Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Meditation and Mind


Mind is the forerunner of all evil conditions.

Mind is their chief, they are mind-made.

If, with an impure mind, one speaks or acts,

Then suffering follows one

Even as the cart wheel follows the hoof of the ox.


Mind is the forerunner of all good conditions.

Mind is their chief, and they are mind-made.

If, with a pure mind, one speaks or acts,

Then happiness follows one

Like a never-departing shadow.


These words, which are the opening lines of the Dhammapada, were spoken by Gotama Budhha 2500 years ago. They illustrate the central theme of Buddhist teaching, the human mind.


So my friend, practice meditation to gain insights and pure your mind of defilements!!!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Amazing Pictures of Buddha


Hi everyone,

Let me show you a picture that I have taken recently in Thailand.

Wonder if this is man-made or natural.

You tell me.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Places to Practice Meditation


Currently, I found the best place to do my meditation is at home. I would set aside a space for my regular practice and that serves me pretty well.

Aside from your house, think the next best place is in a large temple. But please choose a temple which provide such place for practice daily. What I like about going to the temple to practice is that the environment there is good for calming your mind and you are motivated to practice in such a place. But disadvantage is you have to travel to the temple to practice and that may take time.

Anyone has any suggestion for a good place to practice meditation?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Vipassana Meditation

Remember that we have to practice increasing our concentration level to a certain level before we can proceed to practice Vipassana Meditation.

Meditation will keep your mind calm and conentrated but you must be patient and persistent in your practice. Initially there will be a lots of defilements like pain and discomfort, but you will overcome them eventually because you must remember that all these are impermanent. So if your mind is calm, you can actually see that the pain will also rise and fall and eventually will disappears.

Come try and see for yourself

Mahasi Sayadaw's Method- Insights Meditation

The basis of Mahasi Sayadaw's method (Insights Meditation) involves maintaining a constant awareness, moment by moment of whatever one is doing or experiencing. However, it is rather difficult, especially for a beginner, to achieve the initial concentration necessary for successful pratice if one has to start straight away by paying close attention to every action. For this purpose, and on the basis of his own practice and of his experiences with his students, Mahasi Sayadaw decided to begin by focusing attention on a bodily movement which is intimately related with the act of breathing and which, like breath itself, is both automatic and amenable to voluntary control. This is the movement of the abdomen resulting from the process of breathing. In fact, even though we do not normally pay attention to it, our abdomen expands every time we breath in and contractse very time we breathe out - the 'rising and falling of the abdomen' as Mahasi Sayadaw put it.

Therefore this is one of the method to practice Insights Meditation that you can consider. Hope this is useful for you.

Welcome your feedback also.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Learning Meditation

Hi Sangha,

If you have not started any meditation. They are many that are available in the market and also in the internet that can teach you the methods to do it. Why not look through the list available? Perhaps, there are some that are able to help you to advance in your spiritual wellbeings.Take a look at the options and most importantly, Practice!!!

May all be Happy and Free from Suffering.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Physical and Mental Pain

In the Sallatha Sutta, the Buddha taught that though the spiritually untrained and trained experience pleasant, painful and neutral feelings, their responses differ. When the first is touched by physical pain, one tends to worry, grieve, lament and even become distraught. It is as if one suffers from two feelings (physical and mental pain), as if shot by another (mental) arrow after being shot by a physical one. One develops the tendency to resent the pain, while seeking sense pleasures to quell it, due to not knowing other means to escape. When the tendency to attach to pleasant feelings set in, one is unmindful that they rise and fall, of the perils of not knowing how to transcend them. Neutral feelings then nurture the tendency of ignorance, while aversion to pain and attachment to pleasure fetter one to the cycle of rebirth.When the spiritually trained is touched by inevitable physical pain, one does not worry, grieve, lament or become distraught.

Being shot by only one arrow, while not shooting oneself with another, there is only the physical feeling experienced, with no painful mental feeling added. As one does not develop the tendency to resist the pain, one does not seek sense pleasures to quell it, because one is aware of the true means to escape. Since the tendency to attach to pleasant feelings does not set in, one is mindful that they rise and fall, of the perils of not knowing how to transcend them. Neutral feelings then do not nurture the tendency of ignorance, while aversion to pain and attachment to pleasure do not fetter one to rebirth.

The Buddha himself was the best example of how the above can be done. In the Sakalika Sutta, the Buddha was lying down to nurse his foot pierced by a stone sliver. Despite the physical pains being excuciating, he was unperturbed and endured them mindfully. Hundreds of gods gathered to pay homage, many of whom praised his most excellently developed mind. One even exclaimed that to think the Buddha could ever be truly harmed was being blind. Indeed! Here's a reverse example... A girl who visited a dentist to remove an aching tooth returned with multiple cuts in her mouth. Due to her imagined and aggravated anguish over the little pain that she would feel before extraction, she had 'shot' herself with many needless 'arrows' by fidgetting in fear, while sharp surgical instruments were in her mouth

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

How are you doing?

Dear Sangha,

I hope you have practice your meditation deligently. You will be able to penetrate into the truth and nothing but the truth. This is true wisdom.

May all be Happy and Free from Suffering

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A Poem by Upasika Kee

Here is a poem by Upasika Kee Nanayon about the mind training:

With no struggling, no thinking,
The Mind, is still,
Will see cause and effect
Vanishing in the Void.
Attached to nothing, letting go:
Know that this is the way
to allay all stress.

I think this is a wonderful poems for meditation. Don't you agree?

Friday, June 12, 2009

The Way

Budhha along with all the great masters has shown you to way and can only tell you the path to follow. The rest is up to you and that Budhha can not do it for you.

In that path, what you experience and what you encounter is for you and you only. The destination is to reach enlightenment through an untangled knowing and not from reading this blog sites or any books about enlightenment.

So my friends, walk the path and see for yourself!!!!

Insights Meditation

To practice Insights Meditation, I felt that the following factors are important:

1) Patience
2) Practice meditating regularly if not everyday
3) Persistent

Be patient is the key word you should bear in mind. An impatient mind will also break the silence that you are trying to achieve. For readers who have read many books on meditation, you will probably be expecting some signs to appear. Forget about that, as you will bound to encounter false signs ( Imagination from your mind) which is probably not the one you been seeking.

Practice regularly, as meditation and concentration will build momentum as you practice more. As the saying goes, Practice make perfect!!!

Persistent in your practice, never make excuses for not doing it. If you make just one excuses not to do it, you will eventually lose the momentum soon.

Remember, everyone will progress differently so please do not give up.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Do You Practise What You Preach?

In the Sikkha Sutta, the Buddha spoke of four kinds of persons - (1) those who practise the Dharma for their own benefit (e.g. observe the five precepts of not: killing, stealing, having sexual misconduct, lying and taking intoxicants, while not encouraging others to), (2) those who practise not for their own benefit but for others' (e.g. not observe the precepts, while encouraging others to), (3) those who practise for neither one nor others' benefit (e.g. neither observing the precepts nor encouraging others to) and (4) those who practise for both their own and others' benefit (e.g. observe the precepts while encouraging others to). According to the Hita Sutta, one who is endowed with the five qualities of being consummate in virtue, (meditative) concentration, (wise) discernment, liberation (release), and knowledge & vision (Dharma theory & realisation) of liberation (4) practises to benefit oneself and others. Of course, one would exemplify compassion too, in sharing the Dharma. With such qualities, the Raga-vinaya Sutta describes such a person to be in the process of subduing passion (attachment), aversion and delusion within oneself while encouraging others without to do the same. Every one of us would surely fall into one of the four categories.In short, (1) some practise; (2) some preach; (3) some neither practise nor preach; and (4) some practise what they preach (best not in preachy ways)! The best inspiration would be the Buddha, who fully embodied the perfect Dharma he practised and preached. There is simply no better way to encourage others to practise and preach the Dharma than to personally do both well to benefit them! It is natural to fall into the (3) 'neither practise nor preach' category at first, before 'upgrading' to the (1) practise-only or (2) preach-only categories. When one truly benefits from the Dharma personally, one is likelier to further upgrade, to (4) preach while one practises. So long as not a Buddha yet, it takes effort to upgrade and maintain one's grade! – Shen Shi’anLearn more of what you practise; Practise more of what you learn. Practise more of what you preach; Preach more of what you practise. - Stonepeace

Monday, June 8, 2009

Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-82)

Before becoming a leading meditation master, Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw was already known as a learned scholar and teacher of the Pali scriptures. He became a monk on reaching the age of twenty, the earliest age at which full ordination is possible, with the name of Sobhana. In the following years he pursued higher Pali and Buddhist studies, attained the highest scholastic distinctions and devoted himself for some time to the teaching of these subjects.

The day came, however, at the age of twenty-eight, when he felt the powerful need to move on from the sphere of intellectual understanding and exposition to that of intensive practice. Accordingly, taking up the bare requisites of a wandering monk's life, he left the reowned monastery where he has been teaching and set out, like one of the early disciples of the Buddha, in search of a master who could train him in a clear and effective method for the practice of meditation. He found him in the person of the Venerable Mingun Jetawan Sayadaw. Under the guidance of this highly competent master, Mahasi Sayadaw undertook intensive meditation training based on the four foundations of mindulness, the beginning with the contemplation of the body and made considerable progress. In 1941, in the eighteenth year of his ordination, he decided to return to his native village, where he took up residence in a local monastery and began teaching systematic practical courses of Vipassana meditation on the basis of the foundation of mindfulness.

Many people, lay persons as well as monks, came to his course and benefited from his instruction. He soon became well known throughout the country as a very effective teacher of insight meditation.

In the next posting, I will be introducing the method he used for vipassana and the way he practice. So stay tune.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Great Masters of Vipassana Meditation- Insight Meditation

Hi all,

Stay tuned in the coming few days, I will be introducing some great masters of Vispassanna Meditation and some of their methods they used to succeed.

Stay tuned and not forget to practice. For only practice will gain wisdom.

Meanwhile take a look at this...........

Friday, June 5, 2009

How a Apprentice Taught His Master Mindfulness

In the Sedaka Sutta, the Buddha shared a very apt analogy on the importance of self-responsibility in practising mindfulness. In this teaching, he spoke of an apprentice acrobat and his master, who instructed him to climb up a bamboo pole to stand on his shoulders. The master suggested, 'Now you watch after me, and I'll watch after you. Thus, protecting one another, watching after one another, we'll show off our skill, receive our reward, and come down safely from the bamboo pole.' To that, the apprentice surprisingly replied, 'But that won't do at all, master. You watch after yourself, and I'll watch after myself, and thus with each of us protecting ourselves, watching after ourselves, we'll show off our skill, receive our reward, and come down safely from the bamboo pole.'The Buddha remarked that mindfulness is likewise practised with the personal intention to watch after oneself before watching others. Yet when one watches after oneself well, one will watch after others well too. This is done by diligently developing mindfulness. Conversely after, when one watches after others, one watches after oneself too. This is done by practising patient harmlessness with loving empathy. Though we might collectively affect one another, we are ultimately responsible for our own physical and spiritual well-being. Even when we have a good teacher who advises us perfectly, the onus is on us to practise mindfulness well. The subject of first priority to be mindful of is ourselves, instead of others.Relating to the acrobats’ act, if we cannot even watch ourselves well, there is no point in watching others, because not watching ourselves well can harm others too. Both ourselves and others around us are directly affected by our mindfulness or the lack of it! The safety of the acrobatic duo thus laid in their individual self-mindfulness, that spills over to mindfulness of the other. If everyone is likewise mindful, there will be peace and harmony for all. Like a balancing act, momentary lapses of mindfulness via careless distraction can lead to dangerous slips. Though it might not always be a matter of physical life and death, it can spell the end of the spiritual life in the moment - till we become sufficiently mindful again! – Shen Shi’an

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Meditation and brain

People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don't. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.
In one area of gray matter, the thickening turns out to be more pronounced in older than in younger people. That's intriguing because those sections of the human cortex, or thinking cap, normally get thinner as we age.
"Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being," says Sara Lazar, leader of the study and a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. "These findings are consistent with other studies that demonstrated increased thickness of music areas in the brains of musicians, and visual and motor areas in the brains of jugglers. In other words, the structure of an adult brain can change in response to repeated practice."
The researchers compared brain scans of 20 experienced meditators with those of 15 nonmeditators. Four of the former taught meditation or yoga, but they were not monks living in seclusion. The rest worked in careers such as law, health care, and journalism. All the participants were white. During scanning, the meditators meditated; the others just relaxed and thought about whatever they wanted.
Meditators did Buddhist "insight meditation," which focuses on whatever is there, like noise or body sensations. It doesn't involve "om," other mantras, or chanting.
"The goal is to pay attention to sensory experience, rather than to your thoughts about the sensory experience," Lazar explains. "For example, if you suddenly hear a noise, you just listen to it rather than thinking about it. If your leg falls asleep, you just notice the physical sensations. If nothing is there, you pay attention to your breathing." Successful meditators get used to not thinking or elaborating things in their mind.
Study participants meditated an average of about 40 minutes a day. Some had been doing it for only a year, others for decades. Depth of the meditation was measured by the slowing of breathing rates. Those most deeply involved in the meditation showed the greatest changes in brain structure. "This strongly suggests," Lazar concludes, "that the differences in brain structure were caused by the meditation, rather than that differences in brain thickness got them into meditation in the first place."
Lazar took up meditation about 10 years ago and now practices insight meditation about three times a week. At first she was not sure it would work. But "I have definitely experienced beneficial changes," she says. "It reduces stress [and] increases my clarity of thought and my tolerance for staying focused in difficult situations."
Controlling random thoughts
Insight meditation can be practiced anytime, anywhere. "People who do it quickly realize that much of what goes on in their heads involves random thoughts that often have little substance," Lazar comments. "The goal is not so much to 'empty' your head, but to not get caught up in random thoughts that pop into consciousness."
She uses this example: Facing an important deadline, people tend to worry about what will happen if they miss it, or if the end product will be good enough to suit the boss. You can drive yourself crazy with unproductive "what if" worry. "If, instead, you focus on the present moment, on what needs to be done and what is happening right now, then much of the feeling of stress goes away," Lazar says. "Feelings become less obstructive and more motivational."
The increased thickness of gray matter is not very much, 4 to 8 thousandths of an inch. "These increases are proportional to the time a person has been meditating during their lives," Lazar notes. "This suggests that the thickness differences are acquired through extensive practice and not simply due to differences between meditators and nonmeditators."
As small as they are, you can bet those differences are going to lead to lots more studies to find out just what is going on and how meditation might better be used to improve health and well-being, and even slow aging.
More basic questions need to be answered. What causes the increased thickness? Does meditation produce more connections between brain cells, or more blood vessels? How does increased brain thickness influence daily behavior? Does it promote increased communication between intellectual and emotional areas of the brain?
To get answers, larger studies are planned at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard-affiliated facility where Lazar is a research scientist and where these first studies were done. That work included only 20 meditators and their brains were scanned only once.
"The results were very encouraging," Lazar remarks. "But further research needs to be done using a larger number of people and testing them multiple times. We also need to examine their brains both before and after learning to meditate. Our group is currently planning to do this. Eventually, such research should reveal more about the function of the thickening; that is, how it affects emotions and knowing in terms of both awareness and judgment."
Slowing aging?
Since this type of meditation counteracts the natural thinning of the thinking surface of the brain, could it play a role in slowing - even reversing - aging? That could really be mind-boggling in the most positive sense.
Lazar is cautious in her answer. "Our data suggest that one small bit of brain appears to have a slower rate of cortical thinning, so meditation may help slow some aspects of cognitive aging," she agrees. "But it's important to remember that monks and yogis suffer from the same ailments as the rest of us. They get old and die, too. However, they do claim to enjoy an increased capacity for attention and memory."
Source: Harvard University (By William J. Cromie)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

What is Vipassana or Insight Meditation?

Vipassana (insight meditation) is the ultimate expression of Socrates' dictum, "know thyself." The Buddha discovered that the cause of suffering can actually be erased when we see our true nature. This is a radical insight. It means that our happiness does not depend on manipulating the external world. We only have to see ourselves clearly— a much easier proposition (but in the ultimate sense, knowing oneself with clarity reveals there is no permanent self, as the Buddha taught).
Vipassana meditation is a rational method for purifying the mind of the mental factors that cause distress and pain. This simple technique does not invoke the help of a god, spirit or any other external power, but relies on our own efforts.
Vipassana is an insight that cuts through conventional perception to perceive mind and matter as they actually are: impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal. Insight meditation gradually purifies the mind, eliminating all forms of attachment. As attachment is cut away, desire and delusion are gradually diluted. The Buddha identified these two factors— desire and ignorance— as the roots of suffering. When they are finally removed, the mind will touch something permanent beyond the changing world. That "something" is the deathless, supramundane happiness, called "Nibbana" in Pali.
Insight meditation is concerned with the present moment— with staying in the now to the most extreme degree possible. It consists of observing body (rupa) and mind (nama) with bare attention.
The word "vipassana" has two parts. "Passana" means seeing, i.e., perceiving. The prefix "vi" has several meanings, one of which is "through." Vipassana-insight literally cuts through the curtain of delusion in the mind. "Vi" can also function as the English prefix "dis," suggesting discernment— a kind of seeing that perceives individual components separately. The idea of separation is relevant here, for insight works like a mental scalpel, differentiating conventional truth from ultimate reality. Lastly, "vi" can function as an intensive, in which case "vipassana" means intense, deep or powerful seeing. It is an immediate insight experienced before one's eyes, having nothing to do with reasoning or thinking.
Is insight meditation a religion?
No. Although it was discovered by the Buddha, insight meditation is not Buddhism. It is the method by which the Buddha and his disciples freed themselves from every form of suffering and attained awakening. This simple technique is a democratic method, open to people of any faith or those who ascribe to none.
Is insight meditation an escape from reality?
No. On the contrary, it is the ultimate confrontation with reality.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

THE TWO BROTHERS

The Pali Texts give an example of how the thought one has when accomplishing kamma may account for one’s character when that kamma produces rebirth: it is The Buddha’s account of one Jotika’s past lives.

Once, in the very distant past, there were two brothers. They owned a large field of sugar-cane. One day, the younger brother offered some sugar-cane juice to a Pacceka-Buddha. After he had offered the juice, he aspired for three things: that his offering would result in his enjoying
glory in the human world, that it would result in his enjoying glory in the deva world, and that it would eventually be a supporting cause for him to attain Arahantship. Afterwards, on behalf of his elder brother, he offered some more sugar-cane juice to the Pacceka-Buddha, which the Pacceka- Buddha took back to his dwelling, to share with other Pacceka-Buddhas. When the younger brother told his elder brother about his offering, the elder brother was filled with great joy, and made an aspiration. But he did not aspire for three things. He aspired for only one thing: Arahantship. When the two brothers passed away, they were reborn in the deva world. Then, at the time of Buddha Vipassi, they were again reborn as brothers in a good family. When they attained to manhood, they married, established a family, and lived as householders. Then, one day, they heard that a Buddha had appeared in the world. Together with many other householders, they went to see The Buddha, to make offerings, and to listen to the Dhamma. As The Buddha was teaching the Dhamma, the elder brother developed a very strong desire to renounce the household life and become a bhikkhu: he was the one who had aspired for only Arahantship. His desire was so powerful that he gave over all his property to his younger brother, ordained as a bhikkhu, and soon put an end to suffering with Arahantship. But his younger brother could not give up the household life: he was still too attached to sensual pleasures, and so could not put an end to suffering. Instead, the younger brother made
great offerings of requisites to The Buddha and Sa]gha: he offered even
a magnificent dwelling for The Buddha.
The elder brother had in that life put an end to rebirth, but his younger brother continued in the round of rebirth from The Buddha Vipassi’s time till our Buddha Gotama’s time. For many, many aeons, he continued being reborn. Owing to the many wholesome kammas he had accomplished, he was reborn now in the deva world, now in the human
world. Only at our Buddha’s time, as the treasurer Jotika, was he finally
able to renounce sensual pleasures, and become a bhikkhu. Only in that
life was he finally able to put an end to suffering, by becoming an Arahant.
When He had explained how the two brothers had fared differently because
of their different thoughts when accomplishing wholesome kamma, The Buddha uttered the following verse:

Whoever, craving (taha) having given up, a wandering homeless one,
with craving and existence consumed, such a one do I call a Brahman.
Craving and existence consumed is the same as to say that the clogbound
dog has severed the rope binding it to the strong post or pillar.
And it has managed to throw off the clog that was bound to its neck.

That is, with attainment of the Noble Path, and eventually Arahantship, the uneducated, ordinary person has severed the rope of craving (taha), has managed to throw off the clog of identity view (sakkaya di;;hi), has got released from the strong post of the five clinging-aggregates (paƱc·upadana·kkhandha): she or he has escaped from the round of rebirth
(samsara).

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

What is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (samudaya-sacca)? In the Dhammacakkapavatana Sutta the Buddha taught that craving is Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (samudayasacca).
In Nidana Vagga Samyutta the Buddha taught that the dependent origination is also samudaya-
sacca. So ignorance (avijja), craving (tanha), clinging (upadana), volitional formations (savkhara),
and kammic force (kamma) are all samudaya-sacca. In short, all wholesome kammic forces
that can lead to renewed existence and all unwholesome kammic forces are samudaya-sacca. In theSacca Vibhavga the Buddha taught samudaya-sacca in five ways:
1. Craving (tanha) is samudaya-sacca.
2. The ten defilements (greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, wrong view, doubt, sloth, restlessness,
lack of moral shame, lack of moral dread) are also samudaya-sacca.
3. All unwholesome states (akusala dhamma) are samudaya-sacca.
4. All unwholesome states and three wholesome roots (alobha, adosa, amoha) that can lead to
renewed existence are samudaya-sacca.
5. All wholesome states that can lead to renewed existence and all unwholesome states, or all
wholesome kammic forces that can lead to renewed existence and all unwholesome kammic
forces are samudaya-sacca.
Both dukkha-sacca dhammas and samudaya-sacca dhammas are objects of vipassana insight
knowledge, so if you want to practice vipassana to make an end to suffering, first you should try to understand them.
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