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

For those who want to listen to the recording they can download the talk at this below link:http://broteoh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Teoh-Klang-151127-Understanding-Awareness-In-Every-Breath-we-take-Every-Thought-we-create-Every-Move-we-make-in-Cultivation.mp3

Understanding Awareness in Every Breath We take, every thought we create and every move we make in cultivation

Dhamma talk by: Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Venue: Tiratana Buddhist Society NBC centre, Klang, Selangor. Date: 27th November 2015

Session 2 – Question and Answer (1:38:58)

Question by Sis Jeanne’s son:

Just now when Bro Teoh talked about the meditation techniques the impression I got was those were just methodologies to achieve some kind of principles. But basing on my understanding from my limited knowledge during my time in Buddhism, I understood that Buddha also taught one technique which was ānāpānasati. How do you reconcile this difference?

Brother Teoh:

This is a very good question. Let us start our inquiry from zero base or a clean slate via assuming that we don’t know anything. We don’t try to be right or wrong. We start by inquiring: what are methods? What are techniques? Can you try to answer these inquiries? Methods and techniques are just series of instructions to try to do things, isn’t it? In that sense, every method, every technique is bound to be different. So what is it for? It has nothing to do with meditation, isn’t it? A series of instructions to do something is definitely not meditation. So what is the meditation as taught by the Buddha? Yes! – Meditation is to train the mind in heedfulness to cultivate Noble Eight Fold Path (N8FP).

That’s why the essence of the Buddha’s teaching is the Four Noble Truth. And within this Four Noble Truths which Truth is the meditation? The 1st Noble Truth explained the prevalence of suffering – the realities of life and existence and the 2nd Noble Truth explained the cause of suffering. Then the 3rd Noble Truth states that suffering need not be and Enlightenment in the here and the now, Nibbāna can be realised. All these are not meditation because all these are proclamations of Truths, Noble Truths that can make you a Noble One. But the 4th Noble Truth is different. The Buddha said, ‘there is a path namely the Noble 8-Fold Path (N8FP), if you cultivate this N8FP it will lead to the end of all suffering.’ This is the meditation which can lead to the end of all suffering which is the enlightenment.

So whatever meditation you do if it does not bring you back to the N8FP then it is not the meditation as taught by the Buddha. So can we have an understanding of this first?

Then to reconcile with the part on ānāpānasati as taught by the Buddha we need to inquire further: ‘Is this ānāpānasati as taught by the Buddha also a method or a technique for us to train our mind?’ What did the Buddha mention under the opening statement of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness?

He said: “Ekāyano ayaṃ bhikkhave maggo…”

“Oh! Bhikkhu this is the only way for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for reaching the right path and for realising the enlightenment namely the cultivation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.”

Ah, this is the real meditation and the cultivation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness includes the cultivation of the Four Noble Truths as described under the last category of practice within Dhammānupassanā, the last or 4th foundation of mindfulness. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness starts with Kāyānupassanā as the 1st foundation. Are you all familiar with the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness (4FOM)?

The 4FOM is for you to cultivate the mindfulness on the 4 foundations leading to the awakening. There are four foundations for you to anchor your mind. The 1st Foundation is Kāyānupassanā, which means mindfulness of the Kāya, the physical body. Your breath is part of the physical body, your rising and falling of your abdomen is also part of the physical body. Your four postures of sitting, standing, walking and lying down are also part of your physical body. The thirty two parts, the four elements - they are all part of the physical body. That is the reason why they are all place under kāyānupassanā. It also includes the 9 stages of bodily or cemetery decomposition of a person who had died. And the first category of cultivation within Kāyānupassanā as taught by the Buddha is to start off with ānāpānasati. That is to train your mind to be mindful of the in and out breath. He never said focus and concentrate. He said to train the mind to be aware or mindful leading to heedfulness. That is also the reason why Dhammapada Verse 21 said,

”Heedfulness is the path to the deathless whereas heedlessness is the path to the dead. The Heedful never dies and the heedless are as if dead.”

That verse states very clearly that you need to have heedfulness. The moment you are heedful you are destined for enlightenment. The moment you are heedless you are as if dead. Spiritually you are dead and this is very clear.

Hence ānāpānasati is just to train the mind to be mindful; to be aware leading to heedfulness only. Then what is heedfulness? The Buddha under Dhammapada Verse 23 confirms what heedfulness is. He said the constantly meditative, ever mindful and steadfast one, they will realise the supreme born free enlightenment which is nibbāna in the here and the now. So what is constantly meditative and what is ever mindful?

When you combine these two they become heedfulness. That’s why in order to be heedful to realise the enlightenment which is the deathless you have to be ever mindful. To be ever mindful you have to train your mind to be mindful. That is why the Buddha recommends that we start with ānāpānasati. That is the reason why all methods and techniques are just an initial skilful means to train the mind to be mindful so that this mind does not wander off and become heedless or lost in thought.

Then after you have developed the ānāpānasati the Buddha said don’t continue to do it anymore. Instead one must move on to the second category of cultivation which is to develop the daily mindfulness of the four postures: standing aware, walking aware, sitting aware and lying down also aware. You must develop this awareness until it is very stable. Then after you have done this you have to connect up all the in between movements of these four postures. That’s why He said you move onto the third category of cultivation which is the daily mindfulness in daily life of all action and all movements in between the 4 postures. And this cultivation is called sati sampajañña (mindfulness and clear comprehension). Then you will insight into phenomena as described by me earlier to realise the 3 universal characteristics of impermanence, suffering state and non-self. You will then have the stability of mindfulness to see your mental intentions very clearly; you will have the clarity of mind to understand the spiritual teachings, the essential dhamma, etc. Then only you can develop the contemplation of the thirty two parts of your body and the four elements followed by the 9 stages of cemetery decomposition contemplation.

Only then you can move onto the cultivation of the 2nd foundation of mindfulness which is vedanānupassanā, or mindfulness of feelings.

Then after that you move onto the cultivation of the 3rd foundation of mindfulness which is the mindfulness of the mind or cittānupassanā. That is mindfulness of the content of consciousness then only you can move on to the last or 4th foundation of mindfulness which is dhammānupassanā or mindfulness of the essential dhamma as taught by the Buddha - starting with mindfulness of the five mental hindrances, followed by the mindfulness of the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind, followed by mindfulness of the 6 internal sense bases and the six external sense bases or mindfulness of the 18 sense realms to develop the wisdom and the understanding. Then the Factors of Enlightenment will keep on arising for you to develop the mindfulness of these factors of enlightenment. When you are mindful or aware of these seven factors of enlightenment, then you are aware that you are on the right path. That is the reason why under the seven stages of purification, there is this fifth purification of ‘what is path and non-path’. This purification can be clearly understood when you are able to be mindful of the enlightenment factors. It will become very clear.

Then after that you can move onto the last category of mindfulness training which the mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths. Ah…. this is the stage of cultivation where you can become enlightened. Four Noble Truths are truths that can make you noble ones or enlightened ones. They are called ariya sacca and Sacca is truth. Ariya are enlightened ones or noble ones. Enlightened ones are noble ones who are very noble in their speech, their action and their livelihood. And the way they carry themselves. Their action, speech and thought and their livelihood are all very noble. They also have noble understanding of life. That’s why they have right view. Then they are very noble in the way they live life, right living. They constantly cultivate the 4 right efforts to train themselves and to purify their thoughts via their right effort to abandon those unwholesome action, thought and speech that have already arisen and later prevent the arising of those wrong thoughts, unwholesome thought, action and speech. Then they will have the right effort to purify whatever defilements they have. Then from there they will cultivate the understanding of what constitute right thought, right speech, right action and then they will arise the right effort to promote all those right thought, right speech, right action that are still not in them. Then the last right effort is to refine upon and to perfect all these right thought, speech and action.

That is why to cultivate this you need sati; the next Noble Eight Fold Path factor is right mindfulness. That’s why you have to train your mind to be ever mindful to cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness which includes the Four Noble Truths. When your mindfulness is stabilised, it will become Samādhi. Then when Sati and Samādhi is there you can see things as they are and you can insight into phenomena and awaken. That’s how wisdom comes to be. That’s how your mind transforms and develops equanimity, which is an enlightenment factor. And this mind that has equanimity doesn’t waver anymore. It doesn’t need Samādhi to make the mind collected and unwavering. Then that Upekkhā or equanimity enlightenment factor born of wisdom is enough to stabilise that mind. It doesn’t need Samādhi anymore. It doesn’t need the energy field or concentrated mind to remain peaceful. So this is how you can develop the understanding.

Sis Jeanne’s son: Just to ask one last question. Thanks for the lengthy explanation just now. Unfortunately I didn’t get pass that one.

Bro Teoh: Never mind it is recorded.

Sis Jeanne’s son: So regarding step one, the principle we are trying to aim for is mindfulness and heedfulness.

Bro Teoh: Yes! Mindfulness leading to heedfulness

Sis Jeanne’s son: And one of the techniques is ānāpānasati or you can use any kind of method or technique.

Bro Teoh: Any skilful means - May it be a method or a technique. Ānāpānasati only comes in later. That’s why if you read the satipaṭṭhāna sutta’s opening introduction, the Buddha always uses these words: “After overcoming covetousness and grief” then only you do the satipaṭṭhāna practices. Can you understand that? Brother Teh will understand? It is stated in the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta. After overcoming covetousness and grief….. So what is covetousness? It is craving or desire. Grief means you can still be unhappy and you still have suffering. That’s why without that if you go into the Four Foundations of Mindfulness without understanding then you are wasting your time.

That is you do not know what the meditation is. You do not know how to cultivate. These are the initial wisdom you need to develop first. Which means you must have the understanding of the essential dhamma based on the first turning and the second turning of the 4 Noble Truth’s cultivation first. This initial wisdom must arise first. The five daily contemplations, you must understand them too. That is why the essential dhamma like the three universal characteristics you must understand it at least up till the contemplative level then only you can go into the four foundations of mindfulness cultivation.

That is why you need Right View. From Right View you start. That is why it is all sequenced out within the N8FP. Without Right View you cannot start the Noble Eight Fold Path cultivation because right view is the first path factor. Why must you have right view? If you don’t have right view you don’t understand the nature’s law that governs life and existence then you cannot start. When your view is wrong what happens to your thought process. Ah! Your thought will be wrong, isn’t it? Then since thought conditions mental intention that conditions your action and speech, so if you have wrong view that condition your wrong thoughts then all your speech, action and livelihood will also be wrong. So what is going to happen to your Noble Eight Fold Path? It will collapse! That is why you need Wisdom, Right View. You need to listen to dhamma to straighten your view. The contemplative wisdom is very important. And the first two turnings can also lead to sainthood too, sotāpannaship and sakadāgāmīship.

So this is how you develop the training. That is the reason why dhamma has three phases. Phase one is pariyatti, - the learning of the teaching or the doctrine. That is why you should spend more time understanding his teaching. Then second stage which is paṭipatti is to put this teaching into practice, into cultivation. This is where you develop the actual cultivation. After you have developed this training and awaken then you get to reap the third phase of dhamma which is paṭivedha. Ah, you reap the fruition of your hard work. You get to live the life of a noble one, an enlightened being. These are the 3 phases of dhamma.

That’s why you have to start with the cultivation of pariyatti which is the learning of the teaching, the doctrine. Then from there you should develop the contemplative wisdom. Only then you know how to start the 4FOM cultivation. To me if your 5 spiritual faculties are there already then technically you don’t need to train your mind. Method and technique are not necessary. They are only needed for people who have not developed their 5 spiritual faculties. Like what I said just now, not everybody who comes for meditation already have the spiritual faculties. Most of them don’t have and some don’t even understand what spiritual faculties are. What are mental hindrances? Why are they not peaceful? Most of the time all these understanding are not taught to them, so how can they start to do the meditation. That’s the reason why they have to come out with methods and techniques, so that their heedless thinking mind can be tamed via anchoring their mind to the object of meditation. They are so heedless and so habitual in their response to sense experiences. They think a lot and their thinking are so fast and so habitual. That’s why when they try to be mindful of their breathing, within split second they are lost in thought. Unless they have already trained their mind otherwise it is not easy.

You can go and try it out yourself, experience it yourself. If you can’t even maintain your mindfulness for 5 seconds or longer then how can you be ever mindful in the midst of life? If during formal meditation also you cannot maintain that mindfulness then in the midst of your daily life, when your senses are fully operating, you will be worst off. ‘God’ bless you if you think you can do it. That’s why you need to train this heedless mind. It’s not easy but when you understand then it’s not difficult. The problem is when you don’t understand it is like very difficult. But the moment you understand it is so simple. That’s why if you ask me, I will say it is very easy, it is very simple.

But if you don’t understand, you will say, ‘Bro Teoh I have tried so hard but I still cannot do it.’ Then why certain kalyāṇamitta who are here only for three or four months, they can get it and their minds can transform so fast. These are people who may not necessary meditate very seriously. But because they listen attentively and they understand what is being shared. Then without doubt and with their faith they just follow simple instructions and do accordingly then they got it. Just like last night that boy was fantastic isn’t it? He must have his past and he will move very fast. He texted me later on and said, “Bro Teoh thank you so much for that sharing and I need you to guide me further.” According to him he has this inner call for him to go into this spiritual teaching. Then I smiled and I replied to him. I said it is your affinity with the Triple Gems especially with Sākyamuni Buddha’s nature that makes all these possible. When the time comes, when the conditions had arisen, everything will fall into place. And you will just happen to be there. Then he understands. That was his first lesson, nobody taught him. Before that he doesn’t know any dhamma. He is a Christian by faith yet all these are possible.

Rejoicing from the floor: Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

One last question from Bro Teh: I think it was mentioned in Buddhaghosa’s book that there is just suffering but there is no one suffering and there’s no traveller along the path it‘s just the Path which is the Noble Eight Fold Path. But in the Heart Sutra it was mentioned by the Buddha that there is no Noble Eight Fold Path, no 4 Noble Truths, no arising of ignorance, no cessation, nor is there Wisdom. Can you explain how these two can reconcile?

Bro Teoh: Very good question and Sādhu! It’s very easy to understand. You must not miss this line – ‘In true emptiness….’ when you read the Heart Sutra. Kuan Yin Bodhisatta said, ‘In True Emptiness (i.e. when you have realised true Emptiness) there is no Four Noble Truth; No one born, no one die, no one sick and ‘hei no you’; ‘hei no me’; No one to be enlightened; no one to suffer etc.’

Because the realisation of nibbāna is the unconditioned and this cannot be described or expressed in words or concept. The unconditioned don’t have dhamma, don’t have words. These are for the conditioned world. That’s why the dhamma is for the conditioned world. The dhamma points towards the Truth. It’s like the finger pointing at the Moon. Are you familiar with the Zen analogy of the finger pointing at the moon? If you want to realise the moon, you have to gaze beyond this finger. The dhamma points towards the realisation of nibbāna, which is the Enlightenment. If you want to realise nibbāna you must not attach to this dhamma because this dhamma belongs to the conditioned world. That’s why you will understand why the Heart Sutra said, - ‘Form does not differ from Emptiness and Emptiness does not differ from Form for Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is form. And in true emptiness there is no form, feeling, perception etc. and no Four Noble Truths.’

It depends on your wisdom, how you see it, how you understand it. That’s why in the Mahāyana teaching it is mentioned that there are 3 levels of ‘seeing mountain’. ‘Kan shan shi shan’ (‘看山是山’) – seeing mountain as mountain is the first level of seeing or mundane seeing. To mundane people, when they see mountain it means mountain, why do you want to argue? Then the wise one when they had penetrated the dhamma they can see beyond Form because they can see the unreality of Form. Then to them, ‘看山不是山’ – meaning ‘seeing mountain as not mountain’, because the word and the concept of ‘mountain’ hasn’t arisen as yet, hence the reason why they can see things as they are via just the pure perception or the pure consciousness. This is the 2nd level of seeing termed the direct seeing, the pure perception, no words, nothing. But after that stage when it has become fully understood or when the awakening deepens and stabilised, then you realise that the condition world is the conditioned world. People who are still deluded, not enlightened they will say ‘看山是山’ then at that time you don’t argue with people anymore. If they say it’s a mountain then it’s mountain. Then when the Enlightened One comes along and say ‘看山不是山’ – that there is no mountain, then you will say ‘ya’ there is no mountain because you can accord and flow since you have penetrated the dhamma of the 3rd level or transcendental seeing via seeing things as they are with wisdom and without any duality. Because these are conditioned dhamma and these are not real dhamma. So there is no conflict. Everything is perfect in the Heart Sutra. Ok? Brother Teh, you must have missed out the word, ‘In true emptiness….’ That’s why it is also stated in the Heart Sutra that, “True emptiness is wonderful existence”. If you penetrate True Emptiness then life becomes meaningful and wonderful.

Bro Teh: The reason is for you to explain to others.

Bro Teoh: (Laughs) Yes! I understand, that means he himself understood the teaching but he just wants to create the condition for you all to understand it also as he also knows that the talk is recorded. This type of sharing can help many cultivators in their understanding mainly because this type of understanding is very difficult to come by, it is very rare. Ok? Thank you so much for listening.

From the floor: Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

Acknowledgement: Special thanks should be accorded to Sister Nancy who has personally taken the initiative to do up the draft transcript for my subsequent editing thereby enabling this dhamma booklet to be printed. Sādhu! X3.

Table of Contents

Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Understanding Awareness in Every Breath We take, every thought we create and every move we make in cultivation

Session 2 – Question and Answer (1:38:58)