සතිපට්ඨාන දෙසුම්පෙල

 බුද්ධ දර්ශනයේ හදවත ලෙසින් හදුන්වන, මහා කාරුණික බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ විසින් දේශනා කොට වදාළ ඒ උතුම් සතිපට්ඨාන සූත්‍රය පදනම් කරගත් දේශනා පෙළකි.... මෙහිදී ප්‍රායෝගිකව සිහිය දියුණු කිරීම (අපක්ෂපාතී නිරීක්ෂණය) සඳහා උපදෙස් ලබාදීම මෙන්ම එහිදී මතුවන ගැටළු සාකච්ඡාවට ලක්කිරීම සිදුකරයි. එමගින් ආධ්‍යාත්මික මෙන්ම සාමාජීය වශයෙන් ද චෛතසික  වර්ධනයක් ඇතිකිරීම දෙසුම් පෙලෙහි පරමාර්ථයයි.. 

01. සතිමත් බව මූලිකව හැදින්වීම

English Translation

Sathi or mindfulness in daily life

What I would like to explain and stress today is the importance of the development and practise of mindfulness or awareness in our day to day life. When I embarked on this life as a Bikkhu I did not exactly know the importance or significance of meditation. It was apparent that meditation had its importance but I did not have the correct idea as to what it was exactly. Therefore, later I tried and made an effort to practise different kinds of meditation. While practising I realised that these different types of meditation were beneficial to me. Sometimes I had no confidence in my meditation and this is when I had the opportunity to travel overseas and to improve on my meditation and I was slowly able to move away from the idea that meditation should only be practised in the sitting or walking postures. Now today I am giving this talk as I was requested to explain the meditation process correctly. Our practise should cover every aspect of our lives and then we can feel and understand the value of meditation. The importance of mindfulness became apparent to me. There is no particular environment for this practise. In the Maha Sathipattana Sutta AN 2…. The Supreme Buddha clearly states that mindfulness must be practised in all for postures ie. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down. Athapi, (ardently with effort) Sampajano ( with clear knowledge of impermanence) Sathima ( mindfully). We must focus on the development of mindfulness at every moment in our day to day life. This mindfulness is not only when you sit down to meditate. When you wake up make it a part of your life habit by first being mindful of getting out of bed, going to the toilet, brushing your teeth and washing. Then changing eating etc. Be mindful of thoughts, deeds and acts. I tried different types of meditation but could not see any particular development or improvement in my practise. Then I started to practise meditation in my daily routine and started to feel some satisfaction or joy. We could be of any age,any state of health,happy or unhappy whoever we are without any argument there are only 3 methods of doing things. ie Thinking, speaking action. Sitha, Kaya Vachana. It is good if we can perceive these actions at a gross level first. Ie where we can see or grasp it then we can be mindful of that easily. It is easy to be mindful of an action at the gross level. My example was to practice this when I have my tea. My teacher Ven Katukurunde Achara Thera said that his teacher was the Ekel broom. I mindfully pick the cup up and mindfully place it down. I could do this fast slowly softly or noisily. If I am to do it softly and slowly it must be with that action at that time together with the act. Therefore I suggest that to be awakened to meditation you must be aware of any act you perform or thought you think. Think about it carefully, mindfully with awareness. Then what we do regularly habitually with time we are able to do things mindfully with awareness. Because when we have a certain habit pattern we may do things wrongfully with anger derision etc. When we wear our slippers dress ourselves for eg. Do it methodically. Have a place and method for everything. In the Sathipattana sutta the Supreme Buddha states Ekayano Ayam Bhikkave Maggo Saththanam visuddhiyam - There is only one direct path for the purification of an individual. What is this purification? Shoka Paridevamaya samathikkamaya -for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation. Dukka Domanassanam Attangamaya – for the alleviation of pain and suffering whether in the mind or body. Gnayassa Adhikamaya - to understand the true nature of this world. Nibbanassa Sachchi kiriyacha - to attain Nirvana. There is only one method to attain this goal and that is only by the establishing of mindfulness or Sathi. Then by being mindful we will be able to open up every aspect of our lives and remove all problems sorrows in our lives and have happiness or peace and this is what we must be skilful at. Be in the moment. When we touch something we can feel the nature of that object be it light or heavy, cold or hot we should be able to feel that element that coldness or heat alone, in that second we are free of all other thoughts and expectations and we see things as they are and we are in mindfulness at that second because we don’t attribute other thoughts feelings desires anger etc to the object at that time. Most of the time we have no answer to our problems. We keep thinking and rethinking but by this meditation if we are mindful we can be without other feelings attached to that issue. This is the Dhamma the truth and is not affiliated to any religious belief. It is like the parable of the lotus bloom which originates in dirt and mud which lives on and is nourished by this dirt and mud but comes through all this. The lotus bloom cuts through and presents itself as a beautiful flower untouched by all the mud that was around and was immersed in. We must make this our life and this is the path we follow. We must do things knowingly with awareness. This is following the Noble Eightfold Path But be careful we must not practise this every minute of the day to start with as that would be incorrect practise. We should start doing this initially for 5 or 10 minutes of the day at different times initially and increase it according to each person’s development. Our mind and thoughts will guide us and show us the efficacy of mindfulness and the drawbacks of rushing around. We must choose and object for this. As I have mentioned you can use the setting down of a cup. If we put down a cup noisily this tells many things that we did not like the tea anger that we are putting down someone who made it etc and several negativities. But if we put it down with mindfulness then it shows that we are person who is not angry but is calm and collected and does not give vent to bad feelings we carry with us. We can see this for ourselves. This is mindfulness meditation. If we have done something wrong due to our samsaric habit pattern as that is our default mode, ie utter a harsh word or perform an unwholesome act I invite you to correct yourself by re- performing that wrongful act or thought and do it correctly. Once we recognise the wrong nature of the act we can correct it instantly by apologising or performing the incorrect act correctly. If we take the example of the cup we can immediately replace the cup again slowly softly and apologise that we made a mistake and seek forgiveness for the wrongful act. When you wake up be mindful when getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, going to the toilet, changing, eating etc. The reason is that everything we do is imprinted in our mind as a memory and we give effect to everything that is in our mind, in our body and our true nature comes out and we know only to do what is habitual without thinking. This is the truth of what happens in our mind. My suggestion is that we must teach our mind that there is a way of doing this act correctly. Thancha kammang katham Paapang kusalena pitiyathi soman lokam pabasethi abaamuththo Chandima. The Buddha has not shut out those who do wrong yes He has said correct yourself and refrain from wrongful acts and thoughts . See historically it is mainly those who have done wrong who were taught that they can do good at any time. The Supreme Buddha has taught us the method to correct ourselves and that is by the practise of Sathipattana. Be mindful and practise with effort. We are now paving the way for Sathipattana. If we know how to be in the moment knowing the flavour scent or nature of the object of our awareness now we move to be aware of what we do. This is not possible always but suddenly if we make wrong speech we can then correct our speech if we are aware. Do not think that the words are spoken and over with but if we want to remedy or treat the problem seek forgiveness. Whether that person to whom the wrong or harsh words were spoken to will fix it up or not is up to them. We can treat it not by patching it over but by actually treating it. For example if we have a wound but only just cover it up the wound will not heal but if we treat the wound with the correct medicine eg by apologising and seeking forgiveness then we can remedy it and heal it completely. We will be at peace as we have now learnt to correct our wrongdoings by our mindfulness and knowledge that we have done a wrongful act. The wrong is corrected by the correct act. This is important for meditation. In this way if we continue are actions we turn and wrong actions or way of life to right actions. This mindfulness adorns all aspects of our life. Only by training our mind is that we see our shortcomings and change and correct our wrongs and go from the wrong Noble eightfold Path the Right Noble Eightfold Path. Then in our daily life we think or ponder more. My suggestion is that reflect only when you are not doing anything else. Knowingly reflect with concentrated thought. If we do this before meditation we learn to practice mindfulness always not only when sitting down or walking. The person who practises this mindfulness always finds it easy to meditate. Choose a quiet place and sit with freedom and forget all views preferences etc with the mindset that we have all the time in the world no time constraints and without any thought that I must concentrate on my breath etc. Just think that I must be mindful. Sit, make your body light wear loose clothes and when you stay a moment quietly you may feel your mind wandering to the sounds you hear. Let the sounds be and listen as it is a present sound not a past or future sound as you are now in that present moment. Once you listen and accept the sound with a mind of loving kindness a Maithri mind then that thought that this sound is an obstacle goes away. If we had a view that meditation was only to seek and observe the breath then this view has changed that meditation is only doing what` I` strive to do then this changes and we now touch on Anaathma. Also if we let our mind go let it go as that is the nature of the mind. The mind is a thinking thing. Anger is something that turns round and round and is normal, natural. A kitten is a playful animal so is a child. Our mind is the same not focused. The mind s medium is to follow thoughts. First follow this without anger and ill will. When you see that your mind is wandering it is because you are mindful. If your mind wanders accept but do not follow each thought. Knowingly change your posture or focus on the sound. If you only hear the sound or the mind is wandering then you accept the fact that your mind is wandering and do not compete, accept it. It is good to accept the sound and as I said earlier it is easy to accept the gross feeling and then if we accept that our thoughts wander that is easier to accept that our thoughts wander and then go to the sound and accept the sound. If we feel a part of our body go to that spot eg head, hand, sitting place, any feeling, heat, perspiration pain etc. Does not matter what you feel try to take your mind to that feeling or thing. Now we learn to be mindful with the knowledge of our wandering mind. Because your mind wanders we go ahead with our meditation. We are practising the Noble Eightfold Path of Anaththa sanna, that we have no control over our mind and that there is notion of “ I” “I am” “ Myself”. How do we cultivate Anaththa Sanna by cultivating Samatha and Vipassana. Try to meditate at least a short time every day and remember your experiences and if possible note it down and read it the next time and you will see yourself as to how you can improve. You will feel calm and peace.