Hope the new year is treating you well.  I just came back from a three month retreat and thought I’ll share something here.  (Strictly speaking, because of immigration requirements and some talk engagements I committed to, it was not a full three months! )

Below is an email excerpt I sent to fellow buddhist on meditation.  Thought I’ll share it here as it may be useful for some of us trying out meditation. 1.  Feeling frustrated the day after meditation Hmmm …. that’s an interesting one.  Before I jump to any conclusion, maybe some clarifications:

+ How long do you meditate per session? + How many times per day? + Do you do walking meditation with the sitting? + How many times do you meditate per week?

While it is true that improper postures can cause some discomfort, it usually occur under some specific conditions.  Shed some light as above and we go from there. 2.  Becoming more sensitive to our surroundings and people Becoming more aware and sensitive is always better.  So good start there! What we do with this new awareness and sensitivity is a different . . . → Read More: Applying meditation skills to daily encounters]]> Hi all,

Hope the new year is treating you well.  I just came back from a three month retreat and thought I’ll share something here.  (Strictly speaking, because of immigration requirements and some talk engagements I committed to, it was not a full three months! )

Below is an email excerpt I sent to fellow buddhist on meditation.  Thought I’ll share it here as it may be useful for some of us trying out meditation.
1.  Feeling frustrated the day after meditation
Hmmm …. that’s an interesting one.  Before I jump to any conclusion, maybe some clarifications:

+ How long do you meditate per session?
+ How many times per day?
+ Do you do walking meditation with the sitting?
+ How many times do you meditate per week?

While it is true that improper postures can cause some discomfort, it usually occur under some specific conditions.  Shed some light as above and we go from there.

2.  Becoming more sensitive to our surroundings and people
Becoming more aware and sensitive is always better.  So good start there! What we do with this new awareness and sensitivity is a different thing altogether.

While it would be good if after learning the Dharma and meditating, we are able to simply face all situations head-on and come out ok.  Unfortunately reality differs, as you have noticed.   Fortunately, the Buddha is kind and realistic enough to suggest that we take it gradually.

The Buddha is Realistic!

Not specific to your situation, but in the AnguttaraNikaya 5.161 Grudge, the Buddha do not advise the monks to go head on and reflect on emptiness or anatta.  Instead he suggested five ways to deal with it.  “If a grudge arises towards any person, then one should cultivate loving-kindness, or compassion or equanimity to wards him. Or one should pay no attention to him and give no thought to him. Or one may apply the thought: his only property is his actions; whatever he does, good or bad, he will be heir to that. In these ways, all grudges that have arisen can be removed. ” Search for “grudge” in http://www.triplegem.plus.com/tipintr3.htm

I feel that the Buddha’s very realistic approach may also apply in your case where you feel “something” towards people who seem to be doing things wrong.

1.  External
+  Avoid if possible.
2.  Internal
+  Do not give attention to what had been done
+  On that which we have seen, heard or suspected, hold your judgement *or* direct your mind to the positive qualities of these people
+  If you find that you cannot find anything positive about them, reflect on how others are not disturbed by the so called perceived negative or wrong actions.
+  Direct your mind towards the Triple Gem
+  Direct your mind inwards towards your own practice

To be honest, I went through a stretch where I had much -ve towards ppl around in much the same way as you did.  I came to a point where I reflected and concluded that a) how wrong they really are may be subjective and b) even if they are truly wrong, getting upset with them does not help them … *nor* me!  and c) “getting upset” is itself a defilement, never mind whether they are really right or wrong.  Hence I should resolve my own defilement of being upset before I go poking into ppl’s backyard.

!Applying our meditative practices to use!

When we meditate (止 samatha), we are really doing two things:
1.  Bring the mind away from its favorite past-times (aka distractions) and
2.  Anchoring it on the meditation object.

Easy said than done.

But we’ve done it before as well.  Although the mind may still wander off, we have succeeded in doing it before, both bringing it away from distractions to our meditation object.  We learn to maneuver the mind.

We also succeed in anchoring the mind, albeit maybe just for a few moments or seconds for some, in the meditation object.  This is commonly the breath, and we did do just that.

When frustration or -ve thoughts arise, it is like the mind wandering away from our meditation object.  We should extend our meditation skills to everyday life and catch ourselves when that happens.  After catching it, we should steer our mind away from those mental objects (thoughts or memories!) towards good or +ve (happy?) thoughts or objects.  Then we should anchor it there.

Try it and see what happens.  After some exercise, one should be able to do it easily.  That should allow the -ve thoughts to die down by itself.  This is the samatha method and it does only one thing.  Mitigation.  It does not solve the problem, but it gives us a breather *and* it breaks the momentum of the angry mind.  It weakens habitual anger if it is present and prevents its formation if not.

Our task is not complete yet

Meanwhile, our task is not complete yet.  Having this calmness is sometimes mistaken as the end goal for Buddhists.  That is plain incorrect.  This is like a pit-stop or a transit.  A shelter to wait out the storm.  While you slowly weaken the defilements, one should strengthen calmness and develop observation and insight into nama-rupa (mind-body).  Seeing truly how nama-rupa is, ie impermanent, subject to change, subject to suffering, is empty and non-self, one then cuts off the root of the problem, craving and attachment stemming from the distorted views of the world.

This requires 观 or insight meditation.  Bear in mind, this is not one particular meditation technique found only in one school or tradition.  As far as I am concerned, the different schools in the different traditions have different techniques for both samatha and vipassana that should lead to concentration and wisdom.  Use the one that works for you.

Footnote:

I didn’t go into specifics of insight meditation for the timebeing as I wanted the person to clear her present difficulties before moving onto the later exercises.

As is already in the news … disaster struck Myanmar recently. Let us offer our prayers and kind thoughts to them.

At the same time, if we can, offer them practical help through some of the organisations who are able to reach the disaster areas.

http://www.fireflymission.org/cyclone_00.html

http://www.redcross.org.sg/myanmar_cyclone_src.htm

May all sentient beings be free from thoughts of harm, May all sentient beings be free from danger and harm, May all sentient beings abide in loving kindness and compassion, May all sentient beings be Well and Happy!

As far as hypocrisy is concerned, at face value, it may seem to be the case and that is where most people get stuck. They find themselves failing to rationalise to themselves the morality of eating mock meat. Are we still being compassionate to animals . . . → Read More: Is giving badges to Boy Scouts right or is mock meat right?]]> Of late, couple of folks asked me about eating mock meat and all. Some friends did ask me about it as well in the past, and come to think about it, this is a question that had been asked, since perhaps the start of mock meat itself! It seem contradictory to actually advocate vegetarianism on one hand and on the other hand, fabricate realistic mock meat to satisfy one’s taste buds. Why should one do this? Why can’t we be real to ourselves and just eat meat or vegetables depending on our inclinations? Can there be a middle-ground?The main thrust of the counter-argument against mock meat is that if one were to choose to be a vegetarian out of compassion for animals, why would anyone still savour the taste and smell of meat and consequently create mock meat up to the extent of actually becoming an industry in itself. Wouldn’t one be hypocritical at best?

As far as hypocrisy is concerned, at face value, it may seem to be the case and that is where most people get stuck. They find themselves failing to rationalise to themselves the morality of eating mock meat. Are we still being compassionate to animals or are we outwardly compassionate, but inwardly cruel? Are we feigning kindness but really murderers at heart. Here, I would like to draw an analogy about Boy Scouts. Hopefully, it will help us see mock meat in a different light and enable us to become happy, non-sectarian vegetarians who are equally happy with leafy meals and those complemented with mock meat.

We know how Boy Scouts train and mold little boys into confident, rugged and intelligent individuals who delight in helping others and serving the community at large. Some of us are good natured at heart, and we incline towards helpfulness and kindness naturally without the need for reward or recognition. Some of us would even shun the limelight as goodness should be good enough in and of itself. There are others who instead, need nuturing to develop or bring out that goodness in them. This nuturing can come in the form of Boy Scouts training where they are required to participate in regular community services in order to progress on their ‘career’ as a scout.

Such external motivation steers them towards participating in the act of helping others while lessons inculcate the value systems conceptually. Over time, such good naturedness can become ingrain and at the later part of their life as an adult, some may continue to help others even without the need for rewards or recognition. Some may still require that even later in life while others may even need more prodding since peer pressure’s influence could have weakened by then. Still, as long as it works, at least the needy and desolate are being helped. While it would be ideal to have everyone being helpful and charitable without material rewards or recognition, at the very least, help is still rendered and effective even when some rewards and recognition is needed. The presence or absence of rewards or recognition does not and should not diminish the fact that help is received; at the most, it perhaps reflect on the moral or spiritual maturity of that person, but who are we to judge anyway?

In a similar way, there are those of us who are incline towards vegetarianism naturally while there are others who aren’t. Some need a bit of incentive or substitute to pick up the new habit or diet. Mock meat is one such incentive for some. For them, they may actively need that comfort zone as a ‘migratory path’ from being a non-vegetarian to being a vegetarian. While such substitute prevent the direct link between meat and one’s meal, clearly Buddhist application of vegetarianism does not stop there. It is not an end in and of itself. Vegetarianism serves as a practise to help develop compassion. The right contemplation that should accompany vegetarianism is to reflect on all sentient beings as one’s mother (or father, siblings, etc) and in that light, break the notion that “chicken is farmed for food”, that they are merely “livestock”, but are fellow sentient beings. In that aspect, then vegetarianism goes beyond the meat and the meal but nourishes one’s heart with compassion. Seeing vegetarianism correctly as a means to compassion and not an end in compassion itself, one would then also realise that a person who is not a vegetarian is not necessarily uncompassionate, for afterall, there are many path towards compassion. Seeing the fault at both extremes, one would not fault those who need mock meat nor mock those who take meat.
The other argument is that the alternative to mock meat vegetarianism is natural vegetarianism. NV is coined in by me to describe a somewhat vegan diet, except that one do not eat any mock meat at all. Proponents for NV sometimes counter that it is both healthier to eat NV and at the same time better for the mind, since one is not engaged in the taste, smell and perhaps form and texture of meat. Mock meat is often heavily processed and flavoured to micmick the form, smell, taste and texture of meat, so it is probably safe to say that mock meat as a whole is probably less healthy than a NV.

According to various unscientific studies (conducted on myself over the past 7 years), I’ve found that taking mock meat on a moderate level neither improve nor impedes health. For some folks, breaking the monotony of green-vegetables with a bit of mock meat may actually serve to increase appetite and result in better nutritient input from the greens. Being a good monk , I eat what is given and don’t reject nor hanker for mock meat. Neither do I need mock meat to whet my appetite since the one main meal per day regime guarantees certain level of hunger by late morning the next day. Granted, the monasteries I’ve stayed in over the past few years serve a good mix of green leafy vegetables, beans, roots, herbs and mock meat, so I don’t really see any unhealthy balance that might result. I dare say that moderation in food is key, mock meat or greens alike.

I hope that through this simple article, we get to appreciate mock meat and perhaps vegetarianism at another level and perhaps see them in a different light. For myself, I’m an alms-eater and as long as it is allowable and given at the appropriate time, I would consume it, and that includes vegetables and meat, mock or otherwise.