June 2024
Greetings from Wat Buddha Dhamma, 10 Mile Hollow, Wisemans Ferry, NSW 2775, Australia; www.wbd.org.au
Autumn has settled upon Australia with cool temperatures and some
exceptional rain showers. Fortunately, Summer was not as extreme as was
originally forecast. We had only a few 40C days and an unusual amount of
rainfall on the east coast. The monastery water tanks were quite low at one
point, but then the rain started and just kept coming. Now they are
over-flowing!
I have not up-dated this Blog for some time as I was only 'rambling'
around the monastery for some seven months. Then, in the third week of April I
was invited by my long-term friend and former monk, John Barter, to visit him
at his newly-renovated home in the Tweed Valley, northern NSW. With the Covid
lock-downs and the long-drawn out renovations, I had not visited there for many
years.
It was great to meet up once again and catch up after so long. I also gave a talk at the Thursday night meditation group and a day-long workshop in his newly-refurbished meditation hall looking out over the Tasman Sea to the east and Mount Warning to the west. A keen group of meditators investigated the theme of I-making, and were grateful to receive a copy of the book to follow up.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5oJQ4awhME
After so many years of travel, both as a lay person and as a monk, I now
find myself being very reluctant to journey beyond the monastery and adjacent
National Park (about a 15 km radius). However, following some thoughtful
reflection, I agreed to a trip to Indonesia for the Vesak celebration in
Jakarta and a visit to Borobudur. On my last major trip as a lay-person I had
planned to visit Indonesia. However, as most people know by now, I ended up
staying in Thailand for nine years. As a monk I was invited some year ago to
visit the Buddhist community in Bali and spent ten days there giving talks,
meeting the Buddhist community, and visiting Buddhist temples in Denpasar and
Singaraja. Presently the Buddhist presence in Bali has increased with the
establishment of a Forest Monastery and several young Balinese men training at
Wat Pah Nanachat.
My visit to Dharma Sukha Buddhist Centre in Jakarta was quite eventful.
I was met at the airport by Sister Ajita (who spent a month at WBD last year),
her father and a delegation from the association. On my first day a group of us
visited the impressive Tzu Chi Foundation, probably the biggest Buddhist
organization providing medical and educational relief worldwide, particularly
disaster relief. Founded in 1966 by a Taiwanese Buddhist nun it is now active
in over 100 countries around the world, with the largest centre in Jakarta due
to the generosity of an Indonesian benefactor. We were met by the president and
a delegation (including a film crew from their TV station), shown their
presentation hall explaining their history and the wide range of relief work, and
passed through the upper lecture halls to the large 1,000 person capacity
shrine room on the top floor. We were then offered lunch in their expansive
cafeteria (together with 300 school students!) and concluded with a pot of tea
in the book shop/cafeteria where I gave a short interview for their TV station.
It was indeed very inspiring to see such devoted generosity provided by so many
good-hearted volunteers.
Back at Dharma Sukha I began a series of teachings with a Saturday Meditation Day, a talk to 80 children at the Sunday school class, a three-night, 2-hour Sutta Class and the Vesak celebration with an estimated 2,700 people attending the four-hour event.
My trip to Indonesia finished with a weekend visiting Borobudur, the largest Buddhist structure in the world. The massive stone stupa is a teaching monument to Mahayana Buddhism with intricate carvings guiding people through the three realms of Sensuality (the temptations and suffering of worldly existence), 'Form' (the previous and present life of the Buddha) to 'Formless' (no carvings, only Buddha images inside stupas), and topped off with the pinnacle of Nirvana. Unfortunately, due to the large numbers of visitors, people are only allowed one hour to visit the upper levels – a very short time to investigate all the numerous carvings. However, it was a very powerful experience to witness the tremendous faith and devotion which the building of this edifice exemplifies. It is also a lesson in impermanence as the structure was abandoned for many centuries when the ruling powers in the area declined in influence.
Not far from Borobudur are a number of volcanoes, the most well-known
being Mount Merapi, which is presently erupting on the north side.
Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and rainy so we were unable to view Mt.
Merapi. However, we had some time on the last day before returning to Jakarta,
so a (safe) visit was arranged. We arrived at the largest village at its base
and transferred to an open Jeep for the journey over rocky roads closer to the
summit. The road ended at a lava field which had over-whelmed one of the
bunkers set up for rapid evacuations in 2010. On the way down we stopped at the
museum documenting the devastating eruption in 2010 which killed over 300
people, most of them asleep in their beds. It is one of the ironies of nature
that while volcanoes are dangerous neighbours, the volcanic soil around them is
so extremely fertile that it tempts farmers to encroach on their slopes,
sometimes with tragic results.
Vesakha Puja, the Full Moon of May, commemorates the Birth, Awakening
and Passing of the Buddha. It is celebrated in many ways by Buddhists
throughout the world. However, I see it as a special occasion to reflect upon
the life of the Buddha, particularly his Awakening which transformed young
Siddharta Gotama into the Awakened Buddha. The account of this event in the
Pali Canon mentions that following his Awakening he was reluctant to teach as
he realized that this profound insight goes completely against the way most
people understand reality. Very simply this is that while unawakened people
seek well-being through and for themselves, the Buddha realized that ultimate
well-being is the experience of selflessness. The dilemma, of course, is how do
people totally enamoured of self-see beyond self? Thus, we have all the various
spiritual exercises to help us see beyond the limitations of self.
I think that it is very important to always keep in mind the ultimate
purpose of the Buddha's teaching in order to handle the religious teachings and
spiritual exercises in the right way. Otherwise, there is the danger of what
the Buddha called 'attachment to rules and conventions' – we mistake the
religious conventions for the goal. Or we get so attached to the conventions we
forget that they are only a means to an end, and perhaps just end up creating a
refined spiritual self!
Thus, the practise of generosity is not for gaining a place in heaven
for our self but, for letting go of supports for self so that it rises to a
heaven-like experience. Similarly with maintaining precepts. Through living a
noble and high-minded life the self dwells in a higher level of existence much
more free of the self-burdening emotions of greed and aversion. And, of course,
the Buddhist meditation of Calm trains the mind to be calmed of
self-referencing thoughts, worries and fears to experience levels of
consciousness beyond self. While through Insight meditation we investigate the
very sources of believing and grasping self to see through the illusion.
Basically, the purpose of the spiritual exercises and virtues is to lighten and
attenuate the attachment to self in order to pave the way for the experience of
selflessness or Nibbana, which is also the ultimate well-being for a human
being. What else is there to strive for?
May you continue your journey towards the reducing of self-attachment
and possibly realize the ultimate well-being of selflessness.
With Metta,
Ajahn Tiradhammo
P.S. Copies of 'Beyond I-making' can be obtained at the monastery or the
eBook version downloaded
from the monastery website: Click here: Beyond I-Making
