Alone one delights in solitude
He who sits alone, rests alone, walks alone unindolent, who in solitude controls himself, will find delight in the finest.
Pakinneka Vagga - The Dhammapada

Comedy and tragedy of Self

Kingsley Heendeniya

SELF: I think it is Lady Pankhurst who told Winston Churchill, in Parliament, "If you were my husband, I will poison your drink." And Churchill retorted, "Madam, if you were my wife, I shall drink it!" Throughout history, the world has witnessed this play and display of the self. The over-arch of the self in its many-faceted splendor, vanity and frustration has dominated literature and art, passion, creativity, discovery, war and terror, and much besides.

Perception of Self

We would all be zombies if not for the perception of self. We regard ourselves alive from having body, mind, limbs, sensuality, mobility and so on; and the sum total is the self. No one sees it as described by the Buddha: matter, feeling, perception, determinations, consciousness. Then where exactly is this putative elusive self? Its origin, in the uninstructed person [puthujjana], is outlined in the following charming way:

1. Matter...consciousness is identical with self, as a flame and its colour.

2. The self is endowed with matter...consciousness, as a tree has a shadow.

3. Matter...consciousness belongs to self, as scent of a flower.

4. Self is in matter...consciousness, as a jewel in a casket.

Focus and nature of Self

Where, anatomically or physiologically, is this 'thing' self, soul, atman? Sites such as the pineal body in the recess of the brain are posited but no one has located it. No one has even indirectly demonstrated that it is nevertheless there, somewhere.

May be it is an external aura like infrared radiation captured by a hologram?

Some are very definite of one thing: animals do not have it. It is a prerogative gift for being born human, and unique - no two, even identical twins have it same. It remains unchanged through life, from birth to death, and beyond. It escapes from a natural aperture of the body to await judgment and redemption.

The Greeks thought someone then weighs it to assess sin.

The Self in Dhamma

The Buddha was the first to argue that self is a deception of a deception as a mirage (a deception) is real (a deception) to one seeing it. No amount of introspection can overcome it. However one reflects, in successive deeper layers of reflexion, either it is with self that one sees no-self, or with no-self see self.

The majority does not bother. The self is taken as granted.

The indirect way

The method of the Teaching from the beginning, in the middle and end is indirect. The technique is to develop insight. There is no other way to override inferential thinking by the self. That is, no amount of inferential knowledge can lead to seeing what it actually is. The word 'absolute' has no meaning till there is insight and direct knowledge of what is actually the case.

To reach this stage of intuitive development, the Buddha appeals to unprejudiced reasoning. If matter...consciousness is changing, does it mean the self is also changing with them? Since one can experience only one kind of feeling any one time, pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, does it mean there is a different self feeling pleasant...neutral? Is it proper to regard notwithstanding, there is a permanent, unchanging self?

The coup de grace is now dealt. If in this impermanent bundle of matter...consciousness there is a permanent self, why cannot it be: Let my matter...consciousness be this, not that? Why cannot the self interfere or direct or control or stop change?

Impermanence

Regardless whether there is or there is no self, the observed truth is there is relentless breakdown of the body, and death. Existence is underscored by impermanence. In Dhamma, the focus is the body and mind, and impermanence is subjective instability - to change, fade and disappear whatever appropriated by the self.

Additionally, when what appropriated is regarded as mine, belonging to me, yearning to retain hold of pleasant and dear produces sadness. It is not the impermanence of things per se that brings sorrow but holding to things by the self. In Dhamma, this is called upadana. The existential disappointment is 'but in truth, there is no self'.

Self-identity

Self-identity, as taught in psychology, is the self as when seen in the mirror. This is not the 'self' taught in Dhamma. Nor is the 'self' personality. We build personality from childhood. Puberty is the beginning of adolescence shaping manhood. That is, personality or the totality of attitudes and so on, changes. When discussing this, a friend told me how after his father died, his mother gave up living and a sprightly person became bed-ridden, sad and died.

Duality

'This significance (or intention, or determination), 'mine' or 'for me' is, in a sense, a void, a negative aspect of the present thing (or existing phenomenon), since it simply points to a subject; and the puthujjana not seeing impermanence (or more specifically, not seeing impermanence of this ubiquitous determination), deceives himself into supposing that there actually exists a subject - 'self' - independent of the object (which is the positive aspect of the phenomenon - that which is 'for me')... But care is needed; for, in fact, the division subject/object is not a simple negative/positive division...The fact is, that the intention or determination 'mine', pointing to a subject, is a complex structure...The subject is not simply a negative in relation to the positive object: it (or he) is master over the object, and thus a kind of positive negative, a master who does not appear explicitly but who, somehow or other, nevertheless exists. [Nanavira Thera]

Tragedy and Comedy

All intra and inter-personal, all internecine societal conflict can be traced back and understood as arising from the delusion of 'self'. In Dhamma, there is no ethnicity or any essential difference in living beings, human or animal. All is matter, chiefly carbon. Living beings have joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. They have the perception of self, their own precious identity. In sum, it leads to more of tragedy than of comedy.

The teaching of the Buddha aims to disabuse the demarking primitive notion of self, not surely by discriminative thinking. He aims to develop insight: If you look for a self in any thing, you shall not find it - sabbe dhamma anatta.

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Ceremony of bathing the Buddha and purifying the mind

Ven. Xin-xing

CEREMONY: The Buddha is the bringer of light to all beings. The suttas say that on the occasion of all the major events in the Buddha's life, there appeared a surpassing light radiating all over the world, which even beings living in the darkest part of the world could witness.

This light is said to have been so brilliant and so wonderful that in comparison the sun and the moon lost their splendour. The Buddha brings light to beings and dispels the eternal darkness of the world with this brilliant, marvellous, radiant light.

We may wonder: when the sun and the moon shine day and night in the world, why is it said that beings are living in darkness? this darkness is not the darkness that comes from the absence of the sun or moon or some other illuminating object. Rather, beings are said to be living in darkness because greed, hatred, and delusion cover the basic luminous nature of the mind.

On Vesak day we bathe an image of the Buddha. This ceremony symbolizes the purification of the mind, cleansing the mind of greed, hatred, and delusion. However, it is not merely through this ceremony that beings are purified. Rather, it is through practice in accordance with the Dharma that beings are purified. How does one practice so that one purifies the mind?

The opening verse of the Dhammapada says that the mind is the forerunner of all activities. When the mind is tainted, suffering will follow one just as the wheel of a cart follows the foot-step of the ox which pulls the cart. Likewise, when the mind is pure, then happiness will follow one just as one's shadow follows one without departing.

Just before the Buddha passed away, he told his disciples: "Formations are bound to vanish. Strive to attain the goal by appamada (SN 6:15) The Pali word appamada is usually translated as "earnestness" or "diligence," which conveys the idea of sustained, determined effort.

However, the Buddha himself, on another occasion, expressed the nuance of appamada as carefully guarding the mind against defiling mental states, while at the same time strengthening it in terms of the five faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom (SN 48:56).

This passage points out that appamada is not simply holding onto the practice untiringly and diligently. Rather, appamada means the purification of the mind by developing the five faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.

The task of purification of the mind begins with faith. Faith is not blind belief. Rather, it is the trust or confidence that arises by applying the knowing and seeing nature of the faculty of wisdom. Knowing and seeing that the mind, if connected with the three roots of the unwholesome - greed, hatred, and delusion - will bring affliction to oneself, to others, and to both oneself and others.

On the contrary, the mind connected with the three roots of the wholesome will bring happiness to oneself, to others, and to both oneself and others. When one has this firm confidence, one mindfully guards one's mind against greed, hatred, and delusion.

Bathing the Buddha

There are three steps in the purification of the mind. First, one knows the mind; second, one shapes the mind; and third, one frees the mind. The mind is invisible. How does one know it? One knows the mind in these three periods of time: before one is going to do an action, while one is doing an action, and after one has done an action. One reflects on the mind in these three periods of time to see whether it is wholesome or unwholesome.

Then one shapes the mind. If the mind is connected with any one of the three unwholesome roots, one has to stop doing the action by abandoning the unwholesome root. If the mind is connected with any one of the three wholesome roots, one may do the action.

The Dhammapada sums up the practice of the Buddha's teaching in three simple guidelines for training: to abstain from all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one's mind.

However, one might think that this teaching on purifying the mind is shallow and not profound. The difficult part of this practice is not so much that one has to understand a deep teaching but that one has to train a mind tainted with a cunning and deceitful tendency.

When others see through our mind's crooked character, we feel embarrassed. To avoid such embarrassment, the tainted mind may fabricate all kinds of excuses, telling itself that a certain unwholesome action is a necessary evil. Rationalized in this way, the mind wishing to deceive others feels it is righteous in acting upon the unwholesome intention.

Yet, the point is that while others may be deceived, we should know the mind as it is by mindfulness. In this way, the cunning and deceitful tendency will be restrained. Some people know that the mind is tainted and the action is motivated by the tainted mind; yet the craving tendency will urge them to cover it up, to hide the tainted mind so it cannot be known by others.

Therefore, the defilements are suppressed and pushed deep down to the bottom of the mind. However, the point of departure in mental purification lies in knowing the mind as it is. If one day, when we believe in the excuses that the mind invents, it will take a long time to disentangle the fabrication, to straighten out the crooked inclination of the mind, to unveil its true illuminating nature.

Courtesy: Bodhi Bulletin

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The Buddhist way of life

B. N. B. Pethiyagoda

BUDDHIST WAY: The birth of a child is a happy event. Parents have the onerous duty of bearing the responsibility of caring for their children and nurturing them to become useful adults of the future.

For this the religion plays an important role in providing parents with a framework within which to train the young ones in ethics, behaviour and morality. In Buddhism the Buddha has given very useful advice on the duties of parents towards their children and vice versa.

The Sigalovada Sutra is perhaps the best known of these valuable injunctions. The Buddha has laid great emphasis on a person's relationship with others, more specially between parents and children by allowing them their independence when the time is right, and giving them their rightful inheritance in due course.

On the other hand children on their part are duty bound to care for their parents by intending them filial devotion. This is done out of mutual respect and gratitude towards them and not out of expectation of any reward in return.

There is a close link between religion and parent-children relationship. Parents should not fail to underscore the religious significance of the birth of a child. A family that develops its relationship along sensible religious lines cannot go wrong.

The duty of the parents are to develop a relationship based on their religious, cultural heritage, whilst other religions have their obligatory and formal baptism and Christenings to perform. But the Buddhist parents need only to bring their children to the temple so as to reaffirm their faith in the Triple Gem and to seek refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha.

While seeking refuge in the Triple Gem parents themselves will be confident in the upbringing of their children and will have the firm assurance that they are being protected from all evil. There are evil forces around us which are harmful towards human beings which will cause harm.

By bringing a child to the temple and having sacred traditional religious services performed in its fervour would definitely contribute to the well-being of the child. This will be the initial step in associating the child with the temple. If this habit is maintained up to adult life would serve the person in good stead when confronted with problems.

Buddhists can overcome their problems in a manner by recalling the image of the Buddha. Naturally many of our problems are caused by the mind and mind alone is able to solve them through underdevelop and confidence.

That is why the knowledge of Dhamma is important. When the mind strengthened through inspiration and devotion towards the Buddha it can overcome the sense of helplessness and fear of evil spirits, of being left alone, and confidence is regained.

Thus this is what is meant by going for refuge in the Buddha.