Aspects of Buddhism

Road Rage and the Buddha

ttsworld — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:27:03 +0000

Road Rage and the Buddha

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

This article explores how mindfulness can be helpful as a technique in understanding ourselves. I use myself as an example because I’m the person I know best.
I request this post be read with the focus on the technique rather than on people and places.

Singapore, 1985. Or 1990. My colleagues and I are travelling to a meeting. I’m driving. It’s the rush hour, about 8.30 am, as in any busy city. We’ve been on the road for about 20 minutes.

Suddenly one of my colleagues says: I’ve been watching you drive. You don’t seem to get angry with all those rude drivers who’ve cut you. It’s happened so many times and you don’t seem to be angry. If it were me, oh I’d be so angry…And the others join in appreciating my patience and my lack of road rage.

I shrug my shoulders. We’re teachers. Aren’t we? I say. And we all laugh.

What I didn’t say that day was that I had learned something from the Buddha and had practised it quite often so that I was able to stop my road rage, or anger. (Road rage may be new but anger, irritation and annoyance have been with humans since the beginning.)

First, like everybody else I remember reading about dramatic road rage incidents in cities from all over the world. I was quite shocked when I first read about such things. I remember, every time I was “wronged” by the other driver on the road, I reminded myself that I too had made many mistakes while driving. Perhaps there was an echo of Christ’s injunction not to be judgemental and to remove the dust in one’s own eyes before attempting to do so for others. There was also such advice in Indian popular culture (movies, pop songs, etc) and in the popular culture of my mother tongue, Tamil.

Then at some stage I had read about mindfulness. I don’t think I used that term but I know I was practising it on my own. Being an avid reader, I had picked up that concept from some Buddhist booklets distributed free at the shopping centres at that time.
I had been doing this from when I was eighteen: when I was angry, I watched my anger. I had read somewhere how the Buddha mentioned that all emotions and thoughts are known to the Tathagata (the Buddha) as they arise, as they grow and as they cease.
I found that a fascinating idea and tried it in so many ways in my mind. For some reason, not that I was a particularly angry young man, I chose to practise this on my emotion of
anger and annoyance in everyday situations.
There was no systematic practise of this; I just practised naturally and whenever.
It started there so that by the time I was driving, I had this ability (it’s just something anyone can develop) to see my anger arising, to see the trigger for the anger and to be able to stand back from the anger and to just see it. I pretended to be a Tathagata: to see the anger arising; to see it growing within me; and to see it cease. After some time, I can’t remember exactly when, I was able to do this automatically.
That’s when my colleagues found me.

I continued the practice when I came to Australia. Here I travel more at night and early in the morning. Just two years ago I realized that there was one thing on the road that drew a good deal of annoyance in me and brought me to a state of anger: when I was on the slow lane and the driver flashes the high beam to try and hurry me. Please remember I am on the slow lane and within the prescribed speed. Anyway, while I seemed to have been able to be calm on the road, the high beam, I found, triggered in me a lot of annoyance. I recognized that and worked deliberately on that: that’s the history of my coming from quite a calm youth to understanding anger and annoyance so that it does not bother me very much.

The mindfulness technique is also useful in dealing and understanding our other emotions, or – as the Dalai Lama might call our negative emotions – afflictions.

I hope you’ll find this technique useful. Happy practising!

Raj Arumugam ( Director, TTS)
www.ttscourses.com.au

The fullness of the Dharma

ttsworld — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:24:34 +0000

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

Many Buddhist terms and ideas and the teachings of the Buddha, and these teachings as elucidated by contemporary teachers of Buddhism, have become quite widespread and common in popular culture.

So we hear often of compassion.
So we hear often of Buddhist meditation.
Or the Brahma viharas.
Or karuna.. Metta bhavanna.
And of so many other ideas and practices.

But Buddhism is not merely a collection of practices and ideas. For instance, Buddhism is not merely the ideas of karma and love.
These ideas are important but one must pursue each of these ideas to their full perfection. To hold each simply as an idea is merely an intellectual or academic exercise.
And pursuing each teaching to its fullness, one reaches the fullness of Buddhism.
And what is the fullness of Buddhism?

That is the question that one must ask in one’s exploration and pursuit of Buddhism.
One must endeavor to gain an understanding for oneself of what the fullness of Buddhism is. It is not an understanding someone passes on to us but an understanding each must develop and be willing to modify as one continues with one’s exploration of the dharma.
And one must do the same with each idea, through meditation, insight, study and enquiry. For each idea or teaching one must gain an understanding of its fullness.
Without that line of inquiry, without a constant asking of oneself of these questions – What is the fullness of Buddhism? What is the fullness of this teaching or dharma (say compassion or karma) that I am exploring?– one merely has an abstract idea, a teaching that makes no sense. One merely has another toy one plays with in the mind. A toy that satisfies one’s yearning for a while – but is never fully satisfactory.

Let us take the idea of karma, for example.
What is the fullness of the teaching of karma? Like all teachings in Buddhism, one gets to know what karma is over many explorations of the idea, not within a day. Sometimes it may take years, and dare I say, many births.
So again, what is the fullness of the teaching of karma?
Just to see karma as a law is not to see its fullness. Just to see it as cause and effect is not to see its fullness.
So again, what is the fullness of the teaching of karma?
Truly this question is best answered by the individual – but just to illustrate, I might say that the fullness of karma is to see that it relates to interdependence, to the origin of dhukka,and to see pure love and oneness – which in turn brings us to the fullness of Buddhism.

In this manner, if one contemplates on any teaching, fully and deeply, one will come to realize that the fullness of any teaching is the fullness of Buddhism.
So deep insight into karma in this instance is to see the fullness of Buddhism.
And again what is the fullness of Buddhism?
The fullness of Buddhism is completeness, of that stage when all things are done. There is nothing more to be done. The fullness of completeness is perfect knowledge. What is the fullness of perfect knowledge? It is fullness itself. It is completeness itself. This is nirvana. This is perfection. This is nirvana and, as the Buddha taught, there is no more striving beyond nirvana. There is no more beyond nirvana, for there is nothing beyond perfection.

So one can see the fullness of Buddhism through seeing the fullness of each idea and teaching.
To merely see each idea as an idea or as a technique or as a law is to merely see an abstraction that has no transformational power. It is merely a word that interests the mind. Like a new invention or a new form of entertainment that might interest one. To see the fullness of each teaching, however, is to see the fullness of Buddhism itself – which in itself is fullness and perfection.
There is nothing beyond fullness. One has arrived.

One must thus be constantly mindful of seeing the fullness, and this insight into the fullness of the teaching must come from within oneself. To have it pointed out to one and to merely read about it or to listen about it is simply exploring ideas. The teaching remains an uninspiring idea as when a student might learn in a classroom merely for an examination. And, to realize it for oneself, and to understand it oneself is to uphold the teaching of the Buddha. To merely repeat the words of the teacher or to merely accept the teaching of another is simply to follow without understanding. Following without understanding is not what the Buddha encouraged. The Buddha taught one to see the fullness of the dharma – which, in contemporary terms, is to see the fullness of Buddhism, to see perfection itself.

Raj Arumugam (Director–TTS www.ttsworld.com.au)
(picture from BurningWell.org)

As Kondanna Did

ttsworld — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:56:08 +0000

As Kondanna Did

Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

After six years searching for the answers in his spiritual quest, Siddhartha gains nirvana when he is thirty-five years old. This happens in Bodhgaya. He becomes known from henceforth as the Buddha.
He now walks about a hundred and fifty miles to Isipatana, the Deer Park – also known as Sarnath.

Here at the Deer Park the Buddha delivers his first sermon to five of his former companions in the spiritual quest.

This sermon is known as the Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma.

The Buddha declares it is possible for all to gain nirvana through practice of the Dharma. This is gained through direct knowledge.

And so the Buddha outlines the Dharma – the Four Noble Truths.

The Noble Truth of Dhukka

Life (being and becoming) is characterized by dhukka.
(Dhukka is popularly translated as sorrow but the word can be properly understood if one includes concepts implied in words like: unsatisfactoriness; incompleteness…)

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Dhukka

The origin of dhukka is tanha (desire, attachment, craving).

The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dhukka

Can dhukka be removed? It can certainly be done – when desire and craving are removed, dhukka is removed.

The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to

the Cessation of Dhukka

And how can one do this? How can one bring about the cessation of dhukka? The answer is the Noble Eightfold Path which can be summarized as:

Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

As the Buddha delivers the sermon, Kondanna – one of the five ascetics – perceives directly the truth of the Dharma. And the vision arises in him that all that is subject to arising is also subject to cessation. Thus, as the Buddha said in the beginning of this sermon, the Dharma, the truth, nirvana, is gained by direct knowledge. Kondanna understands. He gains direct knowledge.

********************************

Complete translations of the sermon are easily available online. Online commentaries by Buddhist scholars and leaders are also available.

But no matter how many translations one peruses or how many experts one listens to, it is important to develop one’s own intuitive understanding of the Four Noble Truths.
As Kondanna did.
Commentaries and translations or even the original version will not help as much as direct knowledge.
An intellectual understanding of the Four Noble Truths may be valuable in an academic environment – but direct knowledge by insight and intuition is vital if one’s understanding is to be useful in one’s own spiritual journey.

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS www.ttsworld.com.au)

In Praise of the Buddha

ttsworld — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 10:20:19 +0000

In Praise of the Buddha

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

Teachers of so-called Truth often bring attention to themselves.
Through means subtle or simply crude, these teachers create an importance for themselves rather than for the truth that they espouse.
Teachers of so-called Truth invariably curtail or take away the independence of those they teach. They create systems that deprive the individual of their freedom, their individual responsibility and their will.
Not so the Buddha.
Therefore is there praise for the Buddha.

The Buddha himself taught the Dharma (what we call the teachings of the Buddha) for about 45 years, but he never made himself important; he never made the teacher more important than what is taught. Also, the Buddha taught equality in all spheres of life – including to the moment of one gaining total freedom in nirvana. The Buddha taught that each and everyone has the Buddha nature.
The Buddha always did that.
Therefore is there always praise for the Buddha.

The Buddha encouraged individuals not to accept any ideas or tenets without first thoroughly investigating these teachings. He advocated that individuals should not accept a teaching just because a teacher is considered great; or because a teacher said so; or because that is the tradition; or because it is in the Holy Book (no matter how Holy any system may claim its Books to be); or simply because it is considered revelation.
The Buddha challenged the individual to challenge themselves, the teacher, and the teaching. This is the way to direct knowledge and insight. This is the way to clear and true freedom.
Thus the Buddha taught.
Therefore is there praise for the Buddha.

There is the way to end dhukka that the Buddha declared. Like a good doctor, he identified the cause:tanha desire; craving or attachment). He proposed that one could end this and achieve a state of pure and total freedom, nirvana. And he taught the way that one could find out for oneself – a way that one could actually test and follow if satisfied – and that way he called: The Noble Eightfold Path.
In that teaching he offered freedom to the individual. In that teaching he did not introduce submission of the individual to the teacher. In that teaching he did not introduce submission of the individual to an establishment. There is the individual and there is the teaching.
The Buddha offered the gift of absolute freedom to the individual.
Therefore is there praise for the Buddha.

Once the Kalamas of Kesaputta approached the Buddha and asked him:
There is a great deal of confusion. Each group and each teacher preach that their way is the only way. How is one to know which is the truth in this context?

And the Buddha enjoined them not to accept any teaching until they have thoroughly examined that teaching. Including what he taught. He declared nothing should be accepted because someone said so or because it is taught to be true. One accepts what one knows for oneself that it is the truth, and that it is beneficial for one. There is nothing that should not be scrutinized thoroughly.
He removed fear of inquiry. He removed the fear of challenging authority.
Therefore is there praise for the Buddha.

Towards the end of the Buddha’s life Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin and disciple, asked him if he would like to leave instructions for the community. The Buddha said that he had taught all there was to be taught. He had no further instructions as such, for since all had been taught, he did not consider himself that the teaching or the community was dependent on him.
Even in his last moments, the Buddha maintained clarity of purpose and refused to create an authority of the teacher, and refused to introduce any form of subservience of the individual to a higher power.
Throughout all his years as a teacher, from first to last, the Buddha always offered unconditionally that gift of absolute and pure freedom.
Therefore is there praise for the Buddha.

The Buddha said: Be you a lamp unto yourself.
Consider the wisdom and measureless depth of it.

Raj Arumugam
(Director, TTS ( www.ttsworld.com.au )

Thirty Young Men

ttsworld — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:05:44 +0000

Thirty Young Men

a tale of wisdom
Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

Thirty young men respectfully approached the Buddha seated below a tree.
They were in search of a woman who had entertained one of them, and had then absconded with his valuables.

Lord, have you seen a woman come this way? one of them asked.

The Buddha replied he had not and listened to their account and he said, Which is better, young men – to seek this woman or to seek yourselves?

The vision of the Dharma arose in the thirty and they received instruction in the teaching and were ordained by the Buddha.

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS www.ttsworld.com.au)

The Birth of the Buddha

ttsworld — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:05:39 +0000

The Birth of the Buddha:an adoration

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

The Great Being, master of the Ten Perfections who was to be born as Siddhartha Gautama and then to become the Buddha, was in Tushita, the heavenly abode of the gods, the Pure Land, The Heaven of the Contented.
The time had come now for the Great Being, for the Bodhisattva, to take a physical form on earth, for him to gain nirvana, and to show the world, to show all sentient beings, the Middle Way.

Queen Mayadevi’s dream

Lying in her royal chamber, Mahamaya, also known as Mayadevi, feels sleep come to her ever so gently. All memory of her blessed life, her kingdom and her husband, King Suddhodhana of Kapilavastu, all memory slips and fades. It is a quiet sleep. She dreams.
Mahamaya has the most amazing dream she has ever had.
And this, Mayadevi thinks, this is no dream.

She lies on a couch in a golden mansion. There are angels and there are divine beings who tend to her. She sees a brilliant light all round her. There is a majestic white elephant, graceful, bright and noble.

The elephant plucks a white lotus, circles the queen three times respectfully – it is such a majestic elephant, it need not even show such respect, and yet that being circles Mayadevi thrice, respectfully, and then the next moment, even in her dream, the queen knows that the being now resides in her womb.

All the ten thousand worlds quake.
And there is a glorious light, a light immeasurable, and the light is in every corner of the universe, in every part of the universe, known and unknown. This light is equally in places where there was light before, and this light is in places where light has never ever been before.
There is peace; there is a great calm.
It is marvellous, it is wonderful.

The Prediction

The king listens attentively to the queen. He summons sixty-four wise ones and relates to them the queen’s dream.

And the wise ones deliberate and declare:

The queen is with child. She carries a noble child.

A wonderful child will be born. And this child, if he lives in the palace will grow to be a Universal Monarch; and this child, if he renounces all power and luxury, and goes in search of truth, this child will become a Buddha, the Enlightened One who will show all beings the Middle Way.

Birth of the Buddha

It is the custom, it is the tradition since ancient times.
Close to her time, the time when she will deliver the child, Mahamaya starts on her journey to the home of her parents at Devadaha.
On the way the queen, with her entourage, stops at Lumbini Grove, a magnificent grove of Sal-trees.
The trees here are in full bloom; there is the scent of the heavens and the grove is vibrant with the bees and the birds, and with all its gentle creatures.
Mayadevi, carrying the future Buddha in her womb, steps forth to a Sal-tree and reaches out to a branch.
The mother is pure and so is the child she carries – one as pure as the finest cloth from Benares, and the other as pure as the rarest precious stone.
And thus standing upright, holding on to a branch of the Sal-tree, and having carried the child for exactly ten months, Mayadevi yields her child to the world.

The child is born pure and clean, not smeared by any impure matter as one might be from a mother’s womb – but not so this child, for one is as pure as a precious stone, and the other as pure as Benares cloth.

And there is a light, a glorious light, a light immeasurable, and it is in every corner of the universe, in every part of the universe that is known and unknown. There is light in places where there was light before, and there is light in places where light has never ever been before.

And two jets of water, one cool and one warm, two jets of water from the sky wash the child and the mother.
And then all perceptive beings in all the worlds, and the angels and the gods in all the worlds, in the infinity of worlds, all these beings make their offerings to the child; and they declare:
There is none your equal.

And the child views all the worlds in all directions, in all dimensions.

And with the divine beings, and with all perceptive beings

honouring him, and with the pure beings attending to him, and with one holding a white sunshade over him, though all these are unseen by all humans at Lumbini grove, even then the child takes seven steps forth to the North and he declares:

This is my last birth; there shall be no renewal of being.

For he shall indeed be the Buddha; and he shall show the world the Middle Way, the way to end all dhukka, the way to the end of all bondage. To spotless and perfect freedom.

The child is born and the journey to Devadaha becomes unnecessary.
The mother carries her child in her arms. This is wonderful; this is marvellous. This is bliss.
Mayadevi and her entourage treasure the child, and they return to Kapilavastu.
Suddhodhana receives them with great joy.
With the birth of his son, all his wishes have been granted, and so he names the child: Siddhartha. All wishes fulfilled.

Raj Arumugam (Director (TTS) www.ttsworld.com.au )

Picture from www.dhammakaya.or.th

an insight into dhukka

ttsworld — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 06:04:20 +0000

Siddhartha’s dhukka

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

Each one of us is possessed of Buddha nature, and so it is that Siddahartha’s pain is ours too, as is the pain of all sentient beings. This is an effective point of entry for understanding dhukka.

Siddhartha’s life of ease

We know the Buddha as the Enlightened One, as the One who gained nirvana, and the One who shows all beings the way to that abiding state.
But, using one’s imagination, and entering through that imagination to the life of Siddhartha (which was what the Buddha was known before nirvana), one can perhaps understand the element of dhukka (unsatisfactoriness; incompleteness; suffering) in Siddhartha’s life.
As a prince, Siddhartha led a life of luxury. The Buddhist tradition provides various examples:
- he had a palace for winter, one for summer and one for the rains
- he had many items of luxury at his disposal.
Suddhodhana, the prince’s father, ensured that the young prince was always surrounded by luxuries and pleasant things.
This sense of ease and luxury in Siddhartha’s life is most aptly conveyed in the following lines fromThe Life of The Buddha by Bhikkhu Nanamoli:

I was delicate, most delicate, supremely delicate. Lily pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my benefit. Blue lilies flowered in one, white lilies in another, red lilies in a third. I used no sandalwood that was not from Benares. My turban, tunic, lower garments and cloak were all made of Benares cloth. A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that no cold or heat or dust or grit or dew might inconvenience me.

Siddhartha’s pain

Yet even Siddhartha’s life could not have been without pain, without dhukka.The life of total freedom, the life where all pain ceases would be his when Siddhartha becomes the Buddha, but until then pain, and unsatisfactoriness – dhukka - will follow Siddhartha, even as it will follow any being, until nirvana.
The first clue we have about this pain, Siddhartha’s pain, is when we learn that his mother, Mahamaya, died when he was but seven days old.
Even though Suddhodhna and Mahamaya’s sister Mahapajapati undoubtedly took good care of the child, the loss of one’s own mother is always a cause of pain. We can, by an exercise of our empathy, feel that pain creeping later in Siddhartha’s life. Even as the Buddha, as legend has it, he visited his mother who at that time resided in another world system, Tushita, so that he may declare the Dharma to her. One sees the Buddha’s profound love for the being who had borne him – and one imagines the pain of Siddhartha, as a child perhaps between seven and ten years old, when he learns that his mother had died when he was but seven days old.

There is another incident in which we can again imagine, this time perhaps more vividly, the pain Siddhartha must have endured and seen in his life before enlightenment. He was about eleven years old when Devadatta, his cousin, using a bow and arrow, shot down a swan.

Siddhartha rescued the swan and nursed the swan. Certainly the future Buddha’s perfect compassion and love comes clearly through in this incident; but one can, as one visualizes the young child with the swan in his hands, stroking it tenderly, and nursing the swan, one can also imagine easily the pain the child must have suffered at seeing the suffering of another being.
One can understand that such a child, so sensitive and endowed with deep compassion, must have been quite disturbed by the violence and aggression of his cousin.
Siddhartha may, at this stage, have had the first inkling of the First Noble Truth that he would propound as the Buddha: The Noble Truth of Dhukka.

Universal dhukka

But what is the significance of Siddhartha’s suffering or dhukka?
In as far as each one of us is endowed with the Buddha nature (though not fully realized by each), Siddhartha’s dhukka is our own. (Every other’s pain is ours too.) This pain can be an effective start point for our own meditation on the First Noble Truth of Dhukka – on the unsatisfactory, impermanent nature of human life; on incompleteness and suffering.
Empathizing with the pain of a child who learns that his biological mother is not alive, that she died when he was but seven days old; and visualizing – truly and actually visualizing – a young and sensitive child’s first encounter with the aggression and violence of his fellow-human being(s) cannot but bring for us a fresh insight into the nature of dhukka.

By extension, one then reviews one’s own experiences of dhukka, of unsatisfactoriness and links this dhukka with Siddhartha’s suffering – linking it further with the dhukka of all living beings, all sentient beings, linking it to the dhukka in all existence. That way is a good and clear way of understanding Siddhartha’s pain, of understanding our own pain, of understanding the unsatisfactoriness in all existence, of gaining full insight into the nature of dhukka.

One finds then that this understanding does not lead one to despondency and hopelessness – but to an insight into dhukka that opens doors for its ending. Understanding this leads to freedom. For the journey never starts without Siddhartha’s dhukka.

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)

meditations on the dhammapada

ttsworld — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:44:23 +0000

The Dhammapada

Raj Arumugam ( Director, TTS)
www.ttsworld.com.au

The Beauty of the Dhammapada

(A thing of beauty is a joy for ever – John Keats)

The Dhammapada, to me, is one of the most beautiful texts in Buddhist
literature.
It is simple and yet endowed with great depth; it draws on imagery that is down to earth and yet offers the sublime.

Dhamma refers to truth or to the teachings of the Buddha and pada
means path.
Thus one could translate the word as the path of truth. It is that path that comes before one when one is ready.
The Dhammapada consists of 423 sayings uttered by the Buddha on various occasions and it is traditionally arranged in 26 chapters.

Here are a few sayings from a translation I have used since childhood:

Though one should conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle,
he who conquers his own self, is the greatest of all conquerors.

Self-conquest is, indeed, far greater than the conquest of all other folk;
neither a god nor a Gandhabba, nor Mara with Brahma, can win back the victory of such a person who is self-subdued and ever lives in restraint.

(103-105, Chapter 8 The Chapter on Thousands)

To cease from all evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind: This
is the advice of all Buddhas.

Not insulting, not harming, restraint according to the Fundamental Moral
Code, moderation in food, secluded abode, intent on higher thoughts –
this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.

(183/185 Chapter 14 The Chapter on The Buddha)

Easily seen are others’ faults, hard indeed to see are one’s own.
Like chaff one winnows others’ faults, but one’s own (faults) one
hides, as a crafty fowler conceals himself by camouflage.

He who sees others’ faults, and is ever irritable – the corruptions
of such a one grow. He is far from the destruction of corruptions.

(252-253 Chapter 18 The Chapter on Impurities)

Practical Application

My personal experience of the Dhammapada is its practical
dimension. Its sayings have such a powerful influence on one’s emotional and psychological being.

Consider this quote, for instance:

‘He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,’ in
those who harbour such thoughts hatred is not appeased.

‘He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,’ in
those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred is appeased.

(3-4 Chapter 1 The Chapter on Twin Verses)

At various points in my life, and at various points of conflict and tension, this saying has always come back to me. My experience has been that these lines have the power to lessen the mind’s bitterness, resentment and other negative emotions. The lines have the power to increase one’s sense of calm, peace and also have a deep and stilling effect on the emotions.

May you too find the power of these lines.

A note on the translation I have quoted from

I have used a small and slim volume of The Dhammapada for over 20 years.

It’s entitled The Dhammapda Path of Righteousness and does not have the translator’s name.

It has travelled with me to many countries and like all great books, it has been a marvellous companion.

A companion who has stayed, happily for me, longer than all others.

Meditations on the Dhammapada

My experience of The Dhammapada has led me to write this book
Meditations on the Dhammapada (2005), published by TTS www.ttsworld.com.au
.

The prologue from this book explains what the book is about:

Prologue

This book is a personal meditation on two Buddhist traditions.
The first is the story of Angulimala.
Formerly a brilliant student at the ancient Indian university of Taxila, he had descended into becoming a robber and murderer in the practice of a macabre ritual.
In a dramatic meeting, the Buddha helped Angulimala regain his sense of the good, the Dharma, and Angulimala renounced his violent ways and became a monk.

The other Buddhist tradition is the tradition of the Dhammapada –
that beautiful collection of the Buddha’s sayings, simple but profound.

This book Meditations on the Dhammapada takes my own readings and experiences of these two traditions since my childhood, and weaves them together.
I believe this book will serve as a point of entry into the Buddha’s teachings and as an exercise in wholesome meditation.

Here are two extracts from the book:

All Buddhas
in all cycles
in all worlds
in all ages
teach but the same:
Cease from evil.
Do good.
Purify the mind.

Is that all?
Even a child knows this,
said one.

But even a person of sixty,
said the Buddha,
finds it hard to practise.

Angulimala’s Practice

Thus I learned; thus I understood; thus I realized:All beings recoil from
pain. I too recoil from pain. Knowing this, I cannot harm any.

There is samsara. Endless cycles of births and in which all beings now have been a compassionate mother to me in one birth or another.
Knowing this, I cannot harm any.

There is karma. Everything I give returns.
Everything I send forth comes back. It will be foolish of me then to send evil forth; to send forth pain, for these will return.
Knowing these, I cannot harm any.

www.ttsworld.com.au

The Golden Buddha

ttsworld — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:58:24 +0000

The Golden Buddha

a meditation

Raj Arumugam ( Director, TTS)

www.ttsworld.com.au

The picture that became

the inspiration for

a reading meditation

In 2003 I received this picture on a visit to a Buddhist temple in Singapore.

I fell in love with the picture the instant I saw it. I knew instinctively that the artist must have put in a great deal of love into his work – and probably a good deal of thought, and meditation.

After some time, I realized that the image was so powerful and moving that I needed to write down the ideas and thoughts that were coming to me as I gazed at this picture.

The result is the book The Golden Buddha.

The Golden Buddha

The Golden Buddha is a reading meditation.

All my books meant for reading meditation have the following features:

deliberate repetition of phrases, words, and passages

ample space and pauses, which are akin to the experience of silence in meditation

simple language, though not wanting in depth

short texts

heavy reliance on the reader’s insight and intuition

The texts for reading meditation also have great intuitive depth. You can access this intuition and insight through slow and contemplative reading. And through repeated reading.

In this book, for example, the title poem The Golden Buddha is repeated often with the picture of the Buddha.

Reading the text and then gazing at the picture, or gazing at the picture before reading, or even a combination of both, actually deepens our intuitive grasp of peace and calm.

Perhaps a slow and deliberate reading of the extract below may provide you with an understanding of this technique and what the book has to offer.

The Radiant Buddha

Below is an extract from The Golden Buddha.

Read the extract slowly and deliberately. Let every word slowly settle in your consciousness:

The elegant Buddha sits in the garden

below the lilly-pilly and the

summer sun lets its rays fall on the Buddha

and transforms the figure into a radiant Buddha

below the native lilly-pilly.

Where the Buddha sits there is a calm;

where the Buddha sits there is a quiet and joy.

There where the Buddha sits is stillness and peace.

May the Buddha sit everywhere in the universe.

I hope you can feel a sense of calm and peace as one may feel during meditation.

You may want to read the extract once again. This time, also try and visualize the calm expression of the Buddha sitting below a tree. After you have finished reading the extract a second time, close your eyes and visualize the Buddha sitting everywhere in the universe.

Reading meditation

For more details and for an extract from the book The Golden Buddha, please visit www.ttsworld.com.au

Do tell us what you think about this technique of reading meditation.

May all beings be happy. May all beings find peace.

Buddhism: an introduction

ttsworld — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:24:57 +0000

Buddhism: an introduction

Raj Arumugam ( Director, TTS)

www.ttsworld.com.au

Understanding Buddhism

No one person or single approach can do justice to any complete system of thought – and this is especially true of Buddhism. This blog is meant as a quick introduction to Buddhism but I’d like to use a different method in this: the method of addressing and appealing directly to your intuition and insight.

A Quick Introduction to Buddhism

To understand Buddhism properly, one needs to abandon all received and preconceived concepts of religion and spirituality. Consider the following possibility and this may just provide an insight into what Buddhism is:
Underlying all existence and our experiences is a pure and unchanging reality. Buddhism is that method by which one moves from a state of ignorance to perfect knowledge of that reality.
Then again, one does not become that reality – for one is always that.

An Intuitive Approach To

Understanding Buddhism

Think about this question deeply and it may just be possible that it will provide an understanding of Buddhism that one may not gain by reading volumes of books on the subject:
Is it possible that absolute and unconditional love may be the highest state of being?
Is it also possible that, in time, we each attain this?
Then again, one does not become that – for one is always that.

The founder: the Buddha

The founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama (c 563-483 BCE), widely known as the Buddha, the Awakened One. To consider his life is not just to consider his life as Gautama Buddha, but to also consider all the numerous lives in his different births. Even a brief consideration of all his lives points to a journey to perfect and pure knowledge. And this journey is possible for every living being.
In that sense, the life of the Buddha is the life of all beings.

Varieties of Buddhism

Like all great teachers, the Buddha taught each according to their ability, need and development. This has resulted in the various traditions of Buddhism that co-exist and continue to develop with one another:
☼ Thervada ☼ Mahayana ☼ Western Buddhism ☼ Tibetan Buddhism ☼ Vajrayana
☼ Pure Land tradition ☼ Indian Buddhism ☼ Chinese Buddhism ☼ Japanese Buddhism ☼ Zen…and many more…

Take it easy!

Some of us want to understand Buddhism within a day! Some of us want to understand Buddhism within a week! Take it easy. Consider how long it may take one to learn professional basketball. Or to learn to be a lawyer or a tradesperson. We are willing to put in such time for such skills – but why are we impatient when it comes to learning a method like Buddhism?
Take it easy. Don’t fret.
Buddhism takes years, perhaps even many lives to understand and master!
It’s a wonderful adventure! Just relax and enjoy it!

Buddhism:

through intuition and reading-meditation

Here are four books on Buddhism which you may find useful in your exploration of Buddhism. The four books are reading meditations and rely heavily on the reader’s intuition and insight.

Kindly visit www.ttsworld.com.au to view extracts from these four books.
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May all beings be happy. May all beings find peace.

Aspects of Buddhism

Road Rage and the Buddha

Road Rage and the Buddha

The fullness of the Dharma

Raj Arumugam (Director–TTS www.ttsworld.com.au) (picture from BurningWell.org)

As Kondanna Did

As Kondanna Did

Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma

The Noble Truth of Dhukka

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Dhukka

The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dhukka

The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Dhukka

In Praise of the Buddha

In Praise of the Buddha

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS ( www.ttsworld.com.au )

Thirty Young Men

Thirty Young Men

The Birth of the Buddha

The Birth of the Buddha:an adoration

Queen Mayadevi’s dream

The Prediction

Birth of the Buddha

an insight into dhukka

Siddhartha’s dhukka

Siddhartha’s life of ease

Siddhartha’s pain

Universal dhukka

meditations on the dhammapada

The Dhammapada

The Beauty of the Dhammapada

(103-105, Chapter 8 The Chapter on Thousands)

(183/185 Chapter 14 The Chapter on The Buddha)

(252-253 Chapter 18 The Chapter on Impurities)

Practical Application

(3-4 Chapter 1 The Chapter on Twin Verses)

A note on the translation I have quoted from

Meditations on the Dhammapada

Prologue

Here are two extracts from the book:

Angulimala’s Practice

The Golden Buddha

Buddhism: an introduction

Raj Arumugam (Director–TTS www.ttsworld.com.au)
(picture from BurningWell.org)

The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to

the Cessation of Dhukka

Raj Arumugam
(Director, TTS ( www.ttsworld.com.au )