Gotama Buddhism

Chapter 8: [I AM, NOW, HERE]

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  1. Clay, Water, Fire, Air

    So called Bukkyo scholors tell us that clay, water, fire and air are the four fundamental elements comprising all the things under the sun. According to this, my whole body is composed of those four elements; clay, water, fire and air. If I say it, even a young school boy would laugh at me by saying 'oh, no. Your body is composed of cells, molecules, atoms and elementary particles'.

    My whole body is composed of cells, molecules, atoms and elementary particles. My body arises, ceases and changes in a moment. They arise, cease and change subject to dhamma/dharma.

    So-called Bukkyo (mahayana) monks tell us dhamma/dharma can be altered by praying or reciting Suttas, but it is impossible to alter it.

  2. Birth, Getting Old, Sickness and Death [Birth] One day in the past I was born. I wish I could observe my birth but am unable to do [now here]. I have no memorires on it that I can not tell anything about my birth. While I observe how others were born, I assume I must have been born likewise.

    [Death] I wish also to observe my death but, am unable to do so [now here]. As a matter of course, I have no memories on it either that I can not tell anything on it. I observe how other people died that I presume that I will die likewise.

    I can not observe either my birth nor death [now here]. I have no way of knowing anything about neither my birth nor death that, Ideleted two items, birth and death, from birth, getting old, sickness and death.

    [Getting old] I interprete these words into growth. From the very moment when the first cell of my body appeared in this world untill the moment when my cells stop multiplying, the whole duration of times is called my whole life. During the whole time of my life, I live while arising, ceasing and changing.

    [Sickness] While growing, I fall sick from time to time. When I observe getting old, I just can observe my [sickness] that I do not have to single out sickness, in particular, for observation. I deleted the word [sickness] from birth, getting old, sickness and death.

    Now only left out item to observe is, [getting old]. Getting old should be interpreted as my growing or me myself who live right now. The first step to know anything is to observe the objects closely. Scientific method of knowing is to observe the objects. In order to know myself, I observe me myself.

    I came to be aware of a wonderful thing in this process.

  3. [I am, NOW, HERE] (I live, NOW, HERE) I live now here. I do not live neither in the past nor in future. I live here. I live nowhere else than here.

    I live [now here]. I [keep to live now here] and one day at one particular moment in somewhere I will die.

    A few days later, only by chance I put my five fingertips of both hands together. I did not put palms together.

    I felt strokes of pulses, dokin, dokin at my fingertips of thumbs, the index, the middle, the third and the little fingers. Oh, I live now. Yes, I live now. I was surprised with it.

    First in my life, I realized 'I live, oh, I live now'. Even today the memory of that moment is fresh in my mind. Dokin, dokin, dokin...

  4. I Observe Myself and [I Discovered Me]. I observe me and recognize myself.

    From that day on, I continue to feel the pulses dokin, dokin. While feeling dokin, dokin, I gradually come to be calm and relaxed. While sati (mindful), samadhi automatically arises.

    I call this practice the practice of sati (mindfulness)--samadhi. This is my own original.

     |----------------------------------------------------------------|
     |                                                                |
     |  I LIVE NOW, HERE                                              |
     |                                                                |
     |    I              body            getting old                  |
     |                   sensation               self-observation     |
     |                   perception              dokin. dokin. dokin. |
     |        sati       formation               I live Now, Here     |
     |                   consciosness            Sati(mindfulness)    |
     |                                           I discover me myself |
     |----------------------------------------------------------------|
                                 chart-5
    

    Now let us proceed to the practice of Eightfold Path in order to undertand the Four Truths and to experience greed, anger, foolishness to cease, that is, the ultimate (the heighest) goal of Gotama Buddhism.

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