Never Ending Suffering

“Where are you going Alex” A teacher asked to Alex, who was walking towards the temple ground with flowers on hand, “Anything special?”

                                        “No, special sir” Alex asked to the teacher, who was brushing his teeth sitting beside the road and looking to the flowered mango tree “Just going to worship the Buddha” Alex paused a little while and continued again “ and earn some merits.”

“It's nice” said the teacher “very few people of your ages go to the temple”

Giving the respected smile to the teacher, Alex walked towards the temple. The teacher did not give any advices because; he knew that Alex is one of the rarely findable boys on this new generation. He has not any unnecessary complaints to the teacher like other his classmates. Some people say, he is good because of his poorness but it is just an assertion because, there could have different reasons tediously.

                       When, Alex arrived the temple, the Abbot was sitting on verandah, drinking a cup of tea. Alex put the goods aside and kneeled in front of the Abbot and bowed his head three times and sat one side. The abbot his cup on the stool and took a deep breath to start the conversation. It is one of the habits of the abbot before starting to speak.

“In this very early morning?” asked the abbot looking straightly to Alex “What could be the reason?”

“Venerable sir” respectively, Alex replied with the joined hand to the abbot “I came to be a novice”

“But this early morning” the abbot asked hiding his amazement “anything wrong?”

“There are nothing wrong venerable sir” Alex replied gently “but, I want to end the suffering”

“Which suffering?” the abbot asked.

 “The suffering that make me seldom unhappy” Alex replied “Though, I tried to be happy often, the suffering comes as a barricade” Alex paused a little while and continued again “Happiness remain just two days”

                                    The abbot stood from the chair up and walked out from the veranda to the compound. He picked the fallen-leaves up on his hand and throws it on dust bin. While bending to take another leaves, he said “Your mind is full of dirt” he throws the leave no the dust bin continued again “it is full of unnecessary thoughts”

                                        

                                                                       Alex kept listening to the abbot and said nothing. Instead, following the abbot, he picked the fallen leaves up and throws on the dust bin. While throwing the leaves on the dust bin, the abbot broke the silence and said “to have a real happiness, mental perfection or mental stabilization is most significant, oh, my lad” he paused a little and continued again “Do you remember the first stanza in Dhamma Pada, a handbook for the Buddhist?”

“Yes, venerable sir” Alex replied respectively to the abbot “I can remember”

“You see” the abbot said “Our mind is forth runner and firm foundation of everything. If, within the action consists a unwholesome mind, the results are unhappiness and if wholesome, the results are happiness”

“Venerable sir means the happiness depend on our mind?” Alex said with the curiosity in mind “but, not the deeds”

“Our deed judges by a mind” the abbot replied “if the mind is pure, the deed will be wholesome and if the mind is dirty and filled with tranquility, the deed is unwholesome”

“Yes, I understand venerable sir” Alex said gently “what is the mental perfection and stabilization?’’ he looked to the abbot to confirm whether, he is in mood to explain or not and continued asking the question “what is mental purification?”

The abbot looked to Alex with the kind smile on his face. He walked towards the Pagoda and sat on the floor looking towards the Pagoda. He took the deep breath and touching Alex’s hand with his right hand and said “mental perfection and stabilization is a mind which is single-pointedly on a views of virtuous object and whose function is to prevent the distraction” he look towards Alex and began to advice again “and this purification could be realized through the meditation individually because, motivation of meditation leads to mental stabilization to one point” 

 “What about the mental awareness, venerable sir?” Alex asked

“For the ordinary beings, concentration functions mainly by means of mental awareness. Our sense awareness can behold and remain single pointedly on their objects, but, these are not concentration” the abbot replied “for example, whenever, our eye objects stares single-pointedly a candle, or ear objects absorbed to a music, we did not say it mental awareness or concentration” he smiled to Alex and continued “to develop our mental awareness, we should do meditation, so that we attain the nine mental abiding and eventually tranquil abiding and it is necessary to gather our mind single pointedly to get mental and physical happiness”

“So, Venerable sir means that the meditation is important to achieve the real state of happiness?’’ Alex asked

 “I did not say one hundred percent yes” replied the abbot with sympathetic smile one face “but to achieve real state of happiness called ultimate reality (Nibbana) mental purification is important. If the mind is pure then our all the deeds are good and results are wholesome, if the mind is dirty then the deeds are bad and results are unwholesome” he paused a little while and continued “to accomplish this, we must take our main objects for the meditation is generic images or mental images that appears to the mental awareness”

“It is very deep, Oh venerable sir” Alex said smiling “quite difficult to understand”

“This is the reason why, there are never ending suffering” the abbot said and laughed loudly. He arose from the sit and said again “if the beings understand the suffering, the roots of suffering, cessation of suffering and the way to real sate of happiness, then, there won’t be birth again and no suffering too”

 Alex smiled respectively and took the flowers, incense and candles on his hand. The abbot stepped towards and picked the fallen leaves up. While throwing the leaves on the dust bin, said “okay lad, you go to the shrine room and worship the Buddha and come for breakfast. Then we will discuss more”

“Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu” Alex said three times respectfully “okay venerable sir” and went towards the shrine room.

By Buddhi Chaudhary