dhamma bell summer 08

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Dhamma Bell NewsletterDhamma Bell Newslettershares news twice a year

of Tathgata Meditation Center (Nhu Lai Thin

Vin), which was formed in 1987 as the Vipassan

Meditation Group under the spiritual guidance

of the late Saydawgyi U Slnanda. In 1991, the

group founded a meditation center and named it

Tathgata Meditation Center. All are welcome to

come to Tathgata Meditation Center (TMC) andpractice Satipahna Vipassan meditation.

Newsletter

Issue 3 Summer 2008


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Upcoming Events atTathagata Meditation Center

July 20 VassaCeremony

August 913 Young Adult Retreat

August 1417 Childrens Retreat

September 821 14-day Special Retreatwith Beelin Sayadaw

October 19 KathinaCeremony

November 122 22-day Special Retreatwith Sayadaw U Jatila

Inthe teachingofthe Buddha,

there are so many discourses givingdirection and guidance to laypeopleabout how to live calmly, peacefully,successfully, and free from danger. Forexample, Saydawgyi U Slnanda saidthat he always asked newlyweds toremember three important things, whichhe called three pillars of happy marriedlife, and which he based on the teachingof the Buddha. The first pillar is to befaithful to each other; the second is tohave respect for each others culture,religion, likes and dislikes, temperament,and so on; and the third is to live within

their income.It is very easy to see how important thefirst pillarto be faithful to each otheris for a couple. All of us have seen people

being harmed, losing their business, ruin-ing their life, etc. as a result of not beingfaithful to their partner. It is clear that

being faithful to each other leads to confi-dence, which leads to trust. All of thesefaithfulness, confidence, and trustarelike one road that has no separation ordivision. When we are on this faithful-ness, confidence, and trust road, we knowthat it is leading us to a peaceful, happy,

secure married life.In order to be faithful to each other,we have to be mindful, be watchful, beaware of our desires, attachment, andgreed (wanting more). When we trainourselves by just watching the in-breathand out-breath, we come to be aware ofour breath; come to be aware of our body;come to be aware of our mind; come to

be aware of our emotions. In short, we

become aware of mind and body. The

stronger our awareness is, the more capa-ble we are of restraining ourselves fromacting unskillfully. Training ourselves to

be mindful at all times in our daily lifestrengthens this capability.

About the second pillar, to haverespect for each others culture, reli-gion, likes and dislikes, temperament,etc., Saydawgyi U Slnanda said,when two people come to live togetheras husband and wife, there are boundto be differences in likes and dislikes.You should understand each other, havemutual respect and also show tolerance

to each otherEven couples who belongto the same race, country, and religioncan have differences. It is important thatyou be respectful of each otherreligion,culture, and so onand have under-standing. Saydawgyi U Slnandareminded his listeners that the Buddhasaid that tolerance or patience is the bestof practices.

In order to develop this tolerance, thispatience, we have to be watchful, mindful,aware of our thoughts and opinions allthe time. Intolerance and lack of patiencedisturb family harmony. We all knowthat when family membershusbands,wives, and childrenare patient with oneanother, tolerant of one another, they livemore harmoniously and peacefully. The

best way to achieve this is to keep ourmindfulness at all times.

As for Saydawgyi U Slnandas thirdpillar, to live within our income, I thinkthat Sayadawgyi was very wise. Althoughhe was a monk, he knew how important

this point is. The Buddhas advice was

your income must be more than yourexpenditure. In What the Buddha Taught,by Rahula Walpola, there is a story aboutthe Buddha teaching a man namedDighajanu, who asked him how to livein a way conducive to happiness as alayman who had a family life with a wifeand children. One of the things that theBuddha told him was to spend reason-ably, in accordance with his income. Heshould neither hoard his wealth norspend it extravagantly.

This is advice that is just as relevanttoday as it was 2,500 years ago. It reminds

us to be content with what we have, andit points out the importance of living asimple life. If we are mindful, we willknow how to distinguish between ourwants and our real needs, and we willlive within our income. We will take careof our familys needs and will restrainourselves from overspending on our fam-ilys wants. If we just pay attention, wecan avoid money-related problems andmaintain a harmonious family life.

From Saydawgyi U Slnandas adviceto newlyweds and the Buddhas advice toDighajanu, we can see that the Dhammadoesnt neglect our mundane daily life.If we want to be calm, peaceful, andwell balanced in our daily life, we haveto understand our own mind. The onlyway to achieve this is to be mindful at alltimes, day and night. As Saydawgyi USlnanda always reminded yogis at theend of his retreats, we should not leaveour mindfulness at the gate when weleave the Tathgata Meditation Center, butmust take it with us into our daily life.

Editors Note

Sayadawgyi U Panditas 2008 Retreat

More than 60 yogis were present each day at SayadawgyiU Panditas retreat, which ran from May 17 to June 29.For the comfort of yogis, two yogis were assigned to eachroom, not three like last year. Yogis practiced seriously, andthe kitchen staff and all who were involved in the smoothrunning of the retreat worked hard. Sayadawgyi was inhigh spirits after his successful heart operation, saying that

before the operation he was an old old man and now he is ayoung old man.

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Dhamma Bell is a free publication of TathMeditation Center, which takes sole respo

bility for its contents. The volunteer editothis issue are Theikdi and Maureen OBri

The graphic designer is Marianne Wyllie.Nhu Lai Thin VinTathgata Meditation Center1215 Lucretia AvenueSan Jose, CA 95122(408) 294- 4536 www.Tathagata.org

If you would like additional copies or if youwould like an issue sent to someone else as

please let the Tathgata Meditation CenterIf you would like to help support the ongoiwork of the Tathgata Meditation Center, p

feel free to offer dana.

May sati be your friend.

Projects at Tathagata Meditation Center

The following projects have been completed since Issue 2 ofDhamma Bell:

A second front gateof metalwith a beautiful and artistic arch. The second gatemakes getting in and out of TMC very safe.

Remodeling of the womens quarters

A new dining area inside the dining hall for the sagha

Two new cottages in the back

New showers and toilets near the little Japanese garden

A kitchen extension, with another sink, another stove, and a new refrigerator

ThepublicationbyTMCofanewbook, Spiritual Cultivation, a compilation ofSayadawgyi U Panditas Dhamma talks during his 44-day retreat in 2007. It was trans-lated by Sayalay Ma Carudassini and edited by U Hla Myint. The book, which wasdistributed to yogis as a gift at the ending ceremony of Sayadawgyi U Panditas 2008retreat that ended on June 29, is available for free distribution.

ABoutthreedaysBefore

thisretreat, a houseright across the streetfrom the monastery wasdemolished. Only one

man did the job. He used a big machine,a tractor-like machine with iron beamslike arms, and at the end of one set ofarms there was something like a bucketwith claws. He used that very powerfulmachine to demolish the house, andwithin an hour everything was flat onthe ground. While I was watching the

house being demolishedbecause, infact, I was fascinated by the ability of themachinethe thought of concept andreality came to my mind. Before beingdemolished, there was a house. We werewatching the house, and little by little itsparts were broken down, first the roof,and the walls, then everything. Whenthe demolition was finished there wasno house, but the same components thathad made up the house were still there,not at their right places, but flat on theground. The components were still there,the components were still the same, but

at one moment there was a house and atanother moment the house was gone. Inthis case, what we call a house is actuallynon-existent apart from the parts: theroof, the walls, the doors, the windows,the floors, and other components. Sowhat we call a house is just a concept,

created by humans for the conventionof usage. In this analogy, what is real isthe parts of the house and not the houseitself. If we take this analogy further, theparts themselves are not real becausethey also are made up of very smallparticles of matter. And so the real thingsin the house are actually the smallestmaterial particles: particles of wood,particles of metal, particles of paint,and particles of other materials. Whatis real in what we call a house is justthe particles of matter and actually not

the parts or not the house itself. But forconvenience in communicating with eachother we say, It is a house or We livein a house. We do not say we live in thecertain thing that has a roof, walls, floors,doors, windows, and so on. We live in theconventional world, and so we have touse these terms to designate something.

So tonight I am going to talk about con-cept and reality. Another example may bethe car. What is a car? Is the body a car? Isthe steering wheel a car? Are the wheelsa car? Are the seats a car? If we ask in thisway or if we take the parts one by one,

then we lose the designation car. Thereis no car apart from these componentparts. According to reality, there is no car,

just the parts. Again, the parts themselvesare not reality; they are concepts, and therealities are the particles of matter thatmake up all the component parts. So we

say that a concept has no existence of itown. It is only in our mind. We see some-thing and then we think of it and thenwe conjure up some concept and thenwe give it a name. For example, when wecall the thing that has a roof, walls andso on a house, it has no existence of itown. Only the parts have their existence

because when we take the parts one byone there is no house.

In the same way, concepts have noexistence on their own. But after seeingthe real thing in what we call concept,

we think of something in our mind andthen we come up with these concepts.But mind works so fast that we are notaware of that thinking period between theactual seeing and the forming of con-cepts. But the fact that there is a periodof thinking can be inferred from someother examples, for example, reading aword. When you first learn to read as achild, you have to spell the word beforeyou can read the word. Suppose the wordis house. When you first learn to read,you say, h-o-u-s-e, and then you say theword house. When you get more and

more familiar with the word, you donthave to spell it out; you can just read theword right away. So if somebody wereto ask you whether you have somethinglike thinking between seeing the word

Paramattha and PaattiSaydawgyi U Slnanda (August 10, 1989)Transcribed and edited by Theikdi and Maureen OBrien

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3Issue 3 ~ Summer 2008


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and saying the word, you may say, No.I just read it. I dont have to think aboutanything. But actually if there is notthinking about the word, you cannotread it. So there is this period of thinking

between seeing and forming concepts.This period is so short that we are notaware of it. Also, because mind worksso fastit is said in our books that bil-lions of thought moments can arise and

disappear in the flickering of an eye orin a snap of the fingerswhat we reallysee, see with our eyes, is the reality, andthen we think that we see the conceptwith our eyes. So it is just an illusion thatwe see things; we see shapes and we seeforms. If you look at your fingers, youthink you see the fingers; you see a fingeras a slender and long thing. But what wesee with our eyes in reality are the visibledata in what we call the finger, that is, thematerial particles that can be seen withour eyes. So what we see when we look atour finger is these visible material prop-

erties, very small visible material proper-ties. After seeing them, we conjure upthis shape or form in our mind and thenwe say we see a fingera finger with theshape, with the form. So what we reallysee with the eyes is the visible data in thefinger. But mind works so fast and we areso familiar with forming these conceptsthat we dont even know that we see thereal visible data and not the concept.

Let us take some more examples.Sometimes we see a line of ants from adistance. When we look from a distance,we think that there is a real line, a con-

nected line of ants. But when we go closerto the line, we see that there are spaces orgaps between one ant and another. Whenwe get still closer, we will see that there isno line of ants at all but just the individ-ual ants, say, moving from one place toanother. There is no line of ants at all, butwe think that we see a line of ants.

Another example: a bag of sand. I dontknow what boxers use in this country topractice witha sandbag or maybe theyhave some other devices. But in our coun-try, they use a sandbag. So suppose there

is a sandbag hanging from the ceiling,and if you make a hole in the sandbagand push the sandbag this way and thatway, then you see that there is a line of orthere is a rope of sand, moving from oneplace to another. In fact, there is no line ofsand or no rope of sand, just the grains ofsands in this place and in that place. Andif you look closely enough as in the caseof ants, you will see just the individualgrains of sand, and that there is no line ofsand or no rope of sand. So actually whatwe see is individual grains, but we think

that we see the continuous sand in theform or in the shape of a rope or a string.

And you have seen ropes. What are ropesmade of? They are made of small fibers.Very small fibers are put together andplaced, say, one after another, and thenthey become a rope. So what we are see-ing when we look at a rope is not the rope

but the individual fibers in it. People sayseeing is believing, but actually seeing is

deceiving. What we see is just deceiving.Its not real.

A more convincing example could be acircle of fire. Somebody takes up a branchof fire, and makes a circle, and then wethink that we see a circle of fire. But all ofus know that there is no circle of fire, butthe color of fire at different places on acertain line of the circle. But we still thinkthat we see a ring of fire. That is becauseour mind works so fast that our mind

takes the fire in different places becausewhen the fire is, say, in the topmost place,we see it. And then it moves or it changesto another place, and we see it. And thenour mind connects the fire in differentplaces together, and then forms it into acircle. We say we see a circle of fire, butactually, we dont see a circle of fire butwe see fire at different places. We thinkwe see the circle because our mind madeup that circle. So in a circle of fire, what isreal? Fire at different places: only that isreal, and not the whole circle. The wholecircle is the concept, the name we call aconnected appearance of fire on a certainline. So what we apparently see is alwaysconcept and not reality. Reality has to

be taken out of these concepts. In otherwords, we have to cut through the outer

layers of concept so that we get into theinner core of reality. We can see conceptseverywhere because we live in a world ofconcepts, a world of conventions. A

book is a concept. A watch is a concept.A being is a concept. A man is a concept.A woman is a concept. Everything we see,everything we come across, everythingwe use is a concept.

What is real in a being is mind andmatteror the five aggregates. What isreal in a man? Mind and matter. What isreal in a woman? Mind and matter. Butwe do not see them as mind and matter.

If we are honest, only when we practicemeditation will we see them as mind andmatter. But when we get out of medita-tion, when we get back to daily life, wesee them as man and woman. So we arealways using concepts when we commu-nicate with each other. We do not say, Isee a nma and rupa, but I see a manor I see a woman, I see a being. andso on. There are two kinds of concept:

name concept and thing concept. Nameconcept means the names giving tothings. In Pi, they are calledpaatti

because they make something known.And the things denoted by these namesor designations are called thing concepts

because they are made known by thename concept. So with most things wehave these two things: name conceptsand thing concepts. A house, the namehouse or the word house, is a nameconcept. And the things denoted by wordhouse or the thing that we call a houseis a thing concept. The name or the word

man is a name concept and the beingthat we call a man is a thing concept. Wecan understand that with most things,there are these two concepts: nameconcept and thing concept. They are allconcepts, not reality.

According to Buddhism, concepts areaccepted as a kind of truth. Althoughthese have no existence of their own,although they are nonexistent accordingto ultimate reality, still they are recog-nized as a kind of trutha conventionaltruth. Because we live in the conventionalworld and we cannot get away from con-

ventions, we have to use the conventionalwords to communicate with each other.So the concept is accepted as a kind oftruth: relative truth or conventional truth.

Since we live in a conventional world,we have to be careful when we apply theunderstanding of the ultimate reality,especially that understanding of ultimatereality that comes to us during the prac-tice ofVipassan meditation. Sometimespeople go to extremes and would say weare the same as trees, we are the same asrocks, because we are composed of four

elements, and rocks are also composedof four elements, so we are the samesomething like that. But we must takecare not to take it too far because we livein a conventional world and we cannot goagainst it. We should not take this under-standing of ultimate reality too far. This isvery important.

We should have this knowledge of whatis concept and what is reality becausewhen we practice Vipassan meditation,we deal with what is realultimate real-ity. What is reality? Reality is defined as

What is reality?

Reality is defined as

that which can be

known by ourselves

through experience.


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that which can be known by ourselvesthrough experience.

As we have seen, a house is not a reality, acar is not a reality, a man is not a reality, awoman is not a reality, but there are mindand matter in a man. Mind is composedof consciousness and mental states, andthere are twenty-eight material proper-ties, and each one of these can be reallyseen by ourselves through the practice

of meditation. These realities are to betaken out of the concepts. So a man is aconcept, but we take out of a man thisreality, which is mind and matter, and sothe reality which we call mind and matteris taken out of the concept.

According to the Buddhas teaching,there are four such realities. They arecalled ultimate realities because thereis the other reality, conventionalreality or apparent reality, which isconcept. The four ultimate reali-ties taught in Buddhist teachingare consciousness, mental state,matter, and Nibbna. They are likethe smallest particles of matter inmaterial things. You may reducean article to its smallest particles,and the last one you arrive at iswhat is similar to reality. Whenyou see a being, you can reduce itto its component things, which aremind and matter, and then mindcan be subdivided into conscious-ness and mental factors, and soon. Consciousness is one ultimatereality, mental factor is the secondultimate reality, matter is the thirdultimate reality, and Nibbna is thefourth ultimate reality. Accordingto Buddhist teaching, only thesefour are real and all others are justconcepts or illusions. And amongthese four kinds of ultimate reality, thefirst three have their own existenceorwe say that consciousness really exists,mental factors really exist, and materialproperties really exist. They have realexistence of their own. When we say thatsomething exists, we mean that that thinghas the three phases of existence: arising,

continuing, and dissolution or dying. Thecontinuing phase is also called the gettingold phase because immediately after themoment of arising, there is old age. Thefirst three of the ultimate realities havethese three phases of existence. That iswhy they are called ultimate realities. Ifyou concentrate on any one theseonyour thoughts; on your consciousness; onthe mental states, such as anger, attach-ment or concentration or wisdomyouwill see that they just arise and thendisappear. And between the arising and

disappearing stages, there is a stage ofcontinuing.

However, concept is said to have no suchphases of existence. We cannot say whena concept comes into being and when itdisappears. In fact, a concept does notcome into being and so it does not disap-pear, but it seems to come into beingand it seems to disappear. Also, sincewhat we call concept has no existence of

its own, we cannot say that it exists or itarises at this stage and then it disappearsat another stage. So concepts are said tohave no existence of their own. They are

just in the mind, but consciousness andmental factors have real existence. Theycan be experienced. They can be seenthrough contemplation and meditation.When we practice meditation we watch

our thoughts, so when we watch ourthoughts, we are concentrating on theultimate reality, which is consciousness.These thoughts come and go, come andgo, and so they have an existence of theirown. They come into being at some pointand then they go out of existencetheydisappear. In the same way, when youconcentrate on attachment or anger, youare taking the ultimate reality as object.Anger does not last forever, attachmentdoes not last forever. As you watch it, it

just disappears, and so you have the per-sonal experience of attachment or angeror other things arising, continuing, anddisappearing. So they are called ultimatereality. And material properties also havetheir own existence. However, it is saidin our books that material properties lastseventeen times longer then a moment ofconsciousness. So seventeen moments ofconsciousness is one life span of material

properties. They are very swift and theycome into being and then they disappear.

Among the twenty-eight material proper-ties, there is only one material propertythat can be seen by our eyes. The othermaterial properties are not seen with oureyes, but with our mind. That which can

be seen with our eyes is called form; actu-ally, that is the visible object, or visibledata. For example, when we see a book,

what we see is just these visible materialproperties in the book. In other words,what we see is color. (Actually, only coloris visible to the eyes. The other materialproperties cannot be seen with our eyes.)In reality, there is no book apart from thevisible data and other material propertiesThat is why we say a book, the concept ofa book, has no existence of it own. Only

the visible data in the thing we callbook have their own existence,existing for just seventeen thoughtmoments. So in the practice ofmeditation we must try to see

the ultimate reality, if we practiceVipassan meditation I mean.

When we practice Vipassan medi-tation, we try to see the ultimatereality rather then the concepts.The object of Vipassan meditationis the ultimate reality: mind andmatter or five aggregates. We cancall them five aggregates or we cancall them mind and matter: theyare the same. In the beginning, wecannot avoid seeing or being awareof concepts. We have lived so longwith these concepts, we have beendealing with these concepts forso many years that we cannot getout of these concepts altogether.When we try to meditate, when wetry to concentrate on the breath or

on the movement of the abdomen, in thebeginning, we are not able to see the purewind element in the breath or the puremovement that also is the result of thewind element in the abdomen. We will

be seeing both mixed up. However, ourconcentration gets better and better, wewill be more able to see the ultimate real-

ity, quite separate from the concepts. Onlywhen we see the real, ultimate thing canwe say that we are practicing Vipassanmeditation. If we do not see the ultimatereality, our Vipassan is not yet trueVipassan, although we can say that weare practicing Vipassan meditation. Butthe true Vipassan comes only when wesee the ultimate reality.

That is why you can practice Samathameditation or Vipassan meditation onthe breath. When you practice Samatha

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Bhikkhu U Dhammacakka(1955-2008)Bhikkhu u dhammacakka came to Tathgata Meditation Center as a layman

by way of the Internet: he searched on the Internet for a meditation center andfound TMC. He volunteered in a variety of ways and later he became a memberof the Board of Directors. He went to Burma two or three times to practiceatHse Main Gone, Saydawgyi U Panditas meditation center. He practicedthere two or three times as a temporary monk before he was fully ordained

as a monk in 2003 by the late Saydawgyi U Slnanda. After going forth intothe homeless life, he went to practice at Hse Main Gone for a year or so andthen came back to visit TMC. After his visit, he went back to Sayadawgyi UPanditas center for practice and studying, staying there for more than a year.After his visa expired, he went to a Mhasi Saydaw meditation center inThailand and then came back to TMC. He planned to go back to do more prac-tice as a forest monk in Burma.

While Bhikkhu U Dhammacakka was in Burma and Thailand, he was awareof his weight loss: he lost about 40 pounds. Sometimes he felt an internal chillfor no reason; this continued on and off. At first, he thought maybe he hadcontracted malaria, but he was using a mosquito net, so he dismissed that pos-sibility. He came back to TMC in June 2007, and in July, he went to see a doctor,who he told about his weight loss and chills. After running some tests, the doc-

tor gave Bhikkhu U Dhammacakka the results: he had a liver cancer for whichthere was no cure.

Bhikkhu U Dhammacakka went right into his meditation practice as much ashe could. When someone asked him, How are you? He would answer, Itsnot so bad or Much better today. According to those at TMC who weretaking good care of him, his condition was up and down. No matter what,Bhikkhu U Dhammacakka kept up with his meditation. Although he wasgoing through huge pain on and off for some time, he never showed frustra-tion, agitation, fear, or anger. Sometimes he would say, Today is not good.In August 2007, he was under hospice care.

In the room that his caretakers moved him to during his final weeks, he had thebare essentials: his hospital bed, with two oxygen tanks at the foot of the bed;his yellow monks bag and a calendar hanging on the wall at the foot of the

bed, with a clock running quietly on the wall above the calendar; a tall lamp at

the head of the bed, on his left; a picture of the Buddha on the wall to the leftof his bed and an intercom next to the picture of the Buddha; a small bookshelfwith an air purifier next to it and a blue water pot next to the air purifier at thehead of the bed, on his right; a table at the side of his bed, on his right, with ananatomy book and a telephone on it, and a chair next to the table.

Worthy of our admiration are his unwavering practice, his ardent effort, hiscourage, his patience, his willingness to bear the physical pain and not let it

bother his mindand, most important, his unconfused mind. Bhikkhu UDhammacakka clearly showed his understanding of the Dhamma: how mindand matter work, how they arise and pass away.

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meditation on the breath you take thebreath as somethingsay, you will beseeing the breath coming and going outof the nose like a pencil or like a stickgoing in and out. And you will be count-ing and so on. And so you are takingthe concept as object. If you practicekasia meditation, you look at the diskand then you try to memorize it, so what

you look at during the practice of kasiameditation is concept. And you take thisconcept into your mind or you memorizethis concept and then go on looking atthat conceptual sing in your mind. Soall the way through to the stage of jhnaattainment, the object is concept, notreality. But when you practice Vipassanmeditation on the breath, you try to seethe nature of breath, the characteristic of

breathrather than the shape or the formof the breath. As I said, the breath is windelement, or air element, so it has thecharacteristic of distendedness or it has

the nature of moving, movement. That iswhy I say try to concentrate on the natureof breath rather then the shape or form ofit. In the beginning, nobody will be ableto concentrate on the nature alone, butthat is all right.

Again, there are two kinds of truths inthe world accepted in Buddhist teaching:one is apparent truth or conventionaltruth and the other is ultimate truth. Anapparent truth is called conventionaltruth or concept (in Pipaatti) andthere can be many kinds of concepts, but

in brief we have two kinds of concept:name concept and thing concept. Nameconcept is the name given to a certain

thing, and thing concept is the thingdenoted by the name concept. And withmost things we get these two concepts,

but with the name of the ultimate reality,we have only one concept, that is, nameconcept. For example, we say anger.Anger is a mental state, so it is ultimatereality. But the word anger, or the nameanger is concept: a name concept. Soin this case, we do not have both name

concept and thing concept, but we havename concept and ultimate reality. Whenwe say Nibbna, the word Nibbna orthe name Nibbna is name concept, butNibbna itself is not a thing concept but a

reality. And when we practice Vipassanmeditation, we deal with ultimate reality.

Among the four ultimate realities we dealwith only three, the first three, when wepractice Vipassan meditation becauseNibbna is not an object of Vipassanmeditation. Vipassan meditation triesto see the impermanence, unsatisfactori-

ness, and soulless nature of things. AndNibbna is the opposite of imperma-

nence and unsatisfactoriness, so Nibbnacannot become an object of Vipassanmeditation. When we practice Vipassanmeditation we deal with the first threeultimate realities: consciousness, mentalfactors, and matter or material properties.When we are aware of our thoughts, weare dealing with consciousness. Whenwe are aware of mental states like anger,understanding, confidence, effort, and

so on, we are dealing with the secondultimate reality--mental factors. When weare watching the breath or the movementof the abdomen or when we are mindfulof touching or walking and so on, we aredealing with the third ultimate realitymatter or material proprieties. When wepractice Vipassan meditation, we dealwith the first three ultimate realities. If weare really successfulone hundred per-cent successfulthen we will realize thefourth ultimate reality, which is Nibbna,which is described as the cessation of allsuffering.

So by the practice of Vipassan medita-tion may you be able to really see thefirst three ultimate realities in the light ofimpermanence, unsatisfactoriness, insub-stantiality, and ultimately be able to reachthe Enlightenment stage taking Nibbnaor true everlasting happiness as object.

The late Saydawgyi U Slnanda, the found-ing Chief Meditation Teacher of Tathgata

Meditation Center, and former Abbot ofthe Dhammnanda Vihra Monastery, isthe author ofThe Four Foundations of

Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications).

Ingredients(Types o bean and amounts depend on your own taste.)

I using canned beans: a 15 oz. can o 3 diferent beans (any mixture o kidney beans, blackbeans, pinto beans, cannelini beans, ava beans, garbanzo beans, butter beans); i using driedbeans, soak the beans overnight i necessaryeach type separatelyand cook each type obean separately in boiling water until sot but not mushy.

olive oil (about / o a cupmore or less, according to your taste)

1 onion, sliced thin

garlic, chopped (according to your taste)

resh ginger (according to your taste)

salt (according to your tastenot necessary i using canned beans)

turmeric ( teaspoonmore or less, according to your taste)

Preparation1. Drain the liquid rom each can o beans, rinse the beans under running water,

and let them drain in a colander (or drain the water rom each pot o cooked dried beans).

2. While the beans are draining in a colander, heat oil in a rying pan over low heat. Sprinklethe turmeric in the pan as the oil is heating.

3. When the oil is hot, saut sliced onion and chopped garlic. Sprinkle with salt as the onion,garlic, and resh ginger are cooking.

4. Cook, covered, over low to moderate heat, stirring occasio nally and checking to make surethat the beans dont stick to the pan.

Cooking time: 30 minutes or less, depending on how so t you want the beans (I usi ng driedbeans, 30 minutes or less ater the beans have been cooked until sot in boiling water.)

Notes

This can be eaten with pasta or rice.

There are two kinds

of truths in the world

accepted in Buddhist

teaching: one is apparent

truth or conventionaltruth and the other is

ultimate truth.

from page 5



8/8

Inside:Concept and Reality

talk by Saydaw U SlanandaThe Dhamma and Our Daily LifeUpcoming Events

Eventually, eventhemostwonderful, BeautifulchariotwillBecome

oldanddilapidated. In olden times, the kings and their ministers

rode in the best and the most beautifully decorated chariots. Theirchariots were freshly painted and decorated with gold and precious stones,so bystanders were awed when the kings and ministers chariots passed by.However, after twenty years or more, these chariots showed signs of wearand tear. There is a saying, Even chariots that are so beautiful will becomeold one day. Likewise, houses and other buildings eventually come to showtheir age.

Just as these beautiful chariots came to show their age, and just as houses andother buildings become old and dilapidated, so too will our bodies age and dete-riorate. For example, when one enters the fifties or sixties, lines and wrinkles beginto appear in the face, loss of muscle tone makes the upper arms flabby, and ones

bones become more prominent. With age, ones eyesight and hearing deteriorate,ones spine becomes less straight, and overall bodily strength declines. Everyone

who reaches old age experiences these things.

When an older person looks back at when he or she was around the age of thirty,he or she sees a person who was still young, healthy, robust, and strong, and seesthat these physical qualities no longer exist.

This is why even young people should remind themselves, One day I will be oldlike my grandfather and my grandmother. Realizing this, one should seek refugeat an early age.

(A brief excerpttranslated and adapted for Dhamma Bellfrom a series of Dhammatalks given at TMC by Beelin Saydaw (U Paadpa), called How to Achieve the

Arahant Path and Knowledge; this series of talks was later compiled in a book.)

Dhamma Thoughts for Yogis

Nhu Lai Thin VinTathgata Meditation Center1215 Lucretia AvenueSan Jose, CA 95122

dhamma bell summer 08

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