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The Great Value Of Spiritual Friendship
Jan. 16 | Radical transformation of society requires personal and spiritual change first or at least simultaneously. – Sulak Sivaraksa A topic that Sulak [Sivaraksa] weaves into nearly every talk, essay, book, or discussion is spiritual friendship, which he regards...
You Stop Too
Jan. 8 | Spiritual practice starts by stopping the unskilful, before starting the skilful, and perfecting it. – Shilashanti A famous bandit, a murderer named Angulimala, had been sighted in the neighbourhood… Against all advice, the Buddha set out for...
Be More Mindful Of The Ocean Not Its Waves
Jan. 1 | What to be dissolved is not the self, but the sense of self, by realising it is not there in the first place. – Shilashanti Suzuki Roshi… had a very helpful way of describing the relief that comes from getting over yourself. He used the expression...
How The Buddha Turned Arrows Into Flowers
Dec. 26 | Cultivation is more transformation of the unskilful than its eradication. – Shilashanti In the hours preceding his final enlightenment, when he is doing battle with his ego, the Buddha’s tormentors shoot volleys of arrows at him. Some people interpret...
Just Your Thinking So Does Not Make It So
Dec. 19 | Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all. – Buddhist Saying While Right Speech conventionally means abstaining from lying, gossip, vain talk, and...
A Monk’s Friendly Goodwill To A Snake
Dec. 12 | I have good will for footless/ two/ four/ many-footed beings… May footless/ two/ four/ many-footed beings do me no harm. May all creatures… meet with good fortune. May none of them come to any evil. – Ahina Sutta Ajaan Fuang, my meditation...
Protect & Heal Yourself & Others With Metta
Dec. 4 | As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings. – Karaniya Metta Sutta You should be as devoted to cultivating and protecting your goodwill to make...
How We Should Train Ourselves
Nov. 27 | Of a worthy goal reachable, have Faith to reach it, have Aspiration to reach it, have Practice to reach it. – Shilashanti … there is the case where a certain monk follows right after the community of monks… He doesn’t have the other...
Food Of The Monks, Devotional Cuisine
Nov. 19 | Eat and drink well, for the long-term well-being of yourself and others, including those you might eat and drink from. – Moustachoman Shojin Ryori (精进料理) is the devotional cuisine of monks in Japan. The purpose of shojin ryori is to celebrate...
6 Brief Universal Lessons
Nov. 8 | Your mind cannot hold two thoughts at once. This means that a single thought can occupy your entire mind. Whether good or bad, everything stems from a single thought. If we are careful with that first thought, even tragedies can be prevented. – Haemin...
How Encouragement Now Transforms The Future
Nov. 1 | In a way, Buddhas confer predictions of future attainment of Buddhahood as the purest ‘self-fulfilling’ prophesies – by inspiring greater practice towards it, with which definitely reaches it, as predicted. – Shilashanti As I was reading...
A Zen Master’s 3 Lessons
Oct. 25 | If you think you are either superior or inferior to someone, an invisible wall goes up between you. Treat him like an old friend you haven’t seen in a while. When you let your guard down, so will he. – Haemin Sunim I heard a story from Korea…...
Just Work Harder
Oct. 17 | Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads. – Zen Master Hakuin There are no shortcuts or ways to bypass the Apprenticeship Phase. It is the nature of the human brain to require such lengthy exposure to a field, which allows...
How To Guard Your Six Senses?
Oct. 11 | To experience things as they are, as clearly as you can, do so with as little attachment, aversion and delusion as you can. – Shilashanti And how does a noble disciple guard the sense doors? When a noble disciple sees a sight with the eyes, they don’t...
