SAMMĀ SANKAPPA (RIGHT THOUGHT)

RIGHT THOUGHT

Because we sit and dream (and dream)
we cannot separate is and seem;
images come in floods and teem.
Because we sit and dream (and dream).

Because we lose ourselves in thought
(and all our errors are self-taught)
in Māra’s nets we are well-caught.
Because we lose ourselves in thought.



New Project: SAMMĀ VACA (RIGHT SPEECH)

SAMMĀ DITTHI (RIGHT VIEW)

RIGHT VIEW

To the rose
the garden disappears.
To the garden
the rose withers away.

(If you were the gardener,
what would you say?)

Trace it all back as far as you can
from where it is now to where it began.
From knife to hand
from hand to eye;
from footprints on sand
to sun in the sky.

Trace it back further to where it begins
to the gateways and windows where all things get in.

The scent is not the rose
but the hairs that line the nose.
The seascape is the roving eye,
the tongue is the taste not the apple pie.
Mozart is what you hear
and his place is in the ear.

And all the subtle sensations that impinge upon the skin
flare their little on/off switches
in the mind that shines within.



New Project: SAMMĀ SANKAPPA (RIGHT THOUGHT)

THE FIVE BUDDHIST PRECEPTS

THE FIVE BUDDHIST PRECEPTS

Kindle: THE FIVE BUDDHIST PRECEPTS

ISSUU: Free Read

If these precepts were kept throughout the human world, it would make an unbelievable difference. There would be no war, no serious crime, and no need for money to be spent on armies, policing, courts of justice or prisons. If we were wholeheartedly to adopt these five precepts and live our lives by them, we would no longer cause suffering to other living beings by our actions. In this way we would normalise our relationships with others and the world around us.

New Project:  SAMMĀ DIṬṬHI  (RIGHT VIEW)

FIRST SERMON CYCLE

July 26

Today is the full moon of July. This is the anniversary of the Buddha's First Sermon which was the beginning of Buddhism.


Project: First Sermon Cycle

NEW BOOKLET - TEN FETTERS

NEW Dhamma Booklet (26 pages) 
A translation and explanation of the Ten Fetters,
the Buddha's teaching on what binds us to the Sangsara and suffering.

Comments and feedback welcome

Sanyojana The Buddha's Doctrine of the TEN FETTERS by Brian Taylor

NEW Project - 'COMPLETING CYCLES'

DON'T DO BAD, DO GOOD, PURIFY YOUR MIND

Doing Evil causes one to move further away from the Centre. Cultivating Good aligns one with the Centre which is the source of all Good and draws one back towards it. Purifying one's Mind removes those unwholesome things in the mind which lead to unwholesome actions. It also clarifies the mind so that the Centre itself can be clearly seen.


NEW PROJECT: CENTERING

CAST NOT YOUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE...

MATTHEW 7:vi : Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Jesus came. He healed the sick and said, “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  The Jews “turned again” and had him crucified.

NEW PROJECT : Don’t do bad. Do good. Purify your mind.

Sabbapāpassa akaranam kusalassa upasampadā

Sacittapariyodapanam etam buddhāna sāsanam.

Not doing all sins, perfecting (all) wholesome deeds,

Purifying one’s own mind; this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

Adhitthāna

The man who gets off the train is not the same man as the one who crosses the platform. The man who gets on the next train is someone else again.

That's the problem. Now I see things one way. I understand them very clearly. I make a decision. Tomorrow's man inherits this. But his viewpoint, feelings and understanding then are likely to be different from mine now. He may come to a different conclusion. If he does, he will make a different decision.

What's the answer? One has to work until one really does understand something through and through. 100 percent. Then one has to make an effort to fix this understanding in the endless flow of selves so that, although the selves continue to change, this decision is constantly inherited by each in its turn and is always there. Then one can move smoothly towards one's goal.

The effort to fix a decision is called in Buddhism - Adhitthāna. This is usually translated as “determination”. But this is not practical enough. Literally it means "place, foundation". That gives us a clue. If you use something as a foundation, everything you build on it remains durable and in place. Even if you keep changing the superstructure, the foundation remains constant. If you make an adhitthāna about something, all the succeeding selves rest on it and inherit it. So it appears as a foundation for each of them. The Buddha made an adhitthāna under the bodhi tree to the effect that he would sit there until he had either found the truth or died. He also made adhitthānas before each of his last ten births as to which of the Perfections he intended to perfect in that lifetime.

NEW PROJECT: Cast not your pearls before swine...