Buddhism-Buddhism

Benefits of pain

Comment October 31, 2015

Shantideva cites three benefits of pain. First, it is valuable because through sorrow, pride is driven out. No matter how arrogant and condescending we’ve been, great suffering can humble us. The pain of a serious illness or loss of a loved one can be transformative, softening us and making us less self-centered.

The second benefit of pain is empathy: the compassion felt for those who wander in samsara. Our personal suffering brings compassion for others in the same situation. A young woman was telling me that when her baby died, she felt a deep connection to all the other parents who had lost children. This was, as she put it, the unexpected blessing of her sorrow.

The third value of suffering is that evil is avoided and goodness seems delightful. When we practice according to Shantideva’s instructions, we can get smarter about cause and result. Based on this understanding, we’ll have less inclination to cause harm, and more desire to gather virtue and benefit others.

Pema Chödron
From the book “No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva”
Castles and crowded cities

Comment October 31, 2015

Castles and crowded cities are the places
Where now you love to stay;
But remember that they will fall in ruins
After you have departed from this earth.

Pride and vainglory are the lure
Which now you love to follow;
But remember, when you are about to die
They offer you no shelter and no refuge!

Kinsmen and relatives are the people
With whom now you love to live!
But remember that you must leave them all behind
When from this world you pass away!

Servants, wealth, and children
Are things that you love to hold;
But remember, at the moment of your death
Your empty hands can take nothing with you!

Vigor and health are dearest to you now;
But remember that at the moment of your death
Your corpse will be bundled up and borne away!

Now your organs are clear, your blood and flesh are strong and vigorous;
But remember, at the moment of your death
They will no longer be at your disposal!

Sweet and delicious foods are things
That now you love to eat;
But remember, at the moment of your death
Your mouth will let the spittle flow!

When of all this I think, I cannot help
But seek the Buddha’s teachings!
The enjoyments and pleasures of this world,
For me have no attraction.

I, Milarepa, sing of the Eight Reminders,
At the Guest House of Garakhache of Tsang.
With these clear words I give this helpful warning;
I urge you to observe and practice them!

Milarepa
from the book “The Hundred Thousand Songs Of Milarepa”
The world always finds a way to praise and a way to blame

Comment October 30, 2015

Listen, Atula. This is not new,
It is an old saying –

“They blame you for being silent,
They blame you when you talk too much
And when you talk too little.”
Whatever you do, they blame you.

The world always finds
A way to praise and a way to blame.
It always has and it always will.

But who dares blame the man
Whom the wise continually praise,
Whose life is virtuous and wise,
Who shines like a coin of pure gold?

Even the gods praise him.
Even Brahma praises him.

Beware of the anger of the body.
Master the body.
Let it serve truth.

Beware of the anger of the mouth.
Master your words.
Let them serve truth.

Beware of the anger of the mind.
Master your thoughts.
Let them serve truth.

The wise have mastered
Body, word and mind.

They are the true masters.

~Dhammapada
Gentleness…

Comment October 30, 2015

With gentleness overcome anger.
With generosity overcome meanness.
With truth overcome deceit.

~Dhammapada
The Key

Comment October 29, 2015

While we waited for freedom to take us away from our fear
We searched the earth for love as we knew the key to be
Is the silence which led us here. ~silent lotus
Control your Mind

Comment October 29, 2015

Do you need or enjoy fear, worries and restlessness?
If you don’t, then why do you keep inviting them into your mind?

~Remez Sasson
On Meditation

Comment October 28, 2015

A Dhamma talk by Ajahn Chah

To calm the mind means to find the right balance. If you try to force your mind too much it goes too far; if you don’t try enough it doesn’t get there, it misses the point of balance.

Normally the mind isn’t still, it’s moving all the time. We must strengthen the mind. Making the mind strong and making the body strong are not the same. To make the body strong we have to exercise it, to push it, in order to make it strong, but to make the mind strong means to make it peaceful, not to go thinking of this and that. For most of us the mind has never been peaceful, it has never had the energy of samādhi2, so we must establish it within a boundary. We sit in meditation, staying with the ‘one who knows’.

If we force our breath to be too long or too short, we’re not balanced, the mind won’t become peaceful. It’s like when we first start to use a pedal sewing machine. At first we just practise pedalling the machine to get our coordination right, before we actually sew anything. Following the breath is similar. We don’t get concerned over how long or short, weak or strong it is, we just note it. We simply let it be, following the natural breathing.

When it’s balanced, we take the breathing as our meditation object. When we breathe in, the beginning of the breath is at the nose-tip, the middle of the breath at the chest and the end of the breath at the abdomen. This is the path of the breath. When we breathe out, the beginning of the breath is at the abdomen, the middle at the chest and the end at the nose-tip. Simply take note of this path of the breath at the nosetip, the chest and the abdomen, then at the abdomen, the chest and the tip of the nose. We take note of these three points in order to make the mind firm, to limit mental activity so that mindfulness and self-awareness can easily arise.

When our attention settles on these three points, we can let them go and note the in and out breathing, concentrating solely at the nose-tip or the upper lip, where the air passes on its in and out passage. We don’t have to follow the breath, just to establish mindfulness in front of us at the nose-tip, and note the breath at this one point – entering, leaving, entering, leaving. Continue reading →
Essence

Comment October 26, 2015

Those who regard
non-essence as essence
and see essence as non-,
don’t get to the essence,
ranging about in wrong resolves.
But those who know
essence as essence,
and non-essence as non-,
get to the essence,
ranging about in right resolves.

~Dhammapada

RFA photo/Hang Savyouth
Our actual enemy

Comment October 21, 2015

Our anger is our actual enemy. It is an obstacle that cuts us off from the cause of higher states of rebirth and the definitive excellence that is liberation. If we do not tame it, then outer enemies will simply multiply. They will increase to the same extent that we try to overpower them. And they could present a danger to our lives and to our ability to keep any of the three sets of vows (individual liberation, bodhisattva, and tantric) we may have taken. Since we are the ones who make one another into enemies, they can proliferate without limit. By creating such projections, we are engaging in actions that are detrimental. Why is this so? Because there is not one living being who has not been our mother or father, and therefore they should all be the objects if our compassion. On the other hand, there is not one living being who has not been our enemy. In this way, all living beings are equally our friends and enemies, so being attached to some and feeling hatred for others makes no sense. Through a mind that sees this equality, we should tame the enemy of our own anger with an army of great compassion. This is the practice of a true bodhisattva. 17th Karmapa
As rain seeps…

Comment October 19, 2015

As rain seeps into
an ill-thatched hut,
so passion,
the undeveloped mind.

As rain doesn’t seep into
a well-thatched hut,
so passion does not,
the well-developed mind.

~Dhammapada

RFA/Ouk Savborey

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