Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Bro. Teoh graduated from University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He has been a spiritual practitioner cum ‘Meditator’ since 1971. Since his retirement in 2001 from his Engineering career, he has been sharing his understanding and experiences with those who are keen in their search for true happiness, peace and liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering so that they can be more virtuous, nobler and wiser human beings. He gives Dharma talks and holds meditation classes & retreats and weekly Dharma classes at various meditation centers, Buddhist society and places that invite him.

For more details of Bro. Teoh’s dharma activities and his Kalyāṇamittaship grouping please login to his dharma website at: http://broteoh.com

Introduction

This International Seminar on Life Management with Meditation: Experiences and Success dated 10th to 12th August 2013, held in Bangkok, Thailand was co-organized by The World Buddhist University (WBU), the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and the Pipphalivanaram Mindfulness Center (PMC) and Brother Teoh was invited to present a paper at the said seminar as a Malaysian speaker. Basing on some very good feedbacks and suggestions from seminar participants and kalyanamittas who had the conditions to listen to his seminar speech and or receive his above International Seminar paper’s reprinted notes, Brother Teoh had finally agreed to allow his International seminar paper to be reprinted in a booklet form for free distribution to all those who are interested and has the affinity to receive it.

It is Brother Teoh’s sincere hope and intention that Dhamma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of truth, cultivators, free thinkers and devotees will be able to make use of the dhamma presented in this International seminar paper of his to develop a better understanding of the Dhamma as taught by the Buddha so that they may progress along the path of dhamma to become more virtuous, noble and wiser human beings that can be a blessing to all.

Acknowledgement

It is the donors’ sincere intention that this seminar paper’s booklet be given free to all those who are interested and have the affinity to receive them. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and rejoice in the generosity and wholesomeness of all those Dhamma friends or Kalyanamittas who had donated and helped out in the transcription, typing, typesetting, formatting, proof reading, etc to make this free distribution of dhamma dana possible.

Special thanks should be accorded to Sister Padmasuri Liew, Brother Tune, Sister Eng Bee and Sister Ellen Wong for their kind assistance and important contribution in various ways to enable this dhamma booklet to be printed.

By the power of all these wholesomeness may all beings be well and happy, free from all mental and physical sufferings and dangers and may there be love, peace and joy - deep within their hearts. And may it also pave the way for there to be causes and conditions for all dhamma friends/kalyanamittas who had donated or helped out in one way or other to realize their good and noble wishes/aspirations soonest possible.

With Metta always,

Brother Teoh Kian Koon

(Dated: 19.1.2015).

International Seminar on Life Management with Meditation: Experiences and Success.

Co-organised by

The World Buddhist University (WBU), the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and the Pipphalivanaram Mindfulness Center (PMC).

Title: Success In Life Via Meditation Following The Dhamma Way

By a Malaysian speaker

Ir Teoh Kian Koon

1.0 Opening Statement and Introduction to the Topic

Dear Mr. President, distinguished guests, fellow honorable panel speakers, seminar participants, ladies and gentlemen, a very Good afternoon to all. It is indeed an honour to be given the opportunity to share my humble ‘little’ experiences on success in Life management via meditation with all of you on such an appropriate occasion such as today’s International Seminar. Today’s seminar topic is “Experiences and Success in Life Management via benefits of Meditation following the dhamma way” and this is a very important topic for us all to understand, if we want to realize our highest human potential. Such a seminar can be of great benefit for us to develop the understanding of Life so that we can all cope with the great intricacies and challenges of Life that are much needed nowadays. Especially so in our today’s modern society where everything is moving at such a fast pace and life can be very stressful, hectic, demanding and at times highly competitive, provocative and seemingly harsh too. Human sufferings are very real and it is happening almost everywhere even to our youngsters’ nowadays.

2.0 Understanding Life – Its Meaning And Purpose Following The Dhamma Way

To be successful in Life management we need to understand what Life is? Otherwise we do not know how to live life. As Buddhist we are indeed very fortunate and blessed because of the great wisdom and Enlightenment of Lord Buddha. The Buddha is so unique and wise because he was able to summarize for us, all of his understanding of life (both the mundane and supra mundane aspects) into just 4 Noble Truths which became the essence of his great teaching. They are called Noble or Ariyan Truths because these are Truths that can make you a noble one if you can understand them. Noble ones are enlightened ones and they are very noble in all aspects of their life. They are very noble in their understanding of life (for they have right view with regard to the laws that govern all of life and existence); they are also very noble in the way they conduct themselves via their right thought, right speech, right actions and right livelihood. They are incapable of negativities.

These Four Noble Truths are so special and unique because understanding them can make such a big difference to our life. It is just like we had finally understood the secret of life and because of that we will know how to truly live the noble life of great peace, love, joy and happiness very meaningfully. The Buddha realized that there are certain rather harsh realities in Life that can make living beings really miserable especially the reality of birth and death leading to the whole mass of suffering. He said there is a 1stNoble Truth of dukkha or suffering that explains clearly to us the prevalence of suffering in this world caused by the 8 realities of life and existence that all living beings (if they live long enough) will have to confront while going through life. Irrespective of your wealth, status or materialistic success in life one will still suffer if one had not developed the requisite spiritual understanding before confronting them. These 8 types of the 1st Noble Truth realities are: - “birth, old age, sickness and death are dukkha; separation from loved ones and one’s possessions like wealth, properties, possessions and those things that we hold on to dearly, etc is also dukkha; to be with people whom we don’t like is also dukkha; not able to get what one desires or when things don’t go our way or when our expectations in life are not met is also dukkha and finally the Buddha said in short, the 5 aggregates of grasping borne of self-delusion or sakkāya-diṭṭhi is dukkha”. When one confronts these realities without the requisite wisdom then one will be afflicted and suffering (like sorrow, lamentation & grief, fear, worry and anxiety, etc leading to depression) will be the end result. In our modern day terminologies we called them the problems of life – like health problems (cancer, heart attack, HIV, stroke, kidney failure, etc); sudden death due to accidents, traumatic diseases and nature’s disasters like tsunami, earthquake, floods, building collapse etc; career related stress and sexual harassment problems (when you are with people whom you don’t like); financial problems (when you cannot get what you want); relationship problems (divorce, forced separation, etc.); social and crime related problems (when you are with people whom you don’t like), etc. The younger generation can relate to these terminologies better.

Then according to the Buddha there is the 2nd Noble Truth that explains to us clearly the cause behind all these sufferings – namely craving borne of our self-delusion or sakkāya-diṭṭhi. When we had understood what suffering is and the causes behind their arising we will know how to retrospectively manage our life better. But the Buddha did not stop there for he then proceeded to tell us that suffering need not be because there is a 3rd Noble Truth that confirms the possibility of enlightenment in the here and the now - leading to the cessation of all suffering and this is most reassuring. The Buddha not only tells us that enlightenment is possible but he even explains to us clearly how it can be done via his 4th Noble Truth. He said there is a path namely the Noble 8-fold path, if cultivated will lead to the cessation of all suffering which is the ultimate aim of all Buddhist cultivation. This means this Noble 8-fold path is the meditation and solution to all of our Life’s problems. So there is a way to free and liberate our mind from all suffering. This is what most of us will be very interested in.

With this dhamma understanding we need not worry about life anymore – we can just live life to the fullest via wisdom borne of this dhamma cultivation and the meditation as taught by our Lord Buddha. We can then experience all of the beauties and wonders of life from moment to moment via a serene mind in heedfulness.

I was indeed very blessed and lucky because this Buddhist meditation with its great benefit had helped me so much – not only in my studies but later on in my career and daily life too. The benefits of this type of meditation are many. The first obvious benefit is inner peace leading to inner well-being of the body and mind. Nowadays peace is very difficult to come by for most people unless they know how to train their mind. In time of suffering – like fear, worry, anxiety, sorrow and lamentation etc borne of health or other life related problems, this meditative inner peace leading to inner well-being can really help to provide immediate temporary relief to their mental suffering because this inner peace leading to the inner-well being is a very positive calming energy that can help stabilize their mind and boost their immune system as opposed to the rather negative energy of fear, worry, anxiety and sadness. The question that is frequently asked is why are most human beings not peaceful most of the time? Why are they not able to meditate to develop the meditative mind of inner peace leading to the inner well-being? According to the Buddha it is because of the 5 mental hindrances of mind (pañca nivāraṇas) – namely sensual desires, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness of mind and doubt. To overcome them, the Buddha said we need to cultivate the opposite 5 spiritual faculties (pañca indriyas) of saddhā (confidence in the Buddha and his teaching via understanding how special he is and how wonderful his teaching is), viriya (spiritual zeal or tenacity to follow his teaching), sati (mindfulness/awareness), samādhi (collectedness of mind – unwavering) and pañña (wisdom borne of direct seeing).

This is how we start our meditation – via cultivating the 5 spiritual faculties to prepare our mind to receive his great spiritual teachings. Also the Buddha’s exhortation before his parinibbana to all his disciples to, “Strive on with Heedfulness and do not be Heedless or Appamādena Sampādetha.” This is then followed by Dhammapada verse 21 that states: “Heedfulness is the path to the deathless, heedlessness is the path to the dead. The heedful never die; whereas the heedless are as if dead” – which also stress the importance of training the mind to be heedful. To be heedful is to be ever mindful and constantly meditative following Dhammapada verse 23. That is precisely the reason why Buddhist meditation is also termed mindfulness or heedfulness meditation – referring to the 4 foundations of mindfulness (namely kāyānupassanā, vedanānupassanā, cittānupassanā and dhammānupassanā) in particular.

First we must train the mind to be silent with inner awareness so that it can be mindful from moment to moment in daily life to cultivate the Noble 8-fold path leading to the heedfulness needed to understand life. This mindfulness and heedfulness will allow you to ‘see’ clearly how your 5 aggregates of form and mind arise in you; how thoughts and feelings arise in you with every moment of sense experience or sense door consciousness and how they condition each other. That is - how your thoughts condition your feeling then feeling condition your emotions or craving due to your wrong view/thoughts to grasp and cling on to the external phenomena world created by your aggregates of mind. This is heedless living leading to all the suffering following Dhammapada verse 1. Whereas the heedful silent mind with inner awareness will brings about inner peace and inner well-being of body and mind as opposed to a heedless mind that is full of thought, fear, worries and anxieties conditioned by the hindrances of mind leading to the agitated and restless mind that is never peaceful.

With this inner awareness, inner peace and inner well-being there is clarity of mind that can enable us ‘to see things as they are’ leading to penetrative insight and wisdom needed for us to truly understand life. This meditative wisdom can also lead to the enlightenment in the here and the now - thereby enabling us to live the noble life that is free of all mental suffering and misery. Once the mind is liberated and no longer deluded, then life takes a turn and becomes not only very meaningful but also very wonderful and beautiful indeed. One can then experience all of the beauties and wonders of life from moment to moment with full clarity of mind to truly live life to the fullest. This is heedful living following Dhammapada verse 2 as opposed to heedless living that leads to all the suffering and misery in life following Dhammapada verse 1. Suffering are all mind made – if mind does not deludedly cling on to the 5 aggregates of form and mind as the ‘ME’ and the ‘I’ and the ‘Mine’ then there will be no more suffering.

Clarity of mind can also allow us to make better decisions in life thereby enabling us to resolve issues or problems wisely and amicably. One can also concentrate and study better and have good and easy sleep. No more problems with insomnia and sleep related issues. It can also allow us to plan and do our work more efficiently thereby helping us in our career life. With all these benefits we can really be a blessing to all. Our daily life will be very different because the mind is always heedful and peaceful. This will bring us to the understanding of another very important aspect of living life.

3.0 Importance Of Mindfulness Or Present Moment Awareness

As we all understand, Life can be correlated to Existence. To live life is to go through existence and Existence is Time related. The whole spectrum of Time can be defined and divided into the 3 periods of Past, Present and Future. Of these 3, we should inquire deep into them and find out for ourselves – which is the reality? Obviously the Past is already gone so no more a reality; similarly the Future is yet to come, so it is also not a reality. Hence, only the Present moment which is the highest in life – is the only reality within existence! This is also the reason why people nowadays emphasize a lot on the Power of Now. Even Eckhart Tolle wrote a book on it and it had become a best seller for many years.

Therefore the most important question about Life that we all need to inquire deeply is:

“Moment to moment Life passes by (and this is the only reality in Life) - what are you doing within each and every one of these moments?”

Remember the Buddha always tells the Bhikkhūs, - ‘Be Heedful’ and ‘Be Vigilant’ because if you are not heedful, then you are as if ‘dead’ following Dhammapada verse 21 – that is ‘spiritually’ dead. Our mind and our thoughts moves so fast with every moment of sense door consciousness and if we are not mindful and heedful within the moment then how can we cope with life? Most of us may know that the moment is the only reality and very important, but the question is - are we mindful of the moment? The problem with the world today is, most human beings are heedless and they are too busy thinking, planning and worrying about Life so much so, they totally miss out on Life for they never really live! They only existed through life. I.e. they are conscious of life but they are not mindfully living life. Their mind is always preoccupied with the thinking and the thoughts which always delude them to cling on to the phenomena world as very real. Their thoughts will project into the future to arise the fear, worry and anxiety hence creating a false ‘reality’ for them to cling on to. Likewise the mind will also recall the hurtful and unhappy past to remind them of their ‘scars’ of memories hence triggering off the sorrow and lamentation of the unhappy past again.

Not able to see the phenomena world’s 3 universal characteristics of nature – namely aniccā (impermanent), dukkha (suffering) and anattā (non-self or empty nature), - they will continue to hold and cling and this is the cause of all their suffering and life’s problems.

Why can’t they just silent their mind in heedfulness to be with the moment to experience all of the pristine beauty and wonders of life? Just like the ZEN saying – drinking a cup of Chinese tea is Zazen or Zen meditation because within that moment there is just pure awareness of the reality in the here and the now – and there is no thought so no fear, no worry and anxiety or whatsoever but just the silent mind in peace and stillness to live and experience all of the wonderful moments with clarity of mind and body instead of worrying about life. Why do you need to worry about life? – Because of fear. Right? Even if you worry, you are not going to solve your problem. It will instead create more thinking leading to more fear and restlessness of mind and as long as you are not mindful, this heedless thinking will continue to create more delusion in you because you do not have the wise attention or yoniso manasikāra at the moment of sense experience. That is precisely the reason why we need to train our mind to be heedful so that it is constantly meditative and ever mindful to insight into truth which is everywhere – in the midst of life and nature. Truth or the characteristics of nature are everywhere – why can’t you ‘see’? For those who ‘see’, they always ‘see’.

Even though the Present moment is the highest in Life but in order to transcend life (which is to transcend birth and death) we need to transcend even the Present moment to realize the Timeless dhamma (Akāliko) - which is beyond thought and beyond time. This is the ultimate goal of all Buddhist meditation.

4.0 Understanding The Nature’s Laws That Govern Life And Existence

To be successful in life management we need to understand another very important aspect of life. That is the nature’s Laws that govern Life and Existence. According to the Buddha this Universe of ours is very unique - first there is ‘Nature’ and then there are nature’s laws that govern all of life and existence within this Universe of ours. He calls it the pañca niyāmas (or 5 universal orders of nature).

4.1 Scientific Laws

The first 2 nature’s laws – utu niyāma (or nature’s physical laws) and bīja niyāma (or nature’s Biological order) are scientific laws whereas the other 3 are spiritual laws.

It was via clearly understanding these 2 great scientific laws of Utu niyāma and Bīja niyāma that scientists are able to progress so fast within the field of science and technologies to become so advanced today. Nature’s physical law governs the behavior of all physical things. They are related to the laws of Physics and Chemistry, etc. that the scientists have developed good understanding. Then Bīja niyāma is nature’s Biological order that governs the behavior of all organic and biological things within the field of Biology, Genetic Engineering, etc. Like our human bodies, the plants, animals, fishes, etc, their behaviors are governed by this law.

4.2 Spiritual Laws

The next 3 are spiritual laws namely kamma niyāma (law of karma), citta niyāma (law of the mind) and dhamma niyāma (law of dhamma or truth).

So similarly via clearly understanding these other 3 great spiritual laws of karma niyāma, citta niyāma and dhamma niyāma, the Buddha was able to excel himself in the spiritual field to understand life so clearly and so completely thus becoming the Sammā Sambuddha  or fully enlightened one. It was through his perfection of the understanding of these 3 great spiritual laws that enable him to proclaim the dhamma that he had taught us.

Take for example the 1st spiritual law of kamma (or kamma niyāma), - as the 1st right view to understand life. In the 5 daily contemplations as taught by the Buddha - the Buddha said we must contemplate daily the following:

1. That this body of ours is of the nature to decay and grow old for it had not gone beyond old age and decay;

2. That this body of ours is of the nature to be sick and be diseased for it had not gone beyond disease and sickness;

3. That this body of ours is of the nature to die for it had not gone beyond death;

4. All that is mine, beloved and pleasing will change and vanish following nature’s conditions;

5. “We are all born of our kamma, heir to our kamma, conditioned and supported by our kamma and we are what we are because of our kamma….”

The first 4 contemplations allow us to develop the contemplative wisdom to deal with most of the 1st Noble Truth realities of life and existence. Whereas the 5th contemplation deals with this 1st right view with regard to the law of kamma. So karma which is moral causation is most important because we are born of it, heir to it, conditioned and supported by it and we are what we are because of it! If we have this right understanding as our 1st right view, then what must we do?

We must take care of our kamma right?

How do we do it? – we must train our mind to be ever mindful and heedful via meditation to enable us to see all of our mental intentions (or cetenā) behind all our action, speech and thought processes thereby enabling us to ‘avoid all evil, cultivate goodness (to accumulate good karma) and meditate to develop the requisite wisdom so as not to be deluded any more.

These are precisely the advice of all Buddhas as stated in the famous Dhammapada verse 183:

“All evil is to be avoided, cultivate goodness and wholesomeness then purifies your mind and these are the advice of all Buddhas.”

How do we avoid all evil? – The Buddha recommends keeping the minimum 5 precepts, because people who violate the precepts are evil people with the 3 evil roots of Greed, Hatred and Delusion. How to cultivate goodness and blessings? The Buddha recommends cultivating the noble 8-fold path factors of right views leading to right thoughts, right speeches, right actions and right living etc. So this was how the Buddha’s subsequent teachings comes about and through this understanding one will be able to understand the secret of life thus enabling one to truly live life meaningfully. Then there is also Dhammapada verses 1 and 2 that talks about happiness and suffering in life. This can be elaborated upon if time permits.

Then we have the 2nd spiritual law of citta niyāma – which is the nature’s law that governs the working of the mind. Under this 2nd spiritual law of nature, the Buddha taught us the Paṭicca- Samuppāda or the laws of dependent origination (or 12 links). The Buddha said everything that arises is all dependent originating and that there is no such thing as a permanent unchanging entity or a soul or an atta that is responsible for our thinking, seeing, hearing etc. For in the ‘seeing there is only the seeing consciousness’ and there is no one to ‘see’! And all of phenomena whether physical, mental or nature’s phenomena – they are all condition arising or causal phenomena following nature’s laws and because of that they are all impermanent - for dependent on conditions they arise and they will continue to exist if the supporting conditions are still there but they will cease to be once any of the condition that supported their arising cease to be. And because they are impermanent following nature’s laws you cannot want things your way otherwise suffering will be the end result. And because they are impermanent - it is not a permanent unchanging entity that we can hold on to or cling on to as the ‘I’ and the “Me” hence anattā or non-self nature of this so called human being or 5 aggregates of form and mind of ‘ours’. If we cling and hold on to them then it is self-delusion or sakkāya-ditthi – a very serious self-delusion or wrong view.

The 3rd spiritual law is dhamma niyāma – which are the essential dhammas or truth that the Buddha taught and the most important one is the 4 Noble Truths which is the essence of his teaching that we had already covered earlier on.

5.0 Meaning and Purpose of Life

Once we had understood the nature’s laws that govern life and existence then we will know how to prepare ourselves to live our life meaningfully. Without this understanding we cannot contemplate its true meaning and purpose. To different people Life has different meaning and purpose hence it varies from person to person but as a Buddhist we are indeed much more fortunate because the Buddha was able to explain to us the secret of Life via his enlightenment. The other reason being they don’t quite understand life like us because they don’t have the Four Noble Truths teaching.

For somebody who is quite poor the meaning and purpose of life is just about the 3 meals or food and shelter over their heads following Maslow’s need hierarchy. But for us Buddhists we will go deep into Life to pursue the sole purpose of liberation from birth and death or seeking ‘enlightenment’ in the here and the now so that all suffering can cease leading to the noble life of a noble one because we understand the danger of delusion and ignorant leading to Heedlessness.

6.0 Two Important Aspects of Life

There are 2 very important aspects of life. First there is the mundane or materialistic aspect of life within our existential or conditioned world followed by the supra mundane or spiritual aspect of life (that can be realized only after gaining the enlightenment).

Most people are only concerned with the mundane aspect of life because to them this is more important - not knowing that without the spiritual understanding, life is still incomplete and suffering can still arise despite their materialistic wealth and successes. This was clearly explained by the Buddha in his proclamation of the 1st noble truth where he talked about the 8 universal realities of Life and Existence that can lead to suffering and misery if one were to confront them without the requisite wisdom.

This was also precisely the reason why the Buddha to be, then, left the palace in search for the truth to liberate himself from the 3 signs of old age, sickness and death that he saw prior to his renunciation then.

Materialistic success within the mundane life normally refers to:-

1. Academic excellence/success when we are young;

2. Career success when we come out to work;

3. Financial freedom to make us feel secure in life;

4. Early retirement to do the things we want to do or like to do;

5. Having an understanding, good and happy family unit, leading to Relationship success.

The first 4 types of successes can be realize by most people who are determined and hard working but the 5th one is more difficult to achieve because it needs some form of wisdom and understanding. Let us say you are able to achieve all of the above materialistic successs – but is your life really complete and are you really happy and safe? What happens when you are confronted with the 1st Noble Truth realities of life and existence? The Buddha said, – when you confront them without the requisite wisdom you will be afflicted and suffering will be the result as explained earlier on. Hence one still needs to cultivate the requisite spiritual understanding to complement one’s life otherwise this 1st Noble Truth’s life realities can still afflict you.

7.0 Conclusion

My present life in this world was indeed rather blessed for I not only excelled in my academic field; I also reached the pinnacle of my Civil Engineering career life. I was able to achieve my financial freedom fairly early too and this had enabled me to retire officially from my Engineering career life some 12+ years ago at the age of 46+ to do the things that I love to do like sharing the Dhamma and helping people.

I was also blessed with a very good family unit with a lot of love and understanding among ourselves. My relationship with all my loved ones, friends and colleagues are very cordial and good too.

Last but not least, I was also blessed with a fairly good past that had enabled me to have the requisite spiritual understanding to complement my materialistic success in life. Over the last 24+ years (since 1989) I was able to make use of my spiritual understanding and my own personal success in Life Management to help many people who had affinity with this nature of mine to cope with their life problems. With this I will end my today’s talk.

Thank you so much for your patient and kind attention.

By: Ir. Teoh Kian koon Dated: 10th- 12th August 2013

Email: teohkiankoon@hotmail.com

Table of Contents

Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Introduction

Acknowledgement

International Seminar on Life Management with Meditation: Experiences and Success.

1.0 Opening Statement and Introduction to the Topic

2.0 Understanding Life – Its Meaning And Purpose Following The Dhamma Way

3.0 Importance Of Mindfulness Or Present Moment Awareness

4.0 Understanding The Nature’s Laws That Govern Life And Existence

4.1 Scientific Laws

4.2 Spiritual Laws

5.0 Meaning and Purpose of Life

6.0 Two Important Aspects of Life

7.0 Conclusion