December 2011
45 posts
“That which is not yours - put it away. Putting it away will be to your welfare and happiness. And what is not yours? Body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciousness are not yours. So, put them away. Putting them away will be to your profit and welfare. It is just as if a man should gather up, burn, or do whatever he wanted with all the grass, sticks and branches here in Jeta...
Now, Venerable Bhaddiya, son of the Kaligodhas, used to go to the forest, to the roots of trees and to lonely spots, and while there, would often utter the cry: “Oh joy! Oh joy!”
Now, a great number of monks heard him do this and they thought: “Doubtless, Venerable Bhaddiya is discontented with the holy life, seeing as he enjoyed the happiness of royalty when he was a...
Music from a five-piece ensemble
Cannot produce as much delight
As that of a one-pointed mind
With perfect insight into things.
Therigatha 398
“Lord, there are three scents whose fragrance spreads with the wind but not against it. They are the root scent, the heartwood scent and the scent of flowers. Is there any sort of scent that spreads with the wind and against it also?”
“There is such a scent, Ananda. In whatever village or district there is a man or woman who has taken refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the...
There is that condition where there is not earth, water, fire or air; where there are not the spheres of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, or the sphere of neither-consciousness-nor-unconsciousness; where there is not this world, the world beyond or both together, no sun and no moon; where there is no coming to birth, no going to death, no duration and hence no falling or...
Then Ananda came to the Lord and said: “Half of the holy life is friendship, association and intimacy with the beautiful.”
“Say not so, Ananda, say not so! It is the whole of the holy life, not half, this friendship, this association, this intimacy with the beautiful.”
Samyutta Nikaya V.2
The fool who listens to the Conqueror’s teachings
With a hostile mind
Does not grow in the good Dhamma
Any more than a rotten seed grows in the field.
But one who listens to the Conqueror's teachings
With a joyful mind,
Having destroyed the defilements,
Realized the unshakable state,
And attained the highest peace -
He is cooled and without defilements.
Therigatha 363-364
The Tathagata does not live in abundance, he does not revert to the life of abundance, nor does he waver in his striving. The Tathagata is a perfected one, a fully enlightened Buddha. So give ear, for the Immortal has been discovered and I instruct, I teach the Dhamma.
Vinaya IV.9
I will teach you the burden, the taking hold of the burden, the lifting it up and the putting it down. And what is the burden? The answer is the five clinging aggregates. What five? Body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciousness. This is the burden. And what is the taking hold of the burden? The answer should be: it is the person of such-and-such a name, of such-and-such a...
When in the forest amongst the roots of the trees
Or in the empty places,
Just call to mind the Buddha
And no fear of trembling will arise.
If you cannot think of the Buddha,
This best, this highest, this finest of men,
Then call to mind the Dhamma,
The well taught guide.
If you cannot think of the Dhamma,
The well taught guide,
Then think of the Sangha,
That incomparable source of...
The past should not be followed after,
And the future not desired.
What is past is dead and gone,
And the future is yet to come.
But whoever gains insight into things
Presently arisen in the here and now,
Knowing them, unmoved, unshaken -
Let him cultivate that insight.
Majjhima Nikaya III.187
Happily indeed we live,
Loving amidst the hating.
Amidst those who hate
We live full of love.
Happily indeed we live,
Healthy amidst the ailing.
Amidst those who are ill
We live in perfect health.
Happily indeed we live,
Content amidst the greedy.
Amidst those who are greedy
We live in contentment.
Dhammapada 197-199
Giving up happiness and suffering and with the disappearance of former gladness and sorrow, one enters and abides in the fourth jhana which is beyond pleasure and pain and is purified by equanimity and mindfulness. One sits and suffuses, drenches, fills and permeates the whole body with that purity and clarity so that there is no spot in the entire body that is untouched by it.
Just as if a man...
Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that’s all
Wisdom is purified by virtue, and virtue is purified by wisdom. Where one is, so is the other. The virtuous person has wisdom, and the wise person has virtue. The combination of virtue and wisdom is called the highest thing in the world.
Digha Nikaya I.84
How can someone who has gone down
To a swift-flowing river,
And who gets carried away by the current
Help others to cross?
In the same way, how can one who has not learned the Dhamma,
Not listened to the explanations of the wise,
And who is himself ignorant and filled with doubt
Help others to realize it?
Just as one who has embarked on a sturdy boat
Well-equipped with oars and...
