The Fourth Base of Miraculous Powers: Contemplation

Week of April 23, 2005 – The Fourth Base of Miraculous Powers: Contemplation

The Fourth Base of Miraculous Powers is intense contemplation; this is the twelfth aid (of the third set) to enlightenment.

The Four Bases of Mindfulness train us on “how to” and “what to” contemplate. The Four Right Efforts guide our actions and efforts so as to increase our resources for the Bodhi path. These eight aids are the preliminaries for the Four Miraculous Powers. The previous three bases of miraculous powers: desire, vigorous effort and concentration are the foundation for the fourth base. Unless one has a very wholesome root (sharp perception and is very resourceful Bodhiwise) one cannot realize this power of contemplation instantaneously without the gradual development of the first three powers.

Any practitioner, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike can attain the first three miraculous powers. It is the miraculous power of contemplation that is unique to Buddhism. What is this power? It is the ability to truly understand oneself, to detach from clinging to one’s SELF, to see one’s own nature and to realize one’s ability to contemplate. Defining this power thus, one has attained Arhatship (the perfected disciple; one who has completed the discipline required to attain liberation; a "worthy one" or "pure one;" a person whose mind is free of defilement.) Real cultivation of Buddhism starts from this point onwards. This is the mental aspect of this power.

Of the physical aspect, after one sees one’s own nature or is liberated, one finds the marvelous source of Life Energy or liveliness. This source provides tremendous or bottomless energy or liveliness. One’s heart is filled with Joy and Zest. One is in harmony and has entered the realm of the Pure Land. We can be in the realm of the Pure Land in this lifetime and in this world, we do not need to wait till death to be reborn into the Pure Land.

Maintain your Faith and Understanding and, above all, keep on Practicing!

The Third Base of Miraculous Powers: Concentration

Week of April 17, 2005 – The Third Base of Miraculous Powers: Concentration

Mindfulness consists of two magnitudes:
(i ) Shamatha or Samatha -- stillness of mind, concentration on a single object.
(ii)Vipasyana -- discernment; also, insight, correct perception or view.

The Third Base of Miraculous Powers is intense concentration; this is the eleventh aid (of the third set) to enlightenment. The third base of miraculous powers concerns itself with the Shamatha (concentration) aspect of Mindfulness and the fourth base concerns itself with the Vipasyana (discernment) aspect.

Regardless of the methods of practice a practitioner cultivates, all practices lead to the attainment of concentration. There are two aspects to concentration: the physical and the mental.

In the physical aspect, the body undergoes various changes as a result of concentration. There are eighty stages and the process is very personal. The four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) within one’s body transform or improve through concentration. Since birth, these four elements undergo growth, prosperity and deterioration. With Shamatha, these elements regenerate and may be able to slow down the deterioration process or even completely transcend the body from the Desire realm to the Form realm. This transformation of the four elements is essential for attainment of the First Jhana (Mental absorption).

In the mental aspect, concentration enables one to gain control over thoughts and to live in the moment. Human beings usually react or respond to theexternal stimulius by relying on habitual tendencies (which have a lot to do with the Karma) or learned perception. With Shamatha, one is will be able to perceive how our minds function, how thoughts arise and diminish; we may lengthen increase our reaction time, and thus be able to have better controls over our reactionsbehaviour. One is aware and in control of one’s response instead of letting habitual tendencies or learned perception takeing over the situations.

If one is familiar with the Dharmalaksana sect, which holds that all is mind in its ultimate nature; one will understand how the eight consciousnesses work. The first Five consciousnesses are the Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, and Body Vijnanas, the sixth consciousness is the Mind Vijnanas, the Seventh consciousness is the Manah Vijnanas and the Eighth consciousness is the Alaya Vijnanas. Through practice and Shamatha, practitioners are in their waysable to transcend the Eight Vijnanas to the Four Wisdoms.

Only when the mind is atpresentthat one cancan one truly live in the moment, or, putting it in other words, only when one is able to attain Shamatha, one isis one able to live in the moment. That is something only youone knows. YouOne cannot explain it to others or put in into words.
How long have you been practicing? Can you sense that your concentration level has beenis improving? Are you better off physically and mentally? If not, you may not be on the right path! You may need to change or adjust your practice, or you may simply not be aware of the changes that have taken place.

Have courage and faith, and, above all, practice diligently.

The Second Base of Miraculous Powers: Persistence

Week of April 10, 2005 – The Second Base of Miraculous Powers: Persistence

The Second Base of Miraculous Powers is persistence or vigorous effort; this is the tenth aid (of the third set) to enlightenment.

Psychology 101: Human beings, in general, live first to satisfy the basic necessities for survival (i.e. food, shelter, health). Next, they live in response to the external environment and habitual tendencies (i.e. sports, hobbies, interests). Thereafter, time and effort may be devoted to satisfy spiritual needs.

In the beginning of our practice we have to consciously put in time and effort. When we first start meditation or perform daily liturgy, a lot of our energy or effort will be consumed, and we may feel tired or exhausted after practice. After a period of continuous cultivation, if we can find the right key and practice correctly, we should be able to generate energy from the practice instead of expending it

All of our wandering thoughts, emotional instabilities, worries, anxiety and stress drain our energy. With concentration, we are able to settle down or slow down our thoughts and our bodily functions: thus we can conserve our energy naturally. So, if we have been cultivating for a while and we are still losing rather than gaining energy, or we are not able to persist in our practice, it is an indication that we are not getting the key points or practicing correctly.

The miraculous power of persistence serves both as an indicator as well as the driving force in the pursuit of the Truth. There are at least three dimensions to it, one is the continuation and consistency of regular practice (e.g. doing it on a daily basis for ten years, twenty years), the other is the increase in the length of the practice (e.g. from 20 minutes to 2 hours, 20 hours), the third is the application to other practices (e.g. have vigorous efforts in other aspects of our lives as well). Many practitioners assume they have realized the joy of Dharma/practice. Nevertheless if they cannot keep on cultivating, the joy that they realize is just a short term sensation. When we have actually realized the Joy, this Joy will entice us to further practice.

Rewards play an important role in where we put our effort. Some people cultivate or do good deeds so that they will reborn in better places after death, or have a better future life. Some people do good deeds and expect immediate good results/consequences. But for someone who lives in the moment, the act itself is rewarding enough; the subsequent karma is secondary although still substantial.

We need to put vigorous effort into our practice, and, consequently, rightful practice generates persistence and power. So which is the chicken and which is the egg? Here is another example of living in the moment as well as of simultaneous cause and effect.

The First Base of Miraculous Powers: Desire

Week of April 3, 2005 – The First Base of Miraculous Powers: Desire

Following the Four Right Efforts (Four Right Exertions/Four Correct Endeavors) are the Four Bases of Miraculous Powers; these are the nine to twelve aids (third sets) to enlightenment.

In the Theravada tradition, the Four Bases of Miraculous Powers are:

Base of power endowed with concentration founded on desire and the fabrications of exertion.
Base of power endowed with concentration founded on persistence and the fabrications of exertion.
Base of power endowed with concentration founded on intent and the fabrications of exertion.
Base of power endowed with concentration founded on discrimination and the fabrications of exertion.

In the Mahayana tradition, the Four Bases of Miraculous Powers are:

Desire Power - the strong aspiration to gain excellent meditation.
Effort Power - vigorous effort to gain excellent meditation.
Concentration Power- intense concentration, the gaining of control over thought.
Wisdom Power- intense contemplation and the good function of analytical meditation.

After we have diligently practiced contemplation based on the Fourfold Stages of Mindfulness, and we have put them into action and incorporated them into our daily lives following the guidelines of the Four Right Efforts, the natural and rightful consequences are the Four Bases of Miraculous Powers. These four miraculous powers are the changes that occur to a practitioner resulting from practicing concentration. They are the byproducts of cultivation.

The most noticeable and physical change is the diminishing of earthly desires; for example, food, sleep and sex. The body undergoes physical change; it becomes less confined by the external environment, as well as much more flexible in physical reaction. This does not mean that one will lose interest in external attributes, just that the craving or desire for them is low or non-existent. One still sleeps, eats and makes love if one chooses to, but it is more by choice and less by necessity. One does not practice to attain this power, yet this power provides us with a good yardstick to measure our progression along the Bodhi Path.

While the desire for physical needs decreases, the desire for spiritual or intellectual satisfaction increases. The aspiration to find out the meaning of our existence, the Truth of life, the boundless power of our mind and the possibility of traveling within different dimensions becomes strong. The vast compassion and wisdom within us ignites; we become much more willing to accept challenges and to take on responsibilities.

We meditate so as to transform and surpass our worldly desires, yet our desire for excellent meditation grants us the driving force to continue; which is the cause and which is the effect? Cause and effect happen simultaneously, we do not have to wait until later to taste the result, if we know how to live in the moment.

Cultivation is a matter of effort; we must work and act on it continuously and whole-heartedly. Acquiring pure knowledge without putting it into action may do us more harm than good. So again, keep on practicing and enjoy doing it!

The Four Right Efforts

Week of March 28, 2005 – The Four Right Efforts

Following the Four Bases of Mindfulness are the Four Right Efforts (Four Right Exertions/Four Correct Endeavors); these are the fifth to eight aids to enlightenment.

The four right efforts are:

Effort not to initiate evils not yet arisen - Guarding.
Effort to eliminate evils already arisen - Abandoning.
Effort to initiate virtues not yet arisen - Developing.
Effort to consolidate, increase, and not deteriorate virtue already arisen - Maintaining.

In On buddhanet.net (www.buddhnet.net), under “The Wings to Awakening: The Four Right Exertions”, it is very well-written as follows:

The four activities included in this set show how effort can be applied to developing skillful qualities in the mind. The basic formula runs as follows:

There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds and exerts his intent:
1. for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen...
2. for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen...
3. for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen...(and)
4. for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, and culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen.

These four aspects of effort are also termed guarding, abandoning, developing, and maintaining. All four play a necessary role in bringing the mind to Awakening, although in some cases they are simply four sides to a single process. The abandoning of unskillful mental qualities can frequently be accomplished simply by focusing on the development of skillful ones, such as mindfulness. The same principle can also act in reverse: in the skillful eradication of unskillful qualities, the skillfulness of the eradication is in and of itself the development of mindful discernment. As we will see when we deal with the seven factors of Awakening, the act of nourishing a factor of Awakening can in some cases simultaneously starve a hindrance, while the conscious starving of a hindrance can foster a factor of Awakening. Ultimately, though, right exertion requires more than simply abstaining from what is unskillful, for it must apply the basic factors of skillfulness-mindfulness and discernment-to gain an understanding of how even skillfulness can be transcended.

Perhaps the most important point in developing right exertion is to realize that the effort to abandon unskillful qualities and to develop skillful qualities must be skillful itself. Unskillful efforts at eradicating unskillful states, even if well intended, can many times exacerbate problems instead of solving them. Treating hatred with hatred, for instance, is less effective than treating it with the kind of understanding developed in the second stage of frames-of-reference meditation, which sees into causes and effects, and learns how to manipulate causes properly so as to get the desired effects. For this reason, the basic formula for right exertion includes, both implicitly and explicitly, other factors of the path to ensure that the effort is skillfully applied. Three of the qualities that activate the mind in these exertions-desire, persistence, and intent-are also members of the bases of power, where they function as dominant factors in the attainment of concentration. The ability to discriminate between skillful and unskillful qualities, implicit in all of these exertions, requires a certain level of mindfulness and discernment. The skillful qualities that are mentioned most prominently as worthy of development are the seven factors of Awakening, which include mindfulness, analysis of mental qualities, and the factors of jhana, all of which must be reinvested in the process of right exertion to bring it to higher levels of finesse.

After we have an idea of or have started to practice contemplation, how do we apply it in dealing with our daily lives? This is where the four right efforts come in. The basic inspiration is very simple to understand:, perform wholesome acts, avoid non-wholesome acts. Most people will not challenge such an assertion. The difficult issue here is how to determine which/what is evil or virtuous, wholesome or unwholesome.

Haiyun HeShang used the following standard: any action that increases our Life Energy (potential capacity) is virtuous or wholesome and any action that diminishes our Life Energy (potential capacity) is evil or unnon-wholesome. Thus it goes beyond the appearance of the action; it goes to the essence. Take the example of Giving. Generosity is basically virtuous, yet if one gives out of the greed for fame, to show off or to despiste others; the act will diminish one’s Life Energy, for it pushes one towards greediness and ignorance.

When it comes to action, our motivation is very important. If we are able to start with a pure motivation while initiating an action, and half way through completion the accomplishment turns out to be unwholesome, we can still follow the four right efforts to guard, abandon, develop and maintain wholesome actions.

We need to be proficient in contemplating our mind to perceive our motivation, without prejudice. We must have a good understanding of the Dharma to distinguish between appearance and essence. Everything is interrelated. Learning Buddhism is so much fun!