Sangarava sutta, AN 10:117

Becoming homeless, they delight in seclusion, difficult to delight,
They delight in it, giving up all traces of sensuality
The wise clean themselves, throwing out their defilements.
And thoroughly develop the enlightenment factors.
Giving up their seizings, are not attached.
The bright ones without desires for this world, are extinguished.

What is a difficult lesson?

There is a better method which is not relying on anything, but relying on your own ability, relying on mindfulness

Question:  What is the meaning of saying condolences in Thailand: Duang Viññan, to the departed one. Does it mean wishing the citta to have a happy birth into good realm?

Than Ajahn:  A person has different reactions to another person who passed away, sometimes he feels. bad so he wants to ask forgiveness from the person who passed away, so he went to the coffin and say sorry for what he did, but practically I don’t think the person in the coffin heard what he was saying.

So if you want to say sorry, you should do it when the person is still alive. After he or she died then forget about it. The only thing you can do is to make merit and share the merit to the departed one. If the person is in the state where he needs the merits then he will be able to use the merit that you share, however if he has more merits than you, he will not need the merit you share. But we still do it, just in case he needs it, he can have the merits that we share for him. So it is a customary in Thai Buddhist practice that we share merits to the deceased.

Illuminating Buddhism in a high-tech light

by Tomoyuki Hamahata, The Japan News/Asia News Network, April 17, 2017

Fukui, Japan -- Faced with declining attendees among the young, one temple priest in Fukui has found a unique way to help them see the light. His “techno hoyo” fuses traditional religious images projected in brilliant lights with Buddhist sutras set to a techno beat.

Gyosen Asakura performs a “techno hoyo” ritual in Fukui. He said he hopes that the ritual will invoke the Buddhist version of paradise in each attendee. (The Japan News/File)

Gyosen Asakura, 49, the master of Shoonji temple in the city, has experience as a DJ. Using his high-tech equipment, his ritual expresses images of life after death in the paradise that Buddhism says awaits us.

With many young Japanese shunning religion these days, Asakura hopes this creative take will stoke interest in Buddhism.

Walking meditation

Walking meditation is an art. You can make steps that create stability and joy, and that will nourish you every moment… You have to allow yourself to be natural, to be relaxed. You have to learn how to allow yourself to breathe naturally, allow your face to be relaxed, allow your feet to walk naturally; you know how to coordinate your steps with your breath, and allow nature to welcome you.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Image: h.koppdelaney

Kamma is complicated and is beyond our comprehension

Question:  My daughter is currently on medication for bi-polar disorder. I would like to know in terms of karma, what have I done wrong?

Than Ajahn:  Kamma is complicated and is beyond our comprehension. So just accept the fact that this is your kamma. Whatever kamma you have, it is complicated. You don’t know what you did today, how can you know what did you do two years ago? Everything that you did in the past contributed to what you are today. That’s all you have to know.

Science has proved that meditation can improve quality of life: Buddhist master

by Seethalakshmi, TNN, Apr 16, 2017

BENGALURU, India -- He believes that it's up to us to live with a problem/situation in life or fight it. As an 8-year-old, Tibetan meditation master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche suffered from anxiety disorder. But he conquered it through meditation. The millionaire monk, who founded the Tergar Meditation Centres across the globe, was in Bengaluru to lead a session at the Srishti School of Design and Technology.

He spoke to STOI about mind control, modern science and buddhism. Excerpts.

You have said the mind is like a crazy monkey... like stock market... uncontrollable with ups and downs every minute. But abandoning negativity is probably the toughest challenge in the times we live in. As a meditation master, what's your advice to people to stay positive? 
It's all in the mind, isn't it? Everything is created there and ends there. When you look at the waves in the ocean, it's up to you---whether you can see the monsters or any other form. It's created in the mind. I know it's not easy to shut anxiety and emotions away. It took me five years to gain control through meditation. At the core of the Tergar meditation is the joy of living --- living with awareness. It's free and pure. It feels like space. Emotion is like a cloud. So meditating helps you connect with space and clear the cloud.

MBCC opposes Kelantan State Government’s New Religious Policies

What Is Nibbāna? Is It a Realm?

Question: Would Bhante please explain what Nibbāna really is? There are some who have the point of view that Nibbāna is a realm – a realm of emptiness or a realm in which desire ceases. In Buddhism there are six realms; could Nibbāna be the seventh realm? 問:尊者,可不可以請您解釋一下,什麼是涅槃?有人認為涅槃是一種生存界?就像是空界或無欲界。在佛教裏有六道,那麼涅槃有可能是第七道嗎?

Answer: Nibbāna is outside of the thirty-one planes of existence. It is beyond the planes of existence. It is not a realm.
答:涅槃是在三十一界之外,它超越了生存地,它不是一種生存界。

What is the significance of the Vesakh Days for us?

“This is the significance of the Vesakha Puja day, it is for us to be thankful that we have come across the Buddha, have met his teaching.”

Why I swapped investment banking for Buddhism in Bhutan

Interview by Caroline Eden, The Guardian, Apr 14, 2017

‘In Bhutan, humans are not dominant, but a small part of the whole’ says Emma Slade on the Himalayan kingdom she regards as her spiritual paradise

Timphu, Bhutan -- Bhutan is one of the few places in the world where you can experience unbroken Buddhist culture. Spirituality is embedded in daily life here. I came because I wanted to meet monks and serious retreatants, and witness first hand what it might mean to dedicate your life to spiritual practice as a Buddhist.

<< Emma Slade

Although this is the Himalayas, you don’t come to here to climb mountains. Mountains are sacred in Bhutan, as are rivers and the earth. The relationship between nature, animals and people is unique. The population is small (around 750,000) but the power of the mountains and nature is enormous. 

Study constantly

Bring your mind back to the present, here and now. The present is the safest place for the mind to be because there is nothing in the present

https://www.facebook.com/AjahnSuchartAbhijato/videos/722842417880517/

Question: I have been having trouble letting go of the past. How can I let it go and what do you suggest?

The Significance of Wesak lies with the Buddha and his universal peace message to mankind

As we recall the Buddha and his Enlightenment, we are immediately reminded of the unique and most profound knowledge and insight which arose in him on the night of his Enlightenment. This coincided with three important events which took place, corresponding to the three watches or periods of the night.

During the first watch of the night, when his mind was calm, clear and purified, light arose in him, knowledge and insight arose. He saw his previous lives, at first one, then two, three up to five, then multiples of them .. . ten, twenty, thirty to fifty. Then 100, 1000 and so on.... As he went on with his practice, during the second watch of the night, he saw how beings die and are reborn, depending on their Karma, how they disappear and reappear from one form to another, from one plane of existence to another. Then during the final watch of the night, he saw the arising and cessation of all phenomena, mental and physical. He saw how things arose dependent on causes and conditions. This led him to perceive the arising and cessation of suffering and all forms of unsatisfactoriness paving the way for the eradication of all taints of cravings. With the complete cessation of craving, his mind was completely liberated. He attained to Full Enlightenment. The realisation dawned in him together with all psychic powers.

Awareness and Desire

When we decide to respond to or initiate an interaction with our environment, we have already stored away a large number of fixed action patterns, some learned, some innate and refined down by experience, which save us a lot of energy because we don't always have to figure out afresh how to do things. We accumulate habitual and automatic ways of doing things, from brushing our teeth to even having an argument. They are not wrong. Without them it would be difficult to function at all. But if we don't have any awareness around these conditioned responses, we become very rigid and limited.

Vegetarianism

There are differences of opinion between Buddhists on this issue  so we will attempt to present the arguments of those who believe  that vegetarianism is necessary for Buddhists and those who do  not. Vegetarianism was not a part of the early Buddhist tradition  and the Buddha himself was not a vegetarian. The Buddha got his  food either by going on alms rounds or by being invited to the  houses of his supporters and in both cases he ate what he was  given. Before his enlightenment he had experimented with various  diets including a meatless diet, but he eventually abandoned them  believing that they did not contribute to spiritual development.

Calming Your Mind Buddhist-Style – A 30-Second Method for Non-Buddhists and Buddhists Alike

December 1, 2016 by Domyo Burk

Sitting – Flickr Commons – Anthony Arrigo

In recent weeks, given the political turmoil in the world, I’ve heard from a lot of people who are wondering how to calm their minds. It’s painful and unhelpful to be caught up in anxiety, anger, reactivity, despair, fear, and worry about the future. In addition, these kinds of emotions are what Buddhists call afflictive – that is, they are self-perpetuating and suck up a lot of our energy. Stewing in anxiety, for example, generally leads to more anxiety and exhaustion, not to solutions or relief.

Visuddhimagga (I, 55) - The “Elder” Mahā-Tissa

..It seems that as the Elder was on his way from Cetiyapabbata to Anurādhapura for alms, a certain daughter-in-law of a clan, who had 

quarrelled with her husband and had set out early from Anurādhapura had

dressed up and tricked out like a celestial nymph to go to her relatives’ 

home, saw him on the road, and being low-minded, she laughed a loud 

laugh. (Wondering) “What is that?”, the Elder looked up, and finding in the 

bones of her teeth the perception of foulness, he reached Arahatship. 

Hence it was said:

Austrian Buddhist Shares Her Experience of 12 Years Spent in Mountain Retreat

BD Dipananda Buddhistdoor Global 7 Apr 17

Tibetan lama named Kongma at Milarepa cave near Manang. From samulimansikka.com

Tara Choying Lhamo, an Austrian Buddhist who has been living in retreat for more than 20 years—12 of which were spend in Milarepa’s caves in Lapchi, Nepal—is now sharing her unique experience and insights with audiences in Australia and New Zealand.

The Otago Daily Times reports that Lhamo is now in New Zealand, following a 10-day tour of Australia. Last year, Lhamo shared her meditation experiences for the first time with an audience in London. Those who heard her story were deeply moved.

Katannu

“Friendship in Buddhism means that you have a guidance.”

Question:  Lord Buddha commented that “admirable friendship is actually the whole of the holy life”. However Ajahn’s teaching is that there is no form of friendship and ideally you have to be alone and you want to concentrate all your time & efforts in developing mindfulness. What is the context of Ajahn’s teaching?

Than Ajahn:  Friendship in Buddhist practice doesn’t mean that you hang out with somebody. Friendship in Buddhism means that you have a guidance, someone to guide you in your practice, that’s the best friendship like to have a Buddha as your friend, or to have your teacher as your friend but you don’t hang around with Buddha all the time, or hang around with your teacher all the time. You hang around with him when you need their guidance.

Peace Is Every Step

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives - 

the way we develop our industries, build up our society, 

and consume goods.

Thich Nhat Hanh,
Image: Pep Ventosa

Transmutation of Suffering: The Magic of Tonglen

January 27, 2017 by Lasara Firefox Allen 

Tonglen meditation is a healing practice. The word tonglen is Tibetan, and means “giving and taking.” It is also translated as “sending and receiving.” Rooted deeply in Tibetan Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and service, tonglen is designed to transmute and transcend suffering, not only on the personal level but on the global as well.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Seeking ease for ourselves is not always synonymous with working toward the liberation of all beings. But, in the case of tonglen, the transformation of discomfort is a path that allows for healing, transformation, and liberation on all levels. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that he practices tonglen everyday. This is what he says of the practice; “Whether this meditation really helps others or not, it gives me peace of mind. Then I can be more effective, and the benefit is immense.”