Strive on, monks, with heedfulness: the arising of a Buddha in this world is rare, acquiring a human existence is rare, gaining confidence is rare, being one gone forth is rare, hearing the True Dhamma is extremely rare.
Bhante Anandajoti: The Invitation for Correction
The close of the Rains Retreat sees the Invitation for Correction (Pavāraṇa) that the monks and nuns make to each other, which requires that each of them be easy to speak to and able to correct their wrongs.
Bhante Anandajoti: Precepts, Restraint and Practice
This is a short talk in which I mention the factors that are necessary to be fulfilled for a precept to be broken, and I give them here for reference in the form of a poster, which is linked to a high-definition copy of the same file.
Naḷinikā’s Story
The story is an interesting, if highly improbable, fable: a sage lives alone in the Himālayas, there is semen in the urine he passes, and a deer who happens to eat the grass in that place gets pregnant from it.
Episodes from the Life of the Buddha 2: The Invitation
Every second week, with the waxing and the waning of the moon Buddhist monks hold the uposatha meeting. If there are enough monks available then we will confess our offenses and the Pātimokkha will be chanted by one of the monks, while we sit together in unison.
Bhante Anandajoti: The Perfection of Generosity
Here is another Saturday Dāna talk on the subject of Generosity. This time I look at it from the point of view of the role it plays in the Perfections (Pāramī).
The Buddha goes to War
Although the story recorded here is not found in the Pāḷi Canon, nor to my knowledge, anywhere in the Canonical texts of the other schools, it has a certain verisimilitude that gives it some authenticity.
Bhante Anandajoti: Generosity (Dāna)
Here is a combination of two short talks I gave at the Saturday Lunchtime dānas at the Vivekavana office in Berapit in August.
The Buddha’s Journey from Uruvilvā to R̥ṣipatana
The translation that follows is from a section of the Mahāvastu (Great Story) dealing with the period after Lord Buddha left the area where he had attained Awakening until he arrives at the place where he will give his first recorded teachings.
Indonesian Classical Music from Sunda (West Java)
Here is some wonderful classical Indonesian music from West Java. The music is still very popular in Java and wherever you go in the country you can always hear the melodious music being played, and also find classical concerts to attend.
Udana 2-3: The Discourse about the Stick
A couple of weeks ago I quoted a verse from a discourse of the Buddha in which he reprimands boys who torment animals, and now I posting the full discourse so the context can be seen.
Joint Dhamma School Programme
On Sunday July 18th a joint programme between the Taiping Bodhi Lankarama Dhamma School and the Than Hsiang Chan Yuen Dharma School was held at the latter’s premises in Bukit Mertajam.
Traditional Mahori Music from Cambodia
Following on from yesterday’s video here are 9 recordings of traditional Cambodian mahori music. The performance is from the early 1970s but there is no information about the performers available.
Bhante Anandajoti: What is Meditation?
This talk entitled: What is Meditation? attempts to give people a broader perspective on meditation and how they can make it work for them in their own lives.