Moment to moment awareness

Ven. Mahanuwara Sasanawansa Thera

The one who conquers the mind conquers the world. File photo

“One is one’s self protector,

What protector is another,

One who is well restrained,

He gets refuge hard to gain,

(Dhammapada xii) V:4

Man is the greatest. He is responsible for his every moment of living. He belongs to himself. Man creates his own idea of self. Man himself is greater than any idea which he may invent. The power which created him is his own unchecked conceit. No one sits in judgement upon him except his own conscience.

His existence and destiny depend upon his own inner conviction and the nature of his desires. He is the master of the present moment that is natural and universal when it is not ego-centric. At that stage there is no one to develop negativity, hatred, or misery.

Self-realization

Yet the mind can never be trained by intellect alone. There is a world of reality which exists beyond the perceptions of senses, and which is intelligible only to the purified mind. When the mind is not purified then the insight wisdom of comprehension is not penetrating.

Its main theme is ‘Self-realization’ whatever psychology, logic, or metaphysics it may contain. The attainment of this reality is the special purpose of a Bhikkhu for the greatest happiness of mankind. The mind was there before the birth of ego-centredness and survives the death of the body of the five groups of grasping. Peace and tranquillity of mind can be imparted to a mind that is not dependent on outward circumstances.

In the present day world we pay more attention to satisfy the appetites of the body and less to the mind and consequently we are one-sided, physically we become fat. If we had enough to eat, money to spend, and security from cradle to grave, would that make as happy? There are rich people with everything that money can buy, but they are unhappy, tormented, miserable. Buddha-Dhamma makes it plain that happiness and tranquillity of mind are not found in that way.

It is peace that fills the mind in the midst of most distressing circumstances and the most bitter environment in the character quality that the Buddha-Dhamma expounds. It is a kind of complacency that grin and bear when things go wrong. It is a state undisturbed by success or failure, deep inside us that gives inward relaxation and contentment, no matter what the problem may be. That kind of happiness needs no outward stimulus. And will not be swayed by the forces of gain and loss, fame and shame, praise and blame, happiness or sorrow, in this storm-tossed sea of ‘Sansara’. (Cycle of births and deaths)

We have to realize that whatever pain afflicts us it is because we have asked for such a thing (Every pleasure is a prelude to a pain). When the events actually occur how shall we react to their happenings? A well-directed functioning of the mind is an essential thing for the well-being of man.

Man must have ‘prajna, insight wisdom. He has no cause for elation in success, he should also be able to take evil with resignation. This kind of emancipation cannot be attained by distractions, amusements or burning coconut oil under trees.

Noble silence

The sorrow at the heart of life can only be removed by wisdom and knowledge. The mind must not be disturbed by high-sounding amplifiers instead noble silence should prevail, there must be simple awareness to understand the placid flow of serenity created by Saddha solemn confidence. Saddha-Dhamma-Pavattanti an ever-present living flow of force prevails. This indicates that the mind too demands such attention as the body. It needs virtuous liberty, worship, quietism, abandonment of the will. The attitude of life should be soft, mellow, easy going.

It is also important to understand not to form the mistaken impression that the Buddha advocated viewing all beauty as loathsome. It is only that there is a look in beauty which tangles with the greed in one’s own avarice that leads to more complications and difficulties.

Troubles stem from the botched character of existence itself which is obviously not beyond our power to revise.

Man is greater than the blind forces of nature because even though he is crushed by nature he remains above everything by the virtue of his understanding with a transcend.

A few among such men as thee,

The other shore they do reach,

Other people who then remain,

They run on the same shore again.”

(Dhammapada 6/10)

Every moment of life is ethereal, self-contained. This virtue of wisdom contains deathlessness, joy and light in Dhamma with an ever-widening intellectual horizon. It is transparent through and through to his own understanding the image of what man would like to be.

Appearing to be real

Wisdom and renunciation are mental, they are not physical.

If this is a fact there cannot be a problem of the body, as body is only an instrument of the mind and mind is the disposer of everything. Therefore a mind with Dhamma-discernment is a mind that can be controlled at will. It is the mind that does not go on to the subjects that are conducive to tension and boredom but keeps alert introspectively. When analytical thinking concerning the past does not take place, it is the relinquishment of the past.

When analytical thinking concerning the present does not take place it is the relinquishment of the present. When analytical thinking concerning the future does not take place it is the relinquishment of the future. This is called complete relinquishment of the triple world.

The teachings of Buddha have also been called the middle path; its meaning is between the two extremes of whether the world is real or not real. A person with a profane mind with no ethics believes the world is really concrete and that his self is real, existing forever. Or they believe the world is unreal that it is all an illusion. But the Buddha was not interested in that. He was interested in how things appeared to be real.

To an average person things may appear to be real. How and why they seem to be real was what Buddha was interested in. Not that the things are, or are not real, but how do they appear to be real.

When one sees how things arise then he would not believe that they are not real. But when one sees that transitory passing away and ceasing then one cannot believe that they are real either.

On the one hand things do have their conventional existence and are real in the relative sense. But in an all comprehensive knowledge they are impermanent from the very outset.

Hence the middle path is a state of mind that is balanced in the middle to its equanimity. That mind is not pushing away from pain and not grasping after pleasure. It maintains its equilibrium without getting thrown away from the present.

It sees the relative side of the current existence and knows how to walk skilfully in the world of impermanence. At the same time he knows when to rest and abide in the cosmic order (Piri-Nivan). So getting the best out of this life one can maintain its equanimity in every situation in life walking through the shadow of death to where there is no more deaths, no more births.