Buddhist Teaching

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty:- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants     F.7 Ex. Kumbha Jātaka (J.512) Long ago before alcohol was produced industrially, it occurred by accident far away, deep in a forest in Kasi in India. In the forest there was a certain tree with a cleft between its branches. Rainwater collected in the cleft. Fruit like myrobalans and peppercorns from the surrounding trees fell in the water. At the foot of the tree was ..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty:- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   F.5 Ex.Mahādhana: a millionnaire reduced to rags (DhA.iii.129ff.) In the time of Lord Buddha there was a family of bankers who had 80 million to their name. The son was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his parents loved him so much that when they got older they pleaded with him just to live off the family inheritance and never to earn his living. They said, “You ..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty :- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   F.3 Ex. Bhagraghaṭa Jātaka J.ii.431ff. Once the banker Anāthapiṇḍika had a nephew who had squandered 40 million by his drinking habits, leaving him penniless. The nephew therefore came to Anāthapiṇḍika’s home asking for some financial help. The nephew said he would use the money to invest in business — to set himself up in life. Anāthapiṇḍika was pleasantly surprised to h..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty:- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   F. ILLUSTRATIVE  EXAMPLES F.1 Metaphor: Just as one match can burn a town down Just as a single match can burn down an entire town — even a little alcohol can cause a lapse of mindfulness that may ruin your whole life. F.2 Metaphor: The elephant’s trunk In one metaphor told by Phramonkolthepmuni (1885-1959) — the Great Abbot of Wat Paknam: “Abstaining from ..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty :- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   E. PRACTICALITY OF GIVING-UP DRINKING DEFINITIVELY Having realized the harm brought by consuming alcohol, if you decide to kick the drink habit, prepare yourself for a struggle! It is not so easy to change an addiction and you are liable to experience withdrawal symptoms. However, for those who dare to train themselves in this way, here are a few words of advice to help pav..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty :- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   D. BENEFITS OF NOT DRINKING ALCOHOL The Buddha taught that if we don’t drink alcohol, it will pave the way for the higher blessings ahead on the path — with advantages such as: •    knowing events in the past, present and future without delay •    mindfulness in all situations (rather than the mind wandering continuously) •  &nbs..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   C. DAMAGE FROM DRINKING ALCOHOL C.1 Damage arising from drinking alcohol (visible this lifetime) In brief the Buddha taught (D.iii.182-4) that, even without waiting to see what will happen to us as the result of drinking alcohol in the next life, the damage alcohol does is as follows: 1.    It destroys your wealth: it will start eating into your income ..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty :- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   B. DEFINITIONS B.1 Definition of ‘intoxicants’ Intoxicants [majjhapāna] in this blessing refer to anything absorbable by the body that clouds the mind. In general this means alcohol, but it also refers to other substances such as addictive drugs. It can mean liquids that are drunk or injected or dry substances like tobacco that are smoked. B.2 Definition of ‘drinking’..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Twenty :- Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants. Blessing Twenty: Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants   A. INTRODUCTION A.1 Western values concerning alcohol Alcohol in the West is a substance primarily associated with relaxation and celebration. Most westerners would shrink from any hint that alcohol is an agent of mass destruction. However, consider some of the following national statistics from the USA summarized in a Scientific American report in June 1998 (p.67): •&n..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Nineteen :- Abstaining from Unwholesomeness. Blessing Nineteen: Abstaining from Unwholesomeness   E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES E.1 Metaphor: Just as we must freshen ourselves up . . . Just as we have to freshen ourselves up thoroughly before dressing up smart, before we avail ourselves of the higher virtues we have to make sure we are completely free of remaining unwholesomeness. E.2 Ex. Cakkana and the Rabbit SA.ii.112, MA.i.165, DhsA.103 There is a story of a young m..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Nineteen :- Abstaining from Unwholesomeness. Blessing Nineteen: Abstaining from Unwholesomeness   D. ABSTAINING FROM UNWHOLE-SOMENESS D.1 Definitions This blessing uses two words to describe the way in which unwholesomeness can be eradicated from the mind. ‘Arati’ means giving up any unwholesome habits which we have picked up in the past — i.e. eradication. ‘Virati’ means not picking up any further types of unwholesome habit — i.e. by avoidance. D.2 Strategies for a..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Nineteen :- Abstaining from Unwholesomeness. Blessing Nineteen: Abstaining from Unwholesomeness   C. UNWHOLESOMENESS The translation of the Pali word ‘pāpa’ (which we translate glibly as ‘unwholesomeness’) in fact has very broad scope of meaning. The implication of the word is one of ‘malfunction’. If you consider any other malfunctioning object such as a rundown house or a broken-down car or rotten food you might have a better idea of the unpleasant qualities of ‘pāpa’..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Nineteen :- Abstaining from Unwholesomeness. Blessing Nineteen: Abstaining from Unwholesomeness   B. MORAL APPROACHES TO UNWHOLESOMENESS When comparing different systems of ethics, usually you will not find much disagreement in the discussion of what constitutes a good deed — however, when you come to the morality of avoiding evil, suddenly there is a lot more controversy. People like to do what they feel comes naturally and if you look at man to try to find out what..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Blessing Nineteen :- Abstaining from Unwholesomeness. Blessing Nineteen: Abstaining from Unwholesomeness   A. INTRODUCTION A.1 Introduction to the Nineteenth Blessing The mind is fickle and easily influenced. A person who is virtuous today can easily relapse into bad behaviour tomorrow if his mind has not been cultivated to the point of steadfastness. When you realize the weakness of the mind it immediately implies that we have work to do in the constant upgrading of the mind..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Sixth Group of Blessings. Preparation of Mind. The Sixth Group of Blessings “Preparation of Mind”     The first eighteen blessings form the first half of the Maṅgala Sutta. They are all concerned with transforming our lives. It is only upon the foundation of security in life achieved in the first half of the Blessings of Life, that one can go on, in the second half of the Sutta to cultivate purity of mind in earnest by following Blessings nineteen to thirty-eight. Wh..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Eighteen :- Blameless Work. Blessing Eighteen: Blameless Work   E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES E.1 Ex. The Father, the Son and the Donkey Once there were a father and a son who went to the market in a distant town and bought a donkey. They led the donkey back towards their home on a rope. On the way back from the market, they passed through the first village and all the villagers exclaimed, “What a stupid father and son, they have spent good money on a donke..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Eighteen :- Blameless Work. Blessing Eighteen: Blameless Work   D. RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORKPLACE Apart from the ethicality of work, a second area of problems in the work we do may come from personal conflicts arising at work. Irrespective of the nature of the work, we need to cultivate good human relationships in the workplace otherwise we might risk blame and undermine our job satisfaction. We have to be able to get along with our colleagues whether t..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Eighteen :- Blameless Work. Blessing Eighteen: Blameless Work   C. AVOIDING WRONG LIVELIHOOD The Buddha taught that we should earn our living by working for it and by working honestly too — otherwise the economy and society cannot truly prosper. Of course earning your living by thieving, shop-lifting or pick-pocketing is not supported by Buddhism — these forms of work have already been ruled out in our consideration of the ethical value of work above. B..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Eighteen :- Blameless Work. Blessing Eighteen: Blameless Work   B. Judging the ethical value of work Often when people are looking to measure the standard of the work they are doing they rely too heavily on the amount of praise or criticism they receive from others (see example @E.1 below). The Buddha warned us that to use such an arbitrary measurement as our standard is not foolproof. In the world there are so many people of different viewpoints that y..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Eighteen :- Blameless Work. Blessing Eighteen: Blameless Work   A. INTRODUCTION A.1 Blessing Eighteen in the Sequence of the Blessings The workplace is somewhere we have already been familiar with since Blessing Fourteen — but last time we visited, we were interested in work only as a means to earn the salary we needed to support the close family (as covered in Blessings Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen). Now we have matured a little further in the sequence..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Seventeen :- Looking After One's Extended Family. Blessing Seventeen: Looking After One’s Extended Family   D. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES D.1 Metaphor: Lone pine cannot survive in strong wind The Lord Buddha taught that all of the trees that stand together in the forest will help each other mutually giving shelter from the gales and storms, sun and rain. By offering each other shelter, each tree is protected from being uprooted. On the other hand the largest tree (the king of th..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Seventeen :- Looking After One's Extended Family. Blessing Seventeen: Looking After One’s Extended Family   C. LOOKING AFTER YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY C.1 Appropriate times to help We have already mentioned that there are certain times when people lose their independence and have special need of the support of the extended family around them. The following circumstances are times when it is particularly important for us to pay attention to looking after our extended family: 1.&..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Seventeen :- Looking After One's Extended Family. Blessing Seventeen: Looking After One’s Extended Family   B. IMPORTANCE OF HELPING ONE’S EXTENDED FAMILY B.1 We cannot remain independent throughout life Sometimes we are young and independent and we think that we could live self-sufficient in the world without having to take an interest in anyone else. If we think we are independent, often it will cause us to think that everyone else should make themselves independent too a..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Seventeen :- Looking After One's Extended Family. Blessing Seventeen: Looking After One’s Extended Family   A. INTRODUCTION A.1 Place of Blessing Seventeen in the sequence A notable quality of the numerical teachings of the Lord Buddha are they become successively deeper in the order in which they are taught. There is never an example of teachings of the Buddha skipping details. Dhamma is like a coastline which gets progressively deeper as you go further and further out to ..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ 

The 38 Ways to Happiness. The Fifth Group of Blessings. Blessing Sixteen :- Dhamma Practice. Blessing Sixteen: Dhamma Practice   E. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES E.1 Ex. Kukku Jātaka (J.396) On the occasion of giving a teaching to the king, the Buddha related the story of his previous birth as the counselor to King Brahmadatta who at that time was an unjust ruler. After waiting a long time for a tactful opportunity to correct the king’s ways, one day the two visited a building under construction in the royal park. The roofi..... อ่านเรื่องBuddhist Teachingต่อ