Stop and Notice by Ajahn Sumedho

Attentive, openness….. getting the feeling for this receptivity, openness …not doing anything, you know, like concentration is…you feel you have to concentrate on the breath or on the body or on Nimita or Kasina so that is kind of concentration where you put your attention on one thing and this is concentrated but it is in an open way, receptive, relaxed, attention…a receptive state of being….conscious. And that is where you recognise the sound of silence. When your caught up in thinking or concentrating or thinking-analyzing things or on objects so then you know you become involved with the conditions, you become the conditions themselves. This way you can get perspective on the conditions. So in this kind of practice many people say “I lead such a busy life, I don’t have time to practice meditation” So when can see meditation as something you got to do and you have to have the right conditions and then you don’t have time to do that, you get busy…and remember this is a busy world we live in! there is always more and more to do.

You know the more, now that you have washer, dryer, dishwasher, perfect kind of Hoover, air conditioned, central heated, Mercedes Benz car…laptop computer (laughs) and your still busy arent you? time saving devices…it’s parkinsons law that you fill up time you know, where those Korean Bhikkunis having to wash there robes in a cold mountain steam and there whole life is around meditation…but anyway its societies like THIS….just to recognise living in London, its like THIS which is not a criticism but acknowledging the way it affects you. You can always imagine a better place than your in. Establishing awareness, here and now Dhamma…its not when you can move out of London and move to a better place than the one your in…its more opening to the present moment its like THIS.

So then in daily life no matter how busy you are, i encourage you to take time and stop being caught in the momentum of busyness because its easy to do that….you gotta do this or you gotta do that – you gotta telephone somebody and then send an email, answer an email – i get email’s all the time you know, i don’t answer a lot of them. Im not going to be intimidated by this crazy world im living in.

In your life just take time to stop, just this sense of stopping and opening when you find yourself in that moment – oh im caught up, this thing, the next thing and the next thing……just say to yourself STOP and relax and open – try to listen to the sound of silence. And even if you cant notice it, just that stopping just being caught in that momentum of busyness of compulsion, you know that compulsive busyness…one thing to the next and notice how thought is always one thought to the other its a dualistic world, a conditioned world that we bind ourselves in – going from one thing to the other, until we get tired and go to bed – we get up and then we do this and we do that, running around one thing after the other..now thats going from one condition to another, to another, to another then the thinking is like…even though its nonsense is going from one though to the next and then we have our own obsessions our own karmic obsessions you know, where we worry about this and you know…we get caught up in our own particular conditioning and programming – worry worry worry – meeting the deadline – DEADLINE its always like this and just noticing this feeling just by observing this in myself – this sense of feeling there’s always something else, something I have to do, something that needs to be done!

So then the stopping and reflecting just stopping and being the KNOWER of this feeling – not trying to suppress it but recognise it – that recognition of that compulsive momentum…..well thats Paccuppannadhamma – its like THIS …this feeling of rushing…of going onto the next thing – meeting the deadline, so much to do, so much pressure, its like THIS. Now staying with that, even for a moment is better than not doing it at all – just being a helpless victim of compulsive habits, until you burn out – break down (laughs) so its running like a motor car until it just breaks down, not reading the signs. You see in your life, your the one has, this is your life – don’t be intimidated by it or just become a victim of habits.

So even in monastic life, get into compulsiveness – I was a very busy person before i was a monk – going through University and graduate school with this incredible pressure and it conditions you to do that, even when its not necessary. You become conditioned to this compulsive momentum. So even in bring that into monastic life i had to tell myself…sometimes you have to do anything…going nowhere, doing nothing – i just kind of say that to myself and I have this kind of relief because it kind of stops this blind momentum of compulsive busyness.

Then with the sound of silence as you develop that like counting to five, sometimes i get caught into this compulsive busyness – i just suddenly see it and become very astute in recognising this habit and then I would say to myself – doing nothing, going nowhere, being nobody – Sound of Silence 1, 2…..Im still with the sound of silence because im counting…. at the same time ..1,2,3,4,5 that was a way of just stopping and suddenly you notice there is a change or i would be carrying something, some resentment towards somebody and feel really annoyed or averse to somebody in the monastery and then I would recognise and then counting to five and the sound of silence – sometimes i couldn’t even remember who i was angry with – who was i so annoyed with? It would take me a while to remember….where before when your angry with someone…whatever your doing, your carrying it around – you go into your kuti …nah, nah, blah (moaning sounds) that person and you go out into the garden – nah, nah, blah you go into the Ashridge, Little Gaddesden etc and your carrying this person all the way, have you ever done that ?

Then your remembering the sound of silence…boost it up to 10 – you know you don’t need to make this into a big project, so you have to stop everything and go off to a monastery and sit and meditate – you can do this in your office or in your car…..just a way of stopping and cultivating this and after a while the accumulative effect is very good…so if you think “I dont have time to meditate im just too busy” …”I have too many responsibilities” be aware of that…this kind of attitude – too busy too many responsibilities – its not that your trying to suppress that feeling but recognise it rather than just being propelled into it blindly and keep you going until u burn out and faint with exhaustion and maybe take to drink or drugs – but this is much better…its skillful.

You know meditation is really learning to understand the human mind – learning to live in the sense realm, the conditioned realm without becoming a victim of conditioning. Most people are victims of there conditioning. You get born into this family and you get all there problems, your parents, your ancestors – you inherit all there prejudices, phobias, biases, tendencies and then you get conditioned into your school and achievement and deadlines, tests, examinations, tests – on and on like this – so we’re easily programmed, we become programmed and become creatures of habit and some of the habits can be good habits – habits are not always necessarily bad but even good habits are not liberating – so just recognising the conditioning, the thinking process.

Emotional habits, this is not an attack on habits – the conditioned realm is like THIS – you don’t live just in the unconditioned then destroy all the conditions. The unconditioned then gives you the freedom from the conditions, this does not mean you don’t experience the conditions – it just means you have freedom and you are no longer blinded and caught in habitual behaviour when you realise the unconditioned….the deathless – there is the unborn. So there is the unconditioned, if there was not the unconditioned there would be no escape from the conditioned – but there is the unconditioned and therefore an escape from the conditioned. That escape from the conditioned is mindfulness, but escape from the conditioned does not mean turning your back on it or destroying it – its in just recognising – most human beings do not recognise the condition as that, they become identified, attached, habituated victims of the conditions. We have delicate natures, we’re frightened, we have neurotic problems about ourselves, self aversion, feeling of being unloved, unwanted, not appreciated, not good enough…..then it goes the other way maybe we’re feeling megalomania, arrogant conceited, thinking your better than others but those people are harder to teach – the ones that actually believe they are the best.

But when your self critical and discourage yourself its kind of going in the right direction but with the wrong interpretation. You know, when you see your faults and see weaknesses and inadequacies in yourself and you kind of discourage yourself at least your aware of suffering but the interpretation of it is wrong . It is always from “its me, its MY problem” “im not any good because of this…” “I cant do that…” The right way to see it, is to see conditions as conditions then any sense of self – whether “im the best” or “im the worst” is conditioned and that awareness of it is just enough – thats the escape, not a matter of anhiliating the self, its just letting go of it. So even if forget all this and you get caught up for months in a whirlpool of compulsiveness and suddenly you will remember and STOP … make it something simple like this….4 letters. Just by saying that to yourself you begin to be aware of this compulsive momentum of habit.

Its like a stop sign, your in a rush to go somewhere – appointment or deadline to meet – urgent meeting and your slightly late and your in a rush and the traffic light goes into red “whens it going to change!” when your in that state it seems forever – its never going to change. You want to get to the office and your late and the traffic light turns red – “whens it going to change” “I think its stuck” its like an eternity…….”for the rest of my life i will be stuck” thats what it seems like. Compulsive momentum, this restless feeling, its really unpleasant….wanting to push against anything because you want to get somewhere so your body is here and want to get into the office – your mind is already in the office! but due to circumstances your body has to stop. These are moments just to observe this, this restless, compulsive pushiness of the mind. Then if you can stop and notice the sound of silence. If you do then count, the kind of counting that helps you sustain your attention on it – otherwise its so easy the compulsive energy can be so strong it can be hard to get a perspective on it – you recognise then are propelled right back into it again. Thats why we use words like “calm down”, “going nowhere, doing nothing” the sense of just stopping and resting just for a few seconds is better than not doing it at all.

So do not make grandiose determinations that you can never fulfil – just doing the best you can, and when you have that moment – no matter how many times you fail and get whirled away by pressures and habits , that one moment you suddenly realise don’t disparage yourself but just be grateful for that – so more and more you are beginning to cultivate and develop awareness. So not just being compulsive about being aware…that doesn’t work, you grasp the idea of mindfulness and then your “gotta be mindful, gotta be mindful” and then when you do something like drop the cup, break the very valuable antique vase – oh! im heedless “meditation is doing me no good because i break things, im clumsy” so then you start disparaging yourself. STOP determined not to follow that with self hatred, self criticism, despair, aversion, its like THIS…your not completing the habitual pattern.

The self view is you try to be mindful and you make some blunder and then you “oh, i cant do it, im so heedless and clumsy” blah blah blah….stop doing that. Determined not to disparage yourself, no matter how many Antique vases you break, start always in the present – its HERE and NOW and be grateful for this moment of suddenly realising – capturing yourself at this moment – at this moment you are not caught in that momentum, compulsion. Gently tell yourself to relax and open yourself for just a few seconds, at least your breaking through, breaking the spiral and momentum. Then as you recognise the value of that more and more your not just creating ideas about meditating and failing and not being able to do it and you create another habit based on the self view “I can meditate at Amaravati, but I cant in my house or in London…” “I got some really good Samadhi at Amaravati [Monastery] but I lost it” dont believe that, different place….. its a different situation…Amaravati [Monastery] is like THIS, where you live is like THIS, where you work is like THIS.

Ajahn Sumedho
Transcribed by James Ball





     
For more on Ajahn Sumedho see: www.amaravati.org

Courageous Effort On The Path Of Meditation

By Sayadaw U Pandita

This teachings is extracted from "In This Very Life" by U Pandita and details the development of seven positive meditation factors (controlling faculties) in the Theravada tradition, one of which is "courageous effort".


The seventh way of developing the controlling faculties (positive meditation factors) is to practice with courageous effort so much so that you are willing to sacrifice your body and life in order to continue the practice uninterrupted. This means giving rather less consideration toward the body than we tend to be accustomed to give to it. Rather than spending time beautifying ourselves or catering to our wishes for greater comfort, we devote as much energy as possible to going forward in meditation.
Although it may feel very youthful right now, our body becomes completely useless when we die. What use can one make of a corpse? The body is like a very fragile container which can be used as long as it is intact, but the moment it drops on the floor, it is of no further help to us.
While we are alive and in reasonably good health, we have the good fortune to be able to practice. Let us try to extract the precious essence from our bodies before it is too late, before our bodies become useless corpses! Of course, it is not our aim to hasten this event. We should also try to be sensible, and to maintain this body’s health, if only for our practice to continue.

You might ask what essence one can extract from the body. A scientific study was once made to determine the market value of the substances composing the human body: iron, calcium and so on. I believe it came to less than one American dollar, and the cost of extracting all those components was many times greater than this total value. Without such a process of extraction, a corpse is valueless, beyond providing compost for the soil. If a dead person’s organs can be used for transplants into living bodies, this is good; but in this case, progress toward becoming an entirely lifeless and valueless corpse has only been delayed.

The body can be looked at as a rubbish dump, disgusting and full of impurities. Uncreative people have no use for things they might find in such a dump, but an innovative person understands the value of recycling. He or she may take a dirty, smelly thing off the rubbish heap and clean it and be able to use it again. There are many stories of people who have made millions from the recycling business.
From this rubbish heap we call our body, we can nonetheless extract gold through the practice of the Dhamma. One form of gold is sīla, purity of conduct, the ability to tame and civilize one’s actions. After further extraction, the body yields up the controlling faculties of faith, mindfulness, effort, concentration and wisdom. These are priceless jewels which can be extracted from the body through meditation.

When the controlling faculties are well-developed, the mind resists domination by greed, hatred and delusion. A person whose mind is free of these painful oppressive qualities experiences an exquisite happiness and peace that cannot be bought with money. His or her presence becomes calm and sweet so that others feel uplifted. This inner freedom is independent of all circumstances and conditions, and it is only available as a result of ardent meditation practice.

Anyone can understand that painful mental states do not vanish just because we wish them to do so. Who has not wrestled with a desire they knew would hurt someone if they indulged it? Is there anyone who has never been in an irritable, grumpy mood and wished they were feeling happy and contented instead? Has anyone failed to experience the pain of being confused? It is possible to uproot the tendencies which create pain and dissatisfaction in our lives, but for most of us it is not easy. Spiritual work is as demanding as it is rewarding. Yet we should not be discouraged. The goal and result of vipassanā meditation is to be free from all kinds, all shades and all levels of mental and physical suffering. If you desire this kind of freedom, you should rejoice that you have an opportunity to strive to achieve it.

The best time to strive is right now. If you are young, you should appreciate your good situation, for young people have the most energy to carry out the meditation practice. If you are older you may have less physical energy, but perhaps you have seen enough of life to have gained wise consideration, such as a personal understanding of life’s fleetingness and unpredictability

                                      

The Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita (born 29 July 1921) is one of the foremost living masters of Vipassana meditation. He trained in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition. A successor to the late Mahāsi Sayādaw, he has taught many of the Western teachers and students of the Mahāsi style of Vipassana meditation. He is the abbot of Paṇḍitārāma Meditation Center in Yangon, Myanmar.
For more information visit: www.saddhamma.org

The Benefits of Working for Others

By Lama Zopa Rinpoche


In May 1982, towards the end of the Enlightened Experience Celebration in India, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a talk to the remaining retreaters at Tushita in Dharamsala. He talked about the kindness of the guru. Rinpoche referred constantly to the kindness of his own guru, Lama Yeshe, and how it is through his tireless work that so much benefit has come to others. He used as an example the Dharma centers that have been established around the world as a result of Lama Yeshe’s energy and inspiration. And Rinpoche talked about the people who work at the centers; for fortunate they are to be able to help others in this way. We publish here a short extract from the three-hour discourse.

Think of the benefit to others brought by Dharma centers. Since starting the centers, how many people have come? How many people have had the seed of omniscience planted in their minds? How many people have been saved from the lower realms by coming to the centers, by understanding Dharma, by understanding refuge?

Just to think about this should make you feel so happy, should bring you incredible joy. To think that by working at Dharma centers we have been able to help others find a refuge object that is reliable, that does not betray or misguide. Forget about actually practicing lam-rim or training the mind in bodhichitta or tantra; just to meet a reliable refuge object, that alone is unbelievable.

And because of the first centers, many more have been started and from these many sentient beings have received peace and benefit. So many people have been able to create the cause for happiness in future lives. So many have opened the eye of wisdom that sees the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering.

Dedicating your life to the work that brings this kind of benefit to others is truly an incredible accomplishment and makes your life worthwhile.

Also, the suffering is worthwhile. In order to accomplish this much you have had to bear much hardship. Perhaps you have had a hard time with the lama: you do something this way and Lama says do it that way. You do it that way and Lama says do something else again. So difficult to please even though work so hard! And for so many years you have had to put up with criticism from people, complaining about you for doing this or that; complaints from the Eastern side, from the Western side, from all the ten directions (but perhaps not from the buddhas!). It’s like living in thorns.

But all this hardship, this criticism has been worthwhile, because by working for sentient beings you have brought them benefit, both temporal and ultimate. We should think of the advantages: how sentient beings have benefited, what sentient beings have received, what we have been able to offer them. Then, instead of being discouraged, instead of the mind becoming smaller, we shall develop an even stronger will to work for others, to work continuously.

I don’t mean that you should feel pride: “Oh, I have done this and that, I am so great.” No, that doesn’t benefit others or yourself. What I mean is that it’s very important to rejoice again and again in the work you do for others; especially if you work for the Dharma centers.

What is so fortunate is that you are already able to be of benefit to others even before you become enlightened, even before you generate any lam-rim realizations. It’s not easy, it’s dependent on many things, so if you can benefit in this way you are a very fortunate person and you should rejoice.

Working in this way you are repaying Lama’s incredible kindness and fulfilling his wishes – and his wishes are the happiness of ourselves and of others. It is by the kindness of Lama that we have been able to offer such great benefit to others.

To fulfill Lama’s wishes, that itself is the path. For example, Lama Atisha was able to do great work for the Dharma in India and Tibet because he had 153 gurus and because nothing that he did was against the wishes of any of them.

In the Kalachakra teachings it says, “Even if you make offering for three eons to all the buddhas guiding the millions of lives of millions of creatures, you will not become enlightened in this life. But if with faith you fulfill the wishes of the guru, then you will definitely achieve realizations in this life.”

So, you should check what is the best way you can benefit sentient beings in your life. Think about what brings the most benefit, then give up the actions that bring only small benefit and start doing those that bring great benefit.

                                              
Lama Thubten Zöpa Rinpoche (born 1946) is a lama from Thami, a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. Early in life, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, from the same region (hence the title "Rinpoche"). He took his monastic vows at Dungkar Monastery in Tibet where he travelled in 1957, but he had to flee due to severe treatment on monks inflicted by the Chinese army after the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Instead of continuing in Tibet, his spiritual teacher, Geshe Rabten, entrusted him to the care of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Zöpa is most noteworthy as the co-founder, with Lama Yeshe, of Kopan Monastery and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Since the 1984 death of Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche has served as the FPMT's spiritual director.
Lama Zöpa's books are published by Wisdom Publications. Free transcripts of some of his teachings are available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. There is an extensive biography of him in the book The Lawudo Lama by Jamyang Wangmo.

The Qualities Of Patience

  Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

A pithy Patience commentary; excerpts on The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

What is patience? The genuine definition of patience is the mental ability to remain unperturbed by negative conditions. Applied to the Dharma, it means forbearance in the face of difficulty. Practitioners should be able to withstand whatever obstacles arise when they practice the Dharma. For example, extremes of heat or cold should not influence their commitment to practice.

The Mahayanasutralankara describes patience as having four qualities. The first is that it pacifies anger. Anger and patience are direct opposites. If you are angry, you are not being patient. And if you are not being patient, you are not behaving like a Bodhisattva.

(note: please refer to the book "The 37 Pratices of a Bodhisattva by Ngulchu Thogme, Commentary by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche" for the complete discussion on the qualities of patience.)

The third quality of patience is that one comes to like all sentient beings. This is not a matter of saying, "Oh, I like everybody!" A Bodhisattva who has complete patience with everything hurtful or harmful bears affection towards everyone and can bring happiness everywhere. This ability to bestow happiness on all sentient beings is a sign that the paramita of patience has been perfected.

In the Sutralankara, Maitreya describes the four qualities of patience:
    Patience decreases all opposite sides.
    One possesses nonconceptual primordial wisdom.
    One can perfectly fulfill all wishes.
    And one ripens all sentient beings along the three vehicles.

Notice that the first two qualities concern ourselves, and the second two concern others-even our enemies, whom we bring to the Dharma and whose practice we help mature.

As a Mahayana practioner, always remember that anyone who hurts you shows you a great kindness, and that whatever brings you harm bestows a precious treasure. It is like a poor person digging in the earth who finds oil, gold, or silver and suddenly becomes very rich. From the Mahayana perspective, whoever or whatever harms us provides the same opportunity for wealth.

Why? To obtain a wealth of virtue requires a harmful opponent. Without a foe, how can we practice patience? The Bodhisattva wishes to develop virtue, merit, and such. The prerequisite for these qualities, our most precious treasure, is an enemy.

                         

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche is a prominent scholar yogi in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He teaches widely in the West, often through dohas (songs of realisation) composed by Milarepa (to whom he is often compared) and other masters of the past. "Tsultrim Gyamtso" translates to English as "Ocean of Ethical Conduct". Rinpoche is the author of numerous books, most recently; "Stars of Wisdom: Analytical Meditation, Songs of Yogic Joy, and Prayers of Aspiration"

For more information visit: www.ktgrinpoche.org