Dalai Lama says his role should cease after his death

Reuters pic, December 18, 2014.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has said he thinks his traditional religious role should cease with his death rather than a "stupid" successor replace him and disgrace himself.

The Second Noble Truth – The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering

December 1st, 2014 Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author.

The Second Noble Truth describes the principal cause of suffering. It is clinging. . . to anything at all.

The bad news is that we suffer. The good news is that there is a prime cause – clinging – that we can address.

There are lots of words that get at different aspects of clinging. For example, the original Pali word is “tanha,” the root meaning of which is thirst. Here are some related words, and you might like to pause briefly after each one to get a sense of the experience of it: Desire. Attachment. Striving. Wanting. Craving. Grasping. Stuck. Righteous. Positional. Searching. Seeking. Addicted. Obsessed. Needing. Hunger.

As a general statement, clinging causes suffering by causing it to arise in the first place or to increase further, and by blocking factors that would reduce or end it.

Buddhism, Governance and Politics

Picture : Sanchi Stupa built by King Asoka

The Buddha's emphasis on the moral duty of a ruler to use public power to improve the welfare of the people had inspired Emperor Asoka in the Third Century B.C. to do likewise. ...

The 1st Theravada Buddhist Nuns’ Novitiate (Samaneri) Program at SJBA, Malaysia

4 Dec by Samaneri Sumangala

In the Nidanasamyutta (SN12.65) the Buddha spoke – “Having followed the Noble Eightfold Path and penetrated the links of dependent origination, I explained them to the bhikkhus (monks), bhikkhunis (nuns), upasaka (male followers) and upasika (female followers) so that this spiritual life has become successful, prosperous, extended, popular and wide spread, well proclaimed among gods and humans.”

Around 6th BCE, in the 6th year after the Buddha established the Bhikkhu Sangha, the Buddha established the Bhikkhuni Sangha. With the ordination of Venerable Mahapajapati Gotami and many other women, it marked the liberation of women from all kinds of taboo and beliefs and above all liberation from the cycle of samsara, the ability for enlightenment. It gave women the platform for practice, the opportunity for development and attainment. Since then Bhikkhuni Sangha continue to flourish.

Around two hundred fifty years later 3rd BCE, Venerable Sanghamitta became the 1st Bhikkhuni who travel far from her home land from Pataliputra, India to Sri Lanka to ordain and start the Bhikkhuni Sangha in Sri Lanka. Princess Anula was the 1st to be ordained and the Bhikkhuni Order flourished for more than a thousand year. In 5th CE, bhikkhuni Devasara from Sri Lanka travelled to China to give ordination for Chinese women. Today, with one mission to propagate the Buddha’s teaching and promote the Buddha’s lineage so this spiritual life is well proclaimed, the Bhikkhuni Order spread to many parts of the world – Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, USA and etc.

Sn 450-454: Subhasita Sutta: Well-Spoken

Speak only the speech
that neither torments self
nor does harm to others.
That speech is truly well spoken.

Speak only endearing speech,
speech that is welcomed.
Speech when it brings no evil
to others
is pleasant.

Truth, indeed, is deathless speech:
This is an ancient principle.
The goal and the Dhamma
— so say the calm —
are firmly established on truth.

The speech the Awakened One speaks,
for attaining Unbinding,
rest,
for making an end
to the mass of stress:
That is the speech unexcelled.

Benefits of Building a Monastery / Temple

Building a monastery has unbelievable merit. Because it is a holy place with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha abiding in it, however many atoms the temple or the monastery has, that many lifetimes you are reborn as a king, in the deva or human realms, with all wealth and power. Your merits, including the number of atoms of the whole monastery, increase all the time, for eons.

What to Believe?

3 Questions That Will Put Your Finances-and Life-on the Right Track

• Tim Maurer / The BAM Alliance @TimMaurer 

Financial planning guru George Kinder has a powerful tool for helping people set priorities for their money...and their lives. Here it is.

Few things seem more diametrically opposed than managing money and spiritual enlightenment. But not everyone sees it that way. Some very influential people in the financial advisory community have dedicated their lives to helping advisers assist clients deal with the more personal elements in personal finance.

Consider George Kinder, the Harvard-trained economist-turned-philosopher-turned-CPA. He managed to evolve his tax practice into a comprehensive financial advisory offering, with supporting methodology, while on the successful path to becoming a Buddhist teacher based in Cambridge, Mass. and Hana, Hawaii.

Interfaith

Genuine Dhamma

Vipassana Meditation

Q. What are the two characteristics of genuine Dhamma?

A. One characteristic of the genuine Dhamma is that it confers benefits at every stage to those who practice it. As the Teacher said, it is ādikalyāṇaṃ, majjhekalyāṇaṃ, pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ—beneficial in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. The first steps on the Path yield positive results at once, and these increase as one goes further. When the final goal is reached, the benefits are limitless. Thus, every step of the practice produces good. This is one important feature by which to recognize the true Dhamma.

Another is that the Dhamma is complete. Nothing need be added to it or removed from it to render it effective; it iskevalparipuṇṇaṃparisuddhaṃ. The Dhamma is like a brimming vessel; nothing more is required to fill it, and any addition will be at the sacrifice of what the vessel already contains.
~ S.N. Goenka

AN 5.36: Kaladana Sutta: Seasonable Gifts

"There are these five seasonable gifts. Which five? One gives to a newcomer. One gives to one going away. One gives to one who is ill. One gives in time of famine. One sets the first fruits of field & orchard in front of those who are virtuous. These are the five seasonable gifts."