FEARLESSNESS ❤️ ॐ Thich Nhat Hanh 🧘‍♀️

FEARLESSNESS ❤️
ॐ Thich Nhat Hanh 🧘‍♀️

Most of us experience a life full of wonderful moments and difficult moments. But for many of us, even when we are most joyful, there is fear behind our joy. We fear that this moment will end, that we won’t get what we need, that we will lose what we love, or that we will not be safe. Often, our biggest fear is the knowledge that one day our bodies will cease functioning. So even when we are surrounded by all the conditions for happiness, our joy is not complete.

We may think that if we ignore our fears, they’ll go away. But if we bury worries and anxieties in our consciousness, they continue to affect us and bring us more sorrow. We are very afraid of being powerless. But we have the power to look deeply at our fears, and then fear cannot control us. We can transform our fear. Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

The first part of looking at our fear is just inviting it into our awareness without judgment. We just acknowledge gently that it is there. This brings a lot of relief already. Then, once our fear has calmed down, we can embrace it tenderly and look deeply into its roots, its sources. Understanding the origins of our anxieties and fears will help us let go of them. Is our fear coming from something that is happening right now or is it an old fear, a fear from when we were small that we’ve kept inside? When we practice inviting all our fears up, we become aware that we are still alive, that we still have many things to treasure and enjoy. If we are not pushing down and managing our fear, we can enjoy the sunshine, the fog, the air, and the water. If you can look deep into your fear and have a clear vision of it, then you really can live a life that is worthwhile.

The Buddha was a human being, and he also knew fear. 

But because he spent each day practicing mindfulness and looking closely at his fear, when confronted with the unknown, he was able to face it calmly and peacefully. There is a story about a time the Buddha was out walking and Angulimala, a notorious serial killer, came upon him. 

Angulimala shouted for the Buddha to stop, but the Buddha kept walking slowly and calmly. Angulimala caught up with him and demanded to know why he hadn’t stopped. 

The Buddha replied, “Angulimala, I stopped a long time ago. It is you who have not stopped.” He went on to explain, “I stopped committing acts that cause suffering to other living beings. All living beings want to live. All fear death. We must nurture a heart of compassion and protect the lives of all beings.” 

Startled, Angulimala asked to know more. By the end of the conversation, Angulimala vowed never again to commit violent acts and decided to become a monk.

How could the Buddha remain so calm and relaxed when faced with a murderer? This is an extreme example, but each of us faces our fears in one way or another every day. A daily practice of mindfulness can be of enormous help. Beginning with our breath, beginning with awareness, we are able to meet whatever comes our way.

Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. 

When you touch nonfear, you are free. If I am ever in an airplane and the pilot announces that the plane is about to crash, I will practice mindful breathing. If you receive bad news, I hope you will do the same. But don’t wait for the critical moment to arrive before you start practicing to transform your fear and live mindfully. 

Nobody can give you fearlessness. Even if the Buddha were sitting right here next to you, he couldn’t give it to you. You have to practice it and realize it yourself. If you make a habit of mindfulness practice, when difficulties arise, you will already know what to do.

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE
Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul  {1}

The Buddha countered all soul-theory and soul-speculation with His Anatta doctrine. Anatta is translated under various labels: No-Soul, No-Self, No-Ego.

To understand the Anatta doctrine, one must understand that the eternal soul theory—‘I have a soul’—and the material theory—‘I have no soul’—are both obstacles to self-realisation or salvation. 

They arise from the misconception ‘I AM’  Hence, to understand the Anatta doctrine, one must not cling to any opinion or views on soul-theory; rather, one must try to see things objectively as they are and without any mental projections. One must learn to see the so-called ‘I’ or Soul or Self for what it really is: merely a combination of changing forces. This requires some analytical explanation.

The Buddha taught that what we conceive as something eternal within us, is merely acombination of physical and mental aggregates or 

forces (pancakkhandha), made up of body or 

matter (rupakkhandha), sensation (vedanakkhandha), perception (sannakkhandha), mental formations (samkharakkhandha) and consciousness (viññanak- khandha). 

These forces are working together in a flux of momentary change; they are never the same for two consecutive moments. They are the component forces of the psycho-physical life. When the Buddha analyzed the psycho-physical life, He found only these five aggregates or forces. He did not find any eternal soul. However, many people still have the misconception that the soul is the consciousness. The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness arises dependent on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations and that it cannot exist independently of them.

The Buddha said, ‘The body, O monks, is not the Self. Sensation is not the Self. Perception is not the Self. The mental constructions are not the Self. And neither is consciousness the Self. 

Perceiving this, O monks, the disciple sets no value on the body, or on sensation, or on perception, or on mental constructions, or on consciousness. Setting no value on them, he becomes free of passions and he is liberated. The knowledge of liberation arises there within him. And then he knows that he has done what has to be done, that he has lived the holy life, that he is no longer becoming this or that, that his rebirth is destroyed.’ (ANATTA - LAKKHANA SUTRA) The Anatta doctrine of the Buddha is over 2500 years old. Today the thought current of the modern scientific world is flowing towards the Buddha’s Teaching of Anatta or No-Soul. In the eyes of modern scientists, a human being is merely a bundle of ever-changing sensations. 

Modern physicists say that the apparently solid universe is not, in reality, composed of solid substance at all, but is actually a flux of energy. The modern physicist sees the whole universe as a process of transformation of various forces which include the processes which constitute a human being. The Buddha was the first to realize this. 

W.S. Wily, an author, once said, ‘The existence of the immortal in human beings is becoming increasingly discredited under the influence of the dominant schools of modern thought.’ 

The belief in the immortality of the soul is a dogma that is contradicted by the most clear, empirical investigation.

Anatta:  The Teaching of No-Soul  {2}

The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying ourselves with it. 

Most human beings choose death instead of immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul or the essential form of life. In reference to those researches of modern scientists who are now more inclined to assert that the so-called ‘Soul’ is no more than a bundle of sensations, emotions, sentiments, all relating to the physical experiences, Prof. William James says that the term ‘Soul’ is a mere figure of speech to which no reality corresponds. It is the same Anatta doctrine of the Buddha that was introduced in the Mahayana school of Buddhism as Sunyata or voidness. 

Although this concept was elaborated by a great Mahayana scholar, Nagarjuna, by giving various interpretations, there is no extraordinary concept in Sunyata that is far different from the Buddha’s original doctrine of Anatta.

 

The belief in Soul or Self and the Creator God, is so strongly rooted in the minds of many people that they cannot imagine why the Buddha did not accept these two concepts which are indispensable to many religions. In fact some people get a shock or become nervous and emotional when they hear that the Buddha rejected these two concepts. 

That is the main reason why to many unbiased scholars and psychologists Buddhism stands unique when compared to all the other religions. At the same time, some other scholars who appreciate the various other aspects of Buddhism are convinced that Buddhism would be enriched by deliberately re-interpreting the Buddha word  'Atta’ in order to introduce the concept of Soul and Self into Buddhism. The Buddha was aware of this unsatisfactoriness of humanity and the conceptual upheaval regarding this belief. 

All conditioned things are impermanent, 

All conditioned things are Dukkha-Suffering, 

All conditioned or unconditioned things 

(Dharma) are soulless or selfless. 

(DHAMMAPADA 277, 278, 279)

There is a parable in our Buddhist texts with regard to the belief in an eternal soul. A man, who mistook a moving rWHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE

Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul ope for a snake, became terrified by that fear in his mind. Upon discovery that it was only a piece of rope, his fear subsided and his mind became peaceful. The belief in an eternal soul is equated to the rope—man’s imagination.

~ Ven. K Sri Dhammananda 

“The mind itself doesn’t get old, get sick or die.”

“The mind itself doesn’t get old, get sick or die.”

Upāsikā: "When I was walking, I saw many stray dogs around. I can see the attachment to my own body when the dogs came towards me. Can you advise how to make my mind calm when the dogs bark and come towards me?"

Than Ajahn: "You just have to let them bite you. If it’s going to be your kamma to be bitten by the dogs, then just let it be. This is the only way that you can become calm. In reality, you might be bitten or not be bitten by the dogs. That’s not the point. The point is that you’re willing to be bitten.

Once you are willing to be bitten by the dogs, it doesn’t matter whether you’re bitten or not. This is what makes your mind calm – the willingness to accept your fate. If it is your fate to be bitten by the dogs, let it be. 

Once you accept this, you will be calm forever. If you can’t accept it, then the only thing you could do is to recite a mantra and keep walking. Don’t pay attention to the dogs barking. This will also calm your mind."

Upāsikā: "I have problems with accepting things."

Than Ajahn:  "If you can accept things, your mind will stop resisting. When your mind stops resisting, your mind will become calm. Right now your mind is agitated because of your resistance to the reality. That’s the reason why the Buddha taught us to contemplate all the time that you’re going to get old, get sick and die.

Don’t resist. Because when you resist, you’ll become agitated and stressful. If you accept it, you’ll not be agitated and stressful. You have to teach your mind to accept things. Tell your mind that the one who has to get old, get sick or die is not the mind, it’s the body. The body doesn’t care because the body doesn’t know that it gets old, gets sick or dies. It’s the mind that knows. But the mind itself doesn’t get old, get sick or die. So, you have to teach the mind to know its proper place. The mind’s proper place is just to know, to acknowledge the reality of the body. And to let things be."

“Dhamma in English, May 8-12, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g

10.5 The Diffusion of Buddhist Dogmas, Rules and Conceptual Schemes by Narratives and Motifs

10.5 The Diffusion of Buddhist Dogmas, Rules and Conceptual Schemes by Narratives and Motifs

Another conceptual framework for maintaining the historical continuity of Buddhism was expressed in the literature of the Jātakas, (the life stories). 

These depicted the life, but most of all the previous lives of the Buddha, and featured moral stories for educating the lay communities. This class of Buddhist scriptures most of all illustrates the workings of karma: how any action done since “beginningless time,” may “mature” into any situation at a much later time. 

The consequence of this dogma is that what we are and what we experience is always determined by our earlier actions. Thus, the individual has complete responsibility for whatever he may encounter in life, this being the favorite “most logical” theodicy of Max Weber. The Buddha remembers all of his lives and recognizes everyone he has encountered in previous lives, so as to help him free himself and others from the burden of earlier sins and actions. Thus, any monastic rule to protect against a particular sin or any rule on how to behave as monk would be supported by such a story. In this way, a sizable and flowery collection of tales and motifs, generated from the general stock of Indian and even global motifs, formed part of the body of monastic rules, the Vinaya. 

However, throughout the history of Buddhism the Jātakas were always a great source of Buddhist poetry and storytelling: entertainment as education for the lay and even the monastic communities. 

Beside the philosophical and learned tradition of Buddhism, creating and spreading learned communities, these collections of stories provided another strand of transfer of knowledge in Buddhism. This popularized form of the Buddhist teachings were set in a field of knowledge accessible not only to the learned, and were widely diffused by means of tales and motifs. They were, however, still based on a formalized literature which was dealt with in the monastic institutions where these edifying stories were organized, written, translated, printed, illustrated and finally propagated.

That diffusion took place between the Mediterranean world and India, and vice versa, in a long perspective of time, along the Silk Road as well as along the sea routes, is definitely the case, even though the evidence to support this communication is rather scant. During the Persian empires, however, there was a developed multilingualism that must have facilitated communication between the areas in question. 

Such circumstances were also prevalent after Alexander’s conquests, which enabled and even facilitated cultural communication between the West and the East, as is amply exemplified in the Greek-influenced Gandhāra art. Greek kingdoms in the East influenced culture in the North East, thus Bactrian documents were written using the Greek alphabet, and ample coin evidence demonstrates the practice of homage to Greek gods as well as to Buddhist and Hindu religious figures. Motifs, however, are traceable as impressions on coins and in the form of arts and other religious artifacts. 

Astrology, however, is so far the only example of a complex system of knowledge that was translated from the medium of Greek to Sanskrit—the systems are fairly similar and one finds Greek loanwords in Indian astrology. 

The Hellenistic Seleucid king Antiochus II (286–246 BCE) is mentioned in two of Aśoka’s edicts: one describes Aśoka’s missionary activities, the other also communicates the spread of medicine as a pious act. 

The Greek envoy of Seleucus Nicator to Candragupta’s and Bindusāra’s courts between 302 and 291 BCE, Megasthenes, wrote a work in Greek with the name Indica. 

We know this work only from fragments, but it did not express a too profound understanding of Indian life. It seems that Megasthenes received most of his information from interpreters, though he seems to have stayed in India for a prolonged period. But, much quoted, his description had a great impact on the perception of India in antiquity. Antiochus I was also in contact with Bindusāra, as diplomatic correspondence between the Indian imperial court and the Greeks demonstrates, also giving evidence to the fact that the Indians were not only interested in trade and war with their neighbors in the west, but also in Greek philosophy.8

Rather than a vague collection of motifs, however, Buddhism was a fairly well-defined conceptual system generated from the Sanskrit language and its dialect Pāli, as well as from other Indic dialects as mentioned above, and as such connected to the general Indian learning in the centuries before and after the beginning of the Christian era. Buddhist literature can be seen as a series of attempts to create a consistent system of thinking, reflected in the several attempts by a number of sects to create a literature to be the canon of “true” Buddhism. One of these attempts was the formalization of a voluminous literature of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which originated in the first two centuries CE. This form of Buddhism seems most of all to be a literary expression rather than a cultic movement, and the attempts to place it geographically and institutionally have so far not been very successful, though its cultural context seems to be the fairly affluent city-cultures in India of the period. However, this literature, characterized as a forgery by earlier mainstream Buddhism, still came to be the basis of Buddhism in its “northern” form. Its concepts were in several respects different from mainstream Buddhism: it represented a philosophical, religious, social and probably political reaction against earlier Buddhism by putting even more emphasis on the doctrines of relativity, emptiness, deconstruction and selflessness, and the endlessness of innumerable universes, many of them with residing Buddhas, like those of “Endless Light” and “Endless Life,” whose figures would gain great influence in the northern and eastern spread of Buddhism. Further, this literature emphasized a radical altruistic morality with arguments, or rather sophisms, like the following: “it is absurd to try to liberate oneself when there is no self.” 

Thus, Mahāyāna literature promoted the lay life on the model of the earlier lives of the Buddha as depicted in the Jātakas, being highly critical of what they styled the corrupt and escapist monastic life.

However, the Mahāyāna literature did not really change the vocabulary of traditional Buddhism; it rather reinterpreted the old words to suit their purposes. So, notwithstanding the change of ideology, the terminology of Buddhism retained its basic structure with a fairly stable lexicon, an important fact in our attempt to understand the continuities and discontinuities of this conceptual system as undergoing translations to other linguistic environments and its ensuing transformations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales

Generating Desire ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Generating Desire
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu 

 "The Buddha also recommends using a sense of pride and honor as a reason for wanting to practice. For the monks, this means living up to the fact that you’re a monk. 

When you say you’re a contemplative, are you really a contemplative? Or are you just here as a tourist, checking it out, seeing what it’s like wearing robes, going for alms, playing the role of a monk? If you had any sense of honor, you’d want to make your mind the mind of a monk, the mind of a contemplative....

The Buddha also talks of developing a warrior’s sense of pride and honor in your ability to master the practice. 

Monks, he says, are like five different kinds of warriors. 

There’s the warrior who sees the dust of the approaching army and grows faint, runs away. There’s the warrior who sees the top of the banner of the approaching army, feels faint, runs away. There’s the warrior who actually sees the army running at him, hears the tumult, hears the noise of the army, gets faint, runs away. There’s the soldier who gets engaged in hand-to-hand combat, gives up, loses. And then there’s the soldier who comes out winning: doesn’t get faint when he sees the dust of the approaching army, doesn’t get faint when he sees the banner, hears the tumult, or actually engages in hand-to-hand combat. He comes out victorious.

These warriors are like five different kinds of monks. 

There’s the monk who hears that there’s a beautiful woman in that village over there. Just the thought that there are beautiful women out there is enough to make him give up the training. That’s the one who grows faint on seeing the dust of the approaching army. 

Then there’s the monk who gives up when he actually sees a beautiful woman: He’s like the warrior who sees the top of the banner of the army, gets faint, runs away. Then there’s the monk who faints on hearing the tumult of the approaching army, i.e., he’s sitting out meditating under a tree and a woman comes up and teases him, makes fun of him, and he gives up the training. Then there’s one who gives up when engaged in hand-to-hand combat—in other words, the woman actually comes up and throws herself all over him, so he gives up the training. The one who comes out victorious doesn’t grow faint or give up with any of these things. He sticks with his resolve that he’s going to try to overcome his sensual passion, regardless.

The Buddha teaches in this way to instill a sense of honor, a sense of pride that mastering this practice is an accomplishment."

Generating Desire

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu 

https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/Meditations5/Section0026.html

Interview with Sayalay Piyadassi

Interview with Sayalay Piyadassi

Joah connects with Sayalay Piyadassi, a foreign meditator who took up robes in Myanmar, about growing up under the shadow of the old Soviet Union in Lithuania. Her initial enthusiasm for Christianity fizzled away at a young age, and her spirituality was later rekindled after taking several silent vipassana meditation retreats in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. She eventually began spending time in vipassana centers across Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. That ultimately led her to Burma, where she ordained as a Buddhist nun in 2013, and she has remained in robes ever since. Sayalay Piyadassii is now a full-time student at Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi, a new school which was just started by Oxford Sayadaw.

Sayalay speaks openly about the early difficulties of her time as a monastic, during which she felt her spiritual life became unbalanced, with too much time spent in formal, sitting meditation. This ultimately led her to leaving to Burma and residing in a cave in Spain where she practiced mettā full time. When she felt she had regained the physical and spiritual balance she was seeking, she returned to Burma with a clearer picture of how to best construct her time in robes.

In the course of the talk, Sayalay also discusses several themes that have animated her time as a nun. One these was finding a balance between a structured form of meditation instruction on one hand, and being open and flexible to the moment on the other. She also contrasts her experience as a nun in Burmese Buddhist society with the preferential treatment received by monks, and her attitude towards this gender discrimination. Concerning her prior overemphasis on formal practice, Sayalay remarks on the importance of devoting greater amounts of time to study (pariyatti), and the deeper insights that can be derived solely from familiarity with the scriptures. 

Additionally, having spent so much time now in Myanmar, Sayalay shares how the culture of the country has benefited her practice, and how appreciative she has been overall. This, and much more!  

She closes by discussing her first year of studies here and the quality of the education.

After the talk, Zach Hessler joins in to discuss the overall themes from the interview. 

Joah remarks how inspiring it was to hear Sayalay discuss the series of transformations her spiritual journey took, preventing her from ever being “stuck” at any one stage. 

They note how little even Western meditators know about monasticism in general and the monastic’s life in specific, and how much training is needed for a monk or nun to feel even somewhat independent. Zach notes that the fruits of Sayalay’s practice can be heard clearly throughout the interview, and her joyous exclamation of loving the simple life was one of the overall highlights. They close by reviewing the nun discrimination that Sayalay has faced in Burmese society, and her recent enrollment in the Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi.

https://insightmyanmar.org/complete-shows/2020/2/20/episode-3-sayalay-piyadassi

Human Life and Problems Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda WE ARE RESPONSIBLE

Human Life and Problems
Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda
WE ARE RESPONSIBLE

Even educated people do not use their knowledge wisely when they come to superstitious practices that are performed in the name of religion. Try to get rid of this poor mentality by strengthening the mind and developing self-confidence. 

Then we can overcome many of our problems and in most cases, our imaginary problems will simply disappear.

According to some religious beliefs, there is a god who is responsible for all the good things that happen to us and if anything goes wrong, then the devil is to be blamed for it. 

To us it is not a very convincing belief.

Most of us simply do not try to understand why we are not happy and why we are not satisfied with our lives, and who is responsible for this situation. The Buddha teaches that we are ultimately responsible for every action of ourwhich leads to contentment or unsatisfactoriness.

Besides all major problems for which we are responsible and which affect us directly we also create some others which divide mankind and create problems such as racial arrogance, religious fanaticism, cultural and traditional discrimination, language problems, colour bar and superiority and inferiority complex by thinking the followers of other religions are their enemies and it is a sin to support the activities of another religion. They never think that the followers of every religion are trying to do some service to humanity and not do harm to others. 

Problems such as these indirectly contribute to our sense of discontentment.

~ Ven. K Sri Dhammananda