Wakeful - Softcover

Shibuya, Subhuti

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967983606 ISBN 13: 9780967983608

Publisher: Bodhi's Press, 2000

Synopsis

A practical guide for Buddhist meditation by Venerable Subhuti Shibuya, who draws on his 40 years of monastic practice to share a clear explanation of the path to nirvana.

When asked if Buddha was a man, angel or a god, he replied "I am Buddha." Buddha: ‘one who knows’, the knower, widely understood to mean an Awakened One.

About this title

From the Publisher

This book explains the method of meditation and the way to attain nirvana, which is freedom from any kind of pain. The Buddha's teachings of this are recorded in the Theravada Buddhist Pali Cannon, and the author draws on his familiarity with these teachings as a Buddhist monk for the last 40 years. This book is a working guide which shows the common sense and practical effects of meditation, which the author has experienced and shared with practitioners in all corners of the world.

From the Inside Flap

Author's Summary:

Originally, we do not have any invincible problems, which mentally spoil us, although they may harm our physical body. Our physical bodies cannot exist forever. Not only our physical bodies, but also any constituted matter or object cannot exist an arbitrarily long time. All matter is quite ephemeral and short-lived. Even if a being could survive forever, that duration is not meaningful unless it is valuable for some causes. Still, all beings and matter are sad and upset, angry, disgusted, depressed, anxious, restless, regretful, and finally delusive when they are going to die, are aged, sick, isolated, frustrated, or irritated. They are quite emotional, passionate, violent, depressed, and confused whenever they are missing or losing something which they covet, to which they are attached, to which they are addicted, to which they are used to, on which they are dependent.

Under the worst situations they even kill each other or commit suicide. More or less, this situation of the world reduces all beings and matter to inexpressible tension, fear, grief, pain, and tribulation. However, this situation is not characteristic of only modern times, at all. The same condition had been suppressing all beings and objects since beginningless old times, and has been confusing every individual in present times, and will have been torturing all lives and matter in the endless future.

So to say, this apparently bad situation is nothing particular. Most people, however, do not understand that this is the general and constant situation of their lives and the world. They are not aware of it because of their ignorance. They think this is bad and something good will be available. Thus, they submerge under sorrow perpetually.

Awakened and compassionate Ones try to teach us meditation to realize emancipation from ignorance, and hence tribulation. Meditation, particularly, the Breathing-meditation, is the method to be Awakened to ourselves as anicca (impermanence, transitoriness), dukkha (pain, discord), and anatta (selflessness, no-self-entity). We attain perfect understanding and peacefulness through the practice of the Breathing-meditation.

The Breathing-meditation consists of sixteen stages that are classified into four tetrads. Each of the four tetrads is constituted by perceiving, observing, tranquilizing, and emancipating. The first tetrad deals with focusing ourselves on our body-minds that are the apparatus of breathing and the organism of consciousness. The second tetrad is devoted to transcending feelings, which is composed of pain, comfort, and neutrality. With the third tetrad, we purify, tranquilize, and emancipate ourselves from unwholesome mental conditions such as: greed (lust), anger (aversion), sloth and toper (depression), restlessness (anxiety, remorse, discursiveness), and ignorance (delusion). The fourth tetrad is the final practice of renunciation with which we totally seclude ourselves from ignorant delusion and attachment, and Awakens us to the ultimate wisdom which solves all problems in our lives.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bodhi's Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0967983606
• ISBN 13: 9780967983608
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 121