http://yogizendude.com ~ Sound Healing ~ Sunset Beach ~ Friday 12-3-2010 ~ 1:00 PM

Singer/songwriter Rod Kinny shares the stage with photographer/artist Eddi W. on Flickr with this inspirational music video. Eddi’s spiritual imagery provides the visual experience combined with Rod’s music to remind us that “Infinite Love’s the only truth. Everything else is illusion”.

To learn more about Rod’s music visit his website…
http://www.rodkinny.com/
You can view more of Eddi’s photos at….
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiritua…
Want to see more media projects from Rockylou Productions?
http://www.rockylouproductions.com/

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What Are You Afraid Of? ~ Arunachala Satsang with Mooji recorded 16 January 2010 in Tiruvannamalai, India. Satsang video footage is extracted from the DVD called “The Removallist”, and is combined with some images and music. Music artist is unknown. http://www.mooji.org

Youtube channels: http://www.youtube.com/moojiji,
http://www.youtube.com/SatsangWithMooji and other associated channels.

Also see: http://www.nevernothere.com and http://mooji.satsangs.net (a source website of mooji’s video satsang)

How To Overcome The Ego? By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

Bhagavan Sri Ramana used to say that all techniques of meditation and concentration presuppose the retention of the ego/mind. Bhagavan used to joke that employing the ego/mind to overcome the ego/mind is like hiring a thief, who is all dressed up as a policeman, to catch the thief. The policeman will pretend to make herculean efforts to catch the thief, give periodic reports of progress, but will fail each time (since the policeman is the thief!)

The whole thing is hilarious, is it not my friends. We are trying to gain Self-Realization with the effort and power of our mind. Yet, it is the ego/mind that is veiling the Self!

What a wonderful paradox indeed. Are you able to see it clearly?

The attempt to abandon the ego or overcome it, is itself based on egotism. Such forced efforts to discard the mind and transcend the ego end up only reinforcing the nonexistent phantom in our imagination.

What Bhagavan has pointed out is that all spiritual practices ultimately fall short as they presuppose the existence of mind. And with the mind in charge, there are infinite possibilities of experience; all kinds of experiences, including super conscious experiences.

No doubt experiences can be wonderful and joyful as well as painful. And yet where can any experience truly take us? Where can any experience take us other than in our own imagination of what it means to be happy in heaven, nirvana, moksha, singing with angels, or dancing with the gods, etc.

We cannot go anywhere other than where we are. We are always here. We are this present moment. This moment is eternal and infinite. This must be understood. This is Bhagavan’s teaching. Bhagavan’s dying words were, “Where can I go? I am Here.” Even in his last moments Bhagavan was teaching and pointing to the Self. All movement is in our imagination. If we do not move our mind, the outside movement becomes moot. When imagination comes to full stop, Self becomes Self-evident.

To see this, we need Grace. And the wise say that Grace is Always Here. And Self is Grace. And there is nothing but That. It is not possible to see this beauty with our eyes. One must recognize it is as one’s own being.

The True Seeing is only Being.

Taken from: http://luthar.com/how-to-overcome-the-ego/

http://www.sikhnet.com/dvd In this talk, the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan) talks about meditation as a tool for mental clarity. “If you do not find God within yourself, you do not find God at all.” Instead of looking for your “soul mate” he says that when you connect to your own soul, then you understand that “Your very own soul is your soul mate.” He also talks about the problem of information overload in the computer age and how to deal with it.

translated by Robert A. F. Thurman
copyright 1976, The Pennsylvania State University

The sutra tells the story of the lay householder Vimalakirti who lives a worldly life while following the bodhisattva path, and it is famous for its razor-sharp dialogue and paradox about non-duality. It is also renowned for ridiculing those who believe women to be inferior to men on the spiritual path.


On Non-duality
This going beyond all forms of dualism, however differently it may be expressed, whether as being and non-being, or as oneness and manyness, or as this and that, or as causation and no-causation, or as form and no-form, or as assertion and negation, or as Saṁsāra and Nirvāṇa, or as ignorance and knowledge, or as work and no-work, or as good and evil, or as purity and defilement, or as ego and non-ego, or as worldly and super-worldly, ad infinitum this going beyond a world of oppositions and contrasts constitutes one of the most significant thoughts of the Mahayana. There is nothing real as long as we remain entangled in the skein of relativity, and our sufferings will never come to an end. We must therefore endeavour to take hold of reality, but this reality is not something altogether solitary. For in this case no one of us will be able to have even a glimpse of it, and if we had, it will turn into something standing in opposition to this world of relativity, which means the loss of solitariness, that is, the solitary now forms part of this world.

The Dharma-Door of Non-duality
Then, the Licchavi Vimalakirti asked those bodhisattvas, “Good sirs, please explain how the bodhisattvas enter the Dharma-door of non-duality!”

The bodhisattva Dharmavikurvana declared, “Noble sir, production and destruction are two, but what is not produced and does not occur cannot be destroyed. Thus the attainment of the tolerance of the birthlessness of things is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Srigandha declared, ” ‘I’ and ‘mine’ are two. If there is no presumption of a self, there will be no possessiveness. Thus, the absence of presumption is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Srikuta declared, ” ‘Defilement’ and ‘purification’ are two. When there is thorough knowledge of defilement, there will be no conceit about purification. The path leading to the complete conquest of all conceit is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Bhadrajyotis declared, ” ‘Distraction’ and ‘attention’ are two. When there is no distraction, there will be no attention, no mentation, and no mental intensity. Thus, the absence of mental intensity is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Subahu declared, ” ‘Bodhisattva-spirit’ and ‘disciple-spirit’ are two. When both are seen to resemble an illusory spirit, there is no bodhisattva-spirit, nor any disciple-spirit. Thus, the sameness of natures of spirits is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Animisa declared, ” ‘Grasping’ and ‘non-grasping’ are two. What is not grasped is not perceived, and what is not perceived is neither presumed nor repudiated. Thus, the inaction and noninvolvement of all things is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Sunetra declared, ” ‘Uniqueness’ and ‘character-less-ness’ are two. Not to presume or construct something is neither to establish its uniqueness nor to establish its character-less-ness. To penetrate the equality of these two is to enter non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Tisya declared, ” ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are two. Seeking neither good nor evil, the understanding of the non-duality of the significant and the meaningless is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Simha declared, ” ‘Sinfulness’ and ’sin-less-ness’ are two. By means of the diamond-like wisdom that pierces to the quick, not to be bound or liberated is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Simhamati declared, “To say, ‘This is impure’ and ‘this is immaculate’ makes for duality. One who, attaining equanimity, forms no conception of impurity or immaculateness, yet is not utterly without conception, has equanimity without any attainment of equanimity – he enters the absence of conceptual knots. Thus, he enters into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Suddhadhimukti declared, “To say, ‘This is happiness’ and ‘That is misery’ is dualism. One who is free of all calculations, through the extreme purity of gnosis – his mind is aloof, like empty space; and thus he enters into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Narayana declared, “To say, ‘This is mundane’ and ‘that is transcendental’ is dualism. This world has the nature of void ness, so there is neither transcendence nor involvement, neither progress nor standstill. Thus, neither to transcend nor to be involved, neither to go nor to stop – this is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Dantamati declared, “‘Life’ and ‘liberation’ are dualistic. Having seen the nature of life, one neither belongs to it nor is one utterly liberated from it. Such understanding is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Pratyaksadarsana declared, “‘Destructible’ and ‘indestructible’ are dualistic. What is destroyed is ultimately destroyed. What is ultimately destroyed does not become destroyed; hence, it is called ‘indestructible.’ What is indestructible is instantaneous, and what is instantaneous is indestructible. The experience of such is called ‘the entrance into the principle of non-duality.’”

The bodhisattva Parigudha declared, “‘Self’ and ’selflessness’ are dualistic. Since the existence of self cannot be perceived, what is there to be made ’selfless’? Thus, the non-dualism of the vision of their nature is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Vidyuddeva declared, “‘Knowledge’ and ‘ignorance’ are dualistic. The natures of ignorance and knowledge are the same, for ignorance is undefined, incalculable, and beyond the sphere of thought. The realization of this is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Priyadarsana declared, “Matter itself is void. Void ness does not result from the destruction of matter, but the nature of matter is itself void ness. Therefore, to speak of void ness on the one hand, and of matter, or of sensation, or of intellect, or of motivation, or of consciousness on the other – is entirely dualistic.
Consciousness itself is void ness. Void ness does not result from the destruction of consciousness, but the nature of consciousness is itself void ness. Such understanding of the five compulsive aggregates and the knowledge of them as such by means of gnosis is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Prabhaketu declared, “To say that the four main elements are one thing and the etheric space-element another is dualistic. The four main elements are themselves the nature of space. The past itself is also the nature of space. The future itself is also the nature of space. Likewise, the present itself is also the nature of space. The gnosis that penetrates the elements in such a way is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Pramati declared, “‘Eye’ and ‘form’ are dualistic. To understand the eye correctly, and not to have attachment, aversion, or confusion with regard to form – that is called ‘peace.’ Similarly, ‘ear’ and ’sound,’ ‘nose’ and ’smell,’ ‘tongue’ and taste,’ ‘body’ and touch,’ and ‘mind’ and ‘phenomena’ – all are dualistic. But to know the mind, and to be neither attached, averse, nor confused with regard to phenomena – that is called ‘peace.’ To live in such peace is to enter into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Aksayamati declared, “The dedication of generosity for the sake of attaining omniscience is dualistic. The nature of generosity is itself omniscience, and the nature of omniscience itself is total dedication.
Likewise, it is dualistic to dedicate morality, tolerance, effort, meditation, and wisdom for the sake of omniscience. Omniscience is the nature of wisdom, and total dedication is the nature of omniscience. Thus, the entrance into this principle of uniqueness is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Gambhiramati declared, “It is dualistic to say that void-ness is one thing, sign-less-ness another, and wish-less-ness still another. What is void has no sign. What has no sign has no wish. Where there is no wish there is no process of thought, mind, or consciousness. To see the doors of all liberations in the door of one liberation is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Santendriya declared, “It is dualistic to say ‘Buddha,’ ‘Dharma,’ and ‘Sangha.’ The Dharma is itself the nature of the Buddha, the Sangha is itself the nature of the Dharma, and all of them are uncompounded. The uncompounded is infinite space, and the processes of all things are equivalent to infinite space. Adjustment to this is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Apratihatanetra declared, “It is dualistic to refer to ‘aggregates’ and to the ‘cessation of aggregates.’ Aggregates themselves are cessation. Why? The egoistic views of aggregates, being un-produced themselves, do not exist ultimately. Hence such views do not really conceptualize ‘These are aggregates’ or ‘These aggregates cease.’ Ultimately, they have no such discriminative constructions and no such conceptualizations. Therefore, such views have themselves the nature of cessation. Nonoccurrence and non-destruction are the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Suvinita declared, “Physical, verbal, and mental vows do not exist dualistically. Why? These things have the nature of inactivity. The nature of inactivity of the body is the same as the nature of inactivity of speech, whose nature of inactivity is the same as the nature of inactivity of the mind. It is necessary to know and to understand this fact of the ultimate inactivity of all things, for this knowledge is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Punyaksetra declared, “It is dualistic to consider actions meritorious, sinful, or neutral. The non-undertaking of meritorious, sinful, and neutral actions is not dualistic. The intrinsic nature of all such actions is void ness, wherein ultimately there is neither merit, nor sin, nor neutrality, nor action itself. The non-accomplishment of such actions is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Padmavyuha declared, “Dualism is produced from obsession with self, but true understanding of self does not result in dualism. Who thus abides in non-duality is without ideation, and that absence of ideation is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Srigarbha declared, “Duality is constituted by perceptual manifestation. Non-duality is object-less-ness. Therefore, non-grasping and non-rejection is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Candrottara declared, “‘Darkness’ and ‘light’ are dualistic, but the absence of both darkness and light is non-duality. Why? At the time of absorption in cessation, there is neither darkness nor light, and likewise with the natures of all things. The entrance into this equanimity is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Ratnamudrahasta declared, “It is dualistic to detest the world and to rejoice in liberation, and neither detesting the world nor rejoicing in liberation is non-duality. Why? Liberation can be found where there is bondage, but where there is ultimately no bondage where is there need for liberation? The mendicant who is neither bound nor liberated does not experience any like or any dislike and thus he enters non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Manikutaraja declared, “It is dualistic to speak of good paths and bad paths. One who is on the path is not concerned with good or bad paths. Living in such unconcern, he entertains no concepts of ‘path’ or ‘non-path.’ Understanding the nature of concepts, his mind does not engage in duality. Such is the entrance into non-duality.”

The bodhisattva Satyarata declared, “It is dualistic to speak of ‘true’ and ‘false.’ When one sees truly, one does not ever see any truth, so how could one see falsehood? Why? One does not see with the physical eye, one sees with the eye of wisdom. And with the wisdom-eye one sees only insofar as there is neither sight nor non-sight.
There, where there is neither sight nor non-sight, is the entrance into non-duality.”

When the bodhisattvas had given their explanations, they all addressed the crown prince Manjusri: “Manjusri, what is the bodhisattva’s entrance into non-duality?”

Manjusri replied, “Good sirs, you have all spoken well. Nevertheless, all your explanations are themselves dualistic. To know no one teaching, to express nothing, to say nothing, to explain nothing, to announce nothing, to indicate nothing, and to designate nothing – that is the entrance into non-duality.”

Then the crown prince Manjusri said to the Licchavi Vimalakirti, “We have all given our own teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the teaching of the entrance into the principle of non-duality!”

Thereupon, the Licchavi Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at all.
The crown prince Manjusri applauded the Licchavi Vimalakirti: “Excellent! Excellent, noble sir! This is indeed the entrance into the non-duality of the bodhisattvas. Here there is no use for syllables, sounds, and ideas.”

When these teachings had been declared, five thousand bodhisattvas entered the door of the Dharma of non-duality and attained tolerance of the birthlessness of things.

Dialogues of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

1. The Sense of ‘I am’ Questioner: It is a matter of daily experience that on waking up the world suddenly appears. Where does it come from?

Maharaj: Before anything can come into being there must be somebody to whom it comes. All appearance and disappearance presupposes a change against some changeless background. Q: Before waking up I was unconscious. M: In what sense? Having forgotten, or not having experienced? Don’t you experience even when unconscious? Can you exist without knowing? A lapse in memory: is it a proof of non-existence? And can you validly talk about your own non-existence as an actual experience? You cannot even say that your mind did not exist. Did you not wake up on being called? And on waking up, was it not the sense ‘I am’ that came first? Some seed consciousness must be existing even during sleep, or swoon. On waking up the experience runs: ‘I am — the body — in the world.’ It may appear to arise in succession but in fact it is all simultaneous, a single idea of having a body in a world. Can there be the sense of ‘I am’ without being somebody or other?

Q: I am always somebody with its memories and habits. I know no other ‘I am’.

M: Maybe something prevents you from knowing? When you do not know something which others know, what do you do?

Q: I seek the source of their knowledge under their instruction.

M: Is it not important to you to know whether you are a mere body, or something else? Or, maybe nothing at all? Don’t you see that all your problems are your body’s problems — food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, name, fame, security, survival — all these lose their meaning the moment you realise that you may not be a mere body.

Q: What benefit is there in knowing that I am not the body?

M: Even to say that you are not the body is not quite true. In a way you are all the bodies, hearts and minds and much more. Go deep into the sense of ‘I am’ and you will find. How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotten? You keep it in your mind until you recall it. The sense of being, of ‘I am’ is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes, or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the ‘I am’ without moving, you enter a state which cannot be verbalised but can be experienced. All you need to do is try and try again. After all the sense ‘I am’ is always with you, only you have attached all kinds of things to it — body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, possessions etc. All these self-identifications are misleading. Because of them you take yourself to be what you are not.

Q: Then what am I?

M: It is enough to know what you are not. You need not know what you are. For as long as knowledge means description in terms of what is already known, perceptual, or conceptual, there can be no such thing as self-knowledge, for what you are cannot be described, except as except as total negation. All you can say is: ‘I am not this, I am not that’. You cannot meaningfully say ‘this is what I am’. It just makes no sense. What you can point out as ‘this’ or ‘that’ cannot be yourself. Surely, you can not be ’something’ else. You are nothing perceivable, or imaginable. Yet, without you there can be neither perception nor imagination. You observe the heart feeling, the mind thinking, the body acting; the very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. Can there be perception, experience without you? An experience must ‘belong’. Somebody must come and declare it as his own. Without an experiencer the experience is not real. It is the experiencer that imparts reality to experience. An experience which you cannot have, of what value is it to you?

Q: The sense of being an experiencer, the sense of ‘I am’, is it not also an experience?

M: Obviously, every thing experienced is an experience. And in every experience there arises the experiencer of it. Memory creates the illusion of continuity. In reality each experience has its own experiencer and the sense of identity is due to the common factor at the root of all experiencer-experience relations. Identity and continuity are not the same. Just as each flower has its own colour, but all colours are caused by the same light, so do many experiences appear in the undivided and indivisible awareness, each separate in memory, identical in essence. This essence is the root, the foundation, the timeless and spaceless ‘possibility’ of all experience.

Q: How do I get at it?

M: You need not get at it, for you are it. It will get at you, if you give it a chance. Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own. Stop imagining yourself being or doing this or that and the realisation that you are the source and heart of all will dawn upon you. With this will come great love which is not choice or predilection, nor attachment, but a power which makes all things love-worthy and lovable.

Read the entire PDF online for free here: http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf

Watch all four videos
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Download and read the book for free

The Nisargadatta Gita is a non-profit publication which contains the essence of the teaching of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. It has only one chapter ‘I AM’ which consists of 231 condensed quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj along with a short commentary on each quote. These quotes have been prepared from a collection of 572 ‘I AM’ quotes compiled from the 10 main books (Beginning with ‘I Am That’) that cover almost all the recorded dialogues of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Satsang is literally “in the company of truth.” Satsang is a meeting in truth honoring our unchanging true nature – the reality of solid spaciousness. In the late 1990s, Stuart attended satsang with Robert Adams, an American jnani (knower of truth) who became his mentor. Stuart often speaks of the strength of Robert’s presence and is most grateful to Robert and his guru, the revered Ramana Maharshi, the sage of Arunachala. Being drawn to pilgrimage to Ramana’s ashram in South India in 2005, Stuart feels it is the depth and power of Ramana’s silence that supports all knowledge of our true nature. According to Stuart, “When we take our attention off the individual we experience something miraculous – our nature, our essence, and that is a state of contentment that is causeless.” Stuart calls this process “undoing”. “No matter how we appear or what our life looks like, it is our interior assessment of ourselves that rules us and creates the structure of our lives. I am talking about what we truly think of ourselves, the interior dialogue about our value and what we believe we deserve and what we can and cannot have. When one believes all of these emotional judgments then one is bound and ruled by them. Life then takes on the pattern of effort and strategy to overcome deficiencies and endlessly striving for what will make us happy. All of this is a cloud of illusion obscuring the truth of who and what we are.” Stuart defines wisdom as seeing through this set-up. When we can be present to all that appears, then Presence is revealed, and this Presence can absorb all that is held. Presence then fills the space surrendered by our long-held core beliefs and begins to permeate our lives. What is even more beautiful is that life begins to reflect a state of ease and well being natural to Presence alone.

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Quotes accompanied by images of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi the ‘Sage of Arunachala’

Ramana Maharshi realized the Self at the age of 16, drawn to mount Arunachala he remained there his whole life. Many of the spiritual masters of today are heavily influenced by Sri Ramana’s revival of self inquiry, a timeless teaching where the question of ones true identity is the main focus. Ramana relentlessly pointed seekers & devotees to find out the true nature of the Self. Who they are.
The path ‘Who am i?’ being the most universally applicable method and most potent & direct path to truth possible, indicates that Ramana Maharshi was one of, if not the greatest Sage our planet earth has ever seen.

Integral Mahamudra: Enter the Mandala of Awakening (Patrick Sweeney) from Integral Life on Vimeo.

In this video, patrick Sweeney opens the Integral Mahamudra seminar of 2007. As he talks throughout this video, a central theme arises. Whether he talks about the importance and meaning of a bow, or waking up to the life that you have as opposed to the life that you want, it all leads back to an invitation; an invitation to step out of the Mandala of Confusion and into the Mandala of Awakening. Do you want to take that step with us?

Patrick Sweeney is the lineage holder of the Karma Kagyü lineage, given by the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He is also the head of Satdharma—meaning “genuine dharma”—a Buddhist organization created with the purpose of propagating Chögyam Trungpa’s unique transmission.

A good man is what I inspire to be, may this journey called life be filled with nothing but what I inspire to see. From the muddy lands did I rise up into a lotus flower shining fourth pure clean petals. Rooting out all ignorance and bad habits, reformatting my heart-mind drive. Now I have something to offer, to everyone I meet, but most of all to my loved one, my precious wife who saw me in the midst of the darkest nights, now we journey together as freedom rings, illuminating the presence of the Divine just in the nick of time, loving kindness shines in my heart and mind. Now I am free from mental agony, breathing freshness so clear and so free. I am given the gift of a new birth, which is my son that looks just like me and I am humbled truly for having a mini-me. In my heart I always wanted a little brother or a really close best friend, now I have a little boy who is my one and only son, who smiles at me every time I hold and sing a song to him. His smile is like a shot of pure fresh air and light, radiating from the sun with all its gentle might. I can’t even expressed the gratitude that I feel in my heart as it beats with so much love, from underneath and to above- covering my entire existence. Here I am a man, who has been rescued from turmoil, at a perfect time I received this precious gift. A father I am, I can’t believe I reached this stage in my life. From all the many moments I almost experienced death, I can’t believe I have life and breath to be here and now to write, share and to express this, yes I am a father and a proud one. I cross my heart and I promise to be the best dad to my son until the very last day I give up my last breath, I will be here, being an example of peace and love to you my son. I want to leave behind a legacy of a heart filled with compassion, and may my son say my dad was a good dad, an activist of peace and compassion, caring for the sick and poor. I am that man, and I will be what I inspire to be, a good man, a good father, a good friend, a good teacher, a visionary of truth.
Let all men rise. Pray that you be the best example and role model for your children, treat your wife right with love and affection. A good man is what we inspire to be.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Don’t keep what you have learned in a box and keep it to yourself. Share it and help others, so they can escape the misery produced by their delusional mind.

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closing eyes, clearing thoughts, let the heart breathe.. peacefully gliding into your soul…

Venerable Wu Ling, a renowned American Buddhist Nun speaks about universality of Buddhism, Pure Land and human morality. In this interview, she simplifies the entire Buddist doctrine in one sentence.

Everything is naturally perfect just as it is.

All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no
significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they
present themselves.

This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is
a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of
our own enlightenment.

With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already
here.

The everyday practice of Dzogchen is just everyday life itself.

Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special
way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are.
There should be no feeling of striving to reach some ‘amazing goal’ or
‘advanced state.’ To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only
conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind.

We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons – we are naturally free and
unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing. When
engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating,
breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event,
bloated with seriousness and solemnity.

We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and nonliberation.

Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything.
Since everything that arises is simply the play of the mind as such, there is
no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.

Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own
condition just as it is.

Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to
think ‘I am meditating’

Our practice should be without effort, without strain,
without attempts to control or force and without trying to become ‘peaceful’. If
we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop
meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our
meditation.

If we have ‘interesting experiences’ either during or after
meditation we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time
thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become
unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be
regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to re-experience them
because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of Mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely
free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in
timelessness.

The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and
inspiration which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity.

We should learn to see everyday life as mandala – the luminous fringes of
experience, which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being.
The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience
moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner
teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being.

Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything.
This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually
irritate us. In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and
future – our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past is only
an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of
our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to
grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid
ground? We should free ourselves from our present memories and
preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely
unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of
judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory of hollow
rhetoric. Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our
whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is – Enlightenment

May all beings receiving this note also receive happiness and the causes of happiness;
May they all be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering;
May they not be seperated from the bliss that is without suffering;
May they dwell in equanimity, free from attachment, hate, and aversion.

Any merit accumulated from this note is instantly dedicated to all sentient beings liberation.

Tsoru Dechen Chokhor Ling Vajrayana Buddhist Center
3239 West Trade Avenue # 10
Miami, Fl. 33133

Meditations every Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8:00 p.m.
Sundays at 2:00 p.m.

Our root guru is His Eminence Tulku Tsori Rinpoche
For more information call Daniel 305-775-7541 or Jorge 786-556-3040
http://ytdr.org/en/
www.childrensmonastery.org

What Meditation Is

Meditation is a word, and words are used in different ways by different speakers. This may seem like a trivial point, but it is not. It is quite important to distinguish exactly what a particular speaker means by the words he uses. Every culture on earth, for example, has produced some sort of mental practice which might be termed meditation. It all depends on how loose a definition you give to that word. Everybody does it, from Africans to Eskimos. The techniques are enormously varied, and we will make no attempt to survey them. There are other books for that. For the purpose of this volume, we will restrict our discussion to those practices best known to Western audiences and most likely associated with the term meditation.

Within the Judeo-Christian tradition we find two overlapping practices called prayer and contemplation. Prayer is a direct address to some spiritual entity. Contemplation is a prolonged period of conscious thought about some specific topic, usually a religious ideal or scriptural passage. From the standpoint of mental culture, both of these activities are exercises in concentration. The normal deluge of conscious thought is restricted, and the mind is brought to one conscious area of operation. The results are those you find in any concentrative practice: deep calm, a physiological slowing of the metabolism and a sense of peace and well-being.

Out of the Hindu tradition comes Yogic meditation, which is also purely concentrative. The traditional basic exercises consist of focusing the mind on a single object: a stone, a candle flame, a syllable or whatever, and not allowing it to wander. Having acquired the basic skill, the Yogi proceeds to expand his practice by taking on more complex objects of meditation: chants, colorful religious images, energy channels in the body and so forth. Still, no matter how complex the object of meditation, the meditation itself remains purely an exercise in concentration.

Within the Buddhist tradition, concentration is also highly valued. But a new element is added and more highly stressed. That element is awareness. All Buddhist meditation aims at the development of awareness, using concentration as a tool. The Buddhist tradition is very wide, however, and there are several diverse routes to this goal. Zen meditation uses two separate tacks. The first is the direct plunge into awareness by sheer force of will. You sit down and you just sit, meaning that you toss out of your mind everything except pure awareness of sitting. This sounds very simple. It is not. A brief trial will demonstrate just how difficult it really is. The second Zen approach used in the Rinzai school is that of tricking the mind out of conscious thought and into pure awareness. This is done by giving the student an unsolvable riddle which he must solve anyway, and by placing him in a horrendous training situation. Since he cannot flee from the pain of the situation, he must flee into a pure experience of the moment. There is nowhere else to go. Zen is tough. It is effective for many people, but it is really tough.

Another stratagem, Tantric Buddhism, is nearly the reverse. Conscious thought, at least the way we usually do it, is the manifestation of ego, the you that you usually think that you are. Conscious thought is tightly connected with self-concept. The self-concept or ego is nothing more than a set of reactions and mental images which are artificially pasted to the flowing process of pure awareness. Tantra seeks to obtain pure awareness by destroying this ego image. This is accomplished by a process of visualization. The student is given a particular religious image to meditate upon, for example, one of the deities from the Tantric pantheon. He does this in so thorough a fashion that he becomes that entity. He takes off his own identity and puts on another. This takes a while, as you might imagine, but it works. During the process, he is able to watch the way that the ego is constructed and put in place. He comes to recognize the arbitrary nature of all egos, including his own, and he escapes from bondage to the ego. He is left in a state where he may have an ego if he so chooses, either his own or whichever other he might wish, or he can do without one. Result: pure awareness. Tantra is not exactly a game of patty cake either.

Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Sitipatthana Sutta, a discourse attributed to Buddha himself. Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years. The student’s attention is carefully directed to an intense examination of certain aspects of his own existence. The meditator is trained to notice more and more of his own flowing life experience. Vipassana is a gentle technique. But it also is very, very thorough. It is an ancient and codified system of sensitivity training, a set of exercises dedicated to becoming more and more receptive to your own life experience. It is attentive listening, total seeing and careful testing. We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully and really pay attention to what we feel. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.

The object of Vipassana practice is to learn to pay attention. We think we are doing this already, but that is an illusion. It comes from the fact that we are paying so little attention to the ongoing surge of our own life experiences that we might just as well be asleep. We are simply not paying enough attention to notice that we are not paying attention. It is another Catch-22.

Through the process of mindfulness, we slowly become aware of what we really are down below the ego image. We wake up to what life really is. It is not just a parade of ups and downs, lollipops and smacks on the wrist. That is an illusion. Life has a much deeper texture than that if we bother to look, and if we look in the right way.

Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. You will learn for the first time what is truly happening to you, around you and within you. It is a process of self discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them, and as they occur. The practice must be approached with this attitude.

“Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudgments and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life. I want to know what this experience of being alive really is. I want to apprehend the true and deepest qualities of life, and I don’t want to just accept somebody else’s explanation. I want to see it for myself.” If you pursue your meditation practice with this attitude, you will succeed. You’ll find yourself observing things objectively, exactly as they are–flowing and changing from moment to moment. Life then takes on an unbelievable richness which cannot be described. It has to be experienced.

The Pali term for Insight meditation is Vipassana Bhavana. Bhavana comes from the root ‘Bhu’, which means to grow or to become. Therefore Bhavana means to cultivate, and the word is always used in reference to the mind. Bhavana means mental cultivation. ‘Vipassana’ is derived from two roots. ‘Passana’ means seeing or perceiving. ‘Vi’ is a prefix with a complex set of connotations. The basic meaning is ‘in a special way.’ But there also is the connotation of both ‘into’ and ‘through’. The whole meaning of the word is looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct and separate, and piercing all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing. This process leads to insight into the basic reality of whatever is being inspected. Put it all together and ‘Vipassana Bhavana’ means the cultivation of the mind, aimed at seeing in a special way that leads to insight and to full understanding.

In Vipassana mediation we cultivate this special way of seeing life. We train ourselves to see reality exactly as it is, and we call this special mode of perception ‘mindfulness.’ This process of mindfulness is really quite different from what we usually do. We usually do not look into what is really there in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for the reality. We get so caught up in this endless thought stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal pursuit of pleasure and gratification and an eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend all of our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears. We are endlessly seeking security. Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted. In Vipassana meditation we train ourselves to ignore the constant impulses to be more comfortable, and we dive into the reality instead. The ironic thing is that real peace comes only when you stop chasing it. Another Catch-22.

When you relax your driving desire for comfort, real fulfillment arises. When you drop your hectic pursuit of gratification, the real beauty of life comes out. When you seek to know the reality without illusion, complete with all its pain and danger, that is when real freedom and security are yours. This is not some doctrine we are trying to drill into you. This is an observable reality, a thing you can and should see for yourself.

Buddhism is 2500 years old, and any thought system of that vintage has time to develop layers and layers of doctrine and ritual. Nevertheless, the fundamental attitude of Buddhism is intensely empirical and anti-authoritarian. Gotama the Buddha was a highly unorthodox individual and real anti-traditionalist. He did not offer his teaching as a set of dogmas, but rather as a set of propositions for each individual to investigate for himself. His invitation to one and all was ‘Come and See’. One of the things he said to his followers was “Place no head above your own”. By this he meant, don’t accept somebody else’s word. See for yourself.

We want you to apply this attitude to every word you read in this manual. We are not making statements that you would accept merely because we are authorities in the field. Blind faith has nothing to do with this. These are experiential realities. Learn to adjust your mode of perception according to instructions given in the book, and you will see for yourself. That and only that provides ground for your faith. Insight meditation is essentially a practice of investigative personal discovery.

Having said this, we will present here a very short synopsis of some of the key points of Buddhist philosophy. We make no attempt to be thorough, since that has been quite nicely done in many other books. This material is essential to understanding Vipassana, therefore, some mention must be made.

From the Buddhist point of view, we human beings live in a very peculiar fashion. We view impermanent things as permanent, though everything is changing all around us. The process of change is constant and eternal. As you read these words, your body is aging. But you pay no attention to that. The book in your hand is decaying. The print is fading and the pages are becoming brittle. The walls around you are aging. The molecules within those walls are vibrating at an enormous rate, and everything is shifting, going to pieces and dissolving slowly. You pay no attention to that, either. Then one day you look around you. Your body is wrinkled and squeaky and you hurt. The book is a yellowed, useless lump; the building is caving in. So you pine for lost youth and you cry when the possessions are gone. Where does this pain come from? It comes from your own inattention. You failed to look closely at life. You failed to observe the constantly shifting flow of the world as it went by. You set up a collection of mental constructions, ‘me’, ‘the book’, ‘the building’, and you assume that they would endure forever. They never do. But you can tune into the constantly ongoing change. You can learn to perceive your life as an ever-flowing movement, a thing of great beauty like a dance or symphony. You can learn to take joy in the perpetual passing away of all phenomena. You can learn to live with the flow of existence rather than running perpetually against the grain. You can learn this. It is just a matter of time and training.

Our human perceptual habits are remarkably stupid in some ways. We tune out 99% of all the sensory stimuli we actually receive, and we solidify the remainder into discrete mental objects. Then we react to those mental objects in programmed habitual ways. An example: There you are, sitting alone in the stillness of a peaceful night. A dog barks in the distance. The perception itself is indescribably beautiful if you bother to examine it. Up out of that sea of silence come surging waves of sonic vibration. You start to hear the lovely complex patterns, and they are turned into scintillating electronic stimulations within the nervous system. The process is beautiful and fulfilling in itself. We humans tend to ignore it totally. Instead, we solidify that perception into a mental object. We paste a mental picture on it and we launch into a series of emotional and conceptual reactions to it. “There is that dog again. He is always barking at night. What a nuisance. Every night he is a real bother. Somebody should do something. Maybe I should call a cop. No, a dog catcher. So, I’ll call the pound. No, maybe I’ll just write a real nasty letter to the guy who owns that dog. No, too much trouble. I’ll just get an ear plug.” They are just perceptual and mental habits. You learn to respond this way as a child by copying the perceptual habits of those around you. These perceptual responses are not inherent in the structure of the nervous system. The circuits are there. But this is not the only way that our mental machinery can be used. That which has been learned can be unlearned. The first step is to realize what you are doing, as you are doing it, and stand back and quietly watch.

From the Buddhist perspective, we humans have a backward view of life. We look at what is actually the cause of suffering and we see it as happiness. The cause of suffering is that desire-aversion syndrome which we spoke of earlier. Up pops a perception. It could be anything–a beautiful girl, a handsome guy, speed boat, thug with a gun, truck bearing down on you, anything. Whatever it is, the very next thing we do is to react to the stimulus with a feeling about it.

Take worry. We worry a lot. Worry itself is the problem. Worry is a process. It has steps. Anxiety is not just a state of existence but a procedure. What you’ve got to do is to look at the very beginning of that procedure, those initial stages before the process has built up a head of steam. The very first link of the worry chain is the grasping/rejecting reaction. As soon as some phenomenon pops into the mind, we try mentally to grab onto it or push it away. That sets the worry response in motion. Luckily, there is a handy little tool called Vipassana meditation which you can use to short-circuit the whole mechanism.

Vipassana meditation teaches us how to scrutinize our own perceptual process with great precision. We learn to watch the arising of thought and perception with a feeling of serene detachment. We learn to view our own reactions to stimuli with calm and clarity. We begin to see ourselves reacting without getting caught up in the reactions themselves. The obsessive nature of thought slowly dies. We can still get married. We can still step out of the path of the truck. But we don’t need to go through hell over either one.

This escape from the obsessive nature of thought produces a whole new view of reality. It is a complete paradigm shift, a total change in the perceptual mechanism. It brings with it the feeling of peace and rightness, a new zest for living and a sense of completeness to every activity. Because of these advantages, Buddhism views this way of looking at things as a correct view of life and Buddhist texts call it seeing things as they really are.

Vipassana meditation is a set of training procedures which open us gradually to this new view of reality as it truly is. Along with this new reality goes a new view of the most central aspect of reality: ‘me’. A close inspection reveals that we have done the same thing to ‘me’ that we have done to all other perceptions. We have taken a flowing vortex of thought, feeling and sensation and we have solidified that into a mental construct. Then we have stuck a label onto it, ‘me’. And forever after, we treat it as if it were a static and enduring entity. We view it as a thing separate from all other things. We pinch ourselves off from the rest of that process of eternal change which is the universe. And then we grieve over how lonely we feel. We ignore our inherent connectedness to all other beings and we decide that ‘I’ have to get more for ‘me’; then we marvel at how greedy and insensitive human beings are. And on it goes. Every evil deed, every example of heartlessness in the world stems directly from this false sense of ‘me’ as distinct from all else that is out there.

Explode the illusion of that one concept and your whole universe changes. Don’t expect to do this overnight, though. You spent your whole life building up that concept, reinforcing it with every thought, word, and deed over all those years. It is not going to evaporate instantly. But it will pass if you give it enough time and enough attention. Vipassana meditation is a process by which it is dissolved. Little by little, you chip away at it just by watching it.

The ‘I’ concept is a process. It is a thing we are doing. In Vipassana we learn to see that we are doing it, when we are doing it and how we are doing it. Then it moves and fades away, like a cloud passing through the clear sky. We are left in a state where we can do it or not do it, whichever seems appropriate to the situation. The compulsiveness is gone. We have a choice.

These are all major insights, of course. Each one is a deep-reaching understanding of one of the fundamental issues of human existence. They do not occur quickly, nor without considerable effort. But the payoff is big. They lead to a total transformation of your life. Every second of your existence thereafter is changed. The meditator who pushes all the way down this track achieves perfect mental health, a pure love for all that lives and complete cessation of suffering. That is not a small goal. But you don’t have to go all the way to reap benefits. They start right away and they pile up over the years. It is a cumulative function. The more you sit, the more you learn about the real nature of your own existence. The more hours you spend in meditation, the greater your ability to calmly observe every impulse and intention, every thought and emotion just as it arises in the mind. Your progress to liberation is measured in cushion-man hours. And you can stop any time you’ve had enough. There is no stick over your head except your own desire to see the true quality of life, to enhance your own existence and that of others.

Vipassana meditation is inherently experiential. It is not theoretical. In the practice of mediation you become sensitive to the actual experience of living, to how things feel. You do not sit around developing subtle and aesthetic thoughts about living. You live. Vipassana meditation more than anything else is learning to live.

Taken from: http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english_5.php

Here is a dialogue from the famous book, I am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj, 65: A Quiet Mind is All You Need:

Q:  Does not the knower know itself?

M:  The mind is discontinuous.  Again and again it blanks out, like in sleep or swoon, or distraction.  There must be something continuous to register discontinuity.

Q:  The mind remembers.  This stands for continuity.
M:  Memory is always partial, unreliable and evanescent.  It does not explain the strong sense of identity pervading consciousness, the sense of  ‘I am’. 

Find out what is at the root of it.

A Meditation on Continuity:

Life seems continuous.
What gives us this impression?
Is it memory, recollection that creates the illusion of time passing?
Or is it something much more fundamental, more basic?

The very ground of being is conscious awareness.
This is the only continuous element.

It is the mistaken belief that the a collection of events, brought forward as memory in the present, and, as the present, creates the impression of a timeline, but look carefully.

What is the only thing that is consistent across all events? Certainly not the events themselves? They are “arisings” in the now.

The appearance of “things’ is nothing more than:

“Eternity in love with the production of time.” William Blake.

They are not even arising.

The Noble Eightfold Path

Someone said to me today regarding about the Noble Eightfold Path:
“I am a little bit skeptic about any path. They enforce the ego.”

After writing my response to the person, I decided I should post it here too, just in case someone way may feel the same way.

“The ego wants to be in the center of everyone’s life.
When ever a Spiritual Path is followed with determination, the ego becomes threatened, because now it feels like it is losing grip of our life (body and mind).

The word “enforce” is the perfect way to describe what ego is saying.  Ego says “I do not want to be compelled or forced into behaving in a certain way.”  Ego doesn’t like rules.  Ego likes to live the way it wants to, think whatever way it wants to, and act whatever way it wants to.

But in Reality, the way of the ego is illusory, it doesn’t fulfill, it leaves the heart wanting for more and it will never become satisfied. The way of the ego is like a dog chasing its own tail again and again, going no where, in terms of not living in full potential, and attracting the abundance emotionally, spiritually and materially one so deserves.

Imagine a country without Laws. That country would experience confusion and chaos.  That is the same way in any Spiritual Path.  The Law is like the staff that a Shepherd uses to guide his sheep.  If the Shepherd doesn’t guide his sheep they can walk into harms way and get hurt or killed. Ultimately we have a Divine guidance within us, its like a inner compass, but we cannot see it if ego is present.

Enforcing ego is basically discovering who you are not and who you really are. Think about it….try to go back as far as to when you were a child….with simple thinking….without beliefs….without concepts or ideas….you were just living life, always happy for no reason….that is our True Nature, but its like we cannot see it anymore, its like we lost frequency, due to the things we pick up along the way of this path called adulthood.  Those things we picked up are habits and perceptions, which forms this ego.

The Eightfold Path is a Spiritual Path that uses practical instructions of how to discover your True Nature all over again and live in complete fullness and bliss.

~Namaste~

Strip away your title and what do you have?
Strip away your beliefs and what do you have?
Strip away your differences with other people and what do you have?
Strip away your thinking and what do you have?

Beingness

Why when you were a baby you smiled and laugh more for no apparent reason.

Now as an adult you became so serious?

Where is your funny bone? Did it die and dry up?
Loosen up, join others and socialize not just about politics and spirituality, but about human things and have, like when you were a kid.

Strip away the criticism. Strip away the wanting to always be right or to have the last word.

Let it go.

See a person as a human being, a living being who is a part of you. Do not just see them as a person who shares things that you like or believe in. Learn about them in a human level. Open your heart without any conditions.

We are all petals that form a beautiful flower and let out a wonderful fragrance of love and unity. Do not let mind exclude you from this beautiful flower.

As the birds join together and fly in perfect harmony, let us join without condition, without a judging mind. Fly into perfect harmony.

Metta Sutta
( Discourse on Loving-kindness )
U Nandiya

Once the Bhagava ( Lord Buddha) was staying at the Jetavana monastery in the pleasance of Anathapindika at Savatthi. A group of monks received permission from the Lord to meditate in a distant forest during the period of Buddhist Lent. Each of the monks took shelter under a big tree as a temporary residence and an engaged themselves intensively in the practice of meditation.

On account of the spiritual power of their meditation, the tree deities could not stay in their trees-abodes above the monks, so they had to come down to the ground. Realizing that the monks would spend the whole rainy season there, the deities were much annoyed. So they tried to scare the monks away during the night by harassing them in various ways.

After living under such impossible conditions for sometime, the monks could not bear it any longer and rushed back to the Buddha and informed him about their difficulties. So the Buddha advised them to recite the text of loving kindness (Metta Sutta) and to radiate the spirit of love to all beings. On the full-moon day of Wagaung, the Buddha taught the monks the Metta Sutta. From that day till now, the full-moon day of Wagaung has been called as the ‘Great or Grand Occasion of Metta.

Encouraged by this discourse, the monks returned to their respective places. They practised in accordance with the instructions given them to permeate the entire atmosphere with radiant thoughts of love, The tree-deities were much pleased to be affected by the power of love, and so let the monks (meditators) stay without any further disturbances.

Metta

Metta is the highest need of the world today, indeed it is more needed than ever before. Because in this new world, there are sufficient materials, money and brilliant wise men and scientists. In spite of these, there is no peace and happiness. It shows that something is lacking, That is Metta.

What is the Buddhist idea of Metta? The Pali word “Metta” means “loving kindness”, not the ordinary, sensual, emotional, sentimental kind of love. Metta has been translated by modem translators into English as generous, mindness loving, loving kindness, sending out thoughts of love towards others” but according to the words of Buddha, Metta has a far wider significance, and a much more extensive implication than this. It means a great deal more than loving kindness harmlessness, sympathy.

What is love? Love is also defined in the Oxford Dictionary. According to it, love means warm affection, attachment, affectionate devotion, etc. These are synonymous terms for love and they all refer to sentimental worldly love. So, Metta has no full English equivalent. For this Metta is much more than ordinary affection or warm feelings. The Pali word Metta literally means “friendliness”, but also means love without a desire to possess but with desire to help, to sacrifice self-interest for the welfare and well being of humanity. Metta is with out any selection or exclusion. If you select a few good friends and exclude a bad person, then you have not got a perfect grasp of Metta. Indeed Metta is not only benevolent thought, but also performing charitable deeds, an active ministry for the good of one and all.

In the “Metta Sutta” the Buddha has chosen the love of a mother for her child as an example. Imagine a mother’s love when her child is hungry; she watches carefully to feed her child even be fore it asks her for food. When the child is in danger, she will risk her own life. So the Buddha taught us to love all beings as a mother loves her only child. If we can do this even to a small extent, the world will become happier and more peaceful place. In the Dighanikaya, it is said by the Buddha that almost every virtue such as unselfishness, loving sympathy and loving kindness is included in this “Metta”.

Though we talked much about Metta and repeat the formula “Sabbe satta avera hontu, abyapajjha hontu etc;. “( May all sentient beings be free from danger; may they be free from oppression etc.), without Metta how can it be effective? This passage is not to be merely recited. The Buddha does not ask us to learn any of his teachings for recitation only. So the recitation of the “Metta Sutta” is good, but the Buddha did not mean it to be merely recited. He exhorted us to follow and practise the instructions in it so that we might realize Metta as the best state of heart in the world.

Therefore do not be satisfied with the mere recitation of the “Metta Sutta” but strive to know its meaning with a view to practising it and to make it suffuse your being. That is the most essential fact. Meditation does not mean merely to think about it, but to practise it in your daily life.

Discourse of loving kindness

This discourse of loving kindness serves as a mark of protection and as a subject of meditation. In the first part of the discourse are found virtues that should be practised by anyone who desires his own welfare, and in the latter part the method of practising Metta or good will is explained in de tail. The Buddha taught us to follow and practise the following principles:

He who is skilled in doing welfare, who wishes to attain the state of calm, (Perfect tranquility) must work to be efficient, upright, perfectly upright, easy to speak to, gentle and humble.

Contended, easily supportable, having few duties, simple in livelihood, controlled in sense prudent, modest and not greedily attached to families, he must not commit even the slightest sin for which other wise men might censure him.

He must contemplate so: May all beings be happy, may all beings be secure, may all beings be happy. He must radiate the measureless thoughts of loving kindness to whatever living beings there may be; feeble or strong, tall, medium or short, small, medium or large, thin, medium or stout, seen or unseen, those dwelling far or near, those who are born and those who are to be born- may all beings, without exception, be happy.

Let none be angry with another, let him not despise anyone in any place. By means of physical and verbal provocation or by frustrated enmity, in anger or ill-will let him not wish another’s suffering.

Just as a mother would protect at the risk of her own life the life of her only son, even so let him spread boundless loving kindness to every corner of the world; above, below and across, unhindered without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.

While standing, walking, sitting or lying down, as long as he awake, without sloth (laziness) he should devote himself to this mindfulness of love. This, they say, is the “Highest Conduct” and this is called the “Noble living” (Holy life).

If the meditator, not falling into wrong-view (egoism), be virtuous and endowed with perfect insight, and expel his passion for sensual pleasure, then, of a truth, he will never be conceived in any womb again.

In the Dhammapada the Buddha said, “A beautiful word or thought which is not accompanied by corresponding acts is like a bright flower which bears no fruit. It would not produce any effect.” So, it is action, not speculation, it is practice, not theory that matters. According to the Dhammapada, “will” if it is not followed by corresponding action does not count. Therefore, practice of the “Noble Principles of the Metta Sutta” is the essence of Buddhism.

In this connexion this “Metta” or Universal Love (Loving kindness) is generally taken to exist in connexion with other people, but in reality love for self comes first. It is not a selfish love, but love for self, pure love that comes first. By having pure love or “Metta” as we defined it for self; selfish tendencies, hatred, anger, will be diminished. Therefore, unless we ourselves possess “Metta” within, we can not share, radiate, send “Metta” to others. So meditation on love “Metta” is to be started within ourselves. According to Buddhism self-love comes first. By helping ourselves, we can help others effectively. The Buddha pointed out, “If a person cannot help himself well, he cannot help others well”.

In the Dhammapada it says, “One should first establish oneself in what is proper then only he should advise another; such a wise-man will not be reproached!”. If one cannot find happiness in himself, he cannot find happiness anywhere else. It is also said that people who cannot control themselves cannot find happiness.

According to the Buddhist method, training oneself comes first. Individual perfection must be first, so that the organic whole may be perfect. The state of the outer world is a reflection of our innerselves. The world is like a great mirror, and if you look at the mirror with a smiling face, you will see your own beautiful smiling face. If you look at it with a shrinking face, you will see your own ugly face. It means that “Every action must have equal and opposite reaction.”

So if you treat the world properly, kindly, the world will treat you kindly. We should not expect other persons to treat us kindly first, we should start by ourselves treating them kindly,

This is the essence of Buddhist “Metta” Loving Kindness.

“May all beings be happy, may all beings be secure, may all beings be happy minded and may their hearts be wholesome.”

U Nandiya

Taken from: http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/ebsut029.htm