Purposely purpose

Why are you here today? asked Bhante Jinnadata. You must have a purpose to be here today for dana, said Bhante, But most of us feel funny about having a purpose to do good as it is culturally thought to be bad. In contrary, we must have an aim or motivation or cause in what ever we do, even the Buddha's former name has the word 'attha'.
So in performing any deeds, it is good for us to have aims that can be classified to be of

1. benefit for one self
2. benefit for others
3. benefit for both oneself and others

Now here, what degree of benefits should one aim for? Bhante Jinnadata pointed out that there are three types of benefit, namely

1. Benefit gained in this very life
2. Benefit gained in the next life
3. Benefit of Final good/excellence

Unfortunately, most of us have not encountered the benefit of the final good and thus, we keep on seeking the first two benefits. And we keep on seeking worldly things that we hope to be of permanence but they are impermanence (kaliko).

Why is it not permanence? Bhante said that what we seek had itself immersed in a temporal dimension. Time causes things to change, from past to present to future. This is continuous e.g today one may be good but in the future be bad, yesterday was mooncake festival, today if we were to celebrate mooncake festival it will be of no meaning as it had past its time.
So, only things not subjected to time is permanent and one and only one thing not subjected to time is NIBBANA.

Therefore, Bhante advised us to seek for the bliss of Nibbana by practising what our teacher, the Buddha had taught us. Seeking things that will changed will not give as any benefits. Our aim or goal should be to gain benefit of Final good that is 'akaliko'
Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.