Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
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Mindfulness Explained<br />
Mindfulness is an integral part of Buddhist meditation<br />
practice and mental development. The Buddha taught<br />
mindfulness more often than any other type of meditation<br />
practice, and spoke of of it with the highest praise. <strong>In</strong> the<br />
Buddha’s teaching, the practice of “sati” or “mindfulness” is<br />
called the most direct path to the purification of beings; to<br />
overcoming of sorrow, lamentation and despair; to becoming<br />
free from mental and physical suffering; to attaining the right<br />
path; and to realizing nirvana.<br />
The question might arise, then, as to why the Buddha taught<br />
other types of meditation practice at all if mindfulness is<br />
really the best way. The answer is that the Buddha was able<br />
to see with perfect insight as to what every student needed<br />
to become enlightened, something ordinary meditation<br />
teachers are not able to do. As great as a Buddhist<br />
meditation teacher might be, they will never be able to<br />
perfectly assess the maturity of a meditator’s faculties in the<br />
way that the Buddha was able to do. There is a story in the<br />
commentaries that tells how even the Buddha’s chief<br />
disciple, Sariputta, once misjudged the attainment of an<br />
arahant disciple and continued to exhort him even after he<br />
had achieved the goal of the practice. It’s very difficult to<br />
know how far a meditator has progressed in their practice<br />
and what particular problems they will have to face; not just<br />
their present life has to be taken into account – one has to<br />
take into account all of the complexities that make up the<br />
individual over all of their wanderings in the ocean of<br />
samsara.<br />
For example, in the Buddha’s time there was a monk named<br />
Culapanthaka, whose elder brother, an arahant, tried to<br />
teach him a basic meditation on the qualities of the Buddha,<br />
thinking it would be useful to calm his mind. Culapanthaka,<br />
however, was unable to memorize the mantra he was given,<br />
since in a past life he had once made fun of a monk who was<br />
unable to memorize the Buddha’s teaching. The result of his<br />
mean behaviour was that he was unable to memorize even<br />
the brief teaching given by his brother. As a result, his<br />
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