Among
all the paths, there is no doubt that the path to ultimate enlightenment is the
most difficult one to walk. After A Handful of Leaves, my spiritual
experience has still been progressing steadily which allows me to see and
understand more things that I could not see and understand before. As a result,
it means that I should be able to guide people to walk this difficult path with
much clearer signposts than I did before in A Handful of Leaves.
I
have also been thinking of my former students who can no longer come back to my
class. For a lot of them, I know that the vipassana practice they had learnt
from me would disappear into thin air because the majority of my students are
living in non-Buddhist countries and especially in communities where they
cannot have easy access to Buddhist temples or wise people who can share with
them this crucial knowledge. Then, my Tai Chi class and myself would be reduced
to some passing experience they had encountered during their student years.
Despite that fact, I also know that even though they find it hard to bring the
vipassana practice back to their lives, the concept about life and its purpose
that I had drummed into their heads while they were with me, will still echo in
their heads for a much longer time. This is the result of my planting an
enlightened seedling into their hearts.
While
this young seedling badly wants to be nurtured so that it can grow and get
stronger, the essential factor that can sustain the life of this young seedling
is having a teacher to guide them along, which comes to an end when they have
to leave my class. Unless they can find another wise person or a teacher to get
them back onto the right track, they will be facing some serious confusion and
even turmoil in their lives. I have letters from my former students who admit
to me that they have had terrible turmoil and even breakdowns, and they still
think of the good old days in my class. This is indeed the most confusing and
frustrating stage for them.
It
is especially the case for the ones who have real potential in walking along
the dhamma path. That is because what they have learnt from me and the reality
of the world today are more or less the two extremes. In having the chance to
taste the inner peace from vipassana practice while they were in my class, it
is like having a chance to take a mental and spiritual bath which enables them
to take away all the dirt and rubbish from their minds. Although they come to
my class just once a week, they still have had a taste of real cleanliness or
peace of mind. Then they go off to live in the real world without the
connection of my nagging them to be aware of themselves anymore. Having to live
in the real world where competition, gain and loss are the essence of society
inevitably puts enormous pressure and stress onto those who try to denounce
such false values. While they are not strong enough, they have to give in to a
lot of things that they want to condemn. Then, they end up feeling guilty and
the problem spirals downwards. It is like coming back to roll in a pool of dirt
and mud again after having had a clean bath. This is the main reason that most
vipassana beginners have to suffer terribly for quite a lengthy period of time
which is the experience that I have known rather well.
Having
thought all these things through, I have tried to think of a way of how I can
still keep on nurturing this young seedling of enlightenment in these young
people’s hearts until they are strong enough to fend for themselves, inwardly
of course. This has led me to write The User Guide to Life which is
indeed a very challenging title. On the one hand, some people may find this
title a bit offensive in the sense that the author is over confident. How can
anyone possibly write a user guide to life? On the other hand, such a title may give confidence to
readers in the sense that the author must know what she is talking about. If
one cannot swim, how can one dare to teach others to swim? Whatever reaction one
has, it is only fair to read through this book first before any judgement is
made.
As
for me, it is indeed the latter reason which makes me give such a challenging
title to this book. How can I possibly guide people to walk along this most
difficult path on earth if they don’t have confidence in me in the first place.
You must have confidence in your guide first before you can follow him or her
to anywhere. If you don’t have confidence in your guide, you will be reluctant
to follow. This is very simple logic. I have said in this book that I do not
care about numbers anymore. If this book can help just one person on this
planet to reach enlightenment even though that potential person comes along
fifty or a few hundred years after I die, it is still well worth my effort.
Therefore, in trying to win your confidence in me as your guide, you can
anticipate strong and forceful words in this book.
Some
Buddhist scholars who heavily study the Pali canon and can quote the dhamma
word by word may not agree with the way I present and explain the dhamma topics
in this book, especially the chapters about the law of kamma. I would like to
make it clear that I am no Buddhist scholar and have no such ability to write a
scholastic Buddhist text anyway. My writing happened in between the busy life
of being a wife, a mother and a teacher, I simply have no time for serious
reading and research. My approach is based purely on my experience and a lot of
my mentioning of the dhamma was plucked from my memory of what I had read
previously. Besides, having difficulties in trying to understand the scholastic
Buddhist texts myself in the past, I have no intention to unnecessarily
confused readers by adding more crust into Buddhism. My aim is quite the
opposite. I am trying to make this most difficult idealism of life become easy,
approachable and accessible to ordinary people especially the non-Buddhists so
that they can understand life as a whole and not necessarily Buddhism. My
Chinese spiritual teacher, Tang Mor Sieng, told a very good story of which I
would like to follow such an example. It was a story about a Buddhist poet.
Every poem he wrote, he would take it to a market place and ask either a market
vendor or any housewife to read his poem. If these people nodded their heads as
a gesture of understanding, he would keep that poem. If they shook their heads
and said they did not understand, he would rip the paper apart and throw that
poem away. To me, this story says that the essence of Buddhism is indeed about
ordinariness and simplicity. If ordinary people regardless of what beliefs they
have cannot understand the Buddhist words one presents, it is just not good
enough. This story also corresponds to the scientific precept, which says if
all things are equal, the simplest explanation is the right one. This also gave me the idea of giving
the honour to one of my students, Juliet a housewife and a mother of two
children, to write the foreword for this book. I think it makes a nice change
from listening to the intellectual point of view.
The
User Guide to Life is basically a much
more detailed life map compared to A Handful of Leaves. This can give
people the step by step guidelines of how to walk this spiritual path
successfully. I also tell quite a lot of stories because I think it is quite an
effective way to get the message across and it can also reduce the boredom. I
have also been thinking of people who may want to attend my class but do not
have the chance to do so. Therefore, my writing is trying to create the
atmosphere as if the readers were sitting or standing right in front of me in
my Tai Chi class. My written English is still not very good, so I tend to write
exactly how I speak anyway. By using this style of writing and approach, I hope
that I can really make people who have never attended my class before have the
feeling like taking part in my Tai Chi class.
The
User Guide to Life will be made up of
two main parts. The first part is about all the requirements I need to have
from you before you can actually walk the path itself. Although the Noble Eightfold
Path is meant to be for all sentient beings, it doesn’t mean that everyone can
easily step into it. Not everyone is that lucky, unfortunately. To make the
actual walking the path a bit easier for you, you need to be qualified to some
degree. Without all these requirements, it won’t be easy at all. Therefore, the
first part of this book will give you some very clear idea of what you must and
can do right now which are all the basic concepts of life in general. There is
nothing too religious about it either. You can do it regardless of your sexual,
racial, religious and social status. For example, I talk about how to keep up with
the basic moral precepts, how to be simple, giving, coping with the fear of
death and so on. You can actually do this part by adopting the right thoughts
and right ideas or simply viewing the world from another angle which you have
never done before. You can do all these requirements without having to know the
vipassana practice yet which is the second part of this book. Once you can
agree with all these requirements and are willing to have them in your life,
you have actually taken the first few steps along this difficult path. The rest
of the journey will become easier once you have a good start. I think it is
quite a challenge for you if you are able to achieve all these requirements.
The
second part of this book will be about the vipassana practice or the four
foundations of awareness which I have not yet written about in detail. However,
this part will be about the step by step practice which includes all the
details that I have been working on with my students in class. This is the part
where I am hoping to make it feel like all readers are sitting right in front
of me in my class and I am guiding you along.
I
have no idea when the second part of this book will be done and completed
because I would like to share this first part with my fellow Thai people first.
As I said before, Thai culture has made me become what I am now. It’s time for
me to show my gratitude and give something back to them. So, I will have to
spend some time translating this book into Thai before I can start writing the
second part. However, the content of the first part of this book is long enough
to make one book by itself. Whilst the enthusiastic and potential vipassana
practitioners are waiting for the second part of The User Guide to Life
to be born, I can only advise you to read A Handful of Leaves in which I
have talked about the four foundations of awareness. Besides, if you can also
get hold of any vipassana courses, you can always give it a go first.
Obviously, there is no problem for those who live in Buddhist countries.
However, Buddhism and its practice have been quite flourishing in the past two
decades in Western society, especially in England, some countries in Europe and
America. There are many temples where meditation courses and retreats are
available to people of all faiths. I am sure that if you are very ready to walk
this enlightening path, somehow you will find your way to find yourself a
vipassana teacher to teach you. I wish you the best of luck.
I
have also gathered some of my personal mail and answers into the last chapter
of this book. Answering letters at great length has been part of my way of life
since my student years especially after I knew the dhamma. When I formed a
‘Life Group’ at the university of which I was the president, one of our
activities was to answer letters to those who had problems by guiding them into
the dhamma path. After the initial advertisement in the national newspapers, we
were inundated with hundreds of letters from troubled people all over Thailand
who needed help in all sorts of ways. At the age of 22, I found myself sitting
for hours on end answering those letters on my portable typewriter which I
carried with me between home and university. I answered most letters at great
length and sent them dhamma books to guide them onto the right path.
Ever
since I started teaching Tai Chi at the university of Birmingham some 12 years
ago, my writing letters has shifted to my students mainly. Now, with the access
to the Internet and the use of email, it has become much easier for me to keep
in touch with some of my former students and keep this practice alive for them.
It happened very unintentionally. One day, I received an email from one of my
former students who had returned to Thailand, telling me that my idea was
brilliant because reading my emails made him feel like he was still around in
my class. In fact, I did not have any brilliant idea as such but he certainly
put the idea into my head. I asked myself, why not? Why don’t I make the most
out of this god-sent technology? As a result, for the past six months since I
have had access to the Internet, answering my students’ emails and using it as
a means to encourage, push and cajole them into the dhamma path has been part
of my daily work.
I
decided to put some of them in this book because I think it is important and
has a direct link with the essence of this book. Having a chance to read the
personal mail where daily routine and inner thoughts are revealed to people
closely linked to the author may enable readers to know their guide a bit
better. This includes the correspondence I had with my 14 year old son, Colin
who spent the whole of his summer holiday in Thailand this year. My personal
life cannot be too far different and remote from how I put myself forward to
the public. Reading the first level of language such as letters may also create
the sense of closeness and inspire readers to make up their minds whether or
not they want to walk on this dhamma path.
I truly hope that this book will be able to help you to understand life and its ultimate purpose and that all the requirements in here are not too difficult for you to admit and follow. Please do your best and I look forward to talking to you again in the second part of this book.
Supawan
P.Panawong Green
Birmingham
UK.
7
September 2000