The Boat
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".
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.
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:
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
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