April 27 at Dhammapala Monastery, Kandersteg, Switzerland
May:
Travels and 'Not-Self' Reflections
I
am now into my second month of travel, teaching and
visits.
Malaysia
I
left Thailand at the end of February to lead a nine-day retreat at
Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary near Taiping, Malaysia. This is a
spectacular but very peaceful retreat centre and monastery, perched
on a steep hillside at the edge of a large tract of hilly rainforest
overlooking the western coastal plain between Penang and Kuala
Lumpur. Taiping is reputed to be the wettest place in Malaysia,
attested to by the lush rainforest and frequent, cooling afternoon
thunderstorms.
The meditation hall at SBS, Taiping.
A
group of very devoted meditators, including three nuns, followed the
daily routine and raised a variety of interesting questions. During
the retreat I collected my food from the nearby kitchen, but for the
last three days of my stay following the retreat I went on almsround
to Taiping. This is a 45-minute journey down a very steep hillside
and through a Chinese cemetery to the Taiping Insight Meditation
Society house, where supporters gathered to offer food to the Sangha,
meditate, listen to teachings and receive the Anumodana. Venerable
Kumara led the teaching sessions in Hokkian Chinese, the local
dialect. The two of us then made the one-hour trek back up the
hillside, at a leisurely pace so as not to overheat too much,
arriving in time to finish the meal before mid-day.
I
next travelled to Kuala Lumpur, stopping on the way at Wat Dhammapiti
in Ipoh to visit Venerable Thitavijjo, who stayed with me in New
Zealand. Wat Dhammapiti is a branch monastery in the lineage of Ajahn
Kanha from Thailand, situated in a large cave in one of the towering
limestone monoliths which are a special geological feature of Ipoh.
Venerable Thitavijjo and I were happy to meet up once again after
several years.
I
was in Kuala Lumpur for eight days, first giving a one and a half-day
retreat at Bandar Utama Buddhist Society (BUBS), and then residing at
Cittarama where I gave one evening talk, and also one at Nalanda
Buddhist Society. While I was staying at Cittarama, Ajahn Toon from
Ubon and six other monks visited for several nights. His talks were
translated to English by Ajahn Dhirapanyo, who had stayed in
Bodhinyanarama for one year. My last day in KL overlapped with the
visit of Ajahn Chandako, who was driven from Singapore by Mr. Veera
Santiboon, who then provided transport for me on his way back to
Singapore.
Singapore
Unfortunately,
I only had a brief visit to Singapore, where I was hosted by the
Buddha Dhamma Foundation, with Veera as attendant and guide. I
resided at Nibbana Dhamma Rakkha Buddhist Centre, where a communal
meal offering was arranged the first day and some 30 people stayed
for the morning Dhamma talk. The following day around 100 very
diligent meditators participated in a day-long retreat at a large
Mahayana Temple.
Italy
After
a day of visiting Singapore with Veera as guide, I travelled to
Santacittarama, Italy, for a week's stay. It was a welcome relief to
be back in a cool climate once again, although I had to remember to
dress properly for the changing weather, with morning temperatures
around 10C and afternoons up to 25C. Luang Por Sumedho was also
visiting Santacittarama at the same time, so we each had a room in
the recently purchased 'Nirodha Vihara', a four-bedroom house and
property adjoining the monastery.
Nirodha Vihara at Santacittarama Monastery, Italy
Even
after the unexpected purchase of this property, the monastery still
had sufficient funds to begin construction of the long-awaited new
Dhamma Hall complex. It is hoped that the main floor will be in use
for the inauguration ceremony in early June, attended by Ajahn Liem,
Ajahn Anek and Ajahn Jundee after the International Elders' Meeting
in England.
New Meditation Hall complex at Santacittarama
Paris
My
next engagement was leading a four-day retreat for Terre d'Eveil
association in Paris, where I had taught on a number of occasions. I
was very comfortably accommodated by the manager of the retreat,
Jean-Charles Chambaud, and his family at their home in Montigny, near
Versailles. Jean-Charles was very receptive to my wish to have some
physical exercise, so the morning before the retreat we went for a
promenade to the nearby sprawling gardens of Versailles, particularly
the large forested area with landscaped walkways, a large lake and
fountains lined with sculptured figures. Then in the afternoon
following the retreat, he took me for a walk through the grounds of
Port Royal des Champs. Although not as impressive as the manicured
gardens of Versailles, it was a much more interesting place, with a
carefully pruned orchard of numerous varieties of pears and apples
(who would ever think that tree-pruning was such a specially refined
craft?), a very varied herb garden and the remains of the abbey,
which was originally founded as a Cistercian nunnery in 1204, but
eventually razed to the ground in 1711 due to its involvement with
the Jansenist 'heresy'.
Sun shine on crowds at Versailles under grey skies
The
retreat was held at a Christian nunnery in Epernon, a village on the
pilgrimage route between Versailles and the renowned Cathedral of
Chartres. As with many retreats, there was a wide range of
experience, from one complete beginner to many well-experienced
meditators, thus providing an interesting variety of questions. I was
assisted by the excellent translation of Jeanne Schut, who also led
the short sessions of evening chanting with explanations in French.
Recordings
of the talks can be found at:
The
French translation will be available on Jeanne's website in the
future:
'Not-Self'
Reflections
At
a number of my talks, and during the various retreats, I often talked
about the theme for my present reflections on 'I-making'. Please keep
in mind that these are just some of my on-going reflections on this
very profound theme and not any categorical or absolute statements.
Hopefully they may be helpful to assist others in their
investigations of the Buddha's teachings.
One
aspect of this theme is the teaching of 'anatta', often translated
quite literally as 'not-self'. My experience has been that this
translation has often led to some serious misunderstanding. When
people in the present time come across this translation, they often
interpret it to mean that the Buddha is denying that a self exists,
and then are either seriously confused or simply dismiss this
teaching as absurd, since everyone can directly experience a sense of
self.
In
fact, what the Pali word 'anatta' literally means “is not 'atta'”,
and this 'atta' ('atman' in Sanskrit) refers to the permanent,
eternal essence dwelling in each person, similar to the 'soul' of
Christian belief. Thus, a less confusing translation of the term
'anatta' would be 'not-soul', although 'atta' is also used in the
context of the everyday self. For example, one very well-known verse
from the Dhammapada is:
By
oneself is wrong done, by oneself is one soiled; by oneself is wrong
not done, by oneself is one purified. Purity and impurity depend upon
oneself; no one can purify another.
(Dhammapada 165)
I
have thus sometimes translated “anatta” as 'not-self/soul', which
I realize is quite clumsy.
The
Buddha presented the teaching on 'anatta' in two contexts. The most
common one was by way of impermanence and unsatisfactoriness - that
is, all conditioned, constructed phenomenon are impermanent; what is
impermanent is unsatisfactory or incomplete, thus it is not a
permanent, perfect self/soul. The second context was by way of
control: that is, if the body and/or mind really were an abiding
self, then we should be able to command them to do as we wish.
Thus
the meaning of the teaching on 'anatta' is that no conditioned,
constructed phenomena has any permanent, autonomous essence. The
Buddha's profound spiritual investigations led him to the realization
that, in ultimate truth, there is no permanent, eternal self/soul –
all objects that can be known are constantly changing,
causally-conditioned processes. In this context it would be better to
translate the meaning of 'anatta' as “without permanent essence”.
Causally-conditioned processes persist through life giving some
continuity to the sense of a self, but our ignorance of this leads to
the belief in a persisting self.
When
people say, “But I can experience my self,” what they really mean
is that they can experience a sense of a self. However, when asked,
“What is that sense of self which you experience?”, most people
are at a loss how to respond. What the Buddha saw was that there are
the processes of body-mind, but also the grasping, clinging,
identifying with body-mind which give the processes the appearance
of being permanent. When we are able to see this, we can release our
grasping: the body-mind persists as causally-conditioned processes,
but there is freedom from this ignorant view of a permanent self.
Thus there still is a 'sense of a self', but associated with this is
the realization that this 'self' is a relative, uncertain and
constantly changing process. It is a wonderfully joyful relief not to
have to take your sense of a self so seriously!
During
the retreat in Paris, reference was made to the concept of a 'Higher
Self' sometimes mentioned in Mahayana Buddhist literature. However,
while this may be more understandable than a 'not-self', it still
lays open the tendency to a deluded self-view. Traditions and
teachers make use of various translations as a skilful means to guide
their students to awakening. In the Theravada tradition we are
fortunate to be able to make reference back to the original Pali
terms.
Wishing you all a peaceful and insightful Vesakha Puja.
Refreshing afternoon thunderstorm at SBS, Taiping
