Update on the Relocation

 First of all, we wish all 

a Happy & Spiritual 

New Year 2011

In the past three weeks we have been busy getting the new place at Phuah Hin Leong road ready before the year comes to an end. So far, the only things done are the installation of water supply, the painting of the hall and upstairs. The back portion of the building which includes the kitchen and the installation of the roof has yet to be completed. A sum of money has been spent and yet so much still needs to be done. The new place is a heritage building and most of the facilities are quite “antique.” There are plans to install root at the kitchen as it is an open-air (air well) one. The squatting toilet too has to be replaced so as to facilitate the elderly patrons using it.

The most crucial facility, that is electricity supply, has been submitted but has yet to be approved. Without the installation of the meter, things at the old place are unable to be shifted in. Work too is confined to day time. 

That, so far is the progress that we have made since the news of the relocation. Any assistance that can be rendered is most welcomed. 

Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

Jennifer Yeoh

Entrance

Meditation Hall

Air Well — "Open Space" Going to Toilet.

 

Viewing the Air Well from Inside

Progress on the Squatting Toilet. It Gone!

Upstairs — Working Space

Upstairs — Office

Planning to Construct Storeroom Here

AM I A BUDDHIST?

AM I A BUDDHIST?

An extract from Chapter One of 

our newly release book: 

WHY LIKE THAT ONE?

by OH TEIK BIN 

Many people declare themselves to be ‘Buddhists’ when in actual fact they do not know what being Buddhists really means. Many students (I was once like that too), when required to fill forms state their religion as “Buddhism” or “Agama Buddha” (in Malay) although they have no idea at all what the essential Teachings of the Buddha (Dhamma)  is all about … let alone understanding and practising the Dhamma.

Today, we see so many different ‘Brands’ of “Buddhists”.  Let us look at them and do some reflection.

• The ‘Burning’ “Buddhist” 

You see quite a number of such “Buddhists” … they burn bundles of joss sticks, joss paper and other paper paraphernalia at home, in Buddhist Associations and even Buddhist Temples. Poor Mother Earth. She is choking and suffering and our environment gets more and more polluted. Talk about wise, wholesome and good Karmic actions!  When will such “Buddhists” ever learn that the ‘gods will not be appeased’ (and we don’t get peace within and without)  through a ‘combustion reaction’?  We need to conquer the Devils of Greed, Hatred and Delusion.

• The ‘Wesak’ “Buddhist” 

These ‘once a year’ “Wesak Buddhists” throng Buddhist Associations and Temples on Wesak Day carrying out so many deluded practices. They perform many meaningless rituals, have their fortunes read, their amulets and talismans blessed, rush for free Dana food (the “Hungry Ghost” Realm is very real!) and “Holy Water”. They make supplication to the Buddha, asking for all sorts of favours with promises to do certain things if their material wishes are granted. Poor Buddha ! He must be very tired listening to the ‘bargains’ of these “Wesak Buddhists”.

• The ‘Intellectual’ “Buddhist” 

I have come across many friends who are like “Walking Encyclopedias” when it comes to ‘intellectual Dhamma’. They devour one Dhamma book after another, listen to many Dhamma Speakers and Tapes but alas all these remain at the intellectual level. The Dhamma is not practised and actualized. Such intellectual Buddhists still cling on to their negative traits and habits. Talk about the practice of Dana … ha, now we understand partly why so many Buddhist Organizations lack Volunteer workers for Dhammaduta (missionaries) work. We have too many “intellectual Buddhists” walking around! 

• The ‘Ceremonies’ “Buddhist” 

We can see such Buddhists in some Buddhist Temples and Associations. They are caught up in lots of devotional rites, rituals and ceremonies the whole year long. So much of their time and energies are sapped indulging in unnecessary rites and rituals. When will they ever learn, understand, practice and realize the Sublime Teachings of the Buddha?  Unless and until they do, the defilements will remain or even multiply. We do not deny the role of a certain degree of devotional Buddhism but beware … rites and rituals can bind us more and more to the Wheel of Samsara. 

• The ‘Social’ “Buddhist” 

There are Buddhists who are particularly active when it comes to socializing and fun activities. Of course, we need good Buddhist Fellowships, excursions, tours and other healthy recreational activities. But beware! Our primary aim in being a Buddhist is to learn and practice the Dhamma, to seek and realize Enlightenment. ‘Social’ Buddhists sometimes frequent Buddhist Temples, Buddhist Societies and Associations with ulterior motives.  They may be looking for potential life partners or have a hidden business or political agenda. The Dhamma takes backstage.

• The ‘Deity’ “Buddhist” 

It is interesting  to note that many Chinese “Buddhists” regard the Buddha as another of their gods or deities. If you visit their homes, you can find the image of the Buddha placed at their shrine altar together with a host of other gods. ‘Deity’ “Buddhists” perhaps believe in this: ‘The more gods, the better (and merrier) … more protection and security!’ Will they ever learn the meaning of true Refuge in the Triple Gem? I know of a ‘long-time Buddhist’ (also an ex-Committee Member of a Buddhist Organization) who was so afraid of removing his many gods from his shrine altar at home. He believes misfortune can strike him if he does so!

• The ‘Emergency times’ “Buddhist” 

Such Buddhists only pray to the Buddha or Kuan Yin in times of trouble, problems and conflicts. They pray for immediate solutions to their problems of health, poor business, love relationships, academic studies etc. At other times, when they are relatively trouble-free, they will be too busy chasing material wealth and indulging in sensual pursuits. For such Buddhists, there is no time and place for Dhamma. I remember some time ago, there was a “Buddhist” man who came to our Buddhist Association with a very lost and stressed-up look. He wanted to learn Meditation to solve immediately his big problem … insomnia and business loss. I suggested that he joined our Dhamma Study Class first. He did but it did not last. He was not patient and just wanted to solve his ‘emergency’ problem.

• The ‘Preaching’ “Buddhist” 

The Buddha once said, “Others faults are easy to see but one’s own faults one hides like a fowler in disguise.” “Preaching” Buddhists do a lot of talking, suggesting, ordering and commanding. They project themselves as the “Know-All” in Dhamma but they themselves do little when it comes to real Dhammaduta (missionaries) work and Dana. Such Buddhists can be quite intelligent and creative but alas they don’t really practice the Dhamma. Talking and suggesting is one thing but wise pro-active action is another. Intelligence and Wisdom can be worlds apart.  

• The ‘Cultish’ “Buddhist”  

Such Buddhists can be found everywhere. They can be filled with delusion, ego and conceit. Instead of spending their time practising good Dana, Sila and Bhavana (generosity, virtues and mind-cultivation), they waste much time and energy chasing after “cultivated monks/nuns”, futile arguing over hair-splitting Dhamma points, attempting to convert others to their “cultish” brand of Buddhism and hero-worshipping and tending to their “enlightened leaders or teachers’. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

OH TEIK BIN is a retired teacher and has been involved in Dhammaduta work for more than 22 years at Persatuan Buddhist Hilir Perak (PBHP), Teluk Intan. He is one of the founder members of PBHP. His Dhammaduta and outreach services include guidance classes and counseling, community library work, Buddhist Sunday School, Dhamma classes for students and adults, Camps for students, Dhamma sharing and Buddhist wake chanting services. 

Over the Internet, Oh Teik Bin has posted a lot of educational and Dhamma material at the following Websites:

www.dhammatelukintan.blogspot.com

www.slideshare.net/ohteikbin

www.youtube.com/user/ohlifelessons

www.toondoo.com/user/bteikoh

www.scribd.com/teikbin

http://engagedbuddhists.ning.com/profile/ohteikbin

www.twitter.com/TBroh

He can be contacted at Facebook and ohteikbin@gmail.com

Click at the title of the book for the FREE BOOK @ our Inward Path’s website:

WHY LIKE THAT ONE?

Other titles about Buddhist

 

UP village boy suddenly acquires American accent

Rajesh, the wonder boy, speaks fluently in English and 

has suddenly acquired knowledge of physics and mathematics

The Times of India, Jul 14, 2007

INDIA, LUCKNOW: A 14-year-old Dalit boy, born and brought up in a remote village of western Uttar Pradesh, has suddenly turned angrez. Rajesh, without any evident help, has started speaking fluently in English and does so with a proper American drawl. And that's not all: He seems to have forgotten how to speak Hindi.

Wonders do not cease with this: His knowledge of physics and mathematics has left engineering students baffled. Having already penned three books, Rajesh is now looking forward to some research work.

All of this may sound like a Bollywood script on one of its favourite themes, reincarnation. However, Rajesh, a resident of a nondescript village 40 km from Saharanpur, refuses to call it so.

In his words: "There is no concept of reincarnation. It is just that memory can't be destroyed till there are sound waves in the world."

And this is the area of science that interests Rajesh the most. "He has already written three documents, one on memory, the other on sociology and the third on liberalisation," said an excited Shishu Pal Singh Verma, principal of Willian Jefferson Clinton Science and Technology Centre, where Rajesh was enrolled last year.

"I did not take him seriously for a few months but on Republic Day, while the students were reciting poetry before the entire college, Rajesh took the mike and addressed the gathering in fluent English. This left us almost shell-shocked," says Shishu Pal.

Rajesh's mother Omkali and 16-year-old brother Kaluwa are daily wage labourers who earn just enough to manage two square meals a day. His father Sompal is mentally-challenged. Asked how and when these changes came into Rajesh, Omkali said that it happened almost a year ago when Rajesh was helping Kaluwa erect a wall.

"Every time the brothers brought the wall up to two feet, their father would smash it. Irritated, Rajesh threw a brick at him who was hit in the head and began to bleed."

This left Rajesh dumbfounded. "For the next three months, he did not utter a single word. When he did, it was not in Hindi," said Jamal, a resident of Saharanpur.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UP-village-boy-suddenly-acquires-American-accent/articleshow/2202364.cms#ixzz17ofHfgTI

WE WILL BE MOVING TO NEW PREMISES NEXT YEAR 2011

DON'T SPEED

 

Don't speed, as there is no time for us to think.

Value Your Life!

Be Mindful On Road.

Meditation Technique 'Boosts Brain'

University of Oregon

Date published: Thursday, August 19, 2010
News source: Press Association
Region: International

A meditation technique could help the brain to regulate behaviour after just 11 hours of practice, research has shown. Meditation technique may boost brain activity

The study, involving 45 students at the University of Oregon in the US — half of whom were given integrative body-mind training (IBMT) while the others were taught relaxation techniques, found that the meditation exercise provoked structural changes in brain connectivity.

The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that a type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used before and after training revealed that neuron connectivity was enhanced in the part of the brain that helps to regulate emotions and behaviour among those who practised meditation.

US psychologist Professor Michael Posner from the University of Oregon, who co-led the research, said:

"The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person's ability to regulate conflict."

He added: 

"The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation."

Previous work by the same team has shown that meditation reduces levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue.

Copyright Press Association 2010

www.cardi.ie

The Above Titles Are Schedule to be Release 

during Kathina Celebration*

from October — November 2010

(1)

四念处概要说明 

(Simplified Chinese) 
喜戒禅师 著 
An Exposition on Four Foundations of Mindfulness 
by Sayadaw U Silananda

(2)

Dhamma Padetha II:  

Purposeful Dhamma 

by Sayadaw U Kundala

(3)

止觀輔行: 

淨治睡眠與經行利益 

 (Traditional Chinese)

釋開仁、溫宗堃  合著

(4)

The Path of Freedom:  

Practising The Four Noble Truths

by Ashin Dr Nandamalabhivamsa

(5)

Why Like That One:  

Dhamma Food for Thought

by Metta

(6)

Secret of a Good Relationship

by Ven. K Rathanasara

For those who are interested to sponsor these titles,

please contact:

Mr. Sunanda Lim 

+6012-4302893

sunandahelim@gmail.com 

or

inwardpathpublisher@gmail.com

And those who are interested on these new publications,

kindly visit our website:

www.inwardpath.org

SADHU, SADHU, SADHU!

*Kindly note that the books will only be released 

once there are sufficient fund for publication.

RIGHT MINDFULNESS

RIGHT MINDFULNESS

THREE TYPES OF PATIENTS

Click to Enlarge

The Challenge of Bringing Theravada to the West

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

(an extract from keynote address at a seminar on “The Necessity for Promoting Buddhism in Europe,” held on the first death anniversary of Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thera. Colombo, 2 July 2000)

... When I ponder this issue, the question that immediately lodges itself in my mind is this: 

“What exactly is the type of 

Theravada Buddhism 

that we wish to spread?” 

For one thing, it is not merely texts and ideas that Westerners are looking for, not merely the Buddhism of the books. Books are certainly needed to introduce people to the Dhamma, to give them material for study and reflection. The point I wish to make is not that literature on Buddhism is dispensable, but that it is insufficient. For the Dhamma to take deep root in people’s hearts, it must come to them, not between the covers of a book, but in living, breathing persons who display the truth of the teaching in their lives.

Thus when I raise the question, 

“What type of Buddhism 

do we wish to spread?” 

I am not thinking of the pure canonical Dhamma, which exists as such only in the books. In actuality, Buddhism has always been expressed in concrete practices, embedded in social structures, and embodied by real human beings. Thus we have to consider this aspect of Theravada Buddhism and not merely the doctrinal formulas of the Pali Canon. So when we ponder how to bring Buddhism to the West, we have to decide which of the many faces of Theravada we want to bring. To some extent, this is premature, since if Buddhism does eventually take root in the West, it will assume forms particular to Western social and cultural conditions. But to begin we need something to serve as a seed or nucleus.

The ideal form of Theravada to present would be one that fuses all healthy aspects of the tradition into an organic whole. The transmission would have to focus on the practice of meditation, yet it should include a strong emphasis on Buddhist ethics (including Buddhist perspectives on contemporary ethical issues), textual and doctrinal study, devotional practices, and a fair share of ritual, too; but ritual would have to be integrated into the spiritual path, not pursued in compliance with mere cultural norms. 

 

The meditation practice should be 

the heart of the transmission. 

Once students experience the beneficial effects of meditation on their lives, in time they will develop keener interest in the study of texts, in devotional practices, in the precepts, and in ritual. Ritual will then serve to cement these varied aspects of Dhamma into a coherent whole, animated from within by the meditative experience.

BUDDHISM RISES IN THE WEST

by Piya Tan

 ALEXANDER THE GREAT

(Source: Roman mosaic found in the House of the Faun, Pompeii, Italy.)

gladiator soundtrack mp3s
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Buddhism began to become effectively global with Alexander the Great’s invasion of northwest India (4th century BCE). This cultural cross-current gave us a remarkable work on Buddhist apologetics, entitled the Milindapañha (The Questions of Milinda, see book below). Milinda was Menander 1 Soter (reigned 155-130 BCE), a Buddhist ruler of the Indo-Greek Bactrian kingdom in present day Pakistan. With Greek influence, too, we see perhaps the most beautiful of Buddha images, modelled after the sun-god, Apollo, complete with wavy hair, flowing pleated robes and halo.

Coins show the second-century BCE Indo-Greek 
KING MILINDA (MENANDER) of Taxila

155 BCE - 130 BCE

Inscribed Portrait of KING ASOKA 
from Kanganhalli (Courtesy ASI)

Buddhism reached its height in the time of the Indian emperor Asoka (3rd century BCE), who it is said to have sent out various missions that brought Buddhism to south and southeast Asia (and Vietnam), Persia (modern Iran), the Middle East (including Israel), Egypt and the West, especially Asia Minor (or Anatolia, including modern Turkey), Greece, and Italy. With the rise of the Abrahamic religions, much of this is history now, although we still see vestiges of Buddhist stories in local folk tales, especially that of “Bar­laam and Josa­phat,” a Christianized version of the Buddha story. [1]

Apparently, the relics of the Buddha made their way to the West. Few mediaeval Christian names are better known than those of Barlaam and Josaphat, [2] who were credited with the “second conversion” of India to “Christianity,” after the country had relapsed to “paganism” following the mission of the Apostle Thomas. Barlaam and Josaphat were remembered in the roll of saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church with the festival day of 27 November. In the Greek Church, Iosaph (Josaphat) was commemorated on 26 August, while the Russians remember both Barlaam and Ioasaph, together with the latter’s father, king Abenner (Suddhodana), on 19 November (2 December, Old Style). Sir Henry Yule once visited a church at Palermo, Italy, dedicated to “Divo Josaphat.” 

In 1571, the Doge Luigi Mocenigo presented to king Sebastian of Portugal a bone and part of the spine of St Josaphat. When Spain annexed Portugal in 1580, these sacred treasures were removed by Antonio, the pretender to the Portuguese throne, and ultimately found its way to Antwerp, Belgium, where they were preserved in the cloister of St Salvator.

After the European colonists had settled in India, with the arrival of Roman Catholic missionaries, some of them were struck by the similarities between episodes and features of the life of St Josaphat and those of the Buddha, as is clearly evident from the early 17th century Portuguese writer Diogo do Couto who declared this fact. By the 1850s, European scholars doing comparative study of the legend of St Josaphat (“Bodhisat”) and the life of the Buddha, 

“came to the startling conclusion that 

for almost a thousand years, 

the Buddha in the guise of the holy Josaphat, 

had been revered as a saint of 

the principal Churches of Christendom”! 

(DM Lang, introduction, Barlaam & Josaphat, 1967:x-ix)

With Western colonialism and European contact with the East, Buddhism again began flowing back to the West, beginning with scriptural scholarship, and now blossoming into numerous Western Buddhist groups and teachings. After about a century of Western scholarship in Buddhism, we now have ever more accurate editions and translations of the early Buddhist texts, complete with critical apparatus, in English and other European languages. 

Following the 1960 hippie counter culture movement that experimented in Oriental religions and altered states of consciousness, growing numbers of westerners, including many well-educated seekers, came to the East to become Theravada monastics, Zen priests and Vajrayana practitioners. The latter two traditions have been successfully westernised, although not without some major hiccups. [3] 

A new, and very important, development is the interest of Western science in Buddhist meditation, especially the mindfulness practices of early Buddhism. This interest in Buddhist psychology started over a century ago, with pioneers like William James, but it was only in the mid-20th century that the momentum began to pick up. Mind scientists can now see and measure, for example, what happens in the human brain during meditation.  So significant is this new meeting of science and religion, between western psychology and ancient Buddhism, that the scientists now even have their own annual retreats conducted by other scientists experienced in Buddhist meditation. [4]

In Varieties of Religious Experience (1902),

William James (1842-1910) also promoted
the functional value of meditation
for modern psychology. 

He wrote:

“This is the psychology 

everybody will be studying 
twenty-five years 
from now.”

When Buddhism left India and changed the societies that adopted it, Buddhism was in turn changed by these societies, so that what is originally the Buddha’s teachings and methods went through a sea-change or were altogether set aside. However, with the rise of Westerners and the western-educated turning to “forest” Buddhism today, seeking a more pristine practice in early Buddhist meditation, we now have a better chance of tasting the refreshing spiritual springwater at its source, as it were.

 

The 20th century British historian, 

Sir Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975), 

was attributed with saying,

“The coming of Buddhism to the West 

may well prove to be 

the most important event of 

the Twentieth Century.”
 

 The truth of such words goes beyond who actually said them. Let’s say it is now becoming common wisdom of an uncommon phenomenon.

Revisioning Buddhism 24
[an occasional re-look at the Buddha’s Example and Teachings]
Copyright by Piya Tan © 2010


[1] See eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlaam and Josaphat

[2] See, for example, Graeme MacQueen’s “Changing Master Narratives in Midstream: Barlaam and Josaphat and the Growth of Religious Intolerance in the Buddhalegend’s Westward Journey.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 5 1998:144-166.

[3] See Bad friendship = SD 34.1: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/?page_id=2583

[4] See Meditation and Consciousness = SD 17.8c: http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/17.8c-Meditation-consciousness.-piya1.pdf

********* 

This title is currently out of stock.

For those who are interested to sponsor for reprinting this title,

kindly email us at ijbook@inwardpath.org

The Milinda Panha is, with good reason, a famous work of Buddhist literature, probably compiled in the first century B.C. It presents Buddhist doctrine in a very attractive and memorable form as a dialogue between a Bactrian Greek king, Milinda (Menander), who plays the 'Devil's Advocate' and a Buddhist sage, Nagasena. The topics covered include most of those questions commonly asked by Westerners such as:

“If there is no soul,

what is it that is reborn?”

and

“If there is no soul,

who is talking to you now?”

This abridgement provides a concise presentation of this masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The introduction outlines the historical background against which the dialogues took place, indicating the meeting of two great cultures that of ancient Greece and the Buddhism of the Indus Valley which was a legacy of the great Emperor Asoka. It is hoped that the adequate references, glossary, index and list of Pali quotations will provide readers with an incentive to read further from the translations of the Pali texts.

Visit our website: www.inwardpath.org for more books.

 

The Pious Cat in South Korea

Original Videos by Queenaaaaaa's Channel @ YouTube

English translation provided by Wayne Woo, Singapore (Wayne's Dhamma Blog)

There was a story in the papers about a special temple cat in South Korea, which spends hours everyday gazing and praying to the Buddha, reluctantly leaving only for its meals. There was one part where after eating food, the cat shed a tear... out of gratitude? This cat was found as a kitten four years ago by the abbot with burn injuries. The abbess saved it and gave it the Dharma name of "Liberation". She also gave the kitten three precepts for staying in the monastery, which was to 1) refrain from making noise in the Vihara, 2) refrain from eating meat and 3) refrain from killing. Amazingly the kitten could understand her instructions and have never broken them for the past 4 years.

          

Other titles on Korean Buddhism

Vision and Routine — Why You Need Both To Strike A Balance

By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

(An article from Tricycle Magazine: The Buddhist Review Summer 2010 Vol. 19, No. 4)

All human activity can be viewed as an interplay between two contrary but equally essential factors — vision and repetitive routine. Vision is the creative element in activity, whose presence ensures that over and above the settled conditions pressing down upon us from the past we still enjoy a margin of openness to the future, a freedom to discern more meaningful ends and to discover more efficient ways to achieve them. Repetitive routine, in contrast, provides the conservative element in activity. It is the principle that accounts for the persistence of the past in the present, and it enables the successful achievements of the present to be preserved intact and faithfully transmitted to the future.

 

Although they pull in opposite directions — the one toward change, the other toward stability — vision and routine mesh in a variety of ways, and every course of action can be found to participate to some extent in both. For any particular action to be both meaningful and effective, the attainment of a healthy balance between the two is necessary. When one factor prevails at the expense of the other, the consequences are often undesirable. If we are bound to a repetitive cycle of work that deprives us of our freedom to inquire and understand things for ourselves, we soon stagnate, crippled by the chains of routine. If we are spurred to action by elevating ideals but lack the discipline to implement them, we may eventually find ourselves wallowing in idle dreams or exhausting our energies on frivolous pursuits. It is only when accustomed routines are infused by vision that they become springboards to discovery rather than deadening ruts. And it is only when inspired vision gives birth to a course of repeatable actions that we can bring our ideals down from the ethereal sphere of imagination to the somber realm of fact. It took a flash of genius for Michelangelo to behold the figure of David invisible in a shapeless block of stone, but it required years of training, and countless blows with hammer and chisel, to work the miracle that would leave us a masterpiece of art.

These reflections concerning the relationship between vision and routine are equally applicable to the practice of the Buddhist path. Like all other human activities, the treading of the way to the cessation of suffering requires that the intelligent grasp of new disclosures of truth be fused with the patient and stabilizing discipline of repetition. The factor of vision enters the path under the heading of right view — as  the understanding of the undistorted truths concerning our lives and as the continued penetration of those same truths through deepening contemplation and reflection. The factor of repetition enters the path as the onerous task imposed by the practice itself: the need to undertake specific modes of training and to cultivate them diligently in the prescribed sequence until they yield their fruit. The course of spiritual growth along the Buddhist path might in fact be conceived as an alternating succession of stages in which, during one phase, the element of vision predominates, and during the next the element of routine. It is a flash of vision that opens our inner eye to the essential meaning of the dharma, gradual training that makes our insight secure, and again the urge for still more vision that propels the practice forward to its culmination in final knowledge.

Though the emphasis may alternate from phase to phase, ultimate success in the development of the path always hinges upon balancing vision with routine in such a way that each can make its optimal contribution. However, because our minds are keyed to fix upon the new and distinctive, in our practice we are prone to place a one-sided emphasis on vision at the expense of repetitive routine. Thus we are elated by expectations concerning the stages of the path far beyond our reach, while at the same time we tend to neglect the lower stages — dull and drab, but far more urgent and immediate — lying just beneath our feet. To adopt this attitude, however, is to forget the crucial fact that vision always operates upon a groundwork of previously established routine and must in turn give rise to new patterns of routine adequate to the attainment of its intended aim. If we are to close the gap between ideal and actuality — between the envisaged aim of striving and the lived experience of our everyday lives — it is necessary for us to pay greater heed to the task of repetition. Every wholesome thought, every pure intention, every effort to train the mind represents a potential for growth along the Noble Eightfold Path. But to be converted from a mere potential into an active power leading to the end of suffering, the fleeting, wholesome thought formations must be repeated, fostered, and cultivated, made into enduring qualities of our being. Feeble in their individuality, when their forces are consolidated by repetition they acquire a strength that is invincible.

The key to development along the Buddhist path is repetitive routine guided by inspirational vision. It is the insight into final freedom — the peace and purity of a liberated mind — that uplifts us and impels us to overcome our limits. But it is by repetition — the methodical cultivation of wholesome practices — that we cover the distance separating us from the goal and draw ever closer to awakening.

An earlier version of this essay appeared in the BPS Newsletter, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Bhikkhu Bodhi lives at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. He teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery in Lafayette, New Jersey. Ven. Bodhi is currently preparing a complete translation of the Anguttara Nikaya, the fourth sutta collection of the Pali Canon. 

Artwork by Shinichi Maruyama

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