Thursday, September 30, 2010

kadampa

When sitting alone,
watch your mind.
When speaking in public,
watch your speech.

- An old Kadampa saying

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

metta sutta

In the Metta Sutta, the Blessed One said:

This is how one who is skilled in goodness and wish to attain the state of peacefulness should act:

One should be able, upright, straight forward, free from pride, gentle in speech, mild, contented, easily satisfied, not caught up in too much bustle, frugal in one’s ways, with controlled senses, wise and skilful, not impudent, and with families is not demanding. One should also abstain from the ways that wise ones would blame.

And in this the thought and wishes that one should always hold: May all beings be happy and safe, may their hearts rejoice within themselves.

Whatever living beings there may be, whether they are strong or weak, without exception, be they of stature small or medium, firm or frail, short or long, living in hiding or open view, dwelling nearby or far away, already born or still future wombs; may all these beings rejoice within themselves.
Let no one bring about another’s ruin, nor despise any being in any way or place, let no one through anger or enmity wish harm on one another. Just as a mother at the risk of her life would love and protect her child, her only child; just so should one cultivate this boundless love, radiating loving-kindness to all that live in the whole universe, with a mind that is free from any bound, extending upward, downward and across the world, untroubled, free from hatred and enmity. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down and still free from drowsiness, one should exercise this mindfulness. This is Divine Abiding here they say.

Not falling into wrong views, by following the precepts and with knowledge, one overcomes the craving after lust from all sense desires, and surely one will no more descend to any womb.

Continue reading here at: Buddhist Channel

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Thich Nhat Hanh

Talks from the Singapore Retreat, the 8th to the 12th of September, 2010.

Video stream of Thay's talk given on 10 September 2010 on the third day of the Singapore retreat "The Art of Living Happily in the Here and Now"

Made possible by the Plum Village International Online Monastery team
and the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

benefits of a calm mind

Mindfulness: Beyond the science

Guardian
by Ed Halliwell

Each month, a digest of the latest research on mindfulness meditation lands in my inbox. The volume of studies has mushroomed in recent years – the most recent round-up (pdf) alone cites 35 new papers detailing effects on people with conditions such as heart disease and borderline personality disorder, the results of an innovative new mindfulness curriculum for schools, and the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction courses on the structure of the brain (it seems to reduce density in the amygdala).

If practising mindfulness can help people – and it appears to – then all this evidence can only be a good thing. Whereas for years meditation's public image was stuck in the 1960s, tainted with hippie self-indulgence or new-age flakiness, now it's being taken seriously by everyone from top academics to US congressman and government departments.

Continue reading here at Guardian

Friday, September 03, 2010

Bernard Buffet L'Enfer de Dante

Buffet : "... there's no need for education or explanation in order to approach, to appreciate, and to love paintings. You just need to look - and everyone will find what they're looking for, depending on their sensibility, curiosity and imagination. For me, these damned souls project a tragic solitude, a distress, a painful lucidity that strangely resembles the sterile confusion of life today. They reflect the same dread as The Horror of War, though more powerful, more clairvoyant: a vision of the icy world inevitably produced by egotism, greed and cowardice."