Pebble's Pure Land

 

 

 

  

  

   

 

 

Disciple looks for Teacher

Someone said to me once: 
When I am ready, my teacher will appear
Many years, many teachers
They came and went
I might not pass their tests

This time I met Ni Su
She shows me the true of nature, 
that is that,
Who am I (is also that)
I hope I will pass her tests
To let me follow her footsteps

At Bodhgaya 2-b: Return back to self

Once I fully dwell in myself 

The chanting is peaceful

The dog barking is peaceful

The birds chirping is peaceful

The wind blowing is peaceful

The world is peaceful

My mind is peaceful 

What else could I ask more 

than this peaceful, joyful and at ease here and now?

My gratitude to Buddha,

my parents

my teachers (spiritual and main stream),

my friends and family,

and the universe

is enormous.

At this moment

I am and you (the whole phenomena) are one.

Meditation on sensation

Living in paradise for too long
I have forgotten
The pain a body can have
I look at my swelling ankle
I smile at you
You are strong
Or I am stronger?
You pain your way
I will not let you ruin

My equanimity mind

Twisted ankle

I was chasing my sister
Which I have lost my awareness
I saw her run
I ran after
KABOOM
I fell
Why I let the phenomena lead me
Instead of I should keep my awareness

She runs I should let her run
This is a big lesson that I've learnt
From now on
Even the sky collapses
My mind should not be moved.

My father's death (overdue post 26/09/2016)

My dad is dying

I see he takes his last breath
STOP! No more breath comes out.
The whole universe seems froze
His face turns pale
He goes so peacefully
Without any struggle
Without any pain

My mind is calm
Although the person in front of me is my dad
I see anicca
I see dukkha
I see anatta
I see maya
I see he is FREE.

HE IS FREE!
Free from this body's suffering
I am happy for him
To see him go onto his next journey
May my dad goes home
Where I long to be
I know dad you knows where it is.

At Bodhgaya 3

Ni Su led us to repent
My past bad deeds that I have done
Whether I did them intentionally or unintentional
I sincerely repent
I vow I will not do them again
To harm others and myself

Ni Su led us to take refuge to the Triple Gems
I vow to live by the Buddha (Awakening nature), Dharma (Right Understanding) and Sangha (Purity & Clarity)
for the rest of this life
And many lives to come

Ni Su led us to observe the five precepts
Abstain to kill
Abstain to steal
Abstain to adultery
Abstain to lie
Abstain to take any intoxication
I vow to observe these earnestly and carefully

Ordain or not ordain
This is only forms
I am happy for who can walk against the stream
But for me I will take it easy
In the pace that times and affinity allow.

At Bodhgaya 2-a

The dusty streets
The blurry hazy sun
The sick, the old, the practitioners
The busy sellers and buyers
The noises of chanting
People's walking

Dogs' barking
Wind's blowing
Birds' singing
Leaves' dropping
Strangely my mind is calm
I walk, I sit and I look
Inside my silence world.
I feel joy through each of my skin pores

At Bodhgaya 1

In This dusty samsara
Bodhi tree has been covered
Layer of these conventional dusts (chân lý quy ước)
It has been forgotten
The true self
Let us remove each layer of this dust
By the ultimate duster (chân lý tối hậu)
To let it reflects the stage of that

Beggars

Beggars are poor
In a way they are without food and shelters
Beggars may not be poor
In a way they are happy and content
Beggars have Buddha nature
Beggars and us are the same
The only different is the karma each one received

We are poor
In a way of never feel enough and never feel happy
We are a beggar ourselves, are we not?

At Kushinagar

At kushinagar I have returned
Every time I have asked Buddha
Please send a teacher to me
So s/he can show the Way
I know thou have said
Sila, samadhi and panna we ought to practice
I know thou have said (these were tathagata's last words)
All conditioned things are nature to decay
And we should strive on untiringly.
But Buddha
How can I attain samadhi?
What is the way?

This time Buddha answered my pleads
Ni Su has just appeared
To show me the method of KN
Now I can meet
My inner Buddha
The silent non-self pureland I dwell

My gratitude to the Buddha
My gratitude to Thay Thien Chu
My gratitude to Ni Su
I can't use any words to thank
Please let me prostrate
With my whole hearted
To the Buddha
To Thay Thien Chu
To Ni Su

At Sravasti

At Sravasti there lives a zen master
Who taught me the truth of nature
Who told me the silent dharma
I am sorry
That I couldn't understand him
Until now I found a teacher
Who could explain this to me
Clear and concise
Today I have returned to Sravasti
Due to travel with a group
That I couldn't pay him a visit
Please let me pay respect to this great master
By meeting him in this silent dharma

May he be well and live long life

So I can share with him my silent joy in my next visit at Sravasti.

Affinity for this trip

On this trip we meet
You are from France
They are from USA
I am from Australia
We all have the same goal
To walk on the same path
Once 19 days are over
You go on your way
And I go on mine
But we all know
We will meet at
The wordless cafe

Way to Lumbini

Photo by Nhu Yen
 

Bumpy road
Like our bumpy life
Up and down
But my mind is
Like the blue sky
Not leaving a trace
When a bird flies across

A bodhisattva

I feel
The great compassion of the Buddha
Step by step he walked
Town to town he preached/taught
To awaken the people in India
This is suffering
This is the cause of suffering
This is the end of suffering
This is the way to free us from suffering

I feel
The great compassion of Ni Su
Flight after flight she flew
Country to country she preached/taught
To awaken people around the world
This is the KN (Don't Talk) method
This is Yathabutha
This is the inner treasure
This is the Tatha mind

Hurry, hurry, hurry
Return back to your own home
To dwell in the infinite light
To dwell in the infinite lives

At Jetavana

Photo by Nhu Yen

 I tasted the sweetness from the well
The water that Buddha drank from
I tasted the nectar of samadhi
That my mind is calm and serene.
The noise from outside
Which helped me to go deeper
Into the world of silence

Toilet runs

One, two, three we run
To let go of the wasted we have taken in
Through the mouth we eat
Through the mind we perceive
When we do the toilet run
Please remember not only empty
Our bladder, big intestine
Most importantly is to empty
Our rubbish in our mind
which we have collected
Who knows since when?

Our old habits

Photo by Tue Tong

Brothers and sisters tám/gossipers

Who want to know
Why the bus has been stop
Why the boys at the front were laughing
Why this and why that
Aren't we all the same?
Constantly wondering
And forget our true mind

---------------------------------------------

Buy it, buy it, buy it
Cheap, cheap, very cheap
Get this for my friends and relatives
Get that for myself
We seemed happy for the things we bought

My friends
Do you know how long this happiness will last?
We will suffer
Once our luggage allowance has reached
Once our money has gone (not enough for paying tips)
Once we don't know what to do with all these junks

My Thiền Tánh Không Pilgrimage

Chị Như Hương announced the India pilgrimage on Sunday 20th September 2015. She told me: "Ni Sư is going to conduct an India pilgrimage in 2016. Do you want to go?" I told her: "Thanks Chị, I have been to India for four times, I don't think I want to go again. She emphasised this is a pilgrimage with Ni Sư. I explained to her that every time I went to India it was for pilgrimage, not just for leisure travel.  

During that Thiền session, Ni Sư's smile appeared many, many times in my consciousness mind. The idea of going to India and Ni Sư’s smile was instilled in my mind even after I got home. I could not resist her smile and the home feeling of being in India, so I made up my decision that I would go to India in 2016. On the 23rd of September I told my mother and sister Yen Khanh that I am going to India again. Yen Khanh smiled and said nothing. That night I sent my personal information to Ni Su and registered. I told my sister again that I have registered. She then asked me to put her name in as well. I was thrilled that she wanted to come with me.  

I have been to India for pilgrimage four times in 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2014. I documented each time I went with photos and stories. This time will be my fifth time that I am not going to write about the four Buddhist holy places. Instead I am going to write about the pilgrimage I have travelled on Thiền Tánh Không. 

As a Buddhist we cannot merely base our religion on beliefs. We ought to ask four questions and Thiền Tánh Không or Ni Sư has answered them clearly and concisely:  
A) Why? Why do we want to learn from Buddha?
B) What? What is Buddha Nature?  
C) Which? Which part of the human body that contains the true-mind (Buddha-mind; precuneus)?  
D) How? How can we achieve our goal?
 
A) Why? Why do we want to learn from the Buddha?  
Firstly, we need to understand what Buddha had awakened from and his enlightenment before we can answer why we want to learn from him.  

I read Gotama Buddha's biography many times, and have read and retold this story many times. Previously I had interpreted his life as a novel, not as something that I could learn from. 

I knew Prince Siddhartha saw the impermanence and the suffering, which motivated him to search for liberation. I never thought about these things deeply when I read his biography:
1) The right method/technique of practice is more important than a teacher.
2) The four jhanas (định có tầm có tứ, định không tầm không tứ, tỉnh giác định, định bất động) he attained under the bodhi tree  
3) What Buddha actually realised and discovered.  

The young prince’s first awakening was when he saw old age, sickness and death. His second awakening was after when he was taught by his two yoga teachers (Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputra). He realised the right method was more important than a teacher. He could not liberate himself through the cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death from his two teachers.  

After 6 years of extreme ascetic life, he still couldn't liberate himself. His third awakening was when he realised that tormenting one's physical body was not the right way to seek for the ultimate truth or indulging one's pleasures. (middle way as a path of moderation)  

He went through four levels of jhanas under the Bodhi tree. After the fourth week of deep samadhi, his mind became calm and tranquil. He acquired the power of being aware of all his previous lives. Through further insight, he acquired the divine vision, the power to see all things and to know the future rebirth of all beings. He thus came to realise that unceasing the circle of death and rebirth of all beings is solely a manifestation of one's karma; that is, one's thoughts and deeds. Finally he observed that the ultimate cause of turning the wheel of birth and death in the vast sea of suffering is ignorance and the attachment to transient and illusory pleasures - the twelve links of dependent origination. He had discovered the cause of and the method of elimination of all suffering.

Base on his profound discovery about the truth of nature (Buddha nature or the Suchness), we ought to have this right understanding of the phenomenon. This can help us to the realisation of liberation.  

B) What? What is Buddha Nature?  
When the Buddha became enlightened he realised that all beings have the same nature and potential for enlightenment, and this is known as Buddha Nature. Buddha Nature is simply the true nature of reality and all sentient beings. This true nature has the nature of emptiness, non-self and is continuously changing. Thus the true nature of the phenomenon (including us) is as such; The Way is as such; we are as such; the whole universe is as such. It cannot be named or described because it is just as such. It is always there. It has no beginning or ending. We have to have direct experience to see it with our wisdom. Thiền Tánh Không has explained very clearly and concise in their teaching material. This is very difficult to explain without science’s help. I have not found a clear explanation about this true nature of things as Thiền Tánh Không. (If anyone wants to know more, please attend the Intermediate Meditation Course Level 2 from TTK)

C) Which? Which part of the human body that contains the true-mind (Buddha-mind; precuneus)?  
Science can now prove what Buddha told us in his discourse about the area which his mind was in or attained. He told us about our false minds (consciousness/ý thức - the present mind, thinking mind/ý căn - mind of the past and intellect/trí năng - mind of the future) are constantly changing. If we cling on these false minds, we suffer. He also told us through deep meditation, it could get us into the area of the happiest cells in our human body which is the precuneus (Buddha Nature/The Nature as such). In Pali language it is called Vitakkavacāra (beyond logic). 

Through his meditation experience, science has proved what chemicals have produced in each stage of mind. For example science has proven if we meditate with a calm and tranquil (without inner dialogue) mind then our body will produce some chemicals such as acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin and melatonin. That is why after a good session of meditation, we feel relax in our mind and body. A mind full of anxiety and stress will produce chemicals such as norepinephrine and epinephrine, chemicals which can harm our body. The end result will get us into diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. etc.
 
Through science technology such as EEG (Electroencephalography) and fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging), we know from this false mind (In Buddhism means this shore. In science means frontal lobes of both left and right brain) to the other side of the shore - the true mind (back left side of the brain) is not hard to achieve if we have the right technique.
 
D) How? How can we achieve our goal? 
As a meditator we know we ought to keep our mind calm, tranquil and equanimity but how? There are many ways or techniques to keep our mind calm. The most popular ways are observing our breath, chanting Buddha's name, using mandalas such as meditation objects, using visualisation, using counting methods and so on. Thien Tanh Khong uses the technique ‘Không Nói' (Don't Talk). Before we get into this technique, Ni Sư explains the cognition process. 

There are four steps of cognition: 
1) Semantic cognition – we need to understand the meaning of our topic. For example ‘Suchness'. 
2) Procedural cognition – we set up a procedure to experience further in the topic we have chosen. For example: walking meditation, siting meditation and come out of meditation.  
3) Episodic cognition – we experience the warmness, saliva, seeing light and whatever things have happened during our meditation.  
4) Evocative cognition – from time to time we remind ourself the topic we meditation such as 'suchness'. We do this for not falling into the stage of losing the awareness.
 
Before we can use the cognition process we need to use the technique of 'Don't Talk' to reach a level of complete no self-inner dialogue. 'Don't Talk' acts as an order/command. We want our mind to recognise this order. Once our mind is calm and silent we can see the phenomenon objectively, not judgementally through our nature of awareness (seeing, hearing and touching). The basic requirement to activate these nature awareness is no inner-self dialogue.
 
We need to recognise the status of ‘Don’t Talk’ (ie. silence) when we give this order in our mind. Thus when we meditate, we can bring up this stage of 'Don't talk' as a subject in our mind. This can help us to reach a calm and tranquil stage of mind in an instant. If we practice this daily and consistently then it will lead us into the Suchness mind. 

Through our practice we can see for ourselves whether we are on the right path. The more we practice the happier we get and our body is in a healthy stage, then we know we are on the right path. We are not superstitious, nor do we base our knowledge on beliefs. The best of this technique is that you can test it for yourself. For example I measure my blood sugar level before and after meditation to see if this method would work. I have tried the technique of 'Don't Talk' and observed the beneficial effects on my mind and body. As in the Kalama Sutta, Buddha said: "after thorough investigation and reflection, you find to agree with reason and experience, as conducive to the good and benefit of one and all and of the world at large, accept only that as true, and shape your life in according with it."  

The beauty to be able to dwell in the Suchness mind is we can unlock our wisdom from within, no conflict in our mind and can see the world around us objectively. Furthermore we make peace between our mind and body. Because this right view, we have no attachment to the things and people around us therefore we have liberated from suffering. We will be a happier person for the sake of being alive.
 
To sum up this Pilgrimage, it takes me to a journey of understanding of myself, a journey with no return, a journey of spiritual significance - Atakkavacara, a journey to liberation and eventually a journey to enlightenment.
 
16 October 2016