Okay, good evening everyone.
Welcome to our evening Dhamma.
Today, if I got my calendar correct, today is the full moon of the month of Magha.
which makes this magha puja.
Magha puja.
Or magha punami.
Punami means the day of the full moon.
Magha.
But magha puja means it's a time of commemoration.
So normally on this day, it's an excuse.
And there are big celebrations, or special talks, and special good doings in monasteries.
What we commemorate is what is called the Awadapatimokha.
Now in beginning of the dispensation of the Buddha when he began to teach, there was no established set of rules.
And so the tradition goes that he would preside over the
meeting of the monks every two weeks on the full moon, on the empty moon, on the new moon, and would recite the Awad of Bhatimokha.
How it started is on this day, apparently.
I mean, this is the tradition.
So we have this story commemorating this event when it's the Chaturanga Sannipata, the fourfold meeting, where a group of
1,250 Arahants gathered together to listen to the Buddha's teaching.
And so the conjecture is that this is actually the early on in the Buddha's ministry, for lack of a better word.
When he went to Rajagaha and he stopped off on his way there, he stopped off in Gaya Sisa
And he met with these three fire ascetics.
So he spent some time with his first fire ascetic and these ascetics who worshiped fire.
And through various means and miracles, he converted these three brothers, along with their 1,250 followers.
Is that right?
I can't remember exactly.
Something like that.
Anyway, so all of these monks were off meditating.
And suddenly one of them, through his practice, achieved liberation, became Narayan.
And story goes that he got up and decided he would go and pay respect to the Buddha and let the Buddha know of his attainment.
So he walked to where the Buddha was seated up on the hill in the opening and the clearing.
And when he got there, he sat down, paid respect to the Buddha, and then he turned just to make sure there was no
He wasn't going to interrupt anything, and he saw another monk walking towards them, ostensibly to do the same thing.
And so, sure enough, a second monk had become an arahant and did the same thing.
So the first monk said, I'll wait for him to come.
And so when the second monk got there, he did the same thing, turned around, and a third monk was walking.
The idea is they all came together.
And one of the marvelous things about the meeting is that it was completely uncoordinated.
There was no prior engagement.
And yet all 1,250 of them came together.
And they were all our hunts.
and so on.
And so the Buddha, on that day, is said to have given the Ova to Patimokkha.
And so it's just a means of really commemorating this teaching, which is a really important or a good summary.
It's quite well known in the Buddhist world.
It's one of those verses that
is important to Buddhists, Theravada Buddhists.
So how does it go?
The Buddha taught the .. Patience is the highest form of asceticism.
Nibbana is the highest or is the greatest, say the Buddhas.
No, one is not a recluse, a renunciant.
who injures others.
When it's not a recluse who abuses others.
The not doing of any evil.
Being full of good, full of wholesomeness.
Satyita pariyodapanam, together with the purifying of one's own mind.
Itang buddhanasasana.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
Anupavado anupaghato, not speaking badly of anyone or harming anyone.
being restrained or guarded in regards to the patimokha, which is the ways of the community.
Knowing moderation in eating.
Dwelling in the secluded
lodging or having a secluded lodging.
And the striving or exerting oneself in regards to higher minds, higher mind states.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
And so this was considered, or is considered, to be the essence of the Buddha's exhortation.
It's a pithy exhortation, something that we recite, something that we remember.
It's apparently something that all Buddhas teach as their admonishment or exhortation on the holiday.
So kanti paramangtapodidika, patience.
This is an important, this sentence I often remind my meditators of.
Meditation can be such torture.
But there's nothing wrong with the meditation.
It's not that meditation is painful or stressful, not at all.
It's just that we have, we lack patience.
We possess those qualities of mind that require us to be patient with.
Meaning we have greed, we have anger, and to counter them we need the patience.
And patience is the greatest form of asceticism, austerity, torture really.
Because in the time of the Buddha, tapas meant tapas.
It wouldn't mean torturing yourself.
Meditation can be, patience can be quite a torture.
Having to sit through and not react, right?
It's actually a lot easier, and this is why this is the highest, because it's much easier when you feel pleasure to just beat yourself and get rid of it, right?
Self-flagellation, which is apparently a religious thing.
Well, Christians used to do it, and Indian ascetics used to do it.
Buddhists don't do that.
We torture ourselves in other ways.
We torture ourselves with nothing, by refusing to engage in aversion, addiction.
By standing firm in the present moment, in reality, being patient.
Patient with good things, patient with bad things.
Nibbānaṁ paramangvadanti buddhā.
So Nibbāna is the highest.
Again, an important point, and it's fairly simple, and there's not a lot you can say about Nibbāna.
It's freedom.
But putting it at the top is important.
That's what
sort of distinguishes Buddhism from any other religion.
Other religions have their own versions of similar things, but let's be clear in Buddhism, what is the goal?
It's not heaven.
It's not becoming one with God or one with everything or anything.
It's freedom.
It's the unbinding.
It's release.
It's the cessation of suffering.
And here's actually, well, this and another section on this is really the Bhati Moka part, what you shouldn't do.
And it's just a simple admonishment that whatever we do, if it falls under harming others, speaking ill of them, and acting or speaking in such a way as to cause harm and suffering to them, this isn't the way of a reckless.
I remember once there was this monk who was saying something.
He was calling me all sorts of awful names.
He had mental problems, British man.
He had been beaten as a child, abused as a child, done a lot of drugs through his life, and so on.
And then he became a monk, and he was a real terror.
So he called me all sorts of names, blah, blah, blah.
And something came up about how I didn't treat him like a monk, and so on.
And I said, you're not a monk.
And he stopped, and he walked away.
And then he came back about an hour later with the rule book, and he said he accused me of an offense, because I had claimed that he had committed an offense.
He somehow saw that I had accused him of being no longer a monk, as though he had committed a serious offense.
Anyway.
I said to him, no, no, I didn't mean it that way.
I said, one isn't, and I recited this verse, I said, you're not a monk if you abuse others.
And he calmed down, actually, and we were able to talk again.
He was kind of like that.
He just sort of had a role with it.
He would be threatening to beat you the one minute, and then he'd be sitting joking together the next minute.
Yeah, life as a monk in Thailand, never a dull moment.
But this is an important exhortation for us.
Be clear in your minds.
This isn't the way of the Buddha.
Whether you're a monk or not a monk, you wish to be a true recluse, a true renunciant.
You don't have to put on robes to do that.
Be a follower of the Buddha.
Follow his way.
Follow his guidance.
Don't abuse others.
Don't harm others.
Don't speak ill of them.
Don't do any evil.
This is the important.
This part is what everyone repeats.
This is the essence of it.
Be full of good.
Be full of wholesomeness.
And purify your mind.
So these three things really make the essence of Buddhism.
Do not do any evil.
To be full of good.
And to purify your mind.
Now the first two alone aren't enough.
And this is important.
It distinguishes Buddhism from many other types of religious, spiritual, or even good practices.
Because anyone who devotes their time to doing good and avoiding evil is ignoring the crucial aspect of that which causes us to do evil and which prevents us from doing good.
And that's our mind.
If your mind is not pure, if your mind is not well,
and very hard to avoid evil, very hard to be full of goodness.
And so our main activity really is the purification of the mind, because once your mind is pure, you can't possibly do evil.
You can't possibly, well, you are by nature constantly doing good.
And it goes the other way.
It's not to say that you should just ignore evil and good.
Evil will take away from your practice, prevent you from progressing.
And doing good will support your practice, support the strength of mind needed to become enlightened, to purify your mind.
So these three together, etang buddhanasasana, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
But then he repeats.
He gives another list of things that are also the teaching of the Buddhas.
So we think about these as well.
Anupavado, anupagado.
Again, not speaking ill of others, not harming others.
Patimo ke jisangwaro, being restrained by discipline.
So that's for monks.
It's all the rules of the monks.
For lay people, it's the five or the eight precepts.
right livelihood, and so on.
All of this is the teaching of the Buddha's matanyuta jabhatasmin, knowing moderation in eating.
Now the Buddha, you see, this is something that we often neglect.
Be careful.
Your consumption, and we can apply this not just to food, but to everything that we consume, whether it be television, or whether it be internet, or whether it be music, or whatever.
Be careful about your consumption because what you take in affects you.
It changes who you are and if you're not mindful, it can lead to addiction, stress and suffering.
But certainly food is an important thing.
It's the one thing that we need every day.
And so at the least, it acts as a good base reference.
If you're addicted to food, it's a sign you have an addictive personality.
You're addicted to good food, for example, or picky about your food, or that kind of thing.
You obsess over food.
eating too much, maybe eating not enough, mostly eating too much or eating unhealthy food because it tastes better.
or moderation in eating.
Another thing is that these show what a simple life it is.
There's not complex rules or rituals in Buddhism.
Another way of looking at this is live this way, and you've got Buddhism in a nutshell.
to live in a secluded area, to have a secluded lodging.
Of course, the ideal is to be in a forest or in a cave on a mountain or something.
But even here in the city, we've found a way.
It's quite remarkable, exceptional, and much appreciated by all.
We much appreciate all the support that has made this possible.
Here we have rooms that are quiet, and we have a secluded dwelling here where we don't sit around chatting all day and spend our time cultivating goodness, doing good things.
and the devotion to higher mindedness or higher minds, which means going beyond the mundane states of consciousness or the ordinary states of greed, anger and delusion, to have clarity of mind and
quietude of mind and to cultivate wisdom and the super mundane state.
The jhanas as well and then the super mundane jhanas engaged in realization of nibbana.
It's quite simple.
I mean this last one is another really good way of describing it.
Don't do, don't harm others or this is the morality part.
Don't harm others.
Don't speak ill of others.
Follow the rules of the community and the discipline of a Buddhist.
No moderation in eating.
Besides eating, all you're doing is cultivating goodness.
Just be careful of the necessities of life.
Stay in seclusion.
When you're in seclusion, cultivate higher mind states.
Don't just sit around and think or let yourself get distracted.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas, etan, buddha, and asasana.
So, we have here in the Diga Nikaya, it says, vipasi bhagavaraham samasambuddho vikusankhe evang patimokam udhisati
Vipassi is a Buddha way in the past.
Who knows?
Maybe in some other epoch or eon or something.
A long time ago, there was another Buddha.
So the idea is this is apparently what all Buddhas teach.
No matter what else they may teach or not teach, they always teach this.
And this is what they teach to their assembly.
Either way, it's what we teach to our assembly.
And I think it's sort of an important milestone for us to mark.
We commemorate on this day the Awada Patimokkha on the full moon of Manga.
So there you go.
That's the Dhamma for tonight.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Wish you all good practice.