Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

outside of the Buddha’s teaching. Instead, it is common to
hear of mantras like “God”, “Jesus”, or “Om” – even in
Buddhist circles, it is common to hear people reciting the
Buddha’s name as a mantra to calm the mind. Mantras of
this latter sort tend to have great spiritual meaning for those
who employ them and are meant to bring about special,
super-mundane experiences for the practitioners. The idea
of watching one’s stomach and saying “rising, falling, rising,
falling” seems, therefore, rather mundane and uninspiring to
most people. The truth, however, is that the results that
come from focusing on the mundane are far more profound
than focusing on an external object, since the latter can only
bring calm and concentration, while the former can bring
true and lasting wisdom and understanding about reality. By
focusing on our own mundane experience, the reality of the
body and the mind, we come to understand the whole of the
universe, because we are observing the building blocks of
reality – physical and mental experience – as opposed to that
which is conceptual, like God, the soul, or the Buddha.
The Buddha himself affirmed the truth that the
understanding of the whole universe is to be found within
ourselves, when he said,
“imasmiṃyeva byāmamatte kaḷevare sasaññimhi
samanake lokañca paññapemi lokasamudayañca
lokanirodhañca lokanirodhagāminiñca paṭipadanti”
“Yet, in this mere fathom-long body, endowed with
perceptions, endowed with mind, I declare to exist the
world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world,
and the path leading to the cessation of the world.”
– SN 2.26
He gave this teaching to an ascetic who had used his
meditative attainments to try to find the end of the universe
through astral travel. The Buddha told him that “gamanena
na pattabbo lokassanto kudācanaṃ” – “the end of the world
is never to be reached by going”. He explained that it is to
be found rather by one who stays still and is internally
composed (samitāvi), since true reality is based on personal
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