Buddha Nature, Buddha Love

>Love unconditional originates with the Buddha in the form of Buddha Nature, which is the essence of his Boundless Life of Compassion and his Boundless Light of Wisdom.

Like the sunlight reflected off the moon, the Buddha's Compassion is realized through the wisdom of the Four Noble Truths.

Although life may be full of suffering, its cause is endless craving; its end, ceasing vain grasping at everything we crave; and the solution, the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the essence of the Four Noble Truths.

In the Noble Eightfold Path are the Threefold Division of wisdom, ethical conduct and concentration. Of the Eightfold Path factors, Right view and Right intention make up wisdom; Right speech, Right action, and Right livelihood make up ethical conduct; and Right effort, Right mindfulness and Right concentration make up Concentration.

Due to the effects of the samatha and vipassanā meditation practices, the Buddhist practitioner acquires the calm mind of clarity through samatha practice which accumulates the two acquired factors of Superior right knowledge and Superior right liberation through vipassanā practice.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Threefold Divisions are known as the Three Higher Trainings, which consist of higher wisdom, higher moral discipline and higher concentration. These trainings lead to liberation and enlightenment through engagement with the motivation of renunciation (bodhicitta).

How does unconditional love originate with the Buddha? His compassion for the suffering of endless number of human beings led him to achieve Nirvana. After his death, his followers passed on the meditative practices of samatha-vipassanā to laypeople and Buddhist clergy. For his love for future generations led to the concept of Buddha Nature arising among his many practitioners.

Buddha Nature is the divine nature of the spiritually awakened mind, which is planted like a seed in the mind of a Buddhist follower through the careful and patient instruction of Zen masters, Buddhist practitioners and clergy, working together to carry on the legacy of Gautama Buddha.

Indeed, Buddha Nature inspires the sincere desire to develop the mind spiritually so that the Buddhist practitioner is able to handle the challenges of life courageously and nobly.

How compassionate is the Buddha that he had foreseen our need to realize the spiritual purpose of life, which is to encourage spiritual development through meditative practice!

For Buddha Nature inspires love unconditioned by human suffering to relieve all practitioners of endless craving.

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References:

Noble eightfold Path: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
Samatha and Vipassanā meditation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81#Relation_with_samatha
Samatha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
Mahayana Buddhism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana
Nirvana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana
Buddha Nature: http://buddhism.about.com/od/mahayanabuddhism/a/Buddha-Nature.htm
Amida Buddha, Lord of Boundless Light and Boundless Life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitābha

A Short Word on Breath Meditation (satire)

From meditation, I learned how to control my breathing. After meditating for many years — almost 25 years now mdash; it dawned on me that controlling my breathing works for recovery from a cold over two years ago.

One day, the tickle in my throat preceding a cough almost overcame me, which was overcome by controlling my breathing until the cough went away.

Today I have practice these breathing exercises consistently. To the average person, breathing is overlooked as unimportant and hardly necessary.

For myself, I find that on days when I do not practice my breathing exercises, I am not as calm as I am when I do practice these exercises.

So rather than simply breathing, I instead count out my breaths while feeling thankful to the Buddha and to God. However, it is important for me to point out that being thankful to a person you admire (a mother or suitable substitute) is also equally useful during breath meditation.

Furthermore, my years of meditation must have paid off because my heart rate ranges from 50-96 beats per minute. which I attribute to meditation and also regular exercise.

It is due to regular exercise and positive thinking that the benefits of breath meditation become amplified.

People sometimes wonder why meditate. My answer is, meditation will help you control your mind and your body, so that you may better serve other people as a friend, a lover or a worker. Indeed, meditation truly is the only mind control tool to help your master your mind and body for your benefit and to benefit society.

Breathe deeply and master body and mind!

Natural Highs Through Meditation Versus Chanting (satire)

Natural highs occur all the time, be it from exercise like jogging or even viewing art.

I am at this point in my meditation where even taking photos and posting them on GooglePlus gives me a brief high, which is safer than drugs but even more addicting due to the fact that nobody has ever died from taking pictures and posting them on-line.

Getting high requires no drugs, just the ability to breath deeply and hold it for 15 seconds and report for 15 minutes a day. To get good at it, read the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Also, invest in a samatha-vipassana meditation retreat when you can afford it. It beats going to the bar on Friday and waking up to a hangover Sunday.

Of course, that is the hard way of achieving a natural high. However, it will prepare your mind for the easy way of chanting.

For the easy method is to chant along with those quaint chants on YouTube with the dharani of the Buddhas when sober. In my case, I chant the Nembutsu for all sentient beings. It's called Yuzu Nembutsu.

As well there is the chant associated with the Lotus Sutra and promoted by Nichiren (Namyo rengé kyo)

Why, last night, I had to stop chanting because it made me sleepy, which is actually a natural high too.

For all getting high means is changing consciousness. However, I recommend chanting while sober.

For drugs are a dangerous shortcuts for potentially suicidal people. Like the young people I follow on twitter always tweet after someone tweets their bad trip, "Mm-mm. Drugs are bad."

Pure Mind Leads to Nirvana

Maitreya said, "Discrimination is consciousness. Nondiscrimination is wisdom. Clinging to consciousness will bring disgrace but clinging to wisdom will bring purity. Disgrace leads to birth and death but purity leads to Nirvana."

"Discrimination" refers to discriminating and holding views. To the Buddhist, discrimination is a wilderness, a turmoil, a clinging, a bad path and a false way. He who travels on it will not achieve nirvana, even if he becomes a Buddhist. A mind filled with discrimination is a mind that is always in turmoil.

No matter how long he meditates, the man who discriminates will not achieve through samatha the calm mind necessary practice vipassana meditation with success. For vipassana helps the Buddhist achieve the Pure Mind.

"Pure Mind" is achieved by "abandoning the killing of living beings, abstaining therefrom; abandoning the taking of what is not given, abstaining therefrom; abandoning misconduct in sensual pleasure...abandoning false speech...malicious speech...harsh speech...gossip, abstaining therefrom. Abandoning greed, he is no more greedy. Abandoning malevolence and hatred, his heart becomes free from ill will. Abandoning wrong-view, he
becomes one of right view.”

"Consciousness" refers to rebirth in the six realms of desire, which is the destination of people with a mind of discrimination, which results in an impure mind. Thus "discrimination is consciousness" implies that discriminations leads to the evil karma associated with rebirth.

It is good karma to achieve nirvana, since the goal of Buddhist practice is to escape the wheel of karmic existence that is rebirth. For hard is it to achieve nirvana, and most consciousnesses are destined for rebirth due to evil karma from both past and present existences.

"Nondiscrimination" is associated with the mind tamed by samatha practice, for a calm mind is a mind of clarity. With a clear mind, it is possible with vipassana meditation to achieve Pure Mind.

"Wisdom" refers to fruit of the Pure Mind. For a Buddhist who has achieved Pure Mind is freed from the bonds of discrimination and the evil karma arising from acts of discrimination. Indeed, discriminations results in evil karma for anyone who acts upon it. Anyone who holds the discriminating view is sure to becloud his mind, judging other people and acting out of the ignorance that such discrimination causes. For ignorance is the result of evil karma due to discrimination.

Thus vipassana helps the Buddhist with his mind calmed by samatha practice to abandon the six worldly dusts of killing, theft, misconduct in sensual pleasure (including sexual misconduct such as adultery, child abuse, rape and sexual deviancy), wrong speech (lying, gossip, criticism, verbal abuse, and greed), ill will (malevolence and hatred), and wrong views.

Freed of the six dusts, the Buddhist becomes wise through practice of samatha-vipassana. This is why it is important to not just practice samatha and achieve the calm mind. For the Buddhist who practices samatha meditation is like a farmer who plants soy and other legumes to make a field fertile. After the season of soy is over, he can plant rice and flood the land to obtain rice and other grains, provided he alternate with grozing legumes on it. Likewise, the practice of samatha meditation not only prepares the mind of a Buddhist for vipassana meditation, it also helps him to deal with the challenges of daily living. Thus, samatha-vipassana meditation not only prepares the Buddhist to achieve Nirvana, it also prepares him to become a better person than he would be were he a farmer ignorant of Buddhist practice.

Thus "nondiscrimination is wisdom" means the abandonment of the six dusts which frees the Buddhist from ignorance and the cycle of rebirth. With continuing practice of samatha-vipassana meditation he can then understand that "clinging to consciousness will bring disgrace but clinging to wisdom will bring purity."

With the Pure Mind achieved through samatha-vipassana meditation, the Buddhist will realize that "disgrace leads to birth and death but purity leads to Nirvana."

For what is birth and death but the cycle of rebirth in Samsara, the Six Realms of Desire? And what is the Pure Mind but the means by which the Buddhist achieves Nirvana?

So go forth and practice meditation, knowing that your practice will result in the Pure Mind. Indeed, with the Pure Mind, the Buddhist shall achieve Nirvana!

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References:

East Asian Yogācāra - Later history and the modern era: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_Yog%C4%81c%C4%81ra#Later_history_and_the_modern_era

Discrimination: a Buddhist perspective: http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/Paul_Fuller.pdf

Pure Mind and Ten Virtues

From birth to death, a person exists. Yet throughout his life he soon falls asleep to the call of Buddha Nature.

From lifetime to lifetime, for countless millennia, this person then becomes caught in the cycle of rebirth, reborn as Hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, demon or god.

This is the fate of the sleepers who never awaken to Buddha Nature.

However, the Buddha has shown that with diligent effort through countless lifetimes,
it is possible to let go of desire so that rebirth in the six realms of desire
becomes unnecessary.

All it takes is mindful contemplation to settle the mind and achieve the calm mind conducive to the arising of Bodhi Mind. From that point, one merely observes his mind to discover the ends to escape the cycle of rebirth.

Both contemplation and observation of the mind is known as samatha-vipasyana meditation, and is the skillful means to break that cycle.

What are those ends? Samadhi (single-minded focus) which is of the eightfold path (pure concentration) that leads to the Pure Mind.

This Pure Mind is the end result of practicing the Ten Virtues

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Ten Virtues: http://ddmba.org/pages/about-us/guiding-principles/ten-virtues.php

Samadhi is Right Concentration

One cannot merely heat up oatmeal, and then add water, expecting porridge — all one gets is an unpalatable mess.

When one mixes up water and oatmeal while heating the mixture over heat, porridge is always made.

Doing things correctly yields results.

So too is it with meditation: all the observation in the world is pointless when the mind is not calm as a troubled mind misses the fine details of what he observes.

This is why meditation begins with counting the breath. It isn't how many times you count your breath that is important: it is the single-minded focus on returning to counting the breath that calms the mind.

Once the mind is calm, that single-minded focus is honed and now allows the practitioner to closely observe how his thoughts arise, where they go when thoughts fade away, and which ones were truly important to his journey on the Middle Path.

This is the essence of the samadhi of No-thought: breath meditation becalms the mind and develops single-mindedness, which prepares the mind to observe itself carefully.

Once the practitioner learns that the ebb and flow of his thoughts are as calm as the ocean waves crashing upon the shore, he has purified the mind with samadhi.

Why is it called "samadhi of No-thought?" His right concentration allows him to not be attached to his thoughts, and to let them rise and fall like waves on a beach.

For his mind is calm as the eye of a storm of thoughts he no longer holds close.

The Five Spiritual Faculties and Its Potential In Education

Spiritual progress are dependent of the emergence of Five Spiritual Faculties — faith, vigor, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. The conduct of the sentient being is governed by his sense-based instincts and impulses.

As we progress in our spiritual practice, new spiritual forces gradually take over. In the end the five cardinal virtues dominate and shape everything we do, feel and think. These virtues are called, in Sanskrit and Pali, indriya, variously translated by faculties, controlling faculties, or spiritual faculties. The same five virtues are called powers (bala) if emphasis is on the fact that they are "unshakable by their opposites."

Control (indriya) as a spiritual faculty prevents the Five Evils from dominating the mind. Mindful practice such as the meditation of samatha, which calms the mind so that it carefully observes both the mind and the Five Consciousnesses in the meditation of vipasyana.

Thus self-control arises, not because of the calm mind, but because when the mind becomes calm, the Five Spiritual Faculties arise.

Despite meditation's use in cognitive behavior therapy, those faculties still arise within the secular setting and in the absence of Buddhist mindful practice. Without the use of Buddhist training, these faculties — without spiritual guidance mdash; are wasted. Thus, cognitive behavior therapy becomes a replacement for biomedical control through medication.

If the Western public education system allowed for meditation and Buddhist spiritual guidance, then it is possible for the student to excel under the current curricula. As a result of such spiritual training, not only would a child be ready for post-secondary education, s/he would be ready for the world.

There would be less behavior problems in children and consequently improvement in their ability to learn.

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Reference:

"The Way of Wisdom: The Five Spiritual Faculties", by Edward Conze. Access to Insight, 5 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/conze/wheel065.html .

Notes on Storehouse Consciousness: Citta and Alaya

In the Lankavatara Sutra, Citta is derived from the root ci, which means "to pile up" and "to arrange in order". Thus, the Citta is akin to "a storehouse into which the seeds of all thoughts and deeds accumulate" and are stored.

Yet the Citta has two meanings, general and specific. Generally-speaking, it means "heart-mind", the emotive part of the mind which includes the activities of Manas — intellect or mind-sense which grasps mental objects — and Manovijnana (sixth consciousness), and also of the Vijnanas (the five consciousnesses).

In this sense, it represents a person's mindset or state of mind which may be dominated by emotions.

Specifically the Citta is the Alayavijnana in its relative aspects, which is distinguishable from the rest of the mental faculties i.e. the pure mind that is free of the defilements of attachment, hatred and delusion.

In the form of Citta-matra, Mind-only, "Citta" is identifiable with the Alaya in its absolute aspect.

Alayavijnana means storehouse consciousness, for alaya is a storehouse "where things are hoarded for future use." As a cumulative faculty, the Citta is thus identified with the Alayavijnana. Yet the Alaya "is not a Vijnana," and "has no discerning power in it."

Indeed, the Alaya "indiscriminately harbours all that is poured into it through the channel of the Vijnanas."

The Alaya is the mind-stream, the stream of consciousness which is neutral, indifferent, and non-judgmental.

Regarding citta, the mind is first calmed during samatha meditation.

Then the mind is purified when liberating insight arises during vipassana meditation.

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Reference:

Lankavatara Sutra: http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm
Citta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citta
Vipassana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassana
Instructions on breath meditation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati_Sutta

The 55th Step

How to be positive: use patience and love rather than complaining about how crappy life is for you.

Nobody cares but you, for that's an affliction called delusion, the ignorant craving for attention in a roomful of strangers. It's egocentricity to the core.

The world does not revolve around you or I or the other sentient beings out there in this world.

How do I know? I've walked farther of this journey called life with each step being a year: I have taken 54 steps, but stopped counting after the 12th.

Every step after the last seven steps have been steps leading to the joy found actually practicing Buddhism rather than remaining uncommitted.

One of the things about Buddhists is that they are honest, sometimes to the point that most people run away from the truth they say.

The truth is, this world is a world of birth, life and death. When we make death a taboo, this world becomes an endless cycle of birth and death.

When a Buddhist faces the King Death in the afterlife, knowing what to say to him, that shows that our training has freed us from fear.

She who goes through life ignorant of the tools that Buddhism could offer her to develop fearlessness and relieve her suffering truly is a sentient being.

For sentience means having a mind that suffers the delusion called permanence, or as the monotheists call it "the soul."

Buddhism helps the courageous to face their fears about birth, death and life by giving them tools to make the journey less unsettling than it is now.

Two of these tools are samatha and vipassana, that is, the meditation of the calm mind and the meditation to develop insight of the mind.