ABOUT ME

We are living in an age of technology. We have been trying to make use of advanced technology to

facilitate and improve our lives as much as we can.However, it seems that many things in our lives still go wrong and the world that we dwell in still remains a much chaotic, unpredictable and topsy-tuwy place.Human society has become a consumers’ society in the world of monetary and market economy, the main concern is the maximum satisfaction of wants and the making of profits. Economists are not concerned with the ethical and moral aspects of life. Thus we often have to pay a high price to realise our economic goal — the realization of which does not necessarily make us happy. However it is true that for a society to be stable, its people need to be well-fed, clothed, housed and medically well taken care of.

Therefore we should not overlook the material concern of life. Nevertheless, the contentment derieved from the consumption of the abundant material goods and other services does not always mean happiness.Human wants or desires know no limit. We seem to be always discontented with what we already possess and crave for more. The unsatiable craving drives us to compete fiercely with one another to get what we want. Thus we become coldly scheming, exploitive and ruthlessly selfish. We try to subjugate nature and exploit the natural resources to meet our economic demands or wants, resulting in the upsetting of the whole balance of nature. We inflict great damage to nature which supports our own existence, and nature retaliates in the form of global warming and an inconstently changing weather pattern.

The fight.

The world is also not a stable place politically. There are political problems everywhere on earth.
Dirty politics smear the political scenes on the world political stage. Corruption is rampant- There is no such thing as ‘clean politics’. Worse still people fight and kill on account of religious differences. Religious deviation has turned people into fanatics who cannot tolerate people with different religious views or beliefs.Their mind is liill of hatred and vengefulness and so they often commit unspeakably evil deeds, yet they claim to be believers of religion. No religion on earth ever teaches its adherents to commit evil acts but appallingly evil deeds have been carried out often in the name of religion and religion is supposed to bring calmness and peace.
What has or have actually gone wrong with us? Clearly we have not been conducting ourselves in the right way. We claim that we have conquered the world but we have not learned to conquer ourselves. We have moral teachings and religious principles to guide us, but we make use of them in the wrong, or we never use them at all. Many people have failed to practise the teaching of their religion—which is to do good and abandon evil. Many of them appear to be religious for they always go to their places of worship, but when they leave, they also leave the teaching behind. ln such a case, religion becomes meaningless.

Thus what we need is to be tmly enlightened.We must try to reach the core or the heart of religion
as the Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu had emphasized repeatedly. Religion is the ancient cure for modern days’ problems. It could be effective if it were rightly applied. We must not be at war with each other or with ourselves. We need to have a cool, clear and stable mind. In short we must always be mindful of what we are doing. So, mindfulness is something very important. It helps to keep us from the peril of making regrettable mistakes. Can mindfulness be ‘cultivated’? The answer is ‘yes’.

In this book, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu had revealed to us all the sixteen steps of breathing — meditation practice needed to attain the ‘coolness’ (or nibbāna) of life. It is only when the mind is truly cool and calm that wisdom or insight (vipassanā) can arise, With the help of wisdom or insight, we will be able to discern the futility of clinging or attaching ourselves to all thing: no clinging to material goods, no clinging to love, hatred, fame, wealth etc., and no clinging to racial, political and religious differences. We have been adhering to our inclination to get attached to all things for too long already, now we have reached or perhaps even crossed over the point of saturation. Enough! Enough is enough! Things and matters are just the way they are (tathata). They possess not a ‘self’ for anyone to cling to. Discem and feel the ‘emptiness’ (or voidness) in them and abandon all the feelings of attachment in them and in the end ‘liberation’ and hence ‘nibbāna’ can be attained.

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu had shown us the unique way of applying mindfulness in a systematic manner of controlling the breathing to bring the ‘coolness’(nibbāna) of life. It was the method used by the Buddha himself in his strive for enlightenment. The total abandonment of attachment (upādāna) and hence the mental defilement is the total abandonment of mental defilement too. The mind is totally free and is devoid of any extreme trend of thought (and hence action). To have a harmonious life, we need to avoid the extremes and take the Middle Path.

Choice trail.

ln his address to his subject, the King of Thailand told the people to curb their wasteful habits: no excessive craving, no excessive spending, no excessive consumption, no corruption and no over dependence on foreign economic factors. The King also stressed on the importance of having a self sufricient economy. ln fact, it was a Middle Path that the King pointed to his subjects. He believes in and practises the religion he adheres to.

For life to be harmonious, we need to take good care of both the material and spiritual aspects of our lives. We have to be mindful of our thinking and deeds. Before we can achieve social and world peace, we have to bring the peace of the mind. Before our mind can have peace, it has to be set free, free from all clinging, grasping and attachment.
 

By : Ratana Nantho Bhikkhu