Monday, February 27, 2017

Mind and its Repertoire


Mind and its Repertoire

Mind is a powerful entity with boundless energy within.

It is very difficult to explain its repertoire.

Below is a few descriptions extracted from Dhamma Pada.

Before that, I will try to describe in Simple English how I describe the “Entity called Mind”.

Mind is Universal Entity in certain forms of life.

We believe it is related to the existence of the brain but if I ask the question myself, “Can I locate or pinpoint it for somebody to scientifically investigate it?”, I run short of methodology to project my mind out.

It seems to be intrinsically bound to every cell in my body not heart or brain.

I do not like the word conscious and unconscious since mind is never at rest even in one’s deep sleep.

It is a living entity and part and parcel of life.

So I prefer the word “Awareness” of itself and its surrounding irrespective of its proximity (far or near) in space dimension.

I can visit moon in a fraction of a second (faster than speed of light) while pulling my cigar and exhaling rounds and rounds of smoke circles in air.

Like the smoke circles from a cigar appear and disappear, my thought moments can appear and disappear with tremendous rapidity and next moment my mind is in mars or outside the known universe.

That is the beauty of the mind.

Next thing I want to do is to address the “Level of Awareness”.

The base level is Awake State.

A lower level is Dream State.

Third level is “Knocked Out State”, hit on the head by a club or live electricity shock or ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) or Medical Drugs with anaesthetic properties.

Now the bombshell.

Just as we can have substandard levels to awake state, I want to propose that there are seven or more levels of super-standard states of mind (for the purpose of my argument- it may be much more than seven, never less).

For a person of Western upbringing brought up with God Concept, God is another “Spiritual Level”of Awareness much more than our base level.

Now the second bombshell.

There are life forms outside our domain, for the want of a better term I use, Alien Beings have Awareness Levels (going up to seven or more) far more superior to ours.

The caveat here is some of these beings are very inquisitive especially the level I (one) and II (two) that may or may not visit us from time to time for formal investigations.

The question is can we reach them?

I tend to believe that we can.

How?

We can increase our level of awareness with Mind Training.

That Mind Training is Meditation.

It is within our brain (for want of better term) potential.

All this preamble is to find an answer to the question of “Mediums” and “Channels” or the Ancient Wisdom Masters (of Red Indians, of Aborigines and Indian Sages).

Christianity has suppressed these phenomena by their world domination by “Military Power” (both UK and USA).

Good example is Madam Helena Blavatsky and the attack on her by the Western authors (Theosophy) of profundity.

The domain of Christianity is in its wane, so it time to address other states of mind including the “Aliens who would visit us” when we are ready.

For the sake of my argument, “Mediums” and “Channels” are altered states of mind of awareness of the bearer.

They are usually females who are amenable to such states of “fantasy”.

They should not be addressed as fakes (large majority are fakes for the purpose of publicity).

I should wind up this with few verses from Dhamma Pada.

Even though, I try to “Zero in Digitally”, there is a section of web visitors (my site) from far away places, encourage me to be active.

Thank YOU guys and girls but soon I will be dormant but not dead.

I do not like the English words, Ego, I, Soul and Spirituality.

To drop those entities from our minds’ vocabulary one has to attain a certain level of of meditative instances or Jhanas.


Mano Puggamgamaa Dhamma

Mano Setta Manomaya

Manasa che Passannena

Basthi va Karothi va

Tatho Nam Sukka Manchethi

Chayava Anupayini
 

Mind precedes all mental states

Mind is the chief chef,

They are all mind-wrought (fashioned)

If with pure (perfect) mind one speaks or acts happiness follows like never departing shadow of oneself.


Durangaman ekamchram

Asariram guhasayam

Ye sittam sangnamesanti

Mokkanthi Marabandhana


Dwelling in the cave

Without form

The Mind wonders far

And moves alone.

Those who subdue this mind

Are liberated from the bond of Mara


(The meaning of Mara here is somewhat equivalent to death in every being but in philosophical terms means much more of the unsatisfactory nature of all living phenomena including mental formations).

I am not a Pali scholar and Pali scholars (neither in English) are hard to come by and my humble attempt is to bring simple English connotation into lifeforms.


Any errors of commission and omission are all mine. 
Please note that I do not academically or literaaly follow every bit of mystic phenomena but want the readers to be open minded.
 I have had first hand encounters with similar ability but never tried to stop them or encourage them (kept my comfortable scientific dissociation) or assess them scientifically.



Reincarnation means the same thing as re-embodiment and rebirth. It is the human soul returning to the earth again and again and taking up residence each time in a new physical body in order to continue the soul’s progressive journey of inner evolution, advancement, development, and of unfold. 
Death is not the end and birth is not the beginning.

The soul reincarnates due to three main reasons – 
(1) It still has lessons to learn, 
(2) It still has “karmic debts” which it needs to work off in order to further balance its Karma, 
(3) It has not yet fully realized its own divine nature or its absolute oneness with the Divine and thus with all life and has not yet re-become in consciousness THAT which it truly and really is. Reincarnation is a Law in Nature. It is not true that “only some souls reincarnate” or that “reincarnation is the exception rather than the rule,” as some have claimed. It is an ongoing cyclic process and necessity for each soul.

There are three possibilities regarding what happens to us when we die. There is the view of the atheists and materialists, who say that we are nothing more than a lump of soulless purposeless matter and that we simply cease to be, when the physical body dies. Then there is the “one life only” view held by some religions, who maintain that the soul only lives once on Earth and that after the body dies the soul either goes to Heaven for all eternity or burns in hell for all eternity. The religions which teach this concept usually insist that they are the only right religion and that only the people belonging to that particular religion will go to Heaven.

The third possibility is that of an ongoing process of reincarnation. 25-30% of people in the West today say that they believe in reincarnation and it has been a standard belief in much of the East for thousands of years, having its origin in Hinduism, which is the world’s oldest religion. It is also a central feature of Buddhism and other Indic religions. Human beings have the freedom to decide which of these three possibilities sounds the most reasonable and plausible to them.




The world population has risen by nearly 6-billion within the last 120 years and is still on the increase, although it is expected to peak between 2025 and 2050. One of the main causes for this dramatic population increase is that people in general are nowadays reincarnating far sooner, far more quickly, than they did 100 years ago.

The duration of the soul’s time in its state of Devachan in between lifetimes is always determined in part by how “spiritualised” the soul is. The more atheistic, agnostic, or materialistic a person is, the shorter and less clearly defined that intermediary period will be.

It is undeniable that there has been a general decline worldwide in spirituality and in higher thought over the last century. At the end of the 19th century, the majority of people across the world still had at least some degree of spiritual or religious inclination and belief and thus their souls were “spiritualised” to at least some extent and at least part of their consciousness was directed, even if only occasionally, towards higher matters. This enabled the soul’s time in the spiritual state of Devachan after death to be prolonged.

In the West, the fall of the Christian Church and the parallel rise of materialistic science had the combined effect of creating generations of agnostics, atheists, materialists, and sensualists, since there was nothing to fill the gap for human consciousness between blind religious faith which insisted that the Bible is the infallible and literal Word of God and the atheistic proclamations of the scientists, who declared – and continue to declare – that there is nothing but matter and that there is no such thing as soul, spirit, or any actual purpose or meaning to anything whatsoever.

One of the purposes of the founding of the Theosophical Movement at that time was to help plug the gap and present mankind with an intelligent and reasoned spirituality, based on the Esoteric Philosophy of the East. 
Unfortunately, after the death of H.P. Blavatsky, the teachings and focus of Theosophy were purposely distorted and altered by certain leaders within the Theosophical Society and the degree of respect and effectiveness that Theosophy had managed to achieve in the West was largely lost.

Today the average Westerner is an agnostic, if not an atheist, and he unquestioningly accepts and believes the views and pronouncements of science just as unquestioningly and blindly as his forefathers accepted and believed the pronouncements of the priest. Much of the East is also now heading in the same direction, although not to the same extent.

An atheistic or materialistic worldview naturally leads to a complete decrease in spirituality and ethics and a rise in sensuality and superficiality. So it is not really surprising that a huge proportion of souls, having developed no spiritual inclinations or qualities whatsoever in their most recent incarnations due to the above, have nothing within them at present to provide much – if anything – in the way of a Devachanic interval for them and are thus returning to earth life with disconcerting rapidity.

And the more often and frequently they return, the more time and opportunity they have to procreate again and thus help bring other such souls back into incarnation. As science and sex are the gods of the 21st century, this problem shows no signs of abating. All the major problems and troubling issues which affect the world today are spiritual problems, in their underlying nature, and until spiritual people have the intelligence and initiative to address them in a sane, selfless, and intelligent way, humanity’s problems will just keep on increasing. 
Just saying “Love and light, love and light” and “We are all one” will not get the job done.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Benefits of Meditation and Lapses in My Memory

 Benefits of Meditation and Lapses in My Memory

I have reproduced a piece I have written 4 years ago,
reason being that I forgot all my bank cards PIN numbers for a brief period recently.

I used A's Pin Number to B's Pin number and after three attempts bank inactivated all my cards.

Mind you, I luckily had an account in a different Bank and survived until my new card arrived.

All this due to enjoying my retirement and paucity of use of the daily routines.

So I immediately, joined my account with a family member.

The other thing that one forgets is the passwords for email accounts. 

I have addressed that scenario in length elsewhere.

Just like forgetting PIN numbers and passwords if one abruptly stops Practicing Meditation, what ever the benefits accrued will dissipate in no time.

That is why I recommend (and practice MM) Moment and Frequent Meditation (mental) exercises.

Having said that I have not found a solution for lapses in my memory.

I still do not carry a Memory Note with me.
Now my NEW method is counting the the lapses of my memory on daily routines.

How many lapses a day?

That seems to keep my memory fine tuned.

I sometime forget to fill the bowl with water for my dog.

He is totally blind and when this happens he seems to go in circles round the house to bring attention to its needs.

He reminds me of the routine and the lapse in my memory.

My dog has a fantastic memory (in our age he is nearing 100 years) and still behaves like a 7 year old kid and won't do anything to annoy me.
 
That is the difference of a pet and a human soul. 

Humans when old becomes very grumpy for no reason.

There is lot to learn from a dog.

This is part of the introduction to my Book on Meditation.
 
Benefits of Meditation
There are many claims of benefit of meditation often poorly substantiated. Some of these benefit can be obtained without resort to meditation but simple change in life style.

Suppose a meditator changes his food habits drastically say to a vegetarian diet and practice meditation as a routine and finds that his blood cholesterol is lowered significantly, and then if he or she attributes it to the practice of meditation, there is a big flow in that argument.

One is not sure whether the change in diet did effect the blood cholesterol level or the practice of meditation or both did have independent or summation effect on the level of blood cholesterol. Unless one take a random sample and assess the partial correlation, then only one can attribute combination or independent effects on a particular quantity tested.

Qualitative changes cannot be tested since one cannot quantify the results. In actual fact the effect of meditation is often qualitative and very individualistic and one cannot feel the same effect a different mediator would have felt at the time of his or her meditative stance or instance/s. 
This is very true as far as the Jhana States are concerned.

With that reservation in mind one can describe the many unmeasurable benefits attributed to meditation in Buddhist literature.

Metta Meditation 

In Buddhist literature it is claimed that one who practises Metta Meditation falls to sleep easily and get up in the morning peacefully.


It is wished in the last three lines of the Sutta. 
By reciting Karaniya Metta Sutta one should feel physically and psychologically better, one is made free of illness and one attains the highest goal or victory.

That is of course the Nibbana.

They may be just wishful thinking or one may actually feels better physically and psychologically.

It is also claimed that  the natural immunity to cancer and infections are increased by practicing Metta Meditation. 

This is something Venerable Ajhan Brahma Wanso preaches in most of his teaching.

Present Moment Meditation


This is something that is worth discussing here.

It has direct relationship to day to day activities.

I believe it has significant contribution to the efficiency of one’s trained skill, simply due to the intense concentration one may apply in his or her work skill at hand (without any distraction).

It is simply the focused attention to the task at hand.

If one is focused on any work, the efficiency goes up by leaps and bounds.

This is very well shown in management training.

When focused attention is combined with attitude to work and other measurable increase in environmental components the work output and the efficiency levels improve.

This is something shop or  floor manager can use in day to day basis.

It is called a Quality Drill.

It does not matter how one qualifies the content or the output but the efficiency of the skill concerned improve by both repeated practice and focused attention to the moment of the activity.

Samatha Meditation


There is no specific measurable benefits of Samatha Bhavana or meditation except the attainment of the four goals or paths of entry to Nibbana,

Buddhist spiritual goal is stream entry through development of Jhanas four in this life and 8 in celestial life.

Smatha probably is better for those who are less intelligent (One who is not able to master the finer scientific points in Dhamma).

Vipassana Meditation


This the highest goal of Buddhist meditative practice.

It is claimed that all states of Jhana can be attained by Vipassana Bhavana or Meditation. I may be wrong in this assertion but that is what is spread among the lay persons without full knowledge or the understanding of mediation.
But when I looked at the terminology, it is said that Vipassana Bhavana would not contribute to absorption states. 
This (Vipassana) is called the gaining in insight by direct contemplation and vision.

Only in Samatha Bhavana one attains the Jhana absorption levels up to four.



Only when an aspirant has gained the higher Jhana level that one could develop the five kinds of supernatural powers (Abhiñña) the divine eye, divine ear, recall of past births, thought-reading and various psychic powers i.e. walk on water.

The attainment of the supernatural powers is not the real goal of Buddhism.

The attainment of these powers may actually be a distraction or hindrance to a true aspirant or  a pathfinder of Buddhist path of glory.

The ability to absorb into Jhana states should not be the goal of Buddhist meditation. 
The Jhana states have no hindrance and the Jhana/s could be the way forward of stream entry.

The practice of meditation may bring many benefits and they are difficult to quantify or qualify except perhaps the benefit of present moment of meditation or focus which should be practiced without a label of a particular religion.

It is when one has labels and targets or goals of attainment, the practice of meditation becomes a commercial enterprise of undesirable consequences, ignoring the correct but simple way of development of the mental culture.

I am one who believes that mediation has value in all wakeful hours of the day. 
The only exception is  when one is asleep and when one dreams.

I am one who talks about dreams and write about dreams and their physiological value is unparalleled only by the practice of meditation in the wakeful state.

The meditation practice is the awareness of the wondering mind and its taming.

That is the Buddhist way.

The goal is not achieving of miracle powers, even though they may or may not come as a byproduct.

Sleeping (and dreaming) is the practice of letting the mind go into an  unobtrusive and unhindered state in which the mind is unaware of the physiological inputs that operate in random manner with aberrations of awareness (of the totality) but with interludes of dreaming cycles.

On the other hand meditation is to “let go the attachments” one has with all the mental faculties both sensual and mind centered.

Goals of Buddhist Meditation


The goal is the spiritual attainment (Jhana states can be a byproduct) and stream entry by progressive cultivation of meditation basically by four common methods (there are many more).


1. Metta Meditation.


2. Samatha Meditation with Kasina or various Kamatahans.

3. Vipassana Meditation.

4. Moment Meditation (my simple creative method of short durations of multiple attempts).

This is adequately dealt by Venerable Ajhan Brahma Wanso, inthe book "Happiness Through Meditation". It is also published as “Meditation, Bliss and Beyond”.

It is the best book currently available on Meditation in general and my intention here is to make it more of global nature and take the religious tag at the moment of its use.

Memory and Meditation


I want to share a drill I practice on day to day basis.

This is especially because, I am beginning to lose my memory and there are short lapses infrequent though, but enough to raise alarm bells on my part lately.

Once I forgot all my password for bank cards briefly.

This was during our long industrial action when I had a laid back approach to life in general and sleep in particular. 
I was not having an adequate sleep (totally  engrossed in Linux downloads and testing the isos) at night.

This coincided with forgetting of passwords for half a dozen emails and Linux forum passwords.

This shook my inner senses and I now have a ready made retrieval method based on memory drill.

The combination of Metta Meditation and Moment Meditation have worked wonders for me since then.

I now even have a simple protocol to remember 16 number Visa Card.

The memory loss was partly due to gray matter losing its material and the neural networks not recharging to peak levels, probably due to old age (this handicap is seriously encroaching my body parts, if not the brain).

Metta meditation makes one sleeps well not in one go but in two short spells (Night is the shortest spell when I do most of my work to avoid mosquito menace. The mosquitoes make me aware of my lack of Metta Meditation).

Our dog is the target animal for Metta.
Mosquitoes was the antidote to Metta.

Then in the morning I have a brief 5 minutes of Moment Meditation practice at the end of it, I have a mental list of 10 things or map out the tasks to do for the day.

If the list go up to 20, I do it in two spells like my sleep.

A morning list and an evening list.

That has worked well for the last one year and I still do not carry a piece of paper with all the tasks.

If I have to carry a piece of paper to to remind me the day to day work, I think I should say Good Bye and take first steps for the next round of birth.

That is on top of my wish list.

Since, I have not yet achieved stream entry, in spite of my mediation efforts, that will eventually happen and is only viable option left for me.


There is a simple addition to that wish list.


No electronic aids or tinkle to alert me of the wish list or missing tasks.

 I do not use a cell phone by default.



I do not want a gadget to master my brain.

I rather "Master my Brain" instead without a phone alert or a piece of paper.
I wonder, how long I can practice it.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

How to Prepare for Metta Meditation (Aliens included)


How to Prepare for Metta Meditation (Aliens included)


The "Metta Meditation" should be extended to beings (Visiting Aliens) outside our solar system if they by chance venture into our domain.

 I have reproduced WISE uttering by Lord Buddha (Sutta) for  Mass Awareness!

There are four words  in Pali that is very difficult to translate into English!

They are

1.Metta

2. Karuna

3. Muditha

4. Upekka


Fortunately English is a language that constantly changes and improves its vocabulary to understand Eastern Wisdom.

Emotional intelligence, universal and unbound compassion (not carnal love) "no soul" are few of them.


Western civilization is based on "God and Soul" bound Dogma and might take few generations to entertain Eastern Wisdom.

 Western dogma is also bound by "One World System" and find it very  difficult to entertain other living worlds outside our Solar System.
That is why they covered up the Alien Visitation in Roswell 70 years ago and still carrying on with the misinformation campaign.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Well, I had done a verse in 2013

The Discourse On Loving Kindness


He who is skilled in doing good

And who wishes to attain that state of calm (Nibbana) should act thus

He should be able, upright, perfectly upright

Obedient, gentle and humble

Contented, easily supportable (not a burden to others)

With few duties, simple in livelihood

Controlled in senses, discreet, not impudent

Not greedily attached to families

He should not commit any slight wrong

So that other wise men might deplore



May all beings be happy and safe

May their hearts be happy

Whatsoever living beings that exist

Weak, or strong, without exception

Long, stout or medium

Short, small or large



Those seen (visible) or unseen (not visible)

And those dwelling far (Aliens included) or near

Those who are born and those who are to be born

May all beings, without exception, be happy minded



Let no one deceive another

Nor despise anyone anywhere

In anger or ill will

Let them not wish each other harm

Just as a mother would guard her only child

At the risk of her own life

Even so towards all beings



Let him cultivate boundless mind

Let thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world

Above, below and across

Without any obstruction

Without any hatred, without any enmity

Whether he stands, walks, sits

Or lies down, as long as he is awake



He should develop this mindfulness

This they say is the Highest conduct here

Not falling into (wrong) views

Virtuous and endowed with vision (insight)

He discards attachment to sensuous desires

Truly, he does not come again; to be conceived in a womb

By the firm determination of this truth may I ever be well

By the firm determination of this truth may I be free from illness

By the firm determination of this truth may peaceful victory be mine!


Karaniya Metta Sutta


Buddha’s words on loving kindness


Karaniya atthakusalena

Yan tam santam padam abhisamecca

Sakko uju cha suju cha

suvatho thassa mudu anatimani



Santussako va subharo va

appakicco va sallahukavutti

santindriyo va nipako va

appagabbho kulesu ananugiddho



Na cha khuddam samachare

Kiñ ci yena viññuu pare upavadeyyum

Sukhino va khemino hontu

Sabbe sattaa bhavantu sukhitatta



Ye keci panabhut'atthi

Tasa va thavara va anavasesa

Digha va ye mahanta va

Majjhima rassaka anukathula



Dittha-va ye va adittha

Ye ca dure vasanti avidure

Bhuta va sambhavesi va

Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhitatta



Na paro param nikubbetha

Natimaññetha kattha si nam kiñ si

vyarosana patighasañña

Naññamaññassa dukkham iccheyya



Mata yatha niyam puttam

Ayusa ekaputtamanurakkhe

Evam pi sabbabhutesu

Manasam bhavaye aparimanam



Mettañ va sabbalokasmim

Maanasam bhavaye aparimanam

Uddham adho cha tiriyañ va

Sambadham averam asapattam



Tittham caram nisinno va

Sayano va yavat'assa vigatamiddho

Etam satim adhittheyya

Brahmametam viharam idhamahu



Ditthiñ va anupagamma sila va

Dassanena sampanno

Kamesu vineyya gedham

Na hi jatu gabbhaseyyam punare ti ti



This is what should be done by one who is skilled in achieving his own good of peace and tranquility.

He should be efficient and competent (sakko),

Honest and upright (udu cha su ju cha)

Pleasant and polite in speech (Suvacco)

(Suvaco does not n mean obedient)

Gentle in demeanor ( gentle composure -mudu)

He should be modest and not arrogant (anatimani)

He should be content and satisfied (santussako)

And be easily supportable ((subarro).

He should not be over involved (appa kikko) and

Simple and light in his life style (sallahukavutti)

He should keep his sense faculties calmed and tranquilled (santindrio)

He should be wise (nipako) but not too bold and daring ( appagabbo not arrogant)

He should not be attached to households (kulesu ananugiddo0

He should never resort to doing anything so mean (na cha kudham samachare) whereby the rest of the wise world would reproach him (yene vinnu pare upavedeyyuum)

May all biengs enjoy happiness and comfort (sabbe satta bHavantu skitatta)

May they feel safe and secure (sukino va khemino hontu)







Then meditate;


May all be happy and secure. 
 

May all beings become happy in their heart of hearts!



And think of every living thing without exception:

the weak and the strong, from the smallest to the

largest, whether you can see them or not, living

nearby or far away, beings living now or yet to arise –

may all beings become happy in their heart of hearts!



May no one deceive or look down on anyone

anywhere, for any reason. Whether through feeling

angry or through reacting to someone else, may no

one want another to suffer.



As strongly as a mother, perhaps risking her life,

cherishes her child, her only child, develop an

unlimited heart for all beings.



Develop an unlimited heart of friendliness for the

entire universe, sending metta above, below, and all

around, beyond all narrowness, beyond all rivalry,

beyond all hatred.



Whether you are staying in one place or travelling,

sitting down or in bed, in all your waking hours rest in

this mindfulness, which is known as like living in

heaven right here and now!


In this way, you will come to let go of views, be

spontaneously ethical, and have perfect Insight. And

leaving behind craving for sense pleasures, from the

rounds of rebirth you will finally be completely free!