Vol. 27, No.3, 12 March, 2017
WORDS OF DHAMMA
Utthanakalamhi anutthahano,
yuva bali alasiyam upeto;
Samsannasankappamano kusito,
pannaya maggam alaso na vindati.
One who does not make right effort and work hard, who remains idle despite possessing the vitality of youth, who suppresses wholesome thoughts
- Dhammapada 280, Maggavaggo
Dhamma Discourse for Old Students - Part 1
(Lakkhamsi Nappu Hall, Mumbai - July 20, 1986)
My dear Dhamma Daughters and Dhamma Sons! May the Dhamma that has arisen within you become firm, become strong! May the panna (wisdom) which has arisen within you become firm, become strong! How does Dhamma grow strong? How does panna grow strong? Just by desiring it to be so does not make it so. All sensible and wise persons wish to become firmly established in panna.
We do not even get two meals a day just by wishing for them! Even for this, we have to work, apply ourselves, and make effort. We are deluding ourselves if by mere wishing and hoping we think that we may ripen in Dhamma, in panna! We have to work hard for it. Work immensely hard indeed.
I see that many people join a course and emerge from it beaming with happiness. Even a mere drop of Dhamma nectar has filled them with joy, as they have truly tasted Dhamma. One does not come to a course for mental acrobatics or to indulge in verbal duels, nor does one come for entertainment or a picnic. One comes for tapa (effort in meditation). Therefore, everyone who comes to a course makes some effort; some make less, some more. And because of that effort one gets more and more established in Dhamma resulting in joy and bliss.
However, if after the course ends, one goes home and forgets all about it, and does not make a daily effort morning and evening, then how can Dhamma ripen, how can panna ripen? When a male or female meditator comes to see me, I ask but one question, how is your meditation developing ?" Many of them say with downcast eyes, "Oh, my meditation continued for a few days and then it got less and it stopped." They are not speaking the truth as their practice did not stop, they stopped it. They sat for a few days and then they stopped. This is the truth - it did not stop, they stopped it. It does not stop by itself. Our Meditation stops only when we drop it.
We understand how difficult it is for a person to sit for a one-hour adhitthana (vow of strong determination) sitting three times a day when they are attending the first camp. The first day of adhitthana, after starting Vipassana, often results in so much pain! Initially it is very difficult to complete that one hour. Everyone has experienced this. Then one grows determined, "I have to sit for an hour in adhitthana without moving." Then, even if one could not sit and the legs were readjusted, one again reaffirms to oneself, "Ok, I changed my position once, maybe twice; next time I will not let it happen." Again effort is made. Again, difficulty arises. This cycle continues to repeat itself. But continuing with this struggle, finally by the eighth or the ninth day, one starts to sit undisturbed for an hour, isn't it! Had someone insisted on the very first day that this would not be possible for him, that he could not do it, then such a person would not be able to sit in adhitthana ever in his life.
On the tenth day of the course I have pointed out that you will need to take an adhitthana for one year to sit twice a day for one hour in order to get established in Vipassana? A difficult task indeed, yet it is a vow that one takes, "No matter what happens, no matter how much it harms my worldly affairs, still I will not stop my daily sitting." And it does no harm, it never does. It is but a matter of becoming determined. Just like a new meditator sits on the evening of the Vipassana day telling himself, "No matter if my legs break, I will not shift position." But of course, nothing breaks. Until date no one's legs have ever broken. If it were otherwise we would never have had people sitting like this. We know it does not go wrong and that is why we say to take an adhitthana for one year. Have this firm determination that no matter whatever damage may result in worldly matters, you will not break your vow of adhitthana; you will sit, no matter what. Know that neither the legs break, nor does harm occur in worldly matters owing to these daily sittings; it is only a matter of making a strong determination.
When we develop in Dhamma, we do not do this merely for the benefits that follow in the afterlife. Understand that the type of Dhamma that promises that after death you will get this or that, but nothing while you are alive, is actually not Dhamma, but only an illusion. If it is true Dhamma, then this life will improve first, then certainly the afterlife also will be better. Dhamma is for improving this life. Is it getting better or not? Is one's life becoming more peaceful and happy or not? This is the yardstick to measure Dhamma One whose life gets better, his or her afterlife will automatically be better. If one abides by Dhamma, life cannot get worse; this does not happen, it never does.
Therefore, it is only a matter of making a strong determination in one's mind, "Whatever will happen, I will sit for a year morning and evening." We have the experience of so many people with us. Whoever has taken this adhitthana and continued to practice for a year, does not come and say that their practice has stopped. Once established, one never stops this daily sitting. Whoever has stopped, has stopped within a year.
So, when you take this vow of adhitthana for one year, it is not to oblige anyone. It is not to oblige your guide, nor the Buddha, nor any Deva, Devi or god, nor Brahma nor Allah. Just understand, you are fulfilling your adhitthana vow. You are obliging yourselves by working for your own welfare.
Every student of Dhamma should understand that when one practices Dhamma, ones own welfare starts immediately and true welfare for oneself will certainly lead to welfare for others and for the world. Strong determination is not practiced to oblige anyone else, but for one's own welfare.
Kalyana-mitta,
Satyanarayana Goenka
DHAMMACAKKAPAVATANA SUTTA
(PART 2 OF 4)
The Buddha's first discourse is called The Discourse of the Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma. Principal Teacher S.N. Goenka gave the following exposition on this Sutta in Hindi and in English at the Vipassana International Academy, Dhammagiri in January 1991. Part 1 appeared in the September 2016 issue of the newsletter.
Now let us understand the second noble truth:
Idam kho pana bhikkhave dukkhasamudayam ariyasaccam ya yam taha ponobhavika, andiragasahagata, tatratatrabhinandini, seyyathidam: kamatanha, bhavatanha, vibhavatanha.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the arising of suffering: it is that craving which leads to continuation in existence, which is connected with enjoyment and passion, greatly enjoying this and that, as follows: craving for sense pleasures, craving for repeated rebirth, craving for annihilation.
The second noble truth, the cause of misery, dukkhasamudaya is craving, tanha. Usually this is translated as: the cause of misery is craving. Actually the Buddha uses the word samudaya, arising. When tanha arises that means dukkha arises. Craving and misery are synonymous. As soon as tanha arises, along with that dukkha arises. Not that the craving will arise first and then the misery will arise. Tanha itself is dukkha. When you start craving that means you are not satisfied with whatever is; you are craving for something which is not. And if you are living this mad life of craving you will always crave. If one craving is fulfilled immediately you start craving for something which is not there. Whatever is becomes stale and then you want something more, you want something more. Therefore, this tanha itself is misery.
He then enumerates three types of craving. Kamatanha, the craving for sensual pleasures. Then, bhavatanha, the craving for becoming. Although one may try to come out of sensual pleasure, but this bhavatanha, craving for becoming, this 'I' must remain." Whether in this birth, this life or in another life. Then somebody says well there is a celestial life where people do not die, "Oh I want that, I must be born in the celestial world." But one discovers that in that world people also die, "Oh then the brahmanic world that is wonderful as nobody dies there so I want that." But people die there too, "Oh then nibbana, nobody dies there because nobody is born there so I want nibbana." The craving, craving for this existence or that existence is bhavatanha, "My existence must be there, if I am not reborn there what is the use of all this practice, what is the use of all this liberation. I must be reborn there." Then somebody mentions a philosophical belief to you saying that you are eternal, everything else will pass away but you are eternal. "This philosophy appears to be so good, so wonderful, I am eternal, I will live forever." This is bhavatanha. Now there is a third type of craving, vibhavatanha. One extreme is where one wants to maintain this 'I' forever. "I must be eternal." And the other extreme is where one says, "No, no I must come out of all this bhava, I must get liberated, I must get liberated." One has a strong craving for liberation, for a stage where there is no more bhava. But craving is craving; whether you crave for this or you crave for that, it is misery. These are the three types of misery in which people keep on rolling.
Then the third noble truth:
Idam kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodham ariyasaccam yo tassayeva tanhaya asesaviraganirodho cago patinissago mutti analayo.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the eradication of suffering: it is the complete eradication of that very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, the liberation and detachment from it.
Dukkhanirodham ariyasaccam where suffering is eradicated. Totally eradicated because it is a stage where there is no longer tanha.This is a stage where anything to rely on, anything to grasp is totally gone. So long as one is living the life of rupa and nama and having attachment to it, one can be said to be liberated. The nibbana experienced by a sotapana the first nibbanic experience, makes one liberated, but this is partial liberation where one gets liberated from the four lower fields of life. But then as you progress, sakadagama, anagama more and more liberation comes. Then when you experience the nirodha samapatti, the nibbana of an arahant, the arahant stage, then there is total liberation because nor a trace of craving remains. And the fourth noble truth:
Idam kho pana, bhikkhavedukkhanirodhagamini patipada ariyasaccam ayameva ariyo atthangiko maggo, seyyathidam - samma ditthi, samma sankappo, samma vaca, samma kammanta, samma ajivo, samma vayamo, samma sati, samma samadhi.
Now this, monks, the noble truth of the path leading to the eradication of suffering is this eightfold path, namely - right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
This fourth truth of these four noble truths is this eightfold noble path which takes you to the final goal. Now these four noble truths have nothing to do with any sect, nothing to do with any blind belief or faith or philosophy or dogma. These are the realities of life. One way to examine whether someone is really fully enlightened or not is what type of teaching he is giving. If he is giving a sectarian teaching, "You must have belief in what I say; what I say is correct so you must believe it." Then there is something wrong. There is no question of just believing when these are the truths you experience. Misery is a truth; you can experience there is misery. Not only misery at the gross surface level, but misery at the deepest level when you are experiencing very pleasant sensation; yet this is misery because you have attachment to it. You feel so much tranquility, yet there is misery because you have attachment to it. Therefore, misery and the cause of misery. Craving and attachment are the cause of misery, and this misery and the cause of misery do not remain limited to a particular sect. You cannot say that misery and the cause of misery is limited to Buddhists, and not Hindus not to Christians not to Muslims. If this was the case then Buddha's teaching would be a non-universal teaching, a sectarian teaching. A Buddha is like a scientist and will teach the truth which is universal. This is misery which is universal, this is the cause of misery which is universal, this is the way to come out of misery, and this is how one reaches the stage where there is no more misery, which is universal. And the way that he teaches is also so universal. You live the life of morality which is not limited to a particular sect; everyone has to live the life of morality for one's own good and the good of the society. And with samadhi to concentrate the mind, to control the mind from moment to moment so you do not generate any impurity. And then go to the depth where you have accumulation of your past impurities and take them out. So simple. And all the tools with which you work with are universal. This is the yardstick by which one measures to see whether the teaching is a teaching of a Sammasambuddha or not. So all these four truths that come in his first teaching go to prove that really this person is Sammasambuddha, a fully enlightened person. For him the truth is universal truth not sectarian truth not philosophical truth. ...
To Be Continued.
Sangha Dana Held at Global Pagoda
On 22nd Jan, nearly 130 monks and nuns attended Sangha Dana held on the occasion of the death anniversary of Sayagyi U Ba Khin and Mataji at Global Pagoda. Many donors had gathered to participate joyously in the meritorious deed of offering Dana. The Buddha proclaimed that a meritorious person always remains joyous and happy: Idha nandati, peccha nandati, katapunno ubhayattha nandati.So also it was said by Goenkaji - A task undertaken joyously bears good fruits, whereas even a good deed performed with an unhappy mind bears unhappy fruits indeed.
unhappy mind bears unhappy fruits indeed. In this way the 15-day gratitude course held at Dhamma Pattana ended very successfully. The words of gratitude spoken by Shri Khandarji at the conclusion of the course and the detailed explanation of the Pagoda's unique features and Goenkajis vision were deeply moving to all.
May all being be happy!
CHILDREN'S MEDITATION COURSES IN MUMBAI
DATE:19-3, 16-4, 21-5, 18-6,
PLACE:.GOREGAON(AGE 10 TO 16 ONLY) REGISTRATION BEFORE COURSE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
| Date | Course site | Age (years) | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Sunday | Ulhasnagar | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| First Sunday | Wadala | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| First Sunday | Khar | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| Second Sunday | Dombivili | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| Second Sunday | Andheri | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| Third Sunday | Ghatkopar | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| Fourth Sunday | Airoli | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
| Fourth Sunday | Kalyan | 10-16 | 2 days before Course |
"Please call or send a text sms message with the name & age of the child two days in advance for registration" Course Timing: 8:30 am to 2:30 pm. Registration Timing: 11 am to 1 pm on the specified numbers and dates for each location. Course Venues: Goregaon: Vipassana Counselling and Research Centre, Siddharth Municipal General Hospital, Goregaon (W), Mob. 98924-15803, Tel: 2624-2025. Ulhasnagar: A Block 703/1405, Gokul Nagar, Behind Netaji School, Near Mahesh Granite, Tel. 9970755130, Wadala: "BMC School - Sewri Wadala Estate Road No: 7A Behind Lijjat Papad Building Contact : Mobile: 98922-18186, 98201-50336, Khar: Mahabodhi Buddha Vihar, Baudha Smashan Bhumi, Carter Rd. Danda, Khar West, Mumbai-52, Mob. 9930962652, 9869281410, Dombivili: Tilak School, Tilak Nagar, Dombivli, Mob. 9029423540. Andheri: Mayfair Meridian Meditation Hall, Ceaser Road, Off S.V. Road, Amboli, Near St. Blaise Mob. 9967480865, 9967813478. Ghatkopar: SNDT School, New Building, Cama Lane, Ghatkopar Registered (W), Opp Vidyut Society, Mumbai 400086. Tel: 25011096, 25162505. Airoli: Dnyandeep School, sector 2, Airoli, Mobile: 9969267720, 9969950901. Kalyan: Krishanrao Dhlup KDM school No. 4, Ram baug lane no 5, Near old Vani Vidyalay. Mob. 9987425633.
Please call two days in advance for registration.
NB *Please bring cushion. *Please register on the specified phone numbers. If unable to attend after registration, please *Inform in advance. *Please arrive on time for the course.
New Centre Dhamma Sugandh, near Sangli, Maharashtra
Dhamma Sugandh (Fragrance of Dhamma) is a new Vipassana centre coming up on 4.5 acre land at the base of Todoba hills. Surrounded by the forest land on three sides, it is about 20 kms from Miraj Railway station in Sangli District. All statutory compliances for the centre development activities are complete. Regular one day courses have already started. Additional temporary facilities have been put up for single gender courses for 25 students each from Jan 2017. The construction work of the main Dhamma hall & rooms started from Feb 2017. The centre with the Pagoda when completed will have the capacity for 40 Female & 60 male students. Those wishing to participate in this meritorious project & benefit from dana parami may Contact: Shri. Suniel Chaugule: 9403841943; Shri. Shital Mulay 9422410436. Email: sanglivipassana@gmail.com. Bank Details: Corporation Bank, Near Tata Petrol Pump, Sangli. Account Name: Sangli Vipassana Meditation Center. Savings Account No.: 033800101012921, IFSC No. CORP0000338 (Please inform us if you contact the bank directly)
Registered No. NSK/232/2015-2017
ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Mr. Prakash Laddha, Nashik To assist centre teacher in serving Dhamma Giri, Dhamma Tapovan- I & II
NEW APPOINTMENTS ASSISTANT TEACHERS
1. Ms. Bina Jhalani, Delhi
2. Mr. Dipak Saner, Nashik , M.S.
3. Mrs. Swarna Podimenike, Sri Lanka
4. Mr. Vincent Yucheng Pai, Taiwan
5. Mr. Arthur Yuguang Chen, Taiwan
6. Mr. Shiran Fan, China
Children course teachers
1. Mr. Poreddry Thirumala Reddy, RR Dist Telangana
2. Mr. Vishnu Salve, Pune
3. Mrs. Aruna Lahoti, Pune
4-5. Mr. Sudhan and Mrs Mina Chakma, Mizoram
6. Ms.Yuhsiu Chen, Taiwan
7 . Mr. Kenneth Haydock, Australia.
New RCCC for Thailand
1. Mrs. Colleen Schmitz.
One-day Mega course schedule at Global Vipassana Pagoda for 2017
Sunday 14 May, Buddha Purnima; Sunday 9th July, Ashadha-Purnima (Dhammachakka Pravartan day); Sunday 1st Oct. in Gratitude of Respected S.N. Goenka (29th Sept.) & Sharad Purnima. One-day mega course at GVP onwards till 4 pm. Non-meditators may participate in the 3 pm discourse. Please come only with prior registration. Samagganam tapo sukho:Avail of the immense benefit of meditating in large group. For registration Contact: 022-28451170, 022-28452111 // 8291894644 Extn: 9. (Tel booking: 11 am to 5 pm daily). Online registration: www.oneday.globalpagoda.org.
DHAMMA DOHAS
Jyon samadhi sampusta ho, karate anapana,
Tyon samyaka daroeana jage, jage samyaka jnana .
As Samadhi becomes strong with the practice of anapana So may the right wisdom awaken, may the right knowledge awaken.
Ate jate samsa para, rain divasa rakha dhyana,
Vicalita cita avicala bane, hoya parama kalyana.
Maintain awareness of the incoming & outgoing breath, be it day or night, May the scattered mind grow still, this is the way to the best welfare.
Trsna bhava ki vibhava ki, duhkhadayi hi hoya,
Lekina trsna kama ki, duhkhada aparimita hoya.
Painful is the desire of enjoying being in the world & of reaching out to higher realms, But the desire of sensuous pleasures brings untold misery.
Kadama kadama calate huye, hove trsna dura,
Antarmana hove vimala, mangala se bharapura.
Walking step by step forward, the desires recede & dissolve And the inner self grows pure, filled with the goodwill & well being.
