การฝึกสมาธิและประโยชน์จากการทำสมาธิ : หน้า 56/124

KALYANAMITRA MAGAZINE March 1989. Young Meditators from Iceland (An interview conducted and edited by Suwanee Srisopa and Nicholas C. Woods) or a long time, it has generally been accepted that all religions aim to change people for the better. However, except for Buddhism, no religion can guide us to be free from the Cycle of Rebirth. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is deliverance from the Cycle of Rebirth resulting from the attentive practice of Noble Eightfold Path. One of the eight elements of the Path is Right Concentration or Meditation. Even as beignners, meditators can realize the benefits of meditation. ๔๔ กัลยาณมิตร Last January there were several foreigners visited Wat Phra Dham- makaya to practise Dhamma. Some stayed only for a few days but some stayed for several weeks. Among them were two pretty A.F.S. stu- dents from Iceland. The first one is Ms. Hulda Olafsdottir, 19 years old, and a second year college student. She was one of the three A.F.S. students from Ice- land to learn about Thailand during March 1988-February 1989. She has been learning at Wat Rāja Orasa School, Thon Buri for about ten months. She came to practise Dhamma at Wat Phra Dhammakāya late in January 1988. Although she wished herself to practise meditation and to learn more about Buddhism at Wat Phra Dhammakāya, she could not extend her stay there because of a visit to Chiangmai arranged in advance. After spending only four days at the Wat, Hulda, this keen and outgoing Icelandic girl, has gained a multi- tude of experiences, especially, con- cerning the meditation. Meditation is Great It is true that we feel happy whenever we are calm-free from all thoughts. Ironically, our mind misses-out on this Happiness be- cause it rarely stops thinking, even when we are sleeping. This is why we dream. Moreover, it is impossi- ble to sleep well with a restless mind and this lead them further into unwholesome states of body and mind. Although a sleeping pill ena- bles one to sleep soundly, it cannot bring real happiness because we need to take increasingly large doses to maintain the strength of the nar- cotic effect. Consequently, the only true medicine, without side effects, is to train our mind to come to a stand- มีนาคม ๒๕๓๒ Kalyanamitra.org