3. A Warm Fire in Your Heart

    1 November 30, 2020

    Jendhamuni at the Wachusett Mountain on a rainy and foggy day on November 26, 2020.

    Metta can accurately be compared with a warm and radiant fire burning in your heart. You cannot expect to light the fire of loving-kindness by starting with a difficult object, no more than you can expect to light a campfire by striking a match under a thick log. So do not begin metta meditation by trying to spread metta to yourself or to an enemy. Instead begin by spreading loving-kindness to something that is easy to ignite with loving-kindness, or what I like to call kindfulness. Kindfulness enables you to embrace other beings—as well as yourself—just as they and you are.

    In metta meditation you focus your attention on the feeling of loving-kindness, developing that delightful emotion until it fills the whole mind. The way this is achieved can be compared to the way you light a campfire. You start kindfulness with paper or anything else that is easy to light. Then you add kindling, small twigs, or strips of wood. When the kindling is on fire you add thicker pieces of wood, and after a time the thick logs. Once the fire is roaring and very hot, you can even put on wet and sappy logs and they are soon alight.

    A Warm Fire in Your Heart — Ajahn Brahm

    ***

    Jendhamuni at the summit of the Wachusett Mountain on a rainy and foggy day on November 26, 2020.

    To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. — G.K. Chesterton

  4. Embrace with courage, faith and hope

    1 November 30, 2020

    You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope. — Thomas Merton

  5. Spiritual satisfaction

    Comment November 30, 2020

    Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction. — E. O. Wilson

    Away, away,—to the mountains away,
    Where the pine trees murmur and sway,
    And the foamy waterfalls sing and spring
    Over the boulders gray.

    In Covert, written by Ruby Archer

     

     

  6. Everything in the world is our teacher

    2 November 30, 2020

    With even a little intuitive wisdom we will be able to see clearly the ways of the world. We will come to understand that everything in the world is our teacher. ~ Ajahn Chah

  7. Meditation is like a single log of wood

    Comment November 30, 2020

    Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind. — Ajahn Chah

     

  8. Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top

    Comment November 29, 2020

    Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was. — Dag Hammarskjöld

     

    You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you. – John Muir

     

    The mountains are the last place where man can feel truly wild. – We Dream of Travel

     

    So this was what a mountain was like, the same as a person: the more you know, the less you fear. – Wu Ming-Yi

     

    Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb. — Greg Child

     

    The way up to the top of the mountain is always longer than you think. Don’t fool yourself, the moment will arrive when what seemed so near is still very far. — Paulo Coelho

     

    “Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing. — Barry Finlay Continue reading →

  9. The sacred place of silent minds and deep souls is the depths of the forest

    Comment November 28, 2020

    Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. — John Muir

     

    What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in, whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain future that is unfolding. ― Jim Robbins, The Man Who Planted Trees: Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet

     

    The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axe-man who destroys it. — Gautama Buddha

     

    The sacred place of silent minds and deep souls is the depths of the forest! ― Mehmet Murat ildan

     

    A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

    Continue reading →

  10. Most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard

    Comment November 26, 2020

    The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. — Helen Keller

     

    Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. — Maya Angelou

     

    Some love stories aren’t epic novels.  Some are short stories. But that doesn’t make them any less filled with love. — Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City

     

    To love or have loved, that is enough.  Ask nothing further. — There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

     

    I just want you to know that you’re very special. . . and the only reason I’m telling you is that I don’t know if anyone else ever has. — Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower Continue reading →

Live & Die for Buddhism

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Me & Grandma

My Reflection

This site is a tribute to Buddhism. Buddhism has given me a tremendous inspiration to be who and where I am today. Although I came to America at a very young age, however, I never once forget who I am and where I came from. One thing I know for sure is I was born as a Buddhist, live as a Buddhist and will leave this earth as a Buddhist. I do not believe in superstition. I only believe in karma.

A Handful of Leaves

A Handful of Leaves

Tipitaka: The pali canon (Readings in Theravada Buddhism). A vast body of literature in English translation the texts add up to several thousand printed pages. Most -- but not all -- of the Canon has already been published in English over the years. Although only a small fraction of these texts are available here at Access to Insight, this collection can nonetheless be a very good place to start.

Major Differences

Major Differences in Buddhism

Major Differences in Buddhism: There is no almighty God in Buddhism. There is no one to hand out rewards or punishments on a supposedly Judgement Day ...read more

Problems we face today

jendhamuni pink scarfnature

Of the many problems we face today, some are natural calamities and must be accepted and faced with equanimity. Others, however, are of our own making, created by misunderstanding, and can be corrected...

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