If you keep thinking of all the way in which others cheated you, fought with you,
degraded you or angered you, your heart will forever be full of hatred.
Learn to let go, and be happy. ~Buddha
There may be times when those you love do not seem to care for you, and you are apt to have a heavy heart. But there is no just cause for dejection. What does anything matter so long as you know that you are full of compassion for your fellow men? One should never depend on others for one’s happiness. He who expects to secure satisfaction in life from others is worse than the beggar who kneels and cries for his daily bread. ~by Venerable Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda
The Buddha considered gratitude to be a great virtue. Yes, it is true that this virtue is rare in any society. You cannot always expect other people to be grateful to you for what you have done. People are inclined to be forgetful especially when it comes to remembering past favours. If people fail to show gratitude, you have to learn accept them as such – only then can you avoid disappointment. You can be happy regardless of whether people arẹ grateful for your kindness and help; you need only think and feel satisfied that you have done your noble duty as a human being to your fellow men. ~by Venerable Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda
“Compassion is often thought of as akin to pity, but whereas pity may be condescending, compassion springs from a sense of the equality and interconnectedness of life. Genuine compassion is about empowering others, helping them unlock strength and courage from within their lives in order to overcome their problems.”
The most basic wish of all people is to live happily. Yet human society is shaped by forces that work powerfully against this basic desire: from pervasive violence, to wanton environmental destruction, to the exploitation that structures such deep inequalities between people. Courtesy July 2010 SGI Quarterly
“Buddha means the fully Enlighten One, perfect in Wisdom and Compassion. He got Enlighten without any help from others. He is known as the Teacher of Gods and Men. He is dead now. Dhamma, The Teachings of the Buddha, are helping us in our everyday life. The Buddha is therefore alive. The Dhamma teaches us to do good, avoid doing bad and make our mind happy. The Buddha wants us come and see his teachings and to think and ask questions when we are in doubt and to experience the goodness in it.” Source: D-Kidz
Traditionally, joss or incense sticks, candles, and flowers are three of the common offerings. Informed Buddhists will know that these items are not really ‘offerings’, but are actually just symbolic reminders.
For example. joss sticks or incense remind us of the ‘fragrance’ of the Buddha’s Teachings which pervade the world. Candles represent His Teachings which light our way in darkness. And flowers remind us that our lives are impermanent, like the flowers we ‘offer’.
Flowers when in bloom are beautiful and sweet smelling, but will fade and whither after only a few days. Similarly, all of us will eventually grow old and die. Therefore, the flowers remind us that we should use as much of our time as possible to do good for others, and to practice the Buddha’s Teachings. Source: Just be good
As a human being, you have the right to get angry; but as a practitioner,
you do not have the right to stop practicing. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
When we speak, we want to say something sweet, but we don’t say something sweet because something is ordering us from deep down to say something unkind. We want to open our hearts to people, but we can’t do it, because we are being ordered around by the sufferings we have concealed deep in our consciousness. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, was born in 623 B.C. in the famous gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. Among the pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars there. The site is now being developed as a Buddhist pilgrimage centre, where the archaeological remains associated with the birth of the Lord Buddha form a central feature.As the birthplace of the Lord Buddha – the apostle of peace and the light of Asia was born in 623 BC – the sacred area of Lumbini is one of the holiest places of one of the world’s great religions, and its remains contain important evidence about the nature of Buddhist pilgrimage centres from a very early period. Lumbini, in the South-Western Terai of Nepal, evokes a kind of holy sentiment to the millions of Buddhists all over the world, like Jerusalem to Christians and Mecca to Muslims.
Lumbini is the place where the Buddha, known as the Tathagata, was born. It is the place which should be visited and seen by a person of devotion and which should cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of impermanence. The site and its surrounding area is endowed with a rich natural setting of domesticable fauna and favourable agricultural environ. Historically, the region is an exquisite treasure-trove of ancient ruins and antiquities, dating back to the pre-Christian era. The site, described as a beautiful garden in the Buddha’s time, still retains its legendary charm and beauty.
The birthplace of the Gautama Buddha, Lumbini, is one of the four holy places of Buddhism. It is said in the Parinibbana Sutta that Buddha himself identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, Enlightenment, First Discourse, and death. All these events happened outside in nature under trees. There is no particular significance in this, other than it perhaps explains why Buddhists have always respected the environment and natural law.
Lumbini is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in modern Nepal. In the Buddha’s time, Lumbini was a beautiful garden full of green and shady sal trees (Shorea robusta ). The garden and its tranquil environs were owned by both the Shakyas and the clans. King Suddhodana, father of Gautama Buddha, was of the Shakya dynasty and belonged to the Kshatriya (warrior caste). Maya Devi, his mother, gave birth to the child on her way to her parent’s home in Devadaha while resting in Lumbini under a sal tree in the month of May, 642 BC. The beauty of Lumbini is described in Pali and Sanskrit literature. Maya Devi, it is said, was spellbound to see the natural grandeur of Lumbini. While she was standing, she felt labour pains and catching hold of a drooping branch of a sal tree, she gave birth to a baby, the future Buddha.
In 249 BC, when the Indian Emperor Ashoka visited Lumbini, it was a flourishing village. Ashoka constructed four stupas and a stone pillar with a figure of a horse on top. The stone pillar bears an inscription, which in translation runs as follows: ‘King Piyadasi (Ashoka), beloved of devas, in the 20th year of the coronation, himself made a royal visit, Buddha Sakyamuni having been born here; a stone railing was built and a stone pillar erected to the Bhagavan having been born here, Lumbini village was taxed reduced and entitled to the eight part (only)’.
Lumbini remained neglected for centuries. In 1895, Feuhrer, a famous German archaeologist, discovered the great pillar while wandering about the foothills of the Churia range. Further exploration and excavation of the surrounding area revealed the existence of a brick temple and sandstone sculpture within the temple itself, which depicts the scenes of the Buddha’s birth.
It is pointed out by scholars that the temple of Maya Devi was constructed over the foundations of more than one earlier temple or stupa, and that this temple was probably built on an Ashokan stupa itself. To the south of the Maya Devi temple there is the famous sacred bathing pool known as Puskarni. It is believed that Maya Devi took a bath in this pool before the delivery. By the side of the Ashoka pillar a river which flows south-east and is locally called the Ol. In 1996, an archaeological dig unearthed a ‘flawless stone’ placed there by Ashoka in 249 BC to mark the precise location of the Buddha’s birth more than 2,600 years ago. if authenticated, the find will put Lumbini even more prominently on the map for millions of religious pilgrims.
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
There are two things important to keep in mind: self-examination and self-correction. We should constantly check our attitude toward others, examining ourselves carefully, and we should correct ourselves immediately when we find we are in the wrong.
I have written the above lines
To tell my constant feeling.
Whenever I meet even a ‘foreigner’,
I have always the same feeling:
‘I am meeting another member of the human family.,
This attitude has deepened
My affection and respect for all beings.
May this natural wish be
My small contribution to world peace.
I pray for a more friendly,
More caring, and more understanding
Human family on this planet.
To all who dislike suffering,
Who cherish lasting happiness –
This is my heartfelt appeal.
~Dalai Lama
Grandma in Cambodia
by Bhikkhu T. Seelananda
Parents are the fountains of our lives. They are our precious gems. They are the sun and moon in our world, in our family. Father is the Sun and mother is the moon. As Buddhists, as well as grateful and faithful sons and daughters, we cannot think of a life without our parents.
As the Matchless Teacher, the Knower of the World, the Buddha has taught us that it is our bounden duty, a moral obligation to respect and support our parents unceasingly, especially when they reach old age, and when they are feeble or sick. If one does not support one’s parents in general or in the latter part of their lives in particular; he or she, according to Buddhism, is an ungrateful and uncivilized son or daughter. S/he is an outcaste. The Buddha declared this very clearly in the Wasala sutta, the Discourse on outcastes:
“Yo mātaram vā pitaram vā
jinnakam gata yobbanam
pahusanto na bharati
tam jaññā vasalo iti”.
(Having much wealth, if one does not maintain, his/her parents; know that s/he is an outcaste).
On the contrary, in the Blessing discourse (Mangala Sutta), the Buddha said, “Mātā pitu upatthānam etam mangalam uttamam” means supporting parents is a great blessing. Having good parents, kind-hearted parents, is really a very great blessing to a family, a great fortune.
As Buddhists, whenever we get together and perform good deeds, meritorious deeds, never forget our parents we commemorate the great virtues of our parents. Specially we commemorate the departed parents affectionately and respect and support our parents while they are alive.
This is one of the strong Sri Lankan Buddhist traditions in which we respect and become more and more obedient to our parents. In general, we should honour, respect and revere our parents whenever possible. As instructed in the teaching of the Buddha we should respect our parents while they are with us and also after their demise. Intrinsically, we are always ready to listen to our parents. Though we have our own freedom, ideas, and opinions, we keep our parents as the guiding light of our lives. We know very well that without our parents we would not be here today; that is to be understood by all of us very clearly. Who paved the way for all of us to stand on our own two feet? Who sweat days and nights for us, who fed us, who gave us whatever we asked for; in brief, who worked like dogs, like Trojans to make us happy from our earliest days? There was none other than our parents. That is why we should repeatedly respect and support our parents.
We should respect and support our parents while they are alive. There are some people in our society who try to respect their parents only after their deaths. While they are alive, no one is there to support them and treat them. Sometimes, they die without a sip of water. But right after that the children start to cry and weep and going from place to place build many kinds of monuments spending thousands or millions in their names. But that helps them only a very little. They have gone for good. For the departed ones there is only a very narrow opportunity to receive merit. Therefore, better to do it while alive, today, right now, do your own merit by yourself.
We see some children who dislike looking after their parents strive to find some excuses saying that they have no time. But when we were little ones our mother or father did not seek such excuses. However, those who seek loopholes are not regarded as truly grateful sons and daughters. This is not the way that we should respect and support our humble and simple parents especially at the time in need. If we are mindful enough we can perform many kinds of meritorious deeds such as generosity, morality and meditation on behalf of our parents while they are still with us and also after their passing away. This is also one of the moral duties of the children. As the Buddha said, this will be certainly a great help for their samsāric journey.
If the departed ones have been reborn in a place where they can receive our merit, they will definitely receive it. Otherwise, it is not wasting still it’s yours. Anyhow, by the same token, we all should understand clearly that all those who die cannot receive merit as there are only a few states where beings can receive merit. However, again, that is beyond our consciousness. Whether or not they are ready to receive this merit, it is our duty that we share merit with them, whoever departed us.
Source: Bhavana Society
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