..续本文上一页ever enough.
Dhamma therefore teaches that true happiness does not depend on having money to buy things because everything in this world is transient, full of stress, and not under our control. We may think that having this or that will make us happy. But after having it for a while, we will get tired of it. When it becomes old, damaged, breaks down, or leaves us, we will feel dejected. Therefore, please remember that everything in this world that we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, is impermanent. They will surely leave us one day. When we lose something that we love dearly, it will make us very sad indeed.
Because of this, the Buddha left all his possessions to become a monk in search of the real kind of happiness that doesn”t depend on external things such as wealth, fame or praise, the happiness that derives from peace of mind, devoid of the kilesa. When the kilesa are subdued, the mind becomes tranquil, content, at ease and happy. But when the kilesa is active, the mind is set on fire. We look mean and ferocious when we are angry or greedy. Our facial expression reflects our state of mind. But when the kilesa is subjugated, the mind radiates love, compassion, peace, charity and forgiveness. This is what happens when the mind is rid off of all the kilesa. It experiences the supreme bliss.
We should therefore have faith in the Dhamma teaching and the noble disciples who help propagate it, like all the Ajahns whom we believe to be arahants or noble ones, who have all attained the highest goal of Buddhism, nibbana. They have practiced correctly according to the Buddha”s instruction until all of the kilesa are entirely eliminated from their mind, becoming noble disciples, and imparting punna or merits and benefits to their faithful followers, who will get to hear their teaching of the way to the extinction of suffering, and when they faithfully follow this teaching they will eventually achieve the highest goal of Buddhism, becoming arahants or pure ones.
This is the real purpose for going to the temples, to cleanse our mind and free it from the kilesa or defilement. We should not go to the temples to pray for a son or daughter, a husband or wife, his or her fidelity or to have good children. These things cannot be had by request. It is up to their good or bad kamma that makes them good or bad. What they have become today are the results of what they did in the past. It is our bad kamma or delusion that makes us cling to them. If we are wise, we will detach from them. We will be a lot better off living alone. When we are attached to them, we will be worried and anxious by wanting them to be good, be nice, be kind to us, but they are not. What can we do
We can only suffer. Therefore, we should not go to the temples to pray for this or that but to listen to the Dhamma teaching that will guide us to the true happiness that doesn”t require us to pray or beg from anyone.
Buddhism doesn”t teach people to beg, it teaches people to act. Attahi attano nato, we are our own refuge. Do not just light up three joss sticks and pray or beg for this or that. It just doesn”t work that way. If it does, then Thailand would prosper by just selling a lot of joss sticks. We wouldn”t have to do anything else except produce them. We only have to buy joss sticks, light them up, and pray for millions of baht that would come floating our way. Our country is now experiencing an economic downturn because of our begging; just think of the national debts that we have accumulated as a result of our immoral and unethical ways of doing things. We have all pitched in, plundering our national assets and turned our country into what it is today. Still we keep begging for more, but it will never work. What we have to do is t…
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