Buddha's Life # 1 – The Bodhisattas Birth

A series of talks covering Buddha's life & central teachings given on Pilgrimage in India. #1 the inspiring birth & the extraordinary causes that preceded it.

Transcript

So here we are,

Second day in Lumpini.

Very nice to walk silently slowly into the Lumpini Grove this morning.

Did you enjoy that?

Composing the mind,

Thinking of what occurred here.

So this is the very place where the Bodhisatta Siddhartha Gautama was born.

I was giving a little thought myself to the meaning of the birth of the Bodhisatta.

Ask a question actually,

Any ideas?

What is the real cause for the birth of the Bodhisatta?

What is the birth of a Bodhisatta?

Two different answers,

One is about compassion,

One is about wisdom.

Both correct.

In a way the Bodhisatta was born when he had enough accumulated virtue to become an Arahant and he decided to delay that realization in the time of Dipankara Buddha,

Many hundreds of thousands of eons ago.

I think that's actually when the Bodhisatta was born and then he had,

I'm not sure how many lives he'd already invested at that point,

But we understand that this Buddha spent four incalculable periods plus a hundred thousand eons perfecting various qualities and accumulating enormous amounts of merit so that he could be a Sammasambuddha.

So in this final life is the birth of one destined to be a Buddha,

But the Bodhisatta was actually born a long,

Long,

Long time ago.

And the Bodhisatta was born,

Not exaggerating,

Millions of times.

So this is a place to recollect.

I was thinking what is it that gives birth to a Bodhisatta?

My own feeling is it's a very particular type of tender loving concern for beings other than oneself.

What else could motivate a person to be willing to be born again and again and again?

Separation from the loved,

Association with the disliked,

Illness,

Aging and death,

Birth,

Illness,

Aging,

Death,

Birth,

Illness,

Aging,

Death,

Thousands,

Hundreds of thousands,

Millions of times.

What's the quality that would stop that being from giving up?

Suppose you have the wisdom Barami,

The Samadhi Barami.

Suppose you've heard teachings from Arahants and Buddhas and you can experience,

Realize,

Abide in Nibbana very easily.

All of the prerequisite qualities are there,

But you don't.

So that is coming from,

They say,

One of the qualities Lord Buddha had in his final life,

Even as an Arahant,

Even as a Buddha who was liberated,

They said that his mind quivered with compassion for all beings.

So the way I would understand it is the Bodhisattva's mind has been quivering with compassion for all beings for a very long time.

And then in his final life,

All of the qualities and all of the merit and also the whole team understanding that nobody accomplishes anything grand in the conditioned world without help from others.

Remembering that Sariputta Moggallana have also been building the requisite qualities to be the chief disciples for one incalculable period and a hundred thousand eons,

So millions of births there as well.

I was also thinking about the mother of the Bodhisattva.

What do you think would be the karmic requirement to have that intimate connection and that extraordinary honor to be the mother of the Bodhisattva in his final birth?

I remember studying a little bit about what the commentaries say about the past life of Visakha,

That she'd actually trained under previous Buddhas,

Being more and more and more generous with each Buddha until she had enough of the Dhanabharami and enough of the auspicious merit to be the foremost woman patroness of the over teaching Buddha,

Sakya Muni Buddha.

And I suspect that it's similar.

I was thinking about Maya Devi,

The Bodhisattva's mother in his final life and I think that it's probably the case that she's given birth to the Bodhisattva many thousands of lives so that she would have that karmic connection and that honor and that privilege and I was thinking in a way what a gift that was also.

The beings who are supporting the Bodhisattva in his mission and his journey,

Incredibly long,

Imponderably long journey.

So when we think of Maya Devi,

A lot of gratitude.

Most of the women here who've had children know that giving birth isn't that much fun and raising children,

There's a lot of joy,

There's a lot of sorrow,

A lot of headaches,

A lot of worry.

I don't think mothers ever stop worrying about their children unless there are a hunt.

So think of that,

Think of thousands of lives as the mother of the Bodhisattva.

That's quite an offering isn't it?

Ensuring that the being that will keep building those qualities and accumulating that merit has what he needs,

Human body.

So I'm going to read a little bit from the final life of the Buddha and one of the things Lord Buddha says,

Or Ananda is actually relaying what he'd heard the Buddha say,

That mindful and fully aware the Bodhisatta lived in Tushita heaven which is the fourth heaven up,

Heaven of the contented,

Before coming down and having the final life on earth and then mindful and fully aware he descended into the womb so that's already unusual.

Most beings don't live out an entire life mindful and fully aware in heaven.

Mindful sometimes,

Fully aware sometimes,

Probably have fuzzy mindfulness and some confusion and various hindrances affecting the minds a lot of the time but the Bodhisatta was mindful and fully aware in the life in Tushita and then mindful and fully aware descended into the mother's womb.

The mother had dreamt of the white elephant if you recall.

I saw a read from the life of the Buddha,

We'll just mention this first,

Ananda is talking with some of the other monks at Jetavana and the Buddha,

What he was actually talking about,

It's wonderful,

It's marvelous.

The way you Buddhas can remember the past lives of previous Buddhas and they can remember previous Buddhas and they can remember what their names were,

What their chief disciples were and he was saying how wonderful and how marvelous that was.

Thus I heard on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Sabati in Jeta's Grove in Atapindika's Park.

Then a number of bhikkhus were waiting in an assembly hall where they had met together on return for their arms round after their meal was over.

Meanwhile it was being said among them,

It is wonderful friends,

It is marvelous how the perfect one's power and might enable him to know of past Buddhas who attained the complete extinction of defilement,

Cut the tangle,

Broke the circle,

Ended the round and surmounted all suffering.

Such were those blessed ones births,

Such their names,

Such their clans,

Such their virtue,

Such their concentration,

Such their understanding,

Such their abiding,

Such the manner of their deliverance.

When this was said the venerable Ananda told the bhikkhus,

Perfect ones are wonderful friends and have wonderful qualities,

Perfect ones are marvelous and have marvelous qualities.

However their talk meanwhile was left unfinished for now it was already evening and the Blessed One who had risen from retreat came to the assembly hall and sat down on the seat made ready.

Then he asked the bhikkhus,

Bhikkhus for what talk are you gathered together here now and what was your talk meanwhile that was left unfinished?

What the bhikkhus and the venerable Ananda had said was related and they added,

Lord this was our talk meanwhile that was left unfinished for the Blessed One arrived.

Then the Blessed One turned to the venerable Ananda,

That being so Ananda explained the perfect one's wonderful and marvelous qualities more fully.

I heard and learned this Lord from the Blessed One's own lips.

Mindful and fully aware the Bodhisatta,

The being dedicated to enlightenment appeared in the heaven of the contented and I remember that as a wonderful and marvelous quality of the Blessed One.

I heard and learned this Lord from the Blessed One's own lips.

Mindful and fully aware the Bodhisatta remained in the heaven of the contented.

For the whole of that lifespan the Bodhisatta remained in the heaven of the contented.

Mindful and fully aware the Bodhisatta passed away from the heaven of the contented and descended into his mother's womb.

When the Bodhisatta had passed away from the heaven of the contented and entered his mother's womb a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared in the world with its deities,

Its Maharas,

Its Brahma divinities,

In this generation with its monks and Brahmans,

With its princes and men and even in those abysmal world interspaces of vacancy,

Gloom and utter darkness meaning the hell realms or Prata realms where the moon,

The sun,

Powerful and mighty as they are cannot make their light prevail,

There too a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared and the creatures born there perceived each other by that light.

So it seems that other creatures have appeared here and this ten thousand fold world system shook and quaked and trembled and there too a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared.

So if you think now in terms of four imponderably long periods that only buddhas can measure that they call an incalculable period plus 100,

000 eons,

If you think of those millions of lives imagine the merit accumulated and try to imagine it now as a pile of light,

Gold light or white light all of the wholesome deeds,

Can you imagine we all have faith as buddhas seen making good karma and accumulating merit,

What kind of merit has been accumulated in millions of lives of perfecting virtue,

Perfecting samadhi,

Perfecting wisdom.

He remember when the bodhisatta left the palace and he went to find his first teachers,

His first teachers taught him the seventh jhana and the eighth jhana,

The highest types of concentration possible for a human being to achieve and he was able to do that and he mastered them quickly.

You think about the amount of practice and preparation the bodhisatta has put into his task and then imagine that merit which is a condition the bodhisattva is working with the conditions the utterly wholesome extreme of conditions then imagine all of that positive potential accumulated merit and vastly skillful qualities coming down from the fourth heaven and landing in somebody's womb on this planet.

I suspect that this isn't metaphorical when it says that a vast measureless light shone through the whole world and the heavens and the hells as well because that's what it is isn't it,

Light,

Bright,

Profoundly wholesome qualities accumulated in unimaginably vast amounts so it said that a light shone even to the darkest parts of the the hells and the preter realms down below and the earth shook it's a kind of an earthquake but it's not an earthquake that causes damage it means the four elements literally quiver with the goodness on the level of consciousness in the mind the citta of the bodhisatta as he descends into the womb.

When the bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb four deities came to guard him from the four quarters so that's the four kings as we chant in the Dhammacakasuta chatu maharajika deva so that no human or non-human beings or anyone at all should harm his or her mother.

So understanding that the devas have a quality of divine eye they can see more subtle phenomena than most human beings can.

Human beings who meditate can see these as well but they would see the vastness of the radiance of the aura of that being so they would know very well this is no ordinary being.

Tanarjuna Nan wants to explain to me that the way devas know who has more merit is the extent of their rasamhi their halo so the more merit you have the bigger the halo is that ball of light that shines from your mind so they instantly know who's been accumulating more bharm who has more merit and they instantly respect each other according to the amount of merit.

Tanarjuna explained that so you imagine what devas could see when that bodhisatta came into the womb so it said that the four kings came to guard him so that no human or non-human beings or anyone at all should harm him or his mother.

When the bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb she became intrinsically pure refraining by necessity from killing living beings from taking what is not given from unchastity from false speech and from indulgence in wine liquor and fermented brews so it's keeping the five precepts as the bodhisatta has done for millions of lives.

When the bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb no thought of man associated with the five strands of sensual desires came to her at all as she was inaccessible to any man with lustful mind.

We understand all that the bodhisattva must have practiced as a brahmachari somebody gone forth from the home life many many many thousands of times so he has that renunciation.

We were chanting just before ne kama barami that's something in his mind established so it'd be an interesting experience for the mother wouldn't it all of a sudden someone else's mind is in the space of her mind with all these incredibly vast amazing qualities in that mind latent obviously having quite an effect on the mom's mind.

When the bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb she at the same time possessed the five strands of sensual desires so she had all pleasant sounds pleasant feelings pleasant tastes being endowed and furnished with them she was gratified.

When the bodhisatta had descended into his mother's womb no kind of affliction arose in her she was blissful in the absence of all bodily fatigue so I would assume that that's a result of merit isn't it?

The Buddha said that merit is synonymous with happiness whatever good things you do whatever happy pleasant feelings that you cause other beings to have with your generosity or with your metta with your sīla then you also experience that as a result so the merit of the bodhisatta then the mom is experiencing no affliction and she was blissful the whole time how many people have a nine month pregnancy experiencing unceasing bliss pretty rare there's a special pregnancy and this is interesting too as though a blue yellow red white or brown thread was strung through a fine barrel gem of purist water eight faceted and well cut so that a man with sound eyes taking it in his hand might review it thus this is a fine barrel gem of purist water eight faceted and well cut and through it is strung a blue yellow red white or brown thread so too the bodhisattas mother saw him within her womb with all his limbs and lacking no faculty so the mom also had some of the divine eye for the period that the bodhisatta was in her womb seven days after the bodhisatta was born his mother died and was reborn in the heaven of the contented other women give birth after carrying a child in the womb for nine or ten months but not so the bodhisattas mother she gave birth to him after carrying him in her womb for exactly ten months other women give birth seated or lying down but not so the bodhisattas mother she gave birth to him standing up when the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb first deities received him then human beings so the devas have caught him in their hands lowering him gently to the earth when the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb he did not touch the earth the four deities received him and set him before his mother saying rejoice oh queen a son of great power has been born to you when the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb just as if a gem were placed on banaras cloth the gem would not smear the cloth or the cloth the gem why not because both are pure so too the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb unsullied unsmeared by water or humus or blood or any sort of impurity clean and unsullied when the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb two jets of water appeared to pour from the sky one cool and one warm for bathing the bodhisatta and his mother as soon as the bodhisatta was born he stood firmly with his feet on the ground then he took seven steps to the north and with the white sunshade held over him he surveyed each quarter he uttered the words of the leader of the herd i am the highest in the world i am the best in the world i am the foremost in the world this is the last birth now there is no more renewal of being in future lives so this is a statement that can be misunderstood i once met a chinese lady in sydney who told me that she didn't have face in the buddha because she thought he was narcissistic and egotistical i'm like what she said yeah all of this i'm the foremost in the world i'm the best in the world she was unimpressed by that we need to understand that this is coming from buddha's clear understanding of the truth it's not an egotistical statement from what he could see with his vast awareness he was the person with the most baromi on the planet at that time and he'd intended to be in that position to fulfill his very particular task when the bodhisatta came forth from his mother's womb a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared in the world with his deities his maras and his brahma divinities in this generation with his monks and brahmanas his princes and men and even in those abysmal world interspaces of vacancy gloom and utter darkness where the moon and sun powerful and mighty as they are cannot make their light prevail there too a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared and the creatures born there perceived each other by that light etc and this ten thousand fold world system shook and quaked and trembled and there too a great measureless light surpassing the splendor of the gods appeared ananda continues all these things i heard and learned from the blessed one's own lips and i remember them as wonderful and marvelous qualities of the blessed one lord buddha having many wonderful qualities perfected then finishes the conversation with something profoundly wise that being so ananda remember also this has a wonderful and marvelous quality of a perfect one a perfect one's feelings of pleasure pain or equanimity are known to him as they arise known to him as they are present and known to him as they subside his perceptions are known to him as their eyes known to him as they are present and known to him as they subside his thoughts are known to him as their eyes known to him as they are present and known to him as they subside him as they subside.

Ananda and that also I remember Lord as a wonderful and marvelous quality of the Blessed One.

That is what the Venerable Ananda said,

The Master approved,

The bhikkhus were satisfied and they delighted in the Venerable Ananda's words.

So Lord Buddha,

Tatagata,

Another word for Buddha,

Meaning thus come and also thus gone.

You have like a purified appearance in the Buddha.

All qualities perfected and no identification with any of them.

And he is perfectly capable of fulfilling his functions for benefiting beings but he doesn't think he's a self for a second.

So the Lord Buddha is training us and explaining to us to see the five khandhas,

The forms,

The thoughts,

The feelings,

The perceptions,

Consciousness as not self.

We'll see them as they are,

They're not a self.

Just to see them as a separate phenomena arising together due to conditions and then seeing the arising,

The ceasing,

The arising,

The ceasing.

Similarly with the four foundations of mindfulness,

To be aware of pleasant,

Unpleasant and neutral feelings as they arise and pass away,

Arise and pass away.

And when we do that,

If we can do that consistently,

We will have insights into not self.

The delusion of perceiving things as a self will fall away.

And the cause of delusion is ignorance as to truth.

The antidote to that is the mindfulness and wisdom which sees things as they are.

Then there is an ignorance.

When there is an ignorance the delusion falls away.

We can't perceive things as a self.

We understand how the self has been a habitual way of perceiving things but we understand it conventionally.

But we understand it as not correct,

A delusion.

It's also said about Buddhists that they teach according to conventional speech so they still have conversations and understand conventions relate to people skillfully so that they can understand it but they know that they're not a self and they know that others aren't a self.

So in a way Ananda is celebrating the Buddha as a wonderful being which he is.

Buddha is also pointing out the fact that he's also not a being at the same time.

Thus come and thus gone.

With regards to the accumulated beautiful qualities of the Bodhisatta,

Many of you know the story of the sage that came to see the young prince in the palace and when he saw the young prince when he looked at the physiognomy,

The physical attributes of the little baby he could see that it was a really remarkable being and he could see that he was going to be one of two things,

A wheel-turning monarch meaning a ruler of the entire planet or a great sage.

And then he started to weep.

He actually realized that he wouldn't be alive because he was old already.

He wouldn't be alive to see this great being blossom.

So not just devas could see this is no ordinary being.

Also human beings who had skills could see even from the physical body that all of those wonderful qualities and profound merits coming together for this final birth,

For this final task.

It's pretty amazing when you think that at the same time that the Bodhisatta was coming down a lot of those beings that became his great disciples were also coming down around the same time.

So you imagine Ananda,

Anuruddha,

The chariot driver,

The deva that lives in the Bodhi tree also came down at the same time.

You imagine there must have just been this descent from heaven like snow of incredibly radiant luminous beings falling on the planet that were going to be hundreds of thousands of Arahants.

It must have been pretty amazing.

If one had divine eye it must have been an amazing thing to see.

So apparently in about 300 million years from one prophecy I read there'll be another Buddha.

They don't appear very often and apparently before this aeon there was these two Buddhas Sikhi and Visabu.

There were five,

No seven,

Seven aeons before this.

There were Sikhi and Visabu Buddhas and then there were seven aeons with no Buddhas.

Then we have this aeon where we have five we're told.

Lord Buddha does speak in the suttas about the coming of Maitreya Buddha or Maitreya in Pali.

So it's a rare,

Special and wonderful thing to meet with the teachings of these wonderful beings and it's a wonderful thing to come on pilgrimage because as Lord Buddha said himself in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta,

When you come and you pay respects at these places it's similar to paying respects to him yourself.

Ananda asked him who will we pay respects to when you're not here anymore and he said future generations should come and pay respects at the place of the birth,

The place of enlightenment,

The place of the turning of the wheel and the place of the Mahaparinibbana.

And Tanarjanan explained that to me that Lord Buddha had very special qualities,

Psychic powers and special skills related to Samadhi.

So anyone with Samadhi,

Really real Samadhi,

Develops some special skills.

But when it's an enlightened being the Samadhi is even purer and even more powerful and the special skills are more refined.

Then with a Buddha,

Much more so.

They're just so adept at understanding consciousness and these four elements and their masters.

Remember the Bodhisatta mastering the seventh and the eighth jhanas very quickly.

So once he was a Buddha his jhanas would have been even more amazing.

So using his psychic powers he blessed these places and Tanarjanan said literally putting a large amount of his accumulated merit and barami,

That's a condition.

Those are conditions within the conditioned world so his place them in these places.

So that those who come,

He does say that those who come with a mind of faith and confidence,

Paying respects with those qualities,

Those beings that will be for their benefit for a long long time.

So we get a similar quality of merit as paying respects to Lord Buddha himself.

A similar quality of merit of listening to that first sermon.

So then we have to take that merit of course and recollect it.

Recollect the fact that we come on pilgrimage,

Recollect that we do retreats,

Recollect that we visit enlightened masters if we can and all of these things.

Recollect the merit and then apply it in our consistent mindfulness.

Apply it in meditating frequently and listening to teachings frequently and not getting lost in restlessness and not getting lost in distraction and not getting lost in laziness.

All of these ways that the hindrances can distract us.

Another thing we do is when we're on pilgrimage we set that determination to practice a bit more,

A bit harder.

Recognizing that the Bodhisattva's efforts were heroic and extraordinary and motivated by compassion.

We're very very fortunate that he was so loving and kind and all of those beings that supported him.

So then it gives rise to a feeling of Ketanu.

But we've benefited from this incredible amount of selflessness.

So recognizing that we've been given something.

We didn't have a right to this.

It's something we were given.

The Bodhisattva didn't have to do what he did.

The Bodhisattva could have been an Arahant under Dipankara Buddha millions of lives ago.

But he was concerned and he built all of those qualities so that he could come and help us.

We recollect that and actually feel blessed.

It's not sort of guilt trip.

You shouldn't feel guilty about that.

You realize my goodness how fortunate we are that this very very special being invested this much motivated by love because he wanted to help people like me.

And then you feel blessed and you feel grateful and then also there's a feeling of not wanting to take that for granted.

Then I want to use this special blessing.

I want to use this special opportunity.

I also want to repay my gratitude for the incredible sacrifice that that being made for people like me.

So just offering a few words of encouragement,

Hope something is useful.

I also rejoice in everyone's good efforts on this pilgrimage.

I think everyone's doing very well.

A lot of early mornings and expressing our willingness to put forth effort and be a bit determined and practice some patience.

Getting up early in the morning,

Walking in the cold air right back there in Bok Gaya.

Many early mornings and up Volta's Peak.

More early mornings here in Lumbini.

Early mornings and coming and spending long sessions sitting longer than you normally would.

And I think this is proof in a way isn't it that is a special quality of blessing in these places because sometimes we're tired and we sit and the mind becomes peaceful.

Sometimes we're sick and we sit and the mind becomes peaceful.

Sometimes there's a lot of noise and we sit and we don't become irritated.

We don't become grumpy.

So we can see that if we were in other places we might not have that level of resolve or that level of peacefulness might not.

And sometimes in very unlikely situations where you just think what's the point but you sit and you try and then all of a sudden the mind finds this very vast and spacious quality of stillness or peace.

So I think most people have had some experience of that at several of the sites already and it's part of our reason why we can keep applying the effort with the level of inspiration.

So let's keep it up.

It's just a few more days now and I do appreciate everyone's sincere efforts and I think most of us are feeling a bit healthier now as well.

Many people got quite sick early on.

I think that was part of this group's karma.

Usually most people become getting sick at the 5th,

6th,

7th day or 10th day and now I can see most people are healthy.

We all got sick in the first week.

So that was a particular challenge that we had.

Usually it's good if you get this wave of inspiration and you get a few nice meditations and then you get sick.

It's kind of easier in terms of a process because you're already inspired.

But what was good to see though was even though many people got sick we didn't let up.

We kept applying the effort and we kept practicing.

Now we're feeling quite a bit healthier.

While we're here just realizing that since this is one of the four,

We've done it in the last two as well I think,

Should we make a formal asking of forgiveness and a formal dedication of merits while we're here?

And I made a lot of good karma so we can share that.

Please repeat after me.

Homage to the Blessed,

Noble and Perfectly Enlightened One.

Homage to the Blessed,

Noble and Perfectly Enlightened One.

Homage to the Blessed,

Noble and Perfectly Enlightened One.

We take this opportunity now with a mind of faith and respect to pay our respects to the site where the Bodhisatta was born into this world in his last life.

We recognize that the Bodhisatta had spent millions of lives cultivating prerequisite qualities motivated by great compassion,

Great love,

Great self-sacrifice so that he could benefit as many beings as possible.

Recognizing this incredible self-sacrifice,

Extraordinary love and compassion,

We give rise to feelings of deep appreciation,

Recognition,

Gratitude,

To the profound effort of the Mahabodhisatta who became the Sammasambuddha.

And we thank with all of our hearts Lord Buddha for his profound wise realization and his profoundly wise liberating teachings.

We also take the opportunity now to ask forgiveness if there is anything that might have been done which was unskillful by body,

Speech or mind towards the Bodhisatta or towards the Buddha in this or past lives.

We acknowledge fault and we ask forgiveness and we make the determination to take more care and be more careful.

Any other Bodhisattas currently cultivating the prerequisite qualities,

Accumulating the enormous merits,

If we have offended any of these beings knowingly or unknowingly,

Intentionally or unintentionally,

We also acknowledge fault and ask forgiveness.

Any great disciples of future Buddhas currently accumulating virtue and vast merit,

If we have done anything unskillful by body,

Speech or mind in this life or previous lives,

Intentionally or unintentionally,

Knowingly or unknowingly,

We acknowledge the fault,

We ask forgiveness and set the intention to be more careful.

May we never be separated from the care of the Mahabodhisattas destined for Buddhahood or from the Buddhas or from their teachings or from their well-practicing disciples.

Dedicate the merit of this aspiration to all beings karmically connected to us via wholesome or unwholesome deeds.

May we all only ever think of benefiting each other.

May we all realize nibbana and be liberated from every kind of suffering.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

Sadhu,

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Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

Reviews

Always inspiring and strengthening. Thank you.

Thank you. It’s wonderful that you can share these talks with so many others.

😊❣😊

most gracious thank you
namaste 🙏

I really enjoyed that talk and it brought home to me more realisations than I had gained from my reading of various books. Many thanks Tan Ajahn

I keep listening to this series of talk's and they are just as interesting and engaging as they were first time around. Thankyou Tan Ajahn 🙇💚🌺

Wonderful to learn more about the Buddha's life. Thank you for sharing! Namaste.

What a great talk! Thank you for including it here. I am sincerely looking forward to hearing and learning from this teacher over the course of the next few weeks and months.

As a novice to these practices and traditions, this was both instructive and very comforting. Thank you.

Loved it. Namaste🙏🏽

Lovely teaching through storytelling.

Thank you for this beautiful teaching ❤🙏

Thank you so much.

Beautiful and very educational for those who aren't yet familiar with Buddhism. While seeking spirituality here, I also don't like to limit myself to one particular teaching, and enjoy learning of Christ and his perfect life on earth. Eternity being so mind boggling, I believe there's so much we don't even begin to understand. Due to our limited communication abilities as humans, we use language, simply words, to try to convey the eternal truths. We use words such as Jesus and Buddha to describe the spiritual. This all leaves me with so many interesting questions in unifying Christianity and Buddhism, both of which I am enthralled with. Having ETERNITY ahead of us, I wonder how many souls will achieve this perfect state. Souls don't remain stagnant. I have to stay in the present as my dear Eckhart teaches, or my mind will explode! 😳Thank you, Ajahn, for your wonderful talks and wisdom. 🙏🏻✨

A very inspirational talk, that filled me with gratitude and appreciation 🙏🏼

Very well explained. Thank you Ajahn

Thank you for your clear and thoughtful teaching of the time Lord Buddha chose to return amongst us for his final time and the assistance of deities, his mother and sages. I had not known this before. I now sit pondering his purpose, meaning and contribution for my own life and for others many thanks Ajahn.