Amaravati Origins

The first line of the Pali that I chant at the beginning of my talk -- after the "Namo tassa...." -- means "the gates to the deathless are open." This has been my theme since I came to Amaravati "the deathless realm" thirteen years ago. In the next line, the sotavanta is the one who listens or sees, pays attention, is awake. So I use these lines to remind us that the gates, the doors, the entrance to the deathless, are open for those who listen, who pay attention. This kind of sustained awareness, this listening, is an expansive state of mind, isn't it? It is the conscious experience in the present which embraces the moment rather than discriminates -- as we do when we concentrate on one thing and shut out all the rest.

The meaning of pamuńcatu saddhaľ is "to trust, or "to relax into," this present moment "with faith." It's a simple ability, it's not a complicated, difficult thing to do. It's not like you have to spend years trying to be mindful and trying to "get it", it's not like that, it's a natural state that is relaxed and attentive, open, receptive, in the present. So then when we trust in that, then we begin to recognise the way it is, for example, in the body, the feelings, the mental states, the dhamma. These comprise the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, and they are what's present here and now.

So how do you experience your body? If you conceive it in scientific terms, that's one way of trying to analyse the body. But when we just open and observe the way the body is in the present, that's an intuitive ability where the mind is embracing, or with, the way the body is. It's an intuitive awareness rather than a rational analysis. And so we use the four postures and the breath -- the breath is like "this", sitting, standing, walking, lying down is like "this." It's not criticising or saying how it should be, but whatever way it is -- whether you're walking straight or crooked, sitting erect or hunched over, or whether you're feeling pleasure or pain or whatever -- we're just noticing, beginning to trust in our ability to observe the way it is, like "this."

Then, in that moment, the body is seen for what it is. Our relationship to it has changed, from seeing it as we might when we look at it in a mirror with vanity, or seeing the body in scientific terms, because this intuitive ability of the mind gives us this ability to let the body be a conscious experience in the present.