tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29479969755725863662024-09-10T12:04:21.322+10:00dhammamangalamMetta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-30944543160325914162012-07-10T18:45:00.001+10:002012-07-10T18:47:32.999+10:00Worry makes the world go "Owww!"
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Everyone
experiences worry to some extent. For some, worry can seem vast and
all-encompassing. It seems to envelop the entire mind, tying it up in
tightly binding knots. In the body, worry can turn up as sweating,
shaking, headaches, dry mouth, irritable bowels, restlessness,
tiredness and insomnia. The list seems endless. Now science has
provided a look into Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-88424651411955771462012-06-12T18:00:00.002+10:002012-06-12T18:00:41.693+10:00Come and see.
“This [dhamma] will be for your happiness; for your well-being,” the Tathagata said.
Pondering on what this one or that one has said is following a defilement like a child following a poisonous snake. Despite this truth, I will say something.
Kamma is central to discernment of dhamma. Kamma is action. Dhamma is kamma made effective.
Here, in a few words, is how to Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-2237308660678408752011-01-15T13:57:00.002+11:002011-01-16T06:42:07.597+11:00New podcast page"To be respectful, humble, contented and grateful; and to listen to the Dhamma on due occasions — this is the greatest blessing." - Mangala Sutta.
New to this blog is a page where you can listen to or download podcasts of meditation and dhamma talks. The first is a guided breath meditation that will be of use to those who want to think more about the way the breath features in Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0Inle Lake, Burma20.5862914 96.910180620.2648939 96.4432616 20.9076889 97.377099600000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-15756813404541794792010-12-05T15:00:00.001+11:002010-12-05T15:05:15.457+11:00Bodily acts"Therefore, Rahula, you should train yourself: 'I will purify my bodily acts through repeated reflection. I will purify my verbal acts through repeated reflection. I will purify my mental acts through repeated reflection.' That is how you should train yourself."— MN 61When I first went into a Buddhist meditation hall, I was struck by the presence of the Buddha image. It seemed larger than life Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-39627856946396622032010-12-04T15:37:00.002+11:002011-01-28T14:01:51.948+11:00Freed from crooked things-a revisionTucked away in the Tipitaka, in the esoteric Khuddaka Nikaya, is an extraordinary collection of 264 short poems in 1,291 stanzas called the Theragatha. The many and varied voices of the monks who extemporised these free flowing verses over two thousand years ago are a revealing testament of the Buddha's mission in action. Selected over time to be included in the Tipitaka, no doubt for their Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-4659105052669540612010-11-11T14:20:00.001+11:002010-11-11T15:26:17.103+11:00This is BuddhismWhat is a Buddhist? A Buddhist is someone who seeks to show unconditional loving kindness, personally, to every being everywhere, in such a way that this is not noticed, yet it is clearly understood and gratefully received, without the need for any return. This is surely unattainable, impossible. But this is what we should do! Even though it is impossible, our true nature says we could do it, so Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-103340699731932252010-11-02T16:13:00.001+11:002010-11-03T00:21:09.363+11:00All the time in the world
There is all the time in the world.
Then there is none. - Mike Ladd.
The Buddha-dhamma pulses with life. Even the distance of 2,500 years has not obscured the way for the earnest seeker. The path is clearly marked. Why delay any longer? - Bhikku Sobin S. Namto.
The most common product of the human mind is the excuse. Note these familiar phrases: “I'll do it later.” “Can't you Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-27729618478605546472010-10-21T18:11:00.002+11:002010-11-11T15:32:03.901+11:00Get beyondIt arises in thought after some meditation that a part of what is being sought so often in the so-called "hardcore" movement is an affirmation or justification of self-identity: I am searching, I am seeking enlightenment, I am meditating, I have a guru. This is almost inevitable. There are very few who will attend a meditation retreat, or sit in a comfortable position with incense burning for theMetta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-38675647508770743762010-10-20T12:58:00.047+11:002010-10-22T12:52:56.154+11:00Not the Buddha - just a very nice boy
The strange case of the so-called Buddha Boy, is a reminder of how many people in the world are forever cynical and troubled, confused and fearful, mixed up and hopeful. The boy's sudden fame gives the opportunity to put the extraordinary, enduring achievements of the historical Tathagata Himself into a new light. Born in Nepal, not far from the birthplace of the Buddha, Ram Bahadur Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-60422977867355013202010-09-28T18:58:00.003+10:002010-10-21T18:00:01.541+11:00"This Dhamma stands..."Below is a slightly modified comment I recently wrote on a Buddhist blog about the so-called "hardcore" meditation movement, particularly the approach taken by Kenneth Folk. I follow this with some thoughts around craving and solitude.
Exploring Folk's website and video "consultations" I sense something slightly disturbing in the potential for harm in such an un-intermediated relationship. Of Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-2807159304128236632010-07-14T14:01:00.004+10:002010-10-22T13:28:41.325+11:00What does it mean to cultivate dhamma?
The aim is simple, the task is clear. Cultivate those qualities that end and eradicate suffering and stress. Plant sweet seeds and sweetness grows. Plant bitter seeds and bitterness grows. We all have this ability, because we all may choose. Just as we have the ability to worry and fear, we also have the ability to release ourselves from pain. This is not available through mere abstraction of Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-20164186420823604862010-06-01T00:32:00.006+10:002010-06-01T01:03:17.073+10:00Highest blessing
"Many deities and men, yearning after good, have pondered on Blessings. Tell me the highest Blessing!"
The Mangala Sutta is one of the most popular sources for conveying the social and ethical teachings of the Buddha. It is an expression of dhamma at its most straightforward. Esoteric and transcendental approaches to life are always difficult to digest for the "householder" who has to work for aMetta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-85914496100029064682010-05-25T14:09:00.004+10:002010-05-28T14:36:37.091+10:00Treasure existenceEvery being treasures its existence. Every being fears for its life and seeks to guard its treasure. Am I a thief, ready to steal another's treasure? Am I a bully, ready to bring fear to another? Am I a cowardly gang leader, ready with money or inducements to persuade others to steal or bully, creating fear on my behalf, merely to satisfy my craving, my lust, my greed, all to support a Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-83094432589144995412010-05-20T16:27:00.001+10:002010-11-11T15:23:09.663+11:00Buddha dhamma is child's-play
From this, comes that. Buddha dhamma is child's-play. This is a controversial thing to say. Here is what is meant by it. When a child takes its first steps, it does so entirely with faith (saddha). Having decided for itself with its own wisdom (panna) to move away from the stress (dukkha) and helplessness of birth (jati), the child becomes determined to make an effort (viriya) to move towards Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-21597333139047564952010-05-16T13:25:00.006+10:002010-05-20T16:59:15.397+10:00All you need to know.Is there a simple formula for successful meditation? What is the right view we need to have about the mind, the body, about dhamma?
Understand that dhamma means the entire contents of the mind. Explore the body, explore the feelings in the body, explore the mind and finally there is dhamma. In trying to see, to know the entire range of dhamma, what is it that prevents clarity? What dirt stains Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-12278322201664344072009-12-20T13:40:00.013+11:002010-04-15T16:05:27.135+10:00With insight we are safe from pain "The Buddha's teaching of Insight is — in as few words as possible — the training in knowledge and seeing of how it is that anything, whatever it may be whether objective or subjective, comes to be; how it acquires existence only through dependence on conditions, and is impermanent because none of the conditions for its existence is permanent; and how existence, always complex and impermanent, Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-1038516897410876652009-12-04T15:19:00.003+11:002010-10-22T13:02:39.944+11:00Stirring leavesSuffering flows from unsatisfactory conditions. Just as leaves respond to the stirring wind, so mind bends to the unsatisfactory turbulence of its condition. What does the world look like if all unsatisfactory conditions are removed? From moment to moment the untrained mind busily runs back to reinvent the past, or forward to anticipate the future. It never seems to fix on the moment it leaves Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-70353935150999852932009-11-12T13:24:00.005+11:002010-06-01T01:47:00.947+10:00The end of craving"Through countless births in the cycle of existence I have run in vain
seeking the builder of this house and again and again I faced the suffering of new birth. Oh, housebuilder! Now you are seen! You shall not build again a house for me. All your beams are broken, the ridgepole is shattered. Mind has become free from conditioning; the end of craving has been reached."These words of the Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-13273441756965597932009-11-05T11:05:00.005+11:002009-11-05T11:38:48.837+11:00Free the thinker from the thoughtThoughts come in the shape of things, people, birds, animals. Thoughts bring friends: ideas, beliefs, hopes, doubts, fears, desires, anger, envy, greed, infatuation, pride, worry. Welcome them as food for thought, as lonely, tired strangers returning home. Free the thinker from the thought. The thing freed was never bound to begin with.Release the words that form the thoughts that words are Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-28385140096822622922009-11-03T14:11:00.003+11:002009-11-19T15:04:15.429+11:00The view
Hesperus, evening star,
you bring all things homeward
which the shining dawn dispersed,
You bring the sheep, you bring the goats,
you bring the child home to its mother.
— Sappho
Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2947996975572586366.post-62469565930092840842009-11-03T12:23:00.007+11:002010-11-08T11:42:32.927+11:00The dawning of dhamma - 1Before Vipassana - departure from helplessness.
I awoke on 7 October 2007 full of familiar despair and suffering, but also fully aware of the selfish contradiction of this condition. After all, my suffering was relative and hardly anything substantial when compared to the suffering of others. Yet the suffering was real. I could feel its presence. It was physical, persistent, ephemeral. I Metta Bhavanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16397208576080589986noreply@blogger.com0Balaclava VIC 3183, Australia-37.870119156777015 144.9966037273407-37.871177656777014 144.9947797273407 -37.869060656777016 144.9984277273407