178. Just as the dawn is the forerunner, the herald of the arising of the sun – so too, friendship with the beautiful is the forerunner, the herald of the arising of the Noble Eightfold Path. When one is a friend of the beautiful, it may be expected that he will cultivate and develop the Noble Eightfold Path.
Samyutta Nikaya V.28
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Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Parisa Abhaya Dana, Theravada | Tags: friendship, kalyanamitta
In the last few days I have been working as much as possible on setting up the groundwork for the Parisa Abhaya Dana but I now find myself questioning my motives and intentions. When I sit and look at my original motivation I see mostly skilful resolves. In short, I wanted to provide a place for myself and other so-called serious practitioners to encourage and inspire to perform acts of disassociate Dhamma virtuosity but, as both Venerables Bhikkhu Bodhi and Pesala have pointed out, the internet may not be the best place for it.
And yet, not everyone has access to fellow Dhamma-farers in their area so maybe it is a good idea after all and the Venerable Cintita seemed to think it was a good idea as well. I suppose I’m just uncomfortable with the idea that I, alone, am making decisions about how to form a group to fill a need when I really haven’t yet gotten the opinions of a few trusted confidants. So, I put it to you. Does a group like the one I am proposing make sense? Is there call for it? Please take a look at an early draft below and let me know what you think:
Parisa Abhaya Dana
“With regard to external factors, I don’t envision any other single factor like friendship with admirable people as doing so much for a monk in training, who has not attained the heart’s goal but remains intent on the unsurpassed safety from bondage. A monk who is a friend with admirable people abandons what is unskillful and develops what is skillful.”
— Iti 17Parisa Abhaya Dana is lay Buddhist organization committed to providing kalyanamittata (admirable friendship) for its membership to allow each member to realize the Dhamma in their lives according to their disposition, desires and ability.
Membership
Membership is free and open to all provided that every prospective kalyanamitta meets the following requirements and agrees to a three-month probationary period (postulant):
- Has gone for refuge to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha either formally or by reciting the traditional Pali formula.
- Is currently observing, to the best of their ability, the Five or Nine Lifetime Precepts.
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from sexual misconduct
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from malicious speech
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from harsh speech
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from useless speech
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from wrong livelihood
- I undertake the training rule to abstain from drinks and drugs that cause heedlessness
- Has a formal meditation practice (i.e., sitting or walking meditation) of at least 15 minutes per session, five days a week.
Grades of the Order
In order to promote ever greater ethical culture (sila parami) members will take the follow grades according to the number of precepts they are working to uphold:
- Panchachari: Five Precept holder.
- Navachari: Nine Precept Holder
- Atthachari: Eight (Uposatha) Precept Holder
- Dasachari: Ten Precept Holder
The above grades are not meant to imply rank although they should inspire kalyanamittas to strive towards ethical perfection.
Mission
The mission of the Parisa Abhaya-Dana (Community of Giving Fearlessness) is threefold:
- To provide its members with access to a community of like-minded individuals (whether it be virtual by means of the internet or in person) so that each member can grow in the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha and taste the fruits of the practice.
- To provide material support to the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sangha to ensure that the Dhamma and Vinaya continue to thrive and become firmly established in the Western world.
- To encourage charity, service and ethical conduct in society at large with the understanding that the dana and sila are the bedrock of the Path.
Implementation
Although we believe that fellowship and friendships formed in person provide the most benefits, we understand that many Buddhist practitioners in the West often find themselves geographically isolated from their fellow Dhamma-farers. As such, we will seek to provide an online forum where we can discuss, encourage and explore the Dhamma as well as to attempt to create real life meetings between kalyanamittas.
We will use our online forum http://s15.zetaboards.com/Parisa_Abhaya_Dana/index/ as a virtual meeting space as well as a template upon which to develop a structure for local groups.
For better or worse, it seems that my search for a lay Buddhist organization which would meet the needs of the monastic Sangha, provide encouragement for growth in the Dhamma to its members and offer them a variety of ways to provide service in the spirit of the Dhamma had resulted in a decision I was fain to take: I am taking on the task of getting one started. I will be posting the rough draft we have of our mission statement or manifesto shortly but for now I just wanted to introduce the Parisa Abhaya Dana (the Community of Giving a Fearlessness). Currently, there are only two of us but this is fine since we need to iron out the technicalities and wait to hear back from all of the bhikkhu and bhikkhunis to whom I have reached out for advice.
Who knows of this project will be successful but that really isn’t the point. The idea is to bring like minded Dhamma-farers together so that we can all learn and grow while doing good for the society at large. If they’re is no wider interest that can sustain such a group so be it but without trying we will never know.
Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Daily Practice, Dana, Dhamma, Parisa Abhaya Dana | Tags: fraternal order, lay Buddhists, lay groups
Today is an Uposatha but, since it is Ramadhan, I’m not observing. That doesn’t stop me, however, from supporting anyone who is. But, I digress. I want to turn again to the role that dana had been playing in my own practice and emphasize just how much joy I have been deriving from it.
I have made a tacit agreement with myself to try to perform one act of charity and service to someone everyday. Granted, this is not always possible but it is invigorating to see that the heart is in constant search of a recipient of its metta and karuna. Last night I had to step out to pick something up from the store and I realized I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to give. On my way into the store I passed by and older gentleman hunched over a cardboard sign on which he had scrawled his plea for help. He had bandages on hours seem and seemed to be sleeping or in a stupor. Immediately my mind began searching for the best way to help him.
Making my way through the aisles, my thoughts raced through the options: should I buy him a soda? No, he surely doesn’t need al of that caffeine and sugar. A coffee drink? No, most of those have milk and who knows of he’s allergic. Nuts? Same issue. Eventually i decoded on iced tea and, while walking around, I noticed they sold ponchos too. Since it was raining and he was sitting out in the open with one a tee sorry and jeans I bought that for him as well. At this point i was nervous; perhaps he didn’t need or wouldn’t want the poncho and massive he didn’t like iced tea. Fortunately, I quickly countered the thought by reflecting on the fact that I can only control my intentions, not the reactions of others.
Walking out of the store I had to gently rouse him to offer the poncho and tea wick he accepted. The best part for me was when i had to help him figure out how to put the ponchoon simply due to the connection we shared in that moment. And, once he was good I bade him well and left. Yes, it was a small thing but my heart is yet aglow even now. Sabbe Satta Sukhita hontu!
Posted in Dhamma
“With regard to external factors, I don’t envision any other single factor like friendship with admirable people as doing so much for a monk in training, who has not attained the heart’s goal but remains intent on the unsurpassed safety from bondage. A monk who is a friend with admirable people abandons what is unskillful and develops what is skillful.”
— Iti 17
I have been puzzling over this impulse to find or even create a lay Buddhist organization that would serve both as a ground for personal development in the Dhamma as well as promote acts of charity and service in line with the Teachings and in the spirit of the brahmaviharas. What I am beginning to see is that I need to make a fat gayer effort at cultivating those friendships and acquaintances I already have. To do otherwise strokes me as disingenuous and wrong. May I seek to associate evermore work the wise and leave the company of fools.
Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: admirable friends, itivuttaka, kalyanamitta, kalyanamittata
I have been thinking a lot lately about how good it would be to food a Buddhist organization that served as a kind of network to make and sustain spiritual friendships while simultaneously supporting the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni Sangha. unlike those organizations wick currently exist and have charity and engaged social action as their only goal, the type of group I am in search of would also serve the purpose of strengthening one another’s practice and growth in the Dhamma. Traditionally the larger Buddhist community has served this purpose but with the fracturing of traditional communities not only is the continuation of the Sangha in jeopardy but many of us do not have the benefit of associating worth a group of like-minded individuals.
So, my question is really two-fold: does such an organization exist and, if not, is there a desire for one?
Posted in Abhaya-cariya, Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: fraternal organization, lay Buddhist
171. When the Ageless exists,
What do you want with sensual pleasures,
Which are bound up with old age and death?
All births everywhere
Are inseparable from sickness and death.
This is ageless, immortal;
It is the ageless immortal state,
Without grieving or enmity,
Without obstruction, without stumbling,
Without fear and without burning.
This is immortal state
Has been attained by many,
And can be attained even today.
By anyone who applies himself,
But not by those who do not strive.
Therigatha 511-513
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Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: freedom, liberation, Nibbana
170. Life in the world is unpredictable and uncertain.
Life is difficult, short and fraught with suffering.
Being born, one has to die; this is the nature of the world.
With old age there is death; this is the way things are.
When fruit is ripe, it may drop early in the morning.
In the same way, one who is born may die at any moment.
Just as all pots made by all the potters
End in being broken,
So it is with the life of all who are born.
Neither young nor old, foolish or wise
Will escape the trap of death.
All move towards death.
They are overcome by death.
They pass on to another world.
A father cannot save his son or a family its members.
Look! With relatives watching, with tears and crying,
Men are carried off one by one,
Like cattle to the slaughter.
So, death and aging are a natural part of the world.
Thus, the wise grieve not, seeing the nature of the world.
Sutta Nipata 574-581
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So i got my dates wrong and today is the forest day of Ramadhan which finds me a little more irritable than normal. For those of you stumbling across this Buddhist blog wondering why the author observes the fast of Ramadhan, suffice it to say that it is primarily due to my family situation so it is done or of respect for them. In addition, I take the opportunity to practice nekkhama parami during Ramadhan so I find it great time for practice as well.
Any way, for whatever reason, I found myself arguing with my wife and breaking just about every precept involving right speech before I rushed or the door. Immediately after I felt the inevitable twinge of remorse but it was too late. As students of the Dhamma, we should know that we cannot escape the results of our actions but we can, until Liberation, water them down. So, rather than dwelling overlong on my missteps I have made the resolve to counter every wrong word, deed and thought with an expression of metta, karuna, mudita or upekkha.
Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Nekkhama, Sammā Vācā, Theravada | Tags: a kusala kamma, bad karma, good karma, kusala kamma
168. Sakka asked the Lord: “Sir, do all recluses and Brahmins teach the same Dhamma, practise the same discipline, desire the same thing and pursue the same goal?”
“No, Ruler of the Gods, they do not. And why? This world is made up of many and various elements, and people adhere to one or another of these elements, and become tenaciously addicted to them, saying: ‘This alone is true, all else is false.’ Therefore, all recluses and Brahmins do not teach the same Dhamma, practise the same discipline, desire the same thing or pursue the same goal.”
Digha Nikaya II.282
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Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Perennial Philosophy
Improving Lives through Generosity
A hub for the music, culture, knowledge, and practice of Irish stick-fighting, past and present.
Cattāri Brahmavihārā 