Four intentions

There are four intentions preached by lord budda in angular nikaya section of fours(chathukka nipatha). Those are,

1. Black intentions that gives black results
2. White intentions that gives white results
3. Black and white mixed intentions that gives mixed result of black and white and
4. Intentions that are Neither Black nor white which does not result in either black or white results

Its very important to understand these four since in our day today life we normally have only the first 3 intentions stated above.

That is bad intentions good intentions and mixed intentions. But the fourth type of intentions that are given above can only be preached by a budda.

The black or bad intentions are intentions that are based on loba dosa moha or attachment aversion and foolishness .

And white or good intentions are based on aloba adosa amoha non-attachment non-aversion and non-foolishness.

Black and white mixed intentions are intentions that cause mixed results like having intentions of giving some thing with bad expectations. We see this often in life like giving some thing to a girl who we like. This kind of giving creates mixed results.

My main objective is to discuss the 4th type of intentions which are the intentions that can purify our minds

ice breaker

dear toast masters

i am lakshman perera and today i am going to give you a glimpse of how i achieved my objective of becoming a chartered accountant.

I was the last child of a family of four all males. And we were a family who had a very small income. And my mother was divorced when i was five. And my father had to put me in the college hostel for the next 11 years.

And i had to work in the father's shop when i was doing my Advance levels in commerce stream. And i passed a levels with two b's 1c and 1s.

Then after a levels father stopped funding me and only 20 rupees per day was given to me for working in the shop. I did all sorts of things. I was a lorry driver then a whole sale fish seller then a coconut buyer and seller and then went into a bicycle business.

And all did not work out. And again started working fir fathers shop for 20 rupees per day and then after working in the morning at fathers shop i was working as a driver.

Then one day one of my best friends named sanjeewa. I was working in the shop and i saw him on a Friday it was and he was in a good suit well dressed i asked him where he is headed to.He replied he is going for chartered classes. I did not know what it was but i said to him to wait and that i will also come with him. And that was the start of my tertiary education. And here i am now a qualified chartered accountant and delivering a speech in front of a professional audience. With a humble start and a big amount of perseverance.

Over to you tm

the six sense bases

The six sense bases. That is eyes, ears nose tongue body and mind. When we think of permanence of the sense bases we should know that there are two ways of doing the meditation on sense bases.
The first method is the method that we are currently doing.
We keep on thinking that
eye is permanent
ear is impermanent
nose is impermanent
tongue is impermanent
body is impermanent
mind is impermanent
And we keep on saying it over and over again and the most dangerous thing is that we think that this is the method stated in sutta and which was taught to ven Rahula by Lord Buddha himself. And to some extent this is true.
But there is a problem in doing the meditation on sense bases like that. That is we think that eye is impermanent And nose is impermanent etc but after and even during the meditation if we hear a sound (say for example of a bird) then for us that is not only a sound just heard but we quickly identify from which direction the sound came and from what bird etc. So even though we are doing the meditation on impermanence on the sense bases and the impermanence of the objects we hear a sound and that sound come from a bird and we can open our eyes and see the bird and may be even touch the bird etc in essence we see permanence. We see today the same bird we saw yesterday. We see the same things we saw yesterday or past or we see permanence.
So there is an error in doing the meditation on sense bases like that.
So what is the other method of seeing the impermanence of the six sense bases?
Let’s take the same example of you sitting for meditation and your eyes are closed and you hear a sound. When you hear the sound you get to know that it’s the sound of a parrot or a crow. And now you see the picture of a crow in your mind its colour its size etc.
Now when we look closer to these events you initially hear a sound and at the moment of hearing the sound there is nothing happening rather than hearing the sound. That is the sound meet the ear and ear consciousness arise and when those three gets into contact you hear the sound. But as soon as you hear it just contact arising and passing away.
But as soon as you hear then you identify that sound is from a parrot. Now how does that parrot come from where does thought of a parrot arise? The thought of parrot arise in the mind. It is not arising from the eye because the eyes are still closed and no objects are taken from the eyes at this moment.
So in this case as soon as ear and sound and ear consciousness arises and passes away then the mind and a thought is arising to continue the picture and gives a parrot. And then we may want to see the parrot and we open our eyes and see the parrot. And likewise the arising of another sense base will happen or occur and this is how our sense bases continue in existence. When one sense base arises and passes away another sense base is born. And this happen every moment.
So how to stop the continuation of this ongoing arising of sense bases? This is where we have to be mindful about the arising and passing away. When you hear the sound then the ear arises and passes away and sound arises and passes away ear consciousness arise and pass away. Impermanent. No parrot. Parrot is a lie created from the mind. Which keep us pushing us toward the existence.

Damma as a object for contemplation and concentration

I remember the samma ditti sutta preached by ven sariputta in majjima nikaya.

Some bikkus comes and ask ven sariputta that people talk about the right view ,what is this right view?

Ven sariputta explains that if a person knows what is unskill (akusala) and knows the cause of the unskill. And he knows the skill and knows the cause of skill such person is a person(ariya srawaka or desciple of lord budda )  with right view and his view is direct and he will have unshakeable faith in damma and he will be a person who had come ti the path of damma

Effort and effortlessness

<p>I have heard that most people who is trying to meditate is making a a very strong effort to keep the mind in one object. But it should be emphasised that before one is trying to establish proper concentration one has to know a little about how the mind work. </p>
<p>We know about what objects mind can think of. And a person's mind can think of millions of objects in one day. But if we categorize what the mind can think of it can be divided to six types of thoughts. Those are <br>
1. The things that we have seen in the past or currently seeing or that we will be seeing in future<br>
2. that we have heard or hearing or that will hear <br>
3. that we have smelt or that is smelling or that will be smelling in future<br>
4. that we have tasted or currently tasting or will be tasting <br>
5.that we have touched currently touching or will be touching in future <br>
6. the things that we have thought or that is currently thinking or will be thinking in future </p>
<p>these are the types of things that the mind can concentrate on. or in other words the things that we understood(identified) or understanding(identifying ) or that will be understanding(identifying ) in future. </p>
<p>In meditation time we close our eyes and try to concentrate. When our eyes are closed we will not be seeing anything from our eyes. But what we have seen before and what we like or dislike to see in future may come to the mind. Hence like we are watching a movie on the screen we will be seeing a continuous set of images sounds words thoughts etc.</p>
<p>And the mind will keep on hopping from one thought to another and one object to a another like a monkey that jumps from one branch to the next. </p>
<p>So as beginners of meditation we want to stop this monkey hopping from one branch to the other.</p>
<p>Lord budda had given a great simile for this. </p>
<p>There are six animals. Those are a dog,a snake a crocodile a fox a bird and a monkey. And these six tries to go to six places. <br>
Dog wants to go to village <br>
Monkey wants to go to the tree<br>
snake wants to go to the earth hole<br>
Bird wants to fly to the sky <br>
crocodile wants to go to the river<br>
and fox wants to go to the cemetery.</p>
<p>But all these six animals are tied in one rope. So the animals. tries hard to go the place that each want and pulls in six directions. And in this case the moment that one animal is stronger it pulls all other animals in the direction that it want to go.</p>
<p>This simile is given to see our own selves. We also have six untamed animals. Those are eyes ears nose tongue body and mind.

And this each organ pulls us on the direction that organ's object.  And the sense organ that is powerful at a given moment wins over the others. Say for example when we are listening to a song our ear is more powerful than others and we concentrate on hearing.

Hence when we sit for meditation our mind becomes the powerful organ and others become dormant. Now at this moment the mind want to keep on hopping from one thought to another.

What the lord budda advices to be mindful. Mindful of one object of meditation. Being mindful of the object is like tying the six animals to one pole. The pole is the mindfulness object. The rope that ties the animals to the pole is the mindfulness itself.

why one cause for five grasping groups

when we think the four noble truths and the first noble truth of suffering or in other words five grasping groups.

so there are five groups and one cause. desire.

and the cause of desire is feeling as given in dependent origination.

so five groups arising from one cause desire. desire arises from feeling. feeling arises from contact. contact arising from sense bases. sense bases arising from name and form. name and form arising from consciousness. consciousness arising from intentions. intentions arising from ignorance.

why five groups and one cause? is a difficult question to answer. but we know that there are ten causes defilements  for existence in sansara or continuation.

it should be noted that if we do not have desire then all the actions that we do whether good or bad will cease.

maha sihanada sutta majjima nikaya

this sutta is an eye opener for us all and to understand the qualities and skills of a samma sambudda