โอบกอดสังคมด้วยรักและกรุณา

การประชุมและเสวนาเรื่อง “โอบกอดสังคมด้วยรักและกรุณา”

ห้อง 105 อาคารมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย
วันเสาร์-อาทิตย์ที่ 8-9 สิงหาคม 2552

จัดโดยมูลนิธิพันดาราและศูนย์จริยธรรมทางวิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

http://krisadawan.wordpress.com/embrace/

มูลนิธิพันดาราได้จัดประชุมเสวนาเกี่ยวกับพระพุทธศาสนา จิตวิญญาณ วิทยาศาสตร์ และทิเบต/หิมาลัยศึกษา มาตั้งแต่ปี 2547 การประชุมเสวนานี้เป็นการให้พื้นที่แก่นักวิชาการ นักคิด นักเขียน ผู้ปฏิบัติธรรม และประชาชนทั่วไปได้แลกเปลี่ยนความคิดเห็นเกี่ยวกับประเด็นต่างๆที่น่าสนใจ ในปี 2552 นี้ มูลนิธิจะจัดประชุมเรื่อง “โอบกอดสังคมด้วยรักและกรุณา” เพื่อให้สังคมได้ตระหนักถึงความสำคัญของการบ่มเพาะความรักความกรุณาอันจะนำไปสู่สันติสุขในจิตใจ ในสังคมและในระดับสากล

กำหนดการ

วันเสาร์ที่ 8 สิงหาคม 2552

8.15 ลงทะเบียน

9.00 ปาฐกถากล่าวเปิดงาน
คณบดี คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาฯ

9.15 จุดดวงประทีปและภาวนาเพื่อสันติภาพ ความรัก และความกรุณา

9.30 ปาฐกถานำเรื่อง “โอบกอดสังคมด้วยรักและกรุณา” พระอาจารย์ ดร. อนิล ธมฺมสากิโย (วัดบวรนิเวศวิหาร)

10.45 พักดื่มชาดอกไม้

11.00 เสวนาเรื่อง “การสอนความรักความกรุณาให้แก่เยาวชน”
ดร. สรยุทธ รัตนพจนารถ (จิตตปัญญาศึกษา มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล) และดร.โสรัจจ์ หงศ์ลดารมภ์ (ศูนย์จริยธรรมฯ และภาคปรัชญา คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

12.30 พักรับประทานอาหารกลางวัน

13.30 ศานติตารา การเดินทางของดวงดาวแห่งสันติภาพ ปีที่สาม

14.00 บรรยายและแบ่งปันประสบการณ์เกี่ยวกับการทำงานเพื่อรักและกรุณา
คุณอัจฉราพรรณ ไพบูลย์สุวรรณ (พิธีกร/นักแสดง)
ดร. ศิริพร ภักดีผาสุก (ภาควิชาภาษาไทย คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย) ดำเนินรายการ

15.15 พักรับประทานอาหารว่าง

15.45-17.00 พุทธวิทยาศาสตร์
ดร.วุฒิพงศ์ เพรียบจริยวัฒน์ (สถาบันสหสวรรษ)

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 9 สิงหาคม 2552

9.00 จุดดวงประทีปและภาวนาเพื่อสันติภาพ ความรัก ความกรุณา
ขอเชิญทุกท่านร่วมภาวนาตารามนตราเพื่อความรักและความสุข

9.30 เสวนาเรื่อง “สื่อสร้างสรรค์กับการการบ่มเพาะความรักความกรุณา”
ดร. ดวงกมล ชาติประเสริฐ (คณะนิเทศศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)
คุณกรรณจริยา สุขรุ่ง (หนังสือพิมพ์ Bangkok Post) คุณสมฤทธิ์ ลือชัย (รายการ
ธรรมในใจ)

11.00 พักดื่มชาดอกไม้

11.15 อาหารกับความรัก
คุณสมหมาย ใจจง (ร้านหมายขายดี)

12.00 พักรับประทานอาหารกลางวัน

13.00 การบำบัดรักษาแบบทิเบต โดยดร. เซดอร์ ญารงชา (สถาบันการแพทย์ญารงชา นครลาซา)

14.30 มนตรา ลมปราณ ความรัก
คุณศรัณย์ สืบสันติวงศ์ (มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร/นักร้องโอเปร่า/ผู้ก่อตั้งบริษัท NUNI Productions)

15.15 พักรับประทานอาหารว่าง

15.45-17.00 เสวนาเรื่อง “จิตวิญญาณในโลกสมัยใหม่”
คุณจิตต์ ตัณฑเสถียร (หมู่บ้านพลัม) ดร. กฤษดาวรรณ หงศ์ลดารมภ์ (มูลนิธิพันดารา) คุณกนกวรรณ กนกวนาวงศ์ (คลื่นความคิด FM 96.5) ร่วมเสวนาและดำเนินรายการ

ลงทะเบียนล่วงหน้า
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Filed under: Happiness

Handel’s “Meine Seele”

I used to play this piece with a recorder, teaming up with a cello and of course a soprano. That was more than twenty years ago. But the music is timeless and is still exquisitely beautiful:

Filed under: Happiness , beauty, Handel, life, meine Seele, music, soprano

Music and Meditation

If you a regular reader of this blog, you might perhaps know that I am also interested in music. Many posts on this blog are about music. So perhaps it’s time to look at any connection there is between music and Buddhism.

Or between music and meditation, which is perhaps easier to write about. There are now many musical pieces designed to help one’s meditation. Look at and listen to the following:

So the question is how does music really help with meditation? As far as I know no Buddhist scriptures mention anything about music as an aid to meditation. If anything the texts tend to suggest that the practitioner find a quiet place free from distractions to do his or her meditation. But music seems to be very distracting. So how about these musical pieces? Are they really distractions? Or could they be of help in one way or another?

In fact some form of music has been in used in meditation practice for a long time. Those who are familiar with sadhana practice in Tibetan Buddhism know that many rhythmic and musical instruments are involved — a lot of cymbals, gongs, trumpets, clarinets, and of course the indispensable bell that always accompanies the vajra. So the practice can be a very loud affair. But if music is a distraction, then why do they have such a big role to play?

Moreover, if one looks at Theravada, which has far more simple rituals, one does find some music in there too. In Thailand there is the tradition of telling the tale of the Bodhisattva Vessantara, who assumed the last human form before eventually becoming Buddha Shakyamuni. The story is told is such beautiful and moving voice that bring tears to many listeners. The chant is indeed beautiful music.

This is a topic which is not well understood or thoroughly investigated, I think. On the one hand, music clearly can be a distraction. Try doing a meditation in a shopping mall filled with piped in music, and compare that to a quiet place in a park. But then there is the problem of employing music in many practices.

As a musician myself, I think my musical practice and performance can be a way of doing meditation. When I play a piece like Bach, all my attention will be glued to the music that I don’t think of anything else. I kind of “lose myself” to the music. There’s no consciousness of what is going on around me, no worries whether who is doing what around me. Just the music — the harmony, the counterpoint, the sheer tone of the piano, the sensuousness of it all.

*

A recent article in the Economist explores the question why music is so important in our lives, and the answer is that music and sex are so related that musical prowess translates into more chances to pass on the genes to the offsprings. So the love of music and the pleasure derived from listening to it is perhaps hard wired into our beings. We are programmed to love music because our genes have been selected this way.  The Economist calls this the “food-of-love” hypothesis. Music and sex are deeply related to each other. The pleasures derived from music and from sex may be explainable through the same causes.

What this has to do with meditation and Buddhism is that, if music is really connected to meditation, then if the the “food-of-love” hypothesis is correct, then meditation could also be a skill which, akin to music, develops in tandem with the ability to find pleasure. The article quotes Stephen Pinker as follows:  “A brain devoted to turning sound into meaning is tickled by an oversupply of tone, melody and rhythm. Singing is auditory masturbation to satisfy this craving. Playing musical instruments is auditory pornography. Both sate an appetite that is there beyond its strict biological need.” The brain is hard wired to get pleasures from music in the same way as it does from cheesecakes. But how is this related to meditation?

Many meditators report having a lot of pleasures during their meditation. In fact the Buddha himself said that two components, “rapture” (piti) and “happiness” (sukha) are two main ingredients of successful meditation. And even though one goes to the higher stages where rapture and happiness are non-existent, this does not mean that no kind of happiness is available, because the texts say that those who have attained these higher stages of meditation are in some sense moving toward cessation of suffering. Even though the Buddha taught that this is not exactly the correct way to eliminate all sufferings, this can indeed contribute a lot to it.

So meditation seems to contribute a lot to pleasures, and the texts are clear in stating that as long as one remains in the meditative state, one in effect shuts the door from sufferings. However, the Buddha’s contribution is that this does not eliminate all possible sufferings, since one returns to the normal sufferings state once one is out of the meditation. The way toward total elimination of suffering is through realization of complete selflessness, but then a way toward such realization can be achived only through some forms of meditation, both shamatha and vipasyana. The vipasyana, or insight meditation, is also a meditation. Supreme happiness, the highest kind of happiness attainable by a human being (or indeed any sentient being), is only possible through meditation. And if music and meditation are related, then music could indeed be a way toward the realization.

But then what about music as a distraction? What happens when one practices a meditation session and the nearby house is having a wild rock party? This also can be compared with a musician who is practicing Bach while some other music is being played loudly. This is indeed a distraction, but that does not mean that music, per se, is a distraction. It depends on what we are doing at the moment.

Filed under: Happiness, meditation, music , Buddhism, Dhamma, distraction, meditation, music, practitioner, sadhana, sex, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen

Schubert Fantasia in F minor

Taking a break from meditating on bones, here is a YouTube video of Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands. I think this is one of the most beautiful pieces in the entire piano literature. Enjoy…

Part 1

Part 2

Filed under: Happiness , beauty, fantasia, music, piano, Schubert

Buddhism and Music

I have been listening to this beautiful YouTube video of Elizabeth Parcell’s singing of Mozart’s “Exsultate, Jubilate” and think that I should be saying something about Buddhism and music. But first let us listen to the first part of the video:

Very beautiful, isn’t it? The music does not end with this part, and I will post the second and final part toward the end of this present post. The theme of the music, of course, is Christian. If I am not mistaken, “Exsultate, Jubilate” are words that exhort people to praise Jesus, and the music ends with a rousing “Alleluia” or “Hallelujah.” (You will find this in Part 2 of the video.) Very Christian indeed.

So what does this have to do with Buddhism. I have thought for a long time, in fact since I was very young, why Buddhism does not have such beautiful music praising its founder as Christianity does with their founder. I went to a Christian school in early primary years, and they usually took me to a church where they sang hymns that contained praises to Jesus and things like that. I went with the flow, even though I was Buddhist as were most Thai students there, but I could not help thinking why there is no such beautiful music in Buddhism. All that we had was monks chanting, but monks in Thailand do not play musical instruments, nor do they sing melodies, and the chant had no harmonization at all. I was told, moreover, that music was a kind of “defilement,” something to be avoided. Music is something that leads you to become attached to sensuality and pleasure, leading you away from the true goal.

But then I began to wonder whether music is really as “defiled” as I was told. If music was really defiled, then the Mozart above would be so, but I find it very hard to bring myself to see that. In fact I remember the story behind the “Exsultate” according to which Mozart was commissioned by the Archbishop of Salzburg to write a piece of Church music for liturgical purpose, and Mozart came up with this classic masterpiece. The story had it that the Archbishop was not amused at all by this masterpiece, which he thought to be too “sensual” (well, I can see that too ).  Anyway, the point seemed to be that Mozart was a rebellious soul, and his “Exsultate” could be interpreted as a statement against the Archbishop and his conservative attitude. Perhaps art took precedence over piety. In fact I think historians of music would say that the “Exsultate” did not have any religious sentiment at all; in fact it is a piece of secular music masquerading as a religious one. In today’s secular West, the piece is performed not in a church but in a concert hall, where people applaud loudly, which they don’t do at all in church.

However, I believe that the music is very deeply spiritual and listening to it I can’t help but think of the devotion that Mozart must have felt toward God, but being the artist that he was, this was how he showed the devotion. If the singer has to sing like an opera diva praising God, then she sings that, even though it may arouse feelings that typically one does not associate with religious piety. But I think one has to look beyond that. The real significance of the music is that, precisely because of the very beautiful coloraturas and harmonization, Mozart shows that art can arouse deeply religious feeling, and one who thinks that religious music has to be dull and lifeless may have to revise what they think.

This pertains directly to Buddhism and music. My point is that it is not necessary that beautiful music such as this has to arouse attitudes or sentiments that run contrary to the goals of either Buddhism or Christianity. Of course the “Exsultate” is very sensual; that is the point. But one be sensual while being deeply religious. If you are not convinced try reflect on the meaning of the Latin lyric, but if you do not know Latin (which I don’t by the way), at least you should know “Alleluia” if you are a Christian. Let the beauty of the music come to you without any judgement (like the Archbishop did). Let is seep into you, soaking you with the sheer rhythm, melody and harmony, and blend them with the meaning of the lyrics. The two cannot be considered in separation of each other, and I think this is where the mistake of those who think this is essentially a secular music lies.

Now what if this kind of beautiful music be set to words that praise Buddha instead? What if there is a full expression of joy and delight that the Buddha comes to the world and teaches us the way out of suffering and samsara? Wouldn’t that be appropriate to “Exsultate, Jubilate” too?

I end with Part Two of Elizabeth Parcell’s singing of Mozart:

Filed under: Happiness , art, beauty, Buddhism, Christianity, Exsultate, Jubilate, life, Mozart, music, pleasure

Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A, D664

Taking a break from Buddhism or other topics, I found this sublime video of Wilhelm Kempff playing the first movement of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A back in 1968. Enjoy:

Filed under: Happiness , beauty, life, music, piano, Schubert, sonata

Tammy Won the Second Set and the Match

Now Tammy has just beated the world’s number two Jelena Jankkovic, 6-3, 6-2 to book her place in the quarter final for the first time ever at Wimbledon. Her next opponent will be the reigning champion Venus Williams, the seventh seed. As always, Tammy will be the underdog.

Actually I am not much of a tennis fan. That is to say, I don’t stay up all night to watch a match or anything like that. But this run of victories by Tammy is really a history in the making. I have known her for a long time and admired her work ethic and her personality. She never shows bad emotions on the court, and watching her play against Jankovic, she was very focused and very sharp. She hit the ground strokes like a bullet.

Jankovic, on the other hand, never found her rhythm. She let Tammy dictating her moves since the game one. Tammy took the ball very early and made difficult angles for her so that she had to cover much more of the court than Tammy did. And she made much more unforced errors. It is amazing to see how Tammy actually made a short work of Jankovic, beating her in less than an hour. Considering that Jankovic was a semi finalist at Australian Open and French Open, this is truly amazing, and as I said, a history that is unfolding before our very eyes.

So I will watch the next match against Venus Williams, who has won Wimbledon maybe three times already. But now anything can happen….

Filed under: Happiness , history in the making, sports, Tamarine Tanasugarn, tennis, Thailand, Wimbledon

Cheers for Tammy!

Now let’s take a break from Nagarjuna. It has been a few days now since Tammy Tanasugarn’s historic win at the Ordina Open in the Netherlands. She beat Russia’s Dinara Safina in straight sets. Now Tammy is making all of Thailand proud. I think all Thais are now rooting for her to do well again at Wimbledon. Go, go Tammy!

Filed under: Happiness , cheers, sports, Tamarine Tanasugarn, tennis, Thailand, Wimbledon

Vajrasattva Mantra

Here is a YouTube video where Dechen Shak-Dagsay beautifully renders the Mantra of Vajrasattva:

Filed under: Happiness, chant , chant, mantra, music, singing, Vajrasattva

“In a Zone”

Watching a preview of the upcoming Wimbledon tennis championship the other day, I watched Roger Federer being interviewed about his experiences at Wimbledon (much happier than at Roland Garros, I presume). He talked about ‘being in a zone.’ “When you are in the zone, you don’t pay attention to who you are playing with or whether you are making the right shot or whatever, you are only aware of the tennis only,” he seemed to be saying something like this, as far as I remember.

I understand his point. And this is much like being in a meditative state. When we practice meditation, the goal is just to be in this state that Federer is talking about. It is a very alert state, very mindful, very wakeful. There is no chance that dukkha (or suffering, but an alternative translation is ‘unsatisfactoriness’) can enter your sense doors if you are in this state. So when Federer is being very sharp on the tennis court, we can also be very sharp during the meditation. I remember Phakchok Rinpoche say that when you are meditating you have to be like an eagle watching the field for preys. He is of course not advocating that we hunt preys, but the point is that we need to be as alert and wakeful as the eagle. Instead of watching for preys, we watch for any possibility that the defilements will come through our eyes, ears, nose and so on. This is also like Federer watching the tennis ball when he is playing (or should I be talking about Nadal instead? )

Filed under: Happiness, meditation , Buddhism, dukkha, meditation, Phakchok Rinpoche, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, suffering, tennis, Wimbledon