Spirituality-Buddhism

Stressing and complaining will change nothing

Comment October 14, 2022

Jendhamuni at the Peace Meditation Center during meditation retreats on June 30, 2022

“Happiness comes a lot easier when you stop complaining about your problems and you start being grateful for all the problems you don’t have.”
“Happy are they who take life day by day, complain very little and are thankful for the little things in life.”
“Complaining is a complete waste of one’s energy. Those who complain the most accomplish the least.”
“As you breathe right now, another takes his last. So stop complaining and learn to live with what you have.”

~ Anonymous Continue reading →
Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness

5 January 20, 2022

Jendhamuni at home on December 17, 2021

Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength. ~ Pema Chödron
How you perceive the situation

1 January 19, 2022

Nothing is intrinsically or ultimately bad. Any situation that arises is only relatively good or bad based on many factors, including — most significantly — how you perceive the situation and how you respond to it. ~ 17th Karmapa

Ananda at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam on November 8, 2021.
We should not say bad things about anyone

5 November 17, 2021

Jendhamuni at Kiryvongsa Bopharam temple on November 7, 2021

We should not say bad things about anyone, whether or not they are bodhisattvas. It is not the same thing, however, if we know that pointing out someone’s mistakes will help them to change. Generally speaking, since it is not easy to change another person, we should avoid criticism. Other people do not like to hear it and, further, laying out their faults will create problems and troubles for us. We who are supposed to be practicing the dharma should be trying to do whatever brings happiness to ourselves and others. Since faultfinding does not bring any benefit, we should carefully avoid it.

If we really want to help someone, perhaps we can say something once in a pleasant way so that the person can readily understand, “Oh yes, this is something I need to change.” However, it is better not to repeat our comments, because if we keep mentioning faults, not only will it not truly help, it will disturb others to no good effect. Therefore not mentioning the faults of others is the practice of bodhisattvas. ~ 17th Karmapa

Jendhamuni at Kiryvongsa Bopharam temple on November 7, 2021

Jendhamuni at Kiryvongsa Bopharam temple on November 7, 2021
Be original

3 October 26, 2021

Be different. Be original. Nobody will remember a specific flower in a garden filled with thousands of the same yellow flower, but they will remember the one that managed to change its color to purple. — Suzy Kassem

Jendhamuni at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Buddhist Peace Meditation Center on October 24, 2021.
Smell the fresh air

3 September 1, 2021

Being able to smell the fresh air and disconnect from the news and your phone—there’s nothing like it. — Jason Ward

Jendhamuni on July 28, 2021.

Birds have always had the ability to bring me out of a dark space and provide relief in bad times. — Jason Ward

Jendhamuni on July 28, 2021.
The importance of human life

Comment August 31, 2021

Novice Ananda at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam

If we realize, “I am a human being. A human being can do anything,” this determination, courage, and self-confidence are important sources of victory and success. Without will power and determination, even something that you might have achieved easily cannot be achieved. If you have will power and reasonable courage — not blind courage but courage without pride — even things that seemed impossible at a certain stage turn into being possible because of continuing effort inspired by that courage. Thus, determination is important.

How can this be developed? Not through machines, not by money, but by our own inner strength based on clear realization of the value of human beings, of human dignity. For, once we realize that a human being is much more than just material, much more than just money, we can feel the importance of human life, from which we can feel the importance of compassion and kindness. ~ 14th Dalai Lama
Nature teaches more than she preaches

2 August 27, 2021

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral. —John Burroughs

Jendhamuni on July 16, 2021
Quality of air that emanation from old trees

1 August 25, 2021

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Jendhamuni on July 14, 2021

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. — Mahatma Gandhi

Jendhamuni on July 14, 2021
Activity and delusions of samsara

1 June 10, 2021

There’s no end to the activity and delusions of saṃsāra:
The more you do, the more they go on increasing,
Animosity and attachment strengthen all the while,
Creating the causes for your own downfall.

Turn your mind, therefore, towards the Dharma.
If you can integrate the Dharma physically, verbally and mentally,
You have set out on the path to liberation and enlightenment,
And, at the moment of death, you will have no regrets.
In this and all your future lives,
You will go from one joy to the next.

~ Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö