..续本文上一页yself to give in to sleepiness or dullness.” But after a while the will-power would fade out, and I”d find myself sinking down and falling on my face on the floor. I would feel aversion at this mental state and make myself stay awake by will-power.
With this, you find yourself going into a state where you don”t know what”s going on and you start hallucinating. So I reflected on this hindrance – if it”s something you don”t like, that”s the real problem. Trying to get rid of something you don”t want is dukkha. So I thought: ”I”ll just accept it; I”ll investigate the feeling of sleepiness and dullness.” Even though I thought that I would fall asleep and disgrace myself in front of all the other monks, I found that one can concentrate on the feeling of sleepiness itself. I would contemplate the sensation around the eyes, and the feeling in the body, observing the mental condition and my habitual resistance to it. In this way, that hindrance soon ceased being a problem to me.
In life, wisdom arises within us when we understand the things that we are experiencing here and now. You don”t have to do anything special. You don”t have to experience all kinds of extreme pain in order to transcend pain. The pain in your ordinary life is enough to be enlightened with. All these feelings of hunger or thirst, or restlessness or jealousy or fear, of lust and greed and sleepiness – all these we can regard as teachers. Rather than resenting them, saying, ”What did I do to deserve this
” you should say, ”Thank you very much. I”ll have to learn this lesson some day; I might as well do it now, rather than put it off.”
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Notes
1. The Buddha spoke of ”Five Hindrances” on the spiritual path: (i) - sense desire (greed, lust); (ii) - ill-will (anger); (iii) - dullness (sloth/torpor); (iv) - restlessness (agitation) and worry; and (v) - sceptical doubt.In characteristic style, Venerable Sumedho simply talks about these, rather than delivering a systematic lecture. Owing to the time limit of the talk, restlessness/worry (iv) was not commented on.
2. sotapanna: is the first stage (of four stages) of the realisation of liberation. Arahant is the culmination of that realisation..
3. mudita: happiness at another”s good fortune; “sympathetic joy”..
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THE MONASTERY AS A TEACHER:LAY PEOPLE AND THE VIHARA
Where there is uprightness, wisdom isthere, and where there is wisdom,uprightness is there. To the upright there iswisdom, to the wise there is uprightness,and wisdom and goodness are declared tobe the best things in the world.
Digha Nikaya IV -124
I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST that people coming here should, on occasion, bring candles, incense and flowers as an offering. This is a good tradition – to make an offering as part of our devotional practice as Buddhists, as an act of worship, of gratitude, of love towards the Teacher, the Buddha. The Buddha is the One Who Knows, the Wise One within us – but that”s also just a conceptualisation. To use our bodies within conventions, in a harmonious and graceful way, inclining towards generosity, is in itself an act of giving. Is your attitude ”I come to the Vihara to get something” or ”I come to the Vihara to give” – to actually physically give something
Bowing ... this is another tradition. Learn how to bow mindfully, putting one”s head down, surrendering oneself physically, giving oneself in the act of bowing, instead of just saying, ”I am not aggressive, I am not proud and arrogant.” If you get proud that you bow so well, or if you start hating people that do not bow, then ... ! This is an act of devotion, and devotion is an opening of the heart, of the em…
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