giacngoenglishclub

Thay loi chuc tet

2010-02-12T21:50:00.001-08:00

Xin Forward lời cảng cáo này thay cho lờiChúc Tết vì nó còn độc hơn Cọp...

Happy New Year

RẤT KHẨN CẤP – NÊN CẦN THẬN

HAI ĐIỀU NÊN BIẾT:
THÀ AN TOÀN HƠN LÀ ÂN HẬN

HÃY ĐỌC VÀ HÀNH ĐỘNG

XIN HÃY THÔNG BÁO VỚI MỌI NGƯỜI

Người ta đang gởi đi các Email với hình 'Osama Bin Laden bị treo cổ; ngay khi bạn mở những email này compurer của bạn sẽ bị phá hỏng và bạn không thể sửa chữa được. Nếu bạn nhận được một email nói 'Osama Bin Laden đã bị bắt hay 'Osama đã bị treo cổ thì đừng mở file đính kèm

Email này được gởi đến nhiều nước trên khắp thế giới nhưng chủ yếu là Mỹ và Israel.

Hãy thận trọng và gởi cảnh báo này đến những người bạn quen biết.
XIN HÃY CHUYỂN TIẾP CẢNH BÁO NÀY CHO BẠN HỮU, GIA ĐÌNH VÀ NHữNG NGƯờI BạN TIẾP XÚC

Bạn nên cảnh giác trong những ngày kế tiếp:
Đừng mở bất cứ thư nào có file đính kèm có 'Invitation' (lời mời) bất kể là do ai gởi đến Đó là một virus, nó mở ngọn đuốc Thế vận hội "đốt cháy" toàn bộ ổ C trong máy tính của bạn.

Virus này có thể được gởi đi từ một người bạn của bạn vốn có địa chỉ email của bạn trong danh sách địa chỉ của anh/chị ấy, vì vậy bạn nên gởi email cảnh báo này cho tất cả những người có tên trong danh sách địa chỉ của bạn.

Thà nhận thông điệp cảnh báo này 25 lần hơn là nhận một email 'invitation' , dù nó được một người bạn của mình gởi đến, đừng mở email đó ra, và hãy tắt computer ngay tức khắc.
Đây là virus nguy hại nhất được CNN thông báo và được Microsoft xếp loại virus phá hoại nhất từ trước đến nay.

Virus này được McFee phát hiện ngày hôm qua và chưa có "thuốc chữa!"
Virus này chủ yếu phá hủy Sector Zero của ổ cứng nơi chứa các thông tin quan trọng của máy tính.
HÃY GỞI EMAIL NÀY ĐẾN MỌI NGƯỜI MÀ BẠN QUEN BIẾT.

Fwd: Thong diep Duc Dat-lai-lat-ma pps

2009-12-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nguyen Ngoc Tram <ngoctram_n@yahoo.com>
Date: 2009/12/13
Subject: Fwd: Thong diep Duc Dat-lai-lat-ma pps
To: thichminhthanh@gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sr. Rosa Huan <spcrosa@gmail.com>
Date: 2009/12/13
Subject: Thong diep Duc Dat-lai-lat-ma pps
To: luciekimngan@gmail.com

Chủ đề: Thong diep Duc Dat-lai-lat-ma pps

Không khí đầy tình yêu thương trong ngôi nhà bạn

là nền tảng cho cuộc đời bạn.

Nhớ rằng mối quan hệ tốt nhất là mối quan hệ

trong đó tình thương dành cho nhau

nhiều hơn là nhu cầu cần có nhau.

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4667 (20091207) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com/

Yahoo! Mail nay NHANH HƠN - Thử ngay!

Fwd:

2009-10-22T22:37:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nguyen Ngoc Tram <ngoctram_n@yahoo.com>
Date: 2009/10/10
Subject:
To: thichminhthanh@gmail.com

Chuyện nên đọc rồi phổ biến

CON BÚP-BÊ VÀ CÀNH HOA HỒNG

TG chuyển ngữ.

Tôi đi vòng trong một tiệm Target và chứng kiến cảnh người thu-ngân đang trao lại một số tiền cho cậu bé. Cậu chỉ độ 5 hay 6 tuổi.

Người thu- ngân nói, "Rất tiếc là em không có đủ tiền để mua con búp-bê này".

Đoạn cậu bé quay sang bà cụ đứng cạnh: "Bà à, bà có chắc là con không có đủ tiền không, bà?"

Bà cụ đáp: Con à, con biết là con không có đủ tiền để mua con búp-bê này mà".

Rồi bà cụ bảo cậu bé cứ đứng đó chừng 5 phút để bà đi một vòng trong tiệm. Rồi bà lẩn đi ngay.
Cậu bé vẫn cầm con búp-bê trong tay.

Cuối cùng , tôi bước đến cậu bé và hỏi là cậu muốn tặng con búp-bê này cho ai.

"Đây là con búp bê mà em gái của con yêu thích lắm và ước ao có được trong Giáng Sinh này. Em ấy tin là Ông già Noel sẽ mang quà này lại cho em ấy."

Tôi trả lời cậu bé rằng "thế nào Ông già Noel rồi cũng sẽ mang lại cho em con, con đừng lo."
Nhưng cậu trả lời buồn bã. "Không, Ông già Noel không mang đến chỗ em đang ở được. Con phải trao con búp-bê này cho mẹ con, rồi mẹ con mới có thể trao lại cho em con khi mẹ đến đó."

Đôi mắt cậu bé thật buồn khi nói những lời này.

"Em con đã trở về với Chúa. Ba con bảo là mẹ cũng sắp về với Chúa, bởi vậy con nghĩ là mẹ có thể mang con búp-bê này theo với mẹ để trao lại cho em con."
Tim tôi như muốn ngừng đập.

Cậu bé nhìn lên tôi và nói: "Con nói với ba là hãy bảo mẹ đừng có đi vội. Con muốn mẹ con hãy chờ con đi mall về rồi hãy đi."

Rồi cậu lấy ra cho tôi xem một tấm ảnh trong đó cậu đang cười thích thú.

"Con muốn mẹ mang theo tấm ảnh này của con để mẹ sẽ không quên con.

Con thương mẹ con và mong ước mẹ không phải bỏ con để đi, nhưng ba con nói là mẹ phải đi để ở cạnh em của con."

Rồi cậu lặng thinh nhìn con búp-bê buồn bã.

Tôi vội vàng tìm ví bạc trong túi và nói với cậu bé: "hãy thử coi lại xem, biết đâu con lại có đủ tiền mua con búp-bê này thì sao!"

"Dạ", cậu bé đáp, "con mong là có đủ tiền". Không cho cậu bé thấy, tôi kẹp thêm tiền vào mớ tiền của cậu bé, và chúng tôi cùng đếm. Chẳng những đủ số tiền cho con búp-bê mà còn dư thêm một ít nữa.

Cậu bé nói: "Cảm ơn Chúa đã cho con đủ tiền!"

Rồi cậu nhìn tôi và nói thêm, "tối qua trước khi đi ngủ, con đã hỏi xin Chúa hãy làm sao cho con có đủ tiền để mua con búp-bê này để mẹ con có thể mang đi cho em con. Chúa đã nghe lời cầu xin của con rồi.."

"Con cũng muốn có đủ tiền mua hoa hồng trắng cho mẹ con, nhưng không dám hỏi Chúa nhiều. Nhưng Ngài lại cho con đủ tiền để mua búp-bê và hoa hồng trắng nữa.."

"Mẹ con yêu hoa hồng trắng lắm."

Vài phút sau bà cụ trở lại, và tôi cũng rời khỏi tiệm.

Tôi làm xong việc mua sắm trong một trạng thái hoàn toàn khác hẳn với khi bắt đầu vào tiệm. Và tôi không thể rứt bỏ hình ảnh của cậu bé ra khỏi tâm trí tôi.

Đoạn tôi nhớ lại một bài báo trong tờ nhật báo địa phương cách đây hai hôm. Bài báo viết về một tài xế say rượu lái xe vận tải đụng vào xe của một thiếu phụ và một bé gái nhỏ.

Đứa bé gái chết ngay tại hiện trường, còn người mẹ được đưa đi cứu cấp trong tình trạng nguy kịch. Gia đình phải quyết định có nên rút ống máy trợ-sinh khỏi bệnh nhân hay không vì người thiếu phụ này không còn có thể hồi tỉnh ra khỏi cơn hôn mê.

Phải chăng đấy là gia đình của cậu bé?

Hai ngày sau khi gặp cậu bé, tôi đọc thấy trên báo là người thiếu phụ đã qua đời. Tôi bị một sự thôi thúc và đã mua một bó hoa hồng trắng và đi thẳng đến nhà quàn nơi tang lễ của người thiếu phụ đang diễn ra và mọi người đến nhìn mặt người quá cố lần cuối cùng.

Cô nằm đó, trong cỗ áo quan, cầm trong tay một cành hồng màu trắng với tấm ảnh của cậu bé và con búp-bê được đặt trên ngực của cô.

Tôi rời nơi đó, nước mắt đoanh tròng, cảm giác rằng đời tôi đã vĩnh viễn thay đổi. Tình yêu của cậu bé dành cho mẹ và em gái cho đến ngày nay thật khó mà tưởng tượng. Và chỉ trong một phần nhỏ của một giây đồng hồ, một gã lái xe say rượu, hay người lái xe bất cẩn, đã lấy đi tất cả những gì thân thiết nhất của đời cậu.

Bây giờ bạn có 2 chon lựa:

Post lại sứ điệp này.

Cứ phớt lờ đi giống như câu chuyện này chẳng bao giờ đụng chạm gì đến tấm lòng của bạn.

"Chỉ một chút thiếu cố gắng sẽ luôn là nguyên nhân gây tổn thất ".

Robert A. Schreiber

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Pour le printemps, Windows Live vous propose une foule des jeux rafraichissants à découvrir entre amis.

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WWBD 02: What Would Buddha Do... to change the world?

2007-09-13T04:27:00.001-07:00

From WWBD, the book, page 92:

Smoothing out the earth with leather sheets
Cannot be done for lack of so much hide.
Just put a bit of leather on you feet;
It's like you've covered the entire world!
-- Bodhicharyavatara 5.13

Upholstering the world! I love the humor of this answer. Shantideva sees our all too human ways with Buddha's eyes. He knows we have this human tendency to want to change the world -- at the greatest cost and effort -- before even considering changing ourselves. He doesn't berate us, though; he cheers us on to do the right thing.

When we want to make our lives easier, we have a choice like the one in this stanza. We can change the world (heaven knows it needs it). Or we can change perspective, and maybe transform ourselves (heaven knows we need it!). Is your life hard because you need a bigger place or because you have too much junk? Are things difficult because your job doesn't pay enough or because you spend too much? Are things difficult because you you have no lover or because you feel you need one? Think carefully before you decide. The change what needs changing.

Glossary

Unless otherwise indicated entries below are borrowed from The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/:

Bodhicharyavatara:
The Bodhicharyāvatāra, sometimes translated into English as A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, is a famous Mahāyāna Buddhist text written in Sanskrit by Shantideva (Śāntideva), a Buddhist monk at Nālandā Monastic University in India around 700 CE. It has ten chapters dedicated to the development of bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment) through the practice of the six perfections (Skt. Pāramitās). The Bodhicaryavatara online: http://shantideva.net/guide_ch1.htm. Source: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhicharyavatara

Shantideva:
Shantideva (sometimes Śantideva, Zh: 寂天) was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar at Nalanda University and an adherent of the Prasangika Madhyamaka philosophy. Shantideva is particularly renowned as the author of the Bodhicaryavatara (sometimes also called the Bodhisattvacaryavatara). An English translation of the Sanskrit version of the Bodhicaryavatara is available online, as well as in print in a variety of translations, sometimes glossed as A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life or Entering the Path of Enlightenment . Source: Shantideva, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantideva.

up·hol·ster (p-hlst r, -pl-)

tr.v. up·hol·stered, up·hol·ster·ing, up·hol·sters

To supply (furniture) with stuffing, springs, cushions, and covering fabric.

[Back-formation from upholsterer.]

ten·den·cy (tndn-s )

n. pl. ten·den·cies

1. Movement or prevailing movement in a given direction: observed the tendency of the wind; the shoreward tendency of the current.

2. A characteristic likelihood: fabric that has a tendency to wrinkle.

3. A predisposition to think, act, behave, or proceed in a particular way.

a. An implicit direction or purpose: not openly liberal, but that is the tendency of the book.

b. An implicit point of view in written or spoken matter; a bias.

[Medieval Latin tendentia, from Latin tendns, tendent-, present participle of tendere, to tend; see tend¹.]

con·sid·er·ing (kn-sd r-ng)

prep.

In view of; taking into consideration: You managed the project well, considering your inexperience. See Usage Note at participle.

adv. Informal

All things considered: We had a good trip, considering.

be·rate (b-rt)

tr.v. be·rat·ed, be·rat·ing, be·rates

To rebuke or scold angrily and at length. See Synonyms at scold.

cheer (chîr)

1. Lightness of spirits or mood; gaiety or joy: a happy tune, full of cheer.

2. A source of joy or happiness; a comfort.

a. A shout of approval, encouragement, or congratulation.

b. A short, rehearsed jingle or phrase, shouted in unison by a squad of cheerleaders.

4. Festive food and drink; refreshment.

v. cheered, cheer·ing, cheers

v.tr.

1. To make happier or more cheerful: a warm fire that cheered us.

2. To encourage with or as if with cheers; urge: The fans cheered the runners on. See Synonyms at encourage.

3. To salute or acclaim with cheers; applaud. See Synonyms at applaud.

stan·za (stnz)

One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, and number of lines.

[Italian; see stance.] stan·zaic (-zk) adj.

heaven knows (idiom)
1. I don't know
Example: Heaven knows what he's trying to do.

2. certainly
Example: Heaven knows I've tried to help.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heaven%20knows

junk¹ (jngk)

1. Discarded material, such as glass, rags, paper, or metal, some of which may be reused in some form.

2. Informal

a. Articles that are worn-out or fit to be discarded: broken furniture and other junk in the attic.

b. Cheap or shoddy material.

c. Something meaningless, fatuous, or unbelievable: nothing but junk in the annual report.

3. Slang Heroin.

4. Hard salt beef for consumption on board a ship.

tr.v. junked, junk·ing, junks

To discard as useless or sell to be reused as parts; scrap.

adj.

1. Cheap, shoddy, or worthless: junk jewelry.

2. Having a superficial appeal or utility, but lacking substance: "the junk issues that have dominated this year's election" New Republic.

[Middle English jonk, an old cable or rope.]

WWBD 01: What Would Buddha Do... in the heat of an argument?

2007-09-13T03:31:00.001-07:00

This is the first in a short series of extracts from a book called, "What Would Buddha Do?", by Franz Metcalf, PhD (University of Chicago), co-author of "Buddhist Spirituality". [Seastone press, 1999]

The question, "What Would Buddha Do?", has become an acronym, as "WWBD", which is now gaining popularity through Internet email and chat communications, mobile phone text messaging, day-to-day speech and even advertising. See, for example, The Free Dictionary's Acronym database or the commercial website called WhatWouldBuddhaDo.net .

From WWBD, the book, page 84:

[Right speech] is well-said, not ill-said; sense, not nonsense;
pleasing, not displeasing; true, not untrue.

We all need to speak out. Sometimes we even do it wisely and well, but usually we do it in the grip of anger, frustration or ignorance. I cannot tell you how many times I've felt anger impelling me toward some cutting comment to my wife, known how foolish it would be to give in to this anger, and done it anyway, just for the twisted pleasure of it. We are all like this.

Buddha suggests another way. Monks are never to engage in such destructive speech; for them it is a rule to obey. For us it is a precept to follow, but it is a good one. Think back on your life and count the times you have changed someone or something for the better through insults and falsehoods. I personally can't think of even one. But I have changed persons and things for the better, even in the midst of fights, by following Buddha's advice. Sometimes, when my wife and I can hold our tongues until our speech is pleasing, our fights turn to work and our our work to joy.

Glossary

All entries below are borrowed from The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/. Definitions in bold indicate those used in the text above.

frus·tra·tion (fr-strsh n)

a. The act of frustrating or an instance of being frustrated.

b. The state of being frustrated.

2. Something that serves to frustrate.

frus·trate (frstrt )
tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates; n. frustrat er; adv. frustrating·ly

a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: A persistent wind frustrated my attempt to rake the lawn.

b. To cause feelings of discouragement or bafflement in.

2. To make ineffectual or invalid; nullify.

[Middle English frustraten, from Latin frstrr , frstrt-, from fr str, in vain.]

ig·no·rance (gnr- ns)

n. The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.

im·pel (m-pl)

tr.v. im·pelled, im·pel·ling, im·pels

1. To urge to action through moral pressure; drive: I was impelled by events to take a stand.

2. To drive forward; propel.

[Middle English impellen, from Latin impellere : in-, against; see in-² + pellere, to drive; see pel-⁵ in Indo-European roots.]

cut·ting (ktng)

adj.

1. Capable of or designed for incising, shearing, or severing: a cutting tool.

2. Sharply penetrating; piercing: a cutting wind.

3. Injuring or capable of injuring the feelings of others: a cutting remark. See Synonyms at incisive.

false·hood (fôlshd)

1. An untrue statement; a lie.

2. The practice of lying.

3. Lack of conformity to truth or fact; inaccuracy.

midst (mdst, mtst)

1. The middle position or part; the center: in the midst of the desert.

2. A position of proximity to others: a stranger in our midst.

3. The condition of being surrounded or beset by something: in the midst of all of our problems.

4. A period of time approximately in the middle of a continuing condition or act: in the midst of the war.

prep.

Among; amid.

[Middle English middes, middest : alteration of Old English midde, middle; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots.]

to hold one's tongue (old-fashioned, idiom)
to stop talking [or not talk - ADM]. George had learned to accept these little insults. He held his tongue.
[See also http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/hold+(one's)+tongue]

thanks

2007-09-11T06:06:00.001-07:00

thanks for instructions

Phap Quan Phowa cua Kim Cang Thua

2007-09-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Marketa on Buddhism -- a Personal Perspective of a Czech (European) in Saigon, v.02
[Edited for use at Giac Ngo Buddhist English Club, Saigon, Vietnam]

.
Regarding Buddhism, we have actually been meditating for a couple years now. I try to give it at least one hour a day. I do not sit in the full lotus position, just a half lotus. That is much easier and I think sitting posture is not that important except for keeping your back straight. Of course it is important for the energy flow and stuff, but the "state of mind" itself is more important. But the lamas always remind us at all times: relaxed and straight at the same time, this is important, so I try…
.

I would like to tell you about our lama, Lama Ole Nydahl, who is lama of Karma Kagju lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, vajra-yana buddhism– the main head of the lineage is Karmapa, now 17th conscious incarnation of Karmapa.
.

I first met lama Ole about 3 years ago. Karel first met him about 8 years ago. And he is so cool! You would love him too, I think. He's not very scholarly. I think it is because he represents the Vajra-yana Buddhism and mainly because he isn`t a monk, but yogi, lay practicioner. Vajra-yana Buddhism is mainly about experience and practice, so not too many books are needed – just books with the teachings of methods such as: books to learn about nature of mind, about working with disturbing emotions, about the main and highest view which is called Mahamudra. But the main transmission of principles and techniques is done directly between the teachers and the disciples.
.

He's from Denmark. He's about 60 years old, but he still drives fast motorbikes and jumps out of the air-planes with a parachute. And he used to be a hippy in youth, probably a very big idealist from the beginning.
.
Back in 1969, I think, he went to Tibet with his wife Hannah for a honeymoon. There they met the highest lama there, the 16th Karmapa Ranjung Rigpai Dorje, who's previous incarnation would have taught the previous incarnation of the Dalai Lama to meditate (I think 3rd Karmapa was teacher of 1st Dalai Lama).
.

The 16th Karmapa said he wanted them to bring Buddhism to Europe and, ever since, they have been establishing Buddhist centers all around the world. He asked Ole&Hannah to learn more about Buddhism first, practice, go for meditation-retreats, receive many transmissions from high Tibetan Buddhist lineages and “High-realized” teachers and after that they both received the title Lama. There are sooooo many Buddhist centers-gompas at this point. Only in the Czech Republic, we have around forty.
.
I've heard that in one of Buddhism's ancient books there is a prediction from Guru Rimpoche (Padmasambava) that when iron birds fly on the sky (airplanes) and smoking buffalos ride on the ground, Buddhism will move from the East to the West and Buddhists will spread around the planet like ants. And I think it is happening, already.
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Look here in Vietnam. Not so many people who call themselves Buddhists meditate, probably in temples some monks have time and some of them also have the inspiration to meditate longer and continuously – some of them look quite powerful and fresh. But most Buddhists I have met just burn joss sticks.
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It's like Western Christians practice. It’s mostly a cultural issue nowadays. And the same happens in Japan and China because Buddhism has been around here so long people consider it more of a mere tradition than what it really is – nobody uses the methods much. Another problem is people mixing Buddhist methods with other stuff… or religions… for example, following a Buddha who helps them to have full nets of fish…they don’t consider all the bad karma from killing a lot of fish.
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So what is the main idea? We all want to be happy, we use many ways - sometimes also stupid ones, because we don`t know how to reach real happiness. There is no happiness in the world around us which is continuous, which is unlimited by time and space. If we want to find the best way and unlimited happiness we must understand the truth about this world, to know what exactly what is going on around us, why this world is the way it is, because once we know we will not be confused anymore. Once we find out that this world is not as real as we think and our problems and fears are just illusions, then we can be really happy, stop hurting others and, instead, help others to also understand that everything around is just a very nice collective dream. Then everything will be full of bliss.
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But to really understand what is going on, you have to go inside you, inside your mind. That is what meditation is for. It's difficult to calm your mind and to do it every day, right? But it is necessary because we have been listening to our distracting emotions for countless lives and so they are not easy to disolve. To recognize the nature of mind, the Buddha nature in one’s mind, it is like an eye which is used to look around then trying to see itself. Quite difficult, but possible. There are many ways and one of them is vajra-yana, probably the fastest one.
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The good part of hanging out with the lineage and the lama is that if you meditate on their forms and say their mantras (or forms and mantras of Buddhas which they used for meditation and realization) it helps you develop much faster because the space is information, it is everywhere around, and the enlightened beings do help.
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Are you still following or is it too much for you? :-]]]]]
Anyway I want to tell you one more thing. I want to tell you about this conscious dying meditation. It is called a Phowa and thousands and thousands of people around the world have done it. I have been to about four conscious dying sessions so far.
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Lama Ole first explains what exactly is happening during the death of your body. If you are interested, I can send you a link where you can read about this. [Ed. – one link sent later was http://phowa.dwbuk.org/]
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Lama Ole Nydahl at a mediation course in Spain
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And, guess what, after this 4-day course everyone has a small drop of blood on the top of their head. The consciousness went out through their scull! I had that drop of blood each of the four times I attended. Amazing, right?
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But what is more amazing is the way you feel after the course. You are simply at one with everything and you feel this energy running through your body. It is amazing. During the course the tent with the people in meditation is full of laughter.
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Well I have written a lot. I hope it's interesting for you.
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But let me tell you one more thing. It really changes you, the meditation. I have changed so much since I have started about 3 years ago. Well I know, these are not necessarily changes, just all the useless and annoying habits and distracting emotions like anger and jealousy are slowly leaving me and I am feeling much better. Actually everything about your life changes. When I started to meditate, suddenly all these great jobs appeared out of nowhere, and I met Karel. The world around you changes with you, totally.
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Anyway, I think I should finish now. I hope your head doesn't explode while reading this. Let me know if this is interesting for you so that I can send you some links.
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Cheers, a.
Marketa
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Notes: WHAT IS PHOWA The Karma Kagyu school also employs methods, which help us to work with our inner energies, the existence of which is seldom experienced by people who do not aspire to recognise the nature of their own mind. These practices are called The Six Teachings of Naropa; one of them is Phowa, the practice of “conscious dying”. Through this practice, we learn to transfer our consciousness into the state of unlimited joy personified by the Buddha Limitless Light (Opagme in Tibetan, Amitabha in Sanskrit), the state that can never be lost again. One of the results of practising Phowa is that we loose all our fears. Phowa is not only a preparation for the last moments of our life and the lives of others but the transformation of our view towards death leads us to experience life from the position of new possibilities and develop our inner richness for the benefit of all beings.
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INTERVIEW WITH LAMA OLE NYDAHL ABOUT PHOWA

What does it mean “Phowa”, where does it come from and why are you going to teach it in Tenovice? Hearing the word Phowa a Tibetan would associate a bird caught under a roof, finding a way into freedom. The practice was given by Buddha 2500 years ago and kept alive till now by a probably thin transmission of accomplishers. There exist several versions but the one we use is most frequently used. My wife Hannah and I received the practice at New Year of 1972 from Ayang Tulku, a master of the transmission. I was asked to pass it on in 1987 by our highest lamas and have given about 200 courses worldwide till today.
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It is a Buddhist practice. How you happened to become a holder of this teaching? I'm a Buddhist, and a lama. Also, Hannah and I were the first western students of our Karma Kagyu. That gives certain advantages. In the late sixties and the early seventies amazing teachings were easy to get. All the great old meditation-masters were then still alive and most generous.
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If somebody wants to take a part on this course, is it necessary for him/her to be a Buddhist?

Several will start the practice without a formal Buddhist Refuge and a Tibetan name but all end with the full blessing of a Diamond Way practice. It is built into the meditations and therefore repeated at the beginning of every session. The question is rather whether one wants a Tibetan name in that connection or not.
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It is said that Phowa is quite advanced practice. How is it possible that a beginner or somebody completely new to Buddhism can successfully accomplish such a meditation? If you meditate 8 hours a day inside the Diamond Way Kagyu lineage, preferably in a retreat-like situation, you will get to the Phowa after about two years. Luckily it is possible to extract that practice, as well as a simple clear light meditation, from the series of teachings which Marpa received from Naropa in India 950 years ago. It is clear we should also do that. People can die any time and with success in Phowa and keeping the connection to the teacher and the practice, they will go to the Pure Land at death. As the power of the transmission is so strong and people mature knowing they may die any moment, hook and ring come together and they have fine results. Of the 60.000 people I've taught the meditation since 1987, only about 200 have had to do a second – free – course to get a completely clear outer sign on the top of their heads.
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Is there anything one can do before the course to get prepared in the right way? If you want to lubricate your own way to Pure Lands and lighten the load of the lama, please do 100.000 OM AMIDEWA HRIH mantras with the meditation on the Red Buddha over your heads as given in our centres. Any other practice, especially of the Diamond Way, is also needful.
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This practice is closely connected with death. Is it not dangerous? :-) So far one man from a mental institution stripped and ran around the tent at our first Polish Phowa, howling like a wolf. Also a couple of very sensitive people had passing depressions after a course. The rest, tens of thousands of people, were held by the power-field, generated and had great benefit. So far, nobody died.
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Meditation 4

2007-08-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

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day 2
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Today we will try a very simple form of visualization. As you did before, practice once today for five minutes. Even though it is only a very short meditation, consider this time an initial but vital investment toward what will eventually be an exponential increase in spiritual awareness.

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1. As you did before, sit down, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and relax your body. Allow your mind to quiet down a little. Many people who meditate have some beginning routine or ritual they go through prior to meditating; some people like to stretch, practice yoga, or work through a series of breathing exercises first. For now, at least practice steps 1 through 3 from the previous instructions whenever you begin. (They won't be repeated.)
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2. Now imagine a perfect, deep blue sky filling the whole landscape of your mind's eye, stretching upward and downward and extending out forever, with a golden, shining sun near the top. Try to picture this scene as clearly as you can.
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3. Next, consider that the sky represents your mind - beautiful and broad and clear - and imagine that the sun is a source of great healing and nourishment. Keep your mind focused on this image for the remainder of your meditation, allowing your mind to bask in the healing rays of the sun.
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4. Whenever your thoughts stray, gently recall the image. This will be difficult, but don't give in to frustration. In the beginning most people are able to concentrate only for a matter of seconds. Consider every effort to return your mind to your meditation a success. (From Tobin Blake, The power of stillness)

Meditation 3a

2007-08-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

What Meditation Isn't (cont.)

MISCONCEPTION 6: MEDITATION IS FOR SAINTS AND SADHUS, NOT FOR REGULAR PEOPLE. This attitude is very prevalent in Asia, where monks and holy men are accorded an enormous amount of ritualized reverence. Such people are stereotyped, made larger than life, and saddled with all sorts of characteristics that few human beings can ever live up to. Even in the West, we share some of this attitude about meditation. We expect the meditator to be an extraordinarily pious figure in whose mouth butter would never dare to melt. A little personal contact with such people will quickly dispel this illusion. They usually prove to be people of enormous energy and gusto, who live their lives with amazing vigor.
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It is true, of course, that most holy men meditate, but they don't meditate because they are holy men. That is backward. They are holy men because they meditate; meditation is how they got there. And they started meditating before they became holy, otherwise they would not be holy. This is an important point. A sizable number of students seems to feel that a person should be completely moral before beginning to meditate. It is an unworkable strategy. Morality requires a certain degree of mental control as a prerequisite. You can't follow any set of moral precepts without at least a little self-control, and if your mind is perpetually spinning like a fruit cylinder in a slot machine, self-control is highly unlikely. So mental culture has to come first.
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MISCONCEPTION 7: MEDITATION IS RUNNING AWAY FROM REALITY. Incorrect. Meditation is running straight into reality. It does not insulate you from the pain of life but rather allows you to delve so deeply into life and all its aspects that you pierce the pain barrier and go beyond suffering. Vipassana is a practice done with the specific intention of facing reality, to fully experience life just as it is and to cope with exactly what you find. It allows you to blow aside the illusions and free yourself from all the polite little lies you tell yourself all the time. What is there is there. You are who you are, and lying to yourself about your own weaknesses and motivations only binds you tighter to them. Vipassana meditation is not an attempt to forget yourself or to cover up your troubles. It is learning to look at yourself exactly as you are to see what is there and accept it fully. Only then can you change it.
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MISCONCEPTION 8: MEDITATION IS A GREAT WAY TO GET HIGH. Well, yes and no. Meditation does produce lovely blissful feelings sometimes. But they are not the purpose, and they don't always occur. Furthermore, if you do meditation with that purpose in mind, they are less likely to occur than if you just meditate for the actual purpose of meditation, which is increased awareness. Bliss results from relaxation, and relaxation results from release of tension. Seeking bliss from meditation introduces tension into the process, which blows the whole chain of events. It is a Catch-22: you can only experience bliss if you don't chase after it. Euphoria is not the purpose of meditation. It will often arise, but should be regarded as a byproduct. Still, it is a very pleasant side effect, and it becomes more and more frequent the longer you meditate. You won't hear any disagreement about this from advanced practitioners.
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MISCONCEPTION 9: MEDITATION IS SELFISH. It certainly looks that way. There sits the meditator parked on a little cushion. Is she out donating blood? No. Is she busy working with disaster victims? No. But let us examine her motivation. Why is she doing this? The meditator's intention is to purge her own mind of anger, prejudice, and ill will, and she is actively engaged in the process of getting rid of greed, tension, and insensitivity. Those are the very items that obstruct her compassion for others. Until they are gone, any good works that she does are likely to be just an extension of her own ego, and of no real help in the long run. Harm in the name of help is one of the oldest games. The grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition spouted the loftiest of motives. The Salem witchcraft trials were conducted for the "public good." Examine the personal lives of advanced meditators, and you will often find them engaged in humanitarian service. You will seldom find them as crusading missionaries who are willing to sacrifice certain individuals for the sake of a supposedly pious idea. The fact is that we are more selfish than we know. The ego has a way of turning the loftiest activities into trash if it is allowed free range. Through meditation, we become aware of ourselves exactly as we are, by waking up to the numerous subtle ways that we act out our own selfishness. Then we truly begin to be genuinely selfless. Cleansing yourself of selfishness is not a selfish activity. (From Tobin Blake, The power of stillness)

Meditation 2a

2007-08-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

What Meditation Isn't
(From Tobin Blake, The power of stillness)
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MISCONCEPTION I: MEDITATION IS JUST A RELAXATION TECHNIQUE. The bugaboo here is the word just. Relaxation is a key component of meditation, but vipassana-style meditation aims at a much loftier goal. All meditation procedures stress concentration of the mind, bringing the mind to rest on one item or one area of thought. Do it strongly and thoroughly enough, and you achieve a deep and blissful relaxation, called jhana which amounts to rapture, a form of pleasure that lies above and beyond anything that can be experienced in the normal state of consciousness. Most systems stop right there. Jhana is the goal, and when you attain that, you simply repeat the experience for the rest of your life. Not so with vipassana meditation. Vipassana seeks another goal: awareness, insight.
MISCONCEPTION 2: MEDITATION MEANS GOING INTO A TRANCE. .Insight meditation is not a form of hypnosis. You are not trying to black out your mind so as to become unconscious, or trying to turn yourself into an emotionless vegetable. If anything, the reverse is true: you will become more and more attuned to your own emotional changes. You will learn to know yourself with ever greater clarity and precision. In hypnotic trance, the subject is susceptible to control by another party, whereas in deep concentration, the meditator remains very much under his or her own control. If you find that you are becoming unconscious in meditation, then you aren't meditating.
MISCONCEPTION 3: MEDITATION IS A MYSTERIOUS PRACTICE THAT CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD. Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that lie deeper than conceptual thought. Therefore, some of the experiences of meditation just won't fit into words. That does not mean, however, that meditation cannot be understood. Meditation needs to be understood by doing it. It is an investigation and an experiment, an adventure every time. In fact, this is so true that when you do reach a feeling of predictability and sameness in your practice, you can read that as an indication that you have gotten off track and are headed for stagnation. Learning to look at each second as if it were the first and only second in the universe is essential in vipassana meditation. .
MISCONCEPTION 4: THE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION IS TO BECOME PSYCHIC. Learning to read minds is not the point. Levitation is not the goal. The goal is liberation. During early stages of the meditator's career, such phenomena may or may not arise. Some people may experience some intuitive understanding or memories from past lives; others do not. In any case, these phenomena are not regarded as well-developed and reliable psychic abilities, and they should not be given undue importance. Such phenomena are in fact fairly dangerous to new meditators in that they are quite seductive. They can be an ego trap, luring you right off the track. Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on developing more and more awareness. If voices and visions pop up, just notice them and let them go. Don't get involved. .
MISCONCEPTION 5: MEDITATION IS DANGEROUS, AND A PRUDENT PERSON SHOULD AVOID IT. Everything is dangerous. Walk across the street and you may get hit by a bus. Take a shower and you could break your neck. Meditate, and you will probably dredge up various nasty matters from your past. The suppressed material that has been buried for quite some time can be scary. But exploring it is also highly profitable. No activity is entirely without risk, but that does not mean that we should wrap ourselves in a protective cocoon. That is not living, but is premature death. The way to deal with danger is to know approximately how much of it there is, where it is likely to be found, and how to deal with it when it arises. Vipassana is development of awareness. That in itself is not dangerous; on the contrary, increased awareness is a safeguard against danger. Take it slow and easy, and the development of your practice will occur very naturally. Work gently and everything will be fine.
MISCONCEPTION 10: WHEN YOU MEDITATE, YOU SIT AROUND THINKING LOFTY THOUGHTS. Wrong again. There are certain systems of contemplation in which this sort of thing is done. But that is not vipassana. Vipassana is the practice of awareness, awareness of whatever is there, be it supreme truth or trivial trash. What is there, is there. Of course, lofty thoughts may arise during your practice. They are certainly not to be avoided. Neither are they to be sought. They are just pleasant side effects. Vipassana is a simple practice. It consists of experiencing your own life events directly, without preferences and without mental images pasted onto them. Vipassana is seeing your life unfold from moment to moment without biases. What comes up, comes up. It is very simple.
MISCONCEPTION 11: A COUPLE OF WEEKS OF MEDITATION AND ALL MY PROBLEMS WILL GO AWAY. Sorry, meditation is not a quick cure-all. You will start seeing changes right away, but really profound effects are years down the line. That is just the way the universe is constructed. Nothing worthwhile is achieved overnight. Meditation is tough in some respects, requiring a long discipline and a sometimes painful process of practice. At each sitting you gain some results, but they are often very subtle. They occur deep within the mind, and only manifest much later. And if you are sitting there constantly looking for huge, instantaneous changes, you will miss the subtle shifts altogether. You will get discouraged, give up, and swear that no such changes could ever occur. Patience is the key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. Patience is essential for any profound change.
(From Tobin Blake, The power of stillness)

Meditation 2

2007-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

What Meditation Isn't

MEDITATIONIS A WORD.You have heard this word before, or you would never have picked up this book. The thinking process operates by association, and all sorts of ideas are associated with the word "meditation." Some of them are probably accurate, and others are hogwash. Some of them pertain more properly to other systems of meditation and have nothing to do with vipassana practice. Before we proceed, it behooves us to blast some of that residue out of our neuron circuits so that new information can pass unimpeded. Let us start with some of the most obvious stuff.
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We are not going to teach you to contemplate your navel or to chant secret syllables. You are not conquering demons or harnessing invisible energies. There are no colored belts given for your performance, and you don't have to shave your head or wear a turban. You don't even have to give away all your belongings and move to a monastery. In fact, unless your life is immoral and chaotic, you can probably get started right away and make some progress. Sounds fairly encouraging, wouldn't you say?

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There are many books on the subject of meditation. Most of them are written from a point of view that lies squarely within one particular religious or philosophical tradition, and many of the authors have not bothered to point this out. They make statements about meditation that sound like general laws but are actually highly specific procedures exclusive to that particular system of practice. Worse yet is the panoply of complex theories and interpretations available, often at odds with one another. The result is a real mess: an enormous jumble of conflicting opinions accompanied by a mass of extraneous data. This book is specific. We are dealing exclusively with the vipassana system of meditation. We are going to teach you to watch the functioning of your own mind in a calm and detached manner so you can gain insight into your own behavior. The goal is awareness, an awareness so intense, concentrated, and finely tuned that you will be able to pierce the inner workings of reality itself.

There are a number of common misconceptions about meditation. We see the same questions crop up again and again from new students. It is best to deal with these things at once, because they are the sort of preconceptions that can block your progress right from the outset. We are going to take these misconceptions one at a time and dissolve them.
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MISCONCEPTION I: MEDITATION IS JUST
A RELAXATION TECHNIQUE.

The bugaboo here is the word just. Relaxation is a key component of meditation, but vipassana-style meditation aims at a much loftier goal. The statement is essentially true for many other systems of meditation. All meditation procedures stress concentration of the mind, bringing the mind to rest on one item or one area of thought. Do it strongly and thoroughly enough, and you achieve a deep and blissful relaxation, called jhana. It is a state of such supreme tranquillity that it amounts to rapture, a form of pleasure that lies above and beyond anything that can be experienced in the normal state of consciousness. Most systems stop right there. jhana is the goal, and when you attain that, you simply repeat the experience for the rest of your life. Not so with vipassana meditation. Vipassana seeks another goal: awareness. Concentration and relaxation are considered necessary concomitants to awareness. They are required precursors, handy tools, and beneficial byproducts. But they are not the goal. The goal is insight. Vipassana meditation is a profound religious practice aimed at nothing less than the purification and transformation of your everyday life. We will deal more thoroughly with the differences between concentration and insight later.
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MISCONCEPTION 2: MEDITATION MEANS
GOING INTO A TRANCE.

Here again the statement could be applied accurately to certain systems of meditation, but not to vipassana. Insight meditation is not a form of hypnosis. You are not trying to black out your mind so as to become unconscious, or trying to turn yourself into an emotionless vegetable. If anything, the reverse is true: you will become more and more attuned to your own emotional changes. You will learn to know yourself with ever greater clarity and precision. In learning this technique, certain states do occur that may appear trancelike to the observer. But they are really quite the opposite. In hypnotic trance, the subject is susceptible to control by another party, whereas in deep concentration, the meditator remains very much under his or her own control. The similarity is superficial, and in any case, the occurrence of these phenomena is not the point of vipassana. As we have said, the deep concentration of jhana is simply a tool or stepping stone on the route to heightened awareness. Vipassana, by definition, is the cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. If you find that you are becoming unconscious in meditation, then you aren't meditating, according to the definition of that word as used in the vipassana system.
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MISCONCEPTION 3: MEDITATION IS A MYSTERIOUS

PRACTICE THAT CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD.
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Here again, this is almost true, but not quite. Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that lie deeper than conceptual thought. Therefore, some of the experiences of meditation just won't fit into words. That does not mean, however, that meditation cannot be understood. There are deeper ways to understand things than by the use of words. You understand how to walk. You probably can't describe the exact order in which your nerve fibers and your muscles contract during that process. But you know how to do it. Meditation needs to be understood that same way-by doing it. It is not something that you can learn in abstract terms, or something to be talked about. It is something to be experienced. Meditation is not a mindless formula that gives automatic and predictable results; you can never really predict exactly what will come up during any particular session. It is an investigation and an experiment, an adventure every time. In fact, this is so true that when you do reach a feeling of predictability and sameness in your practice, you can read that as an indication that you have gotten off track and are headed for stagnation. Learning to look at each second as if it were the first and only second in the universe is essential in vipassana meditation.

MISCONCEPTION 4: THE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION
IS TO BECOME PSYCHIC.

No. The purpose of meditation is to develop awareness. Learning to read minds is not the point. Levitation is not the goal. The goal is liberation. There is a link between psychic phenomena and meditation, but the relationship is complex. During early stages of the meditator's career, such phenomena mayor may not arise. Some people may experience some intuitive understanding or memories from past lives; others do not. In any case, these phenomena are not regarded as well-developed and reliable psychic abilities, and they should not be given undue importance. Such phenomena are in fact fairly dangerous to new meditators in that they are quite seductive. They can be an ego trap, luring you right off the track. Your best approach is not to place any emphasis on these phenomena. If they come up, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine, too. There is a point in the meditator's career where he or she may practice special exercises to develop psychic powers. But this occurs far down the line. Only after the meditator has reached a very deep stage of jhana will he or she be advanced enough to work with such powers without the danger of their running out of control or taking over his or her life. The meditator will then develop them strictly for the purpose of service to others. In most cases, this state of affairs occurs only after decades of practice. Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on developing more and more awareness. If voices and visions pop up, just notice them and let them go. Don't get involved.

MISCONCEPTION 5: MEDITATION IS DANGEROUS,
AND A PRUDENT PERSON SHOULD AVOID IT.
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Everything is dangerous. Walk across the street and you may get hit by a bus. Take a shower and you could break your neck. Meditate, and you will probably dredge up various nasty matters from your past. The suppressed material that has been buried for quite some time can be scary. But exploring it is also highly profitable. No activity is entirely without risk, but that does not mean that we should wrap ourselves in a protective cocoon. That is not living, but is premature death. The way to deal with danger is to know approximately how much of it there is, where it is likely to be found, and how to deal with it when it arises. That is the purpose of this manual. Vipassana is development of awareness. That in itself is not dangerous; on the contrary, increased awareness is a safeguard against danger. Properly done, meditation is a very gentle and gradual process. Take it slow and easy, and the development of your practice will occur very naturally. Nothing should be forced. Later, when you are under the close scrutiny and protective wisdom of a competent teacher, you can accelerate your rate of growth by taking a period of intensive meditation. In the beginning, though, easy does it. Work gently and everything will be fine.
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MISCONCEPTION 6: MEDITATION IS FOR SAINTS
AND SADHUS, NOT FOR REGULAR PEOPLE.

This attitude is very prevalent in Asia, where monks and holy men are accorded an enormous amount of ritualized reverence, somewhat akin to the American attitude of idolizing movie stars and baseball heroes. Such people are stereotyped, made larger than life, and saddled with all sorts of characteristics that few human beings can ever live up to. Even in the West, we share some of this attitude about meditation. We expect the meditator to be an extraordinarily pious figure in whose mouth butter would never dare to melt. A little personal contact with such people will quickly dispel this illusion. They usually prove to be people of enormous energy and gusto, who live their lives with amazing vigor.
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There are three integral factors in Buddhist meditation-morality, concentration, and wisdom. These three factors grow together as your practice deepens. Each one influences the other, so you cultivate the three of them at once, not separately. When you have the wisdom to truly understand a situation, compassion toward all parties involved is automatic, and compassion means that you automatically restrain yourself from any thought, word, or deed that might harm yourself or others; thus, your behavior is automatically moral. It is only when you don't understand things deeply that you create problems. If you fail to see the consequences of your actions, you will blunder. The person who waits to become totally moral before he begins to meditate is waiting for a situation that will never arise. The ancient sages say this person is like a man waiting for the ocean to become calm so that he can take a bath.
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To understand this relationship more fully, let us propose that there are levels of morality. The lowest level is adherence to a set of rules and regulations laid down by somebody else. It could be your favorite prophet. It could be the state, the head of your tribe, or a parent. No matter who generates the rules, all you have to do at this level is know the rules and follow them. A robot can do that. Even a trained chimpanzee could do it, if the rules were simple enough and he were smacked with a stick every time he broke one. This level requires no meditation at all. All you need are the rules and somebody to swing the stick.
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The next level of morality consists of obeying the same rules even in the absence of somebody who will smack you. You obey because you have internalized the rules. You smack yourself every time you break one. This level requires a bit of mind control. But if your thought pattern is chaotic, your behavior will be chaotic, too. Mental cultivation reduces mental chaos.
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There is a third level of morality, which might better be termed as "ethics." This level is a quantum leap up the scale from the first two levels, a complete shift in orientation. At the level of ethics, a person does not follow hard and fast rules dictated by authority. A person chooses to follow a path dictated by mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion. This level requires real intelligence, and an ability to juggle all the factors in every situation to arrive at a unique, creative, and appropriate response each time. Furthermore, the individual making these decisions needs to have dug him- or herself out of a limited personal viewpoint. The person has to see the entire situation from an objective point of view, giving equal weight to his or her own needs and those of others. In other words, he or she has to be free from greed, hatred, envy, and all the other selfish junk that ordinarily keeps us from seeing the other person's side of the issue. Only then can he or she choose the precise set of actions that will be truly optimal for that situation. This level of morality absolutely demands meditation, unless you were born a saint. There is no other way to acquire the skill. Furthermore, the sorting process required at this level is exhausting. If you tried to juggle all those factors in every situation with your conscious mind, you'd overload yourself. The intellect just can't keep that many balls in the air at once. Luckily, a deeper level of consciousness can do this sort of processing with ease. Meditation can accomplish the sorting process for you. It is an eerie feeling.
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One day you've got a problem-let's say, to handle Uncle Herman's latest divorce. It looks absolutely unsolvable, an enormous muddle of "maybes" that would give King Solomon himself a headache. The next day you are washing the dishes, thinking about something else entirely, and suddenly the solution is there. It just pops out of the deep mind, and you say, "Ah ha!" and the whole thing is solved. This sort of intuition can only occur when you disengage the logic circuits from the problem and give the deep mind the opportunity to cook up the solution. The conscious mind just gets in the way. Meditation teaches you how to disentangle yourself from the thought process. It is the mental art of stepping out of your own way, and that's a pretty useful skill in everyday life. Meditation is certainly not an irrelevant practice strictly for ascetics and hermits. It is a practical skill that focuses on everyday events and has immediate applications in everybody's life. Meditation is not "other-worldly."

Unfortunately, this very fact constitutes the drawback for certain students. They enter the practice expecting instantaneous cosmic revelation, complete with angelic choirs. What they usually get is a more efficient way to take out the trash and better ways to deal with Uncle Herman. They are needlessly disappointed. The trash solution comes first. The voices of archangels take a bit longer.

MISCONCEPTION 7: MEDITATION IS RUNNING
AWAY FROM REALITY.
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Incorrect. Meditation is running straight into reality. It does not insulate you from the pain of life but rather allows you to delve so deeply into life and all its aspects that you pierce the pain barrier and go beyond suffering. Vipassana is a practice done with the specific intention of facing reality, to fully experience life just as it is and to cope with exactly what you find. It allows you to blow aside the illusions and free yourself from all the polite little lies you tell yourself all the time. What is there is there. You are who you are, and lying to yourself about your own weaknesses and motivations only binds you tighter to them. Vipassana meditation is not an attempt to forget yourself or to cover up your troubles. It is learning to look at yourself exactly as you are to see what is there and accept it fully. Only then can you change it.
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MISCONCEPTION 8: MEDITATION IS A GREAT WAY
TO GET HIGH.

Well, yes and no. Meditation does produce lovely blissful feelings sometimes. But they are not the purpose, and they don't always occur. Furthermore, if you do meditation with that purpose in mind, they are less likely to occur than if you just meditate for the actual purpose of meditation, which is increased awareness. Bliss results from relaxation, and relaxation results from release of tension. Seeking bliss from meditation introduces tension into the process, which blows the whole chain of events. It is a Catch-22: you can only experience bliss if you don't chase after it. Euphoria is not the purpose of meditation. It will often arise, but should be regarded as a byproduct. Still, it is a very pleasant side effect, and it becomes more and more frequent the longer you meditate. You won't hear any disagreement about this from advanced practitioners.
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MISCONCEPTION 9: MEDITATION IS SELFISH.

It certainly looks that way. There sits the meditator parked on a little cushion. Is she out donating blood? No. Is she busy working with disaster victims? No. But let us examine her motivation. Why is she doing this? The meditator's intention is to purge her own mind of anger, prejudice, and ill will, and she is actively engaged in the process of getting rid of greed, tension, and insensitivity. Those are the very items that obstruct her compassion for others. Until they are gone, any good works that she does are likely to be just an extension of her own ego, and of no real help in the long run. Harm in the name of help is one of the oldest games. The grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition spouted the loftiest of motives. The Salem witchcraft trials were conducted for the "public good." Examine the personal lives of advanced meditators, and you will often find them engaged in humanitarian service. You will seldom find them as crusading missionaries who are willing to sacrifice certain individuals for the sake of a supposedly pious idea. The fact is that we are more selfish than we know. The ego has a way of turning the loftiest activities into trash if it is allowed free range. Through meditation, we become aware of ourselves exactly as we are, by waking up to the numerous subtle ways that we act out our own selfishness. Then we truly begin to be genuinely selfless. Cleansing yourself of selfishness is not a selfish activity.
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MISCONCEPTION 10: WHEN YOU MEDITATE,
YOU SIT AROUND THINKING LOFTY THOUGHTS.

Wrong again. There are certain systems of contemplation in which this sort of thing is done. But that is not vipassana. Vipassana is the practice of awareness, awareness of whatever is there, be it supreme truth or trivial trash. What is there, is there. Of course, lofty thoughts may arise during your practice. They are certainly not to be avoided. Neither are they to be sought. They are just pleasant side effects. Vipassana is a simple practice. It consists of experiencing your own life events directly, without preferences and without mental images pasted onto them. Vipassana is seeing your life unfold from moment to moment without biases. What comes up, comes up. It is very simple.
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MISCONCEPTION I I: A COUPLE OF WEEKS OF MEDITATION
AND ALL MY PROBLEMS WILL GO AWAY.

Sorry, meditation is not a quick cure-all. Youwill start seeing changes right away, but really profound effects are years down the line. That is just the way the universe is constructed. Nothing worthwhile is achieved overnight. Meditation is tough in some respects, requiring a long discipline and a sometimes painful process of practice. At each sitting you gain some results, but they are often very subtle. They occur deep within the mind, and only manifest much later. And if you are sitting there constantly looking for huge, instantaneous changes, you will miss the subtle shifts altogether. You will get discouraged, give up, and swear that no such changes could ever occur. Patience is the key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. Patience is essential for any profound change.

(From Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana)

Meditation 1

2007-07-26T02:01:00.000-07:00

day 1
thought webs
the importance of focus
You can't stop the birds from flying back and forth over your head, but you can stop them from nesting in your hair. - S. Francis

Today you are going to try one of the simplest forms of meditation there is. In the meditation you won't be attempting to go beyond your thoughts, fight against them, or experience anything in particular, but instead you will simply try to get a feel for letting them come and go without attachment. We are not our thoughts.
Our thoughts are only products of our mind. They pull at us and enchant us incessantly, trapping us in a mental word web. We feel as if we are one with them, as if we are our thoughts. Today, quite simply, you are going to question this belief.
Beyond all our thoughts but still within our minds, there is a quiet place, much as a busy city might have a tranquil park within its boundaries. To those living in the rush of city life, such a park may go unnoticed as they speed right past it without so much as a sideward glance. The busy inhabitants have no time to stop and explore. But for those who do, great rewards await.
Once today set aside about five minutes of your time to rest your body and mind. Don't expect too much. Don't even try to understand the purpose behind the exercise. You need not feel stress over anything in this practice. Don't worry about whether or not you are doing the exercise correctly. Just relax and do your best to apply the following:

1. Sit down, make yourself comfortable, and close your eyes.
2. Take several deep, relaxing breaths. Feel the air fill your lungs from the bottom up, holding it for a few seconds before you exhale in one long, extended stream.
3. Relax your body. Take a few moments to get a sense of relaxation in your muscles, letting all the tension drop away as if it were flooding out of you and into the air. Relax your neck and shoulders, your arms and hands, your chest, stomach, and back, and finally your thighs, calves, and feet.
4. Now think to yourself, "I think, but I am not my thoughts." This is your focus sentence. Use it as a focus for your meditation, repeating as often as needed to keep your mind focused on these words instead of the chatter.
5. Between repetitions of the focus sentence, try, as best you can, to observe your thoughts without interacting with them. For instance, if a thought about work occurs to you, you might be tempted to dwell on it or to follow its course to another related thought such as plans for the weekend, when you don't have to work. Instead, when you notice that you are engaging with a thought, stop, note the thought, and then return your attention to the focus sentence. Sometimes you will be successful and sometimes not; in either case another thought will follow. Just continue the process with each new thought.
6. Whenever you realize that you've forgotten about your meditation and have let your mind engage with a thought -- which is likely to be much more often than not -- interrupt your train of thought by repeating your focus sentence, more than once if need be. Think it clearly in your mind, focus on it, and then return to the attempt to let your thoughts drift by passively.Be calm and gentle but also very firm with yourself on this point. Continually redirecting your focus to the meditation -- letting thoughts rise and disappear -- is the whole point of today's exercise. The function of the focus sentence is just to remind you of your meditation. The function of the focus sentence is just to remind you of your meditation.

Parenting Mindfully 5

2007-07-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Parenting Mindfully 5

As a mother of young children Chittaprabha, from the Western Buddhist Order, was a committed meditator, rising early in the morning and, when her children were older, attending weekend or week-long retreats. She insists that she was able to be a far better mother by taking this time.

Meditation is a way not only to attend to my own needs but to develop an awareness of others so that I can participate in all that I do in a more positive and creative way. Becoming more aware of the broader meaning of my life and of my true nature leads to a deeper sense of joy, contentment and equanimity from which everyone around me benefits.

The aim is to take the awareness that we develop through meditation and allow it to permeate our whole life. As a mother such awareness helped me to see how I interacted with my children and the effects of my actions. So instead of repeating mistakes in an old habitual manner I could use awareness to bring about positive change and let go of a fixed and unchanging way of parenting.

Being a parent can be a very important and enriching aspect of our lives, but our lives go beyond this. If I devoted all my attention to my children’s desires, I would only be focussed on my immediate world and I’d be giving up the opportunity to become a true individual. When I embraced the wider perspective available through meditation I became more creative, free and responsive to the whole of life around me and less grasping and attached to my children and the things that brought me pleasure.

The pleasure of loving and interacting spontaneously with children lessened if I tried to hold on too tightly. So I’ve always tried to seek a range of wholesome sourses of pleasure, at the same time avoiding any grasping attachment to those pleasures.

Her two daughters, Michelle and Cara, laugh as they remember telling their mother at times throughout their childhood, ‘Mum, I think it’s time for you to go on another retreat.’ Amusingly, many Buddhist parents report that it’s often their children who remind them to take some time to meditate.

Chittaprabha also makes the point that to raise responsible, considerate children we need to teach them awareness and respect for the needs of others, including those of their parents. Although this is trickier when our children are young and egocentric, eventually they need to understand our need for some space to ourselves.

Chittaprabha urges all mothers to find some time every day, even if it’s one minute, to reflect on something higher than themselves and their immediate lives:

We make some time in each day where we can aspire to be our greatest selves. It might be a time to read and reflect on a short verse. We might light some candles or incense to offer to the Buddha. Or we meditate. And if we are not making this time we could ask ourselves what will inspire us to do so? For some it might be nature. Or it could be reading? Talking to our spiritual friends? Involvement in a spiritual community?

It’s worth remembering that in developing mindfulness, we might gain more time in our day. As we’ve discussed, with a more focussed and clear mind we use our time more effectively, and find more energy. Many meditators claim they can survive on less sleep, the deep levels of concentration they attain in meditation providing a higher quality of rest. (excerpt from Buddhism for Mother)

retreat: khóa ẩn tu.
positive: tích cực.
equanimity: bình thản.
contentment: vừa lòng.
permeate: thấm nhuần.
interacted: đối xử với nhau.
perspective: cách nhìn, viễn cảnh.
attached: chấp thủ (thuật ngữ)
trickier: rắc rối hơn, khó khăn hơn.
egocentric: vị kỷ.
verse: khổ thơ.

Parenting Mindfully 4

2007-07-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

Giac Ngo English Club - Parenting Mindfully 4
Research & Production: 2007.Jul.14.Sun.11h45-18h36Author: AD Marshall Presentation: 2007.Jul.21.Sun.15h00-15h45

The purposes of this session of Parenting Mindfully are to review the vocabulary covered in earlier sessions in a new context of mindful parenting and add some more to your vocabulary.
To this end, the Giac Ngo E-Club's Assistant Andi Marshall has written the discussion below using all of the vocabulary you previously learned, in the order that you learned it. See the earlier sessions presented on this blog, below, the those sessions and their vocabulary lists.
Note: Andi wants to point out, before you read, that he is not a Buddhist scholar or teacher and you should decide for yourself whether the opinions expressed below are reasonable or not. The primary purpose of the following discussion is to exercise your vocabulary, not to provide a well-researched, scholarly text.

To parent mindfully one should carefully use childcare to anticipate children's need to notice that welcoming hugs can come from those besides their parents and immediate family -- even from cats, dogs, cockroaches, full-grown tigers and various viruses they are sure to meet -- thus helping each child learn to positively engage all the new things and changes they will forever meet, both within and outside themselves, over every moment of their lives.

Of course, Engaged Buddhist parents should also not forget to tell and show their children that welcoming hugs can be also be hurtful, like that of the spider embracing a fly and that sometimes one must also embrace those who are irritable or lethargic, including one's self, instead of only welcoming those things they feel are exquisite, hilarious or comforting.

The Engaged Buddhist parent should know or learn themselves the sheer, extraordinary miracle of affording a welcoming embrace to every moment, mood and thing they meet in their lives. If they do not, their children will notice and follow their actions, not their lessons or words.
Practicing Buddhism is to mentally strive on a spiritual journey. It is constantly, rigorously fantacizing and engaging whatever is exciting and stimulating in everything one meets, instead of submitting to the pressures from one's society or economy apparently requiring one to become a repetitive zombie. It is yanking one's self consciously back into an awareness of the exquisite or hilarious aspects of every thing, even things that at first seem bad, until that awareness becomes almost always automatic.

In every society, ripening children will be mercilessly expected to meet the standards and expectations of whoever happens to be in power. Mindful parents will support their children with compassion for their struggles and fears about meeting such expectations and not berate or recriminate them when they cannot. Mindful parents strive to never be unhelpful and instead encourage their children to forge ahead, even unnoticed -- maybe even better unnoticed -- approaching everything they meet as a positive engagement. They are gentle, patient and persistent in teaching their children to memorize this approach to life, not only with their minds but with their bodies as well, for this is the ultimate lesson of self-sufficiency.

Finally, Engaged Buddhist parents must also always remember that children raised by people who enjoy what Christians call "sinning" have almost always ended up as teenagers who are on sight noticed more for their flaws than for their either knowing or being able to offer acceptance of others, for what each of us is, from a positive perspective. These are flaws that, themselves, almost always lead to more suffering than even that that one must expect from being an almost limitless being caged within a limited body that will forever want or need more than food, clothing or shelter until it dies and releases the being it houses.

English-Vietnamese Glossary
New
carefully: phó từ, cẩn thận, chu đáo
cockroaches: danh từ, (động vật học) con gián
various: tính từ, khác nhau; nhiều thứ khác nhau
virus: danh từ, (y học) virut
positively: phó từ, xác thực, rõ ràng; quả quyết, khẳng định, chắc chắn; tích cực; tuyệt đối
moment: danh từ, chốc, lúc, lát
hurtful: tính từ, có hại, gây tổn hại, gây tổn thương
embrace: danh từ, sự ôm, cái ôm, (nói trại) sự ăn nằm với nhau; ngoại động từ, ôm, ôm chặt, ghì chặt, nắm lấy (thời cơ...); đi theo (đường lối, đảng phái, sự nghiệp...); gồm, bao gồm; bao quát (nhìn, nắm)
self: danh từ, bản thân mình, cái tôi
mood: danh từ, tâm trạng; tính khí, tâm tính, tính tình
submit: nội động từ, chịu, cam chịu, quy phục
pressure: danh từ, sức ép, áp lực ((nghĩa đen) & (nghĩa bóng)), áp suất
society: danh từ, xã hội
economy: danh từ, sự quản lý kinh tế; nền kinh tế; tổ chức kinh tế
apparently: phó từ, nhìn bên ngoài, hình như
aspect: danh từ, khía cạnh; mặt
struggle: danh từ, sự đấu tranh; cuộc đấu tranh, cuộc chiến đấu
encourage: ngoại động từ, làm can đảm, làm mạnh dạn; khuyến khích, cổ vũ, động viên; giúp đỡ, ủng hộ
ultimate: tính từ, cuối cùng, sau cùng, chót
perspective: danh từ, luật xa gần; phối cảnh; tranh vẽ luật xa gần; hình phối cảnh; cảnh trông xa; (nghĩa bóng) viễn cảnh, triển vọng; tương lai, tiến độ
suffering: danh từ, sự đau đớn, sự đau khổ
limitless: tính từ, vô hạn
limited: tính từ, có hạn, hạn chế, hạn định
being: danh từ, sinh vật; con người; sự tồn tại; sự sống; bản chất; thể chất
shelter: danh từ, chỗ che, chỗ nương tựa, chỗ ẩn, chỗ núp, hầm; lầu, chòi; phòng, cabin (người lái)
houses: ngoại động từ, đón tiếp (ai) ở nhà; cho ở, cho trọ, chưa (ai...) trong nhà; cất vào kho; lùa (súc vật) vào chuồng

03-ParentingMindfully 3

2007-07-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Gentle, patient and persistent

ripe: đến lúc, hợp thời.
mercilessly: không thương tiếc.
standards: chuẩn mực.
expectations: kỳ vọng.
support: ủng hộ, nâng đở.
compassion: đồng cảm, (thuật ngữ) lòng từ.
berate: nhiếc mắng.
recrimination: đổ lỗi.
unhelpful: vô dụng.
forge ahead: diễn tiến, đi đến.
unnoticed: không bị để ý.
approach: tiếp cận, ứng đối.
gentle: nhẹ nhàng.
patient: nhẫn nại.
persistent: kiên trì.
memorise: ghi nhớ.
self-sufficiency: tự đầy đủ, (thuật ngữ) tự tại.
Raised: được nuôi dưỡng.
sinning: phạm tội.
ended up: kết thúc.
teenager: thiếu thời.
on sight: ngay khi thấy.
flaws: khuyết điểm.
acceptance: chấp nhận.

02-ParentingMindfully 2

2007-07-08T02:53:00.000-07:00

What do Buddhist mothers say?

One significant effect that practising Buddhism can have on our life is that we might actually be there for it. As our life unfolds, rather than being mentally elsewhere, as we usually are, we strive to be present in the here and now... Anne, the mother of two young daughters:

Buddhism helps me to see motherhood as a spiritual journey. At the worst of times, I can remind myself that parenting is practice and practice of the most rigorous kind. My children are my teachers repeatedly forcing me to live in the present moment and give up fantasising about all the exciting and stimulating things I could be doing.

As a mother you constantly need to ask the questions: ‘What does this moment require?’ and ‘What is important here?’On bad days I notice my daughters automatically repeating themselves as though they know I’am a distant zombie who’s not quite there with them. When this happens I know to yank myself back into the present and give them close attention. Following Buddhist teachings I’m likely to parent consciously and with awareness of what the present moment requires rather than allowing my children to become the victims of my automatic reactions.

Notes: The following words is rather considered to be meaningful than new.

practising Buddhism: (thuật ngữ) tu tập theo Phật giáo
mentally: (thuật ngữ) về phương diện tâm thức.
strive: nổ lực
spiritual journey: (thuật ngữ) con đường tâm linh
rigorous: tinh tấn.
fantasising: mộng tưởng, (thuật ngữ) vọng tưởng.
exciting: kích thích.
stimulating: làm cho bị khích động.
constantly: một cách thường xuyên.
require: yêu cầu.
repeating: lập lại một hành vi hay một lời nói.
zombie: ‘người vô hồn’, somebody unresponsive or unthinking: somebody who lacks energy, enthusiasm, or the ability to think independently (informal)
yank: giật phắt lại/đi.
consciously: tỉnh giác, (thuật ngữ) chú tâm cảnh giác.
awareness: ý thức, (thuật ngữ) chánh niệm tỉnh giác.
automatic: tự động, (thuật ngữ) thất niệm.

News01: End and Start

2007-06-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

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On June 2, 2007, the English Club at Giac Ngo Weekly celebrated the term 3’s ending with Mr. Bong representative of Giac Ngo, Ven. Thich Minh Thanh leader and other members. After the short talk by Ven. Thich Minh Thanh, Mr. Bong expressed his interest in participating the club and suggested a number of measures for its advertisement. The next term is scheduled to start on June 23, 2007 with the motto: “Use Western sharp of ideation to explore the depth of Buddhist ideology”
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Welcome all who are in love with Buddhism in English.
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For any futher information, please feel free to contact: thichminhthanh@gmail.com

01-ParentingMindfully

2007-06-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

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I love picking Zac up from childcare at the end of a day. The delicious anticipation as I walk from the car and through the centre, seeing his face light up when he notices me, dissolving into his welcoming hug -- this is a joyful experience where my mind is completely engaged in the present moment.
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The next day at home with him I find myself restless and irritable or lethargic from the slowness of time. In such a state I can be blind to how exquisite he looks, his hilarious remarks, and the sheer miracle that his life is. He is a blessing, an extraordinary gift. By watching him more closely as often as possible and studying who he has become in each new moment, I afford myself a richer and more satisfying experience of motherhood.

Vocabulary (explained for this context)
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to parent: làm cha mẹ
mindfully: (thuật ngữ) một cách tỉnh giác
childcare: nhà trẻ
anticipation: thấy chắc điều sẽ xảy ra
to notice: nhận thấy
welcoming hug: mừng đón bằng cách ôm nhau ở phương Tây
to engage: nhập vào.
Engaged Buddhism: (thuật ngữ) Phật giáo nhập thế
irritable: bực bội
lethargic: lừ đừ
exquisite: tuyệt vời
hilarious: bông đùa
sheer: thuần
miracle: điều mầu nhiệm
extraordinary: độc đáo
to afford: làm cho có được
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Some more new words
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re·hash:
tr.v. re·hashed, re·hash·ing, re·hash·es
To bring forth again in another form without significant alteration: rehashing old ideas.
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bliss: n.
1. Extreme happiness; ecstasy.
2. The ecstasy of salvation; spiritual joy.
To go into a state of ecstasy.
blissful adj.
blissful·ly adv.
blissful·ness n.
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haze 1: n.
1. Atmospheric moisture, dust, smoke, and vapor that diminishes visibility.
2. A vague or confused state of mind.
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Deeper Buddhist relevances and analytical explanations will be offered during the respective club’s sessions.