Sunday, December 26, 2010

Four Portion

When we did good deeds such as Dana (act of giving), we had to do it with Panna (wisdom). We should not give everything or every amount of money that we had to do just Dana. This is a stupid act, said Sayadaw U Vimala in today's Dhamma Talk.

The Buddha had mentioned that we should divide our money into four portion that is
  1. one portion for food
  2. one portion for guests or medicine for ourselves 
  3. two portion for investment
So, there is no mentioned that one had to spent all his money on giving.
Which portion should one take for the act of giving? asked Sayadaw
It is the portion of food. One can reduce his partake of food and uses this portion of money to do charity. By doing this, one not only be able to perform good deeds but also is able to sustain oneself in the society. He will be blameless.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Do Not Be Lazy

Do not be lazy! Do not be lazy! Do not be lazy!
We must knock our forehead with our fist once a while to admonish ourselves not to be lazy.
Not to be lazy to do what?

To do good deeds, said Sayadaw U Vimala in tonight's Dhamma Talk after the meditation class in BMBMC.
We are very lazy in doing good deeds. We may think that we are happy to do good deeds. We may also think that we are doing good deeds all the time because we came to the centre and offer food to the monks every day.

But we are actually not doing good deeds all the time. In fact, we are lazy to do good deeds all the time. Think of the time you spent in front of the television watching your favourite shows; think of the time you spent going to do shopping in the shopping centre.

We have to always reminded ourselves to do good deeds. Because if we do not do good deeds, the hell's doors is always open to us.

What are the good deeds? The Buddha had taught us about the good deeds in the Suttas over the period of 45 years of Buddha's life. In all the 144 Books, we can summarized the good deeds into three that are
  1. Dana Kusala Kamma
  2. Sila Kusala Kamma
  3. Bhavana Kusala Kamma
We have to constantly practiced these three kinds of good deeds everyday in our lives. We do not have to come to the center or the monastery to practice these good deeds. We can do it in our home, our work place every time, every day. For example, we can practice Dana in the very simplest form. That is when we are washing our plate after we had our food, any leftover on the plate such as oil or bits of rice or dishes can be offered. We had just to wish that these leftovers be offered to the insects or beings as their food. This form of reflection is an act of good deeds. It does not involved any form of money and it is not even wasteful. But it is an act of charity or dana.

Having a thought like these is a act to perfect our parami and Sayadaw had shared with us a very good lesson in the Dhamma.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Dana at BMBMC with Amy's Mum

Today Amy managed to bring her mum (which is my mother-in-law) to BMBMC for lunch dana. It had been years that I had asked Amy to bring her mum for dana. A big sadhu to both of them
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