No. 52 March-April 1998        Download text

Sharing Buddhism on Retreats: Things that Work

Ven. Dharmachari Suvajra

The 10th anniversary of the Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center and witnessing the opening of your new meditation center, I truly rejoice in the merits of all those who have worked to make this possible, especially Won-myong Sunim and Mujin Sunim and their Sangha. This is a historic moment for Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center and indeed for Korea.

However, one would be tempted to think that the last thing that Korea needs at the moment is a meditation center! After all one can meditate at any of the thousands of monasteries and temples so why another temple and why dedicated to meditation.
I think to look for the answer to this we have to understand the great importance of Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center itself.
The modern world of today is a very different place to the world in which Buddhism arose. Korea is a very different place from when Buddhism first took root in it. Both the world and Korea are very different places from 100 years ago, 50 or 20 years ago, or even 10 or 5 years ago.
Not only is the world a different place but the people in a sense are different. Of course we are still born in the same way and die in the same way and in between we all experience sickness, suffering, happiness, joy, peace, energy, hope that others have experienced in previous ages. As Buddhist teachers we know this very well. But in another sense with the world changing, people change too.
Most of us no longer live in the country. Most of us live in cities and live a city life and we are affected by that just as the dyer's hands are affected by his particular lifestyle. We have to recognize this.
People however are working hard and earning much more than they ever did. More people are experiencing the benefits of a higher living standard than at any other time in history. Health has improved. People live longer.
More people travel away from their hometown than ever before. People take holidays in distant places while their ancestors would only have national and religious holidays that would for the most part be spent at the temples and monasteries. So this is the situation nowadays.

But are people happy, today? Can we really say that in any deep sense that people are living happier or more satisfying lifestyles? I think we would all agree that people are not in any fundamental sense any happier than they were. Some people, indeed, might go as far as to say that people are in fact less happy, less satisfied than they were and that people have an even greater need for the Dharma than ever before. But if they have a need, how is that need fulfilled? People are in the cities and the monasteries, the traditional repository of the Buddha's Dharma, are for the most part in the mountains. So perhaps now we can begin to see the great importance of the Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center. Lotus Lantern is in the city. Won-myong and Mujin Sunim are in the city. The Buddha Dharma is in the city.

Another reason, too, that Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center is so important is that it is teaching Buddhism in terms that people can understand. The Buddhism of Korea is a highly advanced form of the Buddha's teaching -- I don't necessarily say higher -- it is a highly developed form of Buddhism based on several strands of influence. At one time people would go to the monastery and the great masters would bring their students to deeper and deeper and deeper understandings of the Dharma. However, circumstances are not the same as they were. People don't think so much now of going to the monastery. People continue to live their city life and generally only attend the monastery for death ceremonies and so on. They don't stay at the monastery for a long time and are not able to receive systematic guidance in the understanding and practice of the Buddha's teaching in terms that they can understand. The result is that for the most part people are living without the guidance of the Dharma. Lotus Lantern teaches Buddhism in terms that people can understand. It helps them understand the place of Korean Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition, the place of the Mahayana in the overall Buddhist tradition and helps them understand the fundamentals of the Buddha's teaching common to all schools. All this is extremely important in a world that over the last 50 years has shrunk to what is commonly called 'The Global Village'!

Then again people are living their lives in a much more hurried and frenetic way than ever before and this perhaps more than anything else leads to the unhappiness, tension and suffering that many people experience. People don't have the time to stop and look, to stop and consider and reflect on the beauty of transient life.
As a result of this many people feel a great emptiness in their lives. Now more than at any other time in history is the suicide rate as high as it is. I think this really indicates the terrific pressure people are under in their normal workaday lives. In the hustle of bustle of life their must be space to stop; to let the subtle beauty of life, even of one's own life, strike upon the heart.
If one doesn't ever do this one could say that one is not really living life to the full. Perhaps one could say that one is not really living at all! Lotus Lantern International Buddhist Center is a haven, a safe refuge in the midst of the chaos of city life. Lotus Lantern is an oasis in the desert. People can come and sit quietly in the peaceful radiance of the Buddha and beneath the compassionate smile of Kwansaeum Bosal. But perhaps this is not enough for people to come only once or twice a week.
It seems there is a need for people to live quietly and peacefully for several days at a time or even for a week or more, recharging their batteries, as it were. This is where this meditation center comes in. It is the place where people who wish some peace from the madness of modern life can come for refuge. It is the place, too, where people can live in harmony with nature letting sky and forest inspire them with beauty.
It is the place to come and sit quietly, to come and study the Dharma. It is the place to come and sit and meditate on the meaning of the Buddha's words, on the meaning of life. This is why Won-myong Sunim is opening a second center, not in the city this time, but in the midst of nature. It is a place of retreat, a place to recharge one's spiritual batteries.

Really in talking about things that work one of the first things to remember is that for many people it is merely enough that they are in quiet, peaceful and beautiful surroundings and that, in time, nature effects its own cure. This is the first thing that works -- and you don't have to do anything about it -- just make sure people come.

Now there are a number of other things that make for a successful meditation center and I propose to suggest five things, five of the main things, which can make for inspiring retreats. These are things that I have found work when I have been leading retreats over the last 20 years. I have organized and led 3 and 4 month retreats in Italy and Spain; I have led retreats for 1 month in England. I have had New Zealanders, Germans, Americans, Swedes, Czechoslovakians, and Scots. I have led retreats in India from 1 to 2 days up to one month for people from the untouchable background and I have found these things to be equally applicable to all.

First there is work. People need work. They need to utilize their energies in something of which they are able to see and feel, almost feel in their bones as we say in English, the results of their work. In modern life we are more and more engaged in activities that are more and more removed from our actual concerns. One person is engaged in fitting certain components for a car or a computer but he never has the satisfaction of building the whole thing himself. The housewife more and more often buys her vegetables from the market or supermarket and rarely grows them herself and has the satisfaction of pulling them up from the soil and cooking them. More often than not in the West the vegetables are already cooked and you just buy them from the supermarket and heat them in a microwave. Where is the satisfaction in that? People can't feel just ordinary satisfaction in the mundane healthy things of life. And the result is an unhealthy body and unhealthy mind. Work such as preparing food, gard

ening, maintenance and building work are all very healthy forms of work. A Chan master once said to his disciples "a day without work is a day without food." And we should all do work -- not just a few. Work should be seen as a spiritual practice in which you have to exercise mindfulness and care on a very basic level. If we can't be mindful while performing the basic activities of ordinary life how then can we do it while seated on a meditation cushion?

And then there is communication. In the ordinary workaday life we get time for chat and gossip and so on -- plenty time but do we get enough time to talk in a deep and meaningful way about the things that matter in life? But even here on retreat it is possible to continue the chat and gossip and so on. Once the Buddha walked up to the room where a group of his monks were talking. Out of politeness he waited until their talk had finished and then entered. Then he thought to ask them what had been the subject of their talk. They replied that they had been talking about which of the two kingdoms, Kosala or Maghada, was going to take over the other. Which was the stronger. Which had the best soldiers and army and so on. Now the Buddha scolded them for indulging in such useless and profitless talk and advised them to turn their attention to talk on the Dharma. By this we do not take it to mean that he forbade talk on these topics at all times. No, his point is that when your purpose and aim is

one thing don't be turned away from your purpose by idle talk, speculation and so on. Keep your talk meaningful. Of course in meeting other retreatants for the first time there is a purpose in small talk. Small talk oils the process of communication. You have to ask whom they are, where they have come from and so on. But at a certain point the talk must go deeper and this we could call communication and not just talk, chat! Communication, too, is the basis for forming friendship and friendship is very important in the spiritual life. Living one's life in harmony with friends is perhaps one of the most satisfying things in life. Traditionally in many forms of Buddhism the emphasis for communication has been given mainly the communication between the Master and disciple. This, it has been traditionally thought, is where it is at! The Master has been seen as wise, even enlightened and so it has been thought that communication between him and his disciple is infinitely more important than comm

unication between disciple and disciple. This is not borne out in the texts. Friendship between fellow practitioners is the basis for Sangha. Sangha is not just the monks. You have Sangha when you have two people communicating to each other on the basis of Dharma -- whether they wear robes or not. This is amply borne out in the texts.

But how are you to communicate on the basis of Dharma if one is not studying it? So, on retreat one should study the Dharma. One should not think just in terms of meditating, one should also think in terms of study of the Dharma. Or if one has been studying the Dharma then reflection upon it. But what do I mean by studying the Dharma? By this I particularly mean basic Buddhism, the words that we think are as closest to the historical Buddha's words as possible. It is all very well to reflect upon a kongan but if we are unclear about the basic teachings of the Buddha we are not likely to get very far. The Master asks, "Does a dog have Buddha Nature?" For us perhaps the basic questions of life have not yet been addressed, such as "Why should I act morally when so many other around me are not?" "Why should I return kindness for insult?" "Can I change through meditation?" or even ":Can I change at all?" If these basic questions are not dealt with first it is unlikely the kongan will help very

much -- even if the Master is enlightened. Once some boys were tormenting a wounded crow. He didn't ask, "Does a crow have Buddha Nature?" He asked the boys if they felt pain, if the crow felt pain and if they did not like pain why should they give such pain to the crow. Such a basic point! Again the Emperor of China asked the newly arrived Bodhidharma for Dharma instruction. Perhaps the Emperor thought he would get some great discourse on sunyata or something like that. None of it! Bodhidharma said, "Cease to do evil, learn to do good; purify the heart. This is the teaching of all the Buddhas." The Emperor was outraged and insulted by such a teaching and with some degree of arrogance replied that even a child of three could understand that, whereupon Bodhidharma with his great wit and wisdom replied, "Yes, but even a man of eighty can't practice it!" So, the point of the story is to study the very basic teaching of the Buddha first and then also put them into practice. Without basic study

and practice it is doubtful if there can be any real significant progress for the ordinary person. Then the third thing is Worship. After we have learned all this Dharma, benefited from all this wisdom of the Buddha, what is our response? Our response is gratitude, even great gratitude. In India children feel gratitude quite naturally for the gifts that their mother and father and elders have given them. This is a natural and healthy response. They will bow down and touch the feet of their mother and father, or grandparents, or even elder brothers and sisters. The touching of the feet of mother and father is call "Worship of the elders." If this is the natural and healthy response to ones benefactors in this ordinary life then how much more should we feel to the Buddha and his disciples who have given us spiritual birth. It is quite natural that we should bow down in gratitude to them and even make symbolic offerings to them just as we would give real gifts to our mother and father. I say

symbolic but they are none the less still very important because they enshrine our highest response of gratitude. More than this, we should even sing the praises of those who have given us spiritual life. This is a natural outpouring of generosity by way of speech. After all someone gives you something valuable you say, "O thank you so much! You are very generous and kind." In the same way when you receive the gift of the Dharma your also feel you wish to express this by way of speech, by way of poetry, even song. The function of puja, or worship, is to take up these feelings and give them formal expression and all this is natural and healthy. It is not blind faith it is a healthy, heartfelt response in the wake of receipt of what is highest and best in life.

Now, lastly, Meditation. We have received the Dharma we have worshipped the Buddhas so what next. Well we have to put into practice their teachings. And one of those teachings, one of the most important, is meditation. It is by meditation that we still our mind, clear away what is clouding. It is by meditation that we are able to experience ourselves in deeper and more satisfying ways than almost at any other time. It is through meditation, in conjunction with all the other practices of Buddhism that we really begin to change. Now there are many different meditation practices from the Buddhist tradition. But I am only going to mention a few of the most basic. First our mind is quietened and clarified by following the breath. At first we experience such distraction that all our effort goes into stilling the mind. Eventually it does still and we are able to go deeper and deeper, experiencing integration and inspiration as we do so. Then our emotions are transformed by a meditation called cul

tivation of universal loving-kindness. We first recognize the extent to which we do not feel enough positivity toward ourselves and realize that this is not good enough. If we are to travel on the great path to the city enlightenment then we need the best sort of fuel for the journey. Healthy self-appreciation is the best basis. Then we recognize that this self-appreciation, this loving kindness would not be healthy if it were restricted to ourselves alone and so we cultivate it to friends and foes alike, even to all people that we share the planet with -- this is why it is called "Universal." We can then proceed to develop compassion and so on after this. This transformation of emotion is one of the key areas in the spiritual life. It is a mark of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that they are not only wise but also loving and compassionate. On the basis of this integration and positive emotion our minds are now clear enough to begin to develop some degree of wisdom which the Buddha had.

We do this by reflecting on some of the great topics of life such as, "What is the significance of impermanence?" "Wherein does spiritual beauty lie?" "What is the nature of mind?" and so on. In this way we gradually begin to internalize the wisdom which we had only previously heard from the Buddha.

Now I want to make one last point before closing. In addition to just coming here I have given five things, which I think, work on retreats: work, communication, Dharma study, worship, and meditation. It is not that I think these things only work when on retreat -- they work wherever you are. And they work as a set. Sometimes we think, "I should just meditate. This is the most important thing, meditation." But we neglect the fact that we are not just mind, we are also body and speech. Body and speech need activity, too, which is aligned with the Dharma. We have to remember that we are a multi-dimensional being with many things going on, on many different levels. We all need work, communication, Dharma study, worship and meditation. We need to take up these practices as a set, rather like picking up a lotus. One picks up the whole lotus not just a single petal. Or again, using an image of gardening, we could look at these five things like care, soil, sun, nutrient and rain, all of which are

necessary for the growth of the plant. If we take up these five things then the lotus of our hearts will gradually unfold in all its beauty.

Mujin Sunim and all who have made this meditation center possible. The two centers, one here and one in Seoul can be likened to the two great pillars upon which the Dharma is able to stand. The building of this center is really a Bodhisattva activity from which all can benefit and my wish is that many, many people will come here and benefit from it.