Final Campaign Days
We would like to express our sincere and deep gratitude to the 726 generous donors who have donated $66,413 so far in our end-of-year fundraising campaign. We have surpassed this year's goal of $55,000!
Every donation is so valuable. If you too would like to support Pariyatti in disseminating the words of the Buddha across the world, we would gratefully appreciate your donation.
May you all experience peace and harmony in 2022. May more and more people find the path to liberation, walk on it and grow in Dhamma...
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Pariyatti is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
All donations are tax-deductible
in accordance with U.S. tax law.
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Webu Sayādaw (1896-1977) was one of the most esteemed Burmese Therāvada Buddhist monks of recent times. Exemplifying the strict adherence to a simple meditative life, he constantly stressed the need to walk the Buddha's path to its final goal right here and now, in this precious but fleeting human existence.
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He was notable in giving all importance to diligent practice rather than to scholastic achievement. The technique of meditation Webu Sayadaw practiced and taught was anapana sati, the observation of the breath.
Technically Webu Sayadaw is not part of the of teachers in our lineage (Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka, in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin), since he did not teach Sayagyi. We do however include him here since Webu and Sayagyi had a close relationship. It was Webu Sayadaw who encouraged Sayagyi to start teaching. Having such a highly reputed monk endorse him to teach, supported Sayagyi with his mission as a teacher. We owe Webu Saydaw much gratitude for this.
We offer several titles that contain a large number of his discourses, which we find very valuable. Webu Sayadaw's refreshing simplicity, his patience, his lovely sense of humor, and his humility, all of which are revealed in the dialogues with his audience, illumine a side of the Buddha's teaching that can not easily be perceived in treatises and texts.
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DISCOURSE THREE
Keep Your Mind on the Spot
WEBU SAYADAW: You have undertaken to keep sīla. Having taken up the training in sīla, practice it to the utmost. Only if you really practice morality will the aspirations you treasure in your heart be fulfilled completely.
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Once you are established in moral conduct, the skilful actions you undertake will result in the fulfilment of your noble aspirations. You believe in the benefits accruing to you from giving charity, and you respect the receiver of your gift. So, straighten your mind and give to the Dhamma which has no peer. Prepare your donations yourselves and prepare them well, without employing others for the purpose.
Giving your gift, you ought to aspire to awakening by saying: “I desire to attain Nibbāna” (idaṃ me puññaṃ nibbānassa paccayo hotu). The noble ones who attained Nibbāna according to their aspirations are so numerous that they cannot be counted.
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The reality one realizes and knows for oneself after penetrating the Four Noble Truths is called bodhi. There are different types of bodhi: sammā-sam-bodhi (the supreme self-awakening of a teaching Buddha), pacceka-bodhi (the self-awakening of a non-teaching Buddha), and sāvaka-bodhi (the awakening of a disciple of a teaching Buddha). The sāvaka-bodhi is divided into three levels: agga-sāvaka-bodhi (attained by the two chief-disciples), mahā-sāvaka-bodhi (attained by the eighty leading disciples) and pakati-sāvaka-bodhi (attained by all other Arahats). All of us have to aspire to Nibbāna, the highest blessing. Why can you bring your aspirations to Nibbāna to fulfilment now? Because the time is right, your form of existence is right, and because of the fact that all virtuous people who put forth effort can fulfil their aspirations.
The right time is the time when a Buddha arises and the time during which his teachings are available. All those who are born in the human plane or in a celestial plane are said to have the right birth. Now you have to fulfil your aspirations through your own effort.
See to it that you bring your work to a conclusion in the way so many before you have done. Once they reached their goal they were truly happy not only for a short time, or for one lifetime, but for all the remaining lives.
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Latest journal entry:
The Cow: In the Absence of Rumination, What Remains is Peace
By Pierre Robert
Geneticists tell us that cows and humans share about 80 per cent of their genes. Two eyes, two ears, a nose, lungs, liver, a heart, etc. Moreover—because of genetics—both have something else in common: they ruminate. The cow brings up food already swallowed to chew it again, while humans bring up long-gone events, to chew them again.
Over millennia, the cow has slowly developed this ability, which has contributed to her very survival. Grazing too long in an open meadow, in danger, she has cultivated the ability to minimally chew grass and swallow it quickly, and then regurgitate and rechew it calmly later, out of the sun and away from predators. Continue reading...
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The above is an excerpt from The Essence of Buddha Dhamma, archived in the Treasures section.
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The teachings of the Buddha are enshrined in the Tipiṭaka. These teachings were not given by the Buddha just to be preached and studied. You are good people; you have to practise the teachings with unwavering effort from the time you obtain them in order to escape from this suffering.
Do not get confused about the teachings. We don’t have to know many techniques, only one; but that we should know clearly. If we establish one technique with strong effort and get rid of all doubts then, without asking anyone else, we shall find the answers.
Choose one technique and practise it steadfastly. If you focus your mind at the small spot where the air touches when you breathe in and out, then there will be no wanting, no aversion or delusion, and as these three are absent, you are immediately out of suffering.
So, for a short moment your mind is pure. Now, if your last mind-moment came up at this time and you died, would there be anything to be worried about or to be afraid of?
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NOTE: Due to its length some email providers (such as Gmail) will clip this newsletter at the bottom. It that case you will have to open the newsletter in your Internet browser (via the link then provided) to read it in its entirety.
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If your body and mind are under control, as they are now, there can be no roughness of physical or verbal action. This is adhisīla or perfect morality.
If adhisīla becomes strong, the mind will become peaceful and tranquil and lose its harshness. This is called adhicitta.
If adhicitta (samādhi) becomes strong and the mind stays one-pointed for a long period, then you will realise that in a split second matter arises and dissolves billions and billions of times. If mind (nāma) knows matter (rūpa), it knows that matter becomes and disintegrates billions and billions of times in the wink of an eye. This knowledge of arising and disintegration is called adhipaññā.
Whenever we breathe in or out, the in-coming and the out-going air touches somewhere in or near the nostrils. The sensitive matter (kāya-pasāda) registers the touch of air. In this process, the entities touching are matter, and the entity knowing the touch is mind. So do not go around asking others about mind and matter, observe your breathing and you will find out about them for yourselves.
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Our Treasures section is a repository for hard-to-find and commemorative material, worth exploring!
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Recently uploaded lessons:
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Donations: Either one-time or monthly pledge
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Pariyatti is a charitable, non-profit, educational support system for the Dhamma community. Pariyatti exists because of funds donated by supporters.
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Many employers in the U.S. will match donations to eligible nonprofit organizations; if yours does, please take advantage of this to double the value of your gift!
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Donations to Pariyatti of any amount can be made online, by check, or by phone; they are tax-deductible in accordance with U.S. tax regulations.
For U.S. residents the most profitable way to donate to Pariyatti is via PayPal Giving Fund. There are no fees on donations given via the PayPal Giving Fund; we receive the full 100%. To make a donation in Euros or Pounds please contact us at eu-uk-donations@pariyatti.org.
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FACT: Did you know that Pariyatti frequently receives letters from prisoners asking us for Dhamma books? We respond to these letters with a donation of books from a collection set aside for this purpose.
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Pāli Word
ālokite — looking straight ahead
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