Shamanic Expressive Trance Meditation

Thursday saw a host of peculiar healing and meditation practises being perfomed at the Buddhist Monastery in Tainan County, Taiwan.

The meditation session started off with everyone sitting down on the floor. A style we're more familiar with in the western world. They were all behaving nicely, sitting there quietly until people started moving around. Some quite violently and as if they were possessed by some external force they wanted to shake off. I must declare I found it all rather amusing, but was told by my western friend Paul who was more familiar with this somewhat unorthodox, almost shamanic style of trance-meditation "I really should stop laughing, its rude!" but by this time the random jerks and twangs of the meditators had become too much and I found myself in an unstoppable fit of laughter.

Later on it got even more energetic as they started getting up from there sitting positions to move around. It looked like one of those illegal raves where everyone is extremely tired and have been dancing for hours on end. They were kind of letting go by expressing themselves through their bodies - a practise seen alot in Shamanism. After everyone had recovered from there exorcising and spiritual creativity it was time for the healing session. People who felt they needed healing (and there were many) lined up to face this woman who was moving her arms around with what looked to be Tai Chi type movements - accompanied by extremely high pitched noises, rampant belching, pops and frog like croaks when she encountered a troublesome area and in extinguishing illicit chi energy from her patient. She would then turn the patient round and bash him on the back for a couple of minutes, an exchange of bows were made and the session was over.

By JC Ball

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Defilements of the Mind

"Pabbhassaram idam cittam bhikkhave agantukehi upakilesehi upakilittham" This mind, bhikkhus, is radiant (pabbhassara) but it is defiled by visiting (agantukehi) defilements. The unlearned ordinary person (asutava putthujana) does not understand this as it has come to be (yathā bhutam nappajānati), therefore for him there is no development of the mind (citta-bhāvana).

This mind, bhikkhus, is radiant, and it is freed from visiting defilements. The learned noble disciple understands this as it has come to be, therefore for him there is development of the mind.

Anguttara Nikaya , I, vi:1-2.

The first line of this passage is the one most frequently refered to by those who wish to prove that the Buddha taught that there is an intrinsically pure mind essence, but if you look at the whole Sutta, and even the whole chapter that it comes from, it obviously refutes it. To give you a little historical background, the earliest translators of the Pāli canon into English were mostly Theosophists not Buddhists, they had their own agenda which they tried to impose on the Buddhist scriptures through their very licentious translations. Most of those interested in Buddhism in those days also, were ‘Orientalists’ who were not committed to understanding anything in depth, they were mostly just reacting against their own culture, so they just took bits from here and there as they fancied as ‘evidence’ of how corrupt Western civilisation was compared to the ‘Beatific Savage’.... One of the trends of European Romanticism was to like to think that all religions, or at least Buddhism and Hinduism, essentially teach the same thing, and have the same goal. Even though all knowledgeable Buddhists, but perhaps few Hindus, would object, according to this theory that is simply because they are attached to their different ‘cultural expressions’. This is called ‘cultural relatavism’.

So, first please note that there are two kinds of ‘mind’ here, one that is subject to visiting defilements and one that is not. Just this much refutes the theory that the Buddha taught an intrinsically pure essence of mind. Next we should look at it in more detail and in context:

i) the word ‘pabbhassara’, translated here as ‘radiant’, is used to describe the concentrated mind in states of deep meditation, jhānas, eg:

“So too, bhikkhus, there are these five defilements (upakilittham) of the mind (citta), defiled (upakilesehi) by which the mind is neither malleable, nor wieldy, nor radiant (pabbhassara) but brittle and not rightly concentrated for the destruction of the taints. What five? Sensual desire, Ill-will, drowsiness & dullness, restlessness and remorse, doubt is a defilement of the mind, defiled by which the mind is neither malleable nor wieldy nor radiant, but brittle and not rightly concentrated for the destruction of the taints.” (S.V.92, A.III.16, Pali version)

The mind is not always ‘pabbhassara’, but it can become ‘pabbhassara’. This is what a learned noble disciple understands, i.e: yathā bhutaṃ pajānati - literally ‘he understands [it] as [/it has] come to be’. It is usually translated ‘as it actually is’, and this is part of the meaning, which could be more clearly renderend with ‘as it has come to be’, but ‘actually is’ subtly implies an essential, hidden level of existence beneath the apparent arising and passing away of experience, which is exactly what the Buddha rejected;

ii) Returning to the first point about there being two radiant states of mind, it is also important to look at the various contextual uses of the word ‘citta’, here translated as ‘mind’. Quite often, ‘citta’ means ‘concentrated mind’, or even ‘concentration’, as in ‘adhisīlasikkhā, adhicittasikkhā, adhipaññāsikkhā’ (the training in higher virtue, the training in higher ‘citta’, the training in higher wisdom) – this set is very common but the second term is often called ‘samādhi’ (concentration) instead. And ‘concentrated mind’ fits the context very well. – There are two kinds of concentrated mind: in the first stage of ‘citta-bhāvana’ (mental development, or, meditation) the hindrances are suppressed but not yet eradicated, so if or when one is careless they come back, like unwelcome visitors. The unlearned ordinary person does not understand this so he is not careful enough to guard his ‘citta-nimitta’ (aka: samādhi nimitta, or ‘sign’ of concentration), because of pamāda (lit: mental drunkenness, or, carelessness, engrossedness) his defilements (here the five hindrances, pañca-nīvaraṇā) come back and destroy his concentration, his mind loses its radiance and his mental development does not reach fulfilment (vusita) in the noble attainments (ariya-samāpatti).

However, the learned noble disciple does understand how precarious his mental freedom is when the defilements are suppresed but not yet eradicated and he understands how the state has come to be. So he is not careless, he guards his mind and eventually is able to finally eradicate the defilements which threaten his radiant mind. Then his mind is freed from the unwelcome visitors and he understands the situation and how it has come to be. It is because he has paññā (wisdom; paññā is derived from pajānati) that he is able to cut off the defilements forever, ordinary people can only suppress them.

So to cut a long story short: Hegel’s concept of a ‘Pure mind’ according to Buddhism is actually a ‘purified mind’ in both cases.

by Bhikku Santidhammo

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Meeting with the Spiritual Teacher - Guru

It was time to meet with the Spiritual Teacher or Guru. The Abbott of the monastery and reincarnation of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk (Tulku). On meeting him the night before, he had asked me to prepare some questions for him. I presented the questions to him in the following order below.

Questions for the Spiritual Teacher/Guru:

-Can you tell me more about the purification practises?
Guru: "you had a troubled childhood so it comes as no surprise to me that you would ask such a question - I will reveal these kind of practises to you at a later date." (he was correct about my childhood. He had no information to extract that would suggest that this was true)

-Where does the Spiritual Teacher/Guru think I am situated on the path?
The answer to this question was unclear to me, possibly lost in translation. He explained about 4 stages and that I had completed the first by coming to the monastery and seeking his guidance

-Do I have a destiny in this part of the world or the west?
Guru: "As a leaf falls from the tree and hits the ground, it always returns to the root or trunk again"

-Was I a Buddhist Monk in my previous life?
Guru: "Yes. you were a Buddhist monk two lifetimes ago in Tainan. If you visited a certain monastery there you would have a feeling of Deja Vu"

-Do I have Karmic relations with the Spiritual Teacher/Guru?
Guru: "Yes. Of course, why else would you be here?"

-What Diety is most suitable for me?
Guru: "I will reveal this at a later date."

-Will my body return to full health?
Guru: "Yes"

Guru: "I want you to do something for me. Until we next meet, I want you to keep asking yourself "Who Am I?" - contemplate the meaning of "I". What is the definition of "I" - keep asking yourself.

Other points the Spritual Teacher/Guru made:
"As a young person wishing to ordain as a monk - you will be full of sexual energy, do not underestimate this area in the slightest as it can lead to delusion and non-virtuous actions as the mind becomes distorted. This energy must not be suppressed as this could be dangerous and lead to poor health. It should not be acted upon in the form of sexual misconduct. This is important to understand if you are considering ordaining as a Buddhist monk."

by JC Ball
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