This Dhamma talk discusses the key elements of the Kāladāna Sutta in addition to three personal stories that show how donations can miraculously come back to you. Some of the stories can be found at my website at this particular webpage below with pictures of the original items: https://americanmonk.org/miracle-on-3-or-4-streets/ The video is below: Miracle On 3 or 4 Streets If you have ever wondered how monks survive on miracles when things go wrong, read on! Five stories are included. The post The Power Of Timing In Donations appeared first on American Buddhist Monk: Bhante Subhūti ..read more

Here is a post with a video link on how I got permission from my parents. In early 2001, when I was in Myanmar, and traveling for 1.5 years, I called my parents and asked them for permission to ordain as a monk. I didn’t get permission at first and then I told them I would never see them again if I didn’t get permission. “If I am hurt alive or dead, you will never see me ever again. It would be better if I were dead because at least you would know.” approximate quote I have discussed this event with my parents and told them that I’m glad I had permission. Otherwise I would have never seen the ..read more

There are three stories of loving-kindness told in the video posted below. The first story is from Kaua’i, Hawai’i, when a person did not want me on “his” street. Through the power of loving-kindness, things changed. Another story was also from the island in 2015. There were children on bicycles who were yelling at us to go away on multiple days. Through the power of loving-kindness, things changed. The last story is from 2011 during a trip to India. The loving-kindness did not change the other, but a different outcome was the result. The lady probably did not say, “If you have Jesus in your h ..read more

Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta and I have been going for alms together for some time now. He usually comes with me the whole way on Saturdays and on Sundays, he forks right after the 2nd or 3rd house. However, recently, a new monk decided to join our route. Last week, Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta went off on his own on Saturday while the two of us went on my usual route (good for two monks). We did the same this Saturday. When we came back Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta showed me the contents of his bowl. It had 2 spoons of rice and a few bananas. While this was clearly not enough food for him, it made me so happy. B ..read more

This year, my AmericanMonk.org website was 504 short of 60,000 filtered views (that removes bots and other stuff). The number of users who visited was up to 36,000. Not so bad and better than the year before. The progress over the years is evident in the yearly chart. Simply by writing down things that inspire me, people became interested. Google seems to like my website and recommends my posts on a variety of specialized topics taking a majority of 29,000 search engine referrals from this year alone. My parents read most of my articles and it is a good chance for me to give them some of the ..read more

Palm leaf photo link wellcomecollection:1 Today I finished memorizing the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha in Pāḷi (the 311 Theravāda nun’s rules).  While I did not recite the whole lot in a single session, I did memorize in chunks until the total was completely memorized at one time or another.   That means, I would recite a chunk of rules in front of a teacher by memory and then work on a separate adjacent succeeding chunk for memory.  After finishing the new chunk, I would recite those new rules by memory in front of a teacher and then move forward to another adjacent succeeding chunk.&n ..read more

During the Buddhist Rainy season, I was invited to go to Cambodia as part of a group to deliver some relics and see Angkor Wat. While most people don’t know much about Cambodia as a Theravāda Buddhist Country, it is actually 97% Buddhist, which ranks them as the most Theravāda Buddhist Country in the world. The trip ended up being more than 1000 times more powerful than we ever expected and it will be a memory for a long time to come. The Airport Welcome We didn’t need to go beyond the airport to understand that things were going to be much different because we got quite the welcome at Cambod ..read more

The Wootens One of the few places I have been to in Sri Lanka besides Na-Uyana and The International Institute of Theravāda (IIT) is Spring Hill Forest Monastery located in the Hantanna Mountains above Kandy. My two donors from Kaua’i, John and Nandini Wooten were visiting Kandy and I decided it would be good to take a break from the IIT scenery and climate with a great inspirational place for the Wootens to visit me. About Spring Hill Monastery The monastery is located in the misty mountains alongside the tea plantations and it has a very cool climate, which is something that I really needed ..read more

Probably the #1 question we get is, “Why did you become a monk?” That question has many factors and answers. However, a better question is, “How did I actually get the nerve to become a monk?”  I had a lot to give up.  I was a computer programmer and really enjoyed my job.  It did not feel like work actually and I was also making more than 15 times what someone on minimum wage was making at that time.  I had gone through the “Should I stay or should I go?” routine many many times but never really committed myself to monkhood.  Here is a video recording of that story ..read more

Introduction: Today we will have a short and brief introduction into the meaning of “Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa”. We could easily say it is the most frequently chanted stanza of all Buddhist Pāḷi because this is said before any other type of chant. It is also chanted before every proper Theravāda dhamma talk. We will discuss the word by word meaning and the basic grammar. In short, the phrase means “Reverence to the Buddha.” Namo means reverence while the other words represent The Buddha. Namo Tassa Namo means Reverence. It is not a verb. It is an indeclinable noun. Neverth ..read more