, even if you are a monk for many years in this life, if you don't penetrate to Stream Winning then you can't be certain what rebirth is going to follow!

All that you can achieve by making lots of good kamma is to make one end of the 'stick' heavier. Then the chances are it will fall on the heavy end, and your good kamma will ripen into a beautiful rebirth. But the sutta very clearly says that even though one end is heavy, every now and again that stick will land on the lighter end. So, even if you make lots of good kamma, the bad kamma that you have performed, either in this life or in previous lives, is still there. Because of that bad kamma, which hasn't been used up yet, there is always the chance of being reborn in a very unfortunate rebirth.

That is the fear of samsāra. It's not just old age, sickness and death in this life. Its also, old age sickness and death in future lives, in less pleasant lives than the one you are in now. Even though you may be a good monk, a good novice, or a good lay person, it's still uncertain what your rebirth is going to be. This fact makes you put forth more effort on your spiritual path. It makes you more diligent. Where does diligence come from? Where does that effort come from? It only comes when you see how dangerous rebirth is.

Letting Go
I gave a talk last night to lay people about the meditation on letting go, of just doing nothing. To be able to do nothing, you have to be able to understand that doing nothing is important. That letting go within the mind is valuable. Just sitting down meditating is a matter of life and death, more important than any other business. Meditation is more important than our finances, our relationships, our children, our vehicles, or our possessions. It is more important even than going out and working for the community. It's more important than everything else because it's the only way to make an end of suffering.

Accumulating wealth, what meaning has that? It all disappears when you die. Indulging in the pleasures of life, even if you manage to get them in great amounts, usually just bring lots of frustrations. If you do get lots and lots of pleasure in this life, so what! It always disappears in the pain and fog of old age. One of the things that you notice in life, as you get older, is that most of the pleasures in life occur early on and the pain of life is what you're mostly left with at the end. Knowing this, seeing the dangers in life, why does anybody get involved in all this wasting of time?

We can go around teaching others, or writing books for others, and spreading the Dhamma, but is that really our duty in this life? So many people are spreading the Dhamma, but so few people are realising the Dhamma. Sometimes you wonder what we are spreading anyway. If you don't realise the Dhamma for yourself, you run the risk of spreading muck around. And people will take up that muck, thinking that it's Dhamma. Sometimes people give teachings on muck, and everyone thinks how Enlightened they are; but it's all muck Dhamma. It's not real Dhamma. They haven't realised the Dhamma for themselves. That's a great shame for this world. We don't really need people spreading Dhamma as much as we need more people realising that Dhamma.