Wise Awareness (​Kumāra Bhikkhu's Blog)

Say when you were a kid you broke your father’s phone. When he found out, he immediately gave you a hard slap in the face. You ran off and cried, not so much because of the pain, which had become only a reminder of what just happened, but because you couldn’t accept what your own father had just done to you. After a while, you calmed down. As you thought over what happened, you still couldn’t accept it. Besides, it wasn't the first time something like that had happened. Yet, you didn’t want to think badly of your own father, because if you did, it would be difficult to live with him. So, you ended up rationalizing what happened. You convinced yourself: What he did was right. I deserve it. Life is like that. When you make someone unhappy, they have the right to punish you. This is a common way we deal with suffering. We try to rationalize it, so that we can suppress our unhappy feelings. But is this really a good idea? In dealing wi th our sufferings this way, we create a distort...

Open Awareness Meditation  (OAM) has slowly but surely gained following in the Buddhist meditation world. As that happens, some people wonder if it is a new kind of meditation, and whether it leads to ending suffering. First of all, OAM is not something new. It’s just a modern name for  satipaṭṭhāna   (establishing of mindfulness). It’s a helpful new name to counter the popular misconception that meditation is necessarily about concentration. Instead of increasing concentration, OAM is about increasing awareness. Think of awareness as a light, and the mind as a room without windows. The stronger the light, the more we can see in the room. What we eventually want to see is the whole room, so that we can see all that is there, so that we can remove the useless stuff and clean out all the dirt in the room. To do that, we need to have a bright light. In the same way, we need to have a bright awareness, so that we can see all that is in the mind, so that we can remove the usel...

Part 1 Some people on the spiritual path think that they should not be angry with others, especially their parents. They are okay about being angry with themselves though, and perhaps even regard it as a virtue. Anger is anger. Whomever or whatever you’re angry with, it’s still anger. No one kind of anger is more acceptable (or virtuous) than others. Anger is just anger. To see anger as yours complicates the matter, and therefore traps you within the pattern of anger. Anger is not your enemy (though neither is it your friend). Disliking anger is but another anger. With that, you have more anger, not less. Perhaps you think you need to dislike anger, so that you can control it, suppress it. Indeed, that is possible. But still, in doing so, you have more anger, not less. Not being able to feel it doesn’t mean it’s gone. In fact, you then have a bigger problem. Suppressed anger is like a bomb waiting to be triggered. While you might deem the suppression a virtue, or a spiritual nece...

Some people believe that by doing dāna (giving), especially to monks, they will have a long life, be wealthy, be beautiful (at least in the next life), and go to heaven. Some also believe that it can neutralize their bad kamma. Which of these are true, and which are not? Frankly, I don’t know. I can however tell you what the early Buddhist scriptures say about this. Firstly, Bhojana Sutta (AN5.37): “Bhikkhus, a donor who gives food gives the recipients five things. What five? One gives life, beauty,      happiness, strength, and discernment. (1) Having given life, one partakes of life, whether celestial or   human. (2) Having given beauty, one partakes of beauty, whether celestial or human. (3) Having   given happiness, one partakes of happiness, whether celestial or human. (4) Having given strength, one partakes of strength, whether celestial or human. (5) Having given discernment, one partakes of   discernment, whether celestial or human. (Translat...

When Ajahn Sumedho was a young monk, his teacher Ajahn Chah asked him to reflect on his virtues. Ajahn Chah must have noticed the young Ajahn Sumedho’s self-criticalness, and understood the need for him to recognize his own virtues. Notice that Ajahn Chah did not ask him to become more virtuous, but just to reflect on virtues that he already had. However, much as the young Ajahn Sumedho tried, he couldn’t think of any. That’s how it is when we have low self-esteem and thus low confidence. We may think so lowly of ourselves that we can’t recognize the good in us. Just as it was for the young Ajahn Sumedho, some of us lack confidence, which is important for happy living in this world, and also necessary for the ending of suffering. The Suttas offer two methods to cultivate confidence: recollection of our own good behaviour and recollection of our own generosity. Recollection of Good Behaviour Good behaviour includes acting out of integrity, bravery, honesty, prudence, etc. When we r...