So it's the 10th of February,
2025 today,
And on the 12th of February it will be Magha Puja Day.
This is the day that the Buddha gave a teaching,
Devanavada,
Taught very deeply to nature of the Dhamma.
This practice of abandoning all harmful deeds,
So the giving rise to skillful,
Wholesome,
Bringing the mind to purity.
And for summoners,
So renunciants,
Those intent on peace,
The Buddha gave an even deeper teaching.
So summoners are those who are desiring or wishing for peace.
And so he taught to not harm the lives of any beings through our actions of body,
Speech.
And to not have any ill-will or wishing harm,
Wishing to create pain in any being.
And when we do that,
Then we are restrained within the patimokkha,
In the monastic discipline.
So this here is patimokkha,
Sangbhara sila,
So being restrained,
Having sila in the patimokkha,
Being strict in our practice of the patimokkha.
So caring for the vinaya,
Looking after the patimokkha well,
It really means is to bring our actions of body and speech within the bounds of sila,
Of virtue.
To not say anything or do anything which will cause harm.
And then when we practice,
What we're doing that for is to realize Nibbana.
And when we take on the robes in ordination,
That we have that intention that I'm taking these robes for the sake of making Nibbana clear.
Because Nibbana,
It's the supreme Dhamma,
The highest,
Higher than any other Dhammas.
And samanas are those who wish for a pure emptiness,
And that is Nibbana.
So we have to be intent to train a lot,
To practice a lot,
To be composed,
To be cautious.
And we call indriya sanghvara.
And so to compose the senses,
The faculties.
And when we do that,
Then we have this,
The means is that we have a good practice of the vinaya.
And when we care for that well,
Then just naturally we won't harm any others.
We won't wish,
For example,
To steal or take others' wealth.
That we will be living our lives and engaging in a livelihood which is pure.
We also train ourselves well,
Too.
We have effort,
We have kanti,
It's endurance,
Forbearance,
To forbear a lot.
So we wake up early in the morning,
Go to sleep late at night.
We sleep a little,
Eat a little,
Not following our defilements,
Not following our wishes.
But we need to train in order to do that.
To do it a lot,
To develop that a lot,
And carry on going without stopping.
We attend the morning chanting,
The evening chanting.
And we fulfill our duties in the monastery,
Help to clean the monastery,
Do our walking meditation,
Sitting meditations,
The very foundation of our practice.
And when we do and act in this way,
And carry on going,
Then our minds will settle down into peace.
When they're peaceful,
This is bringing skillfulness,
Gusala,
To the state of completion.
And so we do this gradually,
Steadily.
When we understand the very principles of the practice,
We see that what that is,
Is making mindfulness consistent.
Bringing about this firmness to the mind,
The state of samadhi.
And it's not that we do that when we're just sitting in meditation.
We can be walking meditation as well,
Or doing other activities.
And to have consistent mindfulness when we're doing that.
And this is something that's important.
To be mindful,
To watch our own minds.
Are they going into liking?
Are they going into disliking?
And if they are,
Then we teach our mind so that they're able to let go.
They're able to put these things down and come back into a centered,
Poised state.
And this not allowing the mind to go into liking or disliking,
This is the path to nirvana.
So when the mind is well settled in peace,
Then rapture appears.
A state of well-being fills the heart.
And here then the proliferations of the mind cease.
That we can be relieved of greed,
Hatred and delusion,
At least to some degree.
And then when the samadhi grows,
Then that works to hold the defilements at bay.
There's this state of stopping,
Of stillness.
We can put down the defilements temporarily.
But it's when we see that all physicality and mentality is empty,
And this is when knowledge appears.
And the defilements,
They fade,
They go down.
So in the language of the world,
They say that this is destroying the defilements.
But really what it is,
It's a bringing about of knowledge.
So like when we see the body as being comprised of these four natural elements,
Then here knowledge appears.
And when knowledge appears,
Then this delusion fades.
But we don't destroy delusion,
Rather what we do is bring about knowledge.
However,
In the language of the world,
They phrase this as a destruction,
A destruction of the defilements.
When knowledge appears,
Then emptiness appears.
We need to train ourselves in this.
So on this day of Magha Puja,
There were 2,
250 Arahants,
So 1,
250 Arahants who met together in this meeting,
Without any prior arrangement.
And they all had pure minds.
And so they gathered together for this patimokkha that was a pure patimokkha.
And the Buddha gave a teaching as well.
And so this teaching of the Dhamma,
An outward bringing out of the Dhamma,
Is very important.
And he taught the principles,
He taught the ideals,
And very important ideals.
So those of abandoning harmful acts,
Giving rise to skillfulness,
Bringing the mind to purity.
These are the principles,
The ideals of this asana.
He also taught the methods of the practice for monastics,
That those who harm or injure others,
That they're not summoners,
They're not ones who are seeking peace.
But those who were listening to the Buddha,
They were all Arahants,
Fully awakened beings already.
The reason he gave these teachings was for the sake of later generations of disciples.
He taught that the monks need to look after their minds,
Need to care for their minds well.
To not have thoughts of harming others,
But rather to train the mind to bring up loving kindness within it.
To have the Dhamma of Sila or virtue,
The Dhamma of mindfulness,
The Dhamma of wisdom.
But to get these,
We need to train.
So he taught us to be genuine monks,
Which means to have wisdom,
To know and to see.
So to know and see this body,
For example,
That is not something beautiful,
It's something that will break apart.
And when we see that,
Then we gain wisdom,
We gain a clear understanding.
So we see that this body,
That it is something which is repulsive,
Something that does need to break.
It's not something that is permanent and lasting.
So we try to train ourselves like this.
And as we do,
Then,
In no long time,
We will understand the Dhamma.
So may you set your heart on this.
