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Ven Jinaratana Thera uses the very well known novella: "A Christmas Coral" from Charles Dickens to explain fundamental Buddhist principles like generosity, kamma, and finding more meaningful happiness in life.
He also speaks about the importance of framing our perception according to Dhamma principles.
About the Speaker:
Bhante Jinaratana was born in Toronto, Canada. He became interested in meditation as a student at the University of Toronto, and began attending intensive retreats in 2002.
After graduating with an H.B.Sc. (neuroscience, mathematics) in 2004, he taught English for a year in Nanning, P.R.C. Desiring to ordain, but without knowing a suitable place to do so, he travelled to Brisbane Australia and completed a Graduate Diploma in Education in 2008 at the Queensland University of
Technology.
During that time he had the opportunity to stay for an extended period at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage as eight-precept meditator. The guidance he received there helped him to gain the confidence to finally ordain.
Bhante Jinaratana received novice ordination at Na Uyana Forest Monastery in Sri Lanka in July 2011, and higher ordination in June 2012 (Na Uyana is the main monastery of the Shri Kalyani forest tradition, the same lineage where Ajahn Dhammasiha originally ordained). Most Venerable Na Uyane Ariyadhamma Mahāthera was the preceptor for bot ceremonies.
From 2019-2021 he stayed at Pa Auk Monastery, Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar, meditating under the guidance of Sayadaw U Kumārabhivaṃsa and Most Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw Āciṇṇa.
He currently resides at Dhamsuwa Forest Monastery, Melbourne.
Bhante has kindly accepted our invitation to visit Dhammagiri for 3 weeks in November/December.
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#dickens #xmas #christmas #buddhism #dhamma #reframing
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At the Robe Offering Ceremony at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Ajahn X Dhaniyo relates a powerful Buddhist simile:
A man with 4 wifes is about to die. He gets a chance to talk to his four wifes a last time, but is bitterly disappointed about how they react to his impending death; except for the fourth wife, the one he loved least and showed the least affection...
Ajahn X (Phra Suthanai Dhaniyo) has been a monk for 22 years, and has lived and trained for 16 years with Luang Por Liem at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah's original monastery. Currently he resides at Bodhisaddha Monastery, Wilton near Sydney.
He visited us together with Ajahn Saalii Sujīvo specially for our robe offering ceremony, and kindly agreed to give a Dhamma talk in English for the occasion, part of which contained the simile of the four wives.
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At our Robe Offering Ceremony, Tan Ajahn Uttamapanyo (Phra Yanmethi Petruang) kindly conducted the ceremony of taking refuge in Triple Gem & observance of 5 precepts for us.
Ty is leading the lay community in requesting the refuges & precepts.
The ritual is conducted in Pali, the language of the Buddha.
Requesting Triple Refuge & Five Precepts
Mayaṃ Bhante,
tisaraṇena saha
pañca-sīlāni yācāma.
Dutiyampi,
mayaṃ Bhante
tisaraṇena saha
pañca-sīlāni yācāma.
Tatiyampi,
Mayaṃ Bhante
tisaraṇena saha
pañca-sīlāni yācāma.
(English trsl., not chanted during session:
"Venerable Sir,
we request the Triple Refuge
together with the 5 precepts.
For the second time...
For the third time...")
Homage to the Buddha Recited by Monk 3x
Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa!
(3x)
Homage to the Buddha Repeated by Laity 3x
Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa!
(3x)
(English translation, not chanted during session:
"Homage to the Exhaulted, Noble, and perfectly enlightened one!" 3x)
Taking Refuge in Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha 3x
(recited line by line by monk, and repeated line by line by laity)
Buddhāṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Sanghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Dutiyampi Buddhāṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Dutiyampi Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Dutiyampi Sanghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Tatiyampi Buddhāṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Tatiyampi Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Tatiyampi Sanghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
(English translation, not chanted during session:
"I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Dhamma.
I take refuge in the Sangha
For the second time, I take refuge...
For the third time, I take refuge...")
Taking the 5 Precepts
(recited line by line by monk, and repeated line by line by laity)
Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi
Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi
Kāmesu micchācārā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi
Musāvādā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi
Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi
(English translation, not chanted during session:
"I undertake the training to abstain from killing any living beings.
... to abstain from stealing.
... to abstain from sensual misconduct.
... to abstain from lying.
... to abstain from alcohol or any other drugs that cause intoxication and heedlessnes.")
Monk Recites Blessing:
Imāni pañca-sikkhāpadāni
sīlena sugatiṃ yanti,
sīlena bhogasampadā,
sīlena nibbutiṃ yanti -
tasmā sīlaṃ visodhaye!
(English translation, not chanted during session:
These five training steps
lead through virtue to a good rebirth,
lead through virtue to the acquisition of wealth,
lead through virtue to the extinction of suffering - therefore, may your purify your virtue!)
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#buddhistchanting #palichanting #triplerefuge #precepts #buddhistceremony #buddhistmonastery #buddhistritual
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On the weekend of our Robe Offering Ceremony at Dhammagiri, we had 9 monks staying for 2 nights in the monastery.
In this recording, Tan Ajahn Uttamapanyo is leading the sangha in the recitation of blessings and anumodana for long life, strength, health, prosperity and good fortune; and to share good karma with all beings.
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Ajahn X (Phra Suthanai Dhaniyo) has been a monk for 22 years, and has lived and trained for 16 years with Luang Por Liem at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah's original monastery.
Ajahn shares some of his experiences of life at Wat Pah Pong, and reflects on teaching he has received from Luang Por Liem personally.
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Vipassana comes from the Pali verb 'Vipassati' = 'to see clearly'.
To practise Vipassana, we have to train ourselves to watch as a neutral, uninvolved, observer. We can't interfere or manipulate things we observe, just as a researcher can't manipulate the experiment, if he wants to really find out how reality works.
However, there are certain areas, certain features of reality the Buddha is pointing us to. They are there all the time, we don't have to create them, they are part of nature. But we overlook them constantly due to delusion, and if the Buddha points out where to direct our 'Clear Seeing' towards, then it's easier to finally recognize what has been always there, but hidden but defilements:
Anicca - Impermanent, unreliable, unsure Dukkha - Ultimately disappointing, suffering Anattā - Not Self, not me, not mineThere's also a post in our Dhamma Reflections blog on the same subject here.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha is asked about the difference between perception (Pāli: saññā) and consciousness (Pāli: viññāna), and how we can distinguish these two in our experience.
The question is important, as both are part of the 5 Groups of Clinging (pañcupādānakkhandhā), which are the five focal points of attachment and identification.
To abandon attachment, and to see through the illlusion of self, we have to carefully investigate the 5 Groups of Clinging as they arise in our present experience. And to investigate them successfully, naturally, we have to know what each of them actually are, and how they differ.
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Prompted by a question from the audience, Ajahn Dhammasiha shares reflections on the theme of developing Sympathetic Joy (Muditā).
Muditā is on of the four Divine Abodes (Brahma-vihāra), together with loving kindness, compassion and equanimity.
Sympathetic Joy is the quality of rejoicing and feeling happy in other beings success.
It's the very opposite of envy and jealousy.
Ajahn suggests a similar approach as in developing mettā: We imagine someone we really like anyhow, and then remember some wholesome achievement they accomplished.
Next we use a mantra like formula, like for instance:
"May you enjoy all your success!" or similar.
We continue till we can really feel the corresponding emotion.
However, we have to be careful that we only delight in wholesome success...
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In the famous discourse on the 'Foundations of Mindfulness' (Satipaṭṭhāna) the Buddha promises us that we can attain Nibbāna or Non-Returning in just 7 days, if we practise as descibed by him.
Why, then, are we still enmeshed in suffering?
Ajahn Dhammasiha describes six obstructions that we have to abandon first - otherwise we're not able to practise Satipaṭṭhāna in the way the Buddha described them:
Delight in Work Delight in Chatting (including social media!) Delight in Sleep Delight in Socialising (including social media!) Lack of Sense Restraint Not knowing the Right Measure when Eating [Anguttara Nikāya/Numerical Discourses, Book of Sixes, #117Dhammagiri Website
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Ajahn Dhammasiha responds to two closely related questions from the audience:
1.
We may experience highs and lows in our meditation practice. Sometimes it even seems like we're suddenly back to zero, almost like riding a roller coaster.
How can we make our Dhamma practice more consistant?
2.
How can we prevent unwholesome mindstates from arising?
This is actually the first of 4 factors of Right Effort (sammā-vāyāma), number six in the Noble Eightfold Path: Rather than trying to abandon unwholesome states once they have come up, it's better to 'nip them in the bud', as they say, by eliminating the conditions that potentially cause defilements to arise in the first place.
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Dependent Origination (Paṭicca Samuppāda) is one of the core teachings of the Buddha.
However, it is a teaching that the Buddha himself described as 'deep, profound, subtle, difficult to see...'.
Ajahn Dhammasiha explains how we can observe aspects of dependent origination during a common, every-day activity:
Taking food from a buffet! 🍚🍛🥄🥣
Ajahn offers reflection how we can observe the relationship of:
Sense Contact (phassa)
Craving (taṇhā)
Clinging / Grasping (upādāna)
While taking food from the buffet.
The moment we lift up some food from the buffet, and put it onto our plate, something remarkable and very powerful happens in our mind:
We now regard this food as 'mine', it has somehow become 'my food'.
However, nothing has changed in the food. It's still the same food. But once it's on our plate, something has very much changed in our mind, 'mine-making' has occurred.
We have actively done something to dramatically change our attitude to that food, by taking possession of it mentally.
This same process of mine-making we do all the time, every moment with all 5 groups of clinging (pañc'upādānakkhandhā):
Form / Body (rūpaṃ) Feeling (vedanā) Perception (saññā) Intention / Will (sankhārā) Consciousness (viññāṇaṃ)However, it's more difficult to clearly see in regards to these 5 groups of clinging.
What's happening with our mind at the buffet is easier accessible to direct observation, and can get us started in investigating upādāna.
If we can carefully, mindfully observe how we're doing 'mine-making' while taking food from the buffet (or even while buying a new iPhone from the shop), we can hopefully understand how upādāna arises in our mind, and then STOP mine-making.
That would be all that's required to fully liberate ourselves:
If we stopped all mine-making, our heart would be fully released and experience Nibbāna!
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#upadana #minemaking #dependentorigination #paticcasamuppada #dhamma
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Loving Kindness is an extremely beneficial mental quality, and an excellent meditation object. However, in some situations Compassion (Karuṇā) or Sympathetic Joy (Muditā) may work even better to overcome unwholesome mind states, and develop wholesome ones.
(Of course, there is also the extremely important 4th 'Divine Abiding' (Brahmavihāra), namely Equanimity (Upekkhā), but that will have to be covered in another talk)
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Ajahn Dhammasiha responds to a question from the audience:
What's the meaning of Anatta ( Not Self ) ?
In particular, Ajahn reflects about the important distinction between Not Self (anatta), which the Buddha expounded very frequently, and No Self (natth'attā), which the Buddha actually never taught.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha and Ajahn Moneyyo recite the traditional Pali verses of blessing, anumodanā, and sharing of merits with departed loved ones.
This is what we chant every day for our kind and generous donors, when they offer alsmfood for the monks' daily meal.
You can read the full Pali text and English translation in this blog post on our website.
Below is only about half the chant, as much as fits into the podcast description:
"Yathā vāri-vahā pūrā
paripūrenti sāgaraṃ
Evam-eva ito dinnaṃ
petānaṃ upakappati.
Icchitaṃ patthitaṃ tumhaṃ
khippam-eva samijjhatu;
Sabbe pūrentu sankappā
cando paṇṇa-raso yathā
maṇi joti-raso yathā.
As all the water in the streams
is flowing to the boundless sea,
Just likewise all your offerings
are flowing to the spirit world.
And all you wish for and desire
shall soon and safely be attained;
May wholesome wishes be fulfilled
just like the moon at full-moon night
just like a wish fulfilling gem.
Sabb'ītiyo vivajjantu,
sabba-rogo vinassatu;
Mā te bhavatv-antarāyo,
sukhī dīgh'āyuko bhava.
May all distress come to an end,
may all desease be quickly healed,
May all your problems be resolved,
may you live long and happily.
Abhivādana-sīlissa,
niccaṃ vuḍḍh'āpacāyino;
Cattāro dhammā vaḍḍhanti:
Āyu vaṇṇo sukhaṃ balaṃ.
When someone's always honouring
the elders worthy of respect,
Then they will grow in these four things:
long life, strength, beauty, happiness.
( ... )
(Not enough space in this description to include everything)
Also, please note the monks only chant the Pali part, English translation above is just for your information.
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A couple getting married was interested to get some advice on Buddhist teachings how to make a marriage work, so that it lasts long and both spouses can live in harmony.
Ajahn Dhammasiha cites a study done in Italy with functional MRI brain scans, that claimed to have found that the feeling of romantic love biologically is not designed to last for decades.
In fact, the researchers considered the absolute maximum duration as approximately 4 years or so (though often it is much shorter).
This seems to agree with personal experience of most people.
As marriage is usually supposed to last a whole lifetime, it follows that romantic love lasting max 4 years can not be a sufficient foundation.
Instead, a married couple has to build up other qualities in their relationship, which sound much less 'romantic', but actually do last for a lifetime...
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#wedding #marriage #love #commitment #respect #buddhism #dhamma
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"For one dependent, there is wavering.
Without dependence, there's no wavering.
Without wavering, there's tranquility.
With tranquility, there's no inclination.
Without inclination, there's no coming and going.
Without coming and going, there's no passing away and rearising.
Without passing away and rearising, there's no here or there or anywhere in between.
This, just this, is the end of suffering."
Udāna 9.4 "Catuttha-nibbāna-paṭisaṃyutta-sutta"
Inspired Exclamations 9.4 "4th Sutta re Nibbāna"
Ajahn Dhammasiha offeres some reflections on this profound sutta, an inspired exclamation the Buddha uttered in verse when he was teaching Dhamma related to Nibbāna, and the monks where all listening fully attentive.
Ajahn Ṭhānissaro's (Ajaan Geoff's) translation of the Udāna is available for free download as epub, pdf and other formats here.
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It's so important not to only look at all the bad things happening, or to be mostly focussed our own faults. Without denying negative events, we can discoved so much that's good, wholesome and admirable, both in ourselves and in others.
If we only pay attention to the bad things, we feel miserable.
If we notice and appreciate all that's good, we fill our lives with rejoicing, joy and muditā.
Ajahn Dhammasiha also addresses questions about:
23:27 Meaning of 'psasāda' (confidence/faith)?
25:10 Is the desire to realize Nibbāna a 'good' desire?
29:20 Why didn't the Bodhisatta's first teacher didn't attain nibbāna themselves, as they had already realized very deep samādhi?
33:55 Anāpāṇasati (mindfulness of the breath) or Mettā (loving kindness) as meditation object?
Related to the last question, Ajahn explains how to easily find any of our podcasts: Just enter any subject you're interested in, and all the relevant podcast will show up to listen to.
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#joy #rejoicing #mudita #goodness #meditation
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At almsoffering before the meal, the monks usually chant the blessing, anumodanā & verses for sharing merits with the spirits of departed relatives.
Does that sharing of good karma really reach the departed?
Under what conditions, in which sphere of rebirth can they they benefit most from sharing merits?
Ajahn Dhammasiha quotes from Anguattara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha), Book of Tens, #177, 'Jānussoni-sutta'.
In this discourse, the Buddha explains that direct material benefit in the form of food, drink, clothing & shelter can only be transferred to loved ones reborn in the 'Peta-loka', ('Realm of Hungry Ghosts'/'Deprived Spirits'). It's so important for them, and they really depend on it so much for satisfying their basic needs, that the Buddha established it as a duty for us to regularly share merits with departed relatives, just in case that they ended up in this realm.
Moreover, we had relatives also in our countless previous lives. Therefore, even if the relative we're thinking of primarily is not reborn among the deprived spirits (and won't required our sharing anyhow in a deva or human rebirth), the Buddha asserted that there will always be some relative from on of our past lives that can benefit from our sharing.
Consequently, we should include all past relatives when sharing merits, additionally to the main recipient.
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On occasion of his first visit to Australia at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Brisbane, Ajahn Amaro shares insights about the four noble truth, one of the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha. In particular, Ajahn provides guidance how to apply contemplation of the 4 Noble Truths in our daily life.
Ajahn Amaro is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near London, UK.
Born in England in 1956, Ven. Ajahn Amaro received a BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979.
Soon afterwards he returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.
In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010.
He then returned to Amaravati to become Abbot of this large monastic community.
Ajahn Amaro has written a number of books, including an account of an 830-mile trek from Chithurst to Harnham Vihara called Tudong - the Long Road North, republished in the expanded book Silent Rain. His other publications include Small Boat, Great Mountain (2003), Rain on the Nile (2009) and The Island - An Anthology of the Buddha's Teachings on Nibbana (2009) co-written with Ajahn Pasanno, a guide to meditation called Finding the Missing Peace and other works dealing with various aspects of Buddhism.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha shares reflections on the five faculties (pañcindriya), crucial spirtual qualities in our heart that power our Dhamma practice.
We can gradually develop each of these using suitable skillful means. Fortunately, they are not erased at death, but carry accross to our next life, allowing us to cultivate them over several life times, till they are strong enough to eradicate the defilements (kilesa) and free ourselves from suffering with their help.
Confidence / Faith / Conviction (saddhā) Energy / Persistant Effort (viriya) Mindfulness (sati) Unification of mind / 'concentration' (samādhi) Wisdom (paññā)Dhammagiri Website
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#spiritualfaculties #pancindriya #faith #energy #mindfulness #samadhi #wisdom
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