Saturday, January 29, 2011

How Ovada Patimokkha Begins


In Maha era 103, prince Siddhattha attained a real Sammasambuddha at the full moon day of Kason (May). At the full moon day of Waso (June), the Lord Buddha preached the first sermon Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta to the Pancavaggi (group of 5 monks).

Three brothers of Kassapa were living at Uruvela forest. One of them, Uruvela-Kassapa lived on the banks of the Nerañjarā river with five hundred disciples. Further down the river lived his brothers Nadī-Kassapa with three hundred disciples and Gayā-Kassapa with two hundred. There were altogether one thousand of hermits.

The Buddha admonished Adittapariyaya Sutta to one thousand hermits who were leaded by the three brothers on the bank of Neranjara. They all attained enlightenment and became arahats.

Accompanying these thousand arahats, the Buddha arrived at Rajagaha at full moon day of Phyatho (January). In the palm garden near Rajagaha, the Buddha delivered Dhamma to Vimbisara and the audience of 110,000 people, and then all became sotapannas. The Buddha also asked for offerings of Veluvana garden, and stayed here together with 1000 arahats.

Rajagaha is a place where most heretics used to assemble. It is also known as an area with untruth or false belief. In this region the first conduct of Samagga Sangha Sannipata was well satisfied with the strength of unity.

Ashin Assaji is the youngest samana of Pancavaggi. One day he reached Rajagaha prior to Ashin Sariputta. At that time, Sanjaya Belatthaputta with his 250 followers were wandering in a particular section of society in Rajagaha. Agga Savaka to-be, Upatissa (Ashin Sariputta) and Kolita (Ashin Moggallana) had been filled with remorse over enjoying hill-top festival (giragga-samajja). Then they retired to the jungle as a recluse, and made Itineric heretics themselves under the wrong view of Sanjaya.

One day Upatissa met with Ashin Assaji while he went round Rajagaha to accept offering of food.
As soon as he asked for the Dhamma from the samana on their way, he had to listen to Arahant Assaji's teaching as:

Ye dhamma hetuppabhava, tesam hetum tathagato aha;
Tesam ca yo nirodho, evam vadi mahasamano.
Whatsoever things proceed from a cause, the cause the Buddha has explained;
And also their cessation. This is the teaching of the Supreme Sage.

On hearing the half of Dhamma, Upatissa became sufficiently enlightened to comprehend such a highest teaching succinctly. He attained the Nibbana, also known as Sotapanna”.

On returning to heretic place, Upatissa delivered Four Noble Truths to his friend Kolita. Kolita became Sotapanna, too. The two continued to retold 250 followers of Sanjaya Belatthaputta and they thoroughly accepted the Buddha's Sacca Dhamma. So, all of them decided to be the disciples of the Buddha. By the first waxing day of the month_ Dabodwe (February), 250 heretics became Arahants after listening to the Buddha's Sacca Dhamma. And then the Buddha ordained them by saying, Ehi Bhikkhu”.
Ashin Sariputta and Ashin Moggallana were not Arahants till that day. The former attained Arahantship at the full moon day and the latter at 7th waning day of the month, Dabodwe (February) respectively.

This is also a good night period at the full moon day of the month, Dabodwe (February), 9th month after fully enlightenment of the Buddha. Meanwhile,1250 Arahants gather naturally together at Veluvana monastery in Rajagaha of Magadha. All were ehi bhikkhu arahants, and salabinna, too. In this way, the great Sangha meeting (First Sangha Sannipata) was conducted with four characteristics of feature.

In this meeting, the Buddha conferred the title of “First Agga Savaka” on Ashin Sariputta and the second on Ashin Moggallana. Then the Gotama Buddha admonished the desana of Ovadapatimokkha as it was preceded by every ancient Buddha.

Posted by Nyan U

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Audiography on Theravada Dhamma Discourses [18]

 
ကုသိုလ္ျဖစ္ျခင္းအေၾကာင္းရင္း / Ashin Javana (Metta Shin). Yangon, [no date]
Detailed description of the recitation of five precepts; causes of merit; methods to win. <Dhammadownload DVD 01: 04>
တရားက်င့္ဖို႕ ေကာင္းတဲ့အခ်ိန္ / Dr Ashin Pannissara (Dhammaduta). Bago, Dec 17, 2005.
Detailed description of eight impossible conditions to practise meditation; the best time to perform meditation. <Dhammadownload 034>
ေတာင္ထိပ္ေရာက္မွ ေတာင္ေအာက္ၿမင္မယ္ / Dr Ashin Chekinda (Dhammaduta) Yangon, Aug 16, 2003.
To substitute Appamada Dhamma (Mindfulness) for Pamada Dhamma (Carelessness) referring to “Maha Kassapa Sutta”. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 04>
ေဝဒနာႏုပႆနာ ရႈပြားနည္း အလုပ္ေပး(၃) / U Vimala (Mogok Sayadaw). [no date]
Urging to observe vedana with mindfulness associated by wisdom; to realize that vedana is based on changeable khanda; to consider the appearing and disappearing phenomenon and strive to discard ditthi and vicikiccha when one becomes sick and suffer. <Dhammadownload အလုပ္ေပး (): 15>
ေဝဒနာႏုပႆနာ ရႈပြားနည္း အလုပ္ေပး(၄) / U Vimala (Mogok Sayadaw). [no date]
Way of observing vedana with anicca nana to prevent from having Domanassa which makes continuous rebirth and death giving an earthen oil lamp as a comparison. <Dhammadownload အလုပ္ေပး (): 16>
သိေပမဲႛ မတတ္ပါ / Dr Ashin Chekinda (Dhammaduta) Yangon, Aug 7, 2003.
Encouraging to be more capable in Kammathana practices. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 05>
အေကာင္းဆုံးေသာ ညတည / Dr. Bhaddanta Nandamalabhivamsa (Rector, ITBMU). Yangon, 1368 (B. E.)
Different interpretation of the best night; the one that the Buddha interpreted as the best night; how to become the owner of the best night. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 20>
အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳပ္ (၄)ပါး / Dr Ashin Pannissara (Dhammaduta). Bago, Sep 2, 2006.
Explaining the four Dhamma Uddeisa (gist of the Buddha's teaching): (1) Khanda is always leading to old age, sickness and death (unstableness); (2) Nothing to depend (except Dhamma); (3) No personal belongings (except Kamma); (4) Never be satisfied (slave of Tanha). <Dhammadownload 036>
အၿမိဳက္ေရစင္ / Dr. Bhaddanta Nandamalabhivamsa (Rector, ITBMU). Monywa, [no date]
The Eightfold Path: one and the only way to purify kilesa and prevent the mind from being in pain; worries, the companion of living beings; how khanda is unstable and more delicate than a chicken egg. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 21>
အသာစံျခင္းႏွင့္ အနာခံျခင္း / Ashin Javana (Metta Shin). Yangon, Jul 7, 2005.
Describing with real events about: how puthujjana enjoy taking advantages; sacrifice (i.e. discarding tanha); importance of parents giving Dhamma inheritance to children; how every children cannot inherited from parents. <Dhammadownload DVD 01: 06>
 
Posted by Nyan U & Aye Sat

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Audiography on Theravada Dhamma Discourses [17]


ကိုးကြယ္ရာ အမွန္တရား / Dr. Bhaddanta Nandamalabhivamsa (Rector, ITBMU). Monywa, 1368 (B. E.)
Explaining the origin of worship, the objective of worshipping the “Three Ratana” (the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha); to depend upon the dhamma that one practises; four worries of human. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 19>
မိရိုးဖလာ ဗုဒၶဘာသာႏွင့္ တကယ့္ ဗုဒၶဘာသာ / Ashin Javana (Metta Shin). Yangon, 1365 (B. E.)
Manifestation of: the five unknown experiences of puthujana; even Bhikkhu can be cast into Apaya; merits that prevent puthujana from being in Apaya; major and minor benefits of Three Refuges; breaking Saranagamana; the difference between genuine Buddhist and traditional Buddhist, characteristics of Sotapanna. <Dhammadownload DVD 01: 02>
မ်က္ရည္မက်ခင္ သိေစခ်င္ / Ashin Javana (Metta Shin). Yangon, 1366 (B. E.)
Explanation of the five Buddhist ideals that are hard to find  (Dullabha); values which are too late to know (health, independence of a country, human life); the essence of property, khanda and mind; four kinds of property; consequences of killing. <Dhammadownload DVD 01: 03>
ဝိပႆနာ႐ႈျခင္း၏ ထင္ရွားေသာ အက်ိဳးႏွစ္ပါး / Ashin Kundalabhivamsa (Saddhammaramsi SayaDaw). Singapore, Dec 29, 2002.
Two conspicuous benefits of Vipassana Meditation; description of ten good and evil deeds; explaining four Satipatthana and benefits of Satipatthana Vipassana. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 01>
ေဝဒနာႏုပႆနာ ရႈပြားနည္း အလုပ္ေပး() / U Vimala (Mogok Sayadaw). [no date]
Facts to observe while practising vedana nupassana: Six vedanas (feeling or sensation) in Khanda, cause of appearing vedana, cause of ceasing vedana, vedana cessation practice, how vedana pleases, offensive vedana, and way of escaping vedana. <Dhammadownload အလုပ္ေပး (): 13>
ေဝဒနာႏုပႆနာ ရႈပြားနည္း အလုပ္ေပး() / U Vimala (Mogok Sayadaw). [no date]
Instruction of vedana nupassana practice. <Dhammadownload အလုပ္ေပး (): 14>
အေၾကာင္းႏွင့္ အက်ိဳး တရားေတာ္ / Ashin Janakabhivamsa (Chanmyay Sayadaw). Yangon, Nov 8, 1998.
Three deeds which one must do (Dana, Sila, Bhavana); manifestation of action and reaction in mind, speech and deed; method to change misery into happiness (i.e. Noble Eightfold Path); defining Four Noble Truths; objective to have in performing donation. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 03: 01>
အပဏၰကပဋိပဒါ တရားေတာ္ / Ashin Janakabhivamsa (Chanmyay Sayadaw). Yangon, 1363 B. E.
Description of three practices that will definitely make one to realize the truth: (1) Indria Sanvara, (2) Bojane mattannuta, (3) Jagariya nuyoga. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 03: 02>
အ႐ွင္မဟာကစၥာယန ၾသဝါဒေလးခ်က္တရား / Ashin Kundalabhivamsa (Saddhammaramsi SayaDaw). Singapore, Dec 30, 2002.
Manifestation of four advices on practising vipassana until one attain Sotapatti Fruition i.e. to consider oneself as a (1) blind, (2) deaf, (3) dumb and (4) sick person; benefits of merit with an example story and various slogans. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 01: 02>
အတၱာဟိ အတၱေနာ နာေထာ / Dr. Bhaddanta Nandamalabhivamsa (Rector, ITBMU). Yangon, 1370 (B. E.)
Describing how the Dhamma that one practises is the only thing to depend upon; exhorting to suppress and discipline oneself to attain perfect happiness with reference to the story of Bodhisatta Gotama and five Pacceka Buddhas. <Dhammadownload Mp3 Disc 06: 02>

Posted by Nyan U & Aye Sat

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Everlasting Happiness


A New Year commences once the former one comes to an end. Since then, the brand-new year is becoming older and older. But people never take notice of the disappearance of each day. They are alert only at the end of the year and greet the coming year with various desires. Without consultation, they unanimously wish to have more convenient lives and happiness throughout the year.

Regardless of race and religion, all people have desires:- 
to be financially increased,
to be famous and powerful,
to be both financially increased, famous and powerful,
to be a healthy long-lived person,
to be reborn in one of the three pleasant planes after death.
However, human beings can actually have four kinds of happiness, that is,
happiness of being wealthy,
happiness of being capable to spend for having luxurious life,
happiness of being without debt,
happiness of being innocence.
The best of four is the happiness of being innocence. It is the only stable happiness that not every one can have. A single way of obtaining this unchangeable happiness is to practise the facts which bring about prosperity and well-being as Buddha said. They are:
residing in proper location,
approaching decent people,
following the advice of decent people,
restraining one's body and mind.
They are related to each other and the most important fact is the last one: restraining body and mind. If it fails, nothing can be done good.

In addition, people have to work hard to be fully endow with faith, morality, liberality and wisdom. Faith is believing in merit and is called seed. Seed after planting perform two works-- growing root down into the soil; growing shoot up above the soil. Likewise, Faith maintain morality and practise Bhavana. Morality is restraining body and mind from doing evil. Liberality is abandoning all things without attachment. It also co-operates with others. Wisdom is knowing right and wrong. Doing the wrong or not doing the right is a misdeed.

From Dhamma aspect, old is changing into new in every second. And thus, old and new are not a bit different. Yearning to get new is the work of greedy person. As long as people wish to have the new with greed, there will be no ending of circulating in Samsara.

Precisely, people should follow the way that the Buddha led to get true happiness.

Posted by Aye Sat

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Is Nibbana too far away or not from 31 Planes of Existence?


0. NIBBANA
The highest and ultimate goal of Buddhists is Nibbana. The more one understands what Suffering is, the better one can percieve the meaning of Nibbana. By means of practising constant mindfulness one can certainly get the taste of Nibbana. It means the end of Suffering, and also the essence of Buddhism. To reach the end of Suffering is to eliminate Craving which causes Suffering occuring everywhere in the whole sphere of existence as follows:
1. Plane of The Immaterial World_4 (Arupa-loka)
31. N'evasanna-n'asannayatana-bhumi (Sphere of Neither perception nor non-perception)_84,000 Mahakappa
30. Akincannayatana-bhumi (Sphere of Nothingness)_60,000 Mahakappa
29. Vinnanancayatana-bhumi (Sphere of Infinite Consciousness)_40,000 Mahakappa
28. Akasanancayatana-bhumi (Sphere of Infinite Space)_20,000 Mahakappa
2. Plane of The Fine Material World_16 (Rupa-loka)
Fourth Jhana Planes (7)
27. Akanittha (the Peerless Brahmas)_16,000 Mahakappa
26. Sudassi (the Clear-sighted Brahmas)_8,000 Mahakappa
25. Sudassa (the Beautiful Brahmas)_4,000 Mahakappa
24. Atappa (the Serene Brahmas)_2,000 Mahakappa
23. Aviha (the Durable Brahmas)_1,000 Mahakappa
22. Asanna-satta (the Unconscious Brahmas with just rupa)_500 Mahakappa
21. Vehapphala (the Very Fruitful Brahmas)_500Mahakappa
(27-23) Suddhavasa = the 5 spheres of pure abodes; (only anagamis and arahants are found in these abodes, Non-Returners)
Third Jhana Planes (3)
20. Subha-kinna (the Brahmas of Refulgent Glory)_64 Mahakappa
19. Appamana-subha (the Brahmas of Infinite Glory)_32 Mahakappa
18. Paritta-subha (the Brahmas of Limited Glory)_16 Mahakappa
Second Jhana Planes (3)
17. Abhassara (the Brahmas of Streaming Radiance)_8 Mahakappa
16. Appamanabha (the Brahmas of Infinite Radiance)_4 Mahakap
15. Parittabha (the Brahmas of Limited Radiance)_2 Mahakappa
First Jhana Planes (3)
14. Maha-brahma (the Great Brahmas)_1 Mahakappa
13. Brahma-purohita (the Ministers of Brahma)_1/2 Mahakap
12. Brahma-parisajja (the Retinue of Brahma)_1/3 Mahakappa
3. Plane of The Sensuous World_11 (Kama-loka)
Kamasugati-bhumi_7 (States of Happiness)
11. Paranimmita-vasavati (Devas Wielding Power over the Creation of Others) [Mara resides here]_16,000 years {1 day=1,600 human years}
10. Nimmanarati (Devas Delighting in Creation)_6,000 celestial years {1 day=800 human years}
09. Tusita (Contented devas) [The Bodhisattas reside here before moving on to the human realm to attain Buddhahood. The Bodhisatta Metteyya is at present residing here awaiting to be the future Buddha.]_4,000 celestial years {1 day=400 human years}
08. Yama (Yama devas) [King Yama rules this realm of great happiness.That which destroys pain is Yama.]_2,000 celestial years {1 dat=200 human years}
07. Tavatimsa (The Thirty-three Gods) [The Sakka resides in Vejayanta Palace in Capital Sudassana. It was in this realm that the Buddha taught the Abhidhamma to the Devas for three months.]_1,000 celestial years {1 day= 100 human years}
06. Catumaharajika (Devas of the Four Great Kings) [Guardian Deities live here. East: Dhatarattha controls Gandhabbas; South: Virulhaka controls Kumbhandas; West: Virupakkha controls Nagas; North: Vessa/uvana controls Yakkhas.]_500 celestial years {1 day=50 human years}
05. Manussa (Human beings) [Human rebirth is brief and very rare]_10 years Upwards {Average Life-span Varies}
Manussa loka is a blissful sphere as the human can attain the Buddhahood. Every Buddha is always born as human being on this mixed sphere of both pain and pleasure.
Kamaduggati-bhumi_4 (States of Misery) Apaya-bhumi
04. Asura (Demon) [A kind of Petas who dwell miserably in secluded places.]
03. Peta (Ghost) [The ever-hungry invisible beings with deformed physique, generally, living in forests and dirty surroundings.]
02. Tiracchana (Animal) [Beings are born as animals because of evil kamma.]
01. Niraya (Hell) [The intense continuous suffering because of the bad Kamma. Re-birth inhigher states is possible after the exhaustion of the evil Kamma. There are eight major hells, viz.]
Sanjiva, Kalasutta, Sanghata, Roruva, Maharoruva, Tapana, Mahatapana, Avici

Posted by Nyan U