March 2009 Newsletter

Meditation Newsletter

March 2009

"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One, to be seen here and now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be realized by the wise for themselves"

- AN 10.92

May Course

Vipassana Fellowship's next online meditation course begins on May 2nd and applications are welcome.

This is our 12th year of offering online meditation courses and they have proven helpful to meditators in many countries around the world. The course serves as a practical introduction to samatha (tranquillity or serenity) and vipassana (insight) techniques from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Intended primarily for beginners, the 90 day course is also suitable for experienced meditators who wish to explore different aspects of the tradition. The emphasis is on building a sustainable and balanced meditation practice that is compatible with lay life.

The course takes place on our special website that offers daily material for each of the 90 days, interaction between participants and support from the tutor. Participants also have access to an audio supplement containing guided meditations and chants to support the online material. Our course is led by Andrew Quernmore, an experienced meditation teacher based in England. Andrew wrote our first course and he has led each course since then.

Application details and further information is available here:

http://www.vipassana.com/course/

Parisa

Our Parisa support and encouragement programme is for former participants; if you have taken one or more of our online courses you are eligible to subscribe. Parisa provides ongoing access to our 90 day courses and new monthly material to provide inspiration for your practice.

http;//www.vipassana.com/parisa/

Sati Haus

Andrew will be teaching at Sati Haus in Germany in September and November. Sati Haus is a new meditation centre located in the countryside near Lüneburg and Hamburg. http://www.sati-haus.com

Why End Suffering?

by Nyanaponika Thera

The Buddha declares that he teaches the Dhamma for the sole purpose of leading beings to freedom from suffering. If, moved by that teaching, we resolve to make an end to suffering, it is of prime importance that we understand the problem of suffering clearly and in its true width and depth. If our grasp of the problem is incomplete, our endeavours to eliminate it will also be incomplete, incapable of garnering the strength needed to yield fully satisfactory results.

When asked “Why end suffering?” the obvious answer is that one wishes to end suffering because it is the natural innermost urge of one’s being to be free from affliction. However, in aspiring to the extinction of suffering, we should think not only of our own affliction, but also of the pain and sorrow we inflict upon others whilst we have not attained the perfect harmlessness of a passion-free heart and the clear vision of a liberated mind. If we regularly recollect the fact that, on our way through samsaric existence, we inevitably add to the suffering of others too, we shall feel an increased urgency in our resolve to start earnestly upon the path leading to our own liberation.

The suffering we may inflict upon our fellow beings affects firstly those who become passive objects of our harmful actions. Our greed robs, impoverishes, deprives and detracts, soils and violates. Our hate kills and destroys, hurts and rouses fear. The turbid waters of our interfering ignorance flood and devastate the neighbour’s peaceful shores; our misjudgements lead him astray and leave him in calamity.

Then there is a second and even more detrimental way our defilement may cause harm to others. Our evil or impure actions often provoke in others a harmful response that entangles them further in the meshes of their defilements. Our own greed increases the competitive greed of others; our own lust rouses in others lustful desires which might have slumbered had we not awakened them. Our own hate and anger provoke hostility in return, starting thus the endless round of mutual revenge. Our prejudices become infectious. By our own illusions we deceive others who, by believing them, lend them increased weight and influence. Our wrong judgements, false values and erroneous views, sometimes only casually expressed, are taken up and expanded by others into extensive systems of deceptive and perverted notions working untold harm on people’s minds. In all these cases a good part of the responsibility will be ours. How careful we must be in what we speak and write!

A third way we may cause suffering to others is due to the limited and varying lifetime of our emotions. Our own love towards a certain person may die a natural death, while the person whom we loved still loves us, and thus suffers under our neglect. Or, in reverse: while the other’s love for us has died, our own still lives and constantly urges him, encroaches upon his need for freedom, disturbs his peace and tears at his heart, causing him sorrow because he cannot help us. These are quite common situations in human relationships, and their consequences are often tragic. We feel their poignancy particularly strongly because no moral guilt seems to be involved, only the stern impassive law of impermanence impressing its painful stamp upon this aspect of life. Yet there is a moral principle which applies here, though it is a matter of definition whether we should use the word “guilt.” Understood rightly, the situation presents a case of lust, attachment or craving causing pain through lack of fulfilment. Looking at the case in this light, how clear will become the second noble truth: “Craving is the origin of suffering.” And so too that seeming paradox: “From what is dear to us, suffering arises.” When deeply contemplating that little specimen of life’s suffering as presented here, we shall feel indeed: “Truly, this alone is enough to turn away from all forms of existence, to become disenchanted with them, to become detached from them!”

We still have not exhausted all the ways our own imperfections may draw others into the whirlpool of suffering. But it may suffice here to add a fourth and last point. Our own passions and ignorance, whether they involve another directly or only as an observer, may contribute to his harm by destroying his trust in man, his belief in high ideals, and his will to contribute to the fund of goodness in the world. Our own imperfections may thus induce him to become egocentric out of disappointment, a cynic or a misanthrope out of personal or impersonal resentment. Owing to our own imperfections, the forces of Good will again have been weakened not only in us, but in others too.

There are many who will reply to the Buddhist doctrine of suffering by saying: “We are well aware that happiness and beauty, joy and pleasure, have to be paid for by a certain amount of suffering. But we are willing to pay the price without grumbling, even the last price, death; and we think it is worth the price, and that it adds zest to our enjoyment.” Before those who speak thus, we may place the facts indicated above, and ask them: “Are you aware that the price you are speaking of is paid not only by your own suffering, but also by the suffering of others? Do you think that it is right and fair for you to make others pay for your happiness? Will you still find “added zest” if you look at your happiness from that angle?” And our partner—provided he is honest and noble-minded (and only then would it be worthwhile to speak to him)—will pensively say: “I did not think of that. It is true, I must not make others pay for my shortcomings. If I consider it unfair and ignoble to do so in my everyday dealings, should it not likewise be so in relation to these higher problems of life?” We may then be sure that we have planted in his mind and conscience the seed which will sprout in due time.

We return now to our initial line of thought. We have seen how our actions may affect others through many channels, how our shortcomings may drag others into suffering, entanglement and guilt. Thus our constantly accumulating responsibility for much of the suffering and unhappiness in the world should be an additional and powerful incentive for us to become holy and whole for the sake of others, too.

Certainly our own wholeness and health will not cure others, at least not directly and not in all cases. Our own harmlessness will only rarely keep others from doing harm. But by gaining spiritual health, we shall diminish at least by one the sources of infection in the world and our own harmlessness will lessen the fuel feeding the fires of hate which ravage this earth.

By remaining conscious of the suffering we cause and the suffering we might prevent, we add two powerful motives to those already urging us to embark upon the path of liberation: the challenge of manly responsibility, and the richness of motherly love and compassion. These complementary ideals of duty and love, which we may call the male and the female principles, will help to keep us unswervingly on the path. Love and compassion towards those who might become the victims of our own imperfections will urge us to fulfil our duty towards them in the only way possible: by fulfilling our duty towards ourselves.

The thoughts outlined above are tersely expressed in a saying of the Buddha that is much too little known:

By protecting oneself, one protects others;

by protecting others, one protects oneself.

SN 47:19

In the light of the observations made above, these simple yet profound words of the Master will become still more translucent, charged with a magical power stirring the very depth of our being. By contemplating how our own defiled actions can have detrimental effects upon others, we shall still better understand that both statements in this passage are complementary: by guarding ourselves we are doing our best to protect others; wishing to protect others against the suffering we ourselves can cause, we shall do our utmost to guard ourselves.

Therefore, for our own sake and for the sake of our fellow beings, we have to be watchful of every step we take. Only with a high degree of mindfulness shall we succeed. Thus it is said in the same discourse that the method of practising that twofold protection is the firm establishment of mindfulness (satipatthana), which here too proves to be “the sole way” (ekayano maggo):

“I shall protect myself,” thus the establishing of mindfulness has to be cultivated. “I shall protect others,” thus the establishing of mindfulness has to be cultivated.

The same idea and method is expressed in a passage of the Buddha’s “Advice to Rahula” (MN 61):

After reflecting again and again, actions by deed, word and thought should be done.… Before doing such actions by deed, word and thought, while doing them and after doing them, one should reflect thus: “Does this action lead to the harm of myself, to the harm of others, to the harm of both?” After reflecting again and again, one should purify one’s actions by deed, word and thought. Thus, O Rahula, should you train yourself.

Again it is said:

Thus, O monks, should you train yourselves: Considering one’s own welfare, this is sufficient to strive untiringly. Considering the welfare of others, this is sufficient to strive untiringly. Considering the welfare of both, this is sufficient to strive untiringly. SN 12:22

These three sayings of the Master will illuminate each other. By reminding us of the right motives of our quest, and supplying us with the right methods to accomplish our task, they will be infallible guides in treading the path.

Source: BPS, Kandy, Wheel No. 205 (excerpt). For free distribution.

Loving-Kindness

by Godwin Samararatne

See how far you can gently soften, accepting yourself as you are, without any notion of what you should become. Making friends with who you are - and really feel that friendship, that kindness.

Then can you extend that friendship, gentleness, softness even to those who have hurt you, disappointed you, frustrated you. Letting go of the hurts and wounds you have been carrying by learning to forgive, by learning to accept our common human-ness.

Learn to forgive yourself too for all the mistakes you have made in the past, not holding onto these wounds by having guilt and remorse in relation to them; and also letting go of the wounds that have been created by others. Learn to accept yourself as you are, and learn to accept others as they are, without an image of how you or they should be. Learning to be gentle to oneself and gentle to others.

Thinking: May all beings be well and happy; may all beings overcome the suffering that they create themselves.

(Excerpt from a recording made for a young cancer patient in the 1990s.)

See http://www.godwin-home-page.net for more gentle teachings by the late Sri Lankan meditation teacher.

Venerable Dhammajiva's UK visit

The respected Sri Lankan meditation teacher Venerable Dhammajiva will be visiting the UK to teach at the Thames Buddhist Vihara and London Buddhist Vihara from 16th-30th May 2009. He plans to visit Florida, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand later in the year. Two of his recent books on meditation are available to read online or download at the following location:

http://vipassana.com/meditation/dhammajiva/index.php

The Vipassana Fellowship Newsletter is published about 10 times each year and is sent only on request and to previous participants of our courses. Vipassana Fellowship is an organisation dedicated to the dissemination of accurate and useful information on Buddhist meditation practices as found in the Theravada tradition. Our next mailing will be in April. Our site can be accessed via the vipassana.com and vipassana.org domains.