Dhamma talk (IBC Dhammaduta Tour of Malaysia-Singapore 2007)

What does it mean to be a Buddhist? Have we asked ourselves this question before? Are we Buddhists by birth and just blindly following our parents, our tradition? If we want to be a real good Buddhist, what should we do? The Buddha gives a simple answer on how a lay person could practice to be a real good Buddhist. The answer lies in practicing Dana, Sila, and Bhavana.

First, let us look at the global situation on Buddhism. In the Asian countries, some people think that Buddhism is mainly for the old people; it is out-dated and old fashioned. But in the West such as in Europe and USA , Buddhism has become popular now, especially among the young. Most of them believe that Buddhism is a way of healing, rational, scientific, modern and sophisticated. They believe that this is the religion for the wise and educated people. The Buddha also said that,

Panna vatassayam dhammo

Nāyam dhamoduppannassa

This doctrine is for the wise people

This doctrine is not for unwise or unintelligent people.

Thus, embracing and practicing Buddhism is becoming a new fashion and trend and that whoever is a Buddhist is now looked upon and considered as a wise and intelligent person. Buddhism is not just asking us to believe the Teachings. What is good or bad is to be discovered by oneself. The Teachings of the Buddha in the Kalama Sutta state that:

"…Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing ; nor upon tradition ; nor upon rumor ; nor upon what is in a scripture ; nor upon surmise ; nor upon an axiom ; nor upon specious reasoning ; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over ; nor upon another's seeming ability ; nor upon the consideration, ‘The monk is our teacher .' Kalamas, when you yourselves know: ‘These things are bad; these things are blamable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them. ” (Kalamasutta-AN)

The Buddha implores us to exercise the freedom to think and see things clearly for ourselves. He even goes further, saying that we should not believe or accept his teaching blindly. But we should realize and discover by and for ourselves what is good and what is bad, as stated clearly in the Kalama Sutta. The fruit of practicing the Dhamma is, one can discover the Truth by oneself. The Buddha said:

Paccatam vedidhammo

The dhamma should be known individually

Ehipassiko

Come and see

Whether the practice is good or bad, you will know by doing it yourself. Others could not give it to you. It is like a person who never eats durian and keeps saying that durian is very delicious. He will not know the real taste of durian until he eats it. The Dhamma of the Buddha is like eating and tasting durian, you have to practice and live it to really know the Dhamma. Ten years ago, when I was a lay man and had my first meditation practice, that experience made me realize the difference between just hearing the Dhamma and practicing or tasting it. What I understood a Buddhist to be then was just following what my parents did, doing some chanting occasionally, and observing five precepts some days. But after I had practiced meditation, the experience made me understand the working of consciousness or the mind better. Before that I did not know how to use my mind, I thought it was just a brain for thinking. Then I use it as a mind applying mindfulness all the time and never stop since. If I think about other things when I do something, I am not concentrating in the present moment. That creates problem because a lot of energy is used up while trying to do something and thinking about other things ‘at the same time'. The Buddha taught us to concentrate in the present moment. If we think about other things while trying to do something else, then we lose the ability to concentrate on the task at hand.

Nowadays modern sciences are proving the benefit of Buddhist meditation practice for our physical and mental well being. It can help cure many diseases, even cancer. Ajahn Chah and Buddhadasa, the most famous monks in Thailand , also taught us meditation practice for curing disease by using the method of deep breathing. Other benefits according to the researches are improvement in personality, decreases in neurotic tendencies, increases in psychic sensitivity; improvement in study efficiency and exam performance; increase in the efficiency of problem solving; improvement in creativity in the visual arts; decrease in drug and alcohol abuse, and so on. Having experienced the benefits from practicing meditation, I tell about it to others in my family and friends and show them how to do it. One of my relatives, who have a hot temper, became a calmer person after practicing meditation. The Dhamma of the Buddha indeed can purify the mind of the person, even the mind of a person like Angulimala, who killed thousands of people, could be changed and purified. I think there is no other better and faster method than the method of the Buddha's teaching in changing the mind of a person from bad to good.

Even after 2500 years, Buddha's teaching can still be practiced and used. It transcends all times. In the beginning, I thought I must go to the forest to practice meditation. So I became a monk and stayed in a forest temple; but my mind did not stay in the forest as it was wondering about thinking of Bangkok . Later, I realized the importance of being mindful in the present.

Sariputta, the chief disciple of the Buddha said,

“One man might live in the forest devoting himself to ascetic practices, might be full of impure thoughts and ‘defilement'. Another might live in the village or a town, practice no ascetic discipline, but his mind might be pure and free from ‘defilement'. “Of those two” said Sariputta, “the one who lives a pure life in the village or town is definitely far superior to, and greater than the one who lives in the forest.”

(Majjhima Nikaya)

It does not matter where you are doing the meditation practice, here or in the forest, or anywhere. The only thing that matters is that you have to put your mind in the present. You must be mindful of the present at every moment. This is the way that we should practice it in our daily life.

As a lay person, what should one practice in our daily life? The Buddha taught that each person could do Dana, Sila, and Bhavana , as the foundation practice of being a good Buddhist. According to the Buddha's teachings, this practice is the gradual path for progressively cultivating spirituality and gaining merits. As a lay person, one should start with Dana first, then with Sila and Bhavana. This is the way that will make the mind softer and more peaceful, for making progress in the practice. This is the way to accumulate merits.

Dana

Dana is a Pali word that can be translated as giving, generosity, charity, or liberality. It occupies an important part in the Buddha's teaching and it is the first step towards eliminating the defilements of greed, hatred and delusion.

Monetary, food, or material donation is one form of dana. There are other types of dana such as doing charitable work and the higher forms of dana is by giving a part of our physical body such as donating blood or pledging our organs after death .

For gaining merit and doing dana there are three factors to be noted:

thought or mental state of the Giver

the purity of the Gift

thought or mental state of the Recipient

Thought or mental state of the Giver

In doing dana, a donor should feel happy on the wholesome deed that is performed. There are three periods which are to be concerned about.

Before - during the preparatory stage where one should realize and appreciate what one is thinking, planning and doing is very commendable and wholesome.

During - one should be mindful and aware of what one is doing and not be absent-minded and thinking about other things.

After - whenever one recalls his good deed, one should rejoice and be glad and not regret it.

One must feel happy in all these three periods. Sometimes, the giver is not happy after giving something because he wants or expects something back in return. Thus the merits he gets are not much. I would like to tell you a story about the way of doing Dana by my second sister and youngest sister. My second sister, who has three children, expects to get something back for doing anything including Dana. Before and during offering Dana, she felt happy, but after giving Dana she felt unhappy. One day she went to ask my master, she said “Why I offered a lot of Dana but nothing happens in my life.” This is because of her expectation of merit from doing Dana that is the cause of her not feeling happy. On the other hand my youngest sister who does not offer Dana often does so feeling happy in all the three periods, before, during, and after doing Dana. On her birthday last year, she was very excited to offer dana to the foreigner monks in IBC including me. She felt happy before offering. She also asked some friends to do dana with her, during offering to the sangha she was very mindful and felt happy, after the offering she also felt very happy. She did not expect anything in return. She did it because this was a good deed and it made her feel happy. Because of this happiness, she is always smiling and many people like to contact and come to her as her customers (she owns small photo studio). That month, she got many customers and she could earn a lot of money, higher than the other months. When we do it with pure intention and not expect anything back, then we actually do get something in return. We must have the pure intention of giving. The fruit of impure intention is not wholesome.

T he best way of doing Dana is that we must make a Resolution (Adhitthana) to attain Nibbana . To make a proper aspiration, one can recite thus,

“May this dana of mine be a condition for the attainment of Nibbana “or” May this merit of mine (from the performance of dana) be a condition for the attainment of Nibbana."

When one makes such an aspiration, one will progress faster in one's meditation.

Consideration of the Gift

The gift that we offer must be pure. Those gifts cannot be obtained from stealing, cheating, killing, or from causing suffering to others.

I would like to tell you a story which I had read from the book of Ajahn Toh, a famous Thai monk who lived more than 100 years ago. An old lady visited him and offered him a big amount of money for building a vihara. This lady was the owner of a courtesan house. She could earn a lot of money from this business. She saved and accumulated enough to offer to Ajahn Toh for the purpose of building the vihara. The amount was about 200,000 Baht. She asked Ajahn Toh how much merit she could get from donation. Ajahn Toh replied “Only 1 baht.”, because the way of getting the money is not pure and it comes from sufferings of others. Even when somebody kills chickens for cooking food to be offered to the monks, this is also considered as impure gift because of it comes from killing. Then one will get bad kamma instead of pu ?? a (merits).

During the Buddha's time, one lay person asked Buddha this question: "Lord, what is the cause, what is the reason, why a person gives a gift of a certain sort and it does not bear great fruit or great benefit, whereas another person gives a gift of the same sort and it bears great fruit and great benefit?"

AN. Dana Sutta

The merit depends not on the value of the gift. But it depends on the heart that you give with. During the Buddha's time, there was one poor lady who stayed in a faraway place and had no chance to offer food to monks. Fortunately, one day MahaKassapa passed by that area. When she saw him, she was very happy and offered rice to him. After she made the offering, she was very happy. This was the only one chance she had to offer food to the monk. After she died, she was born in the heaven realm because of this merit that she did with the pure mind. It is not the value that counts , but the heart that gives.

Consideration of the Recipient

Giving is like planting a seed, as in a simile, rice seed as the gift, the farmer or the planter as the giver, the land or soil as the recipient. Good plant must come from good seed; a good seed without a planter or farmer to sow it will not grow into a plant. It also depends on good soil. If we have good seed and planter but it is planted in bad soil, the plant will not grow properly. The recipient who has a lot of merits represents good soil in which the good seed sown will grow beautifully. The Buddha said “Anuttara m pu ??akkhatta m ” that the monk or the sangha is highest field of merit or the excellent field of merits. One who plants the seed of merit with the monks can gain higher merits.

The Buddha explained the amount of merits gained in relation to the object of dana. Giving dana to animals is the lowest base of gaining merit that we can get because animal has no morality. Merits gained from dana given to immoral humans are 100 times more than that given to the animals; merits from dana given to a person who holds eight precepts are more than that given to a person who holds five precepts by 100 times. Merits from offering to novice one time are more than those gained from offering to a person who holds eight precepts by 100 times. Merits from offering to a bhikkhu are more than those gained from offering to a novice. Likewise, merits from offering to an arhant are more than those gained from offering to a bhikkhu, and so forth up to the Buddha. But the highest form of dana is the gift of Dhamma as the Buddha said,

“Sabbha danam

Dhamma danam Chinati”

" The Gift of the Dhamma (Truth) excels all other gifts. "

Dhammapada

Dana of Dhamma is the highest form of giving; it is higher than offering made to the Buddha, but lower than keeping the precept or Sila. Even if one was born in Buddha's time and had a chance to offer dana to the Buddha but never put his teaching into practice, there would be little merits gained. But if you take his teaching into your life by practicing it, then you can gain more merits.

Sila

One can gain more merits than giving any gift to anyone by observing sila or the precepts. Sila or virtuous conduct includes all actions such as refraining from doing evil . In Buddhism, a person's actions are divided into three types : physical, verbal, and mental actions .

A lay Buddhist could observe five or eight precepts. A novice observes ten precepts. A monk observes two hundred and twenty seven precepts. The merits gained from observing precepts are proportional to the number of precepts kept. One who observes eight precepts gain more merits than one who observes five precepts by a hundred times. The merit that we can get from observing five precepts is less than observing eight precepts. Observing eight precepts yields less merit than observing ten precepts. Observing the ten precepts yields less merit than observing two hundred and twenty seven precepts of a monk. A lay Buddhist who does Bhavana or meditation gain more merits than observing two hundred and twenty seven precepts of a monk

Fruits of merit that one can get from holding the precepts

One who refrains from killing has a long and healthy life. One who refrains from stealing will be wealthy and successful in their jobs. One who refrains from sexual misconduct will be happy and successful in married life. One who refrains from false speech will have good voice and good speech. And one who refrains from intoxicant will be intelligent. As the Buddha said,

Silena bhoga sampada

Silena sugatim yanti

Silena nibbutim yanti

Observing Sila will lead us to be wealthy in life, lead us to be born in the heaven realms, and lead us to attain serenity in life.

Bhavana

This is the way of training our mind, the way to purifying the mind, and thus the way to change a person. When we realize it and understand it, then we will know and see the world and ourselves as they really are. This practice is a fence to guard our mind. Our happiness or suffering is dependent on the mind. Bhavana is the way for protecting our mind.

There are two methods of Bhavana: Samatha and Vipassana

Generally, meditation courses in Thailand begin with Samatha and continue with Vipassana as the next higher step.

Samatha : “concentration, calming or centering”

Samatha has about forty objects. The most common one is Anapanasati or meditation on the breath. In mindful breathing, the meditator concentrates and stays mindful on the action of breathing in and out, so that they are able to detach themselves from the everyday concerns of the world and concentrate on the impermanence of existence.

This method is practiced by concentrating on one point, the spot above the top of the upper lip where the air enters the nose. We observe and concentrate on the feeling of the air on that area when breathing in and out. Some other masters observe rising and falling of the abdomen. This is the fundamental process in the beginning before we go to the higher step in the practice, the Vipassana.

Vipassana : “Insight” into reality

Vipassana means insight and is about meditating in order to see the world as it really is – impermanent without a self. This is the way to analyze anicca, dukkham, anatta, and the five aggregates. This is the higher step for practicing meditation and. the highest step for gaining the merits.

I should not go on explaining so much. It will be better if we learn from practicing. Let us do it together. Please close your eyes slowly. We will do the first step of Bhavana which is Samadha, Anapanasati bhavana. Please try to concentrate and be mindful on your breathing in and out, on the spot of the nose near the upper lip area. Observe the feeling of the air breathing in and out on that spot. Short or long, let it be, we just observe it. The Buddha said when you can make our mind peaceful and calm, and attain serenity even for a few seconds, then you can gain a lot of merits. This is the way that we can get the highest merit, and we do not have to spend any money. The benefit gained from this practice is sometimes beyond one's expectation. It will have effect on your mind and your body. If we try to practice every day, start with five minutes per day, and then gradually extend the time. You will see the result for yourself. At least you will feel the mind appeased and peaceful. This is the thing that man needs. This is the exact same method taught by the Buddha, 2500 years ago . There is nothing else that the man of the past or today wants more than peace of mind! Now you can open your eyes slowly.

The way of practicing is not just only sitting, but we have to be mindful in every moment in our daily life, standing, walking, talking, or eating. Practicing Bhavana does not depend on time or age, but it depends on your intention and how much effort you put into it. We just put our mind into the present moment; this is the way of practicing. Bhavana helps us know the way to control our mind that will lead to peaceful life.

These three dhammas: Dana, Sila and Bhavana, the fundamentals of righteousness and wholesomeness, and also the foundation of the Buddha's Teachings, called the Dhamma. This is the real human treasure which a Buddhist should follow, and which if practiced by the whole humanity will lead to greater peace and harmony in this world.

References

Somdej Phra Yanasangvorn Somdej Phra Sangharaja, The method of gaining the merit from Dana, Sila, and Bhavana, http://www.palungjit.com/board/forumdisplay.php?s=fc8182f4b2ded05d15abc5..., Accessed; 05 March 2007

The benefit of Buddhist meditation, http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=6656

Accessed; 01 March 2007

Ven.Dr.K.Sri Dhammananda, Leading a Buddhist life, Voice of Buddhism vol.38, October 2004

Kalama Sutta , http://www.accesstoinsight.org , Accessed: March 05, 2007