REFLECTIONS ON ATTENDING A BUDDHIST MEDITATION TRAINING SESSION October 1999 Table of Contents I. The Event II. The Schedule III. Attendance IV. Presenter's techniques V. Presenter's commentary VI. Participants' commentary VII. Observer's comments on the presenter's techniques VIII. Observer's comments on the presenter's commentary IX. Observer's comments on participants' commentary X. Observer's solutions to the problems the presenter's techniques address XI. Observer's comments on important implicit cross-cultural issue XII. Observer's comments on an important implicit cross-temporal issue I. The Event ============ Organized by Ven. Ratana at Sukhothai Thammathirat University for three days, Oct 29-31; twelve two-hour meditation sessions, each consisting of 1-1/2 hours of meditation using various breathing and conceptualization techniques, and followed by one half hour of questions, discussions, and lectures. II. The Schedule ================ 0430-0630 first session 0700-0830 breakfast 0900-1100 second session 1130-1230 lunch 1300-2000 third and fourth sessions interspersed by liquid refreshments All meals vegetarian; no solid food after lunch; bedtime 2100. Dress in ceremonial white only. III. Attendance =============== About 85 persons ranging in age from observer's daughter (age 8) through teenagers and active families to retired persons. Attendees were college students, business persons and government officials. Several were addressed as doctor or professor. An attending air force general performed the closing ceremonial floral presentation. The presenter (monk) presides over a small temple in northern Thai- land well-known for providing terminal care to those afflicted with AIDS. IV. Presenter's techniques ========================== All techniques began by dimming room lights, then relaxing the body and clearing the mind. 1-Concentration by counting 2-Concentration by emphasizing target points of body 3-Use of small pyramidal amulet (said to contain sensory active mineral) as object of concentration and path to control magnetism and eject adverse bodily influences through its tip into the upper atmosphere. V. Presenter's commentary ========================= 1-Quasi-scientific discussion of free radicals, earth, galaxies, remnant energy of dead stars. 2-Presenter reports he can sense earthquakes in formative states prior to detection by present scientific instruments. 3-Presenter speaks of earth's magnetic field affecting human bodies, magnetic lines intersecting and influencing humans. 4-Presenter refers to the advanced science of Atlantis 10,000 years ago, a body of scientific knowledge since lost. 5-Presenter claims his techniques can cure major afflictions such as AIDS, cancer and heart disease. 6-Presenter is concerned some may believe he deceives them with these claims. 7-Presenter offers screen reproductions of CTI (Computer Thermal Imaging) scans displaying different temperatures in chest cavity and skull of presenter himself after periods of concentration such as he teaches. These were made by an instrument at a private hospital to demonstrate that the techniques have real bodily effects, and to repudiate possible reproach that the techniques are not genuine or are deceptive. 8-Several persons or institutions reportedly expressing an interest in conducting systematic observations or tests of presenter's techniques and their objective effectiveness in curing somatic disease have been prevented from doing so by various religious or governmental intermediaries whose approval was necessary. The presenter stated this with clear feelings of disappointment and resignation at what he felt to be an opportunity lost for broader exposure of his tech niques. He did not clarify the reasons or motives behind these failures to grant approval. VI. Participants' commentary ============================ Several participants reported inner experiences such as presenter suggested would occur e.g. whirling sensation, rising sensation, sensation of exiting the body. Some reported that these techniques reduced sensations of pain or feelings of stress. Several participants reported unusual inner experiences contrary to presenter's suggestions; these comments were often of the form "Instead of what you suggested to visualize, I experienced [someth- ing different]; what does that mean [or, what did I do wrong]? In each case the presenter immediately offered an explanation or interpretation e.g. distraction, wrong focus of concentration. Some participants reported failure to achieve any inner state such as the presenter suggested. In one case the participant stated this might result from his pain from the (for him) difficult sitting position. VII. Observer's comments on the presenter's techniques ====================================================== The observer found the seminar experience physically easy (it did not challenge his physical condition) but very disruptive of his established routine, which has followed a fixed trajectory for many years of rising and falling physical and mental activity each day, as a means to physical and mental health. Especially the interjec- tion of relaxation during mid-day was quite troubling as it violated the observer's established personal rhythm. The observer achieved a deep sensation of internal tranquillity, but this was an easy task due to techniques he already uses. The presenter's techniques were superfluous for the observer but appeared useful for others attend- ing whose lives are troubled (of whom there seemed to be many). VIII. Observer's comments on the presenter's commentary ======================================================= 1-The commentary was expressed with a vagueness typical of Thai discourse. 2-Much discussion was of imaginative inner states, with no physical referents yet discussed as if tangible and verifiable. 3-The presenter's approach, including his suggested remedies to physical and emotional discomforts and disease, has a possible dangerous consequence in that it may distract a sufferer from - potentially effective remedies available within contemporary medicine; - the need to avoid generative behavior (e.g. sexual promiscuity promoting AIDS, or overcommitment promoting mental stress); - the need for physical exercise. A listener with broad knowledge could place the presenter's propo- sals in larger context, understanding their benefits but also their limitations, and understanding the essentiality of supple- mentary measures for physical and mental health. However many of the attendees appeared uncritically to take the presenter's ap- proach as a panacea. It is likely that many attendees lacked the broad knowledge to place the presenter's proposals in a proper health-enhancing context. 4-Due to the accompanying commentary including concepts contrary to standard science, some of the presenter's genuinely valuable proposals for mental discipline and mental peace will be rejected by those who may need them most for mental tranquillity viz. those "hard-wired" to a tumultuous reality. This point was driven home to the observer who had just returned from Geneva to Thailand after attending Telecom 99, a quadrennial technical exhibition of the latest (and forthcoming) communication technologies. A significant proportion of the consumer technologies exhibited provided such "hard wiring" e.g. "up-to-the-second" access to stock quotes, news, sports results via PDAs or GSM phones, and GSM Short Message Service. (There were many others.) All of these innovations act to increase the 24-hour flow of sensations impinging upon consciousness, reducing the opportunity to tranquillize the mind or even to sense that such a state is possible, normal, desirable, or sanctioned by one's peers. 5-At one point the presenter commented in response to a question that the audience most receptive to his presentations was hill-tribe listeners (who are generally remote from modern civilization and innocent of knowledge of standard science) and youths. The observer was struck by the likeness of this comment to the Christian gospel teaching that one must "become as little children" to enter the kingdom (Matthew, Mark and Luke repeat). IX. Observer's comments on participants' commentary =================================================== The reports of many participants confirm that the presenter's tech- niques changed their subjective mental states and sensations of reality and of their bodies. This is an objective fact since it cannot be held that the participants were lying to the group in making these reports. X. Observer's solutions to the problems the presenter's techniques address ==================================================================== This observer has long thought deeply about the discomforts which the presenter's techniques address as a cure viz. physical disease, physical suffering and mental upset. The observer has developed a complex of measures to cope with these discomforts, enumerated below. For this reason the observer felt no urge to adopt the presenter's techniques, but the observer desired to attend the seminar so as to study and evaluate them from his own perspective. The observer was stimulated by the seminar to many thoughts about both the presentation and the discomforts of other cultures with which he is familiar. These thoughts are also reported here. 1-Overall health requires - proper nutrition (the observer has developed a detailed and very effective plan); - stimulation to body (aerobic and anaerobic exercise --contra relaxation!); - relaxation. Comment: Since the presenter's approach is advertised as requiring considerable time (perhaps years) to perfect, the adopter may put so much effort in as to create an imbalance with other elements also required for health. 2-The observer has developed a daily cycle to achieve both concentration and relaxation, which he finds conducive to good health: - Relaxed sleep - Slowly awaken and rise from bed - Breakfast; slowly raise activity rate - Stimulation (with hot coffee) - Bowel movement - Begin to accept incoming sensations and perceptions e.g. leave house, drive in traffic, phone calls etc - Peak of activity: aerobic exercise - Evening meal; slow down with relaxing repetitive activity (often dull computer activity such as file hygiene) - close day with most relaxing activity: read a few minutes before bed, on subject _different_ from bulk of day's activities Result: absence of distress. Note: This aproach is based on proper life choices avoiding overcommitment which would produce enduring stress. Such overcommitment is a typical feature of contemporary life; discipline is required to avoid it; with the increasing opportunities for activities resulting from new technology and communications, it is increasingly difficult. But it is the basic and essential step; all the above steps are just measures to organize and channel the remnant stresses. Note: This procedure has had (compared to peers) obvious effects on observer's physical condition (e.g. skin condition relative to age, weight), vital signs (e.g. resting heart rate, blood pressure) and mental state (e.g. tranquil response to stressors). 3-Technique to avoid troubled sleep - All open matters: bring to closure before day's end. - If cannot close, identify possible solutions, close matter at this level. - If cannot identify possible solutions, identify what data needed to identify possible solutions, close at this level. - Any excess matters: put in queue, recognize that cannot be accomplished without risk to health. Cease thinking about; no stress since nothing more can be done. Thus everything closed in one way or other. Result: tranquil sleep. XI. Observer's comments on important implicit cross-cultural issue ================================================================== The presenter's frame of reference is Buddhism, a set of techniques for mental well-being founded on the insight that discomfort arises from the frustration of desire; therefore mental comfort can be achieved by the regulation and restraint of desire including emo- tions generally. Buddhism is thus a psychology to alleviate suf- fering by an integrated set of explanations of human experience and various practical techniques to modify behavior to avoid suffering. (Later there was much embroidery with supernatural and metaphysical elements not present in the original teaching.) This thrust (con- trol of self, avoidance of untranquil emotions as an everpresent goal of human mental activity) accounts for the remarkably different character of the Asian Buddhist cultures, and produces a completely different focus of mental activity from the Judaic-Christian tradi- tion. This Buddhist emphasis on self-control is internalized comtempora- neously with ingestion of the mother's milk and dominates the world view and interpersonal relations of all who grow upon in such a culture. However well or poorly an individual may practice this discipline, it is the reference standard for human activity. This emphasis is absent from occidental culture (except to a limited extent in Stoic and Puritan strands, once important but now largely lost, in U.S. culture at least), to its great detriment in the observer's view. Since occidental cultures provide no basic cultural or religious toolkit for mental tranquillity the result (in the present techno- logical context) is the increasingly crazed nature of life. Judaism (hence Christianity and Islam) begins with a supernatural being who created and rules the world, whose ethical commands man must obey. None is a psychology of life (except peripherally in some limited respects); each is rather a code of virtue according to its teachings. On the other hand Buddhism begins as a psychology of mental well-being with an ethical system appended. One can thus say that however good they may be in other respects (e.g. as ethical systems), occidental religious and ethical tradi- tions clearly fail man as paths to inner peace. It is also worth commenting on another aspect to the turbulent nature of occidental cultures arising from Jewish monotheism, all of which are notoriously violent and in which harsh or confrontational interpersonal relations are commonplace or even approved. These cultures and peoples are "fierce" because their deity was fierce and vengeful, as self-described in the Old Testament and imprinted on the characters of people ever since, even non-believers. On the contrary Buddhist cultures are fabled for their "gentleness" because their teacher and ideal human was gentle and compassionate. At the same time there is a qualitative difference in the nature of man's "inner voice" in the two contrasting cultures. Occidentals have a conscience while this exact concept is largely absent in Buddhist cultures. And a conscience, since it _demands_ virtue (rather than _suggests_ it as in the Buddhist Precepts), may be confrontational. So it is reasonable to say that occidental societies more easily achieve virtue at the (present) cost of tranquillity, which Buddhist societies achieve tranquillity at the cost of virtue. This is painfully apparent in Thailand, a prototypical "gentle" Buddhist country, with a high premium on superficial propriety and superfi- cially cordial interpersonal relations. Concomitantly scoundrels dominate politics and the economy, and notoriously corrupt figures are honored in daily social occasions such as wedding receptions and public awards. (No cabinet member has been imprisoned for offenses in office in five decades; one who fraudulently managed a state-owned bank prior to taking office was sentenced to twenty years imprison- ment but _pardoned_ after three years; the observer now sees him shamelessly playing golf at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club with other members of the ruling class.) Is an amalgam possible which would lead to a tranquil yet virtuous society? This is worth studying. To return from our digression, the lack in occidental cultures of a "toolkit" for achieving personal tranquillity may explain the cur- rent occidental craze for meditation techniques: these skills, even these objectives, are not part of the equipment the culture provides. None of this is criticism, just a scientific observation that the character of religious traditions overwhelmingly affects the charac- ter of the people, even the irreligious, in their cultures--which is exactly what is to be expected. If one grows up in such a Jewish, Christian, or Islamic culture, one has no inkling that there is a completely different organizing principle for human behavior. To repeat, a Buddhist tradition teaches skill at rejecting impinging sensations and controlling inner states, a body of knowledge largely absent now from occidental culture. The virtue of this approach is to bring to the foreground the benefit of self-control; it identi- fies personal and social ills with excess, with loss of control, with sensation, with possession. This is contrary to the occidental stress on materialism, hedonism, and satisfying desires, now the occident's dominant contemporary reference standard for behavior. Such behaviors are plainly ob- servable in Buddhist cultures, but the latter have a better balance. Importantly, even when Buddhist ideals are not practiced, they are hypocritically praised. "Hypocrisy is the honor that vice renders to virtue." For many occidentals, there is no longer even a hypo- critical pretense to virtue because there is no longer any distinc- tion between vice and virtue. All actions are equally meritorious and equally deserving of celebration. (For example, contemporary celebrations of unconstrained sexuality and sexual activity as presented in films, commercial advertising, and the junk press like Cosmopolitan magazine.) One could observe as a historical matter that in much of the occid- ent moral constraints on human activity have returned to a pre- Mosaic level; or to put it another way, the human condition has returned to a state of moral entropy where any action is as likely as any other ("if it feels good, do it"). One might ask the interesting question why morality has returned to an entropic state. The observer suggests that a different question would be more fruitful. Entropy is defined as a condition of total disorder, in which every state is equally likely. The real question (which the observer just poses to his readers, hoping for insights from them) is how Moses was able to impose order on moral entropy. The successor question is why some cultures are returning to a state of moral entropy. The observer believes the explanation is not difficult to achieve. (The relevant literature is that of the sociology of the closed corporate community versus external refer- ence groups, the influence of technology in this change from closed to open, and the relativism to which it conduces via changes in communication patterns.) A useful related body of literature is that of criminology and the correlates of deviant behavior. XII. Observer's comments on an important implicit cross-temporal issue ==================================================================== The observer is personally concerned by the increasingly troubled nature of contemporary and prospective society. Inner tranquillity results from cleansing oneself of disturbing internal and external messages, perceptions and sensations. But the trend is to increase all of these through the operation of technology, even though most are vacuous superfluities (cf. the above comments about Telecom 99). (Or just consider the concept of 24-hour news channels, the insistent "beep beep beep" signature on radio stations alerting the listener to a putatively urgent news or advertising item, and the aurally percussive but substantively vacuous nature of much of the music that occupies the airwaves.) All of these diminish tranquillity. A cure is to decide what is significant, allocate sufficient re- sources and channels to that and no more. In short, decide what is superfluous and cut it off. A related matter: the need to resist pressures to conform to the general acceptance of this torrent of incoming messages which others uncritically accept. This will be difficult for youngsters now coming of age. This is another way of saying that life needs balance between: - consumption (of objects and intangibles such as beauty, music, sports performances) - creation (of objects and of intangibles like the above) - integration to consciousness/expulsion from consciousness (relaxation, contemplation, evaluation what to create, consume, reject) Many occidentals lack such a balance. Indeed the contemporary emphasis is on consumption, not balance or integration or creation. The observer is saddened to see so many sitting dumbly and passively in front of televisions showing vacuous time-fillers. If one has the correct preventive measures (as suggested above), one needs fewer restorative measures (e.g. the meditative techniques proposed in the seminar). In contemporary occidental culture, there are few resources for either preventive or restorative mental activities; indeed the utility (or means) of these activities is not widely understood. Instead there is widespread promotion of dangerous activities such as promiscuous intercourse and watching television. Most parents would not tolerate their children physically swimming in polluted water but tolerate their mentally swimming in polluted television and movies. Simplicity is a key goal which contemporary technological trends are obstructing. Again, one must decisively, even aggressively, choose simplicity just as one decisively chooses what perceptions and sensations to block for the sake of inner peace. The contemporary occidental celebration of sexuality in its various forms stimulates desire, when the health-enhancing social task should on the contrary be to its reduction. One way is to reduce the stimulating images by reducing the mental activity and mental images devoted to it. This contemporary celebration of sexuality is clearly linked causally to contemporary physical and social patholo- gies. The Buddhist model of consciousness (the alternative to stimulating sensations) focuses on control, self-sacrifice, endurance and con- centration. This is the worthy core of the meditation session which the observer found. -------------------------------------------------------------------- /end/