The Satisfaction of Living Simply
Posted: Thursday, June 16, 2011
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
Years ago I lived a complicated life. I had a Porsche, a beautiful wife, three kids, a Tudor home in a posh Cleveland suburb - and all the bills and headaches to go with it. And although I was successsful in every aspect of the word, something always seemed to be missing no matter how good it got.
I lived this American dream for eighteen years, and then for reasons unknown even to myself, I walked away. Two years later, I found myself in sweltering 1981 Southeast Asia in the middle of the jungle in a 6’ by 6’ unfurnished hut (just a bare floor) surrounded by snakes, scorpions, and all kinds of mean critters that thought I was lunch.
My wardrobe was simple as well, three robes; an outer robe, an inner robe and an upper robe, and a pair of flip flops.
As far as personal items go, I had a razor, half an old tin can to heat some water over a candle to shave with, a begging bowl to go on alms round and eat out of with my hands (no knife and fork), a needle and thread to repair my robes, and a small sieve to strain insects out of the drinking water.
I also had an umbrella, a shoulder bag, and a water kettle.
I drank my urine for medicine when I came down with a fever, and slept on a ¼’ bamboo mat on the bare floor with a mosquito net tucked under.
And I was happy, the happiest I had ever been in my life.
There is a feeling that is quite indescribable when you are willing to sacrifice not only your possessions and relationships, but your very life, for what you know to be is true. And there is also a satisfaction knowing that there is nothing left to lose. I had lost it all, from a normal perspective, but found everything.
I remember lying in my little hut with my first bad fever; I believe it was typhoid, for day and days. A monk would come in with a bowl of food and some water each morning asking how I was. I'd say "Okay," and I was. For the first time in my life, I could say that I wasn’t worried at all about being sick, or even dying.
At this point, nobody depended on me for anything. I had no responsibilities. I was a practicing Buddhist monk, fed by the Thai villagers as a token of their respect for one who had turned his back on a comfortable life in America to risk his life attaining enlightenment.
My meditation had also advanced to where the fear of both death and pain were no longer relevant. I had gotten to the point, as well, of disenchantment with all the trappings of the world, the temptations, so to speak.
So what was there to be afraid of? I didn’t fear death, I didn’t fear separating from loved ones or separating from my meager possessions, and I didn’t fear the future, for I had seen it and it was not fearful at all. I could peacefully lie in my hut and either get well or die. It didn’t make any difference.
These kinds of experiences, life and death experiences, change a person’s mind. The mind becomes so refined that it actually has the power to change DNA. These kinds of consciousness shifts cannot be related to by normal people in the working world - a completely different existence fraught with stress and fear.
A little meditation now and then, even with the busiest of folks will go a long way in neutralizing fear. The mind won’t react so strongly. It will slow things down a little so that you can see clearer.
Also, when the mind slows down, it finds itself not quite so caught up in things external to itself. As a matter of fact, it finds completeness within itself. There is something in the mind (if the mind has half a chance to develop it), which will connect with something much deeper than what seems obvious to normal people.
This is the connection that begins to change the DNA, changes it from the mover and shaker of our being to simply the hardware of the computer, which is what it is. It is not us. What is really us is just beginning to be discovered.
And that discovery opens the 90% of the brain which we never access, a discovery that begins a process of evolution. Once the mind catches on to this tremendous adventure within itself, the world and all its problems melt away.
How can a mind such as this live by itself in a forest and be completely happy? I can attest that it can. How could it not?
This Article has been viewed 854 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Your story is an amazing one E. Is the feeling you describe simply put, freedom? I can't imagine. Now I'm going to ask either the obvious question, or a stupid one. Your wife and children? Are you still in touch? I can see walking away from things, but how do you walk away from people? Did you ever have moments of regret? As always, I'm fascinated with what you have to say.Thank you so much Brianna. My previous wife and the children are doing very well, much better without me I'm sure! Few people go the way I went and fewer understand. That comes with the territory.
Best.....e
Great article, it was very interesting. I really enjoyed reading this article.Thank you Jessie.
Good Morning anagarika eddie ~~I too am fascinated by your story. I completely understand the freedom that comes with letting go of your 'things'~~It's the letting go of the people in your life that I find more difficult to understand. I see that you have been at this for 33 years? So, it was at a young age that this enlightenment came to you? It would be interesting to me to hear about what caused your decision to leave your family~I pray that the life you've choosen will continue to bless you~
We are the result of our culture, our upbringing, what we were told and exposed to before we were about seven years old. Some people buy into that, without questioning, their entire lifetime. Some don't. It is up to you to see where your lasting security is. Is it in people and things that must change in a material universe, or is it in something else? That is for you to discover if you are the type that questions existence. If not, enjoy the soft velvet chains around your neck that will never allow you to stray too far. I guess you are Christian from the comments, so I will try to relate this way. John 2:25 : He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." KJV
I'm not being flippant when I ask, this experience is not simply a physiological experience of the mind due to the slowed heart rate and less oxygen to the brain or do you believe it is an actual extrication from your total physical being including your mind because after all you are still in the physical realm when your meditation state has concluded? How do you think if at all this is any different from accounts of near death experiences? Did you experience deep states of meditation due to your illness in Asia during episodes of high fever or severe sickness? Is this experience similar to the total surrender of self immediately before entering deep sleep and REM? "Just tryin' to get a feel for homegirl," as Will Smith once said in the movie "Independence Day." PeaceHello Homie! Oh, oh, you opened the door and now I will pontificate! (haha).
The religious view might be that meditation is something quite removed from mere mortal experience. But Buddhists rarely get into those kinds of traps. That’s one of the reasons that Buddhism and science have no conflicts. If science could make a pill that instilled enlightenment, Buddhists would say, “Yeah." Because the world would become something quite amazing.
Meditation and Buddhism are merely tools to refine the mind. If we fall in love with the tools, then we are stuck. If we use the tools to become free of attachments that bog us down, then the tools themselves can be let go of at some point.
Having said this, however, I can say from experience that a near death experience can be life changing, but if that experience is not followed up by taking the mind even deeper, the mind will get stuck at its new level. This is not enlightenment! In other words, without training itself, mind gravitates to its lowest level, which is usually simple desire for experience and pleasure.
My first real meditation experience came at Shasta Abey, a Zen monastery in northern CA. I was sitting for about 20 minutes, completely wide awake and a little bored, concentrating on the in breaths and out breaths at the abdomen, when I was suddenly transported to a desert and in a flash after that, transported to a 1930s city street where I was a woman. I remember then becoming conscious of my surroundings and thinking, “What the hell was that! I ran to find a Roshi and tell her what happened, and she laughed and said that I got two flashes of my past lives, and that this is not unusual at Shasta Abbey. I won’t go in to the details of the flashes but I can tell you that they came from recesses of my mind that were never approached before. This was not a typical dream. I was there. It was real, and I was shocked!
I’m very rational, a German if you know what I mean. I am not easily fooled. This first episode was so strong that I immediately saw all the mechanizations I had gone through (for 38 years at that time) in the world were foolishness. This mind thing was real.
After an experience like that, one can either take it and run, or deepen it. I chose to deepen it and began a life of searching for s deeper truth. In Thailand I was able to attain jhanas to some extent. These are not trances or dream states, these are quite the opposite, wide awake, tremendous awareness is the closest I can come where the mind is totally still and falls into deeper and deeper more refined states of consciousness.
This is really mind altering. When you come out of a jhana, which can last for a half hour in the minor jhanas and seven days in the deeper ones where one does go into a catatonic state of a kind of hibernation while sitting completely upright with no perception or feeling, and usually no heartbeat or breathing. This gets into the realm of a DNA change where the normal life forces are superseded by a greater potentiality of mind which is very powerful. I’m sure science will understand the power of mind someday and explain it all, but for now, these things can be very mysterious, and susceptible to monk worship, instead of doing your own internal work.
All these things mentioned are not enlightenment. These are all preliminary. Enlightenment requires another step above deep concentration. Deep concentration sharpens the sword of mind, but wisdom is what eventually cuts through.
In my experience, jhanas or deep absorption are key. When one comes out of jhana, little training has to be done to acquire wisdom. Everything one looks at or experiences is penetrated. What does penetrate mean? It means that you see through it, that there is no longer any mystery, and therefore you are finished with it, disenchanted with it, you relinquish it.
The signs of enlightenment are ten, according to the Buddha. As one practices meditation, one can look at oneself and see what if any of these signs have come about in your personality. And also you can reflect on whether you are freer, more liberated, or still confused and full of questions. With enlightenment, all questioning ceases merely because the questioner himself ceases. This is where complete freedom lies, where there is only mind, only pure awareness, with no self.
If someone practiced meditation without ever reading a word of what the Buddha said, and later read some of his instructions, one would have to say, “Yes! I experienced that and it is true." His instructions and what you can expect from practice are clear and concise, not hidden and mysterious as in many other traditions.
Anyway, here are the ten “fetters’ that are overcome when one becomes fully enlightened.
1. The belief in self, ego.
2. Questioning and doubt.
3. Belief in religious rituals, religious personalitirs, and religious ceremonies as a means to salvation.
4. Anger, even slight frustration.
5. Sensual cravings for anything.
6. Wanting to continue after death in a physical realm
7. Wanting to continue after death in a formless realm.
8. Conceit – “I know."
9. Restlessness – unsatisfied with life.
10. ignorance of the cause and effect relationships leading to rebirth of the stream of kammic consciousness.
Good questions David. Thank you.
Best…….e
Great tale. I have been awaiting some of the specifics of your life. Very colorful. I did not realize your basic life in Asia would be that arduous. I note that you have made a very large new comment, but alas, I am still lost in SE Asia, seeing you in the middle of your new decision. I am sure you have much to offer all of us. I will continue to be an interested reader and fan. Do you have any opinions about Tai Chi?Thanks Chris,
From what I undetstand, and I am not an expert at all, Tai Chi falls under the realm of martial arts, although in contemporary practice it has become kind of a soft form of yoga practiced for mainly geriatric health. The physical postures of yoga are called asana yoga. According to Patanjali, there are eight limbs of yoga, with asana yoga being the sixth most important. The steps begin with the simplest practice – 1.Yama, (Five ethical guidelines regarding moral behavior towards others): Ahimsa: Nonviolence Satya: Truthfulness Asteya: Nonstealing Brahmacharya: Nonlust Aparigraha: Noncovetesness. Then 2. Niyama: Five ethical guidelines regarding moral behavior towards oneself: Saucha: Cleanliness Santosa: Contentment Tapas: Sustained practice Svadhyaya: Self study Isvara pranidhana: Surrender to God
Then 3. Asana: Practice of yoga postures.And 4. Pranayama:Practice of breathing exercises.5. Pratyahara: Withdrawal of the senses, meaning that the exterior world is not a distraction from the interior world within oneself. 6. Dharana: Concentration, meaning the ability to focus on something uninterrupted by external or internal distractions. 7. Dhyana: Meditation. Building upon Dharana, the concentration is no longer focused on a single thing but is all encompassing. 8. Samadhi: Bliss. Building upon Dhyana, the transcendence of the self through meditation. The merging of the self with the universe. Sometimes translated as enlightenment.
Meditation falls under step 5 through step 8, depending upon the depth of practice.
Yoga is a preliminary to meditation practice – learning to keep the body still. According to Patanjali, a posture is mastered if you can maintain the posture, unmoving, for three hours.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.