Sunday, January 27, 2013

Dhammapada 2 [Khuddaka Nikaya]


I- Yamakavagga, The Pairs
2- Matthakundali Vatthu 


Manopubbangama dhamma,
manosettha manomaya;   

manasa ce pasannena,
bhasati va karoti va; 

tato nam sukha1 manveti,
chayava anapayini. 

All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have mind as their chief; they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness (sukha) follows him like a shadow that never leaves him. 

Reference: 
Mya Tin, Daw, tr. The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories. Rangoon: Burma Tipitaka Association, 1986.

Posted by Nyan U

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Theravada Audio Dhamma (2)


Nandamalabhivamsa, Dr. Bhaddanta (Rector, ITBMU). ရုပ္တရား ကို ေလ့လာသုံးသပ္ျခင္းအေၾကာင္း (၁)။ [Observation of Matter (1)]. Yangon, 1370 B.E. 
Observation of Matter (Rupa) which include_ comparison of matter and mind; why Rupa is so-called and why it changes; what Rupa is and causes of Rupa.  Listen more
Nandamalabhivamsa, Dr. Bhaddanta (Rector, ITBMU). ရုပ္တရား ကို ေလ့လာသုံးသပ္ျခင္းအေၾကာင္း (၂)။ [Observation of Matter (2)]. Yangon, 1370 B.E.
Classification of twenty eight Matter (Rupa); types of birth; embryology of human being; characteristics of Rupa; advantage of knowing about Rupa.   Listen more
Pannissara, Dr Ashin (Dhammaduta, Bago). ၿဖဴစင္ေသာစိတ္ထား။ [A purified mind]. Bago, 11 Feb 2007.
Manifestation of two Nivarana_Kamacchanda Nivarana (Loba_greed) and Byapada Nivarana (Dosa_anger) that make one's mind impure and how to overcome them and purify one's mind giving the story of burning Snake Petta.   Listen more
Pannissara, Dr Ashin (Dhammaduta, Bago). ဘဝစစ္တမ္း။ [Analysis of Life]. Bago, 9 Nov 2006.
Advice to make a critical review on one's life and bear in mind that: 1.life is unstable because of aging, illness and death; 2.there is nothing to depend upon except the Dhamma that one practised; 3.there is no personal belongings as one has to leave them after death; 4.one can never be fulfilled because of greed with reference to the Dhamma Discussion between Ashin Rathapala and King Kohtabya.   Listen more
Vimala, U (Mogok Sayadaw). ဉာဏ္သုံးဆင့္တက္ပုံႏွင့္ အလုပ္စဥ္ ၿပတရား။ [Three Levels of Nana and Practice]. Mogok, 9 Dec 1959. 
Explaining the process of three levels of Magga Nana; Magga Nana_that one should practise to attain and cannot be shared. Listen more
Vimala, U (Mogok Sayadaw). ဥတၱရလုလင္ ဥပမာျပ၊ ဝိပႆနာ အားထုတ္နည္း။ [Vipassana Meditation with an example of Uttara Lulin]. Mogok, 10 Dec 1959. 
Describing short to the point Vipassana practice (to end Samsara) giving an example of the lad, Uttara.   Listen more
Posted by Nyan U & Aye Sat

Monday, January 21, 2013

Dhamma Discussion


Our Lord Buddha stated, “Kālena dhammasākacchā, Etam mangalamuttamam”, which means “Opportune discussion of the Dhamma is the most auspicious sign”. The Dhamma Discussion is suitable to do at the leisure time as well as when one meets with the person who has preference for moral, concentration and wisdom (Sila, Samadhi and Panna). Person who is equal to or higher than one in the level of Sila, Samadhi and Panna (moral, concentration and wisdom) is suitable to discuss the Dhamma. One should also discuss the Dhamma with those person who has lower level in these aspects for their benefits rather than oneself.

Among different Buddhism Texts such as Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma, people usually keep the Text which they are proficient in. So, it is better to discuss the Dhamma with the person who has the same proficiency in Text. Argument will occur if the discussion takes place between the two persons with different proficiency in Text. Then having demerit instead of merit will be the consequence. In Anguttara Pali, “Sakaccha Sutta”, Venerable Sariputta mentioned five ways of the Dhamma Discussion. Answering and discussing the Dhamma:

1. if the person with perfect moral (Sila) asked; 
2. if the person with perfect concentration (Samadhi) asked;
3. if the person with perfect wisdom (Panna) asked;
4. if the person with perfect Vimotti (Phala) Nana asked;
5. if the person with perfect Paccavatkhana Nana asked.

Two persons take part in the Dhamma Discussion. One who explains and the other who listens, in other words, a preacher (Dhammadesana) and a listener (Dhammassa- vana) as well as being right understanding (Ditthiju- kamma). Both of them get merit.

Discussing the Dhamma with children according to their age is also a wise work. One should teach and explain the meaning of prayers. Benefits of worshiping to the Buddha are necessary to mention them too.

Yogi has to ask the Dhamma respectfully to the Kammatthana teacher and the teacher has to give explanation. Like cleaning weeds around the young plant, Yogi is beneficial being made clear of the Vipassana Nana. But Yogi should not discuss the Dhamma among themselves so as to avoid wrong noting.

Henceforth, one should do the Dhamma Discussion whenever possible to have bliss and merit.

Posted by Aye Sat

Friday, January 18, 2013

Dhammapada 1 [Khuddaka Nikaya]


I- Yamakavagga, The Pairs 
1- Cakkhupalatthera Vatthu

Manopubbangama dhamma,
manosettha manomaya;

manasa ce padutthena,
bhasati va karoti va;

tato nam dukkhamanveti,
cakkamva vahato padam.


All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have mind as their chief; they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with an evil mind, 'dukkha' follows him just as the wheel follows the hoofprint of the ox that draws the cart.

Reference:
Mya Tin,
Daw, tr. The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories. Rangoon: Burma Tipitaka Association, 1986.


Posted by Nyan U

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Theravada Audio Dhamma (1)


Javana, Ashin (Metta Shin). ေထရဝါဒ မွတ္ေက်ာက္။ [Criterion of Theravada]. Yangon, [no date]
Definition of Theravada; value of time; how virtuous person makes use of time and how stupid one wastes time; difference between arahat and putujjana; worshipping without three extremes; criterion of Theravada; religious questions and answers.  Listen more
Javana, Ashin (Metta Shin). ဓမၼအေမြ။ [Dhamma Heritage]. Yangon, [no date]
Advising to do regular merit (Acinna Kamma); explanation of Namotassa prayer and five precepts; benefits of Three Refuges and example; result of Amisa and Dhamma inheri-tances with variety of stories; what Sotapanna; Pannatti, Paramattha and Nibbana mean; religious questions and answers.  Listen more
Nyanissara, Dr Ashin (Sitagu Sayadaw). ေထရဝါဒနိဒါန္း တရား။ [Introduction to Theravada].  Yangon, 2 Jun 2000.
Mentioned: what Theravada Sasana is; the strange characteristics of Theravada Sasana; how Ashin Maha Kassapa was respectable and three principles that he laid down in Sangha Convention; the First Great Sangha Council; division of Sasana into Theravada and Mahasanghika.   Listen more
Nyanissara, Dr Ashin (Sitagu Sayadaw). ေထရဝါဒ သဂၤါယနာတင္ တရား။ [Theravada Synod].  Yangon, 3 Jun 2000.
Described: Bhikkhu Aprihaniya (Prosperity of Bhikkhu and Sasana) and Raja Aprihaniya (Prosperity of King and Sasana); eight requests of Ashin Ananda to the Buddha before accep- ting the post as the Buddha's personal attendant; celebration of the First to Sixth Great Sangha Councils; Parinibbana (final cessation) of Venerable Ananda.  Listen more
Sumangala, U (Deou Sayadaw). ဓမၼေက်းဇူး။ [Benefit of Dhamma]. Pyinoolwin, 4 May 2008.
Defining Dhamma, Sila, Samadhi and Panna; benefits of Dhamma; how Dhamma cannot be ruined; why the world is miserable; advice to become a person who keeps Dhamma. Listen more
Sumangala, U (Deou Sayadaw). ဓမၼအား။ [Strength of Dhamma]. Myinkaseik, 23 Jan 2009.
How Sila, Samadhi and Panna secure one's life_indicating the strength of Dhamma; example story: “Tontila pig brothers”. Listen more

Posted by Nyan U & Aye Sat

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year Thought (2013)


What shall I do tomorrow?
You imagine and ready to follow.
Death” is near, don't you know?,
Do think about “Death” and frighten though.

Posted by Aye Sat