February 2016 — Page 6 of 8 — Jendhamuni-Buddhism

Be the kind of person you Admire and Respect

38 February 7, 2016

You cannot change the world,
But you can present the world with
one improved person – Yourself.
You can go to work on yourself to make yourself
Into the kind of person you admire and respect.
You can become a role model and set a standard for others.
You can control and discipline yourself to resist acting
Or speaking in a negative way
Toward anyone for any reason.
You can insist upon always doing things the loving way,
Rather than the hurtful way.
By doing these things each day,
You can continue on your journey
Toward becoming an exceptional human being.

Poem title: Change Your World
Written by Brian Tracy
If it is truthful and helpful

Comment February 7, 2016

If it is not truthful and not helpful, don’t say it.
If it is truthful and not helpful, don’t say it.
If it is not truthful yet helpful, don’t say it.
If it is truthful and helpful, wait for the right time.

~ Buddha
Strengthening the mind

Comment February 7, 2016

Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest. ~Ajahn Chah

His Holiness Jotannano Chuon Nath, Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Buddhism [March 11, 1883 – September 25, 1969].
Yourself

Comment February 7, 2016

Love yourself and watch –
Today, tomorrow, always.

First establish yourself in the way,
Then teach,
And so defeat sorrow.

To straighten the crooked
You must first be a harder thing –
Straighten yourself.

You are the only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.

Willfully you have fed
Your own mischief.
Soon it will crush you.

By your own folly
You will be brought as low
As your worst enemy wishes.
So the creeper chokes the tree.

How hard it is to serve yourself,
How easy to lose yourself
In mischief and folly.

The kashta reed dies when it bears fruit.
So the fool,
Scorning the teachings of the awakened,
Spurning those who follow the law,
Perishes when his folly flowers.

Mischief is yours.
Sorrow is yours.
But virtue is also yours,
And purity.

You are the source
Of all purity and impurity.

No one purifies another.

Never neglect your work
For another’s,
However great his need.

Your work is to discover your work
And then with all your heart
To give yourself to it.

~The Dhamapada
Where does rain come from?

Comment February 6, 2016

It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn’t it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it. ~Ajahn Chah
The Story of Thera Samgharakkhita

Comment February 6, 2016
Verse 37: The mind wanders far and moves about alone: it is non-material; it lies in the cave (chamber) of the heart. Those who control their mind will be free from the bonds of Mara.

ekacaram: walking alone, moves about alone, it means conceiving one thought at a time, i.e., one thought arises only when another ceases.

guhasayam: lit., lying, or sleeping in a cave; mind lies and arises continually in the cave (chamber) of the heart (hadayavatthu), the seat of consciousness.

The Story of Thera Samgharakkhita

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (37) of this book, with reference to the nephew of Thera Samgharakkhita.

Once, there lived in Savatthi, a senior bhikkhu by the name of Samgharakkhita. When his sister gave birth to a son, she named the child after the thera and he came to be known as Samgharakkhita Bhagineyya. The nephew Samgharakkhita, in due course, was admitted into the Order. While the young bhikkhu was staying in a village monastery he was offered two sets of robes, and he intended to offer one to his uncle, the thera.

At the end of the vassa he went to his uncle to pay respect to him and offered the robe to the thera. But, the uncle declined to accept the robe, saying that he had enough. Although he repeated his request, the thera would not accept. The young bhikkhu felt disheartened and thought that since his uncle was so unwilling to share the requisites with him, it would be better for him to leave the Order and live the life of a layman. Continue reading →
Monastery of Confusion

Comment February 6, 2016

A Dhammatalk by Ajahn Chah

Staying or going is not important, but our thinking is. So all of you, please work together, cooperate and live in harmony. This should be the legacy you create here at Wat Pah Nanachat Bung Wai, the International Forest Monastery of Bung Wai District. Don’t let it become Wat Pah Nanachat Woon Wai, the International Forest Monastery of Confusion and Trouble. Whoever comes to stay here should be helping create this legacy.

The way I see it, the lay people are providing robes material, almsfood, the dwelling place, and medicines in appropriate measure. It’s true that they are simple country folk, but they support you out of their faith as best they can. Don’t get carried away with your ideas of how you think they should be, such as, “Oh, I try to teach these lay people, but they do make me upset. Today is the observance day, and they came to take precepts. Then tomorrow they’ll go casting their fishing nets. They’ll drink their whiskey. They do these things right out there where anyone can see. Then the next observance day, they’ll come again. They’ll take the precepts and listen to the Dharma talk again, and then they’ll go to put out their nets again, kill animals again, and drink again.”

You can get pretty upset thinking like this. You’ll think that your activities with the lay people don’t bring any benefit at all. Today they take the precepts, and tomorrow they go cast the fishing nets. A monk without much wisdom might get discouraged and feel he’s failed, thinking his work bears no fruit. But it’s not that his efforts have no result; it’s those lay people who get no result. Of course there is some good result from making efforts at virtue. So when there is such a situation and we start to suffer over it, what should we do?

We contemplate within ourselves to recognize that our good intentions have brought some benefit and do have meaning. It’s just that the spiritual faculties of those people aren’t developed. They aren’t strong yet. That’s how it is for now, so we patiently continue to advise them. If we just give up on such people, they are likely to become worse than they are now. If we keep at it, they may come to maturity one day and recognize their unskillful actions. Then they will feel some remorse and start to be ashamed of doing such things.

Right now, they have the faith to support us with material offerings, giving us our requisites for living. I’ve considered this: it’s quite a big deal. It’s no small thing. Donating our food, our dwellings, the medicines to treat our illnesses, is not a small thing. We are practicing for the attainment of Nibbāna. If we don’t have any food to eat, that will be pretty difficult. How would we sit in meditation? How would we be able to build this monastery? Continue reading →
When wisdom awakens within you

Comment February 6, 2016

If your mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look. Truth is all there is. It’s like when you’ve learned how to read – you can then read anywhere you go. ~Ajahn Chah

Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
The Wonders of Life

234 February 6, 2016

Life is filled with suffering,
but it is also filled with many wonders,
like the blue sky, the sunshine,
the eyes of a baby.
To suffer is not enough.
We must also be in touch
with the wonders of life.
They are within us and all around us,
everywhere, any time.

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Beauty in the Forest

52 February 6, 2016

There is beauty in the forest
When the trees are
green and fair,
There is beauty in the meadow
When wild flowers
scent the air,
There is beauty in the sunlight
And the soft blue beams above,
Oh the world is full of beauty
When the heart is full of love.

~Author Unknown