#Mettavalokanaya_International_Buddhist_Magazine_November_2021

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2021 l May l Mettavalokanaya l 1

Happiness &

World Peace

Master Chi Sung Hung

The World’s Famous Buddha Painting

Master, Earth Zen Person, International

Meditation Teacher, Founder of

Enlightening Earth Association,

Buddha Cultural & Bodhisattva

Association

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2 l Mettavalokanaya l November l 2021 2021 l November l Mettavalokanaya l 3

Now I can Meditate….

I

describe this as developing your

mind like a padded cell! When any

experience, perception or thought

hits the wall of the ‘padded cell’

, it does not bounce back-again. It

just sinks into the padding and stops

right there. Thus we do not allow the

past to echo in our consciousness,

certainly not the past of yesterday

and all that time before, because we

are developing the mind inclined

to letting go, giving away and

unburdening. Some people have the

view that if they take up the past for

contemplation they can somehow

learn from it and solve the problems

of the past. However, you should

understand that when you gaze at

the past, you invariably look through

distorted lenses.

Whatever you think it was like,

in truth it was not quite like that!

This is why people have arguments

about what actually happened,

even a few moments ago. It is well

known to police who investigate

traffic accidents that even though

the accident may have happened

only half an hour ago, two different

eyewitnesses, both completely

honest, will give different accounts.

Our memory is untrustworthy. If you

consider just how unreliable memory

is, then you do not put value on

thinking about the past. Then you

can let it go. You can bury it, just

as you bury a person who has died.

You place them in a coffin then bury

it, or cremate it, and it is done with,

finished. Do not linger on the past. Do

not continue to carry the coffins of

dead moments on your head! If you

do, then you are weighing yourself

down with heavy burdens which do

not really belong to you. Let all of

the past go and you have the ability

to be free in the present moment. As

for the future, the anticipations, fears,

plans, and expectations-let all of that

go too. The Lord Buddha once said

about the future ‘whatever you think

it will be, it will always be something

different’ ! This future is known to

the wise as uncertain, unknown and

so unpredictable. It is often complete

stupidity to anticipate the future, and

always a great waste of your time

to think of the future in meditation.

When you work with your mind, you

find that the mind is so strange.

It can do some wonderful and

unexpected things. It is very

common for meditators

who are having a difficult

time, who are not getting

very peaceful, to sit

there thinking ‘Here

we go again, another

hour of frustration’.

Even though they

begin thinking like that,

anticipating failure,

something strange

happens and they get into

a very peaceful meditation.

Recently I heard of

one man on his first tenday

retreat. After the first day

his body was hurting so much he

asked to go home. The teacher said,

‘Stay one more day and the pain will

disappear, I promise’. So, he stayed

another day, the pain got worse so

he wanted to go home again. The

teacher repeated ‘just one more day,

the pain will go’. He stayed for a third

day and the pain was even worse.

For each of nine days, in the evening

he would go to the teacher and, in

great pain, ask to go home and the

teacher would say, ‘Just one more day

and the pain will disappear’. It was

completely beyond his expectations,

that on the final day when he started

the first sit of the morning, the pain

did disappear! It did not come back.

He could sit for long periods with no

pain at all! He was amazed at how

wonderful is this mind and how it

can produce such unexpected results.

So, you don’t know about the future.

It can be so strange, even weird,

completely beyond whatever you

expect. Experiences like this give you

the wisdom and courage to abandon

all thoughts about the future, and

all expectation as well. When you’re

meditating and thinking, ‘How many

more minutes are there to go? How

much longer have I to endure all of

this?’, then that is just wandering off

into the future again. The pain could

“Momentum

for Peace”….

just disappear in a moment. The next

moment might be the tree one. You

just cannot anticipate what is going

to happen.

When on retreat, after you have

been meditating for many sessions,

you may sometimes think that none

of those meditations have been

any good. In the next meditation

session you sit down and everything

becomes so peaceful and easy. You

think ‘Wow! Now I can meditate!’,

but the next meditation is again

awful. What’s going on here? The

first meditation teacher I had told

me something that then sounded

quite strange. He said that there is

no such thing as a bad meditation!

He was right. All those meditations

which you call bad, frustrating and

not meeting your expectations,

all those meditations are where

you do the hard work for your ‘pay

cheque’ ... It is like a person who

goes to work all day Monday and

gets no money at the end of the day.

‘What am I doing this for?’, he thinks.

He works all day Tuesday and still

gets nothing. Another bad day. All day

Wednesday, all day Thursday, and still

nothing to show for all the hard work.

That’s four bad days in a row.

Most Venerable Ajahn

Brahmavamso Mahathera

The Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery /

Spiritual Director of Buddhist Society

of Western Australia

Then along comes Friday, he

does exactly the same work as before

and at the end of the day the boss

gives him a pay cheque. ‘Wow! Why

can’t every day be a pay day?!’ Why

can’t every meditation be ‘pay day’?

Now, do you understand the simile?

It is in the difficult meditations

that you build up your credit, where

you build up the causes for success.

While working for peace in the

hard meditations, you build up your

strength, the momentum for peace.

Then when there’s enough credit of

good qualities, the mind goes into a

good meditation and it feels like ‘pay

day’. It is in the bad meditations that

you do most of the work. At a recent

retreat that I gave in Sydney, during

interview time, a lady told me that she

had been angry with me all day, but

for two different reasons. In her early

meditations she was having a difficult

time and was angry with me for not

ringing the bell to end the meditation

early enough. In the later meditations

she got into a beautiful peaceful state

and was angry with me for ringing the

bell too soon. The sessions were all

the same length, exactly one hour. You

just can’t win as a teacher, ringing the

bell!

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Dignified Adviser

Most Venerable Senior

Bhikkhuni Dr. Ming Yu

President of the Outstanding

Women in Buddhism Awards

(OWBA), Honorary President of

the Chinese Character Education

Promotion Association, Deputy

President of the World Alliance of

Buddhists (WAB), The Former

President of Chinese Young

Buddhist Association in Taiwan

(CYBA)

Senior Consultant


Bhikkhuni Dr. Lee

Co-Founder - Outstanding Women

in Buddhism Awards, Abbess -

International Women’s Meditation

Center Foundation in Thailand.

Founder / President / Chief Editor

Buddhika Sanjeewa

Creative Director

Wijaya Wagaarachchi

Publisher

Mettavalokana Buddhist

Publications Centre

“Mettavalokanaya ”

Mettavalokana Buddhist

Publications Centre,

No.104/E, Attanagalla Road,

Walpola, Ruggahawila, Sri Lanka

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+ 94 777 551666

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Propagate

Buddhism

Welcome to all over the world who are

sincerely interested in Buddhism.

Buddha, meaning 'one who is awake' in

the sense of having 'woken up to reality'

was the title first given to Lord Buddha. It

was about 2600 years ago when Prince

Siddhartha Gautam left all the worldly

pleasures to attain the reality of life and

became the Buddha. Buddha’s teachings

are most important for our whole life in

every time. Buddha said, “One who see

Dhamma see Buddha”.

“Mettavalokanaya” International

Buddhist Magazine and Website was first

issued in December 2015 as the world’s

first international monthly Buddhist

magazine in Sri Lanka; it is published in

English and includes 60 pages of articles

related to Buddhism written by

renowned Buddhist Monks and

Bhikkhunis (ordained female monks)

from around the world, as well as

provides the public’s perspective on the

teachings of the Buddha. This magazine

has been successfully distributed to

several Buddhist Temples in overseas,

International Buddhist organizations,

selected High Commissions & Embassies

located in 45 countries around the world,

including all districts across Sri Lanka.

Also, specially distributing overseas

during International Buddhist

Conferences & Forums.

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Registered at Department of

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424551/05/01/2016

Registered at National Intellectual

Property Office of Sri Lanka

ACT NO.36 OF 2003 -

Class 16 / 179486

Dignified Adviser


Bhikkhuni Dr. Ming Yu

Consultant

Most Venerable

Senior Bhikkhuni Dr. Lee

Founder, President

Chief Editor

Buddhika Sanjeewa

Registered at Department of the

Provincial Registrar of Business

for Western Province in Sri Lanka

W/ATH/L/10474

Registered at International

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BAR CODE 9 772345 909003


Developing

Loving

Kindness….

Most Venerable Pannyavaro Maha Thera

Resident Teacher, Founder and Abbot

of Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and

Community Retreat Centre in Northern

New South Wales, Australia.

“Real Loving

Kindness”….

Four types of people are chosen

to develop loving-kindness

towards: First: a respected,

beloved person, such as a

teacher or mentor (kalyana mitta);

Second: a dearly beloved person,

that is a close family member or

dear friend; Third: a neutral person,

somebody you know but have no

emotional involvement with; Fourth:

a hostile person, that is, a person you

are currently having difficulty with.

Starting with yourself, then

moving systematically from person

to person in the above order, the

objective is to break down the barriers

between the four types of people and

yourself. In this way, it can be said

to break down the divisions within

one’s own mind, the source of much

of the conflict we experience in our

relationships.

The key to the practice is being

able to go beyond the barriers we

create in the mind, for the Buddha

describes the loving person as having

‘a mind with the barriers broken down’.

When a person has seen, and seen

through the conceptually created

barriers of gender, race, class, and

‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ they are able to

love others unconditionally.

The effect of practising

systematic loving-kindness

meditation is that one is transforming

the particular love one naturally has

for one’s close family members and

dear friends— which is actually an

attached kind of love— to a more

general, universal love that embraces

everybody without exception, that is,

altruistic love. Just a word of caution.

If you practice loving-kindness

intensively, it is best to choose a

member of the same sex, or if you

have a sexual bias to your own sex

then a person of the opposite sex.

This avoids the risk of arousing the

near enemy of lovingkindness, that is,

lust. Try different people to practise

on, as some people do not easily fit

into the above categories, but do keep

to the prescribed order.

Three ways to arouse feelings

of loving-kindness: Visualisation—

create a vivid positive mental picture

of oneself and the four people one

has chosen, in order to promote a

sense of loving-feeling, well-being

and joyousness. Reflection— think

about the positive qualities of the

person and the acts of kindness they

have done, or make an affirmation,

which is a positive statement about

yourself, in your own words.

The exception to using the

‘reflection device’ is when working

with the ‘difficult person’ because the

thinking might trigger the painful

relationship and aggravate things.

So just a visualisation of the difficult

person, reinforced by the auditory

repetition is sufficient. Auditory— This

is the simplest but probably the most

effective way. Repeat an internalised

phrase such as ‘loving-kindness’,

‘loving-kindness’. The visualisations,

reflections and the repetition of

lovingkindness are devices to help you

arouse positive emotional feelings of

love. You can use all of them or one

that works the best for you. When

the positive emotional feeling arises,

switch from

the devices to the feeling, as it is

the feeling that is the primary focus.

Keep the mind fixed on the feeling,

if it strays, bring it back to the device

or if the feeling weakens or is lost

then return to the device, for example,

use the visualisation to bring back

or strengthen the feeling of lovingkindness.

The next stage is Directional

Pervasion, where one systematically

projects the aroused feeling of lovingkindness

to all points of the compass:

north, south, east and west, up and

down, and all around.

Bringing to mind Dhamma

friends and communities in the cities,

towns and countries around the

world can enhance the directional

pervasion. The last stage, Non-specific

Pervasion, tends to spontaneously

occur as the practice matures. It is

not discriminating. It has no specific

object and involves just naturally

radiating feelings of universal love.

When it arises, the practice

has come to maturity in that it has

changed preferential love, which is

an attached love, to an all-embracing,

unconditional love! When the mind

has been uplifted and is sweet with

feelings of loving-kindness, you will

find that the drier vipassana practice

is very much easier— the meditator is

in a heightened state of receptivity

and able to tune in more sensitively

to what is happening in the present

moment.

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Golden Memories

of My Life….

My Childhood - I have been to

this world in the afternoon

on one of the Sundays in

August 1947 according to

my birth certificate. My name was

written as Munirathna. Then my house

was at No. 10, Baduwatta, Eliott Road

which was two kilo meters from Galle

town, the capital city of Southern

Province in Sri Lanka. My birth had

been taken place at home with the

help of a midwife. Four sisters and

two brothers had already come to this

world before me. Three younger sisters

came to this world after me. My father

W. Luis Hami was a manufacturer of

turtle shell items such as spectacles,

bangles, ladies’ bags, trays etc. Being

an enterpriser 20 over people worked

under him.

I remember that he had a big

land nearby back of home and another

house at Madapatala in the same

area. I had the good karma that two

men known as David Appuhami and

Hendrick Appuhami used to visit my

home and they took me to temple

nearby known as Atapattam Vihara

(Octagon shape temple) every day.

David Appuhami plucked flowers

from Sal tree near the Bodhi tree of

the temple and offered to the shrine

of the temple every day. He used to

collect some coins from the people

by placing a till at the first step of

the stair case of the temple facing to

the main road. He took the attention

of the people by shaking the till and

shouting by the word ‘Gahe Badu, Gahe

Badu’. Then he used to buy coconut oil

and joss sticks and would go to offer

oil lamps, flowers and joss sticks to

the pagoda, the shrine of the Buddha,

cave shrine of the Arahant Mahinda

and Bodhi Tree. He accompanied me

too and recited Pali verses together.

He would not allow me to see here

and there and let me focus on the

recitation. David Appuhami and

Hendrick Appuhami observed eight

precepts on every new moon and

full moon day together with me in

the temple and I had to recite Sutta

of mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta)

together with them.

I used to collect yellow flowers

from the flower bushes on the hill that

was at the back of the temple to offer

to Buddha. There was a long staircase

to the temple at one side starting from

the road. Another staircase also was

about hundred meters away of the

road to the preaching hall. The Bodhi

tree and a Sal tree were in between

those two staircases on the slope of

the temple. There was a wall around

the Bodhi tree. My younger brother

and I were admitted to primary

class of the Dhamma school where

there was a monk known as Bhante

Kandawatta who taught us Buddhism.

Whenever monks used to visit my

father, they have proposed father to

get me ordained as a novice monk but

my parents refused their proposal and

told them that his son must complete

his learning first. In reply he used to

recite Sinhala poems, Pali or Sanskrit

verses or sometime stories.

“Amita guna nuvana yutu

uthumou paba da, Anatha vehesa

laduvath noma vethi duha da, Digatha

pathala suvadaethi sonda sadhun

kanda, Sinditha madhitha ekalesa

pethireyi suvn da” - (The wise man

never become bad by any means of

effort as if the sandal wood spreads

out more and more fragrance when it

is cut and damaged.) “Pinmada puthun

siyayak laduvath nisa ru, Guna naena

belen yuthu puthumaya ithaa garu,

Eka pun sandin duruveyi lova gana

andu ru, Neka tharu raesin elesata

nomaveya du ru” - (Even hundreds

of sons without virtues are useless.

The virtuous and wise son is the best

because the full moon illuminates

whole world but hundreds of stars

are not so.) I used to hear such poems

very often uttered by my father that

inspired me.

Life in the School - My younger

brother and me were admitted

to Mount Calvary Sons’ school at

Kandawatta, in Kaluwella and Mr.

Benjamin was the principal. I was

taught by Mrs. Benjamin in the

primary class. She made us exercise

in Sinhala poem that I remember a

part of it as follows, “Ath Ussan- Perata

Thaban” (“Raise your hands -Forward

your hand so on”) She utters the song

‘’Paayanaa Kaaledee – Rae Daval

Mahansivee- Kantade Raeskarayi

Kumbiyo, Un Itaa Ikmanin Yanneme

Santosin – Kammaelee Nae Koheth

Kumbiyo” - (The ants collect food day

and night in the summer with their

effort for their winter, they are never

be lazy but live happily”). My teacher

used to rub my head and ask whether I

had taken breakfast as I liked to place

my head on the desk, then she fed me

with a sandwich and an apple.

I studied in primary school up

to grade 4 and my teachers were very

good and they cared me very well. But

some days I was sent to the principal

because I didn’t attend the school as I

observed precepts on new moon and

full moon days. My teacher taught me

to respect elderly with joined hands

by telling the words “Long life to you”

(Aayu Bovan). I can still remember the

poetic verses that has inspired me

very much learnt in my primary class.

“Anaagataya babuluwanna – nidahas

diviyak gevanna, Thutunam kisi

viteka epaa elivanturu nidaaganna,

Nithi kadisara kaminee – naegitimu

aluyaminee//” (Never sleep until

morning sun shine if you like to have

free life and bright future. Quickly get

up early). “Data kata maeda

pirisiduvee – muwasodaa haeda

vaeda vee, Theruwan naemakara

inpasu - poth paadam kala maenavee,

Potha patha kiyavaalaa uganimu

veheseelaa//” (Clean yourself having

brushed your teeth, wash your face

and make yourself very neat, then read

books after paying respects to Triple

Gem. Having read various books let us

learn with effort)

“Inpasu thepaen beelaa

-mavupiyanata vaenda pudalaa,

Pothpath ganimin surathata -yamu

paesael maedura balaa, Dakunu

pasata vela – yamu pela saedeelaa//”

(After that take breakfast, pay

respects to parents and let us go to

school having books on the hands.

Let us walk on the right side in

queue). “Vaedihitiyan garu kireema –

kuladeviyan hata pideema, Yahapath

gathi bava salakaa – sudusuyi ehi

nirathaveema, Haemavita guru deguru

– salakamu lesa sugaru”. (Consider to

respect elders and to pay homage to

clergy as good manners and do it, and

let us honour greatly to teachers and

parents, care of them). “Lakmavage

anaagathe aetha obasaema denaa

vethe, Enisaa me ovadantika thabaa

ganna obe hithe, Gathiyen suvineetha

– hobavamu lakmaathaa” [The future

of Sri Lanka depends on you, therefore

keep these instructions in your mind,

then you are well disciplined in

behaviour, let us hail our motherland”]

I had a few friends in the school.

One of them didn’t talk to me some

days, the reason was that he used to

bring money to buy some snacks on

the particular day and he didn’t want

to share them with me. Another friend

went to the back of the building and

started to shake his head violently

one day. Then I asked him ‘My friend,

why are you shaking your head so

violently?” Then he answered me ‘Oh,

I want to create a headache on me

because if I can have a headache’ I

can tell my teacher that I am sick and

I want to go home. Then teacher will

allow me to go home’ he said.

My brother was very afraid of

punishment when he was late to

come to school Therefore, he applied

some red colour on his palm and

mine; then we returned home. He

told my elder brother that we were

punished by the principal as we were

late. Then brother took the cane and

asked us to tell the truth. My brother

told him we were caned but I did not

want to tell lies; I told him that we had

rubbed our hands on the painted iron

bar of the rail way. My fourth sister

Amaralata used to run like a horse.

She used to jump from the staircase

of the entrance to compound and runs

to school but she always gets big toe

injured. One day she left home for the

school early but she ran away. I and

my second elder sister walked to the

school. Then we heard my fourth sister

had an accident and she had been

taken to hospital. I was sad to see her

left leg wrapped with bandages. I and

elder sister Prema Sriyani came back

home crying on that day.

The kindness of Mother - My

second brother Titus pushed me

down from the table while playing

with me and I hit my chin to the

bar of the bed. Then my tongue was

broken instantly and hanging. My

mother was so sad and that she called

a rickshaw immediately and took me

to the hospital that was situated a

mile away from home. Mother too

ran after the rickshaw to the hospital.

My tongue was sewed and I had to

depend on liquids for several days in

spite of taking solid food. This serious

injury could be one of my past Karma

and the Mara wanted me to become

dump to avoid talking. My father

used to go to school once in a blue

moon and enquire about us from the

teachers. He was happy to hear that

our teachers used good words about

me and the younger brother but he

was not happy to hear that my elder

brother Nandasena had not been to

his school for some days although he

left for school. Then father caned him

so severely that the red marks were

appeared on his back. Father used

to recite beautiful Sinhala guiding

poems, meaningful Pali and Sanskrit

verses and stories that inspired

me and others. “Allata sigaavath

rasa naethi kaevili kakaa, Valakola

bima athuta nidi nolaeba duk takaa-

Kalagiya redi vaeraeli aenda daeli

kunin vakaa- Aelmen akuru uganiv

idiri vaeda takaa” (Even by begging

food from others eating tasteless

cakes, sleeping on wild leaves but

not being comfortable, wearing worn

out cloths but after washing them

one must learn earnestly for the

future.) “Narasyaa Bharanam rupam

– rupasyaa Bharanam gunah, Gunasya

bharanam nyaanam – nyaanasya

bharanam ksamaa” (The body is

the ornament of man, virtue is the

ornament of wisdom, patience is the

ornament of the wisdom).

Family Affairs - Once in

every month there was meditation

programme in Mahinda College

conducted by Ven. Dodampahala

Kavidhaja Nayaka Thero. I used

to attend the programme early in

the morning. It was started from

5.00am and ended at 5.00pm once a

month. I was very happy to attend as

Venerable taught not only meditation

but he taught some dhamma lessons

writing on the black board. Devotees

had to memorize those Dhamma and

verses. After the lunch Bhante asked

them to reply whenever questioned.

Therefore, I could also learn a lot of

Dhammapada verses and doctrine of

the Buddha. He taught Abhidhamma

and also. He taught Sinhala poems for

Dhammapada verses to make it easier

to remember. I was always successful

in replying his questions. I was so

impressed with meditation guide and

Bhante took me to the stage when

I was in deep meditation. Since my

childhood I started practice quiet

meditation on lovingkindness at my

every gesture. As I reserved myself

in talking some misunderstood my

attitude to commend that I was a

dangerous person. But I ignored

whatever they said and continued to

practice my own cultivation. That was

why I was happy to be a monk.

Although my elder brother was

stubborn, he was a jolly and playful

person and he was very interested

in making a huge lantern on every

Vesak day. It was as big as a house

with twenty-four lanterns joining

to corners of the big lantern. He

hangs it on a big coconut tree at

the compound with a pulley to put

it down when there was rain. He

complained to police about making

of the illicit drink by the people

lived in our land. The police always

came to arrest the people who were

involved in making illicit drinks that

time. An uncle named Babun Maamaa

used to visit our home very often and

sometime I and brother also used to

visit his house situated at Wakwella

Road near the town. There was a

monkey in the corridor of the uncle’s

house tied to a post raring as pet.

One day when I went to his house

the monkey jumped over to me and

bit my left calf. The aunt put leaves of

drums stick to the wound and it was

recovered after some time leaving a

big scar on the calf that is similar to

the size of the mouth of the monkey.

Most Venerable Dr. Galle Udita

Maha Nayake Thero

“Sihapura Sanghapati” The Chief

Sangha Nayake of Singapore,

Senior Religious Adviser of

Buddha Vihara Society, Singapore

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Most Venerable

Dr. Galle

Udita Maha

Nayake Thero’s

Birthday

Celebration in

Singapore….

“Sihapura Sanghapati”

The Chief Sangha Nayake of

Singapore, Senior Religious

Adviser of Buddha Vihara Society,

Most Venerable Dr. Galle Udita

Maha Nayake Thero celebrated

his 74th Birthday Ceremony

meaningfully at Singapore on

August 15, 2021. It was an ideal

& remarkable Birthday Ceremony.

Nothing was arranged such as

cutting of birthday cake or parties

on his special Birthday. Most

Venerable Dr. Galle Udita Thero

organized special Dhamma Talk

on his Birthday. More than 10

Venerable Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni

Sangha from other temples that

follow Theravada, Mahayana,

Vajrayana & Tantrayana schools

of Buddhism were among

those participants at this grand

ceremony. After the Dhamma

Talk Maha Sanghika Dana was

offered to both Monks & Nuns

by the devotees. All blessed

upon to Most Venerable Dr. Galle

Udita Maha Nayake Thero for his

healthy long life.

Buddhika Sanjeewa

After the visit to Singapore

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Dharma

Practices in

Our Life.…

“Real

Peace and

Happiness”….

Most Venerable

Master Hai Tao

The President of Life TV,

Abbot of Hong Fa Zen

and other Monasteries

If we want to rapidly change our

destinies and eradicate suffering

from diseases and adversities, we

shall seize any opportunities to

practice the following four Dharmas:

(1) Chant Buddha’s names; (2) Be a

vegetarian; (3) Confess and repent. (4)

Release the living creatures.

These four Dharmas seem to be

nothing special, but they’re like wise

counsel in life which can elevate

our personalities and bring us peace

and happiness. Life is an endless

journey. We shall try to accumulate

holy merit and virtue and practice

Perfections (note3) to flesh our lives

out with brilliance, brightness, and

power. The precious value of life lies

in continuous growth in this endless

journey of enrichment. We shall not

be self-centered but be humble

and open-minded. Let’s be open to

different ideas and keep improving

ourselves, and our life will be halfway

there.

People sense the preciousness of

life when facing adversity or downfall

in life, or when life is at the edge of

death. Therefore, we shall value our

lives at each present moment and

bring light and love of our lives into

full play. In this way, we can experience

the preciousness and meaning of

life. Life reformation, said by Buddha,

means that our minds, language, and

manner are changing, reforming,

and moving toward goodness. Every

change starts from the mind. When

our minds change, our behavior

changes, and then our surroundings

will be purified as well. That is to say:

be determined to reform our lives, and

let our minds take the initiative.

When we open the windows,

sunlight and the wind come in the

house. Similarly, if we open our

minds, radiance of all Buddhas and

Bodhisattvas will shine in our minds.

So, we shall try to enlighten the

luminosity of our inherent nature to

let it illuminate all sentient beings

and

hope each life’s inherent nature

can be enlightened as well. May

all sentient beings can enter into

Buddhas’ realm altogether. Driving

force behind everything lies in the

motive of the mind. Even one thought

has its own influence; so, if we can

make our minds think positively and

righteously, we will achieve success. A

tiny seed is an origin of a tree. Any of

our action is a cause of future effect,

so different causes of goodness and

wickedness will become different

effects of goodness and wickedness

in the future. You reap what you saw,

so to speak. What is the biggest lesson

in life?

That is to know and believe

in karma. Let’s be cautious with our

three karmic activities. Affections

are the most vulnerable part in life.

This kind of selfish affection can

only satisfy one’s vanity. The socalled

love is just vulnerable and

selfish feelings. Contrarily, love that

Buddha expressed is developed from

selfish affection to unconditioned

love, which is called the Four Infinite

States: lovingkindness, compassion,

appreciative joy, and equanimity. The

wickedest karma on earth is killing,

yet the greatest holy merit and virtue

is protecting the living. Master Hongyi

once said: “Do you want to recover

from illness? Do you want your life to

be peaceful and blissful? There is a

simplest and quickest method today:

release and protect all the living!”

Try to imagine that if we were

at the edge of dying, how would

we treat our life? To face it or to

escape from it? Actually, when there’s

downfall in life, it will be our time to

work up and show the holiness and

radiance of life. Consequently, try not

to escape from adversity but to face

it, and then we may witness life’s

broadness. We shall contemplate the

merit and virtue of loving-kindness

and compassion, cultivate mind state

of loving-kindness and compassion,

and gentle our temperament. Through

smile, benevolence, and compassion,

we can warm people around us and

create pleasant atmosphere. Keeping

a relaxing smile without pressuring

other people benefits not only others

but also ourselves. We used to take

refuge in the Three Poisons: greed,

aversion, and ignorance. Now as our

causal conditions of wholesome roots

from previous lives are ripe, we shall

clean up our act and take refuge in the

Three Treasures: take refuge in Buddha,

and eradicate our greediness; take

refuge in Dharma, and eradicate our

aversion; take refuge in Sangha, and

eradicate our ignorance. Taking refuge

means depending and returning. We

shall eradicate the Three Poisons and

experience inherent nature of the

Three Treasures practically.

| NOT FOR SALE |


The Karma and

Transmigration….

After we die, everything we

have now disappears except

the karmic effect, which leads

us to start a new life and to

forge a different karmic outcome.

How does the karmic effect come

about? It arises from our ignorance,

our confusion. What are we confused

by? We are confused by our covetous

desires. With covetous desire come

attachment and decision-making, and

thus, life and death.

What is “karma?” It is the flowing

memory that surges unexpectedly

from our past lives. The flowing

memory forever accompanies us,

whether. we be alive or dead. If out

personal life is like a computer and

our collective life is like the Internet,

then karma can be likened to data on

a microchip, which can run through all

the interconnected computers. At the

same time, our “computer” is forming

a record of voices and images, which

is being stored on our “hard drive.” So

karma is the endless accumulation

of data on this hard drive. When our

computer breaks down, we need a

new one. But the memory—the data—

persists. Likewise with karma. What

changes is the physical hardware, but

the software never dies.”

Karma undergoes changes

from moment to moment. We cannot

control what events will unfold in our

lives in the next moment. Everyone

has his or her own memory data, but

that person’s karma is not fixed. The

reason for us to practice Buddhism is

to configure our own memory data in a

favorable way. In each of our lifetimes,

we are endowed with the memories

or data from each of our previous

lifetimes that were recorded on that

lifetime’s “microchip.” This process is

called transmigration.

Our human form is only one of the

manifestations of life itself. The entire

universe is a great transformation of

life. As long as there are sufficient coarising

conditions, life changes are

manifested. Our life only appears to

change, because we are focused on

the external, on the “shell.” Think of

the body as the flesh of a peach, and

the mind as the seed in the peach pit.

Our human form is abandoned just as

the peach is eaten up. But our mind,

the seed, continues to exist. Our mind

contains three types of memories. The

first one is our memory of this life,

from birth to death. The second one

is the memory others keep for us—a

kind of fragmentary memory. And

“The

moments of

our life”….

the third one is the cosmic memory,

which encompasses everything in

the universe. These three kinds of

memories lay the groundwork for

our life transmigration. What has

been recorded in our past lives will

occasion our new life at the time of

rebirth.

Whatever we do in life is part of

the chain of cause and effect. For this

reason, we must be extremely cautious

about misdeeds that can result in a

vicious cycle. Our ignorance of the

significance of the seed can result

in various kinds of sufferings, which

engender more suffering: a vicious

cycle. Karma is cause and effect, and

the motivating force of our life.

What brings about the Six Paths of

Rebirth of all sentient beings? The Six

Paths of Rebirth exist at each moment

in our personal life. Our thought is a

kind of transmigration, causing us

to follow one path or another. For

example, when covetousness arises

in our mind, we are on the Path of

Hungry Ghosts. Transmigration is

not something occurring_ only after

death, but something occurring NOW.

Most of our problems are caused

by covetous desire. Desire gives

birth to a drive, which then leads to

a kind of lifestyle. When different

people adopt such a lifestyle, their

desire mutually impacts one another

and thus engenders hatred, greed,

and confusion. Confusion leads to

ignorance (or non-illumination)

and finally to afflictive emotions.

Anger and grudges emerge from

oppositional aggression and from

mutually conflicting desires for

possession. Greediness, grudges,

and ignorance are all intertwined.

Confusion gives rise to grudges, which

results in yet more confusion. Avarice

also results in anger that again

leads to confusion. Greed, anger, and

ignorance are actually three facets

of the same thing. Each of these

produces the other two.

The Buddha-dharma tells us

that we should learn to be generous

at the time when we are much

gripped by avarice because by doing

so, we can gradually release ourselves

from the avarice. Giving makes good

connections among people and

provides others the opportunity to

return something to us. When we are

greedy for something, others feel the

same way. As a result, people refuse to

be generous to us because we do not

treat them with generosity. Anger is a

lack of sympathy. As hatred, anger is

resentment for all unfairnesses. Both

anger and hatred lead to destructive

thoughts. We are all part of each

other’s memory matrix.

Most Venerable Dharma Master

Hsin Tao (Chan Master Hsin Tao)

Founder of Museum of World

religion, Ling Jiou Mountain

Buddhist Society, Museum of

World Religions (MWR), and the

Global Family for Love and

Peace (GFLP)

| NOT FOR SALE |


“Relaxing

Your Mind”….

The Rhythm of

Breathing….

Give yourself time to set up,

and then settle into, a sitting

posture that you can sustain

comfortably for half an hour

or more. Sit with the idea that the

tailbones can extend down into the

ground and take root. Relax your

shoulders and draw energy down

your back by the simple process of

repeatedly and steadily sweeping

attention down your spine, through

the pelvis and into the ground. As

you are doing this, let the front of

your body feel free and open; let each

inhalation lift through your abdomen

and chest. Don’t pull your chest

or force the breath. Instead lift gently

through the spine, as if you are

hanging upside down, lengthening

your waist and letting your neck be

long. Tuck in the spine between the

lower edge of each shoulder blade as

if it were connected to the breastbone.

How do you know you’re

breathing? Feel the fullness of the

breathing when the upper body is

open: how the diaphragm moves

steadily, how the chest rises and falls

with the breathing and how the overall

effect is it vitalising. This effect is due

to the energy of unhindered breathing.

Stay with that, in an appreciative

way. Focus on the steady flow of

inhalations and exhalations, and

let your attention move around,

familiarising itself with how

the body is affected by

breathing. You may find it

helpful to deliberately

extend each

outbreath and inbreath

a little

for five or six

breaths, so that

the sensations

associated with

the endings of the

breath are made stronger,

and the pause between the breaths is

clearly discerned. Do this in a gradual

and relaxed way. Relax into those

pauses between the breaths, letting

yourself enjoy the fullness of an

unforced inhalation and the release

of a slow and restful exhalation. Make

the practice one of letting the system

fully ventilate…give it time to clear

out any staleness; let your out-breath

drop down through the belly like a

deep sigh; let your in-breath open

your body into the space around you.

This is ‘breathing long.’

Let the breathing find its own

rhythm and extension; it may be

quite irregular at first. Notice how

the breathing affects the mind and

heart and, as moods and mental

energies come up, how they affect

the breathing. Cool the reactions and

let things come out in the wash...let

ideas and feelings be like wind-blown

leaves. Don’t follow them; let them

go. Be spacious; make a practice of

being spacious and returning to the

rhythmic flow of breathing. Incline to

settling. You can help this by waiting

for the breath. That is, at the end of

the out-breath, just wait for the inbreath

to begin of its own accord. This

should take a few seconds. Similarly,

wait at the end of each inhalation.

If the body begins breathing in (or

out) without a pause, the system

is not yet relaxed and settled. You

may benefit fromamore relaxed and

trusting attitude; or from moving your

attention around your body, checking

in with its steady structure and the

open, non-intrusive space around you.

Then work towards relaxing the chest

completely, so that the muscles of the

abdomen operate the breathing. You

may need to deliberately and gently

swell out your abdomen for an inbreath

until the systemgets used to

abdominal breathing.

When you notice that your

attention has drifted (or leapt) off, wait

in the acknowledgement of that for

a moment. Don’t react; just give the

mind a moment to fully note the feel

of that drift or spin, and the feel of the

clear acknowledgement. Then, as you

feel clarity return, ask: ‘Where is my

breathing right now?’ In this way you

bring the breathing to mind. Wait for

the next exhalation, and as it comes,

breathe out the agitated or constricted

energy of the hindrance. If you feel

sleepy or low in energy, wait for the


Sucitto Maha Thera

Cittaviveka (Chithurst Buddhist

Monastery), Chithurst, Petersfield,

Hampshire, United Kingdom.

in-breath and meet that, letting go of

the dullness. Then wait for the next

inhalation and be with that. The mind

will get agitated from time to time,

but make the practice one of relating

to the busy or wandering mind with

sympathy. Rather than control the

mind, or follow or speculate over its

moods, keep patiently returning to

the breathing with: ‘Where is the

breathing right now?’ Wait for it, meet

it and relax with the out-breath. Let

the breathing moderate the mind.

When things settle down

into amore regular pattern, your

attentionmay centre on a particular

point in your body – the back of the

nasal passages, the throat, chest or

diaphragm for example. Rather than

force the mind to one point, let it

settle where it feels most comfortable;

or if it seems to settle in an overall

awareness of the upper body, let it

do that. The breath is quieter, but

not because it’s restricted; it’s just

that when the body is ventilated

and relaxed it tends to shorten. As

you get more settled, attend to what

happens regularly with each breath.

Increase the evaluation with a (silent)

question: ‘How is the breathing now?’

First, notice the rhythmic sensations

of the physical form – most obviously

the swelling and subsiding in the

abdomen and diaphragm. Second, be

aware of sensations associated with

the air striking the respiratory tract

in the nose or throat. Third, note the

regular shift of energy through the

alteration in your body’s general

tone – how it brightens and sharpens

with each inhalation, then relaxes

and diffuses with each exhalation.

Let your mind feel the rhythm of all

these; attune to the sense of ‘being

breathed.

| NOT FOR SALE |


Practically speaking, someone

becomes a Buddhist when,

having taken refuge in the

Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha,

they start to apply themselves to the

study and application of the Buddha’s

teachings in their lives. In Buddhist

countries such as Thailand there

have never been specific ceremonies

in which people may formally affirm

their devotion to Buddhism. This may

be to some extent because Buddhism

is not a religion based on the adoption

of certain beliefs; and also partly

because, there being no Buddhist

proselytism, there have been few new

converts. For better and worse, people

have generally taken their Buddhist

identity for granted, assuming that

they were Buddhist from the day of

their birth.

What are defilements? - The

untrained mind is prey to many

mental states that sully its natural

radiance. These include the various

forms of greed, jealousy, anger,

hatred and animosity, dullness and

agitation, complacency, confusion,

arrogance, contempt and conceit,

and blind attachment to views and

beliefs. Fortunately, none of these

mental states is ‘hard-wired’ into the

mind; everyone may be eliminated

through practice of the Eightfold

Path. These negative, harmful mental

states are called “kilesa” in the Pāli

language, usually rendered in English

as “defilements.” In this book the

term “toxic mental states” has been

preferred to “defilement”.

The reasons for this somewhat

unorthodox rendering are that firstly,

defilement is generally perceived

to be irreversible but kilesa are not;

secondly, because toxic is a familiar

and powerful contemporary word

that illuminates heedless attitudes

towards kilesa, and thirdly, because

it admits of gradation: we can speak

of something as being mildly and

something else as seriously toxic.

Is Buddhism a religion or a

philosophy? - Buddhism can be

puzzling for someone brought up

within one of the great monotheistic

traditions such as Christianity or

Islam. Although Buddhist traditions

give a place to devotion and ceremony,

Buddhism has no dogmas, no single

great book. It involves no worship

of a god. What Buddhism does have

is a mass of teachings that in other

traditions would be considered to

lie within the realm of philosophy

or psychology. For this reason, there

has been much doubts as to whether

Buddhism is a religion at all.

Buddhism certainly does not fit

into the template for religion created

in the Western world. Whether that

signifies that Buddhism is not a

religion at all, or that it is simply a

different kind of religion, is a moot

point. To put the argument for the

second possibility, it might be said

that whereas the religions that grew

up in the Middle East are essentially

belief systems, Buddhism is a system

of education.

The Eightfold Path in more

detail - The Eightfold Path is the

holistic education or training of body,

speech and mind that culminates

in awakening. Right View refers to

beliefs, views, ideals, values that are

in harmony with the way things are.

Initially its most important elements

are confidence in i) the human

capacity for enlightenment, and ii)

the law of kamma.2 Right Thought

refers to thoughts consistent with

Right View. These are characterized

by a freedom from all kinds of toxic

thinking, in particular that which is i)

sensual, ii) hostile or iii) cruel. Right

Thought includes the aspiration to

be free from all inner affliction, and

thoughts of kindness and compassion.

Right Speech is true, useful and

timely speech that is polite and kindly

in intent. It is speech free from i) lying,

ii) harshness, iii) slander and iv) idle

chatter. Right Action refers to actions

that do not harm self or others. At its

most basic it refers to refraining from

i) killing, ii) stealing and iii) sexual

misconduct. Right Livelihood refers to

livelihood that does not cause harm

to self or others. Wrong livelihoods

listed in the texts include the selling

of i) weapons, ii) living beings, iii) meat

and fish, iv) intoxicants and v) poisons.

Right Effort refers to the endeavor

to: i) prevent unskillful thoughts and

emotions that have not yet arisen in

the mind from arising. ii) reduce and

eradicate unskillful thoughts and

emotions that have already arisen in

the mind. iii) introduce into the mind

skillful thoughts and emotions that

have not yet arisen. iv) sustain and

further develop skillful thoughts and

emotions already present in the mind.

Right Mindfulness refers to

maintaining an alert, even-minded

and committed awareness of present

experience, in particular: i) the

physical body ii) the affective tone

of experience: pleasant, unpleasant

or neutral iii) the state of mind iv)

mental phenomena as they relate to

the Buddha’s path of awakening Right

Concentration refers to the inner

stability, clarity and peace experienced

in four stages of “meditative

absorption” or “jhāna”. The first jhāna

is characterized by five ‘jhāna factors’:

an initial and sustained attention to

the meditation object, zest, bliss and

one-pointedness of mind. As the mind

becomes more refined the coarser

jhāna factors fade away. The second

jhāna is reached with the shedding

Become a

Buddhist….

“The path

of the

Buddha”….


Jayasaro Maha Thera

Janamāra Hermitage,

Foot of Khao Yai Mountain

National Park, Nakhon

Ratchasima,

Thailand.

of initial and sustained attention.

The disappearance of zest signals

attainment of the third jhāna. With

the loss of bliss the mind enters

the fourth and most subtle level of

jhāna, distinguished by unshakeable

equanimity.

Life is full of difficulties, and

never free from pain or at least its

possibility. Feeling unsafe and in a

chronic state of lack, human beings

crave a sense of safety and security.

Many seek it through the adoption

of a belief system or the comfort

of rituals. Equally popular is the

path of distraction: pursuing sense

pleasures, wealth, fame, power and

status. In the Buddhist view none

of these strategies achieves its aim.

Sensuality and worldly success

cannot satisfy the deepest human

needs. Faith in dogmas and ritual

observances cannot provide a true

refuge. As long as human beings lack

clear understanding of their lives, and

continue to commit unwise actions,

they can never be secure.

Taking refuge in the “Triple Gem”

(The Buddha, the Dhamma and the

Sangha) is considered to be the first

step to liberation from suffering and

its causes because it gives Buddhists

a grounding and a direction for

their efforts to reach that goal.

Taking refuge signals the first step

of commitment to the path of the

Buddha. Buddhists declare that they

seek refuge in the Buddha as their

teacher and guide; in the Dhamma,

his teachings, as their path; and in the

Sangha, his enlightened disciples, as

their inspiration on the path.

| NOT FOR SALE |


Right Intention….

The second factor of the path

is called in Pali “Samma

Sankappa”, which we will

translate as “right intention.”

The term is sometimes translated as

“right thought,” a rendering that can

be accepted if we add the proviso

that in the present context the word

“thought” refers specifically to the

purposive or conative aspect of

mental activity, the cognitive aspect

being covered by the first factor, right

view. It would be artificial, however,

to insist too. strongly on the division

between these two functions. From

the Buddhist perspective, the cognitive

and purposive sides of the mind

do not remain isolated in separate

compartments but intertwine and

interact in close correlation.

Emotional predilections

influence views, and views determine

predilections. Thus, a penetrating view

of the nature of existence, gained

through deep reflection and validated

through investigation, brings with

it a restructuring of values which

sets the mind moving towards goals

commensurate with the new vision.

The application of mind needed

to achieve those goals is what is

meant by right intention. The Buddha

explains right intention as threefold:

the intention of renunciation, the

intention of good will, and the

intention of harmlessness. The three

are opposed to three parallel kinds of

wrong intention: intention governed

by desire, intention governed by

ill will, and intention governed by

harmfulness. Each kind of right

intention counters the corresponding

kind of wrong intention.

The intention of renunciation

counters the intention of desire,

the intention of good will counters

the intention of ill will, and the

intention of harmlessness counters

the intention of harmfulness. The

Buddha discovered this twofold

division of thought in the period prior

to his Enlightenment. While he was

striving for deliverance, meditating in

the forest, he found that his thoughts

could be distributed into two different

classes. In one he put thoughts of

desire, ill will, and harmfulness, in the

other thoughts of renunciation, good

will, and harmlessness. Whenever

he noticed thoughts of the first kind

arise in him, he understood that those

thoughts lead to harm for oneself

and others, obstruct wisdom, and lead

away from Nibbana.

Reflecting in this way he expelled

such thoughts from his mind and

brought them to an end. But whenever

thoughts of the second kind arose,

he understood those thoughts to be

beneficial, conducive to the growth

of wisdom, aids to the attainment

of Nibbana. Thus, he strengthened

those thoughts and brought them to

completion. Right intention claims the

second place in the path, between right

view and the triad of moral factors

that begins with right speech, because

the mind’s intentional function

forms the crucial link connecting our

cognitive perspective with our modes

of active engagement in the world.

On the one side actions always point

back to the thoughts from which they

spring. Thought is the forerunner of

action, directing body and speech,

stirring them into activity, using them

as its instruments for expressing

its aims and ideals. These aims and

ideals, our intentions, in turn point

back a further step to the prevailing

views. When wrong views prevail, the

outcome is wrong intention giving

rise to unwholesome actions. Thus,

one who denies the moral efficacy of

action and measures achievement in

terms of gain and status will aspire

to nothing but gain and status, using

whatever means he can to acquire

them. When such pursuits become

widespread, the result is suffering, the

tremendous suffering of individuals,

social groups, and nations out to gain

wealth, position, and power without

regard for consequences. The cause

for the endless competition, conflict,

injustice, and oppression does not lie

outside the mind.

These are all just manifestations

of intentions, outcroppings of

thoughts driven by greed, by hatred,

by delusion. But when the intentions

are right, the actions will be right,

and for the intentions to be right

the surest guarantee is right views.

One who recognizes the law of

kamma, that actions bring retributive

consequences, will frame his pursuits

to accord with this law; thus, his

actions, expressive of his intentions,

will conform to the canons of right

conduct. The Buddha succinctly sums

up the matter when he says that for

“The Path

devised by

the Buddha”

a person who holds a wrong view,

his deeds, words, plans, and purposes

grounded in that view will lead to

suffering, while for a person who

holds right view, his deeds, words,

plans, and purposes grounded in that

view will lead to happiness.

Since the most important

formulation of right view is the

understanding of the Four Noble

Truths, it follows that this view should

be in some way determinative of the

content of right intention. This we find

to be in fact the case. Understanding

the four truths in relation to one’s

own life gives rise to the intention

of renunciation; understanding them

in relation to other beings gives rise

to the other two right intentions.

When we see how our own lives are

pervaded by dukkha, and how this

dukkha derives from craving, the

mind inclines to renunciation -- to

abandoning craving and the objects

to which it binds us. Then, when we

apply the truths in an analogous

way to other living beings, the

contemplation nurtures the growth of

good will and harmlessness. We see

that, like ourselves, all other living

beings want to be happy, and again

that like ourselves they are subject

to suffering. The consideration that

all beings seek happiness causes

thoughts of good will to arise -- the

loving wish that they be well, happy,

and peaceful. The consideration

that beings are exposed to suffering

causes thoughts of harmlessness to

arise -- the compassionate wish that

they be free from suffering.

Most Venerable

Bhikkhu Bodhi

The World’s Famous American

Author & Speaker, New York, USA

| NOT FOR SALE |


Strong faith is a form of sincerity.

Faith opens your heart. It gives

you strength and courage, and

it energizes and motivates you.

This faith is not blind faith, however;

it involves touching and experiencing.

This kind of faith is a vibration and

resonance. It’s like a mother and child:

When she carries the child inside her

body, the mother can feel the baby

move, and after the child is born, she

remains in tune with him or her. There

is a Chinese saying—the cut on the

skin of the child is like a cut in the

heart of a parent.

The love a mother has for her

child is unique, but it’s also universal.

Faith is like that; it’s as though a choir

is singing with individual voices in

beautiful harmony together. A song of

love and kindness. In Chan, faith comes

from practice. In my own case, after I

started to learn from Sheng Yen, I had

two experiences of absorption that

awakened my faith in the teachings.

I was living at the retreat center in

Pine Bush, helping to lead retreats, but

I had not yet taken on administrative

responsibilities. My sitting practice

was challenging during this period.

I had devoted myself to sitting

meditation for years and logged

countless hours on the cushion, so

you’d think I’d have it down pat.

This, sadly, was not the case. I was

experiencing pain in my legs, and I felt

as though I were being eaten alive by

wandering and scattered thoughts.

I was so drowsy that I wondered

if I had some kind of wasting

disease. Although there had been

periods during my practice when my

experiences had been quite deep, that

summer it seemed as though those

days were gone forever.

My first experience of faith

occurred when the center was quiet.

It was after lunch, and I was alone.

The clock in the living room of the

sangha house read 2:00 p.m. It was

summer, but the room was cool. Sheng

Yen was away, probably in Queens. I

was doing sitting meditation, and I

was experiencing my usual problems:

wandering and scattered thoughts,

mind-numbing exhaustion. I kept

coming back to the breath, returning

to the method. Suddenly, there was a

shift. I forgot my body and where I was.

I forgot who I was and my wandering

and scattered thoughts. Everything

dropped off.

There was a feeling of absolute

clarity and calm. I felt as though I

were the only person in the whole

world. I was an unshakable mountain

and at the same time a light feather

drifting slowly down through layer

upon layer of incense smoke in a

perfectly still room. When I opened

my eyes, I thought my vision was

impaired. The clock read 8:00 p.m. It

seemed inconceivable that I had sat

for six hours without being aware

of time passing. It was as though

time had imploded, evaporating into

nothingness. A similar experience

recurred a week later. I was doing

walking meditation back and forth

across the living room of the sangha

house. The room was perhaps four

meters in length, and I was traversing

it slowly, placing each foot down,

feeling each joint. My toes touched

the floor first, then the ball of my foot,

the center of my foot, and finally the

heel. I kept returning to the practice,

relaxing and resting in the method.

I became completely absorbed, and

I had the same experience of falling

away.

When I looked at my watch,

four hours had passed, and I had only

moved two meters. The experience of

absorption gave me a certain form of

nonattachment, a taste of liberation,

freedom, cessation from attachment

to the self and its attendant suffering.

I experienced hope that I might be

able to attain liberation. And this

gave me faith in the practice and

the path. These types of experiences

are shared by all the contemplative

traditions of the world. They all have

a similarity about them, yet each has

its own distinct context and character.

They all feel unshakable and true, and

they all point us toward liberation

and peace, love and kindness— the

common language of all spirituality.

| NOT FOR SALE |

Sitting Practice

of Meditation….

“The

Liberation,

Peace, Love &

Kindness”

Most Venerable Master

Zhengyan Guo Jun Thero

Worldwide Popular Chan

Master and Chief Abbot

of Mahabodhi Temple,

Singapore


Greatest

Happiness….

Evam me sutam “ Ekam samayam

bhagava savatthiyam viharati

jetavane anatha pindikassa

arame. Atha kho annatara

devata abhikkantaya rattiya

abhikkanta vanna kevalakappam

jetavanam obhasetva yena bhagava

ten upasankami. Upasankamitva

bhagavantam

abhivadetva

ekamantam atthasi. Ekamantam thita

kho sa devata bhagavantam gathaya

ajjhabhasi”.

Thus, have I heard: On one

occasion, the Exalted One was dwelling

at the monastery of Anathapindika in

the Jeta Grove near Savatthi. Shortly

after midnight, a certain deity, whose

brilliant appearance illuminated the

entire jeta grove, came to the Exalted

One. After approaching, he respectfully

bowed to the Exalted One and stood

to one side. There he addressed the

Exalted One in verse:

Many deities and humans are

thinking about happiness, wishing

for happiness. Please tell me the

greatest happiness. Not associating

with fools, associating with the wise,

honoring those worthy of honor;

Most Venerable Phra Maha

Pranom Dhammalankaro

Sasanadhaja

Dhammachariya, The

Abbot - Chak Daeng Temple,

Thailand

this is the greatest happiness. Living

in the proper environment having

done meritorious deeds in setting

oneself in the right direction this is

the greatest happiness Becoming

learned and knowledgeable, being

well-trained and disciplined, speaking

in a meaningful way; this is the

greatest happiness. Serving one’s

father and mother, providing for one’s

wife and children, being orderly in

one’s occupation; this is the greatest

happiness.

Sharing and being righteous,

helping relatives, avoiding harmful

actions; this is the greatest happiness.

Ceasing and abstaining from

evil, refraining from intoxicants, being

diligent in virtue; this is the greatest

happiness. Showing respect and being

humble, content and grateful, hearing

the dhamma at the proper time; in

this is the greatest happiness. Being

patient, speaking kind and gentle

words, meeting with spiritual people,

discussing dhamma at the proper

time; this is the greatest happiness.

Exercising discipline, living a

religious life, perceiving the noble

truths, and realizing nibbana; this

is the greatest happiness. If when

experiencing worldly conditions,

one’s mind is not shaken, but remains

fearless, free from sorrow and passion;

this is the greatest happiness. Those

who follow this path, will remain

undefeated and will prosper in every

way; that is the greatest happiness.

| NOT FOR SALE |

Living a

Religious

Life”


So we are awakening in the time

of the pandemic. It is a time of

brightness and darkness. Light

up the eternal, completely

enlightened heart lamp to express

the perfect great time and space.

Translated by the great radiant bright

enlightened one. Raise the curtains of

the great epic theater gently. Let us

follow the great awakening and sail

to the future, sail to the new golden

century of the earth. Ah..., the earth

spaceship has sailed. Sailing to the

unlimited starry sky. So, the age of

awakening universe has begun.

Sadhu! Sadhu!Awakening in the time

of a pandemic.

Hum... This is a poem of cosmos

with the pity of human crying, and

the heart of the deepest benevolence.

Let us play this most harmonious

psalm of the universe together, with

the quietest, deepest, lightest, purest

sound to sing the no beginning, no

ending, great benevolence heart

song of forever awakening. Hear

silence! Purity hearing! So, soundless,

so exquisite, so quiet, sing out the

harmonious song. When our ego

disappears, there are no enemies. How

empty, enlightened, and ingenious! It

formed this realest cosmos ballad.

Sing from the universe boundary to

the cosmos border. The auspicious

harmony creates the perfect chorus.

Because of no enemies, it lets us

sing from our heart to the universe

showing the deepest harmonists

sound. This is singing with our hearts,

singing with our breath, singing

with our Chi channel, and singing

with our bodies. So, Om... Om... That

pure, clear, beautiful chorus sings to

everyone’s heart, every inch of the

mountains, rivers and the land. It

is like the cosmic harmony of earth,

water, fire, wind, and space. This is the

voice of eternal reconciliation, the

real heart of eternal harmony, the

chorus of non-self, using bright

lights to symphonic the calm

happiness.

The most sincere

heart sent you a

message of peace.

There are no

enemies

in my

Awakening In

the Time

of the

Pandemic….

heart, only the heart of sincerity and

purity. Sincerely send you the wish

for symbiosis and prosperity. Pray for

from now until eternity, we support

each other and move toward a perfect

life. At this moment! At this moment!

Sincerely and truly support and guard

each other. This is the deepest vow.

Together we create a vision of perfect

lives. I watch over you. You watch

over me. With the most harmonious

DNA, create a journey of the ultimate

evolution of life. Pray for having joy

and the causes of joy. Pray for being

free from sorrow and the causes of

sorrow. Pray for being able to live in

a state of peace and calm without

sorrow. Pray for dropping the nonclear

mind and enlighten the equality

of full consciousness. We observe

clear water with concentrating heart

of whole silence, then our hearts are

as clear, bright, pure as the water,

as the mirror shines on each other

clearly, calmly, and naturally.

In the awakening, bright heart,

every cell of ours is melting into

transparent, white, pure snow. A

clear sky without clouds, the sun

shines everywhere, every cell is like

a snowflake melting. Melting into

clean white pure heart water. From

our hearts to bodies a clean flow of

water, a living spring, a heart stream,

enters the ocean of dharmadhatu.

The life of awakening begins the

journey of happiness and joy. Then we

sublimated. No more sorrow only joy.

No annoyance only the concentrated

calm heart. Silence, silence, flows

into a pure huge river. It is the huge

river of the soul, the huge river of

life, the big river of life. It becomes

the big ocean on the happy earth.

The sky is accompanied by the land

and the hundreds kinds of grass

are accompanied by the beautiful

smell of flowers. The clear blue sky

is the pure reflection of our bodies.

Concentrating, silence, and pure heart.

Use the deepest mind to observe our

thoughts. All lives forever stay in the

bright light of happiness. Willing

to work with all lives to create a

perfect truth, goodness, beauty,

holiness for the new century. May the

mother earth be happy and peaceful

forever.

Is it in here? Is it in there? It

is so thin, thinner than thin. It is so

small, smaller than small. It’s like this!

It’s like this! It is just like this being

everywhere. There it is! There it is!

We see it. We have to admit it. But we

are so frightened. Aren’t we afraid of

no reasons? What’s more terrifying is

unknown. Unknown where the terror

is. The ignorance is the most terrible

terror. Our minds are hanging, worrying.

Why are we so terrified? What is it?

The eclipse carries the darkness and

the panic increases in the mind. It is

like trembling with fear, walking on

a cliff. When you are at home, when

you go out, when you face the people,

when you face everything, you are

frightened. It’s like you are standing

on the cliff restless. Trembling with

fear, walking on the thin ice, again.

At this moment! At this moment!

Release, drop your heart. Fear is not

the reality of our life. Don’t let the fear

rob the most beautiful happiness of

our lives. Let our hearts stay calm as

the land! Then, the poison dragon of

fear can only block their eyebrows and

run away. It is just like the rising sun

blow away the morning fog. Only left

the memory of seemingly existence.

We are the land stay unmoved. The

unlimited Jewel wisdom is rising

happily from our heart. Our bodies

are happy, our breath is happy, our

hearts are happy. The happiness is like

the land. All is relaxed. Drop it to so

release and so relaxed.

Empty our bodies and minds.

Become entirely completed. The

completeness of complete. We are

back to the unlimited perfection

garbhakośa-dhātu world. The land

is forever comforting. We are the

fearless land. No such name is fear or

terror. We are all calm and peaceful.

Let us become the land. Yes, the

land. As comfort as the mother land.

Concentrating on observing the pure

land. No differentiate, only calmness.

Open your eyes, close your eyes. The

earth Mandala becomes the only purity

vision in your heart. No differentiate,

“The Bright

Wisdom”

no divided. There is no fear or terror

only calms in the spiritual of the land.

Pull out the weeds, the rocks, and the

trash from your heart land. Get them

out of your heart one by one. It is like

to purify the gold, take of the junk.

The purity of the land becomes the

bright light. Our hearts are like the

brand new clear mirrors, pure as the

white shells .

The full moon which is rising

from the clouds is like the white

crane flying out of dark clouds. So,

the heart of the land is our hearts, it

is the perfect nature of ours. Let the

fear and worry become the fuel to

purify our clear and purity minds, to

burn the annoying. Use the fear to

be the energy of the bright wisdom.

Transcending perfect wisdom, is

not mind-clouded; is liberated from

existence and fear, free of confusion.

Thus, we put the crown of the wisdom

onto our hearts. Let’s fantasize the

fear and worries to the clowns of joy.

No worries, because all has become

to brightness. Our hearts have long

joined with the pure land perfectly. To

set the wisdom and the benevolent.

At this moment, the king of the land

is ordering the warrior of the heart

land. Running speedily at the endless

heartland, playfully chasing the fear

running away from the fear. Our

minds have created the great honor

of the land. Om...

Awaken from the meditation

of the land. We have completed

the banner of the wisdom and the

benevolent. Chatting like lift weight

lightly. This is shown the finest, The

fearless, and the bravest action. We

have become the great warrior of

chasing fear. Ah... Hum... Let our minds

combine with all the beings minds.

Compose the vision of future century.

To build the happiness and brightness

on the spacious land. Svaha...

Master Chi Sung Hung

The World’s Famous Buddha

Painting Master, Earth Zen Person,

International Meditation Teacher,

Founder of Enlightening Earth

Association, Buddha Cultural &

Bodhisattva Association

| NOT FOR SALE |


| NOT FOR SALE |

Buddhism

Explore via Young

Generation in

India….

The World’s Famous Buddha

Painting Master, Earth Zen

Person, International Meditation

Teacher, Founder of Enlightening

Earth Association, Buddha Cultural &

Bodhisattva Association, Master Chi Sung

Hung launched a special task force for

Buddhism explore via young generation

in India. Ms. Lynn Gong, the President of

Enlightening Earth Association, Buddha

Cultural & Bodhisattva Association

maintaining this grand project. Master

Chi Sung Hung vowed to accomplish

a huge painting by himself to keep the

Buddha’s spirit of peace forever in this

world, to pray for the reconciliation of

thousands of years of conflicts, and to

wish for happiness and peace on Earth.

Buddhika Sanjeewa

After the visit to Bodh Gaya, India.


The Meditation of

Dharma Gate….

You can see the details by

referring the four different

Chinese versions of the

Buddhist Canon,until the

Master Tao in the Liao Dynasty, who

wrote and compiled the《顯密圓通成

佛心要集》(the Essence of Becoming

Buddha by harmonization of Sutra

and Tantra), explaining the Cundi

Dharma gate is independent and

obviously important, as it compiles

Twenty-five parts of Tantra Teaching.

Until the Republic of China, the Mater

Nan Huai-chin combined the Chinese

culture, Confucianism, Buddhism, and

Taoism to become the Cundi Dharma

Gate as the New Chinese version of

Cundi Dharma. please refer to the

book 《準提圓通 (Zhunti Yuantong)》

for details.

中密準提法門之禪修 : 十方禪

林方丈釋首愚 - 準提法門源自佛說準

提陀羅尼經 , 詳見北傳大藏經四種不

同的譯本 , 至遼代道㲀大師撰輯成《

顯密圓通成佛心要集》, 闡述準提法

門攝密教二十五部 , 為獨部別行 , 顯

見其重要性。至民國南懷瑾大師統攝

中國文化儒、釋、道成為中密準提法

門 , 詳見《準提圓通》一書。

生起次第 ( 四個段落 )

Generation stage (four steps) ( 一 ) 淨

法界咒 : 唵 (Om Lah)Mantra

to purify the Dharma Realm:Om

Lah (21 times) 意密觀想頭頂百

匯穴二寸高處有一梵文 (Lah) 放

白色光將光明拉至命門現一光明

點 , 光明遍照身心 , 乃至遍法界。

Visualize a Sanskrit (Lah) at a height

of two inches above the Hundred

Convergences acupoint on the head,

emitting white light, then draws the

light to a bright spot at the life-gate.

The light illuminates your whole body

and mind, even the Dharma realm. 身

密右手結金剛拳印。Making a Vajra

First mudra (Figure D) with the right

hand and rest it on the right knee.

口密持念淨法界咒「唵」七

遍後 , 加念「娑訶」(So Ha) 一次 ,

共三次二十一遍 , 咒音及字光明由

命門光明點涌出。Recite Om Lah 7

times, followed by So Ha once. Repeat

3 rounds for a total of 21 times. The

sound of Mantra and the light of

the Sanskrit (Lah), gush out from the

bright spot of life-gate. ( 二 ) 護身咒 :

唵嚙 (Om Tsern)Body-protection

Mantra:Om Tsern (21 times) 意密

觀想頭頂百匯穴二寸高處有一梵文

(Lah) 放白色光將光明拉至命門現

一光明點 , 光明遍照身心 , 乃至

遍法界。 Visualize a Sanskrit (Lah)

at a height of two inches above the

Hundred Convergences acupoint on

the head, emitting white light, then

draws the light to a bright spot at the

life-gate. The light illuminates your

whole body and mind, and even the

Dharma realm.

身密右手結金剛拳

印。Continue holding the same

position as before 口密持念護身咒

「唵嚙」七遍後 , 加念「娑訶」

(So Ha) 一次 , 護身咒三輪七遍共

二十一遍後 , 將金剛拳印提起 , 在

頭額、左肩、右肩、心窩、喉嚨五

處印吽 (HUM) 後 , 將身心融入虛空

中。Recite Om Tsern 7 times, followed

by So Ha once. Repeat 3 rounds (21

times). Once completed, raise the

right Vajra fist and seal against 5

locations of the body in the following

sequence: forehead, left shoulder,

right shoulder, chest and throat,

accompanied by a short quick sound

「Hum」 with each seal. The whole

body and mind are now protected like

an adamantine Vajra body. Evils can

do no harm. Release and spread the

right fist over the top of the head.

( 三 ) 六字大明咒 : 唵嘛呢叭

咪吽 (Om Ma Ni Bai Me Hum) Mani

Mantra: Om Ma Ni Bai Me Hum (108

times) 意密觀想四臂觀音在自己頭

頂上放白色光 , 融入命門光明點中

放光。 Visualize the Bodhisattva

Avalokistesvara in four-armed form,

emitting white light, then merging

with the bright spot at the life-gate

and shining。身密雙手結蓮花手印

( 或左手拿念珠 , 右手結金剛拳印 )

。Make the Lotus mudra (Figure E)

with both hands in front of the chest

or make a Vajra fist mudra (Figure D)

with the left hand and rest it on the

left knee while the right hand is using

a rosary. 口密持念六字大明咒「唵嘛

呢叭咪吽」一 0 八遍 , 光音由命門湧

出 , 觀想整個身心融入虛空中 , 虛空

就是我 , 我就是虛空 , 亦無虛空之量

可得。

Recite Om Ma Ni Bai Me Hum

108 times, visualizing the sound

mixed with the Mantra, which gush

out from the life-gate, then your whole

body and mind merging the void,

There is no difference between void

and self. The void is immeasurable

and boundless. There is not

even void; there is not even

self. 觀想空中十方起大風

輪 , 風融於火 , 火融於水 ,

水融於金剛地 , 地上湧起八

葉巨蓮放射七彩光明。After

abiding within this void for a

while, visualize a huge wind

cyclone originating from all

ten directions. In sequence,

first visualize the “Wind”

dissolving into the “Fire”,

the “Fire” dissolving into

the “Water”, and the “Water”

dissolving into the“Vajra

Ground”. Visualize a giant

lotus with 8 petals rising

from the Vajra Ground,

glowing in seven colors.

觀想自己坐在蓮蓬

座中 , 頭頂上放光迎請

毘盧遮那佛 ( 法身佛 )

Visualize yourself rising

from the lotus seat with

your head emitting light.

With reverence invite and

greet Buddha Vairochana,

the Dharmakaya. 觀想

法身佛轉成報身佛及化

身佛 , 奉上世間種種殊

勝供養 , 即普賢十願

之呈現。Visualize the Dharmakaya

transforming into Samboghakaya,

then into Nirmanakaya. Visualize

yourself making offerings of the most

precious treasures of this world, that is

the presentation of Samantabhadra’s

ten wishes. 觀想與上師相應 , 上師

就是我 , 我就是上師 , 與般若相應就

是與上師相應 , 我、上師、般若 , 三

而一 , 一而三 , 無二無別。Visualize

corresponding to the guru. The guru

becomes me, and I become the guru.

To correspond to the prajna is to

correspond to the guru. I, the guru, and

the prajna are merged into oneness,

and there is no difference. ( 四 ) 準提

咒 : Cundi Mantra: (As many times as

possible)

南無颯哆喃三藐三菩馱俱胝

喃怛姪他唵折隸主隸準提娑訶

(Namo SaDoh Nah SamMiao SamPo

Tuo JyuTzu Nah DaZah Tuo Om ZheLi

Zhuenti SoHa) 一字大輪咒 :One

Word Great Wheel Mantra:Om Bolin

(this One Word Great Wheel Mantra to

be added at the end of each reciting

cycle) 兩手結準提印當胸。With

the hands making the Cundi mudra

(Figure C) in front of the chest. 觀

想靜坐正前方現一圓形境壇 , 境壇

中顯現準提佛母 , 菩薩結雙跏坐 ,

頭戴五佛冠 , 面如滿月桃花 ,

微帶笑容 , 非男女相 , 左右十八隻

手 , 身如透明琉璃體 , 內空身

中生起八瓣蓮花 , 紅色無根 , 蓮花

上現一滿月輪。Visualize a mirror on

altar in front of you, the Bodhisattva

Cundi, Mother of countless Buddhas,

appearing in the mirror, sitting in

full lotus posture(pallaṅka), with

eighteen arms and three eyes, and

wearing the Tibetan Ritual Crown

with the five petals. Her face is akin

to the full moon like a peach blossom

and carries a faint smile. The gender

identity is neither male nor female.

Her body is transparent and crystal

clear and is exquisitely ornamented

and glowing, and she possessed

a regal countenance. Within the

emptiness of its body, there now rises

a red, eight-petalled lotus blossom,

without any stalk, a full-moon wheel

appears right above the lotus.

觀想心月輪放白色光 , 光明

融入命門明點中 , 整個準提咒字輪

圍繞著明點旋轉 , 光明就是咒語音

聲 , 咒語音聲就是大光明境 , 光即是

音 , 音即是光 , 融入光音不二境界

中。Visualize the full-moon wheel,

emitting white light, then merging

with the bright spot at the life-gate.

The entire Cundi Mantra character

wheel revolves around the bright spot

in a clockwise sequence. The light is

the sound of the Mantra, the sound of

the Mantra is the great light state, the

light is the sound, and the sound is

the light, which blends into the state

of light and sound. 圓滿次第 ( 自成

一個段落 , 即是第五個段 )

Completion Stage (becoming

the separated part, as the fifth step)

咒語字輪收攝入於中間「唵」字 , 唵

字收攝入於月輪 , 月輪收攝入於光明

點中 , 明點直衝入於虛空中 , 虛空即

是我 , 我即是虛空 , 亦無虛空之量可

得 , 我與虛空不二中 , 呈現樂、明、

無念 , 於中愈久住愈好 , 如來 , 如

來 ! 如是 , 如是 !Visualize the Word

Wheel shrinking and fading into the

word“ 唵 ”, and the word“ 唵 ”fading into

the shining full moon and then the full

moon fading into a shining spot about

the size of a soy bean. Instantly, move

this light spot up toward the top of

the head, from where it launches out

and fades into void, outside of which

there can be no body or mind. The self

is void and void is self; this emptiness

is immeasurable and boundless. Thus

come, thus come. Thus is, thus is.


Shou Yu

World’s Famous Dhamma

Teacher

| NOT FOR SALE |


Uphold the

Precepts….

It is said, “Precepts are the

foundation of Supreme Bodhi.”

Constructing a tall building needs

a good foundation; attaining Bodhi

requires upholding the precepts. This

is why observing the precepts is so

important! Why do we need to uphold

the precepts? Why do we need to be

restricted from doing something?

In fact, the precepts teach the best

moral conducts, such as doing good

deeds and not committing bad ones.

In other words, we have to sever all

wrongdoings and cultivate all good

deeds. It is commonly said, “Do all

good and nothing bad.” By upholding

the precepts, one can reach the

stage of awakening Bodhisattva. Not

upholding the precepts, one remains

confused and mundane. Those who

uphold the precepts can eventually

achieve liberation, whereas those

who do not would remain as sentient

beings subject to the cycle of birth

and death. By taking the precepts,

one is likely to proceed to the stage

of Bodhisattva, or even the Buddha.

It is said, “When sentient beings

take the Buddha’s precepts, they will

eventually become Buddhas.”

The Five Precepts in Buddhism—

no killing, no stealing, no sexual

misconduct, no false speech, and no

intoxication. Observing these Five

Precepts is a lifetime undertaking.

When you pass away, the Precept

Body will be gone. By receiving and

upholding the precepts, you will at

least retain the human form in the

future and not regress to the Three

Lower Realms. Being a human makes

it easier to practice Buddhism and

you will have the seed to attain

“Fulfilling the

Lifetime”….

Buddhahood. Passively speaking,

“precept” is to avoid all wrongdoings

and evil; proactively, it means both to

avoid evil deeds and to do wholesome

deeds. To benefit others and oneself,

one needs to help other people. By

doing so, one will receive blessings.

We practice the Bodhisattva Path by

helping sentient beings. Hence, we

must create positive affinity with

others.

The Bodhisattva Precepts

include the Six Major Precepts and

the Twenty-Eight Minor Precepts. The

Monastic Bodhisattva Precepts include

the Ten Major Precepts and the Forty-

Eight Minor Precepts. Undertaking the

Bodhisattva Precepts continues until

the future lifetime(s). That is, when

you receive the Bodhisattva Precepts

this life time, the Precept Body will

forever attach with you until you

reach Buddhahood. Therefore, this is

why the sentient beings, who observe

the Bodhisattva Precepts, will reach

the beginning stage of Buddhahood.

If the Bodhisattva Precepts are

observed perfectly and completely,

which means that the Buddhahood

is perfected. The nature of the

Bodhisattva precepts is to bring forth

the Bodhi Mind. The Three Collective

Pure Precepts is the gist of the

Bodhisattva Precepts, such as ceasing

the bad deeds, Learning all good

deeds, and delivering all sentient

beings with compassion. What is the

content of Bodhisattva precepts? To

practice Bodhisattva path, one must

first understand its meaning. What

does it take to perfect Bodhisattva

path? One must be mindful to

attain Buddhahood and to liberate

sentient beings. If we want to attain

Buddhahood, the first step is to make

a Bodhi resolve to benefit others.

This is the spirit of the Bodhisattva

Precepts.

Most Venerable

Master Tze Cheng

The Chief Abbot of Pure

Land Temple & Lingyen

Mountain Temple - Canada

| NOT FOR SALE |


“Harmonizing

Planetary

Processes”

Kids Meditation as a

resource for Harmonizing

Planetary Processes....

At the moment we are

observing how the picture of

the world is changing rapidly.

Values and behavior patterns

are changing. The habitual living

space is blurring its contours and these

processes will only grow. Information

wars can bring down exchange rates,

economic ties and entire states. Each

new round of negative information

forms clamps and blocks drains

humanity emotionally and physically,

environmental and man-made

disasters force them to look for new

places of safe stay on the Planet or act

in a mode of extreme scarcity of life

resources during a global lockdown.

All this is only a material

manifestation of the higher

transformational processes and

is conditioned by the period of

humanity’s ascension into the 5th

dimension - now it is important

to preserve the purity of the soul,

emotional stability, desire and courage

to live and develop harmoniously,

to have positive socialization, to

be responsible for the quality of

the generation of thought forms as

constituent elements of the common

meta-space.

It is important for each of us to

master the skills of self-regulation, to

be able to relieve tension and stress

at any time, to nourish ourselves with

energy. Children grow up and grow up

next to us, they are active observers

of our development. Strange as it

may sound, but the volume of psychoemotional

load in children is several

times greater.

Absolutely all difficult life

situations that family members live

in fully concern children, but their

situation is aggravated by the fact

that they cannot change anything,

affect the course of the event. Divorce

of parents, death of loved ones, new

spouses of parents, the birth of a

second child in the family, moving,

which entails changing schools and

friends, and much more is always a

serious burden in childhood.

At the same time, excessive

care prevents a child from being

active, taking responsibility for his

actions, and revealing the energies

of the Creator in himself. A universal

resource is needed that gives the

child the opportunity to:01.) Be an

active participant in events at any

time, at any point in space. 02.) Shape

and harmonize your steps and deeds.

03.) To find an objective source of

information about yourself and the

world. 04.) not have dependence and

phobias on the value judgments of

various subcultures during the period

of their socialization.

Meditation is an access to the

meta-level (meta-Greek, above)

an opportunity to rise above the

norms and clichés of social life, an

instrument of unconditional freedom

of Co-Creativity. Meditation will give

children the opportunity to:01.) Relax

with ease. 02.) Free your mind from

stress. 03.) Will increase the ability to

concentrate. 04.) Manage emotions.

05.) strengthen the immune system.

06.) Develop emotional intelligence.

07.) Teach you to listen to your body.

08.) Manage states. 09.) Develop

imagination as the basis of creativity.

10.) In the modern period, values,

foundations are rapidly devalued,

social laws do not reflect the essence

and truth, the universal laws of

harmony.

The culture of meditative

practice will form new principles

of socialization such as: 01.)

Interpersonally: it is possible to

become an active participant in the

events at any time, regardless of age

restrictions and geographic location.

The child can direct the flow of

love to any situation, bring it into a

harmonious state. 02.) Responsibility:

work on the inside to improve the

outside. 03.) Bestowal: understand

the principle - you give more, you

get more, to be a free flow of gifts

of life. 04.) Attention: the culture of

managing attention as a vector of

energy movement. 05.) Culture of

mental images: everything that we

imagine manifests itself in space,

carries positive or negative vibrations,

purifies or oppresses the living

environment.

The more we save the original

light, the easier it will be to speak and

create with our child, to preserve his

original ethics of interaction with the

surrounding space for life in a new

world. It is important to remember

that children of the 21st century

have a close connection with the

Planet, feel both its strength and its

pain. This is the basis for the global

organizational work of all of us on the

basis of simple and understandable

principles outside of religions, outside

of professions, outside of politics: 01.)

We all live on planet Earth. 02.) We all

have children. 03.) We all want to pass

on a healthy planet to our children.

Masters and educators around

the world have joined the work on the

Global Children’s Meditation - (Global

Children’s Meditation “Happy Planet”

since 2014). The idea found a warm

response in the hearts of people, the

organizers from different cities of

Russia, the CIS countries, Germany,

the Netherlands, Switzerland, Latvia,

Australia and others responded.

Children’s meditation outside

religions, outside of confession and is

aimed at taking responsibility for the

health of the planet, faith in the power

of unity, trust in collective work, love

for a united, living space.

In the following publications, we

will present in more detail the project

- Global Children’s Meditation “Happy

Planet”, we will talk about the book

of children’s meditations “Baby and

the Universe. Basics of Co-creation” -

the world’s first complex of children’s

meditations.

Natalina Litvinova

The World’s Famous Scientist,

Writer, Peacemaker & Master,

Founder of Global Union 2050,

Founder of the International

Peacekeeping Assembly, President

of the International Committee

for the Digital Economy BRICS,

PhD, Candidate of Legal Sciences,

Associate Professor

| NOT FOR SALE |



| NOT FOR SALE |

JAN,HSIU-JUNG - 詹秀蓉

1956 年出生於台灣新竹 - 現任中華國際觀光

協會理事長、詹姓宗親總會名譽總會長、世

國觀世音菩薩獎 (1996 年 )、第 14 屆世界客屬

懇親大會傑出人才獎 (1998 年 )、美國世界文化

界書畫家協會總會副會長、全球模範母親聯交流協會世界傑出風雲人物金像獎 (2002 年 )、

誼會會長中華詹氏經濟文化交流協會常務副美國大紐約客家會傑出人才獎 (2007 年 )、美國

會長、霹靂國際多媒體集團國際藝術顧問、紐約市華人家長學生聯合會和平貢獻獎 (2009

威剛科技集團最高顧問獲獎經歷 : 世界藝術

名家成就獎、海峽兩岸書畫大賽金獎、日本曾

東書道會知事獎、日本第 7 屆全國書道會準大

賞、金鵝獎書畫大賽榮譽金獎、大日本書藝院

優秀獎、第四屆國際佛教傑出女性獎 (1995 年 )

年 )、紐約州眾議會傑出藝術成就褒揚狀 (2010

年 )、日本國際學士院台日文經交流聯誼會國

際文化最高功勞賞 (2011 年 )、美國國會頒發傑

出書法藝術成就獎 (2011 年 )、美國洛杉磯第七

屆華人榜傳承獎 (2017 年 )。

、世界華人書畫國際大賽金杯獎 (1996 年 )、韓

| NOT FOR SALE |


Kushinagar -

Amazing Sacred

Place in India….

Buddha, meaning ‘one who is

awake’ in the sense of having

‘woken up to reality’ was the

title first given to Lord Buddha.

It was about 2500 years ago when

Prince Siddhartha Gautam left all the

worldly pleasures to attain the reality

of life and became the Buddha - the

enlightened one. It was a state in

which the Buddha gained an insight

into the deepest workings of life and

therefore into the cause of human

suffering, the problem that had set

Him on his spiritual quest in the first

place. Buddhism offers four major sites

of pilgrimage: the Buddha›s birthplace

at Lumbini, the site where he attained

Enlightenment Bodh Gaya, where he

first preached at Benaras, and where

he achieved Parinirvana at Kusinagar.

Kushinagar is located about 53

km from Gorakhpur and is believed

to be the place where Lord Buddha

attained ‘Maharparinivana’- the

highest stage of salvation. After the

excavation in 1861 many stupas

related to Buddha resurfaced in

Kushinagar and today they are

amongst the major tourist attractions

here. The Ramabhar Stupa is one

of the major attractions; this stupa

is about 50 feet tall and situated

where Lord Buddha was cremated.

Mahanirvana Temple, where a six

meters long Buddha statue in reclining

position is kept; Mathakuar Temple,

where a black stone image of the

Buddha and inscriptions dating back

to 10th-11th century are kept; Watt

Thai Temple; Japanese Temple, where

‘Eight Metals’ statue of Lord Buddha is

kept and the Chinese Temple, which

is predominantly constructed in a

Chinese architectural style are the

other places to see in Kushinagar.

The main stupa as well as the

shrine in front are built on a single

platform which measures 2.74m in

height. The statue of the reclining

Buddha recovered from this site

measures 6.1m in length. It is a

monolithic sculpture carved out of

a single block of sandstone. The

image of reclining Buddha is found

resting on his right side with his face

towards the west probably indicating

the sunset of his life. The right hand

is placed under his head possibly as

a cushion. The image is mounted on

a pedestal with three human figures

embedded on the western side of the

pedestal. An inscription recovered

from the site ascribes the statue as a

religious gift from Haribal. The image

of reclining Buddha is enshrined in

the Mahanirvana Temple.

On October 20, 2021 is the

another most important function

held at Kushinagar. Indian Prime

Minister His Excellency Narendra

Modi inaugurated the “Kushinagar

International Airport” in Uttar

Pradesh, which will help connect

key Buddhist pilgrimage sites. After

the Airport inaugurated, Indian

Prime Minister attended as the Chief

Guest of “Abhidhamma Day” held at

Mahanirvana Temple premises and His

Excellency Narendra Modi worshiped

Gautama Buddha at the Temple.

Most Venerable Dr.

Dhammapiya Thero

The Secretary General of

International Buddhist

Confederation (IBC), The

Founder and Chairman of the

Bahujana Hitaya Educational

Trust & Dhamma Dipa

Foundation.

| NOT FOR SALE |


India, Kushinagar is one of the major

pilgrimage centres for Buddhism

followers from all over the world.

Indian Prime Minister His Excellency

Narendra Modi inaugurated the

Kushinagar International Airport on

October 20, 2021. The inauguration of

the Kushinagar International Airport

will facilitate the pilgrims from

across different parts of the world by

providing seamless connectivity to

various Buddhist sites in the region in

India. The airport built at an estimated

cost of ₹ 260 crore. The inaugurated

Kushinagar International Airport in

Uttar Pradesh with a special flight

from Sri Lanka (Srilankan Airlines)

becoming the first to touch down at

the new Kushinagar international

airport with Sri Lanka Buddhist

Monks. On the occasion addressing

| NOT FOR SALE |

Indian Prime Minister His Excellency

Narendra Modi said, “In order to

develop the places associated with

Lord Buddha, for better connectivity,

special attention is being given by

India today on the creation of facilities

for the devotees. The development

of Kushinagar is in the priorities of

the UP government and the central

government,” Shri. Yogi Adityanath,

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and

Ministers of the Union Cabinet, Shri

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Shri Kiren

Rijiju, Shri Kishan Reddy Gangapuram

and Ministers of State Shri Arjun

Ram Meghwal and Smt. Meenakshi

Lekhi and other dignitaries were also

present at the ceremony.

Kushinagar International

Airport Launched in India….


Ruby -

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incredible results and decided

to bring the line of products into

Australia.

Initially launched in Sydney,

Australia, it quickly gained

customers in Brisbane and

Melbourne. As well as servicing

customers in Australia, we also

have customers located

internationally in many overseas

countries. We provide sales,

service, support and training for

the Ruby-Cell line of cosmetics

and products.

What is

Ruby-Cell

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www.rubycellaustralia.com.au | annie@rubycellaustralia.com.au

| NOT FOR SALE |

Buddhism

& Life….

28th Patriarch, and Current

Patriarch Chinese Han

Transmission Tantrayana

Buddhism, Holy Tantra Gu

Fan Mi Jin Gang Dhyana Buddhism,

President of Tasmanian Chinese

Buddhist Academy and International

Jin Gang Dhyana Association & Jin

Gang Dhyana Wang Xin De Foundation

of Australia

The basic teaching of Buddhism

is the teaching of knowledge of

life, it is a philosophy elucidating

everything about life. In Buddhism, the

understanding of the relationships

between all phenomena in the

cosmos is based upon the concept of

“conditional arising”(occurrence due

to conditions); and the understanding

of the true substance of the cosmos

is the “Buddha nature”. Under the

guidance-in-practice of “form, system

and application”, it happens that the

“Buddha nature” generates the great

application of “sunyata”.

Today, the world is in the

twenty-first century. The arrival of a

new century signifies the arrival of

a new period of development for all

mankind. As a new century challenges

the age-old Buddhism, it also provides

Buddhism with new opportunities

for progress. How should Buddhism

bring its ancient philosophy into

the modern society? How should

Buddhist teachings be disseminated

appropriately in response to the

circumstances, under the new

historical conditions? It is meaningful

in the long run and forward looking

to explore such issues. As early as the

fifties and sixties of the twentieth

century, there were already Buddhists

in Tasmania. By the eighties, different

schools from the three Buddhist

vehicles of Hinayana, Mahayana,

and Tantrayana; as well as various

Buddhist organizations from China,

Nepal, Thailand, Japan, Tibet, and Sri

Lanka; also appeared in Tasmania.

They had also organized meetings,

ceremonies, and meditation activities.

In the twentieth century, human

culture achieved unprecedented

accomplishments in scientific

technologies and in material

advancements. Yet, at the same time,

humanity also started to face numerous

concerns, such as environmental

contamination, ecological imbalance,

moral deterioration, and nuclear

threat etc. These illustrate mankind’s

needs for perfecting the thinking

consciousness. Humanity needs to

elevate the quality of the mind and

the quality of life. A highly advanced

technological civilization requires

mankind to possess highly perfected

spiritual qualities. Only then can

scientific skills proliferate in better

benefiting mankind. Only then

can technology benefit humanity.

Otherwise, high technologies are

likely to be “misused” by mankind, or

transformed into “fearsome” form of

“power” entities. In the new century,

the fortune of all mankind and the

advancement of civilization require

a peaceful world. In addition to

the continued development of high

technologies, it also requires mankind

to elevate the quality of their lives,

and improve and perfect humanity’s

spirits. Therefore, like all other

religions in the world, Buddhism

is duty-bound in shouldering the

historical heavy responsibilities.

Buddhism should enhance the

analytical and eloquent theoretical

advantages of the Buddhist “mindonly”

and “middle way” world views.

Buddhism should gradually introduce

to all mankind its ultimate ideals

of the cosmos and of human life;

it should also introduce its unique

“epistemology” and “methodology”

regarding the universe. To every

Buddhist, comprehending the belief

system of Buddhism, and consolidate

one’s faith, are the basic ingredients

for the establishment of Buddhism.

Therefore, the development of

the belief system is vital to the

development of Buddhism. Promote

the belief system of Buddhism. Adapt

the belief system of Buddhism as

appropriate to modern man. Let

it become modern man’s spiritual

nourishment. Only then can

Buddhism have practical application

in guiding mankind and in integrating

into the modern society. Therefore,

the belief system of Buddhism

requires a process of self-translation.

The ancient culture and philosophy of

Buddhism need to be expounded in a

modern manner as appropriate to the

time and circumstances. Buddhism

needs to adapt to the modern society

to facilitate the absorption by modern

society and acceptance by modern

man. This is what we call Buddhist

“Revolution”.

Therefore, every Buddhist

should identify his own belief system

with those structured and shaped

contents. Roughly speaking, we can

explore the following five areas:- 01.

Faith in the teachings of Buddha, such

as the Four Noble Truths, Eight Noble

Paths, Twelve Nidanas (twelve links),

Six Paramitas (six perfections), Theory

of Cause and Effect, permanence of

life, and transmigration rebirth, as

true without illusion. 02. Belief in the

three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and

Sangha as true immaculate merits. 03.

Faith that we are complete with the

three jewels. Belief that all sentient

beings are complete with the Buddha

nature, and that zealous progress and

real practice of Dharma will attain

all merits of the three jewels within

ourselves. 04. Belief in the supreme

“one seal of reality” of the twelve

vehicles of Buddhism. All Dharma

are equal and each is adopted for

different circumstances. The eightyfour

thousand exoteric and esoteric

Dharma methods are in perfect

harmony. As long as it is appropriate

to the circumstances, every real

practising method is a good method.

05. Faith in the objective existence

of the Dharmakaya Buddha. Belief

that the Buddha nature can apply the

great practical application of “nature,

form, system and application”. As

long as the practitioner’s individual

merges with the reality of dharma

nature (harmonic union of body and

universe), then it is feasible for one to

attain with the current body, achieve

nirvana in the current life, and verify

the eternal cosmos with the transient

finite physical life. In such way,

everyone can practise and realize

Buddhahood. Everyone is filled with

compassion, love, and cosmic wisdom.

As the quality of man’s life and spirit

are elevated, peace on earth can

become reality.


Bhagavan Zhi Ji Vimalakirti

Wang Xin De

28th Patriarch, and Current

Patriarch Chinese Han

Transmission Tantrayana

Buddhism, Holy Tantra Gu

Fan Mi Jin Gang Dhyana

Buddhism, President of

Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist

Academy and International

Jin Gang Dhyana Association

& Jin Gang Dhyana Wang

Xin De Foundation of

Australia


| NOT FOR SALE |

The Annual Katina Ceremony

of the Geneva International

Buddhist Vihara, Geneva,

Switzerland held on October

24, 2021 at the temple premises in

Geneva, Switzerland. The members

of the “Vishaka Kulagana Society”

in the temple were the main

sponsors of the event on this year.

The ceremony commenced with

katina robe procession and religious

observances followed by dana to the

monks. This meritorious ceremony

was preceded by Most Venerable

Parawahera Chandarathana Nayaka

Thera, the Head of the International

Buddhist Centre in Paris & Chief

Sanghanayaka of France and the

religious ceremonies was conducted

by Most Venerable Tawalama

Dhammika Nayaka Thero, Head of

Geneva International Buddhist Vihara,

Founder Member of the Geneva

Inter Religious Platform & Chief

Sanghanaya of Switzerland. Also, the

Deputy Head of Geneva International

Buddhist Vihara, Venerable Halvitigala

Sujatha Thero, Switzerland Nation’s

Venerable Lakkhano Thero, Laos

Nation’s Venerable Weerawardano

and other Buddhist Nuns, Venerable

Bhikkhuni Mugin, Venerable Bhikkhuni

Shantha, Venerable Bhikkhuni Manasa

and Laos, Vietnamese, Cambodian,

Bangladesh and Sri Lankan devotees

participated to the event.

Buddhika Sanjeewa

After visit to Geneva,

Switzerland.

Switzerland - Geneva

Katina Ceremony….

| NOT FOR SALE |


Danzanravjaa

- The Star in

the Sky….

It is true that, when Danzanravjaa

meditated upon the difficult

aspects of Dharma, such as

guiding the consciousness and

overcoming the demons who take

the form of wrathful spirits of the

secret mantra, he employed alcohol,

which is also described in the Tibetan

and Mongolian tradition as nectar.

However, this was not the kind of

alcohol such as is understood by

people with a mundane attitude, the

kind which makes us drunk. According

to a very early tradition, developed

during the time of the Buddhist teacher

Padmajuna, those who protect the

magical knowledge which is opened

up through the secret wisdom of the

winds, droplets and channels, when

they come to the powerful protector

in their tantric meditation, the fact

that they come riding upon a horse

is a very secret aspect of wisdom.

Some of the rich people and nobles

and common people, who understood

that Danzanravjaa meditated under

the influence of nectar, themselves

drank a lot of alcohol. He brought

them together and filled everybody’s

cups with alcohol to which had been

added such foul-smelling things

as dog excrement. He changed

this unpleasant smelling liquid to

delicious-smelling pure spring water,

yet when the others drank it they were

disappointed and gave to retching

and vomiting. Danzanravjaa had the

extraordinary skill of transforming

alcohol into spring water, he turned

regular water into nectar. And he

dedicate a poem, “A Song Against

Arhi,” to his students and other people

of faith.

Danzanravjaa was a man who

had a deep relationship with the

heavens and with the earth. He was

especially interested in investigating

the land. There was a well which came

forth from the place where an arrow

which he fired had landed, to the west

of Hamriin Hiid, and its pure waters

were curative, and his instructions

for finding these waters are given

in his “Sutra of Blessed Spring

Waters.” Hamariin Hiid, in fact, had a

number of monks who had achieved

high levels of meditation, and they

meditated in one hundred eight caves

in the area, with Danzanravjaa as

their retreat master. Not only monks,

but also nobles and ordinary people

meditated with him, and their practise

was clarified in a book he wrote,

entitled “The Practise of Meditation

for Ordained and Lay Practitioners.”

In his biography, Danzanravjaa wrote

how he had broken open a piece of

volcanic lava and extracted a magical

rock. This rock, it was said, he kept

constantly in his hand. The way he

chose the site for his own monasteries

and temples was also amazing. One of

these was Demchid Hiid, one of three

monasteries built at Galbin Uul. Today

people come from near and far to

this rocky mountain, which is known

as a place of exceptional power.

Among the hills around Övörhamar,

there are stone circles set out in the

manner of the Kalachakra, and here

Danzanravjaa is said to have sat in

meditative samadhi. Many times

he sat in meditation here and so

determined the vertex of Shambhala,

the naval of today’s magnificent

Shambhala complex. In 1853, when

he was fifty years old, he chanted

Düinhor and established the path

leading to Shambhala, and every year

since then a prayer ceremony called

“Prayer of Shambhala” has been held,

and has generated great blessing.

In this way, Danzanravjaa

established at a single point the

power of the universe, the power of

the land, and the power of Buddhism,

and this was Shambhala, which is

how people have generally come to

call this place near to Hamriin Hiid.

Danzanravjaa was also able to open

up Shambhala through the power of

his wisdom and his advanced practise

of meditation. He later reached the

higher level of Shambhala, which

is in the state of nirvana. The great

Russian scholar Nicholas Roerich

knew something about this when he

wrote, “The secret key to the land of

Shambhala is in the hands of a man

of the Govi.” As I have said, over the

years, and on his travels, Danzanravjaa

promoted his work of religion, and he

was continually engaged in writing

poems, of which we now have some

four hundred. Moreover, there exist

around a hundred spiritual poems in

Tibetan, which remain untranslated.

And his works of religious philosophy,

such as “The Precious Jewel in the

Naga’s Crown” have not been offered

to the public, and some of these are

stored in secret.

In addition to these texts, his play

“The Moon Cuckoo” is a rare historical

example, not only of Mongolian

theater, but of theater in terms of

human culture. It was performed over

the course of an entire month in a

large area where nomadic groups

had come together with their camel

caravans. But Danzanravjaa composed

his poems on a number of different

levels. When he was traveling with

his students, or when he was taking

part in festivals and celebrations, he

would write poems and sing songs

after observing the landscape and

swift horses. He used regular words

for these, as in popular songs, or ardin

duu, and they were easy to understand,

and many people took them down

and sang them, and so they quickly

spread. When he was in meditation,

or else when he manifested as a

protector of the Dharma, the spiritual

songs which he wittily composed

were noted by secretaries such as

Haliut and written in notebooks, and

some of these became texts recited

at Hamriin Hiid. It was not easy to

understand these songs even when

they were written. Danzanravjaa set

these spiritual poems to music and

sought to establish them in the hearts

of regular people.

The tunes which are associated

with his spiritual poetry are

understood as the horses which bring

the poems to the human heart. While

Danzanravjaa wrote the music for

many of his poems, Dadishura also set

many of them. These songs quickly

spread among the nomadic population.

Danzanravjaa traveled throughout

Mongolia, through Alagshaa and other

areas of contemporary Inner Mongolia,

and so to Beijing and Wutaishan, but

he was prevented from traveling to

Tibet, and some scholars are of the

opinion that it was because of some

kind of inner conflict between the red

and yellow sects of Buddhism.

| NOT FOR SALE |

“The Poem of

the Life”….

Dr. G. Mend Ooyo

Poet, Writer and President,

Mongolian Academy of Culture

and Poetry, Founder and Editor

in chief of GUNU Magazine,

Mongolia


Can we act upon aging of

the brain and fight against

cognitive decline the same

way we can act upon aging on

the body itself? Over the last decades,

scientific studies have looked into

the consequences of mind-training

practices – meditation – on both body

and spirit.

Thanks to a number of studies, we

know that the practice of meditation

has an immediate impact on cerebral

activity and, in the long term, on the

very structure of the brain. We have

the ability to transform ourselves on

our own thanks to neuroplasticity -

the mechanisms by which the brain

can modify itself. This occurs through

neurogenesis processes, from the

embryo stage or during training, and

manifests itself by the brain’s ability

to create, undo or reorganize neural

networks and their connections.

Neuroplasticity happens throughout

life time. But what impact does the

practice of meditation have on the

brain of the elderly, particularly prone

to cognitive decline?

This decline occurs frequently

towards the end of life; it is a natural

process. After the age of 40, our brain

starts to slowly lose certain abilities

and ages structurally. These changes

may be hastened by our living

conditions, which may be linked to

how others perceive us, our selfimage,

or by the fact that we become

more exposed to the deaths of loved

ones and to loneliness. And sleep

disorders increase exponentially,

affecting 50% of those above 65, as

do neurodegenerative illnesses such

as Alzheimer’s.

These pathological processes

causing stress and anxiety have a

significant detrimental impact on the

quality of life and the health of the

elderly; prone to mental ruminations,

they are often victims of depressive

syndromes When we observe the

process of rumination, it is easy to

see the extent to which it constitutes

a factor of disturbance. So, we must

free ourselves from these mental

chain reactions we maintain through

rumination. We need to learn to let

thoughts arise and dissipate as they

occur, instead of letting them take

over our mind.

Like skills and knowledge, this

ability to let « thoughts arise and

dissipate as they occur, instead of

letting them take over our mind”

can be developed through training.

Impact of

Meditation

& Brain….

“The

Practice of

Meditation”

By practicing mindfulness, we can

emancipate ourselves from certain

chains linked to cognitive aging

and help prevent or slow down agerelated

degenerative illnesses.

Far from preconceived ideas,

meditation is a conscious and active

practice. Over time, through exercises

and perseverance, meditation shapes

our mind and develops our capacity

for control, discernment and clear

mindedness. We spend a lot of time

improving the external conditions of

our lives, but in the end it is always the

mind which creates our experience of

the world and translates it into wellbeing

or suffering. Being able to act

consciously on the way we perceive

things is being able to transform

our quality of life. It is this type of

transformation which is brought

about by mind training, what we call

meditation, a practice not limited to

attention or what is generally referred

to as « mindfulness.

“Most of our innate abilities lay

dormant unless we do something,

such as mind training, to bring them

to their optimal functioning state.

Through an empirical approach and a

well-trained mind, the contemplatives

have found efficient methods for

gradually transforming emotions,

moods and character traits, as well

as for eroding deeply rooted atavistic

tendencies that stand in the way of an

optimal mode of being. Accomplishing

this changes the quality of our lives

at every moment by reinforcing

fundamental human characteristics

such as kindness, freedom, peace and

inner strength.

Developing our mind’s potential

with practice and throughout life

significantly improves both physical

and cognitive health. Scientific

studies have shown that practicing

meditation can increase mental

health and well-being in the aging

population. A recent study by Dr.

Gaëlle Chételat at INSERM (the

French national institute of health

Most Venerable

Matthieu Ricard Thero

The World’s Famous French

Buddhist Monk, Humanitarian,

Author, Founding Director and

President of Karuna Shechen

and medical research) evaluates –

with still preliminary results - the

impact of meditative practice on

preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Using medical imaging, Gaëlle

Chételat analyzes the brain of 259

seniors3 : 67 of them have never

practiced meditation while 6 have

undertaken between 15,000 and

30,000 hours of meditation on

attention, benevolence and other

qualities. Looking at the volume of

gray matter in the patients’ brain, the

greatest amount is found in the 6 who

meditate regularly. More specifically,

the cerebral areas dedicated to

attention and the regulation of

emotions present a much greater

metabolism than those of other

subjects. Though the scientists

prefer not to make too general an

affirmation, it seems that the brain of

long-term practitioners is on average

structurally and metabolically 10 to

15 years younger than those of same

age subjects.

Meditation thus opens up a way

to work against cellular aging and

prevent cognitive deterioration. Just

as we maintain our physical abilities

through exercise, the mind also must

continuously be trained by cultivating

an attentive and kind presence to

the world. When properly done, the

practice of meditation unites body

and mind through a discipline that

fosters a feeling of plenitude and

promotes health.

| NOT FOR SALE |


Before we begin the practice of

meditation, it is very important

to have a clear understanding

of what we’re looking for.

We must understand not only the

difference between unwholesome

and wholesome behaviors, but

also their roots in our daily lives.

In the Sammādi??hisutta of the

Majjhimanikāya, the Buddha states

that “…a noble disciple understands

what is unwholesome, what is the

root of unwholesomeness, what

is wholesome, what is the root

of wholesomeness…”. If we are to

transform our minds – the bhāvanā

we discussed earlier – then we

must first realize what causes us

to develop destructive mind states.

Fortunately, the Buddha spelled out

ten unwholesome courses of action,

namely: killing living beings; taking

what is not given; sexual misconduct;

false speech; malicious speech; harsh

speech; gossip; covetousness; ill-will;

and wrong view.

He also made it clear that the

roots of these unskillful behaviors,

whether they manifest in action,

speech or thought, are greed,

hated and delusion. These three

unwholesome states are the basis

for all suffering, and they must be

eliminated before peace, joy, and

freedom can be achieved. To cover

the wholesome side of our minds,

the Buddha simply negated the ten

unwholesome actions and their

roots by advocating: abstaining from

killing living beings; abstaining from

taking what is not given; abstaining

from sexual misconduct; abstaining

from false speech; abstaining from

malicious speech; abstaining from

harsh speech; abstaining from gossip;

abstaining from covetousness;

abstaining from ill-will and abstaining

from wrong view.

Similarly, the roots of these

skillful behaviors, whether they

manifest in action, speech or thought,

are non-greed (generosity), non-hated

(loving-kindness) and non delusion

(wisdom). These three wholesome

states are the basis of all joy, and

they must be cultivated before peace,

joy, and freedom can be achieved.

Once we can identify these positive

and negative mind states, we can

easily avoid any situation that leads

to suffering while following that

path that leads to happiness. Once

we have the above three kinds of

right understanding, we can cultivate

wholesome thought as the path

continues to unfold.

To have right thought is to

develop thoughts of non-greed

(generosity); thoughts of non-hatred

(loving-kindness) and thoughts of

non-cruelty (compassion). The Buddha

illustrated the benefits of such

behavior in the very first two verses

of the Dhammapada. The first verse

states, “Mind precedes all mental

states. Mind is the chief; they are all

mind-wrought. If with an impure mind

a person speaks or acts, suffering

will follow him like the cartwheel

follows the v foot of the ox.” In the

above simile, although there is a gap

between the wheel of the cart and the

foot of the ox, one will still eventually

pass where the other has gone. In the

same way, we will inevitably have

suffering strike us if we follow the

path of an impure mind. This is due

to our tendency to speak or act in

ways that are greedy, hateful, cruel,

or deluded when thoughts of greed,

hatred, cruelty, and delusion arise

unchecked by mindfulness. We tend

to yield to unwholesome impulses

and forget their repercussions.

Sometimes, even if we do

anticipate the result of our actions,

we still try to get away with our

unwholesome behavior by blaming

others and abusing their trust. We

might take advantage of the legal

system with a fancy lawyer or make a

million other fruitless attempts to not

own up to what we’ve done. We think,

“Well, I would have been punished if

I had really done anything wrong,” or

we try and pretend that those we’ve

hurt had it coming to them. But no

amount of rationalizing will help, and

sooner or later suffering catches up.

Even if we win the case or escape

consequence at work, in the final

analysis, we end up with nothing but

regret, shame, and sorrow. The second

verse of Dhammapada states, “Mind

precedes all mental states. Mind is

the chief; they are all mind wrought.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or

acts, vi happiness will follow him like

his never-departing shadow.”

Interestingly, in the above simile,

there is no distance between the

shadow and the wholesome person.

This shows clearly the immediate

joy we feel when we speak or act

with a pure state of mind. And while

the ox cart was burdensome and

heavy, the shadow is light and free.

You’ve never felt weighed down by

your shadow, have you? Likewise,

there is buoyant lightness in the joy

and happiness brought on by our

good deeds. But what does it mean

to have these thoughts of non-greed,

non-hate, and non-delusion? To have

thoughts of non-greed simply means

to nurture mind states that support

giving and sharing our possessions,

both material and immaterial, with

others. Generosity can be the giving

of material goods or the giving of

service; to offer food, clothes, or

anything that another person may

find helpful is to have right thought.

We can even practice giving away

immaterial things such as our time,

ideas, kind words or just a smile. A

smile is a natural expression of a

relaxed body and mind; generously

donating it for another person is a

beautiful act of non-greed.

Sadly, immaterial things can

often be the hardest to give away.

Many people can donate a multitude

of possessions but never a minute of

their time. We are often quite attached

to our free time because it is so much

closer to our ego. If you find it difficult

to donate your time to others, please

do try and aid or simply comfort

those in need when you have a spare

moment. There is a Chinese proverb,

“If you want to be happy in your life,

help others.” It is a great opportunity

for cultivating right thought to be

able to share your time with others.

Please consider some volunteer work

for non-profit organizations. Practice

sharing your accomplishments with

others and rejoice in others’ success.

These practices not only help

others but also enrich you spiritually

as well. Giving will help you to weaken

or overcome self-centered desires

and attachments. With generosity,

you can achieve far greater happiness

here and now as well as in the future.

Paradoxically, when you give, you

get! Yet, among all these wonderful

expressions of generosity, there is a

higher form of giving. By maintaining

the five precepts, we can offer the

great gift of fearlessness, security and

freedom.

| NOT FOR SALE |

Greater

Happiness &

Freedom….

Most Venerable Bhante

Kaboggoza Buddharakkhita

The First African Buddhist Monk,

Chief Abbot of Uganda Buddhist

Centre, Uganda,

East Africa


Buddhism

100 Years in Africa

| NOT FOR SALE |

December 04 - 06, 2021

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa.

BUDDHA VIHARA SOCIETY

33/A, Lorong - J, Telok Kurau, Singapore. 425814.

Official Media Sponsor


Glory of

Lumbini

The Reflection of Samsara....

The way of

Awakening....

Buddhika Sanjeewa, as the Founder, President & Chief Editor of Mettavalokana Buddhist Publications Centre, I printed and published this “Mettavalokanaya” Buddhist

Magazine as a publication of Mettavalokana Buddhist Publications Centre on November 01, 2021 at Imashi Prakashana, No. 96/A, Wanatha Road, Gangodawila, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.

Registered at Department of National Archives in Sri Lanka 424551/05/01/2016

#Mettavalokanaya_International_Buddhist_Magazine_November_2021

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