Speak the truth not untruth,
Say what is pleasant, not unpleasant;
Speak what is true, not false.
Speak only words that do not bring remorse
Nor hurt another. That is good speech indeed.
~Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, Sayings of the Buddha
Many do not realize that we here must die. For those who realize this, quarrels end.
Though you recite much scripture,
If you are unaware and do not act according
You are like a cowherd counting others’ cattle,
Not a sharer in the wanderer’s life. ~Dhammapada
Kathina Dana ceremony at Wat Kirivongsa Bopharam on October 19, 2014.
The specified slider id does not exist.
Simplicity of life impels us to want or possess fewer things, appreciating more of what we have and using what we possess in the service of others. When we have fewer distractions in our lives then we can concentrate more in our inner realm and truly live the Buddha Dharma and manifest the nembutsu. At its core, simplicity is the living practice of reality as it is. Source: Buddhist Faith
Maha Ghosananda in Cambodia.
by Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda
To take revenge on trouble-makers is only to create more problems and disturbances. You must realise that negative feelings and hostile actions could only bring harm and suffering to both you and the trouble-makers. In order to take retaliatory action, you have to harbour intense hatred in your heart. This hatred is like a poison. Since the poison is initially in you, surely it will harm you before it can harm anyone else. Before you can throw a blazing iron at another, you get burned first. Your action merely goes to show that there is no basic difference between you and your opponent. By hating others, you only give them power over you. You do not solve your problem. If you become angry with a person who simply smiles back at you, then you will feel defeated and miserable. Since he did not co-operate with you to fulfil your wish, it is he who is victorious. The Buddha teaches us how to live happily when we are faced with disturbances.
‘Ah happily do we live without hate amongst the hateful. Amidst hateful men, we live without hate’. — Dhammapada. We can live happily without fanning the fires of hatred. Perhaps you may not be strongh enough to extend compassionate love to your enemies; but the sake of your own health and happiness and that of everybody else, you must at least learn how to forgive and forget. By not hating or crushing your trouble-maker, you act like a gentleman. To act in this manner, you must understand that the other person has been misled by anger, jealousy and ignorance. He is therefore no different from all other human beings who have also at one time or another been misled by the same negative states of mind.
The Buddha says: “Evil-doers are not wicked by nature. They do evil because they are ignorant”. Therefore they need guidance. We should not curse them. It is not justifiable for us to say that they should be condemned to everlasting suffering as it is still not too late to correct them. We should try to explain to them in a very convincing way that they are in fact in the wrong. With this understanding, you can treat the evil-doer as you would a patient who is suffering from a sickness and in need of treatment. When the sickness is cured the ex-patient and everyone else will be well and happy.
The ignorant must be guided by the wise. “Good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge”. If a man does something wrong to you of ignorance or misunderstanding, then that is the time to radiate your compassionate love towards the evil-doer. One day, he will realise this folly and relent on his evil habits. So it is better to give him a chance to be good. Repentance of his past misdeeds will change him into a better person and in the end he will truly appreciate your kind thoughts.
Meditating Buddha statue at the Meditation Center in Leverett, MA.
by Thich Nhat Hanh
You don’t discriminate between the seed and the plant. You see that they ‘inter-are’ with each other, that they are the same thing. Looking deeply at the young cornstalk, you can see the seed of corn, still alive, but with a new appearance. The plant is the continuation of the seed.
The practice of meditation helps us to see things other people can’t see. We look deeply and we see that father and son, father and daughter, mother and son, mother and daughter, corn seed and cornstalk, have a very close relationship. That is why we should awaken to the fact, to the truth, that we inter-are. The suffering of one is the suffering of the other. […] When we see that we and all living beings are made of the same nature, how can there be division between us? How can there be lack of harmony? When we realize our ‘interbeing nature’, we’ll stop blaming and exploiting and killing, because we know that we inter-are. That is the great awakening we must have in order for the Earth to be saved.
We human beings have always singled ourselves out from the rest of the natural world. We classify other animals and living beings as ‘Nature’, a thing apart from us, and act as if we’re somehow separate from it. Then we ask, “How should we deal with Nature?” We should deal with Nature the same way we should deal with ourselves: nonviolently. Human beings and Nature are inseparable. Just as we should not harm ourselves, we should not harm Nature.
Causing harm to other human beings causes harm to ourselves. Accumulating wealth and owning excessive portions of the world’s natural resources deprives fellow humans of the chance to live. Participating in oppressive and unjust social systems creates and deepens the gap between rich and poor, and aggravates the situation of social injustice. While the rest of the human family suffers and starves, the enjoyment of false security and wealth is a delusion.
It’s clear that the fate of each individual is inextricably linked to the fate of the whole human race. We must let others live if we ourselves want to live. The only alternative to coexistence is co-nonexistence. A civilization in which we must kill and exploit others in order to live is not a healthy civilization. […] To bring about peace within the human family, we must work for harmonious co-existence. If we continue to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, imprisoning ourselves in narrow concerns and immediate problems, we’re not likely to make peace or to survive. The human race is part of Nature. We need to have this insight before we can have harmony between people.
~Thich Nhat Hanh in “Nature and Nonviolence”
Purple flowers
by Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda
Occasionally, there are complains from people who have never caused or given any trouble to other people and yet they become innocent victims of the wiles and intrigues of others. They feel frustrated despite the good lives they have lived. They feel they have been harmed through no fault of their own. Under such circumstances, the innocent victim must realise that the world is made up of all sorts of people – the good and the not so good, the bad and the not so bad, with all the unusual characters that go to make this world of ours. The innocent victim may console himself that he belongs to the good category whereas the disturber of the peace belongs to the bad, and that on certain occasions, he will still have to bear patiently the misdeeds of those belonging to the bad. We take for instance the case of a ‘good and careful driver’ and a ‘bad and reckless driver’. The good and careful driver took every precaution to drive carefully but nevertheless he met with an accident, through no fault of his own – the fault being that of a bad and reckless driver. Thus we can see the good may have to suffer, despite their goodness, because there are bad and reckless people around us. The world is neither good nor bad. It produces criminals as well as saints, fools and enlightened ones. Out of the same clay, beautiful and ugly, useful and even useless things can be made. The quality of good pottery depends on the potter and not on the clay. The potter is in fact yourself. The moulding of your happiness or unhappiness is in your hands.
Source: www.dhammatalks.net
Red Roses
by Venenable K. Sri Dhammananda
Fear and worry are born of the imaginings of a mind that is influenced by wordly conditions. They are rooted in craving and attachment. In fact, life is like a motion picture in which everything is constantly moving and changing. Nothing in this world is permanent or still. Those who are youthful and strong have fear of dying young. Those who are old and suffering worry about living too long. Locked in between are those who craze for merriment all the year round.
Joyful expectations of the pleasant seem to pass off too quickly. Fearful expectations of the unpleasant create anxieties that do not seem to go away. Such feelings are natural. Such up and downs of life play with an illusionary self or ego like puppets on a string. But the mind is supreme unto itself.
The training of the mind, otherwise known as mental culture, is the first step towards taming mental unrest. The Buddha has explained:
“From craving springs grief,
from craving springs fear
For him who is wholly free from craving,
there is no grief, much less fear”.
All attachments will end in sorrow. Neither tears nor long goodbyes can end the transitoriness of life. All compounded things are impermanent.
Old and young suffer in this existence. No one is exempted. Many teenagers have growing pains. Being neither frogs nor tadpoles, teenagers are understandably inexperienced at building stable relationships with members of the opposite sex. They try to show off their beauty in trying to impress their opposite sex who are flattered to see themselves as sex objects. Both try to behave not as they really are but as what they think is adult. They are afraid that if they behave naturally they will be laughed at. Beheviour like this has the potential for exploitation. There is fear of rejection as well as worry about deflated egos. Unrequited love will often “break” many teenagers hearts because they feel they have made “fools of themselves”. Some are driven to commit suicide. But such traumas could be avoided if life is seen as it really is. Young people must be taught the Buddhist approach to life, so that they can grow into maturity the correct way.
‘Wheresoever fear arises, it arises in the fool, not in the wise men’. says the Buddha. Fear is nothing more than a state of mind. One’s state of mind is subject to control and direction; the negative thought produces fear, the positive use realizes hopes and ideals. The choice rests entirely with ourselves. Every human being has the ability to control his own mind. Nature has endowed man with absolute control over one thing, and that is thought. Everything a man creates begins in the form of a thought. Here is the key to help one understand the principle by which fear may be mastered.
Source: www.dhammatalks.net
by Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda
No one can live in this world without being blamed and criticised by others. Buddha says:
“People blame others for their silence. They blame those who talk much and those in moderation. There is therefore no one in this world who is not blamed.” Further He says: “There never was, nor will be, nor is there now any one who is wholly blamed or wholly praised.” Not all those who criticise you are your enemies. You can make use of the opportunity to find out your own weaknesses which you yourself cannot see.
You should not give up good work just because of criticism. If you have the courage to carry out your good work is spite of criticisms, you are indeed a great man and could succeed everywhere.
Meditation student taking a break.
by Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda
“We live and work and dream,
Each has his little scheme,
Sometimes we laugh;
Sometimes we cry;
And thus the days go by.”
Buddhist nun and 4-year-old meditation student at the Meditation Center in Leverett, MA.
“If you want to live in this world peacefully and happily, allow others also to live peacefully and happily, so that you can make this world something which is worthy of life.” Unless and until you adjust yourself to live according to these noble principles you cannot expect happiness and peace in this world. You cannot expect this happiness and peace from heaven simply by praying. If you act according to moral principles you can create your own heaven right here in this world. If not you also can see the hell-fire on this earth itself. Not knowing how to live according to this natural and cosmic law, we always grumble when troubles confront us. If each man tries to adjust himself without grumbling and criticising others we can enjoy real heavenly bliss better than the one that some people dream of existing in far beyond above. There is no need to create a heaven elsewhere to reward a virtue, or a hell to punish vice; virtue and evil have inevitable reactions in this world itself. Your faith is immaterial in this respect. This is the highest way that you can help in the welfare of your society and your country. Today, human society has developed up to this level because of this understanding and harmony of some people who have sympathy and tolerance towards the happiness and progress of others. Now you can realise why we should practice morality. On the other hand, you must understand that by helping others morally, you help yourself and by helping yourself morally you help others also.
