MJ38 - 38 Blessings - The Blissful Mind (39 Of 39)

This is the final session of the Buddhist path of practice leading from the mundane to the transcendental based on the 38 Blessings of the Mangala Sutta. This thirty-eighth blessing describes the difference between mundane and transcendental happiness, touching on ways to ameliorate happiness in life and some of the mental powers that traditionally accompany high-level attainment.

Transcript

Last time you saw me,

We looked at blessing number 37 on freedom from subtle defilements.

With the Dharma talk today,

We arrive at the final blessing,

Number 38 on the blissful mind.

Since ancient times,

Many notable philosophers and scholars grappled with the question of the features that distinguish humans from animals.

So right from King Solomon,

Through Plato,

To the molecular biologists,

Neurobiologists and neuropsychologists of the present day.

For a long while it was assumed that it was intelligence that set us apart.

We now realize that whales,

Dolphins,

Crows,

Parrots and apes also possess high levels of intelligence.

Next,

We wondered if it were our self-awareness that makes us unique.

Apes also show various degrees of self-awareness.

Even our communication skills,

Although highly developed,

Are not unique,

Since whales,

Dolphins,

Birds and apes all communicate using quite complex languages.

Some have suggested that our capacity to feel and show empathy is uniquely human.

However,

A mother elephant will grieve over a dead calf,

And the whole herd has been observed to commiserate with her.

The ward of predators,

Even buffalo,

Form a protective shield around a female giving birth.

In short,

We have become increasingly aware that all supposedly human traits are millions of years old.

Nonetheless,

There are some characteristics of humans that are still truly unique,

And different from lower animals.

Daniel Gilbert points out in his 2007 bestseller Stumbling on Happiness that a human being seems to be the only animal that thinks about the long-term future.

Although a dog might plan for the near future,

Knowing when to wait by its food bowl,

Or getting ready for an afternoon walk.

But even if global warming is an existential threat to the silverback gorilla in the impenetrable forests of Uganda,

They don't seem to have the capacity to get worried about it.

Unlike humans,

You don't get animals dying of boredom.

So it seems that humans are the only species that has an awareness of the future,

And our place in the world.

Humans also seem to be the only species concerned about extinction in the distant future.

Other animals seem to be satisfied if they have fulfilled their urges of food,

Sleep reproduction,

And avoiding immediate death.

But for human beings,

Even when these things have been fulfilled,

They still crave for more,

Or they may get bored with it,

As if a quest for meaning in life runs deeper than merely living in interesting times.

Humans seem to crave for meaning or purpose beyond their immediate selves.

Of course,

There are many disastrous examples of people looking for happiness in the wrong places or by antisocial means,

With expansionism,

Insatiable craving for power,

Money,

Or security being among the more externally focused obsessions people express.

People fight for their obsessions because deep down they believe these things lie at the root of their happiness.

Sometimes misplaced happiness can be a national phenomenon,

But on a smaller scale,

Even brothers and sisters be at each other's throats over a family will.

Most people confuse security with happiness.

Perhaps the happiness of guaranteeing the standard of living they have become accustomed to,

Of keeping up with the fashions,

And being spoiled for choice.

Take away any of these creature comforts,

And,

Besides trampling on a person's sense of security,

By all the conventional definitions you seem to be robbing them of their happiness.

But even given rights,

Property,

And a steady income,

Even with the best welfare system in the world,

After 16 years,

None of the security can stave off the torment of old age,

Sickness,

And death.

So you can see that the human is a curious creature.

But even with material security,

It is still impossible to be completely content with life.

If material security were the basis of a happy life,

Then certainly millionaires would be the happiest people on earth.

And the bottom line is that even those living in the top ranking countries from the world happiness report still complain about that high tax rate they have to pay to finance it all.

Myers and Diener reported in Scientific American that although Americans earned twice as much in the year 2000 as they did in the 1980s,

The proportion reporting themselves to be very happy climbed from 35% to 29% over that space of time.

That's nothing to indicate that the rich are much happier than those of average income.

Another much cited 2018 paper published in Nature by Jeb,

A.

Diener,

And Oishi posed the principle of income satiation,

Whereby if income increases beyond $75,

000 per annum,

Well-being no longer increases.

Furthermore,

The word happiness has become so severely devalued these days that although everybody is secretly looking for it,

Few people would openly admit it.

And for most people,

It is no more tangible than a mirage in a desert that tantalizes the thirst of a dying man.

The common confusion surrounding happiness caused the Buddha to distinguish between two different sorts of happiness.

The first sort of happiness described by the Buddha,

Which he called Sam-i-Satsuka,

Is the happiness derived from being secure in material wealth.

The capitalist society perpetuates the myth that the more you own,

Happier you will be.

In reality,

However,

Maintaining wealth can lead to anxiety,

And if you happen to lose it,

The anxiety will turn to pain.

This is why the Buddha taught us to regard our possessions as only being on loan in our lives.

The second and superior sort of happiness,

Which he described as Nira-Misasuka,

Is happiness that comes from inside us,

And which does not depend on wealth.

This sort of happiness can be attained by practicing virtues like generosity,

The precepts,

Or meditation.

It is not a happiness that distracts us from our suffering,

The happiness of overcoming our suffering.

It is an expansive,

Enduring,

And transformative happiness,

Which we would want to share with others,

And which will eventually pave the way towards Nirvana.

Familiar examples of such happiness might be when giving away something,

Such as a gift,

Exceeds the happiness of keeping it.

Paired with this latter sort of happiness,

What commonly goes by the name of happiness,

Hardly even deserves to be called the same name.

What most people call happiness is only a temporary distraction from the emptiness that seems to be the default setting in their lives.

However,

When a person starts to practice meditation,

It gives the mind a new internal point of balance.

Where before,

The mind was never satisfied without a very good reason,

The mind will become bright and happy with a self-contained sense of contentment,

Something that is no longer momentary,

But which can be sustained for long periods of time.

It is a happiness that makes us see others as our friends instead of as our competitors,

Friends with whom we would like to share our happiness.

The more content we are with our state of mind,

The stiller the mind becomes,

And the stiller the mind becomes,

The more happiness arises.

As you meditate more deeply,

You'll find that the happiness is not really yours or a part of you,

But you are a part of that happiness.

To be honest,

Everyone has true happiness inside them somewhere,

But like an underground reservoir,

Unless you dig deep by meditating,

The happiness is trapped so far inside that it is inaccessible.

This is why,

In the context of Buddhism,

The idea of true happiness and secure refuge seemed to belong together.

This internally sourced category of true happiness corresponds with the bliss referred to in the title of this final blessing.

It is a sense of relief in the mind which arises when one has,

Through the acquisition of wisdom and internal light,

Liberated oneself from all the dangers and fetters mentioned in the previous blessings.

So the quality of mind described by the Pali word Hemang,

From which this blessing takes its name,

Is translated as blissful because such happiness offers invulnerability to danger.

The mind has become free,

No longer under the control of insidious influences.

No further threats can interfere with the mind,

By virtue of having one's mind permanently immersed in the internal bliss of nirvana.

The word Kemang can,

However,

Also be translated as a secure refuge,

In which case it is referring to endowment with knowledge,

As a quality of mind where no further form of delusion can obscure its inherent wisdom.

As we shall see later,

The entry to wisdom coming as a result of enlightenment can be summarized as several sets of special mind qualities.

We often hear the ironic aphorism,

Ignorance is bliss,

Or what you don't know can harm you.

When we try to understand this final blessing,

Neither saying would seem to ring true.

Since happiness is not synonymous with physical security,

It would seem that happiness is more closely linked with the knowledge needed to remove the unknown from one's spiritual destiny.

Besides being the final blessing of the series,

The subject matter of this blessing is considered the ultimate goal of the entire 38 blessings,

Like a destination reached safely by a traveler,

Or a far shore reached safely by a mariner.

It is a relief because throughout our journey,

We have been threatened by dangers waiting to jeopardize our journey.

In the darkness of ignorance,

We might not have appreciated how many potential dangers surrounded us.

But even in our unknowing,

There was fear,

That as we kindled that inner brightness little by little through our meditation,

The darkness of unknowing was gradually dispelled.

No longer mysterious,

The dangers that lurked in the darkness were gradually vanquished,

Along with the darkness,

Until we could reach a safe destination.

Darkness in the mind that we are dealing with,

Which the Buddha would say has been with us for innumerable lifetimes,

Is the darkness that holds us back from answers to the eternal questions such as,

Why were we born,

Where have we come from,

Or what is the meaning of life,

Or when we die,

Where do we go?

Without answers to the fundamental questions that give meaning to life,

The assumptions on which we base our life were formerly no more than guesswork.

If we were lucky,

Our guesswork paid off.

If we were less lucky,

The errors we made only served to deepen the shadows.

So the true happiness we're talking about in this blessing is a direct result of having achieved a refuge from all the potential dangers in the mind.

We can divide the dangers from that inner darkness into two main categories that are equivalent to the categories of suffering we encountered in Blessing 33.

Firstly,

We have built-in danger,

Which means that everyone,

Without exception,

Coexists with dangers since the day they are born,

Dangers which everyone is destined to encounter sooner or later in their lives,

And even our fear of them can hamper our efforts to cultivate good deeds in our lives.

These dangers correspond to the danger of birth,

Or jāti-pāyā,

The danger of old age,

Or chara-pāyā,

The danger of illness,

Or payāti-pāyā,

And the danger of death,

Or marana-pāyā.

Next,

Come the mitigable dangers.

Apart from the inbuilt dangers,

We still have to endure the external dangers encountered in our everyday lives.

The dangers might come in the form of people,

Such as fools,

False friends,

Abusive husbands,

Manipulative wives,

Or bad neighbours.

The dangers might come from natural disasters,

Such as flooding,

Earthquakes,

Volcanoes,

Or wildfires,

Or they may come from the outcomes of unwholesome karma we have stored up for ourselves from the past.

The good news for the second category of dangers is that 4 warned is 4 armed.

These dangers are sometimes summarised as four sorts of shackles,

Or yōkā,

Which keep us prisoner in the three realms of existence.

The shackles are not physical,

But act by limiting our access to wisdom in the mind.

There are four different sorts of shackles.

Firstly,

There is the shackle of sensual indulgence,

Or gāma-yōkā.

For as long as we are still partial to hearing seductive music,

Tasting delicious food,

Wearing well-cut clothes,

Ogling beautiful photos,

Touching plush upholstery,

This shackle will tightly bind us,

Ensuring that we never stray from the sensual sphere in our future lives.

Secondly,

There is the shackle of attachment to the absorptions,

Or pāwayōkā.

This shackle may occur when we become attached to our mental attainments,

The level of the form,

And formless absorptions.

As soon as a person breaks free of the shackle of sensual indulgence,

They will usually be ensnared by this one instead.

If one dies whilst still caught in this shackle,

Instead of being able to go to Nirvana or death,

One would be reborn in the Brahma worlds.

Thirdly,

There is the shackle of abuse,

Or dīti-yōkā.

This is being entrenched in one's own erroneous views,

Such as believing that one has no debt or gratitude to one's parents,

Believing in the non-reality of this world and the next,

Or believing one can escape suffering just by performing rites and rituals.

Such views only add to the darkness in the mind obscuring reality.

Lastly,

There is the shackle of ignorance,

Or avicchā-yōkā.

This is imprisonment in one's own delusion,

Delusion that prevents one from realising the Sādhamma,

Or the truth necessary for attaining enlightenment.

One's ignorance is the result of a deficit on internal illumination,

Not being able to discern the path to self-liberation.

So ignorance is counted as the fourth of the shackles.

Whenever a prisoner is released from detention and regains freedom,

The relief is not just physical,

But also emotional.

In the same way,

Those who attain Nirvana,

Who have escaped the touch of all defilements and fetters,

Will also have a mind suffused with bliss.

So happiness is not so much about changing the circumstances as transcending them.

There is an account in the Sākhamānasutta of the Samyutta Nikaya that describes a scene where the Buddha was sitting in a forest glade during the midday rest period.

The large gathering of forest animals and the sound of all their cries was a fearful racket.

One angel objected to the horrendous sound,

Finding it got on their nerves,

Saying,

When the noon hour sets in and the birds have settled down,

The mighty forest itself murmurs.

How fearful that appears to me!

However,

Hearing the same sound,

The response of the Buddha was completely different.

He declared,

Even when all the forest animals gather together at lunchtime and make such a noise,

I am still happy,

Because after my alms round and having eaten,

It is my time of meditation.

So it would appear that what constitutes true happiness makes such a difference to a person that even perceiving the same things as the next,

One's understanding of reality has been transformed to make one respond to it in the most positive manner appropriate.

So to return to our subject matter of the blissful mind for today,

It would seem that some people,

Even without hearing a talk on the 38 blessings,

Seem to just ooze happiness.

They always seem to be able to smile,

Have fun,

And shake off negative emotions.

Of course cheerfulness is not the same as bliss,

But scientific research has pointed to some ways we can choose to ameliorate happiness levels in life.

And I do say scientifically proven,

Because of course every commercial tries to make out that their product is the one thing holding us back from happiness and contentment in life.

So some things which we can easily change to boost happiness levels on a certain level in our lives fall into three basic recommendation categories.

Dietary,

Exercise,

And behavior modification.

In terms of diet,

There is scientific evidence for the mood-lifting properties of dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale for their folate content,

Regular mushrooms,

Mushy mushrooms for their vitamin D content,

Turmeric for its curcumin content,

Chocolate for its tryptophan content,

Healthy varieties of coffee rather than fancy coffee drinks,

Green tea for its polyphenol content,

Healthy fats that apparently smooth out your blood sugar levels,

Salmon,

Avocados and nuts for their omega-3 content,

St.

John's Wort for its antidepressant properties which works for some people.

Also recommended if you're going to eat comfort foods like carbs as a mood pick-me-up,

This is best to snack in the afternoon.

And apparently sniffing citrus scents like orange,

Lemon or grapefruit is found uplifting by some people.

In terms of exercise,

Any sort of workout,

Whether it be running,

Indoor cycling,

Yoga or dancing,

As long as you break a sweat,

Will lead endorphins to be released throughout your body and alleviate the symptoms of depression.

You don't need to be too tough on yourself because even a brisk 20-30 minute walk will help.

Yoga can also help ease depressive symptoms as well as anxiety,

Allowing you to slow down and focus on your breathing rather than on your worries,

Frustrations and problems.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a proven treatment for clinical depression and anxiety disorders,

And it can also help anybody who simply needs to learn how to combat negative thoughts.

Meditation of course is also a proven stress buster with no harmful side effects,

And is said to release happy chemicals in the brain such as serotonin,

Dopamine and endorphins.

Apart from diet and exercise,

Other modifications to your behavior,

Proven to bring happier feelings about life,

Include taking micro-breaks during your work day to watch funny videos online,

Which seem to have the power to turn around a bad mood in less than a minute.

Making the effort to smile more,

Even if you have to fake it at first,

Helps activate the happiness centers in your brain,

Leaving you in a better mood.

Some claim that it takes 43 muscles to frown,

While smiling uses only 17.

Some say that you have to be happy first before you can smile,

But scientific evidence shows that even faking a smile sparks off a chemical reaction in the brain that releases certain hormones including dopamine and serotonin,

Which increase your feelings of happiness.

Some people stay inside in the dark when they're feeling depressed,

But increasing the amount of light in your life is often accompanied by more feelings of happiness.

This might be achieved merely by opening the shades if you're inside,

Spending more time outside,

Or if you're in the middle of the endless darkness of the winter months.

Light therapy can effectively treat seasonal affective disorder by sitting in front of a light box for 30-60 minutes as part of a daily routine.

Harvard researchers found that buying yourself flowers or keeping fresh flowers around your home does wonders in keeping away anxiety and negative thoughts.

If loneliness is something linked to your lack of happiness,

Having a pet to play with or finding opportunities for human connection releases those feel-good chemicals like serotonin,

As well as reducing blood pressure and heart rate,

Allowing you to feel more relaxed.

Lastly,

Although it might not be appropriate in the temple,

But at home,

Listening to a favourite song and singing along to it.

Apparently,

The sense of nostalgia releases the feel-good chemical of dopamine in your system.

But going deeper than superficial happiness,

True happiness should be about more than merely feeling secure in yourself and in your identity.

In this connection there are different sources of mental attainments.

An enlightened person accumulates as a tool by which they can uncover the mysteries of the world and gain the ability to impart this knowledge to others.

For Arahants who become enlightened,

These abilities are developed to a greater or lesser extent,

Allowing the invisible to become visible to the mind.

All Arahants develop the basic minimum of knowledge of an utter end to defilements.

But others,

Like the Buddha,

Develop the threefold supernormal knowledge,

The sixfold superpowers,

Or the eightfold knowledge.

As the threefold and sixfold sets are subsets of the eightfold supernormal knowledge,

I'll just go into detail on the eight supernormal knowledges.

In addition,

Some Arahants attain what is known as the fourfold analytical insights,

Which are useful for imparting knowledge to others.

So the eightfold supernormal knowledge,

Or wicca,

Is a way of describing the by-products of the wisdom of the enlightened one.

It consists of insight knowledge,

Or vipassanayana,

Mental powers,

Or manomayiti,

Supernormal powers,

Or ittiviti,

Which to clarify means the ability to perform certain miracles,

To change the nature of objects,

Such as floating in the air,

Transmuting the body,

Enlarging or shrinking oneself,

Or making oneself invisible.

Then we come to supernormal audition,

Or dipassotta,

Which means being able to hear sounds not audible to others,

Reading the minds of others,

Or jetopariyayana,

The ability to recollect one's own previous existences,

Or pubenivasanussatiyana,

The ability to recollect the previous existences of others,

Known as tipachakhu,

Or chatthubhapadayana,

And finally the knowledge of an utter end to all defilements,

Or asavakkayayana.

For the eightfold supernormal knowledge,

The first seven are worldly or lokiya accomplishments,

The eighth alone being the transcendental or lokottara.

This means that the knowledge of reaching an end to all defilements can be achieved by authentic attainment,

And is impossible to fake at lower levels of attainment.

As for the other abilities,

Sometimes they are found in those who have a lesser attainment.

As for the fourfold analytical insights,

Or bhattisampittha,

These are mental abilities concerned with the teaching of the dharma to others.

They are attained by those who have reached an end to defilements and comprise,

Firstly,

Analytical insight into consequences,

Or atta-bhattisampittha,

Which means mastery of the ability to enlarge upon any subject of the dharma in detail,

Then analytic insight into causes,

Or dhamma-bhattisampittha,

Which means mastery of the ability to summarize any subject of the dharma without losing the core meaning,

Then analytic insight into language,

Or nirutti-bhattisampittha,

Which means mastery of all forms of human and animal communication,

And finally analytical insight into wit,

Or patita-bhattisampittha,

Which is mastery of the ability to think on one's feet and answer dhamma questions on the spot.

All these sets of supernormal knowledge are fruits which may accrue to a greater or lesser extent to those reaching the upper echelons of enlightenment.

In conclusion,

There are many teachings in Buddhism that are just descriptive or philosophical,

Which are merely good to know,

But may not,

Of themselves,

Reduce suffering in your life.

The 38 Blessings,

Though,

Can be regarded as a,

If not the,

Definitive core set of pragmatic teachings in Buddhism.

We should therefore try to put all 38 into practice,

Because if we practice in earnest,

Before long we will be able to avail ourselves of the true knowledge and happiness at the core of Buddhism,

And have a knowledge of the supernormal in the footsteps of the Buddha and all the Arahants.

If we practice more and more,

We will start to have more answers than questions on the existential aspects of life.

We will begin to know for ourselves our purpose in life,

And as we follow the example set by the Buddha in practicing virtues,

Throughout the series of 38 Blessings,

We will be able to embellish our practice with more nuanced aspects of the Buddha's teaching.

The Buddha once gave a teaching in the Simsapa forest called the Simsapa Sutta,

Where he picked up a handful of leaves and asked the monks which was the greater amount of leaves,

Those in his hand,

Or those on all the trees in the forest.

The monks replied that the number of leaves in the forest was greater.

Buddha concluded that even so,

The teachings he had made manifest,

In other words,

The pragmatic practices of the 38 Blessings,

Were equivalent only to the leaves in his hand.

But what he had not taught,

Also Dhamma,

But not directly relevant to the release from suffering,

Were as numerous as all the leaves on the trees in the forest.

Consequently,

Even having come to an end of the 38 Blessings,

There is much more to learn.

You might consider those extra teachings could be considered superfluous to the task of overcoming suffering,

But they may be useful if you want to know more than the core teachings of the 38 Blessings,

And I would encourage you to keep studying,

Now that you have the 38 Blessings as your point of reference.

So finish off today with a quick Dhamma story relevant to the connection between enlightenment and happiness.

Once,

During the time of the Buddha,

A king called Mahakabinā,

With his queen Anochā,

Reigned in the frontier kingdom of Kukultāwati.

King Mahakabinā was very motivated to meet up with the Buddha and learn his teachings.

Consequently,

Every morning Mahakabinā would send out messengers from the four gates of his city to seek news from passing traders as to the arising of an Enlightened One in the world.

One day,

After the Buddha had arisen in the world,

A group of traders from Savatthi were visiting Kukultāwati.

They informed King Mahakabinā of the arising of the Buddha.

Just hearing the word Buddha,

King Mahakabinā was deeply moved to the point that he fainted on the spot.

When he came round,

To be sure he had heard correctly,

He asked again,

And the traders mentioned the word Buddha a total of three times,

The king falling into a faint every time he heard the word.

The same thing happened when the traders mentioned the arising of the Dharma and of the Sangha.

So in the end,

He fainted a total of nine times.

Without further hesitation,

The king ran out of the throne,

And after rewarding the merchants handsomely,

Left the palace in search of the Buddha accompanied by all his courtiers.

The group set off in the direction of Savatthi,

But blocking their path were three deep rivers which they must cross on horseback,

The Aravacchā,

The Nīlāvahana,

And the Chantapakkhā.

Each time they reached the bank of one of these rivers,

Mahakabinā would make an act of truth,

Declaring,

If the teacher whom we seek is truly a fully enlightened Buddha,

Let not even the hooves of our horses be wetted by the crossing of the river.

Thoracically,

Each river became temporarily solid like ice,

Allowing Mahakabinā and his courtiers to cross to the other side.

In this manner,

They crossed the three rivers.

In his meditation,

The Buddha perceived Mahakabinā's approach,

And travelled through the air to the banks of the Chantapakkhā river,

Where he seated himself under a banyan tree,

Facing the direction of their approach,

And sent forth radiance as a signal to Mahakabinā.

When Mahakabinā and his courtiers met up with the Buddha,

And had paid respect,

The Buddha taught them until they became arahants,

Joining the order of the monks.

Meanwhile,

Anuchā and her courtiers pronounced the word in a similar way,

And crossed all three rivers,

As their husbands had done,

To meet the Buddha.

The Buddha made the woman's husbands temporarily invisible to them,

So there would be no distraction as he preached the Dharma,

And the woman too could become stream-enters,

Entering the order under Upalāwanna Guni.

Mahakabinā spent his days in ecstasy of deep meditation,

And was so full of happiness that he constantly repeated the words,

O the happiness,

O the happiness in Bali,

Aho Sukkhang,

Aho Sukkhang,

Which led the other monks to the mistaken conclusion that he was pining for the pleasures of kingship that he had left behind,

Until the Buddha dispelled their doubts,

Explaining that the happiness of attaining Arahantship is beyond compare,

Happiness beyond what anyone can keep to themselves.

So this session I have introduced to you Blessing 38 on the Blissful Mind.

Hopefully as a result of today's session you will feel more inspired to channel the authentic happiness in the mind.

So for today this is me,

Puran Nicholas Thynissaroth,

Signing off for now.

So long folks and stay safe.