Life - Stand Guard at the Door of your Mind

"World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion." His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

Maitreya Project is based on the belief that inner peace and outer peace share a cause and effect relationship and that loving-kindness leads to peace at every level of society — peace for individuals, families, communities and the world.

The Maitreya Buddha statue is being designed to last for at least 1,000 years. Through this entire new millennium and into the next, it will effect positive change within the hearts and minds of people all over the world and benefit the people of India through its social and economic activities.

Maitreya Project's vision includes schools that focus on ethical and spiritual development as well as academic achievement, and a healthcare network based around a teaching hospital of international standard to provide healthcare services, particularly for the poor and underprivileged.

Maitreya Project is working with local, regional and state governments in Uttar Pradesh, India, where the Kushinagar Special Development Area Authority will support the planned development of the area surrounding the Project.

The Maitreya Buddha statue is being built to bring as much benefit as possible, for as long as possible, so that loving-kindness will eventually arise in the hearts of all beings.

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."

Meditation Techniques

There are various forms of meditation. Each technique has a special effect on the mind.

Mind Practices: These practices are the heart of meditation. They have different effects on the mind when they are practiced. Also the speed of the effect can be different depending on the technique used.

In all meditation techniques, the breath is important. To calm your body down, it is helpful to take several long, deep breaths at the beginning of meditation. Breathe using the diaphragm and center it in the lower belly. It should be relaxed, natural and quiet - the breath should breathe you.

Some of the various techniques are:

Technique 1: Keeping a Question

Traditionally this is called "hwa tou." If you have a question, this question will help you practice. If the question is big enough and intense enough, (the usual ones are "What am I?", "What is life?", etc.) it will practice you and will give you don't-know before-thinking mind. Let go of all thinking, opinions and desires and continually return to the questioning mind.

Technique 2: Mantra Practice

Using a mantra to calm the mind and strengthen the center is one technique used by students of Zen. The main difference between the mantras is the length of the mantra used and the mantra's direction. Generally the more incessant the thinking, the shorter the mantra.

The usual technique is to recite the mantra constantly, paying attention to it and allowing all other thinking to drop away. This takes some practice since it is very easy to let one part of the brain 'chant' the mantra while the other part is thinking about dinner or going to the movies. When this happens, gently bring the mind back to the mantra without any judgment.

The most common mantras used in our School are listed below.

Clear Mind, Clear Mind, Clear Mind -- Don't Know

This mantra is usually suggested to beginners in conjunction with a breathing exercise. Breathe in to a count of 3, saying "clear mind" at each count and breathe out to a count of 7 saying 'dooooonnn't knnnnooooooow' just once for the whole 7 count. The count may vary with the individual, but the exhalation should be more than twice as long as the inhalation.

This is generally the first technique taught in our School.

Kwan Seum Bosal

This is the Korean name for the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara. This mantra is commonly suggested for people whose minds cannot be quiet one minute or who cannot concentrate for very long. Because it is short it can be repeated over and over (usually with a set of beads for counting). The usual recommendation is for 3000 to 10000 a day for someone who really wants to clear their mind of a particular problem. It is also used on a daily basis by many people as part of their sitting meditation technique.

Technique 3: Kong-an Practice

Kong-an practice is an ancient form of question and answer. The actual word means "public record". So these are the public records of past Zen Masters. The answers are rooted in the reality that is beyond time and space, likes and dislikes, but is just-like-this. One of their functions is to give you a Great Question if you don't have one. Another is to help you eliminate the "hooks" from your mind. Each Kong-an has hooks (like mental fishhooks) and when you cannot solve it, it is because your mind has gotten caught on one of the hooks of the Kong-an. Sitting with the Kong-an as a question is one of the trademarks of Zen Practice.

Technique 4: Counting the Breaths

The breath is counted either on the exhalation (best for beginners) or the inhalation (more difficult) from 1 to 10. When you lose count or reach 10, start over.

Technique 5: Clear Mind Meditation

This form of meditation involves just sitting and being aware of what is going on at just this moment. This is moment-to-moment mind. It hears the birds in the trees, the cars going by, the planes overhead, and the children playing outside. To the clear mind there is no such thing as 'noisy', it all just 'is'. This is not a beginning technique, but is an out-growth of the previous meditations.

Coming empty-handed, going empty-handed -- that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud which appears.
Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like that.
But there is one thing which always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.

Then what is the one pure and clear thing?

The Middle Path
As a youth, Prince Siddhartha enjoyed the indulgent life of pleasure in his father's palace. Later, when he renounced the worldly life and became an ascetic, he experienced the hardship of torturing his mind and body. Finally, not long before attaining Enlightenment, he realized the fruitlessness of these two extreme ways of life. He realized that the way to happiness and Enlightenment was to lead a life that avoids these extremes. He described this life as the Middle Path.

These three ways of life may be compared to the strings of different tensions on a lute. The loose string, which is like a life of indulgence, produces a poor sound when struck. The overly tight string, which is like a life of extreme asceticism, similarly produces a poor sound when struck and is, moreover, likely to break at any moment. Only the middle string, which is neither too loose nor too tight, and is like the Middle Path, produces a pleasant and harmonious sound when struck. So those who follow the Middle Path which avoids the extreme of indulging one's desires and the opposite extreme of torturing one's mind and body unreasonably, will find happiness, peace of mind and Enlightenment. This is the Fourth Noble Truth of the path leading to the end of suffering.

So these who follow the Middle Path which avoid the extreme of indulging one's desires and opposite extreme of torturing one's mind and body unreasonably, will find happiness, peace of mind and Enlightenment. This is the Fourth Noble Truth of the path leading to the end of suffering.

The Eightfold Path
Like a wise and experienced doctor, the Buddha recognized the sickness of suffering. He identified its caused and discovered its cure. Then, for the benefit of mankind, the Buddha put his discovery into a systematic formula that can be easily followed in order to rid ourselves of suffering. The formula includes both physical and mental treatment, and is called the Noble Eightfold Path.