Soumana suttra (Giving vs not giving)

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

Once upon a time Princess Soumana with 500 princesses paid respect to the Lord Buddha and asked him the following:

Oh! My Lord if your 2 disciples who had equal faith, morality and wisdom but one was more charitable than and the other. And who upon their passing were both reborn in the heaven world. Apart from being celestial beings would they be different.

The Lord said:

Listen Soumana both of them would have extraordinary difference in celestial life span, complexion, happiness, status and sovereign power. The non- charitable one is likely to be not as privileged as the charitable one.

My Lord once being reborn as human beings would they be amazingly different?

The Lord said:

As human beings both of them would have  astonishingly difference in life span, complexion, happiness, status and sovereign power. the non giver would not be as advantaged as the giver.

Oh! My Lord when ordained as monks would they be unusually different.

Listen Soumana

Both of them would deserve differences in 5 aspects:

When the giver asks for robes he would receive lots of them and when he doesn’t ask for anything he still receives little.  But the non giver wouldn’t get such treatment.

Similarly with alms. This applies to accommodation, requisites and medicine.

When living with other monks, the giver would be pleasantly treated most of the time. He would be addressed pleasingly most of the time and well thought of most of the time.

The giver would receive mostthings that are satisfying

As a monk the giver would be treated with priviledge in the 5 above mentioned circumstances.

My Lord when attaining Arahatship would they be different?

Listen Soumana

I don’t see any difference in their attainment.

My Lord this is wonderful. This means that we ought to give or make merit because merit would support beings whether they are celestials, humans or even monks.

That’s the way Soumana we ought to be charitable, make merit because it brings support to celestials, humans and even monks.

After saying this proverb, the Lord  added the following:

The flawless moon would be brighter than any stars in this world. Similarly a person who is endowed with morality and faith would have a more flourishing life through generosity than the stingy one. Likewise a Buddha’s disciple who is a sage and who has a vision would be more priviledged than the stingy one in regards to the 5 circumstances i.e. life span, complexion, happiness, status and material comfort and he would enjoy himself in the heaven after his passing.

Book no.22 of the Tripitaka

 

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The fruit of rejoicing in others’ merit

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

Making merit by offering to the Sangha will gain countless fruit to the giver like the farmer who plants the crops in a rich soil. Those who wish for heavenly existence and nirvana should choose their merit field wisely. The crop is your faith, planting is offering, the merit field is the Sangha and the yield at harvest time is the merit. If the field is the rich one the result will be tremendous.  Merit will be the link for wealth that will be with us every life.

The tripitaka describes that:

“There are these four pairs of eight people of whom the wise men have praised that are the people deserving of offering. They are the Sangha who are disciples of the Lord Buddha. They bring the light into people’s lives by teaching Dhamma. The merit gained from the offering to these people is countless like the vast quantity of water in the ocean.”

Besides making the offering by ourselves, rejoicing in others’ merit making will amazingly give you merit as well. This merit called ‘Pattanumodhamai’. It is a special merit that is overlooked by some. The Lord Buddha said that rejoicing in others’ merit is the merit gaining itself as it is one of the Ten Merit Making Actions which we should see the importance of it. We should rejoice in the merit of others and if it is joyfully and faithfully done it will gain us an unexpected celestial wealth as it happened in the following story.

In the Buddha’s time, Mrs. Visakha, the great supporter to the Lord Buddha and his disciples, has organised and paid for the building of a great hall to be the residence of the Lord Buddha and other Sanghas. The building has 1000 rooms, 500 rooms on each floor. It is so grand that it could be the heavenly abode. The construction was under the supervision of Phra Maha Mokalana, one of the Buddha’s great disciples.

It took 9 months for the construction to finish. At the celebration of this great hall, Mrs. Visakha took 500 friends in for a grand tour of the building. She overjoyed in this offering and said to all her friends that she shared this merit with them and may they rejoice in this merit with her. All her friends rejoiced in the merit and said ‘Sadhu Sadhu, it is very well offered’.

Of all the 500 friends, there is one lady that gave her special rejoicing of the merit. She felt very faithful in the merit as if she had done the merit herself. After she passed away, she was reborn in Tevatimsa (the second level of heaven) in a grand celestial abode.

One day Phra Anurudha was travelling into that realm and saw this friend of Mrs. Visakha. He recognised her and asked her “you have good complexion and glow like the morning star, you have very pleasant voice and beautiful body scent, when you move your hair decorations move with you and make very charming noise. Dear Angle, what merit that you make, gives you this fruitful result.”

The Angle said

“Dear Most Venerable, my friend Mrs. Visakha of Savattee has built a great hall for the Sangha. I witness the offering and rejoicing in that merit faithfully and joyfully and it results in this grand celestial abode complete with roomy residence beautifully decorated beyond the imagination. It fills with joyful music and singing by celestial being. It also includes with golden sand ponds full of fish and different kinds of lotus that give pretty scent carried through by the breeze. The orchard has all kinds of fruit that magically exist. This is the result of rejoicing in my friend’s merit only.”

Phra Anurudha thought that only rejoicing in the merit gave the friend this great result, what about Mrs. Visakha who made that merit herself, what will be the result for her merit. He asked the Angle. She said that Mrs. Visakha was reborn in the fifth level of heaven as she had accumulated a lot more merit in her life time.

The Angle also asked Phra Anurudha to encourage people to make offering to the Sangha deserving of offering and faithfully listen to the Dhamma. It is not easy to be reborn in human form. As long as we are still travelling in the cycle of existence, getting rid of stinginess and other unwholesomeness is part of the key to heaven.

As you can see, rejoicing in others’ merit, results in an unexpected fruitful merit. If you joyfully and faithfully say ‘ Rejoice in your merit’ to others’ merit performing like the Angle in the above story, the fruitful result will happen to you at least 50 percents. Always have good thought towards others and instantly rejoice in the merit if and when you see someone making some merit.

Best of all, do the merit yourself and let others’ rejoice in your merit in stead, be the role model to others and be the refuge to all beings.

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The six roads to ruin(Abai ya mook)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by

Abai ya mook (bad drive) means the entrance to destruction.

All of us like to be successful in life but with lack of right understanding or lack of discipline some may walk their life in the wrong ways. The Dhamma can be translated as “natural law”. It applies to all being regardless of nationality, religious, gender or age. The Lord Buddha only discovered (not invented) the Dhamma. The Buddha mention six roads to ruin (bad drive) which we must avoid as follow:

There are at least 6 kinds of bad drives.

1) Drinking alcohol.

2) Going out at night.

3) Entertaining.

4) Gambling.

5) Associate with bad people.

6) Too lazy to work.

These bad drives will ruin the conscious state of mind, resulting in falling into bad habits, often doing wrong things shamelessly and not afraid of kamma.

What are the negative effects from bad drives?

1) There are 6 negative effects that drugs and alcohol will cause:

1.1 Waste of money which is obvious

1.2 Fighting due to clouded mind and wrong judgments.

1.3 Illnesses.

1.4 Loss of good reputation of oneself and the family from bad behaviours and conducts due to loss of conscious mind.

1.5 Loss of self-control which will lead to shamelessly perform bad things such as sexual misconduct or lying.

1.6 Loss of intelligence because it will ruin the nervous system and brain cells.

Going out at night

2) There are 6 negative effects from going out at night:

2.1 Not taking good care of yourself.

2.2 Not worrying about others in the family.

2.3 Not taking good care of your assets and the reputation of your family.

2.4 Others are apprehensive of you.

2.5 Will always be reproached by others.

2.6 Continuously cause problems.

3) There are 6 negative effects from continuous entertaining:

3.1  Not being interested in earning a living.

3.2  Wasting money unnecessarily.

3.3  Wasting time watching the entertainment.

3.4  Being irresponsible at work.

3.5  May lead to perform sexual misconduct.

3.6  Constantly living in a dream world.

4) There are 6 bad results from gambling:

4.1 The winner gains vanity while the loser loss his/her faith

4.2 The loser will try to recover the lost and may result in losing more money.)

4.3 The loser wastes a lot of money unnecessarily.

4.4 You are not trustworthy.

4.5 Friends always look down on you.

4.6 No good people will want to marry you.

There is an old say that,

to have the house on fire 10 times is not as bad as one loss in gambling as the fire only destroys the house but the land is still there. With gambling, you stand to lose everything, your money, the house, the land, your friends, your jobs and even the family. It may send you to bankruptcy. No one would want to be associated with you as in people’s eyes, the gambler is one of a thief, con-artist and swindler who will rob you in any way he/she can.

5) There are 6 negative effects from associating with bad people:

5.1 Leading you to gambling.

5.2 Leading you to sexual misconduct.

5.3 Leading you to be an alcoholic.

5.4 Leading you to be a bad example to others.

5.5 Leading you to cheating.

5.6 Leading you to be a gangster.

Gambling.

Associating with bad people can lead you to be involved with all bad drives. It is important to sort out the kind of people you associate with. It should be the most concern of parents with young children to consider and teach their children to stay away from friends that lead them to all kinds of misbehave. Make them understand the consequences of involving in wrong doing, intentionally or not, with the group of bad friends. Point out to them the cases that we see and hear so often about innocent children who have problem with the law because they mix with the wrong group of friends.

6) There are 6 negative effects from being lazy toward working. There are two types of people in this case. One is that they are born lazy and the other develops the habit from the bad example of people they associate with. Their excuses of not working would be:

6.1 It is too cold to work.

6.2 It is too hot to work.

6.3 It is too late to work.

6.4 It is too early to work.

6.5 It is too dark to work.

6.6 They are too thirsty or too hungry to work.

People who always ask to push the day back to start work tomorrow; they will always be lazy and never want to work. When they don’t work, they won’t have money.

These bad drives are the road to ruins. People who take the journey on this road will find themselves in all kinds of trouble, being deep in debts, being on the wrong side of the law, having physically or mentally ill health or even being suicidal. People who managed to take themselves from this road would say the same thing that if they could turn back the time, they would not even consider taking the journey on this road at all.

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A New Way to Celebrate New Year in Sydney

Posted on January 6, 2012 by

New Year is the time to celebrate, the time to reflect the year passed and the time to make resolutions for the year ahead.

People celebrate their New Year in many different ways. For Buddhists in Sydney, they chose to make merit and do good deeds to start their new year.

Hundreds of Buddhist gathered at Belmore Park, next to the heart of Sydney CBD – Central station, to join in alms offering to Buddhist monks in the morning of the New Year eve. This ceremony is a regular activity for the occasion but this year is very special as the Buddha’s relic is present.

Buddhists respect and worship relics of the Buddha as the Buddha himself therefore to have the Buddha’s relics at the centre of the ceremony is like inviting the Buddha to lead the Sangha Dhana (alms offering to the Buddhist monks) ceremony of which all Buddhists believe is the highest merit of any individual offering.

The ceremony started with the procession of Sanghas and lay people bringing in the Buddha’s relics and relics of his great disciples into the ground. The procession led by Dhamma’s flags followed by the Sangha congregation led by Most Ven. Sudhammo (Phra Kru Palad Nayok Worawat) carried the Buddha’s relics received from Sri Lanka and then the congregation of lay people carried other Buddha’s relics and the relics of his disciples. The Buddha’s relic was placed in the organised respectable place at the ground. The Sangha then gave blessing and started the alms round.

After the ceremony, people took this rare opportunity to pay homage to the Buddha’s relics which stayed at the ground for the rest of the day. The traditional way to pay homage to the relics is to walk clockwise 3 times around the relics each time represents the respect to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha respectively.

Everyone was pleased and joyful in the merit making on the day. It is a good start for the new year. They certainly make all the wishes and resolutions for the year ahead.

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The Buddhs’s Relics Exhibition Opening Ceremony, Sydney CBD

Posted on December 26, 2011 by

 

Buddhist monks and laypeople in Sydney are very pleased to receive a large rare collection of the Buddha’s relics and the relics of his disciples from a collector in Queensland. The collection is on loan for an exhibition in Sydneyduring 24th December 2011 to 1st January 2012. 

In the morning of Saturday 24th December, many invited guests arrived at the office of the Buddhist Federation of Australia and 60th Dhammachai Education Foundation which is now turned to be the exhibition room.

The opening ceremony begins with meditation to purify their mind to receive the relics. After meditation, a procession was formed led by Most Ven. Sudhammo (Phra Kru Palad Nayok Worawat) carried the Buddha’s relic received from Sri Lanka to be the first relic to put on display followed by thirteen laypeople, each carried a relic to be displayed in the exhibition. This is to formally mark the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition was open to the public around 1.00 pm that day and will open every day from 10.00am-6.00pm until 1st Jan 2012.

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Reckless one is similar to a dead person.

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

One morning when the Lord Buddha went for an alms round he saw a merchant setting up his shop to run a business for the three seasons i.e. for summer, winter and autumn. Knowing his future, the Buddha smiled, that caused Phra Ananda to ask the Lord as to what he had seen.

The Lord Buddha said that this merchant didn’t know that something tragic would happen to him.  That he only had 7 days to live. He was still busy with his business. Hearing that Phra Ananda took pity of the merchant and asked the Buddh’s permission to let the merchant know about his fate.

The merchant got terribly frightened and sad. He thought to himself that he didn’t have any refuge and now death is getting closer. He then invited the Lord Buddha and the sangha of bikkhus to have meal at his place for 7 days. The Lord felt compassionate towards him and accepted to be his field of merit on the 7th day.

The Lord expounded that:

“normally pundit should not be reckless, should not think death will not come and keep oneself busy working through the three seasons. Reckless one is similar to a dead person.”

After the Lord finished his sermon the merchant had become a stream winner, Phra Sodapana, who will definitely go to Nirvana, lead a precious and safe life in the cycle of existence. The merchant finally died after 7 days.

Trnslated by Chan

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Dhammapada on the law of kamma

Posted on December 16, 2011 by

Once upon a time while the Lord Buddha was staying at Savattee City. Three groups of monks from various cities came to visit the Buddha in his residence.  After the Buddha’s greeted the monks, they reported to him their experiences on their journey.

The first group told the following story: As they arrived at a village and went for alms round. Villagers who had faith in Buddhism invited them to their home and offered them assorted food. However something unexpectedly happened i.e. the flame from the stove flared up and burnt a grass ring and it flew up into the air. At that time there was a crow just flew by. It happened to put its neck into the burnt ring that caused the bird to be burnt live. As such it dropped dead at the very spot.

Witnessing that the monks felt very sad and thought only the Lord Buddha could reveal the cause of the incident.

The second group of monks reported their story to the Buddha as follows:

While they sailed in a merchant vessel in the vast ocean suddenly the craft just stopped. No matter how hard they tried but it just didn’t want to move. They thought there must be an undesirable person on the boat. So they decided to have a ballot system to find out who was the unwanted. Strange enough the captain’s young and beautiful wife had 3 unlucky draws. So the captain ordered his crews to hang a sandbag around his wife’s neck and threw her into the ocean. So the monks thought apart from the Buddha, nobody can find out about the woman’s bad deeds.

The third group comprised of seven monks said that they wondered in the wilderness and decided to take a rest in a cave as the evening fell. In the middle of the night out of a sudden a big rock as big as the roof rolled down the hill and blocked the entrance of the cave.

Villagers from seven districts tried to help moving the rock out of the way fruitlessly. Everyone became desperate; the seven monks suffered from hunger within the cave but out of a sudden after the seventh day passed the rock just rolled itself out of the way. Those monks were very weak from lack of food. They all thought that apart from the Lord Buddha no one can tell them of their retribution. They asked the Buddha to clarify their misdeeds.

The Lord Buddha revealed that the crow in the past life was born as a farmer in Baranasee city. He had a stubborn and lethargic cow. The farmer trained it by whipping and swearing at it but still he was lazy. Finally out of anger the farmer got a bunch of hay and rolled it around the cow’s neck and started to light the hay with cruelty. The cow was burnt live and died. Due to this retribution, the farmer was reborn in hell for a long time and with a residue of the misdeed he was reborn as a crow and was burnt live seven lives already.

Then The Buddha told the story of the past retribution of the captain’s wife who was born as a wife of a wealthy man in Baranasee city. She had a dog that followed her everywhere she went. Until young men made fun of her and called her names such as “dog’s hunter”

The woman felt so embarrassed that she chased it away and hit it as well but the dog still followed her restlessly. This was because it was her husband in one of her past three lives. He followed her everywhere out of his love for her.

Finally she thought of killing the dog. She then went to a river bank and pretended to call the dog. As soon as the dog heard her sweet call, he rushed to her and wagging his tail joyfully thinking that he hadn’t heard these sweet words for such a long time. He ran to her but then she tied him with one end of a rope and a bag of sand on the other end and threw the dog into the water.

The heavy sand bag then pulled the dog to the bottom of the river to death. With this retribution the woman was thrown into the water for 100 lives already.

Then the Lord Buddha revealed that the seven monks were born as shepherds and friends in Baranasee city. One day they saw a big lizard. Being wicked they chased it. The lizard got frightened and went down into a termite hole. As they couldn’t make the lizard come out from its refuge, those children then blocked all the entrances and thought they would come back again the next day. Unfortunately, they moved onto the next area and forgot about the lizard completely. After seven days they came back to the same spot again, they opened the hole to discover an exhausted and skeletal lizard crawling out of the fleapit. Seeing that they took pity of it and let it go .

As the result of the bad deeds they were trapped for seven days and through fourteen lives already. Even they became monks they still had to go through the same incident.

The Lord Buddha exhorted those monks by saying this discourse:

Neither in the sky, nor the middle of the sea,

nor by entering a cavern in the hills,

 nowhere is found that place upon the earth

 where staying, one could be from evil kamma free.

At the end of the discourse those monks had gained the path of ranging from being Sodapana at the least. Even nowadays this discourse is still priceless to the four Buddhist congregations.

Translated by Douangchanh Snith

Source from www.dmc.tv 

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