With the passing of the month of Ramadan life continues on with its daily routine of trying to keep looking busy while not doing much. Feeling guilt ridden is not the best of feelings to have but in practice, it is one of the most potent points to take off from when you are on the road to find out all you need to know about who you are or what and where you are at. The fasting month of Ramadan stirred up allot of feelings and emotions from deep within, but this year round i was more relaxed in handling these as i was also doing my own meditative, self reflective practice which seems to have become now my ingrained habit. Letting go was one of the aspects of this practice while I was fasting and dealing with not having money to take care of the daily needs. However it all seems to fall together without any traumatic incident as I gave up my expectations and simply just accept whatever that came my way, and what came my way seemed more than I could ask for. Asked for i did just so i can say i was not too proud to ask, but i got no help from anyone not my family nor my friends and I was able to chalk one down for my ego. Help came in the form of charitable acts from my relatives and friends who made sure that i was never too short of food to break my fast with.
Now I feel a whole lot lighter in being as i made it through the month of Ramadan cleaning my house of all the cobwebs of wanting and needing. I also feel more freedom from having to answer to one too many people who have their own ideas about who or what i should be, I think a whole lot less of what others think of me. I am on my own journey to find out and am back on the road after a brief stop at a roadside attraction, a slight deviation from my intended route. I feel somewhatt liberated emotionally and psychologically after having done a complete month long of fasting and observing as best i could all the taboos that goes along with it. Still on looking back, I could have done better... well Mekah can wait till I am good and ready..."make me a good person Lord, but not just yet."
One of the most precious gifts i got for my Birthday was a book I Picked off the shelve of China House Restaurant where my daughter was working when she came back for a week to spend the Ramadan with me. The book is entitled "The heart os Buddhist Meditation by the Reverend Nyanaponika Thera. It is a gift from the Universal mind for one who has been knocking and questing for answers for many years on the subject of Meditation ans Liberation. It basically teaches about 'Right Mindfulness" or Satipathana as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. The book is not new but it appears to me in the right moment in time of my practice in self - realization and annihilation which is the primary concern of my journey. As it is said. " What is to be mastered, transformed and transcended, has first to be known and understood."
I have been backsliding in the past few months from my regular intensive meditative practices letting my mind to be influenced by the hahankerings of my daily existence; my wants and my needs, my doubts and my regrets.I have been dwelling in a quagmire of remorse and helplessness, blaming the world for my shortcomings as i have done ever so often in the past. I neglected my faith in my practice, I have not been sincere in facing my failures; I have succumbed to my old habitual self; my egoic nature. The fasting month had helped me to break through this predicament to an extent and now with this new 'Bible', my new text to study. i am finding my way through towards my ultimate goal which is Liberation itself. To be free from the fetters of ignorance and suffering from the deluded state of mind that is threatening to rob me of all my previous accomplishments and sink me deep into the ocean of Samsaric Existence. I have made too deep a commitment and paid too heavy a price in my past towards being able to come thus far with my understanding of who I am; I may not have reached anywhere near the exact answer but i sure am not going to give up in fear and futility my lifelong quest.
"Bare Attention heightens the susceptibility and refines the sensitivity of the human mind; Clear Comprehension guides as well as strengthens the actively shaping and creative energies. Bare Attention makes for the growth, preservation and refinement of intuition- that indispensable source of inspiration and regeneration of the world of action and rational thought. Clear Comprehension works for making the mind a perfect instrument for its hard task of harmonious development and final liberation. It trains one, at the same time, for selfless work in the service of suffering humanity, by bestowing the keen eye of wisdom and the sure hand of skillfulness which are as necessary for that service as a warm heart..."
Concluding remarks on the two modes of practice, (Bare Attention/ Clear Comprehension). "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation." by Nyanaponika Thera.
In the latest religious development in Malaysia which has caused an uproar among Muslims in the country is the incident that happened in Johor where a resort Manager had allowed a group of Buddhists to perform their prayers at the resort Surau (Mini-Mosque). This event is a very thought provoking incident which will have a great impact upon the inter-religious relationship in the country. The already frail relationship caused by previous incidents whereby Malaysian Muslims claims that Islam has been insulted by individuals in one form or another is now facing a new phenomena which can turn nasty if not properly defused. Again and again religious issues will surface in this multi -religious country and it is imperative that the religious departments will have to look into the matters with clarity and sensitivity, not to blow out of proportion what transpires. Some issues are deliberately caused to create animosity among believers while others are human errors that can be forgiven and forgot. I sincerely hope that we Malaysians no matter what our faith may be will someday arrive at being more tolerant and accommodating towards eachothers' faith.
In looking for faults and blames there is never a shortage but in creating a harmonious example of coexistence there is a dire need for understanding and Right Understanding is the first of the Buddha's , Eightfold Path towards Liberation. As is happening in Miyamar and Thailand, I pray that Islam and Buddhism will not end up at loggerhead over an innocent oversight. As the saying goes, 'To err is human, to forgive, Divine. Let us hope Muslims in this country will manifest a sense of forgiveness much more so than the sense of retribution. Allah is oft-forgiving and Most Merciful, why are we Muslims lacking in this fundamental truth about Islam. The culprit if there is to be one is the man who made it public (on Youtube) his discovery of the so called wrong doing, this is sensationalism that will be the cause of most of our grief into the future. Once let loose on the Internet nothing is sacred and everything becomes easy target for those who seek to benefit from such incidents; a molehill becomes a mountain.
In all my years of making it my study in life of comparative religion I have tried to piece together the benefit of one religious doctrine upon another, each giving support and strength to another. I tried to avoid laying judgements upon one religious belief over another but try to find the common thread that holds it all as in one net. Man is at the mercy of chaos when religions collide with each other and it is our duty as those who seek the divine truth in religions to uphold the ssanctity of all religions regardless of our faith; man needs religions to keep his sanity intact.
"Those who have come at different times to the world to enlighten humanity and to awaken souls from their sleep of ignorance, have come from one and the same source. And although they are different souls there is but one spirit in them and thus all that they have given to humanity is the same in essence. By studying the scriptures deeply and with sympathy, not only intellectually, one will find in Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, in all these religions which have been followed by millions for ages, that in spite of having different outer forms, they all have one and the same inner sense. The inner teachings of Buddha are the same as the teachings of Krishna, although their followers may deny it. And so will the others; each one will say that the faith of the other is different from his own. This separation has always existed and still exists. It can only be removed by the understanding of the essence that is to be found in all religions...
We do not know under what guise a person preserves his religion. It may be hidden somewhere in his heart; perhaps it does not show outwardly. No doubt, if no one were able to express his religious sentiment there would be no communication possible, and that is why it is very necessary in society that we should communicate our deepest religious sentiments." Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Buddhism does not deny that there are in the universe planes of existence and levels of consciousness which in some ways may be superior to our terrestrial world and to average human consciousness. To deny this would indeed be provincial in this age of space travel. Bertrand Russell rightly says: "It is improbable that the universe contains nothing better than ourselves."
Nyanaponika Thera
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