BHIKKU BODHI

Born Jeffrey Block in Brooklyn, New York in 1944, Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk.

In 1966, while still Jeffrey Block, he obtained a B.A. degree in philosophy from Brooklyn College, and then, in 1972, a Ph.D. degree in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School.

In 1967, while in graduate school, he was ordained as a novice monk in the Vietnamese Mahayana order. In 1972, after graduation, he traveled to Sri Lanka where, under Ven. Ananda Maitreya, he received novice ordination, and, in 1973, he received full ordination in a Theravada order.  He was now Bhikku Bodhi.

In 1984, succeeding co-founder Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, he was appointed English-language editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS, Sri Lanka) and, in 1988, became its president.  In 2002, he retired from the society's editorship while still remaining its president.

In 2000, at the United Nations' first official Vesak celebration, he gave the keynote address.  He currently teaches at Bodhi Monastery in Lafayette, New Jersey, and at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York, and is the chairman of the Yin Shun Foundation.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is founder of the organization "Buddhist Global Relief," which is fighting hunger across the world. 

Bhikku Bodhi has authored many publications and teaches several on-line courses.  He recorded a well-regarded ten-part lecture series entitled Introduction to Buddhism that has become public domain and can be downloaded for free on the Internet.

SWAMIJI AND MAHARAJ

Vivekananda and Brahmananda, or "Swamiji" and "Maharaj," as they were known more familiarly, were the natural leaders of the Ramakrishna Order of Vedanta, the organization that formed soon after the death of Ramakrishna.  Both were at this time twenty-three years old and had been friends since early boyhood.

Vivekananda, handsome and athletic, embodied physical and intellectual energy.  He was impulsive, ardent, skeptical, and impatient of all hypocrisy, conservatism, or sloth.  Vedanta had not come to him easily.  Questioning Ramakrishna at every step, he accepted nothing on trust, without the test of personal experience. 

Vivekananda was well-read in western philosophy and science, and was inspired by the doctrines of Keshab Sen, a westernized Bengali reformer who lived between 1834 and 1884.  Vivekananda brought to his religious life that most valuable quality:  intellectual doubt.  If he had never visited Ramakrishna at the temples at Dakshineswar, he might well have become one of India's foremost national leaders.

Brahmananda was a more mysterious figure, whom few knew intimately, and those few confessed to how little they knew of him.  Still, he was a very great mystic and saint, whose wisdom and love seemed superhuman.

Indeed, Brahmananda's brother disciples did not hesitate comparing him to Ramakrishna himself.  "Whatever Maharaj tells you," one of them said, "comes directly from God."  In 1902, Brahmananda was elected head of the Ramakrishna Order, a position he held until his death in 1922.  An excellent biographical essay entitled "The Eternal Companion" was written by his disciple Swami Prabhavananda.

WHAT WE ARE NOT

We are not our bodies.  As long as we identify with our bodies, we can never be content.  How can we be?  Our bodies are in a constant state of change, not one thing.  

Western religions believe that we are our bodies, hence the reason for burial.  We need our bodies for our resurrection.  This, of course, is absurd, for when we die our bodies turn to dust.  A lot of good dust will do us in the afterlife.

Our bodies, if anything, are a possession.  "I have a body," we say.  We are aware of our bodies, as when we feel well and when we feel poorly.

A saying these days is, we are not a physical person having a spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a material experience.  

In Vedanta temples, we are taught every day, "You are NOT your body, you are Spirit," a message that works its way into our consciousness until, in time and in some way, we know it to be true.  This is where our spiritual life really begins.

After we have heard this message enough and have absorbed it, then we must make it a living reality.  We do this by consistently inquiring of ourselves, "Am I this body?  What is this 'I AM' that wants to know?"  

We normally are fully aware OF our bodies, our senses, and our minds, but then must turn this awareness around to that which IS awareness.  A person has to be Aware of Awareness itself, in other words. This is what Ramana Maharshi referred to as abiding in the Self, pure consciousness. 

Our time here is limited.  Not one moment of it can we buy back.  Why should we waste the few years we have here believing that we are our bodies, and trying to satisfy our bodies’ senses?  Even the most common animal can do that for himself.  Better that we do that which only humans can do.  Be aware, be spiritual.

ALL YOU EVER HAVE

All you ever have is Now, one breath, one heartbeat at a time.

There is not past. “Bring out the past and show it to me,” the Buddha said.  All there is, is memory.

There is no future. “Bring out the future and show it to me,” the Buddha said.  All there is, is anticipation, planning, expectation.

The present moment is all there is.  Remembering the past and planning for the future are done now, in the present.

“All we have is now,” Marcus Aurelius put it.

In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes, "Realize deeply that the present moment is all that you ever have.  Make the Now the primary focus of your life." 

Alan Watts said, “There’s no place to be but here and now. There’s no way to be anywhere else.” Watts added, “Interestingly, time is moving, yet there is only now.”

NATURE OF FOREVER

Immortality, according to Vedanta, is not a continuity of existence in time, since it is beyond time, space, and causation, but is a superconscious state that occurs when the individual soul, the Atman, awakens into its source, the Godhead, Brahman.

Nothing of the egoic, empirical self, of the "earth suit" as Aja Thomas, a Vedic priest, calls it, enters eternity.  We don't have to worry about "What will I do with all that time?" or "Will I see my aunt Tilly?" or even "Will I know God there?"  No "I" survives to face such matters.

It is the Atman that carries over, and the Atman is not an individual but consciousness, a consciousness that has no personality.  It is awareness only.  Watching, witnessing, is all the Atman does. 

At the same time, it is spirit, which is infinite bliss, joy, and peace, qualities which after all draw us to it, which make us want to meditate upon it and to help it realize its destiny, which is immortality.

ALL OF US ARE MISFITS

There are people who start out doing one thing in life only to find that it is something else that is really their calling.  Until they yield to this other calling, they feel like, and are, misfits.

We all have an inner voice beckoning us.  Due to the commotion in our lives, however, all the people, things, and events pulling at us from every direction, we can't or won't hear it.

Eventually, though, we have a revelation.  It may come while we are watching the sun descend in an autumn sky or while pondering the sea splashing on a rocky shore, or even while just standing on a street corner. 

We see that what we have been doing with our lives is false, that we have missed the real mark.  The true purpose of human life is spiritual awakening.  Everything other than spiritual awakening is unsatisfying to us ultimately.  We have been listening to the wrong voice.

ALONENESS

"Ah, alone at last," you might say, or "Oh, no, I'm all alone," or you might even say, "Leave me alone."  But alas, you are never alone, not truly.  You can be alone relatively, but not finally.  As  Swami Prabhavananda stated many times, "there is never one moment in your life when God is not with you."  In the same way, Jesus said, "the kingdom of God is within you," always. 

There are Christian monastics who choose to be alone, even if only somewhat so, and they are called anchorites.  An anchorite is one who lives alone, usually in a cell, for purposes of spiritual discipline, silence, and prayer.  He is a type of religious hermit.  Thomas Merton, the well-known Trappist monk, lived alone as a hermit in a tiny cottage a half-mile from his monastery, the Abbey of Gethsemani.

But what about Buddhists?  They do not believe in a God and therefore would not believe that any such thing is with them at all times, or at any time for that matter.  When they are alone therefore, they most certainly feel by themselves.

But aloneness is the whole point for Buddhists, who consider it more the fact of existence.

WHAT SHALL WE DO?

Aspirant:   I am discouraged about my spiritual life.  I don't seem to be making any progress.  What shall I do?

Swami Prabhavananda:   Keep up the struggle!  You see, there is no such thing as progress in a straight line. In spiritual life, too, there are ups and downs.  But there is no failure as long as you make an effort.

Swami Brahmananda, my master, used to give the following illustration.  The calf tries to get up on its feet within a very short time of its birth, but it falls down.  For fifteen minutes, half an hour, or one hour the calf tries to get up, but it keeps falling down.  Still it doesn't relinquish the struggle.  Later, it not only stands but begins to run.

It is the same in spiritual life.  You make a resolution that you will do so much meditation.  Then laziness gets hold of you, "Oh, I'll skip it for today."  Or restlessness and passion distract you, and all your good intentions are forgotten for the time being.  But if you have fallen, get up again.  Struggle!  Promise yourself, "I will try to do better."  You will fail many times, but don't give up.  That is how we grow.

SAHAJA YOGA

As Swami Prabhavananda explains, "Sahaja yoga means 'easy yoga,' the easy way to union with God.  It is the way of constant recollectedness.  While you are sitting, or lying down, or walking, or working, think of the presence of God.  Let a current toward God flow in your heart at all times.  You don't have to close your eyes or ears to do this.  Remember him always, while you are busy and while you are idle and you will see him."

REMEMBER TO REMEMBER

"Recollection" is a term in religious literature for meditation and concentration on God and prayer. 

The purpose of recollection is so a person does not lose touch with God, and is why spiritual disciplines, "sadhana" in Vedanta, are so important. 

Recollection can be as basic as momentarily turning one's attention to God throughout the day, simply thinking about God, or can be as elaborate as formal prayer and meditation. 

The importance of recollection cannot be overstated.  To not recall God on a regular basis is to allow the mind to lapse into avidya-maya, the illusory trance of everyday life, where a person is led farther and farther away from the realization of God.

Twenty minutes of meditation in the morning and twenty minutes in the afternoon, or even one thirty-minute session of meditation per day, as one's time permits, will suffice.  More is better, obviously.  But it must be consistent. 

God must never be far from mind, otherwise the mind will drop into avidya-maya as surely as an iron ball drops down a set of stairs, and the farther down the stairs it drops, the harder it is to retrieve.