In the first of a series of short videos on a single Dhamma question, Bhante Seelanada answers a retreatant’s query: “Bhante, are you enlightened?” The question was posed during a March 2015 retreat at the Bhavana Society Therevadan Forest Monastery in the West Virginia mountains.
For more video Dhamma talks, visit the Bhavana Society YouTube channel.
For more on the monastery, visit http://bhavanasociety.org
Image from WikiMedia
When fear arises within our meditation, we apply an antidote. Recognizing what is happening at each instant as mind, we remain in the present. It is important to remember that patterns don’t have to repeat themselves. Through remaining in the present, we can let go of the past and the future—the headquarters of our fears. We recognize and then we let go, whether coming back to the focal point of our meditation—posture, breath, visualization—or non-conceptual space. Through motivation, honesty, and confidence you can practice with your fears and go beyond them in a way you never thought possible.
Lama Tsony
Read full excerpt
There are many metta or loving-friendliness meditations to be found on the web. Here is one from the Meditation Circle’s Resources page, adapted from a metta meditation taught by Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society Therevadan Forest Monastery near Wardensville, W.Va. Metta meditations can be a heartening and expansive way to begin or end a meditation session.
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May I be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to me, may difficulties not last long, may I have a calm, centered mind. May I have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May my parents be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May my teachers be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May family members and relatives be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May friends and acquaintances be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May my enemies and those with whom I have trouble communicating be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May indifferent persons be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
May all beings, with form and without form, visible and invisible, near and far, born or coming to birth, from the highest realms of existence to the lowest, be well happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them, may difficulties not last long, may they have calm, centered minds. May they have patience, insight, courage and compassion in meeting and overcoming the inevitable challenges, difficulties and failures in life.
“To those of you who are suffering immediate and omnipresent hardships, my heart goes out to you. At my age, I’m well acquainted with pain. But the monk wants you to know that pain is a gateway to understanding. When it’s time to suffer, you should suffer; when it’s time to cry, you should cry. Cry completely. Cry until there are no more tears and then recognize in your exhaustion that you’re alive. The sun still rises and sets. The seasons come and go. Absolutely nothing remains the same and that includes suffering. When the suffering ends, wisdom begins to raise the right questions.”
~ Seido Ray Ronci
from “The Examined Life,” Tricycle, May 15, 2015
Image from globalcool.org/lifestyle/top-cycling-apps
Here is an excerpt from a wonderful essay, “A Holistic Mindfulness,” by Ajahn Amaro on the Buddhist context of the word “mindfulness,” which is so much the rage these days. The whole essay is worth a read, but the segment below gives a wonderfully nuanced explanation of the Buddhist term ‘dukkha,’ often translated as ‘suffering’, but which has a far more nuanced and complex meaning.
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Dukkha is often translated as ‘suffering’. Suffering, however, represents only one aspect of dukkha, a term whose range of implications is difficult to capture with a single English word. Dukkha can be derived from the Sanskrit kha, one meaning of which is ‘the axle-hole of a wheel’, and the antithetic prefix duḥ (= dus), which stands for ‘difficulty’ or ‘badness’. The complete term then evokes the image of an axle not fitting properly into its hole. According to this image, dukkha suggests ‘disharmony’ or ‘friction’.
“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Bhante Seelanda gives a Dhamma talk on Day 1 of a retreat on Samatha and Vipassana meditation at the Bhavana Society Therevadan Buddhist Forest Monastery in West Virginia, from April 6-13, 2015. This is an illuminating talk on the relationship and role of these two types of meditation practices, that entail concentration and insight, respectively.
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For more video Dhamma talks and instruction by Bhavana Society monks, visit the monastery’s YouTube Page.
“The purpose of meditation is not to concentrate on the breath, without interruption, forever. That by itself would be a useless goal. The purpose of meditation is not to achieve a perfectly still and serene mind. Although a lovely state, it doesn’t lead to liberation by itself. The purpose of meditation is to achieve uninterrupted mindfulness. Mindfulness, and only mindfulness, produces enlightenment.”
~Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Mindfulness in Plain English” (page 126).
http://wisdompubs.org/author/bhante-gunaratana
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NOTE: This excerpt and image comes from the Bhavana Society Facebook page, which we highly recommend following, full of daily quotes by the Buddha and teachings on meditation and Buddhist practice by Bhante Gunaratana, abbot of the Therevadan forest monastery in eastern West Virginia.
Click on this link to get to the new Bhavana Society Supporters and Friends Facebook page. The page was created to provide an environment where supporters of the Bhavana Society Therevadan Buddhist Monastery and retreat center near High View, W.Va., in Hampshire County, West Virginia, can meet and share their meditation and Dhamma experiences. If you’d like to join, just click on the link and feel free to participate.
PS~You can also find on Facebook the Bhavana Society’s main page, maintained by lay followers. It includes daily quotes from the Buddhist canon, excerpts from Bhavana abbot Bhante Gunaratana’s teachings and some really wonderful Buddha statues, images and photos from around the Buddhist world.
Image from pixshark.com
“One abides pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth; so above, below, around, and everywhere, and extending to all, one abides pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill will.”
~The Buddha
(MN 7.6)
“Awareness is your refuge: awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods, of material change and emotional change. Stay with that. because it’s a refuge that is indestructible. It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in. This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal. It’s very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed. When you’re mindful, you’re beginning to notice, it’s like this.
“Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
pixshark.com
“Nibbana is not a location or condition somewhere outside of us. Rather, it is within. Nibbana is the total destruction of all defilements. The very moment our greed, hatred and ignorance are destroyed, nibbana arises. The key to overcoming defilements and reaching nibbana is cultivating (or training) the mind. As the Buddha said, “As rain does not get into a well thatched house, so craving does not get into a well trained mind.”
So how should we proceed? First, we must understand what we are trying to accomplish and develop some skill in mindfulness both during meditation and in life. We use this mindfulness to prevent external defilements from entering the mind by carefully guarding the senses. We also use it to prevent latent tendencies that exist as traces within the mind, such as craving, hatred, greed, jealousy and pride, from arising. If, in spite of these efforts, latent tendencies do arise or reach the stage of manifestation in words and deeds, we apply additional mindful efforts to overcome them.
Then, instead of worrying over past unwholesome thoughts, we arouse wholesome thoughts, such as generosity, patience, and loving-friendliness and use effort to strengthen the wholesome thoughts. In addition we use mindfulness to guard the senses against external sensory experiences that might stimulate any unwholesome tendencies. As we have said, mindfulness is in essence vipassana or insight meditation. Only insight meditation can train the mind to watch and discipline itself in order to purify it, eventually destroying all the defilements, including their latent tendencies.”
~ Bhante Gunaratana
pp. 34-35, “Meditation on Perception: Ten Healing Practices to Cultivate Mindfulness”
Wisdom Publications
“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.
When you flip the switch in the attic, it doesn’t matter whether it’s been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.
The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before.
It’s never too late to take a moment to look.”
~ Sharon Salzberg
from “Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation”
“Awareness is aware of doubts about our ability to meditate, about being aware. Awareness is aware of wondering what stage we are at or… what we have attained, or whether we are just hopeless cases. It’s simply that thoughts are thoughts — they arise and cease.”
