February Youth Sil Audio on WISDOM & COMPASSION

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WISDOM & COMPASSION Notes by Bruce & Margret Davidson

WISDOM & COMPASSION

By Bruce & Margret Davidson

Wisdom is described as the understanding of the four noble truths. Or understanding of the dependent organization and so forth, what is meant by this is that when we speak of attainment of wisdom we are concerned with transforming these items of doctrine from simple intellectual facts to real personal facts, We are interested in changing this knowledge from mere book learning to real living experience, and the way this is done is through cultivation of good conduct and specifically through cultivation of metal development, Otherwise anyone can read in a book the  explanation of the Four Noble Truths and so forth and yet this is not the same as attaining Wisdom as Buddha himself said, it is through failing to understand the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination that we have all run on in this cycle of birth and death, Obviously when he said this , He meant something deeper than simply failure to be acquainted intellectually with these items of doctrine, Understanding there here has to be taken as a sense of right understanding, direct understanding, in the sense of seeing. This is perhaps why so frequently language of seeing is used to describe the attainment of wisdom, we speak in terms of seeing the truth of things as they really are, because attainment of wisdom is not an intellectual or academic exercise, and it is the understanding of truths directly.

When this kind of direct understanding of truth is gained this is the equivalent to gaining enlightenment, this is the door to freedom, Freedom from suffering and to Nirvana,

Wisdom is the key thing in Buddhism in other religions we find that faith is paramount instill other religions we find that meditation is supreme as for instance in you find that faith is preliminary meditation is instrumental. The real heart of Buddhism is wisdom.

The two steps of Noble Eightfold Path that are included in wisdom are:

1.  Right understanding

2.  Right thinking

Right understanding can be said to see things as they really are, understanding the truth about things rather than seeing them as they appear to be, What this means is insight, penetrative under-standing, seeing beyond the surface of things if we want to explain this in doctrinal terms we will have to speak about the For Noble Truths dependent origination such as “impermanence” with right understanding we see that we begin with our observation of the situation and of ourselves we join objective observation with enquiry and examination and consideration there are two types of understanding the first is to understand that we acquire ourselves and the other is to understand that we acquire from others and ultimately these two types of understanding merge and in the final analysis real understanding , what is deemed to be right has to be our own, we can distinguish right understanding through observation of environment and right understanding that we achieve through the study of the teachings, Just as with regard to our situation, we are asked to observe objectively what we see with experience and then examine and consider it’s significance, so when we approach the teaching of the Buddha are we asked to study them to listen to them and then consider them, to examine them, whether we speak in terms of reading, or observation and enquiry, or weather we refer to study of the doctrine and we speak in terms of reading, or in terms and listening, observation, the third step in the process of acquiring understanding or wisdom is meditation, it is on this third that is the means of acquiring “right understanding” and to summarize the first stage one has to observe , study and read, on the second stage one has to examine intellectually what one has observed study and on the third stage one has to meditate upon what one has examined , consider and determined.

(www.buddhnet.net)

What do the terms wisdom and compassion mean in Buddhism?

Some Religions believe that compassion or love is the most important spiritual quality but they fail to develop any wisdom, the result is that you end up being a good hearted fool, a very kind  person but with little or no understanding,  Other systems of thought Like science believe  that wisdom can be best developed when all emotions including compassion are kept away The outcome of this is that science has tended to become preoccupied with results and has forgotten that science is to serve man and not to control and dominate him, How otherwise could scientists have lent to develop the nuclear bomb, germ warfare, and like Religion has always seen reason and wisdom as the enemy of emotions like love and faith. Science has always emotions like love and faith as being enemies of reason and objectivity and of course as science progresses religion declines,

Buddhism on the other hand teaches that to be truly balanced and complete individual you must develop both wisdom and compassion and because it is not dogmatic but based on experience. Buddhism has nothing to fear from Science.

So what, According to Buddhism, is wisdom?

The Highest wisdom is seeing that in reality all phenomena are incomplete, impermanent,

And not self, This understanding is totally freeing and leads to great security and happiness which is called Nirvana, However, the Buddha dose not speak too much about this level of wisdom, it is not wisdom if we simply believe what we are told, True wisdom is to keep an open mind rather than being closed-minded, Listening to other points of view rather than burying our heads in the sand, to be objective rather than prejudiced and partisan, to take time about forming our opinions and beliefs rather than just accepting the first or most emotional thing that is offered to us, and always ready to change our beliefs when facts that are contradict them are presented to us. A person who dose this is certainly wise and certain to eventually arrive at true understanding, The path of just believing what you are told is easy, The  Buddhist path requires courage, patience and flexibility and intelligence.

What according to Buddhism is compassion?

Just as wisdom is a uniquely human quality as is made up of two words “CO” meaning together and “PASSION” meaning strong feeling and this is what compassion. is.

When we see someone is in distress and we feel their pain as if it were our own and strive to emanate or lessen their pain as if it were our own and strive to eliminate or lessen their pain  then this is compassion, So all the best human beings all the Buddha-like qualities like Sharing , readiness to give comfort, Sympathy, concern and caring   are all manifestations of compassion, we notice that in the compassion persons care and love towards others has it’s origins in care and love for oneself., We can really understand others when we really understand ourselves, We will know what’s best for other when we know for others we know what’s best for ourselves .We can feel for others when we feel for ourselves, So in Buddhism, ones own spiritual development blossoms quite naturally into concern for welfare of others, The Buddha’s life illustrates this very well He spent six years struggling for his own welfare, after which, he was able to be of benefit to the whole of man kind

( Ven S. Dhammika) www.buddhanet.net

MP3 Audio

The MP3 audio file for this presentation can be found at this location: http://www.opiumempire.com/vihara/youth/media/audio/talks/2011/wisdom_comassion_presentation_bmdavidson_11-02-2011_22kbps_mono_en.mp3

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January Youth Sil Audio & Notes on KAMMA

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Youth Retreat/Sil in English this Sunday 20^th of February 2011

Kamma Notes by Thilan Gamage & Kusal Kithulagodage

KAMMA

By Thilan Gamage & Kusal Kithulagodage

• Kamma and Karma literally mean the same thing, they both mean action. Karma is the sanskrit word, and kamma is the pali spelling.

• Kamma exists in Buddhism and Hinduism and also exists in the bible but with a God. The theories of kamma in each religion is obviously different

• While kamma, literally means action, it is more than simply that, kamma refers to intentional or volitional action but may sometimes also be used to refer to the consequences

Direct quote from Buddhist scholar Walpola Rahula:

"The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called 'moral justice' or 'reward and punishment'. The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law-giver and who decides what is right and wrong. The term 'justice' is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment."

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Buddhist Author:

"Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us into particular behavior patterns, which themselves result in further accumulations of tendencies of a similar nature....But it is not necessary to be a prisoner of old karma.... "

Karma, the Ven. Thanissaro Bhikku says,

"[Kamma] acts in multiple feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped both by past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present."

• Some people think that you cannot change your current situation because of their kamma and use it as an escape or destiny by thinking that their actions of our past lives have shaped this life and that we cannot change it. But this is not what kamma is. Present actions

• To change our karma, and change our lives, we have to change our minds.

• Kamma is a natural law, and it is the law that similar actions will lead to similar results, every action must have a reaction

• The law of kamma is also sometimes called kamma-vipaka. Vipaka simply means ripened effect

• The divide or 2 varieties of kamma should not be referred to good and bad kamma because this is inaccurate. Instead is better to refer to them as wholesome and unwholesome kamma.

• Wholesome actions are actions which are beneficial to ourselves and spring out of renunciation, loving-kindness and compassion, and wisdom.

• Unwholesome actions are not beneficial to ourselves and spring out of desire, ill-will and ignorance

INTRODUCTION: {Karma: Action (Sanskrit/Pali) / Vipaka: Fruit/Result = Reaction}

• Around the world different religions depict karma in their own ways - basically to contemplate the consequences of our actions and act accordingly to them in hope of being treated likewise.

• Most techniques are similar - Powers of Purification = Confession / Karma = God's Judgement

WHY BELIEVE IN KARMA?

• Source of ultimate justice - everyone will harvest the results of their actions

• Scientific Backing: Newton's third law "Every Action has a Reaction"

HOW KARMA WORKS

• Ripens via deluded mind - without delusions everybody would be free from experiencing their previous actions and therefore immune to karma or enlightened

Quote: UNKNOWN

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

THE SIX SEVERITY FACTORS

• Intention/Motivation ; Positive or Negative - Good or Bad

• Nature; The weight of the deed committed (E.g. Gossiping is less bad than killing)

• Actual Deed; The actual deed done (E.g. Whether we kill in self-defence or not)

• Basis/Object; The affected object (E.g. Killing a mother is different than killing a fly)

• Repetition; How often one continues to do the act making it a habit

• Reverse-Action; This is a direct case as it focuses on neg. karmic actions - not doing any good is bad

THE FOUR LAWS OF KARMA

• Results are similar to the cause

• No results without a cause

• Once an action is done the result is never lost

• Karma expands - due to habit forming (kill 1 guy, the next guy is easier to kill, and so on)

THE 4 CLASSIFICATIONS OF KARMA

Reproductive Karma

• The balance of karma brought to a being between each birth

• Depending on the amount of karma brought over you begin your life

• E.g. A being with a bad reproductive karma would probably be born as an animal

Supportive Karma

• Universal benefits or misfortunes brought to you accordingly to your reproductive karma

• Basically like good and bad luck

• E.g. Good reproductive karma and thus good supportive karma leads to a comfortable life

Obstructive Karma

• The opposite of supportive karma

• Reproductive karma gives a being a set karmic existence; good or bad, and after living under the effects of their certain supportive karma is exposed to an action by another being

• This action can be either good or bad but it disturbs the momentum of the original's karma

• E.g. A being born as a dog - then taken in by a family and cared for until he dies - his reproductive karma has been obstructed by the action of another being

• However, even if a being's karma has been obstructed it just repeats it again each lifetime until that being has served out its karmic sentence

Destructive Karma

• A single act of such immense good or bad karma which can totally change a being's karmic balance

• Some of these bad karmic acts are listed in the Anantarika Karma - the 5 heinous crimes

• Some of these good karmic acts are very hard to achieve - (quote story of the boy who saves ants)

• Jayanthi Aunty "Probability of good karma is shooting an arrow at night hope to hit a horse's hair"

Anantarika Karma - The 5 heinous crimes (Destructive Karma) ONE-WAY TICKET TO HELL

• Patricide - The act of killing one's father

• Matricide - The act of killing one's mother

• Killing an Arahant

• Wounding a Buddha

• Creating a schism/divide in the Sangha

REMOVING NEGATIVE KARMA - Guide

• Avoid negative thoughts for they lead to negative actions in the future

• Meditate and observe our mind and encourage positive thoughts

• Follow the Powers of Purification - it does not guarantee that your negative karma is eradicated but sets a guideline for you to stick to

FOUR POWERS OF PURIFICATION - Must be done sincerely and honestly

• Power of the Object; Firstly, we must identify all we have seemed to hurt

• Power of Regret; In this step we must realise the unwise decisions we have done - not guilt

• Power of Promise; Therefore, after observing these experiences we must promise not to repeat

If you can't - it is still accepted to prevent oneself from repeating for a limited amount of time

• Power of Practise; by sticking to this and continuing to act accordingly to your promise one begins their step into positive action and good motivation

QUESTIONS ABOUT KARMA

Q. What is Good or Bad Karma?

A. Buddhism gives no direct answer but gives you the mentality to decide for yourself. "Positive Actions are defined as their result being a pleasant experience; Negative Actions are defined by their unpleasant results". Yet, it is important to realise that the results from doing these actions and experiencing their results may take lifetimes since it is extremely rare of "instant" karma.

Q. Is there any being which can accurately remember his/her past existence?

A. The following (who form an overwhelming majority of human beings) are generally unable to remember their past existences when reborn as human beings:

• Children who die young

• Those who die old and senile

• Those who are addicted to the drug or drink habit

• Those whose mothers, during their conception, have been sickly or have had to toil laboriously, or have been reckless or imprudent during pregnancy. The children in the womb, being stunned and started, lose all knowledge of their past existence.

Those who are not reborn (in the human world) but proceed to the world of the Devas, of Brahmas, or to the regions of Hell, remember their past existences .The following (the minority of humans) also are possessed of knowledge of their previous existence:

• Those who die sudden deaths from accidents

• Those who live steady, meritorious lives

Q. Do the Karma's of parents affect or determine the karma of their children's?

A. Physically, yes - thus parents who are of a good karma have healthy children and parents who are of a bad karma have unhealthy children. However, this amount of passed-on karma is extremely insignificant when compared to the child's reproductive karma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism

http://viewonbuddhism.org/karma.html#12 http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm#3

Upcoming Events

Saturday, 19 February @ 8:00 AM, Monthly Adult Sil Program in Sinhala: More info

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Tuesday, 22 February @ 8:00 PM, Sutta Analysis and Discussion in Sinhala: More info

December Youth Retreat (Sil) Audio - Anger

Anger Notes by Hasini Ilangaratne & Samudi Gammampala

• Desire for your own likes and dislikes - For example, if you really like something and you do not get it or you get something you really don’t like, this will make you angry.
• Wanting something bad to happen to someone else = ill-will - For example, you do not like someone and they have a better laptop for example than you do, and you hope that something bad happens to it or them.

• The mind, verbal actions and physical actions - Example: someone says something really mean to you. You think and perceive those words as ‘mean’ and they hurt you. So then you get angry. You then say something back to them that is mean. They turn their back and dismiss it and this causes you to become even angrier and so you go up and punch them. Here, in this situation, this person has committed all three stages of demerit, the mind, verbal actions and physical actions. It is near impossible to completely eradicate anger so we should attempt to limit it to the second or even the first stage. When you get angry recognise It in your mind. Observe it and analyse. You need to think about it and wonder whether it is actually necessary to be angry. Think about the reason for why you are angry and whether it is valid or not. Think about what will happen if you stay angry; whether it will escalate to verbal actions and then to physical actions. If you do end up staying angry, you, yourself, will be receiving the demerit, despite the fact that you got angry at someone or something else. So the best thing to do is to stop it at the mind.
• Regarding everything as impermanent and uncontrollable - Accept the fact that everything is impermanent. For example, your mother loves Pyrex and she has this whole collection. You come along one day and you accidentally smash one and she gets angry. If she were not as attached to the Pyrex, she would not have gotten so angry. If she also understood the impermanence of the object and how she was unable to control how long it would last she would not have gotten so angry.
• Meditation - Meditation in general can help because it will calm the mind and clear of negative thoughts of ill-will.

What We Learned at the Youth Retreat (Sil) Document

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Next Youth Retreat - January 2011

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Thursday, 23 December @ 8:00 PM, Weekly Meditation in Sinhala: More info

Saturday, 25 December @ 7:00 PM, SPECIAL - Special Bodhi Puja for Most Ven. Ampitiye Sri Rahula Thero: More info

Sunday, 26 December @ 5:00 PM, Monthly Guided Meditation & Discussion in English for Youths & Beginners: More info

November Youth Retreat (Sil) Audio - Rebirth

What We Learned at the Youth Retreat (Sil) Document

Next Youth Retreat - This Sunday the 19^th of December 2010

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Thursday, 16 December @ 8:00 PM, Weekly Meditation in Sinhala: More info

Sunday, 19 December @ 9:00 AM, Monthly Youth Sil Program in English: More info

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Monday, 20 December @ 7:00 AM, Unduvap Full Moon Poya (Uposatha) Day: More info  

Youth Sil Audio

Who is this ‘person’ who ‘experiences something’ and then ‘feels’ and ‘thinks’ and makes judgements about it (in reality there is no ‘who’ just ‘what’)? In Buddhism, this being is made up of 5 aggregates. The five aggregates are a combination (as the combination has already taken place and the end result is the ‘being’). This being is also in a constant flux/change.

The five aggregates are form/matter (rupa), sensations/feelings (vedana), perceptions/recognition (sanna), thoughts/mental formations (sankhara) and consciousness (vinnana).

The first aggregate is form/matter. This is the physical part of us (our body), which is composed of matter. This form/matter is composed of the four great elements of solidity (phatavi), fluidity (apo), heat (tejo) and air (vayo).

The second aggregate is sensations/feelings (vedana). Sensations are sensed/detected to be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. This is done through the six sense organs/bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and the mind.

The third aggregate is perception/recognition (sanna). Perception is also of 6 kinds. What we recognise about what we sense by seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling (via the body) or thinking.

The fourth aggregate is mental formations (sankhara), which are thoughts or mental activities. Now this is where kamma – or cause and effect - comes in. So kamma really comes from your intention to act. If your intention is to do something good (or you have a good intention) the karmic effect will also be good (and vice versa with bad intentions). We can have a whole range of purposes behind our actions. However we can train the mind to have one or few purposes, especially by seeing letting go of the negative and harmful ones. The Abhidhamma describes 52 mental formations that guide our actions.

There are the three negative roots behind our actions which are greed (lobha), hate (dosa) and delusion (moha- not knowing what’s really going on/confused thinking/not understanding clearly) and three positive roots of non-greed (alobha), non-hate (adosa) and non-delusion (amoha, i.e. wisdom or panna). We may do something out of greed (lobha), hate (dosa) and delusion (moha ) which is considered a negative action as it is based on a combination of the three negative roots. We may also act with a lack of greed (alobha), lack of hate (adosa) and lack of delusion (amoha), which results in a positive action as it is based on the three positive roots.

The fifth aggregate is consciousness (vinnana), which refers to awareness.

References

What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula

Next Youth Retreat - 21^st of November 2010

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Thursday, 11 November @ 8:00 PM, Weekly Meditation in Sinhala: More info

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Sunday, 14 November @ 5:00 PM, Monthly Guided Meditation & Discussion in English for Youths & Beginners: More info