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The Minding Centre, based in Singapore,
of Piya Tan’s Dharma ministry. It was founded in 2006 to provide Dharma-based non-religious service to those who seek wisdom, counsel and solace. It also serves as a haven and hub for those seeking Dharma by way of meditation and education, Sutta study and translation, and spirituality. The Centre also supports, and promotes Piya Tan in his full-time Buddhist ministry, so that his works and legacy will grow and last.
The Sutta Discovery Series
The Sutta Discovery Series is a title in the Living Word of the Buddha project, whose mission is to inspire and facilitate Buddhist Studies, both in a Dharma-centred and an academic manner for personal development outreach effort in local and global scale. The Minding Centre and the Living Word of the Buddha project are motivated and guided by the vision of mere Buddhism.
The mere Buddhist vision
We aspire to learn, teach and practise mere Dharma, or just Dharma, that is, “non-religious Buddhism,” for a direct vision and taste of the Buddha Dharma, so that it is open to all who seek true stillness and liberating wisdom. We aspire to compassionately and joyfully proclaim the possibility, necessity and urgency of gaining spiritual liberation in this life itself—at least as streamwinners, with or without dhyana—in keeping with the Okkanti Samyutta (S 25). Mere Buddhism is easy: live it and be free
Piya Tan (1949-?2030)
Piya Tan, a former Theravada monk of 20 years, is doing an annotated translation of the early Pali Suttas, harmonizing between the historical critical method and Dharma-moved inspiration, and teaching them. Piya specializes in early Buddhism and its application today. His Sutta translations are especially popular with the forest monastics.
In the 1980s, working closely with Dr Ang Beng Choo, project director of the Buddhist Studies Team (BUDS), Piya was regular teacher and lecturer. BUDS successfully introduced Buddhist Studies in secondary schools.
After that, he was invited by Prof Lewis Lancaster as a visiting scholar to the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He has written a number of educational books on Buddhism and social comments (such as Buddhist Currents and Charisma in Buddhism).
As a full-time Dharma teacher, he runs regular Sutta and Dharma classes at various temples, centres and tertiary Buddhist societies. He practises Buddhist counseling therapy using a combination of Forest-Insight meditation and Sutta-based psychology.
Piya often critically writes on contemporary Buddhist-related issues, and often speaks out against the misinformation, misuse and abuse of Buddhism. He sees Buddhism as a humanistic and life-affirming way to spiritual awakening, and has great faith in gaining it in this life.
In his free time, he loves teaching his children and Ratna to think critically and enjoy the wonders of nature. [More info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piya_Tan)]
Make this a gift to a monastic or someone who needs it
The Living Word of the Buddha
The Buddha’s Teachings in the Earliest Texts
The Sutta Discovery series by Piya Tan, beginning in 2002, and still going on.
The most direct way to learn Buddhism is to read and live the Pali suttas which contains some of the oldest records we have of the Buddha’s teachings. As we search these scriptures, we will discover ourselves amidst their stories, teachings and practices, and even take a first step towards spiritual awakening.
This series will also help you learn how to learn and master the Pali Canon: to locate suttas, teachings and stories, and have an idea of how Suttas are transmitted and translated. Wherever feasible, comparative studies will be made between the Pali, Sanskrit and Chinese (Agama) versions of the suttas. If you can read this message, you are ready to study the Sutta translations. No deep knowledge of Buddhism is needed. [Read on for.... 20 reasons for the SD series.]
Portable Dharma - easy dharma learning wherever you are
(https://forum.sangham.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdharmafarer.org%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F05%2FUSB-Dharma-Drive-4GB-300x168.jpg&hash=a2d1da7271cea63c00faf05329b06f7c1339ab96)
The drive contains Sutta Discovery vols 1-38 & 40b (pdf), sutta teachings (MP3 recordings) & books by Piya Tan.
To make an order (by donation), please email: themindingcentre@gmail.com, or call Ratna Lim at hp 8211 0879.
From Piya Tan
More and more of us reading the Suttas (in translation) continue to be amazed at their simple beauty and deeper joy. What more is there to say? Hope you will try seeing the Suttas directly for yourself. Contact us for the Suttas.
Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio.
Let go, get it
In the (Kassapa) Ovada Sutta 3 (S 16.8 ), the Buddha warns Maha Kassapa (who assembled the first Buddhist council three months after the Buddha’s passing) of the future decline of the sangha (the monastic community) and Buddhism as a whole:- Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa -
Formerly, Kassapa, there were elders of the order who were forest dwellers, almsfood eaters, rag-robe wearers, triple-robe users, with few wishes, content, lovers of solitude, aloof from society, exertive, and energetic––and they spoke in praise of these qualities.
Then, when such a monk visited a monastery, he was warmly welcomed and honoured as being dedicated to the practice of the Dharma. Then the newly ordained monks would also strive to emulate him in his way of life, and as such would lead to their welfare and happiness for a long time.
But now, Kassapa, the elders are no longer forest dwellers, nor almsfood eaters, nor rag-robe wearers, nor triple-robe users, nor are they with few wishes, nor are they content, nor do they love solitude, nor are they aloof from society, nor are they exertive or energetic––nor do they speak in praise of these qualities.
Now, it is the monk who is well known and famous, one who gains robes, almsfood, lodgings and medical requisites, that the elder monks invite to a seat, saying, “Come, bhikshu. What is this monk’s name? This is an excellent monk. This monk is keen on the company of his brothers in the holy life. Come, bhikshu, here’s a seat, sit down.” Then the newly ordained monks will also strive to emulate him, and that leads to their harm and suffering for a long time.
Kassapa, one would be speaking rightly to say, “Those leading the holy life are ruined by the ruin of those who lead the holy life. Those leading the holy life are defeated by the defeat of those who lead the holy life.” (S 6.18/2:208-210), SD 88.5
The main drift of this warning or prophecy is that the decline and fall of the monastics––as it is, too, in the case of lay Buddhist leaders and teachersoccur on account of the wrong Buddhist examples they emulate or set, or holding wrong views or promoting them.[1]
At the time of writing, there is some discussion on the possibility of “compassionate violence” on an academic forum. Take, for example, this assertion from Asanga’s Bodhisattva,bhumi, that,[2]
“If I extinguish the life of that evil sentient being I will fall into hell; if I don’t, numerous heinous crimes will be committed (by him) so he will experience great suffering (in the future in recompense). I will kill him and fall into hell so that in the end he won't have to experience interminable suffering.
The Bodhisattva deeply ponders whether his intention toward that sentient being is with a karmically-wholesome mind or a karmically neutral mind. Knowing what the future [fruit] of this affair will be, he feels profound shame; with a sympathetic mind he extinguishes that one’s life. For that reason, nothing is transgressed, but, instead, numerous merits issue forth from the Bodhisattva's moral discipline.”[3]
If nothing is transgressed, responds another scholar, why does the Bodhisattva go to hell? Going to hell isn't usually portrayed as a consequence of doing a deed from which numerous merits issue. This sounds like a typical muddle of the sort we often find in the Bodhisattva literature.[4]
There is only one true purpose in becoming a Buddhist, or more correctly, in following the Dharma, that is, to awaken like the Buddha. The Dharma has only one taste, the taste of spiritual freedom. This is the freedom of awakening from our worldly sleep to nirvanic wakefulness.
We can call ourselves by any name we like – Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen, or their various sects and schools – or align ourselves with any cultural form of Buddhism – Indian, Sinhala, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian, or western – or claim to turn the Wheel a second, third, fourth or how many times. These may be useful labels for living in this world, and making friends, even fame and wealth. But the Buddha’s teachings remind us to look deeper into ourselves, where true culture lies.
These worldly manifestations of Buddhism are fine if we study them critically as open-minded students or scholars. However, they are not helpful for deeper and liberating meditation, and if we lack living roots in the sutta teachings of the Buddha, then we are just priding and fooling ourselves as weeds and weevils on the Bodhi tree. The perspicacious and posterity will know us for what we really were.
Every view we hold uncritically is a step backwards on the path to awakening. Every negative emotion or clever twist of the Dharma towards worldliness simply keeps us rutted right where we are, chained to our own views like a tortoise turned turtle helplessly unable to move -- because of the very shell that shelters it. Views are dry, dark and dead shells: we need to break through them to live in the light and space of true reality.
If the Dharma does not flow in us like our life-giving blood, then we have not awakened to the Dharma. If we do not breathe the Dharma with every breath, then we are not yet born. We remain unhatched, imprisoned in our self-made shell: the views that we hold so dearly in turn holds us back so dearly. If we do not properly get out of our cocoons, we will never grow into free flitting butterflies.
Our views are the hands of the past that pull our strings, compelling us to perform to please crowds, parasiting on their approval. Without a crowd, we are empty vessels full of holes patched up with labels of views and wants. We become as loud and unthinking as the crowd we depend on. We articulate the words, activate the motions, actualize the emotions, but they are all a well-choreographed pantomime on an empty stage. We are not what we say, do, or think. So we remain rutted in an unthinking, unfeeling loop. We keep biting our own tail, and wonder why it hurts. It is a nightmare we must wake from.
The views we hold on to, even when they are true, are simply echoes of the past trying to hold us back from growing into the open light. When our views are false, they could have been taken from someone else. Either way, it is as if we enjoy remaining as caterpillars, endlessly munching away at the greenery, then being munched up by preying birds and passing beasts. Otherwise, we remain as caterpillars, never moulting into free and flitting butterflies.
Yet, all our lives we have held views, and then giving them up for others. So what is different with the ones we have now? They are just momentary shallows or sand-banks we can stand on in the flood-waters around us. We should never lose sight of the shore, and swim closer to it.[5] If not, it’s just a matter of time, a strong current would sweep us back into the deep open waters, or some predator would devour us. We need to keep our eyes on the shore, and relentlessly swim with all four limbs towards it.
All views (especially about ourselves and about others) are impermanent, they are unsatisfactory, they are non-self: there is nothing unchanging or eternal. True renunciation is the progressive and joyful letting go of views. It begins now, continues now, letting go now. Feel the joy of true renunciation. Let go, get it.
Revisioning Buddhism 130604 0828 0908
[an occasional re-look at the Buddha’s Example and Teachings]
Copyright by Piya Tan ©2013
[1] For a fuller study, see Dharma-ending age, SD 1.10: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1.10-Dharma-ending-age-piya-proto.pdf
[2] Buddha-L forum: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/2013-May/018676.html .
[3] It should be noted that such teachings are not found in the early Buddhist suttas.
[4] Richard Hayes, Buddha-L forum: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/2013-May/018676.html .
[5] For a list of related parables, see Udakupama Sutta (A 7.15), SD 28.6: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/28.6-Udakupama-S-a7.15-piya2.pdf .
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is in the press. Contributions towards printing and mailing are welcome.
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
From Piya Tan
For a first-hand experience of the Buddha’s wisdom and joy, read the Suttas.
Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio: See end of email.
Waltzing Matilda for the Buddha
Bhikkhu Sujato is the only living Buddhist monk I know who is truly and clearly outspoken regarding Buddhist reforms. I remember reading one of the very first versions of his solidly researched book. A History of Mindfulness: How insight worsted tranquillity in the Satipatthana Sutta (2004) which was still unexpurgated.
He spoke of his struggles as a monk, something I was very familiar with when I was a monk myself in the 1970s-1990s. His clearly and passionately argued writings on the Satipatthana Sutta deeply influenced my vision of it, as reflected in SD 13.[1]
Sadly, when the official version of the book was published by the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation (Taiwan) in 2005, the critical sections were no more there. It was a great privilege to be able to see Sujato’s courageous thoughts when they were publicly available. It is always a blessing to directly know a monastic’s mind when he speaks with moral courage (vesarajja).[2]
Recently, I was again pleasantly surprised by another supernova of honest criticism, this time, almost Nietzsche-like, in his blog article, “Sutta Central: designing the Dharma” (17 July 2013), he declared, “The website is dead!” He criticized websites that are all cluttered up, promoting themselves than the Dharma, and also sutta translations that do not present the suttas as they are.[3] He is articulately aware of difficulties that most of us can only struggle with for most of our Buddhist lives.
Bhikkhu Sujato (Anthony Best), an Australian, left his musical career in 1994 to become a monk in Thailand in Ajahn Chah’s forest lineage. Besides living for several years in forest monasteries and remote hermitages in Thailand, he spent three years in Bodhinyana Monastery (Perth) as secretary of Brahmavamso, and over a year in a cave in Ipoh, Malaysia (where his mother lives).
In May 2012, Sujato resigned his post as abbot of Santi Forest Monastery, Bundanoon (NSW, Australia), to go on a tour of Dharma teaching. He currently resides in Citta Bhavana Hermitage, Bundanoon, teaching, writing and blogging prolifically.
Early this month (September 2013), Sujato, in response to an invitation made years ago to write a Buddhist national anthem for Australia, came up with this delightful set of lyrics, to the tune of Waltzing Matilda (which, he declared, “should totally be our real national anthem!”). It is posted here with appreciative gladness for a rare renunciant and for your enjoyment.
Walk in the Dhamma (lyrics by Sujato, 2013)
Once a jolly Buddha camped by a running stream
Under the shade of a Bodhi tree
And he sat and meditated ’till his mind was free
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
Walk in the Dhamma
Walk in the Dhamma
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
And he sat and meditated ’till his mind was free
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
He walked that dusty road down to Benares
To see the five monks staying in the Deer Park
And he taught the four noble truths, the Dhamma he himself had seen:
Suffering, its origin, cessation, the path.
Walk in the Dhamma
Walk in the Dhamma
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
And he taught the four noble truths, the Dhamma he himself had seen
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
When Kondannya heard about the middle way
The noble eightfold path that leads to peace of mind
The vision of the Dhamma arose within him clear to see
And so the Buddha said: ‘Kondannya understands!’
Walk in the Dhamma
Walk in the Dhamma
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
The vision of the Dhamma arose within him clear to see
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
And now the Buddha’s teaching has come to this big empty land
With waratah and wallabies and scribbly-bark trees
And the ghost of the Buddha may be heard inside the monasteries:
‘Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?’
Walk in the Dhamma
Walk in the Dhamma
Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?
And the ghost of the Buddha may be heard inside the monasteries:
‘Who’ll come and walk in the Dhamma with me?’
sujato | September 12, 2013 at 12:57 pm | Categories: the light side | URL: http://wp.me/pGkVs-rE
Music: Slim Dusty’s Waltzing Matilda.
R309 Simple Joys 230
© Piya Tan 2013
[1] See http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sutta-discovery-vol-10-19
[2] See Pindolya Sutta (S 22.80), esp SD 28.9a (3): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/28.9a-Pindolya-S-s22.80-piya.pdf
[3] http://sujato.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/suttacentral-designing-the-dhamma/
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is in the press. Contributions towards printing and mailing are welcome.
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
FORTHCOMING courses: http://themindingcentre.org for details.
1. Beginners' Meditation (monthly)
2. Satipatthana Vipassana (Oct)
3. Psychology of Death & Living (Oct/Nov)
4. Buddhist Counselling Psychology (Nov/Dec)
THIS WEEK'S CLASS @ TMC:
The notion of ditthi (SD 40a.1, part 3)
Freeing the head, filling the heart: Right views and no view
Date: 18 Sep 2013 (Wed)
Free Guided Meditation: 7.15 pm - 7.45 pm
Sutta study: 7.45 pm - 9.00 pm
Venue: The Minding Centre @ BTSC
Address: 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore 588179
Link to TMC: http://themindingcentre.org/wp/new-premises-bt-timah-sc/
Sutta study from SUTTA DISCOVERY vol 40a (part 1 of 2): Levels of learning, available at a suggested donation of $15.00 per copy at the class. Link to study text: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sd-40-49
OTHER SUTTA CLASSES:
Browse: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/about-2/contact-details for details and locations of these classes:
Poh Ming Tse: Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm.
Singapore Buddhist Mission: Every 3rd Sunday, 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm.
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
Meditation courses & therapy: http://themindingcentre.org
Sutta translation: http://dharmafarer.org
From Piya Tan
Simple Joys 3: Loving Words by Piya Tan is now available. Please contact us for free copies (and please help with the mailing costs).
For a first-hand experience of the Buddha’s wisdom and joy, read the Suttas. Contact us for text selection.
Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio: See end of email.
Only the heart can truly see
To see your eye’s blind spot, try this famous but simple experiment:
R L
Instructions: Close one eye and focus the other on the appropriate letter (R for right or L for left). Place your eye a distance from the screen approximately equal to 3× the distance between the R and the L. Move your eye towards or away from the screen until you see the other letter disappear. For example, close your right eye, look at the "L" with your left eye, and the "R" will disappear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_(vision)
We are all often partially blind. Sometimes we are blind even while looking with wide open eyes. We think we are really seeing the world, but the reality is that we are missing something, those things that really matter. Often what we miss seeing are what we really need to see that would change our lives for the better.
Whenever our eyes are open in the light, it falls on the retina. Nerve cells called photoreceptors relay the light (images, colours, etc) as data to the brain, which it interprets into what we see. But there is a small blind spot in our retina where there are no photoreceptors. How is it then that we never notice the blind spot? It is because our brain is very good at guessing what should be there, and it automatically fills in the blank. Sometimes we know what we want to see and our brain turns that wish into a kind of virtual reality for us.
This means that some of the world that we see or live in is really just an illusion, our own mental projections and the imaginings of others. We may not realize how terrifyingly vulnerable this makes us until it is too late. When we are in love with someone, for example, we tend to be blind to all the person’s fault. When we dislike someone, we are likely to see his faults more easily, or find something to blame him with.
Religion further complicates the way we see things even more severely. Most of religious faith is wishful and imagined. If we are forced to believe without knowing, then that faith is only preventing us from knowing. Hence, faith is said to be not wanting to know.
In this way, religious teachings that demand our full faith without question simply wants to broaden our blind spot over some of the most important areas of our lives. If we are able and willing to see these spaces of wisdom in our lives, then we will understand what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s good, what’s bad. If we allow others, especially religiously imaginative people to decide for us what’s right or wrong for us, or what’s good or bad for the world, then we have really blinded ourselves.
So how do we uncover our blind spots? How do we ever fully see the truth that is right before our very eyes? A good place to start is to simply open our minds, embrace our hearts. The French philosopher, Henri Bergson (1900-1945) is often misattributed to have written, “The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” George Potter, in The White Bedouin (2007:241), however, attributes the quote to Canadian man-of-letters, Robertson Davies (1913-1995).
Even when memorable quotes are misattributed, their import for us serves just as well. The eye sees only what the mind tells it to see. However, if we have a wholesome heart, it will free the mind to free the eye to truly see what is before us.
To some extent at least, we now understand that we do not see only with our eyes. It is vital to be able to see with our heart. Seeing with our heart is looking at life with clarity, empathy and, above all, a willingness to learn and to love. Indeed, we can never really learn if we lack love. For, to love is to lose yourself in your passion. It applies to a relationship as well as to learning.
A love relationship is, in fact, a very focussed way of learning. We need to love learning as we love people, and love people as we love learning. If we understand that the two are really close, then we will simply keep falling in love, we keep staying in love.
True love begins with accepting ourselves unconditionally. This is the most important person we need to spend time with, time and again. We need some occasional quiet time away from life's noises and nudges. We must find that sometime place or that spacious activity that opens a door or a window of inner peace so that we can just listen to ourselves. This is a great way to heal ourselves of our daily wounds so that we are more helpful to others, loved, unloved or yet to know.
We begin this personal quiet time by looking at ourself, reflecting on whom we really want to be. Do we want to be someone who is angry, reactive, mean, and unfeeling to the world around us and the needs of others, or do we want to be someone who is calm, peaceful, helpful, and wise in our actions, thoughts and feelings. The choice is clearly ours. Each and every day, each and every moment, we are free to make that choice of whom we want to be.
As we look at ourself, we must be willing to be, to change. Ask, in that quiet place inside us, how to make that change. Be willing to laugh at ourself, at least gently smile. Laughing or smiling at ourself is a great way to open our heart to greater self-acceptance and other-regard.
Learn to “see” with all our senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking. Our eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are the doors of self-knowledge. Indeed, they are our world. We now need to feel what we see. To feel is to directly see the world of our senses. When we see and feel unconditionally, we emanate a safe heavenly aura wherever we are.
This is called lovingkindness. But don’t take the word for granted or be limited by our own thoughts. Lovingkindness frees our thoughts, like sandbags and ballast jettisoned from a rising hot air balloon. Try lovingkindness, and see how we rise above ourself. From the heights of our heart, we see and feel ourself with joyful surprises.
What may appear as a barrier or a tragedy becomes a blessing to us. What may appear as rejection may actually be a safety valve diverting us from something we have yet to learn about. In Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s children’s book for adults, “The Little Prince” (originally in French, 1943), there are these moving words:
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose --" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
R312 Simple Joys 231
Piya Tan ©2013
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is available. Collect your free copies at TMC, or email us. (Please help us with the mailing costs).
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
FORTHCOMING courses: http://themindingcentre.org for details.
1. Beginners' Meditation (monthly)
2. Satipatthana Vipassana (Oct)
3. Psychology of Death & Living (Oct/Nov)
4. Buddhist Counselling Psychology (Nov/Dec)
THIS WEEK'S CLASS @ TMC:
The notion of ditthi (SD 40a.1, part 5)
The meaning and purpose of the Dharma
Date: 2 Oct 2013 (Wed)
Free Guided Meditation: 7.15 pm - 7.45 pm
Sutta study: 7.45 pm - 9.00 pm
Venue: The Minding Centre @ BTSC
Address: 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore 588179
Link to TMC: http://themindingcentre.org/wp/new-premises-bt-timah-sc/
Sutta study from SUTTA DISCOVERY vol 40a (part 1 of 2): Levels of learning, available at a suggested donation of $15.00 per copy at the class. Link to study text: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sd-40-49
OTHER SUTTA CLASSES:
Browse: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/about-2/contact-details for details and locations of these classes:
Poh Ming Tse: Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm.
Singapore Buddhist Mission: Every 3rd Sunday, 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm.
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
Meditation courses & therapy: http://themindingcentre.org
Sutta translation: http://dharmafarer.org
From Piya Tan
(1) For our German friends, a GIFT: Der Direkte Weg der Achtsamkeit, Satipatthana, 2010: download (http://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/fileadmin/pdf/analayo/DirekteWeg.pdf) .
(2) Simple Joys 3: Loving Words by Piya Tan is now available.
(3) Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio: See end of email.
Value of loss
A well known Tukish folk tale of the 13th-century Sufi Nasrudin relates how he once went to a Turkish bath. As he was poorly dressed, the attendants treated him poorly, giving him only a scrap of soap and an old towel. When he left, Nasrudin gave the attendants a gold coin each. They of course did not complain, but wondered if he had been better treated he might have given an even larger tip.
The following week Nasrudin, very well dressed, visited the bath again. This time, he was looked after like a king. After being massaged, perfumed and treated with the greatest deference, he handed the attendants just a tiny copper coin each. “This,” said Nasrudin, “is for last time. The gold coins were for this time.”
Such stories serve as jokes to those who love jokes. Others tell it as their own to show off how clever they are. Still others simply collect them, and die without ever laughing or smiling. However, if we love the Dharma, we would know that every story is about the Dharma, about life and liberation. It is just a matter of looking deep enough.
There is a legend about the layman Dharma teacher Vimalakirti who was poorly dressed, poor in social manners, and who spoke the plain truth about things. The wise naturally loved him, the proud understandably disliked him. Whenever he talked on Dharma, only a small handful of people would come to listen.
The crowd was elsewhere enjoyably laughing at the entertaining talks on how to be rich and successful given by various well dressed well known well titled wealthy speakers. Vimalakirti was giving them gold, but the crowd was only getting and making airy emptiness. That’s why the Buddha’s image always smiles at us.
Another beloved story of Nasrudin is about a moving friend. One day, a friend of his who was moving away asked him for his ring. “Why do you want my ring?” asked Nasrudin. “I want something to remember you by.” “In that case,” suggested Nasrudin, “why don’t you give me your ring.” “Why,” retorted the befuddled friend. “You can easily lose my ring,” explained Nasrudin, “But if you give me your ring, whenever you notice it’s missing, you’ll remember me!”
Many of us love to collect things we see as valuable or pleasurable. I used to love collecting books, and family and friends, too, would give me books, knowing that I loved them. My library could fill a whole 4-room flat in Singapore with only space for sitting and studying (besides the toilets, of course).
Then one day, the temple officials, upset with my constant critical writings and talks, and open sharing with others, asked me to leave. They kept almost all of my books claiming that they came from temple donations, so they were not mine. It was impossible to persuade them otehrwise. Anyway, it was quite a lot of books to move around with.
The best way to stop a writer is to take away his pen, so they thought. To them, my writings were too disrespectful, even destructive, of the old beliefs and traditions, which had supported the temples for generations. When people knew too much Sutta and Dharma, they become too self-reliant and do more meditation, they would not donate to the temples and would not serve the temple as free workers.
Secretly, I was quite happy to have “lost” the books. There were simply too many books to read, and not all of them are really useful. Fortunately, too, I had with me the Tipitaka and related books wherever I moved to. The irony of it all was that later I found that nothing was really lost. All the books I need are found on the Internet and the various public libraries where I live.
Even more wonderful is the fact of impermanence. As the decades passed, I find it ever easier to understand the Suttas and the Dharma. That is with a simple dose of regular meditation. There is no need for dhyana, because I discovered that in Chapter 25 of the Sa yutta Nikaya, the Buddha says that if we regularly reflect on impermance, we would awaken as a streamwinner (the first step to awakening) in this life itself – if not, surely at the moment of passing away.[1]
In other words, we do not really need the books and computers, or even religion, to be free from suffering. It’s all in the mind. If we learn to regularly work on our inner peace and smile at all things and everyone, our heart will shine like a radiant lotus upon the words of the Suttas, Their meaning and connections simply appear to us in the still spaces of our lives.
This reminds me of another insightful story of Nasrudin that helps us know the Dharma better. One day Nasrudin and his friend were sitting together, drinking tea and chatting about life and love. His friend asked: “How come you never married?”
“Well,” said Nasrudin, “to tell you the truth, I spend my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no common interests. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then one day, I met her; beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had very much in common. In fact, she was perfect!”
“So, what happened?” asked Nasrudin’s friend, “Why didn’t you marry her?” Nasrudin sipped his tea reflectively. “Well,” he replied, “it’s really a sad story. It seemed that she was looking for the perfect man!”
I love this story because it reminds me of my own fervent quest as a young Buddhist. I was looking around for the best teachers to teach me Pali, Sanskrit, the Suttas and meditation. I went to one teacher after another. A few were really good, most were notoriously quirky – but I learned different things form all of them, and I am truly grateful for this.
I have stopped searching for gurus and teachings, partly because I’ve simply become too old for shopping around, but the real reason is that I’ve found all that I need in the Suttas. Dharma joy is sufficient fuel to move me (or rather to keep me still) to translate, study and teach the Suttas almost every day for the last dozen years. And to write such a reflection as this every week for the last 7 years.
There is another reason for my love for translating the Suttas – I have accepted the fact that I am imperfect. I have been looking for perfection outside of myself for as long as I can remember. In an important sense, I have found that perfect partner: the Dharma. And the Dharma tells me that I am yet to be perfect. This is the most wonderful thing to know, because I am also able to do something about it – with the Dharma’s help through the Suttas and my own heart.
Of course, not everyone needs to translate the Suttas to understand themselves better. We only need to reflect on them. If we look at the Suttas only as words, or views to defend, or rituals to perform, or powerful holy beings to worship, then that is all we might get. The Suttas are a Dharma mirror for us to look into, to accept ourselves as we are as a start, and move on to be a most wonderful person in the world, and beyond. The most valuable thing we have is our view of ourself. If we are willing to lose that view, we will become even more valuable ourself.
R313 Simple Joys 232
Piya Tan ©2013 131001
[1] (Anicca) Cakkhu Sutta (S 25.1), SD 16.7: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/16.7-Anicca-Cakkhu-S-s25.1-piya.pdf
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is available. Collect your free copies at TMC, or email us. (Please help us with the mailing costs).
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
FORTHCOMING courses: http://themindingcentre.org for details.
1. Beginners' Meditation (monthly)
2. Psychology of Death & Living (Oct/Nov)
3. Buddhist Counselling Psychology (Nov/Dec)
THIS WEEK'S CLASS @ TMC:
Assalayana Sutta (M93 = SD 40a.2)
Purity is not in birth or rebirth; it is in our minds and actions
Date: 9 Oct 2013 (Wed)
Free Guided Meditation: 7.15 pm - 7.45 pm
Sutta study: 7.45 pm - 9.00 pm
Venue: The Minding Centre @ BTSC
Address: 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore 588179
Link to TMC: http://themindingcentre.org/wp/new-premises-bt-timah-sc/
Sutta study from SUTTA DISCOVERY vol 40a (part 1 of 2): Levels of learning, available at a suggested donation of $15.00 per copy at the class. Link to study text: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sd-40-49
OTHER SUTTA CLASSES:
Browse: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/about-2/contact-details for details and locations of these classes:
Poh Ming Tse: Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm.
Singapore Buddhist Mission: Every 3rd Sunday, 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm.
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
Meditation courses & therapy: http://themindingcentre.org
Sutta translation: http://dharmafarer.org
Piya Tan's Reflection & Sutta class: 23 Oct 2013 (Wed)
Absender Ratna Lim Datum Heute 07:06
From Piya Tan
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you if you are born in October: let us celebrate humanity.
(1) Satipatthana, the Direct Path to Realization (2003) by Analayo. English version download; German translation: Der Direkte Weg der Achtsamkeit, Satipatthana, 2010: download. Chinese version: Nian zhu: tong wang zheng wu de zhi jie zhi dao (2013): download.
(2) Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio: See end of email.
Google stops thinking?[1]
In the 1960s, media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out that media are not merely passive channels of information. He famously wrote, “The medium is the message.”[2] Media not only supply the stuff of thought, but also shape how we think. More than that, the Net is eating away at our capacity for focus, reflection and creativity. Our minds are now caught up processing information in just the way it moves around in the Net: in a rapid stream of particles. Once we were scuba divers; now we are dudes on Jet Skis. In short, we have sight without insight.
The cost is that we are losing the ability to read long works or reflect on the suttas. (Some even complain that such a reflection as this is too long!) In fact, it is not just the way we read that has changed: the way we think, too, has changed. No more are we likely to be willing or able to read a long passage and absorb, even enjoy, it. Our thinking has now taken on a “staccato” quality: we quickly scan short passages from many sources online. Imagine how a short attention span would make us perceive a longish-looking sutta as being forbidding or boring!
We have become skimmers – after reading a few passages from a book, article or digital passage, we “bounce” off to another paper, book or site. Such new forms of “reading” is more of a “power browsing” of horizontally glancing through titles, contents pages and abstracts, going for a quick kill. It is as if that we go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense. Some of us Buddhists, too, are skimmers, going around collecting teachers and rituals, but fearing to look within our own minds to better ourselves. We have become dependent on the system.
Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and author of the multidisciplinary Proust and the Squid: The story and science of the reading brain (2007), notes that “we are not only what we read. We are how we read.” When the printing press first made available pamphlets and books, we enjoyed deep reading. However, she notes, when we read online, we tend to be “mere decoders of information.” So we lose the ability to interpret the text and to make rich mental connections with the best that culture or spirituality has to offer. We easily fall for well marketed religion rather than seek the true gems that would shine on us.
Healthy reading habits teach our minds to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. If the media we use are wholesome, our reading then links up more neural circuits in our brains. Studies have shown that readers of ideograms, such as Chinese speakers, develop a mental circuitry very different from those of us reading an alphabet-based text (like this one).
The neural connections extend across many regions of the brain, including those that govern memory and the interpretation of visual and auditory stimuli. Chinese speakers, for example, are adept at “reading” not only sounds but also tones. If we lack the ability to read deeply and feel for ourselves, we would become emotionally tone-deaf, so that we would only be impressed by the surfaces of teachers, but lack any insight into the true nature of teachings.
In 1882, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), his vision badly failing so that simply trying to focus on a page brought on a crushing headache, received a Malling-Hansen Writing Ball typewriter.[3] Soon he was able to type with his eyes closed. His words now flowed through his finger-tips onto paper. He was the first philosopher to use the typewriter.
But the machine changed his writing style. A friend noticed that his already terse prose became tighter, more telegraphic. From arguments, his writings changed more into aphorisms, from philosopy he had turned to literature. Nietzsche noticed this, too, and wrote in a letter to a friend, Peter Gast, that “our writing tools are also working on our thoughts.”[4]
In 1926, British mathematician, Alan Turing, wrote that a digital computer (then only a theoretical machine) could be programmed to do the function of any other information-processing device. We are seeing this today. The Internet – the most ubiquitous of computing systems – is becoming our typewriter, printer, library, calculator, telephone, clock, radio, TV, map, and club.
Most of us have become totally dependent on the computer and the Net. When the Net takes hold of a medium, that medium takes the Net’s shape. The media are then infested with hyperlinks, intruding ads, and other digital baubles. The content we need is always parasited by other contents (the latest news headlines, internet browser ads, etc). Our attention is then disrupted. When this becomes a habit, our mind is then easily distracted and scattered.
We talk of programming the computer, but the reality is that we are also being reprogrammed to obey its every command and quirk. Much of this was anticipated by American mechanical engineer, F W Taylor, the father of scientific management and automatization of humans. “In the past the man has been first,” he declares, “In the future the system must be first.”[5]
Taylorism is today the religion, “belief system” (Schmidt), preached by Google from its cathedral in Mountain View, California. Its CEO, Eric Schmidt, proudly declares that Google is “a company that’s founded around the science of measurement,” and is striving to “systematize everything” it does. This naturally includes “Google meditation” for “gaining competitive advantage on exams and increasing creativity in business.”[6] There is also “Google Buddhism,” the seeking and browsing without end, giving you what you desire: just keep googling.[7]
Google seeks to develop “the perfect search engine” that “understands exactly what you mean and gives back exactly what you want.” All our prayers will be answered, as it were. Information, even religion and learning, have become instant commodities, measurable things. So we have reincarnated into the Eloi, a race of ineffectual childlike surface-dwellers, feeding on easily harvested fruits, but, in turn, systematically harvested by the man-eating subterranean Morlocks.[8] Such visionaries warn us in one same voice: know what’s happening and chart our course with care.[9]
The best way to get out of such a mental-slave system, or at least to master the system wholesomely, is to understand and practise Buddhist teachings of life-affirming truth and immeasurable joy. The moral precepts are based on the values of life and individuality. To be true individuals is to have full access to our minds, keeping them calm and clear, so that we enjoy true beauty beyond the keyboard and computer screen.
R315 Revisioning Buddhism RB82
[an occasional re-look at the Buddha’s Example and Teachings]
Copyright by Piya Tan ©2013
[1] Inspired by Pulitzer finalist Nicholas Carr, “Is Google making us stupid?” July 2008, The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/ . For student’s critical thinking exercise, see Mauk & Metz, The Composition of Everyday Life: A guide to writing, 4th ed, 2013:318-323.
[2] M McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964: ch 1.
[3] Malling-Hansen Ball typewriter. See also http://stunlaw.blogspot.sg/2012/12/the-author-signal-nietzsches-typewriter.html .
[4] F A Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter [1986], tr G Winthrop-Young & M Wutz,1999: 200-208 esp 204.
[5] See The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911: Intro.
[6] See David DeSteno, “The morality of meditation,” NYTimes 5 July 2013: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/the-morality-of-meditation.html .
[7] On different kinds of searches, see Esana Sutta 1 & 2 (It 54+55), SD 43.10(3a+b): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/43.10-Patilina-S-a4.38-piya.pdf
[8] H G Wells, The Time Machine, 1895.
[9] On the visions of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-four” and of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” see Reflection, “Cost of living,” R302: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/R302-130724-Cost-of-living-117.pdf
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is available. Collect your free copies at TMC, or email us. (Please help us with the mailing costs).
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
FORTHCOMING courses: http://themindingcentre.org for details.
1. Beginners' Meditation (monthly)
2. Psychology of Death & Living (Oct/Nov)
3. Buddhist Counselling Psychology (Nov/Dec)
THIS WEEK'S CLASS @ TMC:
Levels of learning (SD 40a.4)
On the nature and progress of spiritual maturation
Date: 23 Oct 2013 (Wed)
Free Guided Meditation: 7.15 pm - 7.45 pm
Sutta study: 7.45 pm - 9.00 pm
Venue: The Minding Centre @ BTSC
Address: 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore 588179
Link to TMC: http://themindingcentre.org/wp/new-premises-bt-timah-sc/
Sutta study from SUTTA DISCOVERY vol 40a (part 1 of 2): Levels of learning, available at a suggested donation of $15.00 per copy at the class. Link to study text: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sd-40-49
OTHER SUTTA CLASSES:
Browse: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/about-2/contact-details for details and locations of these classes:
Poh Ming Tse: Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm.
Singapore Buddhist Mission: Every 3rd Sunday, 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm.
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
Meditation courses & therapy: http://themindingcentre.org
Sutta translation: http://dharmafarer.org
From Piya Tan
(1) Inter-Faith Dialogue & the 16th International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) for Peace and Sustainability (27 Oct – 5 Nov 2013, KL): sadhu and thanks for all who have worked and participated in this global friendship and healing through Buddha Dharma.
(2) Volunteer as a Sutta proof-reader and self-learn Dharma directly (no Pali needed).
(3) Sutta study with guided meditation: every Wed at TMC Sutta Studio: See end of email.
Reflection no 317:
[For past reflections, see http://dharmafarer.org]
The 3 D’s and beyond
Aristotle writes in his Poetics that Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is the perfect Greek tragedy. The play was written when Sophocles was at the height of his creative powers. King Oedipus seeks advice from the Delphi oracle regarding the plague. Although everyone sees the truth, he alone fails to do so. Everyone warns him not to continue seeking.[1] But he persists. Finally, when he knows everything, he tears out his eyes in despair.[2] The play ends with him as a broken, blind old man, led off the stage by his faithful daughters, who must share his exile.
Even after more than 2000 years, Oedipus Rex still holds our imagination and sends shivers down our spine. In ancient Athens, we are told, some play about the Oedipus myth is performed every two or three years. The audience knew what will happen to the king – it is ananke, “necessity” -- like karmic fruition, a fate entirely of the king’s own making although he doesn’t know that. This terrifies us, but watching it gives a sense of control, perhaps knowing that we would not make the same mistake.
To Aristotle, the play was the most tragic of all because it effectively rids us of the two emotions of pity and fear – emotions, according to him, that stand in the way of self-knowledge and understanding. This may well be true today, too: we might pity Oedipus or some tragic figure in a movie or story, but we think that it would never happen to us. However, we do fear that it might, so we avoid thinking or talking about it -- but we don’t mind watching it happening to others. Inevitably, it happens to us, too.
It happens to the young Siddhattha when he sees the first 3 of the 4 sights: an old man, a sick man and a dead man. As he has been living a most luxurious and protected life, getting and enjoying whatever he wants, he is simply shocked to realize that disease, decay and death (the 3 D’s) must come to him. Unlike many of us, however, he does not reactively rationalize that we should then “eat, drink and be merry.” He somehow knows that this would make the situation even more painful in due course.
In Buddhist psychology, we say that the Bodhisattva Siddhattha is moved by samvega, a sense of urgency, like someone who is told that his house is ablaze, and he has to flee from it immediately. For Siddhattha, it is not a flight away from the problem (or his family), but he is urgently moved to give all his energies to find out the cause of suffering and how to remove it.
Siddhattha is neither resigned nor content merely to watch in pity at the old man, the sick man and the dead man. He is moved with samvega. He realizes that if we all must grow old, then there’s no fun in being young. Those who think being young is fun obviously have not grown old yet. Imagine this “fun” youth period lasts only a decade or two, and then we have to deal with decay for the rest of our lives. We could say that Siddhattha is much more mature for his age.
No matter how healthy we are, he reflects, we will still fall sick somehow. Even if we are rarely physically ill, we would be mentally ill somehow: we are mentally ill with greed, with hate, and certainly with delusion. Finally, we all must die, and it’s something we do not usually want to talk about, so we busy ourselves with things (which is better than worrying about dying, anyway).
Siddhattha, however, also sees a fourth sight – that of a pleasant and radiant holy man, a renunciant, who shows none of the 3 D’s. He seems to be the antithesis, the opposite, of the first 3 sights. Siddhattha wonders how we can be free from the 3 D’s and be happy like the renunciant.
As we all know, Siddhattha then goes to the best gurus of his day (it’s like looking for life’s answer by going to the best universities or experts we have). He even tortures his own body to purge it of all impurities so that perhaps some essence of wisdom could be discovered (this is like taking up all kinds of arcane arts or expensive modern life-coaching courses).
Finally, Siddhattha finds his answer right at “home,” that is, in his own heart. He looks within himself, truly seeing into his breath (which is life itself), and finds the answers and solutions to all his questions: the true meaning of life (the first 2 truths) and true purpose of life (the last 2 truths).[3] He awakens from the sleep of ignorance and nightmare of craving into the joyful light of nirvana.
Why, then, is it so difficult for us to know that the answers to life’s most important questions lie within ourselves? Why do we resist knowing ourselves? We simply are unwilling to admit that we are really no more healthy, no more beautiful, no more successful, no more rich, no more wise than we actually are. That’s why we want to be more healthy, more beautiful, more successful, more rich, more wise than we think we are. We are simply self-deluded and don’t even know it (perhaps until now).
We are simply afraid to really have a good look at ourselves. We are afraid that this would mean accepting that we are not what we would really like to be. Those of us who dare to rise above this fear are like lotuses, with roots in the mud, their stalks firmly standing in the murky waters, but the lotuses blossom beautifully in the bright sunny space well above the waters.
The Buddha is the wisest of humans, the highest of beings, because he looks at himself right in the mind’s eye. He looks deep into the very breath of life. He has no fear of the truths that arise before him. What could be worse than disease, decay and death, anyway? In this way, he finds total spiritual liberation. In simple practical terms, we can speak of his liberating discovery as follows: respect our body; uncloud our mind; love ourself; accept others.
Keeping our body in shape alone does not bring full happiness. It might even be a distraction from a real problem, say, if we do this merely for the sake of admiration and pleasure of others. We have thingified ourselves. Physical health, in other words, is for a greater purpose: as the basis for mental health.
As humans, we are both animals as well as spiritual beings. Our bodies may look a little different from those of animals, but they both function in just the same way. In that sense, our bodies are still animal, or at least animal-like. If we are enslaved by what we see, hear, smell, taste or touch, then we are stuck in the animal realm. Our minds are not well developed enough.
In the parable of the 6 animals, the Buddha compares our body (comprising the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) respectively to a snake, a crocodile, a bird, a dog, and a jackal. And the mind is like a monkey. They are each on a strong leash whose other ends are then tied together. The animals try to move in six different directions each heading for their favourite haunts, but they are dragged away by the strongest animal.
Then, continues the parable, a man sinks a strong stake into the ground and firmly ties the ends of all these leashes to it. The six animals keep on struggling, trying to head for their own haunts, tire themselves, and then quietly rest near the stake. The stake is our mindfulness of the true nature of the body. Once we understand the true nature of our body, it is easier to master our own minds.[4]
R317 Simple Joys 235
Piya Tan ©2013 131003
[1] On a deeper meaning of “seeking,” see Patilina Sutta (A 4.58), SD 43.10: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/43.10-Patilina-S-a4.38-piya.pdf
[2] Another similar famous scene in literature is that of Gloucester’s eye being gouged out by Cornwall (King Lear 3.7). On a happier note, we have the healing story of Subha Theri, who gouges out her own eye for a youth who is infatuated with them (Th 366-399), SD 20.7: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/20.7-Subha-Thi-366-399-piya1.pdf
[3] See Dhamma,cakka Pavattana Sutta (S 56.11), SD 1.1: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1.1-Dhammacakka-Pavattana-S-s56.11.pdf
[4] See Cha Pana Sutta (S 35.247), SD 19.15: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/19.15-Chapana-S-s35.247-piya.pdf
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Enjoy Buddhism directly: Help proof-read the sutta translations.
3. Simple Joys 3 is available. Collect your free copies at TMC, or email us. (Please help us with the mailing costs).
You can download all 4 editions* of Simple Joys & Revisioning Buddhism here: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/
[* Find out what is the 4th edition]
Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
FORTHCOMING courses: http://themindingcentre.org for details.
1. Beginners' Meditation (monthly)
2. Buddhist Counselling Psychology (Nov/Dec)
3. Buddhist Psychology (Jan 2014)
THIS WEEK'S CLASS @ TMC:
Cula Hatthipadopama Sutta (M 27) (SD 40a.5)
The training for true discipleship
Date: 6 Nov 2013 (Wed)
Free Guided Meditation: 7.15 pm - 7.45 pm
Sutta study: 7.45 pm - 9.00 pm
Venue: The Minding Centre @ BTSC
Address: 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Singapore 588179
Link to TMC: http://themindingcentre.org/wp/new-premises-bt-timah-sc/
Sutta study from SUTTA DISCOVERY vol 40a (part 1 of 2): Levels of learning, available at a suggested donation of $15.00 per copy at the class. Link to study text: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/sutta-discovery/sd-40-49
OTHER SUTTA CLASSES:
Browse: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/about-2/contact-details for details and locations of these classes:
Poh Ming Tse: Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm.
Singapore Buddhist Mission: Every 3rd Sunday, 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm.
Please forward this email for the benefit of others.
With metta & mudita,
Ratna Lim
hp (65) 8211 0879
The Minding Centre
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#11-04 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
Singapore 588179
Meditation courses & therapy: http://themindingcentre.org
Sutta translation: http://dharmafarer.org
Subject: Piya Tan's Reflection: 1 Jan 2014 (Wed)
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:43:59 +0800
From: Ratna Lim <themindingcentre@gmail.com>
From The Minding Centre (TMC)
A Happy New Year 2014!
NO Sutta study on 1 Jan 2014 at TMC but Dharma goes on.
Reflection no 325:
[For past reflections, see http://dharmafarer.org]
How to write a reflection
Before we can write a reflection, we must reflect. How do we reflect? A helpful guideline is given in these four principles of right speech:
(1) He speaks the truth, the truth is his bond, trustworthy, reliable, no deceiver of the world.
(2) His words reconcile those who have broken apart or consolidate those who are united. He loves concord, delights in concord, enjoys concord, speaks things that foster concord.
(3) He speaks words that are humane, soothing, loving, touching, urbane, and delightful and pleasant to the multitude.
(4) He speaks in season, what is true, what is beneficial. He speaks the Dharma (the spiritual practice) and the Vinaya (the moral practice). He speaks words worth treasuring, timely, backed by reason, measured, connected with the spiritual goal.
In short, a Dharma reflection must be truthful, promote harmony, be inspiring and be beneficial.[1]
Here, truthful means that a reflection may sometimes be pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, but both are given in a timely manner, that is, when it is the right occasion.[2] Such an occasion can be a happy or inspiring one, such as a beautiful meditation experience or a remarkable story: this is the rule of thumb followed by an inspirational reflection (like this one).
Or, it could be a somewhat unpleasant or difficult situation which needs to be addressed. This is the kind of reflection we call revisioning (or re-visioning), that is, examining the situation again and carefully in the light of the Buddha Dharma. One great difficulty here is that, often we simply cannot really know who caused the problem.[3] There is a vital difference between blaming someone and knowing the real conditions bringing abnout the problem.
There are two important reasons for this. Firstly, it would were to blames someone, it is only to stereotype him, as if declaring that the person is the problem. Just as we place the teaching above the teacher, here we are dealing with a problem, not a person. This is also in keeping with the universal truth of non-self. Secondly, we need to define or explain the problem clearly so that we will understand the gravity and significance of the problem, and so have a good idea what to do or not to do.
A Dharma reflection inspires us to connect with others, especially our loved ones, and to cultivate unconditional acceptance of others. Such an attitude helps us to live, work and play happily with others. This is where our own joyful feelings should pervade the reflection.
In a way, we cannot really plan to write a reflection. It simply comes to us when the time is right, and this can happen anywhere. The rule is that we need to get into a wholesome state of mind, especially through meditation,[4] or on account of seeing something really inspiring or meaningful,[5] or upon hearing a Dharma-moved testimony,[6] or after a good friendly meeting or therapy session,[7] or from beautiful literature,[8] or even from a dream.[9]
Often I would come across some negative report in the news,[10] or a bad situation in connection with Buddhism,[11] or some misperception of Buddhist teachings,[12] or someone who is really suffering some setback or difficulty.[13] It is easy to write about a bad or painful situation. This is nothing new, but only adds on to the burden that we all are already bearing. We want to know how to solve problems, or better, to simply feel happy some simple joy -- despite the problems. In other words, a good revisioning or reflection makes our day.
The truth is that revisionings are more difficult to write than reflections. Revisionings often point directly to human failings, sometimes in Buddhism itself, or in the local community, or in famous teachers,[14] or someone we know well. What else can we re-envision, but those whom we know and love, and what we have deep faith in and practise (Buddhism)?
Very often, I would simply write what I think as a catharsis to resolve my own sadness or failure, as it were. Such revisionings would be stored safely away until the right time to publish them (perhaps even posthumously). However, these are the kinds of writings, if regularly, properly, compassionately and courageously done would raise the quality of our religious lives and enrich our Buddhist community. But we must be ready for them.
Such reflections or revisionings never come ready made. The best we can do is start somewhere, especially when the Dharma touches us. Two important occasions are often pivotal in firing us up to express our feeling in moving words. It can be either when we perceive pain or when we perceive joy. Pain often tells us that something is not right, and we can learn from this. In a reflection we try to define this pain, examine the conditions that brought it about, then we envision a state where this pain is no more, and finally work to attain the end of that pain. This is, of course, the four-truth approach.
Similarly, if we experience something blissful, deeply moving or profoundly peaceful, we are at first at a loss as to how to express the feelings. We need to choose what sort of genre or medium to express this joy: a poem,[15] a story,[16] an essay[17]? And, of course, we then need to choose our words and express our feelings.
Then we need to ask ourselves: would anyone be interested to read such a reflection? Of course, anyone interested in the Dharma would be likely to have an interest in them. The point is that we, the reader, must be able to relate to the reflection. For this reason, the first person plural (we) is almost always used in these writings. It is as if we, the reader, are ourselves writing it, or that we are having in a spiritual soliloquy.
The reflections mostly try to inspire or remind us to look within ourselves to touch our potential for being truly happy, or even being creative ourselves. We often have people who respond with appreciative responses (some saying how they have been uplifted, or their lives changed; some of these emails can be rather long, giving their own views of the reflections. Often enough, such responses in turn inspire more reflections.[18]
The Dharma moves us in joyful ways. We must prepare ourselves to taste just joys before we express them to others. Firstly, we need to love learning, especially of languages, at least the language we commonly communicate in. We need to master the language to some highly expressive and beautiful level. In other words, we must also love mythology and literature.
Of course, we must love writing and communicating, and to write in a way that is truthful, easy, pleasant and beneficial to others. To do this, we must live and love the Buddha Dharma, which teaches us to see ourselves and others not as fixed entities, suffering pain or enjoying bliss, but as conscious processes, changing and learning every waking movement, maybe even in our dreams. This is the joyful path toward awakening. I have taken this reflective path for the last 7 years (since 2007) and still journeying, and can only say how joyful I am to have you as a travelling companion moving towards self-awakening.[19]
R325 Simple Joys 242
Piya Tan ©2014 140101
[1] See eg Kandaraka Sutta (M 51,14), SD 32.9: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/32.9-Kandaraka-S-m51-piya.pdf
[2] See Abhaya Raja,kumara Sutta (M 58) & SD 7.12 (3): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/7.12-Abhaya-Rajakumara-S-m58.pdf
[3] See Who what why how (R277) 130130.
[4] See eg Meditation has no name (old title: The meditation without a name (R155), in Revisioning Buddhism 2011 no 27; Awakening moments: (R206), in Loving Words (SJ3), 2013 no 21a, which is translated into German as Aufrüttelnde Momente, in Loving Words (SJ3) no 21b; Breathe Dharma (R324) 131225.
[5] Once I was looking at some beautiful nature, lovely music arose in my mind, upon which I wrote Silent sunny spaces (R285) 130327. On another occasion, it was upon seeing a sunbird building a nest outside our main door: The sunbird and free will (R82) 090520, in Simple Joys 1 (2009) no 7.5.
[6] See eg Still centre (R320), 130415, rev 131125.
[7] See eg Bus ride to nirvana (R41), in Simple Joys 1, 2009 no 8.3.
[8] See eg New lamps for old (R190) 110525, in Healing Words (SJ2), 2011 no 60.
[9] See eg Tikkun olam (R157) 101006, in Healing Words (SJ2), 2011 no 37; Canaletto dreaming (R272) 121226.
[10] See eg Self-destruct or self-construct? (R245) 120620.
[11] See eg Aliens and UFOs in Buddhism (146) 100728, in Revisioning Buddhism, 2011 no 22.
[12] See eg Buddhism without words (R165) 101201, in Revisioning Buddhism, 2011 no 30.
[13] See eg Making the same mistake (R184) 110406, in Loving Words (SJ3) no 56.
[1] See esp Ahita Thera Sutta (A 5.88), SD 40a.16, which says that even famous teachers can have wrong views: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/40a.16-Ahita-Thera-S-a5.88-piya.pdf
[15] Eg Shadow and light (R121) 101027, in Healing Words (SJ2) no 18.
[16] Eg Making the same mistake (R184) 110406, in Loving Words (SJ3) no 56.
[17] Most of our reflections and revisionings are essays.
[18] Eg Present being (R323) 131219.
[19] See also How to be creative (R123) 100210, in Healing Words (SJ2) 2011 no 20.
Time for personal growth:
1. Share this reflection. Preserve Buddhism by spreading it.
2. Volunteer as a Sutta proof-reader and learn Dharma directly (no Pali needed). Email us at dharmafarer@gmail.com.
3. Dharma at your convenience. Sutta teachings by Piya Tan (on YouTube): link.
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With metta & mudita,
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On turning 65
In August 2014 I turned 65, and received so many online greetings that I was unable to respond to all of them, since they were mostly old students, friends and acquaintances. Some years back, I would usually have replied every email I got, mainly because people felt good when we responded to them positively. This is a simple act of charity we can do as Buddhists, as caring people. So, this reflection is dedicated to all my students, friends and well-wishers, and of course, you. We all have our birthdays every year: so, lets celebrate together, with wisdom and compassion. Imagine you are reading this on your own birthday.
A birthday for me is a powerful reminder that we have a year less to go. I feel similarly when I gave away Dharma books or sutta gifts, or wrote a reflection like this, and you read it. It is as if Ive lightened my burden of care a bit. For, then I knew that there was someone out there who loved Dharma, and who cared for what others thought. So, too, as I look back over each year of my life, I rejoice in the suttas Ive translated, and how my wife, Ratna, and others have caringly proof-read them and make them more readable.
Looking at my sutta translation schedule, I saw that I had been translating suttas and writing related essays for 12 years running now. Since 2002, I had translated over 900 suttas and written over 120 essays in the Sutta Discovery (SD) series.[1] This means that I had managed to complete an SD volume every 3 months, or 4 SD volumes a year. To date, the work had been more than 3 months ahead of schedule. This is possible for two main reasons.
Firstly, every sutta is interesting in itself and are connected with other suttas, and secondly, I worked at my own pace, even going as slow as I like (for some difficult passages or when more worldly issues have to be attended to). As long as I spent even a few minutes in a day, finishing just a single paragraph, I was able to keep to the schedule of completing 4 SD volumes a year. Dharma joy in the suttas sustains such an effort, so that there is always the time for it. Love makes time.[2]
At the time of writing this, Ive just completed SD 46. Before writing this reflection, I noticed that I had earmarked SD 113 for the year 2031. In other words, Ive a clear idea of the waiting-list of suttas to translate and essays to write for the next 17 years! If I were still living and lucid then, I would be 82. If not, enough groundwork has been done for what can be known as Singapore Dharma (SD) for others to continue the translation work if they are willing and able to.
Our task then is to stay hale and hearty for Dharma work, especially when we exercise our mind and keep it healthy in a spiritual way. The Dharma, which Iam learning and will continue doing so, as I translate and teach the suttas, keep me on an even keel in a world of challenges and uncertainties. Again, who knows, the hand of time will seize us prematurely. To know we are running out of time helps us treasure it more and to live wisely. This is my contemplation on death.
A closely related meditation is the perception of impermanence, habitually reflecting that everyone and every thing are impermanent, changing and becoming other. Whether done with faith or with wisdom, the Buddha assures us that we will attain streamwinning in this life itself; if not, at the very last breath.[3] We only need to aspire to this end. Theres everything to gain here. For difficult is human birth:[4] otherwise, we are more likely to be reborn into a subhuman state (as violently exploitative asuras, addictive pretas, predictable and ignorant animals, or painfully violent hell-beings).[5]
The Buddha has wisely and compassionately taught us that we can awaken, or at least take the first step, in this life itself. When I was much younger, I learned Dharma, and often tried to change and adapt it to suit myself and to please others. A lot of us today, in fact, are still trying to change and adapt the Dharma to suit ourselves and please others, instead of bettering ourselves.
One of the things Id learned over the decades living as a Buddhist is that we have to let go of our views, just as we, having taken in a breath, must let it go. Often enough, this happens naturally, but we need to be aware of this. For, there is great wisdom in seeing letting-go: we see true renunciation in action.[6]
Only in giving up old views, when they have served their purpose, do we learn and grow with deeper self-understanding. Otherwise, we are no better than the views we hold. We have not seen all the sides of the mountain, and not even climbed it to enjoy its peak.
If we love the Dharma, even as we age, we become aware of how time changes us, and often takes away what we treasure greatly. Yet, we notice that Dharma changes us, too, for the better. Recently, I gave a Primary 6 boy a copy of Simple Joys 2. Back home, he read one of the reflections on the 5 elements (earth, water, fire, wind and space), and excitedly told his mother about it.
Such real-life events inspire the weekly reflections that I have been writing since January 2007, mass-emailed every week without fail (so far) the last 7 years. Each reflection is prefixed with an R, and this reflection is R361, Reflection no 361. There are two kinds of reflections: the first is inspirational (as R360, Dont try to stop changing), and the other is visionary (such as the forthcoming R363, On religion, off religion). This particular reflection, R361, has elements of both.
If the suttas are the Buddhas challenge to me to live with wisdom and compassion, to know what to do about suffering, and to help even those who do not deserve it, my weekly reflections (like this one) is an invitation to you to feel happy for the moment, to count our blessings, or better to be unable to count them all, and, through them to brighten the lives of others. Through the internet, this can be done, is being done, globally. We are part of this joyful network of radiant hearts.[7] Love keeps us close with Dharma despite the distance.[8]
The visionary kind of reflections tries to look at some human condition or issue that is troubling many of us, whether we know it or not, or will do so in time. Such a reflection can sometimes be itself troubling for some of us, especially if it addresses, or perceived to address, our own weakness or lack.
Once, for example, a well known scholar and activist, despite our knowing each other well enough, as I often attended his talks, unsubscribed from our mailing list, saying that he had no time to read such reflections, but we can still be friends, he emailed! Another person who unsubscribed wrote that he would rather read the suttas in Pali and Sanskrit than such reflections.
Learning the Dharma is looking into a mirror and seeing ourselves as we are. If we notice we do not look well, it is not the mirrors fault. Indeed, it is an occasion to wisely act to heal ourselves. Wounds can get worse if we do not heal them at once. We are 65 for only a moment. So much time has passed since I first felt about writing this reflection.
Please take this reflection and others like it as our mirror. Sometimes it arises from irrepressible joy, sometimes from a pain that must speak itself. If we feel the joy, it comes from within us (for these are only dead dry ink or groups of pixels); if we feel troubled by a self-truth, it comes from the desire to be better.
Turning 65 should remind us that we are moving deeper into the evening of our lives. The world around us remains just as it was, as it is, and will be.[9] We now know better, should know better. Then, we have not merely grown old, but also become better at it at living and loving. Then, we understand better and rejoice in the words of Sariputta, the wisest monk after the Buddha:
I delight not in death, nor do I delight in life;
I shall cast aside this body fully aware and mindful.
I delight not in death, nor do I delight in life;
I await my time as a servant his wages. (Thera,g th 1002 f)[10]
R361 Simple Joys 260
Piya Tan ©2014
Aramika