Global Pagoda and the University of Dhamma

" This truth of aniccā (impermanence) can be realized directly only by the experience of bodily sensations. With this realization comes the understanding that one has no control over the changes constantly occurring in the body - aniccā. Therefore any attachment to what is changing beyond one's control is bound to bring nothing but suffering - dukkha. Knowing these facts now by personal experience, the meditator develops the wisdom of equanimity. By observing sensations he has reached the ultimate truth about body, and as a result his attachment to the body is shattered. He emerges from the folly of identifying with the body and develops real detachment, real enlightenment."
- Sayagyi U S.N.Goenka in 'Sensation, the Key to Satipatthāna'

The Global Pagoda exists as a towering University of Dhamma, to inform about and facilitate the practical learning of Vipassana - the universal path to gaining independence from bondages of all suffering.

A painting depicting an event in Gotama the Buddha's life, to be displayed in the Information Gallery of the Global Pagoda, Mumbai, India. Created by some distinguished artists in India and Burma, these intricate paintings accurately depict some important events in the Buddha's life. They would comprise the single largest thematic collection of paintings in the world.

Information and Vipassana meditation facilities made available through the Global Pagoda serve to remove one of the biggest misunderstandings of our times: equating the universal, scientific, practical teachings of the Buddha with any organized, ritualistic religion.

There is no record of the Buddha ever using the word 'Buddhism'. He taught Dhamma, the laws of nature applicable to us every moment in our life, to free ourselves from all suffering and to experience real happiness from moment to moment.

In the truest and highest scientific tradition, these truths can be directly experienced - gradually from the grossest truth to subtler truths leading to the subtlest truth - by anyone correctly and ardently practicing Vipassana. The practice involves objectively observing the arising and passing of bodily sensations within. The entire story of our life, and all its secrets, are in these impermanent physical sensations within.

One can call this process by any name. If not Vipassana, call it 'Tutti Fruity Ice-cream' or 'Strawberry Fields', the name won't make any difference. The truth of nature remains the truth. The most fundamental process of nature does not get altered with any name alterations. That objectively observing the impermanent bodily sensations is the pathway to experiencing the subtlest laws of nature - and leading to happiness and liberation from all misery - is a truth as simple as 2 + 3 = 5. One cannot argue that, "No, no, this sounds very dogmatic and narrow-minded. How can we say that 2 + 3 equals only 5, and not 7, 131 or any other of the infinite number of numbers?"

Similarly, one cannot argue with the truth that objectively observing the arising, passing of sensations (Vipassana)  is the only process of nature to purify the mind at the deepest level, where conditioning of habit patterns takes place.

With Vipassana practice, one experiences how the bio-chemistry of mind and matter works within, the various electro-magnetic forces that arise, interact and pass away every moment, within the physical-mental structure that we call 'I'. One can only objectively observe, understand, benefit. Vipassana enables gaining the experiential wisdom to understand the universe within us.

Ignorance, and forgetfulness, of this inner reality leads us to making mistakes that harm us and others in our lives. Vipassana cures this most deadly disease called ignorance - ignorance of the changing reality within.

The word 'Vipassana' in Pali language means insight 'to see things as they are in reality', in their tre nature, instead of apparent reality. This practice helps us develop the faculty to be aware and equanimous to the truth of what is happening within us 24 / 7. We learn to calmly face the truth, instead of diverting our mind from it.

As Principal Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U S.N. Goenka explains:

" Whatever truth is outside can be found within as well; whatever is within also exists outside. We may accept truth out of devotion or intellectual conviction, but in order to undestand it directly we must explore within, to experience truth within ourselves. By thus coming face to face with truth, we can develop experiential wisdom that will make a real change in our lives.

The meditator starts investigation from a superficial level at which gross, solidified truths appear. But as one observes the apparent truth objectively, one starts penetrating from gross to subtler truths and finally witnesses ultimate truth. This ultimate truth can be experienced only only by exploring reality within oneself.

The exploration of the truth within is Vipassana meditation. In the course of this exploration the meditator must investigate two fields, two aspects of reality: matter and mind. Investigation of the physical reality is called in Pāli kāyānupassanā. Investigation of the mental reality is called cittānupassanā. In fact, however, matter and mind cannot be experienced separately from each other because they are interdependent, interconnected.

Exploring one is bound to involve an exploration of the other. Neither can be fully understood without the other."

The inspiring way Vipassana unites all humanity can be found in in every Dhamma centre and in every Vipassana course location worldwide. People and leaders from all religions, language, nationalities, social strata come together, in the same Dhamma hall and meditation cells in a pagoda, to practice the quintessence of the practical teaching of a super-scientist, Gotama the Buddha. He taught Dhamma, the laws of nature that exist whether a Buddha exists or not.

That the objective observation of bodily sensations - call this practice by any name, Vipassana or Bugs Bunny Bonus - is the heart of all religions, the actual practice of leading a wholesome life, as taught by all religions. This is  why many religious leaders from all faiths have taken Vipassana courses - including thousands of Christian priests and nuns, Islamic religious leaders including senior Ayatollahs in Iran, Hindu religious leaders, and venerable monks and nuns.

When we experience the reality as it is, our actions and decisions are based on truth, not delusions. So our life becomes happier, not torn apart with tension, stress, conflict, fear, insecurity - and every other variation of suffering that are all born out of a central disease: a big ego.

Any 'University of Life' has to teach this science of mind and matter, the technology of destroying our own ego, and thereby defeating all inner negative forces that lead to suffering.

The Global Pagoda, through its various facilities such as the world's largest meditation hall and a vast information gallery, is such a Dhamma university of happiness - and of sharing this happiness with all beings.

* Special One-day Vipassana [refresher] Course on Oct 4, 2009
* Global Pagoda developmental projects

Global Pagoda, Time Machine and Death

" As you would pluck out a poisonous weed,
Pluck out the arrow of desire.
For he who is awake
Has shown you the way of peace.

Give yourself to the journey.

'Here shall I make my dwelling,
In the summer and the winter,
And in the rainy season.'
So the foolish make plans,
Sparing not a thought for death.

Death overtakes one
Who, giddy and distracted by the world,
Cares only for their children, their property,
Death fetches them away
As a flood carries off a sleeping village.

Nobody can save one from death,
Not the father nor the sons.
Know this.
Seek wisdom, and purity.
Quickly clear the way."

- The Dhammapada

The Global Pagoda stands as inspiring reminder to getting our priorities in life right. For over ten years, many people from many busy walks of life have devoted their priceless time - including voluntary full-time service - towards realizing this Dhamma project, sharing with all beings the benefits of Vipassana and Dhamma service. The more time one invests in Dhamma service, more benefits one gains. By serving others, we serve ourselves.

View of inner dome of main pagoda, in October 29, 2006, with participants worldwide during the function in which the bone relics of Gotama the Buddha were placed in the central locking stone of the dome. As the largest hollow, stone monument in the world, the inner dome serves as the world's largest meditation hall that can seat over 8,000 students in one-day refresher Vipassana courses.

The Global Pagoda stands as a Dhamma symbol of compassion, of serving all beings on the universal, practical path leading to liberation from all misery.

There is no force on earth that can stop this Pagoda from being built, Principal Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U Goenka had declared over a decade ago at the Global Pagoda construction site. This Dhamma conviction has inevitably come true. The Global Pagoda is coming to life. Already many hundreds of visitors are flocking to see it. This number will soon turn into thousands daily.

In its life, expected to last for a thousand years, the Global Pagoda will be one of the most visited places on Earth. Where there is suffering, the way out of suffering will be an irresistible Dhamma attraction in life.

Where there is life, there is death. That life does not end with death, becomes clear to a Vipassana student.

In one of the most significant, most beneficial Dhamma articles written in our lifetime, Sayagyi U Goenka explains 'What happens at death?':

"To understand what happens at death, let us first understand what death is. Death is like a bend in a continuous river of becoming. It appears that death is the end of a process of becoming, and certainly it may be so in the case of an arahant (a fully liberated being) or a Buddha; but with an ordinary person this flow of becoming continues even after death. Death puts an end to the activities of one life, and the very next moment starts the play of a new life. On the one side is the last moment of this life and on the other side is the first moment of the next life. It is as though the sun rises as soon as it sets with no interval of darkness in between, or as if the moment of death is the end of one chapter in the book of becoming, and another chapter of life begins the very next moment.

Although no simile can convey the exact process, still one might say that this flow of becoming is like a train running on a track. It reaches the station of death and there, slightly decreasing speed for a moment, carries on again with the same speed. It does not stop at the station even for a moment. For one who is not an arahant, the station of death is not a terminus but a junction from where thirty-one different tracks diverge. The train, as soon as it arrives at the station, moves onto one or another of these tracks and continues. This speeding "train of becoming," fuelled by the electricity of the kammic reactions of the past, keeps on running from one station to the next, on one track or the other, a continuous journey that goes on without ceasing.

This changing of "tracks" happens automatically. As the melting of ice into water and the cooling of water to form ice happens according to laws of nature, so the transition from life to life is controlled by set laws of nature.

According to these laws, the train not only changes tracks by itself, it also lays the next tracks itself. For this train of becoming the junction of death, where the change of tracks takes place, is of great importance. Here the present life is abandoned (this is called cuti-disappearance, death). The demise of the body takes place, and immediately the next life starts (a process which is called patisandhi - conception or taking up of the next birth). The moment of patisandhi is the result of the moment of death; the moment of death creates the moment of conception. Since every death moment creates the next birth moment, death is not only death, but birth as well. At this junction, life changes into death and death into birth.

Thus every life is a preparation for the next death. If someone is wise, he or she will use this life to the best advantage and prepare for a good death. The best death is the one that is the last, that is not a junction but a terminus: the death of an arahant. Here there will be no track on which the train can run further; but until such a terminus is reached, one can at least ensure that the next death gives rise to a good birth and that the terminus will be reached in due course. It all depends on us, on our own efforts. We are makers of our own future, we create our own welfare or misery as well as our own liberation."

( full text of article at: What happens at death? )

At the point of death - and as we know, death can arrive any moment - the only wealth we carry with us is the wealth of goodwill. What is there in our Bank of India account stays in this world. What is there in the Bank of Dhamma account comes with us.

A billionaire industrialist in Mumbai may be building a US$ 3 billion dollar home for him and his family. But when death takes him away, would he be able to carry with him even a single pillow cover from this $3 billion house? So it's wise to also invest in good will, in whatever little way we can, in sharing in whatever way possible the benefits we have gained.

The best investment is a Dhamma investment. The benefits of any Dhamma investment are timeless.

In time, like the great architectural wonders of the days of old, the Global Pagoda too will age, wither and die. Everything is impermanent. Anicca. A few thousand years from now, awe-struck people will gaze at its vast, fallen ruins and wonder, "From the size of these ruins, we can see thousands of people came here every day. What is it that brought them here?"

By probing further, they would know - like archaeologists of today discover the greatness of yesterday - that many from all across the globe had come to the Global Pagoda to practice Vipassana meditation, or to know more about this universal, practical quintessence of the teachings of a Buddha.

If by giving up a lesser happiness,

one may experience a greater happiness,

one is wise to give up the lesser happiness

for the sake of the greater happiness.

- The Dhammapada

* Special One-day Vipassana [refresher] Course on Oct 4, 2009

* Global Pagoda developmental projects