With a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating love over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths…
~Maha Ghosananda
Pope John Paul II is embraced by Cambodian Buddhist monk Maha Ghosananda during an interreligious ecounter in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27, 1986.
On the seventh day after the Buddha’s homecoming Princess Yasodhara dressed up young Rahula. The Buddha’s son had been brought up by his mother and grandfather and was now seven years old. She pointed to the Buddha and said, “That is your father, Rahula. Go and ask him for your inheritance.”
Innocent Rahula went to the Buddha and, looking up into his face, told him what his mother had asked him to say, adding, “Father, even your shadow is pleasing to me.”
As the Buddha left the palace Rahula followed him saying, “Give me my inheritance.” Coming to the park the Buddha thought, “He desires his father’s wealth, but this goes with the worldly life and is full of trouble and suffering. I shall instead give him what I know and thus give him an excellent inheritance.” The Buddha then asked Sariputta, one of his disciples, to ordain Rahula.
When King Suddhodana heard that his beloved grandson had become a monk he was deeply grieved. The king said, “When you left home it made me sad. When Nanda left home my heart ached. I concentrated my love on my grandson and again the one I love has left me. Please do not ordain anyone without their parent’s permission.” To this the Buddha agreed and never ordained anybody after that without their parents’ permission. Link source
It is very important to cultivate mindfulness right from the beginning. Otherwise, if you let negative emotions and thoughts arise inside you without any sense of restraint, without any mindfulness of their negativity, then in a sense you are giving them free reign. They can then develop to the point where there is simply no way to counter them. However, if you develop mindfulness of their negativity, then when they occur, you will be able to stamp them out as soon as they arise. You will not give them the opportunity or the space to develop into full-blown negative emotional thoughts. The way in which this third verse suggests we apply an antidote is, I think, at the level of the manifested and felt experience of emotion. Instead of getting at the root of emotion in general, what is being suggested is the application of antidotes that are appropriate to specific negative emotions and thoughts. For example, to counter anger, you should cultivate love and compassion. ~H.H. Dalai Lama
Painted White Orchids. Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise-
As they endanger myself and others-
May I strongly confront them and avert them.
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
This verse really gets to the heart of what could be called the essence of the practice of the buddhadharma. When we talk about Dharma in the context of Buddhist teachings, we are talking about nirvana, or freedom from suffering. Freedom from suffering, nirvana, or cessation is the true Dharma. There are many levels of cessation–for example, restraint from killing or murder could be a form of Dharma. But this cannot be called Buddhist Dharma specifically because restraint from killing is something that even someone who is nonreligious can adopt as a result of following the law. The essence of the Dharma in the Buddhist tradition is that state of freedom from suffering and defilements (Skt. klesha, Tib. nyonmong) that lie at the root of suffering. This verse addresses how to combat these defilements or afflictive emotions and thoughts. One could say that for a Buddhist practitioner, the real enemy is this enemy within–these mental and emotional defilements. It is these emotional and mental afflictions that give rise to pain and suffering. The real task of a buddhadharma practitioner is to defeat this inner enemy.
Since applying antidotes to these mental and emotional defilements lies at the heart of the Dharma practice and is in some sense its foundation, the third verse suggests that it is very important to cultivate mindfulness right from the beginning. Otherwise, if you let negative emotions and thoughts arise inside you without any sense of restraint, without any mindfulness of their negativity, then in a sense you are giving them free reign. They can then develop to the point where there is simply no way to counter them. However, if you develop mindfulness of their negativity, then when they occur, you will be able to stamp them out as soon as they arise. You will not give them the opportunity or the space to develop into full-blown negative emotional thoughts. The way in which this third verse suggests we apply an antidote is, I think, at the level of the manifested and felt experience of emotion. Instead of getting at the root of emotion in general, what is being suggested is the application of antidotes that are appropriate to specific negative emotions and thoughts. For example, to counter anger, you should cultivate love and compassion.
To counter strong attachment to an object, you should cultivate thoughts about the impurity of that object, its undesirable nature, and so on. To counter one’s arrogance or pride, you need to reflect upon shortcomings in you that can give rise to a sense of humility. For example, you can think about all the things in the world about which you are completely ignorant. Take the sign language interpreter here in front of me. When I look at her and see the complex gestures with which she performs the translation, I haven’t a clue what is going on, and to see that is quite a humbling experience. From my own personal experience, whenever I have a little tingling sense of pride, I think of computers. It really calms me down!
These are the first three verses from the Eight Verses of Training the Mind, and commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama that was given on November 8, 1998 in Washington D.C. Link source
March 18, 1919 – August 31, 2006
Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammanada Is a household name in the Buddhist world. In more than forty two years as incumbent of the Buddhist Maha Vihara, Malaysia, the Venerable has brought the Buddha Word to countless numbers of devotees who otherwise would have has no access to the sublime message of the Enlightened One.
Besides his talks the Venerable has been able to reach an even wider audience through his publications which range from the voluminous “Dhammapada” to little five page pamphlets. He has been able to reached all levels of readers from erudite scholar monks to young school children. His whole approach to the exposition of the Dhamma is governed by his deep concern for giving the ancient teachings a contemporary relevance, to show that the Sublime Message is timeless and has a meaning that cuts across the boundaries of time, space, race, culture and even religious beliefs. Link source
A puppy does not begin trying to walk until as early as 2 weeks and as late as 5 weeks old – They do not automatically know how to walk, they stumble and fall down just like toddlers do. Out of the 5 senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing and seeing, a puppy first experiences touch. At about 6 weeks old, a dam will start encouraging her pups to venture out and slowly become more independent. Source: The Dog fact information center
Finding a way to extend forgiveness to ourselves is one of our most
essential tasks. Just as others have been caught in suffering, so have we.
If we look honestly at our life, we can see the sorrows and pain that have led
to our own wrongdoing. In this we can finally extend forgiveness to ourselves;
we can hold the pain we have caused in compassion. Without such mercy,
we will live our own life in exile.
“In deep self-acceptance grows a compassionate understanding.
As one Zen master said when I asked if he ever gets angry,
‘Of course I get angry, but then a few minutes later I say to myself,
‘What’s the use of this,’ and I let it go.’” ~Jack Kornfield
The Buddhist attitude is one of loving-kindness (metta), of open acceptance of everything as it is. If we take loving-kindness to its ultimate, all conditioned phenomena are accepted for what they are. That doesn’t mean all things are approved of; they are simply accepted. Everything has to be the way it is in the moment. You can’t say, ‘I don’t want the weather to be like this,’ or, ‘I don’t want things to be this way.’ If you do, you are not accepting the way it is and are creating suffering around something that you don’t like or don’t want.
You can also have loving-kindness for your dislike of the way it is, so you are not even criticising yourself for being critical. Feeling despair and self-aversion for being critical or selfish is another trap of the mind. Even if you are sitting here hating yourself, thinking of yourself as selfish and critical and not a very nice person, you can have metta for that; you can have loving-kindness for the critical mind. Patient acceptance is nonaversion to everything that is happening now.
~Ajahn Sumedho
Pink Arid Blossom. Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
When walking, as we step one foot forward, we lift the others foot up.
In the same way, should let go of yesterday, and focus on today.
~Master Cheng Yen
Backlit Grass. Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body
and by grasping the link between belief and biology.
~Deepak Chopra
ព្រះត្រៃបិដក ប្រែថា កញ្រ្ចែង ឬ ល្អី ៣ សម្រាប់ដាក់ផ្ទុកពាក្យពេចន៍នៃព្រះសម្មាសម្ពុទ្ធ
The Tipitaka or Pali canon, is the collection of primary Pali language texts which form the doctrinal foundation of Theravada Buddhism. The three divisions of the Tipitaka are: Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, Abhidhamma Pitaka.
វចនានុក្រមសម្តេចសង្ឃ ជួន ណាត
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Listen to Khmer literature and Dhamma talk by His Holiness Jotannano Chuon Nath, Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Buddhism.
Should anyone wish to ridicule me and make me an object of jest and scorn why should I possibly care if I have dedicated myself to others?
Let them do as they wish with me so long as it does not harm them. May no one who encounters me ever have an insignificant contact.
Regardless whether those whom I meet respond towards me with anger or faith, may the mere fact of our meeting contribute to the fulfilment of their wishes.
May the slander, harm and all forms of abuse that anyone should direct towards me act as a cause of their enlightenment.
As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, so the wise are not shaken by blame and praise. As a deep lake is clear and calm, so the wise become tranquil after they listened to the truth…
Good people walk on regardless of what happens to them. Good people do not babble on about their desires. Whether touched by happiness or by sorrow, the wise never appear elated or depressed. ~The Dhammapada
