Buddha’s Teaching

1. Let go of the past and be willing to fully live in the present. Be willing to change and to grow Often we are afraid to change, to grow, and because of lack of confidence we don’t try our best. We are responsible for ourselves and our lives, no matter what happened in the past, without blaming anybody.

2. Meditation is like cultivation the land.
3. Do it slowly and gradually.
4. In our life we need balance; we need time four ourselves and time for others. If we live only for ourselves we won’t feel satisfied. If you really want to be happy, help others to be happy, in whatever way.
5. There is no short cut to really developing our inner qualities, there is no easy way.
6. The nature of wisdom, the nature of insight is such that if you know that something is good and you don’t do it, you loose your insight.
7. Be more mindful, your mind will tell you the right thing to do.
8. No matter how much we know if we don’t put it into practice, what is the point of knowledge.
9. Talk small steps to improve yourself every day, consistently and with determination, it gets easier as you go on. As long as you head in the right direction and keep going you’ll get there.
10. Everything comes and goes, we don’t need to push it away, and it will go away by itself.
11. Learning a few things at a time and immediately putting them into practice. That is the most important thing to do, don’t wait for more knowledge. Do what you know right now, that will make you know more and more.
12. Your peace of mind also depends with whom you are association, if you associate with those people who are loving, kind, generous, mindful and peaceful, it helps your meditation.
13. Clothing is important; when you meditate it is much better to wear loose fitting clothes, not very expensive, just simple clothes.
14. You know that you are imagining, you know that it is not real but even though it is not real it has real effect on your mind and that is the most important thing.
15. The answer is it does not matter how long; the only thing that matters is your sincerity. If you decide right now “I will not harm myself, I will not harm anybody else” from that moment you can start to meditate.
16. When the air comes in and goes out , keep your mind on where it touches, keep it there continuously, without any break … try your best !
17. When the mind is not mindful it feels like a homeless person, very insecure, very unhappy. When you are mindful, you fell really at home, so, mindfulness is my home’. When you are mindful you are at home. When you are not mindful you are on the road going nowhere. Get in touch with the spiritual part of your self, the beautiful part of yourself … be mindful.
18. This world is a very good place to learn because there are so many difficulties and imperfections.
19. Difficulties are opportunities to learn, to grow and to become a better person. If you see your life as a long learning process, nothing that happens in your life will be meaningless. Everything will be meaningful.
20. Buddha taught meditation of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and feeling on the body and thoughts also, all six, nothing left out. Train yourself to be mindful of all these six senses.
21. When you experience pain, as long as you can be with the pain endure it, see how your mind reacts. This is a very important learning process.
22. Awareness of object and consciousness, seeing them as natural phenomena, not being, not a man, not a woman, this is the first insight.
23. I am only here to help you, not really here to teach you. Only if you really want to learn you learn. Nobody can really teach you. This is very important thing to understand.
24. Mind and body eating, not ‘I’ eating. Mind and body eating, but we think that I am eating. In truth it is just mind and body process eating. If you can understand that as a process then you have this purity of view.
25. The more knowledge you have and the more you think, the slower you go. Although you have a lot of knowledge about the Buddha-Dhamma, while you are meditating don’t think about it.
26. To be really healthy means to have really clear understanding, there is no other way to become mentally healthy.
27. Loving kindness ( metta ) arises as loving kindness and passes away as loving kindness; it cannot change its nature. Its unique, natural characteristic does not change. It only arises and passes away; that is why it is impermanent ( anicca ).
28. You feel happy because you are totally detached. Detachment brings real happiness. Attachment is a burden. Most people mainly feel happy when they get what they want. Real happiness is, not wanting anything.
29. To want to be free means to want to be pure. If we really want to be free, we musy purify ourselves: Purifying sila, purifying Samadhi and purifying wisdom. Without purification we cannot be free.
30. Our life is the result of our mind.. When the mind becomes pure and noble, it cannot manifest in a lower from of life.
31. Thinking is very dangerous, thinking can create so much. You become emotional also. Real insight is not emotional, it is clarity of understanding, wisdom, there is no satisfaction, there is no enjoyment in this process anymore and that is very clear.
32. It is very peaceful but without any attachment even to peacefulness, and there is no desire to escape.
33. Determination is very important; because once you determine it wholeheartedly your mind obeys.
34. In order to understand, the best way is to practice. That’s why the Buddha said it’s unthinkable. You cannot understand it just by thinking. Nibbana is not something that arises or that happens. We cannot say when Nibbana happens . Nibbana is a reality which a person who has developed enough wisdom can experience. It depends on his clarity of wisdom. The more clear wisdom is, the more clearly you’ll experience it.
35. Thinking about whether something is going to happen or not, worrying about the future is also quite useless. But that doesn’t man that you should not plan for the future.
36. Real life is in the present. Life is not just an idea or a concept, but it is our sensations, our perceptions here and now.
37. To be alone is very good, to be lonely is not.
38. Want is not that bad. Need is more bad because when you say “ I need” that means you cannot live without it.

Buddhism 

            The name Buddhism comes from the word “budha “ which means  “wake up“ . So, Buddhism is philosophy of awakening which comes from the experience of the man, prince Siddhata Gotama. It is the teaching of Buddha.

            The founder of Buddhism is Siddhata Gotama. In the year 623 B.C he was bourn into a royal family in northern India. He grew up in wealth and luxury but he didn’t find the fully happiness in his life. After encountering an old man, an ill man, a corpse and an ascetic, he renounced his princely title and became a monk. When he was 29, he left his wife and child. After six years study and meditation, he finally understood how to be free from suffering and ultimately to achieve salvation Siddhata Gotama, Known as the Buddha, who was himself awakened at the age of 36. He lived for another 45 years in which time he traveled all over northern India, teaching others what he had discovered.

            There are many different types of Buddhism. It means many different ways of practicing but Buddhism is the same. There are mainly two types of Buddhism in the world; Theravada and Mahayana. The southern Asian countries are practising Theravada like Myanmar, Srilanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The northern Asian countries are practicing Mahayana, like Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China. For example they look like Catholic and Protestant. Theravada looks like Catholic and Mahayana Looks like Protestant. The goal of the Theravada is Nirvana. But the goal of the Mahayana is to be enlightened essence; “Bodhisava” to save others like a god. This is a great difference between them.

            According to the chronicles, legends of various pagodas, and oral traditions, Buddhism reached Myanmar even during the life time of the Buddha, but did not make a lasting impression. Then the great Ashoka sent a religious mission to the kingdom of Thaton, in the same way as he sent religious missions to Ceylon and other countries of south east Asia. The Theravada Buddhism in our country begun to flouris since 11th century, during the Bagan period till now. It arrived in Thailand in 12 th century and Cambodia in 13 th  century.           

            Buddhists have a right believing and worshipping. They convince these three gems; Buddha,Dhama ( teaching of Buddha ) and Sanga ( monks ).  

            The essence of Buddha’s teaching is the Four Noble Truths. They are 

 (1)   the truth of suffering

(2)      the truth of the cause of suffering.

(3)      The truth of the end of suffering and

(4)      The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.

This path is called the Noble Eightfold Path. They are

(1)      Right Uderstanding

(2)      Right  Thought

(3)      Right  Speech

(4)      Right Action

(5)      Right Livelihood

(6)      Right Efford

(7)      Right Mindfulness

(8)      Right Concentration.

The basis of Buddhist’s morality is the Five Precepts. These are;to avoid killing living beings

(1)      to avoid stealing

(2)      to avoid sexual misconduct]

(3)      to avoid lying and

(4)      to avoid alcohol and other intoxicating drugs.

                 Buddhist believe in Karma. It does not refer to preordained fate. Karma refers to good or bad actions which a person takes during her lifetime. Karma play out on the cycle of rebirth. Nirvana is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. Nirvana is an experience of great and highest happiness. How we can achieve to get Nirvana is only one solution. That is meditation.

            Meditation is a conscious effort to change how the mind works, Meditation helps to develop the awareness and the energy needed to transform mental habit patterns. Meditation is essential for our mental health and well- being.The Buddha taught many different types meditation. But the two most common and useful types of meditation are Mindfulness of Breathing and Loving Kindness meditation .

            Buddhism is now 2550 years old and has about 350 million followers world-wide. It is being practiced not only in Asian countries but also in Europe and America. Buddhism is getting enlarged and more and more practicing all over the world; about 20 % of the world population.

            Because of the meditation in most of the Buddhist countries, people look peaceful, get content and whenever they have stronger desire and greed, do not dwell on that for long and come to know walking from the middle way.

Buddha said that do not believe in what you have heard, do not belive in traditions, because they been handed down for many generations; do not believe in anything, because it is rumoured and spoken by many; do not believe merely because a witten statement of some old sage is produced; do not believe in conjectures; do not believe in that as truth to which you have merely the authority of your teachers and elders.

To abstain from evil

To do good

To purify the Mind

These are the teachings of the Buddhas.

            Buddhist people share their peacefulness to the others. Whenever the clients visit to the Buddhist countries, they got the peace of mind.