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From Page 1
Siddhartha Gautama, also
known as Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya clan), was the originator of
historical Buddhism. When Siddhartha was born, in northern India, it was
prophesied that he would either become a great clan leader or a great
spiritual teacher. To keep Siddhartha from becoming a sage, his father
kept him enclosed within their palace, shielding him from the outside
world. All of life’s pleasures were readily available to him, and he
never lacked for anything. Despite this, he longed to experience the
world.
When he was 29, he snuck
out of the palace to see the world for himself. In his explorations,
three things he saw changed his life: a sick man, an old man, and a dead
man. Having been shielded from these aspects of life, Siddhartha was
shocked. During this time, he also met a wandering ascetic who had
renounced all worldly possessions and claimed to be better off for it.
Discovering the fact that
all people were subject to old age, sickness, and death, the privileges
of his royal status no longer meant anything to him. Wealth and pleasure
could not shield anyone from suffering. He now had to know why life was
the way it was. So, he left his palace, his wife and child, his noble
inheritance, cut off his hair, discarded his silk robe, and became a
wandering ascetic.
Siddhartha spent many years
beating and starving himself, practicing many austerities, until he came
to the conclusion that pain and asceticism didn’t bring any spiritual
insight. Having found no illumination in either pain or pleasure,
Siddhartha renounced this path as well. He quit his severe practices and
began eating food again.
Restoring his body to a
state of health, he left his ascetic companions and soon after went off
alone into the woods. Siddhartha gave up searching through worldly means
and simply sat under a tree and began to meditate unceasingly. It is
here that he realized the ‘middle way’ between extremes and attained
enlightenment.
The next 45 years of his
life were spent teaching others the path to enlightenment until he died
at the age of 80.
From Page 1
The Eightfold Path
1. Right View
Right view simply means to see and to understand things as they
really are, not as you ‘wish’ them to be.
2. Right Intention
Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical
behavior for the good of the whole.
3. Right Speech
Buddha explains right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from
false speech; not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak
deceitfully; 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to
speak maliciously against others; 3. to abstain from harsh words
that offend or hurt others; and 4. to abstain from the idle
chatter that lacks purpose or depth.
4. Right Action
1. To abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to
abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm
intentionally or unconsciously, including eating the flesh of
other beings; 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which
includes stealing, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty; and 3.
to abstain from sexual misconduct.
5. Right Livelihood
Buddha teaches four specific activities that harm other beings
and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in
weapons; 2. dealing in living beings (including slave trade and
prostitution as well as raising animals for slaughter); 3.
working in meat production and butchery; and 4. selling
intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs.
6. Right Effort
1. to prevent the arising of unwholesome states; 2. to abandon
unwholesome states that have already arisen; 3. to arouse
wholesome states that have not yet arisen; and 4. to maintain
and perfect wholesome states already arisen.
7. Right Mindfulness
1. Contemplation of the body; 2. contemplation of feeling
(repulsive, attractive, or neutral); 3. contemplation of the
state of mind; and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.
8. Right Concentration
Right concentration is the practice of meditation.
The
path of Theravada (pronounced tehr-ah-VAH-dah), translated as ‘the ways
of the elders,’ is considered to be the oldest existing Buddhist sect
adhering to the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha as they were agreed upon
at the first ‘Buddhist Council’
by 500 of his closest monks, shortly after his death. These
teachings, known as the Pali Canon, are the essential Theravada teachings. Later schools
refer to the Pali Canon as the ‘first turning of the dharma wheel,’
because they view it as Sakyamuni’s
first body of teachings after
He awakened spiritually, but not the highest teachings.
The Pali Canon consists of
the ‘three baskets’ or ‘tipitaka.’ These ‘baskets’ are the
Vinaya, rules of monastic discipline; the
Sutta, teachings of the Buddha, generally in the form of dialogues;
and the Abhidhamma, a
compilation of various teaching texts, and debated points of teaching.
The goal of a Theravadin
monk is to become an arhat,
which is one who walks the middle
way between dualities’ extremes, has relinquished all traces of
attachment and desire for worldly things and thus, having no karmic
cause for future rebirths, will enter nibbana (also called nirvana) upon
death, never to be born again.
Theravada is focused mainly
on the teachings of the
Four Noble Truths* and
Eightfold Path,* monasticism, worldly renunciation, and
self-refinement through chanting, praying, studying teachings,
vipassana* or ‘insight
meditation,’ and vibhajjavada,
the ‘study of analysis.’
Historically, lay followers
played a minor role in this tradition. They were given only five basic
precepts to follow: do not kill, do not steal, abstain from sexual
misconduct, do not lie, and do not consume intoxicating substances. They
also practiced development mainly through attempting to acquire karmic
merit by providing for the renunciant monks and performing tasks related
to that.
Theravadins often attempt
to live closely to how Sakyamuni lived in 500 B.C.E.
They accept Sakyamuni and Buddhas previous to him as having
attained Buddhahood, but do not recognize later Mahayana Teachers as
Buddhas. They are the original traditionalists of Buddhism.
At one point in time, there
were 18 distinct schools of the old tradition. Modern Theravada is the
only remaining one, having thrived in Sri Lanka long after the others
faded away. The Theravada school is the predominant form of Buddhism in
Sri Lanka and Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
and Cambodia.
From Page 1
Mahayana
Buddhism is generally thought to have emerged as a
unified body of thought in India between the 1st
century B.C.E and the 1st century C.E. Mahayana is a general name for a wide variety of
loosely related schools and teachings, some of which
are even contradictory.
Early Mahayana was composed
of different groups that split off from the
traditional (Theravada) community. Seeking to expand
beyond the strict adherence to the Pali Canon and
its heavy reliance upon monastic renunciation and
the practice of seeking enlightenment solely for
oneself, members sought to make the teachings more
accessible to laypersons that were unable to live
monastically. Mahayana is often thought of as the
expansion or deepening of Sakyamuni’s spiritual
teachings, embracing many sutras (teachings)
that the Theravada does not recognize as legitimate.
Viewing the ‘orthodox’ path
as inferior, they referred to the traditionalists’
path derogatorily as Hinayana, which
literally means ‘the lesser vehicle,’ while
referring to their own path as Mahayana, or
‘the greater vehicle.’ This new tradition felt that
acting for the
upliftment and enlightenment of all sentient beings
was the noblest spiritual path. They taught that
everyone could attain Buddhahood, because all
sentient life contained divinity. Great emphasis was
placed on practicing compassion.*
Mahayana was largely
influenced by two earlier sects, the Mahasanghikas, or ‘members of the Great
Community,’
and the Sarvastivada, the ‘Teaching that says
everything is.’ The Mahasanghikas taught that
everything is a
projection of mind* and regarded the
Buddha as a supernatural figure who was limitless
and all-knowing, residing always in
Samadhi,
a state of consciousness where the subject and
object become one.* The Sarvastivada
taught that the
past, present, and future were
simultaneous.*
Mahayana eventually spread
eastward from India over the Himalayas, splitting
into many different sects. Vietnam, Taiwan, China
and Japan all practice Mahayana. In China alone,
there have been at least 10 different schools
including Ch’an and the very popular Pure-Land Buddhism. Japan is home to at least 6
Buddhist schools, including Nichiren, Zen
(the Japanese name for Ch’an), and Pure-Land.
From Page 1
Out
of Mahayana, came the Vajrayana school, often
referred to as the ‘third turning of the dharma
wheel.’ Vajrayana schools exist primarily in Tibet, Bhutan,
and Nepal, There is also a Japanese sect, Shingon.
The difference between
Mahayana and Vajrayana is not in the teachings so
much as the spiritual practices used to cultivate
the enlightened mind.
These additional teachings are called
tantras;
some are written and some are strictly oral
instruction from teacher to student.
The tantric path focuses on
the means to directly
perceive the true, non-dual nature of reality and
the purpose of these practices is to develop
spiritually through cultivating the enlightened mind
directly,* without having to spend many
lives refining karma.
Today, Vajrayana students
are usually given instructions on deity
visualization to prepare them for the higher Tantric
teachings. When a student is considered ready, the
Teacher ‘introduces’ the student to the true nature
of mind, then the student meditates upon this
experience until it can be sustained by the student
alone.
Like the Mahayana, the
Vajrayana schools also use prayer, mantras, study of
the sutras, and ritualistic ceremonies; however,
deity visualization is a distinction of Vajrayana.
Tantric teaching is
expressed as using one’s life situations to
transmute limiting karmic circumstances through
recognizing the pure essence of divinity that exists
beyond duality.
Union of life’s dual
energies (plus and minus, giving and receiving,
etc.) with non-attachment brings about wholeness.
All things are to be realized as they are, as
emanations of the VOID, or nothingness.*
Vajrayana first originated
in India as a non-monastic lineage, often practiced
in secrecy or seclusion, but eventually it
incorporated monasticism. Because it wasn’t
originally mainstream, there is no fixed date for
the development of Vajrayana in India. However, it
first emerged historically around the 4th
century C.E. The most well-known Vajrayana school is
Tibetan Buddhism, which began with the tantric
Teacher, Padmasambhava, who arrived in Tibet in the
mid-eighth century C.E. Today, there are 4 main
Buddhist schools in Tibet. The Dalai Lama, modern
Buddhism’s most recognized figure, is the head of
one of these sects, as well as the temporal leader
(in exile) of Tibet.
From Page 6
|
Learn
to Meditate
Living Meditation
Revive Your Life and Your Health
Dear Seeker
You are not your body!
Your body
is a
composite of karma - all the memory of past life times and this life
time as well, which includes genetic traits from your
parents in this lifetime and previous lifetimes. Genetic
traits are effected as cellular memories that are
relative to mind, which is why we fall into the belief
that we are our bodies.
You are far greater than your body or your karma.
Divinity, spoken of as God, is the VOID that creates life.
Without divinity imbued in each form, there is no
life. When someone dies, divinity vacates the form.
You are divinity wearing a body, or divinity wearing a suit
of karma. The essential quality of divinity is light.
Vibrations that emanate from the light, in their
purest form, compose sound. From there, gradually purity
declines, meaning it becomes less unmixed, as it deludes
to bring about mind/imagery/sensation, and lastly,
emotion.
The purpose of divinity (you as the Oneness) taking a body,
is realization of these facts so that, as divinity in
vessel form, (you) can awaken to realize divinity by way
of an accession of conscious awareness to view memory
without desire or attachment, and consequently, to live as a conscious
creator and savior, to serve as a vessel that uplifts
all life.
Develop the meditative state.
The true meditative state is a pure, absorptive awareness
that abides in the divine light. Such light infuses
clarity on inner and outer knowledge. It understands,
comprehends, apprehends and conceives existence in its
most mundane forms, as well as its primordial
non-existence.
To develop this omniscient state for the existence of a
fruitful and purposeful life that benefits the whole,
one must first come to recognize inner light, or light
that is seen with the eyes closed. Once this is
recognized, outer light from the sun and all its myriad
of imagery, is identified as a reflection of the inner
light. Then, one must consider that all imagery is
mental imagery and that all conditions are effects or
echoes of mental imagery, rooted in memory, which is
ultimately understood as karma or the results of memory
once feeling is applied to it.
This achieved, all the meditator must do is to daily
strengthen the recognition and its realizations by
quieting the body to sit still within the inner light.
This can be accomplished in as many sittings as one
desires throughout the day and night, and it can also be
further strengthened by continuing this awareness
throughout one’s daily activities.
In order to do this, to maintain the awareness of
the light throughout
activities, the meditator has to acquire the
ability to be aware that they are aware and to
maintain such multi-dimensional awareness while living
life’s situations.
This can be done by anyone, because everyone emanates from
the LIGHT OF DIVINITY.
Meditate in this way and life’s problems and
sufferings drop away.
Love and Blessings
Maticintin, Wisdom Master
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