You must exert yourselves
Striving should be done by yourselves the Thathagathas are only teachers. The meditative ones, who enter the way and delivered from the bonds of Mara.
Magga Vagga - The Dhammapada

Our mind is our best friend

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

In our lives we often distinguish people as enemies and friends. We consider as enemies those people who are bent on harming us, on doing some damage to us or to our loved ones. And we consider as friends those people who wish to benefit us, to provide for our welfare an the well-being of those close to us. Now let us consider what kind of harm an enemy can do to us.

An enemy might slander us by spreading false rumours about us; but if we know that we are not guilty of the fault he ascribes to us we have no need to worry. An enemy might even harm us physically; in the worst scenario, he might kill us.

But even if the enemy kills us, we need not be overly despondent. For if we have a good mind, a strong mind, a well-developed and virtuous mind, then although the body dies, the mind will go on to some fortunate state of existence in the future.

But if our mind strays from the path of Dhamma, if we surrender to the impulses of selfishness, greed, and hatred, then we will suffer far more in life after life than we would when the enemy takes our life. So long as the enemy is not able to harm our mind, we can still consider ourselves secure.

We consider as friends or benefactors the people who benefit us. Of all the people in our lives who benefit us, the most important, from the worldly point of view, are our parents.

Yet, even if our parents look after all our material and social needs, they wouldn't be benefiting us as much as they would if they give us moral instruction, give us guidance in the right way of life. When they give us wise instruction in the proper conduct of life, whether we accept it or not depends upon ourselves, and that means that it depends upon our own minds.

This is why the Buddha makes the mind the focal point of his entire teaching. The mind is the central force in our lives, and the whole quality of our lives is just a reflection of the quality of our own minds.

The Buddha teaches the way to develop the mind, to elevate the mind. His teaching isn't intended for those who are already enlightened sages, but for ordinary people living very ordinary lives.

What he teaches is how to transform the defiled mind, the mind troubled by afflictions, desires, sorrow, pain and suffering, into the enlightened mind the liberated mind, the mind that is radiant with wisdom, loving-kindness, and compassion, into a mind that is peaceful and content under any circumstances.

This is illustrated by the famous simile of the lotus flower. The lotus begins growing at the bottom of a muddy pond, but it rises up through the muddy water until it emerges from the pond, unfolds its petals, and reveals its sublime beauty.

In practising the Dhamma, we begin with our ordinary mind, which is like the lotus seed in the mud, the mind soiled by desires and delusions. By following the Buddha's instructions step by step we elevate the mind above the mud of the world, we unfold its petals of virtuous qualities, until it opens fully and displays its radiant beauty.

Excerpt from a talk

The great virtue - Sugato
 

by Chandani Abeynayake

A noble follower paying obeisance to the Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha would always begin by chanting with faith the Nine Special Qualities of the Buddha in veneration.

There He recollects the fourth sublime virtue of the Buddha as the virtue of Sugato. The uniqueness of the word sugato is mainly attributed to the Bosat as an aspirant to Buddhahood, striving on with diligence to perfect himself in the journey through samsara or the repeated cycles of Birth and Death adhering to pleasant manners and habits.

From the time the Bosat made His firm resolve at the feet of the Buddha Dipankara countless aeons earlier He remained steadfast to His noble resolve, existence after existence or the samsara to the moment of Full-Enlightenment or Buddhahood at Buddhagaya.

Plunging into samsara, He never turned back midway or gave up His noble strife of attaining Buddhahood. His manner of going about was pleasant throughout samsara striving for perfection and had gone to an excellent state, the attainment of the Supreme Bliss of Nibbana, the Deathlessness.

It must be mentioned that through countless aeons of time the Bodhisatva followed the path to Buddhahood fulfilling the Ten Virtues (Paramitas) to perfection amidst many sacrifices.

He had trodden upon the path of detachment, the Noble Eightfold Path or the Middle Path. Avoiding the two extremes of self indulgence and self mortification, the Bosat discovered and followed the Middle Path in eradicating all defilements and attaining Samma Sambodhi, the perfect Enlightenment.

He had gone correctly and never did He ever go back to the defilements which He had abandoned. Thus Sugato means 'Well-Gone' (Sobhana-Gaman). The Bosat adhered to pleasant manners and habits in going through all His endeavours.

By complete destruction of cravings connected with the wrong view of an everlasting soul and the wrong view of Nihilism or the non-existence of a soul, the Buddha took the Middle path to attain Nirvana. It was the Noble Eightfold Path, the path taken by the Buddhas. For this reason too, He is called Sugato.

During His lifetime He worked steadfast to enlighten mankind of the transient nature of all component things in the universe. He suffered the insults and humiliations of His fellow men at times, but more from sympathy with the sufferings of others, wandering from place to place, sleeping only for about one and a half hours at night, carried forward His selfless service for the good and happiness of mankind for forty five long years. Thus His great service to humanity is also defined in Sugato.

The Buddha was also endowed with incomparable physical beauty. An aura consisting of six colours surrounded the Buddha radiating over quite a distance. All along the pathways it dazzled with splendour wherever the Buddha walked. Therefore, Sugato also means excellent and beautiful.

His walk was graceful and the measured treading of the feet was gentle and steady. It has been said that no foot prints were visible on the ground where the Buddha traversed and He always proceeded without blemish. Even the soles of His sacred feet never got soiled of dust or dirt.

As a result of accumulated meritorious deeds in His sojourn through samsara, it was said that mounds of earth and the troughs along those ancient gravel roads as well as the rugged surfaces were spontaneously created into smooth paved pathways, where the Buddha was journeying through. Thus He advanced majestically on His missions unscathed.

The Compassionate Teacher in focusing His visual perceptions at a close range ahead (an extent of Sathara Riyans or two yards) would lead the procession of the Sangha to expound the Dhamma while His depth of insight penetrated into the true nature of the whole world.

Many were drawn to the Buddha due to His faultless supreme voice the uniqueness of which was described with relevance to eight great qualities known as the "Brahma Swara". (This is well defined in the virtue of Bhagava, the ninth great virtue of the Supreme Buddha).

Though the Buddha spoke in the Pali Language, it was said that each one heard the Dhamma in his own language. All these qualities too attribute to the virtue of Sugato.

The arrival of the Blessed One accompanied by His disciples to preach the Dhamma to His followers would have been a magnificent sight. Deities from the six Heavenly Realms and the men paid reverence with flowers and incense wherever the Buddha set foot.

They accursed much merit in doing so. Furthermore His speech too was Sublime - Sugato. The Buddha adhered to certain moral principles in the choice of His words, conducive to good and well-being of His followers. Of His method of Preaching, it was said: Such speech as the Blessed One knows to be false and untrue, harmful to people, displeasing and unwelcome to the listener, He did not speak and refrained from using.

Such speech as was true but harmful to people, displeasing and unwelcome to the listener, He did not use.

Such speech as He knew to be true, conducive to good, yet displeasing and unwelcome, He knew when to speak. Such speech as was untrue and incorrect, harmed others, yet pleasing and welcome to still others, He did not use. Such speech as He knew to be true, but harmful, though pleasing and welcome to still others, He also did not speak.

And of speech He knew to be true, pleasing and welcome, contributes to the good of others, He knew the time and where to speak. The Buddha thus displayed supremacy in addressing His followers transforming them to lead righteous lives. He was Sugato, His speech too was sublime.

Throughout its peaceful march for nearly 2,500 years, no conversion has been made either by force or implementing other methods, such as favouring charities to the poor and the needy with the ulterior motive of getting them under one's control and unethically converted.

Today the downtrodden are compelled to change their religion, under obligation to such organizations. Living upon this planet amidst catastrophes of great magnitude, the tsunamis, hurricanes tonados, whirlwinds, floods, droughts, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, wild fires, heatwaves, volcano eruptions, infectious diseases, other fatal accidents, strikes by lightning, acid rains, even explosions across the cosmos with intense radiations, the sentient beings have no place to hide themselves for protection.

Furthermore considering other crisis with regard to food, energy, pollution, poverty, shortage of water, rising sea levels due to global warming etc. the human race should strive to lead the journey through this short spell of life on a virtuous path - "Shabana Gaman", the Path of Sugato.

The Buddha and Hindu god images of Narmada marbles
 

by Rohan L. Jayetilleke

Narmada river recently gained attention of the world, when the Indian authorities planned construct 396 dams across the river to generate hydro - electricity. This river being the holy river of india for the Hindus and virtually of the same degree as the Ganges river in the north-eastern region of India, saw mass protests over the plans.

Narmada River originates at Amarkatak, in close proximity to Jabalpur. Narmada with Dhuandhar Waterfalls, flows with pure blue water between marble rocks. From Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh Narmada is around 24 km away the location of the Dhuandhar Falls. The falls are not awesome but overpowering senses of sight sound. The mist perpetually rises beyond one's belief and covers the entire spectrum.

The marble rocks lining the Narmada are virtually perpendicular to the water surface. They are sharp and narrow at the zenith, while at some places they are solid and huge like any other boulders.

They are quite distinctly composed of magnesium limestones which beautify themselves and providing the raw materials for the locals to venture into creativity with them. Marble here is soft and can be sculptured into fine translucent objects, shapes, statues and busts to earn a living to the craftsmen, the light filtering through them makes them eye-storming.

These sculptures adorn houses, mansions and private gardens and inexpensive. One of the cynosures is name plates engraved in colour on marble slabs.

The tradition of sculpture is millennia old in India as evidenced by terracotta, metal figurines excavated in Mohendo-jaro and Harappa datable to 7,000 - 5,000 BC. Mostly these marble sculptures are of Buddha and the Hindu panthen.

According to the ancient Indian treatise on aesthetic arts, Chitraphasha (including painting) the craftsmen, having bathed at dawn, hang a garland and a lute (vina) on the wall of his work-room and pray to god Visvakarma (God of Creativity) to inspire his ingenuity at his work, facing the east. The garland is for god Visvakarma and the goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Prosperity) and the lute for goddess Saraswathi (Goddess of Learning) On completion, they regard their creations as works of the gods and goddess and do not affix their names to them be it painting or sculpture.

That is why no works of art of ancient time either in India or Sri Lanka could be attributed to a particular craftsman.

This Indus civilization of artistry has gone through many eras of development as Gandhara, Deccan, Mathura, Orissan, Amaravati and other South Indian traditions and taking wings to Buddhist countries then such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other South-East Asian countries.

This Narmada marble sculpture could be traceable to the Sanchi sculpture tradition of the same locality where at Sanchi Stupa 1, there is an inscription that they were works of Madhypradesh ivory carvers warning other craftsmen that these masterpieces of art should not be removed from Sanchi.

This ivory carving, later developed into stone carvings. And these craftsmen had been brought to Sri Lanka by Arahant Mahinda when he introduced Buddhism to the island to embellish Buddhist shrines.

These craftsmen were in guilds or Srenis, which were under the Vaisya Setthis (the rich merchant class) who too came to finance Buddhist institutions in the third century B.C.

These Vaisya - Setthis having completed their assignments retired from active life and got themselves ordained at Anuradhapura Mahavihara in the Theravada tradition, and had their own monastery the Vessagiriya or Vaisyagiri the abode of Vaisya - Setthis.

These craftsmen's descendants later engaged in gem, jewellery and gold crafts as a special clan (Nawandanna) and their present names such as Dantanarayana, Devendra, Surendra, Ratnavibhushana, Visvakula etc., are testimonies to their ancestry.