Look intently without doubt

INTO THE DHAMMA: The Journey of a Novice Monk

Published on Oct 23, 2015

After coming to Wat Marp Jan for many years, Wen Jie decides to give ordination a go. He finds it's not as easy as he first thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txvtird_W4k

New acting president at Singapore Buddhist Lodge

by Leong Weng Kam, Straits Times, Jan 31, 2017 Tan Lee Huak aims to strengthen confidence of devotees and promote Buddhist teachings Singapore -- Since last Friday night, more than 20,000 devotees have visited the Singapore Buddhist Lodge in Kim Yam Road, as they do every Chinese New Year, to give offerings, exchange greetings and pay respects to their ancestors. Mr Tan says the lodge gets about $10 million in donations from the public each year, and it is the lodge's duty to ensure the money goes to those in need.ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM Few, however, know of the recent change of leadership at the 83-year-old Buddhist temple and charity institution in River Valley. Businessman Tan Lee Huak, 69, an active clan and Chinese community leader, has been acting president of the lodge since late November, after Mr Simon Kuah resigned from all his leadership posts.

Birthday Wishes

'To avoid all evil,
to cultivate good, and
to cleanse one's mind 
- this is the teaching of the Buddhas.'

'Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ
kusalassa upasampadā
Sacittapariyodapanaṃ
- etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ.'

- Dhammapada Verse 183

Pagoda problems: the decline of Buddhism in Cambodia

By: Euan Black Globe - POSTED ON: February 1, 2017   As Cambodia modernises and sex and drug scandals rock the monkhood, the famed saffron robes no longer command the respect they once did

 A group of monks in Phnom Penh make use of modern technology  Photography by Jeremy Meek

In 1959, May Mayko Ebihara became the first American to write an anthropological dissertation on Cambodian village life. Published in two volumes nearly a decade later, Svay: A Khmer Village in Cambodia depicted a pre-modern agricultural idyll governed by family and religion, in which monks were seen as the “living embodiments and spiritual generators of Buddhism”.

Dhp 42-43

"Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm.
Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one's own well-directed mind."

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Look after your mind

“If you look after your mind and make it happy, then you always have this happiness with you all the time. It does not leave you.”

If you look after things that you cannot look after, you will be disappointed, sad, and sorry. If you look after things that you can look after, then you will be fulfilled, satisfied, and happy.

Japan’s monks-for-rent business a sign of changing times

AFP| February 2, 2017   Demand for monk delivery services is gaining popularity 
as more lose ties to local temples - and lose faith in the temple donation system.

FUNABASHI: In a quiet room thick with the smell of incense, 
Buddhist monk Kaichi Watanabe chants sutras to commemorate 
the one year anniversary of a woman’s death.

The 41-year-old may look like a traditional holy man in Japan – 
but he wasn’t dispatched by a temple. Instead, the family ordered 
him through a fast-growing rent-a-monk business that has angered 
traditionalists who warn it is commercialising the religion.

Dhp 171

"Come! Behold this world, which is like a decorated royal chariot. 
Here fools flounder, but the wise have no attachment to it."

This Short Film Will Forever Change Your Perspective On Death

This animated video was hand-drawn by an artist from the Netherlands. Well-received by many festivals, it’s bound to change your perspective on death.
Amanda Froelich  Posted on January 21, 2017

Credit: YouTub

To die without truly living is most peoples’ greatest fear. And, considering no one truly knows what awaits the soul after death, this is, for many reasons, understandable. If you are one of the many, however, who fears death, perhaps the following short video drawn by Marsha Onderstijin will slightly change your perspective on ‘the big sleep’.

The Mahàvagga Samyutta

Between birth and death we live mostly in the homes of greed, hatred, delusion, pride, jealousy and stinginess. These are homes that are truly bad for us. Even though we live in physical houses that we call home, for most of us our real home is the abode of greed, hatred, delusion, pride, jealousy and stinginess. These primal defilements come along with us at birth, and they trouble us throughout our lives. Most of us, unfortunately, are caught in their grip. They indeed become our real home.
从生到死，我们都常常住在贪婪、瞋恚、愚痴、傲慢、妒忌与悭吝的家中。
这些家对我们实在没什么好处。尽管我们住在物质的房子里，那个我们称为家的地方，但对于许多人来说，我们真正的家是贪、瞋、痴、慢、妒与悭。
这些主要的烦恼从出生开始便伴随着我们，困扰我们一生。很不幸，大多数人被它们所掌控，它们的确成了我们真正的家。

Dhp 282

"Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let a man so conduct himself that his wisdom may increase."

Bhikshu Jnanapurnik Mahasthavira, Vishwa Shanti Vihara, Nepal.

https://www.facebook.com/bbodhijnana/videos/10202534344795485/

Meditation on Gratitude and Joy

“If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice?” ~Maha Ghosananda

Buddhist monks begin each day with a chant of gratitude for the blessings of their life. Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to mother earth and father sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.”

Understanding and compassion

Understanding and compassion are very powerful sources of energy. They are the opposite of stupidity and passivity. If you think that compassion is passive, weak, or cowardly, then you don't know what real understanding or compassion is. If you think you that compassionate people do not resist and challenge injustice, you are wrong. They are warriors, heroes, and heroines who have gained many victories. When you act with compassion, with nonviolence, when you act on the basis of nonduality, you have to be very strong. You no longer act out of anger. You do not punish or blame.

Compassion grows constantly inside of you and you can succeed in your fight against injustice. Mahatma Gandhi was just one person. He did not have any bombs, any guns, or any political party. He acted on the insight of nonduality, the strength of compassion, not on the basis of anger. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Tan Suhajjo

Peaceful Uplifting Monasteries added 30 new photos.

Tan Suhajjo was born in Southern California in 1986. Although he did not have an affinity for religion, he stumbled upon the Buddha's teachings in high school and they resonated deeply for him. It was not until attending college in San Jose, California that he became interested in comparative religion and meditation. With his interest in Buddhism rekindled and questions about life still unanswered, he decided to explore an alternative to the home life he was living. This led him to the teachings of the disciples of Ajahn Chah and to Abhayagiri. After two years of Anāgārika and Sāmaṇera training, Tan Suhajjo took full Bhikkhu ordination on June 22, 2014. He is currently spending a year abroad in Thailand.

Dhp 219 - 220

"When, after a long absence, a man safely returns from afar, his relatives, friends and well-wishers welcome him home on arrival.

As kinsmen welcome a dear one on arrival, even so his own good deeds will welcome the doer of good who has gone from this world to the next."

AN 1.:308-309

"Bhikkhus, a certain person is born in the world for the harm, bad luck and unpleasantness of many gods and men. Who is it? It is one with wrong and perverted view. He pulls out many from right view and establishes them in wrong view. He is born in the world for the harm, bad luck and unpleasantness of many gods and men.

Bhikkhus, a certain person is born in the world for the welfare, good luck and pleasantness of many gods and men. Who is it? It is one with right view and unperverted view. He pulls out many from wrong view and establishes them in right view. He is born in the world for the welfare, good luck and pleasantness of many gods and men."

Fake Buddha Quotes Analysis by Bodhipaksa

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.- Buddha”

Analysis:
'As is usually the case, the language bears little or no resemblance to how the Buddha taught, which is not to say that the quote is false in its substance or lacking in poetry. It’s certainly a lovely metaphor, and in a sense true. It’s just very unlikely that these words are anywhere in the Buddhist canon...'

Angin (An Essence of Wind)

Featured in Buddhist Shorts Film Festival   JAN 02, 2017
 
https://vimeo.com/63748735  
Directed by Winaldo Artaraya Swastia
Country: Indonesia
Year: 2010

Bhante Dhammariya, a young monk living at a monastery far from the urban sprawl of Indonesian city life, finds a cell phone that was accidentally left behind by a practitioner. Tempted to use the device to call his family, Bhante Dhammariya falls into a distracted state and begins to reminisce on his former life as a householder. The incident, seemingly innocuous, leads him to long for his family and question his own monastic vows.

Dhp 165

" By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one made pure. Purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another."