This is a fairly long explanation of the Buddho technique of
meditation. It also contains many excellent tips on meditation in
general. It discusses obstacles and how to handle them and several
other insights that have the potential to greatly increase your
meditation experience. Enjoy!

                          BUDDHO

                                    by
                        Phra Ajaan Thate Desaransi
                 (Phra Nirodharansi Gambhirapannacariya)

                         Translated from the Thai
                          by Thanissaro Bhikkhu


                 Printed in Thailand B.E. 2532 (CE 1984)

      This work may be copied or reprinted //for free distribution//
                 without permission from the translator.
                     Otherwise, all rights reserved.

                                  * * *

                          DharmaNet Edition 1994

                  Transcribed for DharmaNet by Myra Fox
                 Proofread and formatted by John Bullitt

         This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
            via DharmaNet by arrangement with the translator.

                         DharmaNet International
                  P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951

                             * * * * * * * *



  When you go to study meditation with any group or teacher who is
  experienced in a particular form of meditation, you should first make
  your heart confident that your teacher is fully experienced in that
  form of meditation, and be confident that the form of meditation he
  teaches is the right path for sure.  At the same time, show respect for
  the place in which you are to meditate.  Only then should you begin
  practicing.

  Teachers in the past used to require a dedication ceremony as a means
  of inspiring confidence before you were to study meditation.  They
  would have you make an offering of five pairs of beeswax candles and
  five pairs of white flowers -- this was called the five khandha -- or
  eight pairs of beeswax candles and eight pairs of white flowers -- this
  was called the eight khandha -- or one pair of beeswax candles each
  weighing 15 grams and an equal number of white flowers.  Then they
  would teach you their particular form of meditation.  This ancient
  custom has its good points.  There are many other ceremonies as well,
  but I won't go into them.  I'll mention only a very simple,
  easy-to-follow ceremony a little further on.

  Only after you have inspired confidence in your heart as already
  mentioned should you go to the teacher experienced in that form of
  meditation.  If he is experienced in repeating //samma araham//, he
  will teach you to repeat //samma araham, samma araham, samma araham//.
  Then he'll have you visualize a bright, clear jewel two inches above
  your navel, and tell you to focus your mind right there as you continue
  your repetition, without letting your mind slip away from the jewel. In
  other words, you take the jewel as the focal point of your mind.

  If you go to a teacher experienced in meditating on the rising and
  falling of the abdomen, he will have you meditate on rising and
  falling, and focus your mind on the different motions of the body.  For
  instance, when you raise your foot, you think //raising//.  When you
  place your foot, you think //placing//, and so on; or else he will have
  you focus continually on being preoccupied with the phenomenon of
  arising and passing away in every motion or position of the body.

  If you go to a teacher experienced in psychic powers, he will have you
  repeat //na ma ba dha, na ma ba dha//, and focus the mind on a single
  object until it takes you to see heaven and hell, deities and brahmas
  of all sorts, to the point where you get carried away with your
  visions.

  If you go to a teacher experienced in breath meditation, he will have
  you focus on your in-and-out breath, and have you keep your mind firmly
  preoccupied with nothing but the in-and-out breath.

  If you go to a teacher experienced in meditating on //buddho//, he will
  have you repeat //buddho, buddho, buddho//, and have you keep the mind
  firmly in that meditation word until you are fully skilled at it.  Then
  he will have you contemplate //buddho// and what it is that is saying
  //buddho//.  Once you see that they are two separate things, focus on
  what is saying //buddho//.  As for the word //buddho//, it will
  disappear, leaving only what it is that was saying //buddho//.  You
  then focus on what it is that was saying //buddho// as your object.

  People of our time -- or of any time, for that matter -- regardless of
  how educated or capable they may be (I don't want to criticize any of
  us as tending to believe in things whose truth we haven't tested,
  because after all we all want to know and see the truth) and especially
  those of us who are Buddhists: Buddhism teaches causes and effects
  which are entirely true, but why is it that we have to fall for the
  claims and advertisements which we hear everywhere?  It must be because
  people at present are impatient, and want to see results before they
  have completed the causes, in line with the fact that we are supposed
  to be in an atomic age.

  Buddhism teaches us to penetrate into the heart and mind, which are
  mental phenomena.  As for the body, it is a physical phenomenon.
  Physical phenomena have to lie under the control of mental phenomena.
  When we begin to practice meditation and train the mind to be quiet and
  untroubled, I can't see that we are creating any problems at that
  moment for anyone at all.  If we keep practicing until we are skilled,
  then we will be calm and at peace.  If more and more people practice
  this way, there will be peace and happiness all over the world.  As for
  the body, we can train it to be peaceful only as long as the mind is in
  full control.  The minute mindfulness lapses, the body will get back to
  its old affairs.  So let's try training the mind by repeating
  //buddho//.




             PRELIMINARY STEPS TO PRACTICING MEDITATION

  Before practicing meditation on the word //buddho//, you should start
  out with the preliminary steps.  I.e., inspire confidence in your mind,
  as already mentioned, and then bow down three times, saying:

        //Araham samma-sambuddho bhagava//
              --  The Blessed One is pure and fully self-awakened.

         //Buddham bhagavantam abhivademi//
              -- To the Blessed, Awakened One, I bow down.

                         (Bow down once.)


         //Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo//
              -- the Dhamma is well-taught by the Blessed One.

         //Dhammam namassami//
              -- To the Dhamma, I bow down.

                         (Bow down once.)


         //Supatipanno bhagavato savaka-sangho//
              -- The Community of the Blessed One's disciples have
                 conducted themselves rightly.

         //Sangham namami//
              -- To the Community, I bow down.

                         (Bow down once.)


         //Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa.//
                         (Three times).


  (Think of the virtues of the Buddha, the foremost teacher of the world,
  released from suffering and defilement of every sort, always serene and
  secure.  Then bow down three times.)

  //Note//:  These preliminary steps are simply an example. There's
  nothing wrong with chanting more than this if you have more to chant,
  but you should bow down to the Buddha as the first step each time you
  meditate, unless the place in which you are meditating is unconducive.

                            *       *       *

  Now, sit in meditation, your right leg on top of left, your hands
  palm-up in your lap, your right hand on top of your left.  Sit
  straight.  Repeat the word //buddho// in your mind, focusing your
  attention in the middle of your chest, at the heart.  Don't let your
  attention stray out ahead or behind.  Be mindful to keep your mind in
  place, steady in its one-pointedness, and you will enter into a state
  of concentration.

  When you enter into concentration, the mind may go so blank that you
  don't even know how long you are sitting.  By the time you come out of
  concentration, many hours may have passed.  For this reason, you
  shouldn't fix a time limit for yourself when sitting in meditation. Let
  things follow their own course.

  The mind in true concentration is the mind in a state of one-
  pointedness.  If the mind hasn't reached a state of one-pointedness, it
  isn't yet in concentration, because the true heart is only one.  If
  there are many mental states going on, you haven't penetrated into the
  heart.  You've only reached the mind.

  Before you practice meditation, you should first learn the difference
  between the heart and the mind, for they aren't the same thing.  The
  mind is what thinks and forms perceptions and ideas about all sorts of
  things.  The heart is what simply stays still and knows that it is
  still, without forming any further thoughts at all. Their difference is
  like that between a river and waves on the river.

  All sciences and all defilements are able to arise because the mind
  thinks and forms ideas and strays out in search of them. You will be
  able to see these things clearly with your own heart once the mind
  becomes still and reaches the heart.

  Water is something clean and clear by its very nature.  If anyone puts
  dye into the water, it will change in line with the dye. But once the
  water is filtered and distilled, it will become clean and clear as
  before.  This is an analogy for the heart and the mind.

  Actually, the Buddha taught that the mind is identical with the heart.
  If there is no heart, there is no mind.  The mind is a condition.  The
  heart itself has no conditions.  In practicing meditation, no matter
  what the teacher or method:  If it's correct, it will have to penetrate
  into the heart.

  //When you reach the heart, you will see all your defilements, because
  the mind gathers all defilements into itself.  So now how you deal with
  them is up to you//.

  When doctors are going to cure a disease, they first have to find the
  cause of the disease.  Only then can they treat it with the right
  medicine.

  As we start meditating longer and longer, repeating //buddho, buddho,
  buddho//, the mind will gradually let go of its distractions and
  restlessness, and gather in to stay with //buddho//.  It will stay
  firm, with //buddho// its sole preoccupation, until you see that the
  state of mind which says //buddho// is identical with the mind itself
  at all times, regardless of whether you are sitting, standing, walking
  or lying down.  No matter what your activity, you will see the mind
  bright and clear with //buddho//.  Once you have reached this stage,
  keep the mind there as long as you can.  Don't be in a hurry to want to
  see this or be that -- //because desire is the most serious obstacle to
  the concentrated mind//.  Once desire arises, your concentration will
  immediately deteriorate, because the basis of your concentration --
  //buddho// -- isn't solid.  When this happens, you can't grab hold of
  any foundation at all, and you get really upset. All you can think of
  is the state of concentration in which you used to be calm and happy,
  and this makes the mind even more agitated.

  Practice meditation the same way farmers grow rice.  They're in no
  hurry.  They scatter the seed, plow, harrow, plant the seedlings, step
  by step, without skipping any of the steps.  Then they wait for the
  plants to grow.  Even when they don't yet see the rice appearing, they
  are confident that the rice is sure to appear some day in the future.
  Once the rice appears, they are convinced that they're sure to reap
  results.  They don't pull on the rice plants to make them come out with
  rice when they want it.  Anyone who did that would end up with no
  results at all.

  The same holds true with meditation.  You can't be in a hurry.  You
  can't skip any of the steps.  You have to make yourself firmly
  confident that, "This is the meditation word which will make my mind
  concentrated for sure."  Don't have any doubts as to whether the
  meditation word is right for your temperament, and don't think that,
  "That person used this meditation word with these or those results, but
  when I use it, my mind doesn't settle down.  It doesn't work for me at
  all."  Actually, if the mind is firmly set on the meditation word you
  are repeating, then no matter what the word, it's sure to work --
  because you repeat the word simply to make the mind steady and firm,
  that's all.  As for any results apart from that, they all depend on
  each person's individual potential and capabilities.

  Once in the Buddha's time there was a monk sitting in meditation near a
  pond who saw a heron diving down to catch fish and eat them.  He took
  that as his meditation subject until he succeeded in becoming an
  arahant.  I've never seen a heron eating fish mentioned as a subject in
  any of the meditation manuals, but he was able to use it to meditate
  until he attained arahantship -- which illustrates what I have just said.

  When the mind is intent on staying within the bounds of its meditation
  word //buddho//, with mindfulness in control, it is sure to grow out of
  its rebelliousness.  We have to train and restrain it, because we are
  looking for peace and contentment for the mind. Ordinarily, the mind
  tends to be preoccupied with looking for distraction, as I have already
  explained, and for the most part it strays off to this sort of
  distraction:  When we start meditating //buddho, buddho, buddho//, as
  soon as we focus the mind on //buddho//, it won't stay there.  It'll
  run out to think of whatever work we are about to start or have left
  undone.  It thinks about doing this and doing that until it gets all
  worked up, afraid that the work won't come out well or won't succeed.
  The work we've been assigned by other people or which we're doing on
  our own will be a waste of time or will cause us to lose face if we
  don't do as we've been told....

  This is one of the distractions which prevent new meditators from
  attaining concentration.  You have to pull your mind back to //buddho,
  buddho, buddho//, and tell yourself, "Thoughts of this sort aren't the
  path to peace; the true path to peace is to keep the mind with
  //buddho// and nothing else" -- and then keep on repeating //buddho,
  buddho, buddho//....

  After a moment, the mind will go straying out again, this time to your
  family -- your children, your wife or husband:  How are they getting
  along?  Are they healthy?  Are they eating well?  If you're far apart,
  you wonder about where they're staying, what they're eating.  Those who
  have left home think about those at home.  Those at home think about
  those who have gone far away -- afraid that they aren't safe, that
  other people will molest them, that they have no friends, that they're
  lonely -- thinking in 108 different ways, whatever the mind can
  imagine, all of which exaggerate the truth.

  Or if you're still young and single, you think about having fun with
  your friends -- the places you used to go together, the good times you
  had, the things you used to do -- to the point where you actually say
  something or laugh out loud.  This sort of defilement is the worst of
  the bunch.

  When you are meditating //buddho, buddho, buddho//, your defilements
  see that the situation is getting out of hand and that you'll escape
  from their control, so they look for things to tie you down even more
  tightly all the time.  Never from the day of your birth have you ever
  practiced concentration at all.  You've simply let the mind follow the
  moods of the defilements.  Only now have you begun to practice, so when
  you repeat //buddho, buddho, buddho// to get the mind to settle down
  with //buddho//, it's going to wriggle away in the same way that fish
  try to wriggle back into the water when they're tossed up on land.  So
  you have to pull the mind back to //buddho//.

  //Buddho is something cool and calm.  It's the path for giving rise to
  peace and contentment -- the only path that will release us from the
  suffering and stress in this world//.

  So you pull the mind back to //buddho//.  This time it begins to settle
  down.  As soon as you feel that it's staying put, you begin to get a
  sense that when the mind stays put, it is rested and at ease in a way
  different from when it's not still, when it's restless and upset.  You
  make up your mind to be careful and alert to keep the mind in that
  state and... Oops.  There it goes again. Now it's taking your financial
  interests as an excuse, saying that if you don't do this or search for
  that, you'll miss out on a really great opportunity.  So you focus your
  mind on that instead of your meditation word.  As for where //buddho//
  has gone, you haven't the least idea. By the time you realize that
  //buddho// has disappeared, it's already too late -- which is why they
  say that the mind is restless, slippery and hard to control, like a
  monkey which can never sit still.

  Sometimes, after you've been sitting in meditation a long time, you
  begin to worry that your blood won't be flowing properly, that your
  nerves will die from lack of blood, that you'll grow numb and end up
  paralyzed.  If you're meditating far from home or in a forest, it's
  even worse:  You're afraid that snakes will bite you, tigers will eat
  you, or ghosts will haunt you, making all kinds of scary faces.  Your
  fear of death can whisper to you in all sorts of way, all of which are
  simply instances of you yourself scaring yourself.  The truth is
  nothing at all like what you imagine.  Never from the day of your birth
  have you ever seen a tiger eat even a single person.  You've never once
  seen a ghost -- you don't even know what it would look like, but you
  fashion up pictures to scare yourself.

  The obstacles to meditation mentioned here are simply examples.  There
  are actually many, many more.  Those who meditate will find this out
  for themselves.

  //If you hold buddho close to the heart, and use your mindfulness to
  keep the mind with nothing but buddho, no dangers will come your way//.
  So have firm faith in //buddho//.  I guarantee that there will be no
  dangers at all -- unless you've done bad kamma in the past, which is
  something beyond anyone's power to protect you from.  Even the Buddha
  himself can't protect you from it.

  When people begin meditating, their confidence tends to be weak.  No
  matter what their meditation subject, these sorts of defilements are
  sure to interfere, because these defilements form the basis of the
  world and of the mind.  The minute we meditate and make the mind
  one-pointed, the defilements see that we're going to get away from
  them, so they come thronging around so that we won't be able to escape
  from the world.

  When we see how really serious and harmful they are, we should make our
  minds forthright and our confidence solid and strong, telling ourselves
  that we've let ourselves be deceived into believing the defilements for
  many lifetimes; it's time now that we be willing to believe the
  Buddha's teachings and take //buddho// as our refuge.  We then make
  mindfulness solid, and fix the mind firmly in //buddho//.  We give our
  lives to //buddho//, and won't let our minds slip away from it.  When
  we make this sort of commitment, the mind will drop straight into
  one-pointedness and enter concentration.

  When you first enter concentration, this is what it's like: You'll have
  no idea at all of what concentration or one-pointedness of mind is
  going to feel like.  You are simply intent on keeping mindfulness
  firmly focused on one object -- and the power of a mind focused firmly
  on one object is what will bring you to a state of concentration.  You
  won't be thinking at all that concentration will be like this or like
  that, or that you want it to be like this or like that.  It will simply
  take its own way, automatically.  No one can force it.

  At that moment you will feel as if you are in another world (the world
  of the mind), with a sense of ease and solitude to which nothing else
  in the world can compare.  When the mind withdraws from concentration,
  you will regret that that mood has passed, and you will remember it
  clearly.  All that we say about concentration comes from the mind which
  has withdrawn from that state.  As long as it is still gathered in that
  state, we aren't interested in what anyone else says or does.

  You have to train the mind to enter this sort of concentration often,
  so as to become skilled and adept, but don't try to remember your past
  states of concentration, and don't let yourself want your concentration
  to be like it was before -- because it won't be that way, and you will
  just be making more trouble for yourself.  Simply contemplate //buddho,
  buddho//, and keep your mind with your mental repetition.  What it does
  then is its own business.

  After the mind has first attained to concentration, it won't be the
  same way the next time around, but don't worry about it. Whatever it's
  like, don't worry about it.  Just make sure that you get it centered.
  When the results come out in many different ways, your understanding
  will broaden and you'll come to develop many different techniques for
  dealing with the mind.

  What I've mentioned here is simply to be taken as an example.  When you
  follow these instructions, don't give them too much weight, or they
  will turn into allusions to the past, and your meditation won't get
  anywhere. Simply remember them as something to use for the sake of
  comparison after your meditation has begun to progress.

  No matter what method you use -- //buddho//, rising & falling or
  //samma araham// -- when the mind is about to settle down in
  concentration, you won't be thinking that the mind is about to settle
  down, or is settling down, or anything at all.  It will settle down
  automatically on its own.  You won't even know when you let go of your
  meditation word.  The mind will simply have a separate calm and peace
  which isn't in this world or another world or anything of the sort.
  There's no one and nothing at all, just the mind's own separate state,
  which is called the world of the mind.  In that state there won't be
  the word 'world' or anything else.  The conventional realities of the
  world won't appear there, and thus no insight of any sort will arise in
  there at all.  The point is simply that you train the mind to be
  centered, and then compare it to the state of mind which isn't centered
  so that you can see how they differ, how the mind which has attained
  concentration and then withdraws to contemplate matters of the world
  and the Dhamma differs from the mind which hasn't attained
  concentration.

  The heart and the mind.  Let's talk some more about the heart and mind
  so that you'll understand.  After all, we're talking about training the
  mind in concentration:  If you don't understand the relationship
  between the heart and the mind, you won't know where or how to practice
  concentration.

  Everyone born -- human or animal -- has a heart and mind, but the heart
  and mind have different duties.  The mind thinks, wanders and forms
  ideas of all sorts, in line with where the defilements lead it.  As for
  the heart, it's simply what knows.  It doesn't form any ideas at all.
  It's neutral -- in the middle -- with regard to everything.  The
  awareness which is neutral:  That's the heart.

  The heart doesn't have a body.  It's a mental phenomenon. It's simply
  awareness.  You can place it anywhere at all.  It doesn't lie inside or
  outside the body.  When we call the heart-muscle the heart, that's not
  the true heart.  It's simply an organ for pumping blood throughout the
  body so as to keep it alive. If the heart-muscle doesn't pump blood
  throughout the body, life can't last.

  People in general are always talking about the heart:  "My heart feels
  happy... sad... heavy... light... down..."  Everything is a matter of
  the heart.  Abhidhamma experts, however, speak in terms of the mind:
  the mind in a wholesome state, the mind in an unwholesome state, the
  mind in a neutral state, the mind on the level of form, the mind on the
  formless level, the mind on the transcendent level and so on, //but
  none of them know what the real heart and mind are like.//

  The mind is what thinks and forms ideas.  It has to make use of the six
  senses as its tools.  As soon as the eye sees a visual object, the ear
  hears a sound, the nose smells an aroma, the tongue tastes a flavor,
  the body comes into contact with a tactile sensation -- cold, hot, hard
  or soft -- or the intellect thinks of an idea in line with its
  defilements, good or bad:  If any of these things are good, the mind is
  pleased; if they're bad, it's displeased.  All of this is an affair of
  the mind, or of defilement. Aside from these six senses, there's
  nothing the mind can make use of.  In the texts they are analyzed into
  the six faculties, the six elements, the six forms of contact, and all
  sorts of other things, but all these things lie within the six senses.
  So these are characteristics of the mind:  that which can never sit
  still.

  When you train the mind -- or, in other words, practice concentration
  -- you have to get control over the mind which is wriggling after the
  six senses, as already explained, and make it stop still with one
  thing:  its meditation word, //buddho//.  Don't let it go straying out
  ahead or behind.  Make it stay still, and know that it's staying still:
  That's the heart.  The heart has nothing to do with any of the six
  senses, which is why it's called the heart.

  When people in general talk about the heart of something, they are
  referring to its center.  Even when they talk about their own hearts,
  they point to the center of the chest.  Actually, the heart doesn't lie
  in any particular place at all -- as I have already explained --
  although it lies right in the center of everything.

  If you want to understand what the heart is, you can try an experiment.
  Breathe in deeply and hold your breath for a moment. At that point
  there won't be anything at all except for one thing: neutral awareness.
  That's the heart, or 'what knows'.  But if you try to catch hold of the
  heart in this way, you can't hold on to it for very long -- only as
  long as you can hold your breath -- but you can give it a try just to
  see what the true heart is like.

  (Holding the breath can help reduce physical pain.  People who are
  suffering from great pain have to hold their breath as one way --
  fairly effective -- of relieving their pain.)

  Once you realize that the heart and mind have different duties and
  characteristics like this, you'll find it easier to train the mind.
  Actually, the heart and the mind are really the same thing.  As the
  Buddha said, the mind is identical with the heart. When we practice
  concentration, it's enough just to train the mind; once the mind is
  trained, that's where we'll see the heart.

  Once the mind has been fully trained by using mindfulness to keep it
  with //buddho// as its only preoccupation, it won't go straying after
  different things, and instead will gather into oneness.  The meditation
  word will disappear without your being aware of it, and you will feel a
  sense of peace and ease which nothing else can equal.  Those who have
  never experienced this ease before, when they first experience it,
  won't be able to describe it, because no one else in the world has ever
  experienced that kind of peace and ease.  Even though other people
  //have// experienced it, it's not the same. For this reason, you find
  it hard to describe -- although you can describe it to yourself.  If
  you try to describe it to others, you have to use similes and analogies
  before they'll understand you.  Things of this sort are personal:  Only
  you can know them for yourself.

  In addition, if you have developed a lot of potential in previous
  lifetimes, all sorts of amazing things can happen.  For example, you
  may gain knowledge of heavenly beings or hungry ghosts. You may learn
  about your own past and future, and that of other people:  In that
  particular lifetime you were like this; in the future you'll be like
  that.  Even though you didn't intend to know these things, when the
  mind attains concentration it can know on its own in a very amazing
  way.

  This sort of thing is something which really fascinates beginning
  meditators.  When it happens to them, they like to brag to other
  people.  When those people try to meditate, but don't get the knowledge
  or abilities, they become discouraged, thinking that they don't have
  the merit or potential to meditate, and they begin to lose faith in the
  practice.

  As for those who see these sorts of things, when that knowledge or
  ability deteriorates -- because they've been carried away by external
  things, and haven't taken the heart as their foundation -- they won't
  be able to grab hold of anything at all.  When they think of the things
  they used to know, their minds become even more stirred up.  People who
  like to brag will take the old things they used to see and talk about
  them in glowing terms.  Avid listeners really love to listen to this
  sort of thing, but avid  meditators are unimpressed -- because true
  meditators like to listen only to things which are present and true.

  The Buddha taught that whether his teachings will flourish or
  degenerate depends on those who practice them.  The teachings
  degenerate when meditators get just a little bit of knowledge and then
  go bragging to other people, talking about external matters with no
  substance at all, instead of explaining the basic principles of
  meditation.  When they do this, they make  the religion degenerate
  without their even realizing it.

  Those who make the religion flourish are those who speak about things
  which are useful and true.  They don't speak just for the fun of it.
  They speak in terms of cause and effect:  "When you meditate like this,
  repeating the meditation word in this way, it will make the mind gather
  into one and snuff out its defilements and restlessness like this...."

  //When you meditate on buddho, be patient. Don't be in a hurry.//  Be
  confident in your meditation word, and use mindfulness to keep the mind
  with its //buddho//.  Your confidence is what will make the mind firm
  and unwavering, able to let go of all its doubts and uncertainties. The
  mind will gather in on its meditation word, and mindfulness will keep
  it solely with //buddho// at all times. Whether you sit, stand, walk,
  lie down, or whatever work you do, mindfulness will be alert to nothing
  but //buddho//.  If your mindfulness is still weak, and your techniques
  still few, you have to hold on to //buddho// as your foundation.
  Otherwise your meditation won't progress; or even if it does progress,
  it won't have any foundation.

  //For concentration to be strong, the mind has to be resolute.//  When
  mindfulness is strong and the mind resolute, you decide that this is
  what you want:  "If I can't catch hold of //buddho//, or see //buddho//
  in my heart, or get the mind to stay put solely with //buddho//, I
  won't get up from my meditation.  Even if my life will end, I don't
  care."  When you do this, the mind will gather into one faster than you
  realize it.  The meditation word //buddho//, or whatever it is that may
  have been bothering or perplexing you, will vanish in the flash of an
  eye.  Even your body, which you have been attached to for so long,
  won't appear to you. All that remains is the heart -- simple awareness
  -- cool, calm and at ease.

  People who practice meditation really like it when this happens.  The
  next time around, they want it to happen again, and so it doesn't
  happen again.  That's because the desire keeps it from happening.
  Concentration is something very subtle and sensitive. You can't force
  it to be like this or that -- and at the same time you can't force the
  mind //not// to enter concentration either.

  If you're impatient, things get even more fouled up.  You have to be
  very patient.  Whether or not the mind is going to attain
  concentration, you've meditated on //buddho// in the past, so you just
  keep meditating on //buddho//.  Act as if you had never meditated on
  //buddho// before.  Make the mind neutral and even, let the breath flow
  gently, and use mindfulness to focus the mind on //buddho// and nothing
  else.  When the time comes for the mind to enter concentration, it will
  do it on its own.  You can't arrange the way it will happen.  If it
  were something you could arrange, all the people in the world would
  have become arahants long ago.

  Knowing how to meditate, but not doing it right;  having done it right
  once, and wanting it to be that way again, and yet it doesn't happen:
  All of these things are obstacles in practicing concentration.

  //In meditating on buddho, you have to get so that you are quick and
  adept.//  When a good or a bad mood strikes you, you have to be able to
  enter concentration immediately.  Don't let the mind be affected by
  that mood.  Whenever you think of //buddho//, the mind gathers
  immediately:  When you can do this, your mind will be solid and able to
  rely on itself.

  When you have practiced so that you are adept and experienced in this
  way, after a while you will find that your defilements and attachments
  to all things will gradually disappear on their own.  You don't have to
  go clearing away this or that defilement, telling yourself that this or
  that defilement has to be removed with this or that teaching or this or
  that method.  Be content with whatever method you find works for you.
  That's plenty enough.

  To have the defilements gradually disappear with the method I've just
  explained is better than trying to arrange things, entering the four
  levels of absorption, sustained thought, rapture and pleasure, leaving
  just one-pointedness and equanimity; or trying to arrange the first
  stage of the path to nibbana by abandoning self-identity views,
  uncertainty and attachment to precepts & practices; or by looking at
  your various defilements, telling yourself, "With that defilement, I
  was able to contemplate in such-and-such a way, so I've gone beyond
  that defilement. I have so-and-so many defilements left. If I can
  contemplate in such-and-such a way, my defilements will be finished" --
  //but you don't realize that the state of mind which wants to see and
  know and attain these things is a defilement fixed firmly in the mind.
  When you finish your contemplation, the mind is back in its original
  state, and hasn't gained anything at all//. On top of that, if someone
  comes along and says something which goes against the way you see
  things, you start disagreeing violently, like a burning fire into which
  someone pours kerosene.

  So hold firmly to your meditation word, //buddho//. Even if you don't
  attain anything else, at least you've got your meditation word as your
  foundation. The various preoccupations of the mind will lessen, or may
  even disappear, which is better than not having any foundation to hold
  to at all.

  Actually, all meditators have to hold firmly to their meditation word.
  Only then can they be said to be meditation //with a foundation//. When
  their meditation deteriorates, they'll be able to use it //as something
  to hold to//.

  The Buddha taught that people who make the effort to abandon
  defilement have to act like old-time warriors. In the past, they'd have
  to build a fortress with strong walls, moats, gates and towers to
  protect themselves from enemy attack. When an intelligent warrior went
  out to battle and saw that he was no match for the enemy, he would
  retreat into his fortress and defend it so that the enemy couldn't
  destroy it. At the same time, he would gather enough troops, weapons
  and food (i.e., make his concentration forthright and strong) and then
  go out to resume his fight with the enemy (i.e., all the forms of
  defilement).

  //Concentration is a very important strength. If you don't have
  concentration, where will your discernment gain any strength? The
  discernment of insight meditation is not something that can be
  fashioned into being by arrangement. Instead, it arises from
  concentration which has been mastered until it is good and solid.//

  Even those who are said to attain Awakening with 'dry insight': If they
  don't have any mental stillness, where will they get any insight? It's
  simply that their stillness isn't fully mastered. Only when we put the
  matter this way does it make any sense.

  When your concentration is solid and steady to the point where you can
  enter and leave it at will, you will be able to stay with it long and
  contemplate the body in terms of its unattractiveness, or in terms of
  its physical elements. Or, if you like, you can contemplate the people
  of the world until you see them all as skeletons, or you can
  contemplate the entire world as empty space....

  Once the mind is fully centered, then no matter whether you are
  sitting, standing, walking or lying down, the mind will be centered at
  times.  You will be able to see clearly how your own defilements --
  greed, anger and delusion, which arise from the mind -- //arise// from
  this and that cause, how they //remain// in this or that way, and you
  will be able to find means to //abandon// them with this or that
  technique.

  This is like the water in a lake which has been muddy for hundreds and
  hundreds of years suddenly becoming clear so that you can see all the
  things lying along the lake-bottom -- things which you never dreamed
  were there before.  This is called insight -- seeing things as they
  truly are.  Whatever sort of truth they have, that's the truth you see,
  without deviating from that truth.

  Forcing the mind to be still can make it let go of defilement, but it
  lets go in the same way a person cuts grass, cutting just the part
  above ground, without digging up the roots. The roots are sure to send
  up new shoots when rain falls again.  In other words, you do see the
  harm of the preoccupations which arise from the six senses, but as soon
  as you see it, you retreat into stillness without contemplating those
  preoccupations as carefully as you do when the mind is in
  concentration.  In short, you simply want stillness, without wanting to
  spend any time in contemplation -- like a ground lizard which relies on
  its hole for safety.  As soon as it sees an enemy coming, it runs into
  its hole, escaping danger only for a while.

  If you want to uproot your defilements, then when you see that
  defilement springs from the six senses -- for instance, the eye sees a
  visual object or the ear hears a sound, contact is made which causes
  you to be pleased or displeased, happy or sad, and then you grasp onto
  it as your preoccupation, making the mind murky, disturbed and upset,
  sometimes to the point where you can't eat or sleep, and can even
  commit suicide -- when you see this clearly, make your concentration
  firm and then focus your mind exclusively on examining that particular
  preoccupation.  For instance, if the eye sees an attractive visual
  object which makes you feel pleased, focus on examining just that sense
  of pleasure, to find out whether it arises from the eye or from the
  visual object.

  If you examine the visual object, you see that it's just a physical
  phenomenon.  Whether it's good or bad, it doesn't try to persuade you
  to be pleased or displeased, or to make you love it or hate it.  It's
  simply a visual object which appears and then disappears in line with
  its own nature.

  When you turn to examine the eye which sees the visual object, you find
  that the eye goes looking for objects and, as soon as it finds one,
  light gets reflected into the optic nerves so that all kinds of visible
  forms appear.  The eye doesn't try to persuade you to be pleased or
  displeased, to love or to hate anything.  Its duty is simply to see.
  Once it has seen a visible form, the form disappears.

  As for the other senses and their objects, attractive or unattractive,
  they should be examined in just the same way.

  When you contemplate in this way, you will see clearly that all the
  things in the world which become objects of defilement do so because of
  these six senses.  If you contemplate the six senses so that you don't
  tag along after them, defilements won't arise within you.  //On the
  contrary:  Insight and discernment will arise instead, all because of
  these same six senses.//  The six senses are the media of goodness and
  evil.  We will head for a good or a bad destination in the next life
  because of the way we use them.

  The world seems broad because the mind isn't centered, and is left free
  to wander among the objects of the six senses.  The world will narrow
  down when the mind has been trained in concentration so that it lies
  under your control and can contemplate the six senses exclusively
  within it.  In other words, when the mind is fully concentrated, the
  outer senses -- the eye seeing forms, the ear hearing sounds and so on
  -- won't appear at all.  All that will appear are the forms and sounds
  which are mental phenomena present exclusively in that concentration.
  You won't be paying any attention to the outer senses at all.

  When your concentration is fully solid and strong, you will be able to
  contemplate this //world of the mind// which gives rise to sensory
  contact, perceptions, preoccupations and all defilements. The mind will
  withdraw from everything leaving just the heart, or simple awareness.

  The heart and the mind have different characteristics. The mind is what
  thinks, forming perceptions and preoccupations to the point of latching
  on holding them to itself. When it sees the suffering, harm and stress
  which come from holding onto all the defilements, it will go and
  withdraw from all preoccupations and defilements.  The mind will then
  be the heart.  This is how the heart and mind differ.

  The heart is what is neutral and still.  It doesn't think anything at
  all.  It is simply aware of its stillness.  The heart is a genuinely
  neutral or central phenomenon.  Neutral with no past, no future, no
  good, no evil:  That's the heart.  When we talk about the heart of
  anything, we mean its center.  Even the human heart, which is a mental
  phenomenon, we say lies in the center of the chest.  But where the real
  heart is, we don't know.  Try focusing your attention on any part of
  the body, and you'll feel the awareness of that spot. Or you can focus
  your attention outside the body -- on a post or the wall of a house,
  for example -- and that's the spot you'll be aware of.

  So we can conclude that the true heart is still and neutral awareness.
  //Wherever there is neutral awareness, that's where the heart is.//

  When people in general talk about the heart, that's not the true heart.
  It's simply a set of muscles and valves for pumping blood throughout
  the body to keep it alive.  If this pump doesn't send blood throughout
  the body, the body can't live.  It'll have to die.  The same holds true
  with the brain.  The mind thinks of good and evil by using the brain as
  its tool.  The nervous system of the brain is a physical phenomenon.
  When its various causal factors are cut off, this physical phenomenon
  can't last.  It has to stop.

  But as for the mind, which is a mental phenomenon, Buddhism teaches
  that it continues to exist and can take birth again.  This mental
  phenomenon will stop only when insight discerns its causal factors and
  uproots their underlying causes.

  None of the various subjects and sciences of the world have an end
  point.  The more you study them, the more they fan out.  Only Buddhism
  can teach you to reach an end.  In the first stage, it teaches you to
  acquaint yourself with your body, to see how it is made up of various
  things (the 32 parts) put together, and what their duties are.  At the
  same time, Buddhism teaches you to see that the body is inherently
  unattractive.  It teaches you to acquaint yourself with this world (the
  world of a human being), which is made up of suffering and stress, and
  which will ultimately have to fall apart by its very nature.

  So now that we have received this body -- even though it is full of
  foul and unattractive things, and even though it is made up of all
  kinds of suffering and stress -- we're still able to depend on it for a
  while, so we should use it to do good to repay our debts to the world
  before we leave it at death.

  The Buddha teaches that although the nature of a person (this world) is
  to fall apart and die, the mind -- the overseer of this world -- must
  come back to be reborn as long as it still has defilements.  Thus he
  teaches us to practice concentration, which is an affair exclusively of
  the mind.  Once we have practiced concentration, we will fell every
  sensory contact inside, just at the mind.  We won't be concerned with
  out seeing and hearing at the eye or the ear.  Instead, we will be
  aware of the sensory contact right at the mind.  This is what it means
  to narrow down the world.

  The senses are the best means for taking the measure of your own mind.
  When sensory contact strikes the mind, does it have an impact on you?
  If it has a lot of impact, that shows that your mindfulness is weak,
  and your foundation is still shaky.  If it has only a little impact, or
  no impact at all, that shows that your mindfulness is strong, and you
  are fully able to care for yourself.

  These things are like Devadatta, who created trouble for the
  Bodhisattva all along. If not for Devadatta, the Bodhisattva wouldn't
  have been able to bring his character to full perfection. Once his
  character had been fully perfected, he was able to gain Awakening and
  become the Buddha.  Before gaining Awakening, he had to withstand the
  massive armies of temptation; and right after his Awakening, the three
  daughters of temptation came to test him once more.  As a result, the
  people of the world have praised him ever since for having conquered
  defilement in this world once and for all.

  //As long as the inner senses still exist, mental contact is still a
  preoccupation.//  Thus those who know, having seen the harm of these
  things, are willing to withdraw from them, leaving just the heart which
  is neutral...neutral...neutral, with no thinking, no imagining, no
  fashioning of anything at all.  When this is the case, where will this
  world be formed?  This is how the Buddha teaches us to reach the
  world's end.

                             * * * * * * * *


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  AUTHOR: Phra Ajahn Thate Desaransi (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, translator)
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                    Sri Chiang Mai
                    Nongkai, Thailand 43130
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[end]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysticheartmeditation

The more you meditate, the more meditation
can become the most interesting thing you
ever and never imagined. This is because
your mind will present incredible things
to distract you in its effort to remain your
master, and you its slave. There is a scientific
reality and perspective that states that we
are not what our limited senses perceive. For
instance, we aren't "really" solid. It just
seems that way because that's the way our
eyes work. We are atomic and pre-atomic energy
in motion. If we had Electron Microscope and
Hubbell telescope quality vision, it would be
apparent that we are infinite in nature and
taking part in a never-ending interaction
with everything everywhere. We are not lone
drops apart from the ocean, but rather a part
of the ocean. Initially, your mind may be able
to distract you by something as simple as an
itch, a memory, a feeling of happiness, etc.
But as you get steadier in your meditation, and
don't react to your sense perceptions, memories,
emotions, and so on, your mind will loose its
grip, and reality will present itself. And you
will feel, see, and know the awe of transcendent
in-sight. Often, your mind will then try to
distract you, and regain the mastery over you,
by letting you see increasingly spectacular and
sometimes even divine visions, and have more and
more seemingly evolving understandings. That
awareness within, that is ever-present, and
silently perceives all the changes your mind,
body, and emotions put you through is your inner
Witness, and that is your Real Self. Your mind's
game plan is to keep you in a state of
"Gee Whiz!!!" and not recognize what is ever
before you, and that is your oneness with your
Witness and its oneness with all and everything.
Realization comes from Grace and Grace alone.
It is not a byproduct of meditation, but there
may be no better way to remove the obstacles
that delay this awakening than meditation. So,
enjoy the inner and outer light shows, the
transcendent sounds, sensational physical
sensations, and so on, but don't get caught in
the "seeking after more and more spectacular
versions of them" trap. The first two steps
in meditation are dispassion and discrimination.
Seek what is eternal, not transitory; the
essence, not the superficial. This is
discrimination. And don't get wound up with
too much jubilation when you have beautiful
visions, or disappointment when you don't.
This is dispassion. Sit in meditation without
expectation. Simply Witness. When not sitting
in meditation, witness your life as an ongoing
meditation. Persevere. The universe and its
source and support will presently present you
with the ultimate present. And You will be
present. And you will live happily ever after.

This article first appeared in our newsletter
The Inner Traveler issue #9

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not putting one in a fruit salad.

GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES IN YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY.

THE LATEST VOLUME OF THE SPIRITUAL WEB SITE www.ahwan.org (or
www.ahwan.com) : VOLUME 95, January 2009 ISSUE,  has been published
and uplinked with the article "THE HUMAN BIRTH- DEBTS TO REPAY, A
PLEDGE TO HONOUR"

- If you visit the site, and have any observations to make, I shall
be grateful. There are also interesting questions from readers
dealing with "Yogi's sensitivity", "Dharma against personal
conviction" "Gifts to God", "Partial knowledge of Brahman" etc. You
can also browse the previous articles by clicking on the
ikon `articles'. Please share it with your friends and dear ones.
God bless you-  Sri Bimal Mohanty. (bimal_mohanty@...)
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assistance if you please. Click on `special information' on the
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the effective way. Visit the website www.ahwan.org. or www.ahwan.com.
regularly. Share it with your friends and dear ones in any manner
convenient- through discussing, speaking, writing, inter-netting.

The Discovery Channel documentary about
Buddhsm The Boy With Divine Powers in Nepal
http://tinyurl.com/99bwpz

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me.
If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them;
if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally
responsible for everything I do...."
Heinlein

From Weekly Words of Wisdom by Swami Satchidananda

"Many people think that samadhi means you just
sit like a rock, motionless, going into an
unconscious state. If you stay in that samadhi,
you are of no use to anybody. Sahaja Samadhi
means a natural samadhi, always present. Wherever
you are, whatever you are doing, your body and
mind are involved in those activities, but your
inner state is always the same, unaffected.
Self-realization means you realize that you are
the Self. You are different from the body and mind,
so you remain in that state of Self and allow the
body and mind to function for the benefit of
humanity. You can be in the material world and
still be in the samadhi state. Then nothing can
affect you and you can perform your duties well.

"God bless you. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti."

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, medit8ionsociety
<no_reply@...>
wrote:
>
> From Weekly Words of Wisdom by Swami Satchidananda
>
> "Many people think that samadhi means you just
> sit like a rock, motionless, going into an
> unconscious state. If you stay in that samadhi,
> you are of no use to anybody. Sahaja Samadhi
> means a natural samadhi, always present. Wherever
> you are, whatever you are doing, your body and
> mind are involved in those activities, but your
> inner state is always the same, unaffected.
> Self-realization means you realize that you are
> the Self. You are different from the body and mind,
> so you remain in that state of Self and allow the
> body and mind to function for the benefit of
> humanity. You can be in the material world and
> still be in the samadhi state. Then nothing can
> affect you and you can perform your duties well.
>
> "God bless you. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti."
>

Thanks, Bob. So much clarity in a simple satsang.
Absorbing the troth of this is pure grace. Living
it is Living at WOW! (Couldn't resist).

Papajeff
http://www.livingatwow.com

by H.H. Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara
Supreme Patriarch of Thailand
(Venerable Suvaddhano Bhikkhu)

Characteristics of the Mind

I would like to explain a little more about
the nature of the mind; how difficult it is
to tame and control with its habitual jumping
and racing about. Even with mindfulness fixed
on a single object, it will continually buck
and pull away. Where does the mind jump to?
It struggles around among mental objects,
following after desires, wishes, attractions
and the obstacles (palibodha) which are
worries and anxieties. These external involvements
are those concerns which we think and conceive
about. Once they are caught up in the mind they
agitate as worries and anxieties. If they are
many and you are unable to throw them out, then
the mind can't be pacified. However, everyone
with true determination can expel them and
achieve a calm mind.

The Method of Examining the Mind

Mindfulness is essential for guarding the mind
right from the beginning. Any inattention, and
the mind will have darted away in a flash. The
mind must then be speedily led back inside if
mindfulness is to be recovered.
If one checks to see why the mind had darted away,
one may find the cause in something like the
sound of a car, of people walking past, or the
noise of something falling. The mind zips away
to that particular sound and then starts to roam
further afield. It may have wandered on through
many varied episodes before one realizes the fact
and is able to return it to one's determined point.
However, should another noise intervene, the mind
may then be off again --continuing on from one
thing to another in what might seem like a moment
even though it spans many different episodes.
Using mindfulness, always return the mind to
your chosen point and, carefully establishing
mindfulness, examine it there. The mind will
then be pacified and, when checked in any particular
episode, will usually not go off there again but
will rather follow some other affair instead.
This method must be repeated until the mind is
tamed and able to come to calm with contentment
(chanda), rapture (piti) and ease (pamojja). This
will give a taste of the first stages of calm and
samadhi, furthering your satisfaction in the
practice and facilitating the focusing and settling
of the mind in samadhi.

Buddhism: "Hurt not others in ways that you
yourself would find hurtful." -- Udana-Varga, 5:18

Christianity: "All things whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them." --
Jesus, in Matthew 7:12

Confucianism: "Do not unto others what you would
not have them do unto you." -- Analects 15:23

Hinduism: "This is the sum of duty: do naught unto
others which would cause you pain if done to you."
-- Mahabharata 5:1517

Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your
fellow man. That is the law: all the rest is
commentary." -- Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Islam: "No one of you is a believer until he
desires for his brother that which he desires for
himself." -- Sunnah

Meditation technique #48 on our web site,
Meditation Station
http://www.meditationsociety.com

Our basic state is one of purity, bliss, and
awareness. When you were a baby you were in
this virginal, joyous condition. The events of
your life have caused you to add layers of
negativity around this holy state to such a
degree that now you suffer more and more and
experience the blessed and immaculate in your
life far too rarely. You need to add nothing
to know the ecstasy that is your birthright.
What will let this eternal moment of infinite
joy reoccur is the removal of the obstacles
to your pure energy connection.

The first step in recovering your perfection
is to melt away all your tension. Relax. Witness
and feel your breath as it comes and goes. With
every exhale, send out a characteristic that has
caused you to be blind to your light. With every
inhale, bring into your being a divine attribute
and feel yourself being purified. Send the energy
throughout your body, mind, and emotions.

Exhale fear, inhale courage.
Exhale cold-heartedness, inhale compassion.
Exhale ignorance, inhale wisdom.
Exhale egoism, inhale humility.
Exhale nervousness, inhale tranquility.
Exhale hate, inhale love.
Exhale suffering, inhale peace.
And on and on and on.

Continue until you have nothing else blocking
your glory. At the right time, your holy moment
arrives. Then, even your affirmations are unnecessary.
The silence that transcends all names and forms fills
you as you realize your oneness with the source of
all breath. Your consciousness fills the universe
and you had simply forgotten this, your eternal
reality. You awaken from the dream and live happily
ever after.

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, medit8ionsociety
<no_reply@...>
wrote:
>
> Meditation technique #48 on our web site,
> Meditation Station
> http://www.meditationsociety.com
>
> Our basic state is one of purity, bliss, and
> awareness. When you were a baby you were in
> this virginal, joyous condition. The events of
> your life have caused you to add layers of
> negativity around this holy state to such a
> degree that now you suffer more and more and
> experience the blessed and immaculate in your
> life far too rarely. You need to add nothing
> to know the ecstasy that is your birthright.
> What will let this eternal moment of infinite
> joy reoccur is the removal of the obstacles
> to your pure energy connection.
>
> The first step in recovering your perfection
> is to melt away all your tension. Relax. Witness
> and feel your breath as it comes and goes. With
> every exhale, send out a characteristic that has
> caused you to be blind to your light. With every
> inhale, bring into your being a divine attribute
> and feel yourself being purified. Send the energy
> throughout your body, mind, and emotions.
>
> Exhale fear, inhale courage.
> Exhale cold-heartedness, inhale compassion.
> Exhale ignorance, inhale wisdom.
> Exhale egoism, inhale humility.
> Exhale nervousness, inhale tranquility.
> Exhale hate, inhale love.
> Exhale suffering, inhale peace.
> And on and on and on.
>
> Continue until you have nothing else blocking
> your glory. At the right time, your holy moment
> arrives. Then, even your affirmations are unnecessary.
> The silence that transcends all names and forms fills
> you as you realize your oneness with the source of
> all breath. Your consciousness fills the universe
> and you had simply forgotten this, your eternal
> reality. You awaken from the dream and live happily
> ever after.
>

Beautiful. Thanks, Bob.

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to
their level then beat you with experience

medit8ionsociety wrote:
> Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to
> their level then beat you with experience
>
Old Russian proverb:

"Never wrestle with a pig --
you'll both get very dirty
but only the pig will enjoy
it."

"When the heart speaks, take good notes."

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, sean tremblay <bethjams9@...>
wrote:
>
> Old Afghan Proverb
> "If you can tie a knot with both hands, why use your mouth?"
>
> --- On Wed, 1/21/09, Bruce Morgen <editor@...> wrote:
>
> From: Bruce Morgen <editor@...>
> Subject: Re: [Meditation Society of America] Street Wisdom
> To: meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 1:14 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> medit8ionsociety wrote:
> > Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to
> > their level then beat you with experience
> >
> Old Russian proverb:
>
> "Never wrestle with a pig --
> you'll both get very dirty
> but only the pig will enjoy
> it."
>

Yo Sean,
I think that this "oldie but goodie" might just
be on a different "higher" level than the pig or idiot
adages. There are multiple teachings within its
semi-obvious message of walking the walk and
not just talking the talk that is also the wisdom
that Gurdjieff among others shared...that we
often use the wrong "center" to do what other
centers (IE: Emotional, Mental and Physical
centers) should be doing. For instance, if we have to
do a physical task, like moving a heavy object,
we tend to also have mental chatter about it
going on, perhaps like "oh, poor me for having
to risk injury doing this" and then we may also
get emotionally upset. And of course, using our
Mental and Emotional centers in this situation is
just a waste of energy because what is needed
to do something physical is just our Physical center.
The pig and idiot sharings also have other inward
instructions intended to elevate our Self knowledge
(or whatever similar words you prefer), as do many
fairy tales, "old wives tales", and other similar ancient
(and modern) teaching tales. Placing ones Self in the
Witness position and simply watching the events of our
lives flow by as they occur, without commentary or
reactivity presents things, like this type of wisdom
revealing how we squander energy, very clearly. And
eventually or suddenly  one tends to do it less
and less, and then we retain and even gain energy
as the show that is our life goes on. And that's just
one aspect of what these type tales are all about.
And as so many "Words! Words! Words!" I've just
posted show, it's probably most easy to chatter on
about things, so let's stop now and start Witnessing
our lives, and when good teachings like these pass by,
simply suck their richness up, smile, and be available
for the next one to come. The universe will always make
something available to benefit us if we are mind-full
and awake to Realize it. And when we are, we will
live happily ever after.
Peace and blessings,
Bob
sean tremblay <bethjams9@...> wrote:
>
> Old Afghan Proverb
> "If you can tie a knot with both hands, why use your mouth?"
>
> --- On Wed, 1/21/09, Bruce Morgen <editor@...> wrote:
>
> From: Bruce Morgen <editor@...>
> Subject: Re: [Meditation Society of America] Street Wisdom
> To: meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 1:14 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> medit8ionsociety wrote:
> > Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to
> > their level then beat you with experience
> >
> Old Russian proverb:
>
> "Never wrestle with a pig --
> you'll both get very dirty
> but only the pig will enjoy
> it."
>

http://www.experiencefestival.com/forum/vBTube.php?do=view&vidid=XXr0LNedImo

New Center At Stanford To Study Brain's
Role In Compassion, Altruism
23 Jan 2009

A new Center for Compassion and Altruism
Research and Education has been launched
at the Stanford University School of Medicine,
with the aim of doing scientific research on
the neural underpinnings of these thoughts and feelings.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso,
provided $150,000 in seed money for the center-the
largest sum he has ever given for a scientific
venture-and has agreed to return to Stanford for
a future visit, according to Geshe Thupten Jinpa,
a translator for the Dalai Lama.

The center is the brainchild of Jim Doty, MD,
a clinical professor of neurosurgery who recently
returned to Stanford after a period of
entrepreneurship, and neurologist William Mobley,
MD, PhD, the John E. Cahill Family Professor in
the School of Medicine. Doty is the director of
the center, which is housed within the Stanford
Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences,

The impetus for the center began in November 2005,
when the Dalai Lama visited Stanford for a dialogue
with scientists and Buddhist scholars that was moderated by Mobley
and focused on spiritual and scientific
explorations of human experience in the areas
of craving, suffering and choice.

Following the visit by the Dalai Lama and based
on his own experiences and interest in these
areas, Doty initiated informal meetings with a
number of Stanford scientists including Mobley,
who is co-director of the center; Brian Knutson,
PhD, associate professor of psychology; and Gary
Steinberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of
neurosurgery, in an effort to spur rigorous
scientific research in mind/brain interactions
focused on compassion and altruism. He also
connected with University of Oregon neuroeconomist
Bill Harbaugh, PhD, who examines altruistic
giving using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

In March 2008, a delegation from Stanford flew
to Seattle, where the Dalai Lama was attending a
conference related to compassion. On hearing from
the Stanford group about the goals of the planned
center and the pilot studies under way, the Dalai
Lama agreed to a return visit to Stanford and s
pontaneously volunteered the $150,000 donation
to spur continuing exploration in this area.

This event marked the transition from what was
initially an informal gathering of like-minded
scientists to the formal creation of the center
by medical school Dean Philip Pizzo.

"As a neurosurgeon, I can only affect a few
patients each day," Doty said. "Through the
activities of the center, we have the potential
to impact thousands to millions of people to
live fuller and more positive lives."

The center has now raised more than $2 million
in donations and has initiated a number of
pilot studies, some involving Buddhist and
Catholic contemplative practitioners. For example,
brain-imaging studies have demonstrated a burst
of activity in an area of the brain known as
the nucleus accumbens when these practitioners
think compassionate thoughts. The center is also
examining individuals' response to the suffering
of others, which can be either disgust or recognition
of another's suffering, followed by empathy and
a desire to take action (this is signaled by
activation of the prefrontal cortex, the seat of
initiation of motor movement).

Questions the center wishes to address, Doty
said, include:

- Is it possible to create a set of mental
exercises that individuals can be taught to
make them more compassionate without them
having to spend thousands of hours in meditation
(common for Buddhist monks)?

- Is there an explanation for why a child becomes a bully?

- Are there ways in which children or their
parents can be taught to be more compassionate?

- Can we create a set of exercises that will address
the issue of "compassion fatigue" in clergy and
hospital personnel?

- Would such training benefit prison inmates to
decrease violence and recidivism?

- Is there a place for such training in the corporate
environment to decrease the incidence of depression
and anxiety in workers?

The center is also sponsoring a symposium, slated
for March, that will bring together a multidisciplinary
group of scientists from around the world. Attendees
will include philosophers, contemplative scholars,
psychologists, developmentalists, primatologists,
neuroeconomists and neuroscientists working in the
area of compassion and altruism research.

Doty brings a unique perspective on altruism to
the center. At one point, he accumulated a $75
million fortune, part of which he committed as a
multimillion-dollar pledge to Stanford University.
But following the dot-com meltdown, Doty was $3
million in debt even after liquidating essentially
all of his assets.

To honor his charitable commitments, he sold his
only remaining asset: stock in Accuray Inc., a
publicly traded company he had previously headed
as CEO. This allowed Doty to fulfill pledges of
$5.4 million to the university and another $20
million to other charities. Part of his Stanford
donation is being used to fund the center.

The center is located at 1215 Welch Road (Module B/room 55). More
information is available at the center's Web site at
http://compassion.stanford.edu.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical
education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford
University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please
visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication &
Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu.

Stanford University Medical Center
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136540.php

Yo Papjeff,
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is terrific.
Thanks for the turn-on!

"Jeff Belyea" <jeff@...> wrote:
>
>
http://www.experiencefestival.com/forum/vBTube.php?do=view&vidid=XXr0LNedImo
>

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, medit8ionsociety
<no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Yo Papajeff,
> Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is terrific.
> Thanks for the turn-on!
>
> "Jeff Belyea" <jeff@> wrote:
> >
> >
> http://www.experiencefestival.com/forum/vBTube.php?
do=view&vidid=XXr0LNedImo
> >
>

You're welcome. I watched
a few of his videos, and
then wished I had gone to
see him in Tampa when he
was here a month or so ago.

I guess us old hippies
still resonate with the
Hindu accent from back
in the 70s. Really like
his, "Isn't it(so)?"

Hi Sean,

That natural state of compassion
and connection with other people
is something I've observed in
young children as well.

As examples:

If you don't mind a ride in
Mr. Peabody's Wayback machine...

When a young child I was
fortunate enough to spend
a few years with back in
the 70s was not quite
2 years old...a couple
of instances of this
compassion and connection
struck me powerful and
are still fresh in my
memory:

We were waiting at the
airport, and I was holding
this young boy in my arms.
His older sister had been
away for a couple of weeks.
When she came off the plane
and into the reception area...

I was startled to see the
eyes of this young boy
tear up upon seeing her.
It was surprising to me
that a child so young would
feel this much intensity
of emotion, compassion and
connection. I wouldn't have
expected that reaction in
someone so young.

Secondly, again, while
holding this same young man:

We were at a restaurant
waiting by the counter
for a table.

Seated at the counter
was a man eating a sandwich.

The young boy leaned over
as asked, "What are you eating?"

The man smiled and said,
"A cheeseburger."

Obviously feeling a connection,
and comfortable with the
concept of sharing,
the young boy said...

"Can I have a bite?"

I still burst out laughing
whenever that comes to mind.

Best,

Jeff

PS: Are you back in the states?
Oh, and the man at the counter
just turned away, without
offering to share a bite.

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, sean tremblay
<bethjams9@...> wrote:
>
> Great article,
> This is something I would like to know more about. The biology of
compassion.  As a father I observed that thier is a natural state of
compassion that we as a species are born with.  baby on solid food
will want to share with every one around him family and strangers
alike.  What changes in the brain occur in life that disconnects us
from our Natural State of being? As a soldier, my concern is what
changes occur in the brain that causes seemingly normal people to
commit savage acts, It seems there is a switch to self destruct mode
that happens in the brain on a collective level, that thier are acts
that many individuals are capible of commiting in a group setting and
not individualy. Again what is the neural root of collective insanity?
> Good topic
> Sean
>
> --- On Fri, 1/23/09, medit8ionsociety <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
wrote:
>
> From: medit8ionsociety <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Meditation Society of America] New Center At Stanford To
Study Brain's Role In Compassion, Altruism
> To: meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:59 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> New Center At Stanford To Study Brain's
> Role In Compassion, Altruism
> 23 Jan 2009
>
> A new Center for Compassion and Altruism
> Research and Education has been launched
> at the Stanford University School of Medicine,
> with the aim of doing scientific research on
> the neural underpinnings of these thoughts and feelings.
>
> His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso,
> provided $150,000 in seed money for the center-the
> largest sum he has ever given for a scientific
> venture-and has agreed to return to Stanford for
> a future visit, according to Geshe Thupten Jinpa,
> a translator for the Dalai Lama.
>
> The center is the brainchild of Jim Doty, MD,
> a clinical professor of neurosurgery who recently
> returned to Stanford after a period of
> entrepreneurship, and neurologist William Mobley,
> MD, PhD, the John E. Cahill Family Professor in
> the School of Medicine. Doty is the director of
> the center, which is housed within the Stanford
> Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences,
>
> The impetus for the center began in November 2005,
> when the Dalai Lama visited Stanford for a dialogue
> with scientists and Buddhist scholars that was moderated by Mobley
> and focused on spiritual and scientific
> explorations of human experience in the areas
> of craving, suffering and choice.
>
> Following the visit by the Dalai Lama and based
> on his own experiences and interest in these
> areas, Doty initiated informal meetings with a
> number of Stanford scientists including Mobley,
> who is co-director of the center; Brian Knutson,
> PhD, associate professor of psychology; and Gary
> Steinberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of
> neurosurgery, in an effort to spur rigorous
> scientific research in mind/brain interactions
> focused on compassion and altruism. He also
> connected with University of Oregon neuroeconomist
> Bill Harbaugh, PhD, who examines altruistic
> giving using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
>
> In March 2008, a delegation from Stanford flew
> to Seattle, where the Dalai Lama was attending a
> conference related to compassion. On hearing from
> the Stanford group about the goals of the planned
> center and the pilot studies under way, the Dalai
> Lama agreed to a return visit to Stanford and s
> pontaneously volunteered the $150,000 donation
> to spur continuing exploration in this area.
>
> This event marked the transition from what was
> initially an informal gathering of like-minded
> scientists to the formal creation of the center
> by medical school Dean Philip Pizzo.
>
> "As a neurosurgeon, I can only affect a few
> patients each day," Doty said. "Through the
> activities of the center, we have the potential
> to impact thousands to millions of people to
> live fuller and more positive lives."
>
> The center has now raised more than $2 million
> in donations and has initiated a number of
> pilot studies, some involving Buddhist and
> Catholic contemplative practitioners. For example,
> brain-imaging studies have demonstrated a burst
> of activity in an area of the brain known as
> the nucleus accumbens when these practitioners
> think compassionate thoughts. The center is also
> examining individuals' response to the suffering
> of others, which can be either disgust or recognition
> of another's suffering, followed by empathy and
> a desire to take action (this is signaled by
> activation of the prefrontal cortex, the seat of
> initiation of motor movement).
>
> Questions the center wishes to address, Doty
> said, include:
>
> - Is it possible to create a set of mental
> exercises that individuals can be taught to
> make them more compassionate without them
> having to spend thousands of hours in meditation
> (common for Buddhist monks)?
>
> - Is there an explanation for why a child becomes a bully?
>
> - Are there ways in which children or their
> parents can be taught to be more compassionate?
>
> - Can we create a set of exercises that will address
> the issue of "compassion fatigue" in clergy and
> hospital personnel?
>
> - Would such training benefit prison inmates to
> decrease violence and recidivism?
>
> - Is there a place for such training in the corporate
> environment to decrease the incidence of depression
> and anxiety in workers?
>
> The center is also sponsoring a symposium, slated
> for March, that will bring together a multidisciplinary
> group of scientists from around the world. Attendees
> will include philosophers, contemplative scholars,
> psychologists, developmentalists, primatologists,
> neuroeconomists and neuroscientists working in the
> area of compassion and altruism research.
>
> Doty brings a unique perspective on altruism to
> the center. At one point, he accumulated a $75
> million fortune, part of which he committed as a
> multimillion- dollar pledge to Stanford University.
> But following the dot-com meltdown, Doty was $3
> million in debt even after liquidating essentially
> all of his assets.
>
> To honor his charitable commitments, he sold his
> only remaining asset: stock in Accuray Inc., a
> publicly traded company he had previously headed
> as CEO. This allowed Doty to fulfill pledges of
> $5.4 million to the university and another $20
> million to other charities. Part of his Stanford
> donation is being used to fund the center.
>
> The center is located at 1215 Welch Road (Module B/room 55). More
> information is available at the center's Web site at
> http://compassion. stanford. edu.
>
> Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical
> education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford
> University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and
Lucile
> Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information,
please
> visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication
&
> Public Affairs at http://mednews. stanford. edu.
>
> Stanford University Medical Center
> ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
> ----------
>
> Article URL: http://www.medicaln ewstoday. com/articles/ 136540.php
>