Goenka on the attitude for serving the Dhamma

"The most exalted task is worthless if performed with arrogance. The most menial task is invaluable if performed with humility and love. Therefore the base of service must be the actual practice of Dhamma in order to ensure the proper results. ...

"... No one serving Dhamma should feel superior or inferior to others. Whatever the task assigned, one should accept it happily as an opportunity to serve for the benefit of many, to bring a smile to faces that were tearful, to foster peace where before there was none.

"We serve merely for the sake of serving, without expecting anything in return. And the result will be to create an atmosphere of love, good-will and purity, which will help those who come now, and in later generations, to grasp the Dhamma and find real peace.

"Therefore, Dhamma service is an extraordinary opportunity. Perform it to liberate yourselves and to help others be liberated from defilements, from bondages, from misery. Be the torchbearers of the Dhamma to dispel the surrounding darkness of ignorance and suffering."

The motivation to practice

Question : we are advised to avoid foolish people, what if they are our parents or our siblings?

Tan Ajahn: If you can live in a different place, move out. If you don’t have to live with them, move out. But if you have to stay with them, don’t let them influence you—that’s all. If they want to tell you to do things that you know are inappropriate, you just don’t have to do them. It is not disrespectful or ungrateful.

Lama Tsomo expands Tibetan tradition in Montana

by ROB CHANEY, The Missoulian, April 4, 2016 Missoula, MO (USA) -- A basic principle of Buddhist meditation holds that good things rise out of confusion, if you give yourself the freedom not to force them forward. << For several years, Tsomo taught weekly classes in Missoula on meditation. Tsomo calls meditation a bridge between the brain’s amygdala, which controls reflexive or instinctual reactions, and the more complex parts that hold our personalities and memories. TOMMY MARTINO, Missoulian As Linda Pritzker pursued her interest in Buddhism, that idea propelled her much further than she expected. It transformed her from someone who couldn’t talk about the time of day with her Tibetan teachers to someone who’s authored a book on meditation with a forward written by the Dalai Lama.

Eliminate all your kilesas and nothing can affect your heart at all

Question : I was taught by one teacher to practice open awareness of whatever comes to mind; that means I just accept and note whatever arises in the mind—not thinking, not reflecting, not judging. Is this enough to gain enlightenment? Is there anything else I need to do to make my practice complete?

Tan Ajahn: Can you accept everything when it happens, without any reaction? Can you accept when somebody beats you up? Can you accept when somebody takes your wife away? Can you accept when somebody cheats you or takes your money away? If you can, then you are already enlightened. If you can’t, then remain on the path and continue to meditate.

Buddhism is not a branch of Hinduism

"Hinduism is not a religion in the usual sense of the word, but is rather a collection of sometimes widely divergent religious concepts and practices that evolved out of Brahmanism in India. It is sometimes said that Buddhism is a branch of Hinduism or that it started as a reform movement within Hinduism. Neither of these claims is correct. Hinduism did not exist at the time of the Buddha and only began to evolve after the 3rd or 4th centuries CE. But even if Hinduism is confused with Brahmanism it is still clear from the Buddhist scriptures that the Buddha saw his Dhamma as contrasting with and being an alternative to the religion of his time, not a reform or a reinterpretation of it.

Ajahn Chah and Money

There was once a monk I met who told me he was a real meditator. He asked for permission to stay with me here and inquired about the schedule and standard of monastic discipline. I explained to him that in this monastery we live according to the Vinaya, the Buddha’s code of monastic discipline, and if he wanted to come and train with me he’d have to renounce his money and private supplies of goods. He told me his practice was “non-attachment to all conventions.” I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. “How about if I stay here,” he asked, “and keep all my money but don’t attach to it. Money’s just a convention.” I said sure, no problem. “If you can eat salt and not find it salty, then you can use money and not be attached to it.” He was just speaking gibberish. Actually he was just too lazy to follow the details of the Vinaya. I’m telling you, it’s difficult. “When you can eat salt and honestly assure me it’s not salty, then I’ll take you seriously. And if you tell me it’s not salty then I’ll give you a whole sack to eat. Just try it. Will it really not taste salty? Non-attachment to conventions isn’t just a matter of clever speech. If you’re going to talk like this, you can’t stay with me.” So he left.

- Unshakable Peace (Ajahn Chah)

To develop wisdom

Question : Can Tan Ajahn teach me a method to develop wisdom after I have a sufficient level of calmness?