WAT PASANTIDHAMMA (Satipatthana Peace Center) 14289 Chapman’s Lane Carrollton, VA 23314 NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S.POSTAGE PAID CARROLLTON, VA PERMIT NO.2 Return service requested News for and about friend of the Satipatthana Peace Center August 2011 สันติธรรม Santidhamma News ขอเชิญพุทธศาสนิกชนร่วมบริจาคสมทบทุนสร้างศาลารวมใจ เพื่อใช้เป็นห้องสมุดพระพุทธศาสนาและสถานที่ศึกษาปฏิบัติธรรม ขอเชิญร่วมทำ�บุญ วันกตัญญูรู้พระคุณแม่ 14 ส.ค. 2554 ขอเชิญร่วม ทำ�บุญวันกตัญ ญูรู ้พระคุณแม่ Mother's Day Ceremony วันอาทิตย์ที ่ 14 สิงหาคม 2554/Sunday August 14, 2011 Attention: Subscriber if you are moving, please forward your new address to Wat Pasantidhamma Mother's Day
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day
WA
T
PA
SA
NT
IDH
AM
MA
(Sat
ipat
than
a Pe
ace
Cen
ter)
1428
9 C
hapm
an’s
Lan
eC
arro
llton
, VA
233
14
NO
N-P
RO
FIT
OR
G.
U.S
.PO
STA
GE
PAID
CA
RR
OLL
TON
, VA
PER
MIT
NO
.2
Ret
urn
serv
ice
requ
este
d
News for and about friend ofthe Satipatthana Peace Center
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 3 4
Calm and Insight What do we meditate on ? How do we develop insight ? This is a very important question. There are two kinds of meditation: meditating to develop calm and meditating to develop insight. Meditating on the ten devices only gives rise to calm, not insight. Meditating on the ten foul things(a swol-len corpse, for example), too, only gives rise to calm, not insight. The ten recollections, like remembering the Buddha, the Law and others, too, can develop calm and not insight. Meditating on the thirty-two parts of the body: like hair, nails, teeth, skin, etc. too do not lead to insight. They develop only concentration. Mindfulness as to respiration also develops concentration. But one can develop insight from it. Visuddhi Magga, however, includes it in the concentration subjects and so we will call it as such here. Then there are the four divine states: love, pity, sympathetic joy and equanimity, and the formless states leading to formless jhanas. Then, there is the meditation on the loathsomeness of food. All these are subjects for concentration-meditation. When you meditate on the four elements inside your body, it is called the analysis of the four elements. Although this is a concentration meditation, it helps develop insight as well. All these forthy subjects of meditation are subjects for develop-ing concentration. Only respiration and analysis of elements have to do with insight. The others will not give rise to insight. If you want insight, you will have to work further. To come back to our question: how do we develop insight? the answer is: we develop insight by meditating on the five aggregates of grasping. The mental and material qualities inside beings are aggregates of grasping. They may be grasped with delight by craving in which case it is called "grasping of the sense-objects"; or they may be grasped wrongly by wrong views in which case it is called "grasping through wrong views". You have to meditate on them and see them as they really
are. If you don't, you will grasp them with craving and wrong views. Once you see them as they are, you no longer grasp them. In this way you develop insight. We will discusss the five aggregates of grasping in de-tail.
Aggregates The five aggre-gates of grasping are matter or form, feel-ings, perception, vo-litional activities and consciouness. What are they? They are the things you experience all the time. You do not have to go anywhere else to find them. They are in you. When you see, they are there in the seeing. When you hear, they are there in the hearing. When you smell, taste, touch, or think, they are there in the smelling, tasting, touching or thinking. When you bend, stretch or move your limbs, the aggregates are there in the bend-ing, stretching or moving. Only you do not know them to be aggregates. It is because you have not meditated on them and so do not know them as they really are. Not knowing them as they are, you grasp them with craving and wrong view. What happens when you bend? It begins with the intention to bend. Then come the forms of bending one by one. Now in the intention to bend there are the four mental aggregates. The mind that intends to bend is the consciousness. When you think of bending and then bend, you may feel happy, or unhappy, or neither happy nor unhappy, doing so. If you bend with happiness, there is pleasant feeling. If you bend with unhappiness or anger, there is unpleasant feeling. If you ben with neither happiness nor unhappiness, there is neutral feeling. So, When you think of bending, there is the 'feeling' aggregate. Then, there is perception, the aggregate that recognizes the bending. Then, there is the mental state that urges you to bend. It seems as though it is saying "Bend! Bend!" It is
สล รกเขยย เมธาว นกปราชญพงรกษาศล
FUNDAMENTALS OF VIPASSANA MEDITATIONMAHASISAYADAW
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 5 6
the volitional activity. Thus, in the intention to bend, you have feelings, perception, volitional activities and consciousness - all four mental ag-gregates. The movement of bending is matter or form. It is the material aggregate. So, the intention to bend and the bending together make up the five aggregates. Thus, in one bending of the arm, there are the five aggregates. You move once and the five aggregates come up. You move again and there are more of the five aggregates. Every move calls up the five ag-gregates. If you have not meditated on them rightly and have not known them rightly, what happens we need not tell you. You know for your-selves. Well, you think " I intend to bend" and "I bend", didn't you ? Everybody does. Ask the children, they will give the same answer. Ask adults who can't read and write, you get the same answer. Ask someone who can read, you will still get the same answer if he will say what he has in his mind. But, because he is well-read, he may invent answers to suit the scriptures and say "Mind and matter". It is not what he knows for himself; only inventions to suit the scriptures. In his heart of hearts he is thinking: "It is I who intend to bend. It is I who bend. It is I who intend to move. It is I who move.." He also thinks: "This I have been before, am now and will be in the future. I exist for ever." This thinking is called the notion of permanence. Nobody thinks, "This inten-tion to bend exists only now." Ordinary people always think, "This mind existed before. The same I that have existed before am now thinking of bending." They also think, "This thinking I exist now and will go on existing." When you bend or move the limbs, you think: "It is the same limbs that have existed that are moving now. It is the same I that have existed that am moving now." After moving you again think, "These
limbs, this I, always exist." It never occurs to you that they pass away. This, too, is the notion of permanence. It is clinging to what is imper-manent as permanent, clinging to what is not personality, not ego, as personality, as ego. Then, as you have bent or stretched to your desire, you think it is very nice. For example, as you feel stiffness in the arm, you move or rearrange it and the stiffness is gone. You feel comfortable. You think it is very nice. You think it is happiness. Dancers and amateur dancers bend and stretch as they dance and think it is very nice to do so. They delight in it and are pleased with themselves. When you converse among yourselves you often shake your hands and heads and are pleased. You think it is happiness. when something you are doing meets with suc-cess, again you think it is good, it is happiness. This is how you delight through craving and cling to things. What is impermanent you take to be permanent and delight in it. What is not happiness, not personality, but just aggregates of mind and matter, you take to be happiness, or personality and delight in it. You delight in them and cling to them. You mistake them for self or ego and cling to them, too. So, When you bend, stretch or move your limbs, the thinking "I will bend" is the aggregate of grasping. The bending is the aggregate of grasping. The thinking "I wil stretch" is the aggregate of grasping. The stretching is the aggregate of grasping. The thinking "I will move" is the aggregate of grasping. The moving is the aggregate of grasping. When we speak of aggregate of grasping to be meditated on, we mean just these things.
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 7 8
We contemplate happiness and unhappiness as uncertain and imperma-nent and understand that all the various feelings are not lasting and not to be clung to. We see things in this way because there is wisdom. We understand that things are this way according to their own nature.
If we have this kind of understanding, it's like taking hold of one strand of a rope which makes a knot. If we pull it in the right direction, the knot will loosen and begin to untangle. It'll no longer be so tight and tense.
This is similar to understanding that things don't always have to be the way they've always been. Before, we felt that things always had to be a certain way and, in so doing, we pulled the knot tighter and tighter. This tightness is suffering. Living that way is very tense. So we loosen the knot a litle and relax. Why do we loosen it? Because it's tight! If we don't cling to it, then we can loosen it. It's not a condition that must always be that way.
We use the teaching of impermanence as our basis. We see that both happiness and unhappiness are not permanent. We see them as not de-pendable. There is absolutely nothing that's permanent. With this kind of understanding, we gradually stop believing in the various moods and feelings which come up in the mind. Wrong understanding will decrease to the same degree that we stop believing in it. This is what is meant by undoing the knot. It continues to become looser. Attachment will be gradually uprooted.
มแสนคำาลานคำารำาพนถง ลวนตราตรงคนงในฤทยมน
นบแสนภาพลานภาพทราบผกพน ทสรางสรรนำาเสนอเสมอมา
ภาพความรกความเมตตาอาทรจต คอชวตแทจรงสงทรงคา
ไรจรตปราศเงอนไขไรมายา ไมกำาหนดเวลาแมเปลยนแปลง
มตองเปนดาราเจาบทบาท ไมวางมาดหนากลองจงสองแสง
ไมตองมกำากบการแสดง รกของแมแจมแจงอยเตมตา
ทกมมมองผองมนษยสดทงโลก ประสบโชคชนสขแสนหรรษา
สมบรณดวยดวงจตของมารดา ทวโลกหลาจงสดสวยไปดวยกน
ใหกำาเนดชวตสทธผล สรางผคนขนมาเตมคาฝน
ธรรมชาตสบสานผานเผาพนธ แมมอนนผสรางโลกโชคทว
เฝาถนอมเลยงดอยมหาง สอนแนวทางผด-ถกตามวถ
ดำาเนนตามครรลองของคนด จงเปนทเรยกหา"บพพาจารย"
รกมเคยจางคลายจากใจแม นบวนแตเตมวนทผนผาน
จะวนนวนหนาหรอวนวาน แมกอเกอเจอจานเตมหวใจ
ลกจะดหรอรายในสายตา ถกประนามหยามหนาจะหาไหน
หรอเปนสงฆทรงธรรมอาอำาไพ ความหวงใยรกเมตตาคาเทาเทยม
จงควรคาเคารพนบบชา ดงศรทธาปลกไวใหเตมเปยม
สลกตรงลงจตสนทเนยม ผลอนเยยมกตญญชพระคณ
เปนเกราะปองกนภยในทกทศ บญฤทธแหงมารดามาเกอหนน
ใหรมเยนสขใจใตรมบญ สบกองทนเบองตนของคนดฯ
ประทาย นาวงทอง
พรรษากาล ๕๔
KNOTA TREE IN A FOREST
AJAHN CHAH
"ภาพชนตา"ถอยธรรมคำากว
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 9 10
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 17 18
"SALA RUAM JAI" (MULTI PURPOSE BUILDING) TO HONOR LUANGTA CHI 84 YEARSOur congregation desire to build the building. This will be serve as: . Place for Buddhist Study . Place for religious functions . Place for cultural center . Also class room You can give a general donation or donate specifi cally for any item on the opposite. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
When sensei Ken first asked me to speak today I got really nervous and told him, "no." It wasn’t that I was so anxious about speaking in pub-lic. I had done that before. I was anxious about the topic, "Moth-ers Day." I didn’t have the "Leave it to Beaver," "Ozzie and Harriet," or "Brady Bunch" kind of childhood you see on TV, so I thought, what am I going to say about Mother’s Day? But then I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that television caricatures are not what Mother's Day is really all about, so I changed my mind and said, "Yes." My favorite story about a mother is from Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. The story is about a little girl named Claudia who is growing up in the same small Ohio town Toni Morrison grew up in. I’m guessing some of it is autobiographical. Claudia’s mother scolds her a lot and is really pretty harsh. One day Claudia comes home coughing, with a cold, and her mother yells at her for not having worn something on her head and tells her "you must be the biggest fool in this town." She then sends Claudia to bed. After some time passes, her mother comes and rubs Vicks, a kind of a balm, all over Claudia’s chest and ties flannel rags around her neck and covers her with thick quilts and tells her to sweat. Claudia does. Later that night Claudia throws up on the quilts and her mother gets angry again. She tells her, "What did you puke on the bed clothes for? Don’t you have sense enough to hold your head out of the bed? Now, look what you did. You think I got time for nothing but washing up your puke?" Claudia falls asleep crying and feeling guilty that she
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day
ปญญา นตถ อฌายโต ปญญาไมมแกผไมพนจพจารณา
23 24
สากจฉาย ปญญา เวทตพพา ผมปญญา พงรไดดวยการสนทนา
got sick. But later that night when she coughs, she hears her mother walk in. Her mother’s hands readjust the rags around her neck, and the quilt, and she rests one hand on her forehead to check for fever. Claudia feels her mother’s concern. And later when she remembers that time, she re-members someone with hands who did not want her to die. That knowledge that someone cares about your life, that they do not want you to die, is a powerful thing and is expressed by mothers in many ways. The feeling of love Claudia got from her mother was not from her mother’s words, but from her mother’s hands. I think that might be true for many of us. I know it was true for me. The love I felt from my mother didn’t come so much from her words, but from her hands. When I think about warm times with my mother, I think about what she did, not what she said, and in some ways that may be more important. Like Claudia I can remember my mother scolding me. I remem-ber coming home once bleeding because I cut my hand at a construction site I was playing at. My mom yelled at me! It felt so unfair at the time. I was hurt, and bleeding, and she was yelling at me. But importantly, she also bandaged my hand, and I know now that her anger, like Claudia’s mother’s, came from her fear, her fear that I was in danger and that I would be again if she didn’t try to stop it. Still, that is not all I remember about my mother. I remember my mother sewing my clothes and how important that was for me. It was the late sixties and sewn up and patched jeans were the style. This turned out to be a lucky break for me because I would have to wear them anyway, style or not. I remember standing by the sewing machine and watching my mother patch my jeans with such skill and care that I was proud. I remember feeling so fortunate to have a mother like that, a mother who cared about me enough to sew my pants with such skill and precision. I also remember my mother making me food. I remember being in the kitchen and watching her bake banana bread. She used to bake it in empty soup cans that she carefully placed in the oven. I loved that bread. It smelled wonderful, and when my mother baked it, I use to feel like she baking it just for me. I have seen this same love in action expressed by my own wife Yoshiko. She is a great cook, but never baked anything until our children got to be a little older. Then her first attempts at baking were far from perfect. First, she tried to make some cookies. She set them too close
together on the pan and they melted together into one big block. When she was done it was kind of hard and dry, and not very sweet. But that didn’t matter to our children. They loved those cookies, and I would like to think it was because their mother made them with her own hands. It must have been that. It couldn’t have been the taste. You should have tried those cookies! Certainly, Yoshiko’s baking has gotten better over the years. But the important thing about her cookies is not the taste. It is that she makes those cookies for the children. She doesn’t make them for me, and she doesn’t make them for herself, and that is the precious thing. So when your mother is making you food, or fixing your clothes, or helping you with your homework, you should know that she is doing it because she cares about you and that is really important. Like sensei Ken said last week, "your mother wants you to be happy."The relationship between a mother and a child is a special thing that em-bodies many aspects of Buddhism. Western developmental psychology tells us that initially there is no separation between mother and child. When the child is developing inside the womb, mother and child are one. There is no separation; they are physically connected. So when the child is born, they do not really have any sense of themselves as be-ing separate from their mother, or the world around them. Still, every-thing is connected. Our sense of separateness and individual identity is not something we are born with. It is something we construct over time through a process psychologists call separation and individuation. Margaret Mahler called this process "the psychological birth of the hu-man infant." First, there is the physical birth where we separate physi-cally from our mother in a dramatic and observable way. Next, there is the psychological birth, a more subtle birth that occurs slowly over an extended period of time. Here we establish a sense of separateness from our mother and the world around us and develop an individual identity. It is here, with separation and individuation and the establishment of in-dividual identity, that much of Western psychology ends. But Buddhism tells us we need to go further. As a child we need to construct a separate sense of self. That is how we learn to function in the world. But then as an adult, we need to move beyond that psychological construction of separateness and see our interdependence with the world. We need to reconnect. Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen, noted that to study the Buddha Way is to study
วารสารสนตธรรม ฉบบวนกตญญรพระคณแม Santidhamma News, Mother's Day 25 26
ปญญา เจน ปสาสต ปญญาเปนเครองปกครองตว
the self, and that to study the self is to forget the self in the act of uniting with something greater. To develop as Buddhists we need to experience ourselves as something more than merely our individual or ego selves. We need to rediscover our connection to something greater. Perhaps we can begin this process of rediscovering our connectedness in our own family, in that special bond between mother and child. Then we can try to move that feeling of connectedness and interdependence out into our community, and then the world as a whole. Last week Sensei Ken sug-gested that we do such a thing with harmony; that we cultivate harmony in our family and then move it out into the world. Perhaps we can do the same with connectedness. I remember one experienced of connectedness that I had with my wife and son that really had a profound effect on me. It was with Leo and Yoshiko when Leo was about two years old. I was sitting on the floor of my study doing zazen with the windows open so I could experience the outdoors, the birds chirping and the wind. I had been meditating for some time so I was feeling peaceful and very open. I couldn’t see them, but Yoshiko and Leo were just outside the window doing something in the front yard, gardening I think. Leo must have done something very dangerous, maybe toddled out into the street. I am not exactly sure what he did, but whatever it was it really scared Yoshiko. She started yelling in Japanese, "Kora &%#$!" I can’t speak Japanese, but I can tell you that I jumped! And I’m certain Leo jumped too! Yoshiko got scared, and Leo and I jumped. Where was the separateness? It was clear to me then how connected we all are. From this experience I started to think that when your mother yells at you, or makes you cookies, she is expressing our connec tedness , she is expressing the Dharma, and we should prob-ably honor her for both.