How To Practice Buddhism (Lay Person)

Many people equate Buddhism with meditation and ask why after meditation they are not finding peace of mind. The practice of Buddhism requires preliminary steps before one is able to meditate, let alone get benefit from it. Sati, for example, is the practice of mindfulness which is one of the preliminary stages before the practice of meditation. This lecture discusses how to practice Buddhism and benefit from it.

Transcript

This short lecture is about how to practice Buddhism.

Most people nowadays equate the practice of Buddhism with seated meditation or mindfulness.

It might be surprising to some that actually mindfulness and meditation are considered to be two different things.

It has also been further complicated with the idea of Vipassana and Samatha meditation and how Vipassana is a type of meditation.

Interestingly Vipassana was never mentioned as a type of meditation in the ancient books of Buddhism.

I grouped Buddhism into four different categories.

Academic Buddhism,

Which is the type of Buddhism that is publicly promoted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

It is very much academic based and based on discussing philosophy and talking about what old teachers thought.

The second type of Buddhism that we see is what I call public Buddhism.

This type of Buddhism for example is taught by Thich Nhat Hanh whose Buddhism is nice,

It makes you feel good,

It has some very basic practices.

It's really for the general public.

The third type of Buddhism is Buddhism that is taught to those people who are brought up in Buddhist countries such as in Thailand where people do prayers and they do chanting and they're careful not to do bad things so their karma is not hurt etc etc.

The fourth type of Buddhism is Buddhism of actual practice.

This can be separated into two categories.

The practice that Buddhist monks do and the practice that Buddhist lay persons do.

I combine them and call them Buddha Dharma practitioners because people who are Buddha Dharma practitioners actually practice the ideas of Buddhism.

They don't do it for academic purposes,

They're not doing it for public reasons,

They're not doing it just because it's part of their culture.

They're actually doing it with the goal in mind to become an Arahant or to attain the Nirvana or sometimes just to be a better human being.

So today what we're going to discuss is how to actually practice Buddhism,

How to really be a Buddha Dharma practitioner.

I separate it into seven categories.

The first thing is the practice of Silla.

Silla in Buddhism or in Pali specifically means the practice of being virtuous,

Upright in character,

Ethical and moralistic.

This includes the practices of generosity,

The practice of loving kindness,

Compassion,

Equanimity.

It includes not lying,

No abusive speech,

No idle chatter,

No killing,

No stealing,

No sexual misconduct,

No business and weapons,

Poisons,

Alcohol,

Meat,

Slavery.

It includes causing no harm or suffering to any sentient being.

It also has the ideas of renunciation of the self,

The idea of never having ill intent towards anybody,

The cultivating and maintaining wholesome states of mind and avoiding unwholesome states of mind.

This all can be classified in the practice of Silla.

What this really means is we're trying to be the best moralistic upright human being that we can be.

It includes all aspects of,

As we just spoke about,

Even things such as having good virtues of patience and kindness and not shouting,

Etc.

The second practice of Buddhism which we can call cultivation,

The word for cultivation in Pali is bhavana and you'll see this used a lot.

So we want to practice bhavana of sati.

Sati refers to mindfulness.

This word you've probably heard many,

Many,

Many,

Many times.

Sati is actually part of a five step meditation process which starts off with sati,

Mindfulness,

And then samatha,

Vipassana,

Samadhi and jhana which we'll discuss all these shortly.

It really means that one needs to be mindful throughout their day to day life by maintaining an awareness of either the breath,

The body,

The feelings,

The mind itself,

Or dharmas which means thinking about Buddhist practices.

So even though this practice is meant to be done throughout the day such as not bringing your mobile telephone or reading a magazine when you go to the toilet,

The real key way to go out and practice mindfulness is with walking.

The best time to do this is the morning.

So you wake up in the morning and you go for a walk and while you're walking you're being mindful.

You can either be mindful of your breath,

You can be mindful of your movements,

You can be mindful of your mind which means that you don't talk to thoughts that come into it.

It can be anything but you're mindful or aware of one thing.

The third cultivation that we look for is the cultivation of samatha and vipassana.

Now I'm sure you've heard these two words many times.

Samatha means calm and tranquil mind.

Vipassana means insight.

So samatha and vipassana are actually like two sides of the same coin.

Samatha is the calm and tranquil mind that comes from the practice of sati,

Mindfulness,

And samadhi,

Meditation.

Vipassana is the insight that comes from this tranquil mind or this samatha.

The insight though is specifically related to the tilakkhana which means the three marks of existence.

The three marks of existence are impermanence,

No self,

And suffering.

So what this means is that a buddhidharma practitioner aims to be committed to samatha,

The calmness of the mind,

And he wants to be endowed with vipassana,

Endowed with insight.

So to practice samatha,

This calming of the mind outside of your sati,

Mindfulness,

And samadhi,

Meditation,

One can make a concerted daily effort to remain tranquil and calm in all situations.

To practice vipassana outside of samatha,

One takes the time to contemplate those three marks of existence.

The fourth practice,

Therefore,

Is the actual contemplating of the tilakkhana,

These three core buddhist teachings.

Anicca,

Impermanence,

Which actually refers specifically to the contemplation of the impermanence of your body and the impermanence of other people's bodies.

Number two,

Anatta,

No self.

Here you contemplate,

Specifically you're actually contemplating how you are not one of the five aggregates.

What we mean by five aggregates are when you see something that is form,

That something you see will then create a feeling.

That feeling creates a perception,

That perception creates a mental imprint or formation,

And then that becomes part of your consciousness.

So let's say,

For example,

You see a piece of chocolate,

Which is form.

You might get the feeling,

Yum,

I want to eat that.

Your perception or the way you regard that is what?

Good,

In this case,

Because your perceptions will always be good or bad.

In this case,

It's good.

The mental formation then,

I love chocolate,

It's good for me,

It makes me feel happy,

And then that becomes imprinted on your consciousness.

The point of this idea of no self is that because these are externally derived,

These mental imprints are externally derived,

Like the chocolate,

They are not really you,

Which means the mind at its essence is like a blank piece of paper without any formations.

The third mark of existence is tukka,

Suffering.

In this case,

You contemplate the suffering through the Four Noble Truths,

Which is the problem is suffering,

The origin of the suffering is craving,

The treatment is the cessation of suffering,

And the method to deal with it is the Noble Eightfold Path.

Here I'm just giving you some basic ideas on how you contemplate the three marks of existence,

But it's really something you need to contemplate and use samatha and sati and samadhi,

Calm abiding,

Mindfulness and meditation so that you get the pāsana insight into understanding these three marks of existence,

Not on a mental level,

But on a cellular level.

You understand it incredibly deep.

The fifth practice or cultivation is the cultivation,

Bhavāna,

Of samadhi.

Samadhi here refers to the absorbed mental state of the mind after sati and samatha.

Here we're getting on the process,

Right?

So number one,

We use sati,

Mindfulness,

Which helps us to have samatha,

Calmness of the mind,

Which brings forth some vipassana insight.

The sati combined with the samatha allows the mind to be absorbed deeper.

Once one is able to do samadhi,

Where the mind is absorbed,

Then one can enter into jhana,

Which is meditation.

So this may be a bit confusing here.

So sati,

Mindfulness,

Samatha,

Calm abiding mind,

Which comes up from sati,

From the awareness of the breath or body or feelings or something else.

So now we're starting to hone the mind.

As the mind starts to get more and more focused and starts to be absorbed into oneness,

We are now doing samadhi,

Which we could count as meditation.

We could call samadhi meditation,

But real meditation is actually jhana.

And it is only through deeper and deeper jhana,

There are actually four stages,

That one is able to attain nirvana or liberation and to become an arahant or an enlightened being.

So to enter into deep states of jhana comes from the accumulated effort of the above five stages mentioned.

Silla,

Virtue.

Sati,

Mindfulness.

Samatha,

Calm mind.

Vipassana,

The insight that comes from sati and samatha.

And then samadhi,

Which is the early stages,

Let's say,

Of meditation.

Samadhi therefore is better to practice early in the morning when the mind is naturally dwelling in stillness.

When all these six stages come together,

Silla,

Sati,

Samatha,

Vipassana,

Samadhi and jhana,

The end result is panna,

Which is wisdom.

There are actually three types of wisdom or panna.

Number one is the wisdom that comes with study.

Number two is the wisdom that comes through logic and reasoning.

And finally,

The third is wisdom that comes from states of deep meditative absorption.

It is this type of wisdom that we are aiming to achieve.

So the Buddhist path is actually really the practice of letting go.

Letting go of both good and bad until there are no dualities.

Once there are no dualities of the mind,

Or citta,

It will rest in a state of emptiness in its original state,

A state of no self,

Where one can now see the true nature of reality without bias,

Attachment or judgment.

The metaphor of this idea is akin to someone who is carrying a rock on his back but does not know how to untie it and let it go.

The Buddhist path is a method to let go of this rock,

To let go of this burden,

So that the liberation of the mind from all forms of ignorance,

Craving,

Suffering,

Mental emotional afflictions,

Confusion,

Sensual attachment and aversion disappear.

So to summarize,

These seven practices are as follows.

Number one,

Upon waking up in the morning after your ablutions,

Practice samadhi.

Sit down and meditate.

In the morning,

After your samadhi for example,

Which is what I do,

Or in the afternoon or wherever you like,

Practice walking sati,

Walking mindfulness.

Third practice,

Throughout the day maintain a mental state of samatha,

A state of calm.

You're already getting this state of calm through your practice of samadhi and sati,

But we also need to be careful that we're keeping it throughout the day.

Number four,

Contemplate the three marks of existence and allow vipassana to come forth from the previous three practices.

Number five,

Practice silla,

Your virtue.

Be the most upright,

Moralistic,

Wholesome person you can.

When wisdom comes forth,

Pana,

Use it and recognize which of its origins it comes from.

Number seven,

Remember the idea of letting go of your rock of burden that you are carrying around.

Keep this idea in your mind,

For it is this idea that will help you to have the basic understanding of what we're trying to do.

If you cultivate these seven practices,

You can call yourself a buddhidharma practitioner.

Reviews

Learning about the 7 categories provides me pillars to seek more information and start practicing what I can now. Thank you!

Complex ideas in a very short time span. This will need to be repeated. Thank you.

Fantastic, clear and concise explanation of what it actually means to practice Buddhism. I loved it and will listen to it several times. Highly recommend!

So clear and informative. Thank you for your teachings and wisdom.

I just needed this. Thank you for these clarifying words

This was so informative that I downloaded this to listen to a few more times

Thank you for sharing

Namaste 🙏🏻

That was brilliant very very well said. Thank you for reviewing and going back to the different steps as you went along. Absolutely fabulous thank you

Very helpful and informative. Thank you 🙏🏼

I really enjoyed this. Thank you. 🙏

🙏🏻this is incredibly insightful. Thanks for sharing.

Very helpful in describing the aspects of practicing Buddism. Thank you.

Thank you for your detailed explanations.

Thank you for this concise explanation. Very helpful 🙏

Lots and lots of good information. Will need to go through this multiple times

This was outstanding. I will be listening to this many times over. What a clear, well explained summary with actual steps for practice. 🙏🙏🙏

Excellent

Thank you for such a beautiful explanation of this process. It has been very helpful to me and I shall come back to it often and continue to work on these five steps blessings to you my friend