A monk can be very gentle, very peaceful, while there are no hard words to assail him. But when hard words are directed at him, it is then that he must be really gentle and peaceful.
-Majjhima Nikaya
Monthly Archives: May 2010
DAILY WISDOM 10/05/2010
Be quick in doing what’s admirable.
Restrain your mind from what’s evil.
When you’re slow in making merit,
evil delights the mind.
-Dhammapada [9]
DAILY WISDOM 09/05/2010
If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the present, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the present, for that is the cause of the future.
-Majjhima Nikaya
DAILY WISDOM 08/05/2010
His attachments,
his homes,
can’t be found.
Through knowing
he is unperplexed,
has attained the plunge
into deathlessness:
he’s what I call
a brahmin.He has gone
beyond attachment here
for both merit & evil—
sorrowless, dustless, & pure:
he’s what I call
a brahmin.
-Dhammapada [411-412]
DAILY WISDOM 07/05/2010
If he recites next to nothing
but follows the Dhamma
in line with the Dhamma;
abandoning passion,
aversion, delusion;
alert,
his mind well-released,
not clinging
either here or hereafter:
he has his share in the contemplative life.
-Dhammapada [19-20]
DAILY WISDOM 06/05/2010
The one who thinks himself equal or inferior or superior to others is, by that very reason, involved in argument. But such thoughts as equal, inferior, and superior are not there in the one who is not moved by such measurements.
Why should a wise person argue with another, saying: “This is a truth” and “This is a lie”? If such a one never entertains a thought about equal, inferior, or superior, with whom is he going to argue?
The sage who has freed himself from dependence on others and from dependence on words and is no longer attached to knowledge does not risk the smothering of truth by engaging in disputes with people.
-Sutta Nipata
DAILY WISDOM 05/05/2010
In one who has gone the full distance,
is free from sorrow,
is fully released
in all respects,
has abandoned all bonds:
no fever is found.
-Dhammapada [90]
DAILY WISDOM 04/05/2010
Just as the word chariot is merely a means of expressing how axle, body, wheel, and poles are brought together in a certain relationship, but when we look at each of them one by one there is no chariot in an absolute sense; and just as the word house is a way of expressing how wood and other materials stand in relationship to each other in a certain space, but in the absolute sense there is no house; and just as the word fist is an expression for the finger and thumb in relationship, and tree for trunk, branches, leaves, and so on, but in an absolute sense there is no fist or tree–in exactly the same way the words living entity and person are but ways of expressing the relationship of body, feeling, and consciousness, but when we come to examine the elements of being, one by one, we find there is no entity there. In the absolute sense there is only name and form and the mystery which they express. Such ideas as “I” and “I am” are not absolute.
-Visuddhi Magga
DAILY WISDOM 03/05/2010
You yourself should reprove yourself,
should examine yourself.
As a self-guarded monk
with guarded self,
mindful, you dwell at ease.Your own self is your own mainstay.
Your own self is your own guide.
Therefore you should watch over yourself–
as a trader, a fine steed.
-Dhammapada
DAILY WISDOM 02/05/2010
As long as evil has yet to ripen,
the fool mistakes it for honey.
But when that evil ripens,
the fool falls into pain.Month after month the fool might eat
only a tip-of-grass measure of food,
but he wouldn’t be worth one sixteenth
of those who’ve fathomed the Dhamma.
-Dhammapada