To work with our mental states, we have to acknowledge how rapidly these states can change, often disappearing without our noticing. Because we are not aware of our inner states, we feel controlled by outside influences. The world will alternately please us or be at fault, and we will be caught in habitual grasping or frustration. ~ Jack Kornfield
Letting go and moving through life from one change to another brings the maturing of our spiritual being. In the end we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing. Both ways do not seek to possess. Both allow us to touch each moment of this changing life and allow us to be there fully for whatever arises next. ~Jack Kornfield
Jendhamuni meditating on July 3, 2020
To love fully and live well requires us to recognize finally that we do not possess or own anything—our homes, our cars, our loved ones, not even our own body. Spiritual joy and wisdom do not come through possession but rather through our capacity to open, to love more fully, and to move and be free in life. ~ Jack Kornfield
As long as we remain within the confines of the thinking mind, we can’t experience the state of non-thinking. If we can’t experience non-thinking, we will not understand what our life truly is. Please realize this for yourself! Just sit. ~Taizan Maezumi
Jendhamuni studying Buddhism at home – July 6, 2020
Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral loose, and free-floating – these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything. ~Wayne W. Dyer
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strength. ~ Corrie ten Boom
You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you. ~ Dan Millman
Verse 107: For a hundred years, a man may tend the sacred fire in the forest: yet if, only for a moment, one pays homage to a bhikkhu who has practised Insight Development, this homage is, indeed, better than a hundred years of making sacrifices (in fire-worship).
The Story of Thera Sariputta’s Nephew
While residing at the Veluvana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (107) of this book, with reference to Thera Sariputta’s nephew.
On one occasion, Thera Sariputta asked his nephew, a brahmin, whether he was doing any meritorious deeds. His nephew answered that he had been sacrificing a goat in fire-worship every month, hoping to get to the Brahma world in his next existence. Thera Sariputta then explained to him that his teachers had given him false hopes and that they themselves did not know the way to the Brahma world.
Then he took his nephew the young brahmin to the Buddha. There, the Buddha taught him the Dhamma that would lead one to the Brahmin world and said to the brahmin, “Young brahmin, paying homage to the bhikkhus for a moment would be far better than making sacrifices in fire-worship for a hundred years.”
Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 107: For a hundred years, a man may tend the sacred fire in the forest: yet if, only for a moment, one pays homage to a bhikkhu who has practised Insight Development, this homage is, indeed, better than a hundred years of making sacrifices (in fire-worship).
At the end of the discourse, the brahmin, who was Thera Sariputta’s nephew, attained Sotapatti Fruition.
Dhammapada Verse 107
Sariputtattherassa bhagineyya Vatthu
Yo ca vassasatam jantu
aggim paricare vane
ekanca bhavitattanam
muhuttamapi pujaye
sa yeva pujana seyyo
yance vassasatam hutam.
Source: Tipitaka
The mind that lets go is a mind that is at ease. It’s a mind that’s no longer trying to “fight” reality by trying to grasp the ungraspable. ~Wildmind Meditation
Jendhamuni holding His Holiness Jotannano Chuon Nath’s dictionary – July 2, 2020
Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won’t have to go around search for it. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
