KNOW THYSELF
Self-Realisation and God-Realisation
Just the other day, as I was finishing this article, I got a message from a very caring, inspiring personal Toastmasters International mentor of mine. The message read: “As you wake up today, remember you are created to succeed, designed to win, equipped to overcome, anointed to prosper and blessed to become a blessing!” He is mentoring me in a Toastmasters Pathway project on High Profile Leadership where I have a one year target to set up my own Agency for unit trust consultants with Public Mutual.
If you have a magic lamp, rubbed it, and a genie appears, what would be your wishes for your life? Success, Wealth, Happiness, Health, Wisdom? The Chinese have their three wise men statues representing Hok Lok Siew, meaning Luck, Happiness, Long Life.
As Buddhists, we want to lead a good life, doing good to others, creating a good karma and be reborn into a better life.
However, the essence of Buddha’s teaching is that Life is Suffering and that there is Impermanence (anicca) and there is constant change in the universe and our aim in this life should be the pursuit of Cessation of Suffering, no more rebirth.
Whatever is the current state of our existence … success, fame and fortune, happiness, failure, misery … it is not forever.
Our ultimate purpose in life is to attain Nibbana, non-existence, by practicing Buddha’s teachings, The Way to the Cessation of Suffering, known to us as:
The Three Refuges
The Five Precepts (for layman)
The Four Noble Truths
The Noble Eightfold Path
We are lucky to be born as human beings, not as animals, fish, insects or any of the 8.4 million species of life. As human beings we have the faculty to think, to choose, and to act towards the cessation of suffering by way of Self-Realisation and God-Realisation.
These Realisations will give us peace and bring us into a state of intrinsic bliss, possible in this lifetime, here and now!
Self-Realisation is that we are not the Body, we are the Soul. Our Soul has been reborn and reborn and it is at this human form that we can stop the endless cycle of rebirths.
Buddha himself has gone through countless rebirths and, in his last rebirth has found the way to the cessation of suffering by devoting His time to meditation.
Buddha repeated on many occasions, namely that the attainment of Nibbana is not something that lies in some distant, hopeful future after who knows how many rebirths, but something which can be achieved – if one is prepared to work hard at it – “here and now” in this very existence.
PREREQUISITE to the practice of meditation is the removal of hindrances. The hindrances - ego (edge God out, pride and prejudice, haughtiness, arrogance), sense desire (greed, cravings), ill will (hate, conceit, revenge) , sloth and stupor, agitation and worry, and doubt (ignorance) – are so called because they are mental states which by confusing the mind with desires and hate, by rendering it sluggish or over-excited, make it impossible for it to see and understand things clearly.
Buddha taught us to live a life of Wisdom, Morality and Concentration in the Noble Eightfold Path.
Wisdom (panna) in Right View and Right Purpose;
Virtue or Morality (sila) in Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood;
Concentration on Meditation (samadhi) in Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
This path is one of:
Ethical Living
Equanimity (upekka) and Loving Kindness (metta)
Right Mindfulness
Calming of our restless mind
Insight
Oldest form of Buddhist meditation, insight to the nature of existence … awakening.
Buddha’s Dhamma is for everyone, and is not only for Buddhists (Buddha did not preach a religion). There is no conflict of race, caste, organized religion, place, time.
SELF-REALISATION is achieved when we are aware that we are not the body, when the outside world is no longer important to us, when we realised we are the Soul and Go Within to connect with the Soul.
There are many types of meditation. The two most practised in Buddhism are Mindfulness, Tranquillity Meditation (samatha) and Insight Meditation (vipassana). There is also the Loving Kindness Meditation (metta). Some Christians meditate using the silent mantra, Maranatha (Come Lord Jesus, Come) and the Science of Spirituality satsangees use a silent mantra given by their Master upon initiation. We need to Go Within to unite our Soul with God within by way of meditation.
I follow the meditation method of The Science of Spirituality which is a non-religious spiritual organization for over 15 years. I meditate with my eyes closed lightly, sitting with legs crossed or in any comfortable position and look for the Light through the third eye (in the forehead, between the two eyes) and opening my inner ears to hear the Sound of God. I do not concentrate on any part of the body nor the breathing but silently chant a mantra given by the Master. This silent chanting will help me to be aware of thoughts coming in … be aware … but not indulge in the thoughts, letting it go by. Chanting the mantra, praising God, I maintain a compassionate posture visualizing my Soul within being stainless, reuniting with the universal power, God, whom I acknowledge as The Doer and The Giver … I maintain the attitude of Let Go and Let God … and accept the doings of God and whatever the result … and accept that it is The Truth.
Let Go and Get God
Leading a life of daily retreat into meditation when we Get God, unite with the God within, and accept Thy Will Be Done … Sweet Is Thy Will, can relieve us of the many illnesses and disraught brought about by worries and stress, many cases due to the work of the ignorant mind. There is one Mr S.N. Goenka, a very rich Hindu businessman in Myanmar who suffered from an illness since childhood which could not be cured despite seeking treatment in many countries. He heard about a 10-day course in Vipassana meditation conducted by another rich layman, U Ba Khin, and attended the course. The result was this “venture” cured his severe migraine which he suffered for over 25 years. This gave him deep insight of what can be achieved into the nature of existence. He then became a disciple of U Ba Khin and devoted the rest of his life to teaching Vipassana meditation in India and many parts of the world.
In Buddhism, the process of purification start when one start practising meditation and one is called the “Stream-Enterer”, one who will have a few more Rounds of Rebirth. At the stage when one can remove all sense desire and all kinds of ill-will and aversion, then one is called “Once Returner” (one more rebirth) and then, “Non-Returner” and Arahant.
GOD-REALISATION
The stage of Non-Return and Arahantship is God-Realisation … Nibanna.
Advanced meditation monks and Saints will tell you that you will be able to see the Light (various hues and intensity) and hear the Sound (ringing of bells, etc.) of God and at this stage you have achieved God-Realisation … the attainment of Nibbana, even in this lifetime.
Your Soul has reunited with God … no rebirths … eternal peace and bliss.
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu
Credits to this article:
Tranquillity & Insight - an introduction to the oldest form of Buddhist meditation by Amadeo Sole-Leris
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Inner and Outer Peace Through Meditation by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj
Article submitted for publication in the University of Malaya Buddhist Society 60th Anniversary Magazine by Khoo Boo Yeang, Publications Secretary PBUM 1069/70, Faculty of Economics and Administration 1968/70
