Celebrating 2010 in peace

I was at this 3-Day Meditation Camp

organised by the Dharma Drum Singapore
over the New Year long weekend.

There was no great party to welcome
the arrival of the brand new decade, obviously.
We were in fact 'banned' from speech and
all channels of communications (handphones confiscated!).

But, it's the truest and most honest form of celebration,
I feel.

It's an artistic form of celebration:
Like how the brightness of a white dot is amplified
by a contrasting pitch-black background;
sitting in total silence during the 3 days
contrasted the gratefulness of being alive
-- a good enough reason we celebrate for.

Another reason to celebrate the new year 
in peace and silence was:
growing up.

At the camp, we were taught principles and methods
to sort out our troubles in life,
to tackle the very culprits of sorrow, misery, fear and vexation:
-- wandering thoughts and attachment (妄想与执着).

Tho' we were all physically grown up now,
our inner souls seldom have any advancement,
as one of the venerables mentioned in the camp.

I couldn't agree more. Often I think:
we were actually tied up with the very same troubles in childhood,
except that the troubles now take a different shape and colour.
-- because we haven't grown up spiritually.

At the camp,
Venerable Chang Yuan and Venerable Guo Qi,
with their utmost compassion,
pointed out that
to attain inner peace,
we need to "place our mind on where our body is".
(身在那里 心就在那里)

At every session,
be it crossing our legs on the cushions, walking, practising yoga, eating, sleeping..
we were constantly reminded on
keeping a clear mind on what we are doing right at the moment.

Venerables also taught us
two very interesting techniques
to complement the principle above:

1. MoZhao (默照)
> when there are too many confusion going on at the same time,
instead of escaping,
capture all the info that are received via all the five senses,
acknowledge their presence,
observe their changes, but
do not make any interpretation.
Peace shall then emerge.

2. HuaTao (话头)
> when there are too many wandering thoughts,
instead of suppressing the thoughts,
distract oneself by contemplating on a universal (answer-less) question:
e.g.1 -- this is eery, but effective!-- who is maneuvering over your dead body?(拖死尸的是谁?)
e.g.2 -- if I am not myself, then who am I?(我不是我,我是谁?)
e.g.3 -- what is 'empty-ness'?(什么是无?)

The 3 day meditation camp was a blissful and enriching experience.
What could be better than immersing in gratitude and personal growth
to mark the beginning of a new decade? =)


Amituofo,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com






{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}