Introduction to the Pali Canon (Three Pitaka)

Three Pitaka

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The Noblest Victor

Though one may conquer
a thousand times a thousand men in battle,
yet he indeed is the noblest victor
who conquers himself. (Dh no. 103)

အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္သူႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံသာယာေရး

ဓမၼတာအားျဖင့္ ျမင့္ျမတ္သူတုိ႔ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာႏိုင္ငံသည္ သာယာ၏။ ယုတ္ညံ့သူတုိ႔ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာႏိုင္င္ငံသည္ မသာယာ။ ထုိစဥ္က ကပိလဝတ္ႏိုင္ငံသည္ ျမင့္ျမတ္သူ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေသာႏိုင္ငံျဖစ္၏။ ထုိေၾကာင့္သာယာ၏။ သာယာသည္ဆုိရာ၌ ႐ုပ္ပုိင္ဆုိင္ရာ တုိးတက္မႈမ်ား႐ွိသည္ကုိ ဆုိသည္မဟုတ္။ စိတ္ပုိင္းဆိုင္ရာတုိးတက္မႈမ်ား ႐ွိသည္ကုိလည္း ဆုိသည္မဟုတ္။ ကုိယ္က်င့္သိကၡာပုိင္းဆုိင္ရာ တုိးတက္မႈမ်ား႐ွိသည္ကုိသာ ဆုိျခင္းျဖစ္၏။

ကုိယ္က်င့္သိကၡာပုိင္းဆုိင္ရာ တုိးတက္မႈမ႐ိွပါဘဲ ႐ုပ္ပိုင္းဆုိင္ရာမ်ားသာ တုိးတက္လာလွ်င္လည္းေကာင္း၊ သုိ႔မဟုတ္ စိတ္ပိုင္းဆုိင္ရာမ်ားသာ တုိးတက္လာလွ်င္လည္းေကာင္း၊ သို႔မဟုတ္ ႐ုပ္ပုိင္းဆုိင္ရာမ်ားႏွင့္ စိတ္ပုိင္းဆုိင္ရာမ်ား ႏွစ္မ်ဳိးလုံး တုိးတက္လာလွ်င္လည္းေကာင္း ယင္းသို႔ တုိးတက္လာျခင္းသည္ ေလာက၌ ေကာင္းေသာ လကၡဏာကုိ မေဆာင္၊ သုစ႐ုိတ္မ်ား ထြန္းကားမႈကုိ ျဖစ္ေပၚေအာင္မလုပ္၊ အႏိုင္က်င့္ဝါဒကုိသာ ဖက္တြယ္တတ္သျဖင့္ ေလာက၌ မေကာင္းေသာလကၡဏာကုိသာ ေဆာင္၏။ ဒုစ႐ုိတ္မ်ား ထြန္းကားမႈကုိသာ ျဖစ္ေစ၏။

ထုိေၾကာင့္ သာယာသည္ဆုိရာ၌ ကုိယ္က်င့္သိကၡာပုိင္းဆုိင္ရာ ထြန္းကားမႈ႐ွိျခင္းကုိသာ ဆုိပါမွ မွန္ကန္မည္ဟူ၍ နားလည္အပ္၏။

ဦးေရႊေအာင္ ၊ “ဗုဒၶ ေလာကသားတုိ႕၏ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ေက်းဇူး႐ွင္ ကုိယ္က်င့္ဗုဒၶဝင္”၊ ရာျပည့္စာအုပ္တုိက္၊ ၂၀၀၃-ခုႏွစ္၊ စတုတၳအႀကိမ္၊ စာ-၂၆၇)

႐ွင္အရဟံ၏ ႀကဳိးပမ္းခ်က္

ျမန္မာနဳိင္ငံ၌ ႐ွင္အရဟံ၏ ႀကဳိးပမ္းခ်က္အရ အေနာရထာမင္းအမႈျပဳေသာ ျမန္မာနဳိင္ငံသားတုိ႔၏ သႏၲာန္၌ ျမတ္စြာဘုရား၏ သာသနာအျမစ္တြယ္ၿပီးခ်ိန္မွစ၍ ခုိင္မာစြာ အမ်ဳိးသားစ႐ုိက္ႏွင့္ အမ်ဳိးသားဉာဥ္သည္ ျဖစ္ေပၚလာခဲ့၏။ ျမန္မာနဳိင္ငံသားတုိ႔၏ အမ်ဳိးသားစ႐ုိက္ႏွင့့္ အမ်ဳိးသားၪာဥ္ကား “ရဲရင့္ျခင္းႏွင့္ ရက္ေရာျခင္း”ျဖစ္၏။ ယင္းကုိ အနစ္နာခံလုိမႈအေပၚ၌ တည္ေဆာက္ရ၏။ အနစ္နာခံလုိမႈကုိလည္း မိမိကုိယ္ကုိ ခ်စ္ေသာစိတ္, မိသားစုကုိ ခ်စ္ေသာစိတ္, နဳိင္ငံကုိ ခ်စ္ေသာစိတ္, လူမ်ဳိးကုိ ခ်စ္ေသာစိတ္, ေလာကလူသား အခ်င္းခ်င္း ခ်စ္ေသာစိတ္အေပၚ၌ တည္ေဆာက္ရ၏။ ယင္းကုိလည္း တဏွာကုိ ျမင္ေအာင္ၾကည္ၿပီး တဏွာကုိ သတ္ရန္ ႀကဳိးပမ္းေသာ အက်င့္ေပၚ၌ တည္ေဆာက္ရ၏။ သုိ႔မွသာ ရဲရင့္ျခင္းႏွင့္ ရက္ေရာျခင္းသည္ မွန္ကန္ေသာ ရဲရင့္ျခင္းႏွင့္ မွန္ကန္ေသာရက္ေရာျခင္းျဖစ္၏။ ဓမၼအေပၚ၌ တည္ေဆာက္ေသာရဲရင့္ျခင္းႏွင့္ ရက္ေရာျခင္းျဖစ္၏။

ဦးေရႊေအာင္ ၊ “ဗုဒၶ ေလာကသားတုိ႕၏ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ေက်းဇူး႐ွင္ ကုိယ္က်င့္ဗုဒၶဝင္”၊ ရာျပည့္စာအုပ္တုိက္၊ ၂၀၀၃-ခုႏွစ္၊ စတုတၳအႀကိမ္၊ စာ-၃၃)

အသာစံျခင္းႏွင့္ အနာခံျခင္း

အသာစံျခင္းႏွင့္ အနာခံျခင္းႏွစ္မ်ဳိးတုိ႔တြင္ အနာခံျခင္းက အသာစံျခင္းထက္ တန္ဖုိးႀကီးေၾကာင္း ဗုဒၶေဒသနာေတာ္ မ်ား၌ ေတြ႕ရ၏၊ အသာစံျခင္းသည္ လူတုိင္းလုပ္နဳိင္ေသာလုပ္ငန္းျဖစ္၏။ အနာခံျခင္းကား ျမင့္ျမတ္သူမ်ားသာ လုပ္နဳိင္ေသာ လုပ္ငန္းျဖစ္၏။ ျမင့္ျမတ္သူမ်ားသည္ ေ႐ွးပုဂံေခတ္မွစ၍ ကုန္းေဘာင္ေခတ္အဆုံးတုိင္းေအာင္ အမ်ားအျပား႐ိွခဲ့ၾက၏။ သူတစ္ပါးလက္ေအာက္ခံဘ၀၌လည္း အထုိက္အေလွ်ာက္ေတာ့ ရွိသည္ျဖစ္၏။ ယခုအခ်ိန္တြင္မူ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၌ ျမင့္ျမတ္သူမ်ားကုိ မ်ားစြာလုိအပ္လ်က္႐ိွ၏။ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္အတြက္ႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံသူ/ႏိုင္ငံသားမ်ားအတြက္ အနစ္နာခံႏိုင္ရုံသာမက ထုိသုိ႔ အနစ္နာခံမႈေၾကာင့္ ထြက္ေပၚလာေသာ အက်ဳိးအျမတ္ ဟူသမွ်၌လည္း အနစ္နာခံႏိုင္သူမ်ားကုိ ဤျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၌ အလုအယက္ ေပၚထြက္ေစခ်င္ပါ၏။

(ဦးေရႊေအာင္၊ “ဗုဒၶ ေလာကသားတုိ႕၏ အႏႈိင္းမဲ့ေက်းဇူး႐ွင္ ကုိယ္က်င့္ဗုဒၶဝင္”၊ ရာျပည့္စာအုပ္တုိက္၊ စတုတၳအႀကိမ္၊၂၀၀၃-ခုႏွစ္၊ စာ-၃၂)

Good or Bad Attitude?

I am really sorry to read that the Jakarta city administration issued a license for a bar named “Buddha Bar” which serve alcohol in an elite residential area. If the administration permitted it to name so, the question arises: will it give permission for the establishment of an “Islam Bar or Allah Bar” based on the criterion of equality. If somebody does so, Muslims will, I am sure, get angry at it. This means they have no understanding, respect and sympathy at all for others. Therefore, it is really shameful for Jakarta city administration to issue a license for it. Actually it reveals real attitude of Muslim religion and its followers towards others and they should try to develop the empathy for other religious faiths to live humanly.

အဘိဓမၼာဆရာ ဦးေရာင္နီထံသုိ႔ ေပးပုိ႔ေသာ ဆုံးမစာေတးထပ္

တစ္ပုိင္းေၾကာင္ က်က္စာရ႐ုံႏွင့္၊
ခက္ပါလွသေဘာဉာဏ္။
ထက္မာနအေျပာသန္တယ္၊ ေဒါသမာန္ထူပြား။
ေစာဒကတုဘက္လာလွ်င္၊ သူ႔ထက္ငါ ျငင္းတဲ့လူစား။
ဘုရားေဟာ ျမတ္ဓမၼကၡန္ကုိ၊ တတ္ေလဟန္ေယာင္၀ါး။
ပရမတ္ျပန္ အေၾကာင္သမားေတြတုိ႕၊
ေထာင္လႊားၾက သူ႔ထက္ငါ။
အသိဉာဏ္ တစ္ထြာေလာက္ကယ္ႏွင့္၊
ညႇာမေထာက္ ေဟာတတ္လွပါ။
ပရိသတ္ ေထာမနာေအာင္၊
ေစာဒနာ ဉာဏ္အေကာက္ေတြႏွင့္၊
ကန္အေၾကာက္ အတင္းမေရွာင္း ျငင္းၾကလူ႔ေဘာင္။
ပိဋကတ္ အစြယ္ေထာင္လွ်င္၊
အပါယ္ေဘာင္ ဆင္းရလိမ့္ေလး။ ။

လယ္တီဆရာေတာ္၊ (ဂမၻီရကဗ်ာက်မ္း၊၁၉၅၆-ခုႏွစ္ပုံႏွိပ္၊ စာ-၁၂၁)

Selected Dhammapada Verses

As a bee gathers honey
from the flower without injuring its colour or fragrance,
even so the sage goes on his alms-round
in the the village. (Dh no. 49)

In a village or wilds,
valley, plateau:
that place is delightful
where arahants dwell. (Dh no. 98; Tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

Though one may conquer
a thousand times a thousand men in battle,
yet he indeed is the noblest victor
who conquers himself. (Dh no. 103)

Hard is it to be born a man;
hard is the life of mortals.
Hard is it to gain the opportunity
of hearing the Sublime Truth,
and hard to encounter
is the arising of the Buddhas. (Dh no. 182)

To avoid all evil,
to cultivate good,
and to cleanse one's mind -
this is the teaching of the Buddhas. (Dh no. 183)

Enduring patience
is the highest austerity.
"Nibbana is supreme," says the Buddhas.
He is not a true monk
who harms another,
nor a true enunciate
who oppresses others. (Dh no. 186)

Driven only by fear,
do men go for refuge to many places -
to hills, woods, groves, groves, trees, shrines. (Dh. no. 188)

Such, indeed, is no safe refuge;
Such is not the refuge supreme.
Not by resorting to such a refuge
is one released from all suffering. (Dh. no. 189)

He who has gone for refuge
to the Buddha,
to his Teaching and his Order,
penetrates with transcendental wisdom
the four Noble Truths -
suffering,
the cause of suffering,
the cessation of suffering,
and the Noble Eightfold Path
leading to the cessation of suffering. (Dh. nos. 190, 191)

(Dhammapada, Venerable Buddharakkhita, reprinted by Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Singapore)

A Buddhist Response to Contemporary Dilemmas of Human Existence

A Buddhist Response to Contemporary Dilemmas of Human Existence

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Dhamma Journey

At temple or house Dana, the tradition of setting animals such as birds free is really lovely. It means you have compassion and sympathy, which we need urgently in our society, for other beings. In reality, every living being is afraid of death. Therefore, people who bear empathy try to help them whenever the opportunity arises. So, the people in my community ask me for chanting blessing verses not only for themselves but also for animals which they bought for setting them free.

Dhamma Journey

I was in Sitiawan in (West) Malaysia (18/02/09 - 12/03/09) to give Dhamma service to the Buddhist community that needs Buddhist monks to lead the path correctly. Most of the time I was alone in a large temple. But I was really happy to help those who need Buddhist monks. Being this for the third time, I got to know their needs more and more in the area of Buddhism. One of them is most of the Buddhist people just know they should do Dana (offering or charity) as a Buddhist. On the other hand, the mission of some other religions have tried to convert them into their own one whenever the opportunity arises. So, I personally feel that it is our duty to get them know the Dhamma by providing the opportunity to help them learn little by little. Therefore, I am obliged to those who involved in giving the Dhamma service to the society.

Here are some of the pictures on the Dhamma mission.

Being in the right place

When we put all the plants in the right place, it become nice and meaningful. But we are regret to see the wrong persons in the wrong places in the society or community, which result in creating it unpleasant or chaotic without necessary. If most of the things or persons are in the right order or in the right place, the world would be much nicer. How do you think of it? Why don't you share your views with us!

The Importance of Wisdom and Morality

Wisdom is purified by morality, and morality is purified by wisdom: where one is, the other is, the moral man has wisdom and the wise man has morality, and the combination of morality and wisdom is called the highest thing in the world.

(Sonadanda Sutta, DN. NO. 4; 'The Long Discourses of the Buddha' (Tr. Maurice Walshe), Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995, p. 131.

Secretariat

So this is the summit of a man’s career –
Two hardboard walls, constructed shabbily.
A naked bulb and rotting wooden floor;
No windows but instead a door
Half hidden by a broken metal screen
From which a tattered piece of green
Curtain blows.

The room has neither sky or sun nor tree
Nor any kind of personality.
It is four walls two of them hardboard (bare);
A written table (large) covered with baize
Stacked high with files. A rickety chair:
Two china cups tea-stained with cracking glaze;
Above, a rusty fan layered with dust.
In fact there is dust everywhere.

A room along the corridors of power –
What years of study, study, planning, sweat, chicanery
Two win this foothold. Yet once there
Only a roughly scribbled name
Upon a crumpled piece of cardboard to proclaim
Who has the right to sit on just that chair
Facing
A hardboard wall constructed shabbily.

(Anne Ranasinghe)

The Value of Human Life

Monks, it is like a man who might throw a yoke with one hole into the sea. An easternly wind might take it westwards, a westerly wind might take it eastwards, a northerly wind might take it south-words, a southerly wind might take it northwards. There might be a blind turtle there who came to the surface once in a hundred years. What do you think about this, monks? Could that blind turtle push his neck through that one hole in the yoke?”

“If at all, revered sir, then only once in a very long while.”

“Sooner or later, monks could the blind turtle push his neck through the one hole in the yoke; more difficult than that, do I say, monks, is human status once again for the fool who has gone to the Downfall. What is the cause of that? Monks, there is no dharma-faring there, no even-faring, no doing of what is skilled, no doing of what is good. Monks, there is devouring of one another there and feeding on the weak.

(Balapandita-sutta, Discourse on Fools and the Wise, MN. No. 129, I. B. Horner (tr.) The Collection of the Middle Length Sayings, PTS, London, 1999, 214 – 215)

Unity

If there were a single plant, this cannot, I think, be that nice to see.

I went to visit Jurong Bird Park, Singapore on 3th March (2009). I was really delighted to see different kinds of birds in it. Another reason for feeling really happy to visit there is the environment. The park is green with a large number of different sorts of trees and flowers. It makes it peaceful and quiet. When I saw all these things, many thoughts arose in me, for example, seeing the above picture, the thought struck me: If there were a single plant, this cannot, I think, be that nice.

U THANT OF THE FOUR BRAHA VIHARA

Many people have asked me how I felt at the time of my appointment at Acting Secretary General. They have been invariably surprised to learn that I did not feel the way most people would have felt in similar circumstances. To understand my feelings and my conception of the role of Secretary General – the nature of my religious and cultural background must first be understood. I should therefore like to outline not only my religious beliefs, but also my conception of human institutions and of the human situation itself.

As a Buddhist, I was trained to be tolerant of everything except intolerance. I was brought up not only to develop the spirit of tolerance, but also to cherish moral and spiritual qualities, especially modesty, humility, compassion, and most important, to attain a certain degree of emotional equilibrium. I was taught to control my emotions through a process of concentration and meditation. Of course, being human, and not yet having reached the stage of arahant or arhat (one who attains perfect enlightenment), I cannot completely “control” my emotions, but I must say that I am not really excited or excitable.

To understand my religious background, a brief explanation of certain ethical aspects of Buddhism will be necessary. Among the teachings of the Buddha are four features of meditation, the primary purpose of which is the attainment of moral and spiritual excellence: metta (good will or kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upkkha (equanimity or equilibrium).

A true Buddhist practices his metta to all, without distinction; Buddhists need to apply in their daily lives the teachings of metta even to those whom they have never seen before, and will not see afterwards. “Just as the sun shines on all, or the rain falls on all, without distinction,” metta embraces all beings impartially and spontaneously, expecting nothing in return, not even appreciation. Metta is impersonal love or good will, the opposite of sensuous craving or a burning, sensual fire that can turn into wrath, hatred, or revenge when not required. A true Buddhist has to practice metta to friends and foes alike.

Karuna (compassion) is the second aspect of Buddhist meditation that all true Buddhists are expected to practice. This quality of compassion is deeply rooted in the Buddhist concept of suffering. Human life is one of suffering; hence, it is the duty of a good Buddhist to mitigate the suffering of others, not only in his thought but also in practice. He shows his compassion or pity to all, be they living in this or in another world. (Buddhism believes in life after death.) Buddhist charity is best seen during the feasts or dana given to the poor or to homeless monks, who are provided with alms food with a view to the donor’s attaining a higher order of bliss in the other world. The regular practice of compassion opens one’s mind to the “Noble Truth of Suffering” and its origin. For the Buddha has taught us that suffering originates in craving and ignorance. Hatred, or instance, is the root of all evil.

Mudita (sympathetic joy) can best be defined as one’s expression of sympathy with other people’s joy. The happiness of others generates happiness in the mind of a good Buddhist. Melancholy and pessimism have no place in the Buddha-dhamma or dharma (the cosmic and moral law governing the world, as formulated by the Buddha in his teachings.) One’s life gains in joy by sharing in the happiness of others, as if that happiness were one’s own. The person who cultivates altruistic joy radiates it over everyone in his surroundings, and thus everyone enjoys working and living with him. The practice of mudita not only dispels worry and frustrations but strengthens our moral fiber. Thus a true Buddhist is expected to pray for the happiness of all human beings. By practicing mudita, one automatically renders as important service to the entire community.

Upekkha (equanimity or equilibrium or detachment) connotes the acquisition of a balance of mind, whether in triumph or tragedy. This balance is achieved only as a result of deep insight into the nature of things, and primarily by contemplation and meditation. If one understands how unstable and impermanent all worldly things and conditions are, one learns to bear lightly even the greatest misfortune that befalls one or the greatest reward that is bestowed on one. This lofty quality of even-mindedness or emotional equilibrium is the most difficult of all ethical virtues to practice and apply in our hectic world. To contemplate life, but not to be enmeshed in it, is the law of the Buddha.

To achieve upekkha, one has to meditate. The Buddha’s teaching regarding meditation aims at producing a state of perfect mental health, emotional equilibrium, and tranquility. But this concept of Buddhist meditation is very much misunderstood, both by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The word “meditation” is generally associated with a particularly posture, or musing on some kind of mystic or mysterious thought or going into a trance. Such misunderstanding is mainly due to the lack of s suitable English word for the original term bhavana, which means mental culture or mental development. The Buddhist bhavana aims at cleaning the mind of impurities, such ill will, hatred, and restlessness; it aims at cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, intelligence, confidence, and tranquility, leading finally to the attainment of the highest wisdom.

In other words, through meditation I seek inner peace. I heartily agree with Father Dominique Georges Pire, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, when he says: “I still think that to be a peacemaker, that is to say a man of peace, one must first be at peace with oneself. One must achieve inner peace. This involves getting to know oneself and learning to control one’s impulses. Only then can a peaceful being approach the immense task of creating harmony between groups and between individuals.

It is far from my intention to claim that I have reached a very high stage on the path to attainment of the highest wisdom, or that I have attained complete “inner peace”. I can claim, however, that I practice bhavana every day. I try to cultivate the ethical aspects of Buddhism, and I believe that I have attained a greater degree of emotional equilibrium than most people. This explains why I received the tragic news of the sudden death (in a traffic accident) of my only son, Tin Maung Thant, on May 21, 1962, with minimal emotional reaction. For are not birth and death the two phases of the same life process? According to the Buddha, birth is followed by death, but death, in turn, is followed by rebirth.

The same minimal emotional reaction applied to the news brought to me on September 23, 1965, by the Norwegian permanent representative, Ambassador Sivert Nielson, that it was the intention of the Nobel Peace Committee in Oslo to award me the coveted prize for 1965. He showed me the letter addressed to him by the Nobel Peace Committee. My response was / is not the Secretary General merely doing his job when he works for peace? After Ambassador Nielsen left my office, my thoughts wandered to those who were more deserving of that prize than myself – those whose lifelong preoccupation had been the peace of the world, the welfare of mankind, and the unity of the human community: people like Paul Hoffman, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, and many others. In any event, it was most gratifying to learn (on October 25) that UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), whose accomplishments in the humanitarian field no one questions, was the recipient of that prize.

Ref: MANDALA, (PP. 7-8)

February 1990

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