For the last twenty or so years, I had truly believed I was practicing the Dhamma: meditating daily, listening to Dhamma talks, attending classes and retreats and trying to practice the Precepts. But, as you may have noticed from the ordering of the preceding, I now suspect that my view of practice has been upside down the entire time. Like many people I know, my introduction to Buddhism came through meditation. My first real experience with a state of calm that would propel me further into the practice was after reading Kapleau Roshi’s The Five Pillars of Zen (zen itself being the Japanese re ..read more

“When both are faithful and bountiful, disciplined, living righteously, then wife and husband say nice things to each other. They get all the things they need, so they live at ease. Their enemies are downhearted, when both are equal in ethics.  Having practiced the teaching here, both equal in precepts and observances, they delight in the heavenly realm, enjoying all the pleasures they desire.” Paṭhamasamajīvīsutta—Bhikkhu Sujato As I sit here in the small room I’ve rented during our separation it is hard to imagine that the scenario described by Lord Buddha above could act ..read more

Being watchful of your actions throughout the day means that your mind is staying with that which is the priority: namely, ‘the guarding of the gateway’ of your mind, so that there are no obstructions for it. That’s the sole task—which can be outlined through discipline, guarding the senses and moderating your eating. You will end up just having to guard the entrance of the gateway, so you don’t have to be running around. The gateway is that one entrance into the city which is walled all round, and that ‘wall’ is your discipline and sense restraint. That’s why virtue and celibacy are not opti ..read more

Also, it is essential to note that the development of mettā does not result in having love for all: it leads to the development of upekkhā, or equanimity, which is the ability to maintain an unshakable mind toward all things without attachments. Ajahn Nyanamoli Thero ..read more

I listened to this Dhamma talk last night and it really struck a deep chord of fear inside. I have faith in the teachings of Lord Buddha and take his descriptions of the apaya loka at face value so why have I not been living in accord with the truth? Clearly, I have some concerns if a cord was struck but, in all honesty, how can we not? Who among us had not killed a being, told a white lie, taken some toothpaste without asking? And, I know that I have broken the third and fifth precepts in my past more than once. What if these things arise for me at the moment of death? I asked a bhikkhu fri ..read more

Here’s a new rule to help keep myself from making bad decisions when my mind is otherwise clouded by delusion or inflamed by lust or anger: only do those things that you feel no remorse at all about. I have never once felt that I would regret giving. I have never once felt that I would be ashamed for having bitten my tongue. I have, however, felt a pang of regret for having broken my fast, for having given in to a desire, for having given the last word. Life is so short and we pave our way to our next destination with the quality of our thoughts, words and deeds. Frankly, I don’t want to roll ..read more

“Some animals have vassana, parami and a better character than some human beings. It is just that they happened to be reborn as an animal in this life, therefore they have to accept and endure the consequences of their kamma. We should not underestimate and look down on them as beings of a lower birth. They are simply receiving the consequences of certain kammic actions.” Luang Pu Mun Bhuridatta Accept and Endure As frightening as this possibility is, anyone who takes the Lord Buddha at his word, knows rebirth in an animal womb is just one of the many possible outcomes in samsara. And, per ..read more

There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Seneca, Letters from a Stoic Speaking with my son on the way back home on the train, I had occasion to share the quote above. I had often seen it quoted but had never felt the need to ponder it more deeply or share it. At that moment, however, it seemed particularly apt. Aside from the forms of dukkha explicitly mentioned in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, there are also three more derivative categories of suffering: Dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physi ..read more

www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/dhammapada-illustrated/d/doc1084243.html ..read more

Suppose, monk, there was a great stone mountain a yojana long, a yojana wide, and a yojana high, without holes or crevices, one solid mass of rock. At the end of every hundred years a man would stroke it once with a piece of fine cloth. That great stone mountain might by this effort be worn away and eliminated but the eon would still not have come to an end. So long is an eon, monk. SN 15:5; II 181–82 The time scales discussed in tune Pali canon often seen to get glossed over by my Western Buddhist friends but the simile above should show clearly just how frighteningly immense is the chasm o ..read more