Domains of Mindfulness (14/2/00):

I've been away for the whole of January hence the non-appearance of this column for that month. For a large part of that time I was on a long retreat in New Zealand. It was an intensive study retreat (although there was lots of meditation too) and provided me with a wonderful opportunity for spiritual nourishment and the chance to deepen spiritual friendships.
The theme of the retreat was the 'Transcendental Principle'-in many ways the goal of Buddhism. No doubt we'll touch on this issue in ensuing weeks. But for the time being we need to finish off our treatment of mindfulness.

Another four fold model of mindfulness consists of 1) awareness of oneself, through the four foundations of mindfulness-posture, sensations, emotions and thoughts. Then extending this awareness to 2) awareness of people, 3) awareness of things or the environment, and finally 4) awareness of Reality.

In this way the increased concentration and sensitivity developed in formal sitting meditation practice is extended out into the world and informs one's relationships with people and the environment. A practising Buddhist does not 'clock off (or ought not to) at the end of the period of sitting practice. Instead the awareness is carried over into these relationships making them more sensitive and ethical. Indeed it's possible to relate to one's immediate environment, defined as what one is conscious of from moment to moment, in this fashion. One could describe this as the bottom line of an individual's environmental responsibility. Because if everyone was doing this, that is relating sensitively, mindfully and ethically with other people and the environment, we wouldn't have social and environmental problems!

An Introducing Buddhism course starts at the Toowoomba Buddhist Centre, next Tuesday (22/2/00 from 7pm-9pm) in lieu of the cancellation of the SQIT course 'The Buddhist Way of Personal Growth'.

The Path of Wisdom (18/2/00):

To continue our treatment of the Threefold Path in Buddhism (Ethics, Meditation, Wisdom) we now turn to the Wisdom or Insight stage. Over the last few months we've investigated Ethics and Meditation. We saw how the practice of ethics sets up the right conditions for successful meditation. Meditation in turn sets up the right conditions for Insight or Wisdom. Complete Wisdom in Buddhism is of course expressed as Enlightenment or Nirvana and involves what is often referred to as Transcendental Knowledge.

Prior to Enlightenment more partial Insights can occur building up to the bigger picture. Insight is an experience, and it yields experiential knowledge, not mere intellectual knowledge; it's known in the heart and as such is ineffable. The knowledge it brings cannot be denoted or captured through concepts or the words of any language. So in that sense the experience is impossible to describe or capture in words.

The Buddha did use language to indicate the nature of the experience. Also Buddhism itself has developed elaborate philosophies over its history that attempt to articulate the knowledge of Enlightenment. However, the approach is to gain the experiential knowledge first and then attempt to articulate it, albeit in a necessarily limited way at the conceptual level. One can't gain enlightenment by reasoning or intellectualising about it alone. This is one of the major differences between Western and Eastern philosophy, with the former believing it's possible to completely comprehend Reality through reasoning and the latter considering it impossible.

According to Buddhism one has to rise to a higher level of consciousness through meditation and use intuition to directly encounter Reality and know it. Thus meditation is the necessary step to see Reality (hence 'in' 'sight' - intuitive seeing). In fact Insight and even Enlightenment itself is most simply described in the tradition as 'seeing things as they are! We will elaborate on this theme next week.

Due to popular demand there is a possibility that an Introducing Buddhism daytime course will start as well at the Toowoomba Buddhist Centre, next Thursday (24/2/00 ) in lieu of the cancellation of the SQIT course 'The Buddhist Way of Personal Growth'.

Seeing Things As They Are (25/2/00):

Traditionally Insight and Enlightenment have been described simply as seeing things as they are! The implication being that we don't perceive things as they are. As the result of a mixture of physiological and socialisation factors we 'construct' the world we perceive from an early age. For example, at the physiological level, we have two eyes at the front of our heads and so binocular vision is 'hard-wired' into us and as a result we can see three dimensionally. Through socialisation we are taught to label and thus separate things with names like 'me', 'you', 'table', 'chair', and so on.

The end result is that we perceive a world of seemingly separate phenomena spread out in space. We perceive ourselves as one object separate and apart from all the others. Furthermore we 'essentialise' things - we attribute permanent essences or a sense of solidity to the perceived phenomena. Finally, subjectively, we prefer certain things to others. Some give rise to pleasant sensations when we perceive them, others unpleasant repulsion, and others still neutral feelings.

Now in reality nothing is, as it seems. As modern ecology demonstrates, nothing exists independently of anything else. We cannot be separated from the air we breathe the water we drink or the food we eat. If we are for too long we actually go out of existence. We can't be separated even from other people. We depend on them for psychological support and guidance. Our education, our personalities and our self-image are all derived from our interactions with other people. Modern physics also demonstrates that far from being a world of solid objects it's all just a constant, dynamic, interactive flux of energy and matter.

The views of modern physics and ecology are congruent with those of ancient Buddhism. According to the latter, nothing is permanent and nothing is separate from anything else. All there is in Reality is impermanence and interrelationship. Moreover, nothing is actually better (in the subjective sense) than anything else, just different. But we try and live in the other world that we have constructed thinking we are separate and independent like other objects and pursuing the ones we like and trying to avoid the ones we don't and hoping for permanence in all our activities. As a consequence, because we have mis-matched Reality and the perceived world, according to Buddhism, we suffer - that's Reality. More next week.

The Three Characteristics of Conditioned Existence (3/3/00):

The real world of phenomenon, of which we are a part, is a conditioned world according to Buddhism. As we saw last week, modern ecology agrees in demonstrating that nothing exists independently of a set of conditions (eg., nutrients, air and water). These conditions ultimately link everything in the natural world together. According to the Teaching (Dharma) of the Buddha this conditioned existence has three characteristics (laksana): unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), impermanence (anicca) and insubstantiality (anatta).

Let's deal with them in reverse order because the second and third explain the first. Insubstantiality follows on from what we've just been saying. It means that in so far as no thing (nothing) or phenomenon can exist independently of anything else it has no separate, unchanging, inherent quality. Nothing is discrete in the sense of having an independently existing, self-subsistent, inner essence. Everything (including us) arises in dependence on a network of interconnected conditions. When these conditions cease the phenomenon ceases. It is all a process in space, if you like.

Impermanence is like the process of conditionality in time. Things/phenomena arise in dependence on conditions, exist for awhile, and then cease when the supporting conditions cease. Nothing lasts forever independent of this process of conditionality through time. According to the Buddha, human beings are no different; they do not have a permanent, everlasting 'soul' at the core of their being. They are simply an impermanent and insubstantial flux of mental and physical conditions arising and ceasing. Self-conscious awareness of these processes (which is also a process) deludes us into thinking we have some permanent essence at the centre of our being.

As we saw last week, we try and secure the self we are conscious of by clinging onto what we perceive as the pleasant and repelling the unpleasant. And we don't want to die; we'd rather last forever (or at least a bit longer). But because of impermanence everything pleasant we cling to doesn't last, and we can't forever avoid what we perceive as unpleasant or threatening. Also there is ultimately nothing solid or substantial that we can cling onto. And so we suffer, which is the third characteristic of conditioned existence. Conditioned existence, by its very nature (impermanent and insubstantial), can't provide lasting happiness, and so is inherently unsatisfactory in that sense. But that doesn't mean, according to Buddhism, that there is nothing, just annihilation at the end of life. More next week.

The Gaining of Insight(10/3/00):

As we have seen the purpose of meditation is to learn to concentrate so that we can see things as they are. The world we perceive as reality is an illusion because we see it as consisting of separate fragments, whereas (in Reality) it is all interconnected. Furthermore, there is a subjective distortion overlaid on this perception, which is our seeing of the world as divided into pleasant things and unpleasant things. Another person may see what you perceive as pleasant or unpleasant as entirely different; it is subjective in that sense.

In meditation we go beyond our normal ego-centric form of consciousness by becoming absorbed in the object of meditation. In going beyond the normal self-centred, subjective way of perceiving things we have the opportunity to see things more as they are. In this way Insight may be gained. We can see that conditioned existence has three characteristics (laksana) mentioned last week: unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), impermanence (anicca) and insubstantiality (anatta).

We see through our clear perception that all conditioned or worldly things by their very nature cannot give permanent and lasting satisfaction. For that we've got to look elsewhere! We also see that all worldly things are impermanent; we can't possess any of them forever. Also all conditioned things are insubstantial, only having relative existence. They have no absolute, independent existence. Now contemplation of these three characteristics can give Insight into Nirvana, the Unconditioned. Thus they're also known as the three gateways or entrances to liberation (vimoksa-mukha).

Penetrating unsatisfactoriness one gains knowledge that is Unbiased (apranihita) or objective if you like. Things are not perceived on the subjective bases of greed and aversion, but simply as they are. Fathoming impermanence and emerging as it were on the other side one gains knowledge of the Unconditioned as Imageless or Signless (animitta). This means that nothing can be frozen and delineated by words, labels or concepts. Plumbing insubstantiality leads to knowledge of the Emptiness or Voidness (sunyata) of all things. Though the three characteristics are ultimately inseparable, one can begin by concentrating on any one of them.

Nirvana - The Unconditioned (17/3/00):

The conditioned world is known in Buddhism as Samsara. As we have seen it has the characteristics of unsatisfactoriness, impermanence and insubstantiality. As conditioned beings ourselves we can never find lasting happiness as we try and inflict our subjective view of the world on this shifting mass of conditions in an attempt to secure ourselves. The goal of Buddhism is, however, to achieve lasting happiness and this is to be found in Nirvana.

Samsara is, according to the technical terminology of the Dharma, 'put together' or 'compounded'; which are expressions of the fact that ordinary existence is the result of conditions. With the cessation of these conditions the phenomena they support cease. So things come into existence or have a birth, live, and then cease or die. The Wheel of Life, which we travel around in dependence on these conditions, is often depicted in Buddhism as being in the jaws of the Lord of Death. This is because it involves a never-ending cycle of birth, life and death.

Nirvana is therefore described variously as the 'not put together', 'uncompounded', unconditioned and 'the deathless'! But Nirvana or Enlightenment is not something completely or absolutely separate or distinct from Samasara. In fact it is stated in the teaching that Nirvana is in Samsara and Samsara in Nirvana! Buddhism is not about, as mistakenly assumed in many circles, some sort of search for and re-acquaintance with an absolute, Universal Consciousness. That is far too abstract and vague.

It is about finding the Unconditioned right in the midst of the conditioned. It doesn't exist anywhere else. In the words of the Heart Sutra Form is no other than Emptiness, Emptiness no other than Form; Form is only Emptiness, Emptiness only Form. Just as, according to Chinese Buddhism, one can only delineate fingers as solid forms because of the spaces between them and the spaces as such because of the co-exiting forms of the fingers; one can't have the conditioned without the Unconditioned. So Nirvana in Buddhism is no further away than within your own, everyday, conditioned mind.

Human Enlightenment (24/3/00):

With this article we finish our coverage of the Buddhist Threefold Path-Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom (new directions in buddhism next week). To finish off the Wisdom section it seems appropriate to say a few words about Enlightenment. Notice that I have used the expression 'Human Enlightenment' in the title. Humans need ideals from which to gain inspiration. The ideal person for a Buddhist is an Enlightened Buddha. But we can relate to the Buddha because he was born human and became enlightened by his own efforts.

Enlightenment is described in terms of firstly, pure, clear, radiant, awareness - knowledge of Reality which transcends sense-based awareness - it is continuous, non-dualistic and free of confusion. Secondly, it consists of an intense, profound, overflowing feeling of love and compassion for all living things. Thirdly, it's an experience of inexhaustible mental and spiritual energy.

These qualities of awareness, love and energy are considered to be germinal in all of us. Thus Enlightenment is considered to be a natural, ideal, human state. It's what we're all striving for to complete ourselves. In the Mahayana traditions of Buddhism it's spoken of as the Buddha-Nature within all of us, which is simply obscured by our subjective desires and delusions. It is like the sun or moon obscured by clouds. We need to clear the clouds away or pierce through them to discover our true nature.

The principle tool to achieve this in Buddhism is meditation. By learning to concentrate and break down the dualism of self and other, and to penetrate through our subjective, desire-based distortions of how the world is, we can reveal this inner nature. For most of us, so externally oriented, this inner journey is one into unfamiliar territory. That's why we often avoid it. An Introducing Meditation course will be starting at the Toowoomba Buddhist Centre the first week of April.

A Buddhist Easter Message (10/4/00):

Easter dates back to pre-Christian, European pagan associations. This time of the year in Europe is spring, so Easter was a sort of 'spring festival' symbolizing a new 'life', a quickening after the 'death' of winter. This type of spring festival occurs in many different cultures (eg. China). Also early Christianity was not so much a religion of dogma as one of the celebration of 'mysteries' (the Eastern Orthodox traditions still speak of these mysteries). The mystery celebrated is of course Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. From a Buddhist point of view, whilst accepting that the crucifixion may have occurred, the resurrection and ascension (physically into heaven) of the Son of God are considered to be myth.

The primary significance of such a myth (again found in many different cultures, including the intiation rites of Australian aborigines) is the notion of spiritual rebirth after a spiritual death. In the Zen tradition of Buddhism it's spoken of in terms of dying the great death before one can gain Enlightenment and experience the 'mystery' of Nirvana. In fact the word 'resurrection' means re-birth. The word 'Easter' in the English language is traceable back to the Anglo-Saxon word oestre, the name of a pre-Christian British goddess of fertility (as in estrogen). The Easter 'egg' is also a universal symbol of fertility. The unbroken egg symbolizes new, renascent life and again is found in most religions.

The Buddha spoke of the Bodhisattva emerging from the eggshell of ignorance. The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in Britain often used the egg as an image in its advertising accompanied with the admonition to 'break out'. So there's no harm in celebrating Easter from a Buddhist viewpoint as a triumphant emerging of a new mode of awareness, or of Being, from the old!

Buddhist Easter Eggs! (14/4/00):

Last week we talked of the universal spiritual symbolism of the egg. The unbroken egg is a universal symbol of a new life found in practically all religious traditions. For example, in Etruscan tomb paintings dating back to 1000 BC the dead are often depicted on the walls of tombs reclining in couches holding an egg in their outstretched hands, a symbol of their belief that death wasn't the end, but would be followed by a new life.

Last week we established that notions of spiritual death and re-birth are a very common form of myth in many different religions and cultures. And often such myths are celebrated in association with spring festivals after the death of winter. The timing of Easter in our Southern hemisphere calendar coincides with spring in the Northern hemisphere. From a Buddhist point of view, the Christian celebration of the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection are mythical rather than literal. The symbolism of the myth is one of simply breaking out of the old and being re-born in the new. In other words it's a symbol of spiritual growth.

In Buddhism we encourage people to break out of a sort of karmic egg! The eggshell symbolises the well-worn habits we have built up over our lifetime that act to define us and confine us. It represents a ceiling, or a set of limitations we have placed on ourselves. And there we stay, inside, perhaps pretending to be asleep. The Tibetans say it's harder to wake someone up who's pretending to be asleep than someone who really is asleep!

One thing a regular practice of ethics and meditation does is bring us to a fuller awareness of the unskilful patterns in our life that prevent our growth. Ultimately meditation itself is a type of spiritual death because it takes us beyond our normal experience of ourselves. It helps us to take the risk of breaking out of the eggshell and moving beyond our self-imposed limitations. Easter is a fitting time of the year to reflect on this process of spiritual renewal.

Consumerism and Greed (21/4/00):

The tendency for greed in human beings is, from a Buddhist point of view, deeply rooted. We have established in many previous articles that an unfortunate by-product of our distinctly human trait of self-consciousness is a sense of aloneness. In a very deep sense this comes from the experience of separation from everything and everyone else that accompanies consciousness of being a distinct self. In an attempt to overcome our basic feeling of insecurity we crave the things we perceive to be attractive and pleasurable. We try to incorporate these things into the world of our ego-identity to secure it. This tendency is hard-wired into all of us as human beings. This constant under-current of desire and craving leads to attachment and defines in many ways what we become.

Ultimately from a Buddhist point of view, these desires and cravings can not lead to a lasting sense of satisfaction and so they're referred to as unskilful. They are destined to founder on the rocks of impermanence-nothing, in the conditioned world, lasts. Craving just leads down deeper and deeper into a vortex of never-ending temporary pleasure and frustration. In the famous words of 'The Stones' song, I can't get no satisfaction. But still we struggle on looking for one more hit, preoccupied with gaining more and more pleasure to make ourselves feel comfortable.

Unfortunately, the late capitalist societies we live in reinforce this tendency toward craving for pleasure in the external world. They reinforce this already deep and unskilful tendency. Consumerism, which is so fundamental to the unfortunate economic machine we've inherited from the past, is all about stimulating unnecessary wants as opposed to satisfying necessary needs. The advertising (or persuasion) industry, using the concepts of Western psychology, plays a powerful role in stimulating these wants. The Government itself endorses the use of consumerism as one of the major driving force of the economy. We're made to feel guilty if we don't spend more and more. There seems to be no limit to what human beings can want. But there does seem to be a limit to what the environment can assimilate from our discarded consumerables and the by-products of their manufacture!

The Greedy Society (28/4/00):

Last week we talked of the insidious force of consumerism reinforcing our deep tendency toward craving and greed. We are all prone to craving from a Buddhist point of view because we feel insecure and attempt to secure our ego-identity by feeding it with what we perceive to be pleasant things. Of course these 'things' include material possessions. It's well known in Western psychology that we actually identify with a lot of these possessions like cars and clothes; we adopt roles and respond to fashion trends. At base these all help us to establish our status and sense of belonging amongst our peers and the wider community. The advertising industry actually plays upon these human traits and psychological needs.

Greed is defined in one dictionary I looked at as excessive desire for acquisitions, power, fame, wealth, etc. It's worth going back to basic definitions like this because people seem confused about these issues these days. Partly this is due to the rise of the New Right and economic rationalism in the last few decades, which has so stressed individualism and competition, as an almost 'noble' pursuit There's nothing wrong with healthy self-interest and healthy competition, but there's a lot wrong with them when they become outright selfishness. Not long ago a Harvard professor of economics coined the phrase greed is good. We live in times that emphasise selfishness - looking after number one (numero uno). People have forgotten that in our traditional Christian societies greed was always considered fundamental to the seven deadly sins (gluttony, envy, covetousness)!

An unfortunate part of our modern, Western, materialistic societies is that they do emphasise excessive desire for what is often described as 'unnecessary wants' as opposed to satisfying our basic needs. The central place of consumerism and materialism in our societies reinforces a trend toward an external, pleasure-seeking orientation in people and a neglect of the inner world. A sense of inner impoverishment is a characteristic of modern humans in the so-called 'developed' countries. Sooner or later external gratification fails to satisfy these inner needs and people are left with a 'black hole' consuming them from within-angst, unhappiness, restlessness, confusion, suicide-are rife. According to the Buddha Dharma, it needn't be like this at all!

Inner Impoverishment (5/5/00):

The emphasis on materialism and consumerism in our modern, Western societies (and more and more in the rest of the world), to continue the theme of the last couple of weeks, can encourage inner impoverishment. They promote an irresistible orientation toward external pleasure-seeking activity as we grasp for more and more material things, be they possessions or substances. This external focus is all about sense pleasure, about gaining pleasure through the stimulation of the five senses.

Take TV for example, one of the most prized of material possessions these days (and the bigger the better). It stimulates our strongest two senses (vision and hearing) in a most powerful way. The result is that some people literally become addicted to it (the well-known 'couch potato' syndrome). At the same time it is a very powerful advertising agent that stimulates our desires for more and more material possessions. They dance before our eyes presented in the most alluring fashion to this strongest of the five senses.

So we tend to live 'out there' in the external world of sense perception, known traditionally as the kamaloka in Buddhism. This literally means the realm of sensuous desire, or the territory in which we try to secure ourselves through the desire for sense pleasure. This becomes so habitual and so familiar, reinforced continuously by the pressures of our materialistic society, that our 'inner worlds' or territories become neglected, unfamiliar, and thus impoverished. There's no one at home there anymore and so it becomes dark, dusty and full of cobwebs-deserted and neglected.

In fact, because we are so used to the world of sensory stimulation to secure ourselves, to shut this down and journey inwards is perceived to be (or even experienced as) uncomfortable. And yet, from a Buddhist viewpoint, whilst external pleasure-seeking undeniably produces pleasures of one form or another, they don't last, they don't take us anywhere. Lasting happiness in contrast is an inner experience. Buddhist practice, especially meditation, is a direct way of building this and freeing us from outer addiction.

Buddhism and Sustaining the Self (12/5/00):

The word 'sustainable' is very fashionable these days-it basically means to maintain or to make last. It may seem strange that Buddhism could be interested in building a sustainable self. People often think of it as being about going beyond the self, or even destroying the self (in the sense of the ego). But actually it's very much about building and becoming a healthy, sane self as well. Yes, Buddhism is in many ways about self-transcendence-but how can you transcend yourself if you're not a self in the first place?

More to the point, in terms of recent articles, there are a lot of unsustainable selves around these days. People are confused, uncertain, depressed and suicidal. Australia along with countries like the UK and USA vie year in and year out for the highest youth suicide rates in the world. And this is occurring in the industrialised, late capitalist, so-called, 'more developed' countries. Along with other symptoms it indicates that all is not well in our societies in their current form.

To commit suicide is the opposite of sustaining the self! The reasons for it amongst the young (and old) are of course complex. The issue of inner impoverishment mentioned in the last couple of articles is undoubtedly one of the factors involved. We've spoken of how a materialistic, consumerist society encourages an external form of pleasure-seeking, which in turn leads to a neglect of the inner world. Sooner or later the pleasure seeking becomes stale and leads nowhere. When it does people have nothing to fall back on, nothing inside to sustain themselves. In such an externally orientated society we have lost the skills of how to enter within ourselves, to communicate within and to engage within. We aren't trained in developing a positive, fulfilled 'inner' sense of self.

This need not be the case. The Buddhist Teaching (Buddha Dharma), for example, is very practical about this issue. In many ways Buddhism is a form of training or education that shows you how to enter within and build a very positive, stable home capable of withstanding all the fluctuating and insecure currents that break against us in this (or any other) period of uncertain times. More on this issue next week.

Buddha Day (19/5/00):

Last Thursday the Toowoomba Buddhist Society (TBS) celebrated Wesak, the major Buddhist festival of the year. It commemorates the birth, Enlightenment and death of the Buddha and is usually held on the first full moon day in May (Wesak, or Visakah, being the name of the month in the Indian calendar). Regarding the birth of the Buddha the TBS noted that it is a relatively rare event for a Buddha to be born into a world system considering the enormous time span involved in the evolution and destruction of these systems, which is counted in aeons (kalpas). So for us to be born within a mere 2,500 years of one is fortunate indeed.

Note how I said 'one', because traditionally the historical Buddha (usually referred to as Gautama or Shakyamuni Buddha) is not considered to be the only one to have been born in the past. It's also considered that there will be Buddhas arising in future times and worlds. Furthermore, the teaching of Gautama Buddha, the Dharma, which he discovered through his Enlightenment experience, is considered akin to a universal law that each Buddha 're-discovers'. Gautama Buddha, in his own words said: Even so, monks, have I seen an ancient path, an ancient track traversed by the perfectly Enlightened ones of the past.

The scriptures have described the Buddha's personality as a unique combination of dignity and affability, wisdom and kindliness, majesty and tenderness. His serenity was unshakeable, his self-confidence unfailing and he was always mindful and self-possessed. He faced opposition and hostility, even personal danger, with the calm and compassionate smile that has lingered down through the centuries. In debate he was urbane and courteous, but not without a vein of irony. The Buddhist Centre at 23 Bridge Street is holding an open day, combined with a garage sale, next Sunday (28th May) from 10am on.

Buddhist Theory and Practice (27/5/00):

Many of us in the West are attracted to the philosophy of Buddhism. We are the products of a culture that has extolled the intellect in the last couple of centuries as the principle way of 'knowing'. And yet it is an axiom of Buddhism that one must go beyond the intellect to fully comprehend the Truth. The philosophy or teaching is meant to act just like a raft, according to the Buddha. Its sole purpose is to ferry one across the river, to help one negotiate the currents of life to get to the safe refuge of the other shore (Nirvana). It's a means to an end.

Just as it would be foolish to stay in the raft being buffeted by the river currents, if one is truly seeking safety and peace, so too it's silly to just play around with the philosophy. To get to safety, to 'see' the Truth, one must activate a different mode of knowing. Our intellect or reason works by fragmenting, dividing, delineating, labelling and conceptualising. It cannot see the whole picture because by its very nature it focuses and fragments and replaces 'things as they are' with words, thoughts and concepts. These latter are constructs of the thinking mind that borrow the ideas and mental formulae of the culture we have been conditioned by to model the reality of the world.

A model is not the reality. To see the reality we have to go beyond the intellectual mind to the intuitive mind that enters into what it's addressing and knows it directly from within. Intellectual knowledge is 'second-hand knowledge', intuitive 'first-hand'. This requires practice and it is this practice, this applied work that all the Buddhist philosophy and teaching is pointing toward as the necessary prerequisite to gain safety and peace. We are so enamoured with the intellect that we find it very difficult indeed, even when we have understood the intellectual message, to go beyond it and put the message into practice. In essence, according to Buddhism, we need to practice ethics and to meditate. Only the pure in heart and the concentrated can see things as they are.

A new four-week course on bringing together philosophical theory and practice in Buddhism is starting next Tuesday night (7-9pm) the 6th June at the Toowoomba Buddhist centre.

Drugs, Ecstasy & Buddhism (2/6/00):

The word 'ecstasy' is commonly associated these days with a drug of that name. However, the word itself has much more ancient origins and much more profound implications than the modern day association. It derives from Latin and Greek roots (like 'ex' and 'stasis') basically meaning to 'be outside where you stand' or 'stand outside' your normal state of being. The modern meaning of the word implies being overwhelmed or uplifted by pleasurable emotion so strong that you feel you've gone beyond your normal sense of self (in this sense, outside of it). So its use can still be related back to the original meaning.

Why do people take drugs? Is it because they are seeking this intense pleasure, seeking ecstasy? Is the attraction so strong that they're willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious negative effects that will flow on from drug taking? If so, why is that the case? Doesn't that imply that they're not happy with their present circumstances, their present state of being? And why is that? These are the sorts of questions that a Buddhist perspective raises on this issue. Buddhism is about ending suffering and to do this seriously, completely and successfully (in other words, to be 'fair dinkum' about it), the deep underlying origins of the symptoms must be addressed.

Over the next few issues we are going to explore some of these questions. The first thing Buddhism does not do is 'write people off'. This is because it knows that no matter how unskilful you have been, if you put the right conditions in place, you can change-completely! It does not have a fixed view of human nature. Human nature, like everything else in this conditioned world, is subject to change. Great anger can be transformed into great love.

Furthermore, Buddhists themselves are actively seeking to go beyond their present state of being. Defined in this way there is nothing wrong with seeking ecstasy. One could argue that deep down we all are. However, it all depends where and how you seek it. To seek it in a chemical, the effects of which quickly wear off, and which damages (poisons) your body, is not satisfactory from a Buddhist point of view. We're interested in a more permanent, less damaging form of ecstasy. More next week.

Addiction and the New Buddhist Centre (9/6/00):

From a Buddhist perspective, all human beings are troubled by a deep insecurity. This is because we experience ourselves as separate from everything else - an unfortunate, but inevitable, by-product of human consciousness. Self-consciousness, that distinctly human trait, gives us all our wonderful creative powers, but it also makes us feel incomplete. We experience ourselves as ultimately alone, split-off, fundamentally ill-at-ease and vulnerable.

This underlying existential dilemma is deep, so deep in fact we may be unaware of it, but it's there nonetheless and it drives us on and on in a quest to find some sort of ultimate security. External factors may exacerbate and deepen this insecurity-how we're brought up (for example, our self-esteem), our education, social forces like pressure from our peers, the speed of change, uncertainty, unemployment and so on. But in the end the insecurity is inside us and it acts as a powerful, but largely unconscious, driving force.

We can't escape this force-we're all driven by it, including Buddhists. But, according to Buddhism, there is a genuine way and a bogus way of satisfying it! The bogus way is to become attached to, dependent upon, and eventually addicted to external pleasure-seeking. There's nothing wrong with enjoying pleasure, the problem is when our need for it becomes neurotic, driven by the deep insecurity. Some things we get addicted to, like chocolate or clothes are relatively harmless, others like drugs are very dangerous indeed. Also the pleasure is short lived, stimulates further neurotic desire and sucks us into a vortex of never ending frustration.

The genuine way forward to achieve security in Buddhism is to solve the problem at its source. To begin by learning to 'enter within' and build a sound, unshakeable platform of calmness, positive emotion, serenity, confidence and security that can withstand the external buffeting and enjoy pleasure without becoming neurotically attached to it.

Entering Within (16/6/00):

Addiction can be thought of as a misguided seeking. As mentioned in previous articles, we're all seeking a type of joy that transcends everyday reality (ecstasy). Human beings have a deep need for this type of experience. We turn to it for security in this uncertain world and times, and to fill the spiritual vacuum within. The mistake is that we seek it in the external world and in material substances. The more we do this the more we neglect the inner world and the more unfamiliar it becomes. Ironically, the more we look for pleasure and happiness in the outside world the more intense the vacuum or emptiness within becomes.

Running from the void within, engaging in 'displacement activity', leads nowhere, except 'up the garden path'. Also the pleasures of the external world are short-lived, tend to increase desire (and therefore frustration), and if dependent upon drugs are downright dangerous. In stark contrast, it is possible to enter within, to become familiar with our inner world, to build a positive felt-relationship with ourselves, to feel calm, peaceful, content and strong. It's even possible to start liking yourself! And not only that but to feel this self-like quite strongly, even in a hot-blooded sort of way.

Out of this can come a sense of inner fulfilment and nourishment. As it does the vacuum within, the 'gnawing' sense of emptiness, disappears. The word 'fulfilment' suggests filling the emptiness till it becomes full - fulfilled! Gradually we become at ease within ourselves and our dependency on external things and 'cheap' thrills lessens. As with anything worthwhile this does not happen overnight and it requires guidance (as opposed to mis-guidance). Meditation is a very powerful aid to this process and thus overcoming addictions.

Addiction versus Happiness (26/6/00):

We are all seeking happiness aren't we? But what is happiness? From a Buddhist viewpoint happiness doesn't necessarily mean feeling elated with joy. All too often elation is not only short lived but it collapses into its opposite-we go to extremes. Happiness seems to have more to do with a lack of inner conflict, an absence of guilt, and a feeling of inner contentment-a more balanced, serene state.

Perhaps that's too tame, not intense enough? But what would you rather have, intense thrills now and then that inevitably disappear and leave a craving for more, or a more steady, persistent state of serenity, calmness and contentment? Buddhism does not deny that there is pleasure to be had in life, but simply points out that it's transitory, ephemeral. If you get attached to it, dependent upon it, addicted to it, you are going to get frustrated and suffer because it is transient, it doesn't last. So in the Buddhist tradition one is advised to enjoy pleasure like licking honey from a razor's edge! To be fully aware of the dangers that come from being addicted to something that doesn't last.

The pleasure is undeniable but it doesn't lead anywhere. If you do become attached or addicted you become a slave to the object of desire, sucked into a vortex of craving, frustration and unfulfilment. The more we give into these cravings the stronger they become and this leads to a state of agitation, restlessness and anxiety. One needs more and more and you get angry when the desire becomes frustrated. One begins to compromise one's ethics and morals and the end result of all of this is guilt, inner conflict and restlessness-a state of constant discomfort.

It's actually the opposite of what we defined as happiness. A more lasting state of happiness is achievable by entering within and building it up within the core of one's being by practising meditation and ethics. Courses in 'entering within' (meditation and mindfulness) are held regularly at the Toowoomba Buddhist Centre (TBC). The Centre is looking for bigger premises at the moment as demands for it services grow.