Random Thoughts on Everything in Life
1. I promise to try not to take the life of any anumal, bug, fish or bird.
2. I promise to try not to take anything which is not given to me.
3. I promise to try not to be greedy or disrespectul with regard to what I eat, feel and listen to.
4. I promise to try not to lie or speak harmfully to any one.
5. I promise to try not to consume any foods, drink or drugs which make me stupid or crazy.
Rebel: There is a question, if a person made merit but feel sad about it. Will that person gain benefit of making merit?
Dark Forest : Yes, the person will gain benefit following the law of Karma. Like when we plant a tree. We may plant ignorantly, we may plant wholeheartedly, or we may plant sufferingly feeling annoyed everytime we see the plant. The plant will be there, regardless to the state of our mind. Making merit is an action, and the fruit of Karma will follow of that action. But there is also an opportunity of the mind. We could be truly happy with the merit we made. The fruit of the merit could be harvested again and again. It is like a miracle how the single merit we made wholeheartedly, could bring us happiness time after time.
Human’s life is actually a kind of journey, a journey from sorrow onto the end of sorrow which we have been through. With or without our awareness, life is a journey. And when you travel without awareness, it is normal that there will be bruises and hardships.
The journey of life is not a journey taken by foot. And a path of life is not meant to be walked through. The wise ones in the old days were paying special attention to “path of life” as it is a path of mind which can evolve into a higher value which material or physical values cannot compare with.
What we call the path, although has only one path, it always has many components. Like a walking path that can be walked for months are consisted of bridges, shades, houses along the way. There will be protections, the food gatherings. This is also how life is. There is one path heading toward the end of sufferings but it is consisted of many components.
Religion is an important component which makes this life fresh and cool enough to live, and not too hot the same way water keep the plants fresh and continue to grow.
Philosophy is a component to create ideal which is strong enough to motivate you to follow religious practice or other duties. It creates believes, diligence and other moralities which are all important. They have enough power to prevent the discouragement, indecisive and giving up. In conclusion it helps creating the philosopher in us, using wisdom to proceed onto the end.
Science helps you to be reasonable and learn to use reason and stay within the power of rationality. And in this life you will not be blindly believe which will hinder you while proceeding toward life.
Arts, especially, arts of living or self control help this life to be clear graceful and enjoyable which leading to progress of knowledge and fine action in beginning middle and end.
Dhamma, is goodness, truth, and justice which combined into you. It helps create the personality which creates faith, trust, and friendliness. It make life exist as a respectable person to be self dependent and be something to hold on to for all lives.
Knowledge, help you to be able to think and make decision on experiments, problems solving, and other which will result in making a living, meeting people and other which you require.
Wisdom will help creating potential or ability to make you able to proceed with life, to achieve and make possible of your knowledge. It will make life’s work on every level and type proceed quickly completely and safely.
Sanitary will help you to be healthy which is the base of mind power, the swiftness, courage, happiness, convenient in movement and in mind of being. Making the body like the horse which the owner take a good care and able to carry the owner to the goal.
The eight components together combine into my only path. It will make me able to proceed with great satisfaction that I want to invite my fellow of birth, suffering and death that please come and take a step in this path which are consisted of the eight components. The effect in this world is property fame and friendship. The effect of the next world is the good birth and the greatest result is to be free from the world which is nibbhana, this is waiting at the end without a doubt.
The eight components need to be complete and in appropriate ration and perfectly fit, ready to compliment and support each other all the time. Then will be the path and the journey in itself, in every second with no return back.
In the world today, there are too many things that will bond this life to fall under the power of the pressure, the fire. One single careless moment, you may slip and fall into the fie, and if would be hard to get out of it. You might lost your life in that fire. Therefore every life should find a path and should have the right and safe path to advance to the clean and clear and enlighten and calm as they wish. And not to waste the time that they have been journeyed through the life cycle until they have a life today.
The world today, there are plenty of obstacles. The more dangerous the obstacle is the more complete with morality and ability we need to possess in order to prevent and to get through the danger. For at least, they need to have a path with the eight components. The path of life in spirituality of the person will go along with the advance of the material or the bodily way of this world, which are overwhelmingly extensive, out of portion, leading to incompleteness which causing the confusion in the world today.
The way of life nowadays is very adventurous , shaky and unstable than in the past. It was to much to proceed in the simply and short way as in the past. The Buddhist are lucky that Buddhism provide us the components of the eight components. Our Buddhism have the complete aspect. It depends on us to look in each aspect. We have to see and be in every aspect.
Buddhism as the religion, as philosophy, as science is the art of living. It is the willing dhamma status of human being, being the complete knowledge, the wisdom, the quick and healthy both physically and mentally. These aspect are the components of the eight components. Be the path and the journey, completely in itself, as I already mentioned.
I would like to invite, my fellow birth, suffering and death comrade to pay attention to the one way, which leading to the end of suffering of each individual. I would like to invite you, to together fight, in every way, to keep this path open and reveal itself as the path of all livings. I am asking you, my friends to be ready to sacrifice even your life to protect the path to keep it as your path to survival forever, and never ending in the name of Buddha who announce the universal truth to all human kind.
Mokapalaram, 1 January 1993
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
http://www.buddhadasa.com
Translated by Tuangkwan
It is as if we are carrying a big stone. It is very heavy to carry. However we don’t know what to do with it. Therefore we keep on carrying it. And when somebody asked why we don’t throw it way, we started to think that if we throw it away, and we would have nothing left.
So we are still carrying the stone. We won’t let go, even though people would tell us that we should throw it away and we will gain benefit. Still we don’t listen to them. Because we are afraid that there will be nothing left for us. Therefore, we carry the heavy stone. Until we are very exhausted, until we can no longer carry it. And let it go.
When we let the stone fall down, we would learn a lesson of “letting go”. We will be relieved and be aware of how heavy the stone was. When we carrying it, we just don’t aware of the benefit of letting go.
LUANGPOR CHA SUPATHO
Translated by Tuangkwan
Have you ever been angry? When you are angry it is happy or suffering? If it is suffering why don’t you just leave it? How can we say that we know? How can we call ourselves smart, if we still act like this?
Since we were born, how many times has the anger attacked us? Sometimes, it makes the family fight with each other and cries all night long. Still we let the anger in, and keep it inside. We keep on suffering up to this moment.
From now on, if we all cannot see dukkha, we will keep on suffering. If we can see it today, throw it away. We have to throw it away or it will make us suffer until we die. The cycle is like this. If we know dhukkha then we can solve the problems and stop the cycle.
Therefore Buddha taught that there is no better way out of dhukkha, than keep in mind that everything is not consistent, everything is not our possessions. This is the key, the important one. But we rarely listen to his teachings. When we suffer, we cry then we just don’t learn a lesson. Why don’t we look and keep our eyes on it. Keeping Buddho in mine will help us to see clearly.
The way out of suffering
Luangphor Cha Supattho, Wat Nong Pa Pong
Translated by Tuangkwan
rebel : There is a question, whether if we all are here in this situation (8 bombing incident in BKK on the 2007 New Year’s Eve) is the result of Karma.
Dark Forest : Karma is action. A simple example is… when we heat the water then it get boiled. This is the result of Karma that we can see. When every factor is ready, and we heat the water, then it will be boiled. When every factor (i.e. appropriate container, water, heat, time) is ready it will definitely be boiled. Like every other action, the results of our action will definitely affect us in order. Sometimes it will come in next life or the in coming lives. And what we are facing now, might be the result of the long long time ago. It is as if we dropped a seed. Without our awareness, it has grown. One day we would be there sitting under the tree’s shade. We would feel comfortable, without knowing that it was us who dropped the seed of such a huge tree. The result is certain. There is no accident, only certainty. Even the time when we were born or when we die, each was set by the actions and factors.
A Cup of Thoughts 