We think we can avoid suffering by being positive about everything but the reality is that everything we are being positive about is impermanent. We have to run around always looking for new things. This is what most of us take life to be all about.
We pre-occupy ourselves searching for pleasant feeling or avoiding unpleasant feeling. Most of our mind, our personal truth, becomes concerned with that. What we do not realise is that the most pleasant feelings we can find, the highest happiness, lies in the discovery of the deepest truths of life. If we realise this then our search for pleasure can become a search for truth, universal truth. And what is this search like? We are not the owners of truth nor the master of truth although we may wish to think so and the truths of our own creation will never match the universal truths. Part of the work of seeing the truth is to relinquish our ambition, our sense of ownership, our sense of self or ego. It is a humble person who realises such truth. And the deepest truth is not hidden but right in front of the eyes of anyone who can see it. While the mind searches for pleasure in the world it will never see the truth because that truth is the truth of suffering. Suffering is over-looked in the search for pleasure and has to come up from below as ‘all that stuff coming up’ all those bothersome feelings that meditators and therapists alike are trying to get rid of. When the mind, even momentarily, ceases looking for pleasure and simply, calmly observes without judgement of any kind then suffering will be seen. Then we will realise that if the mind is peaceful it can see suffering without feeling that suffering – experiencing only compassion. Furthermore, if we can see the suffering and let go then all suffering ceases – there is no less love, we experience an unimaginable bliss and we realise that, on a deeper level, all our suffering was caused by us holding on. After we have let go like this we see that it is craving that makes us grasp and suffer all over again and we will be committed to letting go of craving for good by dedicating ourselves to a spiritual path. I offer this for your reflection, Ajahn Kalyāno https://www.openthesky.co.uk/ --------------------------------------------- This is part one of a series of two articles on Ch'i Kung. 1. Buddhist Ch'i Kung - The practical side 2. Stillness in Movement - The meditative side --------------------------------------------- Introduction The Taoists believe that ch'i is the ultimate energy from which the entire universe and the essence of all life is derived – beyond the limits of time and space. The stronger the flow of ch'i, the stronger the life energy. This ch'i is something that is experienced in the body as warmth or inner light, the latter being the stronger. There is a clear relationship in such experience between ch'i and space. They seem to appear together in the mind, a sense of space has a certain energy about it. The Chinese believe that because there is ch'i so there is space, space is formed by and subsequently filled by ch'i. A Buddhist view of the same phenomena would be that because there is space (in the mind) there is ch'i. In Buddhist understanding this kind of energy is related to samādhi, emptiness of mind. It is a mental rather than a physical phenomena, or at least it is related to thought and feeling. (Although the Buddhist view of the mind is that it is far greater than just these.) Emptiness, as the absence of negative emotion, is already a healing force. This is important because we then realise that our state of mind is a crucial factor in the generation of or protection of ch'i and we see the value of keeping moral precepts to protect our minds. My understanding of an example from history of the result of the dialogue that ensued between these two views is that a 'mind only' school of Taoist philosophy was born that acknowledged the Buddhist view. (For my take on this 'mind only' view and its connection with the Buddha's teaching see my accompanying article 'The Creation'), but if you are intent on the practice, as you should be if you are starting out, please continue and come back to the metaphysics when your practice shows results that you need to integrate into your world view. Stances The static stances in Ch'i Kung are our chance to connect with the stillness of the space element. Holding a ball of awareness in front of us, contained within the arms is where we first become aware of an awareness outside of the body – a brightness to the space. Static stances are also a way of enhancing our awareness of movement. We hold a position until the strength muscles of the body fatigue out and the postural muscles take over. These deeper muscles have a much more refined control over or limbs than the strength muscles. In particular they control the fine rotational movements at the joints. These rotational patterns of movement furthermore work to enhance our three dimensional image of the body in space, aiding the formation of a picture of the body in the mind. We also find we can move in a much more relaxed way in which tension is not induced. There is a sense of effort when we move with the strength muscles, but there is no such sense when the postural muscles are working. Hence it is possible to keep the body upright with absolutely no sense of effort whatsoever, as though our limbs are floating. Balance and posture Normal movement is usually also controlled outside our conscious control. An intention is set to move and the body is directed at its goal. The goal is the conscious aspect and our sense for the body is merely background and feedback as to progress. So the conscious control of movement is unusual. Even people with refined bodily skills can lack body awareness. This is developed far more in movement where there is no goal in mind – slow, relaxed movement. Attention is directed towards the body using the hands. When the hand passes over certain parts of the body there can be a sense of recognition, a feeling that tells us that the hand is there, stronger when the hand is close, weaker when it is further away. Then, as we move we can keep that feeling of connection between the hand and that point. We can ask ourselves, 'how does my body know where my hand is'. The most important points are the point just below the navel and the point in the middle of the chest. These are the centre of gravity of the whole body – standing; and the upper part of the body – sitting, respectively. As we become more aware of these points as we move, then we become aware of gravity and have an enhanced sense of balance and posture – and an enhanced proprioceptive sense. It is hard to describe the sense of the body in space; we just know where our limbs are. Actually we do have little receptors in our joints that tell our minds the exact angle at each joint. So this proprioceptive sense is not through a conscious sensation but comes to us in another way which is independent of physical sensations. This makes it an integral part of our body image. There is a connection here also with awareness of the breathing process. Similar receptors tell us of the movements of our chest and therefore the size of the breath we take. In the Buddha's teaching on mindfulness of breathing, the word used to know whether we take a long or short breath (pajānāti) is a word usually reserved for the knowing of high realisation, not of such mundane affairs. I believe the use of this word is to indicate the importance of this knowing for realisation – that knowing the body in this way is knowing the Dhamma, the Dhamma is the body, or more precisely the body image formed through mindfulness. The body image arises in the mind when the effort is not too tight or too loose. Our awareness needs to be relaxed and open yet held to stay with its object. Then we find a part of the body to focus on in more detail. When one part reveals itself in detail then the rest will tend to come. So there is no need to try to imagine the whole body. In fact imagination is not necessary at all. An image will arise naturally in time. (Moreover, unless samādhi is highly developed, the body image will be just a mental image of the surface of the body. This is fine however.) Fully developed mindfulness of the body As we develop a sense of the weight of the body or its 'earth element' we discover the interesting fact that this sense of weight varies – as we become aware of the space element the weight lightens and can even disappear altogether. We feel extraordinarily light. Now we begin to see how subjective our experience of the body is, we are shifting the objective physical impression of it. Gradually this new impression becomes an image in the mind. Instead of sensing our mind in our body we have made a shift to experiencing the body in the open, calm mind. In the Buddha's teaching the theory is that mindfulness of the body, a full realistic body image comes around through the awareness of posture, movement and elements. Modern cognitive psychology shows us that such a body image is different, a more discrete image than that formed by sensations. So in the mind these two representations of the body are separate and can be experienced separately at different times. What is perhaps surprising is that experience of the neutral image is far more pleasant than the felt experience. The image effects our feelings radically, cooling them down. This is also surprisingly pleasant and we can begin to lose our taste for the more intense feelings of sensuality. Hence these exercises take us naturally in a spiritual direction. The breath and movement of ch'i The pattern of the movement of ch'i is the pattern in which the space element is revealed through mindfulness of breathing, the space being the stillness through which the air is moving. We will only see or sense this pattern going in a particular direction, not another. It is in the reverse direction to the pattern of the feeling of the breath itself. This is something we open up to – it is not a matter of creating this with the imagination. We can be deceived by the imagination. In the Chinese practice, initially the mind leads the energy but through repetition then the energy leads. But it is merely that the memory starts to lead and the mind in the present follows to reinforce that memory. This creates the illusion of something real that we follow. This is a fake. At best we can be looking for something that others have seen in their body through deep meditation and if we don't find it we are creating what we do not find. This is akin to superstition and imagination replacing genuine psychic ability. We can also see in our experience that the emptiness of the mind can be extended beyond the body. We can see the brightness of mind move out from the body as we direct it there. We can leave this as a mystery for now and come back to explain this later. This emptiness can therefore potentially resolve problems in others. So, if we are looking for magic it lies in this emptiness. This magic is a separate reality from that of the things of nature, just as space is separate from form, so it does not confuse things – and magic and science can go together, they do not contradict each other. The practice of samādhi empties the mind and fully accesses this magic. I offer this for your reflection, Ajahn Kalyāno http://www.openthesky.co.uk/ --------------------------------------------- This is part one of a series of two articles on Ch'i Kung. 1. Buddhist Ch'i Kung - The practical side 2. Stillness in Movement - The meditative side --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- This is part two of a series of two articles on Ch'i Kung. 1. Buddhist Ch'i Kung - The practical side 2. Stillness in Movement - The meditative side --------------------------------------------- What you are currently reading is a simplified adaption of the introduction to Ajahn Kalyāno’s forthcoming book Realistic Virtue. The essence of it is the influence mindfulness established on the body exercises on our relationship with our thoughts and feelings. *** It is possible through meditation to unify our experience of life, of our mind and body and the world we live in completely within an open awareness, a sense of space. Within this space it is then possible for the different elements of our experience, the body, thoughts and feelings to find their natural place and dynamic: The essence of the mind can step back and find its centre in the body, thus we find a safe refuge. The content of our minds, thoughts and emotions appear in front of the body becoming a clear medium through which we experience the world. Physical feeling and mental or emotional feeling thus separate. We see movement within the stillness of space and we can stay with the space. Our inner world, which we realise was a product of our relation to the outer world, goes back to its source leaving the inner mind empty and bright. We do not identify with any particular part of the experience. Our experience becomes simply one of open ‘awareness’ in which all phenomena, real objects and also mind-made objects, thought and feelings, come together and yet are not confused with each other. We see the movements of our minds within this space, as well as the content. Let us represent this space, this field of information, like this, mapping it onto our subjective experience. As we centre the mind within the body we look out at the world through the window of our thoughts and their formative perceptions that are the central axis of the mind. We thus also see clearly and separately what we are projecting on to the world and what information comes back to us – the cause and effect of our mental activity. This can become a conscious process as we place our states of mind back into or onto the world of their origin. Then, very simply, we can be honestly asking: “What is it I am averse to here?” “What is it I am attracted to?” From a place of spiritual refuge our minds can take a fresh look. We can end up reviewing the priorities of our lives and at the same time see how and where to follow these priorities – a clear experience of body and mind taking us to a clear present-moment view of the world we live in and our relationship to it. We have a clear, broad, open and unified awareness of life. Finally to put all this in its ultimate perspective the highest spirituality lies in relinquishing ourselves rather than in self development. It is the happiness of the altruist. It is also the happiness of the wise who, seeing clearly, are freed from their attachment to the impermanent, conditioned world including this illusion we call ourselves. Ultimately this path goes beyond all kinds of being to the realisation of a state of pure truth or knowing. So the true path lies not in a refinement of being (not even in being energy rather than matter) but in a refinement of knowing and seeing which covers all aspects of our experience. The refinement of our minds through meditation is aimed at this. I offer this for your reflection, Ajahn Kalyāno https://www.openthesky.co.uk ------------------------------
For an example of my personal experience of the practice of stillness in movement as Chi Kung, please see pages 14-15 of the book Virtue and Reality. --------------------------------------------- This is part two of a series of two articles on Ch'i Kung. 1. Buddhist Ch'i Kung - The practical side 2. Stillness in Movement - The meditative side --------------------------------------------- In seeking both our own well being and that of the world we live in it is not just what we do that is important but how we do it, both in terms of our outer behaviour and how we work with the mind. If our personal relationship to the world is based on desire there will always be potential conflict. If this relationship is based on a higher mindfulness, conflicts can be avoided. We can have the same benevolent intention either way but one way will be fraught with suffering and the other free of suffering.
In Buddhism virtue is based on letting go of desire. We follow the conscious, peaceful mind in the present, not the automatic pilot of desire. We discover the joy of letting go of our desires and following our mindfulness, our spiritual awareness. This is based on the fact that if we honestly observe our own minds we discover that our desires are essentially insatiable. The impermanence of the pleasures of the senses always ultimately frustrates our desire. We also realise that our desires, in the spur of the moment, cannot see that impermanence. This makes desire itself unpleasant and we naturally opt for calm, for peace and for freedom from desire. This, we further discover, can be very liberating. We realise how our desires have been enslaving us all along. If we can thus let go of our desires and enjoy the peace and freedom that ensues it becomes a joyous thing to live humbly and frugally in harmony with nature and have no conflict with other people. There seems to be a growing acceptance of the fact that the earth is beginning to struggle to accommodate the needs – or, lets be honest – the outright greed of modern man. We can then, perhaps, ask such questions as:
1. What can be done to cure the greed that could lead to humanity's destruction? The overcoming of greed is a central theme in the teaching and practice of Buddhism which is thankfully beginning to find a stronger voice. We are trying to promote a more interdependent view of the world that generates empathy. What we can add to this is firstly that spiritual pleasures, meditation for example, are very eco-friendly; secondly we can give more emphasis to the value of disciplined conduct on the part of the individual. The practical value of this is, of course, recognised, but the power of such discipline to deeply change our relationship to nature is often underestimated. I lived in the tropical forest for years, not permitted by my monk's discipline to kill insects. Over time this transformed my relationship to the ants and mosquitoes that were a constant pest – and consequently to the whole environment into one of harmless communion. 2. What about the helpless anger or despair of the sufferers of this greed? Are there, for example, hidden causes here for the apparent increase in delinquency amongst young people? Or are my eyes on the world just getting too old and sensible? I believe that Buddhism as a source of faith and as a deep psychology can help us understand and manage the emotions related to death or impermanence. It is surely these emotions that turn us away from facing the issues. In Buddhism we teach people both the wisdom to let go of attachment to things and the compassion to stay with those things, hence winning a lighter and more caring touch on life: Recently we had someone come to the monastery to commemorate the recent death of their favourite Aunt. When the ceremony was all over they were trying to talk to the monks but their little girl would not settle. An elderly lady friend of ours in the room was pointed out and recommended as her new Aunt, saying, “there are lots of them in the world.” 3. What if the planet cannot be saved? Then where are we to find hope? We can perhaps see for the first time in the current context how humanity up until now found this in ‘the new generation’. Then what if there were to be no more mankind? Perhaps we find hope in the preservation of human knowledge – the computer chip blasted into space? Yet so much of this knowledge surely concerns and is hence based upon, the earth that may be lost. The earth that one day, however long in the future, must be lost. To me our greatest if not our only eternal hope is the Dhamma. Dhamma is a source of universal truth. If we can see the full potential Dhamma as it really is, as a part of nature that can never be destroyed, we can have hope. We have a new purpose in life promoting this understanding, this faith in ourselves and in others. If we get this right this is in no way a negation of the transitory aspects of nature. It is rather seeing the Dhamma as the highest expression of nature, its highest evolution – the way that an aspect of nature, one that I believe can be formative, can truly find a permanent basis. I would argue that the enlightened mind, free of limitation in time and place, is capable of reaching back out to the universe, so to speak, from its refuge in the beyond. I think it is possible to argue, based both on philosophy and the experience of deep meditation, that this can be true. This is not a such a simple matter, however. We need to find a number of ways, philosophical and meditative, through which we free up the mind from its material constraints. I have tried to tackle this in the recent book 'Virtue and Reality'. Just to try to give you a taste, to quote from Gregory Bateson: “...a miracle is a materialists idea of how to escape from materialism... the reply to crude materialism is not miracles but beauty.” - Mind and Nature To learn how to understand like in this quote can also be to see like this and to find a new depth of appreciation for nature. This is to see with the quality of 'muditā' (sympathetic joy) at nature's achievement. If we can find faith in all this as a possibility, we have a hope in those enlightened already and those to come as being able to take human consciousness forward beyond its material constraints. We see the Earth is the perfect training ground for the mind striving for enlightenment and therefore we do whatever we can to preserve it. Having a few more enlightened beings in the world already will also certainly help to preserve the Earth. Interestingly, many Thai Buddhists believe that while there are enlightened beings on the Earth, the Devas (heavenly beings) will protect it from destruction. This is inspiring but I hope such beliefs don't take the place of ecological responsibility on the human level! To sum up, in addressing these three questions I hope we have done something to tackle the human greed, hatred and delusion respectively that are both at the source of the ecological crisis and are the results of it; they are indeed the forces behind this destructive cycle as a whole, as they are behind all other suffering. How do we fit together the different strands of the Buddhist attitude toward nature? On one hand there is the truth of interconnectedness, an attitude of respect and harmlessness; and on the other hand a goal of transcendence, to escape from the suffering of samsara. Surely, we might think, one is positive and the other negative? Are they reconcilable?
Let us take the tragic yet also ultimately liberating truth of the impermanence of all things as the central view of Buddhism and look from there. First of all we can understand that it is a positive, loving view of the world that sees impermanence as a tragedy. A negative view of the world would see impermanence as a good thing, good riddance. Have we been too quick to assume that a negative view of samsara is a negative view of the world? Secondly, have we too quickly made the mistaken assumption that liberation comes about through having a negative view and trying to get away? Liberation does not come about like this at all. There is no place for negativity in the search for transcendence. The Buddha describes trying to get away like this (through 'vibhava-tanha') as like a dog tied to a pole trying to get away by running round and round it. This is not the way. We cannot escape through desire. Liberation comes not through trying to withdraw from this world but through examining it clearly and completely with a peaceful, open mind and penetrating it to its very core. The natural result of this will be to let go and find freedom from attachment and suffering, not somewhere else or at some time in the future but right here and now. To be capable of this the heart must not only have the wisdom to see suffering clearly but also the compassion to see suffering and stay put. The real purpose of Buddhists withdrawing into nature is not to try to get away from it all but precisely this kind of examination. The deepest truth is to be found in our relationship to nature and to our bodies that are part of nature. The only true way out is to truly enter in, with open and compassionate eyes. If this is our understanding and our practice there is no contradiction between our love of nature and our search for freedom. Freedom will be the essence of all things. Buddhism offers us the hope of finding a safe refuge beyond the body in the blissful emptiness of the mind through letting go. Thus to a Buddhist who has faith the response to the possible end of the world or to the end of our lives is the same. Meditate and practice Dhamma before its too late! For those with less faith in a possibility of life after death but faith enough to meditate, the same practice can still win the refuge of a source of peace and stability of mind through difficult times.
Our first refuge will be the natural mindfulness that comes from virtue, from a lack of remorse that takes the mind into the past and a letting go of the desire that pulls the mind into the future. This path of faith culminates in samādhi that seems a bit like finding a way within our minds to blast off into space! Yet where will we end up? Do we know? And what about the world? If we add wisdom to such faith we realise that we can find a safe space, a deeper refuge within the world. If the world survives or ends we can we stay right where we are, within the empty mind. Then we know where we will end up. We will end up right here. We can get to know this emptiness here and now and find that it is naturally full of spiritual qualities. We find out how this emptiness relates to any phenomenon that comes within it in a way that it remains empty and free. We learn how to relate to all the movement of the world and remain still, at peace, secure. Then, here in this down to earth spirituality, compassion also flowers and the practice becomes wider, not just about meditation. Then wisdom takes us to the highest refuge. This is the wisdom that sees the impermanence of all things and lets go. The mind that lets go like this is then not withdrawn but detached, the mind is in the world but not of the world. And yet to see and let go completely the mind must be able to look on from a secure refuge. Building such a refuge is therefore our task. During this last spell of unusually hot weather has been the first time people have expressed to me their personal fears of global warming. In my forty years as a Buddhist I had been involved in many political or ideological discussions before with the strong connections between Buddhism and green politics in the Western world but I have never seen such simple, raw fear. I can hope that this is a sign that people are beginning to wake up and that there may be a renewed vigour in the green movement, personal and political. As a Buddhist I find new resolve to set a good example in terms of frugal living and clear lobbying, to do my best and then have to accept whatever happens, happens.
Also I can hope to be able to offer some guidance to others on how to work with the mind through this crisis. As in all other areas of life we are making our own personal karma one way or the other through our own behaviour. Thus if we can remain present and centred then this will be the main source of karmic results within the mind. If we behave well we can live with a clear conscience. Physically, however, we may still have to bear with the crisis, with the collective karma of mankind. We will need to work with ourselves in order to accept this. We will need to continue to see ourselves as part of the mankind that has caused the crisis and not separate ourselves from it. The ideal in terms of our relationship to the world as I see it is to find the compassion not to withdraw, to keep a humble, frugal voice alive in the world, and to have the wisdom not to attach to the world. With wisdom we can understand that we can survive when the truth that is the real essence of our minds can survive. This can be our Refuge in Dhamma. With wisdom we can then reflect that the survival of the group, the culture, is more important than that of the individual, this is the first letting go. This is our Refuge in Sangha. To let go of attachment to the body we can ultimately also discover a higher happiness and freedom than any worldly happiness. This can be our Refuge in the Buddha. As a monk these Refuges are what I am striving for, within the world and beyond it, for myself and for others. More articles on this theme will follow. In the meantime let’s pray for rain. What I mean by contemplation is a kind of enquiry that draws meaning out of things, seeing things the way they really are, rather than adding meaning, whether in terms of our personal feelings or ideals. We can all at times value art, philosophy or poetry but what potential do these things really have to lastingly change our lives? I would suggest that when used for truly deep contemplation they can transform us completely. Perhaps some would agree that such contemplation is transformative but even within contemplative circles how well is this process of transformation understood?
The Buddha gives us a model for understanding both the nature and method of contemplation and explains the process of transformation, what it is and how it works. Then, of course the Buddha has a particular goal in mind. Yet we do not have to be seeking the same goal to enquire in the same way. All we do is meditate to make the mind peaceful and take another look at life with a calmer, emptier mind in order to really take it in rather than imposing all our ideas on the world. As we do this then we can see what we are doing and the result for ourselves. The mind can become happier and calmer still. We can then also compare what we see with what the Buddha describes having seen or not, as we wish. Then how we understand and express the results of our contemplation can become very important. Mastering all this can then help not only ourselves but also others. Contemplation can lead us all in a happy direction or it is possible for it to become another source of ideals or feelings that do not make us feel happy or free. It is then the further art of aesthetics, becoming aware of how we are looking, opening up to and appreciating things in different ways that can be developed to guide us. This art is more implicit than explicit in the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha simply paints a beautiful picture of the spiritual life. A sense of beauty that is based on truth and frees us rather than binds us. The presence of the Buddha and his disciples undoubtedly added to this. In the present day we may need to paint another kind of picture to inspire the mind. Perception is the primary force in the mind. To gain control over this and take it in a good direction is what can take us to peace and liberation. The Western spiritual tradition is very rich in its creative art and intellectual expression. These skills seem to be a strength in the Western mind. I believe that the Buddha’s teaching can help us harness these skills into a genuine spiritual vehicle. Otherwise, as history shows us, these powerful skills can also be destructive. The method used in teaching Dhamma is for the listener to meditate and to empty the mind so that the teacher's words can enter fully. The teaching can then have an immediate impact on the listener, taking their mind deeper. If we recognise this as the method then when this direct effect is not happening we will be wondering why. We can be comparing our experience with that of the speaker in order to understand their message in a more indirect, analytical way.
We can be thinking, for example, "This teacher is emphasising concentration. This is difficult for me right now. I will try to remember his advice when I go out into the country at the weekend." |
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