Realize the Peace within, enjoy the silence and beauties of nature
Buddhist Monasteries are most beautiful places where you can enjoy the beauties of nature to the fullest. The purpose of these, is to provide an environment suitable for meditation and thereby enable the people who stay in them enjoy quietude and peace within. Most of the monasteries are open for lay visitors who like to learn mediation and practice the Buddha’s techniques, leading to enlightenment and freedom. The Buddha taught many techniques to quiet the mind. Among them – “Ana-pana sathi” – Mindfulness on Breathing – and “Mettha”-Meditation on Loving Kindness are predominant. “Anapana sathi”is the unique way of Gauthama the Buddha, who found this path leading to freedom from suffering. It leads to perfect peace of mind and thereby happiness and freedom.
If you are interested in meditation you can go to one of the teachers in any of these monasteries and learn what the Buddha taught 2500 years ago. However, please don’t think that it is easy. You will have to practice, focusing on the “in and out breath” until you can quiet the incessant speech of the mind (that talking that goes on and on between your ears inside in your head) and reach a perfect state of Samadhi. This speech of the mind is called “wachi Sankara[1]”-wachi means words, sankhara means formations. Then, you have “kaya sankhara”. Kaya means the body, sakara means the formations regarding the feelings of the body. Also, there is “Mano Sankhara”-Mano means the mind, formations regarding the mental pictures etc, pertaining to the past and future. When you do not run into the past and future, but be in the present moment, aware of you breath going in and breath going out, your mind will reach a silent and peaceful state, automatically, by itself. You don’t have to do anything… but simply be aware… right here right now… on the dot…in the present moment. It is that easy!!. The Buddha has brought it down to the very breathing, which each and every one of us do anyway. Could anybody make it more simple than this.
[1] There are these three Sankharas present in the mind, until one reaches a perfect state of Samadhi, and reaches the primordial untainted state of mind.
