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 19th 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.
