TO SHARE (Compartilhar)

   

GESTURE OF LOVE (Gesto de Amor)

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InITdjayHkY


The Video that Won First Place at Cannes

Very beautiful video clip. This is what Buddha taught about spontaneous response (no agenda, just go with the flow in a positive way) ~ Swas Tan

Thanks Swas & Molly for sharing this touching video clip




  

N E W S

FROM EUROPE WITH LOVE
Visu & Barbara

So far we have led an eight-day vipassana retreat in The Dharma House in the south of France (June 30 to July 7), two meditation workshops totalling five days for patients and therapists at the Hochgrat and Adula Health Clinics in the Allgaeu, the German Alps, (July 16 to 18, July 24 & 25) and a ten-day metta retreat at the Passaddhi Meditation Centre in Leitrim Beg, south-west Ireland (July 30 to Aug 9).

Pix of our Irish retreat showing the group of participants,
the most beautiful meditation walking path in the world,
the meditation house, and
a view of Bantry Bay from the garden.

Our next stop will be an eight-day vipassana retreat in Wapserveen, Holland, from Aug 23 to 30 followed by weekend metta retreats in two other Dutch towns, Groningen and Nijmegan, another ten-day vipassana retreat at Passaddhi in Ireland, and more retreats in Czech Republic (Prague and Plana) and Belgium before we return to Inward Path, Penang, on Nov 16.

Then there will be a nine-day retreat in Kuching (Sarawak) from Nov 21 to Nov 29.

Dec 24 to Dec 30 we have an invitation to lead a seven-day metta retreat at the Mudita Buddhist Society in Klang (Selangor).

LOOKING for this book?

We received some new stock from the sponsor but not many.
Check the link by click on the book below.

BEAUTIFYING THE MIND
The Buddha's Teachings on Effort
by Sayadaw U Pandita
transciption by Sayalay Daw Bhadda Manika
translated and edited by Bhikkhu Vivekananda
edited by Dr Penny Gray
ISBN 983-3512-26-7
IJ131/07
Size: 5.5” x 8.25”
Pages: 148 pages
Weight: 240gsm

“Effort is a vital theme in the Buddha’s teachings on mental development. Many passages from the Tipitaka account for this. In a masterly manner the Venerable Sayadaw U Panditabhivamsa of Myanmar has knit the relevant teachings into an inspiring presentation drawn from the Buddhist canon. The Venerable Sayadaw is an exemplary manifestation of someone who consistently applies heroic effort. Even at the age of eighty he is still travelling far and wide throughout the year to teach insight meditation and spread the Dhamma. This book is based on a series of talks given during an insight meditation retreat conducted at the Panditarama Vipassana Meditation Centre, Lumbini, Nepal, in February 2000. The talks were delivered to a mixed audience of Western meditators and a larger group of Newari Buddhists from the Kathmandu valley, some of whom would be direct descendants of the Sakyamuni clan of the Buddha. The talks contain reference to both groups as the Venerable Sayadaw endeavours to encourage the individual meditators in their practice.”

—from FOREWORD by Bhikkhu Vivekananda

NEW RELEASE

THE VIPASSANA RETREAT

A Guide Book on Vipassana Meditation
with an Audio Guide to the practice on

Compact Disc (CD)
in MP3 format (AF405) -->

by VENERABLE PANNYAVARO

ISBN 978-983-3512-67-6
Size: 5.5” x 8.25”
Pages: 136 pages

As a guidebook it offers a framework for the teachings based on the source material: The Four Establishments of Mindfulness. It includes sections on mindfulness of the body, being aware of feelings, orientating to the sense doors, the supportive practice of loving-kindness, how to report the practice in the daily interview, difficulties facing meditators and how to work with them, as well as advice on continuing the practice at home.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Venerable Pannyavaro is an Australian Buddhist monk who has devoted his life to the meditational aspects of the Buddha's teachings. During his meditation training he practiced under several meditation masters in Sri Lanka and Burma including Venerable Sayadaw U Janaka of Chanmyay Meditation Centre, Rangoon, who is the foremost disciple of the renowned Burmese meditation master, the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.

Pannyavaro was involved in the beginnings of a number of the very early Buddhist communities in Australia. He later received full ordination at Wat Borvornivet in Bangkok under Venerable Phra Nyanasamvarva, the Sangha Raja of Thailand.

For the past twenty-five years, he has from time to time studied and practiced meditation in most of the major Theravada Buddhist countries, including long periods of intensive practise of Satipatthana-Vipassana meditation at the Mahasi Sayadaw centres in Burma.

As a Western meditation teacher, Ven. Pannyavaro naturally empathizes with the concerns and needs of meditators in their own culture. His long training and life experience combine to bring a practical in-depth approach to the teaching of insight (vipassana)meditation in contemporary life.

Pannyavaro is the resident teacher with the Buddha Dharma Education Association at its Centre at Surry Hills in Sydney and gives retreats from time to time at the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, Medlow Bath.

BODHI TREE

Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre was founded by Venerable Pannyavaro Mahathero. He is better known as the founder and webmaster of BuddhaNet.net.

Venerable Pannyavaro plans to develop a meditation community to serve both lay and monastic practitioners on ninety-five acres of beautiful land at Tullera five minutes from Lismore in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia. This land has been purchased as a sanctuary and hermitage — known as Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre. Site works and development are being planned.

Supportive conditions for ordained and lay practitioners to undertake long term intensive meditation practice are hard to find in western countries. To assist people to penetrate the heart of the Buddha's teaching The Buddha Dharma Education Association is planning a 'hermitage' area in addition to a large meditation hall and an individual accommodation area at Bodhi Tree.

ALSO BY VEN. PANNYAVARO
Published by INWARD PATH PUBLISHER

THE ART OF ATTENTION: Meditating for Insight
ISBN 983-9439-19-7 (IJ021/98/05)

How Teachings of the Buddha are preserved over 2500 years (Part 1)

This painting depicted Ven. Ananda in the First Buddhist Council

(Please do not mistake the person sitting there in the painting as Buddha. That person was Ven. Ananda)

(Picture Courtesy of Wikimedia)

* Another strange thing I found in the painting was how come there was a scroll on his lap. There was no writing of any sort about Buddhist scriptures in the First Buddhist Council.

Recently, I came across a chapter in ‘The Fundamentals of Buddhism’ by Sayadaw U Silananda about Divisions of the Buddha’s Teachings and the Buddhist Council. Out of my interest, I looked up some additional readings from the internet about the efforts on how the Buddha’s disciples managed to preserve His teachings until today.


In the book, it mentioned that the First Buddhist Council was held at Rajagaha 3 months after the Buddha passed away, led by Venerable Mahakassapa. The main purpose of the Council was to review what the Enlightened One taught in 45 years. Then it was the start of gathering of the scriptures of Buddhism into an enormous collection. The collection was called (in Sanskrit) ‘Tripitaka’ or (in Pali) ‘Tipitaka’, which gives the meaning of ‘three baskets’ because it is organized into three major sections. It also is called the "Pali Canon" because it is preserved in a language called Pali.

Elaborated from the chapter, Venerable Mahakassapa felt that there was a need to prioritise the review the monastic discipline at that time because monks could abandon the rules of discipline and do as they liked after Buddha left them. So the first agenda in the Council was to review the rules of discipline for monk and nuns. Since Venerable Upali was known to have comprehensive knowledge on the rules of the monastic order, he was in-charged for delivering the rules out to the 500 monks. Only those rules, upon agreeable by the 500 arahats, were accepted by the Council. Then these rules became the Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline Section), one of the three baskets or sections of Buddha’s core teachings (Tipitaka). Vinaya Pitaka is a collection of texts regarding the rules of discipline and conduct for monks and nuns. The Vinaya-pitaka is not only a directory of monastic rules but it also explains the circumstances that caused the Buddha to make many of the rules.

Mahakassapa also asked Venerable Ananda, who Buddha’s closest companion when Buddha was still alive to recall from his memory on all the Buddha’s sermons as he was known for his prodigious memory. He began all his recitation with the word ‘Thus I have heard’, similar to what you can find these words in the beginning of any Buddhist scriptures or suttas. Again, the collection of suttas recited had to be agreed and approved by the Council for their accuracy, before being adopted. This section or basket of the Tipitaka is called the Sutta Section (Sutra in Sanskrit) or ‘Sutta Pitaka’ and it contains thousands of sermons and discourses delivered by the Buddha and a few of his disciples. This ‘basket’ is further subdivided into five nikayas, or collections (More of these are explained the chapter mentioned)

Up till the Third Buddhist Council which was held about 250 BCE to clarify Buddhist doctrine and to desist the spreading of heterodoxy to the Buddha’s teachings, the final version entire Pali Canon of the Tipitaka was adopted, which the inclusion of the third basket, Abhidhamma Pitaka (Abhidharma in Sankrit) or ‘Section of Special Teachings’. This section of Special Teachings mentioned contains commentaries and analyses of the suttas. The Abhidhamma Pitaka explores the psychological and spiritual phenomena described in the suttas and provides a theoretical foundation for understanding them.

Where did the Abhidhamma-pitaka come from? According to legend, the Buddha spent the first few days after his enlightenment formulating the contents of the third basket. Seven years later he preached the teachings of the third section to devas (gods). The only human who heard these teachings was his disciple Venerable Shariputta, who passed the teachings on to other monks. These teachings were preserved by chanting and memory, as were the suttas and the rules of discipline.

However, all the Buddha teachings were not put into any form of writing and they have been passed down generations to generations through words by mouth, until the fourth Buddhist Council. We will explore more on this in the next part. Please feel free to comment on the post too.

Samurai Beng, the Dhamma warrior

----^^----

Phra Mick 'invaded' Penang!!

On July 2009, the House was very honoured to have Phra Mick Ratanapanyo all the way from Bangkok to Penang for three very interesting talks.

'A Show About Nothing - Buddhism: The Last Con' was about the meaning of life and the purpose of what we are living for, from a Buddhist's perspective.

'The Knowing Middle' was mainly talking about the practical approach based on the three simple rules - 1. let truth be truth 2. follow the truth without stumbling 3. no controlling or interfering.

'Quantum Buddhism' emphasize on feelings are the engine of rebirth and it took the topic further to various rebirths and frequencies.

His 'invasion' in Penang brought us through a very inspiring dhamma journey and shared with us lots of fruitful experiences to right understanding.

Phra Mick's dhamma talks will be available soon in this blog. Don't miss out!

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

With lots of metta,

Sobhana Tan