So we are going to sit now for meditation.
If you'd like to find a comfortable position for yourself in meditation,
Having done chanting in homage to the Triple Gem,
From this moment forth,
All of us should do our best to realign our minds with the pathway towards Nirvana.
Sit in a cross-legged position with your right leg on your left leg,
Your right hand on your left hand,
The index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand,
With your hands resting palm upwards on your lap.
And close your eyes very gently.
Close your eyes gently,
As if you are only half-closing them,
Almost as if you are closing your eyes to go to sleep.
Never squeeze your eyes closed,
And make sure there's no pressure around your eyes.
Fill your mind with happiness and joy,
And suppose that inside your body is bright and clear,
Free of any sort of worries or anxieties,
With no worries about anything at all.
Imagine that inside your body is just a hollow cavity,
And feel as if you are sitting alone in empty space,
Without any organs or tissues,
Without any muscles or bones,
As if it is completely empty inside yourself,
Spacious,
Like a hollow cavity inside yourself,
Rather like a crystal tube or a diamond pipe,
Clear and bright,
Transparent inside yourself,
As if the surface of your body is as delicate and clear as a bubble,
Hollow,
With an empty space inside yourself,
Like a crystal or a diamond tube.
And we bring our mind together at the centre of our body,
At a standstill at the centre of our body,
The seventh base of the mind,
Which is approximately in the middle of our stomach,
Two fingers above the level of our navel.
To be precise,
You can imagine that you take two thin threads,
One running from your navel directly through your back,
The other running from the right side to the left side,
So that the two threads come to an intersection at the centre of the body.
The intersection is no larger than the eye of a needle.
Two finger-breaths above the intersection is a point we call the seventh base of the mind.
To see this point clearly,
Your mind has first to be at a standstill,
Which means that we must have no further thoughts.
But in practice,
We can approximate to this point,
Or we can just focus our mind anywhere in the centre of our stomach,
Giving it the benefit of the doubt,
Anywhere which feels right for you,
And later,
When the mind becomes more refined,
It will come precisely to the centre of its own accord.
Today,
As we meditate,
We take the opportunity to explore the greater implications of meditation towards quality of life and quality of the environment,
In contrast to the opinion often put about that meditation is selfish and is running away from the problems of the world.
The existence of defilements in the mind,
Such as greed,
Hatred and delusion,
Affects not only the quality of our mind,
But also the quality of our life,
And even has an effect on the environment around us.
The quality of the mind affects the environment rather than vice versa,
Because our actions affect the world we live in on three different levels of description,
Otherwise known as the world of formations or sankhara loka,
The world of beings or sathala loka,
And the world of location or okaasaloka.
When we talk about the world of formations,
We mean the body,
Which is home to our mind.
The quality of our mind affects our physical health and our longevity,
As we can see from studies on meditation,
Which show improved rates of convalescence in patients who meditate regularly.
When we talk about the world of beings,
We talk about the nature or disposition of all beings in the world.
Often the tendencies to aggression,
Which bring about war in the first place,
Can be bypassed completely.
If those making the decisions in the world have their mind calmed by meditation the whole of the time.
When we talk about the world of location,
We mean the quality and abundance of the physical environment we inhabit.
Of course it means pollution in the atmosphere and destruction of the rainforests.
But in Buddhism,
We see that such environmental damage is just the symptom of damage which is going on much deeper in the human mind.
And if the minds of people in the world were purer,
Then the environment would automatically become free of ecological problems.
Thus,
The importance of events like Earth Day or World Meditation Day is that large numbers of people the world over sit for meditation to benefit the world as a whole.
They are celebrations of meditation when we share the benefits of our meditation for everybody in the world.
Some misunderstand that for a person to meditate is antisocial or is escaping from the problems of the world.
But such events show that meditators also have a social conscience and have their own solutions to problems which often go unsolved by conventional methods.
When we have increased defilements in our minds,
We are unable to take control of our lives,
To live it to the fullest of our potential,
And even our life spans are shortened.
This is no exaggeration,
But can be explained by the fact that when we act under the influence of defilements in the mind,
We live by trial and error.
We don't know what is damaging to ourselves and what is not.
Thus,
In our process of trial and error,
We do more damage than good to ourselves,
Our lives and the environment.
The quality of the mind decreases.
The environment suffers from the acts of greed,
Exploitation and pollution that result.
People are impatient in the harvest of crops,
And in their greed they use more and more chemicals to hurry the growth of the crops.
Eventually the food becomes contaminated,
Reducing our lifespan as a result.
In the end,
The chemicals build up in the bodies of the consumers,
Leading to shortened lifespan.
There are implications not only towards our lives,
But also towards the environment.
Some find it difficult to believe that defilements in the mind can have an effect on the quality of the atmosphere.
But if you don't believe it for yourself,
Try comparing the atmosphere of a room used regularly for meditation and compare it with a bar in a nightclub.
The temperature in both rooms might be the same,
But the vibration is different.
The vibration can be changed by something as seemingly insignificant as an argument.
Thus,
Anywhere where defilements have got the upper hand,
The atmosphere will be spoiled.
And when the atmosphere is spoiled,
The rain doesn't fall according to the season.
In ancient times,
They acknowledged this interconnectedness.
And so,
Whenever there was any problem with the lack of rainfall,
They would call a meeting of everybody in the country and agree for everybody to upgrade the quality of their conduct.
They would do chanting,
Meditate,
Spread love and kindness,
Give alms and keep the precepts.
And when they did this,
Usually within the space of seven days,
The rain would fall.
Nowadays though,
It's not often that everybody in a particular place would be so unified and cooperative in doing good deeds,
Such as keeping the precepts or giving alms or meditating together.
Nowadays,
It is hard to find people gathering together in large numbers to do anything constructive.
All you see is people coming together in a mob to protest about this or that.
All they manage to do by their efforts is to make the atmosphere even worse.
Thus,
If you want to discover the way to solve the problems in the proper way,
Such as getting to the root of the problems of the environment in the same way the ancients used to do,
Then we should give first priority to eradicating defilements from the mind.
It is for this reason that in the Buddhist concepts of old,
People saw that the pollution of the mind through defilements extrapolated to pollution in our lives with problems of immorality and the pollution of the natural environment with poisons.
It is for this reason that the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth decided to adopt Hiroshima Day,
The 6th of August each year,
As a day of peace in the world,
Calling it World Meditation Day,
Because although Buddhists around the world might not agree on the calendar dates for Huesak,
Magapuja Day or Katina,
All agree that by meditating together,
The world can become a more peaceful place.
Meditation will help all the people of the world to discover peace inside themselves to the point that they will be able to attain true wisdom.
Once they have mindfulness and wisdom,
They will realize their true purpose in life and they will be able to set proper priorities in life,
Leading their lives,
Without harming one another.
They will have compassion towards one another.
Therefore,
World Meditation Day is a great opportunity for all of us to spread loving kindness and share the benefits of our merit for all the people of the world with a wish that they too may attain true peace inside,
That inner peace may be the basis of world peace,
That they may overcome all their aggression and ill will in harming one another,
So that their minds may be filled with loving kindness and compassion,
That they will be willing to share what they have with others.
Similarly,
Earth Day on the 22nd of April each year,
Which throughout the world is a festival when everyone recollects that it's about time,
That we ought to take better care of our planet.
Again,
We seek care for the world on all three levels of meaning,
By sitting together for meditation to cultivate purity and clarity,
Which is refined in our mind and can be enlarged to the world on all three levels,
The level of the body,
The level of the community of beings,
And the level of the environment too,
Something that can start from inside our very own minds to purify the Earth on all three levels,
Even to the extent that the planets,
The stars,
The sun,
The moon and the galaxies,
Even the cosmos,
Reaching all beings irrespective of race,
Creed,
Nationality or religion,
So that all may be purified completely of all forms of decay.
All of these things start out from our bright,
Clear mind inside ourselves,
And it's the starting point for the seed of peace on our planet.
This is why we have to bring about real peace in the world by this method,
Because the real peace comes from the peace inside ourselves.
World peace must come from inner peace,
And this peace will enlarge continuously to bring real peace in the world.
We have to practice peace and enlarge peace from the inside out,
By cultivating our mind in a bright and a peaceful way.
We have to start by aligning our mind with the inner peace inside ourselves,
Inner peace will ensure safety for the world,
And bring about real peace in the world as a whole.
Because the peace of the world cannot happen simply by dialogue or debate or waging war in the name of peace.
But what we can learn from history is that external wars,
For various reasons,
Have never brought about lasting peace in the world.
All wars have managed to achieve is to bring about suffering in our human community.
More justified than the external wars are the wars we must wage inside ourselves.
The war inside the mind which we must wage is a war that does not lead to casualties or cruelty.
It is a war by which we must face up to our real enemy,
Which is the defiance in our own minds.
Whether it be the defilements of greed,
Hatred or delusion,
Which are latent in our minds.
These are our real enemies,
The enemies of all beings in the world.
Each time we go onto the battlefield of the mind,
Although there are no casualties,
There is nothing to cry about from the losses of the battle.
But to the contrary,
At all levels of this battle in sight,
The more we manage to overcome our enemies on the battlefield of the mind,
The more happiness will come to us.
A sort of happiness which has no admixture of suffering at all.
This happiness will be established in our mind in the place of suffering.
So real peace in the world can only come about when everyone in the world can bring their mind to a standstill,
To attain inner peace inside themselves.
It cannot happen by the power of supernatural beings,
But it has to come from ourselves.
It has to come from the grassroots efforts of individual people cooperating together and the peace of each individual person will combine to protect the whole of our planet and at that time all the people in the world and the world itself will come across true and lasting peace.
This is something which people have been searching for since time immemorial.
But what we discover is that our efforts have been in vain because we have been looking for peace in the wrong place.
We have overlooked the fact that the peace we are looking for already exists inside ourselves.
In fact,
The real peace,
The real success and fulfilment is not something which we have to look around ourselves for.
We can find all of these things inside ourselves at the centre of our body,
At the seventh base of our own mind.
And each person can find it in their own mind just as we can.
With no exceptions in respect to creed,
Nationality or religion.
By bringing our mind to a standstill at this point and nowhere else.
Because if we focus our mind anywhere else,
We cannot meet up with inner peace.
We need to rest our mind gently at this point and in this way we can liberate ourselves and liberate the whole of humankind from the control of the defilements in our minds in a permanent way.
In fact,
True peace already exists in our mind.
We have more than enough peace in our mind to share with others in the world.
All that is required is that we bring our mind to a standstill and allow our mind to become peaceful,
Bright and clear.
In order to attain inner peace inside ourselves as a refuge which is able to bring about real peace in the world.
If all of us were able to attain inner peace inside ourselves,
We would touch on great happiness.
We would have a refuge inside ourselves and we will feel at ease and secure in every place we go.
Our mind would be perfused with joy right from the moment we first attain inner peace in ourselves.
Bright and clear in the centre of our body.
Inner peace at the centre of our body.
Once enough people in the world meditate and attain inner peace within themselves,
The real signs of peace would start to happen in the world.
Starting from ourselves first and gradually spreading outwards to the whole of the world.
This will be the witness to the fact that our life has come to a point of fulfilment.
That we experience only happiness no matter what lifetime we will arise in.
To have fulfilment in life from this time forth,
We will be someone who has no further ill will or vengeance or negative retribution catching up with us no matter how many more lifetimes we must be born for.
We will achieve success in every task we turn our hand to from this lifetime onwards.
We will be able to see peace in its long term form and this could be achieved by training ourselves in meditation each and every day.
In fact meditation is something universal which anyone in the world can practice.
It doesn't depend on one's beliefs.
It is as much a part of human life as breathing in and out.
It ought to be as regular a part of our daily routine as brushing our teeth or combing our hair.
By meditation we can gradually add to the peace inside ourselves every day.
And if we manage this within our human lifespan the world will change for the better to become a more peaceful and harmonious place.
If people are able to attain this inner peace inside themselves they will meet up with real happiness.
A happiness which is true happiness.
Not like the thing which we normally assume is happiness but which in fact is only a pale reflection of the real thing.
Once we have true happiness inside this happiness will expand to those around us in our surroundings,
To our families,
Our communities and eventually our whole nation and the whole world.
In such a way peace will spread throughout the world in a subtle but determined way simply by the fact that people will have attained the true refuge inside themselves.
Thus inner peace is something that is very important.
We should all try to attain inner peace for ourselves and today the purpose of our meditation practice is to attain this inner peace for ourselves.
And the way we can do this is by bringing our mind to a standstill at the centre of our body by imagining the image of a bright clear crystal ball or a bright clear Buddha image bringing our mind to a standstill inside that bright clear image inside ourselves.
And in order that no thoughts crop up in our mind we may also repeat silently to ourselves the sound of the mantra Samma arahang Samma arahang Samma arahang over and over again consistently and continuously while maintaining our mind at a standstill at the centre of the body.
At a point two finger breaths above the level of our navel.
It is all we need to do in our meditation practice.
There's nothing else apart from this we have to do.
If we can do this and nothing else we will soon attain inner peace inside ourselves.
As a result of such practice all of us will have a united vision to arrive at peace in our world.
Once we understand one another in the world true peace will emerge as soon as all of our minds are refined to the point that we can be witness to the peace and purity inside ourselves.
Whether it be a clear sphere or a clear Buddha image inside ourselves with our eyes open or closed.
And on the basis of all the merit we have accrued by our practice we should make the wish that through the considerable merit of our attainment in the meditation that the merit of our meditation together on this occasion will protect the world so that all beings in the world whether of any race,
Religion or creed experience real peace so that all beings in the world may give up fighting amongst themselves but instead be protected by peace and loving kindness,
Compassion from this moment forth.
May all of you rest your mind in peace at the centre of your body with a bright clear crystal ball at the centre of your body with a bright clear Buddha image at the centre of your body until the inner brightness arises for you.
Brightness which will come from the mind that is filled with compassion and loving kindness for one's fellow man which is the basis of real peace in the world.
So now all of you should make the effort to attain inner peace inside yourself.
Now each their own meditation in silence for a few more moments until we come to the appropriate time.
