Buddhism-Buddhism

Visakha Puja: Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing into Nibbana

2 May 5, 2023

Celebrating the birth, enlightenment and parinibbana of the Lord Buddha at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Peace Meditation Center on May 4, 2023.

Celebrating the birth, enlightenment and parinibbana of the Lord Buddha at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Peace Meditation Center on May 4, 2023.

Visakha Puja Day (Vesak) is one of the most important days in Buddhism and for Buddhists. It is the day Buddhists assemble to commemorate the life of the Buddha, and to give reverence to His purity, profound wisdom and immense compassion for all humankind and living beings by reflecting and using His teachings as guidelines for their lives. Visakha Puja Day also marks the anniversary of three significant events in the life of the Buddha – His Birth, Enlightenment, and Attainment of Complete Nibbana – that occurred on the 15th day of the 6th waxing moon. — Dhammakaya

Celebrating the birth, enlightenment and parinibbana of the Lord Buddha at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Peace Meditation Center on May 4, 2023.
Understanding the condition

Comment April 17, 2023

In order to be able to truly integrate one’s practice with one’s life, a few sessions of sitting meditation a day are simply not enough, because we live a twenty-four hour day, and an hour or two of practice just won’t give the right results. “Integrating”, on the other hand, means understanding the condition of “what is” in relation to life itself, without correcting it, so that every circumstance of one‘s life becomes an occasion for practice. — Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Detachment and Compassion in Early Buddhism

Comment October 19, 2022

By Elizabeth J. Harris

To people looking at Buddhism through the medium of English, the practice of compassion and detachment can appear incompatible, especially for those who consider themselves to be socially and politically engaged. In contemporary usage, compassion brings to mind outward-moving concern for others, while detachment suggests aloofness and withdrawal from the world. Yet Buddhism recommends both as admirable and necessary qualities to be cultivated. This raises questions such as the following:

If compassion means to relieve suffering in a positive way, and detachment to remain aloof from the world, how can the two be practiced together?

Does detachment in Buddhism imply lack of concern for humanity?

Is the concept of compassion in Buddhism too passive, connected only with the inward-looking eye of meditation, or can it create real change in society?

It is certainly possible to draw sentences from Buddhist writers which seem to support a rejection of outward concern for others. For example, Edward Conze has written, “The Yogin can only come into contact with the unconditioned when he brushes aside anything which is conditioned.”[1] Similarly, G.S.P. Misra writes, “In the final analysis, all actions are to be put to cessation… The Buddha speaks of happiness involved in non-action which he further says is an integral part of the Right Way (sammaa pa.tipadaa).[2] Taken in isolation and out of context, these remarks can give the impression that the path to Nibbaana implies developing a lack of concern towards everything in sa.msaara. But is this inference sound? I would argue that it is not. Continue reading →
The Bhikkhus’ Rules

2 October 14, 2022

Bhikkhu Buddha Saddha Vey Ve, Bhikkhu Indajoto and Samanera Ananda at the Kiryvongsa Bopharam Buddhist Temple, the Peace Meditation Center.

The Teaching of the Buddha is concerned with more than intellectual knowledge for it needs to be experienced as truth in one’s own life. The Buddha often called his Teaching the Dhamma-Vinaya and when he passed away he left these as the guide for all of us who followed. As Venerable Thiradhammo writes:

In simple terms we could say that while Dhamma represented the principles of Truth, the Vinaya represented the most efficacious lifestyle for the realization of that Truth. Or, the Vinaya was that way of life which enshrined the principles of Truth in the practicalities of living within the world.” (HS Part 2)
For the bhikkhu, the Vinaya helps to highlight actions and speech, and show up their significance. It brings an awareness of how he is intervening in the world, how he is affecting other people. For better? For worse? With what intention?

Of course, such an awareness is necessary for every human being, not just Buddhist monks. This is why the Buddha bequeathed to us the Five, the Eight and the Ten Precepts — as well as the bhikkhu’s 227 rules of the Paatimokkha. These precepts and rules remain as pertinent today as they were 2,500 years ago for they restore the focus back to the human being, to how actions and words affect individuals and the world. While the particulars may have changed, the fundamentals remain the same. Continue reading →
Brahmanavagga: The Holy Man

3 September 10, 2021
Exert yourself, O holy man! Cut off the stream (of craving), and discard sense desires. Knowing the destruction of all the conditioned things, become, O holy man, the knower of the Uncreated (Nibbana)!

When a holy man has reached the summit of two paths (meditative concentration and insight), he knows the truth and all his fetters fall away.

He for whom there is neither this shore nor the other shore, nor yet both, he who is free of cares and is unfettered — him do I call a holy man. [27]

He who is meditative, stainless and settled, whose work is done and who is free from cankers, having reached the highest goal — him do I call a holy man.

The sun shines by day, the moon shines by night. The warrior shines in armor, the holy man shines in meditation. But the Buddha shines resplendent all day and all night.

Because he has discarded evil, he is called a holy man. Because he is serene in conduct, he is called a recluse. And because he has renounced his impurities, he is called a renunciate. Continue reading →
Bhikkhuvagga: The Monk

Comment September 1, 2021
Good is restraint over the eye; good is restraint over the ear; good is restraint over the nose; good is restraint over the tongue.

Good is restraint in the body; good is restraint in speech; good is restraint in thought. Restraint everywhere is good. The monk restrained in every way is freed from all suffering.

He who has control over his hands, feet and tongue; who is fully controlled, delights in inward development, is absorbed in meditation, keeps to himself and is contented — him do people call a monk.

That monk who has control over his tongue, is moderate in speech, unassuming and who explains the Teaching in both letter and spirit — whatever he says is pleasing.

The monk who abides in the Dhamma, delights in the Dhamma, meditates on the Dhamma, and bears the Dhamma well in mind — he does not fall away from the sublime Dhamma.

One should not despise what one has received, nor envy the gains of others. The monk who envies the gains of others does not attain to meditative absorption.

A monk who does not despise what he has received, even though it be little, who is pure in livelihood and unremitting in effort — him even the gods praise. Continue reading →
Tanhavagga: Craving

Comment August 26, 2021
The craving of one given to heedless living grows like a creeper. Like the monkey seeking fruits in the forest, he leaps from life to life (tasting the fruit of his kamma).

Whoever is overcome by this wretched and sticky craving, his sorrows grow like grass after the rains.

But whoever overcomes this wretched craving, so difficult to overcome, from him sorrows fall away like water from a lotus leaf.

This I say to you: Good luck to all assembled here! Dig up the root of craving, like one in search of the fragrant root of the birana grass. Let not Mara crush you again and again, as a flood crushes a reed.

Just as a tree, though cut down, sprouts up again if its roots remain uncut and firm, even so, until the craving that lies dormant is rooted out, suffering springs up again and again.

The misguided man in whom the thirty-six currents of craving strongly rush toward pleasurable objects, is swept away by the flood of his passionate thoughts.

Everywhere these currents flow, and the creeper (of craving) sprouts and grows. Seeing that the creeper has sprung up, cut off its root with wisdom. Continue reading →
Nagavagga: The Elephant

Comment August 25, 2021
As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. There are many, indeed, who lack virtue.

A tamed elephant is led into a crowd, and the king mounts a tamed elephant. Best among men is the subdued one who endures abuse.

Excellent are well-trained mules, thoroughbred Sindhu horses and noble tusker elephants. But better still is the man who has subdued himself.

Not by these mounts, however, would one go to the Untrodden Land (Nibbana), as one who is self-tamed goes by his own tamed and well-controlled mind.

Musty during rut, the tusker named Dhanapalaka is uncontrollable. Held in captivity, the tusker does not touch a morsel, but only longingly calls to mind the elephant forest.

When a man is sluggish and gluttonous, sleeping and rolling around in bed like a fat domestic pig, that sluggard undergoes rebirth again and again. Continue reading →
The Lessons of Gratitude

Comment July 7, 2021
Jendhamuni at the funeral service of Ven. Dejapanno Phorn Pheap (meditation teacher) at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Peace Meditation Center on June 24, 2021.

These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.”

— AN 2.118

In saying that kind and grateful people are rare, the Buddha isn’t simply stating a harsh truth about the human race. He’s advising you to treasure these people when you find them, and — more importantly — showing how you can become a rare person yourself.

Kindness and gratitude are virtues you can cultivate, but they have to be cultivated together. Each needs the other to be genuine — a point that becomes obvious when you think about the three things most likely to make gratitude heartfelt:

You’ve actually benefitted from another person’s actions.

You trust the motives behind those actions.

You sense that the other person had to go out of his or her way to provide that benefit.

Points one and two are lessons that gratitude teaches kindness: If you want to be genuinely kind, you have to be of actual benefit — nobody wants to be the recipient of “help” that isn’t really helpful — and you have to provide that benefit in a way that shows respect and empathy for the other person’s needs. No one likes to receive a gift given with calculating motives, or in an offhand or disdainful way. Continue reading →
Nirayavagga: Hell

Comment July 7, 2021
The liar goes to the state of woe; also he who, having done (wrong), says, “I did not do it.” Men of base actions both, on departing they share the same destiny in the other world.

There are many evil characters and uncontrolled men wearing the saffron robe. These wicked men will be born in states of woe because of their evil deeds.

It would be better to swallow a red-hot iron ball, blazing like fire, than as an immoral and uncontrolled monk to eat the alms of the people.

Four misfortunes befall the reckless man who consorts with another’s wife: acquisition of demerit, disturbed sleep, ill-repute, and (rebirth in) states of woe.

Such a man acquires demerit and an unhappy birth in the future. Brief is the pleasure of the frightened man and woman, and the king imposes heavy punishment. Hence, let no man consort with another’s wife.

Just as kusa grass wrongly handled cuts the hand, even so, a recluse’s life wrongly lived drags one to states of woe.

Any loose act, any corrupt observance, any life of questionable celibacy — none of these bear much fruit. Continue reading →