1. 10 Signs it’s Time to Let Go

    Comment

    Holding on is being brave, but letting go and moving on
    is often what makes us stronger and happier.

    Here are ten signs it’s time to let go:

    1. Someone expects you to be someone you’re not. – Don’t change who you are for anyone else.  It’s wiser to lose someone over being who you are, than to keep them by being someone you’re not.  Because it’s easier to mend a broken heart, than it is to piece together a shattered identity.  It’s easier to fill an empty space in your life where someone else used to be, than it is to fill the empty space inside yourself where YOU used to be.

    2. A person’s actions don’t match their words. – Everybody deserves somebody who helps them look forward to tomorrow.  If someone has the opposite effect on you, because they are consistently inconsistent and their actions don’t match up with their words, it’s time to let them go.  It’s always better to be alone than to be in bad company.  True friendship is a promise made in the heart – silent, unwritten, unbreakable by distance, and unchangeable by time.  Don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do.  Your true friends will slowly reveal themselves over time.

    3. You catch yourself forcing someone to love you. – Let us keep in mind that we can’t force anyone to love us.  We shouldn’t beg someone to stay when they want to leave.  That’s what love is all about – freedom.  However, the end of love is not the end of life.  It should be the beginning of an understanding that love sometimes leaves for a reason, but never leaves without a lesson.  If someone truly loves you, they will never give you a reason to doubt it.  Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you, but it takes someone really special to stay in your life and prove how much they love you.  Sometimes it takes awhile to find the right person, but the right person is always worth the wait.  Read The Road Less Traveled.

    4. An intimate relationship is based strictly on physical attraction. – Being beautiful is more than how many people you can get to look at you, or how others perceive you at a single glance.  It’s about what you live for.  It’s about what defines you.  It’s about the depth of your heart, and what makes you unique.  It’s about being who you are and living out your life honestly.  It’s about those little quirks that make you, you.  People who are only attracted to you because of your pretty face or nice body won’t stay by your side forever.  But the people who can see how beautiful your heart is will never leave you. Continue reading

  2. True peace is found in this moment

    139

    End each day with thoughts of peace. Begin each day with thoughts of peace. Continue thinking thoughts of peace throughout your precious day and happiness will be yours. ~Unknown author

  3. 9 Things a True Friend Would Never Do

    375

    1.  Criticize you for being flawed.
    As flawed as you might be, as out of place as you sometimes feel, and as lacking as you think you are, you don’t have to hide all the imperfect pieces of yourself from a true friend.  They see your flaws as features that make you interesting and beautiful.

    The quality of the happiness between two people grows in direct proportion to their acceptance, and in inverse proportion to their intolerance and expectations.  True friends love and appreciate each other just the way they are.

    2.  Walk away when times get tough.
    True friendship and good character is all about how a person nurtures another person when they are vulnerable and can give very little in return.  Thus, it’s not who’s standing beside you during good times, but the ones who stick by you through tough times that are your true friends.

    So take note of who remains in your life when times get tough, especially the people who sacrifice the resources they have in their life to help you improve yours when you need it most.  Seriously, when you come out the other side of a difficult period in your life, look around you.  The people still standing beside you are your true friends.

    3.  Discourage you.
    Unfortunately, some who seem like your friends will try to hold you back from your full potential.  It may be difficult, but don’t let these negative imposters bring you down.  Don’t ever let your so-called friends turn your sky into a ceiling.  Beware of friends who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small hearts and minds always do that.  The greatest hearts and minds – the people you should spend time around – make you feel that you, too, can become great.

    Remember, encouraging things happen when you distance yourself from discouraging people.  Doing so doesn’t mean you hate them, it simply means you respect yourself.  (Angel and I discuss this in more detail in the “Relationships” chapter of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

    4.  Hold a grudge over your head.
    Some people will refuse to accept that you are no longer who you used to be – that you’ve made mistakes in the past, learned from them, and moved beyond them.  They may not be able to stand the fact that you’re growing and moving on with your life, and so they will try to drag your past to catch up with you.  Do not help them by acknowledging their begrudging behavior.  Let go of their negativity, find peace, and liberate yourself!

    A true friend never holds the unchangeable past against you; instead, they help your repair your present and future.  If someone relentlessly judges you by your past and holds it against you, you might have to take matters into your own hands, and repair your present and future by leaving them behind.

    5.  Lie to you.
    When you keep someone in your life who is a chronic liar, and you keep giving them new chances to be trusted, you have a lot in common with this person – you’re both lying and being unfriendly to YOU.

    If you know someone who avoids the truth by telling you only what you want to hear, they do so for their own benefit, not yours.  They are not a true friend and they don’t deserve to be treated as such. Continue reading

  4. True peace and true happiness

    Comment

    A true friend is someone who can offer peace and happiness. If you’re a true friend to yourself, you need to be able to offer yourself true peace and true happiness. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

  5. Dhaniya the Cattleman

    Comment

    Budha and monks

    Sutta Nipata I.2 | Dhaniya Sutta

    Dhaniya the cattleman:[1]

    “The rice is cooked,
    my milking done.
    I live with my people
    along the banks of the Mahi;
    my hut is roofed, my fire lit:
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    The Buddha:“Free from anger,
    my stubbornness gone,[2]
    I live for one night
    along the banks of the Mahi;
    my hut’s roof is open, my fire out:[3]
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    Dhaniya:

    “No mosquitoes or gadflies
    are to be found.
    The cows range in the marshy meadow
    where the grasses flourish.
    They could stand the rain if it came:
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    The Buddha:“A raft, well-made,
    has been lashed together.[4]
    Having crossed over,
    gone to the far shore,
    I’ve subdued the flood.
    No need for a raft
    is to be found:[5]
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    Dhaniya:

    “My wife is compliant, not careless,
    is charming, has lived with me long.
    I hear no evil about her at all:
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    The Buddha:“My mind is compliant, released,
    has long been nurtured, well tamed.
    No evil is to be found in me:
    so if you want, rain-god,
    go ahead & rain.”

    Continue reading

  6. The Story of Cundasukarika

    Comment

    Cundasukarika

    Verse 15: Here he grieves, hereafter he grieves; the evil-doer grieves in both existences. He grieves and he suffers anguish when he sees the depravity of his own deeds.

    While residing at the Veluvana monastery in Rajagaha, the Buddha uttered Verse (15) of this book, with reference to Cunda, the pork-butcher.

    Once, in a village not far away from the Veluvana monastery, there lived a very cruel and hard-hearted pork-butcher, by the name of Cunda. Cunda was a pork-butcher for over fifty-five years; all this time he had not done a single meritorious deed. Before he died, he was in such great pain and agony that he was grunting and squealing and kept on moving about on his hands and knees like a pig for seven whole days. In fact, even before he died, he was suffering as if he were in Niraya*. On the seventh day, the pork-butcher died and was reborn in Avici Niraya. Thus, the evil-doer must always suffer for the evil deeds done by him; he suffers in this world as well as in the next.

    In this connection, the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

    Verse 15: Here he grieves, hereafter he grieves; the evil-doer grieves in both existences. He grieves and he suffers anguish when he sees the depravity of his own deeds.

    *Niraya or Naraka: a place of continuous torment sometimes compared with hell; but it is different from hell because suffering in Niraya is not everlasting like suffering in hell. Avici Niraya is the most fearful of all Nirayas.

    Dhammapada Verse 15
    Cundasukarika Vatthu

    Idha socati pecca socati
    papakari ubhayattha socati
    so socati so vihannati
    disva kammakilitthamattano.

    Source: Tipitaka

  7. What the Buddha said about metta

    Comment

    bluelotus

     

    Bhikkhus, whatever kinds of worldly merit there are, all are not worth one 16th part of the release of mind by universal friendliness; in shining, glowing, beaming & radiance the release of mind by universal friendliness far excels & surpasses them all. Itivuttaka 27

    As a mother even with own life protects her only child, so should one cultivate immeasurable loving-kindness towards all living beings. The Metta Sutta

    He who both day and night takes delight in harmlessness sharing love with all that live, finds enmity with none.
    Samyutta Nikaya. I, 208

    What are the eleven advantages of Metta ?

    One sleeps Happy!
    One wakes Happy!
    One dreams no evil dreams!
    One is liked and loved by all human beings!
    One is liked and loved by all non-human beings too!
    One is Guarded & Protected by the divine Devas!
    One cannot be Harmed by Fire, Poison, or Weapons!
    One swiftly Attains the Concentration of Absorption!
    One’s appearance becomes Serene, Calm, & Composed!
    One dies without Confusion, Bewilderment, or Panic!
    One reappears after death on the Brahma level if one has penetrated to no higher level in this very life!
    Anguttara Nikaya XI.16

    They may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way. They may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way. They may address you with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. In any event, you should train yourselves: ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic to that person’s welfare, with a mind of good will, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading him with an awareness imbued with good will and, beginning with him, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will equal to the great earth — abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.
    Majjhima Nikaya 21

    When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should direct one’s thoughts to the fact of his being the product of his actions: ‘This venerable one is the doer of his actions, heir of his actions, born of his actions, related by his actions, and is dependent on his actions. Whatever actions he does, for good or for evil, to that will he fall heir.’ Thus the hatred for that individual should be subdued.
    Anguttara Nikaya V.161

    I have good will for footless beings,
    good will for two-footed beings,
    good will for four-footed beings,
    good will for many-footed beings.

    May footless beings do me no harm.
    May two-footed beings do me no harm.
    May four-footed beings do me no harm.
    May many-footed beings do me no harm.

    May all creatures,
    all breathing things,
    all beings — each & every one –
    meet with good fortune.
    May none of them come to any evil.
    Anguttara Nikaya IV.67 Continue reading

  8. Reduce your anger…

    Comment

    Do good. Reduce your anger and (try to) do something to train the mind through right understanding. Change the mind through our own experience of understanding what is right and wrong. ~Ven. Dr. K Sri Dhammananda

  9. A Beautiful Day

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    Wishing you a beautiful day, my friend
    With lots of happiness without end
    And even though we are far apart
    You are a friend that warms my heart.

    A beautiful day brings butterflies
    Birds and flowers as a gift
    They enrich our lives like friends,
    That give to us a special lift.

    So I am wishing you a beautiful day
    Oh yes, one more thing I want to say
    May God send many blessings your way
    And may you always walk in joy, I pray.

    Glenna M. Baugh @2006

  10. Don’t live your life with Hate in your Heart

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    Don’t live your life with hate in your heart.  You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too.  If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time. ~Marc and Angel

     

Hermit of Tbeng Mountain

Sachjang Phnom Tbeng សច្ចំ​​ ភ្នំត្បែង is a very long and interesting story written by Mr. Chhea Sokoan, read by Jendhamuni Sos. You can click on the links below to listen. Part 1 | Part 2

List of Khmer songs