Dragon Ball
38. 드래곤볼
38. Dragon Ball
Yu Hui Jung“Shall I show you how to get a Dragon Ball?”
This was how I started one of my meetings with students at the Won-Buddhism temple in New York. For the children of Koreans living in New York, the Won-Buddhism temple serves two purposes, both as a community of fellow Koreans and as a community of faith and cultivation.
To these students, Korean is a difficult foreign tongue, which means that at every dharma meeting, I am forced to share the Buddha’s words in my fumbling English. This has earned me some sarcastic jibes from students who tell me to “just do it in Korean.”
With all the energy coursing through their bodies, it can be extraordinarily difficult for a teenager to perform even five minutes of seated meditation. It makes absolute sense that they would be more interested in and focused on their grades, friends and crushes, and smartphone games than on meditation. If anything, it’s miraculous that they choose to sit down in the dharma hall every week at all, given all the other options available to them.
What is the best way to describe Buddhist cultivation in simple and concise English? After thinking about it for some time, I thought of the famous Japanese manga series Dragon Ball. The titular ball is a magical object that gives the person holding it the power to do anything.
Sotaesan, the founding master of Won-Buddhism, said that those who removed desire from their mind and were free from the things they wanted and did not want to do would attain a “wish-fulfilling gem.” What did he mean by that?
The students’ interest seemed piqued when I talked about helping them attain Dragon Balls. I had them sit down on cushions and sounded a bell to announce the start of meditation time. Before long, they were squirming about, scratching itches, and staring into space. Perhaps they were feeling a bit resentful toward me for giving them such a difficult task as meditation after enticing them with talk of Dragon Balls.
After I sounded the bell to signal the end of the meditation, I took in the children’s faces and asked them how the meditation had been. They talked about how their knees hurt, how they felt itchy and sleepy, how all sorts of thoughts kept running through their mind. One of them said they felt peaceful and happy. After hearing from each one of them, I shared the following with them:
“Whenever you encounter an unpleasant sensation like achy knees or itchiness, practice observing that sensation itself rather than getting drawn in by it and becoming angry about it. And if you find meditation comfortable and pleasant, practice observing that feeling just as it is rather than being drawn in by it and trying to simply remain seated.
Perhaps when you experience these unpleasant feelings, you also find yourself feeling resentment toward the ministers. But we can all see how these feelings, good or bad, go away not long after the bell signals the end of the meditation and you can move your bodies freely again.
“This means every sensation and emotion is merely something that both arises and disappears in an instant. If we are drawn in by pleasant feelings, then perhaps we will feel tormented when that pleasant feeling does not arise in our next meditation.
If we are drawn in by bad feelings, then we will be tormented by the fear that it will return during our next meditation. Sensations and emotions arise and disappear like waves. So it is foolish and futile to be caused torment by them.
“We may not be able to do anything about the sensations and emotions that arise, but it is up to us whether or not we respond to them. So how do we go about practicing this? We focus our mind and breath on a place just below our navel.
If we are able to maintain that concentration, we will not be so easily drawn in by the feelings that come over us. It is difficult at first, of course, but if we continue to practice over time, the powers of our mind can be cultivated.
“When we train the powers of our mind through meditation in which we practice observing the emergence and disappearance of sensations and emotions from within that state, we will become free from the countless things that tempt us in our day-to-day life.
You may experience momentary pleasure when you indulge in your favorite smartphone game, but how irritated and angry do you become when your parents or your teachers prevent you from playing it? If you develop the powers of the mind through dedicated meditation, you can enjoy the game while you’re playing it, but also willingly stop when it’s time to do so.
“Meditation starts with us building the power to not let ourselves be drawn in by the things we like and dislike. If we continue building this strength all the way through adulthood, we can be free from even the sweet temptations of money, glory, and power, and nobody will be able to control us as they see fit.
As we proceed deeper into meditative practice, we can learn to leave behind our fear of death and come to naturally accept it. Who can hurt us when we do not fear death?
“When we exist purely as ourselves, leaving behind the sadness of not having what we like and the fear of what we dislike, our true mind, which is without pain, will come to shine brightly. And that true mind is the Dragon Ball. Once you reveal the true mind that exists within you, you can achieve anything.”
The teenagers seemed perplexed as they looked at me, and I smiled. As the bamboo clapper stopped and faded into silence and the children left to fill their rumbling bellies, the dharma hall stood empty and tranquil.
