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NAMO
TASSA
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'THE
BUDDHIST HOUR'
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Hillside
Radio 87.6 FM & 88.0 FM |
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The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 26 August 2001
Nowadays, most persons would not contest there are benefits to be gained from developing the body, since exercise and diet regimes are at an epidemic level.
Others would not contest there are benefits to be gained from developing the speech. Many people seek courses in the area of speech development.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was a pioneer of such courses in the field of public speaking and the psychology of the successful personality. His courses are still popular today.
Dale Carnegie was a US lecturer, author and teacher and became an instant success with the hugely popular “ How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Like most of his books, it reveals little that was unknown about human psychology but stresses that an individual’s attitude is crucial.
It appears that what is needed for success is the ability to talk the talk within the chosen culture.
Spiritual experience to develop the good heart is not yet a popular field for scientific inquiry in Western culture. However, a small band of scientists have begun to look at scientific data in relation to the various altered states of consciousness.
James H. Austin, a neurologist, describes such an experience.
After 8 years of Zen training, he spent a sabbatical year at the London Zen Center. One morning, while waiting for a train, he suddenly felt the loss of his “I-me-mine” perspective, and the scene around him seemed to acquire an “absolute reality, intrinsic rightness, and ultimate perfection.”
He felt that his experience was impossible to fully describe, that he had nothing to fear, and he immediately took himself less seriously. This experience inspired him to initiate a scientific investigation into the neurology of enlightenment which he describes in his book Zen and the Brain (1998, MIT Press).
We prefer the term “the good heart” to “the good mind”.
Some persons may query if there is much proof in developing the mind. If the mind is thought of as permanent, how could it change? Not only is the mind consciousness impermanent and subject to change, but it is also the chief of all happenings according to Buddha Dharma.
The mind is not only chief, but is also the driver of change for each individual’s behaviour in the world.
Persons might argue it is difficult to see why one would bother to assume something ought to be cultivated only to have it change. The changing mental flux is a large problem when we come to the practice.
The evidence for doing something about the good heart is strong in Buddha Dhamma literature.
Over the last 2,500 years, many persons have reported that through developing their minds, they have discovered for themselves a better state of heart than before they commenced spiritual practice. Increased awareness and understanding of present happenings is the mark of success.
Their testimony verifies the benefits of the practice of undertaking training designed to reduce the clinging to things.
Cognitive science is a young and developing field. Austin believes that a better understanding of the brain areas that contribute to the sense of self, possibly including the thalamus and amygdala, will lead to insight about spiritual enlightenment.
This is still a materialist approach.
Psychologist Eleanor Rosch collaborated with cognitive scientist Francisco J. Varela and philosopher Evan Thompson on The Embodied Mind (1993, MIT Press) to produce a review and critique of the state of cognitive science. They conclude that Western science and philosophy have brought us to the point where we can no longer believe in a solid foundation of experience.
They go on to describe the Buddhist mindfulness awareness tradition as just such a program of first-person inquiry into the nature of groundlessness, and call for a dialogue between cognitive science and the Middle Way as a means of integrating experience and science.
The Buddhist texts stand alone in this regard.
In 'Language Truth & Logic' A.J. Ayer describes the elimination of metaphysics as a process for developing one's mind. He states that the 'traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end it is to establish beyond question what should be the purpose and method of philosophical inquiry'.
In his criticism of the metaphysical thesis he states that 'philosophy affords us knowledge of a reality transcending the world of science and common sense.'
One way of attacking a metaphysician who claimed to have knowledge of a reality which transcended the phenomenal world would be to enquire from what premises his propositions were deduced.
There is no logic base to the argument of a metaphysical discussion because it is ultimately based on the evidence of the senses.
'Many metaphysical utterances are due to the commission of logical errors, rather than to a conscious desire on the part of their authors to go beyond the limits of experience.'
Metaphysics practitioners would say that intellectual intuition enables them to know facts that could not be known through sense-experience.
'One cannot overthrow a system of transcendent metaphysics merely by criticising the way in which it comes into being. What is required is rather a criticism of the nature of the actual statements which comprise it.’
'The labours of those who have striven to describe such a reality have all been devoted to the production of nonsense.’
But when Buddha Dhamma statements are studied, they are found to be a practical guide of how to live in the world if a person chooses to stay within the becoming of birth and death processes.
If you want to develop your mind, investigate how it actually functions. The mind can be compared to a horse, with you as its master. If you wish to tame a horse you must know its habitual behaviour. If the horse is trained well, it will do what you request. However, the horse will usually act according to a pattern of habitual behaviour. If you want to change this pattern, the horse may refuse, because it is stubborn and wants to do what it always has done.
If we leave the horse untrained, it cannot be relied upon and causes all sorts of trouble.
The horse might run too fast, or jump and throw you off; it may not move at all. What use is a horse like that?
When tamed, the horse is obedient because it has a good heart. We say that the heart we are born with is the result of our many actions from the past (our kamma). We may have a very good heart, but if we don't train it, its good capacities are wasted.
Some persons are born bright, but die dull.
The heart can be method and means, a tool that we can alter. In Buddha Dhamma, much attention is given to cultivating the wholesome heart. If we let the unwholesome heart take over, we will have many problems and our suffering will never come to an end
You can replace the simile of the horse with any animal.
For example, in Japan it is the ox. Master Andre Sollier teaches Sumi-e at our Centre. Last year (2000) he taught the ‘Searching for the Ox: A Series of Ox herding Paintings’. It is a sequence of 10 pictures showing how the mind is tamed.
We have uploaded these paintings, including text adapted from poetry written by Japanese Zen Master Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki onto our websites at www.buyresolved.com.au.
The ox represents
the heart. The first picture is entitled "Undisciplined"
(meaning untamed). If we leave our heart untamed for too long, it will be too late to change, just as an old or sick horse cannot be trained any more, or an old ox cannot work any more.
The Buddha Dhamma Teacher who knows the student's heart can show the student what he or she needs to do when the proper request for taming is made with sincerity and the will to do is available.
The Lord Buddha has given many teachings about training the good heart.
An opportunity will arise next year.
The Australasian Buddhist Convention Week will be held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in June 2002. From 22 to 23 June 2002 will be the Convention Conference, titled ‘Buddhism The Pathway to A Peaceful Mind. It is a historic conference that "is focused on the Buddhistic approach to the development of the mind, paramount in overcoming the challenges in contemporary living".
Famous international Masters will visit Australia and read their papers on taming the heart.
How do we test our approach to training?
The wrong idea about work is a source of trouble to many persons. "A person in charge of the work" means that we use concentration and discernment to get the job done. "Work in charge of the person" means that we're lacking in concentration and discernment, and think of the work even when we're lying in bed. "Work in charge of the work" means that some things are out of control with the untamed heart.
A heart without concentration is like a pile of wooden posts left lying on the ground for persons and animals to step all over. But if we stand the posts up and plant them in the soil, we can get good use out of them. Even if they're not tall--only a meter or so--but we put them close together in a line, we can fence in our yard and prevent intruders and animals from coming into our property. It's the same with our heart. If we take a firm stance in concentration as the heart's foundation, keeping our mindfulness and presence of mind close together in line, we can keep defilements from slipping into the heart and making it soiled.
Wise consideration is the heart of spiritual life and the foundation on which the mansion of deliverance is built. If not for wise thinking, life would be run amok due to the weight of defilements (asavas).
To consider wisely is to weigh a thing well in one's mind; to deliberate on the reasons for and against; to reflect and reason out action as opposed to being impulsive; and to determine intentionally the right course, having analysed and separated the right from the wrong views, the good from the bad actions.
This wholesome mental activity of weighing it all up is what determines the course of a person's life--whether life is to be progressive or retrogressive, whether one's conduct is to be purposeful and beneficial or the contrary, whether one is to get more and more involved in kamma and be fettered helplessly to recurring existence, or one is to wrench oneself from the grip of kamma and access the Supramundane dimension of spiritual deliberation--Nibbana. But there is to be no sitting on the fence; because there is nothing in between good and evil; there is nothing in between wise and unwise consideration.
The good heart gets clarity of the situation in all cases when it lets go of negative ideas.
In earlier days life was a lot simpler, so cluttering the heart with rubbish was less likely.
May our listeners come to reflect on the simple practice that results in non-clinging to the Teacher or the method, and when this is known may they know, each for himself or herself, this practice is correct.
The regular and gradual “emptying” of the good heart is the only guarantee of mental health.
May you obtain insight into peace.
This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Evelin Halls, Leanne Eames, Lenore Hamilton, Lainie Smallwood, Rilla Oellien, Jocelyn Hughes and Julian Bamford.
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Accordingly, we accept no liability to any user or subsequent third party, either expressed or implied, whether or not caused by error or omission on either our part, or a member, employee or other person associated with the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.
References
A.J. Ayer, (1960) Language Truth & Logic, Victor Gollancz, London.
The 10 Oxherding Pictures with adapted verse by Japanese Zen Master Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
Acharya Buddharakkhita, (1994) Mind - Overcoming Its Cankers, Buddhist Wisdom Centre, Malaysia.
Buddhist Foundation (Vic.) Australia Inc., "Your Mind Makes Your Life" information sheet.
Thanissaro Bikkhu, The Skill of Release, W.A.V.E., 1997
Berman David (ed.), Chan Magazine Summer 2001, Dharma Drum Publications, 2001
Goetz Philip W. (ed.) The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. ,1987
Hughes, John D. (ed.), Searching for the Ox - A Series of Ox Herding Paintings by Master Andre Sollier. Buddha Dhyana Dana Review. Volume 10. No.1 Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. 2000
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This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It
contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of
research and study. © Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. |