References

1 - LES ORIGINES DU BOUDDHISME AU CAMBODGE

2 - Le Buddhisme au Cambodige

3 - LE BOUDDHISME ET LA SCIENCE

4 - La religion et le Cambodge

Buddhism - Healing 2/2

Dyn said:

I think a good healing process should consist of two parts: calmness (as you explained) and inspiration(motivation). For positive people, calmness alone may be enough to heal because after he/she become calm (accept the fact), he will move on, whereas negative people may need both parts.

I observe that Buddhism has strength in spiritual support for calmness such as explanation about life& cycle (i.e Anichang, Tukhang, etc), and acceptance (Karma?) (as explained by Lok Pou and Bang Sophal). Yet, I personally think that most the Cambodian people needs not only this part of the healing but also the inspirational part to be confident, to move on, and to challenge for the future. (Indeed Cambodia needs more good politicians who should win popularity by "inspiring" rather than " just criticizing")

I do not know much about Christianity, but I had a few chances to listen to some reverend/minister's prophetic speeches (equivalent to Monks's Tesna, I think). I feel inspirational and motivated to move on, to challenge for what I believe and for the future I want. It is from this observation that I am trying to delve into whether our Buddhism has strength in this inspiration part or not.

I believe that our Buddhism conceptually have it, but our monks and followers may focus too much on the "calmness" part. Indeed when I listen to well-educated Monk's Tesna, I feel calm. When I read Dalai Lama's work, I learn alot about happiness, calmness, etc.... On the other hand, when I hear speeches of Christian minister (for extreme example, Marthin Luther King), I feel inspired and motivated.

Buddhism - Three Dimensions Chan Comment 3/3

Thank you for stimulating the debate. I will try to share my limited knowledge with you. (One never knows what is out there; it is just like one never knows what knowledge is out there waiting for just a re-discovery. Our ancestor has a saying: “The little one knows the most stupid one is; and the more one learns the more one knows, but his knowledge is nothing”). I should warn you that what I am going to share with you could be perhaps just imagination or illusion. I am learning by sharing. So, please beware. Baung, please dispute if you think anything is wrong or baseless. Here come my views:
I agree with you that no-one has a complete knowldge, except Buddha who attained sambhothinhean. In the current day, there are also people who had enlightended, but they could reach only bhothinhean and not sambhothinehean.

Difference between moha and meayea (មោហ: និង មាយា)
Moha is the belief in baseless reality, i.e. the truth of illusion. I should have quoted in full in previous email. I now quoted it again with related terms highlighted: “… but the mind believes what they know is true (illusion).”
Meayea is a fraud or deceptive appearance, which is similar to meayeakar (មាយាការ: illusion). This is in fact just like a trick to make someone believe (without even facts, not to mention the very truth in Buddha’s sense). You may recall the stories told of what Buddha saw in various meditations. He saw countless illusions or deceptive appearance incl. his experiences at the royal palace, etc. If he took these as the truth then he was drawn by or into moha. Meayea is just anything – it can be act, it can be performance, it can be message – that lures someone into believing into something which is most often not “true”.
This is very clear in your distinction of the two words. To summarize: moha is our own illusion and meayea is tricks to create illusion for others or others create illusion for us.

Nipean and Pari-nipean (និព្វាន និងបរិនិព្វាន)
This was perhaps elaborated by Leang and others; but I do not have a chance to look at theirs. I just wish to share with you blindly my personal perspective.
Nirvana in Buddhism is to cancel all the greed or bad thing or desire/craving (តណ្ហា). This is rom Pali. Ni (និ or និរ) means eliminate, take away, …, in trade in mean move from one place to another. Peana or Veana (វាន) means bad acts, greed, desire, wrongdoing … One reach nipeana or achieve sukkha if one can eliminate these with pure mind (i.e. even no second memory of them).

Pari-nipeana is to achieve complete nirvana. Pari (បរិ) means full, complete, …, super, … As such only Buddha could achieve parinirvana.
You come to the root of the words that make me understand much better. In Leang's article, he stated that nipean is a state that can be reached in the current life (partial, occasional) while par-nipean is only after the death (fully, complete). This equals to your words 'nipean in yourself' as we can reach it in our current life through VM.

Tantric Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, … or different sects of Buddhism
I believe these are just sects created by Buddhist followers. I do not really believe that Buddha created all these different branches or sects. However, my assumption is based on reading in history or stories of Buddha. This assumption may be true if all the reading I have is true. At one point Buddha foresaw that there would be misinterpretation of his teaching, …, and even prior to his parinirvana, the Sangha started to have different sects. Obviously, Devadatta wanted to be head of the Sangha and wanted Buddha to appoint him. Buddha never wanted that and Devadatta started to have his own Sanga, etcetera and etcetera.
To me the different sects … have been created by the so-called Buddhists who want to exploit the innocents.

Leang's menioned that Tantric Buddhism is practiced in Tibet, Nepal, etc. I agree with you the Buddha tried to prevent the division of religion and the misinterpretation of his teaching. But he failed, particularly after his pari-nipean. This is the characristic of religion (spirituality + mind). The mind spoils the spirituality, exploits the spirituality, and links spirituality with personal interest. For this reason, some people begin to call themselves as spiritual but not religious when the dislike the impurity of religion.

Pheavanea (ភាវនា)
Of course, pheavanea could take to mean “perfection”. However, the right meaning could be, I guess, development, prosperity, …, growth toward perfection. Based on these pheavanea-dharma (e.g. sila pheavanea, rupa pheavanea, ceta pheavanea … (សីលភាវនា រូបភាវនា ចិត្តភាវនា) = social development, physical development, spiritual development) one takes Buddha’s teaching as the world/universal development theory.

You made a precise explanation here. I could unsderstand it better than the simple word of 'perfection' as Leang told me. In the past, I wrongly understood 'pheavanea' as 'repeating some words'. With this mistake, I confuse myself what does pheavanea maya panha mean. Now, I know it clearer though 'maya' still unclear to me. The same problem with 'vedanea', I wrongly understood it as difficulty, hardship. Untill I took VM class, then I know it is the 'sensation'. The VM group I share with CAMPRO focuses on 'sensation' as the first faculty to develop. At the basic level they teach us to develop the awareness of 'body sensation' as to interpret/decode the language of the inner mind (sub-conscious level) which tells us about its changing situations: sukha, dukha, and a-sukha/a-dukha (neutral). At the higher level that I didn't attend yet, they will focus on the awareness of more subtle level.

Borom-sokh (បរមសុខ)
Khmer or Cambodian language is well influenced by Pali and Sanskrit. I think like those in the foregoing paragraphs, this word is not free from such influence, and it means great happiness. (បរម means great, maximum, super, …).

Chanroeun told me borom-sokh as bliss when we exchanged view about "pleasure and joy". Chanroeun has strong academic background in philosophy which I am lacking. We could not agree on the meaning of 'pleasure' when I read it from a spiritual book which defines pleasure as personal fullfillment at the expense of others. With this background, I told him that his word 'sabay' in Khmer doesn't reflect rightly the meaning of 'pleasure', but he couldn't find any better word than that.

Spirituality (chetoniyum, ចេតោនិយម)
I agree this is the word in Khmer. But one could also use another word for this, which could be better and has wider meaning (I think). This word is mo’noniyum (មនោនិយម)

My concern with Khmer percetion is that chetoniyum or m'noniyum could be interepreted as baseless belief. Anyway, I keep the two words in mind. Perhaps we need an extended explanation to emphasize the importance of spirituality.

My other confusion in English is why the word 'spirit' is so close to 'spirituality' in writing while the two are so different. In which, 'spirit' in Khmer could mean various things such as pro-leung, preay, beisach, khmoch, aruk, arak, etc. And these confuse me further. I don't know what are the disctinction between those Khmer words. It sounds like Khmer has more spirits than English does.

Neam-rub (នាមរូប)
I agree with you on this one. It is derived from two words neama’ and rupa’ = name and body/form. With simple interpretation, based on this, it could take to mean individual person or element.
My confusion here is that why 'neam' could be equal to 'mind', it should simply 'name' and name means nothing in this context. Now, I just accept it without question although I am not clear yet. Then I move to the practice to develop the awareness of the interaction bwteen mind and body as the essence.

Discussion about Buddhism in terms of philosophy, religion, and spirituality was made, I think. I remember reading long time ago a book written by Cambodian author/s in the 1970s (I do not quite remember the name of the authors). The name of the book could be: Buddhism and Science (I think). Baung, you may want to do some internet search on these – my guess is that there could be Buddhists who write something similar or familiar.
Many thanks for giving this clue. The author could be Khieu Chum. I will keep this in mind. In the internet, the title 'Buddhism and Science' appears a lot, but only authoried by foreigners.

Buddhism - Healing 1/2

Life is up and down. And when one is down, trapped in grief, sorrow, and hopelessness, he/she finds it hard to move on at least at that moment. So he/she usually needs spiritual support and guidance ti get up back to normal life. In our society, some people would go to pagoda. Monk would then do some chanting in Pali, which is not understood by common peoople, and give "Sroch Tek".

So my question is: Does our Buddishm give any spiritual motivation/guidance when people are really down?

1 - I don't know if you call it Buddhism or not (which dimension?), since monks are the army of Buddha. Anyway, YES, like Sophal, I do see selective monks provide effective healing. I am also client of selective monks for sroach-teuk, sot-mon when I need healing. While Sophal's caution is worth considering, we should acknowledge that together with other healing providers such as fortune teller, Krou here and there, massage therapy, ... achars' and monks' healing constitutes the integral part of the Cambodian healing system. The advanced countries have more diverse healing support such as modern medication, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, traditional medication, and spiritual support for healing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, etc. There are also some advocate groups who help people dealing with specific difficult situation in life.

2 - I know that Buddhism helps people develop awareness about anicha and acceptance of the situation when life is up and down. Since, anicha is a Dhamma, a natural law, a universal truth, everything evolves in accordance to this law and we have to accept it. Please note that denial, non-acceptance, resistance creates more sufferings. When you are aware of the situation and accept it, you remove at least half of your suffering. For example, when applying the medical injection, the child who cries, agitates and needs his parent to hold him firmly must be more painful than the one who accepts the injection without reaction. The first one has two pains, body and emotion, while the second one has only the pain in his body. Please also note that true awareness of anicha must be developed in your inner mind, sub-conscious level through the practice of mediation and not at your superficial level (intellectual knowledge).

3 - I understand that high level meditators do have the healing power generated from his/her metta, compassion, loving kindness. Sometimes, the loss, the grief, the suffering is overwhelming until people become unbearable despite their level of awareness. Then, they need to go to seek the support from the highly developed meditator. A simple in-person meeting, discussion, advice, or pray provides a faster relief.

4 - I don't know if Buddha had made any miracle in changing life of people like Jesus Christ who had made the blind to be able to see, the amputees to be able to walk. In one extreme, in the most depressed situation of losses, hopeless like Badacha, Buddha brought her to the awareness with his kind words of metta. Then, Badacha had to practice meditation and developed her knowledge of Dhamma with senior Buddhist fellows. She relieved from depression and became a highly developed Buddhist followers because of her efforts, awareness, and acceptance of the situation. In the other extreme, in the most emotional anger and revenge like Angulimea, Buddha brought him to the awareness with his words of metta, then Angulimea learnt Dhamma, practiced mediation, and became a well respected monk.

5 - I don't know if Buddhism has any scripts about healing, remedy like Ayurveda in Hinduism.

Buddhism - Three Dimensions - Chan Comment 2/3

Thank you very much for your comment. This is the true input to me. It is worth million times more than praise that people often compliment the contributor of any services.

First, your explanation about moha helps reconcile the gap of my knowledge between Khmer and English sources. This is a new insight similar to my struggle to understand 'neam-rub' (I'll share this with you below). You make very concise distinction between moha, reality and truth. As a result, I realize the difference between tathapheap and sachapheap that I was confused. If you have more times, kindly help with the difference between moha and meayea as the latter can also refer to illusion.

This is the real benefit of being CAMPRO member. I also learn from Leang, the difference between nipean and pari-nipean. He also explain to me about phevanea and Tantric Buddhism. Particularly, his explanation of pheavanea (perfection) helps me understand better about pheavanea maya panha. I can related it to 'perfect intelligence' or 'wisdom'. I also learnt from Chanroeun about "borom-sok" that equals to bliss in English. I am still finding the good Khmer word for 'spirituality' as 'cheto-niyum' does not sound great enough to spirituality itself. Appreciate if you can suggest a word for it.

Back to 'neam-rub', when I learnt from the Khmer source, I know 'neam' will not means 'name' but unclear what is its real meaning. When learnt from the English source about 'mid-matter', I don't understand what does 'matter' mean. Until I put them together, then I know it is 'mind and body'. This should be simple for many people but not me unfortunately.

Second, your feedback on my recent discussion is valuable as it guides me with steps going forward before I can share my view with the general public. This includes (i) explain the meaning of the word in Pali or Sanskrit; (ii) be more specific about each dimension (philosophical, religious, spiritual) by demystify/decode them briefly, (iv) re-write and put the ideas in order, (v) provide example, and (vi) provide sources and references.
As mentioned at the beginning of my discussion, this is the first time that I try to breakdown Buddhism in three different dimensions. I don't know yet if I could find any references that support this idea. I am interested in that breakdown as so far there are too much confusion if people put everything in Buddhism without knowing the different dimensions of it. With the suggested breakdown, a friend of mine who is an advanced VM practitioner and well-developed in spirituality does not agree with me on separating religion from spirituality. In his response, he hides his disagreement in a very polite way as the following:

"..., I see that there are two kinds of religion : expression religion, and experience religion. In Cambodia the practice of Buddhism is in the form of expression (We fight other who do not have the same views, we continue to fight each other, to separate from each other, we are only staying on the level of mind of brain , of memory ) . The real religion is the experience one, through which as you say, it leads the practitioner to the liberation from suffering of life, to the peace, to the well being, to the joy and happiness of everyone and the family and the nation as a whole. Vipassana Meditation is the manifestation of the real religion." (MAO Chan Samnom)

Chanthy, it is very difficult for me to find help and support when I am searching for rooms for improvement. I find you as a true and sincere partner - please keep sharing. Again thank you.

Buddhism - Three Dimensions - Chan Comment 1/3

True (illusion) or illusion is “moha”, I think. Most people usually take event or thing as a truth without fact – this is an illusion, which is one of the root causes of craving/desire (tan’ha). Sometimes illusion could be treated as “reality” (ta’tha (or) ta’tha’pheap), which is most often realized via a play, a performance, a movie or the like that reflects on what happened, explains situation or event, etc. It is just like a “make-truth”. Reality has a sense of “truth”, but not permanent like the “truth” itself. Civil war for Cambodia was the reality, but is not the truth – reality lacks a sense of permanence if compared with “truth”. Tum Teav reflects the reality of Cambodian tradition in their days, but perhaps may neither be now. Reality is changing, but truth is not as “physical being, suffering and death”.
I am sorry for the length of this one. Please now let me jump to your questions:

Q1: Should we share with the public?
I entirely agree that you should.

Q2: Are the points complicated?
It is difficult for one to try to make thing simple, esp. when it comes to philosophical, spiritual, and religious concepts and practices like those in Buddhism. I think I do not find what you posted complicated. In fact there are terms that you need to explain, because they are Sanskrit or Pali.
In certain aspects, you are not specific enough, I think. You should have some details, but concise, for many aspects that you proposed (e.g. philosophical, spiritual, religious) – you should demystify/decode them briefly.

Q3: Are the points repetitive?
I do not think that they are, except the fact that the different pieces you responded to members. When you pull them together in one-go text, they would be obvious and you could remove them easily.

Q4: Are there any missing points?
I can say yes right away given the fact that Buddhism is a universal/colossal knowledge warehouse. But what you posted truly provided the basic or foundation with emphasis on “meditation / special meditation”. You gave the building blocks.

Once the text goes to the public you will also see missing points as well as when readers come back to you with questions – these would not be the missing points on your part, but in their knowledge as the public has different levels of knowledge in Buddhism. (If you want to make as an education tool, you may offer some examples of real-life issues such as nature, environment, practices, …, in related spheres, i.e. religious, philosophical, and spiritual).

Q5: Are there any contentious points?
If one takes the text “objectively”, I can say that there is any contentious point. The controversial points are that most Cambodian Buddhists do not actually practice true Buddhism – they follow Theravada Buddhism, mix Hinduism-Buddhism, mix Animism-Buddhism, … In this instance, they would not accept that what they are practicing are not Buddhism.
One of the key missing aspects is sources/references that you should have. I think this is important, since Buddhism is not something that we have just theorized. With references/sources, readers could also go for further exploration, learning, …, and you could also defend yourself.

Vipassana Meditation - Links

If you are in Cambodia, please go to this link: http://www.latthika.dhamma.org/, you can find the course schedule by following the link in the website.

For those who are outside of Cambodia, please click on link: http://www.dhamma.org/ and follow to the region and country where you are.

The basic course is 10-days that you can master the technique and bring it to your own practice. It is free of charges for food, accommodation, and course, as it financed by the donation of old students and served by old students. Once you become old student, you can also contribute and serve - strictly not before that. More questions about the VM technique, please click on http://www.dhamma.org/en/qanda.shtml

Please note that this course is open for everyone regardless their sex, age, belief, nationality, religion. There is no rituals, no chanting. The course provides you only to experience with the Buddha technique. This is why it spreads all over the world very quickly. The Westerners, non-buddhists are faster than Buddhists like us to grasp this experience.

This group is very well establsihed supported by Vipassan Research Institue and Vipassana International Acdemy as you can find in here: http://www.vridhamma.org/Dhamma-Giri.aspx. The schedule, the content of the course, and other rules and regulations are prescribed by the above institutions. All centers around the world apply the same rules.

Thank Leang for clarifying about Trantric Buddhism. I stilI remember pari-nirvana and nirvanna, and pheavanea that you share with me.

Finally, please enjoy the VOA video about a course organized by a Cambodian Dentist at her home in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Please open this link http://www.voanews.com/khmer-english/video-audio/, than click on "Finding Clarity and Inner Stillness Through Meditation"