Free Buddhism Dharma ebook

The Manual of Insight Meditation: Practising Clear Comprehension in Accordance with the Maha Satipatthana Sutta
By Ven. Phra Acharn Dhammadharo Bhikkhu

This Manual of Practising Insight Meditation by Ven. Phra Pannavuddho Bhikkhu is a useful guide to meditation practitioners. Part of the book is a translation of the instructions in Thai on the subject of meditation by Ven. Acariya Dhammadharo, who is Ven. Pannavuddho's teacher and a master in the art of meditation; while the rest of the book comes mostly from the cassettes of the author's own instructions while teaching meditation both in Thailand and abroad.

While the meditation technique described in this book is inspired by a clear comprehension of the Satipatthana sutta or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, there are no doubt many ideas put forth that come from experience and practice. Hence it contains many suggestions that help practitioners solve some of the problems that they encounter in their meditation.

The book deals with the all four postures of meditation, sitting, standing, walking and lying, and it is well illustrated. The explanation of each posture is clear and succinct. As it is fundamentally based on the Maha Satipatthana Sutta, the only way that leads to the purification of beings, the book is a dependable manual to Vipassana meditation practitioners.

Free download available:

https://ftp.budaedu.org/ebooks/pdf/EN173.pdf

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Dambulla cave temple also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla is a World Heritage Site in Sri Lanka. Dambulla is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka.

Dhammapada Verse 215
Anitthigandhakumara Vatthu

Kamato jayati soko
kamato jayati bhayam
kamato vippamuttassa
natthi soko kuto bhayam.

Verse 215: Lust begets sorrow, lust begets fear. For him who is free from lust there is no sorrow; how can there be fear for him?

The Story of Anitthigandha Kumara

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (215) of this book, with reference to a youth, named Anitthigandha.

Anitthigandha lived in Savatthi. He was to marry a beautiful young girl from the city of Sagala, in the country of the Maddas. As the bride was coming from her home to Savatthi, she became ill and died on the way. When the bridegroom learned about the tragic death of his bride he was brokenhearted.

At this juncture, the Buddha knowing that time was ripe for the young man to attain Sotapatti Fruition went to his house. The parents of the young man offered alms-food to the Buddha. After the meal, the Buddha asked his parents to bring the young man to his presence. When he came, the Buddha asked him why he was in such pain and distress and the young man related the whole story of the tragic death of his young bride. Then the Buddha said to him, "O Anitthigandha! Lust begets sorrow; it is due to lust for things and lust for sensual pleasures that sorrow and fear arise."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 215: Lust begets sorrow, lust begets fear. For him who is free from lust there is no sorrow; how can there be fear for him?

At the end of the discourse Anitthigandha attained Sotapatti Fruition.

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Words of the Buddha channel:

https://news.1rj.ru/str/wordsofbuddha

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Theravadin monks on Borobudur temple, Java island, Indonesia.

Free Buddha Dharma ebook
Better Than a Hundred Years, a short essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi

“Better than to live a hundred years without seeing the Deathless is it to live a single day seeing the Deathless. Better than to live a hundred years without seeing the Supreme Truth is it to live a single day seeing the Supreme Truth.”

Free download available:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_41.pdf
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Ruwanweli Maha Seya, swarnamali maha seya, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. This Stupa keeps the largest collection of Gautama Buddha relics in the world. This Sinhalese architecture is one of tallest ancient holy places in the world.

Dhammapada Verse 216
Annatarabrahmana Vatthu

Tanhaya japati soko
tanhaya jayati bhayam
tanhaya vippamuttassa
natthi soko kuto bhayam.

Verse 216: Craving begets sorrow, craving begets fear. For him who is free from craving there is no sorrow; how can there be fear for him?

The Story of a Brahmin

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (216) of this book, with reference to a brahmin who was a farmer.

The brahmin lived in Savatthi, and he was a non-Buddhist. But the Buddha knew that the brahmin would attain Sotapatti Fruition in the near future. So the Buddha went to where the brahmin was ploughing his field and talked to him. The brahmin became friendly and was thankful to the Buddha for taking an interest in him and his work in the field. One day, he said to the Buddha, "Samana Gotama, when I have gathered my rice from this field, I will first offer you some before I take it. I will not eat my rice until I have given you some." However, the Buddha knew beforehand that the brahmin would not have the opportunity to harvest the rice from his field that year, but he kept silent.

Then, on the night before the brahmin was to harvest his rice, there was a heavy downpour of rain which washed away the entire crop of rice. The brahmin was very much distressed, because he would no longer be able to offer any rice to his friend, the Samana Gotama.

The Buddha went to the house of the brahmin and the brahmin talked to him about the great disaster that had befallen him. In reply, the Buddha said, "Brahmin, you do not know the cause of sorrow, but I know. If sorrow and fear arise, they arise because of craving."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 216: Craving begets sorrow, craving begets fear. For him who is free from craving there is no sorrow; how can there be fear for him?

At the end of the discourse the brahmin attained Sotapatti Fruition.
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Dhammapada, beloved and favorite teachings of the Buddha channel:

https://news.1rj.ru/str/dhammapadas

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Temple of the Golden Mountain, Wat Phra That Doi Kham, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Dhammapada Verse 217
Pancasatadaraka Vatthu

Siladassanasampannam
dhammattham saccavedinam
attano kamma kubbanam
tam jano kurute piyam.

Verse 217: He who is endowed with Virtue and Insight, who is established in the Dhamma, who has realized the Truth and performs his own duties, is loved by all men.

The Story of Five Hundred Boys

While residing at the Veluvana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (217) of this book, with reference to five hundred boys.

On one festival day, the Buddha entered the city of Rajagaha for alms-food, accompanied by a number of bhikkhus. On their way, they met five hundred boys going to a pleasure garden. The boys were carrying some baskets of pan-cakes but they did not offer anything to the Buddha and his bhikkhus. But the Buddha said to his bhikkhus, "Bhikkhus, you shall eat those pan-cakes today; the owner is coming close behind us. We shall proceed only after taking some of these pan-cakes." After saying this, the Buddha and his bhikkhus rested under the shade of a tree. Just at that moment Thera Kassapa came along, and the boys seeing him paid obeisance to him and offered all their pan-cakes to the thera.

The thera then told the boys, "My teacher the Exalted One is resting underneath a tree over there accompanied by some bhikkhus; go and make an offering of your pan-cakes to him and the bhikkhus." The boys did as they were told. The Buddha accepted their offering of pan-cakes. Later, when the bhikkhus remarked that the boys were very partial to Thera Kassapa, the Buddha said to them, "Bhikkhus, all bhikkhus who are like my son Kassapa are liked by both devas and men. Such bhikkhus always receive ample offerings of the four requisites of bhikkhus."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 217: He who is endowed with Virtue and Insight, who is established in the Dhamma, who has realized the Truth and performs his own duties, is loved by all men.

At the end of the discourse the five hundred boys attained Sotapatti Fruition.
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Buddha dharma teachings channel:

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Phra Ajaan Mun Bhūridatta Thera

Free Buddha Dharma ebook

A Heart Released: The Teachings of Phra Ajaan Mun, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. (revised Dec. 15, 2018)


Much has been written about the life of Phra Ajaan Mun Bhūridatta Thera (1870-1949), the founder of the Thai Forest Tradition, but very little was recorded of his teachings during his lifetime. (Most of his teachings he left in the form of people: the students whose lives were profoundly shaped by the experience of living and practicing meditation under his guidance.) The first piece translated here, A Heart Released (Muttodaya), is a record of passages from his sermons, made during the years 1944-45 by two monks who were staying under his guidance. The second, The Ever-present Truth, is drawn from notes of Ajaan Mun’s sermons taken by two of his students during the last two years of his life, covering a wide range of topics, including some standard accounts of the Buddha’s life. And the third, the poem The Ballad of Liberation from the Khandhas, was found after his death among the few papers he left behind.

Free download available:

https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/AHeartReleased_181215.pdf
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Thanissaro bhikkhu

The Buddha as a Farmer
How the farming culture of the Buddha’s day may have shaped his ideas on patience

By Thanissaro Bhikkhu

We all know that the Buddha was a noble warrior, so it’s no surprise that there are similes in his teachings where he compares meditators to soldiers, elephants in battle, or warhorses.

What we don’t usually appreciate is that the Buddha was also part of a farming culture. The Majjhima Nikaya talks about his father plowing one day when the Buddha was a young boy. There’s also a passage in which his cousins talk about the drawbacks of lay life, wherein many have to do with farming: you bring in the crops, plant them, cultivate them again, and bring them in once more. There’s no end to it.

It’s good to think about what it would do to a person’s mind, living with crops, and being a farmer. One of the things that you learn as a farmer is patience. You do what you can to get the crops to grow, but they grow on their own. You can help them along to some extent, if you are consistent in your support, but you still have to be very patient about the results. If you plant a rice grain and then, when the shoot comes up, you pull it up to make it taller, it’s going to die.

There’s a similar principle in cooking. Some things must be put in the oven at a very low temperature. If you turn up the heat to make them cook more quickly, they will burn.

In our culture, which tends to be very impatient, we have to learn patience. And there’s no quick solution; learning patience itself requires patience. When you meditate, for instance, you have to keep coming back to the breath, learning how to talk to yourself as you’re doing this. You’re trying to quiet the mind, and it won’t get still. You give yourself encouragement. You focus on the causes of a quiet mind, you keep coming back to them, and after a while they will begin to have an influence on the mind.

We can’t tell beforehand who’s going to be fast or who’s going to be slow in making progress on the path. As the Thai Forest Tradition meditation teacher Ajaan Lee says, some people are like banana trees. You cut the trees, and they grow a couple of inches within a couple of hours. Other trees are much slower. You watch them day after day, and they don’t seem to be growing at all. So whether you’re going to be a fast tree or a slow tree, you can make sure that you’re a healthy tree. You try to keep encouraging yourself.

Learning patience itself requires patience.

This encouragement has to do with dealing with both the unskillful qualities that you see in yourself as well as the skillful qualities that you wish to develop. With the unskillful qualities, you have to remember that you don’t just sit there and accept them. You accept the fact that they’re there, you don’t deny it, but that’s not the total solution to the problem.

There’s so much modern dhamma where practitioners are told to just learn how to accept things. Accept everything and it’ll be okay. But the Buddha said you don’t accept the fact that you’ve created aversion and delusion in the mind and that they’re going to stay there. You accept the fact that they’re there, but you want to do something about them.

This is going to take time because the roots are deep. They’re old habits. You’ve been letting them run your lives for how many lifetimes, you don’t know.

This is where the Buddha says to take delight in abandoning and delight in developing. That means that with each little step in the right direction, you learn to encourage yourself. Appreciate it. Each step in the wrong direction, you tell yourself, “This is just a temporary setback.” You have to tune your emotions.

I know a therapist who works in a school for kids with challenges. She asks the students to rate on a scale of one to ten different negative things that can happen in their lives. For most of them, everything is a ten. Your brother gets stabbed: ten. You’ve got a date and you can’t figure out which dress to wear: ten. That attitude turns everything into a crisis.