Aloka Journal

J23.01

Euthanasia - A study in relation to original Theravada Buddhist thinking

Y2000 Global Conference on Buddhism: in the Face of the Third Millennium

Bhikkhu Professor Dhammavihari

PROLOGUE

The religious, moral and social correctness of Euthanasia [or more precisely of legalized voluntary euthanasia] and its justifiability became a subject of serious inquiry and judgement, at least with us, only after the death of Mr. Robert [Bob] Dent of Darwin in Australia a few months ago. The newspaper THE AGE of Melbourne, in its story of the death of Bob Dent, made out that he had derived from Buddhism a great deal of inspiration in his tormented life as a cancer patient. This report immediately refreshed my memories of having met the late Mr. Bob Dent as far back as the early months of 1994 in Darwin itself. He visited us in the Buddhist Vihara of Darwin, told us of his recovery from a cancer which his doctors had diagnosed he was suffering from. He insisted that he achieved it through the combined practices of Chi kung [= the Chinese meditation method] and traditional Indian Buddhist meditation techniques. He appeared to be thoroughly reassured and in high spirits. He did not think there were even lingering traces of cancer within him. Apparently his cancer was totally submerged and sent underground. He drove us through the town several days and visited us many times at the temple. We profusely thanked him for his services, wished him well and the story ended at that.

But the story of the Northern Territories Euthanasia Bill seems to have continued unabated over the years. If my memory is correct, I recollect reading in a Sydney newspaper in March or April 1995, during my second visit to Australia the following year, a comment that Buddhist teachings [certainly not of the Theravada tradition] make allowances for acts of suicide. It was probably a provincial version from a sectarian tradition. At that time we took it for no more than a passing comment. [We gather that such comments are being made even today.]

Assuming that Bob Dent was by then completely cured of his cancer, I had no reason to suspect any impact of this line of thinking on him. But his choice of legalized voluntary euthanasia in 1996 as a solution to the lamentable situation into which he had finally slipped makes me now think different. Hence this endeavour to clarify the Buddhist position, primarily from the Theravada religious angle. These situations of taking or making life-involving decisions, we believe, cannot be totally divorced from one's regular philosophy of life which may be derived through one's religious beliefs or from anywhere else. But on the continuity of a philosophy of life, inspite of the complexity of life in the world today, we insist. I would also attempt to make a few observations on the moral and social impacts of the issue of suicide and euthanasia on the human community at large. As to who makes these judgements to terminate life, [over whom, in what contexts and on what basis] would continue to be relevant questions.

EUTHANASIA

In discussing the issue of Euthanasia we are essentially concerned with the death of human beings. At a very down to earth level death may be defined as termination or cessation of life. It can come about through a number of causes. Failure of life-sustaining forces at any point of time in life brings about what we term death through natural causes. Here no agency of persons or processes is involved.

As a second category we can think of death caused through accidents. This would clearly be sudden termination of life while full capacity to live lies with a person. In such cases the person who dies would have had no apprehension of death until that fatal moment. Nor would he have even vaguely anticipated it. Neither is there the necessity of personal involvement of any external agency. It is no more than a violent termination of life-sustaining factors or faculties. It becomes an involuntary process efficiently put through. The persons responsible for the accident are only peripherally connected. Brain-death could be a sub-category within both these groups. But precise determination of the reality of brain-death deserves to be under-taken as a separate study.

Further to these we have death of persons through killing: suicide and murder or culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Termination of life or bringing about death, whether by oneself or by another, is undeniably killing of one sort or another. The intensity of the offense or crime, as under serious provocation or in self-defense, may be judged differently. A trial judge presiding over an unaccomplished act of suicide would probably have many legal tools which he could dexterously handle in such a situation. In any normal case of suicide, without insanity and such other factors intervening, Buddhist teachings would view it as an act of destruction of life, without any differentiation, even though one would try to claim that particular life involved as one's own. Circumstances leading to the act of suicide may entitle one to plead in mitigation on behalf of the offender. Nevertheless, the crime would be in the category of destruction of life, and destruction of human life would rank a very gross of offense with serious consequences. Our study therefore would concern itself with suicide and euthanasia only.

As we attempt to view the question of suicide from the Buddhist point of view, the greater part of relevant evidence comes to us from Buddhist monastic history. A very small number of suicides, of a mere three or so [Godhika at S.I.120f. & K.S.I.149f. Vakkali at S.III. 119f & K.S.III. 101-106. Channa at S.IV.55f & K.S.IV. 30-33. A complete sutta on Advice to Channa or Channovàda occurs at M.III. 263-6] of the disciples of the Buddha, is reported in Buddhist texts. A monk by the name of Godhika who was strenuously struggling for liberation was unsuccessful in every attempt he made, up to a sixth. He is said to have achieved partial release from time to time, sàmayikaü cetovimuttim , and then fallen off from that state repeatedly up to a sixth time. He reached it again for the seventh time. But faced with an unbearable sense of frustration, i.e. of possible collapse again, he is said to have reached for his razor and slashed his throat.

Atha kho àyasmà godhiko appamatto àtàpã pahitatto viharanto sàmayikaü cetovimuttiü phusi. Atha kho àyasmà godhiko tàya sàmayikàya cetovimuttiyà parihàyi. Dutiyam pi...tatiyam pi...catuttham pi...pa¤camam pi...chaññham pi kho àyasmà godhiko tàya sàmayikàya cetovimuttiyà parihàyi. Sattamam pi kho àyasmà godhiko appamatto àtàpã pahitatto viharanto sàmayikaü cetovimuttim phusi. Atha kho àyasmato godhikassa etadahosi.

Yàva chaññhaü khvà haü sàmayikàya cetovimuttiyà parihãno. Yannånà haü satthaü àhareyyan ti. [S.I.120 f.PTS / S.I.220.BJTS]

'And he, abiding in zealous, ardent and strenuous study, touched temporary emancipation of mind, and fell away therefrom. And this befell him a second, and yet a third time, yes even six times.[...?] Then he thought: Up to six times have I fallen away from temporary emancipation of mind. What if I were now to use the knife?' [K.S.I.150]

[But note that the Pali Text Society English translation given above unfortunately lacks the reference to the seventh successful attainment of Godhika which he desperately wanted to maintain. That is apparently why he wanted to terminate his life while still in that state of emancipation of mind. The relevant untranslated Pali text of the PTS edition is printed in bold type in the above quotation. The PTS knows of a Burmese text which refers to the seventh time that he attained it. Our Sri Lankan BJTS text also has reference to the seventh time.]

The important thing to note is that Godhika did commit suicide while he was in a state of emancipatation, temporary though, at the seventh time. He did not do it while he had lost it after the sixth time. The Buddha apparently was aware of this. He is said to have summed up the situation in the following words.

Ay, thus the strong in mind do go to work.
No longing have they after living on,
Craving and root of craving tearing out,
Hath Godhika passed utterly away. [K.S.I.151]

Evaü hi dhãrà kubbanti nàvakaïkhanti jãvitaü
samålaü taõhaü abbuyha godhiko parinibbuto. S.I.121 PTS / S.I.220 BJTS

At this very moment in Godhika's life, the cumulative effect of his successful repeated spiritual endeavours apparently converged with this suicidal termination of his life. Since his physical death was brought about while he was still in his temporary emancipation, it is said that there was none left to pay, in a life after, the penalty for this undoubtedly misjudged action [The venerable Sariputta prevails upon the venerable Channa to refrain from doing such a thing. See K.S.IV.31]. That Godhika had ended his possibility of rebirth, i.e. wound up his journeying in the life process of samsàra is implied in the Buddha's words 'root of craving tearing out: samålam taõhaü abbuyha'. It is also said that 'He harboured no yearning for life: nàvakaïkhanti jãvitaü.'

In the other two incidents of Vakkali and Channa, both are victims of severe and painful afflictions. Even Godhika's falling off from his emancipation is attributed [in the Commentary] to a physical deterioration. Of Vakkali, the texts say: 'Lord , the brother Vakkali is sick , afflicted, stricken with a sore disease...' Strong pains come upon me. They do not abate. There is no sign of their abating, but of their increasing.' [K.S.III.102]. Of Channa, the report is even more painfully graphic. At that time the venerable Channa was sick, afflicted, stricken with a sore disease...' Just as if friend, a strong man with a sharp-pointed sword were crashing into my brain, just so, friend, does the strong rush of vital air torment my brain. ... Strong pains come upon me. They do not abate. There is no sign of their abating, but of their increasing. I' ll use the knife, friend Sariputta. I wish to live no longer.' K.S.IV.30 f. [Note. The Pali equivalent of the last statement is Nàvakaïkhàmi jivitaü. This is the same that the Buddha said of enlightened persons, while commenting on thera Godhika's suicide, that 'they do not long to continue living'. That life and death are both the same to them. They matter not very much.].

On hearing these words of the venerable Channa, the venerable Sariputta prevailed upon him not to do such a thing. He promised to attend on him looking after all his needs.

If the venerable Channa has no proper food, I will search for proper food for him. If he has no fit attendants, I will wait on the venerable Channa.

But the venerable Channa turns down all these offers, assuring that all these are available to him. But adds further that he has himself attended on the Master for long lengths of time, and that with great pleasure and not displeasure. That being the proper thing for a disciple to do, he adds that his suicide should be looked upon as being blameless.

Api ca me àvuso satthà pariciõõo dãgharattaü manàpen eva no amanàpena. Etaü hi àvuso sàvakassa patiråpaü yaü satthàraü paricareyya manàpen eva no amanàpena. Taü anupavajjaü channo bhikkhu satthaü àharissatã ti evametam àvuso Sàriputta dhàrehã ti. [S.IV.57 PTS / S.IV.128 BJTS]

In the above quotation we would agree with the PTS translation of anupavajja as blameless. But it is to be noted that the Commentary further explains it with the words anupavattikam appañisandhikaü which mean 'not resulting in rebirth.' This drives us to accept the position that the venerable Channa too is here regarded as being in the position of an arahant or 'not-to-be-born'. This is the venerable Channa's own claim. The Buddha is seen to accept it.

Continuing this persuasive dialogue, the venerable Sariputta enables the venerable Channa to point out and convincingly admit that in none of the six cognitive processes in our phenomenon of life could one entertain the idea of a self or a derivative of a self. The venerable Channa categorically says: 'Seeing ceasing to be [nirodhaü], comprehending ceasing to be, friend Sariputta, do I so regard them.'

nirodhaü abhi¤¤àya cakkhuü cakkhuvi àõam cakkhuvi àõavi àtabbe dhamme netaü mama n eso hamasmi na m eso attà ti samanupassàmi. ... manovi àõavi àtabbe dhamme netam mama n eso hamasmi na m eso attà ti samanupassàmã ti. [Ibid. 59 / 130]

At this point, the venerable Cunda the Great who was in this same company with the venerables Sariputta and Channa makes this further observation which is very revealing.

Wherefore, friend Channa, you ought to ever bear in mind the teaching of that Exalted One, to wit: -'In him that clingeth, there is wavering. In him that clingeth not, wavering is not. Where there is no wavering, there is calm. Where there is calm, there is no bent. Where there is no bent, there is no wrong practice. Where there is no wrong practice, there is no vanishing and reappearing. Where there is no vanishing and reappearing, there is no here no yonder nor yet midway. That is the end of Ill.' [K.S. IV. 32].

Literally, this is to assert that rebirth is ended and that samsàra is transcended. That is all that a Buddhist disciple is endeavouring to achieve.

At the end of this very profound deliberation, however, the venerable Channa did end up his life with the knife. He did commit suicide. The venerable Sariputta hastens to question the Buddha about it.

Lord, the venerable Channa has used the knife. What is his rebirth? What is his attainment? And the Buddha explains. Was it not face to face with you, Sariputta, that the brother Channa declared that no blame attached to him? With conviction, the Buddha appears to add further. Nevertheless, Sariputta, I am not one to reproach him, saying 'He is to blame.' For whoso, Sariputta lays down one body and takes up another body, of him I say 'He is to blame.' But it is no so with the brother Channa. Without reproach was the knife used by the brother Channa. So should you maintain, Sariputta. [Ibid. 33].

Ayasmatà bhante Channena satthaü àharitaü. Tassa kà gati ko abhisamparàyo 'ti. Nanu te Sariputta Channena bhikkhunà sammukhà y eva anupavajjatà byàkatà ti. .... Na kho panà haü Sàriputta saupavajjo ti vadàmi. Yo kho Sàriputta ima ca kàyaü nikkhipati aa ca kàyaü upàdiyati tamahaü aupavajjo ti vadàmi. Taü Channassa bhikkhuno natthi. Anupavajjaü Channena bhikkhunà satthaü àharitan ti. Evam etam Sàriputta dhàrehã ti. [S.IV.59f. PTS / S.IV.133. BJTS.]

Both these cases pertain to Buddhist disciples of long standing in the Order whose religious earnestness and spiritual maturity are unquestionable. They were persons with deep-seated convictions. The question of physical bodily pain is here analytically examined in the truly Buddhist way, with a great deal of philosophic realism. The role of the mind which recognizes and reports pain, to the utter consternation of the recipient, is convincingly reduced to a bundle of psychic processes which are within the control of the psyche or the mental self.

In the case of Vakkali, the Buddha goes to see him, and getting to know from Vakkali himself that he is in acute and unbearable pain, the Buddha counsels him in this manner.

As to this what think you, Vakkali? Is body permanent or impermanent? Impermanent , Lord.

Whatever is impermanent, does it contribute to grief or happiness? To grief, Lord. Whatever is impermanent, contributes to grief and is subject to change, is it proper to look upon it as 'This is mine, this I am , this is my self'? No, Lord.

Is feeling ... perception, ...the activities , ... consciousness permanent, or impermanent? Impermanent, Lord. Wherefore, Vakkali, he who thus seeth ... he knows' ... for life in these conditions there is no hereafter.' [K.S.III. 103].

In the passage quoted above, the PTS translation, for some mysterious reason, does not contain the portion in bold type which we have reproduced here. Those lines clearly reveal the Buddhist imposition of the threefold concept of anicca dukkha anatta [i.e. impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and soullessness] on our outlook on the phenomenon of existence. Or simply regularises what we think of ourselves. The acquisition or culture of such an up-graded outlook necessarily leads to the vaporization of the menacing conceptualization of an ego or sakkàya with regard to our selves. It is that kind of acquired new vision, that kind of attitude to life which gets one beyond samsàra, i.e. beyond the process of life and death. After thus inquiring from Vakkali as to his true view of life and obtaining his very sound judgement as seen above, the Buddha seems to come to the conclusion that Vakkali had by then reached the goal of his religious aspirations. He had apparently gained the vision of looking upon the conglomeration of the Five Aggregates or pa¤cakkhandha in terms of anicca dukkha anatta and hence being devoid of a distorted notion of self.

Backed by this, the Buddha puts confidence into Vakkali, saying ' Fear not Vakkali, your death would not be deemed sinful [pàpika] i.e. as being fruitless: Mà bhàyi vakkali. Apàpakaü te maraõaü bhavissati. Apàpikà kàlakiriyà ti. S.III. 122 PTS / S. III. 210. BJTS. This is virtually saying that Vakkali is dying as an arahant, i.e. as a fully emancipated person who has reached the goal of his spiritual aspirations. In fact this is corroborated by a statement ascribed to a deity in this context that Vakkali would be liberated as a totally liberated' person: suvimutto vimuccissatã ti. [Ibid.] After Vakkali's suicidal termination of life, the Buddha finally confirms that Vakkali being a liberated person, his Consciousness [viàõa] will not re-establish itself in rebirth any more: Appatiññhitena ca bhikkhave viàõena vakkali kulaputto parinibbuto. [loc.cit.]

All these three incidents of Godhika, Vakkali and Channa clearly show that the persons here concerned had all gone beyond the stage of 'entertaining any longing for life or continuing the life process': nàvakaïkhanti jãvitaü. This total detachment or eradication of craving [samålaü taõhaü abbuyha] also implied that they were not going to be reborn. In such a situation their act of suicide would be one which is incapable of fruition or bearing fruit. Their behaviour in this context would be in the same category like the criminal acts of murder of Angulimala who committed them prior to his attainment of final liberation. They would in fact, we believe, fall in the category of 'acts only' [ahosi kamma] which 'bear no fruit' [na vipàko].

Our assessment of the act of suicide in these cases is from a highly sophisticated religious angle. It applies only to the totally accomplished disciples, namely arahants. This would not be applicable even to the lower grades of monks. Much less in the case of ordinary laymen. It is also to be appreciated in this context that Buddhism accommodates a dimension of its own with regard to the concept of life and death. To all those who are not liberated here in this very life from their life process of samsàra there is to be a life after death in conformity to the present, with its quality determined by the life style of the present one.

Suicide and those within the cycle of samsàra.

Outside this frame, the Buddhist has to view terminating of life in suicide, no matter under what circumstances, as amounting to destruction of human life. Many mitigating factors could possibly be put forward and the offense could be sub-graded to man-slaughter, culpable homicide not amounting to murder etc. In any case, destruction being by oneself, what is destroyed is believed to be one's own life. To the Buddhist, this position is untenable. What is destroyed is life, whether claimed as one's own or differentiated as that of another. In Buddhism, the very first precept of admonition for good living [i.e. sãla] is the abstinence from destruction of life [pàõàtipàtà veramaõã]. This applies to life of all grades, both human and animal [sabba-pàõa-bhåta-hitànukampã]. And the precept is equally binding on both monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen.

In the ethical injunctions of Buddhism for good living both for the monk and the layman, referred to above, the precepts of sãla have no legal validity. They are left to the judgement and good sense of those who opt to follow them [sikkhàpadaü samàdiyàmi]. However, within the monastic order of monks and nuns, they are rephrased and elevated to the status of legal enactments, with accompanying penalties and punishments. In the corpus of monastic laws, a distinction is even made between the destruction of human and animal life. In the monastic rules of Vinaya discipline, destruction of human life [manussa-viggaha] is placed in the first category of the four major offenses or Pàràjikà [= defeat], entailing total destruction of one's monastic status. Legally, destruction of animal life by monks and nuns comes in a category of lesser offense known as Pàcittiya.

In Buddhist ecclesiastical law known as the Vinaya which pertains to the conduct of the fully graduated monks of senior status [known as upasampnna], there are four offenses of the most serious type which entail immediate expulsion from the Order. It is for this reason they are referred to as Pàràjikà which means 'implying defeat'. Offense No.3 in this group is concerned with i. depriving a human being of life which in other words means killing. Associated with this, and getting into the same category of offense are ii. provision of a killer weapon, iii. speaking in praise of death, iv. inciting any one to bring about his own death, i.e. suicide, by speaking disparagingly of his pitiable and miserable plight in life. It is to be noted that these injunctions are with reference to a Buddhist monk of senior status [upasampanna bhikkhu] who comes under the jurisdiction of the Codified Law of the Patimokkha. [See Book of the Discipline - I.B. Horner, Part I. p.125f.]

Thus it is clear from this that from the highest point of spiritual evaluation in Buddhism both killing as well as aiding and abetting suicide are deemed criminal and hence disallowable. But since the Codified Law here has jurisdiction only over the monastic community, it is only a bhikkhu who stands liable to be prosecuted and punished [for aiding and abetting in suicide, in this case]. A layman stands outside legal prosecution. Buddhist ethics make no legal provision for prosecution of lay persons for breaches of any ethical injunctions. Aiding and abetting by a lay person in the commission of an act of suicide, though ethically censurable, may even be considered as 'not amounting to murder' where one is actually not a party to the act of killing, as in the case of a self-administered lethal dose of poison.

An interesting incident which relates to aiding and abetting another for the termination of his life which is believed to be miserable and unworthy of living, and therefore needs to be escaped through suicide or murder, is found in the anecdotal accounts of the Pàràjikà No.3. [See Book of the Discipline, Part I. 117 f.] We are told here of a group of misguided monks who through misunderstanding of the Buddha's directions about the unwholesomeness of human life which as a rule is saddled with disease, decay and death, sought the assistance of a miscreant [the sham recluse Migalaõóika] to have them put to death. Armed with a sword, he readily did it, saying to himself that he was helping those who had not crossed to cross over, i.e. to attain their spiritual goal [= atiõõe tàresã ti]. The reality of misguided thinking, in the direction of killing through compassion or killing for the benefit of others can be seen here.

Now as for instances of suicide or the decision to terminate one's life, we notice we are driven to collect our data from monastic history. Extreme despair in the face of spiritual failure is indicated as a prompting for the choice of suicide. A monk named Sappadàsa [Theragàthà v. 407] and a nun named Sãhà [Therãgàthà v. 80], both say, in a more or less relative assessment, that it would be better to terminate their lives, either with a weapon or by hanging themselves rather than return to the lay-life which they had already rejected. Such a return, they would logically argue, tantamounts to the death of their spiritual life. It is worded exactly so in the text where it says 'a disciple's return to lay-life tantamounts to death' [Maraõa¤hetaü bhikkhave ariyassa vinaye yo sikkhaü paccakkhàya hãnàyàvattati. Maraõamatta¤hetaü bhikkhave dukkham yadidaü aïïatarü saïkiliññhaü àpattiü àpajjati yathàråpàya àpattiyà vuñthànaü païïàyati. Samyutta Nikaya II. p.271].

We look upon these situations as instances of the use of a severe yardstick of measurement by honest and serious disciples. They do so to boost up their sagging religious enthusiasm as well as to sharpen the dull edge of their spiritual tools. Some tend to take them as real incidents of suicide. In any case we are certain that these persons did not end up in suicide. Both these are only attempts at suicide. Both persons concerned lived to tell the story of their success. They triumphed and attained the goal of their religious quest. Sãhà says that at that moment of contemplated suicide by hanging she gained the release of mind [Pakkhipiü pàsaü gãvàyaü atha cittaü vimucci me. Thig. v. 80]. Sappadàsa is equally clear in his assertion that as he attempted to slash an artery with a razor he gained the release of his mind [Parinãto khuro àsi dhamaniü chettum attano. Tato cittam vimucci me. Thag. v. 407].

Let us now come to the realities of the world we live in and consider the situations in which euthanasia is sought and euthanasia is carried out. The following categories may be witnessed, possibly with a few others to come. One has to reckon with the complexities of the problem, whether one agrees with them, endorses them or not. We may present them as follows.

1. Unlegalised euthanasia carried out by medical practitioners on patients whom they believe are terminally ill and whom they deem would better be dead than alive.
2. These may be at the request of the patient, with consent on suggestion, or without consent.
3. On request by persons closely related to the patient [but other than the patient himself], made out to be on grounds of sympathy or compassion [about the reality or otherwise of which one can entertain considerable doubt]. It may also be expediency in the interests of those other than the patient [i.e. good riddance of what may be deemed a burden or unwanted source of trouble].
4. On decisions taken by individuals or groups, not substantially related to the patient, but interested in the termination of the life of the patient for various other social and economic reasons [like cost to the family or the state].
5. Legalized voluntary euthanasia on request by the patient, made in a state of sanity or perfect mental health and good judgement. This may primarily be i) due to a desire to terminate an unbearable state of pain to the patient or ii) in the interests of those on whom the patient is dependent economically, emotionally etc.

Of the above considerations, legalized voluntary euthanasia [No.5] seems to be the only one on behalf of which the Buddhists may claim any legitimacy. Here alone the patient claims full responsibility for the termination of his life. It is equally well ascertained that the patient does it with a full awareness of what he is doing. As far as basic Buddhist teachings of the Theravada are concerned this has to be viewed as an error of judgement. This is certainly in violation of the pledge by every Buddhist to abstain from destruction of life. For lay persons it remains at the level of an ethical injunction, no more than a precept [pàõàtipàtà vramaõã sikkhàpadaü], without any legal implications or punishments involved. But it is at the same time a socio-ethical wrong-doing of the highest order.

At the level of the full-fledged monk, considerations regarding destruction of human life, whether one's own or that of another, acquire legal status with the necessary provision for prosecution and punishment. It involves a disciplinary rule of the highest grade [Pàràjikà No.3], requiring total expulsion from monastic life. In the case of voluntary euthanasia, legalized or otherwise, the doctor's share lies only in setting up the involuntary process of execution of getting the lethal dose into the patient's body at his request. In compliance with a patient's request, the doctor is only 'aiding and abetting' a patient who, for whatever reason, chooses to terminate his life. As far as a monk is concerned, this is as serious an offense as murder or man slaughter. [Note the details of Pàràjikà No.3 given above].

From the Buddhist point of view, one would here question the correctness of the patient's decision. It is to be remembered that except in the case of the liberated ones, i.e. those in Nirvana who are not destined to be born again, death begets life anew for everyone. Death does not terminate life, or more precisely the life process. Hence it cannot terminate pain and unhappiness. They are linked up with new life wherever it begins. Suicide or destruction of life being viewed as an evil act in itself, such a termination of life to terminate pain and suffering at this end would entail payment for it hereafter with interest compounded to it. Hence a sufferer's desire to terminate pain in this life through suicide has to be unequivocally declared an error of judgement. As for the desire to relieve the burden on others, it would as much be a serious error of judgement. Such sympathy would be no more than misguided charity. Suicide would show itself up as an attempt to cheat pain in life, forgetting the possibility of its recurrence in a life after. Attempts to dodge threatening instances of shame and insults, to erase off memories of defeat and frustration, seem to drive both men and women, young and old, to extremely lamentable acts of suicide. Except in very special cases of hopeful life restoration, resorting to life-supporting systems like a respirator to prolong life would appear to be a futile attempt to cheat death.

All other attempts, under the dignified name of euthanasia, to terminate human life by persons other than the patient himself, on i) compassionate grounds of pain relieving , ii) bringing about dignified dying for those abandoned as terminally ill, or iii) clearing spots of social eyesore by ridding society of its 'unwanted members' who are judged 'not fit to live' would be clear reflections of egoistic high-handedness, both individual and collective, justified in the name of sympathetic and humane considerations as well as veiled notions of social grooming. The possible unethical turns on these blind alleys are bound to be invariably unavoidable.

EPILOGUE
Let us now turn our attention to the impact of Euthanasia on society at large and the moral assessment of its possible abuse. It is now widely accepted that many in our circle of humans do reach stages in their lives when the unmanageable condition of their physical bodies, resulting from cases of terminal illness, drive them to choose death to relieve themselves of the pain suffered in those conditions. Under normal circumstances, the legal permission sought under legalized Euthanasia is to execute and carry out these requests. But there can be many instances where these are overstepped. Many requests can come from persons other than the patients themselves who seek riddance of unwanted persons in their midst, unwanted perhaps for many reasons which may lie in different areas like social, cultural and economic. We would consider some of these apparently well intended attempts as verging on man-slaughter or culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They are no less than acts of deliberate termination of human life, the justifiability of which under various circumstances we may attempt to concede, might be hotly debated. Equally weighty arguments, for and against, may spring from different levels of one's religious stand and cultural development.

Another area of social intervention in the termination of another's life, for various understandable reasons which we need to consider here, lies in the withdrawal of a life-supporting system which had been hopefully introduced for the rescue of a human life through medication or surgery. But seeing the tragic ebb of chances of retrieval, people are often driven, sometimes more meaningfully, to withdraw such support. The relatively larger economic gains [through not incurring any more unproductive expenditure on life-supporting systems as well as through earlier-than-expected inheritance of assets and estates of such a dying person] often outweigh the concern for a very definitely fading out human life. As Buddhists, we would view such situations as taking 'the bull by the horns'. In doing so, in putting patients of diverse sorts on life-supporting systems, particularly in view of their economic viability or otherwise, we would be indulging in an unwise and unwarranted undertaking. But once undertaken, we would have to decide and judge in favour of life. At most levels, attempts to delay death in the hope of rescuing and consolidating life amounts to no more than attempts to cheat death. Buddhists would have in many cases to accept such endeavours as both unacceptable and fruitless adventures.

A very specific area of challenge for the relative value of life comes in the decision to save the life of a pregnant mother in the face of danger to her life on account of her unborn child. The direct question to face is 'With what respect do we treat the fetal life of an unborn child ?' It is now admitted in many parts of the world that the unborn child has a right to defend itself, i.e. save its life. It is a right with near complete independence of the mother who carries the child. We would at the same time consider the mother to be compelled by what we could consider decent human ethics to respect this. These conservative evaluations uphold that a mother may even safeguard her child at the risk of her own life. We do understand that such concepts which had their origin in very ancient times are therefore timewise and spacewise well beyond notions like 'unwanted children', and the loss of prestige [at least in certain quarters] of 'unmarried mothers'. Here it would admittedly be difficult to invoke a religious law in favour of one or the other as it would in any case involve the destruction of life [of the mother or the child], of the bigger or the smaller, of the fully grown or not yet fully grown. Does the natural law of survival of the fitter come to our rescue here and save us of the embarrassment?

Buddhist Society of Victoria
71-73 Darling Road, East Malvern
Victoria 3145, Australia.

20 10 1996
[Any inquiries and correspondence on this article can be forwarded to Professor Bhikkhu Dhammavihari, Director, International Buddhist Research and Information Center (IBRIC) 380/9 Sarana Road, Off Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka. E Mail ibric@sri.lanka.net]

J23.02

The uniqueness of Buddhism

Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

The Buddha said "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it; not in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; not in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many; not in anything because it is found written in your spiritual texts; not in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders, but only after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it" (Kalama Sutta).

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), the famous philosopher and mathematician, who was a Christian, says: "Of the great religions of history, I prefer Buddhism, especially in its orthodox form, because it has had the smallest element of persecution". The intellectuals of the West have agreed that for the first time in the history of the world, Buddha proclaimed a salvation, which each man could gain for himself, and by himself in this world, during his life, without the least help from God or Gods.

Buddhism differes from other religions because (i) it does not believe in a Creator or an Almighty God who is responsible for all our actions, (ii) Buddhism, in actual sense, is not a religion, though people generally call it so, because there is no belief in, recognition of, or of a higher unseen authority, or a controlling power, but emotions and morality connected therewith, (iii) is a moral philosophy in pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, norms and laws, and all other things connected therewith.

In Buddhism, there is nothing to speculate or conjecture, because it is a doctrine, par excellence, leading to the attainment of Nibbana ceasing rebirth. Every Buddhist aspires to attain this condition in this life or in the life to come. Buddha is the greatest man who ever lived in this world of ours, dominating the whole of human history, by his boundless compassion and unrestricted loving kindness, and still his doctrine stands supreme above others.

Buddhism stands unique since it denies in the existence of a soul (ego). Buddha said that the idea of a soul is an imaginary, false and baseless belief, which has no corresponding reality, but produces harmful thoughts, selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism and other defilements, impurities and problems. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evils in the world which we experience. Soul is usually explained as the principle of life, the ultimate identity of a person or the immortal constituent of self.

There is nothing called 'sin' in Buddhism in which actions are merely termed as meritorious ('kusala') and demeritorious 'akusala'). Sin is rebellion against God. The word 'sin' is derived from the Latin root 'sontis' meaning guilty, explained either as mortal sin (unpardonable sin) or venial sin (pardonable sin).

According to dogmatic theology, sin signifies purposeful disobedience to the Will of God, or any action offensive or blasphemous to God, or to speak profanely or impiously of God. Buddhists do not believe in confession (acknowledgement of sin to a priest) as laid down in Catholicism.

John Walters writing about the Buddhist idea of sin, says that it differes somewhat from the Christian idea. Sin to the Buddhist is mere ignorance or stupidity. It is said that the wicked man is an ignorant man and does not need punishment and condemnation, so much as he needs instructions. "He is not regarded as violating God's commands, or as one who must beg for divine mercy and forgiveness. Buddhism does not believe that a sinner can escape the consequences in prayerful attempts to bargain with God".

Among the founders of world religions, the Buddha was the only teacher who did not claim to be a prophet, or incarnation of a god or a super being above mankind. He was a man pure and simple, and devoted his entire life to holiness. He was a noble prince of the Sakya clan, the only son of king Suddhodana of the ancient Kapilavattu (modern Piprawa on the Nepal border in North India).

The prince Siddhartha Gautama, having understood the remorseless of nature, renounced the world at the age of 29 years, after seeing the four prognosticated signs (a sick man, an old man, a corpse and a hermit, as he walked along in measured steps). He now desired to become a recluse, away from the burden of civil life, to find a panacea for the ills of suffering faced by mankind, during their voyage in the 'samsara' (cycle of rebirths). Leaving behind his young wife and the infant child Rahula, he ventured into the forest, in the fulfilment of his cherished desire to wear the yellow robe and become a recluse with shaven head.

At the time when the prince was born there was a great spiritual revolution, and many youngmen left their homes to lead an ascetic life given to celibacy and holiness. The recluse Siddhartha, underwent hectic mortification of the flesh given to asceticism for 6 years, under the erudite teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputra who were reputed for their psychic powers. But their teachings did not satisfy him. Therefore, he left them and followed the Middle Path (Majjhima Patipada), rejecting the extremes of 'attakilamatanu-yoga' (self-mortification) and 'kamasukkhallikanu-yoga' (self-indulgence). With strenuous effort, he attained Enlightenment (Buddhahood) illuminating the world by his success.

After attaining Enlightenment, he delivered his first discourse to the five ascetics on Dhammacakka-pavattana Sutta. Addressing them he said "Open ye your ears, O bhikkus, deliverance from death is found. I teach you. I preach the law. If ye walk according to my teaching, ye shall be partakers in a short time of that for which sons of noble families have left their homes to lead a life of homelessness, it being the highest end of my spiritual effort. Ye shall, even in this present life apprehend the truth itself and see it face to face."

Buddhism is, generally, accepted as a moral philosophy to lead mankind in the proper path by doing good and avoiding evil. The Buddha himself has expressed that his teaching is both deep and recondite, and anyone could follow it who is intelligent enough to understand it. He admonished his disciples to be a refuge to themselves' and never to seek refuge in, or help from anyone else. He taught, encouraged and stimulated each person to develop himself, and to work out his own emancipation, because man has the power to liberate him self from all earthly bondage, through his own personal effort and intelligence.

Buddha based his doctrine on the Four Noble Truths, viz: suffering (dukkha), cause of suffering (samudaya), destruction of suffering (nirodha) and the path leading to the cessation of suffering (magga). The first is to be comprehended, the second (craving) is to be eradicated, the third (Nibbana) is to be realised, and the fourth (the Noble Eightfold Path) is to be developed. This is the philosophy of the Buddha for the deliverance of mankind from being born again, or the cessation of continuity of becoming, i.e., 'Bhavanirodha' (the attainment of Nibbana).

The Noble Eightfold Path, also known as the Middle Way, consists eight factors, namely right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Practically, the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during his 45 years of ministration, deals in some way or another, with this Path. He explained it in different ways and in different words, to different people, at different times, according to mental development and capacity of a person, to understand and follow the teachings of the Buddha. In classical terminology, it is known as 'Dukkhanirodha-gaminipatipada ariyasacca'.

This Middle Way is neither a metaphysical path nor a ritualistic path, neither dogmatism nor scepticism, neither self-indulgence nor self-mortification, neither externalism nor nihilism, neither pessimism nor optimism, but the path for Enlightenment as the means of deliverance from suffering, and man is solely responsible for his own pains or pleasures. Buddhism is clear, reasonable and gives complete answerers to all important aspects and questions about our lives.

These eight factors aim in promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist discipline, viz. Ethical conduct (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (panna).

Ethical conduct is built on the conception of morality with compassion towards all beings. Concentration means securing a firm footing on the ground of morality where the aspirant embarks upon the higher practice on the control and culture of the mind. Beyond morality is wisdom. The base of Buddhism is morality and wisdom is its apex. It is the right understanding of the nature of the world in the light of transiency (anicca), sorrowfulenss (dukkha) and soullessness (anatta).

Wisdom leads to the state of 'dhyana' (psychic faculty), generally called trance. Wisdom covers a very wild field, comprising understanding, knowledge, and insight specific to Buddhism. Wisdom being the apex of Buddhism, is the first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path.

It is one of the seven factors of Enlightenment, some of the four means of accomplishment, one of the five powers (pannabala) and one of the five controlling faculties (panna indriya).

The highest morality is inculcated in the system of Buddhist thought, since it permits freedom of thought and opinion, sets its norms against persecution and cruelty and recognises the right of animals. Liquor, drugs and opium and all that tends to destroy the composure of the mind are discountenanced. When considering the fraternity of people, Buddhism acknowledges no caste system and admits the perfect equality of all men, as it proclaims the universal brotherhood.

Buddhism shows the errors of monotheism, atheism, fatalism, nihilism, agnosticism, polytheism, materialism, sensualism, asceticism, spiritualism and deism by analysing the contents of each of the beliefs. Let all beings be happy!

J23.03

The Way to Nibbana

“A den of strife is household life, And filled with toil and need,
But free and high as the open sky Is the life the homeless lead.“
“This Middle Path leads to tranquillity, realization, enlightenment and Nibbana.”
— DHAMMACAKKA SUTTA

THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS - Ven. Narada MahaāThera

The way to Nibbana is the Middle Path (Majjhimaā Patipadaā) which avoids the extreme of self-mortification that weakens the intellect and the extreme of self-indulgence that retards moral progress.

This Middle Path consists of the following eight factors: Right Understanding, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

The first two are classified as Wisdom (pa257), the second three as Morality (sila), and the last three as Concentration (samadhi).

According to the order of development Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom are the three stages on the Grand Highway that leads to Nibbana.

These three stages are embodied in the beautiful ancient verse:
Sabba pāpassa akaranam - Kusalassa upasampadā
Sacittapariyodapanam - Etam Buddhāna sāsanam.

To cease from all evil - To cultivate good
To purify one’s mind - This is the advice of all the Buddhas.

We reap what we sow. Evil results in pain, and good in happiness. Our pain and happiness are the direct results of our own good and evil.

A person with a right understanding realises this just law of action and reaction and, of his own accord, refrains from evil and does good to the best of his ability. He does so for his own good and for the good of others. He considers it his duty to live as a blessing to himself and to all others.

Knowing that life is precious to all and that none has any right whatever to destroy the life of another, he extends compassion and loving-kindness towards every living being, even to the tiniest creature that crawls at his feet, and refrains from killing or causing injury to any living being.

There is no rule that one is to be preyed upon by another. However, the strong do mercilessly kill the weak and feast on their flesh. This is animal instinct. Such actions by animals are excusable because they know not what they do, but when those who are gifted with reason and understanding perpetrate such crimes, there is no excuse. Whether to satisfy one’s palate or as pastime, it is not justifiable to kill or to cause another living being to be killed. If the killing of animals is wrong, how much more heinous is it to kill human beings — individually or collectively, employing brutal or so-called civilised methods — for the sake of peace, religion, or any other seemingly good purpose?

Honesty, trustworthiness, and uprightness also are the characteristics of a person with right understanding. Such a person tries to abstain from all forms of stealing “whether in its dissembled or obvious forms.” Abstaining from sexual misconduct, which debases the exalted nature of man, he tries to be pure and chaste. He avoids false speech, harsh language, slander and frivolous talk and speaks only what is true, sweet, kind and helpful. As certain drinks and drugs promote heedlessness and mental distraction, he avoids intoxicating liquor and cultivates heedfulness and clarity of vision.

These elementary principles of regulated behaviour are essential to one who treads the Path to Nibbana, chiefly because they tend to control both deeds and words. Violation of them introduces obstacles that hinder his moral progress on the Path. Observance of them means smooth and steady progress along the Path.

Having progressed a step further in his gradual advance, the aspirant now tries to control his senses. To control craving for food and to promote buoyancy of mind and body, abstemiousness or fasting at least once a month is advisable. Plain and simple living is preferable to a luxurious life which makes one a slave to passions. A life of celibacy is recommended, as one’s valuable energy thus conserved could then be utilised wholly for the intellectual and moral welfare of oneself and others. In such a life one is detached from additional worldly bonds that impede moral progress. Almost all spiritual teachers, it would appear, have nourished their bodies sparingly and have led a life of strict celibacy, simplicity, voluntary poverty, and self-control.

While he progress slowly and steadily, with regulated word and deed and sense-restraint, the Kammic force of the striving aspirant compels him to renounce worldly pleasures and adopt the ascetic life. To him then comes the idea that:

“A den of strife is household life, And filled with toil and need,
But free and high as the open sky, Is the life the homeless lead.”

Thus realising the vanity of sensual pleasures, he voluntarily forsakes all earthly possessions, and donning the ascetic garb tries to lead the Holy Life in all its purity.

It is not, however, the external appearance that makes a man holy but internal purification and an exemplary life. Transformation should come from within, not from without. It is not absolutely necessary to retire to solitude and lead the life of an ascetic to realize Nibbana. The life of a Bhikkhu no doubt expedites and facilitates spiritual progress, but even as a layman Sainthood may be attained.

He who attains Arahantship as a layman in the face of all temptations is certainly more praiseworthy than a Bhikkhu who attains Arahantship living amidst surroundings that are not distracting.

Concerning a minister who attained Arahantship while seated on an elephant decked in his best apparel, the Buddha remarked:
“Even though a man be richly adorned, if he walks in peace,
If he be quiet, subdued, certain and pure,
And if he refrains from injuring any living being,
That man is a Brahmin, that man is a hermit, that man is a monk.”

There have been several such instances of laymen who realised Nibbana without renouncing the world. The most devout and generous lay follower Anathapindika was a Sotapanna, the Sakya Mahanama was a Sakadagami, the potter Ghatikara was an Anagami and King Suddhodana died as an Arahant.

A Bhikkhu is expected to observe the four kinds of Higher Morality - namely,
Patimokkha Sila — The Fundamental Moral Code,
Indriyasamvara Sila — Morality pertaining to sense-restraint,
Ajavaparisuddhi Sila — Morality pertaining to purity of livelihood,
Paccayasannissita Sila — Morality pertaining to the use of the necessaries of life.

These four kinds of morality are collectively called Sila-Visuddhi (Purity of Virtue), the first of the seven stages of Purity on the way to Nibbana.

When a person enters the Order and receives his Higher Ordination (Upasampadaā), he is called a Bhikkhu. There is no English equivalent that exactly conveys the meaning of this Pāli term Bhikkhu. “Mendicant Monk” may be suggested as the nearest translation, not in the sense of one who begs but in the sense of one who lives on alms.

There are no vows for a Bhikkhu. Of his own accord he becomes a Bhikkhu in order to lead the Holy Life as long as he likes. He is at liberty to leave the Order at any time.

A Bhikkhu is bound to observe 220 rules, apart from several other minor ones. The four major rules which deal with perfect celibacy, stealing, murder, and false claims to higher spiritual powers, must strictly be observed. If he violates any one of them, he becomes defeated (parajikaā) and automatically ceases to be a Bhikkhu. If he wishes, he can re-enter the Order and remain as a Samanera (novice). In the case of other rules, which he violates, he has to make amends according to the gravity of the offence.

Among the salient characteristics of a Bhikkhu are purity, perfect celibacy, voluntary poverty, humility, simplicity, selfless service, self-control, patience, compassion and harmlessness.

The life of a Bhikkhu or, in other words, renunciation of worldly pleasures and ambitions, is only an effective means to attain Nibbana, but is not an end in itself.

26 04 2021 - The Island

J23.04

Maha Pajapati Gotami and her quest to gain spiritual freedom

Ven. Dr. Bhikkuni Kusuma (MA, PhD)

It is the full moon day of September. Today we commemorate the arising of the Bhikkhuņī order in the world. Over 2600 years ago, during the 5th year of Buddha-hood the Bhikkhuņī order arose in the world.

Queen Maha Pajapati, the foster mother to the Buddha along with 500 Sākyan ladies shaved their heads and wearing yellow robes, carrying bowl and robes walked from Kapilavastu to Visala, the gabled hall where the Buddha resided.

This is the only recorded historical walk undertaken by women to gain their spiritual freedom.

The Buddha with his clairvoyant vision understood the commitment of these women, all destined to become Arahants, having fulfilled their aspirations for eons in samsāra. The Buddha gave permission for the going-forth from home to homelessness in pabbajjā.

It took about two weeks for the walk. People on either side of the road were amazed. They cried and offered their chariots, but were refused.

Nobody protested or tried to interrupt their walk asking for ordination. Therefore the Buddha was convinced of the social acceptance of the Bhikkhuņī Order, hence granted permission.

The status of women of that era was very low due to the Brahminic view which considered women of belonging to the lowest caste ‘kshudra’.

They were given away as child brides and co-wives of the older men who were educated in the vedas. Women were uneducated and stupid. Living under the same roof, fighting for toys, ignorant, having babies of their own, being children themselves. Society despised them.

Ordination of Maha Pajapati

The ancient canonical commentary to the pātimokkha, the suttavibhanga refers to three kinds of ordination for women.

1) Ehi Bhikkhuņī Ordination. ‘come Bhikkhuņīs’ given by the Buddha himself.
2) Tīņisaraņa-gamanaordination. Taking refuge of the Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha.
3) Ordination by united dual community. Samaggiubhato sangha. By a formal act, fit to stand (tānāraha) by añatti declaration which comes as the 4th after three proclamations of the motion. ñatticatutthenakammena.

NB.There is no mention of atthagarudhamma ordination in the suttavibhanga.
See the Bhikkhuņī Vinaya by Bhikkhuņī Kusuma (her PhD research now in print)
Chullavagga which was compiled hundred years after the passing away of the Buddha refers to eight garudhamma as ordination for MahāPajāpati.

It is a serious contradiction found in the later vinaya commentary chullavagga and not found in the ancient suttavibhanga.

The 500 Sākyan women who accompanied Mahā Pajāpati were ordained by monks alone by ‘tinisaranagamana’.
There were no Bhikkhuņīs in the world, so attavācika ordination did not exist.

The Buddha with his clairvoyant vision understood the commitment of these women, all destined to become Arahants, having fulfilled their aspirations for eons in samsāra. The Buddha gave permission for the going-forth from home to homelessness in pabbajjā.

How was Maha Pajapati ordained?

The 500 women who were ordained by monks brought a serious allegation on Mahā Pajāpati. They said ‘Lady, you are not ordained. Only we were ordained by monks according to the vinaya rules of the Buddha’.

If Mahā Pajāpati was ordained by accepting the eight garudharma why did she not say so? Instead she took them all before the Buddha to confirm her ordination (ref. Chullavagga Pin2Ee.217). Buddha confirmed her ordination. According to the ancient suttavibhanga, there were only two possible forms of ordination for women. Mainly ehibhikkhuņī ordination and tinisaranagamana ordination.

The 500 ladies already said that Maha Pajapati was not ordained by the monks. Then we have to conclude that she was ordained by ehibhikkhuņī ordination.

Suttavibhanga refers to ‘ehibhikkhuņī tibhikkhuņī’ English translation she is ordained by the Buddha saying ‘come bhikkhuņī’. (Vin4 Ee214,4-13 ed. by H. Oldenberg).

Maha Pajapati Theri Gatha

O Buddha, the invincible winner who rescued me and others, I worship you with clasped hands.
I have understood all suffering and eradicated the cause greed tanha.
The eight-fold path and Nibbana I contacted with wisdom.

I have been drifting in the ocean of samsāra, rudderless without any help to guide me.
Sometimes I was a mother, or a son, or a father, or a brother, or a grandmother in past samsāra.
I saw the Buddha with wisdom and put an end to re-birth.

Continuous strong effort enjoying the bliss of Nibbana, of excellent virtue are these disciples of the Buddha.
For the benefit of many, Mahamaya gave birth to the Gothama Buddha.
To overcome old-age, sickness and death of suffering beings.
So said Mahā Pajāpati Gotamī prior to her passing away at the age 120 years, in Therigatha.

Maha Pajapati Theri Apadana

Maha Pajapati and the 500 Theris all Arahants go before the Buddha to take leave of him to enter into Parinibbāna. She said ‘O Lord, I have entreated you again and again for going forth pabbajjā for women. If there is any fault, forgive me O Lord’.

‘How can I ever forgive you when you have never done any wrong? You are the very epitome of goodness. What can I say to you who is poised for final Nibbana?'

Then she said, ‘I have achieved the four analytical knowledges catupatisambhidā. The eight liberations attavimokkha. Six supernormal powers cha abhiññā and lived up to the word of the Buddha.'

Then the Buddha invited the Ven. Mahā Pajāpati to perform miracles to placate the wrong views that ignorant people hold against women.

Whereupon Bhikkhuni Gothami pays reverence to the Buddha, springs up to the air and performs many miracles. Eg: she became one and many and became one again. Passed through rocks, sank in earth as if in water... walked on water as if on earth... flew seated across the air like a bird, Mount Mahameru was the handle, the very earth was the umbrella. For taking it she walked across the sky... covered the earth in smoke... covered the earth in flames... touched the sun and moon with her fingertips... it rained torrentially... she assumed the form of a universal monarch... a mythical bird... she became an elephant, a roaring lion, swept across the sky and disappeared and appeared again as normally and declared ‘O Great Sage, it is me, your foster mother who is performing at your bidding and worshipping at your feet’.

Theri Apadana is many descriptions of iddhi witnessed by the thronged multitude in awe inspiring amazement.
‘O Great Sage, we are fully competent in performing miracles. We possess the divine eye, the divine ear, read others thoughts, recall past births, our cankers have faded away. O Lord, we have practiced loving kindness. Your permission is solicited by us to pass-away to final Nibbana.’

Apadana describes many other miracles. They all fell at the feet of the Buddha and walked away. The Buddha, Bhikkhus and the vast multitude walked behind them. It is the first and last occasion when the Buddha walks behind another.

The earth shook and flowers rained. Their cremation excelled even the cremation of the Buddha because it was attended by the Buddha and the chief disciples.

This article is a paper submitted to the magazine in India for Ven. Seevali Thera.

01 09 2020 - Daily Mirror

J23.05

Buddhist Theory of Kamma

Venerable Narada Maha Thera

Kamma is the law of moral causation. The theory of kamma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

What is the cause of inequality that exists among mankind?
Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery?
Why should one person be a mental prodigy and another an idiot’?
Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies?
Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle.
Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed? Why should some be blessed and others cursed from their births?

Either this inequality of mankind has a cause or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, “nature and nurture”, but also to kamma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality:

“What is the cause, what is the reason, 0 Lord,” questioned lie, “that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?”

The Buddha’s reply was:
“All living beings have actions (Kamma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is kamma that differentiates beings into low and high states.”

The Buddha then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect.

Certainly we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. kamma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being.

The accumulated karmic tendencies, inherited in the course of previous lives, at times play a far greater role than the hereditary parental cells and genes in the formation of both physical and mental characteristics.

The Buddha for instance, inherited, like every other person, the reproductive cells and genes from his parents. But physically, morally and intellectually there was none comparable to him in his long line of Royal ancestors. In the Buddha’s own words, he belonged not to the Royal lineage, but to that of the Aryan Buddhas. He was certainly a superman, an extraordinary creation of his own kamma.

According to the Lakkhana Sutta of Digha Nikaya, the Buddha inherited exceptional features, such as the 32 major marks, as the result of his past meritorious deeds. The ethical reason for acquiring each physical feature is clearly explained in the Sutta.

It is obvious from this unique case that karmic tendencies could not only influence our physical organism, but also nullify the potentiality of the parental cells and genes – hence the significance of the Buddha’s enigmatic statement, – “We are the heirs of our own actions.”

Dealing with this problem of variation, the Atthasalini, being a commentary on the Abhidharma, states:

“Depending on this difference in Karma appears the differences in the birth of beings, high and low, base and exalted, happy and miserable. Depending on the difference in karma appears the difference in the individual features of beings as beautiful and ugly, high-born or low born, well-built or deformed. Depending on the difference in karma appears the difference in worldly conditions of beings, such as gain and loss, and disgrace, blame and praise, happiness and misery.“

Thus, from a Buddhist point of view, our present mental, moral intellectual and temperamental differences are, for the most part, due to our own actions and tendencies, both past and present.

Although Buddhism attributes this variation to kamma as being the chief cause among a variety, it does not, however, assert that everything is due to kamma. The law of kamma, important as it is, is only one of the twenty-four conditions described in Buddhist Philosophy.

Refuting the erroneous view that “whatsoever fortune or misfortune experienced is all due to some previous action”, the Buddha said:
“So, then, according to this view owing to previous actions men will become murderers, thieves, unchaste, liars, slanderers, covetous, malicious and perverts. Thus, for those who fall back on the former deeds as the essential reason, there is neither the desire to do, nor effort to do, nor necessity to do this deed, or abstain from this deed.“

It was this important text, which states the belief that all physical circumstances and mental attitudes spring solely from past kamma that Buddha contradicted. If the present life is totally conditioned or wholly controlled by our past actions, then certainly kamma is tantamount to fatalism or determinism or predestination. If this were true, free will would be an absurdity. Life would be purely mechanistic, not much different from a machine. Being created by an Almighty God who controls our destinies and predetermines our future, or being produced by an irresistible kamma that completely determines our fate and controls our life’s course, independent of any free action on our part, is essentially the same. The only difference lies in the two words God and kamma. One could easily be substituted for the other, because the ultimate operation of both forces would be identical.

Such a fatalistic doctrine is not the Buddhist law of kamma, Five Processes for Kamma Niyama.

According to Buddhism, there are five orders or processes (niyama) which operate in the physical and mental realms.
They are:
1. Utu Niyama – physical inorganic order, e.g. seasonal phenomena of winds and rains. The unerring order of seasons, characteristic seasonal changes and events, causes of winds and rains, nature of heat, etc., all belong to this group.
2. Beeja Niyama – order of germs and seeds (physical organic order), e.g. rice produced from rice-seed, sugary taste from sugar-cane or honey, peculiar characteristics of certain fruits, etc. The scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of twins may be ascribed to this order.
3. Kamma Niyama – order of act and result, e.g., desirable and undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results. As surely as water seeks its own level so does kamma, given opportunity, produce its inevitable result, not in the form of a reward or punishment but as an innate sequence. This sequence of deed and effect is as natural and necessary as the way of the sun and the moon.
4. Dhamma Niyama – order of the norm, e.g. the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of a Bodhisattva in his last birth. Gravitation and other similar laws of nature. The natural reason for being good and so forth, many be included in this group.
5. Citta Niyama – order or mind or psychic law, e.g., processes of consciousness, arising and perishing of consciousness, constituents of consciousness, power of mind, etc. including telepathy, telaesthesia, retro-cognition, premonition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought-reading and such other psychic phenomena which are inexplicable to modern science.

Every mental or physical phenomenon could be explained by these all-embracing five orders or processes which are laws in themselves. Kamma as such is only one of these five orders. Like all other natural laws they demand no lawgiver.

Of these five, the physical inorganic order and the order of the norm are more or less mechanistic, though they can be controlled to some extent by human ingenuity and the power of mind. For example, fire normally burns, and extreme cold freezes, but man has walked scatheless over fire and meditated naked on Himalayan snows; horticulturists have worked marvels with flowers and fruits; Yogis have performed levitation. Psychic law is equally mechanistic, but Buddhist training aims at control of mind, which ispossible by right understanding and skilful volition. The kamma law operates quite automatically and, when the kamma is powerful, man cannot interfere with its inexorable result though he may desire to do so; but here also right understanding and skilful volition can accomplish much and mould the future. Good kamma, persisted in, can thwart the reaping of bad kamma, or as some Western scholars prefer to say ‘action influence’, is certainly an intricate law whose working is fully comprehended only by a Buddha. The Buddhist aims at the final destruction of all kamma.

WHAT IS KAMMA?

The Pali term kamma literally means action or doing. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, or physical, is regarded as kamma. It covers all that is included in the phrase “thought, word and deed”. Generally speaking, all good and bad action constitutes kamma. In its ultimate sense kamma means all moral and immoral volition. Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious actions, though technically deeds, do not constitute kamma, because volition, the most important factor in determining kamma, is absent.

The Buddha says :

“I declare, 0 Bhikkhus, that volition is kamma, having willed one acts by body, speech, and thought. ” (Anguttara Nikaya)

Every volitional action of individuals, save those of the Buddhas and Arahants, is called kamma. The exception made in their case is because they are delivered from both good and evil; they have eradicated ignorance and craving, the roots of kamma.

“Destroyed are their germinal seeds (Khina beeja); selfish desires no longer grow,” states the Ratans Sutta of the Sutta nipata.

This does not mean that the Buddha and Arahantas are passive. They are tirelessly active in working for the real well being and happiness of all. Their deeds ordinarily accepted as good or moral, lack creative power as regards themselves, Understanding things as they truly are, they have finally shattered their cosmic fetters – the chain of cause and effect.

Kamma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are.

In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we arc. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of kamma.

It is this doctrine of kamma that the mother teaches her child when she says “Be good and you will be happy and we will love you; but if you are bad, you will be unhappy and we will not love you.” In short, kamma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm.

KAMMA AND VIPAKA

Kamma is action, and Vipaka, fruit or result, is its reaction.

Just as every object is accompanied by a shadow, even so every volitional activity is inevitably accompanied by its due effect.

Kamma is like potential seed: Vipaka could be likened to the fruit arising from the tree – the effect or result. Anisamsa and Adinaya are the leaves, flowers and so forth that correspond to external differences such as health, sickness and poverty-these are inevitable consequences, which happen at the same time. Strictly speaking, both kamma and Vipaka pertain to the mind.

As kamma may be good or bad, so may Vipaka, – the fruit – is good or bad. As kamma is mental so Vipaka is mental (of the mind). It is experienced as happiness, bliss, unhappiness or misery, according to the nature of the kamma seed. Anisainsa are the concomitant advantages material things such as prosperity, health and longevity. When Vipaka’s concomitant material things are disadvantageous, they are known as Adairaja, full of wretchedness, and appear as poverty, ugliness, disease, short life-span and so forth.

As we sow, we reap somewhere and sometime, in this life or in a future birth. What we reap today is what we have sown either in the present or in the past.

The Samyutta Nikaya states :
“According to the seed that’s sown, So is the fruit you reap there from, Doer of good will gather good,
Doer of evil, evil reaps, Down is the seed and thou shalt taste The fruit there of”

Kamma is a law in itself, which operates in its own field without the intervention of any external, independent ruling agency.

Happiness and misery, which are the common lot of humanity, are the inevitable effects of causes. From a Buddhist point of view, they are not rewards and punishments, assigned by a supernatural, omniscient ruling power to a soul that has done good or evil. Theists, who attempt to explain everything in this and temporal life and in the eternal future life, ignoring a past, believe in a ‘postmortem’ justice, and may regard present happiness and misery as blessings and curses conferred on His creation by an omniscient and omnipotent Divine Ruler who sits in heaven above controlling the destinies of the human race. Buddhism, which emphatically denies such an Almighty, All merciful God-Creator and an arbitrarily created immortal soul, believes in natural law and justice which cannot be suspended by either an Almighty God or an All-compassionate Buddha. According to this natural law, acts bear their own rewards and punishments to the individual doer whether human justice finds out or not.

There are some who criticise thus: “So, you Buddhists, too, administer capitalistic opium to the people, saying: 'You are born poor in this life on account of your past evil kamma. He is born rich on account of his good kamma.' So, be satisfied with your humble lot; but do good to be rich in your next life. You are being oppressed now because of your past evil kamma. There is your destiny. Be humble and bear your sufferings patiently. Do good now. You can be certain of a better and happier life after death.”

The Buddhist doctrine of kamma does not expound such ridiculous fatalistic views. Nor does it vindicate a postmortem justice. The All-Merciful Buddha, who had no ulterior selfish motives, did not teach this law of kamma to protect the rich and comfort the poor by promising illusory happiness in an after-life.

While we are born to a state created by ourselves, yet by our own self-directed efforts there is every possibility for us to create new, favourable environments even here and now. Not only individually, but also, collectively, we are at liberty to create fresh kamma that leads either towards our progress or downfall in this very life.

According to the Buddhist doctrine of kamma, one is not always compelled by an ‘iron necessity’, for kamma is neither fate, nor predestination imposed upon us by some mysterious unknown power to which we must helplessly submit ourselves. It is one’s own doing reacting on oneself, and so one has the possibility to divert the course of one’s kamma to some extent. How far one diverts it depends on oneself.

Is one bound to reap all that one has sown in just proportion?

The Buddha provides an answer:
“if anyone says that a man or woman must reap in this life according to his present deeds, in that case there is no religious life, nor is an opportunity, afforded for the entire extinction of sorrow. But if anyone says that what a man or woman reaps in this and future lives accords with his or her deeds present and past, in that case there is a religious life, and an opportunity is afforded for the entire extinction of ‘a sorrow” (Anguttara Nikaya)

Although it is stated in the Dhammapada that “not in the sky, nor in mid-ocean, or entering a mountain cave is found that place on earth where one may escape from (the consequences of) an evil deed”, yet one is not bound to pay all the past arrears of one’s kamma. If such were the case emancipation would be impossibility. Eternal recurrence would be the unfortunate result.

01 10 2020 - The Island

J23.06

The Spirit of Tolerance ingrained in Buddhism

Tolerance means sympathetic understanding

Desamanya K.H.J. Wijayadasa

Tolerance means the ability to live with others who hold different views, and perhaps follow different ways of life that arise from such views; without interfering with them or attempting to force one’s own ideas and ways on them. Just as a living organism tolerates and adapts itself to a certain degree of variation in its environment, or to the intrusion of other organisms, so in society man has to learn to tolerate others whose opinions and habits are not the same as his own, and may even be distasteful to him. In essence it is the practice of non interference. To put it simply it is a matter of “live and let live”.

Tolerance can vary from factor to factor such as race, religion, colour and caste as well as smell, food and dress. It has been said that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. In Latin, “to tolerate” means “to bear”. In English it means, “to allow or permit negatively by not preventing” or simply tolerance means “the ability to put up with”. Accordingly, religious tolerance amounts to allowing the existence of beliefs, practices or habits differing from one’s own or sympathetic understanding of other’s beliefs. One of the crucial tests of a civilized man is to be able to live in amity with those whose religions, customs and total world view are different from his own. In other words, it’s the degree of one’s ability to “agree to disagree”.

The Buddhist concept of tolerance

The noble concept of Buddhist tolerance began with the Buddha himself. A striking instance is found in the Siha Sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya where General Siha a lay adherent of the Niganthas (Jainas) became a convert to Buddha Dhamma and in his enthusiasm wanted to take refuge in the Triple Gem then and there. But the Buddha cautioned him to consider the new doctrine carefully before committing himself; because its tenets were strange to him. He also advised General Siha not to withdraw his support from the “Naked Ascetics” completely, but to continue providing them with alms. In fact from the time of the Buddha, Buddhism made no charismatic claim to be the sole creed or the way of life for humanity. True Buddhist tolerance as practiced by the Buddha himself would allow others to hold and follow whatever beliefs they choose, so long as they are incapable of realizing any higher truth. So much so that the Buddha had admonished his disciples not to get angry if anyone should speak against the Buddha or his Doctrine. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to state that the hallmark of Buddhism has always been tolerance as seen from beginning to end.

It is noteworthy that, when western thinkers first became acquainted with Buddhism one of the features which impressed them most was its tolerance. As an example of this they would quote the Asokan edicts wherein the Emperor urges that all religious sectarians should be accorded respect in so far as their teachings were worthy of respect and that they should be allowed to hold their views and express them without restraint. Buddhist tolerance is rooted in the fact that there is no compulsion whatsoever to accept its teachings. Buddhism presents the truths of existence and the remedy for suffering, offering them to us for consideration. It then leaves the choice to the individual to either accept what it teaches or reject it. The Buddha advised his followers to respect and honour whatever was worthy of respect in other systems while rejecting that which was harmful and unworthy. In all probability, it was because there was such a thing as wrong belief that he had to place “Right Belief” at the head of the Noble Eightfold Path.

It is widely accepted that Buddhism is an extremely tolerant religion and during the two and a half millennia of its historical existence it has exhibited tolerance unparalleled in any other creed. Buddhist tolerance is a phenomenon securely enshrined in the principle of freedom of thought. The principle of freedom of thought was not only accepted by the Buddha but also actively protected through out the forty five years of his earthly ministry. In the Kalama Sutta which can be described as “Humanity’s Charter of Freedom” he advised the Kalamas whose minds had been confused by the dogmatic assertions and exclusive claims of the sectarian teachers of that period; not to go by hearsay, nor to rely on tradition, nor even on inference, nor to defer out of respect to the opinions of the professionally religious. He urged them to submit all teachings to the test of personal experience and to reject those which were condemned by the wise and which would when followed and put in practice conduce to loss and suffering.

The greatest historical achievement of Buddhism is that the propagation of the Dhamma was never done forcibly and violently as in other religious. It was always done peacefully, serenely and non aggressively. Buddhism was for centuries in possession of almost unlimited political influence, but not once did it invoke the help of state authority in dealing with its enemies. Even in lands where an ardently Buddhist monarch ruled over a devout people, the sole armour of a warrior of the Dhamma was reason and his only weapon persuasion, as he endeavored with “winning words to conquer willing hearts”. In Buddhism there is no persecution mania nor proselytization mania. Tolerance is firmly embedded in Buddhism via peaceful co-existence and democratic methodology. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has said that; “if any question has to be considered, it has to be done peacefully and democratically in the way taught by the Buddha”. Tolerance emanates from the fact that embracing Buddhism is purely voluntary; there is no compulsion whatever. Venerable Dr. Walpola Rahula Thero has said that; “the teaching of the Buddha is qualified as “Ehi Passiko”, which means inviting you to come and see but not to come and believe”.

Loving kindness and compassion are the antidotes for intolerance

The Buddha’s message of loving kindness and compassion was universal. He taught his followers to show the same tolerance, forbearance and brotherly love to all men without distinction, and an unswerving kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom. The Buddha sowed tolerance in full measure through every word of his teachings and reaped ultra tolerance in multiple measure. Buddhism contains an excellent code of morals which evokes loving kindness and compassion as well as self restraint and discipline capable of invoking tolerance enshrined in the “panchasila” or the five precepts, the “Brahmavihara” or the four sublime states, the “dasa paramita” or the ten transcendal virtues and the “arya ashtangika marga” or the Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha has said that any person who observes the five precepts becomes a virtuous person or a person of high morality. Practicing morality and good ethical behavior can lead us to a calm and contented sublime state of mind.

Man is a mysterious being with inconceivable potentialities. Latent in him are both saintly characteristics and animal tendencies. Buddhism teaches those who desire to remove the latent vices and cultivate the dormant virtues to practice the Brahmavihara or four sublime states; also referred to as modes of sublime conduct or divine abodes. These virtues would invariably elevate man. They make one divine in this life itself. They can make one tranquil, serene and tolerant. The four sublime states are; Metta or loving kindness, Karuna or compassion, mudita or appreciative joy and Upekkha or equanimity. The most powerful and destructive vice in man is anger. The sweet virtue that subdues this evil force and sublimes man is Metta or loving kindness. The Buddha has admonished that anger can only be conquered by love; as reflected in verse 5 of the Dhammapada as follows.

“Nahi Verena Verani – sammantidha kudachanam;
Averenacha sammanti – esa dhammo sanatanno”.

This means; “hatreds never cease through hatreds in this world. Through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law”. Cruelty is another vice that is responsible for many horrors and atrocities prevalent in the world. Compassion or Karuna is the obvious antidote. Karuna teaches one to be fully compassionate; in other words just to forget and forgive. The Buddha has admonished that hatred can only be appeased by not harboring hatred in verse 4 of the Dhammapada as follows.

“Akkochchi mam avadhi mam – agini mam ahasi me;
Yetam na upanayhanti – veram tesu pasammati”.

This means; “he abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me. In those who do not harbour such thoughts, hatred is appeased”.

Jealousy is another horrible vice that poisons one’s system and leads to unhealthy rivalries and dangerous consequences. The most effective remedy for this evil is the practice of appreciative joy or Mudita. Attachment to the pleasurable and aversion to the non pleasurable are two universal characteristics that disturbs the mental equipoise of man. They can be eliminated by developing equanimity or upekkha. The most destructive forces that emanate in the human mind are anger, hatred and cruelty. The root causes of these evils are ignorance and lack of tolerance.

Buddhism whilst stifling the evil forces of ignorance, lust and hatred advances extreme tolerance which precludes any possibility of violence being used even for the advancement of its own tenets. Century after century in almost all Buddhist countries across Asia the strength which motivated and powered the messenger of the Dharma is not the restless and tumultuous energy of hate but the placid and serene power of loving kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity coupled with extreme tolerance or intense sympathetic understanding.

23 05 2021 - The Island

J23.07

A note on the Doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth in the West

Venerable Nārada Mahāthera

The doctrine of Kamma and rebirth is the keystone of the philosophy of Plato. Beings are forever travelling through “a cycle of necessity”; the evil they do in one semicircle of their pilgrimage is expiated in the other. In the Republic, we find Kamma personified as “Lachesis, the daughter of necessity,” at whose hands disembodied beings choose their incarnations. Orpheus chooses the body of a swan. Thersites that of an ape, Agamemmon that of an eagle. “In like manner, some of the animals passed into men, and into one another, the unjust passing into the wild, and the just into the tame.”

In the period preceding the Persian Wars, the contact of the West with the East caused a revolt against the simple eschatology of Homer, and the search began for a deeper explanation of life. This quest, it is interesting to note, was begun by the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, who were influenced by India.

Pythagoras, who was born about 580 BC. on the Island of Samos, travelled widely and, according to his biographer, studied the teaching of the Indians. It was he who taught the West the Doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth.

“It is not too much,” says Garbe in his Greek Thinkers, “to assume that the curious Greek, who was a contemporary of the Buddha, would have acquired a more or less exact knowledge of the East, in that age of intellectual fermentation, through the medium of Persia.”

REBIRTH AS VIEWED BY OTHERS

Bhagavad Gitā:
“As a man, casting off worn-out garments, taketh the new ones, so the dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.”
“For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead.”

Herodotus:
“The Egyptians propounded the theory that the human soul is imperishable, and that where the body of anyone dies it enters into some other creature that may be ready to receive it.”

Pythagoras:
“All have souls, all is soul, wandering in the organic world and obeying eternal will or law.”

Plato:
“Soul is older than body. Souls are continually born over again into this life.”

Ovid on Pythagoras: translated by Dryden
“Death so called, is but old matter dressed
In some new form: and in varied vest
From tenement to tenement though tossed,
The soul is still the same, the figure only lost.
And as the softened wax new seals receives,
This face assumes, and that impression leaves,
Now called by one, now by another name,
The form is only changed, the wax is still the same,
Then, to be born is to begin to be
Some other thing we were not formerly.
That forms are changed I grant;
That nothing can continue in the figure it began.”

Schopenhauer:
“We find the doctrine of Metempsychosis, springing from the earliest and noblest ages of the human race, always spread abroad in the earth as the belief of the great majority of mankind, nay really as the teaching of all religions, with the exception of the Jews and the two which have proceeded from it in the most subtle form however, and coming nearest to the truth as has already been mentioned in Buddhism. Accordingly, while Christians console themselves with the thought of meeting in another world in which one regains one’s complete personality and knows oneself at once, in these other religions the meeting again is already going on only incognito. In the succession of births those who now stand in close connection or contact with us will also be born along with us at our next birth, and will have the same or analogous relations and sentiments towards us as now, whether these are of a friendly or hostile description."

“Taught already in the Vedas, as in all sacred books of India, metempsychosis is well known to be the kernel of Brahmanism and Buddhism. It accordingly prevails at the present day in the whole of the non-Mohammedan Asia, thus among more than half of the whole human race, as the firmest conviction and with an incredibly strong practical influence. It was also the belief of the Egyptians from whom it was received with enthusiasm by Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato: the Pythagoreans, however, specially retain it. That it was also taught in the mysteries of the Greeks undeniably follows the ninth book of Plato’s Laws.”

“The Edda also especially in the ‘Volusna’ teaches metempsychosis; not less was it the foundation of the Druids. According to all this, the belief in metempsychosis presents itself as the natural conviction of man, whenever he reflects at all in an unprejudiced manner…” The World As Will And Idea.

Hume:
“Metempsychosis is the only system of immortality that philosophy can hearken to.”

Disraeli:
“There is no system so simple, and so little repugnant to our understanding as that of metempsychosis. The pains and pleasures of this life are by this system considered as the recompense or the punishment of our actions in another state.”

Dante:
“My course is set for an uncharted sea. The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."

Tennyson:
“And then son, who through thy mortal weight shall again return below.”

Emerson:
“We must infer our destiny from the preparation we are driven by instinct to have innumerable experiences which are of no visible value, and which we may receive through many lives before we shall assimilate or exhaust them.”

Lessing:

“Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge, fresh experience? Do I bring away so much from one that there is nothing to repay the trouble of coming back?”

Huxley:
“Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its roots in the realm of reality."

“Everyday experience familiarises us with the facts which are grouped under the name of heredity. Everyone of us bears upon him obvious marks of his parentage perhaps of remoter relationships. More particularly the sum of tendencies to act in a certain way, which we call character, is often to be traced through a long series of progenitors and collaterals. So we may justly say that this character, this moral and intellectual essence of a man does veritably pass over from one fleshly tabernacle to another, and does really transmigrate from generation to generation. In the new-born infant the character of the stock lies latent, and the ego is little more than a bundle of potentialities, but, very early these become actualities: from childhood to age they manifest themselves in dullness or brightness, weakness or strength, viciousness or uprightness; and with each feature modified by confluence with another character, if by nothing else, the character passes on to its incarnation in new bodies."

“The Indian philosophers called character, as thus defined, ‘Karma’."

It is this Karma which passed from life to life and linked them in the chain of transmigrations; and they held that it is modified in each life, not merely by confluence of parentage but by its own acts.”

“Or if through lower lives I came
Tho’ all experience past became,
Consolidate in mind and frame.
I might forget my weaker lot;
For is not our first year forgot
The haunts of memory echo not.”

Wordsworth:
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from after :
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness.”

Shelley:
“If there be no reasons to suppose that we have existed before that period at which existence apparently commences, then there are no grounds for supposing that we shall continue to exist after our existence has apparently ceased.”

Professor Francis Bowen of Harvard University in urging Christians to accept rebirth writes:

“Our life on earth is rightly held to be a discipline and a preparation for a higher and eternal life hereafter, but if limited to the duration of a single mortal body, it is so brief as to seem hardly sufficient for so grand a purpose. Three score years and ten must surely be an inadequate preparation for eternity. But what assurance have we that the probation of the soul is confined within such narrow limits? Why may it not be continued or repeated through a long series of successive generations, the same personality animating one after another an indefinite number of tenements of flesh and carrying forward into each the training it has received, the character it has formed, the temper and dispositions it has indulged, in the steps of existence immediately preceding. It need not remember its past history even whilst bearing the fruits and the consequence of that history deeply ingrained into its present nature. How many long passages of any one life are now completely lost to memory, though they may have contributed largely to build up the heart and the intellect which distinguish one man from another? Our responsibility surely is not lessened by such forgetfulness. We still seem accountable for the misuse of time, though we have forgotten how or on what we have wasted it. We are even now reaping the bitter fruits, through enfeebled health and vitiated desires and capacities, of many forgotten acts of self-indulgence, wilfulness and sin — forgotten just because they were so numerous."

“If every birth were an act of absolute creation, the introduction to life of an entirely new creature, we might reasonably ask why different souls are so variously constituted at the outset? If metempsychosis is included in the scheme of the divine government of the world, this difficulty disappears altogether. Considered from this point of view, every one is born into the state which he had fairly earned by his own previous history. The doctrine of inherited sin and its consequence is a hard lesson to be learned. But no one can complain of the dispositions and endowments which he has inherited so to speak from himself, that is from his former self in a previous state of existence. What we call death is only the introduction of another life on earth, and if this be not a higher and better life than the one just ended, it is our own fault.”

PRE-EXISTENCE

“I laid me down upon the shore
And dreamed a little space;
I heard the great waves break and roar;
The sun was on my face."
“My idle hands and fingers brown
Played with the pebbles grey;
The waves came up, the waves went down;
Most thundering and gay."
“The pebbles they were smooth and round
And warm upon my hands;
Like little people I had found
Sitting among the sands."
“The grains of sand so shining small.
So through my fingers ran;
The sun shown down upon it all.
And so my dream began;
How all of this had been before,
How ages far away.
I lay on some forgotten shore
As here I lie today."
“The waves came up shinning up the sands,
As here today they shine;
And in my pre-Pelasgian hands
The sand was warm and fine.
I have forgotten whence I came
Or what my home might be,
Or by what strange and savage name
I called that thundering sea.
I only know the sun shone down
As still it shines today.
And in my fingers long and brown
The little pebbles lay."

26 05 2021 - The Island

J23.08

A new portal for Buddhist Discourses

Kalinga Seneviratne

As Buddhists across the world celebrate the Triple Anniversary of Vesak that marks the Birth, Enlightenment, and Passing Away of the Buddha, this special feature focuses on a landmark project in the dissemination of the Buddha’s teachings.

A former musician turned Buddhist monk, Bhante Sujato, an Australian, has taken up a mammoth task to translate and publish thousands of Buddhist texts known as Sutta (Discourses of the Buddha) into many languages. Accompanied by Sri Lankan Kandyan dancers and drummers, he recently launched an Internet portal ‘Sutta Central’ to make the Buddha’s teachings available to the world free of charge.

The word Sutta derived from the ancient Indian language Pali in which the Buddha preached his Dhamma (teachings) and its literature forms the backbone of the Buddhist teachings. The Suttas were originally transmitted orally, thus when the Suttas are chanted in the Pali language—which is very popular in the Theravada Buddhist tradition—they usually commence with the phrase “evam me sutam,” meaning “thus have I heard”.

Abundance of love

“In Suttas, Buddha talked about the abundance of love. Buddhism has compassion for the whole world. That is the abundance of Buddhist philosophy and anyone can come to Sutta Central and find something useful,” Bhante Sujato told an audience of about 150 Buddhists from different traditions at the launch of the portal in Sydney.

Sutta Central contains early Buddhist texts contained in the Tripitaka or “Three Baskets”. The Tripitaka includes Sutta Pitaka (discourses of the Buddha), Vinaya Pitaka (discipline for the monks), and Abhidhamma Pitaka (psychological-philosophy of the teachings).

The Sutta Pitaka is a large collection of teachings attributed to the Buddha or his earliest disciples, who were teaching in India around 2500 years ago. They are regarded as sacred canon in all schools of Buddhism. Sutta Central hosts the texts in original languages, translations in modern languages, and extensive sets of parallels that show the relationship between them all.

“I have been a voracious reader since I was a young boy,” Bhante Sujato told Lotus News in an interview. “I wanted to read Dhamma books (because I was told that) the real stuff on the Dhamma was in the Suttas and I wanted to read them,” he said. “As soon as I started reading these I began to realize that this is where all (the teachings) comes from.”

Born as Anthony Best in Western Australia in 1966, he played with the post-punk Australian band Martha’s Vineyard in his youth. After backpacking to Thailand to find something different, he came across Buddhism at Wat Ram Poeng, a popular backpackers’ monastery in Bangkok. “I went to Thailand to extend my horizons because I thought life here in Australia was getting a bit monotonous,” he recalls.

After a few more visits to Thailand and attending Buddhist retreats in forest monasteries, he became a monk in 1994, when he was ordained at Wat Pah Narachat in Ubon Ratchathani. He lived in Thailand for many years, before returning to Australia.

When asked, how he found life as a monk after being a musician in Australia, his response was interesting. “Being a monk did not change my lifestyle that much as being a musician, in the sense that both circumstances I did not have money. Being a musician in Australia it is a struggle to make a living.”

“For me, music was a voyage of discovery I had to learn about myself. Becoming a monk was also being curious,” he adds. “When I learned the Dhamma it was certainly much deeper than anything I have learned before. So I realized there is a path where I needed to listen.”

Upon returning to Australia he spent several years at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia that was founded by the respected Australian Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm, before going on to establish the Santi Forest Monastery in 2003 where he served as its abbot. In 2012, Bhante Sujato turned it over to become a nun’s monastery, and he decided to concentrate on developing Sutta Central, which was in fact launched in 2005, but copyrights issues with Pali translations of the Sutta hindered its progress.

“When we first started Sutra Central I had no experience with Internet (and) as we expanded the project we realized we are making connections with different Buddhist traditions so it became a vehicle for connection,” points out Bhante Sujato.

Buddha’s teachings

Buddha’s teachings have bound people together for such a long time through connections—through oral transmissions—until it was handwritten as ‘Tripitaka’ at the Aluvihara in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE. Thus the Suttas have been handwritten for almost 2000 years, printed for over 400 years, and it is now digitized in the past 30 years.

The launch of Sutta Central may well become a landmark event in the history of the dissemination of the Dhamma, as every Sutta is now not only digitized but is gradually being available in different languages from the same source.

Bhante Sujato’s dedication to the project is such, that after being unable to secure copyright-free digital translations of the Pali Canon for Sutta Central, he moved to a remote island of Chimei, off the coast of Taiwan, to undertake the task of creating English translations of the Nikayas (volumes of the Suttas), living there from 2015 to 2018. The Pali Sutta Pitaka is divided into five main collections called nikayas, that includes the longer versions called the Digha Nikaya and the shorter ones called Majjhima Nikaya (middle-length discourses), Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya (shorter texts). The translations of the latter Nikayas in particular, have since been published on Sutta Central, and as free edition books.

Sutta Central has materials that have been translated into English not only from Pali but also from Tibetan, Chinese, and Sanskrit. “From the Pali canon, these are Suttas taken from India to China usually around 400AD (CE) and translated into Chinese. These are in Sutta Central, I don’t speak ancient Chinese but translated by others. This is an ongoing project,” says Bhante Sujato. The translations are done by people, he points out, not by machines, such a Google Translate. “Those (Google) translations don’t work,” he adds.

Sutta Central

In a virtual address at the portal launch in April, Bhante Sujato’s mentor Ajahn Brahm described Sutta Central as an easy way to learn what the Buddha taught. “It is wonderful to have the information clear and trustworthy,” he said. “We need to inspire people to become good Buddhists by getting proper teachings.”

Bhante Sujato believes Sutta Central is a “generational job” and it will be an ongoing project for some more time. “So far we have some translations in over 40 languages. There are certain language groups better represented than others like main Asian languages Hindi, Chinese, Sinhala, Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, and European languages German, French, English, Spanish,” he points out. “We don’t have many translations in Arabic and we don’t have any translations in Swahili or any other African languages. It will be wonderful if every person in the world could read these Suttas in their own language.”

Bhante Sujato emphasizes that everything they do is free and they also make it available on the iPad, apps and will soon make it available in printed books. A ‘Sutta Central Development Trust’ has been established to help raise funds for the ongoing activities to expand its many offerings.

Bhante Sujato wants to point out a new addition to Sutta Central. “In Sutta Central, we also read the Suttas for you. Especially for people who are visually impaired or anybody who wants to read the Suttas, maybe when you are driving a car or so. It is currently in English and expanding to other languages as well.”

Note: Sutta Central can be accessed via https://suttacentral.net

To contact ‘Sutta Central Development Trust’ email suttacentraldevelopmenttrust@gmail.com

27 05 2021 - Daily News

J23.09

Buddha was an incomparable teacher

The Blessed One compassionately constituted disciplinary codes and standards of behaviour for his followers (PIC AFP).

“Monks, there is one person arising in the world who is unique, without a peer, without counterpart, incomparable, unequaled, matchless, unrivalled, the best of humans.
Who is that person? It is the Tathagata, the Arahant, the Fully Enlightened One. This is that one person…”
(The Buddha – Anguttara Nikaya)

Today (May 26, 2021) marks Vesak Poya day. Today is the 2565th anniversary of the celebration of the life of the great master the Gautama Buddha.

In order to pay my homage and respect to the Blessed One, I thought to elaborate and inscribe some profound characteristics of the Buddha on this significant day.

Twenty-six centuries ago the birth of prince Siddhartha was dawn in the history of mankind. Later, at the age of 35, by becoming a Buddha, he pragmatically accomplished his spiritual aspiration.

The present day global atmosphere is inconceivable and unprecedented with the whole human society changed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is the precise time to reflect upon the inner qualities of the Buddha and what he encouraged us to do."

The uniqueness of the Buddha is beyond comparison. He was a paragon of virtue, model of perfection, an embodiment of morality, a paradigm of impeccable personality and an incomparable immaculate spiritual leader who compassionately taught, guided and encouraged humanity towards achieving innermost peace and happiness.

“The excellent one, knower of excellent,
Giver of excellent, bringer of the excellent,
The unsurpassed one taught the excellent Dhamma.
This too is the sublime gem in the Buddha.”
(Ratana Sutta)

Once the Buddha was asked thus by Dandapani the Sakyan thus:
"What does the recluse assert, what does he proclaim?"
Then, the Blessed One explicitly and precisely elucidated thus:

“Friend, I assert and proclaim such a teaching that one does not dispute with anyone in the world with its gods, its Maras, its Brahmas, in this generation with its recluses and brahmins, its princes and its people; such a teaching that perceptions no more underlie that brahmin who abides detached from sensual pleasures, without perplexity, shorn of worry, free from craving for any kind of being.” (Madhupindika Sutta)

He faced inconceivable challenges, but he patiently overcame and assiduously conquered them with courage and perseverance. With dedication and paramount persistency, he conquered the battle of defilements and impurities by treading the Noble Eightfold Path or Path of Purification.

"Though some cultural values and ethnic practices are acceptable some are controversial and inconsistent with Buddha’s teachings."

After an extensive and amicable discussion with the Buddha one of the dedicated devotees of Nigantanataputta called Upali impressively extolled and glorified the Buddha in front of his devoted teacher thus:

He is the wise one who has cast off delusion.

Abandoned the heart’s wilderness,
Victor in battle, he knows no anguish, is perfectly even-minded,
Mature in virtue, of excellent wisdom,
Beyond all temptations, he is without stain,
The Blessed One is he, and I am his disciple.

The first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his book The Discovery of India has mentioned about the Gautama Buddha in the following manner:

“The ages roll by and the Buddha seems not so far away after all; his voice whispers in our ears and tells us not to run away from the struggle but, calm-eyed, to face it, and to see in life ever greater opportunities for growth and advancement. Personality counts today as ever, and a person who had impressed himself on the thought of mankind as the Buddha has, so that even today there is something living and vibrant about the thought of him, must have been a wonderful man – a man who was, as Barth says, ‘the finished model of calm and sweet majesty, of infinite tenderness for all breathes and compassion for all that suffers, of perfect moral freedom and exemption from every prejudice.”

“His message old and yet very new and original for those immersed in metaphysical subtleties, captured the imagination of the intellectuals; it went deep down into the hearts of the people.”

Even though a man is intoxicated with the advancement of modern technology and development of information technology, there is no remedy or therapy for mental agonies, and psychological afflictions.

The whole global society has been traumatised by the present pandemic. Nearly three and half millions of lives have perished. People are in fear. During his forty-five year mission he compassionately advised multitudes of people how to manage one’s earnings. In the Sigalovada Sutta a young student was advised how to allocate funds in three aspects and facets by the Buddha.

If political leaders, professionals and authorities, and ordinary individuals are truly and pragmatically mindful of Buddhist economic management no one would meet challenges like in present times.

“This Dhamma that I have discovered is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, not within the sphere of reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in adhesion, takes delight in adhesion, and rejoices in adhesion. For such a generation this state is hard to see, that is, specific conditionality, dependent origination. And this state too is hard to see, that is, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbana.”

“Surveying the world with the eye of a Buddha, the Blessed one saw beings with little dust in their eyes and with much dust in their eyes, with keen faculties and with dull faculties, with good qualities and with bad qualities, easy to teach and hard to teach, and a few who dwelt seeing blame and fear in the other world.”

Above mentioned profound words of the Buddha which stated twenty-six centuries ago explicitly reveal the authenticity and the purity of the Buddha-Dhamma. These words are more than enough to understand the essence of what the Buddha realised.

Regarding Buddhism numerous interpretations and expositions have been given by foremost scholars who have immensely studied Buddhism.

However, twenty-six centuries ago, DHAMMA-VINAYA is the exclusive and peculiar word Buddha pronounced to grasp his teachings.

Some scholars have characterised and distinguished the teachings of the Buddha as a way of life and as a philosophy.

It is the path to purification and freedom. It is a path to liberation from all bondages and cruelty and leads to happiness.

It is unthinkable to define and describe what the Buddha said in few words.

DHAMMA - The truth; is what he realised and offered as his advice to eliminate suffering.
VINAYA - The Discipline; is what the Blessed One compassionately constituted as disciplinary codes and standards of behaviour for his followers.

At present Buddhist living in so-called Buddhist countries have added their own cultural aspects and practices to Buddhism.

Though some cultural values and ethnic practices are acceptable some are controversial and inconsistent with Buddha’s teachings.

We are in the climax of the development of science and technology. We call it the new millennium and digital age.

Specially, we are in a global village now.

Our young generation is well equipped with the knowledge of modern science and well advanced in nano technology. They curiously question and challenge us to find what exactly the Buddha said. Now outdated rites and rituals are questioned by youth.

Now Buddhism has been politicised and modified by some hypocritical politicians and monks who support corrupt lawmakers to deceive innocent citizens. It is completely contrary to what the Buddha taught.

Unfortunately, most born Buddhists accept what these hypocrites do, but in Buddha-Dhamma there is no room at all for these blind faiths and beliefs.

Be wise to understand what the Buddha said and be honest to be a pragmatic disciple of the Buddha.

Some psychopaths and psychoneurotic people blindly claim that Gautama Buddha was born and lived in Sri Lanka. They want to have a Sinhalese Buddha rather than THE BUDDHA.

Hope that our wise scholars and professionals who truly respect and practice what the Buddha said will take necessary action to eradicate these toxins from our society.

27 05 2021 - Daily Mirror

J23.10

Impermanence and Suffering In Buddhism

Coronavirus pandemic has brought into sharp relief the concept of Impermanence (Annicca) propounded by the Lord Buddha. The ongoing virulent covid-19 pandemic which has caused immense suffering, agony, death and despair to tens of millions of people in the whole world has taught us the core teachings of the Buddha, the three characteristics (tilaakkana) of our existence in this world, namely impermanence (annicca), suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukka) and non-self or insubstantiality (anatta). Impermanence is one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism which can be observed in the entire nature of the universe. All component things that are all things that arise as an effect of causes, and which in turn give rise to effects are embodied in the single word annicca.

Today people are living in uncertain times and no one knows exactly what will happen to our lives and the lives of our loved ones, as the pandemic we are going through is unprecedented and unpredictable.

All things change, nothing ever stays the same. Everything that exits changes and transient. Change is the essence of life and the essence of existence. Transience is the universal law of all phenomenal things and it teaches us nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. What is built eventually crumble and fall, whoever is born will eventually die, and what comes together will eventually separate.

"Mentally our ideas, thoughts and concepts change from time to time and new ideas and concepts come into being. Lastly from the social perspective, we form new relationships, we meet new people, we separate from our dear loved ones, we change our employments and getting into new jobs, eventually, we lose our loved and dear once etc."

We can visualise four areas of impermanence; physical, emotional, mental, and social. We can see how the physical world is changing and by the periodic changes of the seasons, ageing, sickness and death. In the emotional world we can see impermanence through the constant changes of feelings and emotions as one moment we might be euphoric, happy and elated next moment feeling sad and melancholy. Mentally our ideas, thoughts and concepts change from time to time and new ideas and concepts come into being. Lastly from the social perspective, we form new relationships, we meet new people, we separate from our dear loved ones, we change our employments and getting into new jobs, eventually, we lose our loved and dear once etc.

In other words, contemplating on impermanence brings to the surface the dreadful truth that everything we have acquired, earned and accomplished, all our precious possessions, material things even our most intimate and cherished relationships, our loved ones inevitably succumb to time and deteriorate and cease to exist.

In one of the discourses recorded in Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha offered the following simile to explain the limited and fleeting nature of human life. “Just as a dewdrop on the tip of a blade of grass will quickly vanish at sunrise and will not last long, so is human life, like a drop of dew, it is limited, brief and fleeting and it has much suffering, full of tribulation… none who is born escape death. Therefore, given the limited and fleeting nature of human life, it becomes important for Buddhist to develop “mindfulness of death”.

King Pasenadi of Kosala at Savatthi asked Lord Buddha once “Venerable Sir, is there anyone who is born free from ageing and death”, then Lord Buddha replied “O great King, no one who is born is free from ageing and death. Even those affluent, rich, with great wealth and property, with abundant gold and silver, and abundant treasures, because they are born are not free from ageing and death.”

The renowned Greek Philosopher Heraclitus once declared “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man”. There is no static being no unchanging substratum. In his notes to the novel “Chance” one of the greatest Polish British novelists Joseph Conrad stated thus “The history of men on this earth may be summarised in one phrase of infinite poignancy. They were born, they suffered, they died.” Similarly, James brother of Jesus according to the New Testament ask “Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are but a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The Teacher (Jesus) in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene declares: “All that is born, all that is created all that is composed, shall be decomposes.”

"Today people are living in uncertain times and no one knows exactly what will happen to our lives and the lives of our loved ones, as the pandemic we are going through is unprecedented and unpredictable."

Impermanence brings us face to face with our mortality, in the face of ravaging covid-19 pandemic. The way things are turning out we may not live through the day. When we look around at our people, relations, possessions all will one day be gone. Lord Buddha’s last admonition to his disciples was “all conditioned things are impermanent, subject to change and strive on with diligence”.

Impermanence is closely linked to the truth of suffering which constitutes the first noble truth in Buddhism. The Lord Buddha taught us that cause of human suffering and discontent is brought about by our clinging to worldly things under the mistaken belief that they will last and endure forever which is not so.

In other words, we cannot think of any object in this conditioned world that is not annicca. When we comprehend the basic truth of Impermanence (annicca), the tendency to cling on to our attachment to worldly things is bound to diminish and our lives become enriched with great equanimity so that we are in a better position to let go of our belief of permanence and stability of our life.

Impermanence continually presents challenges and people are faced with various life obstacles that are often out of their control. Recognising the reality of Impermanence not only will help us to live in the present moment but also increase our ability to overcome difficulties in life.

Although Buddhism emphasizes the universality of suffering it cannot be characterised as a pessimistic religion. It is neither totally pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic as it not only emphasizes the truth of suffering but also suggests a means to end the suffering and gain eternal happiness.

Man has achieved great marvellous things throughout the centuries, his ingenuity and strength have enabled him to conquer space and subdue matter to his will. Yet for all his capabilities and ingenuity he remains fragile vulnerable in the face of impermanence.

Even with the most brilliant application of modern science and technology man has not yet seen the possibility of outlawing the ephemeral nature of human life and his ultimate enemy: death.

Impermanence highlights the mortality and inevitable decline of mighty leaders and their false pride how time has brought to an end the commanding powers of great leaders in the world. When we look at the ruins of great stupas and edifices in places like Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa we can see how they have been subjected to the natural process of decay with the passage of time.

26 05 2021 - Daily Mirror

J23.11

Is there an Antarabhava: Missing link in rebirth?

Dr. Upul Wijayawardhana

As a generalisation, most who are Buddhist by birth believe in rebirth whereas most who embrace Buddhism by conviction have a healthy scepticism about this, being more enamoured by the science and philosophy of Buddhism. As a Buddhist, not only by birth but also by conviction, where do I stand? Fortunately, or unfortunately, as a professional who was engaged in a discipline that demanded proof for practice, sentiment being subjugated to science, I am forced to keep an open mind on rebirth which, in a way, is no bad thing as it keeps my mind and thought processes even more active in my retirement than when I was at work!

Although I have no desire to be reborn, the fulfilling and fruitful life I have been fortunate enough to have on earth being unlikely to be bettered even in heaven, still I cannot totally disregard the possibility that I may have to face that reality, if there is rebirth. Therefore, it is futile to be a rebirth denier, more so because there is emerging evidence pointing to the possibility of rebirth. I am not talking about the purely speculative arguments put forward by the believers but the scientific data accumulated by some scientists who were bold enough to cross the lines of traditional thinking. The pioneer in this field, without a doubt, is the late Professor Ian Stevenson, whose work was initially met with scepticism by the scientific community though the tide seems to be turning since.

Concluding an interesting article in ‘The Scientific American’ titled ‘Ian Stevenson’s Case for the Afterlife: Are We ‘Skeptics’ Really Just Cynics?’, Dr Jesse Bering, the American psychologist who is Associate Professor in Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand and author of ‘The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life’ states:

“The mind is what the brain does,” I wrote in The Belief Instinct. “It’s more a verb than it is a noun. Why do we wonder where our mind goes when the body is dead? Shouldn’t it be obvious that the mind is dead too?” Perhaps it’s not so obvious at all. I’m not quite ready to say that I’ve changed my mind about the afterlife. But I can say that a fair assessment and a careful reading of Stevenson’s work has, rather miraculously, managed to pry it open. Well, a tad, anyway.”

This is yet another confirmation that Ian Stevenson’s research work, continued by his successors at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has opened the eyes of many a scientist. It is worth reproducing two more paragraphs from Dr Bering’s article:

“Stevenson, who died in 2007, was a psychiatrist by training—and a prominent one at that. In 1957, at the still academically tender age of 38, he’d been named Chair of psychiatry at the University of Virginia. After arriving in Charlottesville, however, his hobbyhorse in the paranormal began turning into a full-grown steed. As you can imagine, investigating apparitions and reincarnation is not something the college administrators were expecting of the head of their mental health programme. But in 1968, Chester Carlson, the wealthy inventor of the Xerox copying process who’d been introduced to Stevenson’s interests in reincarnation by his spiritualist wife, dropped dead of a heart attack in a Manhattan movie theatre, leaving a million dollars to UVA on the condition it be used to fund Stevenson’s paranormal investigations. That money enabled Stevenson to devote himself full-time to studying the minds of the dead, and over the next four decades, Stevenson’s discoveries as a parapsychologist served to sway more than a few skeptics and to lead his blushing acolytes to compare him to the likes of Darwin and Galileo.”

“Stevenson’s main claim to fame was his meticulous studies of children’s memories of previous lives. Here’s one of thousands of cases. In Sri Lanka, a toddler one day overheard her mother mentioning the name of an obscure town (Kataragama) that the girl had never been to. The girl informed the mother that she drowned there when her “dumb” (mentally challenged) brother pushed her in the river, that she had a bald father named “Herath” who sold flowers in a market near the Buddhist stupa, that she lived in a house that had a glass window in the roof (a skylight), dogs in the backyard that were tied up and fed meat, that the house was next door to a big Hindu temple, outside of which people smashed coconuts on the ground. Stevenson was able to confirm that there was, indeed, a flower vendor in Kataragama who ran a stall near the Buddhist stupa whose two-year-old daughter had drowned in the river while the girl played with her mentally challenged brother. The man lived in a house where the neighbours threw meat to dogs tied up in their backyard, and it was adjacent to the main temple where devotees practiced a religious ritual of smashing coconuts on the ground. The little girl did get a few items wrong, however. For instance, the dead girl’s dad wasn’t bald (but her grandfather and uncle were) and his name wasn’t “Herath”—that was the name, rather, of the dead girl’s cousin. Otherwise, 27 of the 30 idiosyncratic, verifiable statements she made panned out. The two families never met, nor did they have any friends, co-workers, or other acquaintances in common, so if you take it all at face value, the details couldn’t have been acquired in any obvious way.”

This is one of the thousands of cases studied by Prof. Stevenson and his colleagues but their work raises two important issues; the first, perhaps the most important, being that the phenomena they describe is more akin to reincarnation than rebirth. Rebirth, according to Buddhism, is the transference of thought proceses and it is unlikely that such a process can provide a mechanistic explanation to the corresponding physical deformities found in subsequent births. Stevenson, in fact, referred to reincarnation than rebirth and his magnum opus, published in 1997, was a 2268-page, two-volume work called Reincarnation and Biology which contained 225 case reports of children who remembered previous lives and some also had physical anomalies that matched trauma in previous lives. Details of these, in some cases, could be confirmed by the dead person’s post-mortem record and photos. Corresponding to trauma suffered in the previous birth, many of the subjects had unusual birthmarks and birth defects, such as finger deformities, underdeveloped ears, or being born without fingers or a lower leg.

The other issue of concern is the time interval that occurred between rebirth and the time of death in the recollected birth, which seems to vary from a few days to years. Of course, this can be explained easily if we accept the concept of Antarabhavaya, an ‘in-between existence’ well recognised in Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism but denied in Theravada Buddhism. Authorities of Theravada argue that this concept of an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state, between death and rebirth, was incorporated soon after Gautama Buddha’s death and was brought into Buddhism from the Vedic-Upanishadic philosophical tradition. Kathavattu of the Tripitaka states that at the Third Buddhist Council, in a debate with the Mahayanists, Arahant Moggaliputta Tissa Thera proved that there was no antarābhava.

In Tibetan Buddhism, Antarabhavaya is referred to as ‘Bardo’ and is the central theme of the ‘Bardo Thodol’, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a text intended to guide the recently deceased person through the death bardo to gain a better rebirth as well as to help their loved ones with the grieving process. Translations of this book have gained increasing popularity in the West.

Tibetan Buddhism lays great emphasis on the Bardo and teaches that there are six Bardo states. The first Bardo begins when we are born and lasts as long as we live. The second is the Bardo of dreams. The third is the Bardo of concentration or meditation. The fourth occurs at the moment of death. The fifth is known as the Bardo of the luminosity of the true nature. The sixth is called the Bardo of transmigration or karmic becoming which leads to rebirth.

The fifth Bardo is interesting as, in addition to visions, there is a welling of profound peace and pristine awareness. Interestingly, this was the experience of most patients who had near death experiences as shown by the seminal work of Prof. Bruce Greyson, who took over from Prof. Ian Stevenson the Chair of Psychiatry, allowing Professor to concentrate his research on rebirth/reincarnation.

Some Theravada scholars attempt to explain the delay on the basis of Gandabba, a state that remains through many successive human births within a given human bhava (which can last many hundreds of years). When a given physical body dies, the gandhabba can get into another womb, when a matching one becomes available. However, in this explanation a difference is made between human/human rebirths versus human/animal rebirths which complicates matters further.

By denying the concept of Antarabhava, has Theravada Buddhism unnecessarily disregarded a vital link that may explain rebirth?

26 05 2021 - The Island

J23.12

Understanding Nirvana

N.A. de S. Amaratunga

What is meant by understanding Nirvana here is the ability to describe its nature using the words in the languages we use and certainly not its realization or attainment. As Nirvana has been interpreted in different ways by different scholars, both ancient and modern, it would be an interesting subject for readers to take up in a useful discussion. Nirvana is the ultimate religious experience in Buddhism. In this respect it is similar to the God in theistic religions but the similarity stops there. In theistic religions the ultimate religious experience is intimately bound with God and in order to reach the goal one is required to believe in God and lead a pious life and by the grace of God one could enter His kingdom which is the final goal. In Buddhist religious experience where the final goal is Nirvana there is no external factor, similar to God, involved in the process. The Buddha is not involved, he only shows the path and one has to go along the path by one’s own effort.

Nirvana could be understood in terms of the Four Noble Truths which could be a very simple way of looking at it. The first truth states that there is suffering in life, the second truth states that greed is the cause of suffering, the third says the solution is to get rid of greed and the fourth gives the method of getting rid of greed. The simplest explanation of Nirvana therefore could be the status of the mind which has spewed out greed, aversion and delusion.

Further insight into the matter could be gained by an examination of the method adopted to get rid of the defilements ‘loba, dvesha, moha’ and attain Nirvana. In this regard Buddhism analyses the psychology of attachment in relation to these defilements. These defilements could have three levels of existence; dormant level, awakened level and active level (Visuddimagga). A craving for acquisition of material wealth for instance, may be present in the mind in a dormant level unknown to the person. When the person observes acquisition of material wealth in the society around him the dormant craving would grow into the awakened level due to temptation and if it gains further in strength and grows into the active level the person may take action to acquire material wealth. This desire could become insatiable, with no limit to the craving for more and more material wealth. This person has developed an attachment to material wealth. Material wealth is characterized by impermanence and therefore could cause suffering. Buddhist Meditation attempts to eradicate the insatiable craving for material wealth or any other such craving in all their three levels of existence including the dormant level.

Buddha has shown how eradication of craving for material wealth could be done by the practice of moral life in three stages; ‘Seela, Samadhi, Prangna’ or virtue, concentration, and wisdom. First it attempts to control the physical manifestation (the third level) of the desire for material wealth by ‘Seela’. The practice of ‘Seela’ would enable the person to put a stop to the physical acquisition of material wealth, give it away as alms (dhana) and thus control the attachment to it. Next the awakened state (the second level) of this desire and the feeling of attachment to material wealth which exists in the mind is controlled by the practice of ‘Samadhi’. Then the attempt is made to eradicate the dormant state (the first level) of this desire harboured in the mind by achieving ‘Prangna’. Though the whole method consists of three steps, it is not practiced in sequential stages but in concurrence. Yet it must be said that one cannot develop ‘Samadhi’ without practicing ‘Seela’ and similarly ‘Prangna’ cannot be attempted in isolation without performing the other two practices. Further, unless the dormant level of a defilement which resides in the mind is rooted out the process is not complete and it could recur. This could be done only by insight meditation as described in ‘Sathipattana sutta’. All three defilements; ‘loba, dvesha, moha’ in their various forms could be got rid of by this method.

It is obvious that attaining Nirvana requires a huge effort as evident by the effort and time taken by the Buddha to achieve his goal. Of course, the Buddha had a lot of work to do as he had to find something that was not known before. Those who follow him know what it involves and the path they have to follow. It involves purification and cleansing of the mind and training of the mind to concentrate on ridding itself of defilements. The mind is trained to avoid grasping what is perceived by the senses and the mind and also to stop the influx of feelings of craving, aversion and delusion. When the mind is totally detached from what is perceived, it is not affected by the impermanent nature of the object, its decay and demise and as a result there is no suffering.

As mentioned earlier, attainment of Nirvana involves a ‘pragna’ or wisdom component. This is defined as gaining of a higher knowledge and this higher knowledge is defined as ‘knowledge of things as they actually are’ (yathabhutagnana). Impermanence in itself is not a problem but it becomes a problem when it is considered as permanence. In higher knowledge the perception of reality is corrected and the realization dawns that the world and everything in it are characterized by impermanence, sorrow and non-self.

However, if we attempt to delve deeper into this matter, it becomes more complex particularly with regard to the nature of the person who has attained ‘Nirvana’. The question may be asked, how a person who has categorically changed the nature of his mind be different from other persons. In Buddhism the person is composed of the five aggregates; ‘rupa, vedana, sangna, sankara, vignana’. Four of these five are functions of the mind and as the mind has undergone change in Nirvana, what happens to these aggregates is important. Buddha who had attained Nirvana was asked whether he still is identified with these five aggregates or whether he is distinct and separate from them. Buddha’s answer was he is neither identified with nor distinct and separate from them (Samyuttanikaya). This answer resulted in the assertion that Nirvana and Buddha are beyond the realm of our world and they are therefore transcendental phenomena.

Those who argue against this idea say that what is meant by not being identified with the five aggregates is that there is no attachment to the five aggregates. Attachment to the five aggregates causes self-appropriation which manifests in three ways; “this I am”, “this is myself” and “this is mine”. Cessation of the three-fold appropriation is achieved by the opposite process of self-negation; “this I am not”, “this is not myself” and “this is not mine”. In Nirvana self-appropriation ceases completely.

There are other similar issues that make people wonder whether Nirvana is beyond this world. Buddha was asked by Vacchagotta where Thathagatha would be born after death. The answer was that the question does not apply. Then he was asked whether he would not be born. Again the answer was that the question would not apply. Then the question was asked whether he is both born and not born and when the answer was the same the question was asked whether he is neither born nor not born. The answer was similar (Majjimanikaya). When Vacchagotta appeared to be disappointed Buddha spoke about the burning flame that disappears when the fuel is burnt out. The question where did the flame go does not arise. Buddha said when craving, aversion and delusion are spewed out, ‘samsara’ and suffering are rooted out like the fire.

The controversy has not been settled and even contemporary scholars differ on this issue. Some (D.J. Kalupahana, A. Tillakaratne) seem to hold the view that Nirvana and Thathgatha are not transcendental while others (K.N. Jayathilake, Bikkhu Bodhi) think they are to some degree above the realm of our world.

The relevance of the above discussion is that lay people like us, instead of getting into controversy about Buddhism and Nirvana, should attempt to mould our lives according to the reality that the Dhamma teaches us, the reality of impermanence and try to be as less grasping as possible which is the lesson that Nirvana teaches us.

26 05 2021 - The Island

J23.13

Buddhism and gardening

Namali Silva

I am not a gardener. However, I’ve grown up watching my mother work tirelessly to make her garden beautiful, and I am in the process of learning from her what it means to gardening. It’s not because it’s my mother’s garden, however, I have to say it’s gorgeous. It is a skill: Gardening. Everyone cannot be a good gardener. It takes time. One has to be able to understand the Nature. One has to be sensitive enough to understand how to coordinate colours and textures. And one can also learn so much about Buddhism by understanding gardening.

Once a Buddhist monk witnessed a storm. He was meditating in his hut and outside was a massive gale. The next day early morning, he got up and went out of his hut. It was a gigantic mess. Tree branches strewn all over, leaves ripped apart from the trees. This monk was observing everything that was around him.

Then he noticed that among the leaves on the ground, there were young green leaves, and some yellow ones, and lots of brown ones. The brown ones would have easily fallen off the trees. And yet, there were young shoots also lying on the ground. And then he looked at the trees. On the branches, there were young green leaves and yellow ones. And also some brown ones. Instantly the realisation struck him about what life was. This was death. Mother Nature was teaching this monk a profound lesson. The leaves were symbolic of all the people on Earth- The young, the middle-aged and the elderly. And the trees symbolized life.

"Gardening reflects life. It teaches us the key teaching of the Buddha- that of change and impermanence. Plants grow and thrive with care. If they are unattended, new plants take over."

Nature is a form of Dharma- or Spirituality. Trees bring forth flowers and fruits. Once the fruits are ripe, they could be plucked. Growing vegetables is a learning experience by itself. For example, if one is growing carrots. You plant the seedlings and you’ve got to be patient for them to grow into mature vegetables. You cannot be all the time digging the ground where you planted them to see how much they have grown. That simply will not work. Similarly in life too, one must leave things be of their own nature. You cannot have instant results overnight. The same goes for meditation. It has to be cultivated. And over time, one gets the results, sooner or later.

Weeding can be therapeutic. Among the grass, there are weeds. One cannot rashly pull the weeds. If one does so, the roots of the weeds will not get uprooted and the weeds have the potential to sprout once again. So one must be gentle and eventually with practice, one has to master the art of proper weeding. It takes time and patience. It is a good practice for being mindfulness. One has to be mindful of what one is doing, if not one might uproot the good plants as well.

"Flowers bloom and within a few days wither. After some time, there’d be fresh blooms again. A garden is a perennial source of growth and regeneration, just like human life."

Gardening in tropical countries like Sri Lanka is different compared to the gardening done in Western countries, especially countries that have the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The four seasons can be paralleled to the cycle of human life: Spring is childhood. Summer is the prime period. Then Autumn is the middle age and of course, Winter is the old age. Winter is the hardest of all. One who is young cannot understand what an elderly person goes through. We should be sensitive towards the elderly people and treat them with respect. They’ve come a long way and their journey will continue in Samsara until they eventually realise Nirvana.

Caring for the sick is like caring for the Nature. To make plants flourish well, one should constantly care for their needs, like applying fertiliser and watering. Similarly the sick need a lot of care and attention to make themselves well and comfortable. The Buddha has said that caring for the sick is like caring for the Buddha himself. One who cares for the sick becomes much closer to the Buddha although He is not alive now. Sometimes, if they are ailing, the remaining family have to decide (whether to ‘pull the plug’ or not) whether to let them continue or whether to help end their existence. However, it’s not something one should just heedlessly do.

"This is death. Mother Nature was teaching this monk a profound lesson. The leaves were symbolic of all the people on Earth- The young, the middle-aged and the elderly. And the trees symbolize life."

There’s this true story. One lady had a dog who was dying. The Veterinary Surgeon wanted to ‘pull the plug’, - but this lady who was a Buddhist said that she needed time to decide. So she went to a quiet corner and waited with her dear dog for a while and she realised that the dog wanted to live. He didn’t want to die. She could feel it. She could sense it. So she told the Vet that, she was taking him home. The Vet who became furious told her, “How can you be so cruel? How can you let this poor animal suffer so? How selfish you are”. However, she ignored him and took her beloved pet home. In six months she visited the same Vet with her beloved dog. now back in good health and doing well. The Vet was in disbelief. And then he said, “You Buddhists are so wise!”

This story teaches all of us a valuable lesson. If it’s family members who are ailing, go near them and ask them (Even if they can’t speak) what they’d like, and more often than not, you’ll know what your loved ones wished for you to do.

Even in Nature, so many people heedlessly chop off trees. It takes years and years for a tree to sprout. Some people can cut down trees effortlessly without thinking twice. One cannot ask a tree whether it would like to live (unlike for a human relative) - however, Nature is precious like human life and one must be sensitive to the nuances in Nature. And Nature will respond in her way. One should be more sensitive not just to plants but also to animals.

Similarly the birds too depend on nature, on flowers and fruits. They cannot speak, but they would let us know if they could, that they too needed the love and attention of us, humans. I am personally very fond of butterflies. I love rescuing them from closed places and releasing them into nature. I find these ethereal beings truly beautiful.

"Then he noticed that among the leaves on the ground, there were young green leaves, and some yellow ones, and lots of brown ones."

Gardening reflects life. It teaches us the key teaching of the Buddha- that of change and impermanence. Plants grow and thrive with care. If they are unattended, new plants take over. Flowers bloom and within a few days wither. After some time, there’d be fresh blooms again. A garden is a perennial source of growth and regeneration, just like human life.

The Buddha loved trees. He attained Enlightenment under the serene shade of the Bo Tree. Buddha was the Chief Gardener. He was nurturing Life as a gardener and He showed us that we too, can accomplish it!

Wishing you a Blessed Poya - With Metta!

26 04 2021 - Daily Mirror

J23.14

Tame the ‘monkey’ in the mind! - Keep watching what the body is doing

Samangie Wettimuny

Following are excerpts from an interview with Theravada Buddhist monk Venerable Ajahn Suchart Abhijato of Thailand.

Q: How can we develop mindfulness and Metta (Loving - kindness)?
A: To develop mindfulness you need to have a ‘mindfulness’ object such as your body – movement. Keep watching every movement of your body and your actions. Whatever you do, concentrate on what you do. That’s what it means. Don’t send your mind elsewhere. [For example] when you are brushing your teeth you should watch how you brush your teeth, and not think about other things.

Metta means being friendly with everybody. So when you meet people smile and say 'Hello' and if there is something to share with them, [do share] - when people are happy share it with them. This is what practising Metta (kind) means. Also do not hold a grudge when somebody does something wrong to you. You should forgive them. This is also Metta. Whatever you do, you must not hurt them either physically or mentally. This is what having Metta means. Having a Metta mind means [having] goodwill towards all living beings.

Q: What role does one's 'Chutti Citta' play, when an individual's next birth is concerned?
A: The Chuthi Citta will connect itself to a new body. Eventually it will come across an available body, then it will connect to this physical body by sending the streams of Vinyana or consciousness to attach to the five mental objects/organs of the body.

Q: If a person dies with a pure "Kusala citta", will he definitely get a good birth?
A: It depends on the total summation of the good and the bad Kamma. They will be competing to take control of your mind. If your good kamma is more than your bad kamma then your next birth will be a good birth. If your bad kamma is more than your good kamma then your next birth will not be a good birth.

Q: What key factors will determine one's rebirth?
A: Your kamma. Your good and bad kamma. It is like your financial account. You have both debit and credit. If you have more debit than credit then you are in the green. if you have more credit than debit then you are in the red. Same way with good and bad kamma.

Q: As the Buddha said, what we experience in this lifetime results from what we ourselves created in the past. Can we overcome all our bad kamma by engaging in good deeds in this birth. What's the Buddhist explanation?
A: Some of our experiences are the results of our past good or bad Kamma. But they don't determine what your present Kamma will be. You are the one who can choose the kamma you want to make - good or bad kamma.
Your bad kamma will eventually once it has shown its consequences] disappear from your mind.

Q: What is the best way to practise Buddhism?
A: The Buddha taught us to do three actions - 1) avoid bad kamma, 2) do only good kamma, 3) purify the mind. - get rid of the defilements such as greed, hatred and delusion in the mind - purifying the mind by the practice of meditation.

Q: Thousands of people fall prey to Covid 19. At the moment over three million people have died. Are these people destined to die at this particular moment? Is it their kamma?
A: Well, it is the kamma to die. For every birth there is death. But when and where [to die] depends on circumstances that they happen to be in. So those people who die just happen to have the right conditions for them to die. So they die. For those still alive, it means they don't have the right condition for them to die yet. But eventually they will find the right condition for them to die sooner or later. Everybody will have to die.

Q: It is said that the highest form of birth is to be born as a human being. However there is also a view that the "Devas" are above humans and human beings are in the habit of praying for gods to achieve material benefits/to cure illnesses etc. Are the Devas truly more powerful than us?
A: No, Devas cannot do anything for us. We cannot pray to devas and expect them to do something for us. When they say human birth is the highest form it means it is the best form for Enlightenment. It is the best form to receive the teachings of the Buddha. If there is a Buddha around or his Noble Disciples, [humans] have the chance to become Enlightened, to be liberated from the realms of existence, to be liberated from aging sickness and death forever.
For Devas it is harder to achieve Enlightenment because they need someone who can communicate [with them] either the Buddha or his Noble Disciples. Not all Noble Disciples can connect with the Devas. So it is better to become a human being than a Deva as far as becoming Enlightened is concerned.

Q: In Sri Lanka " Bodhi Poojas" (paying homage to the Bo tree) is a common ritual practised by the Buddhists in order to invoke blessins on oneself or others. There are certain cults who view such acts with scorn. What is your view of the Buddhist Bodhi Pooja concept?
A: The concept of paying respect to the Bodhi Tree is really to remind us of the Enlightenment of the Buddha. That is what it means. [Thoughts] are focused on the Buddha, so that we don't forget that once upon a time, a few thousand years ago, there was a person sitting under the Bodhi tree who became Enlightened, became free from suffering forever. That is the purpose of paying respect to the Bodhi Tree, to recollect the Buddha's Enlightenment and once you have recollected the Enlightenment of the Buddha it will inspire you to become Enlightened. So you will study the teachings of the Buddha to see the way to become Enlightened. Then you would start to practise the teachings of the Buddha in order for you to become Enlightened.

Q: When practising meditation, laymen often find it a little hard to stay focused. How to stay focused on meditation - what we are doing?
A: You have to train your mind with mindfulness from the time you get up and to the time you go to sleep.You should take control of the mind right away as soon as you wake up by forcing [making] the mind to concentrate on the body movement. Keep watching what the body is doing, keep reciting a mantra 'Bhuddo Bhuddo, Bhuddo'. Then you will stay focused and when you meditate you can calm your mind easily.

Q: How can one tame one's Monkey Mind?
A: Again mindfulness is the key here. Be mindful of your body movement and be mindful of a mantra such as Bhuddo, Bhuddo. Just keep training yourself in mindfulness all the time, from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Then you will have continuous mindfulness and when you sit and meditate you can calm the mind and tame the ‘monkey’ in the mind.

Q: Is it true that feeding hungry animals and being kind to them is a very insignificant activity in terms of acquiring merit when compared with treating and feeding a hungry human being?
A: No, the merits are the same. Animals and humans are the same 'thing'. They need kindness, they need help. So when you give 'kindness and help' to them you get merit. It does not matter who you give. The act of giving itself is what makes you have [acquire] merit. and if you want more merit then you have to give more. That is all. It is not the person or the animal who received the help from you that matters. It is the amount that you give [that matters]. The more you give the more merit you will get.

(Special thanks to Ajahn Suchart Abhijato‘s administative team for facilitating the interview)
(Ajahn Suchart Abhijato became a Buddhist monk at the age of 27 years and ordained at Wat Bovornives in Bangkok on February 19, 1975 with Somdet Phra Ñanasarivara—the late Supreme Patriarch (Somdet Phra Sangharaja)—as his precept.
He is well known across the globe for his Dhamma teaching methods and meditation practice.
Presently Venerable Ajahn Suchart Abhijato resides in Wat Yansangwararam, Thailand.)

26 04 2021 - Daily News

J23.15

Pre-eminent virtues for gaining supreme enlightenment

Parami- Perfections

Gamini Jayasinghe

Nekkhamma is the act of leaving the household or the family life to spend an ascetic life (Pic AFP)

Bodhisattas, aspirants of Buddhahood practice ten transcendent virtues – crossing over ordinances-for gaining supreme enlightenment –Sammasambodhi. In Pali they are called Parami and in Sinhala we refer to them as Dasa Paramita. They are Generosity (Dana), Morality (Seela), Renunciation (Nekkhamma), Wisdom (Panna), Energy (Viriya), Patience (Khanti), Truthfulness (Sacca), Determination (Adhitthana), Loving kindness (Metta), and Equanimity (Upekkha).

Each one of these observances is generally sub-divided into secondary (Upa Paramita) and paramount or supreme observances (Parramatta Paramita). With reference to Generosity (Dana) for example gifts of gold and silver can be regarded as secondary or inferior ones (Dana Upa Paramita) and gifts of the highest kind such as the wife, children and one’s own body can be regarded as supreme or paramount generosity (Dana Paramatta Paramita).

If one thinks that only he or she should gain merit in a Dana and prevents others from participating in that act of merit, such a person is selfish and he or she cannot enjoy the double blessing. The main objective of Dana or almsgiving should be the elimination of craving.

Generosity (Dana)
Generosity (Dana) is the first Parami. It has more than one blessing. Through this one avoids selfishness while developing pure thoughts of selflessness. If one thinks that only he or she should gain merit in a Dana and prevents others from participating in that act of merit such a person is selfish and he or she cannot enjoy the double blessing. The main objective of Dana or almsgiving should be the elimination of craving.

Morality (Seela)
Morality (Seela) is the second Parami. It is the virtuous conduct. Pali meaning of the term Sila is discipline. It consists of duties that one should perform towards parents, children, husband, wife, teacher, pupil, friends, monks, subordinates etc. (Caritta) as explained in Singalowada sutta. And abstinences such as killing, stealing, misconduct (opposed to pure and chaste in the sex life), false speech, harsh language, slander and frivolous talk and intoxicating liquors which tend to mental distractions and confusion.

Wisdom (Panna)
Panna (wisdom or knowledge), the apex of Buddhism is the fourth Parami. It is the right understanding of the nature of the world in the light of transiency (anicca) sorrowfulness (Dukkha) and soullessness (Anatta). Bodhisattas meditate on these three characteristics but not to such an extent to attain arahantship so that they would not deviate from their ultimate goal of attaining Buddha hood. They acquire knowledge and wisdom from anyone, even from their own servants.

Effort (Viriya)
Persuasive energy, persistent effort to work for the welfare of others both in thought and deed (viriya) is the fifth Parami. Physical strength is an asset to anyone. However, it is the mental vigour or strength of character which is far superior. It is right effort (sammavayama) in the Noble eightfold path. It is one of the seven Factors of Enlightenment (Viriya sambojjhanga), one of four means of Accomplishment (Viriyiddhipada) one of the four modes of right Endevour (Sammappadhana), one of the five Powers (Viriya Bala) and one of the five controlling Faculties (Virindriya).

Patience (Khanti)
Patience (Khanti) is the sixth Parami. It is the patient endurance of suffering inflicted upon oneself by others and the forbearance of others’ wrongs. A Bodhisatta practices patience to such an extent that he is not provoked even when his hands and feet are cut off. Bodhisattas keep their hearts unsullied whatever tortures inflicted on them.

Truthfulness (Sacca)
Truthfulness (Sacca) is the seventh perfection. Sacca means the fulfillment of one’s promise. Since Bodhisatta is no breaker of his word Sacca is one of his salient characteristics. A Bodhisatta is consistent and straightforward in all his dealings.

Determination (Adhitthana)
Adhitthana which may be translated as resolute determination is the eighth Parami. Without this firm determination, which can be compared to the foundation of a building, other perfections cannot be fulfilled. This will-power forces all obstructions out of Bodhisatta’s path and no matter what may come to him, sickness, grief or disaster Bodhisatta never turns his eyes away from his goal.

Loving kindness (Metta)
Metta is the ninth and the most important Parami. Metta in Pali is Maitri in Sanskrit. Although this term may be translated into English as benevolence, goodwill, friendliness, wish for happiness or Loving kindness, it seems that there is no graceful equivalent for the Pali word Metta. Presumably this means the wish for the happiness of all living beings without exception. Bodhisatta is permeated with boundless goodwill towards all beings irrespective of caste, creed, colour, or sex differences. Since Bodhisatta is the embodiment of universal love he fears none, nor is he feared by any. Wild beasts, in lonely jungles are his loving friends.

Metta, in Buddhism should be differentiated from personal affection (prema) or ordinary carnal love. From affection comes fear and grief but not from Metta.

Equanimity (Upekkha)
The tenth Parami is Upekkha. In Pali Upa is impartially and ikkha is to see. Therefore the etymological meaning of the term is discerning rightly, viewing justly or looking impartially, that is without attachment or aversion, without favour or disfavour. As a parami the term is not used in the sense of indifference or neutral feeling.

The most difficult and the most essential of all perfections is equanimity, especially for a layman who has to live in an ill-balanced world with fluctuating fortunes.

Slights and insults are common lot of humanity. So are praise and blame, loss and gain, pain and happiness. Amidst such vicissitudes of life Bodhisatta tries to stand unmoved.

We ourselves can be Bodhisattas by dedicating our lives to the noble purpose of serving the world.

27 05 2021 - Daily Mirror

J23.16

May all beings be happy

Kevin Griffin

Metta (loving kindness) is that sense of openness when we feel connected to everyone and everything in the world. In some ways, it’s a natural outgrowth of mindfulness practice and just the general cultivation of happiness in our lives. When the Buddha talks about loving kindness, he’s clearly pointing to something different from what we usually call love. In fact, his teachings point to the problems with selective love, and how that leads to clinging and ultimately suffering as things change. The Metta Sutta tells us to spread love over the entire world to everyone, no matter what we think or feel about them. This is unconditional love, love that doesn’t expect or need a return, love that sees past the petty differences and disputes in life to the universal longings for happiness that we all share. In practicing lovingkindness, we are faced with our clinging, our judgments, and our selective caring. We see that what we usually call love may have a lot of conditions tied up with it: I’ll love you as long as you love me or as long as you give me what I want. And, further, we see that the love we have for our dear ones makes us vulnerable to grief and loss.

Traditionally, metta practice focuses on three categories: those we love, those we are neutral or have no strong feelings about, and those we have difficulties with. Before we work with these categories, the practice suggests we first focus on a benefactor or beloved person (or even a pet). When we spend time sending loving kindness to this beloved, we accomplish a couple of things: first, we soften ourselves up a bit, so that we are ready to send love to others; and second, we get a clear sense of what love feels like so that we establish that kind of baseline.

After connecting with the beloved, we then try to send love to ourselves. Many people find this to be one of the most difficult aspects of the metta practice. At least in our culture, many of us have complicated, and often negative, feelings about ourselves. To see ourselves as just another person deserving love is a valuable exercise. Here we start to disidentify with ourselves, see ourselves in more objective terms. When we can see ourselves as just another imperfect human, equally deserving of love as anyone else, it becomes easier to offer love to ourselves.

Moving from focus on ourselves to focus on all the rest of the people we care about-family, friends, intimates, and partner-the heart tends to open more easily. Now we might feel ourselves getting into the flow of lovingkindness. Without obstruction, and using the phrases, feelings, and visualizations of the practice, the mind can become quite focused and concentrated, so that, not only do we enjoy the pleasant feeling of love, but also the powerful feeling of concentration, called samadhi, that comes with deeper meditation practices.

We then try to carry these two qualities, the openheartedness and the focus, into giving metta to a neutral person or persons. For many people, this seems to be an awkward practice at first, but I think it has great potential in terms of growing a broad sense of lovingkindness for all beings.

A neutral person is someone we don’t have strong feelings about, either positive or negative. I’ve used people like the clerk in the video store and the security guard at the bank. These are people I can visualize pretty easily because I’ve seen them many times, but I certainly don’t like or dislike them in any meaningful way.

At first, and naturally enough, it might be hard to feel much about these people, but the practice gives us a form we can simply follow without worrying about the results. You see the person in your mind, you say the lovingkindness phrases to yourself, and you try to connect in your heart. What helps me in doing this practice is contemplating the universal desire for happiness and freedom from suffering. Even though I don’t really know this neutral person, I know that, just like me, they want happiness. So, in a sense, I’m connecting with my own wish for happiness and just projecting it onto them.

As we work with the neutral person, we have the opportunity to see what the Buddha was getting at. It might be easy to wish happiness for your loved ones, but as you wish that, it’s still very personal for you. You have some investment in their happiness, so it’s difficult to disidentify with their happiness. However, with the neutral person, you have no investment, so you have to connect with something else, this universal longing that is impersonal. That moves you away from your self-identification into a more authentic metta. As long as there is identification or longing or investment in someone else’s happiness, we aren’t experiencing unconditional love.

I think that many people can get caught up in the idea that metta is about feeling good and praying for people you care about. This is something of a distortion of the teachings. Yes, being immersed in metta is a pleasant experience, but that experience isn’t the goal of the practice.

Working with the difficult person makes this fact clear. If we were just trying to feel good, we certainly wouldn’t spend time thinking about someone we don’t like. The difficult person can be someone you’ve had conflict with or toward whom you have a resentment. Sometimes when no one in my life comes up, I just use a political figure that I disagree with. In any case, this is a place where we have to apply a strong mindfulness to our practice so that we don’t lapse into aversion, anger, judgment, or resentment. As we follow through on the practice, visualizing the person and saying the phrases, it’s very likely that we will not feel much that’s positive, at least in our initial efforts. We need to be careful that the mind doesn’t wander into negative thoughts and that we just keep with the simple task of the practice, staying with the words and the breath in the heart. Here, you may be able to get some insight into the limits of your own capacity for love. That’s a valuable thing to see. It can give us some goals as well as show us where some of our own suffering comes from.

Clearly, the great spiritual masters believe that the capacity to love our enemies is one of the vital tasks of human evolution. Jesus spoke of this and exemplified it when he forgave those who crucified him; the Buddha explains this in the Simile of the Saw, in which he says that even if someone were sawing off our limbs one by one, no thought of hatred should arise. If we want to be truly loving people, unconditionally and for all beings, we have to work with some form of this practice. It’s certainly not something that I’ve come anywhere close to mastering, but I have found that with compassion practice, I can get some sense of this.

After working with the difficult person, we can move to the expansive part of metta practice. This is actually a complete shift because no longer are we thinking about any individuals, but working instead with a sense of space. This space is what the Buddha is talking about in the Metta Sutta when he says that we are radiating kindness over the entire world, spreading [it] upwards to the skies and downwards to the depths, outwards and unbounded, free from hatred and ill will.

This is a somewhat more difficult area of practice to describe because it doesn’t have the same cognitive elements of the earlier pieces. Instead, we are working more with a feeling, a feeling of expansiveness and connection. Hopefully when we arrive at this part of the practice, we’ve developed something of an internal sense of lovingkindness. While focusing on that feeling, that authentic wish for all beings to be free from dukkha, or suffering, we being a process of imaginative expansion. We can use a visualization if that works, while we stay connected to the feeling in the heart and imagine that the love is growing.

First we see/feel that love filling and enveloping the room we are in. Then we let that feeling expand out through the whole building, the neighborhood, outward in all directions until it touches everything on earth. This can be done slowly or quickly, depending upon how much time you have and how into it you are. You can think of specific groups of people you want to send love to: the sick and dying, the oppressed, or whatever comes up for you. You can also send love to animals, plants, and the earth itself.

At this point, you may lose the sense of boundaries with your body, and experience a sort of floating or fluid sensation. I’m not trying to tell you how you should feel-just know that anything in this realm is normal and helps to support this part of the practice. When we’ve spread lovingkindness over the entire planet, we then expand into space, vast and limitless. We try to permeate the universe with loving kindness.

Once we’ve sat in this place of boundless love for a little while, we can bring ourselves gradually back into the body and heart, and close the period of meditation.

Practice-Metta Phrases

I’ve more or less outlined the practice above. Always start by connecting with the breath, so you have some attention in your body, preferably at the heart. As I’ve said, we first send metta to a beloved person or benefactor, then ourselves, our dear ones, a neutral person, a difficult person, then radiating to all beings. A big part of this, then, is the felt sense of loving kindness; however, this feeling may be stronger, weaker, or even absent at times. Nonetheless, we continue the practice by visualizing the people we are sending metta to, maybe naming them, and repeating phrases. You should use phrases that resonate for you and are simple and direct. Not more than four phrases. Here are some typical ones:

May you be happy
May you be peaceful
May you live with ease.
Some people like to add something like, May you be safe.

Stay in touch with your breath; notice feelings of happiness or resistance that come up at various stages; let the phrases flow with the breath and stay connected to the heart.

26 04 2021 - Daily News

J23.17

Buddhism and New Year celebrations

K.K.S. Perera

Nagadipa, is an island in the Jaffna peninsula. According to the Chronicle Mahavamsa, the name Nagadipa is related with the visit of Gautama Buddha. it marks Buddha’s second visit to the island.

People of past generations believed in gazing the new moon which appears 14 days before this day as a good omen.

˜Nava bag lasand dut - minisek hunova janneyi": [A man who has seen the tender moon of Bak should not be rejected]
Homage paid by the Buddhists to moon [nava sanda belima] in the present times though uninspiring and weak, centuries ago, a sightseer to Sigiriya marked his visit on its Mirror Wall with the above graffiti.

Buddha’s second visit

The enlightened one arrived in Sri Lanka, accompanied by Diety Samiddhisumana on a Bak Full Moon Poya day to settle a war between two factions of Naga community. The Buddha’s mission was to bring peace to this island. Bak Poya Day, therefore is a significant day for Sri Lanka.

In the fiftieth year of his enlightenment, the Buddha perceived with his divine eye, a dispute brewing between the two factions of Nagas led by two Kings Chulodara and Mahodara.

The Mahavamsa says, Mahodara ruled the Kingdom of the sea, who gave his younger sister in marriage to the Naga King. Chulodara was their son. His mother’s father has gifted to his mother a Gem studded throne. This magnificent chair resulted in a war between the uncle and nephew. The Buddha, visited Sri Lanka, preached his doctrine to the warring factions Chulodara and Mahodara at Nagadeepa, in Northern Sri Lanka.

The Buddha first created darkness while hovering in mid-air, above the battle field. He illuminated the whole area. When the Naga Community seeing this miracle, joyfully paid their obeisance. The Blessed one illustrated the value and the benefits that they accrue from unity and peaceful co-existence and the evils of discord.

Economics

Digha Nu once visited the Buddha and said: Venerable Sir, we are lay men, leading the family life with wife and children. Would you teach us some doctrines which will be conductive to our happiness? The Buddha spoke on four things which are conductive to a man’s contentment in this samsara: 1) he should be skilled, efficient, energetic and earnest in whatever profession he is occupied, and he should know it thoroughly; 2) he should look after his possession, which he has thus earned, with the sweat of his brow; 3) he should have kalya-mitta or good friends who are virtuous, learned, faithful, liberal and intelligent, who will direct him along the correct path away from immorality; 4) he should use up reasonably his expenses, in proportion to his returns, meaning he should live within his resources and save a portion.

Freedom

Give up all you have ever thought about yourself; start as if you knew nothing, and begin to understand ourselves for the first time. How to free ourselves from bonds of life? We have to investigate ourselves, not someone explaining while we listen, agreeing or disagreeing, but taking a journey of discovery into the most deep corners of our minds. And to take such a journey we cannot be burdened with prejudices, opinions, and conclusions - all that we have collected for thousands of years and more.

How can we be free to look and learn when from the moment we are born to the moment we die, our minds are shaped by a particular culture in the narrow pattern of the 'I’ `me’ and 'mine’? We have been conditioned for centuries by nationality, religion, caste, language, class, custom, tradition, education, literature, art, convention and propaganda of all kinds, the pressures, the climate we live in, the food we eat, our friends, our family, our experiences -and therefore our reactions and responses to every problem are conditioned. You will never be free of it, and if you think, `I must be free of it’, you will fall into another form of conditioning. Even when you look at a tree and say, `That is a jak tree’, or `that is a mango tree’, the naming of the tree, which is general knowledge, it has so conditioned you that the word comes between you and actually observing the tree.

So it is for us to decide whether or not we wish for complete freedom. You can be free from doctrine very easily, by scrutinizing it, but the purpose for that freedom from dogma has its individual reaction since the desire to be free from a doctrine may be that it is no longer fashionable or opportune. If we say we do, then we have to understand the character and structure of freedom. Is it freedom when you are free from pain, free from anxiety? Or is freedom itself something completely different? You can be free from envy, resentment say, but isn’t that freedom a response and therefore not freedom at all?

Silly Nationalistic Belief

All youth, are in revolt against the world, and that is a good thing in itself, but revolt is not freedom because when you revolt it is a reaction and that response sets up its own pattern and you get trapped in that pattern. You can be free from patriotism because you believe in internationalism or because you sense it is no longer reasonably necessary to adhere to this silly nationalistic belief. You can effortlessly put that away. Or you may counter against some religious or political leader who has guaranteed you freedom as a result of restraint or revolt. But has such rationalism, such commonsense conclusion anything to do with liberty? You think it is something novel, but it is the old in a different mould. Any societal or political rebellion will inevitably slip back to the good old bourgeois frame of mind. If you say you are free from something, it is a rejoinder which will then become another reaction which will bring about another conventionality, another form of authority. In this way you can have a chain of responses and accept each reaction as independence. But it is not freedom; it is merely a link of a modified history which the mind adheres to.

There is only your relationship with the world - nothing else; there are no guides, no teachers. When you understand this, what you feel, what you think, how you work, all self-pity goes. We will not thrive on blaming others, which is a type of self-pity.

If you examine very closely what is taking place and observe it, you will see that it stands on a rational conception. What is imperative is not a philosophy but to observe what is in fact taking place in our daily existence, inwardly and outwardly. And when we look at what is happening in the world we commence to understand that there is no external and internal process; there is only one unitary process, it is a whole movement. To be able to stare at this seems to me all that is required, because if we make out how to look, then the whole thing turns out to be very clear, and to look desires no viewpoint, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how you should look. You just look.

May all beings be happy!

26 04 2021 - Daily News

J23.18

Mindfulness beyond the moment

Joseph Goldstein

As you progress in sustained, daily practice, it might be helpful to have an overview of meditative insight. Of course, there are many maps of the spiritual journey, and what follows is simply one way of highlighting some different aspects of the path.

Often people think of mindfulness as present moment awareness-living in the present moment, rather than being lost in thoughts of past and future. And while this is certainly a necessary prerequisite for mindfulness, it is not enough. It is possible to be fully in the moment and still be completely lost in whatever the experience might be.

For example, there is something I call black Lab consciousness. You may be familiar with black Labrador Retrievers. They are immensely playful, friendly dogs, who seem to be very much in the moment, lost in their worlds of sight and sound and smell. It doesn’t seem that they are ruminating about the past or future, but at the same time, they don’t appear to be at all mindful.

Dogs don’t seem that they are ruminating about the past or future, but at the same time, they don’t appear to be mindful.

For much of the time, our own minds are in a similar situation. Even if we’re not lost in thought, we may not be mindfully observing what is arising. Here, there is an important distinction between attention and mindfulness. How many times during the day do we hear sounds or see sights without the meta-cognition of knowing that we’re hearing or seeing? We’re simply lost in the experience, much like a black Lab. Attention allows us to know the object, but without necessarily opening to its nature (or to the knowing itself) on a deeper level. The Portuguese poet, Fernando Pesoa, described this well:

Live you say in the present. Live only in the present. But I don’t want the present, I want reality.

In order to accomplish the understanding of reality, mindfulness also has an ethical component, which is knowing our experience without the often unnoticed filters of greed and aversion.

The beginning of practice-and throughout our entire journey-we remind ourselves to actively notice what it is we’re experiencing and, at the same time, to be aware of any attitude in the mind regarding it. The difference between being lost in a present moment experience and being mindful of it is very obvious every time we wake up from being lost in a thought. Just there, in that moment of transition, we can feel the difference between the deluded mind of non-awareness and the wakeful quality of mindfulness.

At first, it may feel quite effortful to remember to be mindful. But as the momentum of our practice grows, there may be more space between thoughts and more awareness of whatever is arising in our bodies, our minds, or in the external environment. And at a certain point, a level shift takes place. While we’re still aware of what is arising, there is an even greater awareness of the process of change itself. It’s as if we have shifted the emphasis of awareness from content to process. Here, experience flows on more smoothly, and mindfulness seems to be happening by itself. We still get lost, but our minds return more effortlessly to being mindful of the flow of phenomena.

This shift can be illustrated by the images of an arch and a trough. At first, it’s as if we’re balancing at the top of an arch, often falling off to one side or another and requiring an effort to climb back up to the top. But through that effort, at some point the arch inverts to become a trough, where we’re simply resting at the bottom. We still may be pulled off center, that is, getting lost in various momentary experiences, but then quite effortlessly, the mind settles back into balance, into the flow of changing phenomena.

An important insight begins to emerge at this stage of practice. We begin to be clearly aware of two different but unified aspects of all experience: that is, in each moment we see the wise progression of knowing and object, arising and passing away together. Usually, the object is more predominant, but at times we can also emphasize the knowing aspect. We might understand this in terms of foreground and background. At times, there will be a natural interweaving of the two, and at other times we can choose to give emphasis to one or another, still remembering that they always arise together. For example, we might be feeling the sensations of the breath quite intimately and then it’s as if we put these sensations to one side (or let them recede into the background) and rest more in the awareness itself.

For those exploring this aspect of practice, the question may arise, How can I be more mindful of the knowing? While it will come naturally as we continue our meditation, there is one linguistic re-framing that I found to be extremely helpful in this regard. Usually, we describe experience, either consciously or unconsciously, in the active voice, with a subject, a verb and some object. I’m knowing a sound or I’m knowing a movement. If we reframe these experiences in the passive voice sound being known or a movement being known -we have taken the out of the equation. The actor is no longer the subject and we can see how effortlessly the knowing arises in every moment, without an making the effort.

It’s very simple. As an experiment, just now, you might move your arm back and forth, noticing how effortlessly the movement is being known. Of course, the mind will still wander from time to time, but we can always come back to the simplicity of things being known moment after moment. Because of this effortless quality, it’s easier to rest in the knowing aspect, even for short periods of time, again remembering that we’ll also be aware of what’s being known at the same time.

Another important understanding happens when we notice the tendency to lean into the next moment-what I call the order to mind. We may be with a strong sensation in order for it to diminish, or with an emotion in order for it to go away, or even being with an in breath but already leaning into the arising of the out breath. This is one aspect of what the Buddha called craving for becoming.

We can taste one dimension of freedom in those moments when we’re not leaning, not wanting to become. On this fundamental, moment to moment level, the mind is free of craving for anything. In the morning of the Buddha’s enlightenment, it’s said that a verse came to his mind, expressing the depth of his awakening. The last two lines of that verse say, Realized is the unconditioned, achieved is the end of craving.

This is a reminder that the essence of our practice is non-craving-the Third Noble Truth of the Buddha’s teaching: the end of suffering. And although for us, the end of craving might at first be momentary, it does give a real taste of peace.

26 04 2021 - Daily News

J23.19

Birth of a Conqueror of the mind:
Rejoice the glad tidings

Sachitra Mahendra

This young man, given to austerities in life, was called Sumedha. Simply an unknown entity, yet his attempt to achieve the highest spiritual realm was unwavering and unshaken. Such resolute thinkers have been few to none. Sumedha’s tale takes us to the times of yore, past several Buddhas, But then this was a time when the world was blessed by a Buddha who bore a different name: Dipankara. The young man, Sumedha, was intrigued to hear of Dipankara Buddha’s arrival at his hometown. He rejoiced at the glad tidings. Unbeknownst to his surrounding, Sumedha had a determination of a unique sort.

It was no mundane craving. It was not some wishful thinking. Sumedha’s aspiration, deep and profound, was to make history. He sought a definite prophecy that he would be the successor of the very person who stood before his eyes.

The town, however, was congested with people. The young man could hardly think of seeing Dipankara Buddha, let alone any other communication. When he noticed the muddy road, his thoughts worked on a different plane. Strong of purpose, he acted fast.

He requested the Master and the retinue to walk over him. Dipankara Buddha saw the young man’s thought in his divine eye and knew the youth’s wish will materialise in uncountable aeons to come.

Dipankara Buddha prophesied ascetic Sumedha would be a Buddha named Gotama in future. The day the Buddha declared the solemn prophecy to his twenty-fourth successor was a Vesak Full Moon Poya Day. Since then Sumedha occupied the womb of different sorts many times. He had to fulfil the thirty perfections, paramitas. Before his final birth, the Bodhisatva, or Buddha-to-be, was born in Thusitha heaven.

The divine being inquired if five matters are in the proper place before expiring to occupy the final womb: time, area, continent, cast and mother. Then, as any Buddhist knows, the fully mindful divine being entered the womb of Queen Mahamaya to be sired by King Suddhodana. A prince was born on a Vesak Poya and was named Siddharth, one who has found the meaning of existence. The queen passed away seven days after the prince’s birth.

The whiz kid declared the glorious verse, customary for all Buddhas, just after the birth:
“I am the chief of the world. There is no equal to me. I am supreme. This is my last birth. No rebirth for me.”
The teacher worshipped the teacher of the world, and then the father worshipped the son.

Aspiring for enlightenment

Siddharth Gotama’s life was spent in royal luxuries until he realised life’s true nature. Moments later Siddharth renounced the princely life on a Vesak Poya. Yet ascetic life was not a simple thing for the prince.

The robed Gotama was trained in various mental skills under many teachers, only to get disillusioned that they do not have the truth he looks for. The right way to achieve the truth dawned on him one day. He directed the mind on the right meditation path. Moments later, he reached enlightenment and conquered the world of sorrows on a Vesak Poya.

The Conqueror was heading to the city of Kusinara when he met Pukkusa. The layman listened to the Dhamma and offered the Buddha two golden robes: one worn by the Buddha and the other by his assistant Ananda.

The Conqueror’s skin dazzled as he donned the robe. This amazed Venerable Ananda. He was told that the skin of a Buddha will illume remarkably on two occasions: the night he attains Enlightenment and the night he passes into Parinibbana.

Third visit to Sri Lanka

The Buddha visited Sri Lanka on three occasions: first to Mahiyangana in January, second to Nagadipa in April, and third to Kelaniya in May, Vesak. On the second visit made to Nagadipa, King Maniakkikha invited the Blessed One for the third visit to Kelaniya. And he visited Kelaniya three years after his second visit, with 550 arahants.

However, Nishantha Gunawardena, a Sri Lankan historian based in the United States, refers to an interesting find in The Lost Dynasty: The Buddha was not invited by King Maniakkhika but by a king named Panitha and his daughter princess Abhi Upaliya. Nishantha cites rock inscriptions at Balaharukanda and Bambaragastalawa that corroborate this find.

“...the rock inscriptions are more accurate due to the difficulty in changing or forging them. It was the national King Panitha who invited Gautama Buddha the second time. The regional King Maniakkhika is mentioned in a few other records.

But it was not until the December 2004 tsunami hit, the king reintroduced himself. A tsunami tore through the island exposing several rock inscriptions. Two of them bore the names of King Maniagiya and his mother. This is, in fact, King Maniakkhika.” (82pp)

King Maniakikha is commonly mistaken as a Naga king; naga means serpent in oriental languages. The scholars believe that the king hailed from a clan named Naga. Following the Buddha’s sermon in Kelaniya, the king erected a shrine with the Buddha’s hair, utensils and the seat buried inside. The foreign invasions have resulted in damaging the original shrine.

The Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara became an even more revered site following Venerable Mahinda Thera’s arrival in Lanka to establish the Buddha’s teachings. Mahawamsa - account of the great clan, if rendered into English - the official chronicle on Sri Lankan history written in the 5th Century CE, states King Devanampiyatissa’s brother Uttiya renovated the Dagoba along with the first quarters of the monks.

Mahavamsa interestingly relates how the Blessed One journeyed to Adam’s Peak or Sumanakuta from Kelani on the Vesak Poya day. The 7359ft tall conical mountain has a historic significance as Buddhists believe it has the Buddha’s footprint on it.

Melting pot of cultures

The mount is normally known as Adam’s Peak for Christians and Shivan Adipatham (Shiva’s footprint) for Hindus. The mount has obviously become the meeting place for people of diverse religions and ethnicities.

In Sinhala the mount is known as Sri Pada, the term derived from Sanskrit denoting the ‘sacred foot’. The Sinhala Samanala Kanda, or Butterfly Mountain in English, is named thus because of the annually migrating butterflies.

Legend has it that the Buddha placed his left footprint on the hill summit and then strode across to Thailand, then Siam. In Siam the Buddha is said to have left the impression of the right foot; this is called Phra Sat, similar to Sri Pada. In his Bharhut Stupa General Sir A. Cunningham rests details about footprints:

“Footprints of the Buddha were most probably an object of reverence from a very early period - certainly before the building of the Bharut Stupa - as they are represented in two separate sculptures there. In the sculpture, the footprints are placed on a throne or altar, canopied by an umbrella hung with garlands.

A royal personage is kneeling before the altar, and reverently touching the footprints with his hands. The second example is in the bas-relief representing the visit of Ajata-satru to Buddha. Here, as in all other Bharut sculptures, the Buddha does not appear in person, his presence being marked by His two footprints. The wheel symbol is duly marked on both.” (112pp)

A cave temple called Diva Guhava is recognised as the place the Buddha had respite during his Sri Pada visit along with his retinue. The cave is said to have the capacity to provide shelter for over 500 people. Siripa Samaya, the season of Sripa pilgrimage starts in December through May.

“When the Teacher, compassionate to the whole world,” goes on Mahavamsa, “had preached the doctrine there, he rose, the Master, and left the traces of his footsteps plain to sight on Sumanakuta. And after he had spent the day as it pleased him at the foot of this mountain, with the brotherhood, be set forth for Dighavapi.”

Some historians however observe the Buddha’s visit to Dighavapi as far from being likely. As the chronicle states, the Buddha had visited the village and meditated consecrating the place. A shrine was later erected on the place the Blessed One meditated.

Many works including Samantha Pasadika and Dipavamsa contain allusions to Dighavapi.

The works mention the inhabitants of Dighavapi were Yakkas, with links to pre-Aryan Kirat people in Northern India. As a legend goes, while a novice monk was repairing a part of the shrine, he fell from the top. He heard the shouting of his colleagues to recall Dhajagga Paritta, a sutta reciting the great qualities of the Buddha, his Teachings and the Dispensation. And finally, it is said, the novice monk was saved miraculously. The area was later reconstructed by King Saddhatissa.

Original influences

Some sources indicate that the Buddha set foot on Kataragama following the visit to Dighavapi. Legend lays down an account where the Buddha met King Mahasena (some sources identify the king as Mahaghosha) in Kataragama.

The king listened to the Buddha and erected a shrine - now known as Mangala Ceitya - on the place he preached. The place is now called Kiri Vehera, located close to the Hindu temple built by the same king.

According to a source discovered by Nishantha Gunawardena the Mangala Ceitya contains the sword that Prince Siddharth used to cut his hair in renouncing. However, as Gunawardena adds, the source is yet to be verified.

Prince Vijaya’s visit to Sri Lanka - then called Tambapanni, the gold-sand island - occurred on a Vesak Poya. As commonly known, Vijaya was exiled to Tambapanni because of the dreadful behaviour of him and his associates.

His father, Sinhabahu, had no option other than banishing him - his followers and their families numbering about 700 - to the island with their heads partly shaved as a sign of disgrace. Vijaya’s ancestors came down from the kingdom of Kalinga, known as Orissa to the ancient, and Vanga in Bangladesh and the eastern part of India.

The king of Vanga was married to the daughter of the king of Kalinga, named Suppadevi. Mahavamsa then relates the episode of Suppadevi having intimacies with a lion ending up with two children: Sihabahu, lion-arms, and Sihasivali.

The lion had a family life in a cave, covered by a large rock to block any attempt of escapade. But the turn of events took a different shape as the lion’s family had escaped from the cave, and Sihabahu killing his father with an arrow. Following the patricide, Sihabahu married his sister and formed a kingdom in Sihapura city. The royal couple had a series of twins, of which Vijaya was the eldest.

Rajavaliya, the chronicle on Sri Lankan kings, mentions Vijaya’s entourage spotted Adam’s Peak and landed in Southern Sri Lanka - the area that later became the Kingdom of Ruhuna. H. Parker, a British historian, however, mentions it is the mouth of Kirindi Oya.

So started the Vijayan dynasty, a reign of a King with a positive attitude towards Buddhism, making the path clear for an official introduction during King Devanampiyatissa’s reign.

King Devenampiyatissa - meaning ‘beloved of the gods’ - had his second coronation on a Vesak Poya day. Mahavamsa goes on to describe the moment of glory: “Grand miracles occurred during the consecration of King Devanampiya Tissa. Jewels buried in earth rose to the surface, pearls in deep oceans were washed ashore and piled up and bamboo trees started to look like they were made out of silver. King Devanampiyatissa thought that these pearls and gems should be sent to his great friend, King Dharmashoka of India. Kings Dharmashoka and Devanampiyatissa were great friends for many years but had never seen each other.”

King Dharmashoka by this time was sending Buddhist missionaries to countries around the world. He selected his son arahant Mahinda to be sent to Lanka with the message of Buddhism.

Arahant Mahinda and four other monks left the Indian shores to visit Lanka; Missaka Pavva (Mihintale) was their destination. King Devanampiyatissa was conducting a deer hunt close to Mihintale at the time.

The god of the mountain, it is said, wanted to show Arahant Mahinda to the king and disguised himself as a deer. King Devanampiyatissa and his men chased the deer. When the deer came near the mountain where arahant Mahinda stood, the deer passed out of sight.

Parinibbana

Eighty-year old Gotama Buddha disclosed that his passing away, Parinibbana, would take place on the third watch of the night at Sal grove of Malla royal family. Maha Parinibbana Sutta gives an illustrious description of the Buddha’s last moment. We reproduce an excerpt from the translation of the sutta by Sister Vajira and Francis Story.

The Blessed One’s Final Exhortation:

1. Now the Blessed One spoke to the Venerable Ananda, saying: “It may be, Ananda, that to some among you the thought will come: ‘Ended is the word of the Master; we have a Master no longer.’ But it should not, Ananda, be so considered. For that which I have proclaimed and made known as the Dhamma and the Discipline, that shall be your Master when I am gone".

2. “And, Ananda, whereas now the bhikkhus address one another as ‘friend,’ let it not be so when I am gone. The senior bhikkhus, Ananda, may address the junior ones by their name, their family name, or as ‘friend’; but the junior bhikkhus should address the senior ones as ‘venerable sir’ or ‘your reverence’."

3. “If it is desired, Ananda, the Sangha may, when I am gone, abolish the lesser and minor rules."

4. “Ananda, when I am gone, let the higher penalty be imposed upon the bhikkhu Channa.”
“But what, Lord, is the higher penalty?”
“The bhikkhu Channa, Ananda, may say what he will, but the bhikkhus should neither converse with him, nor exhort him, nor admonish him.”

5. Then the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: “It may be, bhikkhus, that one of you is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice. Then question, bhikkhus! Do not be given to remorse later on with the thought: ‘The Master was with us face to face, yet face to face we failed to ask him.’”

6. But when this was said, the bhikkhus were silent. And yet a second and a third time the Blessed One said to them: “It may be, bhikkhus, that one of you is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice. Then question, bhikkhus! Do not be given to remorse later on with the thought: ‘The Master was with us face to face, yet face to face we failed to ask him.’”

And for a second and a third time the bhikkhus were silent. Then the Blessed One said to them: “It may be, bhikkhus, out of respect for the Master that you ask no questions. Then, bhikkhus, let friend communicate it to a friend.” Yet still, the bhikkhus were silent.

7. And the Ven. Ananda spoke to the Blessed One, saying: “Marvellous it is, O Lord, most wonderful it is! This faith I have in the community of bhikkhus, that not even one bhikkhu is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice.”

“Out of faith, Ananda, you speak thus. But here, Ananda, the Tathagata knows for certain that among this community of bhikkhus there is not even one bhikkhu who is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice. For, Ananda, among these five hundred bhikkhus even the lowest is a stream-enterer, secure from downfall, assured, and bound for enlightenment.”

8. And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: “Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!”

This was the last word of the Tathagata.

9. And the Blessed One entered the first jhana. Rising from the first jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the fourth jhana. And rising out of the fourth jhana, he entered the sphere of infinite space. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite space, he entered the sphere of infinite consciousness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite consciousness, he entered the sphere of nothingness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of nothingness, he entered the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. And rising out of the attainment of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he attained to the cessation of perception and feeling.

10. And the Venerable Ananda spoke to the Venerable Anuruddha, saying: “Venerable Anuruddha, the Blessed One has passed away.”
“No, friend Ananda, the Blessed One has not passed away. He has entered the state of the cessation of perception and feeling.”

11. Then the Blessed One, rising from the cessation of perception and feeling, entered the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, he entered the sphere of nothingness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of nothingness, he entered the sphere of infinite consciousness. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite consciousness, he entered the sphere of infinite space. Rising from the attainment of the sphere of infinite space, he entered the fourth jhana. Rising from the fourth jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the first jhana.

Rising from the first jhana, he entered the second jhana. Rising from the second jhana, he entered the third jhana. Rising from the third jhana, he entered the fourth jhana. And, rising from the fourth jhana, the Blessed One immediately passed away.

The World’s Echo

12. And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana there came a tremendous earthquake, dreadful and astounding, and the thunders rolled across the heavens.

13. And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana, Brahma Sahampati spoke this stanza:
All must depart — all beings that have life Must shed their compound forms. Yea, even one, A Master such as he, a peerless being, Powerful in wisdom, the Enlightened One, has passed away.

14. And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana, Sakka, king of the gods, spoke this stanza:
Transient are all compounded things, Subject to arise and vanish; Having come into existence they pass away; Good is the peace when they forever cease.

15. And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana, the Venerable Anuruddha spoke this stanza:
No movement of the breath, but with steadfast heart, Free from desires and tranquil — so the sage Comes to his end. By mortal pangs unshaken, His mind, like a flame extinguished, finds release.

16. And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana, the Venerable Ananda spoke this stanza:
Then there was terror, and the hair stood up, when he, The All-accomplished One, the Buddha, passed away.

Yasodhara

Siddhartha and Yasodhara were of the same age, which means they were both born in Vesak. Interestingly Yasodhara’s great demise took place in the same month, yet two years ere that of the Buddha. Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thera describes the event in his Rahula Matha:

“Yasodhara had this thought while going back to her monastery after the sermon."

"Venerables Nanda, Rahula, chief monk disciples, chief lay disciples, King Suddhodana, Prajapathi Gothami, Kondanna, they all have now passed away. I was born on the same day as Prince Siddhartha. We were of the same age and had the same ideals. So our demise should take place at the same moment. But my demise should take place earlier. Otherwise, that will be too hard for the world to bear up. That shall not happen. The likes of me must not see the great demise of the Buddha."

"We are both 78 years now. As the Buddha’s great demise takes place in two years, I shall now go and seek permission for my own."
With that thought, the earth shook. The sky shuddered.

Vesak brings in an engrossing historical tale mixed with spirit and elegance.

26 05 2021 - Daily News

J23.20

"No conditions, just forgive and forget!"

Samangie Wettimuny

Theravada Buddhist monk Venerable Ajahn Suchart Abhijato is well known across the globe for his Dhamma teaching methods and meditation practice.

He was born on November 2, 1947. Having completed his degree in Civil Engineering at California State University, Fresno, USA, he returned to his motherland where he designed an ice cream parlour for a brief stint. Quite soon, inspired by a Dhamma Book, he decided to go in search of ‘true happiness’, to find inner peace through the practice of Buddhist meditation. Ajahn Suchart Abhijato became a Buddhist monk at the age of 27 years and received ordination at Wat Bovornives in Bangkok on February 19, 1975, with Somdet Phra Ñanasarivara, the late Supreme Patriarch (Somdet Phra Sangharaja), as his preceptor.

Presently Ven. Ajahn Suchart Abhijato resides in Wat Yansangwararam, Thailand.

Excerpts from an interview with Ajahn Suchart Abhijato. Part 1 of this interview was published on April 26, 2021, to mark Bak Full Moon Poya Day.

Ven. Ajahn Suchart Abhijato

Q: What is the best way to celebrate Vesak Poya?
A: The Buddha said the best way to celebrate Vesak or any Buddhist holiday (or any day for that matter) is to engage in prathipaththi pooja which means the practice of the teachings of the Buddha. This is the best way to celebrate any occasion. Practise Dana, Sila and Bhavana. (charity, morality and meditation).

Q: What is your message to those who are celebrating Vesak poya amidst the pandemic?
A: Just be faithful to the Buddha’s teachings. Don’t worry about the conditions of the body. Whether there is a pandemic or not, the body will still get old, get sick and die eventually.
When we practise the Buddha’s teachings, we want to develop our mind to perfection. Liberate the mind from suffering by the practice of the Buddha’s teachings - by practising charity, morality and meditation.

Q: Buddhists engage in both Amisa and Pratipaththi Pooja. Could you explain the importance of each of them?
A: Pooja means paying homage. Amisa pooja means offering ‘things’ to the person you respect (money or material things). If you want to respect your mother and father, you can buy them gifts. Give them money, for instance, or take them out to see some places. This is called Amisa pooja. In short, it is giving things to the person you respect. Pathibath or Prathipaththi pooja is to practise the teachings of the person you love or respect. The Buddha said; “If you love me, you have to practise Dana, Sila and Bhavana.” This is Pathibath or Prathipaththi pooja.
These are two poojas of showing respect. The Buddha said Pathibath pooja (which means practising the teachings of the Buddha) is the best form of giving (showing) respect to the Buddha

Q: When and where should a Buddhist forgive? Forgiveness is both conditional and unconditional. Which end should we adopt?
A: A Buddhist should forgive whenever he is angry at someone. As you are angry and you want to hurt someone, then you should forgive that person right away. Whenever you want to take revenge and hurt a person (over something they have done), you should forgive that person right away.
Unconditional forgiveness is the Buddhist way. No conditions, just forgive and forget. Let bygones be bygones. This is the best way of forgiveness. Because it will calm your mind and not make you become evil. When you are angry you can become evil very easily. When you forgive, then you can become an angel instead. You can become a saint!

Q: A layman will not find it easy to keep his mind away from defilements for long. We have seen many instances where even those who claim to own ‘advanced mindsets’ get disturbed over trivial material matters. How would you advise us to develop the ‘purity of our mind’?
A: The best way is to live separately from everybody until you can totally control the mind and then come back to society like the Buddha. He left the society and he went to live alone - in seclusion- until his Enlightenment. He lived six years in seclusion.
Once a person has fully controlled his mind, then he can return to society and start preaching his teachings. Then he can keep his mind calm all the time, not reacting to anything bad.
So first if you want to control your mind completely, you have to be alone and meditate - developing Samatha and Vipassana Bhavana. Once you have full control of defilements, then you can return, join society and do good things for the world and the public at large.

Q: What is your interpretation of an ‘ideal Buddhist’?
A: An ideal Buddhist is a person who follows the teachings of the Buddha completely like developing the four Brahma Viharas by practising generosity, morality and meditation.

Q: Buddhism emphasises the importance of the ‘present moment’. We, humans, are in the habit of either brooding over the past or worrying about an unseen future. What is the best way to focus one’s mind on the present moment?
A: There are several methods.
i. By reciting the Mantra of ‘Buddho Buddho’ or any other type of mantra whichever you like. You can even recite the word ‘present’ (paccuban) as your mantra. You can recite ‘Buddho Buddho’ or any word that will bring your mind back into the present moment. Don’t let it go to the future or into the past.

ii. Keep reciting a verse like ‘Ithipiso Bhagava Arahan Samma Sambuddho.’ This will then stop the mind from thinking about the past or the future and be back in the present moment.

iii. Another method to use is to focus your attention on your body: movement and activities. Just keep watching what your body is doing right now. If you are eating, just watch how the body does it. If ‘the body is walking’ just keep watching ‘the body walking’. Then the mind cannot go into the past or future. So this is the method of bringing the mind into the present.

Q: Immoral speech and action will bring about negative consequences. But thoughts are subtle. Do ‘impure thoughts’ which are not translated into words or actions, have negative Kamma/consequences?
A: Yes. As soon as you think something impure, or when an impure thought crosses your mind, your mind becomes uneasy, uncomfortable, restless, agitated and not happy. So it has mental consequences. When you think bad, your mind feels bad. So better not to think bad at all.

(Special thanks to Ajahn Suchart Abhijato‘s administrative team for facilitating the interview)

26 05 2021 - Daily News

A Father Betrayed

There lived a man very rich but old,
His four young sons together once told,
"You're weak, dear father, poor in health,
Can you as such manage your wealth?"
"Since we'd inherit your wealth some day,
Divide it now in the best possible way;
We promise to treat you with utmost care,
Giving you comfort, love and prayer."
The father believed what they did say,
Divided the wealth in a reasonable way,
The sons were happy they got their share
Of a massive wealth - future did glare!
At eldest son's house he went to live,
With a peaceful, retired life in view,
But gradually treatment from son's spouse
Deteriorated with frequent grouse.
"Is this your only son, old father?
Is our share any bigger that another?
You may go to houses of other three
And enjoy yourself leaving us free!"
One by one he visited other three,
They drove him too! where could he be?
He went abegging along the high way
And slept under a tree at end of day.
At last he went with dejected mind,
To Jetavanarama, to solace find.
He met the Buddha, His gentle smile,
And complained his plight ever so vile.
Buddha was happy to help him well,
Taught him verses to sing and tell,
When his sons came to urban-hall
For them to hear, in front of all.
In this land there was a law,
That sons with means should follow,
If they neglect the parents grown old,
The state could take all wealth they hold.
When sons did hear the father's song,
They got alarmed and went headlong:
Begged their father not to continue
And promised to support him all anew.
They brought the father in great deference
And treated lovingly in acclaimed preference
The father went to the Buddha straight
And fell at his feet in reverence great!

Danister I. Fernando

22 ~ End of Aloka Journal Page 23 ~ 24

The point of the spiritual revolution is not to become a good Buddhist, but to become a wise and compassionate human being, to awaken from our life of complacency and ignorance and to be a Buddha. - Noah Levine

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