1. Detaching from our emotional responses

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    Detaching from our emotional responses encourages an objective perspective about our challenges. Our oversensitivity to difficulties is usually caused by our emotional investment in a particular outcome. By choosing instead to step back from our emotions, we give ourselves the ability to remain impartial to the unsettling events in our lives. While we may still feel concerned, interested, and connected to our life circumstances, we are no longer controlled by them. This new, objective perspective gives us the freedom and courage to embrace a peace-oriented state of mind that cannot help but have a positive effect in every aspect of our lives. Stepping back from your emotional attachments can give you the objectivity to make wiser choices. — Lama Karma Chötso

    Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt

    Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt

     

  2. Maha Kassapa: Father of the Sangha

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    1. Kassapa’s Early Years

    Among those of the Buddha’s disciples who were closest to him, there were two friends, Sariputta and Maha Moggallana, who were the chief disciples of the Buddha, the exemplary pair of disciples. There were also two brothers, Ananda and Anuruddha, who were likewise eminent “Fathers of the Order.” In between these two pairs stands a great solitary figure, Pipphali Kassapa, who later was called Maha Kassapa, Kassapa the Great, to distinguish him from the others of the Kassapa clan, such as Kumara Kassapa and Uruvela Kassapa.

    After Sariputta and Maha Moggallana had passed away, predeceasing the Buddha, it was Maha Kassapa who was held in greatest respect and reverence in the Order. But even after the Buddha’s passing away, Maha Kassapa did not become the elected head of the Order of Monks, as it had been the Buddha’s express wish that there should not be a supreme authoritative head of the Sangha. Shortly before his passing away, the Buddha had said: “That which I have proclaimed and made known, Ananda, as the Teaching and the Discipline (Dhamma-Vinaya), that shall be your Master when I am gone” (D.16).

    Yet the natural authority emanating from Maha Kassapa made him particularly honored and venerated in the Sangha. There were many factors that contributed to his pre-eminent position after the death of the Master. He had been praised by the Buddha as being equal to him in many respects[1] and he shared with the Master seven of the thirty-two “Marks of a Great Man.” He had been the only monk with whom the Buddha had exchanged robes. Maha Kassapa possessed to the highest degree the ten “qualities that inspire confidence.”[2] He was also a model of a disciplined and austere life devoted to meditation. So it is no wonder that he was elected to preside over the First Council of the Sangha which had been summoned on his urgent advice. It may have been on account of all these features of his personality and his life that, much later in China and Japan, Maha Kassapa came to be regarded as the first patriarch of Ch’an or Zen Buddhism. Continue reading

  3. When we look to the future

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    When we look to the future, we should learn to be positive. Always seeing the negative side of things will only help to increase our inner difficulties. — Bokar Rinpoche

    blue-flower-moving

     

     

  4. Please save the turkeys

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    All beings-human or beast –
    Love life and hate to die.
    They fear most the butcher’s knife
    Which slices and chops them piece-by-piece.
    Instead of being cruel and mean,
    Why not stop killing and cherish life? (Cherishing Life, I, 83)

     

    Hope some of you will take a little extra time to practice giving thanks [the right way] during this Thanksgiving day. Please extend your love to all sentient beings, not just towards your loved ones or your human friends, but all beings, especially the turkeys. Like PETA said, Thanksgiving can be the scariest time of year if you’re a turkey. More than 45 million of these fascinating birds are killed to disgrace Thanksgiving tables each year. There are many peaceful ways to practice giving thanks. Why can we choose one of those peaceful ways. Why seek happiness by hurting those who seek happiness just like us. One should never practice giving thanks by hurting or harming anyone, be it a human or a turkey… ~Jendhamuni

    “All beings tremble before violence.
    All fear death.
    All love life.

    See yourself in others.
    Then whom can you hurt?
    What harm can you do?

    He who seeks happiness
    By hurting those who seek happiness
    Will never find happiness.”

    ~Buddha –Dhammapada

     

  5. Auntie’s house in Cambodia

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    If your house looks better than this, I’d say, “No need to walk around with a depressing face.” You must learn how to conquer your own desire. And never ever allow your desire to conquer you. ~Jendhamuni

  6. Each season has its own wonder…

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    Appreciate the beauty of this earth and celebrate each moment that we’re out in nature. Nature constantly offers us simple pleasures to love. Opening ourselves up to the beauty around us is a way to bring more happiness and peace in our lives. Source: Inspirational Quotes

  7. As the wide-open sea…

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    When our heart is filled with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, its capacity becomes boundless, immeasurable. With such a vast heart, immense as the wide-open sea, suffering cannot overpower us, just as a small handful of salt cannot make a great river salty. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

  8. Remembering Venerable Dong Hem

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    Never forget the day I asked my grand uncle Venerable Dong to show me the lotus pond so I could see the most beautiful pink lotus flower I’ve been looking for, nearby my grandma’s house in Cambodia .

     

    Venerable Dong, my 95-year-old grand uncle just passed a way today, November 23rd, 2015 at 1 P.M [1 A.M. US Eastern time]. Venerable is my late grandma’s little brother, the youngest child in their family. He was a very healthy Buddhist monk. But he had to leave us due to old age… ~Jendhamuni

    Venerable Dong at the Pagoda in Cambodia

     

    Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in everything parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well. ~Cassandra Clare

    Venerable Dong with master Ven. Dhammathero Khon Sao, in Cambodia.

  9. We all are so deeply interconnected

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    We all are so deeply interconnected; we have no option but to love all. Be kind and do good for any one and that will be reflected. The ripples of the kind heart are the highest blessings of the Universe. ~Amit Ray

    Jendhamuni with little girl

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