Metta

22/09/2026

30/06/2026

Lên chùa cầu bình an đầu năm

08/08/2025

08/08/2025

23/05/2023

During the Tang Dynasty, a certain court official asked the Zen master, Niao Ke Dao Lin, to summarise the dhamma. The master replied by quoting the famous Ovāda Pātimokkha verse:

"Abandon all that is unwholesome. Cultivate all that is wholesome. Purify your mind. This is the teaching of all the Buddhas."

The court official was unimpressed. It seemed to him a disappointingly mundane answer. The master responded by saying that although a small child might be familiar with this summary, even an old man of great experience finds it difficult to practise.

The most profound teaching is not the most complex. The most profound teaching is the one that has the most transformative effect on our lives. It is for this reason that Niao Ke Dao Lin chose these three practices for his summary. To use a modern idiom, they are not rocket science. They are far more than that.

Nothing in this human realm could be more challenging than abandoning the unwholesome, cultivating the wholesome and purifying the mind. Nothing could be more fulfilling.

It seems highly likely that, before too long, human involvement in rocket science will be usurped by AI. But the practise and realization of dhamma will only ever be possible for this mysterious human mind.

— Ajahn Jayasaro

https://www.facebook.com/jayasaro.panyaprateep.org

21/05/2023

There is nowhere in the human realm where we can escape the eight worldly dhammas of 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 and 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 and 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 and 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 and 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Even monastery walls offer scant protection against these eight ‘worldly winds’.

Some people might think that living alone in a cave they would be free from them at last. But, in fact, before long they would find themselves reliving past experiences. Everyone has a big file of worldly dhamma material stored in their memory, enough for years of fruitless rumination in an unwise hermit’s mind.

It is important to bear in mind that the eight worldly dhammas are included within the first noble truth, not the second. That is to say, they are not things that Buddhist practitioners need to abandon, but things that need to be fully comprehended.

We cannot free ourselves of natural phenomena, but we can let go of the cravings based upon them. The untrained mind craves to enjoy gain, pleasure, praise and social status. At the same time it craves a life without loss, pain, blame and decline in status. The more we crave the worldly dhammas we like, the more we fear and resent those we don’t. It’s not the dhammas themselves that are the problem, but our relationship to them.

Although we cannot escape the worldly dhammas, we don’t have to suffer on their account. As our understanding of them grows, our attachment to them weakens. The weaker the attachment, the more free we become.

— Ajahn Jayasaro

https://www.facebook.com/jayasaro.panyaprateep.org

18/05/2023

It’s hard to appreciate life without the recollection of death.
It’s hard to use time wisely without the recollection of death.
It’s hard to abandon indulgence in sensual pleasures without the recollection of death.
It’s hard to prioritize wisely without the recollection of death.
It’s hard to forgive others without the recollection of death.
It’s hard to maintain a consistent dhamma practice without the recollection of death.

𝐒𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭:

Every single person ever born has already either died or will die in the years ahead. I, too, am surely going to die.

My life is slipping away, little by little, without the slightest pause, like sand in a timer.

My death may come at any time. I could die today. I have absolutely no guarantees that I will see tomorrow. Or even my next inhalation.

So many illnesses could cause my death. This body is so fragile. Death is never far away.

Wealth, power, fame, respect and love – no worldly achievement can prevent my coming death.

Only dhamma practice can be a refuge to me in the face of my inevitable death.

Only by realizing liberation through practice of the Eightfold Path may I transcend death, and experience the Deathless.

— Ajahn Jayasaro

https://www.facebook.com/jayasaro.panyaprateep.org

17/05/2023

It may seem as if there is a continual flow of thought in our minds throughout the day, but is that really the case? Are there no gaps at all? Have a look. It’s my contention that, in fact, there are many gaps, but we habitually overlook them. Why? These small mundane silences of the mind are not interesting enough to draw our attention: they’re always the same, they relate to nothing outside of themselves. And so we tend to rush on to the next memory, plan, judgement, fantasy, daydream.

But if these small gaps in the inner noise are made an object of mindfulness, they start to increase and lengthen. The awareness of all the stuff in the mind – all the content, useful and junk – changes. We see more clearly how mental phenomena are simply events. They arise and pass away. We don’t identify with them so much because we see them in a new context. We become more free.

In one of my favourite Ajahn Chah teachings, he said that it’s not necessary to fight with thoughts. That would be like walking in a straight line down a busy street and trying to push aside everyone in your way. He said it makes more sense to walk between oncoming pedestrians. In the same way we navigate our way between the thoughts in our mind by moving through the gaps between them.

— Ajahn Jayasaro

https://www.facebook.com/jayasaro.panyaprateep.org

06/05/2023

When you see an aged person, the Buddha says that you should regard that person as a messenger from the devas (MN 130). The messenger is delivering two messages.

The first is that you, too, are subject to aging. The proper response is to learn not to look down on those who are already aged, for they’re simply showing you your own fate. At the same time, you have to learn to be heedful in your actions so that, at the very least, you have a refuge of good kamma to hold you in good stead when you yourself begin to age. At best, you want to reach the attainment that’s not affected by aging at all, so that you’ll be able to live in peace even when old (AN 5:78).

The second message is that all beings are subject to aging. This means that when aging arrives to you, you’re not being unfairly singled out for any particular indignity. It’s a natural process that happens to everyone who lives long enough, so it would be childish and immature to react to aging with feelings of resentment or irritation. Here again, you have to be heedful so that your emotions don’t blind you to the opportunities that still lie open to you to do good in your thoughts, words, and deeds.

— Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Aging



Photo by 1musafir

27/04/2023

𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐠𝐞; 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠.
𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧; 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.
𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞; 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠.

This reflection helps us cool down the mind and bring it to a level where we face facts rather than a world of fantasy. This is what brought me to the dhamma: wanting to face those three facts of existence, and death in particular, the awareness that death can happen at any time.

There is a whole aspect of the practice which has to do with simple reflections like that – reflecting on the transience of life, on the uncertainty of our existence. Reflecting that we are fit now but one day we may be sick; one day we might no longer have all the privileges we have at present, the privileges of good health, strength in the body and strength and clarity of mind.

When we do not reflect in this way we are likely to be caught up in the illusion of the future and in planning for that future, organizing our life, worrying or getting excited about what could happen, or becoming depressed.

The mind creates a whole range of feelings and moods when it forgets that our life could terminate at any time. So paradoxically, this reflection, this recollection of ageing, sickness and death can help us to appreciate our life more positively.

— Ajahn Sundara, The Body