Bro. Teoh's Kalyanamittas

Enclosed is the above edited outline short notes for sharing by all.

Outline Short Notes for Brother Teoh’s 15 Aug 2019 Thursday Class

1.   The key to successful meditation are the 4 supports for awareness based meditation: Relax, Aware, 24Hours and Trust. You may listen to the recording for more instructions on preparation before meditation.

2.    Sis Angie’s question: When she is relaxed, she can be mindful of her breathing very clearly and she can also see the 3 universal characteristics of impermanence, non-self and Dukkha. Hope Bro. Teoh could guide her further.

3.   Bro. Teoh replied: Can you explain how you are able to see the 3 universal characteristics?

4.    Angie replied by saying, when she just let things be, the mind settled down and becomes very peaceful and quiet but when she clings on to it, the thinking or sankhara activities will perpetuate and proliferate and it is as if, when you keep chasing after the thinking, you make it into a big issue. This was how she gets entangle.

5.     Bro Teoh: You may maintain meditative silent, without thought to observe and develop the contemplative understanding via relating what you observed to the essential dharma. This observation and contemplation can give you some initial 2^nd turning wisdom’s understanding and this 2^nd turning wisdom can be stabilized if one continue to contemplate after the formal meditation to develop the clearer understanding.

6.  Bro. Teoh added that, it will be better if the understanding can come about via the direct seeing when you are in a meditative state of deeper silence. This type of wisdom is more penetrative. After that, when one reflected into it, the understanding become very different, it is very penetrative and more stable. However, this state is rather difficult to realize. The 1^st and 2^nd turnings wisdom, which is easier, can lead to the arising of the initial wisdom (yonisomanasikara) needed to stabilize your daily mindfulness leading to step 5 of the avijja sutta, which is sati sampajanna.

7.     All sankhara are of the nature to arise and pass away. If you give meaning and follow the sankhara without the requisite understanding, you will get yourself entangled with the clinging and suffering. Sabba sankhara anicca, so it is not a permanent unchanging entity, not ‘I’ and not ‘Me’. One must reflect until this understanding becomes very clear within one’s daily mindfulness contemplation.

8.     How do we cultivate this contemplation? We can do it when we are alone, in a quiet setting or on a silent morning when others are still asleep. We can sit in a quiet place or walk or pace up and down slowly, reflecting via inquiry on the dharma that Lord Buddha had taught us. Through contemplation and reflection, clear understanding and joy will arise as the beautiful dharma unfold. After that whenever we encounter similar sense experiences or situations, our understanding (yonisomanasikara) will prompt us not to react via telling us that all phenomena exhibit the 3 universal characteristics of nature.

9.      This straightening of view will liberate one’s mind. One will understand, there is nobody inside this form and mind to cling, grasp and hold. The dharma on: Sabba sankhara anicca, Sabba sankhara dukkha and Sabba dhamma anatta will be very clear and there will be no more intention to be right or to argue with others. Unless there are conditions for it to bring about wholesomeness to help out in the situation, one will not do anything inappropriate. One will only arise the understanding to act appropriately with wisdom following N8FP. With this understanding, one is able to apply this living dharma to live our daily life. Wisdom (yonisomanasikara) at the moment of sense experience will prompt us to act according to wisdom and understanding, that ‘things are the way they are; can’t be otherwise’. The mind will be at peace and have the understanding to act and resolving all life issues and situations amicably with right speech, thought and action.

10.   The 4 right efforts are important cultivation needed to develop sense restraint leading to the right thought, speech and action. The first 2 right efforts are to deal with defilements first. The 1^st right effort is to abandon the wrong thought, speech and action that had arisen. To do that one must understand what constitute evil? And one must also have a very stable daily mindfulness to see those defilements. The 3 evil roots of Greed, Hatred and Delusion are the root of all evil. One therefore need to expand on the 3 evil roots until it is very clear (for more details please do listen to the recording). The 5 ways to abandon the wrong thought as taught by the Buddha must be cultivated. This is the beginning of cultivation.

11.   The Buddha taught 5 ways to ABANDON unwholesome thoughts, speech and action are:

• 1^st way: To think of the direct opposite wholesome thought, (like hatred with love, lust with contentment etc.)
• 2^nd way: To think of the consequences of holding on to that wrong thought. (However, both 1^st and 2^nd ways are still thought based and not the meditative way.) 
• 3^rd way: Just aware (this is the meditation way). The moment one is aware, there are no more condition for the defilements to proliferate, the defilement will cease due to the law of dependent origination. However, this type of wisdom is not penetrative enough.
• 4^th way: To trace the origination factors then retrospectively reverse it. From our 6 sense doors, especially our seeing, hearing and thought (recall through memory) consciousness, we can see how the unwholesome mind state of angry, hatred and fear, etc. arise through our wrong view. According to the Satipatthana Sutta, if one had developed the mindfulness of the 6 internal and 6 external sense bases, one will have the ability to know how this defilement come to be, then one will know how to reverse it retrospectively through right view or right understanding developed after contemplating – why did I stir my mind? Through reflection and contemplation, one will understands that people are the way they are and the world is the world – conditions like that, things will be like that. One must have this right view to accept the reality of the moment via seeing things as they are (as advised by the Buddha) in order to be peaceful.  
• 5^th way: If all the above 4 ways also cannot help you, then you must determine strongly through your will power to abandon it. That is with tongue against your palate determine strongly to abandon it.

12. The 1st right effort is to cultivate the above 5 ways as taught by the Buddha to abandon the wrong thought that has arisen. The 3^rd and the 4^th ways are meditative ways leading to wisdom and transformation.

13. The 2^nd right effort is the right effort to prevent all the wrong thought, speech and action from arising. With yonisomanasikara, at the moment of sense experience, this initial wisdom will prompt you to understand how this evil wrong thought will lead to karmic negativity that will make us suffer. All these understanding will arise, and you will be able to prevent all these wrong thoughts from arising.

14. The 3^rd right effort is the right effort to cultivate or arise the wholesome thought, speech and action that are still not in us through cultivating the N8FP. One need to know clearly what constitute right thought, speech and action, so that one will know how to cultivate them. All your virtuous thoughts are right thoughts. All proper, gentle, wholesome, kind and pleasant speeches that lead to love, understanding and harmony are right speeches. All generous, kind, sincere and good actions are right actions.

15.  The 4^th right effort: right effort to refine upon whatever right action speech and thought that are already in you as there are always room for improvement.

​16. Adam’s 1^st question is about fear. Which category of the 3 evil roots is fear classified under?

17. Bro Teoh explained, ‘Fear is classified under the evil root of delusion’. When one doesn’t understand truth, there is fear. Fear about the future. Fear of death etc.

18. Adam’s 2^nd question: Regarding a friend of his, clinging strongly to her success. Should she follow her heart or her thoughts? Bro. Teoh replied, ‘Yes, she should follow her heart which is the conscience (the good part). The mundane mind (your thoughts) before you are enlightened is always cunning, selfish and deluded (having evil roots). Conscience can comes up and prompt us to prevent you from making mistake. However, the conscious mundane mind with its view, opinion, and conditioning and believe system is deluded and it is the one that always very keen to condition you into negativity. The heart is always soothing, calm and peaceful whereas the deluded mundane mind is usually selfish, deluded, emotional and noisy and it also chatters a lot.

​19. Continuation of question 2): Adam helped a friend overcome her depression and she no longer clinging to her success, but she has a different faith.

20. Bro. Teoh replied, changes will happen to her when you change, then with her faith in you, she will change too. Dharma is nature’s truth or law. The proper application of Dharma can lead to a good life, which means be successful in whatever you do, whatever you want to achieve or develop as a career. Success in life normally covers the whole lot of materialistic successes that normal living being look to. Like academic success, career success, financial success, relationship success and having a harmonious family unit, etc. However, without the spiritual understanding, your life is still incomplete. You may be successful, materialistically, but if you do not follow the righteous way, there will be karmic repercussions, and you may lose them after a while. Without the spiritual understanding when one is confronted with the realities of life, as outlined in the 1^st noble truth, one will also suffer. The 8 realities are: old age, sickness and death, separation from love ones and prized possessions, etc. When you are with someone whom you do not like and can’t get along with. When you cannot get what you want, are you still peaceful and happy? Spiritual success can allow one to have the ability to lead a good and comfortable life free of all worry and suffering. Live the life of a noble one (an enlightened being) – a life of tranquillity stillness, peacefulness, joy, happiness and understanding. Free from all suffering.

 ​21. Adam’s 3^rd question: How do we cultivate goodness (like healing people) wisely?

22. Bro Teoh: To you, you are applying what you think is goodness (like healing others) to help people. But this is goodness according to you. The Dharma way is different. The dharma way is just explaining to people the dharma to let them have the understanding to solve their problem through that understanding. If they do not have the understanding, they will always look for you to help them solve their problem. To heal others with thought energy may get you entangle with their negative karmic energy and some of these karmic energy may have karmic consequences. The healer must have the appropriate wisdom and understanding, otherwise they may get into trouble themselves. It is advisable to develop the Dharma understanding first and only manifest to do something appropriate when the conditions are there for you to help others. To have a better understanding of this, please do listen to the audio recording shared by Bro Teoh on Master Hsuan Hua’s experience.

23.     Sister Angie asked about this anatta nature that the Buddha taught.

Bro. Teoh explained, that one can see this anatta nature in your 5 aggregates of form and mind. They exhibit the 3-universal characteristics. Hence, it is not you for they go the way of nature. When feeling changes you didn’t die, so feeling cannot be you. Same with perception, sankhara and consciousness. This physical body (rupa) made from 4 elements, can’t be you either. Hence, these 5 aggregates of form and mind are non-self. If one grasp and cling, it will lead to suffering because it is not a permanent unchanging entity. They are dependent originating, condition arising and a causal phenomenon; when condition is there, it arise, if it is not there it ceases to be.

​24. Then what is this 5 aggregates of form and mind? This is a karmically conditioned vehicle and a tool for us to come to this existential world, so use it and not be deluded by it.

 25. Anatta means, it is not a permanent unchanging entity that you can call, “this is ‘Me’, this is ‘I’. No, this does not belong to you”. This one is non-self but it is not nothingness, it is not no self, because there is such a thing as a human being. Human being exists and it is subject to karma. True nature is not subject to karma. This is a nature which is beyond the form and mind, and this eternal nature is also anatta, not a being, not a permanent unchanging entity, although it is the unconditioned. Your understanding will deepen when your mindfulness is very stable. Only when you go through the cessation, you can only truly understand what anatta is. Even a glimpse of it will lead to the change of linage and transform your form and mind into an ariya (a noble or enlightened being).

26. The initial wisdom (yonisomanasikara) borne of listening to the dharma and Dharma contemplation leading to the 1^st and 2^nd turnings wisdom is very important. Without this initial wisdom the daily mindfulness cannot stabilize and the glimpse of cessation also cannot arise. For the 3^rd turning wisdom (Bhavanamaya panna) to arise, you must go through the direct seeing awakening via the silent mind while in the meditative state. Only after realizing the cessation of Nibbana can the form and mind understand the unconditioned. After that the egoic mind will have no power over you as this self-delusion has been completely rooted out. 

27. Regarding the recent protestors and unrest in Hong Kong. People are just the way they are. Not right or wrong. These are just their views, their opinions of things, their conditioning and their ideology. When they are so conditioned, they will react that way, that’s it, finished! Let society evolved on its own. We can contribute by radiate love and metta and sharing merits after our dharma classes. We do our best, we share and transfer merits to make the world a better place through goodness and virtue in our heart. It is important that every individual must change for the better in order to have a better collective consciousness with more understanding, virtue and less negativity. This is also the reason why J. Krishnamurti said, ‘the individual must change, for society to change as we are the summation of the collective consciousness of the society’. 

28. May there be love, joy and peace within their heart. Keep on radiating all these wholesomeness and virtue and it will have its effect. Radiate to all beings starting from your love ones, our kalyanamittas, and cultivators and to all beings on this planet, our mother Earth. Wishing everybody have the good understanding of life and a kind heart to bring about more peace to all. May all beings on this planet have more goodness and kindness in their hearts.

29. All of you have this kind heart but you do not know how to generate it, to make it strong and powerful so that it can open up and be a blessing to the world.

(The above draft outline short notes was prepared by Sister Tammy)

With metta always,
Teoh

Sadhu! and enclose is the above edited outline short notes for sharing by all.

Brother Teoh’s 8 Aug 2019 Thursday Class outline Short Notes

1. Sis Angie shares that there is more clarity in her practice. More awareness. Whenever the mind wanders off, she is able to bring it back.
2. Bro Teoh: The moment you are aware that you are not aware; that is sati. The moment you realise that you are not paying attention, that is attention. Attention of inattention, is attention.
3. To develop daily mindfulness, we must start by constantly reminding our self of the need to be constantly aware. We must determine to be aware throughout the day (ever-mindful/constantly aware). After developing the daily mindfulness, until it is very stable, our seeing will become very different. It is like suddenly, we can see all the external sense data and our internal mental movements (emotions/mental intentions/etc.) very clearly. It will dawn upon us that before we understand the dharma, all these are habitual heedless thinking borne of our mental stirring caused by avijja. Without wrong views or avijja (ignorant) there will be no mental stirring or reaction to sense experience. Why does one reacts to sense experience? – Because their mind lack wisdom and it is restless due to its inability to understand and accept the realities of the moment for ‘things are just the way they truly are’.
4. When there is wisdom to accept the reality of the moment (to understand the causes and conditions behind every phenomena), there will be peace within the mind and one can be peaceful from moment to moment (having true ability to make peace with all that transpires) while in the midst of living life.
5. This is learning to see things as they truly are because ‘people are just the way they are’ (deluded people do deluded things, etc.) and the ‘world is the world’ (when conditions are such things will be such).  This is right view.
6. However, the untrained mind has strong habitual tendencies (borne of habitual reactions to what we see, hear, recall from memory, etc.) when we lack the 5 spiritual faculties. And because of that, their untrained mind becomes agitated and heedless very fast. Ever so quick to form opinions, argue, take sides and fall into the duality trap of right/wrong, good/bad, kind/cruel, clean/dirty, fragrant/foul, pleasant/unpleasant, wholesome/unwholesome etc.
7. Once we have the stability of Sati, we will have the understanding to see things differently, without the mental reaction and stirring like before. Our mind becomes calmer, more peaceful and quieter. There is more understanding, leading to more equanimity of mind, then there is more joy and happiness in our heart. This is heedful living. No longer easily agitated, panicky, fearful and unhappy, which is heedless living.

8. Stability of daily mindfulness allows us to understand the form and mind clearly. (How one input the content of consciousness and cause the mundane mind to stir and arise.)

9. The Mundane mind goes the way of nature, i.e. it is impermanent, it comes and it goes, arises and passes away. If we are deluded, it has power over us. It can conditions us to stir/react to sense experiences and create the evil roots of greed, hatred, delusion (especially selfishness and sakayaditthi or self-delusion).
10. As long as thoughts are active, the egoic mind borne of wrong view is still there.
11. The real meditation only starts, when our daily mindfulness has stabilised.

12. Sis Angie has made some progress but she should continue to stabilise her daily mindfulness. When her daily mindfulness has stabilized, she will be different because by then “everything she do” she will be aware and her awareness will be very stable. It’s like, the phenomenon and her awareness moves as one. This is specific-phenomena awareness. With this specific-phenomena awareness, the mind no longer interferes (with its views, opinions, memories and conditioning). Should you choose to understand what it is, you may perceive it through the memory lens, then it stops (no further proliferation of thoughts and emotions, etc.)
13. Having a good religious routine is crucial, to cultivate daily mindfulness, throughout the day.

14. As a revision, the class did a review of their previous Thursday’s 1 August 2019 outline short notes.

15. With the daily mindfulness, one become more aware and more attentive. There is also more clarity and the mind is more sensitive. Then through constant contemplation and reflection the 2^nd turning wisdom of cintamaya panna will arise. This is followed by the direct seeing, then the wisdom (bhavanamaya panna) that arise is no longer just at the knowledge and contemplative level, but at a more penetrative insight level.

16. When mindfulness stabilized, the awareness within becomes so sensitive that even the slightest movement within, before the “like/dislike” arises, can be clearly felt. We can feel that the stirring is about to begin. And since we have contemplated deep enough to know that this stirring will lead to suffering, then the initial wisdom (yoniso manasikara) already developed will prompt us, at the moment of sense experience, to cause the mundane mind not to stir like before. With yoniso manasikara, avijja becomes attenuated/weakened, hence weakening sankhara
    leading to less and less heedless thinking within our mind.

     

17. With that understanding, we can develop sense restraint, leading to more calmness, and less sankhara (or stirring of mind). Being more present and aware, the space between thoughts start to lengthen, resulting in more peace, clarity, stillness and tranquillity of mind.

18. The meditative mind must be a “free mind” which is silent, collected and unwavering (in Samadhi) but not in concentration so that the mental hindrances are not suppressed. So that it can see things as they are clearly to develop the wisdom via the direct seeing.

19. Cultivation following the 10 steps of the Avijja sutta’s enlightenment sequence was re emphasis by Bro Teoh.

20. Reading the “PAEON OF JOY” (recited by the Buddha after his enlightenment underneath the Bodhi tree) from page 11 of our Chanting book.

    UDĀNA GĀTHĀ PAEON OF JOY

    Aneka jāti saṃsāraṃ, Sandhāvissaṃ anibbisaṃ, Gaha kārakaṃ gavesanto, dukkhā jāti punappunaṃ, Gaha kāraka diṭṭhosi puna gehaṃ na kāhasi, Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā gaha kūtaṃ visaṅkhitaṃ, Visaṅkhāra gataṃ cittaṃ taṇhānaṃ khaya majjhagā ti

    Through many a birth I wandered in this saṃsāra (endless cycle of births and deaths), seeking but not finding, the builder of the house. Sorrowful is repeated birth. O house builder! You are seen. You shall build no house again. All your rafters are broken. Your ridge-pole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving.

21. Reading of “Pancasatavipassakabhikkhu Vatthu” from Dhammapada Verse 170:
    

    

    Yatha pubbulakam passe, yatha passe maracikam, evam lokam avekkhantam, maccuraja na passati.

    If a man looks at the world (i.e., the five khandhas) in the same way as one looks at a bubble or a mirage forming during a heavy rain, the King of Death will not find him.

(Above outline short notes draft was prepared by Sis Soo Yee)

With metta always,

Teoh