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Buddhist
Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Buddhist Hour Script
321 for Sunday 21 March 2004
This script is entitled:
Practise and Develop Buddhist Meditation
Today we are going to talk about how to practise and
develop Buddhist meditation.
On 1 February 2004, during the
Buddhist hour, we outlined The Code of Conduct for Members and
Students of the Chan Academy Australia, Buddhist Discussion Centre
(Upwey) Ltd. as recommended by our late Founder, Master John D.
Hughes.
This Code of Conduct is comprised of 12 items to be
incorporated into our daily Buddha Dhamma practice, and reviewed
regularly. The 12 items are as follows:
Practise and develop
morality.
Practise and develop generosity.
Practise kindness,
in the Pali language metta.
Practise and develop refuge in the
Triple Gem.
Practise and develop Buddhist meditation.
Practise
and develop merit making.
Develop your scholarship.
Whenever
you take food or liquid, do "Five Reflections on Food".
Support
Buddhist Organisations locally, nationally and
internationally.
Practise and develop our five styles of
friendliness, cultural adaptability, professionalism, scholarship,
and practicality.
Plan to become debtless.
Write a life
plan.
Be careful what you wish for, it will come true.
Our
Members and students successfully live their lives according to
Buddha Dhamma by following the above recommendations. Their lives
improve and they become happier.
This week, we are exploring
the fifth item in our Code of Conduct, practise and develop Buddhist
meditation.
Preserved in our data warehouse of Buddha Dhamma
is a talk given by Venerable Piyadassi Mahathera when he visited our
Centre on 10 August, 1992.
We thank John D. Hughes for
printing this document in the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, and Frank
Carter for preparing this document.
Our Members were indeed
blessed to have the Venerable Piyadassi Mahathera visit our
Centre.
Recognised by Buddhists throughout the World as a
leading figure in Buddhism, Venerable Piyadassi Mahathera is a
renowned authority and scholar on Buddhist Teachings and Meditation.
He wrote many books on the subject of Buddhism that have been
published in both Western and Eastern Countries.
A Buddhist
Monk for over 50 years, Venerable Piyadassi Mahathera is Abbot of two
major Sri Lankan Temples in Colombo and Kandy. He has travelled the
world on many occasions giving lectures, talks and guidance in
Buddhist Teachings and how this discipline can be applied to living
in the world at this difficult time.
With his kind permission,
we reprinted a summary of the Dhamma talk Venerable Piyadassi gave
students during this visit. First printed in our BDDR Volume 2 No. 4,
we read this summary for you today.
"Sisters and
Brothers,
As this is a meditation class, I think you expect me
to speak on meditation. The word meditation we use, for want of a
better word, for bhavana. Bhavana is the word used by the Buddha both
in Pali and Sanskrit, the same word.
If you consult a good
Dictionary, you will find several meanings to the word meditation.
Thinking, thinking quietly, thinking seriously, contemplation. These
are the meanings attached to the word meditation. Now the word
bhavana, means development or culture.
What is it that we
cultivate and develop?
It is mind development, and mind
culture. It is better to understand these two words. Now it is
everywhere, they use the word meditation, but we have no other word.
Bhavana means mind culture or mind development.
You know in
this world, people want to keep physically fit. To keep fit, to do
physical exercise, physical culture, what do they do? I ask you, in
Australia, in Canada, in America, anywhere, what do they do? They are
running, jogging, bending, twisting - all sorts of doing with the
physical body. But the interesting thing is for mental training,
mental exercise, just the opposite.
You sit down for your
meditation. You see that your mind is running faster than your body.
Your mind is running, jogging, twisting, bending, very fast. But to
have mental training, mental culture, you must drop all
that.
Therefore you try to collect, collect, collect, stop
your running, stop your jogging, stop your bending, twisting. You
have to get calm - just the opposite. You get this understanding not
from books. You sit down, you do meditation.
Observe you are
seeing how your mind works. Now when you experience that, it is not
book work, it is not listening to a talk, or reading a book. You
experience it, see how your mind works. Now comes a thought, it
disappears, reappears. You see, you are experiencing all that. In
Buddhism this is the heart. If you remove meditation from Buddhism,
you remove the very heart.
During the Buddha's time, one of
his disciples came to see him. He put a question to the Buddha. He
used the word Dhammaviharin. Dhamma means the Buddha's Teaching,
vihari means living. So Dhammaviharin is living according to the
Dhamma. Now the disciple's question is: "Bhante, what is meant
by Dhammaviharin?"
Now the Buddha answers. "There is
a disciple who is very clever in studying the Dhamma, the Tripitaka,
the Buddha's Teaching. Very clever in studying Dhamma, but does not
go and behave like a hen on her eggs".
You know when a
person is meditating, it is like a hen on her eggs. The hen on her
eggs is seemingly very inactive, but actually doing something very
important. Warming the eggs so that the chicks hatch. But the
squirrel in the revolving cage is seemingly very active. The
squirrel, just merely turning the wheel, but seemingly active. So we
are also in the world sometimes like the squirrel, and when you come
here, you are like the hen on her eggs.
So, this person who
studies the Dhamma is very clever but does not go for meditation. The
Buddha says that person is very clever in studying the Dhamma, but
not Dhammaviharin, not living according to the Dhamma.
Then
there is one who studies the Dhamma, and is also very clever in
Teaching others, or convincing others. But that person does not go
for meditation. The Buddha says that disciple is very clever at
Teaching, but is not Dhammaviharin - not living according to the
Dhamma.
The next is one who can recite Dhamma, has committed
it to memory and can recite the good things, but does not go for
meditation. The Buddha says that disciple is not Dhammaviharin. The
fourth is one who reflects on the Dhamma - a good thing, but does not
go for meditation.
The disciple who learns the Dhamma and does
meditation, the Buddha says, this disciple is Dhammaviharin.
When
the Buddha was about to pass away, all the monks and disciples
gathered together. Soon our Supreme Master will pass away. Let us pay
our Homage, our Respect to our Supreme Teacher. They all gathered
together.
One monk had not come. Dhammarama was his name. So
these monks said, "Bhante, Dhammarama has not come". Buddha
said, "Alright, you go and call him, I want to see him".
The monks went to his kuti and said, "The Buddha wants to see
you". So he came.
You know, the Buddha is very
interesting. If a person does anything wrong, and the Buddha knows
very well what has happened, he will never say "why didn't you
do this?", or "why did you do this?" He never put it
that way. Even in a court of Law we don't do that. Just see what has
happened.
The Buddha also, he knows what has happened. He
knows that person has done something very wrong. He'll just hear you,
what have you got to say.
So the Buddha also said, "Now
Dhammarama, they say that you are not here". "Yes Bhante."
Now, the Buddha sees what answer he gives.
"Bhante, I
thought if I can stay in my kuti and do a little meditation and get
some mental attainment, I think that's the best way to pay Homage to
my Teacher, rather than going there to see my Teacher's
body".
"Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu". Excellent,
excellent, excellent, the Buddha said, "All follow
Dhammarama".
So you see there, also you find the Buddha
used the pride of place for meditation.
From the Buddha's
point of view, each one of us is a conflux of mind and body. Flux is
our physical body changing, not remaining the same for two
consecutive moments. Let alone religion and philosophy, looking at it
from a purely scientific standpoint, all things are changing.
If
you knock here, you cannot knock the same place again. Scientifically
speaking, because the particles of matter there, and the environment
are all in vibration. So the scientist tell us all things are
changing.
The Buddha antedated modern science by 23 centuries
when he said "anicca" - not permanent, or not stable and
fixed. So, now we know that this body is changing. But the mind is
also in flux. Mind and mental factors are all changing.
Now in
your meditation, you can see how a thought comes, disappears, how
fast they come and go. It can be a wholesome thought, unwholesome
thought, ugly thought, beautiful thought. So mind is a flux, flowing,
faster than the body. Seventeen times faster from an Abhidhamma point
of view. Observe these things in your meditation.
After the
Buddha, the first Western Philosopher to come out with the flux
theory was Heroclitus, from Greece. Maybe these ideas were
transported to Greece. To illustrate this idea of flowing, he said
"Man cannot step twice into the same river". Is he right?
Yes, because when he goes there, comes out, and goes again - that is
flowing. That river is gone now. Do you understand?
If you
know your Dhamma, if you know your Teaching, Buddha's Teaching, if
you know the root of the Dhamma, we will go a stage further and say,
not only man cannot step twice into the same river, but, the same man
cannot step twice into the same river. Man is also changing, when he
comes out, another man is going in really.
In Buddhism the
pride of place is given to the human mind. Buddhism is the most
psychological of religions. All theistic religions, by theistic I
mean all religions that profess a God, permanent, everlasting
creator, that permanent creator rewards the good deeds of his
creatures, and also punishes the bad deeds.
The Buddha is not
against these terms God, or soul, he is not against them. But when
you say permanent and everlasting, the Buddha says, "I cannot
say anything is permanent or everlasting".
That's the
thing you see. He tried to find out, to locate anything permanent
here. He found the body flux, he found the mind flux, but he couldn't
locate any permanent entity, any permanent soul or self here.
Therefore he said, "I won't say there is anything permanent".
Not the terms God and soul - only not permanent.
Therefore
all theistic religions are theocentric. Theos, from Greek meaning
God. Now Buddha was not a God or Brahma, or a supernatural being. He
is an historical figure. Also he was a human being. Born as a man,
enlightened as a man, lived as a man, passed away as a man.
But
after he attained enlightenment at the age of 35, he was not an
ordinary man, or philosopher. He was an extraordinary man,
magnificent man, a unique being.
How did he become a unique
being? His body too was subject to sickness, death, old age, dying.
Nothing unnatural here, just blood and flesh and bones. So, to become
enlightened he worked for it, many, many lives, and he cultivated ten
essential qualities of high standard.
Dana, charitable giving,
sila, morality, nekkhamma, renunciation, panna, wisdom, viriya,
effort, khanti, patience, sacca, truthfulness, adhitthana,
determination, metta, loving kindness, upekkha, equanimity. These are
the ten essential qualities of high standard. Even he sacrificed his
life for the sake of enlightenment.
It is not the prerogative
of a chosen few. We each can cultivate the ten essential qualities of
high standard. Enlightenment means to understand ourselves. You find
the four Noble Truths, that's the essence and quintessence of the
Buddha's Teaching. Have you understood yourself? No, no.
When
two persons meet, there are really six persons. How do you get six
out of the two? Each person as he sees himself or herself - one. Each
person as the other person sees him or her - two. Each person as he
really is or as she really is - three. 3 X 2 = 6.
Each one
thinks I am so and so, depending on his ego, his conceit, his pride.
He then thinks who is the other person. Then there is the real
person. That's what Buddha did, understand the real person.
When
we understand ourselves, no more fire here, no more raga fire, hate,
lust or delusion. Buddha once said, "I am a person cool, and
free from all fires". We cannot say that. When we are doing
meditation, all those things are there, sleeping. The latent
tendencies are there.
So the Buddha's Teaching is
anthropocentric, from the Greek - man, man centred.
In this
world, I cannot think of any person who walked like Buddha. The
greatest walker in the world is the Buddha. He walked and walked the
highways of India, enfolding all within his aura of loving
compassion, to meet people. So the Buddha meets all types of people
from all walks of life, Princes and paupers, rich and poor, literate
and illiterate, women and children.
But when he detected any
weakness or shortcomings, the Buddha never said "You are a
sinner, a wretched sinner", the Buddha said, "monks, this
is due to ignorance".
From the Buddha's point of view,
this is the worst taint, worst defilement, the crowning corruption of
all our madness is ignorance.
From an Abhidhamma point of
view, you can't have craving without ignorance. You can't have hatred
without ignorance. Moha, ignorance, can work without any help,
independently.
Do you do breathing meditation? That's the one
the Buddha praised.
Little Rahula, Prince Siddhartha's son,
joined the order when he was very young. The Buddha wanted to Teach
him. He gave him seven types of meditation, from less to more
advanced.
First he gave Rahula the four Brahma vihara, metta,
karuna, mudita, upekkha, love, compassion, sympathetic joy and
equanimity. I call them the Art of Noble Living. Some call it Divine
Abiding. It doesn't carry any meaning unless you know the terms.
You
cultivate love to get rid of hatred. Love and hatred do not co-exist.
When you say love, there is no compromising limitations. Metta means
to be a person without any attachment. The word love is not
enough.
If you do some harm to another person to defend
yourself, don't say I'm justified in doing that. That's not,
Buddhism. That's harming.
There is no compromising
limitations in the Buddha's metta. It is love without attachment, or
bond, or tie. May they be well and happy, may all persons be well and
happy. Metta is like quicksilver, you put it anywhere and it doesn't
get attached. To love without attachment is sometimes not easy, but
not impossible.
You know in this world, sometimes I hear young
people say "I love you more than my life" Lovers say that.
That is lovers' life. But when he sees the response is not to his
satisfaction, then anger.
Not, "I love you more than my
life". And why? That is not real love. It is very selfish that
thing, very possessive. So, metta is a wonderful thing.
You
start with yourself. May I be well, may I be happy, may no harm come
to me. May all living beings be well and happy. It's the easiest way
to do it. I like to be well and happy. May others also be well and
happy. Not selfish.
Send it to those in the hall, wishing
these meditators to be well and happy. Then you go beyond the hall,
whole of Melbourne, whole of Australia, further, further - like you
drop a pebble into the water, it goes out in circles and circles and
circles. So let your love go in circles like that.
Compassion
you see, to avoid violence. Then cultivate sympathetic joy,
appreciative joy. This is the opposite to jealousy. That's the best
way to understand this word. Mudita, appreciative joy, congratulative
joy, gladness, altruistic joy.
The Buddha says, you do this
appreciative joy to get rid of aversion to meditation. In the
beginning there is dislike, cultivate joy, cultivate joy - liking for
the meditation. It gets rid of hatred, repulsion, aversion.
After
the four very mild meditations, you go a little higher. Now examine
the unpleasant nature of your body - to get rid of raga, lust. You
see that all things are not so pleasant.
Then the Buddha says
cultivate anicca. Cultivate impermanent. Then you get rid of "I
am", "I am" notion. People aren't fixed, they are
changing. Do that meditation. Also Rahula could get conceit because
he thinks, Buddha is my father. Contemplate impermanence.
Then
he comes to anapanasati - the highest, breathing meditation. You may
ask, "What is this meditation?". We are breathing all the
time, even when we are asleep. The importance is mindfulness.
Mindfully breathing in, mindfully breathing out.
At other
times, this is not possible. But when we decide to meditate we cut
off all outside distractions. This is also why we meditate in sitting
posture, to cut off bodily distractions, mindfully concentrating. If
you can't sit on a cushion, you can sit on a chair, but the chair
must have a straight back otherwise you can fall asleep.
The
important thing is to keep the body erect, the spinal column and the
head. Only for this meditation the sitting posture is essential. Can
we lie down to meditate? Yes, but there is a danger of falling
asleep. When you are walking, you are just mindful of your walking,
not the breath.
There should be no effort to control the
breath, just allow it to ebb and flow at its own natural rhythm.
There are people who have meditated for 10 or 15 years who some days
find they cannot concentrate for even one minute. That is the nature
of the mind.
The Cardiac Society in London has done research
with this meditation and have accepted its curative effects. There
are now 68,000 British patients doing breathing meditation. They said
this meditation had done more for the patients than curative
drugs.
Unlike some other meditation practices, this meditation
has an effect on both sides of the brain, and thus it is capable of
bringing marvellous results to patients. A Sri Lankan Dr. Bodiniki,
Consultant Psychiatrist to Harley Hospital, Essex, U.K., says that 30
minutes of meditation, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at
night, gives the body relaxation equal to 6 or 7 hours of sleep.
It
has been scientifically proved that anapanasati meditation is capable
of synchronising the workings of both sides of the brain and reducing
the patients oxygen needs, blood pressure and heart rate.
This
meditation can also be used to get people off drug addiction. I once
went to Joseph Goldstein's Meditation Centre in Boston. These young
people were meditating for one, two or three months and gradually
developed an aversion towards all liquor and drugs. Radical changes
have occurred. The parents are surprised at these results and then
also come and do a little meditation to find out the
benefits.
Question: What happens when the mind won't stay
still? What is the best thing to do?
Answer: Do some metta
meditation. If you find you are sleepy, either go to sleep if you are
tired, or to wake up, stir the physical body. Wash the face, rub
vigourously, and set the mind to doing the meditation.
When
you cannot sleep in the night you can do a little breathing
meditation, or if you are troubled, you can just stretch the body and
make it like a dead body. Don't think, just be there, aware. One
hour, two hours, just relax. When you get up in the morning you are
invigorated and you can do your work. Meditators do not need as much
sleep as the meditation is itself relaxing for body and mind. Instead
of 6 or 7 hours sleep we meditate instead. It's good."
After
the Dhamma talk concluded, Members of our Centre expressed their
gratitude for Venerable Piyadassi Mahathera's kindness in visiting
our Centre and offering his exceptional advice and Blessings to help
us. Members then made many offerings of flowers, incense and other
Dhamma gifts to the Venerable.
We thank Venerable Piyadassi
for his remarkable Dhamma activity and his kind permission to reprint
this Dhamma Teaching in our Review. We also thank Venerable Soma of
the Sri Lankan Buddhist Vihara at 66 Regent St, Springvale for
helping us to organise this important visit.
The original
audio tape from which this transcript was made is available in the
archives of our John D. Hughes Collection Library.
Practising
Meditation is one of the 10 ways of making merit as taught by the
Buddha, being aware of absolute truth. The 10 ways are listed (with
Pali) for consideration and practice, for your reference.
1.
DANA, Generosity
2. SILA, Observing Precepts
3. BHAVANA,
Practice of Concentration and Meditation
4. APACAYANA, Respect for
Dhamma Teachers
5. VEYYAVACCA, Giving a helping hand for others to
perform Virtuous Deeds
6. PATTIDANA, Sharing Merits
7.
PATTANUMODANA, Joyful acknowledgements in the sharing of Merits
8.
DHANIMASSAVANA, Listening to Dhamma
9. DHAMMADESANA, Teaching
Dhamma
10. DITTHUJUKAMMA, Righting one's own Wrong Views
Our
Centre has developed a Versak world culture where we extend our
regular practice and extend our practice so we are sitting in
meditation at that full moon time with the millions of persons in
different lands.
The result of practice is refreshing and
healthful and something you would hardly believe unless you have to
experienced it for yourself.
The real benefits of this
observance explain why this practice continues to last over 2500
years.
May you practise and develop Buddhist meditation.
May
all beings, in the ten directions, seen and unseen, receive blessings
from this script.
We thank the Devas and Devatas of Learning
for their help in and guidance with the writing of this script.
May
you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
This
script was written and edited by Leanne Eames, Evelin Halls and
Pennie White.
References:
Chan Academy Australia,
LAN 1 digital data warehouse using ISYS Text Retrieval System Search
on Meditation, Concentration, Bhavana, Melbourne.
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