The teacher of the three realms, the Fully Enlightened Buddha, has revealed to us, through the Law of Dependent Arising, that a good many of the problems, controversies, debates and disputes in the world arise from linguistic conventions. The problem of Saṁsāra, which is the biggest problem, is also due to it. On this first full moon day of the new year, we have taken up as the topic of our sermon, two verses relating to that aspect of linguistic usage. These two verses are found in the Samiddhi Sutta of Sagāthaka Vagga in the Saṁyutta Nikāya….

There is an interesting introductory story to these two verses which has a flavor of  Dhamma in it………

Abhutvā bhikkhasi bhikkhu’- Monk you have come to this monkhood which is dependent on alms not having enjoyed the fivefold sense-pleasures. ‘na hi bhutvāna bhikkhasi’ – Not that you have come to monkhood after enjoying the sense-pleasures. ‘bhutvāna bhikkhu bhikkhassu’ –  Monk, go to monkhood having enjoyed the sense-pleasures. ‘mā taṁ kālo upaccagā’ –  Do not let the best time for enjoying sense-pleasures –  that is youth  –  pass you by. Here is an invitation that goes against the Dhamma and here is the reply Venerable Samiddhi gave to it.

‘Kālaṁ vo’haṁ na jānāmi’ – I do not know when I have to die, ‘channo kālo na dissati’ – The time of death is hidden from me – it is not seen. ‘Tasmā abhutvā bhikkhāmi’ – Therefore I have come to monkhood without enjoying sense-pleasures. ‘mā maṁ kālo upaccagā’ – With the thought: ‘let not the opportune time for monkhood pass me by.’ The deity’s advice was not to let the time for enjoying sense-pleasures, that is youth, pass by. What Venerable Samiddhi says is that youth is the proper time for striving as a monk, since one cannot do it in decrepit old age.  

Note: This is a draft version that has not been completely proofread. Please download the final print version from Seeingthrough when it becomes available.  – Pothgulgala Dharmagrantha Dharmasravana Mādhya Bhāraya, Sri Lanka.

Published by: Pothgulgala Dharmagrantha Dharmasravana Mādhya Bhāraya

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The deliverance of the heart through mettā made known by the Buddha is a simple meditation, which even a child can practice. 

Although this is the Buddha’s behest due to some complicated exegesis in the commentarial period, the original message of the Deliverance of the Heart through mettā receded to the background. Visuddhimagga, (Path of Purification) which is regarded as the textbook by meditation teachers today, recommends a method of breaking down of barriers between oneself and one’s dear person, the neutral person and the hostile person as the means of attaining the Deliverance of the Heart through mettā. This is not at all in accordance with the content of the Metta sutta. This mode of exegesis relies on building barriers and breaking them down as an approach to that Deliverance of the Heart through mettā. 

The reason for this pervert commentarial trend is a wrong attitude born of an incorrect understanding of the relation between mettā and friendship (mittatā). Simply because mettā is opposed to ill-will or enmity, it should not be equated to friendship or amity. Many meditation masters today begin their instructions with the definition ‘Mettā is friendship’ by taking seriously the apparent similarity between ‘mettā’ and ‘mittatā’ (friendship). True enough when it comes to pronunciation, mettā and mittatā are similar. But the very difference between mettānisaṁsa sutta and mittānisaṁsa sutta is a telling argument against such confusion. The fact that the advantages of mettā, which the Buddha has highly praised in the mettānisaṁsa sutta, are by far greater and more excellent than those of friendship listed in mittānisaṁsa sutta would be clear to whoever compares these two discourses. Here is a ‘ready-reckoner’ for ascertaining the wide disparity between friendship and mettā.

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විදර්ශනා පරපුර – අතිපූජනීය මාතර ශ‍්‍රී ඥානාරාම මාහිමිපාණන් වහන්සේ

බුදු කෙනෙකු ගෙන් ම ලොවට පහළවන මේ විදර්ශනා උපදේශය මේ බුද්ධෝත්පාදයේ ඇරඹුනු සැටි සඳහන් වන්නේ පඤ්ච වග්ගිය භික්‍ෂූන් සම්බන්ධ කථාවේ ය.

බුද්ධත්වය ලබාගත් පසු අවබෝධකර ගත් ධර්මයන් නොයෙක් වර ප‍්‍රත්‍යවෙක්‍ෂා කරමින් භාග්‍යවතුන් වහන්සේ දේශනා ඥානය ධර්මය පිළිගන්නා පිරිස වෙත යොමු කළ සේක.

පඤ්ච වග්ගිය තාපසයන් ප‍්‍රමුඛ දිව්‍ය බ‍්‍රහ්ම පිරිසට දහම් දෙසීමෙන් පසු ඒ ඉතුරු පිරිස කර්මසථාන භාවනාවේ යෙද වූ අයුරු මැනවින් සලකන කල්හි, කොතරම් අවධානයක්, අප‍්‍රමාද වැඩ පිළිවෙළක් එයට ඕනෑ කෙරේ ද? යනු එළිවෙනවා ඇත.

සීලාදී ප්‍රතිපත්ති පූජාවේ ආනුභාවයෙන් ක්ලේෂ මාරාදි පංච මාර බල බිඳ දමා සීලයෙන්, සමාධියෙන්, ප්‍රඥාවෙන්, ප්‍රතිපත්තියෙන් පෙරපස සඳක් සේ විරාජමානව නිවන් මග යාමේ ශක්තිය, බලය, ධෛර්ය, වීර්යය ලැබේවා!

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A Guide to Walking Meditation 

In the practice of meditation leading to Nibbāna, the two postures – sitting and walking are mutually helpful. Generally, we depict the idea of meditation by the figure of a person seated in the cross-legged posture. For that very reason the importance of walking meditation in the promenade (caṅkamana) is very often overlooked.

The meditator should try to maintain the seated posture which is more restful and take to the walking posture (caṅkamana) only as the last resort in one’s course of training for overcoming drowsiness. One should not uncritically interpret the onset of drowsiness as an invitation to the promenade. Owing to the necessity of a fixed timetable, in some meditation centres, the routine of one hour sitting and one hour walking is recommended. It is true that it affords a certain amount of training to the beginner. But if even a beginner builds up some concentration (samādhi) towards the end of the period for sitting, it is not advisable to make it compulsory for him to break that samādhi and go to the caṅkamana.

However, it might occur to a certain meditator who had mastered the training for wakefulness (jāgariyānuyoga) by following the instructions given by the Buddha, that the ‘caṅkamana’ is more conducive to his concentration according to his character. If that is so, there is nothing wrong in his spending a greater part of his time in the caṅkamana.

Note: This is a draft version that has not been completely proofread. Please download the final print version from Seeingthrough TheNet when it becomes available.  – Pothgulgala Dharmagrantha Dharmasravana Mādhya Bhāraya, Sri Lanka.

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ශමථ විදර්ශනා භාවනා මාර්ගය – අතිපූජනීය මාතර ශ‍්‍රී ඥානාරාම මාහිමිපාණන් වහන්සේ

මෙකල භාවනා වැඩීමේ අභිලාෂය ඇත්තවුන් දවසින් දවස වැඩිවෙන බව පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ.

භාවනාවෙන් අධ්‍යාත්මික සන්තානයට ලැබෙන නිරාමිෂ වූ ලොවුතුරු සුවය ගැන බොහෝ දෙනාට වැටහී ඇත.

සාම්පරායික වශයෙන් පරලොව දී පමණක් නොව, සාන්දෘෂ්ටික වශයෙන් මෙලොවදී ම අධ්‍යාත්මිකවූ සැනසිල්ල අත්කර ගැනීමට වැර වඩන නිස්සරණාධ්‍යාශය ඇති යෝගාවචරයනට නිවන් මග පහදා දෙනු පිණිසම මේ ‘ශමථ විදර්ශනා භාවනා මාර්ගය’ නැමැති ග්‍රන්ථය සම්පාදනය කර ඇත.

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