Faith

"Before we are old and sick, we must gain good merits," said Sayadaw U Vimala in tonight Dhamma talk at Bukit Mertajam Buddhist Meditation Centre.

Picture from http://1.bp.blogspot.com

Listening to real Dhamma is difficult and we must try to listen to real Dhamma. Only by listening to real Dhamma does one can improve oneself.

Faith or Sadha is one of the five Bala or power. Faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Kamma and Kamma-vipaka is important. It is by having Saddha doe one able to have sotapattinanna.

Every Buddhist should try to become an Ariya person be it a Sotapana, Sakadagami, Anagami or Arahat. No one can claim that one is an Ariya person. Only the Buddha can do it. However, if one wants to attain Sotapana, one had to go and find a good teacher. Here a good teacher means an Arahat or Anagami or Sakadagami or Sotapanna. If one cannot find such teachers then one has to find a person well-versed in the Tipitaka.

We should strive to gain good merits and attain a least the stage of Stream-winner in this life as human.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

The Signs of Dying Devas

"Devas must be respected by Buddhists," said Sayadaw U Vimalabhivamsa, in tonight's Dhamma talk titled Pancapubbhanimmitta Sutta at Bukit Mertajam Buddhist Meditation Centre.
Devas possesses many beautiful things or properties. Human properties are like dewdrops on the grasses. Such is the comparison of the amount of properties that the devas had.

Taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk

To be born in the deva realms, one has to have good past Kamma. So, as devas, these beings do enjoy their life as devas not only have many beautiful things to see, hear, smell and touch, they also have healthy and long life.
Devas do not need to see doctors all their lives as they are always healthy. They live a very long life depending on the deva realms they are in but they do not aged like human. However, when time is ripe, devas do died.
When the devas are dying, there are signs or nimittas of dying. These signs are

1. the flowers that the devas wear on their garment or body will fade
2. sweat exude from their armpits
3. their clothes are soiled and no longer shines
4. their bodies too no longer shines and becomes dull
5. the devas no longer delights in his own deva-seat

When these signs appeared, the dying deva will not be happy. Usually their deva friends will noticed these signs and will encouraged their dying deva friend to do three things that are

1.  To be reborn at Sukkhati
2. To get labbha
   

Here, Sayadaw said that to be reborn at Sukkhati means to be reborn in the human realm where as a human, one can choose to be able to perform and perfect his Parami.

A beautiful picture of the Buddha taken from http://dharmaprabattan.blogspot.com/

To gain the greatest labbha is to have strong saddha. Saddha here means that to have strong believe in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Kamma and Kamma-Vipaka. Only when one had attained the Ariya states (Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahat) that one can be guarantee to have strong believe in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Kamma and Kamma-Vipaka.


Learning from this Sutta suggest that we as a human should not forget to practice doing good Kamma. As human, we had the chance and opportunity to perform good kamma. When we are born as a deva, we had so much pleasurable things that we forgot to perform good kamma. Rich people sometimes forgot this too as they are like the devas.


To have Labbha with strong saddha, one had to strive as much as one can to attain the very least the stage of Sotapanna. Only then can we be sure of not falling back into becoming people with michaditthi.


Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Good Relations to the Society

Sayadaw preparing to give a talk

Sayadaw give a talk

"We have to know what is kusala? and what is akusala?" said Sayadaw U Vimala in tonight's Dhamma Talk after the group meditation session and also incidentally the Vassa Entry ceremony.
Sometimes we do kusala kamma either individually or in a group of same wishes. But when we are in a group there may arises problems and to avoid these problems from affecting the group members, we should remember what had been taught by the Buddha in Saraniya Sutta.




There are things that we should remember when we are in a society. And to remember them there are six ways.

1. Kayakama Metta or loving kindness in action  
• Actions like respecting the monks, bowing down to the monks, respecting your parents are considered as doing things in loving kindness. Even sweeping the floors of the temple shows that one has metta towards members of the society. Occasionally things may not be in right order due to the ignorance of some members of the society. One must then helps to clean up the mess and do it with no anger. This will create a harmony environment in the society
2. Vacikama metta or kind words or speech
• Greet one another whenever we meet some one is a form of vacikama metta
• Use sweet words and avoid harsh words as all people do not like to listen to harsh and rough words
• Otherwise we will quarrel or fight among each other
• Another form of vacikama metta is chanting of the Suttas such as Karaniya Metta Sutta or Ratana Sutta
3. Manokama metta or kind thoughts
• Radiating metta to all beings without saying any words is an example of manokama metta
4. Sharing things with other people or Pativipata bodhi 
• Doing dana or share things with others 
5. Have precepts or morality
6. Have right views and understanding 
• Having the views that
1. There are good and bad kamma
2. There are results of these Kamma
3. The present is due to the past Kamma and the future is the result of the previous kamma
4. There are devas and Brahmas
5. There are Arahats and Buddha and these Noble persons exist due to their practice

These six ways should be remembered so that we can avoid problems in the society and create harmonious condition for the practice of good kamma.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Vassa Entry for 2011

Sayadaw reciting the Vassa entry formula

Completion of the ceremony. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu

Tonight we are fortunate to be able to attend the Vassa Entry ceremony for this year at BMBMC. Sayadaw U Vimalabhivamsa is entering his 34th Vassa this year. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Gratitude

Bhante Jinadata given the Dhamma talk

"To cultivate gratitude is a must in every Buddhists," Bhante Jinadata advises our BMBMC members in his short Dhamma talk during lunch dana.

Gratitude allows us to prevent the spiritual numbness from developing in ourselves. Our Lord Buddha had shown us by example when the Buddha Himself express His gratitude to the Bodhi tree just after His Enlightenment.

Laymen and monks should remember to show gratitude to each other. This will in turn create a healthy and happy relationship between the community especially in a Buddhist centre.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Meaning of Life

Picture taken from http://inwardpathpublisher.blogspot.com

"Do you know yourself?" asked Bhante Jinadata in tonight's Dhamma Talk at BMBMC.

We should always ask who we are.Most people knows a lot of external things; they had gained lots of knowledge but most of us never search for the answer to who are we.

Because of this, there are times when we find life has no meaning at all. Living becomes meaningless.
What then is the meaning of life? It is happiness that brings us the meaning of living. However, we have to be certain which part of life can we find this happiness. If we equate life to success and think that we can only find happiness in success, then at times we may not be happy. This is because, we are looking at the ultimate of our goal and hoping to find happiness there.

We should realised that the ultimate (the end) of our search are relative and not absolute. There is no guarantee that we will always encounter success. Occasionally we may also encounter failure as everything is conditioned.

So we should look at the means and not the end. We should find happiness in the means, in the process, in the doing process.

To further illustrate this point, Bhante said that many people take up meditation because they want to achieve something. But if we think that after meditating we must achieve something like able to see nimmita or some kind of vision then we are wrong and will not be able to be happy. We had view achieving something in meditating as successful and if we don't achieve something then we considered our meditating as failure. This then brought to unhappiness and hence, there is no meaning in meditating. Then we should be happy with this act of doing meditating. Hence we will not be conditioned to think that success will brings us happiness.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!