Buddhism As Education

Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt are the roots of all natural disasters. They are also the root cause of human diseases. When one has the cause of illness - greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt - in one's mind, one tends to feel resentment, hatred, vexation, anger and annoyance and these give rise to thoughts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying. The retribution will be the malfunction of internal organs and the occurrence of diseases and epidemics. When we as ordinary people, looking around us, we see only the illusory, ever-changing phenomena, not the truth of these phenomena. It is like looking at a stormy sea. we tend to see waves and surf. We forget the truth. What is the truth? The truth is that the waves and surf are water. When the Buddha said that all phenomena are empty, he meant that the condition is empty; all the phenomena do not have self-nature and are empty in themselves. Everything is empty and without self. "Self...

Death is the dissolution of khandhas. The khandhas are the five aggregates of perception, sensation, mental formations, consciousness and corporeality or matter. The first four are mental aggregates or nama, forming the unit of consciousness. The fifth, rupa is the material or physical aggregate. This psycho-physical combination is conventionally named an individual, person or ego. Therefore, whatever entities exist are not individual as such, but the two primary constituents of mind and matter, which are rare phenomena. We do not see the five aggregates as phenomenas but as anentity because of our deluded minds and our innate desire to treat these as a self in order to pander to our self-importance. We will be able to see things as they truly are if we only have patience and the will to do so. If we turn inwards to the recesses of our own minds ad note with just that bare attention, note objectively without projecting an ego in the process and then cultivate this practice for a...

Let us all examine how the Buddha solve this problem for two person who, through attachment, were both deeply grieved by death of their love ones. One person is Kisagotami. Her only child hd died after being attacked by a serpent. She went to the Buddha carrying the dead child in her arms to seek for help. The Buddha then asked her to bring a few mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. But she could not find such a family everywhere. Every house that she had visited was either in mourning or had mourned over a death at one time or another. Then she realised the bitter truth: that death is universal. Death strikes all and spares no one. sorrow is the heritage of everyone of us. The other person whom the Buddha advised was Patacara. Her case was even sadder. Within a short period, she lost her two children, husband, brother, parents and all her possessions. Losing her sense, she ran naked and wild in the streets until she met the Buddha. The Buddha brought her back to s...

The term "floods" speaks for itself : the overwhelmed, swept-along feeling that comes as we get plunged into stress and suffering. In the Buddhist texts, the word is sometimes used in the broad sense of the mind being overwhelmed by sorrow, lamentation and despair in full-blown dukkha or to the existential dukkha of our being carried along in the flood of ageing, sickness and death. On occasion, the floods refer to five key hindrances that clog the mind :  sense craving, ill-will, dullness and torpor, restless worry and doubt. Meditators in particular know how any of these five can hinder the mind from realizing the clarity and peace that they are aiming for. In the most specific use however, the floods (ogha) refer to four currents, also called "outflows" (asava), that run underneath the bubbling stream of mental activity. There they remain unseen but yet direct the flow of that stream. Sounds eerie? Well if you sit still in silence for a little while, with ...

As to what specific meditation practices you should engage with, take the topic of impermanence as an example. The significance on impermanence and death is not just to terrify yourself, there is no point in simply making yourself afraid of death. The purpose of meditating on impermanence and death is to remind us of the preciousness of the opportunities that exist for us in life as a human being. Reminding ourselves that death is inevitable, it is time unpredictable and when it happens only spiritual practice is of benefit gives us a sense of urgency and enable us to truly appreciate the value of our human existence and our potential to fulfill the highest of spiritual aspirations. If we can develop this profound appreciation, we will treat every single day as extremely precious. As spiritual practitioners, it is very important for us to constantly familiarize our thoughts and emotions with the idea of death so that it does not arrive as something unexpected. We need to accept ...

If there is a threat, we should seek refuge from it. Similarly in the context of spiritual practice, to protect ourselves from the threat of an unfavourable rebirth, we should seek refuge in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddhism teaches three different levels of refuge. The first is where we seek protection from the immediate threat of the suffering of rebirth in a lower realm of existence. Inspired by the greater fear that this possibility evokes, we seek refuge in the Three Jewels in order to avoid it. This level of refuge is relevant to initial scope of practitioners, whose goal is to attain an upper rebirth. When we think of the lower realms of existence, we should not think of some place far away in the distant future. All that actually lies between the present moment and the next life is simply the continuity of our breath. The moment we stop breathing, when we breathe out an don't breathe in, the next life is right there in front of us. It is not a m...

"Our practice here is not to grasp anything", a chief monk told a young monk. "But isn't it necessary to hold onto things sometimes?", the younger monk protested. "With the hands, yes, but not with the heart", the chief monk replied. "When the heart grasp what is painful, it is like being bitten by a snake and when through desire, it grasp what is pleasant, it is just grasping the tail of the snake. It only takes a little while longer for the head of the snake to come around to bite you. "Make this non grasping and mindfulness the guardian of your heart, like a parent. Then your likes and dislikes will come calling like children. 'I don't like that, mummy. I want more of that, Daddy'. Just smile and say, 'Sure, kid'. 'But mummy, I really want an elephant'. 'Sure, kid'. 'I want candy, can we go for an airplane ride?' There is no problem if you can let them come and go without grasping". ...

As you grow in Dharma, you should have a teacher to instruct and advise you. The matter of concentrating the mind, of samadhi, is much misunderstood, phenomena occur in meditation that otherwise do not normally arise. when this happens, a teacher's guidance is crucial, especially in those areas in which you have wrong understanding. Often where he corrects you will be just where you thought you were right. In the complexity of your thinking, one view may obscure the other and you get fooled. Respect your teacher and follow the rules or system of practise. If the teacher says to do something, do it. If he says to desist, then desist. This allows you to make an honest effort and leads to making knowledge and vision manifest in your mind. If you do as I am saying, you will see and know. True teachers speak only of the difficult practise of giving up or getting rid of the self. whatever may happen, do not abandon the teacher. Let him guide you, because it is easy to forget the p...

Those just beginning often wonder what practice is. Practice occurs when you try opposing the defilements, not feeding old habits. where friction and difficulty arise, that is the place to work. When you pick mushrooms to eat, you do not do so blindly, you have to know which kind and what. So too with our practice, we must know the dangers, the snakes bite of defilements, in order to free ourselves from them. The defilements - greed, hatred and delusion are at the root of our suffering and our selfishness. We must learn to overcome them, to conquer and go beyond their control, to become masters of our minds. Of course it seems hard. It is like having the Buddha tell you to split up a friend you have known since childhood. The defilements are like a tiger. We should imprison the tiger in a good strong cage made of mindfulness, energy, patience and endurance. Then we can let it starve to death by not feeding its habitual desires. We do not have to take a knife and butcher it. ...

What can we do when we have hurt people and now they cannot consider us to be their enemy? These people might be those in our family, in our community or in another country. We think you know the answer. There are few things to do. The first thing is to take the time to say, "I am sorry, I hurt you out of my ignorance, out of my lack of mindfulness, out of my lack of skillfulness. I will try my best to change myself. I don't dare to say anything more onto you". Sometimes, we do not have the intention to hurt, but because we are not mindful or skillful enough, we hurt someone. Being mindful in our daily life is important, speaking in a way that will not hurt anyone. The second thing to do is to try bring out the best part in ourselves, the part of the flower, to transform ourselves. That is the only way to demonstrate what you have just said. when you have become fresh and pleasant, the other person will notice very soon. Then, when there is a chance to approach t...

One great virtue that the Buddha had in boundless measure, was his unbounded sympathy with the sufferings of humanity, as well as with the sufferings of all the creatures. As a child, he was moved to pity at sight of a wounded swan and nursed it lovingly back to life. As a grown up boy, he felt compassion for the bullocks who were yoked to plough in a hot and sultry day. As a young man, he saw the vision of an old man in dire distress and poverty, of men suffering with all manner of diseases and of widows grieving over their dead that haunted him. As a path-finder, he carried a wounded lamb in his lap and pleaded for it and the other dumb animals in the court of Bimbisar. Supreme Sacrifice Finally, when he had tasted the bliss of Nirvana it was the piteous cry of the world in misery which made him turn back to the world and work ceaselessly for promoting its happiness. Last of all and as a supreme gift and sacrifice, he turned away from the doorstep of Mahaparinirvana to sha...

There is much Dukkha (Sufferings) in the world which is our own doing, we can certainly eradicate it. We can also assuage a lot of Dukkha which is other people's doing. To a world in the grip of Dukkha, the Blessed One has brought the message of deliverance. The Buddha truly stated, "Just one thing do I teach, suffering and deliverance from suffering". In another immortal saying the Buddha had declared "Bikkhus, as the great ocean has put one taste, the taste of deliverance (Vimuthi)". Let us therefore reverently and in full faith listen carefully to His teachings and follow Him steadfastly. For we have His assurance and more than that we hardly need. "I have found the hidden way to truth and trodden it. The truth is here before my eyes for it is very part of me. I have proclaimed to all men how it may be found. Let those who have grown weary of illusion follow in the self-same way".

Another incident of the Lord Buddha's early youth clearly indicates that He had sincerely wished and desired that as humanity progresses on its upward part, it should relieve the domestic animals, from the present grinding burden of the hard physical toil that has been imposed on them by mankind for its own benefit. It is narrated that when the Blessed One was growing into a youth, He was taken by the king to witness the royal ploughing festival in which the king and his ministers and nobles participated with the common man in ploughing the green fields amidst great rejoicing. The Buddha was still too young to actively participate in this colourful event and was therefore left in the care of some attendants under the shade of a rose apple tree. This was perhaps the Buddha's first opportunity at that time to witness a vast congregation of His people who were busy in their toil and grim struggle for existence. The opportunity also came at a time when He was fast growing into wisd...

Impermanence is a keynote in the Buddha's teachings. Down to the smallest dust speck, nothing is permanent. If it was't so, the Buddha had said, then there is nothing to practice for. Everything is conditioned, due to cause and condition joining together to create an effect, different combinations of different conditions giving rise to different effects. In many of His suttas, He tell us to reflect on our condition: Subject to parents who have died or will die one day, how could we ourselves then be permanent?? We therefore cannot progress any further in right understanding without first understanding the first of the Four Noble Truth: The Truth of suffering. The Buddha never used words casually. In this case His choice of the word dukkha had a purpose to show the cause of life. Here it means not so much the suffering of aches and pains but "du" (to be disgusting) + "kkha" (nothing, empty): that is what we assume to be doesn't exist. What we take to be a...