The Three C's of Spiritual Community

This talk was given at Nottingham Buddhist Centre, Sangha Day 2019

Sangha Day is one of my favourite Buddhist festivals. It is a celebration of the spiritual community – both the existence and the activity of the spiritual community. We can become very accustomed to our festival days and maybe take them for granted. So it can be helpful to take a fresh look at why we have a particular festival day – how did it originate, what is the purpose, what do we want to achieve? Why are we here today?

There are three traditional Buddhist festivals celebrated by Buddhists in Asia which all have some connection to Sangha Day. There is the Magha Puja which is observed in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. This happens in the third lunar month ( corresponding to March) and is sometimes called Sangha Day. It is reputed to commemorate an incident that happened not long after the Buddha's Enlightenment when at the end of a rainy season his disciples all spontaneously came to visit him. The festival celebrates 'the creation of an ideal and exemplary community'.

Another Festival that has a connection to spiritual community is the Elephant Festival in Thailand. ( Has anybody seen this – it is supposed to be spectacular) This is an ancient festival that was originally something to do with elephant hunts but has been turned into a Buddhist festival. The story that makes it Buddhist may be just legend. It is said that the Buddha used the example of a young elephant being trained by it's elders as an illustration for his disciples of how the newer or younger disciples need to be mentored or trained by the more experienced. This is what we call Kalyana Mitrata or spiritual friendship. So the elephant festival is a celebration of spiritual friendship. It takes place on the third weekend of November.

Then there is the Katthina Festival. This marks the end of the rainy season retreat, the time just before all of the wanderers set off wandering again. It is a time for confession, apology, forgiveness; a time for mending robes; a time for the householders to give gifts to the wanderers – usually new robes.

Our Sangha Day is based on this last festival. Perhaps the fact that it is traditionally characterised by confession, apology, forgiveness and the giving of gifts is something for us to reflect on and maybe even act on. In this talk I want to draw lessons from each of these festivals, which are all concerned in one way or other with spiritual community, Sangha.

The Magha festival is about coming together, congregating , which is the foundation for a spiritual community, an ideal and exemplary community. The elephant festival is about spiritual friendship which is what creates spiritual community. The Katthina festival is about harmony and co-operation. That gives us our three C's of the title – congregating, creating and co-operating and that's what I'd like to talk about today.

Congregating means simply coming together, assembling. The important thing is being physically present. A person is not just a voice or a moving image on a computer screen. A person is something whole and complete that cannot be fully experienced except by being physically present. So for our communication to be whole or complete we have to actually meet each other in the flesh, so to speak. Communication is the essence of spiritual community and the more thorough and complete our communication the stronger and more stable is our community.

In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, which is the story of the Buddha's last days before his death, the Buddha talks about the conditions for the stability of the Sangha. ( Digha Nikaya, Sutta16) The very first of these conditions is meeting together frequently and in large numbers, in other words congregating. Congregating regularly and in large numbers is then a foundation for the building of spiritual community – you can't build anything without good foundations.

There is something special about meeting face to face. Skype or Zoom is okay, WhatsApp is okay but actually meeting is very different. There is an intimacy to meeting – the intimacy of touch – hugging etc., the intimacy of conversation , nuances, jokes – so much of which is non-verbal. Also when we meet we see and experience each other practising meditation and puja. It can alter our view of another person just seeing them make offerings to the shrine or seeing them meditate. Perhaps with someone we don't like or find difficult – it can change our perspective – seeing our common devotion, our common practice. It makes a difference.

Congregating is the foundation for spiritual community, what gives it stability. This is true when you already have a spiritual community,but before that it is the common commitment to spiritual practice which is the basis for spiritual community. The spiritual community is made up of all those who are committed to practising ethics, observing the five or ten precepts, meditating and reflecting. The practice of ethics, meditation and wisdom is the common ground on which Sangha is built. This is important: so often we will relate to others on the basis of shared politics or shared interests or even just a sharing of preferences. But this is not what a spiritual community is based on. We may have the same views about Brexit, or the same concerns about climate change or the same preference for music or movies and that may bring us closer to people but that is not spiritual community in the Buddhist sense. It is the shared practice of going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that makes a spiritual community possible. For us in the Triratna Buddhist Community this means ethical practice, it means going on retreat, it means regular meditation, it means spiritual friendship, it means Dharma study and discussion, it means reflecting on our lives, it means working with whatever mental states arise to transform the negative into positive, the unskilful into skilful. When we then relate to each other on the basis of this practice we have spiritual communion. And the more intensively we practice, the more dedicated we are the more alive will our spiritual community be.

It is important to come together, to congregate. This means attending classes, festivals, retreats and so on. I would like to particularly emphasise the importance of the whole Sangha going on retreat together from time to time – that is a very crucial practice for the health and well-being of any local Sangha. If you can I would recommend that you make it a priority. It is one of the ways we can create an ideal and exemplary community, which is what the Magha Puja festival celebrates.

Now let's move on to the second of the three C's – Creating. When we come together we meet those we don't know so well or those we don't know at all. But we also meet our closer friends – people we know from study groups, or retreats, or being on a team together. We meet our Sangha pals . The spiritual community is essentially a great web of friendships, a network of friendships. It is spiritual friendship that creates spiritual community. If congregating is the foundation then spiritual friendships are the building blocks of Sangha.

The Elephant Festival in Thailand celebrates a particular kind of spiritual friendship – what Bhante Sangharakshita has called vertical friendship. This is the friendship where someone more experienced on the Path is helping and guiding someone less experienced just as the bigger elephants guide and help the smaller ones. Of course the less experienced have to be receptive if they are to receive help. As Bhante puts it “ Receptivity is the first requisite of the disciple and indeed of anyone who wants to learn anything.” (In case your wondering gratitude is the second requisite)

As well as vertical friendship there is of course horizontal friendship -friendship between peers – being mutually helpful, mutually supportive and encouraging. This is also of great importance. It is both the building blocks of spiritual community and the cement that holds it together.

Spiritual friendship was greatly praised by the Buddha: there is the famous occasion when he told Ananda that spiritual friendship was the whole of the spiritual life. Here is a passage from the Pali Canon where the Buddha is talking to King Pasenadi and he is telling him about the incident with Ananda, “ On one occasion Great King, I was living among the Sakyans, where there is a town of the Sakyans named Nagaraka. Then the bhikkhu Ananda approached me, paid homage to me, sat down at one side and said: 'Venerable Sir, This is half of the holy life, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship'. When this was said Great King, I told the Bhikkhu Ananda: Not so, Ananda! Not so, Ananda! This is the entire holy life, Ananda, that is good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship.” (The Connected Discourses (Samyutta Nikaya), trans. Bodhi,1:3:18, p.180)

In another place the Buddha says “With regard to external factors I don't envision any other single factor like friendship with admirable people as doing so much for a monk in training. A monk who is a friend with admirable people abandons what is unskilful and develops what is skilful.” (Itivuttaka 17)

Bhante Sangharakshita adds to this. He says: “ We can't be with our spiritual teacher all the time but we can be with spiritual friends all the time or at least much of the time. We can see them regularly, perhaps live with them, perhaps even work with them. If we spend time with spiritual friends in this way, we will get to know them better and they will get to know us better. If we have spiritual friends they will try to relate to us with metta and will expect us to relate to them with metta. Learning to relate to our friends in this way we will gradually learn to respond to the whole world with metta, with unselfishness. It is in this way that spiritual friendship is indeed the whole of the spiritual life.” (The Essential Sangharakshita, p.512)

This flow of metta between friends and out to the rest of the world is how a spiritual community is created. This is my experience over the last 35 years in the Triratna Community; I experience myself as being in a great and growing web of friendships, which is beautiful to see and beautiful to experience.

The third C is Co-operating. The Katthina festival which our Sangha Day is based on is a time to celebrate and foster harmony. Traditionally the wanderers confessed their failings and unskilfulness and apologised and extended forgiveness where appropriate. And the householders and supporters gave them gifts of new robes and provided for their basic needs. We don't have wanderers and householders, monks and laypeople – we just have people committed to living the spiritual life as fully and wholeheartedly as possible – Order Members, Mitras and Friends. But we do need to continually foster harmony.

Harmony does not mean everyone agreeing with everyone else. Harmony does not mean a total absence of conflict. Harmony is a movement, a process. It's a movement towards agreement, towards accord, towards congruence, towards a coincidence of wills. Harmony includes assonance and dissonance and is a movement between the two towards a higher unity. When there is disagreement, dialogue is a harmonising factor. When there is angry conflict, taking responsibility for one's own mental states is a harmonising factor.

Harmony isn't something fixed, a final state in which we all exist, like some dream of paradise. Harmony is the movement towards unity and that movement requires constant effort, constant direction, a constant exercise of will. When all of us are moving towards a unity of consciousness, through an effort of will, then there is a coincidence of wills, there is harmony. So for harmony to exist, there needs to be a common goal or common ideal. The co-operative movement of many individuals towards that ideal or goal is harmony.

It would be good if we take seriously that Sangha Day is an opportunity to move towards greater harmony. We can do this by taking up the challenge to confess or own up to any unskilfulness and also an opportunity to forgive those who may have offended us. Forgiveness is a free gift we can give without losing anything. It is very important that any division between Sangha members is not allowed to fester like an open wound. In confessing we are taking responsibility for our own actions, speech and states of mind regardless of whether others do the same. In forgiving we are letting go of any need to get even or even be recompensed in any way. We are simply letting go of the state of feeling offended and moving on. We are in a sense giving ourselves the gift of freedom from a difficult state of mind as well as giving the other person the gift of freedom from guilty feelings.

It is worth noting that as Bhante Sangharakshita said in a letter a couple of years ago: “true forgiveness is unconditional. There should be no question of our laying down terms and conditions, such as that we will forgive the person their trespasses against us only if he or she repent and apologise for what they have done. Otherwise our so-called forgiveness is no more than a sort of bargaining. The granting of forgiveness is a free act of the true individual, and it has nothing to do the reactive mind.”

Elsewhere he invokes William Blake : “What William Blake says about mutual forgiveness could hardly be more suitable as a motto for a spiritual community like Triratna.” Mutual Forgiveness of each vice', 'such are the Gates of Paradise' (from The Gates of Paradise) Alexander Pope makes forgiveness a definite spiritual practice and quality when he says 'To err is human, to forgive divine '

Perhaps in the lead up to Sangha day this practice of confession, forgiveness and apology could be done ritually in our study groups, Order chapters, Going for Refuge groups and so on. It could be either specific, in relation to particular instances, or general – a general confession of any unskilfulness we may have committed and a general forgiveness for any offences caused.

As well as fostering harmony by clearing the air of disharmony and resentments, we can also create harmony by giving gifts. So we should perhaps take seriously that Sangha Day is our day for giving gifts – a kind of Buddhist Christmas – except without any expectation of reciprocity. We can give gifts to friends and we can give gifts to the Centre. The Centre is our point of contact with the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and we should cherish it and lavish our abundance on it. I know the Centre here is on a very tight budget, without enough reserves for building maintenance etc., This is a great shame and I'm sure the Sangha here could do something about it. Don't wait to be asked, don't wait for fundraising appeals – just give. That is the Buddhist tradition – giving as a practice.

We co-operate by creating harmony between us through confession, forgiveness and by giving gifts and from that basis we can offer our friendship and guidance to others. In this way the spiritual community thrives.

What is the purpose of a spiritual community – what is the point of it all? There are two aspects to this. Firstly a spiritual community is a condition which is necessary to enable most of us to live a spiritual life, to practise the Dharma. The mutual support and mutual inspiration is crucial in helping us to practise intensively and effectively. This is the aspect of friendship, guidance, learning and personal transformation.

The second purpose of the spiritual community is to enable us to give to others, to make the Dharma, the Buddhist teachings, available in an understandable and practical form. The Dharma is Ehipassiko. Ehipassiko means 'come and see', it's an invitation to try out the practices for yourself and the invitation is given by the sangha. The sangha, the spiritual community of those who are already practising is, in effect, saying to everybody else - here is something worthwhile, here is something really valuable and beneficial, come and see for yourself.

The spiritual is doing the inviting; we are the hosts – inviting people to our Centres and tending to their spiritual needs as best we can. The spiritual community has an altruistic purpose as well as a personal one.

The Katthina festival marks the end of the rainy season. Now that the rain has stopped the wanderers are going to set out wandering again. Why are they wandering? For two reasons – to practise meditation and living a simple life and to teach the Dharma to whoever wants to listen. They are wandering so that they can give the gift of the Dharma for the welfare of the many – as the Buddha asked them to do. He said to his early followers “Wander for the blessing of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit and welfare, blessing and happiness of gods and men.” (The Life of the Buddha, Nanamoli, p.52)

We don't wander, but we set up Buddhist Centres. Why do we have Buddhist centres? For two reasons - to create conditions for our own practice and to give the gift of the Dharma for the welfare of the many – as the Buddha has asked us to do. This is why we should do everything we can to support our local Buddhist Centre – it is vital to following through on the Buddha's request to his followers – to share the Dharma with others.

I'll leave the last word with the Buddha. In the Pali Canon he says:  "Of two people who practise the Dhamma – one who practises for his own benefit and that of others and one who practises for his own benefit but not that of others – the one who practises for his own benefit but not that of others is, for that reason,blameworthy; the one who practises for his own benefit and that of others is, for that reason, praiseworthy.” (The Numerical Discourses,Anguttara Nikaya,trans. Bodhi, 7:68, P.1080)

A Fish out of Water: Commentary on Dhammapada, Chapter 3

This talk was given at Nottingham Buddhist Centre, Sangha Night, Nov 2019

The word 'mind' is a noun, a countable noun. Now that is a problem. Language is often a problem when it comes to trying to express Buddhist ideas. Because we have a word, 'mind', which is a noun, we can naturally enough think that the mind is a thing. And if it is a thing then it is something that can be possessed or owned. We have the concepts of 'my mind' or 'your mind' or 'the mind'. But what are we really talking about when we use the word 'mind'. Is it a thing? Can we possess it? Who would do the possessing? I will leave these questions hanging there and perhaps the rest of the talk will go some way to answering them.

In this talk I am going to look at the nature of mind as it is described in the Dhammapada, chapter 3. The word in Buddhist texts that is translated as mind is often chitta and that is the word used in the Dhammapada in the chapter on Mind. According to the Pali–English dictionary, 'chitta' means 'heart'. It says chitta is “the centre and focus of our emotional nature as well as that intellectual element which inheres in and accompanies it's manifestation.” In other words chitta means emotions and intellect. The Pali dictionary goes on to say that chitta is best understood by referring to familiar phrases like 'with all my heart' or 'I have no heart to do it' or 'blessed are the pure in heart'. It is not primarily concerned with intellectual thought or reasoning. It is much broader than that. Chitta means both emotion and thought. This is what the word 'mind' indicates in the Dhammapada.

The Dhammapada is very practical. It is not interested in sophisticated analysis of mind and mental states. Basically the Dhammapada says; you're in a mess, get yourself out of it. And the method is repeated over and over in different ways. But it all comes back to what we think and feel and the actions and speech we engage in as a result of what we think and feel. The Dhammapada is concerned to get us to look into our minds and take steps to improve them. The very first verse of the Dhammapada says : “All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind.” (trans. Fronsdal)

This emphasis on improving how we think and feel – becoming more positive and skilful and undermining our tendencies to negativity and unskilfulness – this emphasis is also found in other parts of the Pali Canon. In particular there is a discourse (Dvedhavitakha Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 19) where the Buddha talks about his own practice before he gained Enlightenment. He says he observed his own mind closely and noted when he had unskilful thoughts and when he had skilful thoughts. He was always paying attention to his own inner process and with that awareness he gradually transformed himself. That's the Buddhist method in a nutshell!

This is what the Dhammapada is recommending too. It is recommending that we pay attention to our inner life, our thoughts and emotions. And not just pay attention but make a judgement and acknowledge honestly to ourselves whether what is going on is skilfull or unskilful, positive or negative, beneficial or not beneficial. Often these days we may hear people say that it is a bad thing to be judgemental. What they mean is that it is a bad thing to condemn either oneself or others and that is very true. But we must exercise judgement, we need to make distinctions, we need to be able to make a judgement about whether a particular course of action is helpful or a whether a particular conversation is going to be useful. And we need to make a judgement between what is skilful, ethical and what is not ethical. This is the basis for practice and this is the purpose of bringing awareness or mindfulness to our inner world. Mindfulness that is divorced from ethics is like a sense of taste that cannot distinguish between what is edible and what is poisonous. It is just as likely to be harmful as beneficial. Buddhist mindfulness is never divorced from ethics.

Coming to the chapter of the Dhammapada entitled The Mind we find the Buddha recommending awareness of the thoughts and emotions and introducing the idea of controlling or taming the mind. Some of this needs to be teased out to avoid misunderstanding. I'll read a few verses and then comment on them. There are only eleven verses in total in this chapter.

The restless, agitated mind,

Hard to protect, hard to control,

the sage makes straight.

As a fletcher the shaft of an arrow.

Like a fish out of water,

Thrown on dry ground,

This mind thrashes about,

Trying to escape Mara's command.

The mind, hard to control,

Flighty – alighting where it wishes-

One does well to tame.

The disciplined mind brings happiness.

Here we have a few different images and metaphors giving a vivid picture of our minds as restless, agitated, unsteady, thrashing about, flighty or frivolous. The first image is of a mind that is not straight like an arrow. This means that thoughts can't be directed towards anything in particular, like a crooked arrow that can never reach its target. This is the agitated, restless mind, not able to stay with anything, always jumping to something else, reacting to every stimulus indiscriminately. I think we are probably all familiar with this kind of mind. And the Buddha says that a wise person will straighten this out, make it capable of being properly directed. That is why we do practices like the Mindfulness of Breathing.

Then there is the mind that is like a fish out of water. This is a bit further on. This when we are practising and trying to be more skilful and trying to focus our minds. We could see this as being like a meditation practice where we are trying focus or concentrate and our mind keeps on thrashing about. But at least we are making an effort and with practice it will quieten down.

Then we have the image of a flighty mind, alighting wherever it wishes. The image that comes to my mind is a butterfly fluttering about. This is a bit more subtle and less violent than the image of the fish out of water. This is a quieter mind, but still not calm. Mara is a symbol for all the negative states such as greed, illwill, anxiety and so on. The opposite to these states is talked about in terms of protecting, controlling, taming and disciplining, which don't immediately bring to mind very attractive images. But let's look at them a bit more closely.

First of all protecting; the verse says the restless agitated mind is hard to protect. Something that is not protected is exposed to all sorts of influences. If your hands are not protected with gloves when cleaning you may suffer from the cleaning chemicals. If you are not protected by an overcoat when it's cold and wet you will be very uncomfortable and may catch a cold. If your mind is exposed to all sorts of unhelpful input you will be agitated and restless. Unhelpful input is anything that gives rise to craving, grasping, ill-will, hatred, fear and so on. If we can protect our minds from these things then it is sensible to do so, especially if we want to have a calm and tranquil mind.

Then there is the image of controlling the mind. The verse says the the mind is hard to control. Control sounds a bit harsh, like imprisonment or an authoritarian government dictating what people can and cannot do. But there is a more positive image of control. For instance if you are driving a car it is good to be in control; in control of the car and of you're own body and mind. If we are travelling by train or air we trust that someone is in control. We consider this kind of control a very positive thing. If we apply this to the mind we are talking about the kind of control that keeps us out of danger, out of harms way. We want to foster a mind that is not harmful to ourselves or others. The kind of control that is needed is something that allows us to have thoughts and emotions without having to launch missiles or hide ourselves in a dark room. We become familiar with the broad expanse of the mind and by maintaining awareness we can look steadily at what is going on and have the ability to intervene and change our minds as needed, change ourselves.

Then we come to the image of taming. I think we probably need to go back in imagination to ancient India to appreciate what a positive thing a tame animal might be. In a world without machinery a tame elephant could cope with huge weights and a tame horse is a very effective mode of transport. A tame buffalo can do the fieldwork of many men. A more contemporary image might be a guide dog. Taming means usefulness, taming means friendly as opposed to savage or dangerous. A tame mind is one that is useful or helpful and not wild and dangerous. A tame mind is friendly to self and others, this suggests metta, loving-kindness.

Then we come to the image of discipline. The verse says a disciplined mind is a happy mind. Do we associate happiness with discipline. Or do we think of discipline as being like being in the military. I think the kind of discipline the verse is talking about is much more like the discipline of a sports person; daily training and eating well. Or for any of us, if we want to be healthy, we need to be disciplined in taking exercise and eating well. And that leads to our physical well-being which is a basis for mental well-being. It is easy to see why a disciplined mind is a happy mind. It is a mind that is in training and is taking in or consuming whatever nourishes it and avoiding whatever poisons it. Just as we can feed our body well or badly, we can also feed our mind well or badly.

The next three verses are very similar to the first three.

The mind, hard to see,

Subtle- alighting where it wishes-

The sage protects.

The watched mind brings happiness.

Far-ranging, solitary,

incorporeal and hidden,

Is the mind.

Those who restrain it

will be freed from Mara's bonds.

For those who are unsteady of mind,

Who do not know true Dhamma,

And whose serenity wavers,

Wisdom does not mature.

We are introduced to a few more images here: We have the watched mind or in another translation it is referred to as the well-guarded mind. Then we have some characteristics of the mind; far-ranging, solitary, (sounds like Clint Eastwood in a Western!) and incorporeal and hidden. There is the image of restraining. And we have the image of something unsteady and wavering.

The image of guarding the mind is a common one in Buddhist texts. Again it conjures up images of being safe from danger and of protecting something valuable. It is often spoken of in terms of guarding the gates of the senses. In other words being careful or discriminating about what you expose your mind to. The image of restraining the mind is about seeing the mind as being like a infant that doesn't know what is harmful and what is pleasant. Restraint is applied for it's own good and for the sake of others. Again it is like discipline or protection or guarding. All of these images are getting at the same thing. Our mind is not a thing it is an ongoing process and that process is dealing with memories, current input and imaginings and fantasies.

We can have some influence on memories because as we grow in awareness we may come to see the past differently. We may revise our story. This happened to me. I made up an aphorism – we can be optimistic about the past. The present is much more under our influence and all of these metaphors are encouraging us to pay attention to what we allow into our minds; what we read, what movies we see, what people we hang out with. Because our mind is largely what we feed it and how we respond to that.

In a talk given to Triratna Order Members in 1993 Bhante Sangharakshita encouraged us to reduce input and be discriminating about what we introduced into our minds. Among other things he said: “We are a sort of receiving station all the time, but we don't have to allow all of these different outside factors and influences to play on us constantly without any sort of control or restriction. So reduce input. Be more selective and try to make sure that the influences that are impinging on you are positive rather than negative.” (Fifteen Points for Order Members,p.2 www.padmaloka.org.uk/shop/booklets) He went on to recommend solitary retreats and meditation as ways of getting an experience of reduced input. Nowadays when many of us have the internet in our pocket all the time it is much more difficult to reduce input or be selective about it and that means it is much more important now that we make strenuous efforts to reduce input and be selective about what we allow to influence us.

The images of the mind as far-ranging and solitary are interesting. There is virtually no limit to what we can imagine or think about. This makes it possible for us to imagine things like an expanding universe and it also makes it possible for us to contemplate Awakening or Enlightenment. The mind is solitary, according to the commentary, because it can only experience one state of consciousness at a time and also because it is not directly accesible by others.

The mind is incorporeal and hidden. Incorporeal means having no material body or form. This is a statement of the Buddhist view that consciousness is not tied to the body, not just a product of brain chemicals and electrical impulses. The mind is hidden. According to the commentary the word used here means literally 'lying in a cave' and the cave in question is the cave of the heart. The heart is seen as the seat of consciousness. This is another image emphasising that the mind is not just about thinking and reasoning.

The image of restraint is similar to control or discipline. The text says those who restrain the mind 'will be freed from Mara's bonds'. This is implying that we are already restrained or in bondage to Mara. Mara represents greed, hatred and delusion. The kind of restraint that is being recommended is to ensure our freedom. It is like saying that if we restrain ourselves from committing crimes we will be free from the need to be imprisoned. If we are restrained about about all that we put into our minds, we are free to do other things. An artist will sometimes restrict their palette in order to enhance creativity.

The image of a mind that is unsteady and wavering refers specifically to saddha or faith and confidence in the Dharma. It is saying that if there is a lot of doubt then it is much more difficult to direct the mind. Just as if you headed into town without having any idea of where you were going or maybe having two or three ideas of where you are going. It would be more difficult to decide which direction to take than if you were clear about your destination and how to get there.

Let's move on to the next three verses:

For one who is Awake,

Whose mind isn't overflowing,

Whose heart isn't afflicted

and who has abandoned both merit and demerit,

Fear does not exist.

Knowing this body to be like a clay pot,

Establishing this mind like a fortress,

One should battle Mara with the sword of insight,

Protecting what has been won,

Clinging to nothing.

All too soon this body

Will lie on the ground,

Cast aside, deprived of consciousness,

Like a useless scrap of wood.

Again we have a lot of rich imagery here. The Dhammapada is really quite poetic! I won't go into so much detail here. The first of these three verses is saying in effect that fear arises because we want something or we are averse to something. If we are free from craving and hatred and don't even want merit for ourselves then we will have nothing to fear. It is saying that one of the delightful characteristics of an Enlightened mind is freedom from fear. This is depicted in later Buddhism in the figure of the Buddha Amoghasiddhi, who has the abhaya mudra, the gesture of fearlessness. Right hand held at the heart palm facing outwards.

The second verse reminds us of the fragility of the body,like a clay pot, which we can't do much about. And it then contrasts this with the image of the mind like a fortress. And it brings in the martial image of battling Mara with the sword of wisdom. The sword of Wisdom appears in later Buddhism in the iconography of Manjughosha. It is a most subtle sword that cuts through all delusions and ignorance without effort. The image of a battle suggests that we need to be alert and have our wits about us or we will be overwhelmed by Mara. In other words we need to maintain awareness of our thoughts, feelings, imaginings and so on or we will find ourselves immersed in egotistic pursuits. The verse ends with the exhortation to protect with mindfulness whatever spiritual gains we have made and to give up clinging, both in the sense of not settling down in our current spiritual life and level of attainment and in the sense of not clinging to mundane concerns.

Then the third of these verses reminds us that we will die. This is in order to give us some sense of urgency about making the best use of the opportunity we have here and now. It says “All too soon”, in other words, before you feel ready, “this body will lie on the ground.”

The last two verses are a strong statement of how important it is to have what it calls a 'well-directed mind'. This reminds us again of the image in the first verse of straightening an arrow.

Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,

Or haters, one to another,

Far worse is the harm

From one's own wrongly directed mind.

The harm is far worse because it is harm to the mind, not just to the body. In Buddhism our consciousness is hell or heaven, so a wrongly directed mind is on the road to hellish experience.

Neither mother nor father,

Nor any relative can do

one as much good

as one's own well-directed mind.

We are not dependent on others for our happiness, it is in our own gift to make for ourselves a mind that is on the road to heavenly experience of happiness and freedom.

That's what the Dhammapada has to say about the mind and I hope you find it interesting and even useful. I would just like to finish where I began and remind you that the mind is not a thing. It is all too easy to think that somehow apart from our thinking, feeling, willing, perceiving and imagining there is something else called the mind that is behind it all, activating it all. But that is just the delusion of a fixed Self under another name. It is because what we call mind is fluid and ever changing that we can direct it and transform it, until we become awakened ones - Buddhas.

The Three R's

This talk was given at the Norwich Buddhist Centre's Buddha Day festival, in a marquee tent in the Norfolk countryside, in 2019

I like to read novels now and then and one novelist I return to again and again is George Eliot. I think she is one of the greatest novelists anywhere, ever. In her work there is a great combination of wisdom, compassion and technical skill. She is a profoundly moral writer trying to find a truly moral basis for humanity in a post-Christian, scientific world.

I have a reverence and admiration for George Eliot, both her work and her life. She had many of the qualities of a true individual and a visionary perspective. I also admire and revere the Buddha and Bhante Sangharakshita. I admire and revere both of them for their wisdom and compassion, their skilfulness in communication and their visionary perspective. As well as admiring and revering George Eliot, the Buddha and Bhante Sangharakshita, I am also very receptive to them and receptive to what they say.

In this talk I want to take a closer look at reverence and receptivity. Because we are here to celebrate Buddha day – the Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, I want to look at reverence and receptivity in the life of Siddhartha Gautama before he became the Buddha and when he became the Buddha.

But first, what do we mean by reverence and what do we mean by receptivity? Reverence means having a deep respect for someone. It comes from a root meaning 'to be in awe of'. Receptivity is a willingness to consider and accept new suggestions and ideas. In a short essay he wrote just two years ago, Bhante Sangharakshita talks about his own capacity for reverence, he talks about all the mythic heroes he looked up to and the writers and artists and spiritual teachers of past and present. And then he goes on to make a point which I think is of great importance. He says: “the fact that I find it easy to look up, especially to my spiritual teachers, does not mean that I am able to do this simply because I am of the devotional rather than of the intellectual type. One's personal type has little to do with it. The capacity to look up to something or someone higher than oneself is inherent in human nature and reaches across religions and cultures. Any attempt to minimise the importance of devotion in the spiritual life, or to limit it to a particular personality type, is a betrayal of the Buddha’s teaching and does less than justice to human nature.”

This is very important – reverence and devotion are not a temperamental thing, not just a quirk of nature in some people. They are inherent in human nature. Reverence is natural. To lack all sense of reverence is to be artificial rather than natural. It is an artificially adopted position probably based on some alienation from the emotions and over dependence on the intellect. It is an attitude conditioned by the ethos of the society we live in.

The essay in which Bhante Sangharakshita makes this point is about the Garava sutta. The word Garava means reverence and according to Bhante “includes such emotions as admiration, wonder and delight in the fact that there exists, or existed, others superior to one’s self in creative ability or spiritual attainment.” In the Garava sutta the Buddha is depicted just after his Enlightenment experience.

The Sutta says: “thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed one was dwelling at Uruvela on the bank of the river Neranjara at the foot of the goatherds Banyan tree just after he had become fully enlightened. Then while the Blessed one was alone in seclusion, a reflection arose in his mind thus: “one dwells in suffering if one is without reverence and deference. Now what ascetic or Brahmin can I honour and respect and dwell in dependence on?” I do not see another ascetic or Brahmin more perfect in the knowledge and vision of liberation than myself, whom I could honour and respect, and on whom I could dwell in dependence. Let me then honour, respect, and dwell in dependence on this very Dharma to which I have fully awakened.” (Samyutta Nikaya, 6.2)

This whole theme of reverence is important. Reverence is a positive emotion, a positive state of mind, like Metta or faith – shraddha – and it’s an important state of mind to be able to access and experience. Without reverence for that which is higher and for those who embody something higher or deeper, we are left with our own consciousness as the highest and deepest in the universe. If we cannot look up to and reverence others then by implication we ourselves are the pinnacle of existence. I think reverence is closely related to gratitude. Gratitude is the response we have when we know we have received some benefit and reverence is the response we have when we know that someone or something can benefit us. Receptivity is being open to receiving that benefit.

I was listening to a radio programme recently – it was about IVF treatment in Denmark. What struck me was one woman saying that after she gave birth she felt the need to express gratitude to something. Even though she wasn’t religious in any way she went to the hospital chapel to express gratitude. Again it’s this sense of something innate, an urge to give thanks, to express gratitude or an urge to give or express reverence.

Reverence seems to be part of the conditions for receptivity. If we reverence the Buddha we will be receptive to the Buddha and on the other hand if we are receptive to the Buddha we will probably experience reverence and gratitude. If we are receptive to any spiritual teacher we will probably experience some reverence and gratitude towards them. This seems to be a very natural human thing.

Our Western culture and conditioning can sometimes bury and thwart our natural urge towards reverence and receptivity and one of our tasks when we embark on the spiritual path is to become aware of any conditioning like that and try to get in touch with our more natural aspirations and emotions.

As well as being receptive to people, to teachers and those who are more creative or more spiritually developed, we can also be receptive to events, to circumstances and to people we don’t know or who are not especially spiritually developed or creative. We become receptive by being aware of the significance of what is happening around us and by reflecting on that significance.

For instance what is the significance of this event today. I have travelled here to speak to you. You have all come here to be together, to hear me speak and to celebrate Buddha day. How has that come about? Why is it happening? Why are you here? Is it just a day out in the countryside or does it have some deeper significance? If it’s more than a day out in the countryside, what are the implications for you? Are you open, are you receptive to your own actions – in being here – and the actions of others in coming here? What are the implications of this gathering for other people – people you haven’t met yet, people who haven't even been born yet?

Nothing is without significance if we can bring sufficient awareness to bear on it. This is part of the message of the story of Siddhartha Gautama. He saw the musicians and dancers in his palace sleeping and he had an insight into the futility of craving. He saw a sick person, and old person and a corpse and he was struck by the ubiquitous nature of suffering and impermanence. He saw a wandering holy man and he grasped the significance of the possibility of dedicating one’s life to the pursuit of meaning and truth.

He was aware and he reflected and through that awareness and those reflections he was able to go deeper and see beyond the surface of things into their deeper significance. He was receptive to his first meditation teachers and learned and made progress very quickly. He was receptive to his own intuitions which took him on a quest beyond his meditation teachers and beyond austerity practices. We could even say he was receptive to Mara – in the sense that he didn’t deny or reject Mara but brought awareness to Mara and what Mara represents. This is what Subhuti calls 'reaction practice', not denying or rejecting our own greed, ill will, doubt and so on, but penetrating it with ever greater awareness.

After his enlightenment, his awakening, the Buddha was receptive to Brahmasahampati, the King of the gods who implored him to share his wisdom, his understanding and insight. He was inclined not to teach others thinking that nobody would be capable of understanding. We could see Brahmasahampati as representing a higher imaginative and visionary faculty which prompted the newly Awakened Buddha to go out and teach the Dharma.

His vision showed him that there were some people who would be receptive and would understand his teaching and knowing what people needed he responded out of compassion. And later he exhorted his first disciples to go out and teach the Dharma for the benefit and welfare of the many. The Dharma is for the many and not the few, to borrow a political slogan.

The title of this talk is The Three ‘Rs’ and so far I’ve talked about reverence and receptivity. The third R is responsiveness. So we have reverence receptivity and responsiveness. I have said a bit about what reverence and receptivity are and I’ve said something about reverence and receptivity in the life of Siddhartha before and after the awakening. I’d like to say something more about the relevance of reverence, receptivity and responsiveness to all of us who are practising the Dharma within the Triratna tradition.

In order to live the spiritual life and to commit to the spiritual path of ethics, meditation and wisdom, we need to see the path and the life embodied in people, at least to some degree. We need to see people who are genuinely striving to live an ethical life, who meditate regularly and take responsibility for their own states of mind. And we need to see people who are to some degree embodying the wisdom and compassion of the Dharma. As Hakuin says: “apart from water, no ice. Outside living beings, no Buddhas.”

In other words the Dharma is not just a set of abstract concepts – such as “this being, that becomes” and so on. The Dharma is not even a set of practices. The Dharma is alive when it is lived out in the lives of people. When it’s not lived out, it is dead and becomes a museum piece, something exotic for tourists in Thailand or Sri Lanka or the British Museum.

Because the Dharma needs to be lived in order to be alive, it is through living it and seeing it lived by others that we come to really, deeply understand it. It is much easier to live the Dharma, if we see others living it and easier still if we are inspired by some people who have made progress on the path. When we see people living the Dharma life very fully we quite naturally feel respect and gratitude towards them. We look up to them and revere them. This act of looking up to and revering those who are more spiritually mature is the practical manifestation of going for refuge to the Buddha. The Buddha is symbolic of what we aspire to. Those people we come into contact with who embody to some degree what we aspire to are reflections or echoes of the Buddha.

If we look up to and revere those who are spiritually mature, then we naturally want to listen to them, to hear what they think; we may even want to follow them, to emulate them. In other words we are receptive. We want to learn – not just to learn the concepts and the ideas of the Dharma but to learn how to transform ourselves.

As we gradually learn how to transform our conditioning, our negative emotions, our views and opinions: as we gradually put the teachings into practice, as receptivity bears fruit, then we can be said to be going for refuge to the Dharma. The key to this stage is awareness. We need to turn the light of awareness on ourselves and with total honesty, see ourselves as clearly as possible – to see our good qualities clearly, to see our positive emotions clearly and fully accept them, see our intelligence and aspirations clearly and warmly. We also need to see our bad qualities and negative emotions clearly and with loving kindness, see our stupidity and resistance to reality with clarity and warmth.

As we listen to and learn from our elders, we reflect deeply on what we hear and we engage in introspection, contemplation and meditation. In that way we grow in awareness. But it doesn’t stop there. Robert Bly writes about the poet Rilke: “Rilke was Rodin’s secretary for a while, and Rodin one day advised him to go down to the zoo and try to see something. Rilke did, and spent some time watching a panther. Rodin respected seeing, the ability to observe, to use the terrific energy of the eyes, to pay attention to something besides one’s own subjectivity. Rilke understood that his own poetry lacked seeing, and he wrote nearly 200 poems in about six years in an effort to sharpen his seeing. Through that labour Rilke passed to a new stage of his art. Strangely, Novalis in 1800 had spoken of this passage. Novalis thought there were two stages in an artist’s life: “self-expression is the source of all abasement, just as contrariwise, it is the basis for all true elevation. The first step is introspection – exclusive contemplation of the self. But whoever stops there goes only halfway. The second step must be genuine observation outward – spontaneous, sober observation of the external world.” (News of the Universe, R. Bly, p.204)

Awareness doesn’t stop with introspection. It must also turn outwards and see others with kindness and intelligence. This leads on to the third R of the title, which is responsiveness. It is not enough to be aware and metta-full towards ourselves. It is also not enough to be aware and metta-full towards others. We also need to act, to respond.

After the Buddha’s Enlightenment or as part of the experience of Awakening, he looked out towards the world, he turned his attention to the world around him and he had a vision of the world as a lotus lake – some lotuses were completely submerged, some were barely emerging from the water and some were completely free from the water and resplendent. He understood that people were at different stages of development and receptivity and that some would be able to understand him. So he went out into the world to share his experience with others. He responded to the needs of humanity.

Later when the first sixty disciples were sufficiently grounded in the Dharma, living the Dharma, he exhorted them to go out into the world and share their experience for the welfare of the many. They too responded to the needs of humanity. And so it has been down the generations and so it is now. That is why there is a Buddhist centre in Norwich and that is why we can be here together today to celebrate the Buddha’s Enlightenment.

The responsiveness of the Buddha manifests as a compassionate communication of the Dharma to all those who are open to it, who are receptive. Our responsiveness may have to be expressed differently, but the spirit is the same. It’s the spirit of generosity, the spirit of loving-kindness. We may not feel able to communicate the Dharma widely, but we can support those who do. And we can be friendly and kind to others in the Sangha and beyond. This responsiveness to the spiritual needs of others is an expression of going for refuge to the Sangha.

I have talked about the three Rs of reverence, receptivity and responsiveness and I have linked them to going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha respectively. I’ve also talked about these elements in the life of Siddhartha and the Buddha, as we are here today to celebrate the awakening of Siddhartha and his becoming a fully Enlightened Buddha.

Celebrating the Buddha’s Awakening implies a reverence for the Buddha and receptivity to the Dharma he taught. The Dharma taught by the Buddha implies responsiveness to the spiritual needs of others. As the Buddha says in the Anguttara Nikaya: “of two people who practice the Dharma in line with the Dharma, having a sense of Dharma having a sense of meaning – one who practices for both his own benefit and that of others, and one the practices for his own benefit but not that of others – the one who practices for his own benefit but not that of others is to be criticised for that reason, the one who practices from both his own benefit and that of others is, for that reason, to be praised”. (AN,7.68) Let us then, out of reverence for the Buddha, be receptive to his message and let us practice the Dharma, ethics, meditation and wisdom, for our own benefit and for the benefit of others.

The Shorter Discourse on the Full Moon Night (MN 110 Chulapunnama Sutta)

This talk was given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre on the full moon night of July 2019

The Buddha is staying in the Eastern Park just outside Savatthi, a rainy season residence provided by Visakha, known as Migara's mother. She was the chief female patron of the Buddha and a number of his teachings are given at this place known as the mansion of Migara's mother.

This sutta is all about the true man and the untrue man or as Bhikkhu TThannisaro translates it – the person of integrity and the person of no integrity – or as we might say in Triratna, the true individual and the individualist. The Buddha says that a person of no integrity would not be able to recognise a person of integrity and that they would not even be able to discern another person of no integrity. Then he talks about the qualities or actions that make some one untrue or without integrity. There are 7 personal traits they have which lead them to behave in unskilful ways. The personal traits are that they:

• have no faith

• have no shame

• no fear of wrongdoing

• are lazy

• are forgetful or unmindful

• are unwise

These lead them to behave in the following ways:

• they associate with others who are lacking integrity

• their mental states lead to their own suffering and that of others

• they give bad advice

• they speak falsely, harshly and in a gossipy and malicious way

• they constantly break the first three precepts, which are the precepts of loving kindness, generosity and contentment.

• they hold wrong views

• They give gifts as a untrue person:

        carelessly, not with own hand, without respect, give what is to be discarded, don't                    believe in the karmic consequences of generosity.

Then he goes on to talk about the qualities and actions of the true man or person of integrity as being the opposite of those of the person of no integrity.

I would like to go into some of the qualities and actions of the person of integrity a bit more. So this talk is just a series of reflections on some of the Buddha's teachings in this Full Moon Discourse. The main qualities of a person of Integrity that the Buddha highlighted and that I want to talk about are:

• Faith

• Ethical sensitivity

• Receptivity

• Energy

• Mindfulness

• Discernment

These qualities lead a person of integrity to behave in particular ways:

• to observe the precepts – the ten precepts in this sutta

• be helpful to others

• develop good friendships

• practice generosity.

There are more things mentioned in the Sutta but this is more than enough to explore for now.

Faith comes up again and again as both a prerequisite for the spiritual life and the main quality of an experienced practitioner such as a stream entrant. Faith in the Dharma and faith in the teacher are mentioned again and again by the Buddha. It's as if the deepening and strengthening of faith or confidence is one of the main qualities that permeate and enhance any spiritual life. Or to put it another way we won't get very far without faith and with faith we can move mountains. The opposite of faith is of course doubt and indecision and when we are prone to doubt and indecision we need to get into communication with spiritual friends and guides, we need to study and reflect on the Dharma and go deeper into what holds meaning for us through meditation and especially by going on retreat.

The second quality the Buddha talks about is ethical sensitivity. This is my gloss on what in Pali is hiri and ottapa or hri and apatraya in Sanskrit. Usually these terms are translated as shame and fear of censure by the wise. Or we could shorten that to conscience and concern. What it comes down to though is ethical sensitivity. Bhante Sangharakshita talked about the need to be scrupulous in our observance of the precepts. What this means is that it isn't enough to be aware of the ethical principles of non-violence and awareness and so on, we also need to pay attention to a more detailed practice of the precepts. We need to notice how skilful or unskilful we are in the details of our daily life. We need to notice our resistance to deeds of kindness and generosity, notice any subtle manipulation, notice any juggling with the truth and so on. It is in the details that we practice and it is in an awareness of the details that we develop our ethical sensitivity.

The third quality the Buddha attributes to a person of integrity is what the text translates as learned. But that isn't really what it means. The bahussuto is made up of two words – bahu means 'a lot ' and suto or suta is listening or hearing as in the trio of listening, reflecting and meditating. This quality is the quality of receptivity which manifests as listening to the Dharma, listening to a teacher. It is what another sutta refers to as taking delight in the Dharma and being inspired by the Dharma. And just to be clear listening includes reading and Dharma discussion and study.

Next is the quality of virya or energy in the practice of the precepts, meditation, study and so on. In the Padhana Sutta of the Sutta Nipata. The Buddha says Mara approached him as he was striving speaking kind words (karunam vacam bhasamano). The words attributed to him are as follows:

“O you are thin and you are pale,
And you are in death’s presence too;
A thousand parts are pledged to death,
But life still holds one part of you.
Live, Sir! Life is the better way;
You can gain merit if you live,
Come, live the Holy Life and pour
Libations on the holy fires,
And thus a world of merit gain.
What can you do by struggling now?
The path of struggling too is rough
And difficult and hard to bear.”

In effect Mara is saying – 'take it easy, don't exert yourself too much, be easy on yourself , have a comfortable life'. Mara is opposed to Virya. Mara is the personification of all unskilfulness and unskilfulness thrives when we stop making an effort to be aware and kind.

The fifth quality of a person of integrity is mindfulness – sati. I probably don't need to say much about mindfulness, as it is a very popular topic these days. I will just emphasise one aspect of mindfulness and that is mindfulness of things or of our immediate environment. Working at a Buddhist Centre it is quite noticeable that people are often aware of others and generally courteous and kind, but when it comes to objects and the immediate environment people can be much less aware. That is not just things in the Centre but people's own property – the lost property box fills up every few months. It's good to make a practice of being aware of your immediate environment and treating it with courtesy and kindness too. As a I said in regard to ethical sensitivity – it is good to practice being mindful in detail and not just in some vague general way.

The next quality of a person of integrity is discernment, or wisdom. This is usually understood as reflecting deeply on impermanence. Impermanence is something obvious and therefore it can seem that it's not really necessary to go into it more deeply. Everything changes all the time – what more is there to say. But it is precisely because it seems so obvious that we need to reflect more deeply on it. The purpose of the reflection is to take it from being an intellectual understanding to being an emotional and imaginative realisation that affects how we live our lives – how we think, how we act and how we speak.

In the Jewel Ornament of Liberation – a Tibetan text written about 900 years ago by a student of Milarepa called Gampopa – there is a teaching about impermanence. It says “ you may ask, how is transitoriness to be understood? The answer is that the end of every hoarding is spending, of every rising falling, of every meeting parting and of all living dying.” There is an interesting commentary on this by Bhante in a seminar. One thing he says is “ If one wanted to look at this systematically one could say that 'the end of every hoarding is spending' applies to external possessions, 'the end of every rising is falling' applies to one's position in life, socially, politically, in relation to other people, that 'every meeting parting' applies to one's personal relationships with those who are near and dear, and that 'all living dying' applies to just to oneself alone and separate.” (108 Ways of Looking at Death, p.60)

I would like to add though that I think Gampopa is looking at impermanence in a one-sided way. Yes, it is about endings but it is also about beginnings. That which is transitory is leaving something behind and moving on to something new. Every summer may end in an autumn and winter, but it also true that every autumn and winter ends with a spring and summer. Death is inevitable and necessary because it creates the conditions for life. As with the precepts it is worth getting into detailed reflection on transitoriness and applying it to various things, people and circumstances, but not only in a way that leads us to being gloomy or downhearted. We can also rejoice in change and growth as something that enables us to emerge from our delusions, addictions, quarrels and other suffering.

Then the Buddha goes on to talk about the behaviour of a person of integrity: There are three things in particular:

• Keeping the precepts

• Friendships

• generosity

In this sutta observing the precepts means observing the ten precepts. That is what the Buddha talks about to these disciples on the Full Moon night – the importance of the the ten precepts. The ten precepts are of course the ethical code of the Triratna Order and are taken as vows by Order Members at the time of ordination. This does not mean that it is only Order Members who need to observe the ten precepts. They are here from the very earliest days of the Buddha's teaching and are applicable to all who want to live a Buddhist life. In fact we could say that the ten precepts tell us how we need to behave and think if we are to live as Buddhists. There are three precepts relating to the mind , which are really a wisdom practice if taken in the right spirit and gone into deeply. They are about making an effort to always move away from unskilful states of mind and towards skilful states, by cultivating contentment, metta and right views.

The four speech precepts are a very useful guide to how to communicate effectively, whether in conversation or in writing. Elsewhere the Buddha talks about speech needing to be timely or appropriate as well as truthful, kindly, helpful and harmonising. We could add to that the observation that much of what we communicate might be better replaced with a wise silence.

The three precepts about actions are familiar to all of us and therefore need an even greater effort to bear in mind and act upon. It is so easy to forget or be complacent about the things that we are very familiar with and perhaps regard as only suitable for the attention of beginners. It would be unwise to regard any of the precepts in that way.

With regard to generosity the Buddha says in this Sutta that a person no integrity gives a gift carelessly, not with his or her own hand, without respect, gives what is worthless and doesn't believe there are any consequences to giving. The person of integrity on the other hand gives a gift carefully, with his or her own hand, with respect, something that has value and with awareness that generosity has consequences.

There are a couple of things to draw out here – the first is that giving should be done with awareness of the person receiving and the gift should be as far as possible appropriate to them. The second thing is that the Buddha is keen to point out that giving has consequences and what he is getting at here is that generosity is spiritually and psychologically beneficial to the person giving. If you give then you receive. Giving with awareness means taking some time to to consider what is needed by the person or organisation that you are giving to. It also means being aware of your own resistance to giving and how if you contemplate it for too long the gift may shrink in size or never come to fruition at all as the Mara of your own insecurity gets louder.

Friendship is mentioned a lot in the Pali Canon. The Buddha repeatedly emphasised spiritual friendship and later Buddhism has it as a very strong theme. Usually,in the Pali Canon, spiritual friendship is of the vertical kind – between teacher and disciple or between peers but some of whom are more experienced or more ethical. There are famous instances of the Buddha recommending spiritual friendship and mutual kindness. The instance of Meghiya, the instance of the Buddha telling Ananda that Kalyana Mitatta is the whole of the spiritual life, the instance of the monk suffering from dysentery when the Buddha exhorted his disciples to look after each other's welfare. In the Itivuttaka the Buddha says: “In regard to external factors, I do not perceive another single factor so helpful as good friendship to a bhikkhu who is a learner, who has not attained perfection.” (Itivuttaka, 17)There appears to be a close link between shraddha or faith and Kalyana Mitrata in the Buddha's teaching. Sometimes faith will be enumerated as the starting point for spiritual practice and sometimes Kalyana Mitrata. But the faith is often in relation to a teacher and the relationship with the teacher is one of Kalyana Mitrata. This good friendship or spiritual friendship requires faith and faith is engendered by it.

These were some of the topics the Buddha touched on in his talk or discourse on the full moon night at the mansion of Migara's mother in the Eastern Park at Savatthi. At the end of the Sutta it says “the disciples were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.”

You may not delight in my words and you may not even be satisfied, but whatever you feel I do hope that you continue to be inspired by these Dharma teachings, just like the monks of old.

Touching the Earth

This talk was given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, Young Buddhists evening, June 2019                                            

I have been asked to talk about the Buddha's Enlightenment. It's difficult, if not impossible, to talk about another person's inner experience. It's even more difficult when they have been dead for 2500 years, and yet more difficult when the experience in question is one that you haven't had yourself. But I guess I shouldn't let a little difficulty like that get in the way. We do have the Buddhist texts which are based on the oral tradition of stories and teachings that survived the Buddha's death. The texts have many different ways of speaking about the Buddha's Enlightenment. In the Pali and Sanskrit the experience is referred to as Bodhi. And a Buddha is someone who has experienced Bodhi. Usually Bodhi is translated as Awakening and a Buddha is 'one who is Awake or has Awakened'. The metaphor of sleep and waking is used to try to convey the contrast between the experience of being a Buddha and not being a Buddha.

Elsewhere the Buddha's experience is spoken of negatively as the absence of greed, hatred and delusion. This is what Nirvana means. Or the Buddha's experience of Awakening is spoken of as the fullness of wisdom, compassion and energy or it is spoken of in terms of paradoxes or in terms of images, such as a cool cave or the discovery of a lost city. I think one of the best ways of evoking what Enlightenment might mean is by looking at it through the medium of myth and symbolism. Mythology and symbolism are very rich and able to convey more than concepts. A symbol or a story can have more than one meaning, can have several meanings and that is very helpful when you're dealing with something so outside of normal experience as Awakening.

I want to focus on some images that are used to describe the experience of the Buddha's Awakening in terms of a kind of Drama or story. In this account Siddhartha, as the Buddha was called before he became a Buddha, is sitting under the peepul tree meditating and he has a number of visitors. Or alternatively you could say he has a vision and it unfolds in the form of these visitations. Firstly he is attacked by Mara's army. Mara is the personification of craving, hatred and spiritual ignorance. Then he is visited by Mara's daughters and then by Mara himself. Later he is visited by the Earth Goddess, the King of the gods and a great Cobra who is also a prince called Mucilinda. I'll tell you a bit about what happens and what it symbolises. Bearing in mind that symbolism is not exhausted by one explanation.

There are different accounts in the Buddhist scriptures of what happened when Siddhartha Gautama, sitting underneath the Bodhi tree, became a Buddha, an Awakened One. In some accounts it says that the earth shook and there were great rumbling noises, like an earthquake. In the account given in the Lalitavistara Sutra it says that the Buddha was visited by Mara just before he gained Enlightenment. This is also described in the Padhana Sutta of the Sutta Nipata. The Buddha says Mara approached him as he was striving speaking kind words (karunam vacam bhasamano). The words attributed to him are:

“O you are thin and you are pale,
And you are in death’s presence too;
A thousand parts are pledged to death,
But life still holds one part of you.
Live, Sir! Life is the better way;
You can gain merit if you live,
Come, live the Holy Life and pour
Libations on the holy fires,
And thus a world of merit gain.
What can you do by struggling now?
The path of struggling too is rough
And difficult and hard to bear.”
So Mara is saying to Siddhartha – ‘take it easy, don’t be so hard on yourself, have a comfortable life’
Siddhartha recognises Mara and refuses to be tempted. He goes on to describe Mara's army in this way:
“Your first squadron is Sense-Desires,
Your second is called Boredom, then
Hunger and Thirst compose the third,
And Craving is the fourth in rank,
The fifth is Sloth and Torpor
While Cowardice lines up as sixth,
Uncertainty is seventh, the eighth
Is Malice paired with Obstinacy;
Gain, Honour and Renown, besides,
And ill-won Notoriety,
Self-praise and Denigrating Others:
These are your squadrons. (Sutta Nipata, III, 2)
And Siddhartha declares his readiness to take up the fight - the spiritual life is often likened to a battle or a fight in the Pali Canon -

“None but the brave will conquer them
To gain bliss by the victory.…
Better I die in battle now
Than choose to live on in defeat.…
I sally forth to fight, that I
May not be driven forth from my post.” 

“For I have faith (saddha) and energy (viriya)
And I have wisdom (pañña) too.”

 “Your serried squadrons, which the world
With all its gods cannot defeat,
I shall now break with wisdom
As with a stone a clay pot.” (Sutta Nipata, III, 2, https://legacy.suttacentral.net/en/snp3.2)
Mara is all the negative, undermining and tempting mental states and emotions and the spiritual practitioner has faith, energy and wisdom in response. This is a big inner conflict. This is part of most people's spiritual journey and can't be avoided.

In the story Mara first sends his army of monstrous creatures against Siddhartha, but their weapons turn to flowers when they come into his aura. What does that mean? Then Mara tries to tempt Siddhartha with his daughters who dance seductively, but again Siddhartha is unmoved. Then Mara tries a different way. He says that Siddhartha has no right to sit on the spot where all previous Buddhas gained Enlightenment. In other words he tries to sow doubt in Siddhartha's mind. He asks Siddhartha whether he has anyone who can witness that he has a right to sit there, and that is when Siddhartha touches the earth and says the earth is my witness.

Anyone who tries to follow a spiritual Path will recognise all the different distractions and inner conflict and doubt that have to be encountered and enveloped in awareness. We have to own our own darkness by becoming aware and accepting who we are. That in itself leads to transformation and integration. This is certainly my own experience.

The Earth Goddess then arises out of the ground and vouches for him.
Before we go into the meaning of this episode there are a few things I'd like to mention that may be worth reflecting on. Frstly, in many other religions this sort of confirmation of a teachers attainment comes from the sky rather than the earth. It may be in the form of angels or a voice from the heavens, but it is often from the sky rather than the earth. It might be worth reflecting what this means for Buddhism and Buddhists.
Another thing to note is that Mara and his armies and his daughters is an allegorisation of various mental states. such as boredom, cowardice, malice, obstinacy and denigrating others. Most of us will be quite familiar with some if not all of these, which means we are on very familiar terms with Mara and he probably speaks to us with kindly words quite frequently. Before Awakening we are very much on the side of Mara. This is also worth reflecting on. 
Another thing worth reflecting on is the use of warlike metaphors in the Buddhist scriptures; fighting, doing battle, conquering, staying at your post. Why is all this imagery used and does it have any relevance for us ? What metaphors or imagery do we habitually use and what is the affect of using different kinds of imagery?  Is the kind of imagery we use or the stories we tell ourselves really just the kindly voice of Mara? How would it be if we told ourselves different stories and used different metaphors, images and language.

Another thing to reflect on is that Mara did not just turn up as Siddhartha was sitting beneath the Bodhi tree. Here is what happened according to the Lalitavistara Sutra:
“while the Bodhisattva was was seated at Bodhimanda, the thought occurred to him: ‘The demon Mara is the lord of this realm of desire – the master who wields the power; it would not be right to become a Buddha without first informing him. I shall therefore summon Mara Papiyan.” (The Voice of the Buddha, Vol.2, p.457)
Bearing in mind what Mara symbolises, what does it mean that Siddhartha summoned Mara? By asking these questions what I really want to get across is that symbolism and images are very rich and communicate many things simultaneously.

But to come back to the Earth Goddess and touching the earth. The earth here is firstly a symbol of stability, unshakeability, constancy and also a symbol of  abundance, fertility and wealth. The Earth Goddess is a universal symbol and she has many names around the world - Isis, Gaia, Demeter, Ceres, Sheela na Gig , and Pachamama are a few names from different cultures. In Sanskrit there are names like Sthavara, meaning Stable One, or Prthvi, meaning Earth or Vasundhara which means the Bearer of Treasure. This whole story of Siddhartha touching the earth has three elements that we could look at a little more closely. There is the attack by Mara, there is the response of calling on the earth to witness and there is the emergence of the earth goddess. What this story does is tell us some universal truths about spiritual practice in the form of the rich symbolism of mythology.

There are three spiritual truths in particular that we can draw from this story: Firstly, spiritual practice involves struggle with forces of resistance which may be experienced as internal or external. Secondly, we need to find a source of stability and confidence, something to trust in, if we are to be able to access the spiritual riches which are there for all. Thirdly, we live in a universe where spiritual progress is possible and if we make the effort we will get a response.

Throughout the Buddhist scriptures you will find the Buddha exhorting his disciples to be aware, to develop mindfulness (sati) and one of the things we have to become aware of is our own mental states. We can think of this as becoming aware of our skilful and unskilful thoughts and emotions or we can think of it as becoming aware of Mara and what we might characterise as the Siddhartha within. In the  Dvedhavittakka Sutta the Buddha puts it like this: "Bhikkhus, before my Enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, it occurred to me: 'Suppose that I divide my thoughts into two classes. then I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill-will and thoughts of cruelty, and I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-illwill and thoughts of non-cruelty.
He goes on to say that that is how he practised and then he says:
Bhikkhus, whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind. I saw in unwholesome states danger, degradation and defilement and in wholesome states the blessing of renunciation and the aspect of cleansing." (Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta 19)

This is the Buddha exhorting his disciples to practise in the way that he had practised by becoming aware of their mental states, both positive and negative.
Throughout the Pali Canon Mara comes to the Buddha to try to tempt him in one way or another and each time the Buddha recognises him and when he is recognised he disappears. Mara cannot bear awareness. The point of this for us is that mindfulness of thoughts and emotions is an important and crucial practice, which will enable us to purify our minds. Put more poetically, it will free us from the clutches of Mara. If we think of our unskilful thoughts and emotions as Mara it may help us to be less attached to them. Mindfulness, awareness, is the aura that turns weapons into flowers or put more simply; awareness undermines self-destructive mental habits.

Then Siddhartha touches the earth. This symbolises getting in touch with sources of stability, within ourselves and externally. We need to have confidence in what we are doing with our life, confidence in the practices of Metta Bhavana (meditation on Loving Kindness) and the mindfulness of breathing, confidence in our ability to make progress, confidence in our teachers and guides. This confidence is the stable basis from which can flow the energy and persistence that the spiritual path demands.

To achieve anything a motivating energy is needed. If we want to get rich we have to have confidence that it is worthwhile. If we are convinced that it is worthwhile we will have the energy and be able to put in the effort that is required in order to get rich. If we want to be successful in any way we need to have a confidence in the value and worth of what we want to achieve and with that confidence comes the motivating energy; the dynamo which powers our efforts and gives us the ability to persist and be constant and consistent in our efforts. Confidence arises out of our intuitive and imaginative relationship to the goal and it also arises out of our reflections on life and it's purpose. We should be frequently thinking about the purpose of life. It is complacent to assume we already know what life is all about and more importantly it’s not making full use of our human consciousness.

Confidence also arises out of reflecting on our positive qualities and abilities. Reflecting on what we have already achieved and on the opportunities open to us. A thoroughly positive and realistic appraisal and acknowledgement of our positive qualities and abilities is a really essential ingredient in a successful life and especiall a spiritual life. By focussing on what is positive in our lives,even the things we may take for granted, such as our health, our ability to see, hear and walk, the trees, grass and flowers, water and air, by being aware of and focussing on these things we can develop confidence by counteracting our tendency to focus on our problems, faults and weaknesses or worse still, the faults and weaknesses of others. 
And by giving attention to what is positive in us, in others and in the world around us we develop a sense of richness and abundance which reinforces our positivity and gradually turns us into the sort of person who can easily give to others and to the world out of an abundance and richness. It will also give us the energy to keep going as we will not be in emotional conflict with ourselves. A lot of energy is used up in internal conflict and when through awareness and kindness we become more whole that energy is released.

We also gain confidence from other people; from seeing them and knowing how they have made progress, from listening to their feedback and just from being in contact with people who are more spiritually experienced and developed than we are; more mindful, more generous, kinder, wiser and so on. And of course we gain confidence in the Buddha's teachings by studying them, engaging imaginatively with the Buddha and his teaching and by hearing what our own teachers have to say.

In response to Siddhartha touching the earth the Earth Goddess appears. Vasundhara, the Bearer of Treasure, appears and she bears witness that Siddhartha has practised generosity, ethics and meditation for many lifetimes and is therefore well qualified to sit on the vajrasana the seat of Enlightenment. She rejoices in his merits. The earth Goddess is universally a symbol of abundance, fertility, richness. Reading this more psychologically you could say that Sidddhartha's confidence, his faith or sraddha, gives him access to a depth of riches within, which envelop his mind and flow out into the world.

The next part of the story after this is about Brahmasahampati ,one of the gods, (the gods often symbolise higher states of consciousness) persuading the Buddha to share his Insights with the world. In other words the Buddha's Insight into the nature of reality flows out in compassion. It is not so much that the Buddha was persuaded by some external person, but more that inherent in the experience of Awakening is this upsurge of compassion for the world with all it's suffering and an overwhelming urge to reach out and communicate something of the potentiality of human consciousness. It is said that the Buddha had a vision of humanity as being like a lotus lake, with lotuses at various stages of growth, some completely submerged, some just peeping though the surface and some already raised above the water. He saw that some people were sufficiently awake or aware to be able to understand his message.

After the vision of Brahmasahampati there comes the episode with Mucalinda. Mucalinda is a mythical creature known as a Naga. He is a prince of the Nagas. Nagas live in the depths of the ocean and are associated with Wisdom. In the story the naga prince appears first as a great cobra and wraps himself around the Buddha and spreads his hood over the Buddha to shelter him from the monsoon rains and storms. And then he appears as a beautiful young prince. Here we have the symbolism of the depths and wisdom. The Buddha is protected by his Wisdom and the youthful prince can be seen as the energy that comes when all the conflict is over and the inner experience is calm and clear. The coiled serpent is also a symbol of energy. This is symbolising this great explosion of energy that rises up when all the craving, hatred, illwill, doubts and delusions are seen through and one awakens to the reality of inter-connection between all living beings and the true nature of our own self as an ever-flowing process rather than a fixed or separate identity.

Enlightenment can be talked about in many ways. One very common way is to talk in terms of the perfection or consummation of Wisdom, Compassion and Energy and in these symbolic episodes we have encountered Compassion, Wisdom and energy in a more mythic and poetic way. But of course we are swimming in very unfamiliar waters when we dive into the topic of Enlightenment or Nirvana. We need to come to the surface and indeed come back to earth and ask ourselves, what is the relevance of all of this to me and to my life now.

There is plenty of hatred, conflict and polarisation in the world and if we are to help to alleviate some of that we need to become aware of and deal with our own inner conflicts, which often manifest in our lives as conflict with others. There is a great deal of unhappiness, dissatisfaction and mental ill-health in the world and if we are to help we need to become aware of and learn how to deal with our own unhappiness and dissatisfaction. There is plenty of greed, craving, addiction and consumption in the world, which is leading us into more suffering. If we are to help we need to become aware of and deal with our own craving, greed and addictions. This is something of the relevance of the Buddha and his Awakening to our lives. But really we each need to individually ask ourselves the questions about what our life is for and what we want to do with our period alive and also to look with objective and kindly eyes at what we are actually doing with our lives. Self deception helps no-one.

The story of Siddhartha becoming a Buddha and the story of his teachings being practised and passed on down the generations to us, is a story that can be an inspiration and a source of confidence to us, if we allow ourselves to be influenced by it.