Food for Thought #45
Whenever a person lacks spiritual sustenance, even at a basic level, he cannot thrive well enough to be able to see or maintain any ideals pertaining to spiritual happiness. Life is gloomy and sorrowful without completely knowing why.
Handbook for Mankind ❖ คู่มือมนุษย์
[FORWARD] As a guide for newcomers to the Buddha-Dhamma (the Truth which the Buddha awakened to and subsequently taught), this book is an invaluable guide. In it are contained the essential teachings of Buddhism. The “Handbook” is especially useful for those who approach the Buddha’s teaching, not as a subject for scholarly study, but as means to understand and ennoble their lives.
The Law of Kamma
The non-harming of self and others has always been one of the defining features of Buddhism. There is not a single sentence of the Buddha’s teachings that can be interpreted in such a way as to support violence of any kind.
Food for Thought #44
All of the lower instincts invite us to ascend the throne and proclaim the desires of the mind; thus overcome by the lower instincts, the normal state of mind, or what we can call our higher nature, cannot manifest.
An Unacknowledged Belief
When someone says they don’t believe in a religious teaching they usually sound (and see themselves) as reasonable and rational. The implication is that they don’t believe in this thing because they have chosen to live their lives based on scientific principles.
Food for Thought #43
The mind loses all possibility of tranquillity when its stupid owner gets involved in materialism, which poisons the mind. The truly tranquil mind cannot come into being because its owner has neglected to nurture it with the special food it requires.
Q48. What was the Buddha’s last will and testament for us?
A will, as everyone knows, is a set of last instructions we file as death approaches. When on the point of dying, the Buddha spoke these last words, ‘All concoctions naturally decay. Perfect yourself in heedfulness!’*
Even Oxen Respond Well to Polite, Kindly Speech
The Monastic Discipline states that a monk who speaks abusive words commits an offence entailing confession. When announcing the rule the Buddha told a charming story:
Food for Thought #42
It is difficult to see the way to freedom from materialism, because normally no one wants to think that he has become a slave to materialism. There are many people consuming and using material goods to raise their status and impress friends; they believe that they are the masters of these goods and that they are already free of them.
Q47. What is meant by the four woeful realms?
The first of the woeful realms is hell. Hell (naraka) is anxiety (in Thai, literally, ‘a hot, agitated heart’). Whenever we experience anxiety as if our hearts are being burnt and scorched, we immediately are reborn as hell creatures.
A Taste of Liberation
We have a dysfunctional relationship with our mental states. Through ignorance of the true nature of phenomena we identify with mental states, we grasp onto them. This is the cause of much unnecessary suffering.
Food for Thought #41
The body demands worldly food; the mind requires the food of the Dhamma. Those who see the mind as foremost, as the coordinating faculty of the body, consume with moderation for the basic sustenance of their physical being. Aside from this, their time is spent in search of spiritual food.
Q46. What is it to enter the stream of Nibbāna?
Think back to the word ‘Nibbāna’ in the sense already discussed, that is, as the highest good attainable by humanity.* If, in any one lifetime, one doesn’t come to know the reality known as Nibbāna, or fails even to taste the flavor of Nibbāna, that life has been wasted.
About Being Mindful of the Joy of Confirmation
One day, shortly after I had delivered the Uposatha Day Dhamma Talk to the local villagers in our monastery, a middle-aged man approached me reverently, his face radiant.
Food for Thought #40
Since the world deals with materialism and the Dhamma deals with freedom from materialism, the two can never be the quite same. It is this freedom from materialism that provides spiritual nourishment.
Q45. What does really knowing something entail?
I advise and request that all students and investigators of Dhamma listen particularly to the words of the Buddha that I am about to quote.
Why the Monkeys Washed out Their Ears
“Why do people who understand dukkha or dukkhatā and attā and dependent origination, and know they should apply themselves to the Four Noble Truths and to the Eightfold or Tenfold Path, and yet they don’t? In other words, how does one explain the human tendency of irrationality in terms of dukkha and dependent origination?”
‘It’s like This!’
In 1978, I spent the Rains Retreat with Ajahn Sumedho’s small monastic community in the English countryside, close to Oxford. Shortly before I left to seek ordination as a monk in Thailand, a man called B. arrived to take the place I was vacating. Until recently, B. had been a Zen trainee in Japan. On his return to England he had felt drawn towards Theravāda.
Food for Thought #39
A Buddhist who impedes the progress of others is more dangerous than any non - Buddhist When the dark ages come up on us, only the true Buddhists will survive due to the merits of their search for spiritual sustenance.
Q44. Where can we quench suffering?
We don’t quench suffering in a monastery, in the forest, at home, or on a mountain. We have to quench suffering right in the cause of suffering itself.