The World as One

"The World as One"

Georgia Meditation Center Class August 15th

We generally try to start the class with some sort-of inspiration before our guided meditation, either an inspirational quote, a teaching, a parody. On August 15th I tried a little something different. I guide our meditation class about once a month. It was my turn, we had about 15 people in class that day and I was trying to set the tone. I showed Video 1 right before we meditated, I felt that this video could help create spaciousness and happiness from the mind. Imagine how awesome it would be to watch scenes of Video 1 on IMAX and to feel engulf and a part of the world, as if you and the world/universe are one. In a lot ways that is exactly what we are trying to achieve when we meditate.

Our meditation session lasted for about 40 minutes. It is always such a powerful experience to meditate in a group, having others around helps to encourage the time you devote to meditation, otherwise it is very easy to spoil yourself and stop when you feel like it. There is nothing better than creating merit (pure energy) with others!

When we were done I showed another video (Video 2)...again along with the theme of the day which is "The World as One" this video actually shows you the bigger picture of life. I truly try to help people think bigger! Think farther! Think different! Realize that you don't have all the answers and there is probably a lot of things that we JUST don't know, it goes beyond what we think we know. So be OPEN to the possibilities to go beyond the frontier, kind-of like Star Trek.  I hope that this is what the class was able to take away after seeing Video 2 that we are all in this game-of-life together we truly are one, there is no ego when you see the vastness of our universe, there must be something more something beyond what makes sense to us so lets try to meditate and connect to the Universe and find the Stargate within us! Our Venerable NaLong, when he is guiding likes to remind us that we have a Stargate within us and for us to meditate and we will see.

The last video we watched was the icing on the cake! Why because it was the connection between Buddhism and what the definition of the World Means. Excellent material indeed, this is the stuff that truly is a meal for the mind. I haven't had a chance to load the video online yet, but I plan to, basically Venerable Nicholas, a top Venerable at our Dhammakaya Foundation, who is very knowledgeable on Buddhist concepts, and is a great dhamma teacher. He explained the world in 3 levels the environment level, the lifestyle level, and the level of the mind. When we talk about world, one meaning of the word is the environment around us this, level of world is anything outside of our skin outward, location is an example this is the world on the most distant level, within this sometimes we come across pollution or destructive weather it is a blight of level of environment. This is the world on the largest level the natural environment and problems such as pollution. One step further in is the world of our own lifestyle, on this level our connection with the world is also like a world of our own. It's an individual world, as a result of managing our own world if we do our duties properly than more than likely we'll be rewarded properly, however if we do not do our duties it can be hard for us to get by.So blights in your indivividual life. So if you are immoral than you might go to jail. Another meaning of word world it is the level of the mental qualities this is the world which is private world of our own other people do not know about it, but within us we will probably know it very well. Most people who do not meditate do not know much about this level of individual world at all, because they have never seen their own minds and they do not yet understand the concept of good or bad quality of mind. Some people, for example who are cheerful all the time no matter what, they have a very good outlook of the world and are optimist. Even if they do not meditate but they have a certain level of quality of mind that it is hard to push them down, this is rather the thing that comes with meditation practice as well. As you meditate more, it is easier for your mind to not let defilments interfere with their mind. People who have dellusion it may cause them to treat the world in a way that is bad for other people, which in turn is bad for themselves. What we call the world is interplay of three diff levels of reality. In Buddhism we say what goes on in our mind, the qualities of the mind, the defilments of our mind is an imporatnt factor. More importnat than the rubbision the enviromment we make a connection it goes deeper to the root cause which lies within the mind. In Buddhist we say who threw the rubbish in the first place then to treat environment with such disrespect. Shows quality of your mind, how quality of life can deterorite and if life detoriates then enviornment detorieats. Then we see how we behave is such an important factor, not just chainging ourself but everything in the world. We believe that we can change the world by chaning the root cuase which is within ourselves. This creats a vibration which will spread to other people. Why are we here, why we give time to mental practice it is not just on small individual level it has ramifications that extend further than that. 

You see what Buddhism is about it isn't all about worshipping or believing in the Buddha, but more about making connection about life in a certain way. It isn't something that belongs to people but is relevant even now, and if you can learn from these things even if you don't call yourself a Buddhist. Not the idea of putting a lable on youre