Remembering Khun Yay Chandra Through Her Teachings of Meditation And Our Struggle To Keep Up With Her
Author: Witcoin Miner
Keywords: #excellence, #KhunYay, #meditation, #SammaArahang, #mind, #practice, #lockdown
Length: 1340 words
Date: 15th September 2020
Khun Yay Chandra the founder of Dhammakaya temple in Thailand is one of the most fascinating and admired figures of our time. She lives an extraordinary life as a simple Buddhist nun, devoted her whole life practicing meditation and being a meditation teacher at the same time. Her adeptness in meditation was second to none. With teachings and intimate glimpses into her life and impact from those who know her best, we offer this article to celebrate and pay tribute to her example as a peerless top-notch Dhammakaya meditator as well as her accomplishments,
Many Dhammakaya devotees said that people having the chance to meet a foremost meditation teacher like Khun Yay Chandra, would definitely tell themselves that they were the most fortunate person in the world. The reason is because from the day of meeting her onward, their future will happen just like having taken a new rebirth on the path of Dhamma. Their life from that moment will become worthy. They will know what purpose of being born a human being is, so is the aim of their life.
Most importantly, they will then be inspired to invest their effort and time to train themselves under her guidance which can lead them to reach the aim. After all they will realize that the utmost purpose of life is to reach the stage of ultimate Dhamma because all these are what she wanted her disciples to embrace in mind. Those joining the community in the time of Khun Yay Chandra, earned themselves the chance to listen to the teachings and received the admonitions directly from her. She always emphasized the importance of meditation and reminded everyone to meditate regularly.
As she knew consistency is the key of success in meditation practice and it is also the hardest thing to do; she then from time to time found ways to hearten her students in various circumstances as once she said practicing mediation was simply like that of pommeling on the earth surface with one’s fist which was fail-safe. It wasn’t suited to be preoccupied with the misconceived notions of not enabling to keep abreast of the advance in meditation to others. It was in fact that every time of sitting to meditate and repeating in silence the mantra ‘Samma-Arahang’, the meditator had already earned merit from the effort.
Likewise, pummeling the face of the earth, it could be sure of the fail-proof. Being in the path of Dhamma, be not remiss but should rather be steadily diligent in meditation. No matter what others said negatively about you, do not be bothered with their dissatisfaction; just do things that please the Buddha alone. Keep on the pursuit of the goal with enthusiasm, with the picture of success in mind; then achievement must be sure.
Clearly, Khun Yay Chandra did not want her disciples to throw in the towel just because there are criticism or slow in progress in the practice or their daily routine got upended.
But, despite all those reminders and reassurance of success have been echoed in our mind, and we all know meditation practice is good and it is probably the best thing we have ever done in our life and ever could do, but to be honest, it is really hard to do it consistently. Even if numbers of meditation retreats have been taken to strengthen our will power, yes, it works for a while in the post-retreat, gradually another day has gone by without sitting. Whenever we do not meditate regularly, we start having good excuses. It makes us wonder if we should even bother. In fact, we should bother.
The reasons it is so hard to sit regularly vary from person to person; these are some examples: because it is not necessarily yet a habit. Habits come easily, people just do them. New habits take work. It is hard because it is a revolutionary act to sit. It is hard because sometimes meditation can feel excruciatingly boring. Lives are far more entertaining than knowing if the center of our abdomen is bright or dark. Sometimes the thought of meditating makes some people gag. Especially when they are having a difficult time in life. Yet paradoxically, it is the best time to meditate. It is when they need it the most.
For some, the biggest obstacle to establish a meditation practice is the erroneous idea that meditation needs a calm and focused mind. In fact, all they need are three things: one, a restless body, two, a wandering mind, and three, out-of-control emotions. With these three, everyone is well qualified.
Let’s take Khun Yay Chandra as an inspiration. Her life was extraordinary simple but could be an extraordinary meditation teacher which is literally telling that meditation practice is not for a select few privileged ones. It is for anyone who is inspired to engage in a journey of self-exploration. Her example also demonstrates that there is no need of special credentials to become a good Dhamma practitioner.
Meditation takes practice and through practice, meditation can be mastered. Because what we practice will grow. If we want to cultivate a calm, centered mind, we need to practice it. If we want to cultivate a busy, anxious mind, practice busy-anxiousness., simple as that. Keep in mind, to have a liberated mind just takes work and reminders.
Yet, it is always easier said than done. Sincerely, keeping up with regular practice remains a struggle for many of us especially for followers new to meditation practice. The recommendation for new practitioners is finding convictions inspired by teachings and community to support and help motivate and energize the effort to begin to practice.
Find Buddhist teachings that encourage the thought of truth to see that the world around us speeds up and history’s trajectory becomes more drastic, these uncertainties should give us wisdom to feel the need to meditate in order to promote well-being and foster a sustainable attitude in the day to day basis. Gradually, we will find that meditation practice can provide the powerful attitudinal boost we need and eventually it makes us naturally want to engage in the practice consistently.
Moreover, the current #COVID-19 pandemic presents us with time to look inward, and upward, in new spiritual ways and with the use of the #lockdown to engage in meditation practice, many practitioners will go beyond struggle to find enjoyment and ease in their practice and sitting for meditation will organically develop to become habitual and habit will last longer than the #lockdown.
Khun Yay Chandra always said she wanted us to keep up with her in every life time to come and that is why she dearly wanted us to meditate, preferably on a daily basis in order to cultivate the wholesome states of mind that come through meditation: calm, concentration, wisdom, equanimity, and joy, potentially attain inner Dhammakaya bodies.
With whatever diplomatic initiative we take to make us literally get down into earnest practice, it gives us the chance to make advance in the meditation practice, potentially attaining Dhammakaya body inside; as Khun Yay Chandra’s assurance that every sitting earns the practitioner accrued merit and the increasing amount of purity; at the same time it earns us the right to claim that we have followed her footstep in practicing meditation and made ourselves fit to be nurtured and led by her.
As we know Khun Yay Chandra loved meditation; with meditation, she is held as the peerless top-notch, the exceptional skillful, the Dhammakaya raiser par excellence and she wanted us have good experience in meditation and master our life on the Dhamma Path until reaching the state of utmost Dhamma in the distant future. Our achievement in meditation is for what she really wish. Ultimately, it depends on us, if we want to meditate there is virtually no excuse not to. Only be gentle and realistic.
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