"The wise are restrained in body. They are restrai

"The wise are restrained in body. They are restrained in speech as well. They are also well disciplined in mind.
They, who have safeguarded the three doors, body, speech and mind, are supremely restrained"
The Buddha
Dharmapada 234


Doorways......

There are many doorways we need to go through in our lifetime.
These doors take us to places we want to go,
and sometimes, to places we don't like.

When we are lost, we look for a door to enter that will fix our emotional state.

The doors I speak about, are the door of the body,
the door of speech and the door of the mind.

The one we enter is not important.
The door is only important when we are lost, and at that time, the closest door is the one we choose.

The tension in our neck and shoulder might be the nearest entrance,
or our doubting mind,
or our inner critic.

We often overlook the closest door and pick the longest way.

We have a shop that sells Feng Shui and Buddhas.
We have a large Buddha at the front of our shop.
It's a small shop of only thirty square meters.
It has a front door to the street and a large double door at the back.
We are part of the Victoria market, so a lot of people visit us.
We are very busy.

People rub the Buddha's stomach for luck.
They see the money in his hand and ask why.

I explain if they drop a coin or two in the Buddha's hand, he will take away their problems.

As a side benefit,
the coins go to charity.

Just tell him your problems.
See the size of his ears,
See the size of his bag,
Put your problems in his bag and then you won't have them.

He is not there for his good looks.
He is there to change your world.
He will stop your anger,
your greed, your jealousy.
He will give you love compassion and calm.
He will show you how to smile.

Can you look at him and not smile?

I tell them that he is a doorway to peace and happiness.

That's fine,
one person said,
a smile doesn't fix the problems I have,
He won't pay my debts.
He can't feed my children.
And on and on with negative agitation, irritation, and anger.

She asked me if I was a doctor, and if I wasn't, how can I give advice.
I told her I was just a person of love and compassion.

However I do offer medicine just like a doctor.
This medicine pills can be taken daily, whenever the symptoms arise.
The symptoms are
agitation, irritation and anger.
These are the cause of all negative thoughts and actions.
The cause of suffering.

Now you can have three pills to take at least three times a day, I told her.

The pills are;
the pill of stillness,
the pill of silence and
the pill of spaciousness.
These pills can open doorways of refuge.

When we find ourselves agitated:
take the pill of stillness and not practice distraction,
but feel the stillness within the agitation.
When we hear irritation and complaint in our voice, we can take the pill of silence.
We can actually listen to the silence within us.
When anger takes over and our minds are filled with things we should not say or do, we can take the pill of spaciousness and settle into it's calm.

These pills are offered freely and available to all.

Most don't take the medicine I offer,
as it doesn't taste sweet.
It's too simple and as we have to do something when we take the pills,
it becomes too hard.

So to make it easy.

I give instructions with the pills.

When we are rushing around and become agitated.
We realize we have chosen agitation.
I advise at that moment to
take the pill of stillness.

It's the same when we hear complaint in our voice, we can take the pill of silence and with anger, we take spaciousness.

These three emotions are the doorways to our body, our speech and our mind.

Agitation effects our body,
Irritation effects our speech, and anger effects the mind.

These doorways can be opened with my pills and in this way we are able to discover a deeper truth to all our problems.

The problem is in opening a doorway that has been closed all our lives,
we might find something we don't like.

Taking a pill is the easiest way to liberate the suffering experienced through the doorways of body, speech and mind.

In taking these pills we can show others how positive, calm and cultivated we are.
How loving and compassionate we can be.

In opening our doorways,
we can benefit others through the positive qualities that become available to us.

Nathan





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Brother Billy Tan

Brother Billy Tan
Thank you for your talk last night.
You inspired me to see through different eyes.
"All we see hear taste touch smell are all a Fallacy? Delusion?"
Total confusion.
So Brother Billy I have decided that its;

Time for a change!

Today is a great day for letting go of something I think I don't need in my life.

I could wait for tomorrow or even next week,
but I have been putting this off for a long while,
so today is a good day.

The problem now is what illusions to let go.
I suppose a few old clothes would be a start.
You know the jackets with the large lapels that I was waiting to come back into fashion.
Maybe the odd socks that the washing machine ate.

Maybe I should let go of some old habits!

You know the fallacies that have held me back from being a complete person.

I have felt for some time that maybe it's me that's at fault, not the dog, or the neighbor, or the wife, or the government, or the aliens that abduct only stupid people.

There was a feeling that all was not quite right with my world.
Now that I have owned up and told myself I need to change,
I really feel better.
Now all I have to do is
"do it"

Of course
"to change "
is
"to change"

We change our underwear, we change our mind, we can change partners and homes,
but when it comes to changing our attitude,
or our perception,
or the way we behave, then this is a different matter.

We find the excuse;
I am so busy,
I haven't the time now,
Living like this is ok,
If you don't like the way I behave, you can all leave
Etc.....

I am now going to sit quietly and have a cup of tea.

Today is a great day to let go of something I don't need in my life.

Now you try....

Thank you Brother Billy
Metta
Nathan


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"Develop the mind

"Develop the mind
of equilibrium.
You will always be getting praise and blame,
but do not let either affect the poise of the mind:
follow the calmness,
the absence of pride."
Sutta Nipata
..............
A potential student went to see a Dharma Master and asked:
If I work really hard,
how long will it take me to become enlightened?

Ten years
the Master replied.

No, I mean really work at it
the student said.

The Master replied,
I am sorry
I misunderstood you,
it will take you twenty years.

The student loudly said,
I am serious I am willing to do anything to gain enlightenment.

Oh that's different,
said the Master,
it will take you thirty years.

So I ask myself
Am I ready for enlightenment ?
Can I commit to one day of silence?
A month, a lifetime?

Am I able to one hour, every now and again, to sit and follow my breath?

As a broom sweeps the street;
My breath sweeps my mind.

I am told this practice will lengthen the spaces between my thoughts.
I then become aware it is the spaces that are important,
not my thoughts.

What would happen should my thoughts become less,
do I become a lesser person?
Not when I realize how calm I am.
How peaceful my surrounding, how vibrant the colours.
This place must be where my Buddha Nature resides.

With the practice comes realization that when there is no thought.
I am one with the Universe.

Nothing external.
All is joined.
All is one.

My entire practice is based on this premise of Oneness.

Awareness comes when I let go all past, all future.
I actually achieve serenity beyond my wildest imagination .
This awareness and realization frees me from the mundane.

Is this enlightenment?
All I have to do is practice........
Nathan



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Once,

Once,
the Blessed One, addressed the householder Anāthapiṇḍika thus:

"There are,
O householder, five things that are wished for,
loved and agreeable,
yet rarely gained in the world.

What five?
Long life, beauty, happiness, fame,
and rebirth in heaven.
But of those five things, householder, I do not teach that they are to be obtained by prayer,
or by vows.
If one could obtain them by prayer or vows, who would not obtain them?"

"For a noble disciple, householder, who wishes to have long life, it is not befitting that he should pray for long life, or take delight in so doing.
He should rather follow a path of life that is conducive to longevity.
By following such a path he will obtain long life,
be it divine or human."

"For a noble disciple, householder, who wishes to have beauty, happiness, fame, and rebirth in heaven, it is not befitting that he should pray for them, or take delight in so doing.
He should rather follow a path of life that is conducive to beauty, happiness, fame, and rebirth in heaven.
By following such a path he will obtain beauty, happiness, fame, and rebirth in heaven."
(5:43) AnguttaraNikaya2
.................

When we don't get what we wish for, we become anxious.
This anxiety is one of the causes of suffering.
When we suffer,
we lose the path.

Desire
Anxiety and Suffering

When we wish to escape from the state of anxiety, all we have to do is desire something.

We can spend money,
on things we don't want,
take a pill, that we don't need, go on holiday,
and complain constantly.
Or we can pray for relief. Anything to escape from our anxiety.

We believe this is our way out of suffering.

We create a world for ourselves that doesn't actually exist.
This is our first attempt to escape suffering through desire.

We don't know that desire creates anxiety.

We don't know that desire is the root of all suffering.

We do know that humanity is based on desire and is anxiety driven.
We also know that we become anxious about everything we know,
and everything we don't understand.

In the world of a Buddha,
there is no anxiety.
A Buddha is Siddhas,
a being beyond mundane things.
No goal, no movement,
the journey complete.

Should we be able to see through a Buddha's eyes;
no anxiety, no agony,
no urge to do this or that.
No fever to become.

There is ecstasy,
peace, bliss, well being.
Love and joy.

The Buddha said that ignorance, including desire, is the root cause of all misery.

Our second attempt to escape, is to involve ourselves in misery that causes us to create a future, projecting ourselves into make believe and thus,
causing anxiety.

When we create a tomorrow, and start to live in it, that's when
today dissapears.
We cannot see today, when our eyes are clouded by what tomorrow may bring.

So, desire is born out of the past and projected into the future,
where once again,
we can repeat our mistakes from the past.

This projection causes anxiety, which causes more desire, to be something or someone, other than who, or what, we really are.
We then believe that the past and the future, constitutes our entire life.

Should we analyse and dissect our daily thoughts,
we find only two thoughts,
past and future.
We don't find a present.

The present however,
is our only reality,
the only existence.
Our only joy.

Present moment can only be found when our mind ceases it's chatter.
When it is stilled.
Silent.

Bliss.

Only then does anxiety cease.

Be still
and follow the path.

Metta
Nathan



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Come! Behold the world, which is like a decorated

Come! Behold the world, which is like a decorated royal chariot. Here, fools flounder, but the wise have no attachment to it.
Dhammapada 171
--------------

I am about to leave on my search once again.
I try to leave ego behind and remain humble with all I meet.
This story reminds me;

......A traveller came in search of the most famous Zen Master Roshi.

He had come so far and was tired and grumpy.

He stopped to ask a Monk where the famous Roshi lived and explained how far he had come and how famous he had heard the Master was.

The Monk said;
You mean to tell me you have travelled so far to see this man?
What a waste of your time.
I know this man personally and he is a zero. You have wasted your time and money on silly rumors.

The visitor was outraged.

You lowly despicable man, what do you know.
You obviously have no understanding of anything spiritual or holy.

Very upset the traveller stormed off.

Later that day, he finally found the great Masters home and having been granted an appointment, was brought into his office.

He nearly fainted in shame and remorse.

The man who he was so rude to in the street was sitting in front of him and was none other than the great Roshi himself.

With tears in his eyes,
he begged forgiveness.

Why are you so upset, there is no need to apologize,
the great man said,
I told you the simple truth,
and everything you said was also true.

The great man then said,
Don't let the kharma of your action take hold of you and make you regret our meeting.

Let go.
Be conscious,
Be responsible,
Buy me lunch.

Nathan


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The Buddha,

The Buddha,
I have heard,
said in the following Sutta;

"You're overjoyed if you get what you want.
If you don't, you writhe,
a hunter pierced
by your own arrow,
born of desire, engendering desire, desire driven.
No matter what you long for: a house, land, livestock, gold, serfs, servants, slaves,
men, women, family, (innocent things of themselves) the longing overwhelms you till troubles bear down
and suffering follows like water rushing into a leaky boat.
But if you're mindful,
you evade desire
as easily as side-
stepping a snake.
You're free of the world's sticky traps.
Be mindful.
Abandon desire.
Bale out the boat
& reach the further shore.
Sutta Nipata
................

I was recently asked by a young man;
"Why do I feel so guilty?"

My answer;
"Why are you so fearful of your future?"

He felt guilty, he said, because his parents had struggled for years,
to save, to pay for his tuition overseas.

"Would I find a job,
after graduation.
Would I be able to pay them back?"
"Would my work pay enough?"
"Would I have enough money to get married?"

In his mind it wasn't enough to be an A grade student.
It wasn't enough he was about to leave on an adventure of a lifetime.
All he thought about was future failure and the consequences.

So the outcome, in his mind, must be failure, remorse and loss.

Fortunately, he asked the question as to why he feels the way he does.

Help is always only a question away..

It is the questions we ask that are important.
We know the answers
but look for confirmation as most of us don't trust our own perceptions.
We don't believe we are capable or good enough.

What will people say?
What will happen should I fail?

So now, how do we help this young man with his question?
Will his thoughts be at peace with our answers?

Our answer starts with the statement that we can only react to a picture, or a scenario, that we create in our mind.

We then add to the fact of what we now believe is true, as it comes from our own imagination.

Should the thought creation be a positive one then it will have a positive outcome.
A negative thought process brings a negative result.

It is therefore crucial to only allow good thoughts, good speech, and good behavior, to be our way of life.
Just like
The Buddha
said it should be.....
Metta
Nathan


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I am inspired by many people.

I am inspired by many people.

Recently I was immersed in a mindful hand movement meditation that was shown to me by my friend Phra Fred.

As I was in my practice,
a thought came to search for the compassionate thoughtful monk who passed on the practice.

There is a biography of the monk written by the doctor who was not only his student but also who looked after him till his death.

Dr Vatana Supromajakr faithfully wrote down thoughts from this great monk over many years of their friendship.
Here are a few that came to me as I meditated.

Deceived By Thought

Venerable Luangpor Teean said that we human beings are always thinking, just like the ever-flowing current of a river.
Being lost in and deceived by thought,
he said, is like continually scooping out water and storing it up for no good use.
But if we have sati, (awareness) seeing thought immediately,
as it really is, it is like the water flows freely and passes on by.
Being lost in and deceived by thought gives rise to suffering.

Suffering

In discussing Samudaya, (the second Noble Truth, the cause of suffering) Luangpor placed an object in his hand and then clenched his hand tightly around it,
making a fist.
He then turned the fist over and opened his hand and showed the thing dropping to the ground, he pointed out,
"This is suffering."

We understand immediately that suffering is a thing that we conceive, and assume, and seize firmly, and then we realize that it can be released and gotten rid of.
Luangpor said that someone who can understand this quickly is one with wisdom.

Working With Awareness

Luangpor declared,
"All of us have duties and responsibilities that the society we live in requires us to fulfil, and this is normal.
Performing our duties with sati, will produce results that are completely satisfactory, the best possible results."

Luangpor was a great and most unusual man from whom I have learnt a great deal.
My thanks to the doctor and Fred.

With Metta
Nathan



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