Even if you have insight that is pure and clear but you cling to it, fondle it and treasure it, depend on it and are attached to it, then you do not understand that the teaching is like a raft that carries you across the water to the farther shore but is then to be put down and not clung to.
- Majjhima Nikaya
Monthly Archives: June 2010
DAILY WISDOM 09/06/2010
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 [20]
DAILY WISDOM 08/06/2010
All tremble at the rod,
all are fearful of death.
Drawing the parallel to yourself,
neither kill nor get others to kill.
-Dhammapada [10]
DAILY WISDOM 07/06/2010
There is no fire like greed and no crime like hatred. There is no sorrow like being bound to this world; there is no happiness like freedom.
-Dhammapada
DAILY WISDOM 06/06/2010
Monks, there are these three elements of escape. What three?
This escape from lusts which is renunciation; this escape from forms which is the formless existence; and this escape from whatsoever has become, is compounded, has arisen by the law of causation, which is making to cease. These are the three elements of escape.
-Itivuttaka
DAILY WISDOM 05/06/2010
Monks, this committed life is not lived in order to deceive people, or to convert them. It is not lived for the sake of gain or honour or reputation or financial profit. There is no idea of “let me draw people’s attention to me by being a this or a that.” No, monks, this committed life is lived for the sake of seeing into things and understanding them.
-Itivuttaka Sutta
DAILY WISDOM 04/06/2010
Here he’s tormented
he’s tormented hereafter.
In both worlds the wrong-doer’s tormented.
He’s tormented at the thought ‘I’ve done wrong.’
Having gone to a bad destination,
he’s tormented all the more.Here he delights
he delights hereafter.
In both worlds
the merit-maker delights.
He delights at the thought ‘I’ve made merit.’
Having gone to a good destination,
he delights all the more.
-Dhammapada [17-18]
DAILY WISDOM 03/06/2010
Life is swept along,
next-to-nothing its span.
For one swept to old age
no shelters exist.
Perceiving this danger in death,
one should drop the world’s bait
and look for peace.
-Samyutta Nikaya
DAILY WISDOM 02/06/2010
Not disparaging, not injuring,
restraint in line with the Patimokkha,
moderation in food,
dwelling in seclusion,
commitment to the heightened mind:
this is the teaching
of the awakened.
-Dhammapada [14]
DAILY WISDOM 01/06/2010
The real basis of Buddhism is full knowledge of the truth of reality. If one knows this truth then no teaching is necessary. If one doesn’t know, even if he listens to the teaching, he doesn’t really hear.
-Ajahn Chah, “Taste of Freedom”