Thursday, July 22, 2010

PDF ebook on Phra Aj. Mun

I just stumbled upon a English book on biography of Phra Ajahn Mun from the link below. Link in the page is called "Acariya Mun Bhuridhatta", quite an accurate transcription of Pali into English.

I have had a Thai printed version. I admire his life. Now I have English version in ebook format. I am delighted that English-speaking people of the World have a chance to learn of of his life from this ebook.

webpage

However, I don't think that there are that many wise people out there who might be interested in Buddhism and wanting to read about life of a late forest monk, despite the fact that he is among the greatest Theravada monks.


Saturday, July 17, 2010

Bhavana & Kammathana


Bhavana means dhamma (natural entity) that should be developed (in the mind)

Pali explanation: "Bhavetabbhati Bhavana", Dhamma that Pundits should make them prosper at first and then successively so that they continue as a habit until they have further developed, thus is called Bhavana.

Kammathana has 2 Pali roots, Kamma + Thana.

Pali explanation: "Kiriya Kammang", the action is called Kamma.
"Tithati Aetati thanang", Samatha and Vipassana meditations need to establish an object (in the mind), such as Kasina (image), and Nama - Rupa, thus an object is called Thana (foundation).

For laypersons' speaks, Bhavana means an act of conducting either Samatha meditation (seeking internal quiet peace), or Vipassana (seeking to wisely see things clearly as they are). One can say either that "I regularly conduct a Bhavana" or "I regularly conduct a Kamamathana", which essentially means the same as "I regularly conduct meditation".

Buddha taught 40 different ways to meditate, "40 Kammathana". I 've mentioned of Buddhanusati and Morananusati in previous posts.
(Note: variations using mixed ways is practically acceptable in Thailand. I personally meditate using mixed types. I will elaborate it later.)

Morananusati


Morananusati has following Pali roots: Morana = death, anusati = small recall, reminder

Another way to meditate is to ponder about death. Buddha once said to Anandha, according to Tipitaka, that it is not good enough to think of death a hundred times a day, he himself had awareness of death during every breathing.

The picture shows a unique Buddha image posture not found elsewhere, the cremation posture. From Tipitake, cremation of Buddha was put on hold for 7 days awaiting arrival of Phra Maha Gassapa, a very senior monk. (Phra = Monk) When he arrived near Kusinara, and proceeded to pay homage to Buddha's body, his feets protruded from the bandaged white clothes to accept the homage. Soon flame erupted to cremate the Buddha.

The image was taken at a Wat in Pitsanulok, Thailand. I did not write down the name.

Buddhanusati

Buddhanusati comprises of these roots:- Buddha = the one who knows, the observer, the awaken one, the enlighten one. Anusati = small reminder, small recall

One way to meditate is to use Buddhanusati, to deeply appreciate and feel thankful for his life-long efforts toward helping mankind escaping from the birth-death life cycles, which has a lasting effects for billions of people over the past 25 centuries up to now.



The picture shows the Buddha Image for the "First Buddha" at Wat Thasoong's 100 meter long Vihara.

Perhaps I should add that, the time line in Buddhism is infinity. What I means is that there is time beyond the birth of the Universe and time beyond the destruction of the Universe. The Universe started some billions of years ago, and will exist for sometime fore it collapse and terminate. There were infinite number of Universe terminated. And there will be infinite number of the Universe to come. As such, this means that the current Buddha as we know and respect him is among millions of Buddhas, if we would include them all from the past. And there are billions of Bhodisatva awaiting in line to become future Buddhas in the next coming Universe. Nevertheless, some Buddhists believe there is the First Buddha in the far past and highly revere him as well as they revere the current Buddha.

Starting Sotapanna-wise blog

Sotāpanna, or stream enterer, is one who has purified the mind stream sufficiently to a level that its mental stage has irreversibly entered into the stream toward Nirvana (Nibbana), this is in analogy to water entering a stream then flowing into bigger and bigger rivers, and ultimately reaching an ocean. A Sotapanna is still considered a student, called Sekha person, for only an Arahanta or Arahant is one who finished the study and called Asekha person. (Sekha is a Pali term means studying while Asekha means no longer studying)

This blog is aimed to record an internal experience of "someone" during the course of his practical study. Prospectively, the blogs might provide useful insights for someone in the future. If this turns out to be true for "you", "I" would like to congratulate "you" in advance, as it is often said in Pali "Anumodhami, Sathu".

(Note: The concept of "I", "you", "person", etc. are not ultimate truths in Buddhist metaphysics. That 's why I put them in quotes, if I don't forget to put them where they should be, that is.)