Eastern Horizon - May 2012 Edition by Eastern Horizon by YBAM

WORLD BUDDHIST CONFERENCE 2012 TRANSCENDING NEGATIVE EMOTIONS: To Create Happiness and Well-Being Kuala Lumpur, November 3-4, 2012

H.E. The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa, Dönyö Nyingche Wangpo, was born in 1954 in the Palyul District of Derge, Tibet. He was found and recognized by H.H the 16th Karmapa Rigpe Dorje. Kenting Tai Situpa is a renowned Buddhist master and the main Guru of H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinlay Dorje. As a Buddhist teacher, he regularly tours the world giving teachings and empowerments at the request of the Dharma centers, and holds longterm Mahamudra courses to introduce the most profound and sacred of the Karma Kagyu teachings. The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa continues the traditions of the practice lineage of the Kenting Tai Situpas.

Venerable Wei Wu was born in Penang and studied at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1973. He worked as a quality control expert with a multinational corporation before becoming a monk in the Mahayana tradition. In 1992 he established the Than Hsiang Foundation in Malaysia and Thailand and the International Buddhist College (IBC) in Hatyai, Thailand. He is currently President of the Than Hsiang Foundation, Chairman of the IBC, and Abbot of Tham Wah Wan Temple, Kuala Lumpur. Ven Wei Wu is best known for his many socially-engaged projects for the community, including orphanages and old folks homes.

Venerable Dr Sugandha (Anil Sakya) was born in 1960 in Nepal and became a novice monk at the age of 14. He was ordained as a monk (bhikkhu) in Thailand in 1980 by Phra Nyanasamvara, Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. Phra Sugandha has a B.A. in Sociology from Mahamakut Buddhist University, Bangkok, M.A. in Anthropology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, M.Phil. in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University, UK, and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Brunel University, UK. His areas of specialization are cultural and social anthropology, anthropology of religion, and Buddhism. He is also the assistant secretary to His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand.

Venerable Geshe Dadul Namgyal studied at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala, and Drepung Loseling Monastic University, South India, where he received the Geshe Lharampa Degree, in 1992. He also studied at Punjab University which awarded him a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. Geshe Dadul was also the Religious Translator to HH the Dalai Lama since 2007. Since 2010, Geshe Dadul has served as Senior Resident Teacher at Drepung Loseling Monastery, Atlanta, USA. He is part of the team of translators for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative engaged in preparing a 5-year science curriculum in Tibetan to be introduced in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries.

Venerable Dr Shi Zhen Jue (See Mui Yian) is a Singaporean and was born in 1969. She has a diploma in Buddhism from Yuan Kuang Buddhist College, Taiwan, and a diploma in Buddhist Dhamma and B.A. from the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Burma. She also studied at the University of Hong Kong where she graduated with M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. Her doctoral thesis is on “Preparation for Enlightenment: Understanding Derived from Listening, Reflection and Meditation — A Study of the Śrutamayī, Cintāmayī and Bhāvanāmayī bhūmaya of the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra” Ven Zhen Jue has also taught at the University of Hong Kong and was a recipient of the Glorious Sun Group Postgraduate Scholarship in Buddhist Studies.

Venerable Dr Dhammananda (Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh) was born in 1944. She received her B.A. in Philosophy from Visva Bharati University, India, M.A. in Religion from McMaster University, Canada, and Ph.D. in Buddhism from Magadh University, India. She taught Philosophy and Religion for over 30 years at Thammasat University in Bangkok, and wrote many books on Buddhism. She took novice (samaneri) ordination in Thailand and on February 28, 2003, received full bhikkhuni (nun) ordination in Sri Lanka, becoming the first Thai woman to receive full ordination as a Theravada nun in the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage. She is now abbess of Songdhammakalyani Monastery, Nakhonpathom, Thailand.

Venerable Thubten Chökyi is Director of the International Liberation Prison Project, a social service project of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) that offers spiritual advice and teachings to prisoners interested in studying and practicing Buddhism, and Spiritual Program Coordinator and teacher at Vajrayana Institute in Sydney. She holds a B.A. from Australian National University, M.A. from University of New South Wales, and diplomas from University of Technology Sydney and Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris. She is now completing a doctorate on the similarities of world views and shared ethics in Indigenous Australian cosmology and Tibetan Buddhism.

Dharmachari Lokamitra (Jeffrey Goody) was born in 1947 and holds a B.A. and Certificate in Education. He was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1974 in London. Encouraged by his teacher, Sangharakshita, he moved to India in 1978 to develop Dharma activities under Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha and social projects under Bahujan Hitay. Since 1998 he has started the Manuski project which runs social training, human rights, and women’s development programs. He also started Nagarjuna Institute in Nagpur which runs Dharma courses for new Buddhists and the Prabuddha Bharat Network to bring into communication Indians who are inspired by Dr. Ambedkar’s approach to Buddhism and social transformation.

Dr Tan Eng Kong graduated as a medical doctor from University of Malaya in 1971 and was the founder President of the YBAM. In 2008 he helped established the Malaysian Buddhist Mental Health Association for Buddhist doctors and health care professionals. He has served as Clinical Supervisor at the Australian Society of Hypnosis, and on the Training Faculties of the NSW Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Australian and NZ Association of Psychotherapists. Dr Tan has taught psychological medicine at University of Malaya, and analytic psychotherapy at University of Sydney and University of NSW. He is presently Chairman of Metta Clinic, a group practice of psychiatrists and psychologists in Sydney.

Dr Lobsang Rapgay is a research psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and researcher in the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). His area of research is in sustained, and distributed attention in anxiety from a Western cognitive and neuro-science perspective with the aim of applying the findings to validate the theory and practice of classical mindfulness and its application for the treatment of various types of anxiety disorders. He was a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for over 18 years and is well trained in Buddhist theory and practices. He is studying and maintaining a daily practice in the Four Foundation of Mindfulness.

ENQUIRIES: www.wbc.my. More details will be published in the website in due course.

Transcending Negative Emotions to FortyCelebrate Years Turning Diversity

the Wheel of Dharma

Malaysia is one country where there is much diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, language and even food. But diversity enriches our lives. Much as the biological diversity of an ecosystem increases its stability and productivity, cultural diversity should bring together the resources and talents of everybody living in such a plural society. But sadly, it is the differences that we like to play up, and they form the basis of our negative emotions such as fear, bigotry, mistrust, and anger that also lead to violence. But why can’t we recognize our similarities and appreciate our differences? Shouldn’t we overcome our destructive emotions such as prejudice and intolerance towards others who are different from us in the way we practice our faith or eat our food, and work towards a more peaceful and harmonious society? People generally fear diversity simply because they are accustomed to the way things used to be and change makes them uncomfortable. Others may somehow feel threatened because they perceive increased participation by traditionally underrepresented groups in the workplace and the political process as a challenge to their own power. If left unaddressed, these fears can lead to resentment, mistrust, and bigotry. However, these fears can often be countered through mind training. A core teaching of the Buddha is that “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.” The Buddha also said happiness and sorrow are our own responsibility – and completely within our control. So essentially we are not helpless victims of unchangeable negative emotions. If we train our mind properly, peace and harmony will be the result. This claim that happiness and well being is a result of mental training is now backed by a growing body of research, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), an approach widely used in clinical psychology and counseling, as well as stress management programs. Buddhism starts with the fundamental character of human existence. Everything we experience is impermanent and constantly changing. That’s true of our possessions, our relationships, our bodies – and our emotions, both negative and positive. Everyone wants to find happiness and avoid suffering, but we go about this in unhelpful ways: clinging to what we find pleasant and resisting what we find unpleasant. Finding an alternative means changing not just our behavior, but our minds as well; drawing on our inner resources, rather than seeking happiness outside ourselves; and adapting ourselves to life as it is, not as we’d like it to be. So the Buddha’s way to happiness and well-being is a guide to putting aside our fears and anxieties about the future, as well as regrets about the past. Instead, with right understanding, we learn to adjust our attitudes and behaviors and live with others different from us with trust and good will. If all of us are able to develop this positive mind set, happiness will naturally arise, and all of us can truly celebrate cultural and religious diversity in Malaysia. EH

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EASTERN HORIZON CONTENTS MAY 2012 ISSUE NO. 37

Lead Article: Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

by HE The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa

Teaching: What Love Is

News: International Buddhist Film Festival returns to London by Sarah Cooper

by Venerable Ayya Khema

Teaching: Contentment in the Practice by Venerable Ajahn Thannisaro

Teaching: Do Buddhists Go to Heaven

by Venerable Bhikkhu Kusala

Face to Face: Why Life is Worth Living!

by Sandy Eastoak

by Geshe Lhakdor

Feature: Worry Beads

Teaching: The Precepts for Young People

Face to Face: Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers by Venerable Geshe Tenzin Zopa

by Clark Strand Rinpoche

Feature: The Modern Monks of China by Tang Yue

News: Bringing management lessons to Buddha by Michiyo Nakamoto

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Feature: Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha by Mun Yee

Teaching: Chinese Mahayana Buddhism by Dr Peter Della Santina

EasTern HorIzon Radiating the Light of Dharma

....................................................................... MAY 2012 ISSUE NO. 37 (Published 3 times a year)

Teaching: Is wealth compatible with religious living? by Ven. Dr. M. Vajiragnana Nayaka Thera

EASTERN HORIZON PUBLICATION BOARD CHAIRMAN

: Liau Kok Meng

EDITOR

: B. Liow <Bennyliow@gmail.com>

SUB-EDITORS : Tan Yang Wah / Dr. Ong Puay Liu MANAGER

: Teh Soo Tyng

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Books In Brief

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Dharma Aftermath Coming home by Rasika Quek

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Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind by HE The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa

H.E. The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa, Dönyö Nyingche Wangpo, was born in 1954 in the Palyul District of Derge, Tibet. He was found and recognized by H.H the 16th Karmapa Rigpe Dorje. Kenting Tai Situpa is a renowned Buddhist master and the main Guru of H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinlay Dorje. As a Buddhist teacher, he regularly tours the world giving teachings and empowerments at the request of the Dharma centers, and holds long-term Mahamudra courses to introduce the most profound and sacred of the Karma Kagyu teachings. The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa continues the traditions of the practice lineage of the Kenting Tai Situpas. Tai Situ Rinpoche has accepted the invitation to deliver the Keynote Address at the World Buddhist Conference to be held on November 3-4, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur.

ver since human beings have evolved, the purpose of any religion, any culture, any way of life, always has been to take care of the body and the mind. When we look at a place like New York City, we see many millions of people who walk around and who do all sorts of things. With all respect, if we look from one perspective, it is just like looking at ants. But what is happening is that they are all just trying to take care of their body and their mind, what else? So this is a rather vast subject:

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the importance of a healthy body and a healthy mind and the connection between the two. First of all, let’s look into the Buddhist concept of enlightenment and try to relate that to this subject. Enlightenment, or Buddhahood, means that a person reaches finally to their potential or destination, and that the person fully awakens and fully develops. So that particular person, whoever he or she is, when he or she fully awakens and fully develops, they reach Buddhahood. Reaching Buddhahood means a state of

consciousness totally awakened and developed. So that means that such a person has a perfect and healthy mind. Who has the healthiest mind on this planet? It may sound dualistic, but with the limitation of our language and vocabulary, I would not feel guilty by saying that the Buddha has the healthiest mind. And below Buddha, one person may be healthier than another, but there is a little bit of something there, so their mind cannot be considered ultimately healthy.

Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

Chokyi Gyaltsen (1337-1448) was the first to bear the title of Tai Situ.

Now don’t take this literally; I am just using our title tonight and trying to combine this with it and make some sense out of it. So now the mind-body connection can be explored by going into a little bit of detail about the Buddha. When a person becomes a Buddha, what is supposed to happen to that person? When we don’t learn about Buddhism deeply, it sounds like when we attain enlightenment, we just disappear or something--we become nothing. That isn’t the case. Enlightenment means that the mind reaches the ultimate level. So the physical manifestation, the spontaneous manifestation beyond limitation, that is what a Buddha’s body would be. In Vajrayana Buddhism there is a very appropriate term for it, and the mind aspect is expressed through this word--dharmakaya. The physical aspect, energy and

all that, is indicated through the words sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. So what is the healthiest body and mind on earth? The sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. So if we relate the idea of a healthy mind and a healthy body to the Buddhist principle, then the ultimate of the purest and highest level of the mind and body is indicated through the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya principle of the Buddha. Dharma practice means doing things and saying things and thinking about things that will help a person to develop the healthiest aspect of mind and body. Therefore we have centers, membership, program--you know, we have all kinds of things. But the main purpose, the main core is doing every thing we can with our body, with our speech, and with our mind to reach that level of being fully awakened and fully developed. Now, as knowledge, the Buddha taught many sutras and many tantras, and they are all words-words of advice given by the Buddha, the enlightened one who reached that level. Now all of his words can be interpreted on many levels, for the very simple reason that every single human being is at a different level of inner development.

We all have different levels of mental health, let’s say, to use our term of tonight. Therefore the particular method has to be the most beneficial instrument for us to proceed further. Because of this reason, the teaching of Buddha, called Dharma, was given at many levels. Those levels are sometimes described as the nine yanas, sometimes as the three yanas, sometimes even as the two yanas. (I think when people’s time is so precious, like a New Yorker’s time, nine yanas might be two yanas.) Anyway, those different levels, those different yanas, can sometimes even become a different sect: the Hinayana sect, the Mahayana sect, the Vajrayana sect. And in the Hinayana sect itself there are many sects, and then among Mahayana and Vajrayana there are also plenty of sects. The reason for all those sects is quite simple. It is because different levels of individuals received different levels of teachings to help them, and they continued that particular style and it became their particular sect or particular kind of lineage. But all these particular lineages have a very simple belief in common: That is, to refine and purify and develop the mind, one has to apply the right methods and the right kind of discipline that will make it happen.

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Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

The practices that involve discipline, physical discipline, deal with causes and conditions that will result in physical negativity. In Buddhism, everything has a cause and condition. It can be a distant cause and condition, it can be an immediate cause and condition, it can be an accumulation of millions of things, but there must be a cause and condition for anything to happen. Therefore, these physical disciplines deal with those causes and conditions of negativity. There are two ways to overcome negative physical manifestations. One of them is to dissolve the negative causes and conditions, while the other is to develop positive causes and conditions. It is actually the same thing, like two sides of a coin, but one is heads, and the other is tails. Those physical disciplines, then, are actions such as trying not to perform harmful physical acts against others, and trying not to perform harmful physical acts against yourself as well. Against others would be something like killing, and against yourself would be abusing yourself. So these are the basic disciplines. Then, there are also disciplines for the speech, like not to say negative things, and on the positive side, to try to do

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17 ft. Buddha image in Main Shrine Hall, Palpung Lungtok Choeling, San José, California, USA. 2007

beneficial things for yourself and others. Now look at these two. When you look at them, they are just two sides of the same coin. If you try to do positive things, you do not have to make two efforts-trying not to do negative things and then trying to do positive things. It’s the same thing when you avoid negative things. How will you avoid doing negative things? Anything you do to avoid negative action itself is positive. So in that way the method of discipline involves the physical and verbal in dealing with the causes and conditions of negative manifestations. And it involves the causes and conditions of positiveness. When you do something physically, you have to involve

your mind: You cannot do something positive without involving your mind. You cannot say something positive with out involving your mind; therefore your mind is involved there as well. But there is another method that involves the mind more than the body and the speech, and that is meditation. When I talk about meditation here, what I am referring to is a particular method that involves a special discipline of the mind. It can be just sitting and not following thoughts, or just sitting and thinking of a particular thing. But there are very specific methods of meditation. When it comes to meditation, we don’t have to think, “Now I want to meditate, but I don’t know what to meditate on, or how to meditate.” That question does not exist in Buddhism. If you want to meditate there is a meditation method, and you don’t have to invent it. (Inventing is supposed to be risky, actually, from the Buddhist point of view). So in the Buddhist tradition, all the methods of meditation are already prepared; one just has to follow them. So what happens during meditation? First, the mind must become calm. The reason is that our mind has all the capabilities-capabilities to understand, to think--everything is there, but

Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

it is like a precious thing that is locked in a safe. What appears is just a solid unmanageable safe; you don’t see what is in there until you open it. In the same way, our mind has all the potentials, but without letting those potentials manifest, there is no guarantee that it will work. Because of that, we make lots of mistakes; we have ignorance and so forth. And worse than that, we are not even helpful to ourselves most of the time. So the numberone step in meditation is to make your mind calm. And because of the calmness, a clarity will happen; calm mind will be clear. (Generally speaking, people are always saying, “Don’t disturb me right now, I have important things to think about,” or “Don’t make noise, go away; I want to think, I have some important decisions to make.” So that is one expression of common sense.) After developing some clarity, then there will be the next method, the continuous method, to use that clarity, implement that clarity, and to develop further clarity. Let’s look into two particular terms: ignorance and wisdom. What do they really mean? Ignorance means that there is no understanding, absence of clarity. But what is wisdom? It is knowing, the absence of not knowing; and it is clarity. Through practice of meditation,

you make your mind calm and clear, and you gain wisdom. I come across people who like to ask tons of question. With all respect, they mean very well, because for them it is very complicated and they want to ask questions, but I end up asking them the questions back, because the question itself is not clear. I don’t mean I am better than they are. I have been through meditation, and practices, and I have met many teachers. I have been fortunate, I think most unfairly fortunate, and therefore I have had all these advantages in the early part of my life. Because of that, I have gained some kind of understanding, and somehow I will be able to see the questions clearly, a bit more clearly than some people who are asking them. (Not every person’s questions are like that. Some people ask me questions that give me a headache. I have to think: they give me a hard time. I appreciate that, because I learn from them; those kinds of situations are my classroom.) But anyway we have a saying, “Where is the answer? Where is the answer? The really true answer is in the question.” If you are able to phrase your

Palpung Sherab Ling Monastery, India

question clearly in your mind, that is the answer. Of course, if you take it literally, certain kinds of questions will not follow that. If you ask me “When were you born?” even if you know how to ask that question with super clarity, it won’t answer itself. But most of the important questions, the questions that are related to insight, more advanced questions, they contain the answers. What I am trying to say here is that to develop the clarity of the mind is the most important first step of meditation, which will naturally develop wisdom. An average person might ask how we define a healthy mind. Healthy mind does not mean stubborn mind; many people think that healthy mind means stubborn mind. And in some places that are very liberal, they think healthy mind means the most emotional, sensitive mind--for example, a huge man who can cry just like a kid. That is culture, but it

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Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

Participants from different countries attending a Mahamudra teaching by HE Tai Situpa in Palpung Sherabling, March 2007

doesn’t really mean very much when we talk about a healthy mind. Anyway, when we talk about the body and the mind and its healthy quality, and also about well-being and all of that, they are all connected; they are definitely connected. Now let’s touch on one part of our title, “well-being.” What is well-being? Well-being means a principle. When you have a valid principle, and you center your entire physical, mental, and verbal activities around that principle, then I think that is the definition of well-being. I have been asked several times in different places to talk about “the practice of Buddhism in lay life in North America.” There are a lot of specifics in it: “The practice of Buddhism in lay life in North

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H.E. Tai Situpa blessing participants who attended the Mahamudra teachings in Palpung Sherabling, March 2007

America.” So people want to talk about it. Now what really makes sense in that is the well-being. That makes sense. Of course I can say when you wash your hair (because you wash your hair every morning in America), then you can think of your soap as the blessing of the Buddha, washing away all the negativities; I can talk like that, but that does not make too much sense. Of course there is benefit if we have that kind of practice; we call it “Beginning to end, the circle practice.” When you eat, you think of something, when you talk, you talk of something, when you sleep--everything. But that is too much for most of the people in North America. I think I would be responsible for making quite a few people quite crazy; I think some people could develop paranoia--imagine thinking like that for every single thing! It is

not invalid; for a person of that level it would be very good; but what makes sense to me (and also there is no risk) is the well-being. If you have that principle, and if you are able to place every single effort that you make, even just to survive, around that principle, then I think you could consider your life very meaningful. That way, everything that you can do has some kind of benefit for yourself and for others, and everything that you do will have less chance of becoming harmful for yourself and for others. That would be a very good beginning. And if you are able to carry on with that kind of well-being, that principle, then you can expect that just by living a normal life, and by doing a little bit of meditation every day, and some kind of study and further exploration into knowledge and wisdom--putting some kind

Lead Article | Health & Well-Being of Body & Mind

Inside the main hall of the Palpung Sherabling Monastery

of effort there, but for the rest just living a normal life--you will get great benefit out of it, because your life will be lived with a most valid principle and everything that you do will be involved with that principle. So my understanding about wellbeing means living with a valid principle. Now how do we define that principle? Of course, according to each person’s state of mind, according to each person’s involvement in reality, there will need to be a slight alteration or adjustment, but one principle that always remains is having faith and trust in the truth. Truth is the most important thing, for me. The reason I have faith in Buddhism is because everything that Buddha said is true. So because of that, I have faith and trust in the teachings of the Buddha. That is why I try

HE Tai Situpa giving teachings at Palpung Sherabling Monastery

to do something meaningful, even if most of the time I don’t manage, and I have to work hard at it. I do it because that is the truth; to do something meaningful is beneficial, is good; doing something meaningless is harmful and not good. If somebody says a bad word to you, you don’t like it, you don’t feel good; if somebody cheats you, you don’t like it, it doesn’t feel good. It’s the same for others: if you do something that is not good, people will not feel so good, they will suffer.

to others. In that way, one can live a life with the most appropriate kind of positive qualities and good will.

So believing in that kind of truth, having faith and trust in that kind of truth, is what I mean by the principle. That principle can become almost spontaneous, so that you try not to do anything that would be harmful to yourself and to others, and try to do everything beneficial, try to be as helpful as possible to yourself and

This article is an edited version of a teaching by HE Tai Situpa given in New York City on November 24, 1987. It was edited by Kathy Wesley. EH

Therefore I think it is most important as a Buddhist, or as a person who tries to be a good person, to discover the most essential principle, the most personal and simple, and then proceed from that principle and involve your entire actions and intentions in applying that principle. Somehow that covers this subject.

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Teachings | What Love Is

What Love Is Buddhism’s not such a raw deal. by Venerable Ayya Khema (1923-1997)

Born in Berlin of Jewish parents in 1923, Ayya Khema (IlseKussel) escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 with a transport of 200 children to Glasgow. She joined her parents two years later in Shanghai, where, with the outbreak of war, the family was put into a Japanese POW camp, in which her father died. Four years after her camp was liberated, Ayya Khema emigrated to the United States, where she married and had two children. While traveling in Asia from 1960 to 1964, she learned meditation and in 1975, began to teach. Three years later she established Wat Buddha Dhamma, a forest monastery in the Theravada tradition near Sydney, Australia. In 1979 she was ordained as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. She has written over two dozen books in English and German, including Being Nobody, Going Nowhere (Wisdom) and When the Iron Eagle Flies (Penguin Books), and her autobiography, I Give You My Life (Wisdom). Ayya Khema ordained several female nuns in the Theravada tradition, including Ven Sangamitta from Switzerland, Ven Dhammadina (a graduate of Peradeniya University, Sri Lanka), Ven. Vayama from Australia, and Ven Uttpalvanna of Galle, and her pupils in Sri Lanka. Ayya Khema drew her last breath on November 2, 1997 at Buddha Haus, Uttenbühl (part of the village Oy-Mittelberg) in Germany after a brief illness.

Most people are under the impression that they can think out their lives. But that’s a misconception. We are subject to our emotions and think in ways based on our emotions. So it’s extremely important to do something about our emotions. In the same way as the Buddha gave us the Four Supreme Eﬀorts for the mind, he also outlined the Four Emotions for the heart. The Four Supreme Eﬀorts for the mind are (1) not to let an unwholesome thought arise which has not yet arisen, (2) not to let an unwholesome thought continue which has already arisen, (3) to make a wholesome thought arise which has not yet arisen, (4) to make a wholesome thought continue which has already arisen.

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Teachings | What Love Is

The Four Emotions—loving kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), joy with others (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha)—are called the “divine abodes.” When we have perfected these four, we have heaven on earth, paradise in our own heart.

The Buddha Haus in Germany founded by Ayya Khema. Her ashes rest in a beautiful stupa here.

I think everybody knows that above us is the sky and not heaven. We have heaven and hell within us and can experience this quite easily. So even without having complete concentration in meditation and profound insights, the Four Divine Abidings, or Supreme Emotions, enable us to live on a level of truth and lovingness, security, and certainty, which gives life a totally diﬀerent quality. When we are able to arouse love in our hearts without any cause, just because love is the heart’s quality, we feel secure. It is impossible to buy security, even though many people would like to do so. Insurance companies have the largest buildings because people try to buy security. But when we create certainty within, through a loving heart, we feel assured that our reactions and feelings are not going to be detrimental to our own or other people’s happiness. Many fears will vanish. Metta—the first of the Supreme Emotions—is usually translated as “loving kindness.” But loving-kindness doesn’t have the same impact in English that the word love has, which carries a lot of meaning for us. We have many ideas about love. The most profound thought we have about love, which is propagated in novels, movies, and billboards, is the idea that love exists between two people who are utterly compatible, usually young and pretty, and who for some odd reason have a chemical attraction toward each other—none of which can last. Most people find out during the course of their lifetime that this is a myth, that it doesn’t work that way. Most people then think it’s their own fault or the other person’s fault or the fault of both, and they try a new relationship. After the third, fourth, or fifth try, they might know better; but a lot of people are still trying. That’s usually what’s called love in our society. In reality, love is a quality of our heart. The heart has no other function. If we were aware that we all contain love within us, and that we can foster and develop it, we would certainly give that far more attention than we do. In all developed societies there are institutions to foster the expansion of the mind, from the age of three until death. But we don’t have any institutions to develop the heart, so we have to do it ourselves. Most people are either waiting for or relating to the one person who

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Teachings | What Love Is

Wat Buddha Dhamma in Australia, a monastery donated by Ayya Khema as a lay person.

makes it possible for them to feel love at last. But that kind of love is beset with fear, and fear is part of hate. What we hate is the idea that this special person may die, walk away, have other feelings and thoughts—in other words, the fear that love may end, because we believe that love is situated strictly in that one person. Since there are six billion people on this planet, this is rather absurd. Yet most people think that our love-ability is dependent upon one person and having that one person near us. That creates the fear of loss, and love beset by fear cannot be pure. We create a dependency upon that person, and on his or her ideas and emotions. There is no freedom in that, no freedom to love. If we see quite clearly that love is a quality that we all have, then we can start developing that ability. Any skill that we have, we have developed through practice. If we’ve learned to type, we’ve had to practice. We can practice love and eventually we’ll have that skill. Love has nothing to do with finding somebody who is worth loving, or checking out people to see whether they are truly lovable. If we investigate ourselves honestly enough, we will find that we’re not all that lovable either. So why do we expect somebody else to be totally lovable? It has nothing to do with the qualities of the other person, or whether he or she wants to be loved, is going to love us back, or needs love. Everyone needs love. Because we know our own faults, when somebody loves us we think, Oh, that’s great, this person loves me and doesn’t even know I have all these problems. We’re looking for somebody to love us to support a certain image of ourselves. If we can’t find anybody, we feel bereft. People even get depressed or search for escape routes. These are wrong ways of going at it. On the spiritual path, there’s nothing to get, and everything to get rid of. Obviously, the first thing to let go of is trying to “get” love, and instead to give it. That’s the secret of the spiritual path. One has to give oneself wholeheartedly. Whatever we do half heartedly, brings halfhearted results. How can we give ourselves? By not holding back. By not wanting for ourselves. If we want to be loved, we are looking for a support system. If we want to love, we are looking for spiritual growth. Disliking others is far too easy. Anybody can do it and justify it because, of course, people are often not very bright and don’t act the

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Teachings | What Love Is

way we’d like them to act. Disliking makes grooves in the heart, and it becomes easier and easier to fall into these grooves. We not only dislike others, but also ourselves. If one likes or loves oneself, it’s easier to love others, which is why we always start loving-kindness meditations with the focus on ourselves. That’s not egocentricity. If we don’t like ourselves because we have faults, or have made mistakes, we will transfer that dislike to others and judge them accordingly. We are not here to be judge and jury. First of all, we don’t even have the qualifications. It’s also a very unsatisfactory job, doesn’t pay, and just makes people unhappy. People often feel that it’s necessary to be that way to protect themselves. But what do we need to protect ourselves from? We have to protect our bodies from injury. Do we have to protect ourselves from love? We are all in this together, living on this planet at the same time, breathing the same air. We all have the same limbs, thoughts, and emotions. The idea that we are separate beings is an illusion. If we practice meditation diligently with perseverance, then one day we’ll get over this illusion of separation. Meditation makes it possible to see the totality of all manifestation. There is one creation and we are all part of it. What can we be afraid of? We are afraid to love ourselves, afraid to love creation, afraid to love others because we know negative things about ourselves. Knowing that we do things wrong, that we have unhappy or unwholesome thoughts, is no reason not to love. A mother who loves her children doesn’t stop loving them when they act silly or unpleasant. Small children have hundreds of unwholesome thoughts a day and give voice to them quite loudly. We have them too, but we do not express them all. So, if a mother can love a child who is making difficulties for her, why can’t we love ourselves? Loving oneself and knowing oneself are not the same thing. Love is the warmth of the heart, the connectedness, the protection, the caring, the concern, the embrace that comes from acceptance and understanding for oneself. Having practiced that, we are in a much better position to practice love toward others. They are just as unlovable as we are, and they have just as many unwholesome thoughts. But that doesn’t matter. We are not judge and jury. When we realize that we can actually love ourselves, there is a feeling of being at ease. We don’t constantly have to become or pretend, or strive to be somebody. We can just be. It’s nice to just be, and not be “somebody.” Love makes that possible. By the same token, when we relate to other people, we can let them just be and love them. We all have daily opportunities to practice this. It’s a skill, like any other. EH Source: Tricycle Daily Dharma April 1, 2012

Seated Buddha, India, Gandhara, 3rd or 4th century. Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery

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Teachings | Do Buddhists Go to Heaven

Do Buddhists Go to Heaven by Venerable Bhikkhu Kusala

Ven. Kusala Bhikshu (Thich Tam-Thien) is an American born Bhikshu (monk) ordained in the Zen Tradition of Vietnam. In 1979 Kusala became interested in Meditation, and found his way to the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles. In 1981 he took refuge, and accepted the five precepts of a lay Buddhist, and was given the name Kusala (skillful). In 1983 with a growing interest in early Buddhism, he began his studies with the Ven. Dr. H. Ratanasara at the College of Buddhist Studies, Los Angeles. In 1994 Kusala took novice vows, and was given the Dharma name Kusala Ratana Karuna (skillful jewel of compassion). In 1996 he received full ordination as a Bhikshu, and was given the name Thich Tam-Thien (heavenly heart mind) with the Ven Dr H Ratanasara, and the Ven. Karuna Dharma as two of his ordaining masters. Along with Kusalaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bhikshu ordination he received a B.A. in Buddhist Studies, from the College of Buddhist Studies in Los Angeles. Ven Kusala lives and works at the International Buddhist Meditation Center in the Korea town section of Los Angeles. He cares for the grounds, feeds the cats and Koi fish, and facilitates meditation and discussion groups. He continues to give presentations at local high schools, colleges, and local churches on Buddhism and social action. Kusala is the web-master for International Buddhist Meditation Center, as well as his own site UrbanDharma.org

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Teachings | Do Buddhists Go to Heaven

’ve had the good fortune of speaking about Buddhist afterlife to a number of Christians. One of the things that prompted me to investigate Buddhist afterlife was giving a talk at Central Juvenile Hall. A Catholic girl said I was going to hell, because I didn’t believe in God and Jesus Christ. After some reflection I had to agree with her... If I were a Christian, and thought like a Buddhist, I probably would go to Christian hell.

Ok, so what happens to a Buddhist if he doesn’t reach Nirvana in his or her life time; where does he or she go? The Buddha borrowed from the Brahmanic tradition: the concept of karma had been established in India by the time of the Buddha, and heavens and hells were part of the cosmology as well. The Buddha used these concepts to explain Rebirth, and life after death.

But, do Buddhists even go to Christian heaven or hell in the first place? Or do Buddhists have their own afterlife, complete with heaven and hell?

I brought these ideas up in a conversation with a Catholic friend, and he said in an amusing way, “Maybe a skillful Buddhist will go to heaven, and a really skillful Buddhist will go to Nirvana.” As it turns out, he hit the nail right on the head.

A question arose in my mind... If a good Catholic married a good Buddhist and they lived happily ever after, when they died were they going to the same place? Most Catholics I have asked... answer, “Of course, there is only one place you can go.”

Buddhists do go to heaven if their practice is skillful, and to hell if it’s unskilful. But, never to Christian heaven or hell.

I thought to myself... not so fast... where did all the Buddhists, Hindus and goddess worshippers go before Christ came to the world? Was the Christian heaven already in place even before Christ was born? Have all the pre-Christians ended up in Christian hell? This train of thought prompted me to investigate Buddhist afterlife. The Buddhist contribution to afterlife, it turns out is Nirvana. Nirvana is the end of suﬀering while you’re alive, and the end of rebirth after you die. The Buddha said all forms of life are unsatisfactory because of birth, sickness, and old age; eventually you will end up suﬀering if your alive.

Buddha visiting Tavatimsa Heaven

How many heavens and hells do Buddhists have? ...A lot! There was a book published in 1997 called... Buddhist Cosmology, Philosophy and Origins, by Akira Sadakata, Kosei Publications. It goes into a

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Teachings | Do Buddhists Go to Heaven

Buddha teaching the gods in Heaven

very detailed explanation of the various heavens and hells. I’ve found as many as 33 heavens and 33 hells listed as possible destinations, but I’m going to simplify it, and talk about the six realms of existence. Buddhism has a best heaven. Everything is just the way you want it to be. In this heaven, there is no reason to change anything. You are ultimately happy. The problem is that it’s not permanent, as is everything in Buddhism. One day in the heaven realm is equal to 400 human years, and your stay is four thousand heaven years, so you will be there a really long time. But, one day the karma that put you in this heaven will be used up. You are only in heaven as long as your Karma account has merit in it. You can only draw from your Karma account while in heaven, because there in no way to make a deposit. You can’t practice generosity or compassion, and you’re not striving to gain wisdom. When the karma that put you in heaven is used up... you’re reborn... And that would probably make a lot of folks really unhappy. Who wants to leave a perfect place? The second heaven realm, which is a lower one, is where things are almost perfect. I call this the Donald Trump heaven. It could be better, if only you owned one more building or house. You see, there is still some desire associated with this heaven realm, and so it can’t ever be perfect.

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The next realm is the human realm, where all of us find ourselves in this lifetime. This is the best place for us to be, because this is the only place we can become enlightened. We cannot become enlightened in heaven, things are too nice, and we have no reason to strive. We cannot become enlightened in hell, because things are so bad, all we do is suﬀer. In this human rebirth, we have enough happiness and joy to keep us from taking our own lives, and we experience anxiety and fear to keep us striving. We cannot relax too long in any one mental state as a human, because all things are in a constant state of flux. The next lower realm, is the animal realm. The animal realm is marked by wanting to have sex, wanting to have food, wanting to have sleep, and being totally confused. Those are the four characteristics found in the animal realm. So you can see, we are not likely to become enlightened as an animal. A Zen question-- Does a dog have Buddha nature?-comes to mind. Yes, a dog does have the potential to become enlightened, but only in the human realm. Can animals be reborn as humans beings? Yes, if they come into contact with the Dharma, see a Buddhist temple, or smell incense burning. The contact can plant a Dharma seed which takes root when they’re reborn as humans. They can achieve their full potential and become enlightened, but only as a human being. So, it’s up to all of us to help our pets be reborn in the human realm. The next realm is called the hungry ghost realm. The hungry ghost is often pictured as a giant creature, with a large stomach and a pinhole for a mouth. It

Teachings | Do Buddhists Go to Heaven

It’s no surprise that we are going to die, but how many people think about their next lifetime? If you’re a Buddhist it’s important to look at life as a continuum, as a process of birth and death, a constant state of becoming, and a chance to practice. Devas or heavenly beings live very long but are also impermanent

can never end it’s hunger no matter how much it eats, it never finds satisfaction. In the hell realm, the worst place, you find the most suffering. Your are given little hell bodies when you enter. Then, one day you might be walking through a forest, when all the leaves on a tree turn into razor blades and fall, cutting you into a million pieces. You cry out in pain, and your hell body resurrects, so you can be killed over and over again. The only way to get out of the hell realm is to burn through the karma that put you there. Suffering is the only act of purification in hell, and much suffering is necessary before the next rebirth. So, do Buddhists go to heaven? ...Yes they do!... Do Buddhists go to hell? ...Yes they do!... Do Buddhists go to Christian heaven or hell? ...No they don’t!!! In the Buddhist model of afterlife, there are specific practices necessary to achieve rebirth in heaven, and more important, there are specific practices necessary to attain Nirvana. The Buddha did not leave afterlife up to chance. Just because a person says he’s a Buddhist does not ensure rebirth in heaven or Nirvana. The Buddhist path to afterlife is a labor intensive practice that requires personal responsibility.

To explain rebirth, I like the analogy of going to an airport with a suitcase. I put the suitcase on a conveyor belt so it can be loaded into the luggage compartment of the airplane. But, I am not getting on the plane, just the suitcase. The suitcase contains my karmic energy. When the karmic energy gets to its new destination, my next lifetime picks up the suitcase. But, I didn’t get on the plane, because my ticket had expired... It’s not really me that picks up the suitcase... It’s because of me the suitcase is picked up. The suitcase may be almost empty because of a past life of unskillful activity. It may have only one set of clothes and no shoes... But, I’m not predestined to be poor and homeless. Through acts of kindness and generosity, I can start filling the suitcase. I can turn rags into riches through good thoughts, good speech, and good actions. I’m in charge, and my life is what I make it. When all is said and done? For a Buddhist heaven is not the real answer, just an option. Nirvana is the answer to suffering and rebirth! Practice everyday... There is very little time left. Think about death often, it will give your life urgency. Exercise and good health allow you to die in the slowest way possible. May you see nirvana in this very lifetime. EH

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

Why Life is Worth Living! by Geshe Lhakdor

Geshe Lhakdor in his office at the Library

Geshe Lhakdor has served His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as his translator and religious assistant since 1989, accompanying him to numerous conferences and forums throughout the world. He has translated many important works from English to Tibetan and from Tibetan to English and oﬀers rare insight into the cultural and philosophical issues surrounding Buddhism coming to the West. Born in Tiibet in 1956, he holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He studied Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics where he received his Master of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom), and Master of Madhyamika (Middle Way Philosophy) with distinction in both. In 1989 he also received his Master of Philosophy (M Phil) from the University of Delhi. He later received his Geshe Degree (Doctor of Divinity), the highest degree of learning in Tibetan Buddhism, from the Drepung Loseling Monastic University in South India. He has translated, co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness, including The Way to Freedom, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, Awakening the Mind and Lightening the Heart, and Stages of Meditation, among others. He is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, and the Director of the Central Archive of the Dalai Lama. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada, and an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He currently serves as the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. He visited Malaysia on February 18-19 at the invitation of Buddhist Gem Fellowship to conduct a study camp on the famous text by Nagarjuna called Letter to a Friend. Loh Yit Phing from Eastern Horizon interviewed Geshe Lhakdor on the subject of suﬀering and purpose of life for the magazine.

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

Loseling Monastery in Tibet founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choeje

EH: The Buddha’s first teaching is about suffering and the way to alleviate suffering. Why did the Buddha choose the subject of suffering as the core of his teachings? No, the core teaching of the Buddha is not about suffering alone. It is about suffering as well as the “ways to get out of suffering”, which is taught in the Four Noble Truths. Suffering is one part of the truths and a part of our lives. If we don’t want suffering, we have to identify the causes and remove them. If we want happiness, we have to identify the causes and cultivate them. That makes perfect sense to all of us. So, suffering is only one of Buddha’s teachings.

Depung Loseling Monastery, South India

Drepung Loseling Monastery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, founded by HH the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, in 1970

If we remind ourselves that suffering is everywhere, will that not make us pessimistic and negative towards life? Suffering is everywhere but happiness is also everywhere. The teacher must know the target group he is teaching and use skillful ways to teach that group. I cannot speak for other teachers, but I do not think they are saying that there is only suffering in this world. I think they should say that there are both happiness and suffering in this world. We need to remove suffering if we want happiness. But that kind of happiness that we have right now is not enough. We need a more long lasting peace, the ultimate peace. Indeed we would need to remove suffering if we want to attain ultimate peace. How do you remove suffering if you do not recognize the causes of suffering? You need to recognize the causes so that you can remove them and become happier. Indeed it is not only in spiritual practice but also in all walks of life that in order to get greater happiness you need to understand the challenges and difficulties and one should be ready to face and overcome these challenges for getting more durable happiness.

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

Young people, with their youthful energy and enthusiasm for life, tend to get put off by the Buddhist emphasis on suffering, and as a result are not interested in the Dharma. Is there a more effective way to introduce the Dharma so that young people can relate to it in their everyday life? That is what I am saying. Even though there is an ultimate truth, you cannot share it with people whose minds are not ready. For example, you cannot teach Buddha’s profound teachings to a three-year-old child. So you have to use skillful methods. It can be through playing and showing love. Not just talking and teaching. It is the same for college or university students; you should present the complete picture. You can ask them whether they want peace and happiness; if they say yes, ask them if they know how can they get it? Can they get it just through money, friendship and wealth? They will know the answer stage by stage, and finally they will know that the answer is mental peace. Then you can start to teach them about compassion, loving kindness, etc., the inner transformation to secure long lasting peace. When we came into this world, we did not bring anything and when we go, we cannot take anything either. This is not a conjecture, but the truth. Tell them that they are now young, handsome and beautiful but that they will not be like that forever; eventually they will grow old and so forth. When their need, purpose or thinking changes, you can ask them again, “what is long lasting happiness what are their sources?” We need to engage the young people, let them discuss matters and not just lecture them on the teachings. Let them be part of the dialog to discuss the meaning of life; then they will understand. They can then see the relevance of Buddha’s teachings to their lives. Young people now crave for happiness. But we cannot get long-term happiness from sensual pleasures. Long-term happiness comes from being able to think in a way that helps you to solve problems. It also comes from inner joy and inner strength. If you have these qualities, even when you grow old, you will still be very youthful at heart. The Buddhist communities also need to be more socially engaging; they need to be the role models for young people. Buddhist leaders need to be caring, knowledgeable, and dedicated, and they need to show that they are doing good deeds. When young people see this, they will admire these leaders and be inspired to follow them. It should not just be by giving talks alone but also doing things physically. In Buddhist teachings, there are four ways of attracting followers. The first step is to help the followers; give them things they need, and share your wealth. By your actions, people will know that you are a good person who really helps others, so they will come to you. When they come to you, the second thing you can do is to speak pleasantly. That is sharing the Dharma because Dharma is the most pleasant and sweet language. The third thing is to tell them to act in accordance with Buddha’s teachings. And finally, you, who are giving the teachings, should live in accordance with the teachings as well. If you do not, they will not follow you. So young people will come and follow if you can show them the good way to live.

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

The Buddha also talked about the four sublime abodes- love, compassion, joy and equanimity. But these qualities seem to be less emphasized compared to suffering. Why is this so? It depends on who is teaching. In Tibetan Buddhism, love, compassion, joy and equanimity are much more talked about. But people still talk about suffering because it is related. Even when you talk about compassion, you cannot escape from talking about suffering, because compassion is “to remove the suffering of all sentient beings”. They are all interlinked. If you look at the definition of loving kindness, it means “how nice if sentient beings could meet with happiness”. Joy means “how nice if sentient beings could meet with joy without suffering”. And equanimity means “without too much attachment to oneself and those who are near to you and hatred and dislike for those on the other side”. If there is too much attachment to oneself and hatred to others, the mind will become uneven and this will lead to suffering, and then it will be difficult to experience peace. Again, you need to be skillful when you teach. The objective may be the same, but if that person has already gone through too much suffering, then do not talk so much about suffering. There are those who are sensitive to hearing too much about suffering. So for them, we can talk about how lucky we are to be human beings who have the Buddha nature and not to be born as animals. Talk about something good to encourage them; e.g. we can befriend them, help them and teach them to deal with loneliness. However, you must not let them depend on you too much. You must maintain the line, the border, just like an experienced father helping his children out. You have to be very skillful. Talk about something that raises the spirit of their mind. Not only about the Dharma, but anything that is good. That is the only way to have happiness, and this includes doing good things. If you compare the life of older people, regardless of whether they are religious or otherwise, they are more harmonious, patient, and willing to help others. They also tend to use their energy to do good things because they have gone through life. They know that things can only get done properly through positive actions and not by destructive actions such as shooting or killing other people. But for those who are younger, they have not really experienced life, and so they may simply use their energy to shout at others or lose their patience quickly. However, this is not going to help them in the long run. In the traditional texts, it is said that the aim of the spiritual path is to end all future rebirths. Does this then mean that this life is not worth living? No, Buddha did not mean it that way. Perhaps you need to make a distinction between rebirth and reincarnation. This is the problem with English words. I will tell you the meaning. There are two ways of coming to this world or this samsara. One is through the force of karma and negative emotions - this is what we call rebirth. This is not out of choice. This kind of rebirth must be ended. But this is not to say that this life is not worth living. Although we are born through the force of karma, this life also gives us an opportunity to come out of this cycle of life and rebirth (or reincarnation) if we develop compassion and wisdom. So we are not saying that this life is not worth living.

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

In fact, we call this existence a precious human life for two reasons. Firstly, a human being has the intelligence to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. But the deeper meaning is that a human being has the wonderful potential to bring happiness to oneself and others; to develop bodhicitta, love and compassion. Now, you can see how important your life is. You have so much capacity. In terms of language, you can share the Dharma, have the capacity to smile and an intelligent mind. Hence, on the whole your human life is precious. Secondly, what is more important is that generally young people do not understand their minds, or more specifically, the continuity of their minds. Young people do not see much purpose in their life because they think that this is the only life and if there is too much suffering then they think the easiest way out is to take one’s life. This is totally wrong because there is no death to our mind and it goes from one life to the next life. Death and rebirth is like changing clothes. When our clothes are old we change them for new ones. Similarly when we leave this life we will have to take on a new life – the quality of your next life depends upon how you had lived your life earlier. You cannot destroy the mind. You must accept the fact that there are many things you do not know yet but this does not mean that they are not there. For example, you may not have met your great grandfather but it does not mean that he never existed. If you look at electricity, you cannot see the flow of the electric current but it does not mean that it is not there. When we sleep we may dream about going shopping or crying and this clearly demonstrates that our internal mind is even more active. Tonight when you sleep, when you close your eyes and withdraw all your senses, your inner mind will become more active. In the day time we do not give our internal mind much chance. That is why we need to meditate, take care of our minds, be careful, do good things, and cultivate ourselves. As Buddhists should we all make aspirations for rebirths out of compassion to help others or aspire to end all rebirths? We should pray not to have to come back to samsara again and again through the force of disturbing emotions and contaminated action. But at the same time we should aspire and pray “May I be able to come back to serve others, to help others”. However, you will not be of help to others if you do not have the wisdom or if you are full of negative emotions. So, you should also pray as follows: “May I become more compassionate and loving and have less negative emotions and more wisdom”. Hence, people also aspire as follows: “May I become a Buddha”. This is because ordinary people are not able to do much to help others. In order to help others a great deal you need to make the aspiration to become a Buddha. Sentient beings are suffering not primarily because of shortage of wealth, but because of a lack of wisdom, not knowing what is right and what is wrong. Like educated parents, if they want to help their children in the long-term, they must give them more education and not just money.

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Face to Face | Why Life is Worth Living!

For ordinary Buddhists what would be the guiding ideals for our everyday life? You should try to help others as much as you can; if you cannot, then at least try not to harm others. We should develop both our heart and head. Head means to have good knowledge, heart means to have compassion for others. We need to help others with our head, the knowledge that we have, and with our heart, our feelings. There are people with good hearts but they do not know how to help as they do not have good knowledge. And there are people who are very knowledgeable but they bring harm to others as they do not have feelings (heart) for others. So we need to develop both heart and head. So what is the ultimate purpose or meaning of life from a Buddhist perspective? Happiness! Here comes the happy ending! The ultimate purpose or meaning of life is happiness; long lasting happiness and not suffering. Not only for yourself but also for others! It is for happiness that we do so many things. Happiness is not like a rainbow which is only an illusion and which looks beautiful from a distance but when you go closer, it disappears. Happiness grows under your feet. You need to cultivate it right from this moment. Be fully here, in the present moment. We should be just like an innocent child who has been given a small toy. The child will be completely happy even with that simple toy because he lives in the present moment. Look at the adults, they are full of worries because they are always thinking about the future or the past, or about something. One of the names of the Buddha is the Fully Awakened One, one who is fully present in the given reality, the present moment. We can get happiness through meditation, but what is more important is that we need to pay more attention to the needs of others. At the same time, we need to be aware of the huge inner resources that we have inside of us. The problem nowadays is that people keep seeking happiness from the outside. If you always seek from the outside, you will always feel that something is missing. If you pay attention to your inner resources, you will never feel lonely. Real happiness does not come from your best friend or wealth. If you think that your happiness comes from your best friend, when he/she is gone, you will think that your life is no longer worth living. We are born with nothing and when we leave we cannot bring anything with us either. Real happiness should be cultivated from within, based on such understanding of reality. We should have some quiet time to reflect and think. You will then never feel lonely; you are full. This is the truth. So we need to learn ways to live alone, to find the peace and happiness within one self. That is what the Buddha said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Self is the protector of self, no one else can be the protector. Self is the enemy of self, no one else can be the enemy.â&#x20AC;? Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s problem is that we do not know how to live alone and also do not know how to live with others. EH

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Feature | Worry Beads

Worry Beads by Clark Strand

Clark Strand is an internationally-known author and lecturer on spirituality and religion. A former Zen Buddhist monk, he became the first Senior Editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review in 1993. In 1996, he moved to Woodstock, New York, in order to write full time and, in January of 2000, founded the Koans of the Bible Study Group

TAKE UP A BUDDHIST MALA, and right away you notice how good it feels in your hands. The same is true of the prayer beads of any religious tradition. First, there is the soothing feel of the beads themselves, which only increases as they become smoother or darken with use. Then there is what they symbolize—the tangible link to an age-old tradition. Run a string of prayer beads through your hands and you are touching an ancient practice. Yours are only the most recent set of fingers to caress such beads, and others will take them up later, after you are gone.

(since renamed Woodstock Buddhist Bible Study), a weekly inter-religious discussion group devoted to finding a new paradigm for religious belief and practice. Clark is the author of Seeds from a Birch tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey (1997); and Meditation without Gurus: A Guide to the Heart of Practice (originally published in 1998 as THE WOODEN BOWL). Today, Clark serves as spiritual director for Woodstock Buddhist Bible Study. He writes on a variety of spiritual and ecological themes, including Green Meditation--an environmental approach to religion and spiritual practice.

On a more literal note, the mala is also a kind of Buddhist robe. Worn about the neck or wrist, it is, after a monk’s shaved head, the most recognizable sign of Buddhist affiliation—especially for laypeople who might not otherwise be identified as such. In the beginning, in fact, prayer beads were mostly designed for the layperson’s use. Monks now carry them, but if we follow the various bead traditions back far enough, we usually find that they were a way of adapting monastic discipline to the limits and demands of nonmonastic life. The Catholic “rosary,” so named when travelers to India mistranslated the Sanskrit word japamala as “rose beads,” is a perfect example. Its one hundred and fifty Hail Marys (completed by going through the beads three times) were a substitute for observing the monastic hours, in which all one hundred and fifty psalms were chanted. Likewise, the fifteen “mysteries,” episodes from the lives of Jesus and Mary, were intended to function as a summary of the Gospel for ordinary illiterate people who were unable to read the Bible on their own. Even in the Buddhist tradition, the first prayer beads were not intended for monks’ use. According to a popular legend on the origins of Buddhist mala practice, King Vaidunya once said to

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Feature | Worry Beads

Tibetan beads or mala

the Buddha: “In recent years, disease and famine have swept my country. The people are distressed, and I worry about this night and day without interruption. Ours is a pitiful condition. The totality of the dharma is too profound and extensive for us to practice, given these circumstances. Please teach me just the main point of the dharma so that I may practice it and teach it to others.” The Buddha replied: “King, if you want to eliminate earthly desires, make a circular string of 108 bodhi seeds and, holding them always to yourself, recite, ‘I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.’ Count one bead with each recitation of these three.” This is the earliest tale of Buddhist mala practice, and it was clearly intended for those who, unlike members of the Buddha’s monastic assembly, could not abandon the worries of secular life. That mala beads later came to be used by the monks themselves probably testifies to their effectiveness in calming the kinds of worries that afflict us all, monk and lay alike. When questioned in an interview, even the Dalai Lama admits to being attached to his beads. After nearly thirty years of using and making the prayer beads of various religious traditions, I have come to a simple conclusion: All beads are worry beads—from the Pope’s rosary all the way down to those little wrist malas, sometimes popularly referred to as “Power Bracelets,” worn by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. People of every religious tradition will claim that their beads are for praying—for appealing to a higher power, for collecting the spirit or concentrating

mind—and while this is indisputably true, that is not their primary purpose. Beads are for worry. They answer a human need so basic it actually precedes a religious consciousness—and that is to fret over things. The Buddhist mala acknowledges this. It is a way of engaging our worries, a way of combining the universal need for talismanic objects with the kind of repetitive movements that calm the body and mind. The difference between the Buddhist mala and the various Western-style rosaries is simply that it makes this explicit in the symbolism of its beads. A Buddhist mala typically consists of 108 beads, one for each of the delusions (call them worries) that afflict human life. I am often asked how that number was arrived at, and the answer, although somewhat convoluted mathematically, makes sense from a Buddhist point of view. There are six varieties of delusion that can occur when we experience an object of awareness: delusion via the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind. Each of these objects can in turn be perceived in the past, the present, or the future, making for eighteen possibilities in all. Multiply these by the two conditions of heart (pure and impure) and again by the three possible sentiments with regard to any of those sense objects (like, dislike, and indifference), and the number of possibilities for delusion is found to be 6 x 3 x 2 x 3 . . . or 108. There are other ways of calculating that number, but in most cases the gist is the same. For a Buddhist, delusion is the only legitimate source of worry. Worrying about money or health is, by comparison, relatively pointless. There will never be enough money in the world (that seems to be the point of money), and our health is guaranteed to fail in the end, no matter what we do. The wordless message of the Buddhist mala is “Don’t worry about things; worry about the fact that you are so worried all the time, and address the root of that.” The mala is a teaching in itself.

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Feature | Worry Beads

Ritual offerings of beads

Monks fingering prayer beads as they chant

No matter which particular recitation it is being used for, the mala contains a full course of spiritual lessons. To begin with, every Buddhist tradition stresses that the beads must be cared for as if they were a precious sutra or a Buddhist robe. This makes a literal kind of sense if we consider the fact that we use them to recite mantras, often considered the essence of the sutras in which they appear. Then there is the fact that, unlike the Catholic rosary, the mala is meant to be worn when not in use. Thus, to use a mala is both to take up a spiritual text and to clothe oneself in the truth of the Buddha Way. And then there is the curious matter of the “guru” bead. The larger, three-holed bead at the end of a mala is the Buddhist equivalent of the crucifix on a Catholic rosary. It is the teacher—and the teaching—we keep coming back to with every cycle we pray.

live in; delusion is fundamentally what we are. To overcome this, once and for all, is to pass beyond this life. When we have done that, finally, we enter the timeless realm of the Buddha.

At some point in their religious observances, most Mahayana Buddhists recite some variation on the bodhisattva vows, the second of which is “No matter how inexhaustible delusions are, I vow to vanquish them all”—a paradox at best, at worst an impossible task. But the mala offers a valuable clarification on this point, for it is basically a circle. In the course of reciting a round of mantras, one begins and ends with the guru bead. As a rule we never cross that bead in our counting. Rather, if we want to continue beyond a single cycle, we stop at the guru bead and count the beads back in the opposite direction, repeating this same cycle for as long as we wish to practice. In this way, we find that delusions truly are inexhaustible. Delusion is the realm we

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What is most peculiar about mala practice is that the beads never take us there. Always we stop short of the Buddha realm and turn back the other way. This may seem fatalistic on its surface, but there is a deep wisdom in this simple ritual, for even though he eventually passed into the extinguished, blownout-candle state of nirvana, the Buddha realized his enlightenment as a human being and lived in peace with all other beings in this world. He is the Tathagata, or the “Thus Come One,” not the Thus Gone. We are not called upon as Buddhists to deny the world, and certainly not to escape from it. We are called to live with it, and to make our peace with all that is. In Buddhist terms, that peace is called Tathagata. The Thus Come One is enlightened as he is, not as he would wish himself to be. There is no escaping this. The world of worries we wish to escape from in the beginning of Buddhist practice is found to be enlightenment itself in the end. We don’t understand this, of course, and so we keep striving for a distant, idealized kind of Buddhahood, only to reach its threshold and be turned back the way we came. In this way, we receive the teaching of the Buddha with every mala we say.

Feature | Worry Beads

That is what the beads have taught me. Now, after many years of handling them, taking in their teachings through the palm of my hand, I am occasionally able to recognize a little of that teaching when I see it manifested in others. There is the Tibetan mother of a friend of mine, dispossessed of her homeland, happily walking through the town where I live, an enormous goiter swelling above the neckline of her traditional dress. She fingers her beads continuously, smiling all the while. She speaks little English, but as I witness her reach the end of her mala and happily twist it about in her hand to finger its beads back the other way, I see that she is at peace in the world, as though she had actually spoken the words aloud. Buddha. Dharma. Sangha. The teachings are all there. She carries them. And when she isn’t carrying them, she wears them on her sleeve.

Saying the Nembutsu: NEMBUTSU LITERALLY MEANS “to think of Buddha,” and is based on the teaching that “when you are mindful of the Buddha, the Buddha is mindful of you.” The principal practice of Pure Land Buddhism, nembutsu originally referred to a complex series of practices leading up to a vision of Amida Buddha in his Western Paradise. But many centuries ago it came to mean just what it does today: simple recitation of the words Namu Amida Butsu, “I take refuge in Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life.” Reciting the nembutsu sets the minds of those who practice it directly in the presence of Amida Buddha, with no intermediary whatsoever. Therefore, it can be taken up by anyone, anywhere, at any time— whether they have received instruction in that practice from a Pure Land teacher or not. Honen, the founder of the Pure Land school, taught: “The way to say the nembutsu lies in having no way.” In other words, any way of saying the nembutsu is fine. You may say it very fast or very slowly, use its traditional six-syllable form, Na-Mu-A-Mi-Da-Bu,

or abbreviate it down to Na-Man-Da-Bu, as many Japanese people do; it makes no difference at all. In saying the nembutsu we rely on Amida’s Vow to save all beings who simply call upon his name. To be too concerned with such matters as rhythm or pronunciation takes our minds off of the Buddha. And so it is best not to worry. Amida will hear us wherever we are, in whatever condition we find ourselves, and however we say his name. In reciting the nembutsu, some traditions stress the use of malas, also called juzu (“counting beads”), to keep track of their recitations, while others do not. For those who wish to use a juzu, one simply recites the nembutsu once for every bead, turning about at the guru bead to going back in the other direction, repeating this cycle as often as possible. Pure Land practitioners who favor a simple, heartfelt recitation still use malas, only they refer to them as nenju (“thought beads”), to indicate that they are not to be used for counting. In such cases, they simply place their hands together in gassho, with the beads encircling both palms, and chant. Placing our hands together in gassho is the basic attitude of devotion in the Pure Land school. The left hand joins the right, palm to palm, and in this way, symbolically speaking, our deluded selves are joined with Amida. When we place our hands together in this way, we find that they match up perfectly. For each finger of the left hand, there is a finger of the right to embrace it. The match is perfect. Nothing is left out. This is a beautiful description of the way worried beings are saved by Amida. For every moment of delusion, every act of greed, folly, or confusion, there is Amida right beside us, embracing us as we are. If it were necessary to change first in order to be worthy of birth in the Pure Land, few of us could attain it. Fortunately, all that is required is that we unite with the Tathagata. When we join the palms together in this way in an expression of simple faith and utter the words Namu-Amida-Butsu, and whether we count our beads or not, all is taken care of. Amida embraces us on the spot. EH

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NEWS Bringing management lessons to Buddha by Michiyo Nakamoto, Financial Times, Apr 2, 2012

Tokyo, Japan -- In Japan, where on-the-job training is often valued more than academic qualifications, an MBA is not an obvious step to career advancement – particularly if you are a Buddhist monk. But Keisuke Matsumoto had a grander goal in sight when he decided to take a break from his job as a monk at Komyoji Temple in Tokyo and attend a oneyear MBA programme in India. Mr Matsumoto wanted to acquire management skills to help him realise his vision of transforming Japan’s Buddhist temples into something more relevant to modern Japanese society. The 32-yearold believes temples should be what Peter Drucker, the management consultant, called “change agents”, offering people a place where they can achieve their spiritual awakening. Born in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, Mr Matsumoto was drawn to Buddhism after reading books that his grandfather, a Buddhist monk, had introduced him to as a child. After gaining a degree in philosophy at the University of Tokyo he became a monk in 2003. “I wanted to change the world of Buddhism and in order to do that, you have to enter that world first,” he says.

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Agent of change: Keisuke Matsumoto

Growing demand In the days when Japanese companies enjoyed robust growth, it was common to send promising young employees overseas to study at US business schools, almost as a reward for their hard work. Senior executives at several large Japanese companies are among those who benefited from the practice, including Takumi Shibata, chief operating officer of Nomura, Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Lawson, Japan’s second-largest convenience store group, and Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and chief executive of Rakuten, the country’s largest online retailer. All three went to Harvard Business School. The practice continues today, although on a somewhat smaller scale because companies are no longer so generous when it comes to giving their employees a break to improve their academic credentials. However, there has been a surge in the number of business schools in Japan after deregulation opened the doors to specialised graduate schools and allowed companies to set up such schools as well. From just a handful a decade ago, Japan now has more than 30 business schools offering MBAs, including the Japanese arms of western universities, such as Temple of the US and Canada’s McGill. Most of these schools cater to individuals who are working full-time or those looking to start their own

NEWS business or go into consulting, says Yoshito Hori, the dean of Globis. Consequently, classes tend to be held at night and at weekends. Globis, in Tokyo, is the largest business school in Japan, with 360 students. Although it runs a full-time MBA, the majority of its students are enrolled in the part-time programme.

“What is important is the value of Buddhism, as a religion, to people who are alive now. I wanted to change Japanese Buddhism so that it would be relevant for today. A temple should be run with a view to providing value to people in this changing world. That is the real mission of temples.”

The lack of labour flexibility in Japan means few people leave their jobs to go to business school, while many traditional companies still consider onthe-job training to be more important than the skills acquired on an MBA course.

After working at Komyoji for seven years, Mr Matsumoto decided that a business school education would help him discover “how to manage a temple as a mission-orientated organisation” that could provide value to society. The leadership training at business school, he believed, would be useful in his quest to change the way temples operate in Japan.

However, attitudes are changing rapidly as more Japanese companies are expanding globally, which in turn is increasing demand for management training, Mr Hori says.

“Monks study in their respective sects but they only learn about Buddhism. But you can’t manage a temple with just the study of Buddhism,” Mr Matsumoto says.

More than half of Globis’s revenues come from inhouse training for the employees of large Japanese companies, including their international workers, says Mr Hori.

It is as important for a monk working at a Buddhist temple as it is for a corporate executive to be able to manage people, he adds, although a monk has to do so not with the aim of making money but of serving society.

He had long been troubled by the fact that although there were many temples in Japan, they were making little contribution to society. “There are 70,000 to 80,000 temples in Japan, which is more than the number of convenience stores in the country. But temples are not making their mark on society in the way convenience stores are.” He believed that temples had become ossified in their traditional role of performing funeral services and other rituals and were failing to fulfil their mission of serving the spiritual needs of contemporary society.

Business school seemed to be his best chance for acquiring the necessary skills to manage people, since it is “a place that nurtures leaders, whether in the field of business or non-profit organisations”, he says, adding that it is “a place to study the template for how to move an organisation and provide value as an organisation and have an impact on society. And then you customise that to your specific situation”. He chose the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad. “They say an MBA changes your life and they say India changes your life,” he says, and so he

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NEWS believed that combining the two would be a good idea. He also thought that if he was going to meet the challenge of going to business school, he would rather go overseas than remain in Japan.

Before business school he thought that once the café attracted a flow of people it would be a good place to spread the teachings of Buddhism. However, he now takes an outside-in approach and asks visitors what they want from the temple and the monks.

“I thought it would be better if the hurdle was high,” Mr Matsumoto says. He was awarded a Rotary scholarship and in spring 2010 he became the first Japanese person to attend ISB.

Mr Matsumoto was also struck by an idea from his lessons on customer relationship management: that customers should be thought of as individuals, rather than as a mass, and that one should adapt one’s approach to each customer.

One lesson he brought back from the school was the importance of thinking “outside-in” rather than “inside-out”, which essentially means putting the customer first.

This idea can be found in the Buddha’s practice of teaching according to the student’s ability to understand, says Mr Matsumoto. “I was struck anew by the Buddha’s management capability,” he says.

Monks are the archetype of inside-out thinking – their attitude is that Buddhism is a good thing so you should adopt its teachings, Mr Matsumoto says.

Armed with his business school skills, Mr Matsumoto is spreading the word within the Buddhist community about how to transform temples and demonstrate their possibilities.

“There is a tendency to enforce things, to speak in a one-sided manner regardless of whether the person listening understands or not. “But ... it is important to listen. Rather than saying, ‘this is what we have to give you’, it is important to understand what the other person needs, what is troubling him and what we need to do in order to solve that,” he says. On his return from ISB, Mr Matsumoto changed the way he ran “Kamiyacho Open Terrace”, a temple café, which he had started as a way to reach out to the community.

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“Temples are a real social media, in the sense that they are a really good place to communicate new values and develop self-awareness,” he says. He is confident temples will be the starting point for reenergising Japan. EH Source: Buddhist Channel

NEWS International Buddhist Film Festival returns to London by Sarah Cooper, Screen Daily, 2 April, 2012

London, UK -- The 10th edition of the International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) is to take place in London, from April 11-15. The programme for the festival - which takes place in different cities around the world annually - will include the UK premieres of Nepali feature Karma about a nun who must travel from her remote nunnery to Katmandu in a bid to save her nunnery and Thai-UK director Tom Waller’s adaptation of novel Mindfulness And Murder. Also screening is Japanese feature film, Abraxas about a former punk musician turned Buddhist monk who attempts to find nirvana by giving one last performance. Documentaries include the UK premiere of David Grubin’s The Buddha narrated by Richard Gere and the European premiere of Johanna Demetrakas’ Crazy Wisdom which explores the life and teachings of Chogyam Trungpa [pictured], a pivotal figure in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West and the “bad boy” of the Buddhist world. Gesar Mukpo’s documentary about Chogyam Trungpa’s son, Tulku, who was identified as the reincarnation of one of his father’s own teachers when he was just three years old, will also be screening at the festival. The festival, which last took place in London in 2009, will also include a special Spotlight on Burma. “We are delighted to be returning to London with a wonderful new selection of world cinema with a Buddhist touch,” said Gaetano Kazuo Maida, executive director of IBFF. The festival is being held in conjunction with the Buddhist Art Forum at the Courtauld Institute of Art at Somerset House. EH Source: Buddhist Channel

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Teachings | Contentment in the Practice

Contentment in the Practice by Venerable Ajahn Thannisaro

Venerable Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) has been a Theravada monk since 1976. He is currently the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery north of San Diego, which he helped found in 1991. Ajahn Thanissaro’s writing includes Noble Strategy, The Mind Like Fire Unbound, and The Wings to Awakening. He has also translated many meditation guides by Thai Forest masters, as well as numerous scriptural texts from the Pali Canon.

very time you sit down to work with the breath, remember the story of the foolish, inexperienced cow. The cow is in a nice meadow on the hillside, has plenty of green grass and water, but sees another meadow over on another hillside and starts wondering, “What’s the grass like over there? What’s the water like over there?” And so because she’s a foolish, inexperienced cow, she sets out. She doesn’t know how to go down the hillside, cross over the ravine and go up the other hillside, so she gets lost in between. She doesn’t get to the other hillside and can’t get back to where she originally was. This stands for the mind that, once it gets into a state of concentration, wonders where to go next to get something better. The trick is to learn how to stay in your meadow, so the grass has a chance to grow, so you have a chance to enjoy the water right where you already are. And the place where you are will develop into deeper and deeper states of concentration. This is why it’s so important that before you start working with the breath here or there, adjusting it here or there, you find at least some spot where it’s comfortable and focus on that. To make another comparison, it’s like starting a fire on a windy day. You have your tiny little flame, so you cup it in your hands and make sure that it doesn’t get blown out. At the same time, you don’t cut off the oxygen. You cup it in your hands just right, keeping that one little flame going, and after a while it will catch. Then it will spread throughout all the timber you’ve piled up. But it’s important that you get that first little flame going. The same with the breath: Find at least one little spot and stay right there for a while. It doesn’t have to be a big spot, just a small spot. And content yourself with that small spot for the time being. Allow it to be comfortable. After a while it will catch. Then you can start spreading that sense of comfort throughout the body because you’re working from a position of strength. You’re working from a position of comfort, not a position of desperation or

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Teachings | Contentment in the Practice

anxiety or restlessness, thinking that this has to be like that, or that has to be like this. Just content yourself with what you’ve got and allow it to grow. Content yourself at first with the small things, and ultimately, with practice, they’ll grow into a greater and greater sense of wellbeing. Remember that the word jhana comes from the verb jhayati, or burning. This verb isn’t used to describe just any kind of burning; it’s used to describe the burning of an oil lamp. When an oil lamp burns, the flame is steady. It may not be a big flame, but its steadiness is what helps it illuminate the room. You can read by it. If it were a flickering flame, you couldn’t read by it, no matter how bright it was, for the shadows would be jumping all over the place. But the steadiness of the oil-lamp flame is what enables you to read even in an otherwise dark room. It’s the same with the state of your concentration. You stay steadily with one spot. The steadiness, the consistency of your gaze is what allows this one spot to become really comfortable. In the beginning it may not be all that comfortable, just an okay spot someplace in the body. The breath feels okay coming in, feels okay coming out. No big deal, nothing special. But you find, if you allow yourself to settle into it, that it solves a basic problem in the mind: the underlying tension where it’s ready to jump at a moment’s notice, like a cat settled in one spot but coiled up ready to spring. If you could take a picture of the mind, that’s what it would look like: a cat coiled ready to spring. When it lands on an object, part of it is ready to spring away from that object as soon as it doesn’t like the object,

as soon as the object turns into something unpleasant, because that’s the way it’s been dealing with objects all along. But here you allow it to settle into one little spot and let that sense of tension in the mind melt away. You melt into the object of your concentration and then let that melting sensation spread into the body, all the way down to your fingers and toes. This way the meditation goes a lot better than if you’re constantly fighting and figuring things out too much. You’ve got to learn how to apply just the right amount of pressure, just the right amount of pushing, not too much, not too little. The more sensitive you are in your meditation, the better it goes. So you’ve got a meadow someplace in your body. It may not be a big one, but it’s there. You don’t sit around worrying about where the next meadow’s going to be or what other meadows you have around you. Just stay right where you are and the grass will grow. The water will flow. And you find that the place where you are starts to develop. That’s the kind of concentration you can really live with. In other words, it’s the kind of concentration you can pick up and take with you wherever you go, not where you prefashion things too much and preconceive things too much and have to do this and have to do that and adjust this and adjust that and it all becomes very theoretical. Just an inner sense of allowing it to feel just right, right here, to feel good right here, and wherever you go, you’re still with “right here.” You can identify where that good feeling is and carry it with

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Teachings | Contentment in the Practice

you wherever you go. That’s the kind of concentration that grows. It’s the kind of concentration that seeps into your life and begins to make a difference in how you think, how you act, and how you speak, because it’s there all the time. It doesn’t require too much fashioning. It may require a little bit of looking after, but not based on what you’ve read in books. It’s just a sense of wellbeing right here. You’ve got your little spot and you take it with you. Ajaan Fuang once said that mindfulness and concentration are little tiny things but you’ve got to keep at them all the time. The statement sounded better in Thai because it was a pun. There’s the word nit, which means little, but there’s also the word nit — spelled differently but pronounced the same way — which means constantly. So concentration is a little tiny thing that you do constantly. When it comes from this beginning sense of wellbeing, it’s a lot more stable. You can maintain it a lot longer. The sense of wellbeing begins to glow throughout the body and the mind when you allow it to happen, when you allow the grass to grow and the water to flow. Or, in terms of the image of the flame, when you give it enough space and protection to allow it to catch hold. In one of Ajaan Lee’s talks he says that big things have to start from little things. Sometimes you have to content yourself with just a little bit of concentration, a little comfortable spot, but you stick with it constantly. You plant one banana tree, and after a while it will grow and provide you with the seeds to plant more banana trees. So you take the seeds out of the banana — in Thailand they have bananas with seeds — you

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plant them, and after a while you’ve got a whole banana orchard. Or even better, mangoes: You’ve got one tree that you take really good care of. You don’t yet worry about planting the rest of your land. You’ve got your one tree and after a while it gives mangoes, and bit by bit you can plant a whole orchard with the seeds you got from the fruit of the one tree. At the same time, you get to eat the flesh of the mangoes. You can enjoy yourself. After all, this is a part of the path, the part where the Buddha explicitly mentions rapture, pleasure, and ease as factors of the path. If you don’t have that sense of wellbeing, the practice gets very dry. As you’re planting the mangoes and eating their flesh, you find that the path becomes a really nice place to be, a good path to follow — not only because you know it’s going to take you to a good place, but also because it’s a good path to be on while you’re there. You’re not going through the desert. You’re going through orchards and lush countryside. If you learn to recognize which plants are food and which ones are medicine for which disease, there’s plenty to keep you healthy and energized all along the way. EH

Teachings | The Precepts for Young People

The Precepts for Young People by Sandy Eastoak

Sandy Eastoak was raised by trees in New England and educated by forests of Oregon, Northern California, and New Mexico. She studied at Antioch College, University of Oregon, and with Lou Fish in Saint Lucia and Richard McDaniel in Santa Rosa. Chinese and Japanese art affected her early. She studied sumi painting, cared for Oriental collections at the Schnitzer Museum, and practiced Zen for 30 years. She is the author of Dharma Family Treasures: Sharing Mindfulness with Children.

he Buddha taught us the Precepts as a guide to living so that we would not bring suffering to ourselves or others. The first precept of all is, DO NO HARM. The second is DO ONLY GOOD. The third is, DO GOOD FOR OTHERS. These are called the Three Pure Precepts. They are the basis for all other moral teachings, and by themselves clearly tell us how to live a good life. But sometimes we need more specific advice, so beyond these come the Ten Great Precepts:

Not killing All killing brings suffering. The ant and the dandelion love life, as we do. Well, maybe not as we do, but as an ant and dandelion do, which is something we cannot do, and so is completely precious. Not killing is about the absolute preciousness of every being, large or small. It is about physical lives, which most animals and some plants cannot help taking, just to stay alive. And it is about ways of being, which sometimes we kill by ridicule or neglect. A blue jay once told me, God needs many eyes to see the world. That’s why it is better not to kill. Each eye sees the world differently, and all that seeing together makes the world as big and wonderful as it is.

Not stealing This means not to take what isn’t given. As we look around us, we see how much stealing is taken for granted in our world—and how much

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Teachings | The Precepts for Young People

suffering it brings. Respecting others and practicing generosity are the cures for stealing.

to be committed to that, and to avoid the rest.

Not using drugs What about picking an apple from a tree? Does the tree give, or do we steal? What about digging up a garden that was formerly a playground for mice and toads and grasshoppers? These are hard questions. Meanwhile, share your cassettes with your friends and don’t snatch the comics from your brother.

Not saying what isn’t true Everything we say reflects some truth, even when our “no, I didn’t” means “I’m afraid you’ll yell at me if I tell you I spilled pudding on your sweater.” One reason we practice being still inside is that telling the truth isn’t easy. When we’re little children we can be mixed up about what’s really true and what is just our wish or our fear. When we’re grown up, we can be mixed up about what’s really true and what’s just our wish or our fear. The stronger our wish or the more terrible our fear, the harder it is to stay clear about the truth. When we don’t tell the truth, we suffer, and all those around us suffer. Distrust and confusion come immediately, with fear and anger close behind. That all of us together can do the right thing in any situation, we rely on each other to be truthful.

Not misusing sex This means we respect each other’s bodies. We do not touch each other in ways that feel bad. We do not touch each other in ways that feel good for the moment but lead to feeling bad later. We are careful and loving and respectful of ourselves and others in all our touching. When people have promised to love each other, as in a marriage, we do not weaken their promise. We postpone sexual expression until we have developed our friendship and love for another so deeply that we make our own promise together. It is easy to be confused, especially as we get older, by our desires for touching. To prevent suffering for ourselves and others, we make the effort to get clear about what is really healthy and respectful. We learn

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Every situation in life is at once very simple and very complicated, so it can be quite difficult to see clearly what causes suffering and what does not. If we use drugs, it becomes even more difficult to see clearly. All the things we practice to help us see clearly—meditation, patience, perseverance, compassion—slip away from us. By drugs, we mean not only alcohol or marijuana or pills, but anything that dulls the mind and makes us seek after it even when it doesn’t feel right. It can be TV or talking too much or crossword puzzles. Always it is what numbs us, takes us out of the present, and prevents us from fully feeling what is happening right now and responding with appropriate action to that.

Not speaking against others In every group of people—whether a family, a school, a neighborhood, a meditation center, a few friends—two things are needed: trust and what we might call “open problems.” Open problems means stating openly any difficulty we’re having to the other person—and being open to solving it together, each giving to the other some needed change. We all know that when we criticize another person behind their back, trust goes immediately. One reason we do it anyway is that “open problems” is scary. It’s easier to complain to a third person, and if the trust is broken, open problems may become impossible. So we’re off the hook—but at a terrible price. Not speaking against others requires the willingness to see our part in our difficulty with other people, to speak our experience honestly, and to negotiate mutual change. The reward is the trust that keeps love growing.

Not praising yourself while abusing others For our own self-esteem and the well-being of our friends and family, it is important that we remember that each of us is special. So we don’t brag and we don’t put other people down. We give up the easy

Teachings | The Precepts for Young People

gratification of “mine is better than yours”—and the insecurity that “yours is better than mine.” No one is more important than you. You are no more important than any other being. Just like the seed in each compartment of the lotus pod, we are all equal. We want to cultivate the mindfulness that sees that equality all the time, throughout all our hours and actions. Then we can live happily together, enjoying each other’s skills and achievements, benefiting from each other’s goodness.

Not sparing the Dharma assets This means a willingness to share. Whatever good life brings us, we gladly pass on to others. Maybe we give a certain percentage of our income to the hungry and homeless. Maybe we give a few hours a week to help the sick or the elderly. Maybe we help the forests by recycling and the rivers by writing letters in support of conservation laws. Not everything of value that life gives us is sunny and bright—sometimes our pain can be a gift too. We are called on to share not only material wealth, but also whatever helps us to understand and act rightly. We share our compassion and wisdom, our ideas and skills.

Not indulging in anger Anger can be a great energy, giving the light to see what needs changing and the heat to change. But without great mindfulness, it is a destroyer. Everything in the universe has a building up phase, a static phase, and a breaking down phase. Anger can be taken as a signal for a breaking down stage. But what do we do with this signal? When anger uses us, we are destructive, sending waves of bad karma in all directions. When we befriend our anger carefully, our compassion and insight enable us to transmute bad karma into lovingkindness. Whatever we say or do to another, is said and done to us. Be very, very careful.

Not defaming the Three Treasures

to live—indeed, we each must find our own path, unique to ourselves. But whoever and whatever teaches us and helps us follow our path in truth and integrity—that we each must honor. And we must offer respect to what helps others find their way, whether similar or different from our own. The great and vast truth of the universe in all its manifestations—how could we defame this? Look carefully to each thought, each word, each action— and grow the blossom of understanding. Enjoy the growing and blossoming of all the diverse beings around you, without whom you do not even exist. There is a formal ceremony in which we are asked, after the reading of each precept, “Have you made an effort to study and practice this during the past two weeks?” To have the opportunity to do this ceremony with others is a great help. We can also make the same review on our own. Some people do this as a family ritual on each full moon night. The precepts tell us how not to cause suffering. Always, suffering is related to being not fully present—clutching at an idea, rushing ahead to the future, lingering in the past. Not being awake to the needs of the present moment, which are completely unique, always changing, never repeated. When we’re totally in the present, suffering disappears. So the precepts are reminders of how to stay in the present—both self and others. How to keep yourself in the present, and how not to push anyone else out of it. How to enable yourself and all other beings to open up completely, not hiding anything anywhere. How you and all other beings can see and treat each other as absolutely sacred—as all the god there is. They’re simply Buddha’s Helpful Hints for Being Buddha. But don’t worry. Nobody’s perfect. EH Copyright © 1994 by Sandy Eastoak

Even if we are not Buddhists, we cannot live happily without honoring those who can show us how to live wisely. All people do not agree on the best way

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers by Venerable Geshe Tenzin Zopa

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (left) and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, two of Tenzin Zopaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spiritual teachers.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa holds the Geshe (Doctorate) degree from Sera Je Monastic University, South India having completed the 20 year monastic curriculum in just 17 years. He was ordained at the age of 9 by the late great mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog, received novice ordination from Geshe Lundrup Sopa Rinpoche and full ordination from HH the 14th Dalai Lama. Under the direct tutelage of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the great mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog and the most eminent of Gurus including those from the great Sera Jey Monastic University, Geshe Tenzin Zopa now possess vast scriptural knowledge and extensive teaching experience. He has also successfully managed major projects, completed many retreats - including a 6 month Highest Yoga Tantra retreat with the late Geshe Lama Konchog - and is highly skilled in rituals, astrological observations and religious dance. Projects undertaken by Geshela included the temporal and spiritual development of Rachen Nunnery and Mu Monastery, Tsum, Nepal, and the completion of the 1000 Buddha Relics Memorial Stupa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. The following is the final part of a talk given on October 30, 2011 to a group of mainly Theravada Buddhist lay leaders and supporters who had gathered in Petaling Jaya to offer a farewell lunch dana to Geshe Zopa. The first part of the talk was published in the January 2012 issue of Eastern Horizon.

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

Geshe Lama Konchog (left), one of Tenzin Zopa’s main teachers passed away in 2001 at the age of 84. Tenzin Nyudrup, who was born in 2002, was recognized as Lama Konchog’s incarnation in 2005 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984), co-founder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) where Tenzin Zopa belongs.

Q: In the tantric tradition, the relationship between master and disciple is very important. If the Guru’s instruction is not good, what should the disciple do? A: First of all, I’d like to say that the importance of the Guru is found in all the three Buddhist traditions and is not peculiar to the Tibetan tradition. Buddha is supreme and Buddha is our root Guru. Whatever tradition, the respect to be given to the Dharma as our Teacher is the same. The reason for this great level of respect is because since we did not have the karma to receive teachings directly from Shakyamuni Buddha, we have nonetheless received Dharma teachings from one’s living Teacher or guru. In this way, one recognizes the kindness of the Guru in revealing the Dharma. The practice of guru devotion was taught by Buddha himself. To avoid misuse and misunderstanding, there were guidelines for the guru-disciple relationship. Lama Tsongkhapa refers to the 10 qualities required of a guru and the 5 qualities required of a disciple. Essentially, the teacher should as a minimum, have ethics, be scripturally qualified, selfless and compassionate. Ethics means at least preserving five lay vows. Sometimes, one hears about some teachers abusing their female students and this would clearly break the vows of ethics. As a Sangha teacher, ordination vows do not permit bringing up any matters which arouse desire. My answer to your question is that if a teacher asks you to do something that sounds questionable or is something that one cannot do, it is possible for the disciple to respectfully seek clarification or decline the request. The Guru-disciple relationship is not a masterslave relationship but one that is based on Dharma, respect, trust, care, guidance, training, and discipline, solely for the purpose of the disciple overcoming delusions and attaining liberation and enlightenment. For example, if the Guru asks you to go straightaway to a cave for 3 years of meditation with no contact with the family, it is possible for you to clarify with the Guru or respectfully say that you will consider doing so after your children has grown up or your wife has become a nun! (Laughter) However, even if one regards the Guru’s instructions as impossible, the underlying respect and faith must remain.

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

Before regarding anyone as oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Teacher, one should check. This is not in the sense of looking for faults in a teacher but rather to observe and listen to him. Initially we can regard that person as a Dharma speaker or a Dharma mentor but not yet as a Guru. Then reflect on whether all that is observed accords with the Dharma. Do this even if it takes many years. Once a proper Guru-disciple relationship is established, listening to even one verse of teaching from that Guru will have a great positive impact. Otherwise, blindly following a Teacher and blindly believing everything that is said without applying the teachings and reasoning the way the Buddha had adviced will only create Dharma pollution. Sometimes we misuse Dharma. For instance, you might slap someone and then justify it by saying that that person had the karma to receive your slap; or you use the Buddha or Dharma to justify your authority or position. All this is Dharma pollution. Hence, search for a qualified guru. For this, the student also needs to have qualities, especially mindfulness and the wisdom to analyse what is right and wrong. Then if one has a living guru, develop devotion through words and action. Through following the Guruâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice, great benefit will come because the Guru is the root of the path. Devoting to a qualified right teacher is the foundation of all good qualities. We can see this even in ordinary life. Q: Vajrayana has techniques which supplement practice: what are these practices? A: The Buddha has the rupakaya (form body) and the Dharmakaya (wisdom body or realizations). Deity yoga â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which is the meditation on deities and their symbolism representing the qualities and teachings of the Buddha - is one of the Vajrayana methods to achieve this. Thus one needs to study fully and properly. For instance, in tantra there is the image of Mother-Father deities in an embracing posture which causes much confusion. The essence of tantra practice is to totally eliminate impure perception as it leads to impure, deluded actions. It is to overcome ordinary perception and live in the manifestation of the Buddha nature - the subtlest clear light mind and to transform the three bases of ordinary death, intermediate state, and rebirth into the three bodies of the Buddha: namely, transforming death into the Dharmakaya (wisdom body); the intermediate state into the sambogakaya (a form visible only by Bodhisattvas) and rebirth into the nirmanakaya (a form visible to ordinary sentient beings). All three Buddhist traditions talk about the Buddha nature. Buddha is not out there but is within us but what is lacking is the manifestation of that nature because we are temporarily obscured by delusions (ignorance, attachment, anger) and defilements (grasping at self and at phenomena). Cutting off impure perceptions is therefore important and tantra facilitates this process. Depictions of deities are symbolic of the delusions to be overcome. The methods used e.g. deities holding knives and ropes are not meant to harm humans but rather represent the rope of mindfulness and the knife cutting off ignorance. If we understand the symbolism, e.g. of the Father-Mother deities, then we know that they illustrate desire as the root of

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

samsara to be overcome. Therefore, Tantra/Vajrayana is founded on the three principal aspects of the path (renunciation, bodhicitta and wisdom realizing emptiness) and the three higher trainings of morality, concentration, and wisdom. These are necessary for all of us as practitioners. Q: Shugden practice is said to be from Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche, both of whom were main teachers of the Gelug school then and gurus of present day teachers. The Dalai Lama has since adviced against shugden practice. Since samaya (guru-disciple link) is important in Vajrayana practice, if a Lama has transmitted the Shugden practice to his students which is against Dalai Lama’s advice, wouldn’t that Lama be breaking samaya with the Dalai Lama? A: Firstly, the answer is yes. If a Lama is a disciple of the Dalai Lama but does not abide by his Holiness’s instructions not to practice or promote the practice of Shugden, then that Lama has broken samaya with His Holiness. But I’d like to say something about those two great masters you mentioned. Both of them have analyzed Shugden practice. Trijang Rinpoche was a disciple of Pabongka Rinpoche; the Dalai Lama was a disciple to Trijang Rinpoche. Both Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche instructed their learned disciples to check the Shugden practice for themselves. For the Dalai Lama, upon checking the Shugden practice, he realized that Shugden was a spirit and hence, he forbade the continued practice. As for the history of Shugden, he was an ordinary monk who had a conflict with the Tibetan government and was mistreated during his time. He had recited many mantras while he was alive. At the time of dying, he made a vow with a negative intention towards the Tibetan government and prayed to be reborn as a powerful spirit to destroy the Tibetan government. He also vowed that whoever helped him to do that would gain material wealth but whoever broke that promise would be punished. This was his heavy negative motivation at the time of death. After death, this monk became Shugden the powerful spirit being. Not all monks are enlightened and many struggle in their practice. This is why some of them experiment with Shugden practice. Due to the promise of wealth, many lay people are also attracted. However, if they realize that the practice of Dharma is not about material wealth but about proper refuge, they would then try to renounce their Shugden practice. However, this is where they soon got into trouble, as promised and threatened by Shugden. As mentioned, the Dalai Lama upon instruction by his Guru, did the Shugden practice and analyzed it - and found it was spirit practice. It would have been easy for His Holiness to keep quiet about his findings because to reveal it is definitely going to attract complaint and resistance, especially when Shugden practice grants wealth and many people are practicing it. Some monks were trapped into practising Shugden and when they tried to stop, they faced great problems, thereby forcing them to return to the practice. The Dalai Lama is stopping this practice because he sees it as an obstacle to preserving Dharma and pure refuge. With compassion towards not only Tibetan people and but also the followers

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

of the entire Tibetan Buddhist tradition, he exposed his findings about Shugden being a spirit. At first, this was notified to only a small circle of monasteries but now that even lay communities are involved, there is no choice but for the information to be made known to a wider circle. His Holiness is not stopping freedom of faith but he has to fulfil his responsibility to guide followers of Tibetan Buddhism to remain in pure Dharma and not partake in spirit worship. I am speaking on this because I think it important. So there is no broken samaya between Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche and HH Dalai Lama. His Holinessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prohibition on Shugden began during the life of Trijang Rinpoche. The Dalai Lama had asked Trijang Rinpoche what to do about this growing practice and Trijang Rinpoche advised His Holiness to declare his findings to the public. In present times, an example of a practitioner who are said to be engaging in the Shugden practice is Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in the UK. His Holiness made the prohibition of the Shugden practice very clear to all Lamas and practitioners and said that if they do not fulfil that instruction to cease the practice, samaya with His Holiness is broken. Some people claiming to be reincarnate Lamas also propagate the Shugden practice. As this goes against HH Dalai Lamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice, one should know what to do. His Holiness puts effort on cautioning practitioners against the Shugden practice because he has the responsibility to preserve pure Dharma. When disciples do not follow that advice and become aggressive about it, His Holiness has no choice but to speak out more about it. Q: What can we do as a friend to help another friend who has been trapped in having relationship with mistaken teachers. A: If you are referring to the Shugden issue, maintain distance from those teachers. Have as little association with them as possible. Here is no need to criticise them but maintain the distance. I have met students who joined a center practising Shugden â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they reported that upon joining, they were immediately given the Shugden mantra to practice and eventually, they started to feel some disturbance. So it is best not to associate with such teachers and centers. The best approach is to rely on HH Dalai Lama. His Holiness once gave an account of Shugden appearing to him in his dreams, upon which he swallowed Shugden - and that was it! However, His Holiness understands that some Shugden practitioners are afraid to stop and some try it out of curiosity. For those who want to give up, take refuge in Chenresig (His Holiness did not mention taking refuge in him) and avoid the practice from there. If one already has a doubt about a teacher doing this practice, steer clear of him. If one has the opportunity, ask the HH Dalai Lama about it. If you are invited by a Shugden practitioner to participate in activities, politely decline. If they invite you to support a charity, that is fine as many people will benefit from you doing good things.

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Face to Face | Learning Dharma from Authentic Teachers

Q: Tibetan Buddhism is getting more popular. How to safeguard its authenticity? A: Invite authentic masters to give teachings! First, you need to make discreet inquiries about the teacher, and you should also educate newcomers on the need to check and observe. Leaders of Dharma societies should set a good example to newcomers. Be kind to everyone, including Shugden practitioners – however, know how to stay away from the problem of Shugden and how not to associate with them. Some Shugden practitioners now put HH Dalai Lama’s books and photos everywhere in their centers. So if one is not mindful, they will quickly transmit the mantra. In Malaysia, there have been a few occasions where fake relics were on exhibition. During fortunate times, even to encounter one relic was so difficult; yet in these degenerate times, there are so many tooth relics! Some people are self-proclaimed Holinesses. There is even a True Buddha from the Chinese Mahayana tradition in Taiwan. In essence, educate your members by revealing the Buddha’s teachings and if the root texts are difficult to understand, refer to the writings of the 17 Pandits as they provide a rich source of teachings on the three traditions. It is not always easy to listen to some of the more profound teachings, as vast merit is needed. But we should not follow our desiremind – instead we should follow our wisdom mind. As leaders of societies, you need to guide your members wisely – people are watching you, they are more powerful than CCTV! Like me, in my small center, I lock myself in my room – if I don’t walk properly, my disciples also will not walk properly. We must protect the new generation of Dharma students and preserve the authentic Dharma so as not to mislead others. Q: If we keep pure precepts, we are safe. Many people don’t keep precepts to strengthen their mind, so how to help these people? A: If the person is a Buddhist, reinforce his refuge in the Triple Gem. Understand the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and know what to do once one has taken Refuge. Organize Refuge Ceremonies and advice people what refuge means and how to be good Buddhists. If the person is not a Buddhist and is not interested in taking refuge or listening to Buddha’s advice, generate compassion towards the person and dedicate your merits to him/her to live an ethical life and to be able to eventually meet the Dharma and qualified Buddhist masters. EH

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Feature | The Modern Monks of China

The Modern Monks of China by Tang Yue

A young monk contemplates a wall of the gilded images of Buddha in the main hall of the Longquan Temple in Beijing’s Haidian district. Cui meng / China Daily

he world-weary have sought refuge in Buddhist temples for thousands of years, shedding their earthly entanglements for a higher calling. But what about now? Tang Yue goes into retreat to fi nd out more about the Buddhist monks of 21st-century China. Buddhism in China is about 2,000 years old. It has had a roller-coaster history with its popularity reaching a peak during

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the Tang Dynasty (AD 618907). It was during this period that Xuan Zang, its most ardent advocate and arguably China’s most famous monk, traveled overland to India in search of original Buddhist scriptures. His journey took 17 years, and it became the stuff of legends, including the inspiration for Wu Cheng’en’s novel Journey to the West, an allegory spiced up with the fictional disciples Monkey, Piggy and Sharky, a sort of China’s

equivalent to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. As New China hurtled into socialism, religion took a backseat as revolutionary fervor became the faith of the day. China was changing and it had other priorities. Fast-forward again to the 2010s, and today’s Buddhist leaders are looking at a revival. As life gets more comfortable, and urban pressures increase, the resulting paradox has stirred up spiritual needs. But 14 centuries after Buddhism

Feature | The Modern Monks of China

Now, there is a fully heated multi-story dormitory, a library, computer room and laundry room - “just like a campus”. There is even a garbage recycling system. “You can see the construction site over there. I don’t think we will stop building in the next 10 years because the number of residents keeps growing,” Chan Xing says as he leads us to the work-site on a sunny afternoon. set root in China, it is a very different scenario. There are now new platforms from which to evangelize and preach. While the monks of yore had to trudge far to spread Buddhist teachings, the modern missionaries are able to communicate with a click of the mouse. There are online sermons, and many religious leaders make use of that very useful networking tool - the microblogs. Sometimes, they even blog in many languages. We got a first-hand look at how it works at Beijing’s Longquan Temple in Fenghuangling, a Buddhist sanctuary built in the Liao Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. Like many monasteries all over the country, it has withstood the tribulations of history. The latest was during the turbulence of

the “cultural revolution”, when it became a silent shell. In 2004, Abbot Xue Cheng began restoring the ancient temple, with the help of a few disciples. Since then, more than 100 young men, many of them graduates from the most prestigious Chinese universities, have been tonsured here. One of them, Chan Xing, has a doctorate in fluid dynamics from Tsinghua University. He was one of those who followed the abbot here from Fujian province six years ago, and he recalls those early days. “There were only three bungalows here, with no heating system. The winters were really torturous,” he remembers.

Physical comforts aside, Buddhist lessons for the novices are also very different from the darker ages. To make lessons relevant, movies like The Matrix, The Ice Age, and Kungfu Panda are incorporated into the lectures. “Traditional culture and religion must fit in with modern society. Life in ancient times was very simple and static, now the world changes from day to day and we have to keep abreast,” says Abbot Xue Cheng, who is also the vice-president of the Buddhist Association of China. The 44-year-old abbot started a blog in 2006 and it has already logged almost 7 million page views.

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Feature | The Modern Monks of China

Monks in the IT age use the Internet to share lessons and also to spread Buddhist teachings through multilingual microblogs. Cui Meng / China Daily

His microblog is translated into seven languages - English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French, Spanish and German thanks to volunteers. On the temple’s website are streamed videos of Buddhism lectures, and a recently launched interactive program. Offline, the temple welcomes those who are interested in Buddhism to learn more about the religion at the temple. College students, white-collar workers and even the Party School of the CPC Central Committee have all signed the guest-book. The monks at Longquan bring their beliefs into daily life.

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They have set up a foundation for charity, where believers and volunteers can join in activities that include distributing free porridge and a kind greeting to office workers in the CBD who are too busy to have breakfast, such as the harried passengers at the Beijing West Railway Station.

channels and meet the demands of ‘potential customers,” he says, betraying his secular education.

“As the quality of material life improves in China, the people’s need for a more fulfilled spiritual life rises, and more and more people are interested in Buddhism,” says Xian Jian, 38, who used to teach economics in Henan University.

So it is that only senior monks are trusted to keep updated online, while novices are not allowed to have cell phones or to browse content on the Internet not related to Buddhism.

“If you see it from the perspective of satisfying the market, we are just trying to expand the

But the consequences of pop culture, the runaway pace of life and temptations from advanced communication channels worry the abbot.

“Too much information will distract the monks, especially the young ones,” according to the abbot.

Feature | The Modern Monks of China

“It still comes to mind, but I don’t do it anymore,” he says. Online pornography is a challenge as well, and despite firewalls and blocks, the cheeky content can still pop up unexpectedly. These temptations justify the abbot’s strict rules of no Internet.

This rule can be hard for novices from the IT age, like Xian Xun. He was a fan of the LA Lakers and the Houston Rockets, and he used to watch a lot of NBA games in college. When he first came to the temple last summer, he couldn’t help but log on to the sports news when he was online.

There is yet another, unexpected, hurdle for the abbot at Longquan Temple - the question of money and profitability. Unlike his famous counterpart at Shaolin Temple, Abbot Xue Cheng has chosen to keep business outside his temple gate. Visitors are not charged admission, and even the joss sticks for devotees at the temple are free of charge.

None of the monks are paid an allowance for fear that “salary leads to inequality”. “The gap between the rich and poor has been the root of social problems the world over. No money, no distractions,” the abbot says. “Now some temples are doing business. The function and space of the temple is severely impacted. It is for us to keep the integrity of the temple.” You can contact the writer at tangyue@chinadaily.com.cn. EH Source: China Daily, July 17, 2011

Are you searching for a spiritually challenging work? Do you enjoy meeting fellow Dharma practitioners, Buddhist leaders, and Dharma masters? Would you like to introduce the latest Buddhist book you read recently? How about researching into the latest web-sites on Buddhist activities around the world? And of course, what about telling us how you first came in contact with the dharma and what the dharma means to you today. Well, if you find all of these interesting, we can make it spiritually challenging for you too! In every issue of EASTERN HORIZON, we publish special chat sessions with leading Buddhist personalities, essays on all aspects of Buddhism, book reviews, and news and activities that are of interest to the Buddhist community. We need someone to help us in all these projects. If you are keen to be part of this exciting magazine, please e-mail to the editor at Bennyliow@gmail.com, and we will put you in touch with what’s challenging for the next issue!

Let us share the dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings!

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Feature | Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha

Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha by Wong Mun Yee

Mun Yee began learning Buddhism during secondary school days at St John’s Institution’s Buddhist Society, Kuala Lumpur. He participated in Buddhist camps during his teenage years and was involved as a core member of Dhammaduta Youth (D2Y) which he guides till today. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication & Advertising from Australia and established a Mitchell Buddhist Group there. Mun Yee is a representative of Sasanarakha Buddhist Sanctuary, Taiping, Perak and Buddhist Gem Fellowship. He continues to share the Buddha Dharma with youths and young adults in local camps, schools, colleges & universities such as UCSI, MMU, IMU & Monash. Besides his active participation in missionary work, his interest includes creative arts, calligraphy and design. He works in Sukhi Hotu, a Wong Mun Yee at the National Museum Institute of History of Art Conservation and Museology, New Delhi, India.

Buddhist bookshop in Petaling Jaya, Selangor and manages his own floral design business, Flora Mandarava.

recall my first pilgrimage to India, back in Nov 2008. It was a trip of many “firsts”. It was my first trip to India, to Bodhgaya, my first participation in a Novitiate Programme, my first time having a fever on board the plane to Gaya, India and arriving not feeling well. As I look back and relive the experiences then, it was to me a beautiful two weeks; participating as a Samanera and undergoing the programme organized by the hard working people from Aloka Foundation. Fast forward four years and we are now in 2012 and, I had the opportunity to visit India again. This time round as a delegate of the Global Buddhist Congregation (GBC) at Delhi, India from 26-30 Nov 2011 organized by Venerable Lama Lobsang, President of Asoka Mission, main convener and secretary general of GBC. The GBC was a gathering of Buddhists from all around the world and fittingly in the birth country of the Buddha. This is the very first time that GBC was convened in this land and on the auspicious 2600th year of the Buddha’s Enlightenment.

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Feature | Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha

Sun 27 Nov 2011, Shangrila Hotel, Delhi . Group Photo of Malaysian Delegation with Ven Ming Kuang, Frank Thien, Dr Christie Chang (Taiwan) and Ven Dhammapala (Hong Kong).

28 Nov 2011, Grand dinner at Asoka Mission, Mehrauli, New Delhi.

2 Dec 2012 Group photo at night, Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya.

The highlight of the congregation was the closing speech by HH Dalai Lama on the last day which you can view here http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=i4A4mDRjEIK. His Holiness gave a “whammy” speech (in the words of Ven Thubten Chodron) which was meaningful and serves as a wakeup call to all. The congregation after many rounds of discussion, decided to form a new body, the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). Prior to that, we visited Gandhi Smirti (the place where Gandhi was assassinated) with a world peace prayer and tree planting ceremony at Nehru Park. Part of the GBC entails a four day pilgrimage to the Buddhist Holy sites. One of course is Bodhgaya, the Buddha’s seat of enlightenment and second was Rajghir Vultures Peak, where the Buddha preached many sutras including the Heart Sutra. The third place was Nalanda, once the world’s university and fourth was Sarnath, the place where Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma by teaching the Dhammacakkapavatana Sutta. Of these four places, I got a chance to revisit three and a bonus visit to Sarnath, as I have not been there before. This conference is indeed an eye opening experience for me. Just to be together with many delegates, participants and observers from all around the world coming congregating in one place was simply amazing. After helping to sort out travel arrangements for our group and other delegates staying in the same hotel, we were on our way to Delhi Airport very early the next morning to begin our pilgrimage – and that is to catch our flight to Varanasi. The organizers had a challenging exercise in moving all delegates in three different batches of flight, both lay and monastic.

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Feature | Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha

Maha Bodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya.

2 Dec 20111, Nalanda University Ruins. Mr Prasad, Archeologist explaining the history. Standing in front is Ven Ming Kuang from Taiwan.

Stupa at Sarnath, where Buddha first taught the Dharma.

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This was where we all had to apply mindfulness and observation into our practice. We reach Varanasi without much delay and took a seven hour coach ride to Bodhgaya. After a tiring day travelling, we made a decision to wake up very early in the morning to pay our respects to the Vajrasana (Diamond Throne) at Mahaboddhi Temple Bodhgaya. Venerable Bhikkhuni Gotami who was travelling with our team, led us in a meaningful morning puja with special offerings prepared all the way from Sri Lanka. It’s a great opportunity for me to visit Bodhgaya once again and to relive the memories from my very first visit. As I sat down at the corner of the temple complex, I observe the many pilgrims from all over the world, different nationalities congregating at the “navel of the earth”, each with their own unique way of devotion and reverence to the Buddha. They came in as individuals and groups circumbulating the temple ground in a clockwise route, carrying offerings of great respect. The afternoon of the same day, we journeyed to Vultures Peak where Venerable Ming Kuang from Taiwan led us in the recitation of the Heart Sutra and we also proceeded to Nalanda. This time round at Nalanda ruins, I was spiritually satisfied, as my first trip there was only a 15 minute stopover compared to an hour visit this round. We met the archeologist who took us on a journey of Nalanda during its heyday and its “impermanence”. Ven Ming Kuang once again, broke into his usual self and led us in introduction, sharing and hymn session in the coach. We were certainly a joyful group with the ripening of conditions to be together on a short pilgrimage and we shared snacks from our home country too with all. Who could have imagined that so many nationalities from different places would have the opportunity to travel together. In the night, we made our way back to Mahabodhi Temple again to offer candle lights at the specially designed “green house”. It’s a wonderful experience just being there,

Feature | Tracing the footsteps of the Buddha

silently observing and peacefully contemplating this place, the seat where Siddhartha Gautama achieved Enlightenment. Earlier at the entrance of the temple, we were blessed to be received by Mr Nangzey Dorjee, Secretary of Mahabodhi Temple Management Committee who presented each of us with a special publication, 2600th Years of the Buddha Enlightenment.

3 Dec 2011, With Bhante Seewalee, abbot of Mulagandha Kuty Vihara, Sarnath

3 Dec 2011, Group Photo, entrance of Mulagandhakuty Vihara, Sarnath

The next day, we travel to Varansi and to Sarnath, the place where the Buddha turned the wheel of Dhamma. At the base of Damekh Stupa, we made light offerings and visited Mulagandhakuty Vihara next door. In the night, we were treated to a buffet dinner by the riverside of Ganges complete with the Hindu ritual of light offering and cultural dances. The last stop next day was an early morning boat ride along the Ganges river. It was a sight to behold, India in its ‘raw’ and original form, “real” people, sight, smell and sounds. Along our boat ride, both lay and monastic members saw the sunrise in the East, Hindu pilgrims taking dips in the river and Sadhus (holy men) spread out across the embankments. We also witnessed the usual riverside cremations but we were reminded not to take photos as a mark of respect. Our boat ride came to a close as we set afloat small lamps on leaves with flowers. After that we took an internal flight from Varanasi back to Delhi for our connecting flight back to Kuala Lumpur. In summary, it was an “Incredible India” filled with gratitude, uncertainty and definitely uplifting changes. I hope to be back to Bodhgaya soon and hopefully to bring my parents and friends. I’m most grateful to all for this opportunity and will certainly recommend you to go on this fulfilling spiritual journey at least once in your lifetime. Namaste and Masala Tea greetings from India! EH

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Teachings | Chinese Mahayana Buddhism

Chinese Mahayana Buddhism by Dr Peter Della Santina

Photo by and courtesy of Marvin Moore Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

hen I turn my mind to the theme of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, I find myself at a loss as to know where to begin. Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is so vast, so diverse, and profound, that it hardly seems possible to do it justice in a column of this length. So I suppose the best I can do is to offer up some of my personal impressions of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism to share with my readers. Firstly, I’d like to remind everyone that Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is as old as any form of Mahayana Buddhism. The simple fact that the great Perfection of Wisdom Discourse (Prajnaparamitasutra) was already translated into Chinese in the second century CE. is enough to establish this point. The other important thing to remember about Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is that unlike the Buddhism of almost every other country, with the exception of India, in the case of China, Buddhism was introduced into an immense, highly civilized and sophisticated cultural environment where the indigenous literature, philosophy and religion were already well developed. This meant that Buddhism in China had to compete and compromise with a pre-existing intellectual and cultural reality. This is not to say that in the countries of south-east and central Asia, Buddhism was introduced into a vacuum, but nowhere did it encounter the complexity of deep-seated ancient traditions that it found in China. This has made Chinese Mahayana Buddhism one of the most

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fascinating and marvellous fields for the exploration and admiration of scholars and devotees alike. The first images that come to my mind when I think of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism are those of the intrepid pilgrim Scholars - men like Fa- hsien, Hsuantsang and I-tsing - who braved the terrors of immense deserts, vast oceans, bandits and pirates, heat and cold, to journey to far away India in search of the Holy Dharma. Imagine them traveling for years enduring tremendous hardships in order to finally reach their goal , the holy land (Aryadesha) where they visited the famous places of pilgrimage, like the sites of the Buddha’s birth, His enlightenment and so forth and studied at the great monastic universities such as Nalanda. They were fantastic figures - the stuff of which legends are made. They not only returned to China with great treasures of texts and learning, but also furnished modern scholars with some of the best accounts of the state of Buddhism in the countries of Central and South-east Asia as well as in India itself in those long ago times. Then I think of the wonderful clarity and brilliance of the Ch’an Masters, who with a single sentence or simple gesture were able to sweep away the darkness of ignorance and throw open the door to liberation. Who can ever forget Hui-neng, the illiterate wood chopper who upon hearing a single verse from the Diamond Sutra, threw down his bundle of wood and

Teachings | Chinese Mahayana Buddhism

immediately entered a monastery where he served in the kitchen pounding rice. The Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, incidentally, is the oldest dated printed text in existence today. It was made in the ninth century and predates the Gutenberg Bible by more than five hundred years. But the story of Huineng did not end in the kitchen!

unique and precious. China gained a universal religion, and Buddhism gained one of the greatest of the world’s civilizations. Following the trials and tribulations of imperial decline, colonial infringement and communist dictatorship, we all now look to China to take once again its rightful place as the greatest Mahayana Buddhist civilization in the world.

Not long after entering the monastery, a contest for the succession to the patriarchal robe and bowl of the Ch’an tradition took place. The favourite to succeed was the senior disciple of the fifth patriarch who composed the following verse to establish the level of his understanding: “The body is a bodhi tree, and the mind a mirror bright. Daily, we polish it so that no dust may alight.” Then on the very next day, appeared Hui-neng’s dramatic reply which was to make him the sixth patriarch: “bodhi has nothing to do with trees, nor is the mind a mirror bright. Since from the beginning, everything is empty, where might dust alight?” Surely Hui-neng and those great masters who came before him as well as those who followed after him gave expression to the subtlest and deepest truth of the Mahayana.

Dr. Peter Della Santina, a scholar, teacher and practitioner of Buddhism, was born in USA. He received his B.A. in religion from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA, and MA in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Delhi University.

Then, I think of the warmth and beauty of the Pure Land tradition which promises so much for seemingly so little! Actually, those who denigrate the Pure Land practice and consider it too simple minded and shallow are very much mistaken. The Pure Land practice is a genuine vehicle for achieving liberation and Buddhahood. I can still remember the times I spent in a Chinese Mahayana monastery where every morning I woke to the wonderful sound of the chanting of the name of the Buddha, Amitabha. The sound of the chanting of hundreds of devotees ebbed and flowed like the sound of the ocean and it never failed to lift my heart!

He had spent many years studying and teaching in South and East Asia. He was the Coordinator of the Buddhist Studies project at the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore, a department of the Ministry of Education from 1983 to 1985. More recently, he was a senior fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Simla, India and taught Philosophy at the Fo Kuang Shan Academy of Chinese Buddhism in Kaohshiung, Taiwan. For more than twenty-five years Dr. Santina had been a student of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, leader of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism. He had published several books and articles in academic journals including “Nagarjuna’s Letter to King Gautamiputra” (Delhi 1978 & 1982), “Madhyamaka Schools in India” (Delhi1986) and “Madhyamaka and Modern Western Philosophy” (Philosophy East and West, Hawaii 1986). His widely read book “The Tree of Enlightenment” serves as a basic guide for those new to Buddhism and the Mahayana and Vajrayana Traditions. He passed away suddenly on Saturday October 14, 2006. At the time of his death, he was giving a course in “Mahayana Buddhism” for the International Buddhist College (IBC) oﬀcampus students doing their M.A. in Buddhist Studies at Than Hsiang Temple, Penang. EH

When Buddhism came to China two thousand years ago, both Buddhism and China gained something

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Teachings | Is wealth compatible with religious living?

Is wealth compatible with religious living? by Ven. Dr. M. Vajiragnana Nayaka Thera (1928-2006)

The late Venerable Vajiragnana was head of the London Buddhist Vihara from 1984 until his demise in 2006.During his tenure at the London Buddhist Vihara he was an active proponent of interfaith dialogues. In the UK Honors List in 2006, he was awarded the O.B.E. by the British Government for his contributions to inter-faith activities in UK.

t is sometimes felt that material possessions are an obstacle to spiritual progress. For hundreds, even thousands, of years there have been examples of people from all religious faiths who have renounced the world in order to devote themselves to the spiritual life without the distractions of material possessions. This tension between material progress and spiritual progress is even more keenly felt today as many of us live in an age of unparalleled material prosperity. People living in an industrializised nation are enjoying a higher material standard than ever before, and their entire society is organised in order to maximise economic activity. Consumption is encouraged, regardless of the cost to the individual, society or the environment. The more affluent a society becomes, the greater is the attention paid to the satisfaction of sense desires. Speaking as a Buddhist, however, I do not think it is a question of rejection of material things in order to pursue a spiritual goal; it is a matter of striking the right balance between the two - what Buddhists call the Middle Way. Certainly, spiritual progress is impossible without a certain level of material well-being. Poverty in Buddhism is not a virtue. The Buddha said, “For householders in this world, poverty is suffering.” (A.III.350) and again, “Woeful in the world is poverty and debt.” (A.III.352) He also said that poverty (daliddiya) is the cause of immorality and crimes such as theft, falsehood, violence, hatred and cruelty (Cakkavattisihanada sutta). He explained that it is futile for a king to try to suppress crime by means of punishment. Instead the king should eradicate crime by improving the economic condition of his people. The Buddha said that grain and other facilities for agriculture should be provided for farmers and cultivators; capital should be provided for traders and those engaged in business, and adequate wages should be paid to those who are employed. When people are thus provided for with opportunities to earn a sufficient income, they will be contented, will have no fear or anxiety, and consequently the country will be peaceful and free of crime.

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Teachings | Is wealth compatible with religious living?

Buddhists with the Tzu Chi Group use wealth to set up hospitals in Taiwan.

The purpose of wealth is to facilitate the development of the highest human potential. Wealth is only a means to an end, not an end itself; it creates the conditions under which spiritual progress may flourish. If the creation of wealth is regarded purely as a selfish occupation, then the results will often lead to unhappiness because this activity is self-centred, based only on ideas of “me” and “mine”. We should, however, regard wealth as something to be shared with other people. If human beings could expand their love to all other people, irrespective of their class, colour or creed, rather than confining it to their own people, then they might be able to part with things without expecting anything in return, and experience more satisfaction in doing so. This satisfaction comes not from tanha, a desire to obtain things to make ourselves happy, but from chanda, a desire for the well-being of others. In decisions dealing with every sphere of economic activity, whether it is production, consumption, or the use of technology, we must learn how to distinguish between the two kinds of desire and make our choices wisely. Bearing this in mind, there is nothing wrong with material wealth by itself and the Buddha never prescribed a ceiling on income. Even among Bhikkhus, Buddhist monks well-known for having the fewest of possessions, to be a frequent recipient of offerings was regarded as good kamma. The monk Sivali was praised by the Buddha as foremost among those “who are obtainers of offerings”. Wealth as such is neither praised nor blamed, it is the way it is acquired and the way it is used which are important. Blameworthy qualities are greed, stinginess, grasping, attachment, hoarding. Acquisition is acceptable when it is used for good causes like furthering spiritual progress and helping other people. So the problem with wealth is our attitude towards it. If we devote ourselves entirely to amassing material things, neglecting moral, spiritual and intellectual well-being, then that is not skilful. Material progress should always be accompanied by moral and spiritual progress, otherwise it cannot be considered as true progress. A certain level of economic prosperity is vital for a happy, peaceful society, but this should not be an end in itself, rather it should be a base on which one should build spiritual development. The ethical value of wealth is judged by the ways in which it is obtained, and the uses to which it is put, such as generosity or hoarding. Giving should always be done sympathetically, not exalting the giver above those who are receiving. Speaking to King Pasenadi, the Buddha said

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Teachings | Is wealth compatible with religious living?

Another good use of wealth by Buddhists in Singapore who supported the Ren Ci Buddhist Hospital.

that wealth hoarded by a miser is like a forest pool, clear, cool and fresh with good approaches and a shady setting, but situated in a savage region. Because of fear of the people living there, no one can drink, bathe in or make use of the water. But a wise man uses his wealth for the benefit of his family, friends and for good works for society in general. This wealth is like a forest pool not far from a village or town, with cool, clear, fresh water, good approaches and a shady setting. People can freely drink of that water, carry it away, bathe in it, or use it as they please (S.I. 89-91). A wealthy person who uses his wealth generously is also likened to a fertile field in which rice grows abundantly for the benefit of all. It is perfectly possible for a person to pursue a spiritual life whilst remaining involved in the material world, provided the material world is used skilfully. “Actions, knowledge, qualities, morality and an ideal life; these are the gauges of a being’s purity, not wealth or name.” (M.III.262) The Buddha said that for the layman there are four kinds of happiness that will not interrupt his spiritual progress (A.II.69):The first is the bliss of ownership (atthi sukha) of wealth which has been justly and righteously acquired through honest labour and the sweat of one’s brow. It should also be accompanied by a sense of contentment with what one has. Unless one has this feeling of contentment, amassing wealth is like trying to fill a jar with no bottom. The second kind of happiness is bhoga sukha, the bliss of using or enjoying that wealth, which means spending it liberally on family, friends and charitable deeds. We should not hoard this wealth like a miser, nor should we live beyond our means and overspend extravagantly. The third kind of happiness is anana sukha, the bliss of debtlessness, being able to say “I have no debts” - which is not an easy thing to say in the modern world of credit cards, mortgages and hire purchase! This kind of happiness also means discharging fully all one’s social obligations to one’s family, friends, religion and society. The fourth kind of happiness is anavajja sukha, the bliss of blamelessness, leading a blameless life in body, speech & mind, which means we perform no actions that cause any hurt or harm to any living being. Of these four kinds of happiness, the Buddha said that the first three are not worth one sixteenth of the happiness given by the fourth, i.e. the blameless life. The Buddha was showing us here how wealth and spirituality can go hand in hand.

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Teachings | Is wealth compatible with religious living?

Buddhists – both wealthy and less wealthy – bought a bus for the Ti Ratana Welfare Home in Malaysia.

One of the most generous supporters of the Buddhist order was a merchant called Anathapindika. He was an immensely wealthy man, but this was not a barrier to his spiritual progress - having listened to the preaching of the Buddha, he attained what we call the first stage of sainthood (sotapanna). Anathapindika was a fine example of generosity. He did not hoard his wealth, but shared it gladly with his friends and relatives. On one occasion he visited the monastery of some Brahmin pilgrims, who recognised him as a follower of the Buddha and asked him about the Buddha’s teachings. Anathapindika became involved in a discussion concerning their different views of the world. He gave them such a brilliant discourse that later when the Buddha heard about it, he said that even a monk who had lived one hundred years in the Order would not have been able to speak better to the pilgrims than Anathapindika the householder had done (A.X.93). He is in fact an excellent example of how it is possible to follow the spiritual path while remaining very much in the world. There are many other examples from our tradition of lay people who have reach an enlightened state. The Buddhist path is a gradual path, which allows different people to progress at different speeds according to their understanding and inclinations. One of the Buddha’s chief disciples, Sariputta, said that an aspirant might be living in a forest, but with his mind full of impure thoughts and defilements. Another might be living in a town, but with his mind free from defilements. Of these two aspirants, said Sariputta, the one living a pure life in the town is far greater than the one living in the forest. Certainly there is nothing against renouncing the world and living a life of voluntary poverty, but this is not an essential requirement. For those who do wish to devote themselves more intensively to spiritual practice, there is the path of renunciation of the world. The Buddha taught that sense desire is one of the root causes of all human unhappiness. Desires which are satisfied cause attachment and grasping. Desires which are not satisfied cause frustration and further craving. In order to reduce sense desire to a minimum, the monastic life is designed to reduce material possessions to the essentials. A bhikkhu is allowed a minimum of possessions. The ideal is summarised by a psycho-physical discipline, involving acts of thought, word and deed, to lead a life of perfect purity and retirement from all worldly pursuits motivated by sense desire. The perfect prerequisite for this is pabbajja, which means recluseship. For a monk the best qualities are

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Teachings | Is wealth compatible with religious living?

Wealthy Buddhists in America also donated towards the setting up of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

contentment and few wishes, accompanied by effort and diligence in developing wholesome qualities, such as generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom, and in eradicating unwholesome qualities, such as greed, hatred and delusion, and also in working for the benefit and welfare of oneself and others. “Furthermore, monks, he is content with whatever necessities, be it robes, alms food, shelter or medicines, he obtains. Furthermore, monks, he is continually stirring up effort to eliminate bad qualities, make determined and vigorous progress in good things, and never throwing off his obligations.” (D.III,226,296) Bhikkhus use the least possible amount of material goods. This is partly to avoid overtaxing the community which supports them, and partly to allow them to spend as much time as possible practising and teaching the Buddha’s doctrine. I should like to end by giving you an extensive quotation from one of our scriptures: “Wealth is neither good nor bad, just as life within the world with its sensual joys is neither good nor bad. It depends on the way the wealth is obtained and what is done with it, and in what spirit it is given away. People may acquire wealth unlawfully and spend it selfishly. Either case will not make one truly happy. “Instead one can acquire wealth by lawful means without harming others. One can be cheerful and use the wealth without greed and lust. One can be heedful of the dangers of the attachment to wealth and share the wealth with others to perform good deeds. One can be aware that it is not wealth, nor good deeds, but liberation from craving and selfish desire that is the goal. In this way, this wealth brings joy and happiness. One holds wealth not for oneself but for all beings.” (Anguttara Nikaya) There is ample opportunity here for the wealthy layman to pursue a spiritual path which can be of great benefit, both to himself and to society in general. However, for the renunciant, the Buddha said even greater happiness is possible. “There are, monks, these two forms of happiness. What are the two? The happiness of lay-life and the happiness of renunciation. The nobler of the two forms of happiness, monks, is that of renunciation.” (A.I.80) EH

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BOOKS IN BRIEF Snow Lion Publications, P.O. Box 6483 Ithaca, New York 14851,USA www.snowlionpub.com

Khenchen Thrangu. Pointing out the Dharmakaya. Teachings on the Ninth Karmapa’s Text. 2011. pp 170. US$19.95 This is a commentary on a Mahamudra text by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchung Dorje. Thrangu Rinpoche, in this commentary, explained that successful Mahamudra practice means the ability to get directly at the nature of mind. This easy-to-use practical manual is a remarkably extensive and detailed approach to looking at the mind. It represents the teachings on insight meditation as presented in the tradition of mahamudra, the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings. Together with the teachings of Dzogchen they comprise what is known as the path of liberation. Students will find in this extraordinary set of instructions systematic and comprehensive approaches to ascertaining the mind’s true nature, to checking one’s experience, and to refining and extending one’s insight. Thrangu Rinpoche is an eminent teacher of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and currently tutor to the 17th Karmapa. EH

Anam Thubten. The Magic of Awareness. 2012. pp 146. US$16.95 The author, a Nyingma master, provides us a glimpse into the Buddha’s world of enlightenment in this book. He tells us that enlightenment happens in real life, not inside our minds in the world of concepts. He explains all this to readers in clear, down-to-earth language. His tone is lively, direct, and engaging. There is no aura of higher status to keep people at arm’s length. He references the Buddha and respected Buddhist teachers in order to anchor his teachings in traditional Buddhism, but the overall tone is consistently conversational. His message is simple. Enlightenment can happen at any moment, in any place, to anyone. One can surrender to the beauty of a flower, the happiness of greeting a friend, or the joy of sitting in a park and watching children play. This is a very serious Buddhist text, but it is completely understandable and a joy to read. EH

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind. 2011. pp 233. US$18.95 The book contains a lot of information about how to enter through the three doorways of body, speech and mind. Some of it may not be easy for people new to Tibetan Bön and Buddhism to understand, some of it will be easier. But the message from Tenzin Wangyal is that the doorways to a lighter, more joyful sense of being are always with us. At any given moment, we can use the challenges of daily life as a reminder to connect to the stillness of the body, the silence of the speech, and the spaciousness of the mind. These “three pills” of stillness, silence, and spaciousness are the best medicine one can take for healing pain at all levels of the physical body, energy/emotions, and mind. They are always available to us and best of all are free of charge. EH 71!}!FBTUFSO!IPSJ[PO

BOOKS IN BRIEF Shambhala Publications, Inc 300 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115, USA www.shambhala.com

Jack Kornfield. Teachings of the Buddha. 2012. pp 212. US$14.95 This is a concise compendium of original Buddhist teachings. The selection is varied and covers a wide range of the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources. Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers. The book also includes traditional instruction on how to practice sitting meditation, cultivate calm awareness, and live with compassion. This edition also includes a new preface by Jack Kornfield and offers a broad array of teachings representing the full spectrum of the Buddhist tradition, including new selections on the role of women in early Buddhism. EH

Jack Kornfield. Bringing Home the Dharma. Awakening Right Where You Are. 2011. pp 279. US$24.95. Hardcover The main message of Jack Kornfield’s latest book is that in every area of our lives there is an opportunity to discover and practice sacredness and by engaging in meditation, we learn how to calm our minds and be more mindful, aware, compassionate and open to what is around us. Much of this book speaks to the necessity to practice meditation and awareness as a means to help alleviate us from suffering as well as to stop manifesting this suffering in our world and spreading it outwards to others. An entire chapter is dedicated to “Perils, Promises and Spiritual Emergency on the Path” which is essential reading for anyone engaged with Buddhist practice. Kornfield devotes many pages of the book to the joys and pitfalls of modern-day life in taking on subjects such as dharmic life and politics, conscious parenting, psychotherapy, relationships, sex, celibacy and drugs. EH

Douglas S. Duckworth. Jamgon Mipam. His Life and Teachings. 2011. pp 248 US$24.95 The first part of this book is about Mipam’s life and works. It touches upon some important features of Buddhist traditions in India and Tibet, providing a background for the tapestry of Mipam’s texts and allowing us to better appreciate his contribution. The second part presents an overview of some of the main themes in his works and his interpretation of Buddhism. This includes Mipam’s interpretation of emptiness, a central issue in Buddhist philosophy, and contrasts his interpretation with the positions of some other prominent figures in Tibet. The The last section offers translations excerpted from his Buddhist writings. Each of the excerpts includes a short introduction to frame the context and help us appreciate significant elements of the passage. The selections draw from a wide range of Mipam’s writings to illustrate the eloquent way in which he articulates the key issues that are addressed in the preceding sections. EH FBTUFSO!IPSJ[PO!}!72

BOOKS IN BRIEF Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, CA 94104-2916,USA www.bkconnection.com

Franz Metcalf and BJ Gallagher. Being Buddha at Work. 108 Ancient Truths on Change, Stress, Money, and Success. 2012. Pp 176. US$14.95 This book provides a Buddhist solution to today’s varied problems affecting the modern man. The authors explain how Buddhism has for thousands of years provided a spiritual foundation for the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Metcalf and Gallagher think that the timeless teachings of the Buddha is still relevant today – for both Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. They extract the spiritual wisdom from the Buddha’s words to inspire and instruct us in living a good life. And that’s just as true at work as at home. Buddha mind - a source of calm, compassion, and insight - exists within each of us, not just the historical Buddha. So this book shows how to embody that mind in the stress and clamor of the workplace - how to tap into the Buddha consciousness so we can relieve daily tensions and greet challenges with awareness, equanimity, and good humor. The book is divided into three sections. The first, ‘’Becoming a Mindful Worker,’’ covers Buddha’s wisdom for our own work; the second, ‘’Cultivating Mindful Work Relationships,’’ focuses on how to work with other people; the third, ‘’Creating a Mindful Workplace,’’ deals with broader organizational topics. There is wisdom here for everyone - from frontline workers and team members, to supervisors and managers, to top executives and organizational leaders. EH

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Coming Home Dharma Aftermath

by Rasika Quek

I yearn to go Home, Not a world of dew and dreams, There all struggle ends - an original haiku by Rasika We are basically spiritual beings in a human body. But most of the time, the way we behave seems we are more like physical bodies who just happened to have a spiritual side. This may need some explanation. Although the physical body is just a base for the formless, spiritual (or mind) aspect to manifest its existence in the physical world, we have come to believe that the physical body is more real than our unseen spirit. This is not hard to imagine. When we compare between two objects, say a piece of stone and dew, the stone feels more “real” to us than dew because of its solid “feel” (as evidenced by what we touch) and much longer span of existence (as evidenced by what we see). Meaning that, our experiences will feel more real because of the feeling of solidity as well as their persistence in our field of vision. To put it another way, the element of solidity (earth element) makes us feel that something is more tangible or real than something which we can neither touch nor see. For that reason, we tend to be more attached to the physical form and objects of the senses rather than invisible, formless energies which we can’t touch, see, smell, taste or hear. Because of this attachment, we come to believe that we are more body than spirit (mind). In other words, we have forgotten our real nature and taken a false “self” which is body or form-based. This does not mean that attachment to thinking as self is better than attachment to body as self. Far from that. But our attachment to body as self is much more stronger/pervasive than the attachment to thoughts and feelings as self. That is the reason why some so-called religious people find it difficult to be detached from money, beauty and status symbols that have taken a pseudo form such as prestige, power, pride of caste, etc. If we can continuously remember our intrinsic nature as being formless, we will realize that we are only here temporarily to play a role or “game,” if you like, using the body as an instrument of our will. Why then the need to condemn or attack other bodies who are also mere instruments of the mind? In fact, we are twice removed from truth or reality if we believe that others are more body than spirit (mind) and that we can gain something by condemning or attacking them, thinking an action that brings pain both to the target and doer can satisfy. If we could just allow ourselves to be mindful witnesses of what we perceive rather than reactive respondents, much of our pain and suffering can be avoided. We would realize the utter futility of building expectations and investing emotions around the ephemeral and illusory word of form. Thus, coming Home means I am awake and able to abide free of all attachments and judgments that cause futile struggles and conflicts with others and myself. May all sentient beings come home to their original, pure, luminous and non-individuated Mind. Peace and happiness be with all. EH Rasika Quek 8 April 2012 FBTUFSO!IPSJ[PO!}!74

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Calligraphy Exhibition to RaiseFunds for Puzhao Buddhist Vihara Shian Art Gallery, Sri Petaling, Selangor. March 3, 2011

1 | Welcoming Speech by Dr. Ong See Yew, President of YBAM. 2 | Venerable Chi Chern speaking at the opening of the Exhibition. 3 | Venerable Fa Guang deep in concentration on his calligraphy. 4 | Venerable Chi Chern at his art work. 5 | Venerable Chi Chernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (second from right) art work was auctioned at RM8000 by Venerable Kai Shan (second from left) witnessed by Dr. Ong See Yew, and Chuah Teong Eng, Organizing Chairman of the Exhibition.

6 | Guests, National Council Members of YBAM, and representatives from Buddhist societies in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.