Death of the Shadow…

Death

of

The Shadow…

Preface

To teach, Bhikkhu / Bhikkhuni must sit higher than lay people.

It is Buddha’s order.

Bhikkhus / Bhikkhunis do not have to work socially to earn income.

He/She is given at least one meal a dayby the hard working lay community.

The Buddha had called himself “Bhikkhu”.

A Bhikkhu or a monk, in Pali means a beggar.

A Bhikkhuni, a female beggar.

The jobs of Bhikkhus / Bhikkhunis areto Know Themselves and

to understand thatall of their Enemies are in their Minds.

Then help others the same.

I have walked paths purely based on experience, whether as a man or as a monk. A risk taker or a “do it yourself wall hitter” – as many masters had come to call me. Learning by mistakes, and considering it the most revered prizes in the game. Although monks and patrons came to the temple looking for a scholar in Buddhism and somehow calling out my name, I refused to be called anything. I consider myself an illiterate, the number of books I have read in this life time can only be counted on one hand.

I like my practices to be simple: to be a “no one”, “nothing” and “a dead man walking”, nameless, spiciesless, raceless, genderless and above all timeless. Since those ideas are the very prisons of one’s own minds. And one should realise that in all stupidity, being locked up in any of these mental prisons was no one else’s fault but one’s own. We hit the very walls that we ourselves built.

In this Thought, Memory & Feeling Casino, otherwise known as the Prison of Ideas came The One, who realised how he was eluded by his own mind, that for the world to be real to a person, one must choose to believe in the 5 aggregates; 1.The congregation of the space-particles (Rupa), as well as choosing to believe the mind, a software producing 8 data streams: 2.Thought (Sankhara), 3.Memory (Sanna), 4.Feeling (Vedana) and 5.Eye-Ear-Nose-Tongue-Touch Consciousnesses (Vinnanam). The world is real to a person only because of the mind or these eight data streams, no more… no less…

Like all ideas too simple, ninety five percent of players in this casino would fail to grasp it. Because to most, life is a maze with gazillion players all liking and disliking their own maze… They modify it when they like it and they modify it when they don’t. Up the income! Lower the taxes! Go to war! Kill them all! Guillotine the government! Arrest the people! Spray the cockroaches! No poison the rats! No shoot the cats! I know! Humans are the source of all the problems. Genocide! Every modification one makes effect millions of other players in the maze.

Obliviously bouncing within the 8 data streams, not knowing the meaning of life and continuously looking outward at other players instead of at themselves, they play to win, to score, to be rich and not poor, to control and above all to cheat aging, sickness and death. Some appear to succeed for a while, but like all players who do not wish to know themselves, like sailing the world without a map, failure is inevitable.

To win over one-self is the most difficult task to achieve and those who wish to do so must have the will and skills to penetrate into one’s own mind, daring to ask the questions and prepare to risk all in search of the truth. What makes me tick?What do I exist for – every micro second?What makes me throw myself forward into the next moment? Why can’t I stop?What keeps me in a continuous reconditioning or rebirth?

The Awakened one, who tried to wake others still dreaming in their dream worlds. The man they came to call “The Knower” or in Pali “Buddha” had established an Idea or guideline – today known as Buddhism, what I came to call “The Last Con”. Buddhism, like everything else is an idea, similar to Seinfeld – it is a show about nothing, only data streams coming through your eyes and ears – all the while, bouncing around in your Thought, Memory & Feeling. And like all ideas, it is a con, a flame, another mental prison of birth and death. Buddhism provides a pathway for practitioners to see the conning mind, to no longer be conned by the mind and hence no longer be conned by Buddhism. A religion which leads practitioners to no religion… an idea which dissolves itself…Similar to how Trinity must die before Neo can find the ultimate truth. Tri-Ratana must also die for one to advance to the next level. As an advanced practitioner, one sees Buddhism or any other religions as mere tools, guidelines, paths or ways to the truth… Nothing more…

However, beyond that level… another challenge awaits…Agent Smith… the Great Wall of Self. Buddhism is considered as one of the most technical spiritual systems in the world.Self and non-self are ideas far more difficult to grasp than rebirth. The last year of my practice, I had the pleasure of coming face to face with this Great Wall of self, unlike anything in previous, the wall spanned high and wide, emerging from infinity and continuing to infinity, the wall without doors, cracks or weaknesses. Having repeatedly failed to penetrate this wall and not knowing what was on the other side of it, confusion began settling in and soon turning into doubts. The dangerously thinking mind coming in to play, raising anger, frustration and thoughts of disrobing from monk hood… the mind rolling downhill like a soccer ball, I was going insane. Speeches and bodily actions were completely out of control.

Hitting walls often produce great results, especially when one realises that the wall or the maze exists only because “I” exists, it is a paradox that all problems occur from attachment to a single idea. Most players will fail to grasp this phenomenon, however, to players with wisdom and mindfulness, this paradox is understood and realised to be the nature of all things. For example, most players were taught that “Miracle” is something that defies all laws of physics. One + One does not equal Two anymore. Such as seeing a ghost, witnessing a man fly, walk through walls, read minds, etc… Having witnessed miracles, one should no longer go to schools to get conned by ancient ideas from their teachers, right? How many people are willing to risk all to realise this paradox? Very few do, but they do.This is known as the entry level to spirituality. The Great Wall of Self is not far from that level. It is when a practitioner tries to discover the nature of self, at the same time trying to realise non-self. This was my problem, “trying”, watching the mind, trying to see the nature and contemplating on it, shunting it, commentating on it, adjusting it and on a sub-level – having to deal with it all. Dealing with the mind is like having a pet monkey that you have to live with all day, watching the monkey suit move, walk and talk, at the same time watching the puppeteer inside the suit as well. Without guidance from masters and teachers who have seen the way, I was stuck at this Great Wall for a long time. Trying to break through it with my fists, shoulders, body and head with no avail, I had become frustrated of this way of life… and sensing that the end was near, I became hopeless, depressed, angry and lost. Now, ends similar to this had come near me before in the past, being misguided, lost and unable to advance mentally, depression slowly cornering the mind into suffering, each time almost striking the thin red line of disrobing from monk hood. However the power of the Triple Gem and the awesome arsenal of weaponries of the Kung-Fu mind had always been there to save me… But not this time… This time the wall was unbreakable.I drove myself harder to practice with no signs of improvements, only running more into the same wall. Fourteen days of fasting in private meditation retreat helped a little. But the memories of it faded too quickly as well.Out of choices and disgusted with the states of mind I was in. I had to choose whether to find proper spiritual guidance and tear this wall down once and for all, or continue to be a fake, another conman who lives two lives, an actor in robe, a free meal eater who sits up high and babble to people with too much knowledge from his head and not enough from his heart. A blind leading many other blinds… a book worm monk without a Way of his own… what a joke! It was killing me. I’d rather die a dog’s death than look myself in the mirror. The choice was not hard, but it meant a big changes in directions and environments. It meant leaving Australia, traveling and looking for masters profound with the way. I had envisioned this for some time, to leave Sunnataram Forest Monastery, one of my favorite broadcasting junctions and intersections of Buddhism and embark on a spiritual wall breaking journey… So with support of Sunnataram’s Abbot – Venerable Phra Mana Viriyarampo and Chairperson of the Gratitude Pagoda Project – Kim McSweeney, my journey to Thailand began on Friday the 13^th July 2007…

Death

of the Shadow

For some time, when I watch the mind, the watcher notices movements and tails along with each mental action. Shadowing, narrating, shunting, talking, teaching, thinking, analyzing, elaborating, adjusting and suppressing… Trying to know, trying to see and never ever ‘once awake’… Never the less, this is a skill we slowly build, walking the hard roads of extremity. The mind struggling constantly to find what the middle path really is… It is being mindful while using Thoughts to think that we can see the nature of all things. I have found this to be futile, since mental struggle is not the middle way.

The Reflecting Wake

One day while watching boats afloat in the river I noticed how a small boat in the middle of the river can ride the waves and wakes without moving left, right, forward or backward, just moving up and down gently, then I came to notice the platform that I was sitting on, and it was shaking like mad! Why was this so? I got up and started to investigate and just like that! I found the problem with the practice.

It was hard to put in words at first, but I came to call it “The Reflecting Wake”, where waves encounter large obstacles such as a wall or a dock and reflecting back, crossing with original waves and creating instability at the crossing location. The same phenomenon was seen later when a large ship came side by side to the small boat and the wake passing underneath the boat reflected back off the ship, causing instability to the boat. Realising so, I could see one of the two extremes the Buddha talked about in the Dhammacakka-Pavattana Sutta, especially the extreme path that practitioners walk. I could see that we practitioners hardly walk the middle path because we fail to penetrate low-level teachings – as in we want to be good, told to be good, wanting self control and told to have it. And above all else, we want enlightenment… control is the reflecting wake. With seeds of desire and grasping, we throw ourselves forward in directions where failures or unexpected outcomes become our mental prisons… creating aims, building walls and fighting wars within our own minds, at the same time having to call in some of the most tangible idealistic twists to deal with the new problems caused by previous solutions. Although one slowly builds wisdom (Kung-Fu) this way, but after having done it millions of times, one realises the suffering nature of this method. It is not the middle way. The Middle Way or Nibbana is beyond grasping and pushing away, like and dislike, good and evil, right and wrong. It is outside of this Thought, Memory, Feeling Casino, outside of ideas, outside of all believes and faiths. And above all, it is outside of one being conned by one’s own mind. So one must let it all be, risk everything while being fully aware. Constantly knowing, effortlessly knowing without suppressing, shunting or shadowing, one lets all good and bad “Mara the defilements” rise => stay => and disintegrate. All the while knowing it, knowing the nature of things as they truly are…
The Sweet Surrender Frequency.From the journal of Tina Ng.

Totality of Experience July 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

Talk about an interesting life. Even my sickness is continuously changing! First week i had a common cold, which then evolved into a terrible cough the week after. Third week my facial muscles were attacked by viruses and now my fourth week i’ve got a fever and a whole new flu virus. Never a dull moment in my life it seems! So there i was laying in bed with a fever last night. My whole body was cold and my head was heated. I haven’t had a fever since as long as i can remember, so i decided to make the most of the experience. So i opened myself up completely to the moment. Instead of trying to block out the pain or shift endlessly in search for a more comfortable posture, i decided to just let be and feel this natural state. Often we see sickness as a lapse in normality, a time when things aren’t going well, as if the body is malfunctioning. But the body is inevitably prone to sickness, old age, and death. We are so caught up in comfort and pleasantness that sometimes we forget that it’s NORMAL to be sick, and more importantly, that the added mental suffering comes when we resist against this. When we moan about “Why me?” or “Why now?”. A better question to ask is, “Why why me?” Why are we taking this illness personally? It is normal; it just comes. The feeling of discomfort is here at this moment. That is all. Take yourself out of the equation and the pain will lessen; at least the mental affliction is absent.

Now all this might seem unreal. Is it possible that a change in perspective can change physical suffering? Well, last night when my head ached, i stayed with the feeling. I opened myself completely to the experience, to the moment, to feel what it feels like to have a headache. Surprisingly, the feeling disappeared after a while. And this was no ordinary headache. This was a painful, throbbing, and loud headache.

With the fading of the headache, came other discomfort and painful feelings around my body. So i stayed with each one and explored what each felt like. I realised that i had never felt pain as intimately as i did last night. I realised that previously pain was something I suppressed, and in doing so, I never really understood it.

Actually, with mindfulness and gentle lovingkindness, the pain subsides very quietly. The racket comes from the banging of the mind, the insistent complaining and self-pity of our thoughts. www.tinlala.wordpress.com

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The experience above demonstrates total serenity of the mind, which does not come from resistant focus or moving attention away from the pain, but completely surrendering to it. Surrender to Universe, stop resisting, fighting and let it come at you with all its fury, and see what happens…

Similar to how Neo killed Agent Smith in Matrix Revolutions (please watch it if you have not seen this movie). With no beginning, there can be no end. Without desire, there can be no grasping. Without heaven, there can be no hell and without birth, there can be no death.

Strangely enough, this mental state is not at all new to us, we have stumbled into it many million times over, especially for me when I perform fasting and having to deal with hunger. Surrendering to hunger, pain, etc… and letting Universe deal with it. The mind is immediately light, active and awake, free from any forms of struggles.

This is a state of the mind that I have come to call the Sweet Surrender Frequency.Be sure to note this mental state the next time it arises. The Mind Technically… to play in the Thought, Memory & Feeling Casino, one needs ‘the Mind’, a software capable of self-existence, at the same time compatible and ready to plug into all types of body shells in the six main frequencies of the Quantum Matrix Universe… Heaven, Human, Angel, Animal, Ghost and Hell… the six main quantum stings in space all with countless sub-strings, whether organic-electric bodies such as humans and animals or mind-made bodies which cannot be physically created nor destroyed such as heaven, angel, ghost and hell.

End of Technical…

The mind is input and output data generating software, producing data streams from eye-ear-nose-tongue-touch (EENTT), thought, memory and feeling making the world real to a player in the Casino. Data which all beings are familiar with already, since all beings share the same software, even God, another player who helped to design, maintain and repair this casino, so that every player can design, maintain and repair their own games… this makes everyone equal. What defines as skills for spiritual players is the awareness and mindfulness of this software. With the mind having a mind of its own, one is choice-less without mindfulness, the mind constantly throwing information from EENTT interfaces, as well as randomized thoughts and memories – all manifesting into feelings making things tick, creating desire, grasping and becoming. These are automatic functions of the mind.

When I engage the mind, I found that the problem is engagement. There should be no preemptive actions (trying to be ready for) into any states of the mind.

Change, conditions of environments and proper spiritual guidance are all part of mental improvements. However, practitioners who feel that practicing spirituality must be something special or outside of this world, those who must constantly shield themselves from society must reconsider their reasons for doing so. Because running away from the conning data streams or the mental movies projected by one’s own mind is running away from one-self.It is running away from nothing…

Stillness

When a practitioner tries to perform a ‘samadha’ (stillness) meditation, one tries to perform it. The mind struggles there and then. With wanting and desire, one drives attention to a spot on the body or a feeling and attention is controlled constantly until fixed. Practitioners receive fluctuating ‘bliss’ data from the momentary stillness. Within this fluctuating bliss, there are rises and falls, highs and lows, long and short packages, as well as raptures.

Since the mind has a mind of its own, one may enjoy the ride or maybe disappointed if the expected results are not produced. I had often heard people say “I had a bad meditation today…” This is similar to those who have trouble sleeping. When a person tries to sleep, the mind struggles and sleepiness does not arise. In fact, too much of this struggling and anger will rise instead. However, one falls asleep easier if one does not try.

I find that in order to gain calmness and focus, I sit comfortably, even playfully, watching and noticing the states of Feelings, then I place the attention within the desired feeling. The mind is like a child who must be lured in with candy or ice cream. Stillness meditation is a form of mental struggle, one cannot see the nature of all things or achieve enlightenment simply by sitting still and obliviously getting conned by the mind, otherwise all the strong meditation practitioners before the Buddha’s time should have all been enlightened. In the sound of silence, there are sounds of music. The mind is software automatically doing its job. Uncontrollable and continuous flow of data streams from eye-ear-nose-tongue-touch, thought, memory and feeling are still feeding through… however, If one watches closely, thoughts will not occur while attention is fixed, but if it does, it is an outside thought, as in thoughts from others, or sometimes emotional feelings from others. It shows that everyone is connected to Universe and the mind equipped with both input and output channels, energy movements from others can be picked up and telepathy is possible. But, without wisdom, what we receive from others can lead us a strayed.

Always remember what samadha meditation is all about. Practice it with great wisdom, not do it just for the heck of it or do it because you saw others do it. This type of meditation is for calmness, rest and focus. For many who can see into the past, future, angels or even mental actions of others without knowing his/her own mental actions are practicing without wisdom. It is similar to using a brush to clean a dirty toilet bowl and not knowing how to flush it down. The Analysts

Thinking and analysing are also forms of mental struggles. Although one can achieve wisdom from different analytical views, but not the realisation of truth because one is still governed and conned by the mind… Profound thinkers of the west such as Thales, Aristotle, Socrates, Leonardo Da Vinci, Issac Newton, Einstein and Galileo should have all been enlightened if this was the case. Knowing

Knowing is not trying to be ready for or wanting to engage. Knowing is not some new engine we have to build. It is data in a black box of our minds, similar to ones in airplanes. It is mental registries. We do not need to go looking for it, surrender and let it come to us.

Knowing and Stillness go hand in hand, back and forth, alternating. But once again, knowing must be practiced with great wisdom. Understand what it is and what it is meant to do. This meditation is about knowing the nature of things as they truly are. To KNOW is the aim. Knowing is not realising the truth. It is not enlightenment, only the path up to it. If one wishes to practice this… one should be a clear with the one’s own mind that ‘all I wish to achieve is to know the nature of things as they truly are and nothing more’. Like all things, knowing has memories… it remembers states of minds it has encountered before and it quickens itself each time the same mental states arise. Suffering in the mind only happens when the mind is reckless or when one is absent-minded. This is the key. Since the mind has the mind of its own, one must let it be to see the truth… Knowing does not have to be spontaneous or on the spot. It can be just after the mind has completed its movements. To know is the way – but to realise is the destination.

Such as – Stillness is impermanent, that is its nature.

Movements are impermanent, that is their nature

Stillness is suffering, that is its nature. Movements are suffering, that is their nature.

The mind has a mind of its own, it is not self – that is its nature. Any attempts to control the mind will generate ideas of self and lead to suffering – that too is nature.Impermanence, Suffering and Non-Self are nature.
Without Shadows Previously when I was furious at someone, I’d watch the anger closely and then thought “Don’t hate him… Give him love, because he needs it, besides he’ll die soon and learn anyway”. However, some time later the adjustment that I made before had manifested into a new thought “Bloody hell! Can’t he die now and learn already!? Or does he need help?” Those adjustments were often missed by the mind, but more importantly, they were useless and a waste of time. Without Shadows is to know without tailing, shunting, prying or interrupting, commentating, analysing, teaching, talking, adjusting or thinking… Knowing only bodily actions, mental actions and resulting emotions without shadowing, one lets actions happen and the knowing performs its task. Knowing is only the way to the house, but the realisation itself is the house. Some of our embarrassing and annoying habits to others can become the ultimate keys to our awakenings… such as the shaking of legs while sitting, picking of our noses, humming away old tunes or talking to ourselves.

The Body (Rupa – Congregation of Space-Particles) Suffering of the body exists only because the body exists. Having this electrically driven organic machine with a use-by date means we have the continuous and uncontrollable flow of data streams from eye-ear-nose-tongue-touch interfaces. Seeing that this robotic car with fuel pump for heart, air pump for diaphragms, air filters for lungs, CPU for brain and with legs instead of wheels is not the driver is quite difficult if practitioners continue to suppress body.

For example: as soon as we Think we are going to meditate, we start controlling the air pump – the breath. We must act tamely, breathe long and smooth, legs must be folded in right positions, hands and fingers must be in certain ways and most importantly, the eyes must be fixed or closed. For what? Suppression of body means we can never see any of its automatic mechanisms and functions. It is not letting the body be. The body can breathe a lifetime without getting tired, but as soon as control is placed on the breath, tiredness comes, many practitioners do fall asleep.

The Eyes I have noticed the eyes when they are reckless and absent-minded, when they are without control, when they are as they are. When a Dhamma student listens to a monk’s talk, his/her eyes move around every 4 seconds. Taking fragmented snapshots of images and storing them. The rest is hearing, thinking, thinking, feeling, remembering, thinking, etc… This 4 second fact was proven by 3M in 1967 when they performed a survey on the design effectiveness of big outdoor billboards, as most consumers’ visions cannot attend to one place beyond 4 seconds. So if a sign could not be read within 4 seconds, it will have failed. The same is said about Suffering, the body and mind do not like to be still for more than a certain period of time, because they suffer. A person may spend tens of thousands of dollars a year travelling on holidays, but one only goes to have his/her eyes moved around every 4 seconds and collect very limited amount of snapshot data for thought to process. If one watches closely, knowing while being reckless and absent-minded, one will see that eye movements have a mind of its own and are truly beyond control.

The Two Extremes

When objects move, my eyes move to intercept, this is normal, but then I find that it is a beautiful object. I leave my body completely to dwell in the object, ignoring any itch, pain, fear, sadness, sickness and all other data streams, at the same time also forgetting that I am JUST looking, feeling, thinking, feeling, etc… This is known as the first extreme – being towed away by the data streams or defilements. The second extreme is when one suppresses the body, mind and its most important function – feelings. Since one fails to see that the eyes move automatically, it will intercept things and feelings will arise. A feeling of Anger for example, when this emotion arises, the practitioner hates it and intercepts the emotion, trying to suppress it, pushing it down with breathing or meditative phrases “bud-dho, bud-dho…” crushing the feeling until it is gone. Laughing and thinking that one has self control and victory is here!

But having completely missed the hatred to that anger and failed to see the true nature of the anger itself, which was flux, arising, dissolving, suffering and ‘just there as byproduct’ – one fails to understand the mind. “Mara the Defilement” laughs at these types of practitioners, the “I sat in the cave for 40 years and never been angry or absent-minded. Ha ha…!” How many more hatreds to feelings, thoughts and people did you miss? Furthermore… running away from suffering means we obliviously threw ourselves forward to another rebirth, and at the same time, missing the whole point of understanding self. Nature sees no need to test this type of extremist.

Control extremists vigorously fight wars which they themselves create, similar to American action movies with nothing but ‘damage control’ as story lines. This is the Great Wall of Self that I came to know intimately. The Kung-Fu mind that I had once believed was the ultimate weapon only turned out to be the Great Wall of Self that I had built in the first place.

Awake! Is when the mind stops going into the two extremes. When it no longer struggles. The Sweet Surrender Frequency. The mind is light and active, not suppressed in one place, nor towed away by any data streams. Realising that the body and the mind are not self, not soul… one is detached from the mind. With detachment comes the knowledge “Detached”. The monkey suit and the puppeteer inside are fluctuating, suffering and have minds of their own. This is their nature. One lets them be, they are not me, not I and not mine.

Lokuttara – The Flame of Wisdom

The Thought-Memory-Feeling Casino or The Prison of Ideas becomes clear to those who practice. Understanding ourselves means we can understand others as well, so wisdom and compassion exist. No longer conned by the body and mind and no longer a slave to the system… choice finally exists. No more being eluded and governed by thoughts, speech and actions of oneself and others – one is truly free. Want More Candy? I Love Candy…

Sidetracked Are We?

Straying too far means we sometimes forget how to return home. The Sweet Surrender Frequency, like Nibbana is only a state of mind. Nothing more… One does not fully detach from the mind until one realises the nature of the mind. Take each suffering as an experience point we earn. One has no choice but to learn it sooner or later. The struggles will continue, but less and less each time, because knowing is there and Sweet Surrender is home.

Any Sneaky Threats I Should Know About? I have found that doubt and boredom are two of the most serious threats of all mental actions. They lurk deep, extremely stealthy and bite very hard. Grasping, desire, lust, anger, fear, etc… are quite easy and can’t really escape mindfulness of many practitioners, but with doubt or confusion, a practitioner fails to register Thoughts as just Thoughts and know that the task is done, but instead one keeps thinking on and on leading to infinite collisions with one’s own ideas (self / walls). With boredom, one quits entirely or performs even more dangerous actions. We throw our hands and feet into splinters all the time because we are bored. Men like feisty women and women go looking for dangerous men because they are bored. New movies must have more deaths, explosions and new tangible twists because audiences are bored. Boredom must be registered quickly as a feeling data and the task is done.

How Do I Get Rid Of SELF? One cannot. Since self has never existed in the first place. Only the Idea of SELF… Self is an idea, a mental brainwash, a continuous conning of the mental movie projections, again and again in repetition causing-effecting-causing-effecting until it becomes real to a player of the Thought-Memory-Feeling Casino.

Try changing your name for example, when the new name is abused, the feeling is different to the old names because we have not yet become attached to it.

It is said that all of our enemies are in our minds. The idea of self is a prison we build to lock ourselves in. And with that attachment, one constantly throws oneself forward into the next moments with the Mind – ticking, wanting to play, re-birthing, opening accounts, suffering, and trying to close accounts, all leading to endless cycle of birth and death.

How Do I Throw Myself Forward Skillfully? Since energy cannot be created nor destroyed – no one ever dies. Re-birthing skillfully is not difficult. The mind is software that does not always depend on the hardware in order to exist. Like thousands of medical records of doctors who lose their patients on operating tables after the patients are brain-dead… The minds of those patients left their bodies and could still see and hear what was happening in the operating room – doctors and nurses panicking, yelling, shouting and sometimes even swearing. In the case of one lady in UK who became brain-dead during an operation, her doctor who was always extremely polite to her shouted “Don’t die on me you bitch!” Later after she was revived, she questioned the doctor on his choice of words. Similar stories of the out-of-body experiences of brain-dead patients are abundant in medical histories. In spirituality, events like these are considered normal, where one dies and goto GOD, or one dies and goto heaven. The code most people miss is DIE and GOTO. Because if we ‘die’ and ‘go-to’, then when did we die? And where is death?

Choosing short-rebirths skillfully means one has far better chance when it comes to long-rebirths. So how can one learn to throw themselves forward into the next moments skillfully? By learning to see the negative natures of emotions…

• Getting conned by and opening accounts with Love means plenty of heartaches to come. Love is a boy who lost his tennis ball in a thick bramble bush. But being a smart kid, he wears thick padded jackets before going in to retrieve it, copping cuts, stabs and bruises along the way. After having retrieved the ball, happiness comes and the boy smiles… only to realise that now he has to turn around and go back. Love and Hate are next door neighbors, both having little compassion or none at all. In the Western world love is often referred to as ‘sex’, ‘making love’. “I love you…” wait… “I love the memory data of you” hold on a minute… “I love the memory data of me that I got from you” So, well actually… “I love me. And don’t cheat on me because I will hurt you or kill you.”

• Being conned by Anger is being burned alive, resulting in Hell Frequency and manifested actions maybe the destruction of another Jesus, JFK and Luther King. Being conned by this data often will result in habitual skill of one going to Hell, loving it, feeling that it is home. Breathing hard, bodies producing toxin instead of endorphin causing cancer and other terminal diseases, destructive thought formations and no longer free to smile. One is helpless to oneself and to others.

• Being conned by Fear means we can speak of love, but later go out and elect a psychotic serial killer for a leader. Compassion is shot. One is paranoid, jittery, acting without proper judgment and mentally imprisoned. This is the Animal Frequency.

• Being conned by depression means we become self-abuse, no longer free to smile and resulting in a Ghost Frequency, most people who plan to commit suicide were already in this frequency, and after their electric bodies die or malfunction beyond repair, the puppeteer continues throwing forward into the same habitual frequency. A ghost…

Am I Crazy?

So you‘re saying that all of my enemies are in my mind… that I’m brainwashed by ideas and not knowing it… that I’m hypnotized by the world because I’m conned by my own mind… Am I crazy then?

If you had to ask yourself these questions, then you are either nearing realisation of truth or nearing a nervous breakdown, so allow me to answer it gently and politely with a quotation from Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu.

“There are only two types of people in this world:

1. People who are crazy with enough mindfulness to realise that they are crazy.

2. People who are crazy and think that they are not.”

Crazy enough to be born… crazy enough to witness deaths of our friends and relatives… to witness our own death… and crazy enough to do it a million times more…

The Path

In a Thought, Memory, Feeling Casino where everybody grasps and no one dies… There are so many interesting games to play, theme-parks to ride, accounts to open, things to see, sounds to hear, others to mate, people to hate, enemies to make, debts to settle, pains to evade, lies to cover, deaths to avoid, wrongs to right, truths to seek, money to make, aims to lose, price to pay, lessons to learn, songs to write, knowledge to babble about and games to close.

One may find it confusing that in the Dhammacakka-Pavatana Sutta, the Buddha had failed to mention the middle path, only the two extreme paths which led to suffering. So how does one find the middle path in it? By not walking the two extreme paths mentioned, and middle path will present itself… in other words… do no wrongs and the right is automatic.

A non-practitioner or a one-way extremist, who is constantly dragged away by the data streams from eye-ear-nose-tongue-touch, thought, memory and feeling should be able to walk the middle path much quicker than practitioners, for most practitioners are 2-way extremists. Amazingly however, this will hardly be the case since non-practitioners do not have mindfulness to realise the first noble truth which is suffering. Such as to constantly change body posture is suffering, but to not change it is suffering as well.

As Experiences are the most revered prizes of all trophies in this Thought-Memory-Feeling Casino or The Prison of Ideas. One cannot give their experiences to others, one can only show others the path to those experiences. They must walk each path to earn theirs. The middle path must be realised from great amount of suffering,both by not knowing the truth and trying to know it.

Let Buddhism be the path, the guidelines and The Way.

Not a prison for your mind… In Dhamma, a burning flame like the rest.

Phra Mick Ratanapanyo Bhikkhu.