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ANNUAL MEETING: Dhamma Giri, India January 11, 1997

Questioner: We are able to observe the sensations on the body with some equanimity. But how do we observe thoughts and emotions with equanimity?

Goenkaji: It is not necessary to observe the thoughts. Only accept the fact that now there is some chattering going on in the mind; that is good enough. Any thought or emotion that arises in the mind can’t arise without a sensation on the body. When you are working with the sensations you are working at the root level of your mind. You are purifying your mind at the root level. So be with the sensation, and just accept the fact that some chattering or emotion is going on, that is all. Don’t go into the details of the thoughts or emotions. §

While meditating sometimes it appears as if I have no body, and my body is moving around in the air. What should I do?

You have breath all right, you are still breathing! That shows the body is there, so work with the breath. Keep the mind calm with the breath; let it become more attentive, more subtle, and it will start feeling the body. §

You expound the teachings of the Buddha but don’t call them Buddhist. Why don’t you disseminate the Buddhist Dhamma?

Well, Buddha never taught Buddhist Dhamma. He taught only Dhamma. Who am I to teach Buddhist Dhamma? I am just a son of Buddha and I got this as an inheritance from Buddha. So I must teach exactly as Buddha taught. If we call it Buddhist Dhamma then it will remain limited to a certain community only. But Dhamma is unlimited, it is for all. The Buddhist Dhamma will be for the Buddhists, Hindu Dhamma will be for the Hindus, and Jain Dhamma will be for the Jains. It makes it limited, whereas Dhamma is unlimited. So it is better to teach Dhamma, which anybody can practise and get the same results, same benefit. §

What is the difference between nibbāna, parinibbāna, and mahāparinibbāna?

In this country unfortunately the word nibbāna, which is nirvāna in the language here, is very wrongly understood. Thousands of years have passed away, and people have lost the technique by which you can experience this nibbānic stage within this life. So here the meaning has been taken as death.

I remember a case just a few months after I came from Burma, where a student came and paid respect to me. I said, "May you get nibbāna soon." And he was shocked, "I have come here to get from you a blessing of long life, and you are cursing me that I should die soon!"

Poor person, he didn’t know the meaning of the word nirvāna. Within this life while practising you experience something beyond mind and matter; that is nibbāna. Parinibbāna is used for when an arahant dies. After that there is no more birth for this person. And mahā-parinibbāna is for a mahāpuruśa like Buddha. When he dies there is no more birth; that is mahāparinirvāna. §

Is there any special benefit gained by meditating on the full moon night and new moon night, and on the eighth day of the lunar cycle?

There is always special benefit. Whenever you meditate, you get special benefit from it. But you have to meditate. All these rules were made so that at least once a week people would find time for meditation. That is why this advice was given. §

Do garlic and onions affect our meditation?

Well, decide for yourself. If you see it is harming your meditation through your own experience, leave it. I know with my own experience, that it is not very good, so I don’t like to take it. In the Indian centres we don’t allow it for students, but if you feel it is all right for you, there is no restriction. §

What is Buddha-dhātu? Recently the government of India gave a gift to the government of Thailand of some Buddha-dhātu. What is that? What is the difference between Buddha-dhātu, Dhamma-dhātu and Sangha-dhātu?

Whatever relics were left after the Buddha’s passing away and cremation have their own vibrations. So in countries where Buddha Dhamma is being practised people would like to pay respect, and also to meditate with that vibration. This government has some of these relics, so they take them to those countries and people pay respect, and some might meditate. That is Buddha-dhātu.

Dhamma-dhātu is Dhamma vibration. Dhātu means vibration—attano sabhāvam dhāretī’ti dhammā. Every vibration has its own nature. So, there is a Dhamma vibration because of the Dhamma nature. When you meditate you are experiencing that Dhamma-dhātu.

Sangha-dhātu—there is no such thing as Sangha-dhātu. But sangha means saintly people. So saintly people—the kind of sensations or vibrations they are generating— you may call that Sangha-dhātu. §

At my home if the morning chanting tape is played, is it necessary to meditate?

When you are listening to these chantings and at the same time you are aware of what is happening within you, it will have a better effect. But when you are meditating it is not essential that you play a chanting tape. §

Is it proper for Dhamma servers to take a little refreshment before serving the students?

Well, if you are very hungry and feel it will be too long a time before your breakfast, take it, we don’t object. But otherwise, it is always good if you first serve the guests who have come, and then take your food. §

What is the difference between sectarian beliefs and Dhamma beliefs?

Beliefs are always sectarian. Dhamma has no belief. In Dhamma you experience, and then you believe. There is no blind belief in Dhamma. You must experience and then only believe whatever you have experienced. §

My mind still remains immersed in lust, as a result of which the continuity of practice is not maintained. Kindly suggest a way out.

Fight out your battle. Lust is something which keeps on following you from life to life. It is a very deep sankhāra. Whenever lust arises in the mind, don’t get involved in the object of the lust. Just accept the fact: lust as lust. "At this moment my mind is full of lust." Accept this, and see what sensation you have. At that moment whatever sensation you are feeling predominantly anywhere in the body, start observing it— understanding anicca, anicca, this is not permanent, this is not permanent. This lust that has come is also not permanent, let me see how long it lasts. If you do this, the lust becomes weaker and weaker and passes away. §

Lack of will-power and laziness are obstructing my meditation. Could you kindly give me some advice.

Develop will-power, strong will-power. If you are so weak that you keep on breaking your decision to meditate every day in the morning and evening, then decide that you won’t take your breakfast without having sat for one hour. How many days will you miss your breakfast? You will start practising daily. And so far as laziness or drowsiness is concerned, just examine yourself. If the laziness is because of lack of sleep, then sleep for some time. Get refreshed. But if you find this laziness is because of your mental impurity which has become a barrier for you, then fight it out. Have hard breathing for some time, sprinkle some cold water on the eyes, stand up, walk. Somehow or the other, get rid of it. §

Does a being take rebirth immediately, or after some time?

It is immediate, there is no gap.

Does the birth start in the womb or after the child is born?

As conception happens, at that moment. §

Should I only observe the sensations and let Dhamma do the rest? Or should I also make a conscious effort by thought or by other ways to understand anicca?

Not only by thought, but by experience. You are observing sensations and you are experiencing, "Well look, it is anicca." Then it works. If you are just experiencing sensation and you don’t understand, "This is impermanent," how will you develop equanimity, how will you develop paññā? §

We have heard that a large pagoda is being built near Mumbai. What is the purpose of this pagoda? How is it related to our meditation?

The pagoda is a pagoda, and it will be for meditation. You see, unfortunately during the last 2,000 years people in this country have lost, I will say really totally lost, the truth about Buddha and the truth about Buddha’s teaching. Not only lost, but distorted it in a way that misleads people. Unfortunately there have been some episodes of the Buddha’s life shown on TV here, which have created more confusion.

Then how can we give people the correct information?

So an idea came to have a huge monument—and there are people to help to get it done—with a gallery where Buddha, his life and his teaching will be shown. People will come out of curiosity to find out what this monument is, and they will get all this information.

Moreover, it will be used for meditation. Fortunately we have been able to procure some genuine relics of Buddha. The Mahabodhi Society has agreed that they will give some part of the relics that they have. And some have been sent by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to be kept there. So all serious students can sit in that pagoda and meditate. And I know with my personal experience: The vibration of Buddha relics is so strong that the whole atmosphere will get charged with that. Moreover, it will be a huge area—about 350 feet in diameter, a circular hall under a 350-foot-high pagoda. About 10,000 people will be able to sit there. Quite possibly a time may come when people would like to have Anapana taught—even for a few minutes. All right, we might give mass Anapana.

Let me explain a little more about this pagoda project. This is not only for a pagoda. Now we have so much difficulty here at Dhamma Giri. Applications come in such large numbers and people have to wait sometimes for months to get their turn. I feel very sorry because of that, but we are helpless. If we allow more than 500 people here—if we construct more buildings—the centre will become so difficult to manage. But there is so much demand. What can be done? So along with this pagoda there will be a huge area—negotiations are going on now—of about 100 acres or more. Besides the pagoda, behind it, there will be a centre.

Here at Dhamma Giri we have simultaneous courses—30-day courses, 45-day courses, along with simultaneous 10-day courses. I know very well that students who are taking such long, deep courses are disturbed when the ten-day students come—vibration-wise it is not very helpful. So I feel it is necessary that we must have a centre where only long courses are given. Two courses should not be given simultaneously. Either here or there will be only long courses, or at a centre between Mumbai and Igatpuri—say about one or one and a half hours away from Mumbai and about one and a half hours from Igatpuri. At times maybe one centre will have only long courses, and the other will have regular courses. At times the other centre will have long courses, and this centre will have shorter ones. We will distribute the work like that. That is another reason.

A third reason cropped up: Your Teacher is getting old, white-haired. So he has sympathy for people who are getting old. Many elderly people want to spend the rest of their life in a Dhamma atmosphere. So we are going to have a Dhamma village. Between the pagoda and this centre there will be a Dhamma village where people will own their own residences. And in that atmosphere of Dhamma there will be residences for people who are comfortably off—they can have some small mini-farmhouses, some bungalows, two bedrooms, one drawing room, a kitchen, etc.

There will also be accommodation for people who cannot afford that much but want to live there. There will be all sorts of facilities for people. They can come and stay there for one or two months, or stay for the whole life; there is no objection. There will also be an old age home where no money is involved. The whole atmosphere in this old age home will be suffused with Dhamma. In the Vipassana village and old age home only Vipassana meditators will stay, nobody else. The whole atmosphere must be a Vipassana atmosphere. In the old age home where no money is involved, you get your food, your residence and all facilities for meditation. There will be a Dhamma hall, perhaps a pagoda will be constructed, and you can meditate very easily.

Another important thing that is going to develop there is an institute on a big scale. Here at Dhamma Giri people come to learn Pāli. We know what difficulty they have to face. Even for their residence they have to keep moving from one room to the other. We don’t have sufficient residences for the Pāli scholars. And when they are living here for a long time, people expect them to be doing Dhamma service. Sometimes the management think they are just learning Pāli for one or two hours a day so they should be doing other things as well. It can put a big burden on them. So there will be an institute where they can work and study Pāli, Sanskrit, Hindi, whatever they like, and the words of Buddha in detail; and they will get good accommodation, their own residences. The whole atmosphere will be such that meditators can work better and be their own masters. So the plan is also for this purpose. This is a dream of your Teacher. I hope it will be fulfilled. §

A sammāsambuddha is a being that rediscovers the technique of Vipassana. Does it mean that no meditator can ever be a sammā-sambuddha?

Why not? A meditator can be a sammāsam-buddha but it takes time, it is not easy. When we say that a sammāsambuddha rediscovers the technique, that means somebody becomes a sammāsambuddha only at a time when the technique is totally lost. Otherwise he is not a sammāsambuddha. He has to rediscover something which is totally lost. So he takes his last birth at a time when the technique of Vipassana is totally lost in the world and he rediscovers it. §

According to the prophecy of the monk Mogaliputta Tissa, a bodhisattva was going to set in motion the Dhamma wheel once again from Jambudīpa 2,500 years after the mahāparinibbāna of Gotama the Buddha. What was the year and who was that bodhisattva?

Who was that bodhisattva? The truth is that now the dhammacakka has started, Dhamma has started. That is all. Why worry about who started it? Then you may start paying respect to this person, and praying and expecting something from him. §

Can Vipassana be called the practical teaching of J. Krishnamurti?

Vipassana is the practical teaching of Buddha. J. Krishnamurti also might take some help from Buddha, but it is Buddha’s technique. §

Is mettā some sort of energy? Is it limitless? Does the amount of mettā increase and decrease over time?

Well, every individual generates mettā. So it increases and decreases according to the capacity of the individual. If the individual becomes purer and purer, the mettā becomes stronger and stronger. If the mind of the meditator is very weak or full of impurity, then the mettā is very weak. It is generated by the meditator. §

An enlightened being remembers his or her past lives. Does that mean that the mind actually follows the flow of sa�khāras from life to life?

Certainly. It is the mind which flows from life to life carrying all these sankhāras. When one reaches the stage where one gets such purity, one develops the power to remember situations from past lives—the truth of past lives. One can certainly reach that stage. §

Is there any difference between mana and citta?

No. It is just a difference in nomenclature. Mind—mana, citta, and viññāna—all three have the same meaning. §

Why are the seat covers of ATs white and those of students blue? [Laughter] [Laughs] There is a difference between ATs and the students, so the seats must also be different. §

I work for five months of the year in a job which I like very much. The rest of the year I can serve at a centre, which I also like very much to do. But I feel irresponsible because I am not saving for the future. Do you think it is good to spend a lot of time in centres?

Well if you feel irresponsible then better be responsible. Why do you feel irresponsible? If you feel that you must save something for your future, then instead of working for five or six months, work a month more and get that money for your future, and the rest of the time serve. §

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