Faces of FY - Weixing

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'Time stays long enough for those who use it- has been said so many times but it can be so hard to achieve. In my case, i would have loved to be more motivated to try to fulfill the expectations of those around me and to be a better person if possible' - Weixing

Faces of BFY - Shun xiang

Today's faces of bfy is none other than Shun Xiang! Here are a few words from him. "If you look at what you have in life, you will always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you will never have enough." ―Oprah Winfrey We have always been searching high and low for happiness in life, which remains ever-elusive in today's world that baits us in an endless chase. Little do we realise that we already have all we will ever need to be happy; being contented and appreciating all we have. I always feel so fortunate to have met the teachings of the Buddha, and to have had a taste of what it means to be at peace and to be happy; happiness that comes from within, that does not depend on external conditions. And that is something I'm immensely grateful for as well (: Perhaps if we stop looking outwards, and just open up to what we already have, maybe it will dawn on us that what we are looking for is right under our noses. “Forget yesterday - it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow - you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift - today.” ―Steve Maraboli With this, we'll be counting down to the end of our camp registration! There's only 3 more days left, so if you feel interested, do send us an email or message about signing up!

Dhamma Talk by Ajahn Dtun - 28 November at Wat Palelai

The opening question was: are we keeping the 5 precepts?

We are born w complete faculties, all the more we should practise.

To be a morally upright person we should reflect on damage of breaking the precepts. From there we see the benefits of keeping them.

Ajahn's father brought him up to keep the 5 precepts. He naturally disliked lying. His father's value was never to take anything as small as a needle from anyone. This conditioned him not to steal.

As a teenager sometimes his friends went fishing but he was lucky be inclined not to take lives. However, once he followed friends who were sons of fishermen to go fishing which was good fun. They were going to cook them. 

Around 10 or 11 pm, a voice came to him and asked him if he loved his family and himself. He said yes. If anyone were to harm them or yourself would you like that? He said of course not. Then the voice says you already have a comfortable lifestyle, why do you have to harm other beings? All the beings you have killed have families like you just that they can't speak. He then returned the creatures that had not been cooked to the ocean and resolved to keep the first precept from then on.

There is duality in the world. When there are men there are women; with darkness there is light; there is badness when there is goodness. Knowing all this is dhamma. Whatever is good in the world he wished to develop that. 

He looked upon girls as sisters and those of the same age as friends. This was the observance of sila (morality) as there was no intention to deceive them, rather he had respect for them. As a teenager he had his own set of standards, one of which was not to go anywhere alone with a female as he was afraid of liking her; he wanted to finish his studies before having a girlfriend.

One's mindfulness may not be good in the first place but taking alcohol and drugs lessens it. When Ajahn was 21, he saw a drunk vomit at a bus stop. Drunk people's behaviour is very poor so he decided to abstain from drinking. 

All these incidents when he was growing up enabled him to keep the 5 precepts quite easily.

The rationale behind precepts is that we would not like it if people kill, steal, have sexual misconduct towards, lie, have wrong speech towards us. So we should not do to others. We have this body from our parents, those people who drink destroy their health and mindfulness and waste money. 

Most people seek happiness through sensory pleasures - 5 senses, wealth, status and praise. However these kinds of happiness are very small and short-lived, and serve to temporarily alleviate dukkha (suffering). It isn't true happiness where the mind is liberated beyond suffering. Being content with these kinds of gross happiness gets us reborn over and over again. When people have delusion they seek only external happiness. The mind doesn't see physical and mental suffering as it is but attaches to them and see them as oneself. Aging, sickness and death cause mental suffering as we deludedly think the body is oneself. Ajahn himself thought in this same way but when he was sick he asked himself if the mind has control over the body. It does not; thus the body is not the mind and the mind is not the body. We cannot stop aging, sickness and death by the will of the mind. The mind and body are separate but just depend on each other for a lifetime. Everyone is afraid of death but all who are born must die. Hence we should develop the wisdom of being afraid of birth so we aren't reborn. Upon such reflection one wouldn't be careless but cultivate good qualities. Life is short, hence we should develop our mind and do things of benefit to our minds. Acquiring things like wealth serves to temporarily alleviate our needs and suffering but material possessions cannot be brought along with us after death.

Attachment to the body is suffering. Hence we should reflect on non-self using mindfulness. Likewise we attach to thoughts and emotions, believing them to be us. When we wish for happiness we experience mental disturbance. If the mind were oneself and one wishes for happiness, suffering will never arise. Thoughts and emotions are passing and they are not the mind. There is nothing that does not bring suffering when we attach to it.

Teachings of the Buddha:

Avoid evil. Develop the good and cultivate the mind towards wisdom and good. If one fails to abstain from unwholesome deeds it is a source of suffering for oneself.

Keeping the precepts gives us peaceful, harmless actions and speech, while meditation gives us a peaceful mind. No matter how strong the greed and hatred, those who keep precepts will not take things from others, harm or take lives. However within ones heart there may still be agitations so one has to take control over that. People can train elephants and horses but why can't we train our minds? We must train the mind so it is not agitated or swept by thoughts. Practise meditation to train the mind, brings a calm with concentration. One must have patience and endurance to develop mindfulness to the extent one is mindful even out of meditation, always keeping a close watch over the mind. A mindful person can see the suffering that arises within their mind, and then use mindfulness to seek out the cause. 

With mindfulness one can pick out defilements; suffering; greed, hatred and delusion. Therefore all of us should consider putting effort in the practice. Without this cultivation the mind is not strong enough to separate itself from its contents. One with little mindfulness will act upon the contents ie act on greed, anger to harm others, take from them, argue or even kill. They let greed, anger and delusion take over their minds, hence they act and speak in a bad way. When one has mindfulness and wisdom, greed, anger and delusion is filtered out. Actions become wholesome and happiness arises both in the present and future. One would see the true nature of the body and not be deluded. One will consequently be heedful in living one's life, going about one's activities and taking care of the family responsibly, and cultivating the mind to have right view. With mindfulness, concentration and wisdom, the contents are separated from the mind. Without those they seem one thing and one would believe they are a whole, creating suffering. See the truth of aging, sickness and death. Seeing the impermanence of body and mind one will let go and happiness arises. Therefore if we wish for happiness we should develop our minds by following the teachings of Buddha to best of our ability for the cessation of suffering.

For all of us, don't be heedless in living life or be complacent. If not for the Buddha we would not know the truth of happiness of going beyond suffering. We need patience in our practice to get out of suffering.

Q&A

How to overcome forgetfulness?

Develop mindfulness by focusing on 1 meditation object.

1. The breath, the sensation of it. Put down all thoughts of past and future.

2. If the mind is restlessly thinking, breathe in say "Bud", breathe out say "Dho" to cut out thoughts.

3. Or focus entirely on reciting "Buddho" to develop mindfulness. Stick to whichever we get the best results from. Can do walking meditation too.

How to deal with anger?

First see that anger is a source of suffering. Seeing that find a way to let go. If we don't see that, we would keep it within our hearts. Once Ajahn saw two friends having a heated argument and it was clear it was a source of suffering. He then made the determination to let go of anger and defilements, and try not to let it arise. 

1. To control heart in anger, control by keeping 5 precepts. 

2. Frequently practise meditation. The mind will have more and more patience to bear with anger.

3. Do metta meditation to cultivate goodwill.

One would have the mindfulness to catch anger arising, and be grateful for those pointing out one's faults, and anger ceases very quickly. If we have not done anything wrong there is no reason to be angry. 

If we have weak mindfulness and wisdom we are subject to arguments, harming and killing. Mindfulness helps us think before we speak. If it is inappropriate to say anything have the mindset of letting it cease and not speaking. For most people whatever they think they speak as they lack mindfulness and wisdom which causes them distress. It is difficult to cultivate mindfulness and wisdom so practise frequently.

What happens to the mind upon death?

The mind takes on what it has been developing. If wholesome, one is reborn in the human or deva realm. If unwholesome, one is reborn in the woeful realms (hell, hungry ghost, animal and azura). Do good and get good results and vice versa. Hence cultivate morality and mind. 

How to get rid of desire?

Desire is attachment to sensory pleasures, never feeling full. The Desire of humans knows no bounds. The cessation is the practice of morality - precepts and meditation.

What is the difference between awareness and mindfulness?

They are very similar, they go together. Mindfulness is recollection. Awareness is general knowing. First develop mindfulness through meditation, practise frequently. It develops concentration which many people don't like, they prefer to let it run. Then one will be more aware in general as well.

How to help a depressed person?

They have to practise themselves. Depressed people are not practising. The practice of sila (morality), samadhi (concentration) and pañña (wisdom) is the medicine for mind. Many people neglect them and as a result people lack mindfulness and wisdom, attaching to emotions thinking they're the mind and getting depressed. They may have to take medication to manage their minds.

How to deal with negative emotions towards people who are mean or don't treat us well?

Have mindfulness and patience to let go of feelings as quickly as you can. It is normal to have conflict and differences. Overcome anger through non-anger.

It's the person's business they have anger and it's our own business not to have anger towards others. The attachment people have, towards body and mind and the sense of self is difficult to get rid of and causes us to be angry when people say things. Hence we must practise meditation to cultivate our minds.

“Ignorance is Bliss?” by Bro Jerry - 8 November

These notes were taken by Sze Yuan.

Letting go:

1)     It is something that is easy to say, but hard to practise. This is because we are still defiled and have attachments to many things. This range from coarse kinds like material wealth, to more refined ones like relationships. Yet despite this spectra, they are all attachments and hinder our practice in letting go. We understand on an intellectual level the concept of anicca (non-self) and that all things come and go, this intellectual understanding takes time to diffuse into us. Hence, we have to constantly reflect, remind ourselves, and provide the conditions for the practice to ripen.

2)     Analogy of birds:

a.       A pair of birds built their nest outside Brother Jerry’s house one day a few months back and he had the fortune of witnessing the growth and development of the hatchling. The growth process lasting a couple of weeks was documented on his home video footage, and he shared the footages with us. The main stages were as follows:

                                                               i.      The first task was to build the next, and the pair of birds hustled endlessly to collect twigs to build a sturdy nest.

                                                             ii.      The mother bird then laid a single egg, and they embarked on their parenthood there forth.

                                                           iii.      For the next two weeks, the parent birds took turns bringing back food to feed their hatchling, and they had to frequently defend their nest from intruding birds too.

                                                           iv.      Despite their meticulous care, the inevitable day came when the little bird grew up and took flight away from the nest.

b.      The whole growing up process of the birds bore an important lesson of letting go. The parent birds were analogous to our parents, and as children we are their hatchlings. In grooming us up before letting us take flight to live our own lives, parents demonstrate a commendable act of letting go.

3)     How does letting go align with conventional success? How can we succeed when we are not attached to anything?

a.       Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that Buddhism is not against material success. Go forth and earn your riches, what is essential is earning it righteously without breaking the 5 precepts, and not using it to break the precepts.

b.      Secondly, the attitude of letting things be and not being overly attached to things is in fact conducive for success even in the conventional world too:

                                                               i.      Letting things go means that one is able to have harmonious relationships with our colleagues. We learn to let go of grievances and are able to have metta towards them. As the saying go, we recognize that “holding on to anger is like holding on to a piece of charcoal wanting to throw at someone else – we end up being the one burned”. A harmonious working relationship constitutes building conditions for success at work.

                                                             ii.      Furthermore, letting go means that we are more flexible with our plans and are able to adapt to changes. This is especially relevant in today’s context where things are volatile and ever-changing. An attitude of letting go means we do not grasp on the existing plans to tightly, and are able to go with the flow and adjust our mental state in accordance to the situation. This is certainly beneficial in ensuring a high work performance.

c.       In fact, there are many Buddhist practitioners who are very accomplished in our society. However, many are low profile, hence are not well-known. 

"Love in a World of Hate" by Bro Yap - 1 November

Personally I found this talk very insightful and applicable. It offered a Buddhist perspective of current affairs. Violence in the world goes in a cycle of being very violent to relatively peaceful then very violent again. Why should it have an impact on us?

One way is to see it as sth external, beyond our control. Very often we don't understand that external things are beyond our control and feel upset. We can look on things as external conditions. Things happen due to several external conditions coming together eg why people act a certain way, even if they seem very senseless there is a reason for their behaviour.

If we don't understand this, we will tend not to see things as they are and instead be swept by our judgments and emotions, and can even fall into depression. We have a tendency of blaming the situation.

Anything that arises will surely cease. When one of the conditions that creates the situation is no longer that, the situation will cease. Hence we should have patience that it will go away.

Eg if someone says something nasty, we will usually get angry. Before that, there wasn't anything. It is something external. Reacting does not create the conditions for it to go away but instead the person may say something nasty back and the situation may snowball. This is how many conflicts arise; over more minor things that snowball because people do not give them a chance to cease. It doesn't matter if they deserve to be scolded; just leave the matter and see their speech as just words. Don't provide the conditions for the conflict to continue.

Think of people like how dogs will bark. People are nasty due to conditions. Don't take their words so personally. They aren't perfect beings as we aren't, that's why we come to this path. It can be difficult, as we may have to correct years of bad habits.

Story: during Buddha's time, 2 clans were about to go to war. When asked, they pointed to the other party insulting them but were unsure of the original reason for conflict. The source turned out to be a quarrel between 2 farmers; one built a dam which deprived the other of water. The Buddha asked them if they would rather fill the river with blood or come to a compromise so all can share the water. They came to a compromise. We should go back to things in their raw form; we add layers and make mountains out of molehills. We should find the root cause whenever there are problems and conflict and resolve it from there.

Conditions change; things were different moments ago from now. When things aren't going our way, or it seems there is no way out, remember that things will change. These are just due to conditions that will change. Thinking about how we are suffering and how miserable we are will fuel our suffering even more. Be with nature, and this reminds us of the transient nature of things.

On an inner level we have hatred and anger which are suffering.

We must understand suffering before we can talk about other things. We often try to escape suffering instead of trying to understand it, thinking that our suffering will go away by going on holiday. We are unable to face it and see it for what it is.

Eg did badly for exams, try to hide it and avoid the issue which creates more problems.

Material things can't get us out of suffering. It will come back, and we may be unable to deal with it.

1st noble truth - understand there is suffering.

2nd noble truth - we must understand the cause, rather than escaping.

3rd noble truth - gives us hope.

4th noble truth - we have the ability to get out of suffering. Suffering comes about because of our own doing so it is within our power to get ourselves out of it

Experience these for ourselves and understand them, rather than just knowing what they are on paper.

Understanding suffering makes our happiness more long-lasting and satisfactory. If our happiness relies on having things, it is very unstable and fragile.

There is suffering with aging; we will lose our good looks, and cannot do what we used to do anymore.

Material things aren't symbols of happiness; just because we have them does not mean we have to be happy.

We should start with understanding 4 Noble Truths and Eightfold Path 

For the Eightfold Path, we take the 5 precepts to uphold morality. Pay a lot of attention to them.

The 5 precepts are not commandments, but to exercise restraint for our own good eg when there is anger. We are heirs to our own karma, we choose for ourselves 

right speech; avoid slandering, lying, gossiping which can be through social media, whatsapp etc in addition to talking. Instead we should practise using speech to convey kindness, love and concern for others. We should have the mindset of wanting to provide harmony, peace and non-violence wherever we are.

We should always question ourselves if we have broken the precepts. If we have try to make amends. If not, we don't have anything to worry. Precepts get us out of trouble eg by abstaining from alcohol, we will never go drink-driving.

Mental cultivation is for us to cultivate a peaceful mind. We spend lots of time grooming ourselves physically. But how often do we spend time grooming our mind? How often do we form judgments and prejudice and blame people and things?

No matter what we do, the physical will not last, we will age. However if we cultivate the mind it can only get stronger.

It's about our thoughts, our understanding. Understand that things are impermanent and are subject to conditions, if not we suffer.

Are we as full of anger, hatred and negativity as what's going on in the world? No need to be pessimistic. We have a choice no matter what happens. If a person is angry and stirs up anger in us, we can choose not to act rather than say we can't help it. We can choose whether to use wholesome or unwholesome speech. Regardless of what happens outside, we can still bring out our qualities of compassion and equanimity. We don't have to be affected and we can flourish the 4 immeasurables - compassion, loving-kindness, sympathetic joy and equanimity. The seeds are in us, try to decrease unwholesome tendencies and increase these wholesome ones. Enlightened beings demonstrate the human potential; they are physically similar to us but have cultivated their mind.

No matter what the conditions are, there are bound to be dissatisfactory conditions; there is no ideal world. Even subtle things like not getting the grades we want or things not going our way are suffering. Ask ourselves why we suffer; reflect. We would often blame and ask why people are like that but fail to look inwards.

"The Hunger for Suffering" by Bro Wen Jie - 25 October

All teachings have the 4 Noble Truths and Eightfold Path as their backbone. Trying to acquire more knowledge is good, but if one is acquiring for one's ego there is little wisdom acquired.

People are influenced by culture eg Japanese, Korean; they unconsciously take it on. The Buddhist practice is a culture as well.

When taking on a culture, doubts arise eg why do guys perm hair? Question the use of metal chopsticks, if they'll be scalding if the food is hot?

Similarly, in the Buddhist practice we may start questioning a lot. The Buddha encourages us to investigate the teachings for ourselves, but if there are too much doubts, they become hindrances such that we end up not taking on the culture, and not learning. An issue is that we carry our baggages and past opinions and as a result we may not be receptive. Eg we may question: why bother making a room extra clean for a monk when we find it clean enough? This is because it is a way to repay the kindness of the monk, who teaches us and can't receive money for his service. In fact, doing these things train the mind. Staying with monks we see how mindful they are even with little things; they have 227 precepts and need to have a high level of mindfulness to keep them.

After immersing in the culture for some time then we start to understand.

When deciding whether to clean or not, defilements, excuses of laziness kick in. Realize that confusion all boils down to wanting to know. We will know when we arrive at the state of mind where there is no confusion. Confusion affects meditation; the mind will always run and never be still when the meditator is not sharp enough.

The hard part is immersing oneself in the culture. The biggest issue is ego; having own ideas and being unwilling to submit oneself to the culture. For example, one may not see the point of bowing, or the Thai male and female ways of kneeling.

Question ourselves: what is the practice? It transforms us and we can do what we already do better. It is submitting oneself to the routine in a monastery with no questions.

Like going to the gym, the first time we just ache. Keep going and develop muscles. Keep going in the practice. It's about the  Noble Eightfold Path but our issue is submitting ourselves to it.

3 aspects of each Noble Truth.

1st Noble Truth

Statement: there is suffering.

Prescription: suffering should be understood.

What is suffering? What is there to be understood?

Buddha never explained suffering because we all know what it is. The problem with us is that we don't know what causes it. Clinging to 5 Aggregates; things that are impermanent brings it about. We think that other things cause suffering. We watch tv, eat good food etc because we think not having those is suffering.

Result: suffering has been understood.

2nd Noble Truth

Statement: the cause of suffering is desire.

Prescription: desire has to be let go of.

We don't see birth, aging, sickness, death, especially when we are young and think our youth and energy is permanent. We cling to it.

When we have pain eg during meditation, we don't realise that when we are about to die, the pain will be a lot more severe. About all of the dying patients in hospitals are prescribed antidepressants; we have the delusion that we won't be like them.

Result: desire has been let go of.

3rd Noble Truth

Statement: there is a way out of suffering.

Prescription: the way out of suffering should be realised.

Result: the way out of suffering has been realised.

4th Noble Truth

Statement: the way out of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.

Prescription: the Noble Eightfold Path should be cultivated.

Result: the Noble Eightfold Path has been cultivated.

It sounds simplistic but can only be internalized by immersing ourselves in the practice.

None of us are lacking in effort and energy. The problem is that we put these  into the wrong things. Eg IPPT used to be effortless for Bro Wen Jie, but as he aged he trained hard but barely passed. Other egs are knowledge, money, girlfriend etc. These things are acquired but they will go one day. Hence we are wasting our time in a way. The practice is what will go up and not come down in the present and future lives as long as we are consistent. Therefore putting energy to it is important. Hence the need for Right View.

Chanki Sutta

The Buddha was having a conversation with a group of older Brahmins when a young Brahmin interjected. The Buddha told him off for doing so but the older Brahmins wanted to let him speak as he was very smart. The young Brahmin asked the Buddha questions.

Wise position: if you are not awakened, when asked a question you should say "as far as I know this is true but for the rest, I don't know."

To decide on whether to follow a teacher, observe him and see if he does not have greed, hatred and delusion. If he passes then visit him and listen to what he has to say and remember it. Then penetrate the meaning. If it makes sense to you, come into agreement with the Dhamma. Upon having the desire to listen to it more, contemplate the teachings even more ie do in your practice. Then exert yourself by putting in energy into the practice. Then you will penetrate the truth even more. Repeat the cycle until you arrive at a truth. This is where the greatest safeguard is.

One has to be discerning, and most importantly exert it to have right view.

"Learning From Nature" by Dr Henry Yeo - 29 November

This was a discussion-based talk. Hence some of the insights I wrote are shared by the Youths.

He started off by showing us a video of nature. The takeaway point is that we are often caught up in the office etc but forget how small we are in relation to nature. Nature isn't always perfect, with 4 seasons and rain. Buddha, Jesus etc walked in nature. Nature helps us appreciate our surroundings and confront our own thoughts.

A river has to crash and fall to reach the beautiful valley, but it moves on without complaint. Just like our life which isn't smooth-sailing. We have to have the determination to go on to reach the valley of peace.

The significance of the lotus in Buddhism:

Waxy surface; anything rolls off just as insults roll off an enlightened one. It grows in harsh conditions but emerges beautiful.

In a lotus pond, some young ones are waiting to emerge while some lotuses are dying. We can us this to contemplate the life cycle.

Ajahn Brahm's story of falling leaves: during a storm, not just old leaves and branches fall on the ground, but young leaves do as well. Just like human lives, it is natural that some die young.

When we go out in the open, the variation of colours, sounds etc is much wider than in the city. We take many things for granted in the city. Everything is interconnected. We often want perfection eg perfect partner, perfect body, but in nature there are hardly 2 trees that are the same, some have broken branches etc. Everything is unique in its own way and more beautiful. A short exercise we can do is to plant a small seed. See that everything arises from causes and conditions; dependent on many factors like water and sunlight. Plant a durian seed and get a durian plant. Similarly we reap the seeds we plant.

If we are frightened in nature we should go back to breath meditation and wish ourselves to be well and happy.

Most of us are like mudskippers, complacent, basking in the sun, without a thought for the next day. We are like mayflies that just mate, having fun, and then get eaten by swallows. We can see how things in nature relate to Dhamma.

Living in the city we feel we can control a lot of things eg what we want to eat. Nature has its own rules and we are just a small part of it. 

Ajahn Brahm's story: 

Walking up a hill one notices a lot more things than if one were driven. In our life we are in a hurry to do many things eg get a degree, HDB, so we forget to enjoy the journey. 

Even in the city we can look at our surroundings and see the beauty rather than the floor. Good to know a few names of plants, birds so we appreciate them when we can identify them. Good to meditate by the sea. On a windy day the breeze can be a meditation object.

In life, we get enlightened for a tiny moment in nature eg beautiful sunset. That is because we are so absorbed we forget that 'I' exists and becomes one with nature with a gladness to see it. Life is like a rainbow, it goes away quickly.

We think we are very strong but in nature we are a lot weaker than we think we are. Eg in the snow, we may easily chop off our toes because the axe can slip due to numb fingers. If a log drops we may not be able to get up no matter how much we can lift weights at the gym. Forgive ourselves for that and acknowledge nature is more powerful.

We tend to quantify things eg I'm a good Buddhist if I reach 3rd jhana. We are missing the point. What is important is if we come out a better person.

A lot of times we are angry with nature eg rain but there's no point many things are beyond our control. Including other people whose actions we cannot control so there is no point getting angry with them.

A story as a analogy: a man tripped over a hump. He cursed the ground for making him dirty so dug it to teach it a lesson. He did not realize he was getting dirtier and eventually dropped into the hole. He cursed but do you think the earth cares? 

When the mud has settled in a pond it becomes so clear. Just like when our mind is settled it becomes so clear.

We should take time off to go for walks in nature. It lifts the mood. The mind plays a big part in nature eg we may be calm, or imagine fearful things in the unknown.

Dhamma in nature - impermanence, dissatisfaction and non-self. We are not in control. The body is not ours, it will go back to nature which is the 4 elements, earth, fire, water and air. We are made of mind and matter. We can only shape our future through our kamma.

Who would expect the Himalayas was once a sea? Reflecting on death and nature, pick up a scoop of sand on the beach. There are shells which were once living animals. These contributed to the sand on the beach.

Make use of awareness of our surroundings in our practice. Assume a humbling attitude there's much we don't know.

Notes from One Day Guided Meditation by Phra Chun Kiang - 18 October

8 kinds of suffering:

1. Birth

2. Aging

3. Sickness

4. Death

5. Separation from loved ones

6. Associating with people you don't like

7. Not getting what we want

8. The 5 clinging aggregates - form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness - 5 senses + mind

Eg when we see Venerable that is eye consciousness. We see form and feeling arises; pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Mental formations, what the mind starts to think, arise.

Meditation helps us to understand workings of the mind. We are studying ourselves.

Craving for sensual pleasures is greed. 

Craving for becoming is because we don't want to let go of pleasant feelings eg eating something very nice.

Craving for non-becoming is hatred of sth unpleasant. Eg if Venerable scolds us vulgarities we will feel unpleasant as we hate the vulgarities being directed at us.

We should go into meditation with right thought. Some ppl may meditate to get psychic powers which is wrong intention. The benchmark is: are we reducing greed, hatred and delusion?

It is better for a sick patient to go to consult a doctor than to attend health conference. A dhamma talk is like a health conference, a general guideline for many people. It is better to do our own practice and have personal consultation for our issues.

During the retreat we did breath meditation, walking meditation and loving-kindness meditation.

Breath meditation involves being aware of the breath, breathing in and out.

Walking meditation involves focusing on the movement of our feet as we walk.

Loving-kindness meditation involves radiating loving-kindness to ourselves and other beings, wishing all to be well and happy, and free from suffering and danger.