There was another arahant Pilindavaccha who, whenever he met someone, would call them with the words, you rascal/peasantä [vasala]. If you didn’t deserve such a title and you got called a rascal every day, it would surely become very irritating, even for the most patient of people. To him, whether they were aristocrats or kings they were all ‘rascals’ to him. A large number of people asked, if that arahant was really an arahant or not, with such disrespect for everyone he met. The Buddha confirmed that he was really an arahant, but that again he had certain engrained aspects of his character, too deep to change — because the arahant had been born only as a king and as an emperor continuously for many lifetimes. Even as an arahant, it is still possible to have faults — so what about the humble likes of ourselves who have still not made much progress in our Dhamma practice? What can we do about it?

The Buddha gave us an item of virtue called ‘respect’ in the twenty-third unit, which we discovered was not just ‘expressing respect’ in ways such as bowing. We discovered that respect is in fact a virtue which allows us to ‘home in’ on the good points about peoples’ personalities instead of concentrating on their faults.

If we see a person who is both quick tempered but also well-mannered, we concentrate on their manners rather than their temper and try to work out ways of emulating their good manners. If you meet an election candidate who you know is corrupt, but who is also someone who repays his debt of gratitude to his parents, then we should take an interest in how he takes care of his parents, instead of wasting time over his corruption. If a person is able to focus on only the good aspects of others, they will be happy wherever they go.

However, for the good aspects of others, they take careful note, they memorize, praise, emulate and refine those good things. The Buddha called those who are able to distinguish and select the good points of others in this way as those who are ‘respectful’. (Unit 22)

$$$$

When we see something we like, we develop attraction (rati). This is not a defilement, it is just a normal feeling that might arise in the mind when we see something in a shop window we like or when we meet someone who comes up to our specification — or a fast car, or a cool and comfortable room on a hot day, or a walk along the sea front on a summer day.
When we come across something we like, there may be a progression of the intensity of the feeling. When we are attracted to something we would like to have it for ourselves. We see some nice spectacles and we would like to have them for ourselves. We see clothes of a nice colour and we would like to wear them. In the same way, you end up wanting cars, yachts, girlfriends, boyfriends, luxury houses etc. etc.. The technical name for wanting something in this way is ‘iccha’. In fact, the feeling that we would like to have something for ourselves is still a normal feeling for people. It is not particularly damaging but is beginning to move in that direction.
When someone wants something for themselves, sometimes this feeling becomes even more powerful into a different strain of attraction (mahiccha) — you would really like to have something especially. You become interested in nothing else but obtaining such a thing.

Put in a more simple situation — if there are three plates of food, which are normally enough to feed seven or eight people, if a person eats more than his fair share, even though he knows that by doing so, there will not be enough to go round, it is showing that he is under the sway of ‘mahiccha’.

Someone who goes into a business partnership, if he suffers from ‘mahiccha’ he will be reluctant to pay for anything extra if he knows that the returns will be shared. However, his reluctance to be involved soon disappears if there is ever a profit. It is a the point when ‘mahiccha’ develops that our attraction starts to give rise to evil (even though it has not yet caused us to break the precepts it has started to detract from the popularity of that person.)

Some people are not content with their own wife, thinking that other people’s wives are all so much better. Some people wonder how their own children could ever have grown up with such a monstrous personality — without ever thinking to ask themselves who they have emulated to get such a personality! It’s no use being discontent — instead you ought to be looking to see how to improve the situation.

If someone gives you a small piece of land to build a house, and you can build only a small house — you should be thankful that you don’t have to waste money renting for many future years — but at the same time, you should work diligently, building up your financial position, so that you can expand the house to your full requirements at a later date.
2.2 Being content with what you receive: Supposing you are in business and you expect to make a profit of a million. You work as hard as you can but can manage a profit of only 500,000. You have to learn to live with that. Don’t be like some people who immediately go into chronic depression. Instead of being upset about the small size of your profit, you should be thankful that you haven’t made a loss.
Some people take an entrance exam hoping to be accepted to study medicine — but when they are turned down, they commit suicide. Why can’t they look on the bright side and find something else to study instead?
Some people fall in love with a girl who shows no interest in them — so they hang themselves with a broken heart. People of such stupidity deserve no sympathy. If they didn’t have their love returned, why couldn’t they learn to be content with living alone?

$$$$

He gave the five dollar bill to the beggar. The beggar was so happy that he bowed down on the pavement at the feet of the minister. The beggar said that he had been a beggar since he was a child and today was the first time in his life he had met someone so generous as to give him five dollars. The beggar’s eyes shone with appreciation. The beggar’s delight gave the minister a certain cheerfulness to start his day.

When the minister reached the ministry, he met a bank manager with a pained expression of woe on his face. The minister asked whether the banker was ill. The banker said, I am so upset I haven’t sleep for a week. I told my son to order a certain product that was bound to be missing from the market, right from early in the year. The son didn’t believe me at first so he made his order a little late. Only the first order had been ahead of the competitor. For the second and third lots, there had been sales competition from other companies. The son should have had a profit of 100 million this year, but because he didn’t believe me, he could only manage a profit of 60 million. We have lost 40 million we could have had.The minister expressed his condolences and entered his office and that day, could hardly get any work done, because of his musing about the ways of the world — a beggar who is happy all day with a five dollar bill and a banker who cannot sleep because he only got a profit of sixty million. He sat and wondered whether even if he managed to achieve miracles as the minister of commerce whether anyone would be happier as the result.

There was a prince in the time of the Buddha who already had a wife, but he wasn’t content with her. If his father wasn’t vigilant he would mess around with the maids in the royal court. One day the king discovered his son’s evil ways so he banished him into the forest. If it had been anyone else he would have had them executed. The prince escaped into the forest with his wife and the two of them lived in a hovel. Instead of realizing the peril of non-contentment with one’s own spouse, one day the prince saw some female kinarees in the forest so he left his wife in the hovel and ran after the kinarees trying to catch one as a wife. The wife despaired and went to a hermit in the forest, asking him to teach her how to meditate. With the determination and lack of attachments in the world, before long the wife was able to meditate so well she was able to float in the air and flew away from the forest leaving the prince to his ignorance. The prince couldn’t catch any kinarees. When he returned to the hovel, even his old wife hadn’t waited for him. So he sat in his hovel and cried like a drowned and helpless rat. Even today, there are people of the same tendency. You ask them if they would like a wife. They think having a wife would satisfy them. But when married if they could have another mistress or two, they would certainly feel that it would add a little more spice to life — and if they had four or five mistresses — the more the merrier. They are not content with what they receive. Even if you were to give them a mountain of gold they would not be content.

Monks have to think carefully before they accept certain offerings. Supposing someone were to come along and offer a monk a jade Buddha or a huge Buddha image made of gold — it might be better to refuse it otherwise you might have to be a security guard for the rest of his life.
There was once a tramp who bought a lottery ticket and miraculously got the number 1 prize. When the tramp heard the news of how much he had won, he had a heart attack and died. The second person went to collect the money, but as they had never had any experience of looking after the money, they died in the ensuing quarrels between various friends and relatives who thought they were entitled to a share of the money. You have to know what is appropriate or inappropriate for yourself.

In the time of the Lord Buddha, there was an outbreak of an infectious disease. In the home of a millionaire, the two parents decided they were too old to escape the infection, but they told their son to run away as far as he could to save his own life. Before the son went, the father pointed out where all the family treasure was buried. The son cried to think that he had to leave his parents to die, but all the same he fled despite being only 12-13 years of age at that time. In ten years time he returned to his hometown. The disease had long subsided. He thought of digging up the treasure, but he decided that it was not yet appropriate for him to obtain a fortune. He thought that if anyone saw him with a fortune, they would think that he had stolen it, so he might be caught by the police. He also reflected that he had nowhere to store the fortune even if he did get it — because he still had no house of his own — so to have the fortune would put his own life at risk. Therefore he waited and took a job working as a guard in the house of a wealthy family, ringing the bell to tell the family the time of day. One day King Bimbasara heard the sound of the man ringing the bell in the morning and could tell at once that the person ringing the bell was no ordinary person but a rich man.

The king sent a courtier to see the man and she came back to the king to report that the guard ringing the bell was no rich man, but just a guard employed in a rich household. The king would not believe her therefore the courtier found ways of finding out the background of the man until she found out that he was the owner of a fortune. King Bimbisara thus summoned the man curious to find out why he lived like a poor man even though he was heir to a treasure.

The man told the king the reason why he was waiting for the appropriate time to take advantage of his fortune. The king told him that the time had now come to dig up the treasure. The young man dug up his fortune and the king made him the treasurer of the kingdom as the result of his wisdom and patience in the use of his savings. The wisdom of this man has a useful message especially for ladies who are tempted to wear expensive jewelry beyond their means and even for ladies who dress provocatively. In fact contentment with appropriate things can be further subdivided:

Illustrative Tale
Peril of Greed for Special Food
There was once a hermit that had a pet bear. One day the bear was bored of the food it was given so it decided to go into the town to look for delicacies to eat. The bear disappeared into town, but before it could get its paws on anything to eat, the town dwellers chased the bear away with arrows and spears. The bear returned covered in blood to the dwelling of the hermit and had no more discontent. The bear learned from its hard lesson, and decided to take the Eight Precepts and would no longer take an evening meal even if the hermit offered it food at that time. When the hermit asked why the bear didn’t accept food, the bear said it had decided to keep Eight Precepts to learn to be content with the food it was given.

Not wearing jewelry or makeup will train us to be content with ourselves as we are. Not sleeping on a luxurious bed will train us not to be overcome with desire for comfort.

If you have a good friend, never ask them for the thing they love the most, it may cost you your friendship — unless they give it to you without your asking.”

The arahant took an piece of embers from aveci hell, the size of a firefly and lit the green wood. It burned to a cinder in a fraction of a second as if it were nothing more than tissue paper. The novice was frightened. Before he hadn’t realized how hot the fires of hell were. His teacher said, this is how hot a cinder from hell is. Supposing the whole of you has to fall into hell, can you imagine how hot that will be? Milaka no longer dared to disrobe. No matter how badly he was haunted when he meditated, he was not discouraged. He kept up his practice for several years with an earnest. The hauntings became less frequent and eventually disappeared altogether. His mind became more peaceful and radiance arose from within. The arahant allowed him to take full ordination as a monk. Milaka practiced with earnest. Eventually he came to the day when he managed to maintain the positivity of mind to the full. His old merits together with the new merits of his continuous practice came to fruition. His teacher saw his progress and saw that he was ready to hear his teaching. He said, Honour will accrue to all who are earnest, who have mindfulness, right livelihood and acting only as the result of consideration in advance.

When self-controlled and abiding in the Dhamma without recklessness. Milaka examined himself: seeing that he had earnest (ever since seeing the fires of hell), mindfulness (no longer was he disturbed by haunting images), right livelihood (as a monk his maintainence of the monastic discipline was unblemished), thinking before speaking or acting and certainly not reckless. Milaka saw that he had accomplished all that his teacher had set for him. He felt content and refreshed by his own conduct. The satisfaction of keeping the Precepts properly is considerably more powerful than any worldly achievement. For Milaka, the contentment allowed his mind to become unified and stop. He attained Dhammakaya, and used the Dhammakaya to consider the Four Noble Truths until he became enlightened at high level i.e. Anagami. He couldn’t attain arahatship because he had not trained himself fully in previous lifetimes. When he passed away, he could not yet enter upon Nirvana but was born in the Brahma world called the Suddhavasa.There he continued to purify his mind until he could enter upon Nirvana.

Even Angulimala, in the time of the Buddha, had killed so many hundreds of people that his mind became abnormal and he couldn’t even remember his own mother (and was going to kill her too). He was fortunate enough to meet with the Buddha, who persuaded him to practice Dhamma instead and in the end, he too could attain arahatship.
We will then have the appreciation to overcome the evil we have built up for ourselves in the past and if, since we were small we have done no evil, then we can make sure that we don’t do any more.

In a second instance it can mean ‘goodness’ (for example, being generous. Instead of simply avoiding evil by not killing, you might help people in order to prolong their lives.) Sometimes ‘Dhamma’ means natural reality (a usage not applicable in this particular unit) (for example, aging, sickness and death are all ‘dhammas’. ‘Dhammacariya’ means the ‘practice of good deeds’ or ‘correct practice’ which means practice regularly without cutting corners. Goodness here means practising the Kusaladhammapada 10.

In the same way although we may have things we have done in the past which we regret, we can start afresh in our lives by doing so many positive things in our life that the old negative things become insignificant. That is the meditator’s way of mending the hurts of the past.
This is the answer why Angulimala could kill a thousand people and still become an arahant. Although the amount of ’salt’ in his water was like a mountain of salt, but he had the luck to meet with the Buddha so the strength of the resulting good deeds was so great that it managed to erase the saltiness even of all this salt. In the same way, Milaka was able to overcome his own previous sins to become an anagami (maybe he had only as many good deeds as could fill the bottom of a huge water tank.

If you meditate deeply and look at the influence of stolen goods, you will find that possessing them will cloud and darken the mind. If the effect is strong, then when you die you will fall into hell. If the effect is weaker, maybe you will only end up as an animal or as a person who is homeless.

LPWPN once asked Kuhn Yay to meditate to find the effect of being a robber in the past. She found that when they have exhausted their time in hell and can be reborn as people, they have to be the slave of the person they stole from, for a lifetime percent of the value of the things they stole. Thus stealing from others is not worth the risk.
-

Absolutely not committing adultery. After sitting for meditation, one will find that there is no man in the world who has not been born a woman and there is no woman in the world who has not been born as a man. The thing that determines whether someone is born a man or a woman or as a transvestite, a gay or a lesbian is the ability to keep the third precept. If a man is unfaithful to his wife, when he is passing away the evil he has done will upset the quality of his mind. This guilt was not very strong when he did the evil deed, but afterwards he looses his self-confidence. He is always anxious. There was once a man who was intelligent and successful in his life but when he came to meditate, he could never settle his mind. It turned out that he had been unfaithful to his wife. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was the face of his mistress and his back turned to a cold sweat as if the husband had come to get his revenge. He said that even ten years after the affair, if he slept alone he still had the recurring nightmares of the affair.Thus anyone who has never been unfaithful is lucky. In fact even the thought of being unfaithful will start to cloud and darken the mind.

Only then will they come to be a good and virtuous woman of the sort that are our mother, sister, or aunt etc. or women who go to the temple. If you are able to keep up your faithfulness to your husband etc. then within 500 lifetimes you will manage to return to being a man again. If you keep the Eight Precepts too little you may find that when you come back to being a man again, the old tendencies will take control of you again. However, if when you are woman you keep the Eight Precepts a lot, when you become a man, you will no longer be adulterous any more.

If you meditate further, you will find that the reputed hell where liars’ tongues are torn out is not just a fairy story but a consequence of such action. The people who have the job of tearing the tongues out are those who have been persuading us to tell the lies. Even the audiences who cheer on boxers will fall into hell, with the special privilege of being a yamabapala who cheers on the denizens of that hell to beat each other up for half the time and to be beaten up ourselves for the other half of the time.

- absolutely not gossiping even if the thing is true to tell one group about another in a way that will become unharmonious. (eg. cheer boxing ‘even the neighbours boys hit each other harder than that) have never had any compassionate thought in his mind. What we really want to do in the world is to find ways for the whole of the world to be one happy family, not to find ways of spreading disharmony.
- absolutely not speaking harshly. Some people feel that if they don’t mix in a swearword every few words, the things they say lose their appeal.
- absolutely not idle chatter speaking like a drunk or a madman without any thought of the consequences

The Buddha’s teeth were all bright and unstained like pearls because the Buddha spoke only words that were subhasita. Thus those whose teeth are discoloured, yellow or black, you have discovered a background for yourself of insulting others.
The Buddha also said that when the Buddha taught, even opening his mouth, there would be a perfume like lotuses that spread around him. By contrast, those who suffer from bad breath, again is disclosing our past of having always had insults on our breath.

$$$$$

5. That a child has a debt of gratitude to his parents.
6. That this world and the next really exist.
7. That being born instantly in fully grown form (0ppåtika) really exists (i.e. Heaven and Hell are real).
8. That monastics are able to purify themselves of all defilement.

Must train ourselves continuously & improve quality of mind automatically so that inner experience can advance. These are just a foundation for good deeds. If we train ourselves continuously in the ten ways outlined above, it will soften our mind making it amenable to the pursuit of greater levels of virtue.

4. You must meditate regularly. No matter how smart you are, without meditation you have no chance of being successful in your pursuit of the Kusalakammapada. The reason is that, even though people know something is bad, they cannot stop themselves from carrying on in the way they have always done. (in the same way as Mallika)

Some fishermen know that fishing is wrong but at least on the Holy Quarter-Moon Days they will not dare to kill even a mosquito. Do as much as you can. You will get merit for the time you spend doing good deeds. You will give your mind time to rest and recover. Even if you were to fall into hell, it will not be a very deep level. There is a certain species of being called a vima¬ikapreta which broke the Precepts a lot, but knew it was wrong. They found time to keep the Precepts properly now and then. Hunters who kept the Precepts at night and hunted all day would die. In the day they would be in hell but at night, angels in heaven.

The Third level: For those who have both an amenable environment and sufficient morale, practise the kusaladhammapada continuously. Don’t stop and start. The merit gained will gradually charge up the batteries of your mind.

Even if you wish to be a Buddha in the future, you have to start on the foundation of the kusaladhammapada.”

I love you too!My path of happiness :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOHldrWwuVk

When a being is in a constant song with life,with living plasma around one and in the universe,then such a being has found it’s happiness in life with his/her heart singing with every pulse of life in every cell and plasma.

Sweet heart this is serious to me and you not having posted a new topic yet makes this come alive in me with pounding intensity.Read it from my lips Cameron.I love you,I adore you!

a) He tells you his secrets.
b) He keeps secret your secrets.
c) He does not forsake you in your troubles.
d) He can even die for your sake.

The man who gives good counsel.

a) He keeps you back from evil.
b) He encourages you to do good.
c) He informs you of what you have not heard.
d) He shows you the way to heaven.

The man who sympathizes.

a) He does not rejoice over your misfortunes.
b) He rejoices in your good fortune.
c) He protests against anyone who speaks ill of you.
d) He admires those who speak well of you.”

$$$$$

“When we die, the physical body is buried or cremated, but the astral body will search for rebirth. When it can find the appropriate parents, it will be reborn again in the human realm. Why? Because that person had been preparing his astral body to be a person ever since he had not yet died.
Some people, throughout their human lives practice shame of evil [hiri] and fear of the consequences of evil [ottappa]. We know that these virtues are the marks of an angel. Ever since the person had not yet died, they were already practising to be an angel. The pursuit of these virtues will refine the inner constituents of a person until an angelic or celestial body arises within. When they pass away, their body is buried or cremated, but their mind is reborn through the power of the celestial inner body attained, in the celestial world. Why? Because that person had been behaving like an angel ever since they had not yet died [manussa-devo]. When they have exhausted their merit in the celestial world, they can return again to be born in the human realm.
Some people, throughout their lives practise the four ‘divine abidings’ [Brahmaviharas] (i.e. loving kindness [mettå], compassion [karuna], sympathetic joy [mudita] and equanimity [upekkha]). If their habit is always to be forgiving and helpful instead of angry and vengeful, without any bias from defilements. Such a person has been behaving like a divine being (God or Brahma) ever since they had not yet died. Their virtues will give rise to the Brahma body inside and when they die, although their physical body will be buried or cremated, their mind will be reborn in the Brahma world.
Some hermits, like Alara and Udaka, the previous teachers of Prince Siddhartha attain the formless Brahmas ever since they are still alive in the human world, as the result of their attainment will attain the arupa-brahma body inside themselves. When they pass away, their mind will be reborn in the sphere of the Arupa-Brahmas.

If you practise the Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration. The practice of the Eightfold Path refined his inner bodies until a new type of especially pure inner body was given rise to called the ‘Dhammakaya-Gotrubhu’ which is a body whose aggregates are made purely of Dhamma. If we are able to attain Dhammakaya we will be able to see the suffering in ourselves ÷ but that doesn’t mean to say that you will also be able to see the suffering of angels or gods. The suffering of more refined levels of existence is more difficult to see. It is like sometimes we cannot imagine the suffering of someone who is better off than us. We see a millionaire who has more possessions, a luxury house, several cars and nothing but delicacies to eat. He has never stepped out of his air-conditioned environment. He has hundreds of servants waiting to obey his every command. We find it hard to imagine how he might be suffering, but that doesn’t mean to say he has no suffering.

The same goes for people as powerful as the president or as beautiful as Miss Universe. The only way you can realize the Four Noble Truths is to see them with the Dhammakaya (note that it is necessary to see the Four Noble Truths, not just to conceptualize about them).
The Four Noble Truths have sequential profundity. Using this Dhammakaya to see the Four Noble Truths in the Physical Body, until you can see them clearly, you will attain the Dhammakaya-sotapanna, and be a sotapanna. Using this Dhammakaya to see the Four Noble Truths in the Celestial Body, until you can see them clearly, you will attain the Dhammakaya-sakitagami, and be a sakitagami. Using this Dhammakaya to see the Four Noble Truths in the Brahma Body, until you can see them clearly, you will attain the Dhammakaya-anagami, and be a Anagamin. Using this Dhammakaya to see the Four Noble Truths in the arupa-Brahma Body, until you can see them clearly, you will attain the Dhammakaya-arahant, and be a arahant. You will be able to attain Nirvana permanently, and when you pass away, you will find your rest in ayatana-Nirvana, without any need to be reborn any more.

When you attain the Dhammakaya, you will be able to understand for yourself the answers to so many of those questions that it is useless to have explained to you by anyone else. If you can attain the ability to see the Four Noble Truths, and see Nirvana for yourself, the next outcome of your practice is that your mind starts to become invulnerable to the temptations of the world. If you are an arahant, you will be completely invulnerable to the temptations of the world ÷ however, if you have attained the Dhammakaya at any other level, although you are still vulnerable to the temptations of the world, you are only fractionally vulnerable.

——————————————————————————–

The subject matter of this unit concerns invulnerability to the temptations of the world. Some might ask whether there is any point in studying this unit for people who have not yet become arahants, but in fact, by studying the invulnerability to the temptations of the world as one of the possible results of persevering with meditation practice, it is hoped to be inspiration to readers to practice further until they can attain such invulnerability for themselves. The objective is not to ‘be invulnerable’ without having attained Dhammakaya, the Four Noble Truths and Nirvana, because without these things, your invulnerability is just fooling yourself.

——————————————————————————–

1. Definitions
1.1 The Mind: When we talk about the invulnerability of the mind we mean the mind that is like a clear sphere of crystal at the centre of the body which has the specialized duty of thinking. If the mind thinks of positive subject matter, it will become even clearer, but if you think of negative things then it will become instantly darkened in the same way that clear water becomes clouded if you spill ink into it. Besides being able to think, the mind also has the ability to collect things. It can collect up feelings. It can collect up the merit generated by good deeds one performs.

1.2 Invulnerable: Invulnerable means not being afraid of aversive consequences such as loss of fame, loss of possessions or loss of loved ones. It also means not being elated by desirable consequences. If your mind is affected in either of the two ways mentioned, then it is still vulnerable.

1.3 Vicissitudes of the World (lokadhamma): These are features of life in the world which no-one can avoid for as long as they live in the world. We will look at what we mean by the lokadhamma in more detail below. It is just like it is the nature of the ocean to have waves on it. If anyone goes to sea then they must meet with waves. If you go into the forest, then you cannot avoid trees because it is the nature of the forest to have trees.

As for the world, the minds of people in general are affected by vicissitudes found in the world. There is only one type of person who is not affected by the vicissitudes of the world and those are the arahants. Their mind has sufficient self-confidence and steadfastness to be equanimous or indifferent in the face of worldly vicissitudes. Their mind is not upset by unpleasant vicissitudes and it is not elated by desirable vicissitudes. The mind of such a person sees all vicissitudes as things that will not last forever, and lends them no more importance than they deserve.

——————————————————————————–

2. The Three Characteristics [tilakkhana]
It is necessary before entering on the subject matter in hand to lay a foundation concerning the Three Characteristics of all things in the world. For most of the Blessings of Life we have managed to avoid technical terms, but again we cannot avoid using a few. Everything in the world has its own characteristics. Some characteristics are particular to itself. Some are shared with others. For example, gold has the characteristic that when it is pure, it will have a yellow colour and will sparkle. It is hard to make a compound of it with other elements. Iron has the characteristic that it is a hard metal but it rusts easily. Mercury is a fluid metal that is heavy. These are the specific qualities of certain materials.

People have their own characteristics too. They are able to speak and move about and be knowledgeable about things. However, for all their differences, there are three characteristics that are shared by all things in the world. It was these that the Lord Buddha called the tilakkhana:
2.1 Impermanence [aniccata]: The word ‘aniccatå’is derived from the same root as the word ‘aniccam’ that you will encounter in the morning chanting (rupaµ annicaµ, vedanå aniccå . . . etc.)Sometimes we think that things are unchanging, but in fact this is not the case. If you don’t believe it, try taking yourself as an example ÷ you are born as a baby (take a first picture), take another picture after a month, after a year, at teenage, in middle-age, in old age. If on the last day of your life you were to compare all the pictures that have been taken throughout your life you will find that there are no two pictures alike. Not just for people but for all things in the world is this characteristic applicable. Everything is in flux. There is degradation and deterioration built into everything around us. Metal rusts. Paint blisters. Cloth becomes worn. Not only things, but all phenomenon in the world. Last year they said they loved you, but this year, that seems to have changed. Last year, they looked beautiful in your eyes, but this year, that seems to have changed. Even if you try weighing the most precious of materials like your gold ring, you will find that year by year, the weight will systematically decrease.

The price of the gold sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down. Even if you were to sell the ring back to the shop tomorrow, there is nothing to guarantee the price that you will recover the amount of money for which you bought the ring. Even the state of our mind is impermanent. When you pass your entrance exams to go to university you make up your mind to work so hard for your degree that you will get a ‘first-class honours’. However after seven-days of diligence, you change your mind in favour of the night life. At the end of the year you get thrown out of university…!

2.2 Suffering [dukkhata]: Normally we understand suffering as suffering, but the word ‘dukkhatå’ in the Pali has the wider meaning that it is the quality of things that they ‘have decay as their nature’. We tend to think that everything we have will last for ever ÷ but even the Earth and the sky above must crumble and fall. Thus if anyone ever says that they will love you forever, don’t go believing them because even the Earth would not last that long.

Such words are just remembered from the lips of others. Sometimes we think that the Establishment or the instruments of government like democracy will last forever, but in the end even these will decay. Democracy turns to constitutional monarchy, constitutional monarchy turns to tyranny, tyranny turns to communism and communism turns back to democracy again. It is no surprise because even the world itself doesn’t stay still, but must spin the whole of the time.

2.3 Being without self [anattata]: Everything in the world is without identity. You look at a meditation mat and ask what about the meditation mat makes it a mat. If you were to take it apart into all its components, you will just be left with a pile of components ÷ there is no particular part which makes it a ‘mat’. If you look at it with a microscope all you can see is a collection of cells. You cannot even see the components any more.

However, if they were to look closely at their body and see that it is just a collection of organs, bones, tissues and nerves, it will make them wonder what about their body makes them who they really are.
The word ‘anattatå’ has another important meaning and that is the quality of something that is ‘outside your control’. From the point of view of practice this is a very important definition. You might notice when you sit for meditation that you cannot stop yourself from feeling aches and pains.

——————————————————————————–

It is no use trying to create eternity in this world. Not even Buddhism with all its powers can last forever. Even after 2,500 years there are already those who have their doubts about whether Buddhism is genuine. They ask whether the Scriptures contain the Buddha’s teachings or whether they should be attributed to another author. Some people are put off Buddhism by the behaviour of some monks and don’t bow three times any more. They bow once to the Buddha, once to the Dhamma and that is enough for them.

——————————————————————————–

Why bother to invest one’s time and effort in doing any good deeds? The reason why such people are confused is that they don’t realize that certain things exist that are not subject to the Three Characteristics, that are permanent, happy and true self.

However, such things cannot be found in heaven. Even though life is longer in heaven, but still angels have to get old and die. We don’t normally know, because our own cycle of life is so short that we cannot see the whole process of the life of an angel. Even the gods in the level of the form- or formless-Brahmas have to grow old and die. It is hard to appreciate because even the gods themselves don’t realize it. How could the Buddha realize it in the space of forty-five years? He had to use the Dhammakaya to know the truth, because having the Dhammakaya as his calibration, he could know that the life even of a god is limited. What is special about the Dhammakaya that could allow him to do this?”

Kiss kiss kiss
http://www.peacephoto.org/

She was in such a rush that she didn’t look where she was going, so fixed was her mind on making her offering at the cetiya. In her path were a cow and calf. The cow saw the determination of the woman and misunderstood that she wanted to harm her calf and responded by goring the woman to death, before she could reach the cetiya. Even so, even though the woman never reached the cetiya, her mind had such a determination to accomplish her good deed that with the collected potential of a mind with shame and fear of evil, virtue and the wisdom to appreciate the good deeds of the Lord Buddha, meant that as she was gored to death she was reborn immediately as an angel, her clothes became immediately refined as angelic raiment of the same golden colour as the loofah and the angelic mansion that arose as the result of her merit was also the colour of the loofah.

Indra, the king of heaven saw the new arrival in heaven and asked what merit she had performed to cause the arising of a golden coloured mansion. The angel smiled shyly and replied that she had done only something very insignificant just taking four loofahs to pay respect to the cetiya containing the relics of the Lord Buddha but she had been gored to death by a cow on the way and regretted not having reached her goal or else the golden colour of her raiment and the mansion would surely have been even more striking than this!

On hearing this, Indra exclaimed,Paying respect to the Lord Buddha with a mind of faith, even though He has already entered parinibbana in no way lessens the fruits of good karma. Whether the Lord Buddha is alive or passed away gives fruits of merits equally.
For this reason, even though we have been bought in a time after the Lord Buddha has already passed away, it should in no way lessen our diligence in paying respect to the Lord Buddha.

Many readers might wonder whether angels really exist or not and whether Indra the king of heaven really exists or not. The author verifies that angels really exist and has seen them for himself with his naked eyes on two or three occasions and during meditation on occasions too numerous to count. At that time the author was able to devote himself to meditation and didn’t have to worry about construction or teaching. The author’s inner radiance was as bright as daylight.

If readers train themselves in meditation to this extent, then they will be able to see angels for themselves as well.
And if you want to know where Indra comes from or where angels come from ,they all come from people like you or me who have shame and fear of evil. Fear and shame of evil will refine our subtle makeup to create a sort of inner body called the angelic body. For gentlemen, it is in the form of a male angel. For ladies it is in the form of a female angel. When we pass away, our physical body is taken away for cremation or burial but our inner angelic body will be reborn as an angel. Thus the fruit of paying respect to the Lord Buddha, in as much as it will cause us to have shame and fear of evil and lead to the arising of an inner angelic body will lead us to take rebirth in heaven.
This story has a moral and that is that when we are close to death, there are two sorts of people:
The first sort have done good deeds habitually. They have been generous, kept the Precepts and practiced meditation continually. Of course, there will be some evil karma that such people have done because they are not yet completely free of defilements. Sometimes they might lose their temper and give a person more than their fair share of insults. But the bad karma is in the minority. Most of their karma has been good. When this sort of people come to the end of their lives, they come to terms with their dying. They know that this time they won’t recover from their illness the angelic body inside themselves tells them so. The angelic body inside tells the astral body and the astral body tells the physical body. The physical body then knows that on such and such a day, at such and such a time, they will pass on. Such a person on his deathbed will instruct his children to wash him and dress him in clean clothes when it is close to the time and when he actually dies, he will be reborn as an angel with raiment clean and refined like when he was on earth.

Through the power of their good deeds, a heavenly mansion will arise together with their rebirth in the heaven realm to be the abode for the new-born angel and will have its own retinue of angels in waiting. The sort of angels which arise in the retinue of other people and must depend on other’s mansion for their dwelling are the sort of people who keep the Precepts and practice meditation but have not been very generous.

Because the mansion depends on the generosity of a person in his previous lifetime, when they are reborn as an angel, they have no abode of their own and have to rely on the abode of others. They end up as part of other’s retinue but exactly who is not for sure, it depends how pure they are in body, speech and mind. They will end up in the retinue of another angel whose body, speech and mind is of comparable purity to their own.

Those who have spent all their lives as trouble makers, drinking alcahol, taking drugs etc. will go straight to hell when they die and will not be discussed here.

The second sort of person is that who never did anything particularly bad all his life but never did anything particularly good either. These are the sort of people who never go to the temple, but at the same time they don’t drink liquor. They never do anything meritorious, but they don’t do anything seriously evil either. They are afraid of committing themselves to anything be it good or evil and consequently do nothing. They are only sure about one thing in the world and that is themselves.
When this sort of person is close to death, they don’t normally realize it. They don’t realize that their time has come and don’t prepare themselves. Sometimes, they have no more than a cloth around their waist when they die and the same lack of composure carries over to the next life, they are reborn as a naked ghost.

There is one more illustratory example that of Pañcapåpå. This name means Îfive types of evil and is the name give to this particular woman by her father. The reason for such an inauspicious name was that the child was born defective with knarled hands, lame feet, a squint mouth, squint eyes and a crooked nose. None of her bodily organs were in unison. Her hands went one way and her feet went another. Although the child was repulsively ugly, she had one attractive point her skin was soft like that of an angel. Because of her one good point, Pañcapåpå was to become the queen of the country in the future. When she was in the royal palace as one of the royal consorts, her skin was so soft that the king forgot all the other women the palace. The other consorts were so jealous that they framed her so that the king had to float her away on a raft downstream. But as soon as she reached the next kingdom, all it took was one touch for the king there to take her as his queen. Everybody was so astonished that a woman so physically deformed could come to be the queen of two kingdoms that someone asked the Lord Buddha how this could come to be.
The Lord Buddha looked back at her previous lifetimes and discovered that the woman had made an offering to a paccekabuddha but the offering was made out of anger. On that day, the woman was shoring up the wall of her house with mud. A paccekabuddha also needed mud to build his kuti and seeing that the woman had more than enough mud came bowl in hand to ask for some of the mud. The woman was reluctant to give away any of her mud, but gave the paccekabuddha some anyway. Out of anger, she threw a clod of mud into the paccekabuddha’s bowl. At the time she was scowling, with her eyebrows knitted together, her feet stamping the ground and shaking a fist at the paccekabuddha. The result of her reluctant good deed in future rebirths was that her stamping feet were lame, the hand which threw the mud was knarled and her scowling face was deformed beyond recognition. The good part of her deed, the generosity, still gave its fruit because the mud which built the kuti which helped shelter the paccekabuddha from the rain gave her angelic complexion. But this could not help the bad part of the deed that was not being polite to those worthy of respect.
Thus in conclusion, not paying respect to those worthy of respect, or not having faith in those who ought to inspire faith clouds the mind and the extension of this ultimately to become a fool.”

You are absolutely the best,second to None!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oty70JhhYck

Dear Luang Phaw whom I respect the most,

I have a younger sister. I was difficult to bring up since I was born, because I have a heart disease. When I was 8 years old, my parents were shot to death while riding on a motorcycle back from work. Since then, I was brought up by my maternal grandparents. When I was 14 years old, I went for a heart surgery and recovered completely. After graduation, I had a boyfriend, but he was killed in an accident. Later, I got married and after 7 years, my husband was sick and then passed away. Subsequently, I remarried and my husband is flirtatious. Now he has another woman, and I’m still with him.

I’d like to tell briefly about my history of coming to the temple. I came to Dhammakaya Temple occasionally to join those important meritorious ceremonies that my colleague invited me. I didn’t have any affiliation or faith with the temple. I felt nothing and thought that I’m just my colleague’s follower. I have not yet installed DMC satellite TV at home so I have never heard about any Naga story that Luang Phaw talked about before .

One night, I dreamt of a Naga talking about the history and story of Naga fireballs. I told my colleague about it and they were astonished that it was similar to Luang Phaw mentioned in Dream in Dream Kindergarten, although I have never watched any story about Naga before. Here is the story from my dream.

Normally, when I was asleep, I felt like a mermaid living , diving and swimming happily in a large body of fresh water which is greenish and clear. The trees and plants around were very ancient and I couldn’t tell what they were, they didn’t exist in our present world. I dreamt of this place very often. It’s always the same place where I could swim and breathe in the water in my dreams. I’ve never seen this place in my life.

About a month ago (September), my younger sister who was my Kalyanamitta invited me to see the Naga fireballs, but I declined as I was not interested and didn’t believe it. Later on, One night while I was asleep, I felt like my eyes were open and I was in the water. I was breathing in the water but the water didn’t get into my nose. I liked it. I looked in front and saw plenty of Naga, some were close and some were far from me. There were big and small Naga. Their bodies were green with a red crest. Some had crest with high flame ; some had short crest but big body. Some had high crest, but small body. Some had small crest but big body with hard scales that were green and shiny like the mirror. It was really beautiful. (I didn’t touch them with my hands, but with my feeling.)

Below their head, there were necklets neatly clung to their necks closely fitted as if they couldn’t be taken off. At the centre front of the necklet was a huge red gemstone like ruby. Some were yellow gemstones, but the small Naga did not have any, and their scales were not as shiny and hard as the big Naga. I heard some cheering from the small Naga, laughing and having great fun like children (It’s like the small Naga went out and got together in a meritorious ceremony, it was similar to the olden days where the children got together at the meritorious ceremony in the temple.). But the big Naga were very calm.

I saw the Naga and the fireballs. The inside of fireballs were pure white in color and the outermost rim were pink like the lotus petal with white ray around it. There were plenty of fireballs floating in the water and slowly drifting upwards. I looked up at them and thus saw the land which is the bottom of the riverbed above me. I was in the water underneath the land. The water was greenish which meant the water was very deep; but it was clear and not turbid. Hence, I knew that the Naga shot fireballs inside the water underneath the land. The fireballs drifted through the water towards the land and then into the air. The fireballs in the air were not as beautiful as when they were in the water.

I looked around and felt that the water was very deep. While I was watching the Naga shooting fireballs, I noticed that they didn’t push or shoot the fireballs forcefully; they were very calm and mindful. They just opened their mouths and the fireballs were spontaneously shot out of their mouths. There were many Naga and plenty of fireballs with different sizes and beauty. The fireballs from those calm Naga were very big and beautiful. The small Naga rarely shot any fireballs, if they did; their fireballs were usually tiny and appeared only occasionally. The small Naga seemed to indulge in enjoying the ceremony and gathering. However, the moment when they were calm and mindful, fireballs were shot out from their mouths.

As I was watching the fireball, a Naga told me a story all the time. I turned towards him and saw a huge golden Naga with shiny and hard scales. He was the biggest Naga that I had seen. While he was telling a story, I saw both his Naga and human body in front. (This was similar to the picture in the Naga book, published in October, but he looked older than the picture.) He had a topknot tied with a green band. His shirt was gold color and tight fitting as if it couldn’t be taken off. He also wore a sash with a red ruby at the center as his ornaments. He was big and I felt that he was both a Naga and a human in one living being. He had a golden body with a red crest and was very tall, indeed a huge Naga.

I felt that I was smaller than him but I was bigger than the other Naga shooting the fireballs. I also felt that the Mekong River was very small, although it is usually very huge to me when I’m not in dream. I was in a lying position talking to the Naga. The Naga that talked to me seemed to be the most powerful and senior (like a leader) over there. He was big, beautiful and shinier than any other Naga. He didn’t look very old like old man with beard. if we compared with human age; he would be around 30s years old and looked elegant and smart.

He told me the history of shooting fireballs with some still life pictures, something like slides show. He explained that initially the other groups of Naga did not blow fireballs like them and he was not the first, he just followed his ancestors.

Then, there was a picture of a man kneeling down and making offering one thing to worship the Lord Buddha for his virtue. This man respected the Lord Buddha because he helped him to overcome his suffering. Hence, he has had the greatest respect for the Lord Buddha since then. This man was probably the Naga’s grandfather or father, and so the Naga believed in the Lord Buddha successively like his ancestor.

After that, there was a picture showing the date and time when the Naga gathered together to shoot fireballs. There was another picture of the Lord Buddha walking down from a very long stairway; there were people with topknot, they were not human beings but I didn’t know who they were. There were also very beautiful lightings radiating from the people waiting at the stairway which were luminous with different colors. However, the glory of the Lord Buddha was the brightest, brighter than the sun, but it was cool. The Naga said that they shoot fireballs to pay homage to the Lord Buddha on that day, and it had been continued for a very long time until now. Every time they shoot fireballs, they would look and see whether the moon was full and bright like sandal fruit. Then he showed a picture of the moon.

The night when the moon was bright and vivid, they shot the fireballs. It is like our temple’s meritorious ceremony, everybody would come to help and show their respect and faith to the Lord Buddha and also to make merit. Then he said that not every Naga would shoot fireballs, the other groups of Naga only observed precepts in their residences during this time. Then he showed the pictures of Naga observing the precepts in their residences. (They were in coiled-up position, not sprawling.) Each Naga stayed in their individual cavity which were set up in a row and had no water. After that, he said that his ancestors didn’t live here, they migrated from somewhere else. At their hometown, nobody believed that they truly existed and were not interested to make merits.

Suddenly, I saw a picture of a city with Indian architecture. The river in front of the city was their hometown. They migrated to Mekong River in a split second and not by slithering along the river. The split of second in the Naga realm was a very long time in human realm. Here, they saw the lights of human making meritorious deeds and their belief in Naga, so they settled down here. The Naga mentioned that most of the people from the other side of the river had stronger faith in the Naga and Lord Buddha than the people of this side. I felt that the other side that he mentioned was Laos, although he didn’t say it, and this side of the river was Thailand.

The Laotian had a strong belief in the Naga and fireball while majority of the Thai came for fun rather than their faith. He told me many other things. I remembered that he asked me how I was, but I wasn’t really interested to listen and hence didn’t answer him. Beside, I was annoyed that he kept talking. I roughly remembered that he told me about how his present life was, but I could not remember. He called himself “kha” (which means “I”. It was used in the ancient time), and called me “chao” (which means “you”, the word was used in the ancient time; compared to “thou”.), e.g. “How about Chao (you)? He’d like me to believe what he said.

I felt that the Naga was my very close senior relative because I was not scared and could retort him without being punished from him. Even though I looked bored and annoyed, he still continued to tell me the story with a smiling face, gentle and sonorous voice, as if we had not met for a long time. I felt warm like having a reunion with my family. It seemed that he was eager to let me convey the Naga fireball’s story and history to the human beings, so they would believe that the Naga fireballs were due to their faith in the Lord Buddha, which would grow human’s faith in the Lord Buddha, and focus their minds together as well when the Naga shot fireballs.

In the past, people were just having great fun. He saw that the light of merit was mostly in Lao, but there was only sound of revelry in Thailand. The Thai didn’t have any faith in what they were doing. He didn’t want the people to think that the fireballs were just something amazing but to have a strong faith and believe in merit and should watch the fireballs calmly. This would improve their fireballs shooting, and the fireballs would be brighter than presently. Even though I was wondering why he told me the story since I didn’t have the capability to make others believe his story, I was very happy that night. However, when I woke up in the morning, I forgot the dream until my younger sister mentioned about going to see the Naga fireballs which reminded my dream of the Naga in the whole night.

In the dream, it seemed that the Naga wanted me to convey to everyone what he told me was real. At that time, I wondered how I could convey and convince the people, but now I knew that by writing this story to Luang Phaw and broadcast in Dream in Dream Kindergarten will enable everyone to know. Giving me this mission, I didn’t let the Naga down. I feel good and have no worry that I would see the vivid light of merit along the 2 banks of Mekong River and the chanting together with the Naga to extol the benevolence of the Lord Buddha.

Answer

2. Your parents were shot to death together because of their past kamma. They were spouse as in this life. They were the bankers in gambling games and they ordered their subordinates to kill their gambling debtors who didn’t pay up.

You and your younger sister became orphans because you both have the remnants of similar retribution. However, those actions were performed separately. You killed animals that had little babies. The babies were sold and the mother was killed for food. Therefore, you always have to be separated from your loved ones.

3. When your parents died initially, they were hanging around you and your sister as they were worried. When you both were grown up, they got over their worries and have just reborn as humans. They were born in different places in the middle class families.

4. You also have the remnants of adultery kamma when you were a man; that caused you to have a flirtatious husband. For your marriage to be smooth,

(1) firstly you must know that you have a flirtatious husband because of the remnants of retribution from your own actions.

(2) Secondly, you must be patient and perform the duty of a wife at your best. You should remain calm and do not yell out. You must watch your speech when discussing something, smile and be joyful. Do not worry about it too much.

We are born to pursue perfection, so you should fully focus in pursuing perfection, so your merit mind would hold the Triple Gems as your refuge. This will help to reduce your suffering or even overcome your suffering completely.

5. You often dreamt of diving in the body of water because of your past memory being a Nagi (female Naga) before you were born as a human in this life.

The body of water was a big swamp which was not very far from Mekong River. It was in Thailand, but presently, the swamp has silted up and almost no trace of that. You were a Nagi from the underwater city underneath this swamp.

6. The night that you dreamt of the Naga was real. The Naga and you were cousins when you were a Nagi, and you both played together since young.

When he realized that you were a human, he came to your dream to invite you back to visit them because when you were a Nagi, you’d like to be born as a human to pursue perfection, but after your birth, you have not done whatever you intend to. Therefore, your Naga cousin had come to your dream to warn and remind you.

And he also wanted you to tell the story of Naga fireballs to me so that people in the world would know that it’s real.

7. You should go and see the Naga fireballs because your cousin Naga will be happy to see you there, and since you were part of them, you will probably see the Naga with your naked eyes.

8. You should not go and live in the underwater city because when you were a Nagi, you were disappointed with your Naga husband.

He was flirtatious and had many Nagi wives.

And you were only his servant and only take care of him; therefore, you were sick of that kind of life.
And that gave you an intention to pursue perfection fully and wholeheartedly if you become a human.

Now that you have become a human, you should focus in pursuing perfection wholeheartedly and return to the special zone in Tusita (The 4th level of heaven). Don’t revert to the Naga realm.

9. You could see the Buddha image easily although you didn’t meditate regularly because in your past life, you have pursued perfection with our community.
You could meditate well because you had been an Upasika (female disciple), but later, you fell in love and left to have a family.

And you felt embarrassed to return to the community. That caused you to stray away from the community in that life which was the last Buddhist interval.
You were in the cycle of reincarnation as many different forms and beings until you became a Nagi and finally a human in this life.

We got to meet again because of the merit you had accrued with us. However, you did with no consistency due to being separated from the community for a very long time. So there was a slacking of merit.

10. Nevertheless, The merit of being an Upasika (female disciple), observed the precepts and pursued perfection with our community caused you to see Khun Yay although you didn’t know her in this life. And it also caused you to see me in your dream although you had never thought of me.”

Very well done,gorgeous and amazing,this is right!!!! Thank You You You are
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQecrh3mG8M

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html

I wonder if this link works.It’s for the same video above.

[ted id=261]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Oh sweet heart life can be so beautiful when one wakes up to it!It is breathgiving!!!!

(since having fought a hard battle for several years for my breath because I was losing my breath whilst still alive in my living body, I am very scared to use terms such as ‘breathtaking’.I seriously have become very conscious and sensitive with words I want to use.Several daily language words are negative & denote very negative energy.) ???…I don’t know really sometimes I feel somewhat clumsy in trying to find a smart sounding POSITIVE energy word to replace common terms.Can you help me please?

Cameron watch this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0

I think the majority of us human beings don’t realize how much animals can think.Or that we don’t really believe in the thinking ability of animals because they are animals.Maybe we only think of them as pets or that hunter & predator abilities meaning that they hunt when they’re hungry,sleep when they have to,flee when they’re in danger…only the basic instinctive needs.And mate when the mating season is in bloom for their species.

But hey,now this video is AMAZING!How intelligent animals are.I think that the main difference between humans and the animals is that we humans do have a higher developed brain and we can walk with a straight spine on two legs.Through our higher developed brains we are able to manipulate and control ourselves and our surroundings.This is why we should be really very happy to make a human experience rather than be born as an animal!
At some point perhaps,some animals begin taking re-birth as humans.I wonder how they must have lived their animal lives to take such a higher re-birth as a human being.
My last pet cat I buried,I had gotten a special chant to chant whilst the burial and ask God to give the cat the experience of a human life.
What we do today will be our future tomorrow.Always.Let us be the light we wish to be.