China's first Buddhist temple to have an Indian structure
335 words
12 January 2008
Asian News International
English
© Copyright 2008. HT Media Limited. All rights reserved.
Report from Asian News International brought to you by HT Syndication.
New Delhi, Jan. 12 -- Abbot Shi Yinle, head of China's first Buddhist temple, is expecting completion of an Indian hall in April inside the 1,900-year-old temple.
The exotic structure in the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, same style as the Great Sanchi Stupa in India, is being financed by the Indian Government as part of a religious and cultural exchange agreement endorsed by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in 2005.
Abbot Yinle is proud that his temple was chosen to house the Indian hall, almost 20 centuries after the introduction of Buddhism to China from India.
"Our temple stands as testimony to the time-honoured friendship between China and India," he said.
The Indian hall covers 3,450 sq m and contains facilities for Buddhist lectures, prayers, exhibitions and conferences. All of the stone used to build the hall has been shipped from India.
A senior Indian engineer has been supervising the interior decoration, which started last September, the China Daily reported.
Two other Indian master craftsmen will soon come to supervise the final exquisite wall carvings, said Hu Xuanyan, an official with Luoyang's religious affairs bureau.
A 3.6-m high Buddha statue from India weighing 22 tons was placed in the hall last September, the largest Buddha statue the Indian government has given to China, local officials said.
The White Horse Temple is named after an ancient tale about a white horse that carried Buddhist scripture between India and Luoyang, then China's capital city.
In exchange for the Indian hall, the Chinese government financed the building of a Xuanzang Memorial Hall in Nalanda in Bihar in 2006.
Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk, a translator and an envoy of peace and Buddhism between China and India some 1,300 years ago.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Asian News International.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Thai king celebrations in December 2007
Kingdom ready to celebrate; Bangkok will play host to some grand events to mark His Majesty the King's 80th birthday.
454 words
2 December 2007
Bangkok Post
2
English
(c) 2007
DECEMBER 2
4pm: His Majesty the King inspects the Royal Guards in an annual parade at the Royal Plaza.
DECEMBER 3
8am: The prime minister leads groups of civil servants to swear an oath of allegiance at Government House. Across the country provincial governors preside over oath-taking ceremonies for government officials at provincial halls.
4.19-4.49pm: The prime minister, the president of the National Legislative Assembly and the Supreme Court president preside over a ceremony to make lustral water at Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram.
5.30-6.30pm: A religious ceremony is held to mark His Majesty's birthday at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
DECEMBER 4
9am-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
4pm: Members of the cabinet, high-ranking state officials and groups of individuals are granted an audience with the King at Dusitalai Pavilion in Chitralada Palace.
9pm: A fireworks display at the Royal Turf Club (Nang Lerng Race Course), which will be viewed after the royal audience.
DECEMBER 5
7am: "Do Good Deeds for the Father" event at the statue of the Earth Goddess.
7.30am: A procession of lustral water from Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram to Chakri Maha Prasart Throne Hall.
10.30am: His Majesty meets a congregation of people at Chakri Maha Prasart Throne Hall.
1-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
5.45pm: The King attends a state ceremony at Amarin Vinijchai Throne Hall.
5.30pm: A procession of royal offerings takes place at Sanam Luang.
7.19pm: The prime minister presides over a candlelight ceremony at Sanam Luang to mark the King's birthday.
8pm onwards: A fireworks display on the Chao Phraya river, from the Rama IX bridge to the Industrial Ring Road bridge.
DECEMBER 6
9am-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
10.30am: His Majesty makes offerings to monks at the Amarin Vinijchai Throne Hall.
8.30pm: A fireworks display at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club (Pathumwan Race Course).
DECEMBER 7
7pm: Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presides over a grand reception attended by diplomats and dignitaries at Government House.
DECEMBER 8
5.30pm: Foreign diplomats are granted an audience with the King at the Dusitalai Pavilion in Chitralada Palace.
8.30pm: A fireworks display at Suan Benjakitti near the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
454 words
2 December 2007
Bangkok Post
2
English
(c) 2007
DECEMBER 2
4pm: His Majesty the King inspects the Royal Guards in an annual parade at the Royal Plaza.
DECEMBER 3
8am: The prime minister leads groups of civil servants to swear an oath of allegiance at Government House. Across the country provincial governors preside over oath-taking ceremonies for government officials at provincial halls.
4.19-4.49pm: The prime minister, the president of the National Legislative Assembly and the Supreme Court president preside over a ceremony to make lustral water at Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram.
5.30-6.30pm: A religious ceremony is held to mark His Majesty's birthday at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
DECEMBER 4
9am-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
4pm: Members of the cabinet, high-ranking state officials and groups of individuals are granted an audience with the King at Dusitalai Pavilion in Chitralada Palace.
9pm: A fireworks display at the Royal Turf Club (Nang Lerng Race Course), which will be viewed after the royal audience.
DECEMBER 5
7am: "Do Good Deeds for the Father" event at the statue of the Earth Goddess.
7.30am: A procession of lustral water from Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram to Chakri Maha Prasart Throne Hall.
10.30am: His Majesty meets a congregation of people at Chakri Maha Prasart Throne Hall.
1-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
5.45pm: The King attends a state ceremony at Amarin Vinijchai Throne Hall.
5.30pm: A procession of royal offerings takes place at Sanam Luang.
7.19pm: The prime minister presides over a candlelight ceremony at Sanam Luang to mark the King's birthday.
8pm onwards: A fireworks display on the Chao Phraya river, from the Rama IX bridge to the Industrial Ring Road bridge.
DECEMBER 6
9am-5pm: Members of the public sign a book offering their best wishes to the King in the compound of the Grand Palace.
10.30am: His Majesty makes offerings to monks at the Amarin Vinijchai Throne Hall.
8.30pm: A fireworks display at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club (Pathumwan Race Course).
DECEMBER 7
7pm: Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presides over a grand reception attended by diplomats and dignitaries at Government House.
DECEMBER 8
5.30pm: Foreign diplomats are granted an audience with the King at the Dusitalai Pavilion in Chitralada Palace.
8.30pm: A fireworks display at Suan Benjakitti near the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Buddhist temples sprouting in US
Buddhist temples rising all over Western Pennsylvania
Arthur L. Clark
846 words
15 November 2007
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
English
Copyright 2007, Tribune-Review Publishing Co., All Rights Reserved.
John Ott faithfully attended St. Ferdinand's Roman Catholic Church until 2002, when he left Warrendale to attend graduate school.
When he came back home, Ott did not return to his parish. He joined the Zen Center of Pittsburgh Deep Spring Temple in Bell Acres, one of a growing number of Buddhist temples in Western Pennsylvania.
"Once I showed up (at the Zen Center), I pretty much didn't leave," said Ott, 38. "I felt like I had come home."
The number of U.S. Buddhists has doubled to more than 2 million since 1990.
"Every country (Buddhism's) gone into, it's ended up being a major religion," said the Rev. Kyoki Roberts, head priest at the Zen Center, which has 33 active members.
At least seven other temples and sitting groups -- representing a variety of traditions -- including a Theravada temple that started up last year, have opened near Pittsburgh.
"I think the community here is quite different than the community in China," said Shaun Yuan, a graduate student studying at Carnegie Mellon University who practices at the Zen Center. "In China, the temples are very big. Here, it's more like a community than a temple."
Local Buddhists say the growth has been gradual.
"It's growing, but I wouldn't say it's exploding," said Doug Gouge, 62, a retired business owner who practices at the Zen Center.
People come to Buddhism in a number of different ways, said Don Orr, president of the Stillpoint Zen Community in Lawrenceville, which has 24 members.
"Some come to it because they feel they need to fill a hole somewhere," Orr said. "Someone dies, someone gets very sick. A relationship just falls apart. They get a dumb slap of life. And they look at themselves and they go, 'You know what, I don't want to keep doing what I'm doing.' So they have a drive to get those answers."
Ott said practicing Buddhism helped him deal with depression. Now he's considering whether to give up teaching violin to become a Soto Zen priest.
"I was a very angry person when I first showed up here," he said. "That has certainly changed quite a bit."
Part of the greatest intrigue for newcomers includes the amount of spiritual responsibility placed on the practitioner, Orr said. Though some might teach, every individual is responsible for his or her own spiritual practice.
Some groups do not even have a formal leader. The Stillpoint Zen Community doesn't have a formal teacher, Orr said.
"We're like the equivalent to Quakers in Christianity," Orr said. "We're a lay group, so there's no authority based on formal hierarchy, which is not to say that Zen Buddhism is full of hierarchy, but we're a group that has steered clear there."
Even at a place such as the Zen Center, which has formal teachers, individual students are responsible for themselves, members said.
"A lot of people are really misguided in that, 'Oh, a teacher is going to make my life work,' " Gouge said. "You really are responsible in a bigger way than you ever thought."
Personal responsibility for one's own happiness is one of the main reasons that people are so attracted to Buddhism, Roberts said.
"Kyoki has a way of putting the practice in terms where it is applicable, where you can apply it to your daily life," Ott said. "She has understanding of practice that comes from a very deep place, in that she's been sitting for many years."
Although Ott stopped attending his Catholic parish, practicing Zen Buddhism does not have to mean giving up one's Christian faith, said Wendy Merrill, a psychologist who practices at Stillpoint.
She pointed to "Zen Catholics" such as the Rev. Robert E. Kennedy, a Jesuit who is an American Catholic priest and an ordained Zen Roshi. Kennedy is nationally known for his books, such as "Zen Gifts to Christians" and "Zen Spirit, Christian Sprit."
"I don't think there's anything inherently contradictory about Christianity and Buddhism," Gouge said. "You certainly could be a Christian and Buddhist. Speaking from the Buddhist side, we've got no problem with it."
Ott became Buddhist, saying he no longer connected with his church.
"Just taking the chance to look at what I was doing with my life, and where things were going, it helped so much," Ott said. "Just having a sense of clarity, a sense of purpose in what I was doing has helped so much."
Ott will stay at the Zen Center, probably for at least a year, and undertake a rigorous practice, including meditation, bowing and introducing new students to the practice.
"When you take up ordaining, then you're saying this practice is very important, and that you want to transmit it to other people," Ott said. "There doesn't seem to be many people stepping up to do that. And if I'm needed to be helpful in that way, I want to be."
Arthur L. Clark
846 words
15 November 2007
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
English
Copyright 2007, Tribune-Review Publishing Co., All Rights Reserved.
John Ott faithfully attended St. Ferdinand's Roman Catholic Church until 2002, when he left Warrendale to attend graduate school.
When he came back home, Ott did not return to his parish. He joined the Zen Center of Pittsburgh Deep Spring Temple in Bell Acres, one of a growing number of Buddhist temples in Western Pennsylvania.
"Once I showed up (at the Zen Center), I pretty much didn't leave," said Ott, 38. "I felt like I had come home."
The number of U.S. Buddhists has doubled to more than 2 million since 1990.
"Every country (Buddhism's) gone into, it's ended up being a major religion," said the Rev. Kyoki Roberts, head priest at the Zen Center, which has 33 active members.
At least seven other temples and sitting groups -- representing a variety of traditions -- including a Theravada temple that started up last year, have opened near Pittsburgh.
"I think the community here is quite different than the community in China," said Shaun Yuan, a graduate student studying at Carnegie Mellon University who practices at the Zen Center. "In China, the temples are very big. Here, it's more like a community than a temple."
Local Buddhists say the growth has been gradual.
"It's growing, but I wouldn't say it's exploding," said Doug Gouge, 62, a retired business owner who practices at the Zen Center.
People come to Buddhism in a number of different ways, said Don Orr, president of the Stillpoint Zen Community in Lawrenceville, which has 24 members.
"Some come to it because they feel they need to fill a hole somewhere," Orr said. "Someone dies, someone gets very sick. A relationship just falls apart. They get a dumb slap of life. And they look at themselves and they go, 'You know what, I don't want to keep doing what I'm doing.' So they have a drive to get those answers."
Ott said practicing Buddhism helped him deal with depression. Now he's considering whether to give up teaching violin to become a Soto Zen priest.
"I was a very angry person when I first showed up here," he said. "That has certainly changed quite a bit."
Part of the greatest intrigue for newcomers includes the amount of spiritual responsibility placed on the practitioner, Orr said. Though some might teach, every individual is responsible for his or her own spiritual practice.
Some groups do not even have a formal leader. The Stillpoint Zen Community doesn't have a formal teacher, Orr said.
"We're like the equivalent to Quakers in Christianity," Orr said. "We're a lay group, so there's no authority based on formal hierarchy, which is not to say that Zen Buddhism is full of hierarchy, but we're a group that has steered clear there."
Even at a place such as the Zen Center, which has formal teachers, individual students are responsible for themselves, members said.
"A lot of people are really misguided in that, 'Oh, a teacher is going to make my life work,' " Gouge said. "You really are responsible in a bigger way than you ever thought."
Personal responsibility for one's own happiness is one of the main reasons that people are so attracted to Buddhism, Roberts said.
"Kyoki has a way of putting the practice in terms where it is applicable, where you can apply it to your daily life," Ott said. "She has understanding of practice that comes from a very deep place, in that she's been sitting for many years."
Although Ott stopped attending his Catholic parish, practicing Zen Buddhism does not have to mean giving up one's Christian faith, said Wendy Merrill, a psychologist who practices at Stillpoint.
She pointed to "Zen Catholics" such as the Rev. Robert E. Kennedy, a Jesuit who is an American Catholic priest and an ordained Zen Roshi. Kennedy is nationally known for his books, such as "Zen Gifts to Christians" and "Zen Spirit, Christian Sprit."
"I don't think there's anything inherently contradictory about Christianity and Buddhism," Gouge said. "You certainly could be a Christian and Buddhist. Speaking from the Buddhist side, we've got no problem with it."
Ott became Buddhist, saying he no longer connected with his church.
"Just taking the chance to look at what I was doing with my life, and where things were going, it helped so much," Ott said. "Just having a sense of clarity, a sense of purpose in what I was doing has helped so much."
Ott will stay at the Zen Center, probably for at least a year, and undertake a rigorous practice, including meditation, bowing and introducing new students to the practice.
"When you take up ordaining, then you're saying this practice is very important, and that you want to transmit it to other people," Ott said. "There doesn't seem to be many people stepping up to do that. And if I'm needed to be helpful in that way, I want to be."
Saturday, November 3, 2007
At home: finding your mind
AT HOME; Finding your mind
1941 words
2 November 2007
Bangkok Post
R11
English
(c) 2007
People search for happiness all their lives and yet it often eludes them. The Lord Buddha laid down a simple path to happiness - the practice of mindfulness - that each of us can easily follow if we put our minds to it. PATCHARAWALAI SANYANUSIN points out some of the first few steps based on her own experiences
'Why was I born? What am I living for? When will my life end?" I believe everybody finds these questions floating in their minds from time to time. The first question is too complicated to discuss and the last is too scary to think about. It might take us a while to find the real purpose of our life, but whatever it is, I'm sure the conclusion will be that it's for one thing only: happiness.
And the next question, why do we want to be happy? That's easy to answer, too. It's because we love ourselves, isn't it? And yet, ironically, while we may love ourselves the most, we're not aware that we're continually neglecting ourselves, too.
All through life we tend to pay more attention to the people and objects around us rather than to ourselves. We are always curious to know about everything but ourselves. And whenever our attention is fixed on others, we forget about ourselves.
"Hardly any of the people in this world are awake," said Phra Pramote Pamotecho, or Luang Phor Pramote, of Suan Santidham in Chon Buri. "We all get lost in the world of delusions all the time."
His remarks caught me by surprise, and at first I told myself I wasn't one of those people. But as I listened further, I couldn't help nodding in agreement.
"Even when we're alone, we are trapped in the world of our own thoughts," the monk continued. "Sometimes we know our thoughts, but often we aren't even aware of what we're thinking about."
Luang Phor Pramote is respected by a large number of dhamma practitioners for his easy-to-understand teaching about the practice of mindfulness. He insists that only mindfulness can pull us out to the real world to discover the truth about ourselves and bring us real happiness. And the more we develop mindfulness, the less suffering we will have.
But what is mindfulness? Most of us think we are mindful people because we know what we're doing, and in the worldly sense, that may be the case. But in terms of Buddhism, this word refers to the right mindfulness, or samma sati, which focusses on the awareness of two things only: the body and the mind.
According to Luang Phor Pramote, being mindful of the body means knowing all the postures and movements the body makes, such as standing, walking, sitting, lying, bending, stretching and the like. Similarly, being aware of the mind means knowing the behaviour, or characteristics of the mind, and any feelings or emotions that arise in the mind in the present moment.
"In short, whenever we are aware of our body and mind at the present moment, it means we have mindfulness," he said.
The monk's words left me totally stunned. I made a quick search back to the past in the hope that there might be times during my three decades of life that I was really mindful, but now I wasn't so sure if there were any.
And I'm certain that I'm not alone; most people in this world are like me. We have lived our lives far from being mindful. We hardly notice our own bodies. Whenever we are walking, our minds are somewhere else. While we're eating, drinking, going to the toilet, taking a bath, our minds are far away from us. Sometimes it seems as if we know the actions our body is performing, but that lasts only a few seconds before our attention moves on to something else.
If we are confident that we know our minds best, we should take a closer look at it. We will probably see that it hardly ever stays with us; most of the time it is wandering. And instead of looking at what our minds are doing, we aimlessly follow our thoughts and get carried away.
You may think you know your own feelings quite well, but are you sure you know them correctly? Remember the last time you were angry with someone? Could you describe your anger? Was it actually the face of the enemy that absorbed all your attention while you were fuming? If so, that means you didn't know your anger at all.
To know it correctly is to see it in your mind, to notice how it feels to get angry. If it's just a mild irritation, you might detect some discomfort in your chest; but if it's rage, you might feel an active volcano inside you.
Here's another example to test how well you know your feelings. I'm sure everyone's had a crush once in a while. But have you ever noticed how it feels to be desperately in love? Of course, you might feel your limbs trembling, your heart racing, your face burning, or you might even feel like swooning when you're near the object of your interest.
But admit it, you didn't really observe those feelings. Either you were struggling to suppress them, or else all your attention was fixed on the object of your love. This is true for everyone.
Even when we're worried, suspicious, fearful, sad, lonely, jealous, bored, lazy, indifferent or happy, we never fully realise those feelings. So what should we do to be really mindful? Concentrate our attention only on our bodies' movements all the time? Stop our minds from wandering away? Or "stare" at our minds in order to detect every feeling that arises?
No, no, no! They're all wrong and impossible to do. Luang Phor Pramote always insists that when practising mindfulness, we have to stick to the number one rule - take the role of "knower" or "watcher" without interfering in any way. That means we don't need to do anything except constantly observe our bodies and minds as they truly are.
The monk also points out two big mistakes that practitioners habitually make. "The first is we tend to forget about ourselves because we become absent-minded and our minds just wander away. The second is that we intentionally concentrate on our body and mind, and this is unnatural."
The first problem is because absent-mindedness is a natural characteristic of the mind. "Our duty is not to prevent it from slipping away. That would be impossible anyway, because the mind is uncontrollable. What we have to do is to detect the activity as often as possible," he explained.
As beginners, we might find it hard to detect this absent-mindedness because all our lives we've been accustomed to losing ourselves in the world of our thoughts. But whenever we can detect them, we will find that our minds stop thinking immediately, and those thoughts in our minds at that moment will disappear. Of course, they'll stop for only a second or two before our untamed mind starts to wander again. But that's no problem; just be aware of it every time it happens.
It's just as easy to solve the second problem. Instead of forcing ourselves to be on high alert to any physical and mental activities in or around us, we should be comfortably aware of them as if we're playing with them.
Luang Phor Pramote also suggests an important method of helping mindfulness to grow in us. "Observe every kind of bodily sensation and mental state as often as possible so that your mind can remember those conditions precisely," he says. In other words, if we can keep detecting these feelings until our minds can remember them, we'll be aware of them automatically when they occur again.
Mindfulness can be practised anywhere and any time, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to asleep at night, but it must be practised constantly in everyday life. This might sound impossible to do, and many of us might feel it would be boring and a waste of time. The fact is, though, that mindfulness is the most powerful protection we have to prevent the two enemies that cause all the suffering in life - kiles (defilements) and tanha (craving) - from taking control of us.
Luang Phor Pramote explained that the more we observe the body and mind, the more we will notice their "working process". We will see that our minds have feelings and thoughts all the time, and when we're unaware of them, they will develop into kiles and tanha.
But once we are aware of them, they cannot emerge and take hold of us. Instead, we will feel calm and concentrated and will be able to exercise our reasoning to make careful decisions or to deal with problems with a neutral mind.
This is only one of the initial benefits of mindfulness for those who wish to live happily in this world. It will bring them insight into understanding where their suffering comes from, and show them how to avoid it.
Luang Phor Pramote said that the real objective of mindfulness practice is to make us see the truth that everything that happens in our life is temporal. Happiness and suffering and all kinds of feelings, whether positive or negative, all rise and fall.
"Our bodies and minds don't actually belong to us, or even exist," he said. "We will discover that our body is simply a movable object with substances moving in and out all the time, while our mind can work independently on its own and is not part of the body at all. Both are just things being felt and observed, and are impermanent and uncontrollable.
"At this stage we must observe ourselves constantly until 'our' mind rectifies itself and finally detaches itself from clinging to the body and mind. And this is the end of all suffering."
This might sound a bit too difficult to understand, but I can probably summarise it by saying that the more we watch our bodies and minds, constantly, at each moment, the nearer we shall be to real happiness.
I have no idea how long it will take me to reach that ultimate goal. It may be seven years or seven lifetimes, but this will not discourage me as I'm confident that at least I'm on the right track. Life is uncertain; suffering may knock on the door at any moment. But I strongly believe that whoever practises mindfulness as part of his or her life will be able to survive perfectly in every situation. They will know how to free themselves from the cycle of birth and death, and will know no fear in the last moments of their lives.
Mindfulness practice is about studying the body and mind in the present moment as they truly are, until we have the wisdom to truly understand the real truth about ourselves. It takes patience and perseverance, but it is the most valuable investment in life for everyone, of whatever age, gender, career, nationality or religious belief.
It is guaranteed by the Lord Buddha as the only path to enlightenment. The pity is that so few people in this world can see its value and are willing to follow it - the road less travelled.
1941 words
2 November 2007
Bangkok Post
R11
English
(c) 2007
People search for happiness all their lives and yet it often eludes them. The Lord Buddha laid down a simple path to happiness - the practice of mindfulness - that each of us can easily follow if we put our minds to it. PATCHARAWALAI SANYANUSIN points out some of the first few steps based on her own experiences
'Why was I born? What am I living for? When will my life end?" I believe everybody finds these questions floating in their minds from time to time. The first question is too complicated to discuss and the last is too scary to think about. It might take us a while to find the real purpose of our life, but whatever it is, I'm sure the conclusion will be that it's for one thing only: happiness.
And the next question, why do we want to be happy? That's easy to answer, too. It's because we love ourselves, isn't it? And yet, ironically, while we may love ourselves the most, we're not aware that we're continually neglecting ourselves, too.
All through life we tend to pay more attention to the people and objects around us rather than to ourselves. We are always curious to know about everything but ourselves. And whenever our attention is fixed on others, we forget about ourselves.
"Hardly any of the people in this world are awake," said Phra Pramote Pamotecho, or Luang Phor Pramote, of Suan Santidham in Chon Buri. "We all get lost in the world of delusions all the time."
His remarks caught me by surprise, and at first I told myself I wasn't one of those people. But as I listened further, I couldn't help nodding in agreement.
"Even when we're alone, we are trapped in the world of our own thoughts," the monk continued. "Sometimes we know our thoughts, but often we aren't even aware of what we're thinking about."
Luang Phor Pramote is respected by a large number of dhamma practitioners for his easy-to-understand teaching about the practice of mindfulness. He insists that only mindfulness can pull us out to the real world to discover the truth about ourselves and bring us real happiness. And the more we develop mindfulness, the less suffering we will have.
But what is mindfulness? Most of us think we are mindful people because we know what we're doing, and in the worldly sense, that may be the case. But in terms of Buddhism, this word refers to the right mindfulness, or samma sati, which focusses on the awareness of two things only: the body and the mind.
According to Luang Phor Pramote, being mindful of the body means knowing all the postures and movements the body makes, such as standing, walking, sitting, lying, bending, stretching and the like. Similarly, being aware of the mind means knowing the behaviour, or characteristics of the mind, and any feelings or emotions that arise in the mind in the present moment.
"In short, whenever we are aware of our body and mind at the present moment, it means we have mindfulness," he said.
The monk's words left me totally stunned. I made a quick search back to the past in the hope that there might be times during my three decades of life that I was really mindful, but now I wasn't so sure if there were any.
And I'm certain that I'm not alone; most people in this world are like me. We have lived our lives far from being mindful. We hardly notice our own bodies. Whenever we are walking, our minds are somewhere else. While we're eating, drinking, going to the toilet, taking a bath, our minds are far away from us. Sometimes it seems as if we know the actions our body is performing, but that lasts only a few seconds before our attention moves on to something else.
If we are confident that we know our minds best, we should take a closer look at it. We will probably see that it hardly ever stays with us; most of the time it is wandering. And instead of looking at what our minds are doing, we aimlessly follow our thoughts and get carried away.
You may think you know your own feelings quite well, but are you sure you know them correctly? Remember the last time you were angry with someone? Could you describe your anger? Was it actually the face of the enemy that absorbed all your attention while you were fuming? If so, that means you didn't know your anger at all.
To know it correctly is to see it in your mind, to notice how it feels to get angry. If it's just a mild irritation, you might detect some discomfort in your chest; but if it's rage, you might feel an active volcano inside you.
Here's another example to test how well you know your feelings. I'm sure everyone's had a crush once in a while. But have you ever noticed how it feels to be desperately in love? Of course, you might feel your limbs trembling, your heart racing, your face burning, or you might even feel like swooning when you're near the object of your interest.
But admit it, you didn't really observe those feelings. Either you were struggling to suppress them, or else all your attention was fixed on the object of your love. This is true for everyone.
Even when we're worried, suspicious, fearful, sad, lonely, jealous, bored, lazy, indifferent or happy, we never fully realise those feelings. So what should we do to be really mindful? Concentrate our attention only on our bodies' movements all the time? Stop our minds from wandering away? Or "stare" at our minds in order to detect every feeling that arises?
No, no, no! They're all wrong and impossible to do. Luang Phor Pramote always insists that when practising mindfulness, we have to stick to the number one rule - take the role of "knower" or "watcher" without interfering in any way. That means we don't need to do anything except constantly observe our bodies and minds as they truly are.
The monk also points out two big mistakes that practitioners habitually make. "The first is we tend to forget about ourselves because we become absent-minded and our minds just wander away. The second is that we intentionally concentrate on our body and mind, and this is unnatural."
The first problem is because absent-mindedness is a natural characteristic of the mind. "Our duty is not to prevent it from slipping away. That would be impossible anyway, because the mind is uncontrollable. What we have to do is to detect the activity as often as possible," he explained.
As beginners, we might find it hard to detect this absent-mindedness because all our lives we've been accustomed to losing ourselves in the world of our thoughts. But whenever we can detect them, we will find that our minds stop thinking immediately, and those thoughts in our minds at that moment will disappear. Of course, they'll stop for only a second or two before our untamed mind starts to wander again. But that's no problem; just be aware of it every time it happens.
It's just as easy to solve the second problem. Instead of forcing ourselves to be on high alert to any physical and mental activities in or around us, we should be comfortably aware of them as if we're playing with them.
Luang Phor Pramote also suggests an important method of helping mindfulness to grow in us. "Observe every kind of bodily sensation and mental state as often as possible so that your mind can remember those conditions precisely," he says. In other words, if we can keep detecting these feelings until our minds can remember them, we'll be aware of them automatically when they occur again.
Mindfulness can be practised anywhere and any time, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to asleep at night, but it must be practised constantly in everyday life. This might sound impossible to do, and many of us might feel it would be boring and a waste of time. The fact is, though, that mindfulness is the most powerful protection we have to prevent the two enemies that cause all the suffering in life - kiles (defilements) and tanha (craving) - from taking control of us.
Luang Phor Pramote explained that the more we observe the body and mind, the more we will notice their "working process". We will see that our minds have feelings and thoughts all the time, and when we're unaware of them, they will develop into kiles and tanha.
But once we are aware of them, they cannot emerge and take hold of us. Instead, we will feel calm and concentrated and will be able to exercise our reasoning to make careful decisions or to deal with problems with a neutral mind.
This is only one of the initial benefits of mindfulness for those who wish to live happily in this world. It will bring them insight into understanding where their suffering comes from, and show them how to avoid it.
Luang Phor Pramote said that the real objective of mindfulness practice is to make us see the truth that everything that happens in our life is temporal. Happiness and suffering and all kinds of feelings, whether positive or negative, all rise and fall.
"Our bodies and minds don't actually belong to us, or even exist," he said. "We will discover that our body is simply a movable object with substances moving in and out all the time, while our mind can work independently on its own and is not part of the body at all. Both are just things being felt and observed, and are impermanent and uncontrollable.
"At this stage we must observe ourselves constantly until 'our' mind rectifies itself and finally detaches itself from clinging to the body and mind. And this is the end of all suffering."
This might sound a bit too difficult to understand, but I can probably summarise it by saying that the more we watch our bodies and minds, constantly, at each moment, the nearer we shall be to real happiness.
I have no idea how long it will take me to reach that ultimate goal. It may be seven years or seven lifetimes, but this will not discourage me as I'm confident that at least I'm on the right track. Life is uncertain; suffering may knock on the door at any moment. But I strongly believe that whoever practises mindfulness as part of his or her life will be able to survive perfectly in every situation. They will know how to free themselves from the cycle of birth and death, and will know no fear in the last moments of their lives.
Mindfulness practice is about studying the body and mind in the present moment as they truly are, until we have the wisdom to truly understand the real truth about ourselves. It takes patience and perseverance, but it is the most valuable investment in life for everyone, of whatever age, gender, career, nationality or religious belief.
It is guaranteed by the Lord Buddha as the only path to enlightenment. The pity is that so few people in this world can see its value and are willing to follow it - the road less travelled.
Friday, October 19, 2007
The way of tea
The way of tea
By Fanny Dassie, CONTRIBUTOR
738 words
18 October 2007
The Oakland Tribune
English
(c) Copyright 2007 ANG Newspapers. All rights reserved.
SHOZO SATO, dressed in a kimono, kneels in front of a kettle and buries his hand into his thin black and gray suit, pulling out a purple, napkin-size silk cloth. He delicately uses the fukusa to methodically clean a tea scoop and container.
"It's a purification of utensils and minds," says Sato, a teacher of tea gathering ceremonies who demonstrates the "way of tea" at museums and tea houses across the United States and Europe.
The Japanese tea ceremony, as presented at the Asian Art Museum and in homes and tea houses around the Bay Area, is an artistic discipline that expresses cultural aspects such as creating an atmosphere of respect and sincerity between guests and hosts. It's also seen as a way to link meditation and spiritual training with sustenance.
The tea ritual was imported from China to Japan in 1200 AD and introduced through Buddhism before being integrated into Japanese society.
Sato's lessons illustrate that traditional tea preparation and serving must follow specific and stringent rules that are usually unknown to the average tea consumer.
For many tea drinkers, the simple act of pouring water over a tea bag has no artistic or spiritual value.
"I use tea bags when I am thirsty, but when I want a spiritual
awakening, I go through the tea ceremony," Sato says.
In Japan, the tea ceremony is a ritualized event that demands constant attention, patience, precision and a natural calmness and softness in the gestures.
Christi Soei Bartlett, director of the San Francisco Urasenke Foundation, says tea practitioners seek "a sense of community and an understanding of everyday life." The tea ritual, associated with Zen, encourages people to take time to relax and enjoy their tea.
Hosting a traditional tea ceremony is an art. The host has to create an appropriate atmosphere by choosing complementary fresh flowers and paintings, depending on the season and the mood of the moment.
The Asian Art Museum offers public tea ceremonies five times a year.
At a recent ceremony, each guest removes his shoes before trampling the tatami. They then tiptoe toward an alcove, kneel, cross their feet, bow and meditate before heading to an area decorated with flowers and paintings chosen by the host.
The host for the day, Sato, appears through a white sliding door, offering tea sweets. One by one, to create drama, the tea utensils are cleaned with the silk cloth — purple for men and orange or red for women. There's a transparent blue bowl full of cold water that is covered by a leaf, usually from the host's garden, as well as a tea scoop, a transparent white glass bowl and a bamboo whisk.
"We don't talk too much in the tea room," Sato explains. "If we talk, it's only about tea."
The host uses the tea scoop to place a small amount of green powdery tea into the white bowl. Hot water is delicately poured over the powder, which will be mixed with the whisk.
Only after a meticulous inspection is the tea consumed. Sato explains that the taste can be better sustained if the host breathes and makes a sound
while drinking the beverage because the oxygen acts to boost the taste.
At the completion of the ceremony, the scoop and containers are cleaned by the host and examined by the guests. The host then removes, again one by one, all of the utensils.
Yuko Matsumoto, an Oakland resident who participated in the ceremony at the Asian, drinks six or seven cups a day.
She used to participate in such ceremonies while growing up in Japan.
"I associate tea with tranquility," she says.
By Fanny Dassie, CONTRIBUTOR
738 words
18 October 2007
The Oakland Tribune
English
(c) Copyright 2007 ANG Newspapers. All rights reserved.
SHOZO SATO, dressed in a kimono, kneels in front of a kettle and buries his hand into his thin black and gray suit, pulling out a purple, napkin-size silk cloth. He delicately uses the fukusa to methodically clean a tea scoop and container.
"It's a purification of utensils and minds," says Sato, a teacher of tea gathering ceremonies who demonstrates the "way of tea" at museums and tea houses across the United States and Europe.
The Japanese tea ceremony, as presented at the Asian Art Museum and in homes and tea houses around the Bay Area, is an artistic discipline that expresses cultural aspects such as creating an atmosphere of respect and sincerity between guests and hosts. It's also seen as a way to link meditation and spiritual training with sustenance.
The tea ritual was imported from China to Japan in 1200 AD and introduced through Buddhism before being integrated into Japanese society.
Sato's lessons illustrate that traditional tea preparation and serving must follow specific and stringent rules that are usually unknown to the average tea consumer.
For many tea drinkers, the simple act of pouring water over a tea bag has no artistic or spiritual value.
"I use tea bags when I am thirsty, but when I want a spiritual
awakening, I go through the tea ceremony," Sato says.
In Japan, the tea ceremony is a ritualized event that demands constant attention, patience, precision and a natural calmness and softness in the gestures.
Christi Soei Bartlett, director of the San Francisco Urasenke Foundation, says tea practitioners seek "a sense of community and an understanding of everyday life." The tea ritual, associated with Zen, encourages people to take time to relax and enjoy their tea.
Hosting a traditional tea ceremony is an art. The host has to create an appropriate atmosphere by choosing complementary fresh flowers and paintings, depending on the season and the mood of the moment.
The Asian Art Museum offers public tea ceremonies five times a year.
At a recent ceremony, each guest removes his shoes before trampling the tatami. They then tiptoe toward an alcove, kneel, cross their feet, bow and meditate before heading to an area decorated with flowers and paintings chosen by the host.
The host for the day, Sato, appears through a white sliding door, offering tea sweets. One by one, to create drama, the tea utensils are cleaned with the silk cloth — purple for men and orange or red for women. There's a transparent blue bowl full of cold water that is covered by a leaf, usually from the host's garden, as well as a tea scoop, a transparent white glass bowl and a bamboo whisk.
"We don't talk too much in the tea room," Sato explains. "If we talk, it's only about tea."
The host uses the tea scoop to place a small amount of green powdery tea into the white bowl. Hot water is delicately poured over the powder, which will be mixed with the whisk.
Only after a meticulous inspection is the tea consumed. Sato explains that the taste can be better sustained if the host breathes and makes a sound
while drinking the beverage because the oxygen acts to boost the taste.
At the completion of the ceremony, the scoop and containers are cleaned by the host and examined by the guests. The host then removes, again one by one, all of the utensils.
Yuko Matsumoto, an Oakland resident who participated in the ceremony at the Asian, drinks six or seven cups a day.
She used to participate in such ceremonies while growing up in Japan.
"I associate tea with tranquility," she says.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Buddhist Conference in Malaysia - November 2007
CONFERENCE / BUDDHISM; Malaysia hosts Buddhist event of the year
470 words
5 October 2007
Bangkok Post
R11
English
(c) 2007
Three leading Buddhist organisations, the Buddhist Missionary Society, Buddhist Gem Fellowship and the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia, will be organising an international Buddhist conference in Malaysia from November 17-18 at the Sunway Convention Centre, Petaling Jaya.
It will be the fifth in this series of conferences which began in 2000, and the second time that Malaysia will be playing host. More than 1,000 people, some from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, have so far registered for the conference, which has been billed as the "Buddhist Event of the Year."
The theme of the conference is "Transforming the Mind -- How to Create Happiness in Our Lives." During the event, 10 well-known Buddhist scholars, including monks and nuns from Western countries, will present 16 papers discussing how they, as Buddhists, benefit from the Buddha's teachings that are directed towards training the mind in order to develop happiness in our everyday lives.
The conference has been structured so that not only scholars of Buddhism will benefit from the insights of the speakers as they explore the more profound aspects of Buddhist philosophy. Buddhists of all kinds will find practical advice on what steps they can take in order to be happy and lead peaceful, stress-free lives.
The speakers will include Malaysia's Venerable Mahinda from Malacca and Venerable Aggacitta from Penang. Venerable Ming Yi, known as "Asia's CEO monk" for opening the first Buddhist hospital in Singapore and remaining as its chief executive, will deliver a talk on the second day.
Western speakers at the conference include Venerable Dr Heng Sure and Venerable Robina Courtin from the USA, and Venerable Acharn Brahmavamso from Australia. Heng Sure is a disciple of the late master Hsuan Hua and an accomplished musician. His recordings of American Buddhist folk music will be featured during the conference.
Robina Courtin, a nun from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who was the subject of the recent documentary, Chasing Buddha, will talk about her experiences teaching meditation to the inmates of US prisons.
From the Zen tradition, Dr Jan Chozen Bays, a paediatrician and Zen master, will speak on her work in helping abused children to find happiness.
The versatile and very popular Theravada monk from Perth, Acharn Brahm, has also confirmed his attendance at the conference.
Lay speakers will include Dr Tan Eng Kong, a well-known Sydney-based psychotherapist, Dr Thupten Jinpa, the official translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Danai Chanchaochai, CEO of Thailand's top media company in Bangkok, who will share his thoughts on meditation for stressed, busy executives in the corporate sector.
For more details of the conference, please visit www.bodhivision.net/gcb2007 , email ybam@streamyx.com or call 603-7804-9154/603-7804-9157.
470 words
5 October 2007
Bangkok Post
R11
English
(c) 2007
Three leading Buddhist organisations, the Buddhist Missionary Society, Buddhist Gem Fellowship and the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia, will be organising an international Buddhist conference in Malaysia from November 17-18 at the Sunway Convention Centre, Petaling Jaya.
It will be the fifth in this series of conferences which began in 2000, and the second time that Malaysia will be playing host. More than 1,000 people, some from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, have so far registered for the conference, which has been billed as the "Buddhist Event of the Year."
The theme of the conference is "Transforming the Mind -- How to Create Happiness in Our Lives." During the event, 10 well-known Buddhist scholars, including monks and nuns from Western countries, will present 16 papers discussing how they, as Buddhists, benefit from the Buddha's teachings that are directed towards training the mind in order to develop happiness in our everyday lives.
The conference has been structured so that not only scholars of Buddhism will benefit from the insights of the speakers as they explore the more profound aspects of Buddhist philosophy. Buddhists of all kinds will find practical advice on what steps they can take in order to be happy and lead peaceful, stress-free lives.
The speakers will include Malaysia's Venerable Mahinda from Malacca and Venerable Aggacitta from Penang. Venerable Ming Yi, known as "Asia's CEO monk" for opening the first Buddhist hospital in Singapore and remaining as its chief executive, will deliver a talk on the second day.
Western speakers at the conference include Venerable Dr Heng Sure and Venerable Robina Courtin from the USA, and Venerable Acharn Brahmavamso from Australia. Heng Sure is a disciple of the late master Hsuan Hua and an accomplished musician. His recordings of American Buddhist folk music will be featured during the conference.
Robina Courtin, a nun from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who was the subject of the recent documentary, Chasing Buddha, will talk about her experiences teaching meditation to the inmates of US prisons.
From the Zen tradition, Dr Jan Chozen Bays, a paediatrician and Zen master, will speak on her work in helping abused children to find happiness.
The versatile and very popular Theravada monk from Perth, Acharn Brahm, has also confirmed his attendance at the conference.
Lay speakers will include Dr Tan Eng Kong, a well-known Sydney-based psychotherapist, Dr Thupten Jinpa, the official translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Danai Chanchaochai, CEO of Thailand's top media company in Bangkok, who will share his thoughts on meditation for stressed, busy executives in the corporate sector.
For more details of the conference, please visit www.bodhivision.net/gcb2007 , email ybam@streamyx.com or call 603-7804-9154/603-7804-9157.
Conference on Happiness
Wellbeing: The Search for Happiness
2550 words
1 October 2007
The Australian Women's Weekly
English
The Australian Women's Weekly © 2007 ACP Publishing Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. www.ninemsn.com.au/aww
What does it mean to be happy - and where do we find it? The Weekly's David Leser goes in search of glee at an international conference on happiness, to discover there's no single path to a life of contentment.
"Up the escalators for Happiness," said the man with the beatific smile.
"Then turn right." It sounded so simple. An escalator ride and a quick stroll past the gongs and chanting monks, and I'd be there. In Happy Land.
Yet, of course, it was never going to be that painless. One could find the door to a Happiness Conference easily enough; it was quite another matter finding the tools and techniques for a happier life. For Happiness itself.
That, I figured, was going to take a few lifetimes, or at the very least, a two-day conference in Sydney, where I could fast-track myself to a state of unalloyed delight merely by listening to experts expounding on the subject.
What did it mean to be happy and how did one find it? Did we discover it by looking, or by, paradoxically enough, ceasing to look? Did we come into the world with a sunny disposition, a felicitous gene, and if not, could we train ourselves to be happy?
Was it an individual quest or did one's community and government contribute to happiness? And why was it that some people dealt with crisis or misadventure better than others?
These were just some of the questions I'd begun asking myself in the lead-up to the Second International Conference on Happiness and its Causes in Sydney recently. And, yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "What a monumental act of self-indulgence is this! Three thousand narcissists gathered for a convention at Darling (where else?) Harbour to explore happiness and its twin sisters, joy and exuberance. What a doddle. What a tilt at New Age windmills. What about writing on real issues, the drought, for example, or the war in Iraq?"
It's true. I could have done either of those things, but I doubt whether they would have added to your happiness quotient or mine, or indeed, to the sum total of human happiness. Quite the contrary. Reading a depressing story would actually have weakened your immune system and prevented you from fighting illness. And I didn't want to do that, certainly not after listening to Howard Cutler, co-author (with the Dalai Lama) of the international bestselling book, The Art of Happiness.
Howard told the conference about a study that had shown how people watching acts of kindness, in this case a film of Mother Teresa performing good deeds, experienced increased levels of disease-fighting antibodies in their saliva compared to those who hadn't watched the film.
He also talked about an experiment in which subjects were chosen one day a week to perform five random acts of kindness - anything from opening a door for a stranger to anonymously putting money in an expired parking metre. "After five weeks, people who were doing this were found to have a marked increase in their personal happiness," he said.
Yet even if that weren't the case, surely an investigation of the individual and collective causes of happiness was a worthwhile pursuit, given the extent to which depression and mental illness afflicted the people of the western world.
Why was it, for example, that a country like Australia could be in the midst of such a prosperity boom, such material comfort, and yet be experiencing a pandemic of sickness and unhappiness - 20 per cent of Australian teenagers suffering from mental health problems; suicide rates quadrupling among 15- to 19-year-olds since the 1970s; homeless youth on the rise ...
Little wonder, then, that several of the people attending the conference were counsellors, therapists, social workers, doctors, mental health experts - people regularly in touch with the misery and heartache of people's lives.
And so the answer to these and many other questions depended, of course, on who you talked to, or, in this case, listened to. No one could be happy all the time, said Professor Graham Burrows, chairman of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia. "And if they (were), they might be bipolar."
"Or at great risk of being up themselves," agreed Professor Gordon Parker, executive director of Black Dog Institute, an educational, research, clinical and community-oriented facility offering specialist expertise in mood disorders, based in New South Wales.
Happiness was a complex, intriguing phenomenon. You could seek it desperately, but never find it, or you could stumble upon it and then come to see later that, yes, this was a moment of serendipity, of sheer bliss, a family meal perhaps, or the touch of a loved one, or a moment of rhapsody in nature.
For Magda Szubanski, a surprise replacement at the conference for the surprise inclusion of Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, happiness came from the simple things in life, but also, surprisingly enough, from performance. "I feel performing is a very communal act," she said, "and as someone who doesn't have a faith, it sometimes feels that there is only the communal space."
Mind you, after sitting next to the Dalai Lama for a panel discussion chaired by the ABC's Geraldine Doogue, it seemed that Magda Szubanski had, by conference end, become totally open to the idea of altruism and faith.
"I want to try to be nicer," she said when asked by Geraldine Doogue how she might, over the coming years, try to enhance her own happiness. "I know that sounds really sucky, but I want to feel like I err on the side of doing good things rather than selfish things. I might even look at engaging more in Buddhist activities."
"Now that's sucking up," quipped Geraldine, to widespread hilarity from an audience already enchanted by the presence of the Nobel Peace Prize winner sharing the stage with one of Australia's most loved comedians. When asked how he might enhance his own happiness, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader responded with a boyish shrug and a typically enlightened, if not cryptic, response: "I will carry on continuously. That's all."
What else might one expect from a man who has regularly expressed love and forgiveness for the Chinese conquerors of his country. "Genuine compassion can also reach your enemy," he reminded us all. "They have the same rights, the same desire for happiness."
That was a far cry from Clive Hamilton's response. When the executive director of The Australia Institute and author of Affluenza was asked what lever he would pull to secure his own happiness, he replied, "Quite frankly, quite bluntly, there is one event which could make me extremely happy and that would be a crushing defeat for the Howard Government (at the coming election)."
And who said happiness wasn't a political matter?
Three days before going in search of glee, I received an unsolicited email about a 92-year-old man, whose wife of 70 years had recently passed away. Because of her death, the man had been forced to move into a nursing home, where he was bound to see out his days.
On the day of his departure, his care-giver began describing to him the room that he was about to move into. "It's tiny," she said, "and it has these eyelet sheets hanging over the windows ..."
"I love it," he said with relish.
"But Mr Jones," the caregiver said, "you haven't even seen the room. Just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," the old man replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arrange my mind and I've already decided to love it."
The subject of the mind and how we might train it was a recurring theme throughout the two-day Happiness conference. When the Venerable Robina Courtin, the Tibetan Buddhist nun and director of Liberation Prison Project, in San Francisco, told the audience it was possible to train the mind to be "happier, braver, wiser, kinder, less fearful and less depressed", she was doing so not just as someone caring for the spiritual needs of thousands of prisoners in America - many of them on death row - but also as someone making a distinction between the mind and the brain.
"Mind is consciousness," she said, "and it encompasses the entire spectrum of our inner experiences: thoughts, feelings, emotions, unconscious, subconscious, intuition, instinct."
Robina cited the case of an innocent woman who had spent 17 years on death row before being released. During that time, she had learnt, despite her circumstances, to be happy. "The only thing she could change was her mind," Robina said. "She said to herself, 'I am not in a cell, I am in a cave. I am not a prisoner, I am a monk'."
Petrea King, founding director of the Quest for Life Centre and a nominee for Australian of the Year since 2003, knows something of this power of the mind, after being diagnosed nearly 25 years ago with myeloid leukaemia. Although she didn't get an opportunity to tell the conference the details of her extraordinary story, it would have been salutary to hear it. (And a note of disclosure here - I was once secretary of Petrea's Quest for Life Foundation.)
After being told she had three months to live, Petrea took herself off to a cave outside Assisi in Italy, where she meditated for 18 hours a day. Her cancer went into remission. Since the late 1980s, Petrea has counselled more than 60,000 Australians diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses, presenting to them myriad benefits of meditation, good nutrition and positive thinking.
"A daily practice of meditation, reflection or contemplation greatly enhances our ability to make appropriate responses rather than helplessly reacting to experiences," she said. "When we know ourselves, we understand how to care for ourselves ... and that's the greatest gift we can give our children, our families, our communities and the planet - the gift of our own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Then we bring a calm and serene presence to the chaos, the disaster, the trauma, the tragedy."
This was a different, but not unrelated, slant to the one taken by Amanda Gordon, president of the Australian Psychological Society, who told the conference that the happiest people were those with a life of meaning and sense of purpose. These people were in loving relationships, they acted altruistically and they gave up the more immediate pleasures for something deeper, less transient.
Also, they looked for the best in people, listened well, gave kind feedback. What they didn't do was spend their lives comparing themselves to others or "noticing the bits that were missing".
Ian Gawler, founder of the first lifestyle-based cancer self-help group in Australia, and a long-term cancer survivor himself, didn't disagree, but wondered whether there wasn't sometimes too much emphasis placed on relationships. "Many are looking for happiness outside themselves, whereas the real answer is inside ourselves," he said. "If you're looking to gain a sense of enduring, ongoing happiness from other people, it will always be tenuous."
"I think relationships are everything," countered Julian Short, a psychiatrist and expert on low self-esteem and relationship problems. "I'm not sure how to find happiness inside myself, because I find my happiness from outside, from relationships. Treating another person with kindness and dignity will help you love yourself and help you love another person. You become twice blessed."
Not to be deterred, Ian Gawler replied, "The important principle that comes from spiritual practice is if you have a really strong connection with your inner self, then there is a sense that that is inviolate, that there's a part of you that can't be hurt. Then life generally becomes easier - easier to become more open and more intimate."
They are both right, of course, and, once again, we could have heard much more on this subject, particularly from Ian Gawler, whose recovery from cancer 30 years ago was to become - like Petrea King - the stuff of medical legend and, indeed, a source of inspiration to this writer.
Like Petrea, Ian has helped alleviate the suffering of thousands of people with cancer, AIDS and leukaemia at his Gawler Foundation in Victoria. His view is that - tumultuous though the diagnosis and sickness is - it can also give a person the opportunity to change his or her lifestyle and, most crucially, to confront major unresolved issues in their lives.
"To me, the point is to reach the end of your life with inner peace, and to do that, you need to look back on your life and feel you were satisfied," he once told me. "It is quite possible to do that at an early age and quite possible to not do that at an old age."
For me, that meant - as Amanda Gordon and others stressed - the search for meaning, as opposed to some glib quest for happiness: meaning at work, meaningful relationships, a meaningful contribution to society and to the life of others.
When I returned home, I found my wife in the garden, my daughters at their desks and a book left open in the kitchen that my wife happened to be reading.
The book, The Interpretation of Murder by the American writer, Jed Rubenfeld, began, curiously enough, with these words: "There is no mystery to happiness. Unhappy men (and women) are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn - or worse, indifference - cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man (and woman) does not look back. He doesn't look ahead. He lives in the present."
Yet therein lay the rub, according to the writer. The present could never deliver meaning, because the ways of happiness and meaning were never the same. To find happiness, Rubenfeld said, a man needed to only live in the moment; he needed to only live for the moment.
"But if he wants meaning - the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life - a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them."
I closed the book and imbibed the safe, salty harbour of this family and home of mine - the soup bubbling on the stove, the music coming from my younger daughter's bedroom. For one brief, exquisite moment, I felt no such choice needed to be made, that in this very moment I was experiencing both happiness and meaning and that the former derived, however mysteriously, from the latter.
But then, just as quickly, the moment passed and I was back on those escalators wondering whether to turn right or left for Happy Land.
For further information, contact www.happinessanditscauses.com.au .
2550 words
1 October 2007
The Australian Women's Weekly
English
The Australian Women's Weekly © 2007 ACP Publishing Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. www.ninemsn.com.au/aww
What does it mean to be happy - and where do we find it? The Weekly's David Leser goes in search of glee at an international conference on happiness, to discover there's no single path to a life of contentment.
"Up the escalators for Happiness," said the man with the beatific smile.
"Then turn right." It sounded so simple. An escalator ride and a quick stroll past the gongs and chanting monks, and I'd be there. In Happy Land.
Yet, of course, it was never going to be that painless. One could find the door to a Happiness Conference easily enough; it was quite another matter finding the tools and techniques for a happier life. For Happiness itself.
That, I figured, was going to take a few lifetimes, or at the very least, a two-day conference in Sydney, where I could fast-track myself to a state of unalloyed delight merely by listening to experts expounding on the subject.
What did it mean to be happy and how did one find it? Did we discover it by looking, or by, paradoxically enough, ceasing to look? Did we come into the world with a sunny disposition, a felicitous gene, and if not, could we train ourselves to be happy?
Was it an individual quest or did one's community and government contribute to happiness? And why was it that some people dealt with crisis or misadventure better than others?
These were just some of the questions I'd begun asking myself in the lead-up to the Second International Conference on Happiness and its Causes in Sydney recently. And, yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "What a monumental act of self-indulgence is this! Three thousand narcissists gathered for a convention at Darling (where else?) Harbour to explore happiness and its twin sisters, joy and exuberance. What a doddle. What a tilt at New Age windmills. What about writing on real issues, the drought, for example, or the war in Iraq?"
It's true. I could have done either of those things, but I doubt whether they would have added to your happiness quotient or mine, or indeed, to the sum total of human happiness. Quite the contrary. Reading a depressing story would actually have weakened your immune system and prevented you from fighting illness. And I didn't want to do that, certainly not after listening to Howard Cutler, co-author (with the Dalai Lama) of the international bestselling book, The Art of Happiness.
Howard told the conference about a study that had shown how people watching acts of kindness, in this case a film of Mother Teresa performing good deeds, experienced increased levels of disease-fighting antibodies in their saliva compared to those who hadn't watched the film.
He also talked about an experiment in which subjects were chosen one day a week to perform five random acts of kindness - anything from opening a door for a stranger to anonymously putting money in an expired parking metre. "After five weeks, people who were doing this were found to have a marked increase in their personal happiness," he said.
Yet even if that weren't the case, surely an investigation of the individual and collective causes of happiness was a worthwhile pursuit, given the extent to which depression and mental illness afflicted the people of the western world.
Why was it, for example, that a country like Australia could be in the midst of such a prosperity boom, such material comfort, and yet be experiencing a pandemic of sickness and unhappiness - 20 per cent of Australian teenagers suffering from mental health problems; suicide rates quadrupling among 15- to 19-year-olds since the 1970s; homeless youth on the rise ...
Little wonder, then, that several of the people attending the conference were counsellors, therapists, social workers, doctors, mental health experts - people regularly in touch with the misery and heartache of people's lives.
And so the answer to these and many other questions depended, of course, on who you talked to, or, in this case, listened to. No one could be happy all the time, said Professor Graham Burrows, chairman of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia. "And if they (were), they might be bipolar."
"Or at great risk of being up themselves," agreed Professor Gordon Parker, executive director of Black Dog Institute, an educational, research, clinical and community-oriented facility offering specialist expertise in mood disorders, based in New South Wales.
Happiness was a complex, intriguing phenomenon. You could seek it desperately, but never find it, or you could stumble upon it and then come to see later that, yes, this was a moment of serendipity, of sheer bliss, a family meal perhaps, or the touch of a loved one, or a moment of rhapsody in nature.
For Magda Szubanski, a surprise replacement at the conference for the surprise inclusion of Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, happiness came from the simple things in life, but also, surprisingly enough, from performance. "I feel performing is a very communal act," she said, "and as someone who doesn't have a faith, it sometimes feels that there is only the communal space."
Mind you, after sitting next to the Dalai Lama for a panel discussion chaired by the ABC's Geraldine Doogue, it seemed that Magda Szubanski had, by conference end, become totally open to the idea of altruism and faith.
"I want to try to be nicer," she said when asked by Geraldine Doogue how she might, over the coming years, try to enhance her own happiness. "I know that sounds really sucky, but I want to feel like I err on the side of doing good things rather than selfish things. I might even look at engaging more in Buddhist activities."
"Now that's sucking up," quipped Geraldine, to widespread hilarity from an audience already enchanted by the presence of the Nobel Peace Prize winner sharing the stage with one of Australia's most loved comedians. When asked how he might enhance his own happiness, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader responded with a boyish shrug and a typically enlightened, if not cryptic, response: "I will carry on continuously. That's all."
What else might one expect from a man who has regularly expressed love and forgiveness for the Chinese conquerors of his country. "Genuine compassion can also reach your enemy," he reminded us all. "They have the same rights, the same desire for happiness."
That was a far cry from Clive Hamilton's response. When the executive director of The Australia Institute and author of Affluenza was asked what lever he would pull to secure his own happiness, he replied, "Quite frankly, quite bluntly, there is one event which could make me extremely happy and that would be a crushing defeat for the Howard Government (at the coming election)."
And who said happiness wasn't a political matter?
Three days before going in search of glee, I received an unsolicited email about a 92-year-old man, whose wife of 70 years had recently passed away. Because of her death, the man had been forced to move into a nursing home, where he was bound to see out his days.
On the day of his departure, his care-giver began describing to him the room that he was about to move into. "It's tiny," she said, "and it has these eyelet sheets hanging over the windows ..."
"I love it," he said with relish.
"But Mr Jones," the caregiver said, "you haven't even seen the room. Just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," the old man replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arrange my mind and I've already decided to love it."
The subject of the mind and how we might train it was a recurring theme throughout the two-day Happiness conference. When the Venerable Robina Courtin, the Tibetan Buddhist nun and director of Liberation Prison Project, in San Francisco, told the audience it was possible to train the mind to be "happier, braver, wiser, kinder, less fearful and less depressed", she was doing so not just as someone caring for the spiritual needs of thousands of prisoners in America - many of them on death row - but also as someone making a distinction between the mind and the brain.
"Mind is consciousness," she said, "and it encompasses the entire spectrum of our inner experiences: thoughts, feelings, emotions, unconscious, subconscious, intuition, instinct."
Robina cited the case of an innocent woman who had spent 17 years on death row before being released. During that time, she had learnt, despite her circumstances, to be happy. "The only thing she could change was her mind," Robina said. "She said to herself, 'I am not in a cell, I am in a cave. I am not a prisoner, I am a monk'."
Petrea King, founding director of the Quest for Life Centre and a nominee for Australian of the Year since 2003, knows something of this power of the mind, after being diagnosed nearly 25 years ago with myeloid leukaemia. Although she didn't get an opportunity to tell the conference the details of her extraordinary story, it would have been salutary to hear it. (And a note of disclosure here - I was once secretary of Petrea's Quest for Life Foundation.)
After being told she had three months to live, Petrea took herself off to a cave outside Assisi in Italy, where she meditated for 18 hours a day. Her cancer went into remission. Since the late 1980s, Petrea has counselled more than 60,000 Australians diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses, presenting to them myriad benefits of meditation, good nutrition and positive thinking.
"A daily practice of meditation, reflection or contemplation greatly enhances our ability to make appropriate responses rather than helplessly reacting to experiences," she said. "When we know ourselves, we understand how to care for ourselves ... and that's the greatest gift we can give our children, our families, our communities and the planet - the gift of our own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Then we bring a calm and serene presence to the chaos, the disaster, the trauma, the tragedy."
This was a different, but not unrelated, slant to the one taken by Amanda Gordon, president of the Australian Psychological Society, who told the conference that the happiest people were those with a life of meaning and sense of purpose. These people were in loving relationships, they acted altruistically and they gave up the more immediate pleasures for something deeper, less transient.
Also, they looked for the best in people, listened well, gave kind feedback. What they didn't do was spend their lives comparing themselves to others or "noticing the bits that were missing".
Ian Gawler, founder of the first lifestyle-based cancer self-help group in Australia, and a long-term cancer survivor himself, didn't disagree, but wondered whether there wasn't sometimes too much emphasis placed on relationships. "Many are looking for happiness outside themselves, whereas the real answer is inside ourselves," he said. "If you're looking to gain a sense of enduring, ongoing happiness from other people, it will always be tenuous."
"I think relationships are everything," countered Julian Short, a psychiatrist and expert on low self-esteem and relationship problems. "I'm not sure how to find happiness inside myself, because I find my happiness from outside, from relationships. Treating another person with kindness and dignity will help you love yourself and help you love another person. You become twice blessed."
Not to be deterred, Ian Gawler replied, "The important principle that comes from spiritual practice is if you have a really strong connection with your inner self, then there is a sense that that is inviolate, that there's a part of you that can't be hurt. Then life generally becomes easier - easier to become more open and more intimate."
They are both right, of course, and, once again, we could have heard much more on this subject, particularly from Ian Gawler, whose recovery from cancer 30 years ago was to become - like Petrea King - the stuff of medical legend and, indeed, a source of inspiration to this writer.
Like Petrea, Ian has helped alleviate the suffering of thousands of people with cancer, AIDS and leukaemia at his Gawler Foundation in Victoria. His view is that - tumultuous though the diagnosis and sickness is - it can also give a person the opportunity to change his or her lifestyle and, most crucially, to confront major unresolved issues in their lives.
"To me, the point is to reach the end of your life with inner peace, and to do that, you need to look back on your life and feel you were satisfied," he once told me. "It is quite possible to do that at an early age and quite possible to not do that at an old age."
For me, that meant - as Amanda Gordon and others stressed - the search for meaning, as opposed to some glib quest for happiness: meaning at work, meaningful relationships, a meaningful contribution to society and to the life of others.
When I returned home, I found my wife in the garden, my daughters at their desks and a book left open in the kitchen that my wife happened to be reading.
The book, The Interpretation of Murder by the American writer, Jed Rubenfeld, began, curiously enough, with these words: "There is no mystery to happiness. Unhappy men (and women) are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn - or worse, indifference - cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man (and woman) does not look back. He doesn't look ahead. He lives in the present."
Yet therein lay the rub, according to the writer. The present could never deliver meaning, because the ways of happiness and meaning were never the same. To find happiness, Rubenfeld said, a man needed to only live in the moment; he needed to only live for the moment.
"But if he wants meaning - the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life - a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them."
I closed the book and imbibed the safe, salty harbour of this family and home of mine - the soup bubbling on the stove, the music coming from my younger daughter's bedroom. For one brief, exquisite moment, I felt no such choice needed to be made, that in this very moment I was experiencing both happiness and meaning and that the former derived, however mysteriously, from the latter.
But then, just as quickly, the moment passed and I was back on those escalators wondering whether to turn right or left for Happy Land.
For further information, contact www.happinessanditscauses.com.au .
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