A Handful of Leaves

A Handful of Leaves
(the new edition)
Supawan Green
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Dedication
çFor my Father, Mother
and Humankindé
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Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to these
people who lent me a hand to perfect this book. They are
Ian and Sally Timm, Jess Koffman, Roselyn Debhavalya,
Christopher Oakland and Nuanrat Padung.
Appreciation also goes to all my Thai staff who have
belief in me and volunteer to help me propagate the Buddhaûs
message of leaving the prison of life (samsara).
I canût manage without these kind people.
Supawan Green
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Foreword
Those of us who have had the precious opportunity for
training and practising in Thailand in accordance with the
teachings of the Lord Buddha, feel an enormous gratitude to
the wise monks and generous lay people of the country.
Mrs. Greenûs book ùA Handful of Leavesû is excel-
lently presented and well thought-out. It is, no doubt, the
skilful result of Mrs. Greenûs many years of practice and
reflection on life, the meaning of life and the practical means
for the realisation of the Ultimate Truth. Her vision and
hope for humanity are most uplifting. Her recognition of the
superb opportunity we all share to find the inner peace
which lies at the heart of all religions and indeed all human
beings is both practical and inspiring.
Even though Mrs. Green says herself that we may
accuse her of ùnaivety and foolishnessû; in fact, the vision
she presents offers hope as well as some clear directions for
realising the Truth.
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The Buddhaûs teaching is simply about ùawakeningû- it
is not about becoming a Buddhist. Therefore, all the
teachings are for encouraging and directing our attention,
investigating and examining experience in the present
moment. To do this, you need to be fully awake. You have
to pay attention to life as it happens.
A Handful of Leaves' is a guide. Mrs. Green is writing
from her insights, therefore it is not just another rehash of
Buddhist teaching by someone who has not practised it. It
has a freshness and a confidence that can only come from
direct insight knowledge.
I was fortunate enough to have lived for ten years in
North East Thailand, training and practising as a bhikkhu.1
So I was able to immerse myself in the changing and fading
Buddhist culture - The Enlightened Culture - in its relatively
classic and traditional form. I can't help but agree with Mrs.
Green's respect and appreciation for that culture.
All conventions, however, are subject to change and
there is no way back to the past. Our faith is in the timeless
reality. In Europe, the awakening is taking place. In spite of
1
A Buddhist monk
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the usual depressing news on the mass-media, I still have
only confidence in the goodness of humanity and rejoice in
the ùinconceivably vast oceans of good actions performed by
conscious beings since beginningless timeû. Mrs. Greenûs
reflection helps us to establish a positive relationship with
one another and encourage in us the energy to cultivate an
open and responsive attitude to our daily life experiences,
our habits and emotions which otherwise might intimidate us
and lead to cynicism and negativity.
Mrs. Greenûs ùA Handful of Leavesû is a most wel-
come addition to the library of Buddhist literature.
Ven. Ajahn Sumedho

September 1999
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery,

Great Gaddesden,
Hemel Hemstead,
Hertfordshire.
HP1 3BZ
UK
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Introduction
The first edition
Three months ago, I went through a long episode of
mental turmoil, which lasted for eighteen hours, but it seemed
like a lifetime to me. Not only could I feel every twist and
turn in my heart but I could also feel the pain seeping
through every living cell of my body. It seemed to me that
such an extraordinarily painful experience was almost pur-
poseful because once I had come out of it, I gained so much
strength that I told myself I must reach out to more people
and share with them the way to overcome suffering. No
matter how strange it may sound, that was indeed the inci-
dent leading to the birth of this book.
I have been through quite a significant milestone in my
life time. I was initially ignorant about the ultimate purpose
of life, and then went through the struggling of trying to get
the practice right so that I could be at peace. At the present
stage, I finally have a clearer vision of how I can help others
to speed up their journey to eternal peace. I attempt to share
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with you what I have learned in this book in exactly the way
I would have wanted to be taught myself. The approach of
this book aims at the modern generation which is of a
logical mind and may be caught up in between the two
worlds of science and religion.
I hope that this book can help to encourage readers to
take their first step of a long journey towards the ultimate
destination of life.
Supawan Green
17 May 1999
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Introduction
The new edition
This book was first published in 1999 and sold
out some time ago. A great deal of significant events have
happened around the globe in the past nine years including
the 9/11 attacks, the Asian tsunami, cyclones and earth-
quakes, new wars, environmental destruction, climate change
and the aftermath of a global economic crisis. Even the
super power like the United States, one of the wealthiest
countries in the world, the president-elect, swept to victory
as a beacon of hope and inspiration for real change, faces
massive challenges as he assumes the presidency.
Never before in the history of humankind have so many
people had so much wealth, knowledge, information and so
many tools at their disposal, yet at the same time, so many
people from all walks of life have been forced to go through
mental turmoil and suffering one way or another. It is
beyond any doubt that a sizable group of individuals would
feel insecure, fearing a bleak future due to financial stress
and the on-going social, political and environmental
upheaval. This book is aimed to help this particular group
of people who feel strongly that they need to find a mental
and spiritual refuge so that they can find inner peace while
struggling with their daily lives.
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The content of this book is to present a message
that there is a universal entity which is called ùthe ultimate
truthû and it is the same nature as our ùtrue selfû. Those who
havenût yet found their true selves are often trapped in a
predicament of discontent, lack of fulfilment, feeling empty
and at times not knowing if they are coming or going.
On the contrary, once the true self is found, peace and true
happiness is in our reach. This book will give you a clear
perspective about the real purpose of life, presented in plain
words and simple analogies, suitable for all believers, reli-
gious and scientific alike.
In this edition, I have removed the chapters about
the four foundations of mindfulness and the enlightening
culture (which were in the original version) so they can
be expanded in my next book titled: ùBringing the Mental
Self Back Homeû. However, all the chapters of the original
edition of A Handful of Leaves are in my website.
I hope very much that this book will be the first stepping
stone leading you to find your ùtrue selfû and enabling
you to attain long lasting inner peace amidst the turmoil
engulfing the world.
Supawan Green
15th November 2008
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Contents
Chapter one My Eureka Experience
Chapter two The Buddhaûs Gospel
Chapter three The Ring Road of Samsara
Chapter four The End Justifies the Means
Chapter five Where is Nirvana
Chapter six Where is the Ultimate Truth
Chapter seven Life Map
Chapter eight The Universal Truth
Chapter nine The End Without the Clear Means
Chapter ten Correcting Bad Mental Habits
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A Handful of Leaves
(The new edition)
Supawan Green 13
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Chapter one
My eureka experience
It happened in a spur of a moment and most unexpect-
edly, on one Tuesday afternoon of October 1997 while I
was in the Dojo teaching my Tai chi students at the Univer-
sity of Birmingham. I had been teaching my students medi-
tation skills for quite some time without telling them that the
teaching was, in fact, based on the Buddhaûs knowledge.
Since that class was my dedicated advanced students, I
thought it would be to their advantage to know the proper
Buddhist terminology, in case they were to come across it in
books or passing conversations. At least, they would know
that they had actually engaged in this Buddhist practice from
my Tai chi class. I decided to write ùthe four foundations of
mindfulnessû and ùvipassanaû in a bracket on the white board
and also put down a short description of each foundation.
As I was writing the description of the fourth foundation of
mindfulness, unlike the first three foundations of which I
had confidence in my knowledge, I told myself that I would
14 A Handful of Leaves (the new edition)
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have to come clean with my students by telling them the
truth that I didnût have a clue what is meant by ùdhamma-
nu-passanaû and they would have to accept the original de-
scription without additional help from me. I usually am able
to simplify the difficult concepts, putting them into plain
words but not this one, since I didnût quite understand it
myself.
Finished with the writing, I then walked away from
the white board to stand in front of my students. As I was
opening my mouth, I also glanced back to the white board
some five or six small steps away to my right; that was the
moment when all the heavens broke lose. It was the most
magical moment and I had to whisper softly to myself in
front of the students: çOhÇmy god, I know it!é
Suddenly, it was as if a tidal wave of acute wisdom
was rushing through my mind which allowed me to KNOW
the answers to a few really significant questions I had been
searching for many years earlier. One of the pieces of knowl-
edge was, of course, the meaning of the fourth foundation
of mindfulness that just moments ago I was totally in the
dark about.
Supawan Green 15
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The knowledge, flowing through my mind at that mo-
ment, gave me the most powerful and insightful illumina-
tion, one that I had never experienced before in my entire
life. The combined brightness of ten suns still cannot be
compared to the light of such wisdom I was stumbling upon
at that moment. The scattered pieces of jigsaw-puzzles about
life and death and beyond suddenly clicked into place. That
significant knowledge came along with an enormous sense
of great relief. I strongly felt that I had every right to say to
myself: çI am free at last!é › freed from the bondage of
ùnot knowing.û
Overwhelmed by this most awesome encounter and
trying to take in the knowledge that suddenly presented it-
self to me, I began to realize that seven pairs of eyes were
staring at me expectantly and that I still had a tai chi class to
run. I resolved to tell my students I was going to confront
them with the truth about not knowing the focus point of the
fourth foundation of mindfulness but something had just
happened to me and I now had the answer for them. I then
conducted the class as normal but with more confidence in
the knowledge I delivered.
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From that moment on, my knowledge has grown
steadily. All my literary works are the direct result of that
eureka experience happening on that autumn Monday after-
noon.
The significant quality of a person who claims to have
the eureka experience is the ability to simplify and shrink
the difficult, profound, scattered and confusing concepts of
life into manageable sized knowledge as ùa handful of leaves.û
Standing by the Munrow Sport Centre With my students by Standing by the white board
at the University of Birmingham, UK. the entrance into the in the Dojo at the University
Dojo at the University of Birmingham.
of Birmingham.
A few steps away from the white board Leading a Tai chi qi gong class in the Dojo
and talking to my†students in the Dojo. at the University of Birmingham.
Supawan Green 17
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Chapter TWO
The Buddhaûs gospel
It is important for you to know that the real wisdom among
humankind arose on the night of the Buddhaûs enlighten-
ment which was some 2595 years ago.
On that night, the Buddha found out that there are two
significant natures in life. They are:
1. Life in a prison called samsara
2. Life out of a prison called Nirvana
Upon his enlightenment, the Buddha found out
that there is indeed an absolute entity in nature. This
unconditional nature is also the ultimate goal of every
human being on this planet, no matter who you are and in
what you believe.
For your easy understanding and in order to accom-
modate humansû diverse values, both religious and
non-religious alike, I will therefore give you a list of words
or terms representing the same ultimate experience in nature.
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They are as follows:
1. The ultimate enlightenment
2. Nirvana
3. The Kingdom of God
4. The Tree of Life
5. Godhood
6. Tao
7. Eternity
8. Immortality
9. The ultimate (absolute) truth
10. The ultimate reality
11. The grand ultimate (the meaning of Tai chi)
12. The absolute ruling point in nature (Einsteinûs
concept, the run-up to the Theory of Relativity)
13. The absolute simplicity
14. The absolute ordinariness
15. The absolute normality
16. The ultimate certainty
17. The true self
18. The real self
19. The non-self
20. The eternal peace
Supawan Green 19
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21. The absolute harmony
22. The ultimate freedom
23. The end of suffering
24. The true (real) happiness
25. Here and Now
26. The final frontier
27. Life out of prison
28. The innocent perception (my coinage)
This wide range of terminologies can reduce your con-

fusion and help you to have a better perspective concerning
the ultimate destination of life. You can now clearly see
that humankind, both God believers and non-believers, share
a common goal in life. Our religious differences, which
often lead to political conflicts and violence, in my view,
are merely the result of misinterpretation of different jargon
due to the lack of true ultimate experience (mainly among
religious leaders).
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The Buddhaûs gospel
Gospel means good news. The enlightenment of the
Buddha simply means that he knew for certain that there is
another life outside the prison walls. He therefore propa-
gated the good news to people about the true freedom of life
and how to get out from this life confinement › that is how
to reach Nirvana. This piece of good news is indeed ùthe
Buddhaûs gospel.û
Three groups of people

You will learn there are three groups of people in the
world. They are:
1. Those who know nothing about the good news
regarding life outside the spiritual prison walls.
2. Those who know about the good news, believe in
or have confidence in the gospel of the Buddha, and are
trying their very best to walk out of their spiritual bondage.
They are mainly the committed Buddhists who are on
different stages of their spiritual journey heading towards
the epic exit of this cell of life. They have bought a one-
way ticket to Godûs kingdom and will not stop walking this
unique path until their spiritual mission is accomplished.
Supawan Green 21
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3. Those who have accomplished their spiritual
mission, already left the life prison and live happily ever
after outside the prison walls. These people are called arahant
meaning the one who has reached the ultimate enlighten-
ment and become a knower. Basically, they know what the
ultimate truth is along with all the rest of the terminologies
listed above. These people have therefore become local guides
who can successfully take you to the destination of life bet-
ter than anyone else.
The first spiritual knower was the Buddha and from
his time knowers have been all his fully enlightened follow-
ers. The Buddha said that as long as there are people walk-
ing the noble eightfold path, this world would not lack
arahants.
One answer
This following story might enhance your understand-
ing of the Buddhaûs gospel.
Once there was a hermit who used his magic wand to
instantly change a man into a tiger. The question then arose:
What is the most important thing for this cursed tiger? Should
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he carry on living as a tiger, or should he quickly find a way
to change himself back into a man again?
Obviously, there is only one sound answer. He must
return to his normal self (true self). But as a tiger, how
could he do this? It means someone else has to do this for
him.
For the man to get such help, someone must know that
this tiger is not truly a tiger but is a person under a spell.
Luckily, a wise man did know, and with the power of his
loving-kindness and compassion, he searched extensively
until he found the magic wand and the magic words. He
then came back to the tiger and changed the man back to his
normal self at last.
This story portrays the essence of Buddhism. The man
refers to our true self. The tiger represents our deluded self.
The kind and compassionate man is the Buddha. Meta-
phorically speaking, we were all tigers until the Buddha
came along, found the magic wand and helped us to return
to our normal enlightened or true self again.
Supawan Green 23
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Chapter Three
The ring road of samsara
Before the enlightenment of the Buddha, no one knew
that being human meant living in a mental and spiritual
prison, which the Buddha called samsara or the cycle of
rebirth.1
Rebirth, a ring road and samsara
The best way to understand samsara is to compare it to
a ring road, but in a much profound sense because it has no
concrete walls. Samsara and rebirth amount to the same thing.
You can think very simply that we all have an original
soul or a true self. Due to the lack of true wisdom, this real
self has been turned into a deluded self or the metaphoric
tiger mentioned earlier. This original self is conditioned by
our karmic force (our own actions which give consequences)
and therefore subjected to rebirth › the experience of
traveling around the ring road of samsara.
1
This topic has been intensively tackled in The User Guide to LifeÇThe Law
of Karma written by Supawan Green, distributed by Amarin.
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The longest road
Why do I compare the ring road of samsara to a
spiritual prison? The truth is that a ring road is the longest
road in the world even though it stretches only a few kilo-
meters, because there is no beginning and no end. You can
stay on the ring road for as long as it takes. Should you be
lost in a ring road, like the M25, circling London, you can
orbit around in it for days or until you finally find your exit.
Likewise, our deluded selves have also been traveling around
the ring road of samsara for eons, which is the experience
or nature of constant rebirth, unable to find the right exit
to leave samsara for good. For this reason, samsara is a
profound spiritual and mental prison.
Bouncing around
To some people, rebirth might not sound quite so bad.
In fact, it sounds like an eternity, doesnût it?
The trouble is that there are six kingdoms, each
of which is like a gigantic cul-de-sac, dotted around this
ring road of rebirth. These kingdoms can be grouped into
two main characteristics: bearing more suffering (hell) and
bearing less suffering (heaven) of which earthly people are
in one bearing less suffering.
Supawan Green 25
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On the day we depart from this human kingdom, our
consequential karmic database will take us to wherever we
deserve to go. We shall live in that realm until our life span
is up and will be then thrown back into this ring road of
rebirth once again. This process has been repeating itself
endlessly for eons. Bouncing from one kingdom to another
around this ring road of samsara, in the eyes of the Buddha,
is a life of imprisonment. It is as if we have been shifted
from one prison wing to another for eons and unable to
escape from this enormous prison of life.
East and West wings
An overview of the concept of living in samsara is that
if you behave well, you will be sent to the West wing where
a prison guard will give you a bit of luxury; a soft bed,
television, private toilet and so on. But if you behave badly,
you will be sent to the East wing where you will be
punished further: no bed, isolation, no visitation and so forth.
The point is that no matter whether you are in the East
or the West wing, you cannot escape from the fact that
you are being imprisoned. The reason for all the pain and
suffering in the mind of prisoners is because you havenût yet
had the real freedom of walking out from the prison itself!
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The human kingdom and the animal kingdom are two
of these false six exits dotted around samsara. Compara-
tively speaking, the human is grouped under the West wing,
whereas the animal is in the East wing.2
Thatûs why it is very difficult to find a ùtruly happy
personû in this world no matter whether one is rich or poor,
famous or unknown, of high or low social status. If you are
very honest, you will say life is full of ups and downs. As
people get older and face illness and death, they often feel
more and more isolated and terribly lonely. They canût help
but be afraid of the unknown, not knowing what might
be awaiting in the future. Such downbeat feelings are the
result of leading a life in this metaphoric profound jail.
Enlightenment › jail breaking!
The huge significance of the Buddhaûs enlightenment
is that he had at last found the exit to leave the ring road of
samsara for good. He found the way to break out of this
enormous jail of life so that we can have real freedom. This
2
The six kingdoms around the samsara are grouped into 2 major realms:
1) The positive or the bearable spheres are a) human b) heavenly beings
(god or devas) c) the higher sphere of heavenly beings known as
Brahma world.
2) The negative or the unbearable spheres are: a) animal b) hungry-ghost
(peta) c) hellish being.
Please note that the state of heaven in the Buddhist sense is very different
from the Christian concept. The Buddhist heaven is still in the imprisoned
predicament whereas the Christian heaven symbolises eternity.
Supawan Green 27
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is indeed the best news ever, for all the population trapped
in this epic ring road of samsara. This Buddhist gospel has
been passed on from the Buddha to his disciples, from one
generation to the next, all through the history of Buddhism
until it reaches us. Now that I found out this truth myself on
that autumn afternoon, I canût help but pass it on to you.
Prime duty and one problem
Our prime duty in life is, therefore, to walk out of this
prison of samsara or leaving the tiger status behind and
returning to our normal self by accepting the help of a wise
man like the Buddha.
There is, however, a problem. When the kind man
came to tell the tiger about the good news and asked him
to stand still so that he could undo the curse, some tigers
refused to believe the wise man and said that they had
always been tigers and there was no need for them to return
to anything else. These are the type of people who have
no faith in this piece of good news. Out of ignorance, they
are led to believe that there is only one life and one death.
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They take each day as it comes believing everything, espe-
cially all the heart-aches, will vanish after death. Hence,
they believe there is no need for spiritual pursuit.
There are also people who are not content with their
lives for all sorts of reasons that cause them to think that
going to heaven or probably to the Brahma world is the
answer to their unfortunate lives. So, these people will pray
daily for a better rebirth in heaven › choosing to live in the
West wing of the prison of life. By making such a wish,
they hope to live happily ever after, which, once again, they
believe wrongly. According to the real knower, there is
only one real salvation and one true freedom › getting out
of this tedious roundabout of samsara to the ultimate exit
called ùNirvanaû.
Two fields of knowledge
For easy understanding, you can view worldly knowledge
including science (from gravity, e=mc2 to Mona Lisa and
climate change) as knowledge gathered in the prisonﬁwhich
is all about life in the prison environment. In contrast, the
Supawan Green 29
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Buddhaûs wisdom is the knowledge about leaving the prison
for real freedom. These are the differences between the two
fields of knowledge, knowledge of the world and the
Buddhaûs wisdom. The Buddhaûs wisdom allows us to see
the overall structure (view) of life at which point we realize
the predicament of our imprisonment. It is, therefore, much
more profound than intellectual knowledge, which merely
focuses on details within the prison setting.
The Buddha compared his grand knowledge to lifting a
dome-shape bowl up and the light of true wisdom rushing
into the dark place for the first time allowing humankind to
know that there is a much better life outside this gloomy
dome-shape bowl after all!
Whether you want to remain a cursed tiger or reclaim
your normal self, it is entirely your choice. I am only a
messenger.
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Caption: All intellectual knowledge happens within the
boundary of a prison cell, whereas the Buddhaûs wisdom
offers a single and direct route to ultimate freedom which
Supawan Green 31
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he calls Nirvana. To accommodate people of all beliefs,
I have given 24 terminologies to represent this unique
experience which includes God, Tao, The Tree of Life, the
ultimate truth and the innocent perception.
Caption: The ring road of samsara is made up of six main

kingdoms which accommodate their beings (populations).
Samsara is compared to a prison made up of the West wing
and the East wing. An overview of the concept of living in
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samsara is that if you behave well, you will be sent to the
West wing where a prison guard will give you a bit of luxury.
But if you behave badly, you will be sent to the East wing
where you will be punished further. The point is that no
matter whether you are in the East or the West wing, you
cannot escape from the fact that you are being imprisoned.
The reason for all the pain and suffering in the mind of
prisoners is because you havenût yet had the real freedom of
walking out from the prison itself!
Supawan Green 33
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Chapter Four
The end justifies the means
In order to grasp the essence of Buddhism, people must
understand a significant point: when the Buddha attained
enlightenment, it meant he was able to see the goal before
the path.
This story might help us to gain a clearer picture. A
man was lost in a jungle. Suddenly, he stumbled upon a
pond of holy water which could offer people eternal life.
When he knew that this holy water was magical and should
be shared with humankind, he slowly and carefully came
away from that pond while remembering the way to get
back there.
Before the enlightenment of the Buddha, all sentient
beings were living in a total darkness of spiritual ignorance.
No one knew what life was all about, let alone its purpose.
Is there such a thing as the ùthe ultimate truth?û Is it pos-
sible to put an end to all suffering and misery? What is the
cause of illness, aging and suffering? Prince Siddhartha was
born during the time when Indian society was at the peak of
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searching for the answers to those questions in all sorts of
ways from self-indulgence to self-mortification, and ex-
ploring into highest levels of meditation. Nonetheless, no
one had convincingly come forward and proclaimed him-
self to be a ùknowerû: meaning the one who knew the ùultimate
truth.û
Drawn by the social and spiritual landscape at the time,
Prince Siddhartha abandoned his royal life and joined the
spiritual movement to search for ultimate knowledge and
enlightenment.1 Just like the others, he tried various meth-
ods in hopes of finding a way to end all sufferings. The
ascetic prince committed to a strict regime of self-torture
for six years and until he was on the verge of losing his own
life.
All those spiritual activities (self-indulgence and self-
torture) can be compared to the man who got lost in a dense
jungle, whereas the enlightenment of the Buddha is associ-
ated with the man in that story, who by chance, came across
a pond of everlasting holy water. The enlightenment of
the Buddha meant that his mission had been accomplished.
1
The Buddha (or Prince Siddhartha before his enlightenment) was born into
a royal family in Northern India 623 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
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The ascetic prince could at last proclaim himself as ùa
Buddhaûﬁthe knower, the awakened and the joyous. The
ultimate truth or the end to all suffering had finally been
found. The Buddha subsequently called that unique, newly
found experience: Nirvana.
Having discovered this ultimate nature, he realized this
is also the ultimate goal of life for all sentient beings. Be-
fore that, no one knew the truth that we were not tigers
because everyone on earth looked like tigers all the same.
The Buddha found something exceptional that no one ever
realized before.
After his enlightenment, he also realized that it would
be extremely difficult to convince people about the recently
found knowledge. The Buddha was inclined not to teach.
However, he subsequently thought that people had different
levels of spiritual abilities; those who have little dust in their
eyes might be able to understand and would believe the
news about their non-tiger status. With great compassion
and loving-kindness to all sentient beings, he carefully
worked out the path to the pond of holy water: the ultimate
truth. This is the reason why, in this case, the fruit (goal)
comes before the path (means) or the end justifies the means.
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The first sermon the Buddha preached to his five dis-
ciples at the Deer Park in Vanarasri was called: the Four
Noble Truths. They are:
1. Suffering (exists)
2. The cause of suffering
3. The end of suffering (the fruit)
4. The noble eightfold path (the means)
An issue has been raised by some Buddhist scholars as
to why the Worthy One placed the end of suffering before
the noble eightfold path. It seemed illogical because the
means should justify the end just as the cause should lead to
an effect.
But it cannot be wrong because this is spoken from the
Buddhaûs experience. The Four Noble Truths are the result
of the Buddhaûs first extraordinary experience just like the
story of the man who found the magic pond by chance. Itûs
also like Christopher Columbus finding America for the first
time; he would certainly know the route to America better
than any other previous explorer. The American continent
became the end result which justified/verified the route
(means). Finding the new land also made Columbus
become a ùlocal guideû, he knew the shortcut to America.
Supawan Green 37
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Likewise, the Buddha was also the local guide who
knew the shortcut to Nirvana or the ultimate truth. If no one
ever discovered the fact that we are not tigers, there would
be no way we could know the truth about returning to our
true self. We would then live and struggle like tigers, being
uninformed and totally ignorant, for eons. Without the help
of the Buddha, we wouldnût be so lucky as to know the truth
and the purpose of our existence.
I mention this issue, although it might mean very little
for some readers, because it will certainly help followers to
judge a spiritual guide who claims to be a knower. The end-
justifies-the-means format is often lacking in the teaching
methods used by teachers of today.
It has been 2551 years since the Buddha passed away.
There are many followers of the Buddha who have become
teachers or guides leading devout Buddhists to the ultimate
truth. But only local guides, who have seen and tasted the
holy water in the jungle, will be able to guide or teach
effectively. Significantly, they can use first-hand language
and share their vivid personal experience, whereas the non-
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local guide will have to cling tightly to holy books as their
map and subsequently use the second-hand language.2
A non-local guide with a map in his hand can still get lost
in the spiritual jungle while a local guide can offer you
short-cuts to the destination without getting lost because
they have been there before.3
2
Speakers using the first-hand language will speak from their first-hand
experience whereas those with no experience will have to copy the words of
those who have the experience, or using the second-hand language. The
impact is significantly different.
3
Please read The two types of guides in chapter two of The User Guide to
LifeÇThe Moral Diet written by Supawan Green, distributed by Amarin
Supawan Green 39
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Chapter Five
Where is Nirvana?
When I was a little girl, I used to imagine that Nirvana
was the most beautiful place in heaven where handsome
gods and gorgeous goddesses in their glittering costumes
lived. I believed we normal people could never get there
because it was beyond our reach. I thought that only the
Buddha and all the old privileged Buddhist monks would
have access to Nirvana. I think that maybe 99% of devout
Buddhists still think in this way even today, which is a great
shame. My mythical image of Nirvana changed drastically
when I learnt about the teachings of the late teacher Vener-
able Buddhadasa of Suan Mokkh, a forest monastery 300
miles south of Bangkok. I was very surprised to hear that
Nirvana was not a glittering heaven as I had understood, but
it meant coolness › referring to the mind, with no greed,
anger and hatred.
I was then twenty years of age and a student at the
renowned Thammasat University in Bangkok. On top of
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that, I had just gone through one of the worst political
upheavals in the history of Thai politics › the horrific
crackdown on students, the event of October 14th 1973.
As a result, my heart was consumed by numerous questions
about life in general. I was desperate for someone to tell me
why those good-hearted, young and ambitious students, who
wanted the best for their motherland, were cold-bloodedly
murdered.
I also seriously questioned what exactly was the true
meaning of life? I especially wanted to know what the
ultimate truth was. Having come to the peaceful Suan Mokkh
and despite having no clear perspective, for some unknown
reason, I did have a strong feeling that I was a bit closer to
that eternal truth. The political unrest plus my own personal
problems had plunged me into a deep depression and gave
me so much pain that I needed to relieve it by whatever
means I could lay my hands on. Thank God I found Suan
Mokkh before the left wing movement scooped me up!
I then held on tightly to the meditation technique that Suan
Mokkh had taught me because it really did the job for me.
Through constant meditation practice, my mental torture was
Supawan Green 41
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gradually eased away › to my great relief! It has now been
more than 30 years.
Although not every question has been answered, and
global problems in all shapes and form still continue to this
day, I have managed to answer some of them. Meditation
practice has, however, been enough for me to lead a ful-
filled life. I also realize how lucky I am to be born as a
human and bump into Buddhism. To pass on my knowl-
edge is one way that I can show my humble gratitude to all
my spiritual teachers, especially the Buddha.
I now know for certain that the ultimate truth and
Nirvana are, in fact, the same nature. Is Nirvana a glittering
place in the highest level of heaven or not, your guess might
be better than mine. We should put this impossible question
aside for now and focus on something that we can tackle
with rational arguments. Following my Eureka experience,
I know for certain that Nirvana is right here on this living
blue planet and is much closer to us than we think. Nirvana
or the ultimate truth is actually engulfing us right now and
right here!
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What is it that has two in a week and one in a year?
Most people will fail to see the obvious answer to this riddle
if they think too much. Likewise they might fail to know
Nirvana. Without a local guide, everyone will certainly
overlook the obvious answer right under their nose.1 Thatûs
why the Buddha said that those who had only little dust in
their eyes could see it. The following comparison may help
you to gain a better understanding.
I believe you know about the magic eye pictures in
which a beautiful three-dimensional picture is hidden within
a two dimensional pattern. If we place such a picture in
front of us, although the three-dimensional image is right
here in front of us, we canût see it. Should we want to see
it for the first time, we need to learn a skill. One of the
popular techniques is by placing the whole picture close to
our face, relaxing the eyes and slowly moving the picture
away from our face. Gradually the beautiful three-dimen-
sional picture will be revealed. The unskillful person might
not be able to sustain the three-dimensional picture very
long before it disappears from sight. The skillful people,
1
If you havenût tackled that riddle, itûs the ùeû by the way!
Supawan Green 43
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who quite often are children, might only need to relax their
eyes a bit and they can easily see the hidden three-dimen-
sional picture. Nevertheless, there are some people who can
never master the skill and cannot appreciate the beauty of
the hidden picture.2 One of those frustrated people was my
husband!
2
When I first wrote this book in 1999, the magic eye pictures were very
popular. Everyone knew of this product. When rewriting this book for the
second edition in 2005, the magic eye pictures were no longer popular, so
some people might not know what they are. With a bit of searching, I am sure
you can get hold of one such picture. I had a book with a beautiful collection
of magic eye pictures which I took to Cameroon in 2002. My Cameroonian
students had never seen them before. After teaching them the viewing tech-
nique and the mature students had mastered the skill for the first time, it was
such a joy to experience the most innocent childlike reactions when the three
dimensional pictures were finally revealed. They were so genuinely excited,
thrilled and happy - the type of reactions that I had never seen before among
grown-up western people! Although I did intend to save that book for future
reference when I would talk about this chapter, I could not resist in leaving
that book behind for them to cherish when they asked for it. That was also the
last time I saw such pictures too.
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Similarly, Nirvana can be seen as another dimension
available to us now; it is merely hidden behind every daily
sight we perceive. Nirvana is definitely not a topic that is
subjected to debate or be tackled by reasoning or thinking.
There was a three dimensional picture of ten tulips in that
book I left behind in Cameroon. You can think and imagine
whatever you want about the image of the ten red tulips in
3-D. And even though you have seen such an extraordi-
nary sight before, you must know that what you picture
in your head is no way near the actual sighting you can
perceive here and now. The same goes for Nirvana. This
ultimate nature cannot be accessed by means of intellect or
thinking alone.
For a better perspective, I will replace Nirvana with
my coinage: the innocent perception.3 Using this term, it is
easier to understand that a unique skill is involved. Whether
you can perceive sense objects innocently or not depends
entirely on your mental skills. In the wider spectrum, such
3
Please refer to chapter 2 in this book where I gave you a list of 28 termi-
nologies referring to the ultimate nature.
Supawan Green 45
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a unique skill is the noble eightfold path, which can be
condensed to vipassana, a practice I will call çbringing the
mental self back home.é4 Briefly, there are four homes to
which our mental self can return. The fourth home is the
ability to perceive everything innocently.5
If we sit two people down in front of a vase filled with
a bunch of daffodils, a vipassana practitioner and a person
with no acquaintance with vipassana, the result of their per-
ceptions will be tantalizing different. A person with no
acquaintance with vipassana will always see a vase filled
with daffodils, whereas the vipassana practitioner (depend-
ing on the level of attainment) might profoundly perceive
4
Vipassana has the same meaning as the four foundations of mindfulness,
insight meditation and bringing the mental self back home. Once vipassana is
practised, the practitioner is walking (deploying) the noble eightfold path.
They are: 1. right view, right understanding 2. right thought, right intention
3. right speech 4. right action 5. right livelihood 6. right effort 7. right
mindfulness 8. right concentration.
5
Bringing The Mental Self Back Home, which is made up of the theory
volume and the practice volume, is being written. The update about the pub-
lication of this book will be on my website: www.supawangreen.in.th Joining
the Here and Now Retreat will be the best way to learn the skill of bringing
the mental self back home especially entering the 4th home or having the
innocent perception.
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the immediate sight as it is › having the innocent percep-
tion! This latter experience is analogous to the ability of
viewing a three dimensional picture hidden in a two dimen-
sional form › an experience which a non-practitioner can
neither produce nor understand. This is exactly how one
can access Nirvana.
This is the reason why all knowers of the ultimate truth
or Nirvana often regard this matter as one single strand of
hair holding back a whole mountain. Knowers often say: if
the ultimate truth is not right here in front of you, where do
you think you can find it? Nirvana is very easy to reach if
you have the know-how skills; but without such skills, it
will take you eons just to find a real teacher who can teach
you such a unique ability so that you can see the colossal
mountain right under your nose!
I shall raise just one significant question: Have you
developed this skill allowing you to have the innocent
perception yet?
Supawan Green 47
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Chapter Six
Where is the ultimate truth?
If Nirvana is right here in front of us like the hidden
three-dimensional picture, the ultimate truth is also right
here, because it refers to the same nature or experience. For
easy understanding, letûs replace the word ùtruthû with ùrealityû
and leave the term ùultimateû aside for now. First, I will
explain the term ùrealityû.
If you want to understand the words ùtruthû and ùrealityû
in holy books, you must not think too deeply or look for
complexity. Always bear in mind the answer to that riddle:
çtwo in a week and one in a year.é So I am not talking
about reality in terms of real fact about a situation, person,
or real events happening in the world right now from do-
mestic troubles to wars and global warming. Neither am I
talking about the words of truth or honesty. In fact, the truth
in the holy sense doesnût involve our thoughts and the use of
language at all. Instead, it involves our fundamental per-
ception.
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We are going to look at something much closer to us;
so close that it is a matter of here and now. It doesnût matter
where you are and what you are doing right here and right
now. I would like you to look around yourself at this very
immediate moment. Your sensory experience right now is
the exact reality/truth I talk about. Your sights, sounds,
smells, tastes and touch right now are the only real things to
you, are they not? In other words, your sensory perceptions
and experience is the only real experience right now.
The rest is not real, not immediate, not perceivable with
your senses. Therefore, by this meaning, the real world is
engulfing you. Hence, every person has his/her own real
world.
Your sensory encounters (sights, sounds, smellsÇ) are
the actual reality, they are not imaginations, dreams, thoughts
or concepts. They are absolutely, visibly and tangibly real.
Your sensory experiences are real enough that you need no
confirmation. Consequently, what you cannot experience right
now is not reality according to this definition.
Suppose you are doing your routine chores in the kitchen
right now. Reality is therefore your immediate sensory
encounters, which are everything you can sense in the kitchen.
Supawan Green 49
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Things outside your kitchen, even all the objects behind you
in the kitchen that you cannot see or perceive, are not real.
For example, you have cabinets around the kitchen. If you
stand working at the sink, everything in front of you is real
but not the cabinets behind you. Once you finish your sink
business and turn your face to the room, everything behind
you, which was real moments ago, is no longer real. It means
that everything that you cannot perceive right now and right
here is not real. These things are not real because you
perceive them through your thoughts and memories, which
can be twisted.
You know about the other three rooms next to
the kitchen, where you are now, and at one end of the
living room (out of your sight) your children are watching
television. Those are merely facts (judging from your
previous thoughts or memories); then, they are not reality
in this sense. Everything apart from your immediate
perceptions is fact, which exists in your head, in your memory
box. They are not real and they can be twisted and faulty too
because anything could happen and change those facts from
the moment you last perceived till this very moment of here
and now.
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While you are washing up dishes in the kitchen, you may
think that your children are watching television at that very
moment. That is the image when you last saw your boys
before you went to the kitchen. Those images were from a
previous reality, but are only images, not current reality.
You can think wrongly because your children might be in a
bathroom or have gone out with their friends after you went
into the kitchen.
Your living room might be on fire or flooded while
you think everything is all right. That is only the image of
your last memory you have of your living room. Anything
could happen to your children and living room while you
are working at the sink. Therefore, all the facts stored in
your thoughts and memories are not actual reality and are
subject to changes and errors. So is everything about yes-
terday and tomorrow including our precious intellectual
knowledge. These are equal in the sense of being not real no
matter how accurate the knowledge is. Those past and future
accounts are not reality because they are not your immediate
sensory experience, which is happening right here and right
now.
Supawan Green 51
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According to this meaning, reality moves along with
your senses or moves along with you. Reality, as the imme-
diate moment, is therefore not of a static nature but of a
dynamic character. This dynamic characteristic can be equated
to the second hand on a clock › the type which constantly
sweeps around the face and never stops even for a brief
moment. Once you finish your business in the kitchen and
walk into the living room, your reality changes. The events
in the kitchen have become the immediate past which are no
longer real. As you are moving along from the kitchen to
your living room and then to your bedroom and back to the
kitchen, your reality is constantly changing and moving along
with you (your senses), just like the moving of the second
hand on a clock.
Now, itûs time to replace the word ùrealityû with the
word ùtruthû again. If you want to understand the ultimate
truth (reality) in all holy books, you must first of all understand
truth in this simple meaning. You will get closer to the real
truth or the ultimate truth.
Wherever your individual truth is, the ultimate truth is
also there. It cannot be elsewhere. The following true story
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might help those with one or two grains of dust in their eyes
to understand the ultimate truth (reality) of the universe.
Once, a boy of 7-8 years old asked my teacher a very
direct question. They were living on a remote island in
Songkhla province, Thailand at the time.
çVenerable Uncle sir, why does everything have a
name?é
You may think this is an innocent question of a child.
Some may even think:
çWhat kind of a stupid question was that? Of course,
everything has got a name.é
I bring this story up every now and again in my writ-
ing because this question is the answer to the nature of the
ultimate truth.
To be more precise, this boy could see the ultimate
reality of the universe and thatûs why he asked such an
intriguing question. Please refer to chapter two in this book
where I gave you a long list of terminologies regarding the
nature of the ultimate truth.
Supawan Green 53
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The ultimate truth is the same experience as ùthe
innocent perception.û When your sensory experience is
innocent, there is no word in your head. Words in your head
are mere thoughts and memories, the formless nature before
the transformation into language. Thoughts and languages
are the same but situate on different end, like two sides
of the same coin. Once you utter those words (thoughts)
in your head, they become languages. We then use our
languages to call (label) everything we see, hear, smell and
so on.
Childrenûs minds are not complex and they have less
thoughts and memories. When they view the sea, sky, clouds,
sand, and so forth, they view all those matters innocently as
they fundamentally are, that is they have no names (labels)
attached to them. In other words, children view their sights
innocently or with innocent perception. For this very
reason, this boy on the island cannot understand why things
have names. He canût understand why adults keep on calling
the vast blue liquidy surface, ùseaû and the carpet of blue,
white and grey, ùskyû and ùcloudû. As a matter of fact,
the boyûs question has turned out to be one of the most
profound subjects that only wise persons with true wisdom
can answer.
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Indeed, if humans never walked on this blue planet, all the
natural existence › sky, trees, sea, sand, stones and so forth
- would have no names attached to them. They are what
they actually are.
The innocent perception is the exact experience when
Pahiya begged the Buddha to teach him the essence of Bud-
dhism. The Buddha kindly told him:
çPahiya, when you see sights, just see; when you hear
sounds, just hear; when you smell smells, just smell; when
you taste tastes, just taste; when you feel something, just
feel. If you can do all these things, Nirvana is not far from
you.é
Pahiya was instantaneously enlightened following that
brief teaching. The heart of this concise sermon is nothing
more than the Buddhaûs telling Pahiya to have the innocent
perception. The reason why Pahiya reached enlightenment
in an instant is because he had found the ultimate truth or
Nirvana. The innocent perception is indeed the ùmissing linkû
of all knowledge, intellectual and spiritual alike.
Supawan Green 55
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Once you have mastered the crucial skill of bringing
the mental self back home and can have the innocent
perception, you become the ultimate truth yourself. That is
the moment when this tiny human life form is being equal to
everything else in the cosmos. We are all equally small parts
(diversity) of the whole. Human thoughts, memories and
intellect are the only obstruction barring us from seeing the
real truth.
The ultimate truth is already right in front of your eyes
but you canût see it, just like the 3-D picture hidden in the
2-D image, and it is because your thoughts hinder you from
seeing it. You must cast away your immediate thought and
that last piece of jigsaw puzzle will be clicked into place
right away. The whole picture of life will then be clear to
you.
There is only one question left. How exactly can you
ditch your thoughts? It may not be easy at first, but it is not
impossible. The answer is, you must practice the skill of
ùbringing your mental self back homeû. When you reach the
fourth home, all your thoughts will be cast away then. Donût
worry, it doesnût mean that you become a ùcabbage!û
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The actual process is that you will still use your thoughts in
the normal manner when you must. When you finish with
your stressful thinking or life activities, most people donût
know how to switch off their thoughts when they no longer
want to think. To switch off your thoughts temporarily is the
time when you must apply the skill of bringing your mental
self back home so that your mind (mental self) can have a
rest, be healed and recover from stress. Once you reach the
fourth home or having the innocent perception, you will
also come face to face with the ultimate truth › two birds
with just one stone!
Once again, if the ultimate truth is not right under your
nose, where do you think you can find it?!
Supawan Green 57
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Chapter seven
Life map
I hope you have a clear idea by now that the sole
purpose of being thrown into this world is for you to get out
of this epic prison of life (samsara). Now itûs time to talk
about the means to do this.
In the same way that you need to have a birdûs eye
view when you want to draw a large scale road map, so does
this spiritual ùlife mapû need a similar view. The enlighten-
ment of the Buddha is compared to his arriving at the peak
of a high mountain where he can see the overall view of the
valley. This was the vantage point from which he drew his
ùlife mapû which now helps us know ùthe structure of lifeû.
Having seen the picture of the whole valley from the
mountain above, the Buddha knows exactly how to guide
people, who are scattered in the valley below, to reach the
peak of the mountain. If the zenith is to come face to face
with the ultimate truth where you find your true self and
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attain eternal peace, you must first of all climb the morality
ladder. This will take you half way up the mountain. If you
want to get to the peak very quickly, you must then climb
the meditation ladder. The triangle below represents the whole
structure of humansû lives.
Knowing the ultimate truth, our true self, eternal peace
Morality Meditation ladder

ladder
According to real knowers,1 eternal peace can be eas-

ily attained by means of observing the moral diet and prac-
ticing meditation, which doesnût involve gaining more wealth,
accumulating knowledge, sustaining eternal youth, having
high social status or controlling power.
1
The term ùknowerû may not be recognised in English usage but it has been
widely used since the enlightenment of the Buddha who is considered the
first knower. Therefore, whenever I use this term in my writings, I donût
mean the knower of just any type of knowledge but rather at those who know
the ultimate truth or have left the spiritual life prison › the enlightened ones.
Supawan Green 59
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This is very interesting indeed. Judging from the accumu-
lated disorders, devastations, havoc and suffering happening
in the world society from domestic violence, poverty and
wars; it is obvious that humanity doesnût have much of a
clue about the Buddhaûs teachings. The immoral way of life
engulfing humanity right now is similar to people in
the valley heading in the opposite direction of the zenith
(leaving the prison of life which is the real purpose of our
existence).
Letûs come back to the allegory of a prison environ-
ment again and suppose there are three sections in this prison,
zones A, B and C. The exit leading to the ultimate freedom
outside the jail is next to zone A. People who believe in the
Buddhaûs gospel (finding the true self) must at least make
their journey to zone B which brings them nearer to the epic
door of true freedom.
To come closer to the exit, you must do the following:
1. Have faith or confidence in the Buddhaûs gospel;
want to leave the prison of life; make a commitment to cross
the life border from zone C to zone B
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2. Listen to and have faith in a knower who guides
your way to the exit of the prison of life. Observe moral
principles while in zone B and take interest in meditation
practice.
3. Seriously practice meditation or bringing the
mental self back home while in zone A
You must, first of all, choose to cross the border from

zone C to zone B before you are qualified to leave this
spiritual prison from zone A. If there are more people living
in zone B, humanity is bound to live in peace. There are
fewer problems in society because people have moral
responsibility, including having shame and guilt. On the other
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hand, if there is more chaos and mayhem in the world society,
logic suggests that there is a severe lack of morality.
The severe lack of shame and guilt among humans is the
root cause of violence and atrocities toward individuals and
all the way to genocides. The Buddha says that there are
very few people who have managed to leave the life prison;
the rest enjoy living in the prison purely out of ignorance.
It means that the majority of people in the world are
obliviously trapped in zone C. They have no way to know
or understand their predicament of imprisonment, not until
they stumble onto a knower.
Allegorically speaking, people in zone C are in the full
form of a cursed tiger. Either they do not believe in the good
news about returning to be a normal human or they havenût
yet heard about the good news. As a result, they are leading
a tortured way of life. As for those who have heard of and
truly believe in the Buddhaûs gospel, they will have to choose
the new way of life by crossing the border into zone B
where moral principles are strictly observed. This stage
equates to this cursed tiger beginning its changing process ›
returning from a tiger to a man. As the tiger is moving
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deeper into zone B towards zone A, the spell is gradually
undone. By the time it reaches the exit door of the prison,
this cursed tiger will be fully returned to a man › mission
accomplished at last!
What has really gone wrong in our society is that we
have no real wisdom that can guide us to the real purpose of
life. This massive misdirection of life results in an utter
confusion › the state of ùnot knowing if we are coming or
going.û
Without a clear and definite aim, people donût know
the reason why they have to be morally good because in the
reality of life, there are indeed corrupted people who manage
to make a success out of dirty money and the misuse of
power. Fueled by the powerful media and high technology,
this false image of success has become the new aim (stan-
dard) of life for many. This is the very reason that morality
has been brought to its knees. It is much easier for mentally
weak individuals to abandon the classic moral principles
than to stick to the moral rules which appear to get them
absolutely nowhere on societyûs highly competitive social
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and financial ladder. Never before has humanity had such a
moral crisis as we are facing now.
Looking from another perspective, the lack of true
wisdom (not knowing the ultimate goal) results in our com-
promising with secondary happiness involving gaining more
wealth, higher status and power. We think that as long as
we have money and power, we can buy happiness. As a
result, the whole of human civilization is nothing more than
a machine trying to stabilize this false standard of living. It
is a false aim because it defies the law of change. As the
poor and the unprivileged struggle up the social ladder,
trying to earn their piece of joy, the rich and the powerful
already know that there is no such thing called ùhappinessû
at the other end of the ladder. If there is, it is only temporary
and not long lasting because absolutely everything in the
universe except Nirvana is subjected to the law of change.
So we are back to square one again. Furthermore, the struggle
for false happiness and peace has ironically become the very
reason for increasing turmoil, restlessness, boredom and the
endless complexities of life › the nature of living in zone C
of this colossal spiritual prison.
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Letûs explore further why the wisdom from the past
adores morality. You need to know that a completely still
and placid mind is the mind of a fully enlightened one who
has reached the end of all suffering (fully transformed from
a tiger to a man). If this is the goal you want to achieve, you
will understand more clearly the relationship between mo-
rality and meditation.
The human mind is far from being still and placid
especially for those living in zone C of this spiritual prison.
The more bad deeds one does, the more troublesome oneûs
mind will become because of the fear of being caught and
losing the gains achieved by dishonest or amoral means.
To help the mind to be still and less shaky, you need
to cross this spiritual border into zone B by taking moral
responsibility. This will settle your mind by half because
you donût have to worry about the consequences of wrong
doing. Immoral people have to look over their shoulders all
the time and their minds become very stressful and restless
as a result. If the mind is like a piece of a rough diamond,
morality will take the rough edges off this gem waiting for
further refinement.
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However, the unsettled mind is not related only to
whether you are a good or a bad person. You can even be
whiter than white but this doesnût stop you from having
fear, e.g. fear of darkness, fear of old age, fear of being
mocked, fear of being poor, fear of having cancer, fear of
losing loved ones and fear of your ultimate death. Besides,
no matter how good you are, you cannot deny the fact that
you have jealousy, envy, resentment, disappointment,
hatred and anger. Of course, you donût have these foul moods
all the time but, when they arise, your mind is everything
but normal › causing lots of grief and unhappiness.
How about desire, no matter how good a person you
are, you may also want to be noticed when doing something
good and extraordinary. You may still want praise and
recognition. You wouldnût be human if you didnût have these
feelings. When people fail to be noticed, a fragile ego is
dented, leaving a mental scratch. Ultimately, when you lose
your loved ones through illnesses or accidents or any tragic
events should happen to you, mental pain is inevitable. Life
is not as easy as you would hope, is it?
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These are the reasons why you need to cultivate your
mind further by means of meditation. This is the stage when
this rough diamond is being refined further after the initial
smoothing of the rough edges by means of moral behavior.
You cannot live your life as half-tiger and half-man;
you must earn your full transformation and reclaim your
complete human status. Thatûs why you cannot be happy in
living in zone B and not moving towards zone A. You have
bought yourself a one-way ticket as far as this life journey
is concerned. Your mental anxiety or desires can only be
resolved by means of different meditation techniques.
The four foundations of mindfulness (vipassana or
bringing your mental self back home) is the very mental
skill that can guarantee a full transformation, send you right
to the zenith of the mountain or to the exit of this spiritual
prison. The Buddha highly recommended this meditation
practice and skill to his followers.
This spiritual life map has been passed down and kept
alive through the generations of teaching and Buddhist
culture. This book is one of my attempts to pass on this
precious life map to you so that you can reach the zenith and
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free your tortured soul. It may be difficult to climb this
spiritual mountain at first but it isnût at all impossible. If
I can do it, I see no reason why you canût. I was climbing
this high mountain while I was a housewife, a mother of
three boys, a cleaning lady, a waitress and a Tai chi teacher.
Thatûs why I have the courage to come forward and
offer you this epic life map.2
2
After this book, you should read The User Guide to LifeÇThe Moral Diet
and The User Guide to LifeÇThe Law of Karma. These two books are the
more detailed life map which will give you a much better idea of how to walk
out of this spiritual prison. As for The User Guide to LifeÇVipassana (bring-
ing the mental self back home), although this book is being written, it cannot
be effectively communicated because it is dealing with the formless nature of
the mind. It must be taught face to face so that you can see my use of objects,
pictures and role play portraying the working of humansû minds allegorized
with Tom and Jerry (the sense and the sense object). My annual Here and
Now retreat is to suit this purpose. Updated details are on my website.
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Chapter eight
The universal truth
Having found Suan Mokkh and the late Ven.
Buddhadasa, it was like finding a pot of wisdom, which
allowed me to understand life in a way that I had never
experienced before. I am grateful for everything he taught
me. There was, however, a concept that I had doubted for
many years.
The late teacher often said that Nirvana, God and
The Tree of Life share the same nature. At that time, I could
not see how Buddhism and Christianity could possibly have
anything in common. I was not convinced by this çtheoryé
at all. I am sure a great number of Buddhists in Thailand
shared my view. This theory made even less sense when I
moved to England and lived in a Christian society. I realized
that my teacherûs concept was too far fetched for the rest of
the world. I kept my doubts for many years, thinking, no
one could possibly agree with this!
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It wasnût until I had my own eureka experience in
that autumn afternoon when I saw the world with a totally
different perspective. Only then did I realize that this once -
doubtful concept had an element of truth. For the first time
in my life, I was able to use my own language and approach
to confirm the wisdom of the past. Having seen that society
had been plunged into turmoil and bloodshed due to the
conflicts among different faiths, I realized it was high time
for real wisdom to make a stand. Whether the rest of the
world would want to listen is another matter. My duty is to
put this message across first, from there itûs entirely up to
you, you who are reading this very sentence, to help me
spread this good news.
All God-based believers are keen to claim that their
very own God is the ultimate, the best and the only absolute
truth. Likewise, the non-divine religions such as Buddhism
and Taoism also claim the supremacy for their idealistic
Nirvana and Tao respectively. Surely, everyone cannot be
right or maybe they all are right. Why is this?
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Logic suggests that if there were an ultimate truth,
there must be one, and only one truth. There could not
be more than one ultimate truth, and therefore, different
versions of the ultimate truth could not exist. We cannot
say that the ultimate Buddhist truth is different from the
Christian, the Jewish or the Islamic absolute truth or any
ultimate entity claimed by other religious believers. When-
ever there is a reference to the very absolute truth, it has to
be that one universal truth. Thanks to my eureka experience,
I now know what has caused all the unnecessary arguments
and fighting among religions. It is nothing more than
ùwordingsû and the misinterpretation of those words carried
forth by different languages and religions. The more words
are used to explain the ultimate truth, the further away from
it you go. Inversely, removing all words and languages, the
ultimate truth is immediately right in front of your nose. It is
as simple as that.
The best way to explain this religious conflict is to
equate the ultimate nature with ùspaceû. Please allow me
to physically demonstrate this to you. Hold this book with
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one hand and feel the texture of space surrounding you with
the other hand. Then, keep your mind extremely simple.
(Several of you around the world might be doing this
simultaneously!) Do you think each one of you is feeling
the same texture of space? If you donût quite understand my
question, please let me ask you in a different way.
Say I am in my apartment in Bangkok right now
and you are in London, there are others in New York, San
Francisco, Tokyo and Buenos Aires, also examining the
consistency of the texture of space in front of them.
Although we all are in different locations, isnût what we are
feeling exactly the same. Please do not philosophize and
over-analyze this simple question!
What is the feeling of space? The very honest and
direct answer is, nothing! Space has no texture whatsoever
in all those different places. Even though you might have a
holiday home on the moon, on Mars, on Jupiter or even on
a remote planet in another galaxy, the texture of space there
is still exactly the same as the space you are touching in
front of you right now › nothing! Please feel free to ask any
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astronauts who have been into space. Although they havenût
been to Mars or Jupiter, they can tell you the space outside
the Earthûs atmosphere has the same consistency as the space
on Earth › nothing!
The simple reason is because there is only one mag-
nificent gigantic sheet of space stretching from one end of
the universe to the other end. We › meaning everything else
but space › are the extra bits floating amid this awesome
carpet of space. Letûs characterize further that this enor-
mous carpet of space is woven at one sole factory by using
exactly the same transparent yarns and results in the ùnothingû
texture.
We now all have shared the same ùnothing experience.û
The trouble begins when you want to share your ùnothing
experienceû with someone else. Sharing experiences is a
matter of initially translating your own personal encounter
into your own thoughts and feelings or emotions. You must
arrange your thoughts or talk in your head first about your
personal experience. Secondly, you will have to translate
your inner thoughts and feelings into words of your mother
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tongue. Thirdly, should there be widespread interest in your
first-hand experience, your words of your mother tongue
will then be translated into other languages. This depends
entirely on who want to know about your real encounter.
The whole point is that sharing oneûs first-hand
experience requires the use of words and languages, which
are always secondary. Words and language are not the real
experience; they are only the means for communication. When
the space and the nothing experience are shared through
communication, the key words of ùspaceû and ùnothingû
will be represented by countless different languages.
If the experience is unique, significant and extraordinary,
it is natural that more and more people will want to hear
about it, thus requiring its translation into yet even more
languages.
The point is that those who repeat the words of the
first personûs authentic experience may or may not have had
the first-hand experience themselves. Saying the ùnothing
experienceû was originally experienced by Adam, who shared
his unique encounter with Barry, who passed it to Carl and
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then to David and to Eve and so forth. Can you see how this
easily can be turned into a†ùChinese whisper?û Apart from
Adam, who truly felt the space and had the ùnothing
experience,û the rest cannot possibly know what the real
texture of space is if they have not personally touched it.
And we all enjoy a good story: as the message passes through
different languages, it is very likely that the speakers,
who have never touched space before, would spice up
the original words. If they donût do this, they even might
interpret the original words from their own understanding
and beliefs. This could result in the original experience of
ùspaceû easily being turned into an ùalien encounterû, which
is nowhere near the ùnothing experienceû at all!
Unfortunately, this is what happens in the attempt to
describe the nature of the ultimate truth. The fighting amongst
religious factions is nothing more than fighting over the dif-
ferent words representing exactly the same universal nature
or experience, because there can only be one ultimate truth.
In the same way that space has only one texture and
salt has one taste, the universal ultimate entity therefore also
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has one taste. To accommodate the huge diversity of peopleûs
beliefs and different ways of thinking, I therefore listed 28
terminologies in chapter two of this book that represent one
sole nature › the ultimate truth. Those who have truly
witnessed the ultimate and absolute truth will share the same
experience just like knowing the texture of space. When
they need to tell others about this absolute entity, they will
describe it with more or less similar words. Knowers of
the ultimate truth often tell people to abandon words or
language or even knowledge! Thatûs why it is very difficult
to know this universal truth because words, languages,
knowledge are the very tools (vehicles) we need to have
access to the truth. But by using these tools, they become
huge barriers themselves!
To confirm this, Lao Tzu says that Tao has no name;
that which has a name is not Tao. This famous first verse
from Tao Te Ching refers to the abandonment of words and
language.1
1
Lao Tzu, lived in the 6th century BC, was a philosopher in ancient China,
a central figure in Taoism. He left only one book for humankind called: Tao
Te Ching. Tao means the ultimate truth.
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I also believe that whoever wrote the Book of Genesis
must also have seen the ultimate truth. In this case,
the blessed Tree of Life in Godûs kingdom is the absolute
nature, whereas the poisonous Tree of Knowledge is the
obstruction of the real truth. The author strongly condemned
the use of knowledge (words), which is a deterrent to the
truth (God). Thatûs why knowledge becomes poisonous in
the authorûs eyes › a very contradictory concept indeed.
As I see it, the book of Genesis is a story which intends to
illustrate the true wisdom of the two trees. If you can take
away the content regarding God created the world in seven
days along with the making of Adam and Eve › which is a
strong clue telling people this is merely a story › you will
come much closer to knowing the real God.
Then came Jesus Christ who said that God is behind a closed
door, you must knock and he will open the door for you.
This very door that bars you from seeing God as the
ultimate truth again is nothing more than words or language.
The Buddha directly said that Nirvana is the state of
void and non-self which I coined ùthe innocent perceptionû.
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I have no doubt whatsoever that the saints in the past
were trying to tell us the same universal message about
the ultimate truth. Thatûs why they all made similar claims
about setting humanity free from the bondage of spiritual
ignorance (prison).
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Chapter nine
The end without the clear means
Knowing the road to Rome is as significant as know-
ing the existence of Rome. If you know your destination
but you have no idea how to get there, then the journey
cannot be accomplished. Likewise, knowing the gospel about
life beyond a prison wall but not knowing how to exit from
the prison, then, knowing the good news is of little value.
I bring back the triangle representing the structure of
life (life map) so that you can understand my teaching in
this chapter.
Knowing the ultimate truth, our true self, eternal peace
Morality
Meditation ladder
ladder
Nirvana, Tao, God, Ultimate Truth
Morality Wisdom Meditation

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This life map can help evaluate the ability of the different
great teachers in the past. The witness of the absolute truth
always proclaims the ultimate goal of life first. The very
first sentence in the Tao Te Ching says: Tao has no name;
that which has a name is not Tao. Such a unique sentence
depicts a clear witness to the ultimate truth.
This supreme wisdom is mentioned throughout both
the Old and the New Testaments. In the Book of Genesis,
the almighty God warned people from day one to eat plenty
of the fruits from the tree of life (Tao) and not to go near the
tree of knowledge (not Tao) as the fruits were poisonous.
But as to how exactly we can avoid eating the fatal fruit and
how, rather, to eat the blessed apple, is not made clear at
all! Consequently, even these days, humankind has no idea
that we are still eating the poisonous fruits and has totally
abandoned the holy apple which can offer them eternal life
(life outside the prison wall).
Christ came along to confirm the existence of the only
God by telling people to love God more than anything else
in the world and said God was behind the closed door: we
must knock and the door will open. Christ even took a step
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further by telling people that he was the Son of God. If anyone
wants to know God, they have to go through him. All these
extraordinary words and this overwhelming courage can exist
only in those who truly witness the ultimate truth.
Yet, how exactly can we knock on the almighty front
door so that God opens the door to greet us and invites
us into his eternal kingdom? Once again, the method is
unclear, isnût it?
It means that wisdom towards the ultimate goal of life
(middle arrow) has been established by saints, like Lao
Tzu, the author of the book of Genesis, and by Christ.
Although the goal is apparent, it does not give people clear
enough guidelines as how to penetrate or experience such
profound wisdom.
Tao Te Ching simply tells people to harmonize with
nature. But how exactly can you live in harmony with
nature (Tao)? By thinking, believing or what and how
exactly must we do? Do you know the precise skill to be
with Tao? It is easier said than done, isnût it? Compared to
the triangle representing the structure of life, the Tao Te
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Ching stresses only one arrow in the middle and still lacks
the arrow on each side.
With Christianity, the emphasis is on two arrows, wis-
dom and morality, which causes the triangle to lean or tilt to
the left-hand side. The concepts about loving enemies and
neighbors just as we love ourselves, turning the other cheek,
running after people and giving them our shirt too are the set
of the very unusual moral principles which prepare people
to enter the kingdom of God or to exit the life prison.
I donût mean to disrespect Christûs teaching. But please
be very honest with yourself. How many Christians can truly
love their enemies just like they love themselves? Not to
mention loving your foul-mouthed neighbors, people nowa-
days even find it difficult to love their own family members.
Thatûs why a husband can kill his wife, children can kill
their parents or vice versa. As a matter of fact, Holy wars
have become an on-going phenomenon for the past two
millennia, havenût they? We must not be afraid to admit
that such high moral principles are nearly impossible to
follow because of one reason › they are difficult! If it were
easy to love enemies and the taxmen like we love ourselves,
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the world community would not be in this huge mess right
now. World peace should have been established within man-
kind long ago!
Morality has evaporated from humanity because there
is no clear guideline telling people how exactly we can love
our enemies, our nosey neighbors and the greedy taxman.
Neither do we know how to turn the other cheek. I believe
that deep in the heart of each and everyone of us, we all
want to do the good and the right thing by Godûs standard,
but it can be very difficult to resist the temptations; neither
can we easily control our rage, hatred and envy, can we?
When people are consumed by burning anger, all hell easily
breaks loose. This is the main reason for all evil actions
in the world, from domestic violence to the holocausts,
causing endless mayhem and immense unnecessary suffering
of humankind.
This is the reason why the Buddha included meditation
in his life map, which forms a better balanced structure for
life (a perfect triangle). Meditation (vipassana or bringing
the mental self back home) is the very skill that can strengthen
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your inner self and give you the power to resist temptation,
cool your burning anger and reduce your hatred, jealousy
and envy. To strengthen the mind by means of meditation is
still very much lacking in mainstream Christianity. Vipassana
is also the very method which allows one to live in harmony
with the Tao as well as offering the insight as to how to spit
out the poisonous fruits from the tree of knowledge so that
one can enter Godûs kingdom.
Through bringing the mental self back home, you will
be able to love your enemies, neighbors and taxmen in the
same way as you love yourself. It is not about forcing your
mind to love someone against your will or bending over
backward to love someone. The secret will be revealed when
you reach the fourth home through vipassana (having the
innocent perception). That is the moment when your ego
will be eradicated and which is also the time when you can
blend in with nature (Tao). Your life-form becomes a teeny
part of the whole (mother nature). The last piece of the
jigsaw puzzle (missing link) has finally found its place and
the whole life picture is subsequently complete!
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The extraordinary innocent perception will allow you
to view everyone with equal value (very tiny parts of na-
ture) including your enemies, nosey neighbors and taxmen.
Only then, will you be able to love the previously disliked
people like you love yourself. In practice, you donût have to
bend over backward to love them or talk to them. You just
donût hate them, and be your true self.
This exceptional vipassana practice is not recorded
clearly in either the Tao Te Ching or the Bible. The ultimate
truth cannot be reached by thinking and imagination; it must
be attained through developing a mental skill just like look-
ing at the hidden three dimensional pictures. Vipassana or
the four foundations of mindfulness has been expounded in
remarkably greater detail in the Buddhist texts and widely
practiced among the committed Buddhists all over the world.
This is one of the reasons why countries in which the
Buddhaûs teaching is predominant are less often in political
conflicts with other religions. There are exceptions, of course.
Curbing anger and hatred in normal circumstances (as in a
democratic-based society) is already very difficult. People
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under dictatorial rule will find it a hundred times more dif-
ficult to practice vipassana because their lack of freedom to
move and speak always gives them unnecessary grief. In
this day and age, dictatorship is unacceptable. All tyrants
must be banished so that people can cope better with their
personal suffering such as illnesses, financial worries, los-
ing loved ones and so on.
Godûs kingdom is not as far away as you think; it is
right here in front of your nose. When the life map (the
path) is clear, it can speed up your mental journey quite
drastically. You can advance to Godûs kingdom (Tao) in no
time at all. But if your map is unclear, you can get lost in a
spiritual jungle for as long as it takes. This will unnecessar-
ily prolong your stay in the life prison (samsara).
There is only one ultimate truth!
If the ultimate truth is not right here in front of you,
where do you think you can find it?
If we can agree with the above maxims, I am con-
vinced that humanity can easily be united in the pursuit and
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self-discovery of the real truth. The only important task we
must do is making sure people have a chance to walk the
path by adopting the vipassana practice. The reason I
invented my terms such as ùbringing the mental self back
homeû for vipassana and ùthe innocent perceptionû for
the ultimate truth is to make sure this crucial practice is
non-religious so that it can accommodate all believers.
I want to think that if ùbringing the mental self back homeû
is successfully implemented in main-stream culture,
humanity will be able to live in harmony, and eternal peace
will definitely be with us at long last. We must try to reduce
our religious differences so that our souls can penetrate and
experience this universal truth.
If this is the first time you have heard about vipassana,
I really hope that you will be able to find a good teacher to
guide you through this crucial practice very soon.1
1
I use Tai chi as a means to help you bring your mental self back home.
If you are interested in my Here and Now Retreat, please see the current
information on my website: www.supawangreen.in.th
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Chapter ten
Correcting bad mental habits
Nearly every problem in the world today can be traced
back to one cause. That is, the excessive thinking of an
individual and the failure to switch off illusive thoughts.
The thinkers subsequently materialize their unwholesome
thoughts into actions, which eventually create the effect of
more havoc in the world community. When people cannot
switch off their angry and hateful thoughts, they actualize
this negative built-up energy into different levels of action
starting from minor offences, domestic violence, violent
crime, up to the worst scenarios, such as a war. A fierce
battlefield and the senseless acts of terrorism are nothing
more than many individualsû hateful and angry thoughts put
together.
Mahatama Gandhi said that the natural resources in the
world are sufficient to feed every single human on earth, but
they are not enough to satisfy even one greedy person. We
only need to look around to see that Gandhi was absolutely
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right. Poverty in the world is certainly man-made. The world
has only a few wealthy people, yet they have the power to
engineer the destiny of so many people. This unjust reality
can be traced back to the greedy thoughts of a handful of
people. Greedy and angry thoughts are related by nature, in
that if we cannot have what we want or crave for, we get
angry and hateful. However, both greedy and angry thoughts
are ruled by delusion. Delusive thought does not have
a distinctive nature like greed and anger. Nonetheless,
delusion reflects itself in the following thoughts and feelings,
e.g. embarrassment, uncertainty, doubt, insecurity, discon-
tentment, boredom and fear. Among those feelings, fear is
the most dangerous of all, e.g. fear of ghosts, poverty, being
ridiculed, ageing, illness, death and so on; all create causes
of unpleasant effects.
We all have experienced how excessive thinking can
make our problems more difficult to solve. Agonizing,
persistent thoughts themselves become a problem in which
we are trapped and which forms a vicious circle. As a result,
people seek all sorts of ways to try to stop thinking about
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their problems. If the problem is not a major one, people
can go out, enjoy themselves and soon forget about it. If the
problem is serious, people need to take some stronger mea-
sures. The most popular solution these days is by grabbing
some form of anti-depressant or taking illegal drugs, and
expecting an immediate result of ending oneûs misery. Eat-
ing disorders and heavy drinking are also other ways to try
to forget oneûs troubled thoughts. If all those measures fail
to work and the mental pain is too severe, many people
choose what they think is an ultimate solution: suicide, ig-
noring the suffering this can cause to loved ones and others.
It is beyond any doubt that stress leading to depression
is one of the most common illnesses of our modern society.
This serious mental condition which hits one in four Brit-
ons, costs Britain more than eight billion pounds a year in
health care, loss of productivity and social security benefits.
The World Health Organization predicts that in 20 years
time, depression will be the second most burdensome illness
in the world.1 So when we see where greed, anger, delusive
1
Daily Mail Thursday 22 April 1999 page 15
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thoughts and depression can really lead, and that trying to
escape them is stressful in itself, we can really understand
the value of finding a way to control our thoughts.
Every day, we hear the phrase, çdonût think about it!é
We are either the one who dishes out this advice or we take
the advice ourselves. It is easier said than done, especially
if we are lectured by others. When we are face to face with
a bombardment of painful thoughts shooting at us like
machine guns, we feel powerless and unable to switch
them off, do we not? This is the condition that the Buddha
compared to humans as being like dust trapped in a cartûs
wheel. To free ourselves from that vicious circle is the most
difficult task on earth. Without the help of the Buddha, we
are still being trapped in the cartûs wheel for as long as it
takes.
However, the sad truth is that the majority of people in
the world still do not know that there is indeed a way out of
that vicious circle. This is the main benefit of studying all
these words.
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Temple-goers in Thailand nowadays are regarded as
having personal problems and needing to seek help from
monks. Very few people can link their mental illness
(unable to stop the unwanted painful thoughts) to the
enlightenment of the Buddha. As a matter of fact, the
enlightenment of the Buddha can directly help us to cure
this most fundamental problem; that is, to be able to stop
thinking when we want to.
Vipassana, which I coin ùbringing the mental self back
home,û is the exact practice of creating such a new mental
habit of switching off unwanted or rubbish thoughts when-
ever they arise. This is the precise mental habit that people
do not have. Inability to turn off harmful thoughts is the root
cause of all problems in the world today. People do not
realize that letting their minds drift away with troubled
thoughts is a bad mental habit which needs to be corrected.
Apart from painful thoughts, people also have dreams
and fantasies, which are yet another type of thought on which
people are hooked. A great number of people are literally
58-104.p65 92 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

living in their dream world of fantasy and imagination all
the time. The next thing is a degree of weirdness which adds
to the shocking results of horrendous crimes. I am sure readers
begin to get the picture of crimes created by or related to
bizarre fantasies.
Paedophiles and serial killers are the obvious examples
of people who did not stop thinking such weird thoughts. In
the case of the two teenagers at Columbine High School
who gunned down 15 youngsters in a high school including
themselves, this is also an example of the result of being
unable to stop their hate-filled thoughts, plus a few other
factors which made such a massacre possible.
One large contributing cause is Hollywood movies,
which encourage individuals with weak minds to build a
fantasy of killing hated people, just like the heroes in films
they idolize. Another main factor is that guns are readily
available in the US. If those two boys were in Britain, that
chilling incident might not have happened, because they
would not have been able to get a hold of guns so easily.
Supawan Green 93
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Another crucial factor to make this crime so horrendous is
the availability of the Internet. I donût know whether I should
use the term fortunate or unfortunate, that our modern
society has such advanced technology as the Internet, which
was meant to unite humanity. Now, we can see the very
dark side of this technology. Without the Internet, many
boys and terrorists would not easily have had access to
the resources for producing bombs. However, we must
understand that Hollywood, the gun laws in the US and
the Internet are only subsequent factors. The root of this
problem still comes back to the failure to switch off bizarre
and destructive thoughts, showing how dangerous bad mental
habits can be.
The suffering of modern people everywhere is the
result of unhealthy mental habits, in which we not only
inflict suffering upon ourselves, but also on others. The
trouble is, it doesnût take very many people to exercise
their destructive fantasies to cause mayhem. During the past
seventy years, four persons (Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung
and Pol Pot) were responsible for the tragic death of more
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than 50 million innocent people. We must not take this
realization (the effects of bad mental habits) too lightly.
A bad mental habit (drifting away with thoughts and
fantasy) is not something that people can easily detect and
put right by themselves. We know that biting fingernails or
grinding teeth are bad physical habits, but it is still difficult
to change even though it is visible. What chance do we have
to change our bad mental habits, something which we
cannot see?
Finally, we must admit that we need help. The arrival
of all great teachers in the past, the Buddha and Christ for
example, was meant for this very purpose; however, most
people cannot understand their holy words well enough to
benefit from them and turn to their teachings as a refuge.
This huge lack of understanding of the holy teachings has
led people to find their refuge in entertainment, drugs and
alcohol instead. This is a terrible shame and disaster can be
imminent at any time!
Supawan Green 95
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The four foundations of mindfulness (bringing the
mental self back home) is the very practice that can correct
bad mental habits. This practice allows you to put destiny
into your own hands instead of in the grip of doctors and
chemists. If you can meet me halfway by learning from me
and seriously engaging in this method, I am sure that you
will have your life back in no time at all. The choice is
entirely yours!
58-104.p65 96 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

Glossary
Arahant : One who has reached the ultimate enlightenment
and become a knower.
Bringing the mental self back home : Home refers to
practicing the four foundations of mindfulness,
i.e. having Tom (consciousness) observing Jerry
(thoughts, memories feelings, emotions, and so
forth).
Devas : Heavenly beings.
Dojo : A school for training in the Japanese arts of self
defense.
Eureka experience : See chapter one.
Four foundations of mindfulness : Four awarenesses
(satipatthana): contemplation of the body, con
templation of feelings and sensations, contem
plation of mental processes, contemplation of
mind objects.
Supawan Green 97
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Four homes : The four foundations of mindfulness.
Innocent perception : Supawanûs coinage referring to the
4th foundation of mindfulness, the ultimate truth,
God, Nirvana, Tao.
Jail-breaking : Referring to the ultimate mental freedom,
Nirvana or God › the disconnecting between Tom
and Jerry by bringing the mental self back home.
Knower : An arahant.
Law of action : See law of Karma.
Law of karma : A universal law of cause and effect as in
wholesome actions (physical, verbal or mental)
have a wholesome effect and unwholesome
actions have an unwholesome effect.
Mental self : The 6th sense.
Nirvana : See chapter five.
Petas : The beings in one of the lower realms in the
Buddhist cosmology, hungry-ghosts.
58-104.p65 98 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

Ring road of samsara : An analogy describing the experi
ence of continuous rebirths.
Samsara : The life environment conditioned by our karmic
force (past actions or causes) and therefore
subjected to rebirth.
Sentient : Responsive to or conscious of sense impressions.
Sixth sense : The consciousness, the subject part of the
mind that observes the object parts of the mind.
Suan Mokkh : A monastery and meditation center in
Southern Thailand founded by Venerable
Buddhadasa.
Ultimate truth, ultimate reality : See the list of 28 syn
onyms on the first page of chapter two.
Venerable Buddhadasa : A Thai monk and an innovative
and fearless teacher of vipassana meditation; one
of Supawan Greenûs teachers.
Supawan Green 99
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Vipassana : Insight; direct meditative observation of oneûs
own bodily and mental processes with the 6th
sense, and using the four foundations of mind
fulness.
.....................................................
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Supawan Greenûs works
In Thai Language
1. ®”π√√®“ª√– “§π‰°≈∫â“π ”π—°æ‘¡æå‚°¡≈§’¡∑Õß
2. „∫‰¡â°”¡◊Õ‡¥’¬« (æ‘¡æå§√—Èß∑’Ë Û) ”π—°æ‘¡æåÕ¡√‘π∑√å
3. §Ÿà¡◊Õ™’«‘μ¿“§»’≈∏√√¡ (æ‘¡æå§√—Èß∑’Ë ı) ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
4. §Ÿà¡◊Õ™’«‘μ¿“§°Æ·Ààß°√√¡ (æ‘¡æå§√—Èß∑’Ë ˆ) ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
5. Õ«¥Õÿμ√‘¡πÿ ∏√√¡∑’Ë¡’„πμπ (æ‘¡æå§√—Èß∑’Ë ı) ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
6. „§√°≈—«μ“¬ øíß∑“ßπ’È ”π—°æ‘¡æå °“¬∫ÿä° å
7. ‰Õπå ‰μπå∂“¡ æ√–æÿ∑∏‡®â“μÕ∫ (æ‘¡æå§√—Èß∑’Ë ˘) ”π—°æ‘¡æåø√’¡“¬¥å
8. æ√¡·¥π¢â“¡‚§μ√ ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
9. ªØ‘∫—μ‘°“√‰≈àÀπŸÕÕ°®“°∫â“π‡≈à¡ Ò, Ú, Û ”π—°æ‘¡æåø√’¡“¬¥å
10. √Ÿâ‡∑à“π’È °ÁæÕ·≈â« (æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π°—π‡∂‘¥) ·®°‡ªìπ∏√√¡∑“π
11. ¥‘π·¥π°—≈ªæƒ°…å ·®°‡ªìπ∏√√¡∑“π
12. æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π μÕπ ºŸâÀ≠‘ß§ππ’È§◊Õ„§√À√◊Õ? ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
13. æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π μÕπ §√Õ∫§√—«...«—ß«π·Ààßªí≠À“™’«‘μ
®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
14. æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π μÕπ ∏√√¡–°—∫‡√◊ËÕß‡æ» (∑’Ë “¡¥â«¬)
®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
15. æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π μÕπ ¶à“μ—«μ“¬∑”‰ª ¶à“§«“¡∑ÿ°¢å„®‰¡à¥’°«à“À√◊Õ
∑”Õ¬à“ß‰√„ÀâÀ“¬°≈ÿâ¡„®, ‡√‘Ë¡·°âªí≠À“∑’Ë≈¡À“¬„®
®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
16. æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π μÕπ »“ π“·≈–°“√‡¡◊Õß ®—¥®”Àπà“¬‚¥¬Õ¡√‘π∑√å
Supawan Green 101
58-104.p65 101 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

In English language
1. Dear Colin: What is the Meaning of Life? Minerva Press
2. Can a Caterpillar be Perfect? Mental Health Publication
3. A Handful of Leaves (the 2nd edition) Distributed by Amarin
4. The User Guide to LifeÇThe Moral Diet Distributed by Amarin
5. The User Guide to LifeÇThe Law of Karma Distributed by Amarin
6. Do You Know What A Normal Mind Is? Skybook
7. Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers Skybook
8. Buddha Answers, Einstein Questions (the collection of title no. 6 and no.7
put together) Released soon, distributed
by Amarin
9. Understanding Buddhism and the 6th sense Free distribution
10. A New Hope for Humankind Free distribution
11. Bringing the Mental Self Back Home Released soon
12. Many more unpublished articles and mail answering in the website forum,
please visit www.supawangreen.in.th
Audio CDs Thai/English

®¥À¡“¬∂÷ß¢«—≠
∑”Õ¬à“ß‰√®÷ßÀ“¬°≈ÿâ¡„®
æ“μ—«„®°≈—∫∫â“π°—π‡∂‘¥
Õ«¥Õÿμ√‘¡πÿ ∏√√¡∑’Ë¡’„πμπ
58-104.p65 102 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

°“√Õ∫√¡¢—Èπæ◊Èπ∞“π‡ªìπ‡ ’¬ß®√‘ß¢ÕßÕ“®“√¬å»ÿ¿«√√≥
°“√Õ∫√¡¢—Èπ°â“«Àπâ“‡ªìπ‡ ’¬ß®√‘ß¢ÕßÕ“®“√¬å»ÿ¿«√√≥
The User Guide To Life (can be downloaded from website)
DVD
The User Guide to LifeÇVipassana (in Thai language)
The User Guide to Life ÇBringing the Mental Self Back Home (in English)
Bringing the Mental Self Back Home with Tai Chi and Qi Gong (in Thai)
Bringing the Mental Self Back Home with Tai Chi and Qi Gong (in
English)
Supawan Green 103
58-104.p65 103 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

More information
Should you want to find out more of Supawanûs works, please visit the
following websites and contact.
www.supawangreen.in.th
www.hereandnowholiday.com (purchasing Supawanûs books online)
http://supawangreen.wordpress.com (Supawan gave interviews on
national Thai TV)
http://www.supawangreen.in.th/indexeng.html
http://www.squidoo.com/supawangreen
Downloading free of Supawan Green MP3 (Thai and English)
http://www.supawangreen.in.th/mp3/index_eng.html
Email : supawanpg@gmail.com; innocentperception@gmail.com
Address : PO Box 2034
Post Office Branch Rama V (Chulalongkorn University)
10332 Bangkok, Thailand
Tel. 089-0195656, 086-6100001, 086-5639031, 081-8066009
(speaking to Thai staff)
58-104.p65 104 2/24/09, 6:23 PM

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Ven. Ajahn Sumedho

Amaravati Buddhist Monastery,

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This wide range of terminologies can reduce your con-

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Three groups of people

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Caption: The ring road of samsara is made up of six main

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