Faithful laity sending dāna/act of generosity of fresh vegetables to feed the forest Sangha and children of Dhammagiri Foundation, home to orphans and disadvantaged children from the hill tribes of Mae Hong Son, Northern Thailand.🙏
Thoughts, feelings, perceptions are just that: thoughts, feelings and perceptions. They arise, stay for a while and cease. They're not you, not yours, not self.
He who reveres those worthy of reverence,
the Buddhas and their disciples,
who have transcended all obstacles and
passed beyond the reach of sorrow and lamentation
— he who reveres such peaceful and fearless ones,
his merit none can compute by any measure.
~Dhammapada 195-6
Sincere questions are also invited; DM me (there is also a live chat server explained at the above link), for perhaps answering on a future livestream.
The recorded video will be posted later (non-live) here: https://bhikkhu.ca/
I liked the part where the narrator distinguishes between loneliness - an unpleasant feeling of not being emotionally understood, or socially connected to - and being physically alone (not being around other people).
Solitude is not necessarily a bad thing, while on the flip-side, you can feel lonely even though you are around other people.
Compassion - karuna - has built into it a deep sense of acceptance and understanding directed towards the recipient, despite their flaws and foibles. It's possible to direct compassion towards oneself, and have a deep, heavenly peacefulness, whereby this need for being understood is quenched with that acceptance and understanding.
Compassion towards oneself is a powerful antidote to #loneliness. Don't wait for others to be compassionate and empathetic towards you, should you not have enough of those people in your life. Fulfill your own need to be understood, by knowing and accepting yourself, all snug and cozy and warm in the glow of Brahmaviharic-grade compassion. It's tremendously therapeutic.
Today I went to a Kathina in Penang #Malaysia at Sitavana forest monastery, which is a steep uphill 4x4 truck ride waaay up; would take a gruelling ~1 or 1.5 hours to walk up. The view at the stop was stunning. There were hundreds of attendees.
Alright. I just finished the Dīgha Nikāya, the first volume of the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon of #Buddhism.
Next up is the Majjhima Nikāya which will probably take me a lot longer since it's more than twice as long at 1424 pages in 5.75 x 9.00 inches while the Dīgha Nikāya is only 684 pages in 5.75 x 8.75 inches.
Topics: #meditation, attainment, lack thereof, seclusion, restraint, #tradition, generational differences, #technology, #lifestyles, sasana, procession of monks throughout the generations, training, conservative #culture, a world which no longer remembers what it’s like to live without smartphones and #computers; the difficulty for #monastic culture to live simply, while not over-extending the generosity of laypeople, who expect a certain minimal participation in technological use
@obu - AMAZING comprehensive FREE online courses on a variety of topics. I'm doing one on the words of the #Buddha and I am loving it. #Education#OnlineLearning
Can Eternity be Impermanent? — Hillside Hermitage (piped.video)
Is there a world outside of you? Or is there no world outside of you?...
Mindfulness to the Fore (www.dhammatalks.org)
Mindfulness to the Fore : The Meaning of Parimukhaṁ
NO ONE WANTS SENSUALITY - by Ajahn Nyanamoli Thero, Hillside Hermitage, Sri lanka. (odysee.com)
A brief talk on why no one actually wants sensual desires.
First Things First (www.dhammatalks.org)
"First Things First" in First Things First: Essays on the Buddhist Path by Thanissaro Bhikkhu