Expositions Books by Henri van Zeyst

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  Agony and Ecstasy

  A comparative study of the five hindrances, together with the five states of concentration or mental absorption.

  I am aware that the title of this booklet “Agony and Ecstasy” will sound very familiar to many and I gladly admit having derived this title from the famous book “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by Irving Stone, which was made into an equally famous film, depicting an important period of the life of Michaelangelo, that greatest artist of the Italian Renaissance, painter, sculptor and architect, builder of St. Peter’s dome, painter of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, sculptor of the famous statues of David in Florence, of Moses and the Pieta in Rome, to mention just a few.
  
  Well, this present booklet has nothing in common with those great creations – except the title, which I borrowed, asking for the kind permission of the Publishers, with appreciation and admiration. I could not not help doing so, as the title is so appropriate to the subjects to be dealt with: the five mental hindrances (nīvaraṇa) and the five states of mental absorption (jhāna). Five agonies and five ecstasies, which, as shall be seen, can cancel out one another, till the final emancipation, which is beyond all agonising conflict (dukkha) and ecstatic joy.
  
  

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  Basic Buddhist Concepts

  An exposition of all the major concepts found in Buddhism.

  This book wishes to cover all the basic and essential doctrines of Buddhism in one volume. Many aspects have been dealt with earlier in separate booklets, such as the four noble truths, karma, rebirth and evolution. Many other aspects, equally important, such as contemplation and Nibbāna, have also found their place in this single volume. But, even the subjects dealt with earlier have not been merely repeated, but are presented with afresh approach, although not deviating doctrinally.
  
  Thus, this book is as new as it is old, presenting a doctrine of 25 centuries ago, in a setting which belongs psychologically to the century of to-day. New views may provide easier access and clearer understanding, which is the basic concept which gave birth to this book.

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  Buddhism, a Living Experience

  How to find for oneself the fruits of the Buddha’s teaching but as a lived experience.

  There used to be a time when the world of thought was divided between idealists and materialists, between searchers and researchers, between theoreticians and practitioners. But thought is not much thought of these days, notwithstanding our various ideologies. Ideas are no good unless they produce results, and ideals are just the stuff dreams are made of.
  
  This is the age of technology, which is the knowledge of applied science, of the know-how, which is interested in the working of things. It is the age of the instrument, which maybe as sophisticated as an electronic computer, but which is for most people still restricted to the bottle-opener and a screwdriver, for opening and closing respectively.

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  Dependent Origination

  An examination of one of the central concepts in the Buddha’s teaching.

  Dependent origination (paṭicca samuppāda) is one of the most important aspects of the teaching of the Buddha. Essentially it is an expansion of the four noble truths in which the Buddha outlined his doctrine concerning the meaning the origin, the cessation of sorrow and conflict, together with the path leading to such cessation. It was this original outline which was expanded to cover the three stages of existence, in the past, the present and the future. Such existence, however, is not only the life-span from birth to death, depending on and conditioned by actions in a previous life, and then further projecting itself in a future life, but can be discerned also in the microscopic span of a single thought.
  
  It should not be understood as a strict law of cause and effect, which would lead to an inexorable fixture of every action becoming a reaction and a cause, from which perpetual motion an escape would be impossible. It is rather a controlling influence of conditionality, which can not only condition the arising, the strengthening, the expanding spheres of influence, but which may also counteract such influence and even completely arrest its progress.
  
  It is this teaching of conditionality and relativity which has placed the doctrine of the Buddha above the rigid authority of inspired and revealed religions. It is this moderation and absence of dogmatic views which has given to Buddhism a name and honoured place among the great philosophies of life. Here is shown, not only the way in of origination, but also the way out of cessation, both being dependent in their process on conditions which are fluid. It is this freely moving process that makes cessation possible without supernatural grace, without divine intervention, without salvation, and yet, with deliverance and emancipation.
  
  

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  In Search of Truth

  Reflections on the truth of the Dhamma arranged in alphabetical order.

  "I came in search of truth, and they gave ma a bowl of rice".
  
  In these following, pages there is a search for truth; but not as it might be understood generally: for it is not possible to search for something one does not know. And it is too obvious to say it: We have not understood what truth is.
  
  Truth is not something that exists in itself. Truth is not an object, and therefore cannot be the object of a search. It is rather like beauty and love, which can be experienced, but which cannot be made, or shown, or taught. But the understanding of what is, is an experiencing which is true. No disciplining, no culture, no tradition, no religious observance, no metaphysical analysis can give that understanding, which is not knowledge but which is the actual experiencing in an unconditioned freedom, which gives a sensitivity, open to learn, ready to receive, and to perceive. It is not learning with a view to acquiring knowledge, but a learning which knows of no goal, of no control or conformity, yet which is a simple awareness to understand. Without prejudice, without conditioning, without aiming, there is a freedom which comes from silence.

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  Marks of Distinction

  On the three general characteristics: impermanence, conflict and the void in conflict.

  The three marks (ti-lakkhaṇa) are referred to as characteristics, essentials, signata, signs of the teaching of the Buddha. They are the most noteworthy, most important, most expressive, most typical, most distinctive, indispensable, elementary, basic, constitutional components or qualities of the doctrine of the Buddha, without which there just would not be any Buddhism.
  
  
  

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  Nibbāna

  On deliverance beyond all striving, unconditioned, uncreated, the indestructible.

  Nibbāna, the ultimate deliverance from all delusion, has many aspects, and is often misunderstood, sometimes as annihilation, sometimes as supreme happiness, rarely as the cessation of ignorance through insight, and still more rarely as the ending of all striving, a solution of a problem by means of a dissolution thereof. It is not through logic that insight dawns in the awakening of understanding, but through the realisation that all problems and conflicts have arisen from a misunderstanding of the source of all action, the ‘self’.
  
  Is Nibbāna the solution to all problems? It is rather the dissolution of all conflict.
  
  A refusal to see can never lead to understanding. Only in actually experiencing the cessation of wilful thought can a negation be understood without a search for an answer to a problem which will always be in the interest of ‘self’. It is this insight, taking the place of logic, contemplation instead of concentration, which sets the mind free from striving towards a goal. It is in the actual that the real can be experienced, not through escape, not through projection, not through accumulation of virtue, not through concentration in seclusion, not in stages of growth and evolution, but in realising the void of that delusion, which has created the ‘self’ to endure, to become secure, to resist in order to exist. It is the realisation of the void of an ideal, of the futility of trying to attain an image of the real.
  
  It is only the truth which can set free.

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  Obstacles on the Path

  A look at the obstacles that lay along the path, and the Buddha’s solution to overcoming them.

  Obstacles on the Path are the impediments which block all progress and even the entrance to the path of perfection. According to Buddhism the removal of those obstacles through insight rather than through effort opens new vistas of creative living in understanding and realisation. If one understands the bonds which bind us, one would be free.
  
  
  

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  Seven Facets of Insight

  On mindfulness, investigation into the nature of things, energy, delight, tranquillity, concentration and equanimity.

  The following pages are called the Seven Facets of Insight, although their subject matter is more commonly referred to as the “Seven Factors of Enlightenment” (satta sambojjhaṅga). Factors are constituents (aṅga) which form the make-up, whereas “facets” seem to indicate their various aspects.
  
  It is a point of controversy, whether enlightenment or realisation is a gradual process of evolution (and that seems to be the predominant view of present Theravāda in Sri Lanka, though far from exclusive), or whether the knowing and seeing of the truth is not an evolution at all. To many, (orthodox as well as independent thinkers) it is rather a revolution than an evolution. There will be, of course, the necessary ground conditions, but the factual moment of enlightenment or realisation is a point of seeing (not a point of view!) which cannot be taught, although it would be possible to pin-point the obstacles to seeing.
  
  For some, these obstacles appear as help; their danger lies in our attachment to those crutches. We note a thorn in our flesh; then we make use of another thorn to remove it. Having succeeded, what are we doing with the two thorns? Do we throw them away? Or do we keep them for further use on another occasion? That would be like preserving them as relics, and enshrining them in a dagoba!
  
  The seven facets are not to be seen as a system of evolution in emancipation; but each aspect provides a more complete view as from a different approach and thus they do not constitute a gradual course of enlightenment, but rather different sights, till in the end the picture is complete. Each facet reflects the light and thereby sheds new light, allowing the light to shine through. Each one gives more freedom; yet, there is no freedom till all obstacles have been removed. Thus these factors are facets; they do not lead to the light, but they allow the light which is within each one of us to shine through and brighten our understanding, if we care and dare to look.
  
  Such is the revolution of the mind, when thought ceases and insight takes over.
  
  

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  Truth and the Way

  The Four Noble Truths and the Way to realise them.

  Is there a way to the truth? Is truth at the end of the road and is the road a means of reaching the end? And who is going that way, and who is reaching the end?
  
  One can multiply these questions: how to make a beginning, how to proceed, and what happens when the end is reached? And then a very pertinent question: why should one take the trouble to make that journey at all? What is the guarantee of reaching the end? And what is the purpose of it all? To what benefit?
  
  Here is the warning:.
  
  There is no end, there is no purpose, there is no benefit. There is no one going that way. and no one will ever reach the end. Truth is not the end. and the path is not the means thereto. There is no answer to the question How? And the answer to the question Why? lies within each of us.
  
  Then, why was this booklet, written and why should anybody read it? Said the Buddha:
  
  ‘‘One thing only do I teach:
  Woe and how its end to reach’’.
  Dukkhañc’eva paññapemi
  dukkhassa ca nirodhaṁ.
  
  There is conflict in everyone of us. There is conflict in every complex, there is decomposition in every compound, there is self-delusion in every desire which is conflict, the desire to make become what is not. It is the ending of this conflict which is the road and the end of the road. And ‘‘l’ am that conflict! Don’t believe it; it just happens to be so.
  
  If you understand, there is no need to read further.