When monks or lay-people came to the Buddha with a dispute over the behaviour of the monks and nuns, the Buddha would quietly listen and
Tag: Dhamma
Buddhist Concept of ‘Bahujana’
‘Go forth, O Bhikkhus, on your wanderings, for the good of the Bahujana, for the happiness of the Bahujana, – in compassion for the world
On Having no Head…
My attention was drawn to this story yesterday, by a post on social media purportedly made by one of the monks residing at this temple. I was immediately struck by the very ‘non-Buddhist’ sense of ‘victimhood’ voiced by this (Asian) member of the ordained Sangha, and how he encouraged the (predominantly ‘Western’) laity to respond to this matter with an emotionally ‘disturbed’ mind-set.
What the Buddha Did with the Mind
The Buddha never argued that the physical world does not exist, even if he acknowledged that all material constructs that come together are changeable and impermanent.
The Importance of Venerable Purana
With the historicity of the first Council in doubt, (in at least it’s received form), it is even more remarkable that the presence of Ven. Purana is included.
Jhana: The Buddhist Search For Focused Equanimity.
‘The physical material of the universal itself is not necessarily morally corrupt as it exists, but rather is made so by a mind projecting a distorted meaning onto, and into it. However, as the karmic fruits of an individual actually ‘pull’ a physical world into place, even morally inert matter is designed, through circumstance, to create experiences relevant to the karmic root actions themselves. Early Buddhism envisages 31 such states of existence that are only transcended through the experience of enlightenment at the point of the death of the last karmically inspired physical existence. Until that time, the mind appears to ‘burn’ with sensation and obsessive thought patterns that inspire actions that inevitably lead to further effects. This mechanism that sees the mind fabric intimately entwined with the physical world, has to be prevent from functioning in an unquestioned manner. The power of habit moves in one perpetuating direction, as like a piece of metal drawn to a strong magnet. Habitual tendencies appear ‘normal’ because they are familiar. Delusion is a comfortable state that ‘hurts’ those residing within it. The pain of delusion is never associated with the ‘delusion’ itself. The human will (cetana) is the Buddha’s key to suffering and its over-coming.’
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 