I find the article below quite meaningful from a free Buddhism magazine. If you find it helpful to your friends, do share with them.
Extreme attachment to something or someone only bring suffering to oneself and others. Letting go will bring something better. Just like the greedy monkey refusing to let go of banana enticed by the hunter as it choose to cling to its desire thus staying trapped in unhappiness. Just let go and you experience freedom.
Thank you for the free magazine. I will donate money for the free distribution. Hopefully it can help more people.
Buddha was compassionate and taught the Noble Eightfold path to both human beings and heavenly beings as the practice lead to liberation from samsara. Good action leads to good result.
In the video below, Ajahn Keng shared about Right Livelihood. He shared about a devotee who worked in poultry business and he had neck pain. Ajahn Keng asked him how he killed it and he said first he had to bend and break it's neck first. The devotee earns about $2000 per day (about $5 per livestock) but he had to pay few thousands dollars for medical consultation.
Despite paying so much money to see doctor to treat his neck, his neck pain persisted. The devotee after reflecting on Ajahn Keng's questions and advice to stop this livelihood. In the end he decided to stop this livelihood and his neck miraculously healed after a few months and he didn't have to see doctor anymore.
If someone is making livelihood that harm lives like selling illegal drugs like cocaine, heroine, it will not bring peace and one day wealth might be taken away from the person such as in the example above on the poultry seller. One should not make a living at the expense of other suffering.
At 1:27:18, Ajahn Keng talked about Right Livelihood
The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are (From Wikipedia):
Right View: Our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell). Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism.
Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion).[36] Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.
Right Speech: No lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship, no idle chatter.
Right Conduct or Action: No killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
Right Livelihood: Livelihood must not harm lives. No trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, illegal drugs and poisons.
Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.
Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): a quality that guards or watches over the mind; the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word and deed. In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening
Right samadhi : practicing four stages of dhyāna ("meditation"), which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into equanimity and mindfulness.[43] In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.
In life, there are people who will do anything to get what they want. Some will spend money to cast spell to get what they want. Read this Asiaone article here on their interview with someone who is paid to do.
That is why I will not accept when someone especially the opposite gender wants to give me bottle of liquid that could masquerade as perfume, hand sanitizer spray, or ointment. You never know what is inside. I also won't accept drinks from people I don't know well. Never place your personal things that you use as it could be easily replaced.
If you suspect you are a victim of spell, you can go to your religion and seek help. In Buddhism, when Ananda, the handsome monk who was Buddha's attendant was cast a love spell by a lady, Buddha had to save Ananda from breaking his monk precept.
I came across the following by Joseph Polansky, a western astrologer and I think it is really well written. " Karma is the law of cause and effect which governs all phenomena. We are all where we find ourselves because of karma- because of actions we have performed in the past. The universe is such a balanced instrument that any act immediately sets corrective forces into motion-karma. Never do bad thing. It will bounce back to the owner of the action.
The world is very fair. You do good, good result will follows and vice versa. It's just a matter of time.
I tried to translate meaningful part of this drama on the life of the 6th Patriarch of Chan, the Venerable Huineng as I find that it is helpful. Please highlight to me if there is error in translating.
Venerable Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarchof Chan (February 27, 638 – August 28, 713) was said to attain awakening when he heard a verse from the Diamond Sutra 应无所住而生其心. Without abiding anything, give rise to the pure mind.
When the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Venerable Hong Ren explained to him the Diamond sutra. Venerable Hui Neng was "suddenly and completely enlightened, and he understood that all things exist in self-nature.
应无所住而生其心，Without abiding anything, give rise to the pure mind
云何应住，云何降伏其心 When does the cloud abide, how does the cloud calm the mind
佛说应无所住而生其心 Buddha said without abiding in forms, arises the mind
即是说心即是佛,佛即是心 Meaning Pure Mind is Buddha and Buddha is Pure Mind.
他做了一首偈子Venerable Huineng came up with the following stanza when he understood the verse. I think true self, is our consciousness.
何其自性本自清净！What is true self, it is intrinsically pure
何其自性本不生灭！What is true self, it is neither born nor extinguish
何其自性本自具足！What is true self, it is self-sufficient
何其自性能生万法！What is true self, it can produces immeasurable dharma/ideas
From the Diamond Sutra
Subhuti, all great bodhisattvas should give rise to purity of mind in this way: they should not give rise to a mind that abides in form; they should not give rise to a mind that abides in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. They should give rise to a mind that does not abide in anything.
Subhuti, a bodhisattva should turn away from all notions, and initiate the mind of anuttara samyaksambodhi. He should not give rise to a mind abiding in form, and he should not give rise to a mind abiding in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. He should give rise to a mind that does not abide in anything.
When we contemplate the following verses from the Diamond Sutra, your mind should not be affected by forms which are transient, dependent on causes and conditions.
一切有为法，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电，应作如是观
“All conditioned phenomena Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, Like dew and lightning. One should contemplate them in this way. “
All phenomena appear in the world is a combination of causes and conditions that is temporary by nature. It will pass. There is no permanent nature to form which is subjected to change due to causes and conditions, thus it is illusory. Thus why be sad over something that is illusory. Just let it go and not be attached to it.
A lot of suffering comes from the mind which is influenced by forms like sight, hearing, touch, taste or perception. When someone criticised us, we get upset, when someone own something we don’t have, we want it. We are always influenced by the three poison, greed, anger and delusion.
From the book, Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing by Dr Brian Weiss, “ Chinese philosopher Hui-neng (6thpatriarch of Chan Buddhism/Zen) wrote, “When we are free from attachment to all outer objects, the mind will be in peace. Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure, and the reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried by the circumstances we are in. He who is able to keep his mind unperturbed (calm), irrespective of circumstances has attained enlightenment. “
A woman who went through a near-death experience shared,” I realized that life is like a dream”. She wrote, “ When you are born, you wake up into mortality in this physical body. When your physical body dies, you return to immortality.”
I realised what is 无我 no-self as our consciousness or mind changes identity in various body forms in our many reincarnations. Thus there is no permanent self-identity. Do not cling to anger and just let go.
Today is the 7th day of Chinese lunar new year which is known as Ren Ri 人日. Based on Chinese custom, it is said that it is the day human beings were created.
Buddha said that among the six realms of rebirth , Human being is the most precious and it is rare to be reborn as a human being, rarer to be reborn in countries where you can hear the dhamma. Therefore we should not waste this human life. Use this human life to end samsara.
Life is a gift and to be born as a human is very rare. Just look at the billions of animals around us from the sea, land to the sky in this planet earth alone.
Buddha was a skilful teacher who was able to teach others with parables (I think he was the first teacher using differentiated teaching). To help his disciples to understand the rareness of being born as a human, he said that to be born as a human is like a sea turtle that comes up to the surface once every hundred years and the sea turtle's head passed through a small hole of a wooden plank floating in the vast ocean.
According to Buddha, there are 31 planes of existence which include the lower realms like hell, ghost and animals and higher realms like human and other heavenly realms which include sensuous and immaterial world (form or formless).
Being born as a human besides being rare is also precious. It is the only realm where you can do good deeds and cultivate merit. Only a human can attain enlightenment as a Buddha. Thus we should use this opportunity to do good deeds and help others. It is said that to be born as a human being, it must also be your past life good karma as you have cultivated many merit in past lives.
Thus we should use the opportunity to do more good, follow the five precepts or eight precepts set by the Buddha for lay Buddhists and hopefully be enlightened in this life.
Scattered throughout the suttas are references to as many as thirty-one distinct "planes" or "realms" of existence into which beings can be reborn during their long wandering through samsara. These range from the extraordinarily grim and painful hell realms all the way up to the most exquisitely refined and blissful heaven realms. Existence in every realm is temporary; in Buddhist cosmology there is no eternal heaven or hell. Beings are born into a particular realm according to their past kamma. When they pass away, they take rebirth once again elsewhere according to the quality of their kamma: wholesome actions bring about a favorable rebirth, while unwholesome actions lead to an unfavorable one. And so the wearisome cycle continues.
From the Heart Sutra, 照见五蕴皆空，渡一切苦厄. Clearly perceived the empty nature of the five skandhas (Form, Feeling, Perception, Mental formation, Consciousness)And transcended all suffering.
This "me" is changing constantly".“Perception” means notions, reflections and thoughts. It changes over time and space. Therefore, there is no need to be attached to it. When there is no attachment to impermanence, you let go of suffering.
