Dhamma discussion in Oct 2017

Levels of Understanding

Student: It is said that you cannot understand the Four noble truths by reading or by listening or by discussion but you can only understand them by experiencing them by yourself in meditation. Why is this?

Venerable: There are three types of knowledge. The first one is suta-maya-ñāṇa – the knowledge you get from hearsay or the knowledge you get from learning, like when you read a book. Or when you hear from somebody, like now. This is the easiest, just by reading about them you get some understanding of the four noble truths.. The second is cinta-maya-ñāṇa, the knowledge you get from thinking by yourself.

 And then the third knowledge is bhavana, which means meditation, the knowledge you get from realization. So you were talking about this third knowledge, so it is not the only way to understand the four noble truths. But to get the third knowledge you still have to go through number one and number two. Before you practice meditation you must know what meditation is, and how to meditate, for example.

Types of Dukkha

Venerable: There are three types of dukkha. Dukkha-dukkha, viparināma-dukkha and saṅkhāra-dukkha. The first one, dukkha-dukkha refers to the very gross suffering of physical pain. The second, viparināma dukkha means suffering due to change. And the third one, Saṅkhāra-dukkha is the suffering due to formations. To know about this suffering first you must have heard that there are three types of dukkha, and then you start to think about it. Then you really understand the dukkha in your own way. By meditating yourself, you will really see the suffering. What kind of suffering can you get from meditation? When we ask you to sit for one hour, is it easy?

Students: There is physical pain, mosquito bites, emotions coming up…

Venerable: Before you start to meditate, people tell you meditation is sitting for one hour, you will say: ‘it’s so easy!’ Because you can sit in front of the TV for three hours. Easy! But when you sit down you see bodily pain. What kind of bodily suffering will you have?

Students: Back pain…

Venerable: Do you always have back pain? Why do you get back pain in sitting meditation?

Student: Because you focus on it?

Venerable: That’s one answer. Where does the pain come from? Actually, the answer is that the pain comes from the body. You notice it very clearly when you don’t change your posture. That’s why when we read the path of purification it says that impermanence is covered by continuity. Suffering is covered by change of posture. Non-self is covered by compactness. This is a very deep Dhamma teaching.

The Five Aggregates

Student: Yesterday there was an example with a flower about the five aggregates. I didn’t understand it.

Venerable: When you see a flower what happens at that time? Of course, the flower is matter, and the eye-base, the retina is also matter (rūpa). When you see the flower you will have good feeling (vedanā). You will also have a perception that it is a flower (saññā). There will be effort in seeing the flower; and there may be also joy and happiness, these belonging to the group of mental formation (saṅkhāra). There will be seeing consciousness (viññāṇa). So these are the five aggregates : matter, feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness in detail. In general it is easier. Matter is one and the other four belong to the mind. In any insight meditation center you will hear these words, nāma-rūpa. Nāma is the mind and rūpa is the body.

Samatha and Vipassanā

Venerable: Samatha is the type of meditation where you just focus on one object. Let’s say you are doing breathing meditation. You just put your attention here, under the nose, and you don’t care about anything else: pain, itching, the wandering mind, thoughts... until you get very deep concentration and you go into jhāna, very deep states of concentration. For Vipassanā, even though you focus on the breathing here, or the rising-falling of the abdomen you still focus on other objects according to the four foundations of mindfulness, seeing, hearing and so on. Another difference is that samatha is focused on a conceptual object and vipassanā on the mind and body, a real object. The third difference is that samatha can be taught when the Buddha’s teaching is not around, but Vipassanā only exists in the world when there are the Buddha’s teachings.V

For Vipassanā we practice according to the four foundations of mindfulness: Body, feelings mind and dhammas. You don’t get bored in Vipassanā meditation because many objects come up that you can contemplate on.   

Student: I find it difficult to control the mind in Samatha meditation. Sometime the mind is somewhere else…

Venerable: Why is the mind somewhere else? Have a think about it. Why can’t you concentrate? Because your mind is not interested! Your mind will not wander if you watch a very interesting movie. The key point in meditation is whether you are interested. How to make you mind interested in the breathing?

Student: to believe…

Venerable: Yes that is the first way. If you have no firm conviction in the method or Buddha’s teachings your mind will wander off. Secondly if you don’t see the advantage of the practice you won’t be able to meditate. Thirdly it’s important to have the right skill or the right method to meditate. Four, you might think you have a lot of time in your life to meditate. You have no spiritual urgency. If you think you are going to live for a very long time, till age of 80 or 100, you do not see it is important to meditate now in your current life, now your age is about 20 plus. So how can you make your mind interested in meditation?

One way is you can count, in-out 1, in out 2 up until 8, not more than that. The purpose of counting is to follow your breath closely. When you do this your mind will not wander. After a while, when your mind is settled down on the object then you don’t need to count anymore. Otherwise, counting will create a lot of thinking. It will deter the progress when your mind is already settled down.

The second method is that you can purposely make your breathing slow and calm. Your mind will calm down, and when it is calm it will become happier. Then it will settle here. If you breathe this way it is also more obvious and easier to follow. You can follow the whole breath and you can feel the whole body is expanding with air coming in, and collapsing with air going out. and not just the touching point under the nostril. Or you can observe the abdomen rising and falling Sometimes you find you cannot find the touching point at the nostril and you get frustrated. So this way observing the whole body breathing or abdomen rising and falling is easier.

If you like you can combine both, counting and deep breathing. This will really help you to settle the mind.

Buddhist Art

Student:  Because I’m studying History of Art, I want to know what is art in Buddhism.

Venerable: There are different kinds of arts, like architecture, for example the pagodas. Different Pagodas have different styles. The earliest are called Sanchi pagoda from India and are shaped like a round cylinder. The later ones are shaped like a bell, for example those from the 19^th century. By looking at the structure of the building we can find the era that it was built in.

In most of the Pagodas you can also see mural paintings for example of the jataka, which are the stories of the Buddha’s birth. There are many colorful paintings in which there are many good pieces of art. One of the most famous is found in a cave in Sagaing.

Another type, which can be found in Angkor Wat, are the faces of the smiling Buddha, also known as the smiling Bodhisatta.

There are lots of types of art in Buddhism, it would be a very interesting area of research for you if you are interested. For example, Buddha statues with mudra or hand gestures. Each has a different meaning, for example giving blessing or favor, or the Buddha with lotus sitting position with right hand above the left hand. The earth-touching mudra is another famous one. At the time of the enlightenment, Mara the Evil One asked the Buddha to get out from underneath the Bodhi tree, saying that ‘this place belongs to me’. All the good gods (devas) run away from Mara because they are scared of him, and so no-one can witness his enlightenment for him. So the Buddha touches the earth to call the earth as a witness. Then the earth starts to shake and Mara, the Evil one runs away.

The Lotus in Buddhism

Student: What does the lotus have to do with Buddha.

Venerable: The lotus is a symbol of purity. Where does the lotus flower grow? In muddy water, correct? Our mind, most of the time is full of defilements, like anger, greed, ego, conceit. It’s possible to make our mind as pure as a lotus, which rises and grows up from muddy water. It also symbolizes the Buddha who grows up among the people who are full of defilement but rises above them, shining like a lotus.

Buddhahood

Student: Is it possible for everyone to become a Buddha?

Venerable: Not everyone can become a Buddha, because becoming a Buddha is not easy. First there are the 30 perfections or Parami. You have to sacrifice your life thousands of times. That’s why the Buddha said that the blood that he shed was more than the water in the four oceans. His bones sacrificed are higher than the highest mountain in the world. But you can say everybody has the potential to become a Buddha.

That is why people can pay respect to Bodhicitta in others, Bodhicitta means the potential to be a Bodhisatta, or the possible enlightened mind in oneself.

Dhamma discussion in Nov 2017

Historical Buddhism

Student: Where are the pilgrimage places for Buddhists?
Venerable: Lumbini is the birthplace of the Buddha. It’s one of the most important pilgrimage places for Buddhists.

In the texts,   it is said, for a faithful person to visit the pilgrimage places and to die there, we can go to good places like heaven. There are a few important pilgrimage places:

1) Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha;

 2) Bodhgaya, the place of Enlightenment;

 3) Sarnath, where the Buddha preached His very first Teachings, that is turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma, or Dhammacakka;

 4) Kushinagar, the place where the Buddha passed away.

It is important for Buddhists to go to such places to know that the Buddha did exist. He was a real person. Archeology, actual sites and findings on these sites are more reliable sources than getting information from word of mouth, or by hearsay. There are many Asokan pillars with inscriptions, erected by King Asoka to remember and to mark the significant places which the Buddha had visited.

These archeological findings are more accurate than the stories, because they are well-researched, and properly documented.

Chanting

Today I want to talk about chanting and music. Student: “do you like to listen to music, and why do you like it?”

Student: Yes I like to listen to music. I like all kinds of music actually, except rap and heavy metal. I love how music brings people together, and how it is a universal language.

Venerable: So, do you like chanting? It is also a kind of “music” you know. It has a sort of tune to it too!  Can you differentiate music and chanting?

Student: Music has more variety in categories than chanting. I think chanting is mostly vocal and sounds monotonous, whereas music is more lively and sounds interesting to the ears. I think that chanting is more of a religious ritual involving feelings of devotion and peace-seeking for the spiritual self; whereas music has the tendency of appealing to the masses, usually bringing feelings of joy, excitement, and momentary euphoria.

Venerable: Yes, music affects your emotions.  Different kinds of music will make your heart and mind go high and low. For example, a song like “Country Road” can make you miss home when you listen to it.

Chanting is different. It gives you feelings of a peaceful/calm mind, it helps you to concentrate and devote more. Also, it creates a certain vibration in your body. Try to say Namo tassa bhagavato, arahato, sammasambuddhassa. Can you feel the calming vibration? This kind of deep vibration can help you meditate and focus. Your blood pressure and heart rate will slowly reduce when you chant. It can calm your mind, and control your monkey mind from wandering.  You will be able to train your mind to reflect and analyze your surroundings in a more mindful way. It will enable you to engage your conscious mind to listen and focus on the sound of your chants.

Chanting is like prayer. In loving-kindness meditation, first you send Mettā or loving-kindness to yourself, then to your parents or loved ones, to yogi’s and teachers, to monks and the young novices, to donors and lastly to guardian deities. It is good for you to know the meaning of the chants, you can read the English translation of the chants in our chanting book.

It will be more powerful to chant when you know the meaning. It will bring you happiness, you will have good speech, which is a wholesome deed, and it will bring you good blessings and protection against evil influences, harm or danger.

In music, you sometimes ‘chant’ things like ‘I am crazy, I am crazy, I am crazy’. How will that make you feel after saying that for one hundred times?  You will start to feel or become crazy. Words can change your mind to good or bad. If you sing a happy song, it will make you happy, if you sing a sad song it will make you sad. Chanting is very spiritual, compared to normal music.

There are a lot of different forms of chanting. Sometimes, chanting sounds almost like singing , for example the melodious Jayamangala –gatha (the Verse of Victories), different countries have different chanting style.

We can chant a lot of things from memory, we do not need a script or something. In Myanmar sometimes even small children, even 2 year olds, they can chant “Namo tassa bhavagato arahato sammāsambuddhassa”, or “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.”

It is like a song for these children. They frequently hear the chanting, so they just remember.


We live in a modern age, and we have to think about how we can spread or propagate the Dhamma in the modern society. Therefore, I think it is very important to have transcript talks like this. It will bring forth more understanding.

Imperfection is the Understanding of Impermanence, suffering and non-self

Venerable:  Today, you have a question about imperfection.  I wrote in that board,   “Imperfection is the understanding of impermanence, suffering and non self.”

Actually, everything is imperfect!  Example: downstairs maybe cooler, but you will find mosquitoes. Here, there is less mosquitoes, but it is hot. So it is imperfection!  That is why we call it suffering.

Student: I know the meaning of the words, but I need to know the precise context in spiritual sense.

Venerable: Nowadays, everyone is looking for perfection!  Look for a perfect boyfriend or girlfriend.  If you go for class, you want to go for top A, A+, and you want your house to be beautiful, you want yourself to be the most beautiful woman or most handsome man in the world. So people are always looking for perfection!  If you score AAA, your parents will be happier than when you score BBB.  But it all depends; as some understanding parents are compassionate with full of Metta (or loving kindness) that you have done your level best, and are able to accept who you are!

Student: When you were saying that people are looking for perfection, is striving for improvement also a sort of looking for perfection?

Venerable: In Asia, all parents want their children to get top marks in school! I don’t know about your parents in Western countries.  Now, young people in Southeast Asia aspire to look like Korean movie stars! Did you know that? In these movies, the ladies are so pretty: their noses are so perfect and beautiful.  But it is artificial, they go for cosmetic surgery!  So because of that, people think their nose is not so beautiful, so they go for cosmetic surgery or a facelift.  And if they think they don’t have enough eyelashes, they will redo their eyelashes.

But in the Buddha’s teachings, you do not get perfection, you get imperfection; just like the situation at this center here. You are in the countryside. You can see sunrise and sunset, are you happy?  But in countryside, there will be mosquitoes and insects. In fact, there are thousands of insects. There are only seven people here, but maybe 10,000 insects around us. So this is imperfection!   You don’t get 100% satisfaction from a place. Even when you live in a city, you have electricity, thus, you can wash clothes with just a push of a button. But you don’t see the sunrise and sunset because of the “concrete jungle” (with skyscrapers)!

Actually, I am a Malaysian nun (you all know this), but living in Myanmar now. I came here to study, and have successfully completed my Masters in Buddhism. So when I came to Myanmar, it was actually the first time I saw paddy field. I had never seen paddy fields, because I also grew up in a “concrete jungle” (with skyscrapers). When I first came here, it was also very difficult for me, as there is not enough electricity, so there was no air conditioning or fan, it was so hot and I was bitten by mosquitoes. Eventually, I started to adapt and accept all these kinds of unpleasantness and inconveniences!

Everything always has a plus and minus. That is why the Buddha said that you cannot look for perfection, you will get very tired. When a girl looks for a perfect guy, at first she will think she has found the perfect guy!  But after a while, she will find faults in this guy.

Always think that everything will have a plus and a minus. Let’s say you go in a guesthouse, it has nice room and nice food, but you have to pay extra money for these good things. So there is always plus and minus in everything. When you accept this, you can accept imperfection.

Student: Are we not also looking for perfection when we are meditating?

Venerable: Your perfection will come when you defeat your monkey mind. It is so difficult for you now to sit, especially the first three days. The Buddha said that your mind is like a wild elephant. So at first the wild elephant will go everywhere in the jungle without settling down. So how do you settle down the wild elephant? You will tie it with a rope to a post. It will start circling around and around. After that, you try to stop giving it food, so it starts to be hungry. So after that, when you start to give food, it will start to listen to you.

So also in meditation, there must be a post: that is your breathing!  So when you sit down, you must focus either on breathing, or rising and falling of the abdomen.

I will explain to you, how to sit down. Please don’t sit against the pillar, as this is so comfortable that you might fall asleep. Put a small cushion behind you. Make sure your buttocks are a little bit lifted. It should give a little support to your backbones. Sit up straight, because otherwise your back will hurt, your spine should be straight. Your right hand should be over you left hand, and if you want more concentration, put your thumbs together. Sit up straight, and don’t hunch your shoulders. Make sure your head is also straight, and your shoulders and legs are comfortable.  Ensure your breath is natural, otherwise after a while, you will feel stressed.

Student: my legs are hurting.

(Another) Student: I had to laugh all the time, because I was thinking about the wild elephant.

Venerable: it is suffering. There are three characteristics of the universal truths: Impermanence, suffering and non self.

Student: I could not follow the breathing all the time!   Whenever I hear something, then I think oh, someone is going to the toilet, and subsequently, I think oh, I am thinking!

Venerable: your mind is on the sound. How about you?  Why do you open your eyes?

Student: I like to focus on something.  If I close my eyes, I might fall asleep. I used to meditate on candle (as my object).

Venerable: This is a different kind of meditation, called light meditation.   We normally do insight meditation (Vipassana).

Student: For me it is good to give my eyes something to look at without thinking about it.

Venerable: when we focus on breathing, we can clearly see the insights or the universal truths like: impermanence, suffering and non self, which are what we want! We understand more on mind & matter (or nama-rupa); the mental phenomena in us. This is different kind of meditation, also described by The Buddha as ‘Vipassana.’ What about you, why do you move your head all the time?

Student: Normally I like to hike or do yoga while I meditate, so I like to move. More so I get distracted by a thought and get stuck in a spiral in my mind.

Venerable: In Hatha yoga, you also focus on meditation!   Yes, but there are different kinds of yoga: some are focused on mantra, some on chakra. Hatha yoga is more physical exercise. Here you have to sit still. Do you know why?

Student: I think body movement is a kind of distraction.

Venerable:  Yes!  You are not on the breathing meditation. And you can see when the body is quiet you can observe the mind better.  Different people have different distractions.  One can see how the mind goes to the sound, another can see how the mind goes to the pain, and another can see their monkey mind, whilst you are going to exercise.

Imperfection is to understand impermanence, suffering and non self. These are the three universal truths in Buddhism. We will have imperfections. It is cool now but it will get hot tomorrow. It is impermanent. And impermanent things will bring suffering. This leads to non self. Because you realize this soul, or I, or self cannot control. Good feelings are impermanent too. Because of this you know about suffering. Also things like ageing, sickness, death. When the body gets older, it will be ageing and also sickness. After that it is that you will be dead, that means the impermanence of our life. And also we have to separate from our loved ones. So impermanence brings suffering. Because of this, you realize there is no ego or self that controls everything in our self.

Normally, we believe that we have got an entity or a soul in our mind that sits inside and control parts of the mind and body. This is non-existent in Buddhism. If there is something that controls the mind and body, why can that thing cannot control the thinking mind, you know? Can you stop thinking?  No, isn’t it?

Bhavaṅga

Student: What about the mind when you almost fall asleep?

Venerable: Bhavaṅga is the dreamless mind when we fall asleep. It is very passive, and we cannot control it. Actually dreams are also thoughts. When you think about something in day time, you will dream about it at night. Just before you fall asleep, you don’t have mindfulness as it is very little. In meditation, we want to build up our mindfulness. Then we can see what happens in our minds and body and learn to see things as they really are.

You see your thoughts, ideas and truths. You can observe and see them for what they are: impermanence, sufferings and non self.  You cannot control them. When you see these three universal truths, you can see the imperfection in life. And when you can see this imperfection, you can learn to tolerate the ups and downs in life.

If you are only looking for perfection, you cannot accept bad experiences. We have to accept both sides. We cannot control anything in this world. If your mindfulness is very strong, you can let pain disappear if you understand sensations as impermanent. When you’re able to accept these three universal truths, you will be able to accept imperfection in your life.

Life is more suffering here!  It allows us to understand more about the universal truths. We have more acceptance here. Most Asian people live with their grandparents. So we see the suffering of ageing, sickness and death. We understand this and accept this, because we see the truth in front of us.

Maybe in western countries they put old people in a nursing home, so that they can have better care. However, the younger generation does not get to see these sufferings of ageing, sickness and death. In Asia, the old people don’t want to live or die somewhere else.

I personally saw my grandparents passed away. My grandmother had 9 children and also the grandchildren were all there when she passed away. Then I realized life is impermanence, you can die anytime.

Thus, this has made me think: what is the purpose or meaning of life? I could go and live like her, until I’m 80 years old. What is this life for? Am I going to have many children like her and just sit there go and take care of them? Or am I going to work, come back, watch TV and go to work again, come back and watch TV? Is the enjoyment of life watching TV? That is such a mundane life.  When I saw my grandparents passed away, I saw the impermanence and suffering in life.

By staying in this centre, the perception of this place in the morning and the perception of this place in the afternoon is different because everything changes all the time. This is impermanence.

There is no ego and there is nothing solid. Even the mind is changing all the time. In Buddhism, we don’t believe in a soul, we call this non self. What is soul?

Student: it is something separate from yourself. A sort of entity in the body.

Venerable: Yes like that. In Christianity they say that when you pass away, your soul will unite with the God. A soul is a solid entity. In Buddhism there is no solid entity. Everything in our mind and body will arise and pass away. Fear also belongs to the mind. So do frustration, anger and stress. The unwholesome mind is demeritorious.

Good mind means happy mind or simple mind. When you give donation to people, it will make you happy.

Student: is that the same for everyone?

Ten Good (Wholesome) Deeds

Venerable: A good thing is something that is good for you, good for others, praiseworthy by the wise and noble ones. Well for example, what if people engaged in one or more of the 5 precepts. Don’t kill, don’t steal, no sexual misconduct, don’t tell lies, and don’t take intoxicants.   It is maybe good for you, but is it good for others? Or praiseworthy? For example when you kill an animal for the meat it might be good for you but not good for others, so it is not a good thing. It is not praiseworthy either. Of course in some other culture or religion they might sacrifice an animal and think it is good, but it is not good for the animal. They are frightened. They know when they are going to die. They are also sentient beings.

In Buddhism there are 10 good or wholesome deeds. These are: donation/generosity, like you have seen today. Second is keeping the five precepts (leading a moral life). The third one is meditation/mental cultivation. The others will be respect for elders, seniors, relatives, parents and teachers. Another is volunteering our service to others. Sharing or transference of merits, and rejoicing in others’ merits are also good, wholesome deeds. Listening to the Dhamma and sharing/teaching the Dhamma with others (eg having discussions) are good wholesome deeds too!  And lastly, it is straightening our views, which is the starting point of the Noble Eightfold Path. In Buddhism, these ten are considered as good, wholesome, meritorious deeds.

When you practice these ten good deeds, you will have good mind. When you do bad things, your mind will be bad. Maybe you can tolerate it or overcome it, but it will harm you if it lasts for too long.

Some people lack fortunate surroundings.   Perhaps, they don’t have the right friends. In Buddhism, we distinguish noble and wise friends from bad friends. When you have a friend that leads you to the right path, guides your spiritual life and helps you live a noble life, you are very lucky. But not everyone has these friends. Some only have friends that give shit talk. They disappear when you have trouble.

Three doors

Student: when you were talking about obvious bad things, where does the bad mind come from? When fear arises, did I do any action to get that fear?

Venerable: it is not the action that causes the bad mind. It is the bad mind that causes the bad action. The action comes later. When someone wants to kill, first the desire to kill comes. There is already bad mind, bad intention. At the moment of killing there is a lot of bad mind. In Buddhism, there are three doors: mental door, verbal door and bodily door. So which one is strongest?

The mental door is strongest. Why does someone want to kill someone else? Because of three evil roots: greed, hatred and delusion. They will cause someone to do evil. You can kill out of greed, hatred, and delusion. But definitely at the time of killing it will be out of hatred. Because it must be the strongest feeling to destroy another life. When you want to kill an animal for food, it is out of greed. But the moment of killing is definitely full of hatred. Delusion is when you think killing does not cause bad kamma or is not a bad deed.

Killing out of Compassion

Student: And what is it if you kill someone out of compassion because they are suffering?

Venerable: That is delusion. For example someone is sick and suffering from cancer for many years. And that person is either asking you to end their life or begged you to help. You help the person take the poison or drugs or whatever.   The moment you do it, it is out of greed, hatred or delusion, because you know the moment you do it, you are ending someone’s life!

Let nature take its course. It is better to try to help someone endure their suffering, not to the point to where they lose consciousness. In Buddhism, we don’t want to die with delusion, because we want to go to our next life with a clear mind.

When someone has meditated in the past, they will be more likely to accept the pain as a feeling that passes, they can overcome bad pain. As such, this must be encouraged that you keep practicing meditation. Even when you feel pain, you just focus on your breathing, and it will make you and your mind stronger.