Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Posted by: Michael | 04/04/2010

Anger and Equanimity

I had initially planned to focus on one of the techniques mentioned by Venerable Thanissaro’s in his essay “Heart and Head Together” because I have found it to be useful in freshening up my metta bhavana. But, before I got there I stumbled upon another of his essays and found it just too good to pass up. The following is an excerpt from an essay by Venerable Thanissaro Bhikkhu called “Anger”.

Frequently we’ve heard, and it’s constantly repeated, that the antidote for anger is metta, or goodwill. In the Canon, though, the Buddha actually offers a wide range of approaches for dealing with anger. In a few cases he advocates developing metta for people who are harming you, but more generally he cites all four Sublime Attitudes as antidotes to anger. In other words, the antidote includes metta but not just metta. You want to develop the other Sublime Attitudes, too. And the attitude the Buddha recommends most is equanimity: equanimity in the sense of stepping back from the situation and seeing it as part of a universal pattern, not just as something personal between you and the person you’re angry with.

Frequently we’ve heard, and it’s constantly repeated, that the antidote for anger is metta, or goodwill. In the Canon, though, the Buddha actually offers a wide range of approaches for dealing with anger. In a few cases he advocates developing metta for people who are harming you, but more generally he cites all four Sublime Attitudes as antidotes to anger. In other words, the antidote includes metta but not just metta. You want to develop the other Sublime Attitudes, too. And the attitude the Buddha recommends most is equanimity: equanimity in the sense of stepping back from the situation and seeing it as part of a universal pattern, not just as something personal between you and the person you’re angry with.One of the traditional ways to develop equanimity is to contemplate the principle of karma: that what you do is important. Particularly, in the situation in which you find yourself, what’s important is not so much what the other person is doing as what you’re doing. Focus on that. If you let yourself get worked up about what the other person is doing, how often he’s done it, and how he’s come back with it again and again and again and again: If you carry that thought around, you make it more and more difficult to deal with your response in the present moment. So, drop any thinking about what the other person has been doing and turn around to look at what you’ve been doing and are about to do.To do this, it’s useful to divide the anger into three parts: one, the object of the anger; two, the anger itself as a mental state; and three, the physical manifestations of the anger. When you can separate them out in this way, anger becomes a lot easier to deal with.To separate the anger itself from the object of the anger, you step back and think in terms of equanimity. Here the Buddha recommends looking at the universality of your problem. In one sutta he divides up the reasons for being angry and sets them out in kind of a chart. One reason for being angry is that this person has done something harmful to me. Or this person has done something harmful to people I love, or this person has done something helpful to people I don’t like at all. In each case you’re supposed to reflect, “Well, what should I expect? It’s the way of the world.” That question—What should I expect?—asked with a cynical tone of voice, is meant to pull you back a little bit, to get you to see the situation in a larger context. Then you go on to: This person is doing something harmful to me, this person is doing something harmful to people I like, or this person is doing something helpful to people I don’t like. In other words, you bring the whole set from the past into the present tense, and again the question is: What should I expect? The next set of three puts all three variables into the future: This person is going to do something harmful to me, and on down the line.When you stop to think like that, the simple act of stepping back from the situation and putting it into a larger framework can provide you with someperspective. In other words, you reflect on the ways of the world. This is a world of friends and enemies, where any action is bound to displease somebody. This is the kind of world you were born into—and you were the one who wanted to be born here. This is the way things are everywhere in this world. A lot of wisdom lies just in being able to step back and remember that fact. Look at the situation in terms of a larger framework, so that your thoughts aren’t focused with such narrow intensity on the person or the activity you don’t like.When they’re narrowly focused like that, the huge blind spots around them make us lose our perspective—not only about what’s happening but also about what we should be doing. Often what gets shunted off to the side when we’re angry is the sense of shame and the sense of fear for the consequences of our actions. People can get extremely courageous in dumb ways when they’re angry, because their fear of consequences gets shoved off to the side, like a poor relative or an unwanted child.So the first step is to take that larger viewpoint, to see the situation in a larger framework, so as to eliminate the blind spots. Within that framework, your anger becomes something you obviously don’t want to follow through with. You don’t want it to influence your actions. If you know that you’re the heir of your actions, you don’t want to inherit any actions done with an unskillful state of mind. The function of equanimity is to remind you of that fact. That’s when you can drop your focus on the object of the anger and turn to look at the anger itself in the mind.Here the problem is complicated by the fact that anger is usually accompanied by a physical reaction. When a flash of anger bursts into the mind it really sets our bloodstream churning. All sorts of hormones come roaring out, our heart beats wildly, we breathe in a different way, and an oppressive sense of tension or discomfort develops in the body. Our immediate reaction is that we’d like to get that discomfort out of our system. But if we try to get it out of our system in the usual way, which is speaking or acting under the force of the anger, that just compounds the problem.Also, the physical reaction confuses us. Sometimes we can actually think ourselves into a better perspective about the anger, but the bloodstream is still churning and it makes us think we must still be angry. That churning of the bloodstream can last along time. After all, our bodies are built for the fight-or-flight response, and we normally need more than just a few seconds if we’re going to fight, more than a few seconds if we’re going to flee. In cases like that, those long-lasting hormones are useful.But when you’re trying to overcome the anger in the mind, the lastingness of those hormones is not helpful at all. So make sure to see the thoughts and the physical symptoms as two separate things. The mind itself may have calmed down somewhat from the anger, but the physical manifestations are still present, obstructing your view of the mind, so you want to deal with them. Breathe through the tension. Breathe in a way that gets your heartbeat back to normal.Breathe in a way that gets the level of tension in your body back to normal. You might want to think of the tension in your body as flowing out your feet, out your hands, all through the in-breath, all through the out-. Open up those energy channels so that you’re not carrying the sense of oppression around. That makes the anger a lot easier to deal with, because you feel less burdened, less irritated, less constricted physically.Then you can look at the mind in and of itself. What is this state of anger in and of itself? As I said, it’s often a blinding of the mind, putting blinders on the sides of your mental eyes, so you can see only certain things and focus only on certain details. The state of being constricted mentally like this is really unpleasant. Just stepping back to look at it helps take off some of those blinders. You don’t have to be afraid of the anger, or angry about the anger. Just ask: What is this state, to be angry? Taking a look at it begins to open things up inside.But again, your looking has to come from the larger perspective that helps you see through the anger, helps you dis-identify with the anger. The anger may still be there in the mind, but you don’t have to identify with it. You can see it as a separate mental event. That’s important because you then realize that there are parts of the mind that really aren’t angry, that aren’t involved in the anger at all. The anger seemed to consume the mind, but that’s just because it narrowed your perception of the mind’s full range.So as you open things up like this, you can help weaken the anger, weaken the hold of the anger on your mind. When you develop a larger perspective, you can step back and see what really should be done. “What’s the most skillful thing to say here? What are my opportunities? What are the choices available to me?” If you have a broader viewpoint, then it’s easier to see the choices than you could have when the blinders were on. Then you can see what really would be appropriate. You can see: If you were to say what you feel so much like saying, what would the results really be? As the Buddha points out, many of the things we want to do under the force of anger are precisely the things our enemies would like to see us do: destroying our good looks, destroying our property, destroying our friendships, doing things that will get us punished. Do you want to please your enemy that way?If you look dispassionately at the actions you wanted to do and can see that the results wouldn’t be good, remind yourself, “I don’t want that. Maybe this is not the best time or place to say anything at all. Maybe I should wait for circumstances to change.” Because you’ve breathed through the physical side of the anger, you find it a lot easier to delay your actions to a more appropriate time, because you don’t feel the compulsion of bottled-up frustration. Or, if it so happens that something should be done right away, the fact that you’ve broadened your perspective helps you to see better alternatives: better things to do, better things to say right away.So remember this as an appropriate antidote to the normal way of reacting to anger. Too often when we’re angry about what someone has done, we’re eitherangry at the person or we turn around and get angry at ourselves for the anger, neither of which really is very helpful. Instead, we should step back to see the actions of that other person in context: “After all, this is the way the world is.” That helps you to react in a more skillful way.

One of the traditional ways to develop equanimity is to contemplate the principle of karma: that what you do is important. Particularly, in the situation in which you find yourself, what’s important is not so much what the other person is doing as what you’re doing. Focus on that. If you let yourself get worked up about what the other person is doing, how often he’s done it, and how he’s come back with it again and again and again and again: If you carry that thought around, you make it more and more difficult to deal with your response in the present moment. So, drop any thinking about what the other person has been doing and turn around to look at what you’ve been doing and are about to do.

To do this, it’s useful to divide the anger into three parts: one, the object of the anger; two, the anger itself as a mental state; and three, the physical manifestations of the anger. When you can separate them out in this way, anger becomes a lot easier to deal with.

To separate the anger itself from the object of the anger, you step back and think in terms of equanimity. Here the Buddha recommends looking at the universality of your problem. In one sutta he divides up the reasons for being angry and sets them out in kind of a chart. One reason for being angry is that this person has done something harmful to me. Or this person has done something harmful to people I love, or this person has done something helpful to people I don’t like at all. In each case you’re supposed to reflect, “Well, what should I expect? It’s the way of the world.” That question—What should I expect?—asked with a cynical tone of voice, is meant to pull you back a little bit, to get you to see the situation in a larger context. Then you go on to: This person is doing something harmful to me, this person is doing something harmful to people I like, or this person is doing something helpful to people I don’t like. In other words, you bring the whole set from the past into the present tense, and again the question is: What should I expect? The next set of three puts all three variables into the future: This person is going to do something harmful to me, and on down the line.

When you stop to think like that, the simple act of stepping back from the situation and putting it into a larger framework can provide you with some

perspective. In other words, you reflect on the ways of the world. This is a world of friends and enemies, where any action is bound to displease somebody. This is the kind of world you were born into—and you were the one who wanted to be born here. This is the way things are everywhere in this world. A lot of wisdom lies just in being able to step back and remember that fact. Look at the situation in terms of a larger framework, so that your thoughts aren’t focused with such narrow intensity on the person or the activity you don’t like.

When they’re narrowly focused like that, the huge blind spots around them make us lose our perspective—not only about what’s happening but also about what we should be doing. Often what gets shunted off to the side when we’re angry is the sense of shame and the sense of fear for the consequences of our actions. People can get extremely courageous in dumb ways when they’re angry, because their fear of consequences gets shoved off to the side, like a poor relative or an unwanted child.

So the first step is to take that larger viewpoint, to see the situation in a larger framework, so as to eliminate the blind spots. Within that framework, your anger becomes something you obviously don’t want to follow through with. You don’t want it to influence your actions. If you know that you’re the heir of your actions, you don’t want to inherit any actions done with an unskillful state of mind. The function of equanimity is to remind you of that fact. That’s when you can drop your focus on the object of the anger and turn to look at the anger itself in the mind.

Here the problem is complicated by the fact that anger is usually accompanied by a physical reaction. When a flash of anger bursts into the mind it really sets our bloodstream churning. All sorts of hormones come roaring out, our heart beats wildly, we breathe in a different way, and an oppressive sense of tension or discomfort develops in the body. Our immediate reaction is that we’d like to get that discomfort out of our system. But if we try to get it out of our system in the usual way, which is speaking or acting under the force of the anger, that just compounds the problem.

Also, the physical reaction confuses us. Sometimes we can actually think ourselves into a better perspective about the anger, but the bloodstream is still churning and it makes us think we must still be angry. That churning of the bloodstream can last along time. After all, our bodies are built for the fight-or-flight response, and we normally need more than just a few seconds if we’re going to fight, more than a few seconds if we’re going to flee. In cases like that, those long-lasting hormones are useful.

But when you’re trying to overcome the anger in the mind, the lastingness of those hormones is not helpful at all. So make sure to see the thoughts and the physical symptoms as two separate things. The mind itself may have calmed down somewhat from the anger, but the physical manifestations are still present, obstructing your view of the mind, so you want to deal with them. Breathe through the tension. Breathe in a way that gets your heartbeat back to normal.

Breathe in a way that gets the level of tension in your body back to normal. You might want to think of the tension in your body as flowing out your feet, out your hands, all through the in-breath, all through the out-. Open up those energy channels so that you’re not carrying the sense of oppression around. That makes the anger a lot easier to deal with, because you feel less burdened, less irritated, less constricted physically.

Then you can look at the mind in and of itself. What is this state of anger in and of itself? As I said, it’s often a blinding of the mind, putting blinders on the sides of your mental eyes, so you can see only certain things and focus only on certain details. The state of being constricted mentally like this is really unpleasant. Just stepping back to look at it helps take off some of those blinders. You don’t have to be afraid of the anger, or angry about the anger. Just ask: What is this state, to be angry? Taking a look at it begins to open things up inside.

But again, your looking has to come from the larger perspective that helps you see through the anger, helps you dis-identify with the anger. The anger may still be there in the mind, but you don’t have to identify with it. You can see it as a separate mental event. That’s important because you then realize that there are parts of the mind that really aren’t angry, that aren’t involved in the anger at all. The anger seemed to consume the mind, but that’s just because it narrowed your perception of the mind’s full range.

So as you open things up like this, you can help weaken the anger, weaken the hold of the anger on your mind. When you develop a larger perspective, you can step back and see what really should be done. “What’s the most skillful thing to say here? What are my opportunities? What are the choices available to me?” If you have a broader viewpoint, then it’s easier to see the choices than you could have when the blinders were on. Then you can see what really would be appropriate. You can see: If you were to say what you feel so much like saying, what would the results really be? As the Buddha points out, many of the things we want to do under the force of anger are precisely the things our enemies would like to see us do: destroying our good looks, destroying our property, destroying our friendships, doing things that will get us punished. Do you want to please your enemy that way?

If you look dispassionately at the actions you wanted to do and can see that the results wouldn’t be good, remind yourself, “I don’t want that. Maybe this is not the best time or place to say anything at all. Maybe I should wait for circumstances to change.” Because you’ve breathed through the physical side of the anger, you find it a lot easier to delay your actions to a more appropriate time, because you don’t feel the compulsion of bottled-up frustration. Or, if it so happens that something should be done right away, the fact that you’ve broadened your perspective helps you to see better alternatives: better things to do, better things to say right away.

So remember this as an appropriate antidote to the normal way of reacting to anger. Too often when we’re angry about what someone has done, we’re either

angry at the person or we turn around and get angry at ourselves for the anger, neither of which really is very helpful. Instead, we should step back to see the actions of that other person in context: “After all, this is the way the world is.” That helps you to react in a more skillful way.

Source:

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/CrossIndexed/Published/Meditations2/0308n3a1%20M2%20Anger.pdf

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: anger, bhavana, Buddha, equanimity, metta, Sublime Attitudes, Thanissaro

Posted by: Michael | 04/03/2010

Sense Restraint

Being on vacation in a Caribbean country and surrounded by scantily clad women on a daily basis has really reinforced for me (n a completely visceral and non-conceptual way) the importance of sense restraint in making any progress along the path. A kalyana-mitta of mine once asked Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu what was the most important aspect of the teachings to practice while still a householder to obtain real benefit and prepare for eventual ordination. Not surprisingly, it was precisely indriya-samvara (sense restraint) that the Venerable identified as the most important discipline for making progress and guarding one’s gains.

The virtue of restraining the senses (indriya-samvara-sila) is a very refined level of virtue — and a very useful one, too. If you develop this level of virtue, the other levels become more and more pure. If you don’t exercise restraint over the eyes, ears, nose, etc., then your five, eight, or ten precepts can’t stay firm. They’re sure to become easily soiled. If the eye, which is the bridge, isn’t restrained, then it focuses its attention outside. And when this happens, overstepping your precepts becomes the easiest thing in the world. If you allow the mind to get accustomed to running out after outside preoccupations, everything gets thrown into a turmoil. The turmoil starts there in the mind, and then it spreads out to your words and deeds, so that you speak and act in wrong ways.

Perhaps one of the best ways to practice restraint is to reflect on the bad qualities or the drawbacks of a desired object or the god points of something to which one is averse. I think it was Ajahn Chah (although it may have been another Thai Ajahn) who said something to the effect that we have to see things with two eyes so as not to be deluded by only the pleasant or unpleasant aspects of anything. When I asked Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu this question he recommended specifically that I engage in an ex tempore asubha (foulness) recollection whenever I encountered pleasant female forms. An excellent sutta which covers both asubha and indriya-samvara in detail is the Bharadvaja Sutta. I have taken the following excerpt from this sutta which should give you a brief overview of the way in which this recollection can be practiced:

“, this was said by the Blessed One who knows & sees, worthy and rightly self-awakened: ‘Come now, monks: reflect on this very body, from the soles of the feet on up, from the crown of the head on down, surrounded by skin, full of all sorts of unclean things: “In this body there are head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucus, fluid in the joints, urine.”‘ This too is a reason, this too is a cause, great king, why young monks — black-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life — without having played with sensual pleasures nevertheless follow the lifelong chaste life, perfect & pure, and make it last their entire lives.”

Sources:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/kee/stoplook.html

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.127.than.html#asubha

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Ajahn Chah, asubha, Bharadvaja Sutta, indriya-samvara, precepts, sense restraint, sila, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, virtue

Posted by: Michael | 04/02/2010

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa

In the world of Theravada ritual and practice the following words are heard not infrequently at the opening of a Dhamma talk, a session of group meditation or a reading of a sutta. According to the site http://www.what-buddha-taught.net this phrase can be understood as follows:

namo = homage

tassa= to him(Buddha)

bhagavato= worthy one

arahato= without any defilements

sammaa sambuddhassa= The fully self enlightened

…

Homage to him the worthy one the one without any defilements the fully self enlightened

A more common rendering of the Vandana is as follows:

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa

Honour to the Blessed One, the Exalted One, the fully Enlightened One

For many years now I have chanted the vandana three times before every meditation session or puja. What initially began a self-conscious act with little meaning (I really didn’t have a firm grasp of what the Pali meant when I started) has become a meaningful way of paying respect to the teacher and consecrating the deeds and acts which follow the vandana. In brief the procedure is as follows:

It is time to pay one’s respects with the whole body to the Teacher. When afterwards one says “Namo tassa….” that word “namo” (homage) comes from the root nam meaning “to bend”. So now one bends oneself, one’s mind and body, down and acknowledges that the Buddha was indeed the Perfectly Enlightened One that one’s own understanding of Dhamma is insignificant. In the kneeling position, one’s hand in anjali are raised to the forehead and then lowered to the floor so that the whole forearm to the elbow is on the ground, the elbow touching the knee. The hands, palm down, are four to six inches apart with just enough room for the forehead to be brought to the ground between them. Feet are still as for the kneeling position and the knees are about a foot apart. this is called the prostration with the five limbs, that is the forehead, the forearms, and the knees. This prostration is made three times, the first time to the Buddha, the second to the Dhamma, and the third to the Noble Sangha.

For myself, the vandana or preliminary homage has become more than a formula to be chanted mindlessly but has become a type of abridged Buddhanussati. By reflecting on the fact that the Lord Buddha really was the Blessed, Exalted and Fully Enlightened One I gain courage and confidence in my own practice and in the Dhamma-Vinaya as a whole. I have been experimented a lot of late with the practice of the five-limbed prostration and Buddhanussati, Dhammanussati and Sanghanussati and the preliminary homage offers both a succinct and meaningful way to do so. I hope to develop this practice until it becomes a regular part of my own practice but we shall see how things work out. May you be well.

Sources:

http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Articles/Sharing_merit_Pali-English.pdf

http://www.londonbuddhistvihara.org/veneration.htm

http://www.vipassana.com/resources/daily_practice.php

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Buddha, dhammanussati, Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa, preliminary homage, Sanghanussati, vandana

Posted by: Michael | 03/31/2010

Khanti Parami: The Perfection of Patience

As a father, husband and householder I can’t think of a quality more useful than patience. In fact, the cultivation of patience seems to be so important to the practice of the Dhamma-Vinaya that I believe the Lord Buddha said something to the effect of “Patience is the highest austerity”. Every day I find myself presented with myriad opportunities to forbear and restrain myself from unskillful conduct of body, speech and mind and it is certainly a comfort to think that I am still able to cultivate an element of the path while still be enmeshed in the household life.

I would like to present the Jataka tale of the Khantivadi ascetic because it serves as a great inspiration and vivid reminder of the power of this parami and has always been one of my favorites. May you all be well, happy and peaceful!

THE STORY OF THE KHANTIVADI ASCETIC

Once upon a time the Bodhisatta, leading the life of an ascetic, was meditating at the foot of a tree in the king’s royal park. He was living there at the invitation of the king’s general.

One day the king went to the park with the ladies of the court. In a drunken state, he slept keeping his head on the lap of a favourite lady. As he was asleep the other went up to the ascetic to listen to his teaching.

On waking up he found the ladies missing. Hearing that they had gone to the ascetic to hear him preaching, the king became annoyed. Burning with anger he went up to the innocent ascetic and questioned him in a harsh tone: “What do you preach, you ascetic?”

“I preach patience your Majesty,” replied the ascetic calmly.

“What is patience?”

“Patience is not getting angry when you are abused or beaten.”

“Well, I will then test your patience,” said the king and summoning the executioner, ordered him to throw the ascetic on the ground and beat him with a thorny whip. The innocent ascetic was whipped mercilessly. The ascetic’s skin burst. The whole body was smeared with blood. But the ascetic true to his teaching endured the pain patiently.

“Do you still practise patience, ascetic?”

“Yes, still I do, your Majesty!”

The king then orderd his hands and feet to be cut off and questioned him again. The same calm reply issued from his lips.

Full of wrath the king ordered his nose and ears to be cut off. Mercilessly the executioner chopped off his nose and ears. With mutilated limbs, the good ascetic lay on a pool of blood, the king asked him again:

“Do you still practise patience, ascetic?”

“Your Majesty, please do not think that my patience lies in my skin, or in my hands and feet, or in my nose and ears. My patience lies within my heart. With your superior strength you can over-power my weak body. But, your Majesty, my mind can never be changed,” calmly replied the ascetic.

He harboured no ill-will towards the king. Nor did he look at him with any anger. The king’s anger knew no bounds. Deeply enraged he raised his foot and stamped the chest of the ascetic with his heel. Immediately blood gushed out of his mouth. The General who had invited him heard of his pitiful state, and at once he hurried to his presence.

Quickly he applied some ointment and begged him not to curse the kingdom.

The merciful ascetic, instead of cursing the king blessed him, saying:

“He who caused my hands and feet, nose and ears, to be cut off, may that king live long! Men like us never get angry.”

After His Enlightenment the Buddha said:

“Though hacked by a sharp axe as if I was inanimate, I did not get angry with King Kasi. This is my Perfection of Patience.”

Source:

http://www.mahindarama.com/e-library/khanti.htm

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Dhamma, householder, khanti, Khantivadi, parami, patience

Posted by: Michael | 03/31/2010

Adhitthana Parami: Perfection of Determination

Determination has the characteristic of determining upon the requisites of enlightenment; its function is to overcome their opposites; its manifestation is unshakeableness in that task; the requisites of enlightenment are its proximate cause.

I honestly can’t imagine how one could practice the Dhamma without being determined to do so. I’m finding this to be especially true on vacation here in Jamaica with my family. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a situation less conducive to the practice than a vacation on a beautiful tropical island where one’s every sensual desire can be easily gratified.

‘Adhitthana’ literally means determination, resolution or fixedness of purpose. ‘Adhitthana’ can be regarded as a foundation for all the perfection, because without a firm determination one cannot fulfill the other Paramitas. Although one’s detention can be extended to either desirable or undesirable way; it should be clearly understood that the determination for the line of unwholesome deeds cannot be regarded as a perfection.

A person with a wavering mind or who sits on the fence cannot succeed in any undertaking. One must have an iron-will, an unshakable determination to overcome any difficulties of hardship in order to achieve success. He who has no determinative mind would easily give up his work before it is successful. Such a person with weak and unsteady mind should get disappointed easily and disheartened quickly. Even a word of criticism would be adequate to put an end to all his projects.

A Bodhisatta, who has an unshakable resolution and who is a man of principles, will never give up his noble effort even at the point of death. He is capable of setting aside any obstacles in his way and going forward, turning his eyes to-wards his goal.

Our Bodhisatta, when he was Sumedha Pandit, made a firm determination at the feet of the Buddha Dipankara in this way: “O Sumedha, from now onwards you must fulfil the perfect of resolution as well. Be steadfast in whatever solution you make. As a rock, even while the wind beats upon it on every side, does not tremble nor quake but re-mains in its own place, you must likewise be unshaken in your resolution until you become a Buddha.”

Source:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel409.html

http://www.mahindarama.com/e-library/adhitthana.htm

2 Comments

Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: aditthana, Buddha, determination, Dhamma, parami, Sumedha

Posted by: Michael | 03/29/2010

Gratitude to Parents

Even if one should carry about one’s mother on one shoulder and one’s father on the other, and so doing should live a hundred years…. Moreover, if one should set them up as supreme rulers, having absolute rule over the wide earth abounding in the seven treasures – not even by this could one repay one’s parents. And why! Bhikkhus, parents do a lot for their children: they bring them up, provide them with food, introduce them to the world.

Yet, bhikkhus, whoever encourages their faithless parents, and settles and establishes them in faith; or whoever encourages their immoral parents and settles and establishes them in morality, or whoever encourages their stingy parents, and settles and establishes them in generosity, or whoever encourages their foolish parents, and settles and establishes them in wisdom – such a person, in this way repays, more than repays, what is due to their parents.

-Anguttara Nikaya: Twos, 32

Here is a talk by Ajahn Sumedho on the subject: http://www.amaravati.org/abm/english/documents/gratitude/data/gratitude.html

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Ajahn, Anguttara Nikaya, gratitude, parents, sumedho

Posted by: Michael | 03/28/2010

The Affectionate Mother

I’m visiting my father and step-mother for about two weeks with my own family and being here has given me a lot of food for thought. If and when I find time here I’d like to focus on finding teachings relating to the importance of filial piety in developing the path. I have already touched on some of this material in earlier posts about gratitude but I hope to be able to find more.

Kind, Pitiful, our refuge she that fed us at her breast.
A mother is the way to heaven, and thee she loveth best.
She nursed and fostered us with care; graced with good gifts is she,
A mother is the way to heaven, and best she loveth thee.
Craving a child in prayer she kneels each holy shrine before.
The changing season closely scans and studies astral lore.
Pregnant in course of time she feels her tender longings grow,
And soon the unconscious babe begins a loving friend to know.
Her treasure for a year or less she guards with utmost care,
Then brings it forth and from that day a mother’s name will bear.
With milky breast and lullaby she soothes the fretting child,
Wrapped in his comforter’s warm arms his woes are soon beguiled.
Watching o’er him, poor innocent, lest wind or hear annoy,
His fostering nurse she may be called, to cherish thus her boy.
What gear his sire and mother have she hoards for him “May be,”
She thinks, “Some day, my dearest child, it all may come to thee.”
“Do this or that, my darling boy,” the worried mother cries,
And when he is grown to man’s estate, she still laments and sighs,
He goes in reckless mood to see a neighbor’s wife at night,
She fumes and frets, “Why will he not return while it is light?”
If one thus reared with anxious pains his mother should neglect,
Playing her false, what doom, I pray, but hell can he expect?
Those that love wealth o’er much, ’tis said, their wealth will soon be lost
One that neglects a mother soon will rue it to his cost.
Those that love wealth o’er much, ’tis said, their wealth will soon be lost.
One that neglects a father soon will rue it to his cost.
Gifts, loving speech, kind offices together with the grace
Of calm indifference of mind shown in time and place —
These virtues to the world are as linchpin to chariot wheel.
These lacking, still a mother’s name to children would appeal.
A mother like the sire should with reverent honor be crowned,
Sages approve the man in whom those virtues may be found.
Thus parents worthy of all praise, a high position own,
By ancient sages Brahma called. So great was their renown.
Kind parents from their children should receive all reverence due,
He that is wise will honor them with service good and true.
He should provide them food and drink, bedding and raiment meet,
Should bathe them and anoint with oil and duly wash their feet.
So filial services like these sages his praises sound
Here in this world, and after death in heaven his joys bound.

— Jataka translation Vol. V pp. 173, 174

Source: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammananda/marriage.html#app1

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: filial piety, jataka, metta, mother

Posted by: Michael | 03/24/2010

Dedication of Merit

The dedication of merit is often thought of as something we do for the dead and departed. However, I have lately been toying with the practice of dedicating the merit of my practice to all of the difficult people in my life. I’m not quite sure of the reason but doing so helps to brighten mind and for whatever reason reminds me that perhaps my ‘enemies” really aren’t so deserving of my resentment after all. In the end we all really do just want to be happy.

I have included three links below, all of which have something to do with anumodana and merit dedication. The first is a collection of anumodana and merit dedications which I find to be truly inspiring:

http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/anumodana_aditthana.htm

The second and third are a traditional explanations of the meaning and significance of the dedication of merit:

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/devotion/devotion05.htm

http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/whatbudbeliev/307.htm

So, I leave for Jamaica until the 7th but I hope to be able to maintain this blog while I’m away. If it’s not possible I’ll just have to wait until I get back. May you all be well, happy and peaceful!

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: anumodana, dedication of merit

Posted by: Michael | 03/23/2010

Uposatha

Today is an uposatha day, or an eight precept day which occurs roughly 4 times a month and corresponds to the phases of the moon. The uposatha or a variation thereof is observed by millions of Buddhists throughout thee world although it is a practice/observance which is still relatively foreign to many of us who are converts to Buddhism. I, myself, only began to strictly observe the 8 precepts on uposatha days two years ago but have found it has worked wonders for my practice by serving as a kind of port in the storm of daily life.

Probably one of the best suttas to read for anyone interested in the fruits and benefits of the uposatha observance is the Visakhuposatha Sutta. In it is detailed the 8 Precepts which one observes every uposatha as well as the great merit gained thereby. I maintain a Facebook group for people wanting to be reminded of the uposatha dates and for those who would like to feel that they have some company in the practice and I have also provided links to the 2010 Calendar.

In brief, these are the eight precepts:

1. Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. Adinnadana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.

3. Abrahmacariya veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual activity.

4. Musavada veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.

5. Suramerayamajja pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.

6. Vikalabhojana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from eating at the forbidden time (i.e., after noon).

7. Nacca-gita-vadita-visukkadassana mala-gandha-vilepana-dharana-mandana-vibhusanathana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to seeentertainments, wearing garlands, using perfumes, and beautifying the body with cosmetics.

8. Uccasayana-mahasayana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami

I undertake the precept to refrain from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place.

Also, here are some great links to suttas concerned with the uposatha:

Source:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sila/atthasila.html

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: 8 precepts, sutta, uposatha, Visakhuposatha Sutta

Posted by: Michael | 03/22/2010

Vayo Dhatu and Metta

I’ve been inspired by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s visit to take up the practice of breath meditation again along with my focused development of the brahma viharas. My own understanding of what Ven. Thanissaro means by breath meditation has shifted radically from conceptualizing it purely as anapanasati to a meditation on the air element or vayo dhatu. Although this may sound abstruse, this small conceptual adjustment has opened up whole new vistas on the practice for me because I have always experienced lots of tension when trying to practice rigidly defined anapanasati. So what is vayo dhatu? Here’s a brief extract that should help:

Vayo dhatu is the element of motion. It is seen in the wind blowing about and pushing against things. This dhatu pushes or moves other aggregate matter.

In our body there are six types of wind: –

i. Uddhangama

Wind that moves upward, causing bleaching, coughing, sneezing and related illness. When we speak this wind moves constantly upwards and cause bowel discomfort. One should not speak with an empty stomach.

ii. Adhogama

Wind that moves downward causing bowel movement and frequent motion.

iii. Kucchittha

Wind that moves about in the visceral cavity apart from the large and small intestines.

iv. Kotthasaya

Wind that moves about inside the large and small intestines, pushing digestible food from the stomach into the rectum.

v. Anggamanganusari

Wind that moves within the limbs. If this wind does not move freely illness results. In our bodies there are small veins along which this wind moves. Staying in one posture for a long time prevents this wind from moving freely causing blood to accumulate at one location without flowing freely leading to stiffness and pain. To prevent this ailment, we should avoid remaining in one posture for a long time; and take walking exercise.

vi. Assasapassasa

Wind inhaled and exhaled by us. It is also known as anapana.

Why is this distinction so helpful? Well, for one, when I practice mindfulness of the vayo dhatu for as little as 15 minutes before formal metta practice I find myself to be much more focused and able to concentrate on the theme. And, in so-called daily life meditation, I am able to use the wind energy to “untangle” knots of felt ill-will, aversion, fear etc…in a way that is not always accessible with metta phrases alone. I’m frankly very excited by the interplay between these two techniques and hope to have more to share soon. Until then I wish you all true happiness and peace. Be well.

Source:

http://www.dhammaweb.net/htmlbook/page.php?page=11&id=8

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Posted in Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Adhogama, anapana, Anggamanganusari, Assasapassasa, brahma vihara, breath meditation, Kotthasaya, Kucchittha, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Uddhangama, vayo dhatu