Flowers

Like Flowers

The Blossoms fade, their Fragrance lasteth not;
Even so this body passes to Decay
This empty dream of Self, for pain begot,
Destroyed by time, as night engulfs the day.

Like Clouds of Incense

And swiftly as this perfumed cloud dissolves
The changing Phantoms of the Mind drift by;
From age to age the wheel of Life revolves,
And we are born we suffer and we die.

But there is Light

But in the heart of Universal love
A light more constant shines than this brief candle flame;
The Buddha Truth, all other lamps above
Our Path, Our Refuge and Our Highest Aim.

All the time

There are 3 things always going on.

Just observe them dispassionately and calmly

and we will learn a lot of Dhamma/ Truths

Breathing

Thinking

Ageing

These 3 are going on all the time

Use them as objects to watch,

NOT in formal meditation for half hour

but in LIFE as it flows.

As I sit here typing my back aches slightly

I see it objectively.....

NOT as just pain

but as my impermanent body is undergoing Anicca/ Impermanence

Not BAD or Good BUT just is

A fact of life

And I got NO control over it

Anatta/ NON SELF

and if I cling and moan then there's suffering.... DUKKHA

Meditation is 24/7

NOT half hour

Rich

...............................................................................................................................................

Husband: "Dear, I must work hard so that one day we will be rich..."

Wife: " But darling we are RICH! We have each others' love, company and care, our children are healthy and well behaved, our friends are genuine and kind... what price can one put on all these blessings? Perhaps one day we may have some extra money, but that's a luxury that is optional"

Husband: "Well I thought that with money we can send our children to the best colleges and Universities.."

Wlfe: " Oxford and Cambridge may give them a lovely start in life, perhaps a cushy job and much pay, but a true education goes beyond that, have we taught them the basic principles of life, the 5 basic Precepts, love, respect, responsibilty... if so, they are well educated, universities may teach them much in facts and literature, but life itself is EDUCATION! No "money" can teach that, only loving parents and friends can be the role models for this. Happiness does NOT depend on a certificate from an Ivy League campus, happiness is from how we view life, how we adapt, how we treat each other, NO university can teach that, no curiculum can teach contentment, even we CAN'T by words, BUT ONLY by EXAMPLE".

Leaving alone

The way of focusing on objects in vipassana meditation differs from that of tranquility (samatha) practice. Imagine a juggler. A juggler's focus is touch-and-go. The same is true in insight meditation. "Focus and forget it" is the motto.

The juggler has to focus in order to catch the ball. He has to know where to put his attention, and then keep his mind on that spot. While the next ball is coming toward him, he can't think about the last one. He'll fail if he's distracted by a noise or his gaze drifts away. The meditator, too, has to keep his attention in the present moment or he'll drop the ball— that is, become distracted from the meditation object.

Now for the "forget it" part: as soon as the juggler catches a ball he lets it go— otherwise how could he catch the next one? His attention doesn't stick. He keeps it moving, jumping from one object to the next. What kind of performer would pause to gaze at the ball he'd just caught, unwilling to surrender it because he liked the color?

Likewise, as soon the meditator notes an object he should drop it, or he won't be able to catch the next phenomenon. His attention, although uninterrupted, doesn't cling to anything.

If the same object— a sound, say— appears again after being noted once, the meditator might observe it a second time then let it go again, and so on. He would note, "hearing, hearing,hearing " in a sequence of moments, letting go after each one.

The Boat

The Boat

The Buddha gave very profound teachings: walking the Path is effectively internalising the teachings into our daily lives and in so doing "taking a boat to the other shore".

The teachings bring us to a Goal, the Teachings is the vehicle.

Many 'Buddhists' are however very attached to another boat, "Buddhism the Religion with its many rites and rituals".

The Buddha taught a Way of Life, His followers subsequently created a religion which during colonial times became called "Buddhism". We need to go back to the way of Life as taught by the Buddha, a life of Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity, of Generosity, Morality and Mental Training.

The disease we ALL have is this confusion about the realities of life, akin to looking at a mirage and believing the mirage is water. And we are so thirsty that we really want to believe that it is water. Only very few of us feels relief and not disappointment when the Buddha tells us, ‘That’s a mirage, not water.’ Even though our teacher is telling us it’s just a mirage, most of us don’t want to believe it.

When told of the First Noble Truth of the unsatisfactoriness of life, of its ceaseless change leading to frustrations, we will rather live in denial.

When told that the cause of unhappiness is our insatiable Greed, we argue that the satisfaction of this very Greed gives us Pleasure not pain.

We rather believe in the mirage because it is so easy to belief than to realise the truth which is harsh and sobering. Our training in Wisdom is to see this truth for ourselves.

In early Buddhism there were no Buddhist statues or symbols.It was a way of life, a straight forward and efficient boat. But with time we created these complications, so now we have many traditions, rites, rituals, methods, etc; many boats instead of one efficient one. Such is the situation now that many actually go around shopping for the boat that they like, which fits what they will like to do!

But we must never forget that the boat just helps us reach the other shore. And here, the other shore means understanding fully that everything including my body is going to decay sooner or later(anicca), that as long as I am dependent on this physical body and conditioned existence, pain will result (dukkha) and that there is no such permanent or eternal thing as DrWong but that "DrWong" is a ceaselessly evolving dependent reality (anatta) which exists as a composite of many causes and conditions. With this comes the understanding of supramundane Right View of the 4 Noble Truths, Dependent Origination and the 3 Universal characteristics.

Meditation is a technique that helps us SEE this view again and again and again. Again we must remember that It is a technique, not the goal. Even The Noble 8 Fold Path is not the goal, instead it leads us to the goal of Sama Nana (Right Insight) and Sama Vimutti (Right Liberation).

Along the way, it is very important to release ourselves from this burden of needing to attain something, to BE SOMETHING; for it is NOT in attaining BUT in LETTING GO that the goal is reached.We let go of our Cravings, our Greed, our Anger, our Delusions and finally and ultimately the illusive "Self".

All of us know what meditation is. Meditation is basically doing nothing other than just WATCHING. That’s difficult! Many want to do that but haven’t achieved that yet because we need to do things, either planning or dreaming. The Ego our illusive 'Self' exists only because of past memory which gives it form and endless Cravings which supports its existence. When we are just looking at the present moment there is NO past memories or future planning; during this moment our Ego dissolves and hence we all find just watching the present moment so difficult! Meditation is simply facing the truth or reality of the moment by doing nothing other than Just Watching.

If we want to follow the path of the Buddha, our aim goes beyond seeking the Mundane Happiness of the world. It’s very important to know that. There are Many many ways of attaining Mundane Happiness from eating our favourite fruit (LiuLian!) to watching a Movie to singing! As Dhamma farers, we seek the ultimate peace of Nibbana!

Why? Because worldly happiness is a very fickle, impermanent thing. Today’s happiness is not tomorrow’s happiness. Tomorrow’s happiness is something else the day after tomorrow.

Insight into change teaches us to embrace our experiences without clinging to them — to get the most out of them in the present moment by fully appreciating their intensity, in full knowledge that we will soon have to let them go to embrace whatever comes next.

Insight into change teaches us hope. Because change is built into the nature of things, nothing is inherently fixed, not even our own identity.No matter how bad the situation, it can change for the better.

The Buddha Dhamma is the ideal philosophy for the "FREE THINKER"; for it teaches us to be FREED from all cultural bias, from Traditions and even from Holy Books! It teaches us insteadto THINK for ourselves and only when we find it true, beneficial and leading to Peace, Contentment and the Good of All do we follow it.

Remember the Boat? Its the mechanism to ferry us to a goal. We had loaded that boat with MUCH, so much so that we had forgotten that the boat is to ferry us, not for us to embellish with more rites and rituals... decorations on the boat that are good esthetically but otherwise superfluous for a serious journey. Let us go back to the simple boat which is the Dhamma.

In SN55.6.5, we find the four factors necessary to attain Sotapanna, the first level of Enlightenment:

Associating with persons who understand the true Dhamma

Listening to the true Dhamma

Paying proper attention to what is learned

Living in accordance with the Dhamma, eg keeping the precepts

It is possible for us living today to aspire to this state. The key is to become familiar with the true Dhamma, by attentively listening to and studying the discourses of the Buddha.

AN5.5.26 describes five conditions through which we can become Ariya, a Noble One:

Listening to the Dhamma

Teaching the Dhamma

Repeating the Dhamma

Reflecting on the Dhamma

Meditating

In each situation, the depth of our insights depends on our perfection of the Noble Eightfold Path.

In MN43 it is stated that in the acquiring of Right View when we study the Dhamma, five other conditions must be present to become enlightened:

Morality (sila)

Listening to the Dhamma

Discussion of the Dhamma

Calming of the mind (samatha)

Contemplation (vipassana) leading to insight

This in short is the Boat, all else is superfluous.

--

END

The first link in Dependent Origination is Ignorance, from this base of ignorance our actions whether in thoughts, speech and Bodily action is tainted by Greed, Hatred and Delusion, leading to Sankharas or Kamma Formations.

Rebirth-Producing Kamma

M. 43

Truly, because beings, obstructed by ignorance (avijja) and ensnared by craving (tanha) seek ever fresh delight, now here, now there, thereforefresh rebirth continually comes to be.

A. III. 33

And the action (kamma) that is done out of greed, hatred and delusion, that springs from them, has its source and origin in them: this action ripens wherever one is reborn, and wherever this action ripens there one experiences the fruits of this action, be it in this life, or the next life, or in some future life.

However, For one who is wise, ….

A. III. 33

For the actions which are not done out of greed, hatred and delusion, which have not sprung from them, which have not their source and origin in them: such actions, through the absence of greed, hatred and delusion, are abandoned, rooted out, like a palm-tree torn out of the soil, destroyed, and not able to spring up again.

Cessation of Kamma means the End of Rebirth

M. 43

However, through

1. the fading away of ignorance,

2. through the arising of wisdom,

3. through the extinction of craving,

NO future rebirth takes place again.

In the Enlightened Being, Greed, Hatred and Delusion is DESTROYED

A. VIII. 12

In this respect one may rightly say of me: that I teach annihilation, that I propound my doctrine for the purpose of annihilation, and that I herein train my disciples; for certainly I do teach annihilation - the annihilation, namely, of greed, hatred and delusion, as well as of the manifold evil and unwholesome things.

Dependent Origination, the teaching of the conditionality of all physical and mental phenomena, together with that of Non-Self (anatta), forms the indispensable condition for the understanding and realization of the Buddha's teaching.

It shows that the various physical and mental life-processes, conventionally called personality, man, animal, etc., are not a mere play of blind chance, but the outcome of causes and conditions. Above all, the Paticca-Samupada explains how the arising of rebirth and sufferingis dependent upon conditions; and, in its second part, it shows how, through the removal of these conditions, all suffering must disappear.

"No god, no Brahma can be called

The maker of this wheel of life:

Empty phenomena roll on,

Dependent on conditions all."

(Visuddhi-Magga XIX).

The END of Kamma

S. XII. 51

A disciple, however, in whom Ignorance (avijja) has disappeared and wisdom arisen, such a disciple heaps up neither meritorious, nor demeritorious, nor imperturbable Kamma-formations..

" Furthermore, a sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die, is unagitated, and is free from longing. He has nothing whereby he would be born. Not being born, will he age? Not aging, will he die? Not dying, will he be agitated? Not being agitated, for what will he long? "