Running up & down this shore delays crossing!

The Blessed Buddha once said:
Bhikkhus, these 8 things, when cultivated & refined, lead to going beyond
from this near shore, right here, to the far shore beyond all... What eight? 

Right View  (sammā-ditthi)
Right Motivation  (sammā-sankappa)
Right Speech  (sammā-vācā)
Right Action  (sammā-kammanta)
Right Livelihood  (sammā-ājīva)
Right Effort  (sammā-vāyāma)
Right Awareness  (sammā-sati)
Right Concentration  (sammā-samādhi)

These 8 things, when cultivated and refined, lead to going beyond from
this near shore, right here, to the far shore beyond all imagination.
The Well-Gone-One, the supreme Teacher, then added this:

Few humans cross to that sublime far shore beyond all being.
Mostly, people just run up and down along this barren bank!
Those whose praxis is like this even and exact Dhamma,
Will pass beyond the State of Death in quiet harmony!
Having left all the dark and evil doing, any intelligence
Seeks the luminous bright light by leaving this turmoil,
by going forth into solitary & silent homelessness.
Secluded from lust, he experiences an unworldly bliss!
Owing nothing, the wise and clever man thereby cleans
himself of all these mental pollutions and defilements...
Mentally well evolved by the 7 links to enlightenment,
Delighting in non-clinging and relinquishment of all,
Such luminous ones, having quenched all fermentation,
Are fully released even right here in this world!


Crossing...

To the Other Side...

Source (edited extract):
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya.
Book [V:24] section 45: The Way. 34: Gone to the other side ...
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

The Other Side...

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

Pay respect function

Kerala mahabodhi mission pay respect to Mrs. Paanchaali amma who has been working as a street sweeper for the last 27 years in Palakkad muncipality and is getting retired on 30 th June 2012.Mahabodhi mission chairman Haridas Bodh, Teacher AFSAL , Priya .P, and others participated in this function

.

Panchaali amma receiving Memento from KMM

Leaving all Quarrels enables Social Harmony!

The Blessed Buddha once said:
When this subtle Dhamma has been taught by me, in many various ways,
using different methods of explanation, then it is only to be expected
that those, who cannot agree, accept, allow, & approve of what really
is well stated and well spoken by others, that they will become angry,
quarrelsome and start disputes, where they will stab each other with
verbal daggers! Yet too, when this sublime Dhamma has been taught by
me, in many variable ways, using diverse methods of explanation, it is
also only to be expected, that those, who can agree, accept, allow, and
approve of what really is well formulated and well spoken of by others,
that they will live in harmony, in calm, friendly and mutual appreciation,
without arguments, blending like milk and water, regarding each other
with kind eyes. In this very way can they come to sleep with open doors
and dance with their children in their arms ... 

So we can Sleep with Open Doors &
Dance with the Children in our Arms!

More on High Harmony:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/United_in_Harmony.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Unique_Unity.htm

Blending like Milk & Water!

Source:
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya. Book IV [225]
Section 36: On Feeling. The Carpenter. Pancakanga: 19.
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

Healthy Human Harmony!

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

SCRAMBLING TO PRESERVE AFGHANISTAN’S HERITAGE

A recently excavated Buddhist stupa at Mes Ainak : Wiki Commons

June 7, 2012 by HeritageDaily in Archaeology News, Middle Eastern Comments (0)

SCRAMBLING TO PRESERVE AFGHANISTAN’S HERITAGE, PROFESSOR DOCUMENTS EFFORTS TO SAVE BUDDHIST SITE IN HEART OF TALIBAN COUNTRY

For 18 months, a Northwestern University professor has filmed the frantic efforts of an international archaeology team trying to save antiquities at an ancient Buddhist site in the heart of Afghanistan’s Taliban country. This week, at a Washington, D.C. conference of archaeologists, geologists and mining experts, he is screening his film footage.
“I usually make films that act as a mirror examining some issue and reflecting some reality,” says Brent Huffman, assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. “But, for the first time, with Mes Aynak, I feel an obligation to try to save this ancient site and stop the senseless destruction of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.”
A 2,500-year-old religious site located along the Silk Road that in Marco Polo’s day linked China with the Roman Empire, Mes Aynak is home to more than 200 Buddha statues, devotional temples and an approximately 100-acre monastery complex 25 miles southeast of Kabul. The vast majority of relics and structures are underground; many are too large and fragile to be moved.
“Mes Aynak served as an al-Qaeda training camp, and miraculously survived three decades of war and looting,” says Huffman. “Now this incredible site is threatened by Chinese mining operations that are projected to produce over $100 billion worth of copper.”
“Ironically, the ancient Buddhist site is located directly on top of the copper as the Buddhists, too, were mining for copper,” Huffman adds. Today travel by car in the Taliban-occupied area is dangerous, and some archaeologists working at the site have received death threats.
“Visiting Mes Aynak is always nerve-racking,” he says. On his five trips there, Huffman took Afghan taxis over windy roads to avoid notice by the Taliban. “There are several villages that have fired rockets at cars and placed land mines in the road at night,” he explains.
Archaeologists were given less than a year to dig up the ancient relics before mining was scheduled to begin. “It’s a problem of time,” Huffman explains. “The archaeologists on the site say they have unearthed no more than 10 percent of the Buddhist site. But they have only until late 2013 or early 2014 before the Chinese mining operations begin.

The Chinese state owned mining company MCC have built a camp at Mes Ainak, 35km south of Kabul, while archeologists are racing to excavate a series of ancient Buddhist monasteries before the bulldozers roll in. : Wiki Commons

Huffman — who has been making social-issue documentaries and environmental films in Asia, Africa and the Middle East for more than a decade — learned of the efforts to excavate and preserve the Buddhist religious site after reading newspaper articles.
The lack of funds and of public knowledge about the imminent dangers facing Mes Aynak religious site and the villages near it have forced the archaeological team to cut back their efforts.
“The site is absolutely awe inspiring,” says Huffman, who teaches documentary production and theory at Northwestern. “You can feel history there. As archaeologists scramble to save what they can before the 2014 deadline, it’s become clear to me that a cultural wonder in Asia will be lost to a future focused on resources that ultimately benefit residents of other countries over Afghan citizens.”
SOURSES:BUDDHIST ART NEWS

Ancient Statue Reveals Prince Who Would Become Buddha

A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk. The prince is likely the founder of Buddhism.
CREDIT: Jaroslav Poncar

Owen Jarus, LiveScience
06 June 2012 Time: 07:03 PM ET
In the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered a stone statue that seems to depict the prince Siddhartha before he founded Buddhism.
The stone statue, or stele, was discovered at the Mes Aynak site in a ruined monastery in 2010, but it wasn’t until now that it was analyzed and described. Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, details his study in “The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).
Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago.
The prince is shown sitting on a round wicker stool, his eyes looking down and with his right foot against his left knee. He is “clad in a dhoti (a garment), with a turban, wearing necklaces, earrings and bracelets, sitting under a pipal tree foliage. On the back of the turban, two large rubans [are] flowing from the head to the shoulders,” writes Fussman in his new book. “The turban is decorated by a rich front-ornament, without any human figure in it.” [Photos of the statue and ancient Buddhist monastery]

Mes Aynak is located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Kabul and contains an ancient Buddhist monastic complex.
CREDIT: Jerome Starkey CC Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic

The monk stands at the prince’s right side, his right forearm shown upright. In his right hand the monk holds a lotus flower or palm (now broken), and in his left is a round object of some kind.
Based on the iconography of the stele, particularly the pipal leaves, Fussman believes the prince is Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni, who is said to have achieved enlightenment, become a Buddha — someone of divine wisdom and virtue — and founded the religion of Buddhism. This stele shows him at an early moment in his life, when he has yet to start his fateful journey of enlightenment.
Siddhartha’s story
According to the story, Siddhartha’s father wanted him to follow a worldly path and tried to keep his son cloistered in a palace.
“Lotus pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my use; in one, blue lotuses flowered, in another white, and in another red,” says Siddharthain ancient writings attributed to him. “A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that I would not be troubled by cold or heat, dust or grit or dew.” (This translation is from Rupert Gethin’s “The Foundations of Buddhism,” Oxford University Press, 1998.)
The prince’s life would change when he ventured outside the palace and saw the real world. “As soon as he left the palace he became pessimistic,” Fussman told LiveScience, “because by meeting these people, he knew that everybody is to work, everybody may become ill, everybody is to die.”
He grew disenchanted with palace life and left, becoming a poor ascetic.
Tibetan clues
Fussman said that this stele supports the idea that there was a monastic cult, in antiquity, dedicated to Siddhartha’s pre-enlightenment life. This idea was first proposed in a 2005 article inthe journalEast and West by UCLA professor Gregory Schopen. Schopen found evidence for the cult when studying the Tibetan version of the monastic code, Mulasarvastivada vinaya.
It’s a “cult focused on his image that involved taking it in procession through the region and into town,” Schopen wrote. “A cult tied to a cycle of festivals celebrating four moments, not in the biography of the Buddha but in the pre-enlightenment period of the life of Siddhartha.”
One section of the code authorizes carrying the image of Siddhartha (referred to as a Bodhisattva) on a wagon.
Whether or not the newly discovered stele went on a wagon ride, Fussman said the depiction of Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni before he became a Buddha provides further evidence of the existence of this cult. “Here also you have an instance of it,” he said in the interview, “the Buddha before he became a Buddha.”
Excavations continue at the Mes Aynak site as scientists explore the complex in an effort to save the artifacts before the area is disturbed by copper mining.
sourse:BUDDHIST ART NEWS

Ceasing the 5 Clusters Ceases Suffering!

At Savatthi the Blessed Buddha said this:
Bhikkhus, there are these five clusters of clinging! What five?

The cluster of clinging to form...
The cluster of clinging to feeling...
The cluster of clinging to perception...
The cluster of clinging to construction...
The cluster of clinging to consciousness...

When, Bhikkhus, a Noble Disciple understands as they really are:
The arising, the ceasing, the satisfaction, the danger, and the escape
from these five clusters of clinging, then he is called a Noble Disciple,
who is a Stream-Enterer, no longer bound to the painful lower worlds,
fixed in destiny, with Enlightenment as his assured destination!

Explanation: Being is Burning on Craving and Clinging:
The body arises from food and ceases in absence of food.
Feeling, perception & mental construction arise from contact and ceases
in absence of sense contact. Consciousness arises from name-&-form and
ceases in absence of this body-&-mind: mentality-&-materiality. These are
the clusters proximate causes... Their remote causes are past ignorance,
lust for them and intentional action (= Kamma) resulting in them!
The satisfaction of these five clusters of clinging is the pleasure and joy
they temporarily induce... The danger of these five clusters of clinging is
their impermanence & inevitable fading away! The escape is the Noble Way
of ceasing all craving for these 5 clusters of clinging! That ends suffering!

More on this Noble Stream-Entry:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_4_Doors.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/How_to_Enter.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Stream-Enterer.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Stream_Entrance.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Fruits_of_the_Noble_Way.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Links_to_Stream_Entry.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/s_t/sotaapanna.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/a/ariya_puggala.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Helpers_to_Stream_Entry.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Entering_the_Stream_Supreme.htm

Entering the Stream means having max. 7 lives before Enlightenment!

Source:
The Grouped Sayings by the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya 22:109 III 161
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

Gone Out!

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

A good Friend quite wisely asked:

Question:
>I've often seen you translate karuna as "pity,"
but isn't pity actually the near enemy of karuna?

Answer:
Friend your good question exemplifies a common misconception and
non-recognition of a mixed state…Since it depends how you define and
thus understand “Pity” as a mixed state, or in itself as a pure state!

In itself Pure Pity = Karunâ is defined as:
Pity originally means ‘feeling for and of other’s pain’, or "sympathy" and
"empathy". However only IF mixed with egoism it gets more unsympathetic
connotations of feeling of “own” superiority based on conscious or even
unconscious lack of respect of the sufferer's dignity, who is now seen as
“inferior”. However this Evil does not come from pity itself, which is a pure
compassion for the plight of the sufferer, but to the often unseen and
overlooked aspect of mixed-in impurities of the EGO-conceit “I am Better”!
Since for to say or think, even subconsciously, “I am Better” there just
have to be present the mistaken belief in a non-existent Ego = The conceit
that “I am” = asmi-mâna... Needless to say has this arrogant & pride-pumped
“I”-dentification & “self”-deception nothing whatsoever to do with fellow
feelings for another being’s suffering, though it can often subconsciously
be mixed with it and thus polluting this in itself advantageous & good pure pity.

Moreover regarding karuna especially as "Buddhist Pity":
There is no “sorrow” or “sadness” in this state as it is based on understanding
of cause and effect. From the Visuddhimagga:
http://what-buddha-said.net/library/pdfs/PathofPurification2011.pdf

“One whose meditation subject is pity should arouse compassion for any
[evil-doing] person even if he now is happy: “Though this poor wretch is now
happy, cheerful, enjoying his wealth, still for want of even one single good
deed done now in by any of the 3 doors of intentional behaviour he will
come to experience untold future suffering in the states of loss.”

Cut short:
A Noble Person feels empathy and pity for any being in Samsara due to
understanding of the inherent dangers in that Samsaric trap for anyone
without understanding of the 4 Noble Truths, but he does not feel sorrow
or sadness on that account! If he did, then Pity (Karuna or Compassion)
would not be an advantageous (kusala) mental state promoting Happiness,
which is the sole purpose in the first place!




See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pity

More on Pity (Karunâ = Compassion):
Karuna_is_Pity, Space_Compassion, Safe_Medicine,
Great_Compassion, Compassionate_Pity, What_is_Wrong,
How_to_Cure_Cruelty_and_Revengefulness

Pure Unpolluted Pity...

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

Evil Will Infuriate an Enraged Mind!

A Brahmin Priest once asked the Blessed Buddha:
Master Gotama, what is the cause of being unable to remember something
that has been memorized over a long period & also that which has not?
Brahmin, when mind is obsessed by evil-will, enraged & dominated by evil-will,
and one does not understand any safe escape from this arisen ill of evil-will,
in that very moment, one neither sees nor understands, what is advantageous,
neither for oneself, nor for others, nor for both... On such enraged occasions,
even texts, that have been long memorized, cannot be recalled by mind.
Why is this neglect so? Imagine a bowl of water boiling and bubbling being
well heated over a blazing fire.  If a man with good eye-sight were to inspect
the reflection of his own face in it, he would neither see nor recognize his
own face, as it really is! So too, brahmin, when mind is obsessed by evil-will,
maddened, beset & dominated by evil-will, on that occasion even those texts,
that have been long memorized do not recur to the mind, not to speak of
those texts, events and information, that have not been memorized at all…

On hate, anger, irritation, opposition, and stubbornness see:
Hate (Dosa) is one of the 3 Roots (Mūla) of all Evil present in most beings:
Hot_Hostile_Hate, Release_of_Resentment
Anger, irritation, opposition & stubbornness are diluted derivatives of Hate:
Slaying Anger, The Elimination of Anger, Anger_&_Irritation, Break_Anger
How_to_Cure_Cruelty_and_Revengefulness, How_to_Cure_Ill_Will,
How_to_Cure_Anger_and_Irritation, Appeasing_Anger, No_Revenge!

Source (edited extract):
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya.
Book [V:121-2] section 46: The Links. 55: To Sangarava...

The Enraged Mind!

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

Seeing the Arising & Ceasing induces Calm!

The Venerable Channa once said to a fellow disciple:
Friend Sariputta, it is because I have seen, known and directly experienced
the momentary arising & ceasing of the eye, visual-consciousness, and any
phenomena recognizable by visual-consciousness, that I indeed regard
them all thus: This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self...
Furthermore: It is because I have seen, known and directly experienced the
momentary arising & ceasing of the ear, auditory-consciousness, all sounds,
the nose, olfactory consciousness, smells, the tongue, gustatory-consciousness,
all flavours, the body, tactile consciousness, all touches, the mind, any mental
consciousness, and any phenomena recognizable by mental-consciousness,
that I now indeed consider all these momentary mental states thus:
This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self...
Then the Venerable Mahacunda said to Venerable Channa: Then friend Channa,
this teaching of the Buddha is to be given acute, constant & close attention:

In any dependence, there is always a shaky, risky & vacillating wavering!
In all independence, there is neither any shaky, nor any risky wavering!

When there is no wavering, then there is tranquillity. When there is tranquillity,
there is neither inclination, nor drifting, nor bending, nor attraction, nor repulsion...
When there is no such tendency, then there is neither any coming, nor any going!
When there is no coming & going, there is no passing away, nor any being reborn...
When there is neither passing away, nor being reborn, then there is neither here,
nor beyond, nor in between the two! This -itself- is the very End of all Suffering...

Comments:
Any dependence implies insecure instability! Only the unconditioned is safe...

Stable Independence and Unstable Dependence...

Source:
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya. Book IV [59]
Section 35: On The 6 Senses. Channa: 87.
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

Without Wavering!

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

Kerala mahabodhi mission started "eco-friendly living" project

PALAKKAD:Kerala mahabodhi mission started "eco-friendly living" project at Govt.Moyan model girls Higher secondery school ,palakkad on 22nd june 2012.Headmistress Mrs .LALITHA inagurated the project. Kerala mahabodhi mission chairman N.HARIDAS BODH , Adnl HM RAMACHANDRAN , REVATHY teacher Nature club members were participated .This project intent to create eco- frindly environment in the school and It includes experiencing the natural world; learning how nature sustains life; nurturing healthy communities; recognizing the implications of the ways we feed and provision ourselves; and knowing well the places where we live with compassion, work, and learn. 

Purity comes by Guarding the 3 Doors of Action:

Friends, there are these three purities:

Purity of Mental Action!
Purity of Verbal Action!
Purity of Bodily Action!

Herein, what is purity of bodily action?
It is complete avoidance of all killing of  any breathing being, avoidance of taking
whatever is not freely given, & refraining from any misbehavior in sense desires.

Herein, what is purity of verbal action?
It is total avoidance of all false lies, avoidance of all aggressive speech, shunning
all divisive slandering speech, & refraining from all idle and empty hear-say gossip.

Herein, what is purity of mental action?
It is non-envious non-greediness, kind and gentle good-will, and Noble Right View.

These 3 behavioral purities are:
Like the earth in property: A firm footing to those, who desire Freedom..
Like water are they, for they wash away all the stains of mental defilement..
Like fire are they, for they burn the whole forest of the mental obstructions..
Like wind are they, for they blow away all the dust of mental obscuration..
Like a ship are they, for they ferry those, who desire Peace across this Samsara..
Like a shelter, for they restore Faith in those frightened by Ageing and Death..
Like a guide are they, leading any wishing ease out of the jungle of wrong views..
Like a mirror are they, making any who want Bliss to see the Clusters of Clinging..
Like an umbrella, warding off incessant scorching of Greed, Hate & Ignorance..
Like the sun are they, for they dispel darkness and gloom of Deluded Confusion..



Who fully guards his speech, and is well controlled in mind,
Who does nothing disadvantageous through the body's  door,
Who purifies this simple triple course of all acted-out behaviour,
Will win both the path and the fruit, that all the Seers have enjoyed!

More on Mental Purification (Visuddhi):
Mental_Purity, Levels of Leaving Behind, The_7_Purifications,
The_purpose_of_purification, The_7_stages_of_Purification,
Ability_Purification, The_8_Understandings, Immaculate_Integrity.

The Absolute Mental Manual: The Path of Purification. Visuddhimagga.
Excellent if not legendary translation by Bhikkhu Ñānamoli  (1905-1960).
Written by 'The Great Explainer' Buddhaghosa  on 5th century Ceylon:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/pdfs/PathofPurification2011.pdf

Purity of the 3 Doors produces immaculate integrity!

Have a nice & noble day!
 
Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net