Minds that won't wander

"Zen 2010: From Suan Mokkh to Plum Village": Fourth in a Series

Things remain the same at Suan Mokkh even in the absence of its founder, Buddhadasa Bhikku, though it's no longer bustling. Suthichai Yoon has returned to "the Garden of Liberation" to practise anapanasati meditation and to reminisce about his last visit, when he came to pay respects to the venerated monk.

 In the courtyard, surrounded by a wall of trees and covered only by the blue sky, Suthichai took delight in meditating under the guidance of a senior monk, Singhthong Khemiyo, who everyone calls Ajarn Singh. He was one of Buddhadasa's assistants.

 The silence was broken by the occasional, gentle thud of santol fruit falling from the trees. It was music to the ear, and served to remind us of life's delicacy.

 Ajarn Singh compared anapanasati to the dharma temple regularly visited by the Buddha until he attained enlightenment. This form of contemplation can calm the mind and body and eliminate all kinds of evil kilesa - greed, anger, malevolence, he said.

 To practise efficiently, he suggested sitting in the "diamond" pose so as not to impede blood circulation. With experience you can sit for hours, through the occasional pain. The eyes can be closed or open.

Suthichai chose to close his, and began focusing on his breathing. Anapanasati means "mindfulness of breathing".

 There are 16 stages divided into four tetrads: kayasankhara is contemplation of the body, vedanasankhara, contemplation of the feelings, cittasankhara, of the mind, and dhammasankhara, of the dharma.

 Just by controlling our breathing we can reach at the last stage. You have to eliminate unpleasant thoughts and be detached from both past and future - thinking only about the present, in what Thich Nhat Hanh calls "the miracle of being awake".

 Suthichai told Ajarn Singh that the Vietnamese Zen master also teaches anapanasati but in simplified form to help Westerners understand it. Thich Nhat Hanh is part of Buddhism's Mahayana and Buddhadasa was part of Theravada, but both recognised the power of mindfulness. 

 Ajarn Singh told us that, when he was a young monk under Buddhadasa's guidance, he struggled with his religious studies because he was illiterate. Buddhadasa nevertheless gave him copies of his books, including "The Miracle of Being Awake", which touched on the virtues of mindfulness.

 "When I became literate I started reading other people's books to him, and I did that until he died, on May 24, 1993."

That day Buddhadasa awoke at 4am complaining of intense abdominal pain.

 "He gave me the keys to Suan Mokkh, saying he didn't want to die still holding onto them.

 "Then, even though he was dying, he kept on writing, seemingly unconcerned about the pain. 

 "He was quite well prepared for the moment when his body would return to nature. He told me that never in his life had he spent time grappling with worldly matters, only studying things beyond this world."

Ajarn Singh said Buddhadasa - well aware of the transience of life - was occupied at that moment only with the death of his avijja, his ignorance, as a precursor of his physical death. 

 "So, when he did die, he had nothing to worry about, because that was, after all, only a matter of physical condition."

In my view, this is indeed a miracle of mindfulness.

 And this noble concept permeates the air at Plum, Thich Nhat Hanh's retreat in France. On sale there are copies of his famous book series, also titled "The Miracle of Being Awake".

 Suthichai's co-host in the documentary series, the popular monk Phramaha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi, known to his readers as V Vajiramedhi, said he has every volume.

 The books discuss anapanasati as practised in Theravada Buddhism, which Nhat Hanh had learned at Tu Hieu, a Zen temple in Vietnam.

 At the same time, the master was writing many poems calling for war to cease in Vietnam, another outcropping of his contemplation focusing on mindfulness and the present.

 "The present". "The now". These are phrases that come up continuously in the documentary. In Plum, Suthichai and Vudhijaya stepped into an old barn where there was a clock inscribed with the word "now".

 "Your life is in the present only," Nhat Hanh told us, a belief in line with the Buddha's Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra, well known in Zen.

 Just as the sutra encourages detachment from past and future, our documentary aims to remind viewers to be mindful of the present by controlling their breathing.

 Our pursuit of sati - mindfulness - led us to the Suan Mokkh bookstore, run by the Dhammadhan Foundation. Suthichai noted the sign on the wall - "Check the price on the book and pay accordingly" - and decided this was "one of the world's best bookshops".

 You pay by dropping your money in a donation box at the exit. The books are cheap anyway, as little as Bt10.

 But there's a huge selection of books on anapanasati that Buddhadasa translated directly from the Tripataka while staying at the otherwise deserted Wat Trapangjik in Surat Thani, before he founded Suan Mokkh.

 Wat Trapangjik was his original abode when he returned to his home province dispirited and disillusioned by Bangkok's monastic practice, rife with scandal and misconduct. He was personally aghast at the sight of a woman sewing monks' robes.

 Buddhadasa's efforts at Trapangjik produced a wealth of thought on anapanasati, a topic that Suthichai has studied for decades. To this day he makes it part of his daily reading and applies it to his work and personal life.

 The discipline it entails, he told Nation Group staff during a recent meeting, is crucial in news jobs. 

 "Discipline can be derived from practising meditation," he said, "and meditation depends on mindfulness, which can be derived through breathing practice.

 "Before I go to bed I meditate for 10 to 15 minutes at least, and it lets me sleep more deeply."

 Part 5 of the newspaper series appears next Monday, and the TV series "Zen 2010: From Suan Mokkh to Plum Village" continues every Wednesday at 11pm on ModerNine.