WRONG!

As a Buddhist learning to walk the Noble Path,

we should never be ashamed to own that we had been wrong,

which is but saying,

that we are wiser today than we were yesterday

Religion, Conflicts and Greed

Why there are so many conflicts everywhere between and within groups, religions, etc.

Why is it that there are so many differences between Man and his neighbour?

Despite what the American declaration of Independence alludes to in stating that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal", Man is manifestedly NOT born equal. Some are more intelligent than others, some born rich and privileged while many are dirt poor, many more beautiful, and a few have innate qualities of virtue, compassion, etc which are simply not found in others.

Man is basically Greedy, firstly for himself and then for his family, and this is in fact what drives him to material success, greed being the grease which drives the wheels of commerce. Hence we do not have a homogenous breed of humans, but humans who will think of himself first, his family second before society as a whole, humans who not only differ intellectually but also in attitudes, culture, religion and priorities. And this leads to many conflicts in our social, political and economic lives.

With regards to religious conflicts, if man has attained to the truths of life, seen it, understood it and internalised it in his thoughts, speech and action, then he will be a perfected being. He will no longer be searching for the truth, for his task is complete. Done is what needs to be done.

But being still seekers of the truth, we are imperfect, hence the religion that man creates or invents for himself to use in his search is necessarily also imperfect. The religions of man are always evolving as our thoughts and needs change with time. An objective look at the histories of the mainstream religions of the world over the centuries will see an ongoing process of transformation.

The great teachers taught us HOW TO LIVE, they did not create any religion but their students in the subsequent generations certainly did create rites, rituals and creeds formalised as religions. But even such prototype religions continued to evolve as MAN DEMANDED. Imperfect man put the words of their teacher as they understood it down into words that they can understand, this in turn is interpreted by equally imperfect man, sometimes completely distorting the original words of the teacher.

When it comes to dogma that cannot be challenged but is accepted on faith, what this effectively means is that we cannot challenge the beliefs of an earlier generation of man! This is essentially Faith in men who have faith in the men before them. Organised religions are institutions of imperfect men hence are fundamentally flawed, yet must be treated as unfailing.

Imperfect man makes use of Religion as the scapegoat for a great deal of violence. His greed, hatred, ill will and delusions is now riding on the vehicle of religion to attain his aims. These I believe, are some of the reasons why there are so many religious conflicts within and without.

To make it worse, many religious leaders have the attitude that "Religion is not a salad bar", meaning you take a religion, the whole religion and nothing but the religion so help you God. This 'exclusive' manner will of course lead to even more divisions and conflicts even within family members.

What we call ourselves, which religion our IC states we belong to is unimportant. Religion is not in the creed that we profess but in the life that we lead. And our actions speak so loud that hardly anyone can hear what we preach!

So many gods, so many creeds,

So many beliefs that wind and twist,

While just the art of being kind,

Is basically what this sad world needs.

My religion is very simple,

It's simply kindness!

Safety fuses

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence.

The only consequence is what we do.

All our volitional actions BEGIN from a thought. Right view leads to Right thoughts which when translated into action becomes Right actions.

To the person not well trained in watching his/her mind, he/she may well act when a thought impulse arises. To control an unwholesome thought from being translated into an unwholesome act, we keep the Precepts! This is our first level safety switch applicable to all levels of trainees.

We are trained in Insight Meditation to note all our arising thoughts, see it and let it go. We do not make it 'OURS' unless we choose to intentionally act on that thought. A passing thought will come every few seconds and being unenlightened beings, there will be many Unwholesome thoughts that will arise. This we note and let go, NOT acting on the unwholesome. We are thus NOT controlled by our thoughts but will act only on the good and wholesome; this is a more refined state of consciousness and a better safety switch but should we lapse in our objective thought awareness, we still have our PRECEPTS as a safety fuse!

The well trained will note his/her thoughts arising and falling away; he/she sees the arising of Latent Defilements clearly when the conditions for them to arise is there. But he/she has learnt to just note and let go, NOT ACTING unless he/she chooses to. There is hence NO Volitional act to create kamma.

The enlightened being has NO defilements, hence NO arising Unwholesome thoughts irrespective of the environment.

Gradual Training

The word "MEDITATION"

There are many types of meditation; in fact the word itself carries a huge cultural baggage and depending on one's education and cultural milieu, one can have a very different image of what this may mean compared to another. Some aspects of meditation aim to still the mind, another aim to create a wholesome mindstate of Love and Compassion while yet another serves for the yogi to see the harsh realities of life directly.The word often translated as "meditation" that is used by the Lord Buddha is "Bhavana" which actually means 'the training of the Mind' and this encompasses a wide spectrum of behavioural and mental disciplines.

Misunderstanding a technical term

The term 'detach' does NOT refer to running away from reality or escapism, on the contrary it refers to confronting emotions directly and objectively from the perspective of an observer so that it is seen without bias. It serves to train oneself to handle the emotional rollercoasters of life with an even minded and calm mind, not reacting based on past conditioning or reflexly, but with rationality which requires a calm objective approach.

Present moment awareness, Inspect NOT expect, Letting Go

The aim of Insight Meditation is to help the yogi see the truths of life within the experiences of his own mind and body. There is No denial of anything pleasant or unpleasant. All experiences are acknowledged as an arising experience to be seen and 'let go off ', i.e. 'unattached to'. Even the 'Dark sides' of one's lives are seen objectively as and when the thought or emotion arises, the yogi is taught specifically NOT to push away or deny any arising phenomena but to "Inspect NOT expect", inspecting all arising phenomena like a scientist inspecting the reactions in a test tube.

Foundation training FIRST

'Meditation' or mental training is a discipline based on the foundation of Morality and doing good deeds, Virtue. It is NOT and cannot be a single legged table. It similarly requires the development of Metta Bhavana i.e. the simultaneous development of a mind filled/ saturated with Love and Compassion.

The yogi is thus a well disciplined individual, virtuous and generous with himself and others, besides being a happy contented person whose mindstate is that of a Loving kind person... in the context of this background, he/she searches for the basic realities of life within his/her bodily and mental experiences. The Buddha is clear that the training process is a graduated one based on clear structured "DOs and DON'Ts". If one tries to short circuit the training and finds 'undesired results', the fault is not the method but the approach.

Ego and Non-Self

A skilled teacher will NOT ask anyone to "kill their egos", instead one sees the delusion of the Ego by oneself when one observes the body and mind. The teachings of 'Non self' is very profound and it takes a well prepared mind to understand it. Pushing a neophyte to understand such profound truths is akin to asking a primary schoolchild to understand quantum physics, the occasional genius will see it clearly but the vast majority will be confused.

The Final Result: Right Insight and Right Liberation

The true goal of meditation is to see the Truths of life directly for oneself, INSIGHT; it is certainly NOT emptying the Mind or simply calming the mind. A sedative will do better in both occasions but will not help the mind be any wiser. Seeing the realities of the Impermanence of everything in life and adjusting ourselves to this reality is what lessens suffering, ultimately understanding the Truths of life fully is what frees us from all suffering. Furthermore meditation is not an half hour affair on a cushion BUT a discipline in attitudes, responses and perception that is used or applied in the other hours of the day.

Partial understanding of the path is Not only Incomplete but Wrong!

My Religion

So many gods, so many creeds,

So many beliefs that wind and twist,

While just the art of being kind,

Is basically what this sad world needs.

My religion is very simple,

It's simply kindness!