The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
The Buddhist Hour Radio
Broadcast Script 250
Sunday 10 November 2002
This script is
entitled:
Living in present time
Glossary:
Mindful:
taking thought or care, having remembrance, minded, inclined to do
something (synonyms: alert, alive to, attentive, aware, careful,
chary, cognisant, conscious, heedful, regardful, respectful,
sensible, thoughtful, wary, watchful).
Saddha (Pali language
word): confidence, trust, and non-fogginess.
Sati (Pali
language word): memory, recognition, consciousness, intentness of
mind, wakefulness of mind, mindfulness, alertness, lucidity of mind,
self-possession, conscience, self-consciousness, attentiveness,
focused, not moving away from).
In Buddhist understanding
there are four types of time: future time, past time, present time
and timeless time.
Sati is being aware of the time we are in
as it is taking place. Hopefully, you spend most of your time in
present time.
This means that when you are driving in your
car, you know you are driving, second by second, in your car.
When
you are washing the dishes you are really washing the dishes second
by second.
If we lose memory of the present time, we tend to
go into fantasy about what is not happening in the present
time.
Sati is defined in The Pali Text Society’s
Pali-English Dictionary as memory, recognition, consciousness,
intentness of mind, wakefulness of mind, mindfulness, alertness,
lucidity of mind, self-possession, conscience, self-consciousness. We
also relate to sati as attentiveness, focused, not moving away
from.
American humorist Will Rogers wrote in ‘The
Autobiography of Will Rogers’ 1949, “Half our life is spent
trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through
life trying to save.”
It may sound easy to be mindful of
the memory of the present time but for most persons it is unlikely to
happen without much training.
What usually happens is that we
think about washing the dishes to get them clean so we can go and do
something else, we go to future time, not the real future, this would
be clairvoyance, but a fantasy of future events. And so when we wash
the dishes we may be trying to get it over with as quickly as
possible to meet our unreal future.
At other times, while we
wash the dishes we think of something someone said yesterday, we have
gone to past time.
Because of lack of attention, what ever we
are doing we are not thinking about present time – the present
real happenings.
For example, we might care to have a cup of
tea and a sweet biscuit. We begin drinking the tea and eating the
biscuit after just one sip we begin thinking about something else, “I
have to do this, then I have to do that.” And it goes on and on.
We have the tyranny of future thinking disturbing us.
We
become tired by the gyrations of our butterfly mind fluttering here
and there.
The mind is the forerunner of all things. The mind
is chief; mind-made we are.
The importance of mindfulness, in
all our dealings is clearly indicated by the words of the Buddha:
“Mindfulness, ...... I declare is essential in all things
everywhere. It is as salt is to the curry.”
We practice
mindfulness to be clear about what we are doing. It sharpens and
focuses our perceptions and senses.
By keeping a clear mind
(with one pointedness) means to stay in the present moment and
develop confidence in our ability to pay attention to events as they
happen.
Edward Albee, American Playwright said “People
would rather sleep their way through life than stay awake for
it.”
We must stop this poor view of how to live.
To
practice sati as part of Buddha Dhamma saddha (confidence, faith, and
non-fogginess) has to be established first. Saddha is the leader of
the 25 sobhana cetasika.
Sati is the second of the sobhana
cetasika to appear when we practice.
Development along the
Path is characterised by a progressive display of successive
wholesome cetasika or mental states and systematically moves the
person through the four foundations of mindfulness which
comprise:
1. The effort to strengthen the wholesome states
already arisen.
2. The effort to bring forth the wholesome
states which are yet to arise.
3. The effort to stop the
unwholesome states of mind already risen.
4. The effort to
prevent from arising the unwholesome states of mind yet to
arise.
The Venerable ancient writer called “Buddhaghosa”
in “The Path of Purification” writes:
“In the
section dealing with that of the two kinds: fulfilling a training
precept announced by the Blessed One thus ‘This should be done’
is keeping ; not doing what is prohibited by his thus ‘This
should not be done’ is avoiding.
Herein, the
word-meaning is this ; they keep (caranti) within that, they proceed
as people who fulfil virtues, thus it is keeping (caritta); they
preserve, they protect, avoidance, thus it is avoiding. Herein,
keeping is accomplished by faith and energy; avoiding by faith and
mindfulness. This is how it is of two kinds as keeping and
avoiding.”
Our Members take advantage of the many
opportunities we give them to practice saddha and sati.
We
stress that these must arise in every action they take at our
Centre.
The chief characteristic of sati is ‘not floating
away’, not to let things go unnoticed. Sati can also be thought
of as ‘not moving away from’. To practice sati there has to
be awareness of a subject of attention.
When a person is not
mindful enough, he or she does not remember what he or she sees or
hears; it is like empty pots and pumpkins floating away on the water
current.
Buddha reminded his disciples every day not to forget
wholesome deeds and to be always mindful to fulfil one’s pledge
to strive for liberation from all miseries.
We are not
practicing if we complain.
The Discourse on the Application of
Mindfulness is called the Satipatthanasutta in the Pali language. We
have gratitude to the translator I. B. Horner and The Pali Text
Society for making available the Satipatthanasutta in English in the
Middle Length Sayings I, 1987.
In this sutta, the Buddha
says:
“There is this one way, monks, for the purification
of beings, for the overcoming of sorrows and grief, for the going
down of sufferings and miseries, for winning the right path, for
realising nibbana, that is to say, the four applications of
mindfulness.”
If one is mindful at the six-sense doors to
note what one observes just as ‘seeing, seeing’ or
‘hearing, hearing,’ one can stop defilements from entering
the mind.
In this sense, sati is compared to a gatekeeper who
stops thieves and robbers from entering the city.
Vippassana
meditation practice is designed to increase one pointedness and
concentration to subdue discursiveness.
Students are able to
know that present time events are inherited from past actions and
familiarise their minds with the possibility for development of more
appropriate life styles within the Buddha rules, worthy of their
present attention.
Mindfulness (sati) is fourfold: mindfulness
consisting in contemplation of the body; feeling; mind; and mental
objects.
Sati is the seventh link of the noble Eightfold
Path.
One-pointedness when you talk, when you think - when you
do something - do it mindfully. When this is second nature and your
mind does not flutter you have - Right Mindfulness.
Mindfulness
in your action ... You read Satipatthana
Sutta, the way of
mindfulness ... You must be mindful when you walk, when you sit down,
when you lie down; when you go to toilet, always you must be mindful.
As you eat, as you sleep, mindfulness ought be there.
Having
Right Mindfulness, as motivation, writers aspiring to chronicle
Buddha Dhamma and give such chronicles as Dhamma Dana (the highest
gift), need to tread Lord Buddha's path by holding a pledge, to
commit others to development of their sati as their standard for
cultivation of a civilised life style.
For a writer to keep
his or her pledge in performance, day after day, not even stopping
for imminent death, is one face of the meaning of our lemma
"Lifetimes of Learning".
A writer ought not to list
too many obstacles to practice.
He or she must accumulate what
is learnt and hold it for future reference for keen investigators of
Buddha Dhamma.
He or she must raise energy and put ardour on
top.
The writings must display force and energy good enough to
remove garbage that may arise.
Sati (or mindfulness) is one of
the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Satta Bojjhanga).
The
Seven Factors of Enlightenment are:
1. Satisambojjhango,
Mindfulness,
2. Dhammavicaya, Keen investigation of the Dhamma,
3.
Viriya, Energy,
4. Piti, Rapture or happiness,
5. Passaddhi,
Calm,
6. Samadhi, Concentration,
7. Uppekkha,
Equanimity.
Sati is also a member of the five spiritual
faculties as well as a member of the five spiritual powers.
The
final goal is to grow up into full maturity and leave childish
notions behind us.
Seen from the viewpoint of the ordinary
trivial pursuits of life, it does look as if few persons are about to
be successful in Dhamma. Their childish behaviour is too much.
If
we translate sati as mindfulness meaning "to watch one's steps"
then you and I may not stumble or miss a chance in the pursuit of our
aims.
If we live like this, at death knowledgable persons will
say “ well played sir, jolly well played”.” This is
the best epithet. We live blameless.
Sati (mindfulness) is
different from other mental factors, such as devotion, energy,
imagination and intelligence.
Mindfulness is not brash or
loud, not apologising for its presence, not delivered with hate or
greed and is a quality which has to be cultivated regularly, to be
appreciated.
Mindfulness is slow, deliberate attention to the
present time and is not boring. It is invigorating.
When you
have mindfulness and a person tells you four things, you hear the
four things and remember them. Actually, you may cognate more than
you are told, as a higher order logic.
With little
mindfulness, when a person told you four things, he or she may
actually only register two or three of these things, because his or
her mind wanders and only received first order logic
statements.
Then he or she can only barely remember what was
heard.
Practicing Sati develops higher orders of logic –
up to 12th order logic can be attained in Buddhist practice. This is
a higher order than is attainable by any other means.
Sati
makes life interesting and fun as you learn to remember to cognate
what is happening in the present and explore many levels of logic.
Even washing a cup or mowing a lawn can bring joy when done with
Sati.
Obviously, to study anything well into higher orders of
understanding, mindfulness is all helpful.
Putting this in
another way, knowable things can be mastered by mindfulness.
In
Buddha's teachings, sati is linked with clear comprehension of the
right purpose or suitability of what you want to do or how you want
to act.
In the end stage, you know what is Path and what is
not Path without doubt.
You start to understand the worldly
problems such as, poor financial management, poor job management,
poor human relations management, poor family relations management,
poor study management, poor taste in furnishings, poor architecture,
poor art and poor culture, arise from lack of sati by those doing
these things without it.
If you had a house and you let a
little dirt into the interior everyday and this went on for several
years, your house would look like a vast heap of rubbish.
It
is the same with taking rubbish into your mind everyday.
The
dark untidy corners of your mind, are the hideouts of our worst
enemies that take the form of all sorts of unwise actions you have
done this life.
There is a price to pay when rubbish acts out.
The way to stop this rubbish is to determine to increase our
mindfulness, which is the same as removing dirt from our house. We
clean through practice, on body, speech and mind.
Mental
clarity comes to be by the way of mindfulness that is called in Pali,
satipatthana magga.
The word magga means path.
Bare
attention tidies up and regulates the mind by sorting out and
identifying the various confused strands of mental process.
When
you can accurately label your fears you find lurking in your mind,
the correct label generally sets the mind up to find an intelligent
solution to overcome your real or imagined problems.
After
many victories have been won by using mindfulness on a problem, and
fears are identified, then your self-esteem becomes very much
better.
Over time, by the repeated use of the power of
mindfulness you can discover your personal shortcomings and you will
start to improve remarkably because you will weaken the effects of
your own akusala (unwholesome) minds.
According to a recent
survey (2002) by Melbourne University’s Centre for the Study of
Higher Education, 40 per cent of full-time working students found
work got in the way of their study.
Your mindfulness for
students is vital to cultivate. It is one of the enlightenment or
awakening factors.
Then as events develop, you become aware if
the enlightenment factor of mindfulness is absent, and if so, make
merit and quickly generate causes to bring the factor of mindfulness
to the present mind you are wishing to use.
Your student’s
mind is then fit for work.
Whilst you are living, it is
important you set as a minimum set of conditions, to create the
causes to be born as human next life into a Buddhist family, with the
external conditions favourable for Buddha Dhamma practice.
These
conditions ought to comprise the basis of your minimum work plan.
Then you are on the path that leaves your childish minds behind.
May
you as a student meet with sati in the present moments.
May
you gain confidence that your sati develops of maturity.
Thank
you very much for your practice.
The author's and editors of
this script are John D. Hughes, Anita M. Hughes, RN Div1., Pennie
White B.A. Dip. Ed.
References
Adams, David. 7 My
Career article titled: ‘School daze lost to working weeks’
in ‘The Age” newspaper Saturday 9 November 2002.
Albee,
Edward quoted in ‘Behind the Scenes’ cited in A Dictionary
of Contemporary Quotations (1982) compiled by Jonathon Green, Davids
and Charles, Newton Abbot, London, p 40.
Buddhaghosa,
Venerable (nd) The Path of Purification, Bhikkhu Nanamoli (trans),
Singapore Buddhist Meditation Centre, I 26, p 11.
Davids and
Stede (Editors) (1979) The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English
Dictionary, The Pali Text Society, London, p 672, 675.
Dhammananda,
Venerable K. Sri (1992) The Dhammapada, Sasana Abhiwurdhi Society,
Malaysia, p 41.
Horner, I. B. (translator) (1987) ‘Discourse
on the applications of Mindfulness (Satipatthanasutta)’ in
Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima Nikaya), Pali Text Society, Vol I, pp
70-84.
Little, William (Editor) (1973) The Shorter Oxford
English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p 1327.
McLeod,
William T, (Editor) (1984) The New Collins Thesaurus, Collins, London
and Glasgow, p. 428.
Mon, Dr. T. M. (1995) The Essence of
Buddha Abhidhamma, Publisher: Mehm Tay Zar Mon, Yadanar Min
Literature, Yangon, pp 86-87.
Piyadassi, Venerable (1998) The
Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Satta Bojjhanga), Inward Path
Publisher, Penang, Malaysia, p 2, 8.
Rogers, Will (1949) ‘The
Autobiography of Will Rogers’ cited in A Dictionary of
Contemporary Quotations (1982) compiled by Jonathon Green, Davids and
Charles, Newton Abbot, London, p120.
Document
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Words: 2513
Sentences:
125
Paragraphs:127
Characters: 12,484
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Characters per
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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
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