“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path” ― Gautama Buddha

BBC The Travel Show - Thailand

https://www.youtube.com

Published on Dec 6, 2014

Rajan Datar visits Buddhist temples, monastic retreats and exclusive spas across Thailand in search of enlightenment, and asks if the country's reputation as a spiritual sanctuary could be under threat as increasing wealth and consumerism take hold.

Best weapon against greed ?

Giving is of prime importance in the Buddhist scheme of mental purification because it is the best weapon against greed (lobha), the first of the three unwholesome motivational roots (akusalamula).

If one knows the moral advantages of giving, one will be vigilant to seize opportunities to practice this great virtue. Once the Buddha said that if people only knew the value of giving as he does, they would not take a single meal without sharing their food with others (It.p,18).

Thich Nhat Hanh: a life lived away from the public eye

Thay is often compared to the Dalai Lama but has largely escaped the public's gaze, deciding to live the life of a simple monk. He has avoided the trap of being surrounded by celebrities and will give interviews only to journalists who have spent time beforehand meditating with him on the basis that mindfulness needs to be experienced, rather than described.

But Thay is no wallflower and has led an extraordinary life, including a nomination for the Nobel peace prize from Martin Luther King in 1967 for his work in seeking an end to the Vietnam war. In his nomination King said: "I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity".

Thay set up Plum Village 30 years ago after being exiled from his home country and has since added monasteries in Thailand, Hong Kong and the US, as well as an applied Buddhist institute in Germany. He has continued to work for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world, including holding several retreats for Israelis and Palestinians.

Where is the Truth? AP Dr Wong Yin Onn

Sharing of a personal journey by a doctor on how he eventually  found the Dhamma I come from a typical Chinese family that believed in a mixture  of Taoism and Buddhism, peppered with lots of superstition.  My late mother was very devotional, chanting every morning  and dutifully making offerings. She tried to force her brand  of religion down my throat and like any teenager, I rebelled. To me  it was irrelevant and unscientific and pretty much inconsistent  with the 20th century. I studied in a mission school and learnt much about Christianity,  it appeared to me as modern and Western, all that my inherited  ‘religion’ wasn’t; in fact I spent about 10 years of my life  studying the Bible very seriously. While that led to endless conflicts between my mother and I,  I am grateful to all the  teachers who taught me much about morality, tempted me with heaven and threatened me with hell. There were however an ever increasing number of questions that laid unanswered, and simply allowing faith to overcome all my doubts proved to be a piece of  paper over fire. It burnt and I refused to surrender intellectually. It was so easy as an impressionable teenager to have faith. It was  so tempting to be told that “ask and it shall be given. .”.   But it required Intellectual Suicide. And mine simply refused to die!  Blind faith is indeed strong, so powerful that it led to the Inquisition in the 16th century. And in modern times, the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan.  But  unquestioning unchallenging faith gave me this clutching unrest that something is incomplete and WRONG. I needed MORE than just Faith. I needed the Truth.

On Metta ~ The Sublime Attitudes by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

"Goodwill (mettā) lies at the basis of everything. ... Your only job is to make sure there are no limits on your goodwill. When people have done horrible things, you don't have to like them; you don't have to condone their behavior. That's not what goodwill means. Goodwill means that you don't wish anyone harm. If they're doing horrible things, you have every right to stop them if you can — after all, in doing horrible things, they're creating bad karma, more suffering for themselves. Just make sure that you don't harm them in trying to stop them.

"Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom" ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

"There’s a passage where the Buddha describes how a wise person and a foolish person differ in the way they react to pain. They both feel pain. ... But they react in a different way. The foolish person, when struck by a pain, reacts in a way that adds more pain. The classic analogy is of being shot by one arrow and then turning around to shoot yourself with another arrow ...

Rohingya children of Myanmar to benefit from exhibition in Malaysia

Big News Network.comSaturday 10th January, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, Malayasia - An exhibition of photos and artwork of children living in internally displaced persons camps in Myanmar will be held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, next weekend from Friday through Sunday.

Why it is hard to be happy

How to Live together - Ajahn Chah

"If many people live together, they can still practice comfortably if their views are in harmony. But even two or three would have difficulty if their views were not harmonious. When we humble ourselves and let go of our views, even if there are many of us, we come together. ... Even though our views may differ, if we practice correctly there will be no friction. Just like all the rivers and streams, which flow to the sea – once they enter the sea they all have the same taste and colour. It is the same with people. When they enter the stream of Dhamma, it is the one Dhamma.

"But the thinking, which causes all the disputes and conflict, is ditthimāna. Therefore the Buddha taught us to let go of views. Don’t allow māna to cling to those views beyond their relevance."