November 2015 — Page 2 of 10 — Jendhamuni-Buddhism

Our planet and our home…

Comment November 27, 2015

We gently caress you, the Earth, our planet and our home.
Our vision has brought us closer to you,
making us aware of the harm we have done
to the life-network upon which we ourselves depend.
We are reminded that we have poisoned your waters, your lands, your air.
We have filled you with the bones of our dead from war and greed.
Your pain is our pain.
Touching you gently, we pray that we may become
peace-bringers and life-bringers so that our home
in its journey around the Sun not become a sterile and lonely place.
May this prayer and its power last forever.

~Sensei Ulrich, Manitoba Buddhist Temple
Transforming greed into gratitude

38 November 27, 2015

Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward & learning to enjoy whatever life has and this requires transforming greed into gratitude. ~John Chrysostom
The Buddha showed much compassion…

Comment November 27, 2015

If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. — Albert Einstein

When the Buddha was diligently walking the path of Bodhisattva, he did not only aspire to achieve Buddhahood for himself. He also had a very deep concern for all the distressed sentient beings in this world. The Buddha showed much compassion in his constant actions of helping sentient beings. The world is like a dirty, stinking sewage tank and we are almost drowning in it. No one but the Buddha was willing to come to this suffering world to rescue us. Therefore, when Buddha was born in this world more than two thousand years ago, he denounced the worldly life, practiced diligently, attained enlightenment and then preached his teachings. If there was no distressed sentient beings like us, he wouldn’t have needed to come into this suffering world, as he had already freed himself from the cycle of birth and death and awakened to the truth of all phenomena.

The contributions of Buddha to us are profound and incomparable. As Buddhists we should reinforce the concept of appreciating the Buddha. Otherwise, if we do not understand the Buddha’s sincerity, do not learn his compassion, and do not pursue the vast merits of the great teaching in Buddhism, we do not qualify as the Buddha’s faithful disciples.

Source: BuddhaNet
Link source
Vows and pledges…

Comment November 27, 2015

Sometimes people mistakenly look on vows and pledges as if these were a type of punishment, but this is not at all the case. For example, just as we follow certain methods of eating and drinking to improve our health and certainly not to punish ourselves, so the rules the Shakymuni Buddha formulated are for controlling counter-productive ill-deeds and ultimately for overcoming afflictive emotions, because these are self-ruinous. Thus, to relieve oneself from suffering, one controls the motivations and deeds producing suffering for one’s own sake. Realizing from his own experience that suffering stems from one’s own afflictive emotions as well as actions contaminated with them, he sets forth styles of behavior to reduce the problem for our own profit, certainly not to give us a hard time. Hence, these rules are for the sake of controlling sources of harm.

— by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba, and Jeffrey Hopkins, from Yoga Tantra
Giving up meat

Comment November 26, 2015

~17th Karmapa

Vegetarianism involves many ethical issues, but it is also an issue of environmental protection. Our reliance on meat is a major cause of climate change, deforestation, and pollution. There is no shortage of facts to demonstrate this to us. Roughly 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animals raised for human consumption. The methane gases emitted by livestock contribute more to climate change than does carbon dioxide. This tells us that if we human beings made a significant shift toward becoming vegetarian, by that shift alone we could dramatically reduce global warming.

As vegetarians, we would also make far more efficient use of what our planet offers us. Vast quantities of feed, water, land, fuel, and other resources are required to sustain livestock – far more than what is needed to produce a vegetarian diet. Studies indicate that the land needed to produce food for one meat-eater could support twenty vegetarians. This demonstrates how much smaller our ecological footprint could be just by giving up meat.
[…]
There is also abundant information about the conditions under which animals raised for our food are living, how they are slaughtered, and what you are eating as a result of that. Even though we know there is intense suffering involved as well as devastating environmental consequences, many people still remain unswayed. Some people have taken note and responded accordingly, but most continue as before, as if nothing harmful were going on. Why?

(From: “The Heart Is Noble. Changing the World from the Inside Out”, pp.97-98)
Life is precious as it is

Comment November 25, 2015

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.

Be Yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just Be. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
With anger and frustration you cannot do much

Comment November 25, 2015

Sometimes something wrong is going on in the world and we think it is the other people who are doing it and we are not doing it.

But you are part of the wrongdoing by the way you live your life. If you are able to understand that, not only you suffer but the other person suffers, that is also an insight.

When you see the other person suffer you will not want to punish or blame but help that person to suffer less. If you are burdened with anger, fear, ignorance and you suffer too much, you cannot help another person. If you suffer less you are lighter more smiling, pleasant to be with, and in a position to help the person.

Activists have to have a spiritual practice in order to help them to suffer less, to nourish the happiness and to handle the suffering so they will be effective in helping the world. With anger and frustration you cannot do much. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Thoughts in your mind

Comment November 25, 2015

Do not regard the thoughts in your mind as things to be rejected.
Do not deliberately create non-conceptuality.
Post the watchman of mindfulness, and rest.

— Gyalwa Yang Gönpa
My relatives’ lifestyle in Cambodia…

Comment November 25, 2015

They have nothing but a smile… The more you have, the more you don’t have… ~Jendhamuni

My relatives in Cambodia
Be ever mindful

Comment November 25, 2015

Be ever mindful of the shortcomings of desire’s rewards, and know that all the phenomena of the cycle of existence are never still, like the ripples on a pond, and that these manifestations of delusion, which are no things in themselves, are like magic and dreams. When you have the determination to be free of samsara and are content with your material situation, you will be able to sit quietly with your mind happy and at ease. — Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche