The perfectly self-awakened Buddha was born with great spiritual virtues,
A birth accompanied by immense merit and spiritual power.
While we may call him a human,
He was a very special kind of human,
One with the highest spiritual qualities.
His mind had cultivated the perfections to the point where he was known as a supreme bodhisattva.
A bodhisattva,
But this was the supreme bodhisattva,
Perfect in compassion and loving-kindness.
He saw all living beings as his children and wished to free them from suffering.
Just as we,
When we have children,
Want them to be free from hardships and suffering,
But it's in terms of the body.
But the Buddha saw that sentient beings still suffer mentally.
Even if they appear to have happiness and material abundance with the four requisites,
Their minds are still burdened with various forms of suffering.
Ground for disease,
A dwelling place for illness.
Seeing this,
The Buddha renounced everything in order to become the Buddha.
Therefore,
When he was born,
He uttered extraordinary words,
Declaring that,
I am the foremost,
The most excellent,
And the most developed in this world.
This refers to the greatness of his mind.
In the end,
He practiced diligently and attained enlightenment under the great Bodhi tree,
Becoming the Sama Sambuddha,
The perfectly self-awakened one.
This enlightenment took place within the mind.
As we know,
This gave rise to his supreme wisdom and purity.
He became an Arahant,
Arahang Sama Sambuddho Bhagava.
He was one who was completely free from defilements.
Who attained enlightenment by his own efforts,
And who fully understood the nature of merit and demerit.
No one else could ever know these things as completely as he did.
When the perfectly self-awakened Buddha realized the truth,
He did not keep that knowledge to himself,
Nor did he seek liberation for himself alone.
With perseverance and patience,
He taught others.
This was his great compassion.
He did so in order that all beings,
Especially those with only a little mental defilement or dust in their eyes,
Could come to understand as he did.
He could attain enlightenment and know as he did,
Becoming Savakas,
Noble disciples.
That is,
The Buddha's awakening is able to arise in all of our hearts.
The perfectly self-awakened Buddha taught all beings with loving kindness and compassion.
Even as he approached his final passing into Parinibbana,
He continued to make the effort to teach out of goodwill and compassion.
Passion.
One example is Chunda,
The layman who offered the Buddha his final meal.
He had pure moral conduct,
Keeping the five precepts,
And attained to the level of Sotapanna,
Stream-enterer.
The Buddha declared that the merit of the one who offered his last meal,
From Chunda,
Was equal to that of Sujada,
The woman who offered him the meal before his enlightenment.
Both meals bore equal great merit because after receiving them,
The Buddha entered into deep meditative absorptions.
This shows that Chunda had immense merit.
And the last person to attain Arahantship during the Buddha's lifetime was Venerable Subbada.
He possessed immense merit.
The Buddha had to travel a long distance from Vesali to Kushinara,
And it took a great deal of time.
In those days,
Many people attained Arahantship,
But that was because they had accumulated merit over countless past lives.
Training Arahantship or reaching the level of Stream-Enterer,
They had already created great merit.
As for us,
We are now in the process of cultivating spiritual accumulations.
Sometimes we may face many obstacles in life,
But no matter how great those challenges are,
We continue to train ourselves and endure with patience.
When we are born as human beings,
We've already received this precious and rare human body.
Having this good fortune,
We should not be discouraged by anything.
As long as we still have breath and a healthy body,
We must keep striving in life.
Life is difficult,
And the Buddha taught that life itself is suffering.
Studying,
Learning,
And striving to obtain the basic necessities,
All of it involves suffering.
Nothing comes easily.
But that's okay.
We endure it.
With patience,
We will eventually get through these challenges.
So don't lose heart,
Or fall into despair in your life.
We must keep fighting.
It may be that in this life,
We were born to cultivate spiritual perfections.
To endure.
To train our minds and hearts.
To become steady and wholesome.
And to truly see the value of this life we've been given.
Even being born,
From the time we are in our mother's womb until we are born,
Is not easy.
As we grow up,
Each of us carries our own karma.
Some people are born with all 32 physical attributes intact,
While others may be born with certain physical imperfections.
This too is according to causes and conditions.
Just like animals,
They're born to exhaust their karma.
But we shouldn't look down on them.
Once their karma as a dog,
Cat,
A pet,
A cow,
Buffalo,
Elephant,
Horse,
Or any other animal is finished,
They may be reborn as humans with great spiritual merit.
It all depends on the process of karmic repayment.
So we shouldn't look down on them.
The same goes for people.
Some may be born into poverty,
But we shouldn't judge them either.
They are simply in the process of using up their karma.
One day when their karma is exhausted,
They may be reborn as wealthy or even extraordinarily wealthy individuals.
Therefore,
In life,
One should not look down on others or speak ill of them.
Instead,
Cultivate compassion and kindness,
Helping one another.
Every mind desires happiness.
It desires happiness and doesn't want suffering.
Let us radiate loving-kindness and wish for our own well-being.
May all beings be happy and free from suffering.
For no one desires suffering.
When something good happens to us,
We wish for others to rejoice with us,
Without envy,
Resentment,
Or trying to harm us.
When ignorance still conditions the mind to do unwholesome things,
We should not add to the blame.
Instead,
We should train the mind to develop the four divine abidings.
The Buddha taught that if we maintain our hearts with the four divine abidings,
Having loving kindness towards all beings,
As if they were a child in a mother's womb.
Just as a mother carefully protects and cherishes her pregnancy to ensure the child's safety,
We too should have that kind of loving kindness.
Let us recognize the value of our life being born,
So that we may be born again in a spiritual sense.
From a mind that is unwholesome and still dominated by defilements,
It can develop into a better,
More wholesome mind.
From being an ordinary person,
One can become a beautiful and virtuous person,
And eventually a noble one,
An Arya.
Removed from enemies,
Meaning the defilements of attachment and clinging.
So we must train ourselves.
And it's possible for everyone.
Everyone has the same hands,
The same feet,
The same breath.
We all can do it.
We can practice meditation to the point of attaining to Jhāna's absorptions.
And we can also train the mind to become a noble disciple,
An Arya.
It is possible if we are diligent,
Determined,
And have a clear goal.
It's like studying.
If we have a goal,
We can succeed.
Even if our intelligence isn't great,
We can be more diligent than others and still accomplish it.
Others might understand something after reading it once,
And we may need to read it three times,
But we still can learn and develop a profession to live in this world.
That's how it is.
We need to earn the means to survive.
Even if it's difficult,
We endure.
We bear with it.
Patience and endurance are the supreme virtues that burn away defilements.
So we have time to chant.
So we chant and meditate a lot.
Bad things leave our minds.
Maintain our body to be complete and well,
And guard and take good care of your mind.
Practice without getting lost in thoughts,
Especially those that wish to harm or destroy this body,
Which is a valuable asset that we have obtained through much merit.
It's not something easily attained.
When this is the case,
Then on important days in Buddhism,
We should bring our bodies to offer alms,
To listen to Dhamma,
To train and practice,
As an act of devotional practice to the Buddha,
Who was born,
Attained enlightenment,
And passed into Parinibbana.
His final teaching,
Or last instruction,
Was for us to dwell in heedfulness.
Many people have asked me.
I'm not very diligent,
And I haven't really put in much effort.
I asked them,
If you were close to death,
Would you make the effort then?
Do you know when you will die?
If we knew that in another month we would die,
Or that illness was approaching.
Right now we can walk,
But soon we might not be able to walk,
Sit,
Or do anything except lie down.
Then we should not be heedless.
We should reflect that life is uncertain,
And we strive to make effort in our practice,
So that concentration and wisdom may arise,
Following as the Buddha taught.
When the Buddha attained enlightenment,
What did he teach?
Sila,
Samadhi and Panna.
Morality,
Concentration and wisdom.
The path to liberation from suffering,
Known as the Noble Eightfold Path.
He taught us not to be heedless,
Which means we must have mindfulness.
If we lack mindfulness at any moment,
Then we are heedless.
Of course we have.
We've seen many lying,
Still in death.
But have you ever seen a dead person who can still walk?
We haven't.
Dead people only lie there without breathing.
And the world,
Though they still are alive and breathing,
Are actually the walking dead,
Because they lack mindfulness.
Therefore the Buddha taught us to be mindful and to reflect on death frequently,
With every in and out breath.
Venerable Ananda reflected on death seven times a day,
But the Buddha said that was too little.
The Buddha himself reflected on death with every in and out breath.
That is complete mindfulness.
So let us train ourselves to follow his example as an act of devotional practice.
Especially today being an important commemorative day in Buddhism,
Then when we reflect in this way,
Merit and wholesome qualities arise.
We honor the one whose mind was completely pure,
Unequaled by anyone.
We chant as an offering to the Buddha.
We give alms as an offering to the Buddha.
We listen to Dhamma as an offering to the Buddha.
Let us make our minds joyful today.
Today let us firmly resolve not to be angry with anyone,
Not to bear ill will towards anyone,
Not to wish harm upon anyone,
But instead to have only loving-kindness and compassion in our hearts,
And to keep our minds joyful for just one day.
If anyone tries to make us angry,
We will choose not to get angry today.
Why?
Because we offer this as a gift to the Buddha.
Anyone.
Getting angry only means the defilements are burning our own hearts.
It's better not to be angry.
We won't be greedy or crave anything either.
The Buddha had so much,
Yet he renounced it all and entered into parinibbana.
See,
In the end,
Nothing can be taken with us,
Only a pure mind like the Buddha's.
Therefore today we will not be greedy.
Just for one day,
Let us refrain from greed.
Even if it arises a little,
That's okay.
We try to let it go,
And strive to cultivate goodness.
Walk meditation around the Chedi courtyard.
Walk around the ordination hall.
Meditate and practice to make the body strong,
And the mind resilient and joyful.
Make a heartfelt aspiration to live a long life in order to continue practicing as a devotion to the Buddha.
Let us increase merit each day.
Grow in wholesomeness day by day.
Don't listen to discouragement arising in the heart.
When it becomes so heavy that it starts affecting our body,
We reject that.
For whatever time of life remains,
Let us dedicate it as an offering to the Buddha,
The Dhamma,
And the Sangha.
No matter what happens,
We offer it all to the Buddha.
Just keep practicing with determination.
In the end,
The goodness we do,
And the wholesome actions we've accumulated,
Will bear fruit.
And we will be able to overcome suffering and hardship.
Set your mind firmly in this way until insight and the experience of Dhamma arises in the heart.
Then you will have true confidence that the Buddha truly existed,
Truly attained enlightenment,
And that his teachings,
When practiced,
Truly bring real results.
Greedy,
Deluded and caught up in everything.
But later,
When wisdom arises,
The delusion fades and we let things go.
We are no longer deluded as we once were.
The Buddha said that this birth of his was his final lifetime and he would not be reborn again.
It's like a house whose frame has been dismantled.
The Buddha said the framework of defilements,
Meaning Ignorance was completely destroyed.
The Buddha had knowledge arise and defilements were ended.
It was called Nibbāna,
Arising.
This was his first discourse.
And the final teaching of the Buddha is for us to dwell in heedfulness.
To know that all conditioned things are impermanent.
They arise and pass away as a natural law.
So do not be heedless.
Remain established in heedfulness,
So monks.
And truly,
This applies to all of us.
Ajahn Chah said,
You can see the walking dead,
Those without mindfulness.
For now.
Set aside talk of wars,
Too.
Speak less and be mindful.
Then this becomes a place of peace for our hearts.
Everything in the world is chaotic.
Whether in the Buddha's time or now,
The world has always been full of turmoil.
Why?
Because ignorance,
Delusion,
Greed,
Hatred and delusion still exist.
That's just how the world is.
It never ends.
But those with wisdom seek a way out,
Towards peace,
To make the mind calm.
This is the path to true peace.
We train the mind according to the Buddha's teaching.
In the end,
Morality,
Concentration and wisdom come together in what is called Magga Samaggi,
The unification of the noble path.
True knowledge and vision arise.
So may you set your hearts on this.
May you all grow in blessings.
