The following is a personal note from the respected Sayadaw U Jotika to one of his followers regarding a life that has many problems.
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You are right when you said, “Life is full of problems.”
Life is full of problems.
From the time you are born, you have problems. Problems are natural. We just need to find the best ways to solve them.
There are natural problems and man made problems.
For natural problems we find natural ways to solve them.
But we are making problems. How do we solve problems that we are making?
First we must see clearly that we are making these problems.
The mind that makes problems and the mind that sees we are making problems are not the same type of mind.
The mind that makes problems has no awareness/ mindfulness, no wisdom.
The mind that sees that we are making problems has awareness and wisdom.
We cannot solve the problem with the same type of mind that made it.
We need a mind that is mindful and therefore wise to see the problem and solve it.
When we see that the mind is making problems – just seeing it solves most of the problems. When we don’t make problems we have only natural problems to solve. Then we will find that more than 90% of the problems are gone. Just because we are not making them anymore.
With the rest of the 10% of the problems to solve, we are not so burdened anymore. We can solve them or just live with them.
If you are carrying 100 pounds and then you drop 90 pounds, with only 10 pounds to carry now, you are not so burdened. You can carry it.
With a mind that does not create more unnecessary problems, life is not so burdensome. You can travel very light.
There are two kinds of burdens.
The burden of the body. And the burden of the defilements.
We need to keep the body healthy. So, we eat, we protect our body from excess heat or excess cold. We rest when we are tired. We sleep. When we get sick we get medical treatment. All that is burden of the body. But it has a limit.
Healthy food is not so expensive.
It is unhealthy food which is more expensive. Cigarettes are very expensive. Wine is very expensive. And many other things which we don’t need to eat or drink or use are very expensive. Clothes that keep you healthy are not so expensive.
We can stay healthy without much difficulty. With modern medical treatment it is not difficult to cure most of the diseases.
But the burden of the defilements have no limit.
Greed has no limit. We can never really satisfy greed. No matter what we do to satisfy greed it is never enough. Only wisdom can put a limit to greed.
Greed cannot solve the problem it has created. It is a mind without greed that can solve the problems greed has created.
Pride, conceit, anger, envy, jealousy all create problems.
Anger cannot solve the problems it has created. It is a mind without anger that can solve the problems anger has created.
Pride cannot solve the problems it has created. Envy, jealousy cannot solve the problems they have created.
A mind without greed, anger, pride, envy, jealousy, a mind that is mindful and wise can see the problems clearly and solve them too.
Therefore to live a good life,
to live a life which is not so burdensome; to travel light,
to live with joy, we must live mindfully.
When you are mindful you are more creative in living.
The full moon day of Vaso is one of the most important days for Buddhists. We Buddhists regard this day as the auspicious and noble day. Why do we Buddhists regard this day as the auspicious and noble day? It has four reasons:
(1) On this day Queen Mahamaya was pregnant with Bodhisatta(Ba Yar Laung),
(2) On this day Siddhattha Bodhisatta went to the forest to search for the truth for His own sake or convenience but for the sake of suffering humanity,
(3) On this day the Buddha preached Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta and Anattalakkhana Sutta to Devas(gods) and Brahmanas leading His five friends, sush as Koddanna, Vappa, Baddaya, Mahanan, and Assaji and,
(4) On this day Buddhist monks go into the rains retreat.
That’s why we Buddhists regard this day as the auspicious and noble day. On this special day, Buddhists offer food, shelter, robes and medicines to the monks who are going into the rains retreat. And then, on this day Buddhists offer food, fragrant sticks, candles, water, flowers, cakes, various kinds of fruit, golden robes and so on and so forth to pagodas and the images of the Buddha. Some Buddhist count beads and practice meditation by honouring the Buddha on this day. Thus, I admonish all Buddhists “Please do good deeds from this day on.”
Therefore I conclude my Dhamma message while I wish “May all of you be the noble persons who can support the Buddha’s Sasana and finally attain to Nibbana which is free suffering!
According to the Buddha’s teaching, there are four kinds of action (Kamma).What are the four?
(1)There is dark action with dark result;
(2) There is bright action with bright result;
(3) There is dark and bright with dark and bright result; and
(4) There is action (Kamma) that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, action that leads to the destruction of Action.
First one is dark action with dark result. What is dark action with dark result? Here someone commits ten kinds of evil deed. Having committed ten kinds of evil deed, he reappears in unhappy worlds such as hell, Peta (ghost), animal. Here I would like to explain the ten kinds of evil deed. They are as follows:
(1) Killing any living beings;
(2) Stealing other persons’ belongings; and
(3) Making sexual misconduct.
These are called KÈyakamma(bodily action).
(4) Telling lie;
(5) Slandering;
(6) Telling harsh works; and
(7) Telling frivolous talk.
These are called VacÊkamma (verbal action).
(8)Greed;
(9)Hatred; and
(10) Wrong view.
These are called Manokamma (mental action). These ten kinds of evil action are called Dasaakusalakamma. If someone commits these ten kinds of evil deed (dark action), he or she will reap dark result. It is called dark action with dark result (Kanhakammakanhavipaka).
Second one is bright action with bright result. What is bright action with bright result?Here someone performs ten kinds of good deed. Having performed ten kinds of good deed, he reappears in happy worlds such as human, god, and brahma. Here I would like to explain the ten kinds of bright deed. They are as follows:
(1) Abstaining from killing any living beings;
(2) Abstaining from stealing other persons’ belongings; and
(3) Abstaining from making sexual misconduct.
These are called KÈyakamma(bodily action).
(4) Abstaining from telling lie;
(5) Abstaining from slandering;
(6) Abstaining from telling harsh works; and
(7) Abstaining from telling frivolous talk.
These are called VacÊkamma (verbal action).
(8)Non-greed;
(9)Non-hatred; and
(10) Right view.
These are called Manokamma (mental action). These ten kinds of good action are called Dasakusalakamma. If someone performs these ten kinds of good deed (bright action), he or she will reap bright result. It is called bright action with bright result (Sukkakammasukkavipaka).
Third one is dark and bright action ( Kanhasukkakamma) with dark and bright result (Kanhasukkavipaka). Here one sometimes generates the ten kinds of evil deed and the ten kinds of the good deeds. So he or she feels pain and happiness because he did action that is both bad deeds and evil deeds. For example, during the time of the Buddha, there was a certain lay man. He killed the animals by daytime and with self-control abstained at nights. For that action (kamma) that is both dark kamma( evil deed) and bright kamma( good deed), during the daytime, the dogs that had just been driven back, ran up on all sides to devour me but enjoyedthe gods’ happiness.
The final one is Magga Action that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result and leads to the destruction of actions. It is right. Catumaggakamma can totally remove good deed which a person can be attained to happy planes, such as human, god and Brahma and evil deed that a person can be got to unhappy planes namely ghost, animal and hell. A person who wants to get Catumaggakamma (path-action) must practice meditation.
According to the Buddha’s teaching, there are two kinds of BhÈvanÈ: Samatha bhÈvanÈ (concentration meditation) and VipassanÈ bhÈvanÈ (insight meditation). Here Samatha bhÈvanÈ means observing breathing in and breathing out before one practices meditation. After fifteen minutes, when he or she focuses the single object of meditation, he or she can go to meditation. Here VipassanÈ bhÈvanÈ means noticing five aggregates to be breath with the Mundane Fivefold Path (VipassanÈamagga) to breathe, that is, one should observe the arising and disappearing of your five aggregates with VipassanÈmagga. In Vipassana practice the VipassanÈmagga functions as the next following consciousness (insight knowledge) which observes the perishing of the previous one, called Anicca (Impermanence). In this process, the preceding Anicca and the subsequent Magga go on concurrently without allowing any defilement (Kilesa) to creep in between them. It is the technique of killing the cause in order to prevent the effect. As the meditator keeps on meditating on the arising and perishing of the five aggregates* (Khandha), he gradually attains the two highly developed stages of VipassanÈ knowledge, namely, YathÈbhutaÒÈÓa (Knowledge according to reality) and NibbindaÒÈÓa (Knowledge of disgust); and eventually he gains the MaggaÒÈÓa (Path knowledge). ArahattamaggaÒÈÓa can remove dark action (evil deed) and bright action (good deed). Thus, meditator can free from 31 planes which mingle with pain and happiness and attain NibbÈna which is free from various kinds of suffering. That is why I admonish all of you “Please do the last one (Action that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result and leads to the destruction of actions (good action and bad action) that mingle pain and happiness)”.
May you get the last one (Catumaggakamma) which can destruct bad action and good action that can cause to attain 31 planes!
*The gift of Dhamma is no match with any other gifts, the taste of Dhamma is no match with any other taste, living with Dhamma in enjoyment is no match with any other living, and the victory over craving conquers all sufferings. *
