Yamaka Vagga
The Twin Verses

19. Bahum pi ce sahitam bhasamano
na takkaro hoti naro pamatto
Gopo'va gavo gauayam paresam
na bhagava samannassa hoti.
20. Appam pi ce sahitam bhasamano
dhammassa hoti anudhammacari
Ragan ca dosan ca pahaya moham
sammappajano suvimuttacitto
Anupadiyano idha va huram va
sa bhagava samannassa hoti.

LEARNING WITHOUT PRACTICE IS OF NO WORTH

19. Though much he recites the Sacred Texts, but acts not accordingly, that heedless man is like a cowherd who counts others' kine. He has no share in the fruits of the Holy Life.

20. Though little he recites the Sacred Texts, but acts in accordance with the teaching, forsaking lust, hatred and ignorance, truly knowing, with mind well freed, clinging to naught here and hereafter, he shares the fruits of the Holy Life.

Story

There were two monks - one a worldling but well-versed in the Dhamma, the other an Arahant though not so erudite. The worldling did not practise what he knew; the one who knew little practised the Dhamma and, realizing Nibbana, enjoyed the fruits of the Holy Life. The scholarly monk desired to embarrass the other by putting some intricate questions in the presence of the Buddha. Knowing well his base motive, the Buddha raised some questions connected with the realization of the Dhamma. The Arahant answered them all from personal experience, but the other could not as he had not attained to any Paths of Sainthood. Thereupon the Buddha praised the Arahant who had practised His teaching, though possessing less knowledge of the Dhamma.

===
Words of the Buddha channel:

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

Laykyun Sekkya Big Buddhas, Khatakan Taung, near Monywa, Myanmar is one of the tallest statue in the world depicting Siddhartha Gautama in standing and parinirvana position.

Chapter 2

Appamada Vagga
Heedfulness
(Text and Translation by Ven. Narada)



1. Appamado amatapadam
pamado maccuno padam
Appamatta na miyanti
ye pamatta yatha mata. 21.
2. Etam visesato ñatva
appamadamhi pandita
Appamade pamodanti
ariyanam gocare rata. 22.
3. Te jhayino satatika
niccam dalhaparakkama
Phusanti dhira Nibbanam
yogakkhemam anuttaram. 23.

THE HEEDLESS DIE; THE HEEDFUL DO NOT

1. Heedfulness 1 is the path to the deathless, 2 heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful do not die; 3 the heedless are like unto the dead. 21.

2. Distinctly understanding this (difference 4), the wise (intent) on heedfulness rejoice in heedfulness, delighting in the realm of the Ariyas. 5 22.

3. The constantly meditative, 6 the ever steadfast ones realize the bond-free, 7 supreme Nibbana. 8 23.

Story

A jealous queen Magandiya, caused an innocent rival of hers, Samavati, to be burnt alive. The king, hearing of the pathetic incident subjected Magandiya to a worse death. The monks wished to know which of the two was actually alive and which was actually dead. The Buddha explained that the heedless, like Magandiya, should be regarded as dead, while the heedful, like Samavati, should be regarded as alive.
===
Dhammapada, beloved and favorite teachings of the Buddha channel:

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

Giant statue of Luang Pho Tuad (who walked on the ocean and turned it into fresh water), Maharat Buddhist Park, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand.

Free Buddha Dharma ebook

Prisoners of Karma: A Story
By Suvimalee Karunaratna

Free download available:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/karunaratna/bl125.pdf

===

Free Buddha Dharma ebook

Prisoners of Karma: A Story
By Suvimalee Karunaratna

Suvimalee Karunaratna was born in Sri Lanka in 1939 and received her early education in Washington, D.C. and in Colombo. While living in Rangoon, where her father was posted as the Sri Lankan ambassador to Burma from 1957-61, she received meditation instructions from the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw and the Ven. Webu Sayadaw. Her first volume of short stories was published in 1973, and several of her short stories have appeared in anthologies of modern writing from Sri Lanka as well as in literary journals. She is the author of The Walking Meditation (Bodhi Leaves No. 113) and Prisoners of Karma (Bodhi Leaves No. 125).

Free download available:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/karunaratna/bl125.pdf

===

Benefits of meditation retreat :

1. Deepened Meditation Practice

Deepen concentration (samadhi) and insight (vipassana).

Refine techniques like mindfulness (sati), loving-kindness (metta), and breath (anapanasati).


2. Mental Clarity and Emotional Healing

Silence and introspection clear mental clutter and promote emotional processing.

Reduces stress, anxiety, and overthinking through stillness and awareness.


3. Spiritual Insight and Self-Understanding

Helps you observe your thoughts and habits, leading to greater self-awareness.

Insights into impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anatta).


4. Disconnection from Distractions

A break from technology, social media, and daily responsibilities allows you to reset and recharge.

Encourages presence and appreciation for the moment.

5. Cultivation of Compassion

6. Being around experienced teachers and like-minded practitioners can inspire and guide your path.

7. Can lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and enhance immune function.

MITTA

…friend, companion

Kalyàna Mitta – Spiritual friends and friendship.

The purpose of friendship is to grow mutually, to improve spirituality in faith (saddhà), generosity (càga), virtue (sãla), knowledge and wisdom (pannà).

It is the forerunner of goodness in life such as happiness, wealth, opportunity, etc. It is the supporting condition for the growth of all goodness.

A real friend is a friend who helps when in need, who shares the same weal and woes with you, who gives good counsel and who sympathizes.

An enemy disguised as a friend is one who associates for gain (a taker), who render lips services (a talker), who flatters (a flatterer) and who brings ruin to your wealth (a spender).

The qualities of a good friend are, one who...

1. gives what is hard to give (dàna)

2. does what is hard to do

3. hears what is hard to hear or bear

4. confesses (shares) his, or her, own secret with you

5. keeps others’ secrets

6. in need, forsakes one not

7. despises one not when one is ruined.

Chapter 2

Appamada Vagga
Heedfulness

4. Uññhanavato satimato
sucikammassa nisammakarino
Sañatassa ca dhammajivino
appamattassa yaso'bhivaddhati.

THE ENERGETIC PROSPER

4. The glory of him who is energetic, mindful, pure in deed, considerate, self-controlled, right-living, and heedful steadily increases.

Story

A rich but humble young man who pretended to be very poor, living like a labourer, was later elevated to a high position by the king. When he was introduced to the Buddha by the king He described the characteristics of those who prosper.

===
Buddha dharma teachings channel:

https://invite.viber.com/?g2=AQAKw1y3rv%2F6sk61PI2W4izuIiaEZj8YZujhY1tSzL%2B07s7rFnVFDAd0bAYFaMLw
===

Buddham Saranam Gacchami
Dhammam Saranam Gacchami
Sangham Saranam Gacchami

I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dhamma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.

बुद्धं शरणं गच्छामि। धर्मं शरणं गच्छामि। संघं शरणं गच्छामि।

How the Brahmaviharas Can Help Us Shed Our Egoism


Scholar Jay Garfield discusses how the brahmaviharas can restructure our moral landscape and support us in leading happier, more meaningful lives.
By Jay L. Garfield, PhD.

One of the dangers of the illusion of self is that it lays the foundation for moral egoism. Moral egoism is the idea that my own narrow self-interest is prima facie motivating and justifying. In other words, if I do something and explain that I did it because it made me happy, that by itself constitutes at least a basic justification for the action. The moment we allow a self into the picture, moral egoism is just hiding in the closet. As soon as I’ve got a self and everything else is an object for that self, there’s a fundamental ontological divide in the nature of being between me and everything else. I’m the subject; everything else is my object. I’m the agent of those actions; everything else is the patient of my actions. There’s something very special about me, and that becomes the unspoken justification for the morally egoistic attitude.

Once I have a morally egoistic attitude, the interests of others have to be defended as somehow overriding my own interests, and that can be very hard to do. I can always find reasons that my interests are actually more important, and that can give way to an attitude of every person for themselves—I might see another person and think, “She can pursue her own interests, but I don’t need to worry about them. I’ll pursue mine. Each to their own.” It’s a short step from there to seeing all of life as a competitive social arrangement where everything is a race, where the person who’s fastest wins. Under this arrangement, it’s acceptable for me to win goods and resources and leave everyone else impoverished because if they had competed harder, they would have gotten more.

When we buy into this model, it breeds not just a lack of interest in the welfare of others but possibly a kind of disregard for the welfare of others completely. We might hope that everything is remediated by an invisible hand that will result in all of this selfish, competitive behavior somehow generating equitable prosperity and happiness. But it won’t. It simply leads to self-alienation, alienation from others, and a deeply misleading reduction of happiness to possession or pleasure. This is what Karl Marx called commodity fetishism, when we think that somehow just having goods makes us happy. This leads to our alienation of our own being in the pursuit of what looks like success. None of this is good, and all of it, I think, is inevitably grounded in the self illusion.

My hope is that if we can extirpate the self illusion, we can take some strides in the direction of social justice. We can move toward caring for others, cultivating friendliness, having greater impartiality, and being able to take joy in the success of others and not only in our own vanquishing of them. In other words, we can move beyond the self illusion and generate a healthier society through practicing the brahmaviharas, or divine states.

The brahmaviharas are maitri, or friendliness; karuna, or care; mudita, the ability to take joy in the success and the accomplishments of others; and upeksha, or impartiality and equanimity. When we take those four together, they constitute a vision of the moral landscape that is antithetical to the landscape of moral egoism. Moral egoism gives us a sense of the moral landscape that is structured by my own identity and the relation of everybody else to me. In Buddhist philosophy, this is called the twofold self grasping of “I” and “mine.” That is, I grasp myself as a self, and I see the existence and the importance of everything else in terms of its relationship to me: Is that my friend or my enemy, close to me or far from me, useful to me or unimportant to me? Moral egoism thus encourages us to see ourselves as at the center of the moral universe, where we care less and less about others the further they are from us.

The world is full of sources of happiness, and most of them aren’t me.

Now, if you think for a moment, you’ll realize that that is a terrible distortion of what the moral landscape looks like. We can’t each be the center of the moral universe. The idea that we simply live our lives in disconnected moral universes, each of them centered on another self, makes the possibility of community and morality completely incomprehensible. Instead, we should be thinking of the moral universe as a kind of uniform space where our own position is no different in kind and no more or less special than any other position in that landscape. This is what happens when we think in terms of upeksha, or impartiality. When we do that, we see that our sources of happiness aren’t just our own achievements but also those of the people we are connected to. That allows us a much greater scope for joy. This is mudita, or sympathetic joy. It also enables us to recognize our interconnectedness with others and hence the fact that we’re bound by friendship, or maitri. It causes us to react to others’ distress with care and not with callousness, and that’s karuna.

These four aspects can help us reorient ourselves in the moral landscape. They ask each of us to recognize that the only way that I can succeed is if we succeed. The only way I can be happy is if we’re happy. And the only way my life can be meaningful is if our lives are meaningful. The recognition that the only kind of identity that we have is interdependent allows us to respond to others with gratitude, with care, and with friendship. And that’s the moral attitude that I think we ought to be encouraging. No matter how egoistic we might be, I think each of us will find that we’re happier when we shed our egoism and discover that the world is full of sources of happiness, and most of them aren’t me.

===
Jay L. Garfield is Professor of Philosophy, Logic, and Buddhist Studies at Smith College and a visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School. He has written, translated, and edited several books, including Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika and Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy.
===
Dhammapada, beloved and favorite teachings of the Buddha channel:

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

Free Buddhism Dharma ebook

Your Questions, My Answers
On Buddhism and Experience
By Venerable S.M. Sujano


Free download available:

https://ftp.budaedu.org/ebooks/pdf/EN388.pdf
===

Free Buddhism Dharma ebook

Your Questions, My Answers
On Buddhism and Experience
By Venerable S.M. Sujano

This book is a collection of questions and answers about Buddhism and my life as a Buddhist monk and how I deal with worldly matters. The first part is an interview about me and the work of the Varapunya Meditation Centre in the community.
The personal incline reveals much of my life and how Buddhism has helped me. Simona, a student of journalism writes her intension of interview in her appointment message; 'We've met before, ...I came a few times to your house [Varapunya Meditation Centre] for a meditation session.... I am a Journalism student at RGU and as a coursework for university I have to write a feature interview. I thought about interviewing you, if you are interested, because I believe you are a person that would inspire people, that has something to say, or that simply people would be curious to read about.'

I have also included few other questions and answers that I have encountered on different occasions. They are directly related to the teachings of the Buddha and the practice of meditation. I have answered these to the best of my knowledge and my limited understanding of Buddhist philosophy! I welcome any comments or suggestions. There are still many questions that yet to answer, which I intend to answer them in due future. I hope that this helps to deepen your understanding of the Buddha's teaching and guides you to use in your daily life for a happy life.

Free download available:

https://ftp.budaedu.org/ebooks/pdf/EN388.pdf
===

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan Buddhist temple, Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, Thailand.