Now you must try to number the depressing or frustrating situations, that
affect you, and separate them according to the above mentioned
classifications. We must understand that when we are in unhappiness and get
absorbed into problems, we will be bound to unhappiness.
For example lets take a situation where a much expected promotion for you
was given to an undeserving party in office. Your natural reaction would be to
feel angry and disgusted, and lament over it for a couple of days making
yourself and may be your colleagues and family members also unhappy. Instead
of getting caught up with all the emotions you must identify the factors of
the above situation separately, as the event of you not getting the promotion
(kamma) and the resultant unhappy feelings.
You must understand that both these factors are situations out side the
mind, and only if you let the feelings of unhappiness control your mind that
the kamma would become yours. Such an analysis would enable you to objectively
look at the problem with a clear and calm mind. Then you will be in a better
position to make a constructive and objective decision, but if you had made a
problem of it in the first place, you would have complicated the whole
situation.
Therefore in the event of an unhappy situation or thought we must
persistently push such thoughts away from our minds. This will bring
‘upasthambaka kamma’ which brings happy events or thoughts closer to your
mind. You must remember to maintain a happy mind, whichever the circumstances
are, because now we understand how important it is to always have a composed
and content mind to gain happiness within and around you. This will then
affect the environment you live in, transforming it and the people we meet
into a blissful existence. This could be understood according to the laws of
nature, when your mind is fresh and brightened with healthy thoughts then the
kamma around you too is ‘upasthambaka’, because you can’t have a happy mind
with ‘upapeedaka kamma’ around you. Therefore when there is ‘upasthambaka
kamma’ the environment you confront too will bring happiness to you.
It is also logical to be away from unhappy environments and at the same
instant you must not let your environment fall prey to unhappy situations
rather maintain a happy environment which leads to establishing a happy
mind.
At this point you must understand that we are talking of two environments;
i.e. one’s own environment and the environment of others. One’s own
environment includes physical cleanliness, clothes, etc. and the environment
you live in i.e. house, office, friends’ environment etc. Individuals must try
to maintain these in such a way so that happiness will be present in what one
sees, feels, hears, smell or tastes. You might think of financial difficulties
in maintaining such an environment , but let go of such thoughts and try to
create a happy environment as much as possible from what you possess.
The very first effort in bringing ‘upasthambaka kamma’ closer to your mind
is by making a practice of maintaining a happy mind. It is a natural
phenomenon for unhappy thoughts to enter your mind when one is engaged in his
or her daily chores. It’s important for a person to understand that he should
make it his habit to always dispel such thoughts as soon as they enter his
mind. Unhappy or frustrating thoughts should not be allowed to gain entrance
into the mind at any time. Permission should be given only to happy and
content thoughts. This should be the motto of our minds. In other words
only upasthambaka kamma should be permissible to enter the mind , not
Upapeedaka kamma.
Now let us see how we can lead a happy life. When happy thoughts are
maintained the Upapeedaka kamma, that affect the mind will move away from the
mind, since they do not harbor matching unhappy thoughts in the mind. Then the
space which was created by the movement of the ‘upapeedaka kamma’ will be
filled with upasthambaka kamma since they are harbored with matching happy
thoughts. This is a natural occurrence. Then the closeness of upasthambaka
kamma will help you to maintain a happy mind more easily than before.
‘Upasthambaka kamma’ shifts towards people who possess correct environments
where these could lodge. Then such people will meet the correct people, happy
environments and sometimes your neighboring environments could change to bring
you happiness. The environment which created unhappiness and frustration could
be transformed to happiness and contentment by you. You will want to even
change the furniture and fittings to make you feel happy . This shows how the
environment changes, when ‘upasthambaka kamma’ gains access to your mind.
If you are a person who has established a happy state of mind you must try
to keep it that way. If you are a person prone to unhappy thinking, you must
try to dispel such thoughts. Never encourage negative thoughts as they will
never contribute to achieving happiness or progress in life.
When ‘upasthambaka kamma’ gains access to your mind, you will experience a
sense of happiness. When the mind is full of such kamma, you will feel
happier. Therefore think clearly of what you should do in order to maintain a
happy mind. Next step is while maintaining the ‘upasthambaka mind’ you must
try to establish more happiness or the upasthambaka in the mind. This means
moving from darkness to light, and from light to light.
There are two methods to be adopted in order to let go of ‘upapeedaka
kamma’. The first is to let go of all unhappy thoughts, using one’s own power
of the mind. Initially you should analyze the kamma. You must not feel
helpless or unhappy, but keep the mind free and clear and feel positive that
you will get rid of the kamma. As discussed earlier, you must understand that
kamma and the feeling of unhappiness which is created by the kamma is separate
from the mind.
This outside kamma brings pressure or frustration to the mind. Therefore
when you dispel this outside frustration or disappointment felt by you, the
kamma too would disappear. This is an internal effort to dispel unhappy
thoughts from the mind since as long as these thoughts harbor our minds we
will not be able to be free of unhappiness. Sometimes, it is difficult to see
this through your mind at unusually difficult times, then you can press your
two jaws hard together and push these thoughts from your mind. This includes
physical force along with the mind to push the thoughts away.
The second method of getting rid an unhappy or frustrating thought is by
reciting a stanza when ever such thoughts take possession of your mind. This
is much easier than the first method, specially to a person new to Buddhist
philosophy. There are many stanzas, one such famous stanza is given below:
‘sabba papassa akaranam
kusalassa upasampada
sachitta pariyodapanam
etam Buddhanasasanam’
The giving up of all evil;
The cultivation of the good;
The cleansing of one’s mind;
This is the Bubbhas’ teaching.
Commit no wrong, but good deed do,
And let thy heart be pure,
All Buddhas teach this doctrine true
Which will for aye endure.
To put aside each ill of old
To leave no noble deed undone
To cleanse the mind in these behold
The teaching of the Enlightened One.
This stanza should be studied and recited whenever your mind is disturbed.
Sometimes in the first few instances you might even have to recite it hundred
times, to get rid of an unhappy thought, but as you progress, you will be able
to let go of unpleasant thought just by thinking of the stanza. This will
assist you in getting rid of ‘upapeedaka kamma’ felt by your mind. When kamma
that brings unhappiness leaves you, the unhappiness automatically moves away
from you. Therefore you must make up your mind never to encourage unhappy
feelings. When you get into the habit of reciting the above mentioned stanza
to dispel unpleasant thoughts, you may become sensitive to frustrating
thoughts, enabling you to recognize them the sooner, so that they will not
possess your mind for a long period.
A mind free of frustration will be always confronted by with happiness as
opposed to the mind, full of frustration. Therefore don’t let your mind get
accustomed to unhappiness, frustration, worry, etc. Be always on the alert so
that no unhappy thoughts will gain entrance into your mind. This is important.
If such thoughts do enter the mind unawares, get rid of it instantly, either
by the power of your mind or by reciting the stanza. In this way try to
maintain a mind free of unhappy thoughts, and be careful not to pave the way
for ‘upapeedaka kamma’.
If you wish to have a happy mind first get rid of the pressure, in your
mind, this will eventually push the ‘kamma’ which is the cause for unhappiness
away from your mind. It is also understood that with time all problems would
cease, meaning that you pay off the kamma. But it is possible to change your
fate by your own will.
Our main objective is to clearly present the meaning of kamma and how you
could change your way of thoughts to bring happiness and contentment to your
life.
The noticeable feature of Ven. Gnanasumana’s life and works is his
willingness to come forward with new ideas, theories and concepts. In this
endeavour, Ven. Gnanasumana is always logical and reasonable. He rejects
fallacies and accepts what is substantiated with facts. In this way, Ven.
Gnanasumana has contributed substantially to direct the people on the right
path. The struggle that he has led to liberate people from superstitious beliefs
is enormous. Ven. Gnanasumana strongly believes that Buddhism is to be practiced
in daily life amidst all our problems. According to Ven. Gnanasumana, it is only
then that the beauty and practicability of the Buddha’s message can really be
seen. To awaken the people to this objective, Ven. Gnanasumana wishes to
introduce Buddhism in a new perspective. Hence the programme "Practical Aspects
of Buddhism: The Path to Happiness Through Buddhism" is launched.
Prof. Oliver Abeynayake,
Buddhist and Pali University,
Sri Lanka.
"The Practical Aspects of Buddhism: The Path to Happiness Through Buddhism"
is a programme which introduces the Buddha’s message in a new perspective. It
avoids two extremes, namely the philosophising Buddhism and lowering Buddhism to
a standard of a belief intermingled with superstitions.
The first extreme speaks only of theories which make Buddhism something
beyond the ordinary person. As a result of this extreme Buddhism seems to be
thought as a subject confined to intellectuals and pundits. Those who endorse
this extreme have come forward with various "views" which are totally rejected
by the Buddha. They do not see Buddhism as a living force which stands by our
side helping us in our day to day life.
The second extreme lowers Buddhism to the standard of thousands of beliefs
haunting the people all over the world. This has made the Buddha a God who can
fulfill our wishes and the Dhamma a mere a object to be worshipped. The
followers of this extreme do not know who the Buddha is and what the Dhamma is
for.
Both these extremes advocate meditation as an escape from life. To meditate,
people are advised to go to the forests and hermitages. Buddhism has thus been
projected as a teaching which is not useful to the busy man living in the
society today. The Buddhist way to reality, which is known as the Noble
Eightfold Path, "Ariyo Atthangiko maggo", is taken out of context and is taught
as a way of life to be practised only by monks. Its value as a living force is
completely forgotten even by the good Buddhist.
This new programme launched by Ven. Delduwe Gnanasumana answers the questions
thus raised by these two extremes and emphasizes what Buddhism really is.
Buddhism is to be practised in our daily life as one proceeds day by day in the
process of life. It is indeed not an escape from life. It brings us happiness,
teaching us what life really is. Therefore, Buddhism which is going to be
introduced in this programme is called "Practical Buddhism". Things that have no
practical value are never taught in Buddhism.
The conventional Buddhism has made the Buddhist a victim of Gods. He goes
from one God to another looking for material benefits, not knowing how innocent
and helpless these Gods are. Gods cannot bring happiness to the world. If they
could, they would have done that a long time ago. This programme will show every
one the only path leading to the happiness in a man’s life which is full of
miseries today.
Prof. Oliver Abeynayake,
Buddhist and Pali University,
Sri Lanka.
