The key to success
Comment
June 14, 2015
Success isn’t the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
~Buddha
Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
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Toward the Unconditioned
Comment June 14, 2015
by Venerable Ajahn ChahToday is the day on which we Buddhists come together to observe the Uposatha precepts and listen to the Dhamma, as is our custom. The point of listening to the Dhamma is firstly to create some understanding of the things we don’t yet understand, to clarify them, and secondly, to improve our grasp of the things we understand already. We must rely on Dhamma talks to improve our understanding, and listening is the crucial factor.
For today’s talk please pay special attention, first of all straightening up your posture to make it suitable for listening. Don’t be too tense. Now, all that remains is to establish your minds, making your minds firm in samadhi. The mind is the important ingredient. The mind is that which perceives good and evil, right and wrong. If we are lacking in sati for even one minute, we are crazy for that minute; if we are lacking in sati for half an hour we will be crazy for half an hour. However much our mind is lacking in sati, that’s how crazy we are. That’s why it’s especially important to pay attention when listening to the Dhamma.
All creatures in this world are plagued by nothing other than suffering. There is only suffering disturbing the mind. Studying the Dhamma is for the purpose of utterly destroying this suffering. If suffering arises it’s because we don’t really know it. No matter how much we try to control it through will power, or through wealth and possessions, it is impossible. If we don’t thoroughly understand suffering and its cause, no matter how much we try to “trade it off” with our deeds, thoughts or worldly riches, there’s no way we can do so. Only through clear knowledge and awareness, through knowing the truth of it, can suffering disappear. And this applies not only to homeless ones, the monks and novices, but also to householders: for anybody who knows the truth of things, suffering automatically ceases. Continue reading
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As the yellow leaf
Comment June 13, 2015
You are as the yellow leaf.
The messengers of death are at hand.
You are to travel far away.
What will you take with you?You are the lamp
To lighten the way.
Then hurry, hurry.When your light shines
Without impurity or desire
You will come into the boundless country.Your life is falling away.
Death is at hand.
Where will you rest on the way?
What have you taken with you?You are the lamp
To lighten the way.
Then hurry, hurry.When your light shines purely
You will not be born
And you will not die.― Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada
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Instructive and truthful
Comment June 13, 2015One who utters speech that isn’t rough
But instructive and truthful
So that he offends no one,
Him I call Brahmin.~Anonymous, The Dhammapada
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We can do something for peace every day
Comment June 13, 2015Peace is not something we can only hope for. Peace is something we can contemplate in our daily life by our practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking, embracing our fear, our anger, producing the energy of understanding and compassion. And with that element of peace in us, we should be able to support our government, our Congress.
And let us remember that peace is in our hands. We can do something for peace every day. Let us practice as individuals. Let us practice as communities, as Sanghas, and let us give peace a chance. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
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Compassionate listening
Comment June 13, 2015
Buddha in Tushita Heaven
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Listening to our own suffering, our own fear, our own anger is the first thing we have to do as a person and as a community. After that, when we have some insight about the roots of our fear, our anger, our despair, then we can listen to other groups of people.
While listening, you have to practice mindful breathing in order to keep calm, to maintain compassion in you, because that practice of deep listening is also called the practice of compassionate listening.
Compassionate listening means to listen with one purpose: helping the other side, the other person to express himself or herself and to get relief. You don’t listen to criticize. You just listen in order to give the other person a chance to empty his heart; to empty her heart in order to get relief.
When you can listen like that for one hour to the other person, he or she will get relief. During the whole time of listening, you keep your practice of mindful breathing, in order to maintain compassion. If these two things do not exist during the time of listening, your listening will not have a good effect.
Even if the other side says things that are full of wrong perceptions, blaming and judgment, you are still capable of listening with compassion. This is extremely important. And that is possible only with the practice of mindful breathing and the maintaining of compassion during the whole time of listening. We have to train ourselves for at least one week in order to be able to do it and to help our beloved one get relief.
When you are the person who speaks, you practice gentle speech, loving speech. You have the right, and you have a duty to tell the other group of people, the other person, what is in your heart. But you have to use the kind of language that can convey your feelings, that can convey your insights, your suffering to the other person; namely, the language of love and kindness.
If you do not use the language of love and kindness, then you touch off the energy of anger and hatred in the other person, and he or she will not be able to listen to you. That is why it is very important to practice loving speech, gentle speech.
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No unkind word
Comment June 12, 2015There was never an occasion when the Buddha
flamed forth in anger, never an incident
when an unkind word escaped his lips.~Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
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The faithful
Comment June 12, 2015Even if the faithful can recite
only a few of the scriptures,
if they act accordingly,
having given up passion, hate, and folly,
being possessed of true knowledge and serenity of mind,
craving nothing in this world or the next,
they are living the holy life.Even if the thoughtless can recite many of the scriptures,
if they do not act accordingly,
they are not living the holy life,
but are like a cowherd counting the cows of others.~Buddha,The Dhammapada
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The virtuous
Comment June 12, 2015The virtuous are happy in this world,
and they are happy in the next; they are happy in both.
They are happy when they think of the good they have done.
They are even happier when going on the good path.Wrong-doers suffer in this world,
and they suffer in the next; they suffer in both.
They suffer when they think of the wrong they have done.
They suffer even more when going on the wrong path.~Buddha,The Dhammapada
Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
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A heart without words
Comment June 11, 2015Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. ~Gandhi
Live & Die for Buddhism
Me & Grandma
A Handful of Leaves
Major Differences
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