Click on a title:

1.  Merit and Karma

2.  Gender and Rebirth

3. Jalanandana Pirith   includes text of Jalanandana Pirith

4.  Mindfulness Techniques to Attain Peace and Positive Attitude 

5.  Four Wheels of Success

6.  Patience (Khanti)

Merit and Karma

by Ven. Karaputugala Indaratana Maha Thero

   The devotees lit the lamp for puja and brought flowers and fruit offerings to the Buddha. Why do we do this? We light the lamp to represent to represent wisdom dispelling ignorance, like light dispels the darkness. The light (wisdom) makes the darkness (ignorance and resulting unwholesome acts, words and thoughts) disappear. We offer flowers as a symbol of our bodies, that they are beautiful and fresh now but they will wither and decay soon, so we should do meritorious acts now while we can, and not be attached to our bodies. We offer food to Lord Buddha because the highest offering, that which results in the most merit, is offering to Lord Buddha Himself. The amount of merit earned by an offering depends on the purity of the recipient. For example, offerings made to an Arahat result in more merit than offerings made to a Sottapatta (Stream Enterer), and offerings to a human result in more merit than offerings made to an animal. The Buddha taught that to worship Him, we should follow Dharma. So the food offering symbolizes the perpetuation of Dharma, that we are nourishing the Dharma by practicing the Dharma, because the best offering we can make is to practice the Dharma.

Dana - offerings, generosity, charity – is practiced so that we can overcome our greed, craving and possessiveness. The law of karma tells us that each act (karma) has a certain result (vipaka). Meritorious acts (kusala karma) are acts that result in merit, which can manifest as benefits to support us in learning and practicing Dharma, such as having sufficient food, peaceful environment and opportunities to learn Dharma. Merit also manifests as purification of the mind, which leads to wisdom and eventually to Nibbana.

It is very important to make offerings with the correct intention. It is the intention behind the act that makes the merit. For example, cutting a person with a knife done by a doctor in surgery with the intent to cure illness is a meritorious intention, but cutting a person with a knife by a person intending to harm another is obviously a great demerit. Many people make offerings (Dana) with thoughts that they are following tradition, doing what is expected in their family and culture, habit, or even from fear that others may gossip that they didn’t offer Dana, or because they want the monks to be pleased with them. This is not the proper intention. Dana should be offered with the intention of doing a wholesome meritorious act for our own purification.

The thoughts that you had when obtaining the offering goes into the offering itself. The exertion of the body, mental effort, energy and time spent obtaining, bringing and preparing the offering are incorporated into the offering. So you should not feel upset if it was difficult to obtain, bring or prepare the offering - that sacrifice of your time and resources is part of the accumulated merit. Happy and noble thoughts when obtaining, bringing, preparing and presenting the offering are very important as that increases the amount of merit.

It is better to give offerings as a group, not as your individual offering. If you offer as an individual, you think of receiving merit for yourself, and identify with your body and the good fortune it may receive. This is tainted with some selfishness. But if you allow others present to touch the offering, or you make an offering with intention of giving merit to others, then you are practicing compassion, lovingkindness (metta), and selflessness, and you receive the merit of having those noble thoughts. You may have the benefit of money and time to obtain the offering, but others may not have the money or time to get it, and by allowing those persons to join in the offering, you are helping others to progress spiritually. So it is good to have thoughts of gratitude that you had the time and resources to obtain the offering, and thoughts of the peace and happiness of others.

Offerings to the Sangha, the community of monks, is done for the sustenance of the physical body (rupa), strength (bala) and prajnana (wisdom) of the monk so he can teach and practice Dharma.

What act results in the most merit, Venerables Sariputta and Moggallana offering food to the Buddha, or the Buddha offering food to Venerables Sariputta and Moggallana? The latter, Buddha offering to the Venerables, because something offered by the Buddha is the most valuable offering possible, and the perpetuation of that valuable offering is the best result– that is, the Venerables receiving the sustenance from the Buddha and teaching and promoting His Dharma. All the accumulated merit of Dharma learned and practiced by many people as a result of the teachings being given by the Venerables as given to them by the Buddha is the greatest result.

Some people rely on their horoscope to indicate whether they will have a good future. However, it is your acts (karmas), your thoughts, words and deeds which determine your future, not your horoscope. The horoscope only indicates the pattern of receipt of the results (vipaka) of your karmas. For example, the results of certain of your good deeds, from this life, and/or recent or distant past lives, may be experienced when you have a favorable time in your chart. But if you are not doing many good deeds, then at some unknown point in time the favorable times in your chart will be less favorable. On the other hand, if you have an unfavorable time in your chart, but you have been doing many good deeds, then only the results of past bad deeds will be experienced, plus, your calmness of mind from Dharma practice makes the unfavorable time less unpleasant for you - it helps to "cushion the shock." So it is very important, regardless of your horoscope, to continuously make efforts to have good thoughts, words and deeds.

Gender and Rebirth

by Ven. Karaputugala Indaratana Maha Thero

You asked whether a person can be a different gender in a previous or future birth. Yes, a woman can be a man in future or past lives, and a man can be a woman in future or past lives. These changes can happen when a person thinks very much about being a different gender. There is a story that illustrates this.

Once there was a widow who lived alone with her daughter, and they were very poor. Every day they gave food to two monks who came to their home every day on their walk to receive alms. The widow and her daughter were unhappy in their poverty, and wanted to do meritorious acts to be more fortunate in their future, so they gladly welcomed the monks each day so they could share the meager food that they had. They also thought that being female was very unfortunate, because women could not earn much money with their limited skills, and were very dependent on the husband. Every day, being reminded of how difficult it is to be a poor woman, the widow and her daughter thought about how lucky it is to be a man.

The two monks looked forward to their walk every day to the widow’s home. They both observed that the daughter was very beautiful. They liked to watch her graceful walk and her shy smile. They thought about her beauty every day when they saw her, and even after they left they remembered her beauty.

Many years later, after the widow and her daughter had both passed away, and the two monks had passed away, they all took their next births in Divyaloka (heaven). The two monks immediately recognized each other, and the widow and her daughter immediately recognized each other there. In Divyaloka, there are many levels of devas, from very simple ones living in the lower devalokas to very pure and powerful ones living in the higher devalokas. In a great gathering of many devas, the two devas who were formerly the two monks saw two other devas who looked very familiar. The two devas were formerly the widow and her daughter, who also thought that the other two devas looked familiar, and soon recognized them as the two monks they had given food to every day. The two monks looked very puzzled but then recognized them as the widow and daughter - but now they were male devas! The widow and her daughter also were puzzled; they had taken birth in a higher devaloka but the monks had taken birth in a lower devaloka.

This happened because the monks had spent so much time thinking about the daughter’s beauty rather than keeping their minds disciplined. The widow and her daughter took birth in a higher devaloka because they earned much merit, but they became males because they spent so much time thinking about how much more fortunate it is to be a male.

Jalanandana Pirith

Discourse April 2009 by Ven. Nikahattiye Soratha Thero

(address in Sri Lanka:  Nagarukkha Ramaya, Nikehattiye Wattapola, Sri Lanka

Telephone +0812573432)

Jalanandana Pirith consists of seven main verses, and each verse is four lines, in the Pali language.   It is a very powerful pirith used for avoiding negative influences and curing illnesses.  It means, for any “evil eye” (jealousy, envy ), evil words (curses), or evil that is heard (slander), for any evil effects from these, the Jalanandana Pirith will eradicate all evil spells, curses, negative vibrations,  anger and hatred.  It will eradicate the negative influences of the planetary effects (grahas).  It eradicates all ailments due imbalances of the doshas (humours), namely vata (air), pitta (bile) and kapha (phlegm).  Fear from thieves and enemies is eradicated.  Evil spirits (beings in the subtle plane) – such as bhutas, yakshas, pisas – and their spells are eradicated.  You will be successful every place you go.  You will improve your self-esteem, job, education, and childrens’ education.

The Buddha taught this Jalanandana Pirith to Ven. Ananda after he had been walking out to seek alms (pindapata), and a low-caste lady was attracted to Ven. Ananda.  This young girl pleaded with her father to get this monk to marry her and be her husband.  The girl’s father was a very powerful practitioner of Tantra, but when he cast a spell on Ven. Ananda, it did not affect him.  So the father developed stronger spells and cast them on Ven. Ananda so he would be attracted to the girl.  Because of these strong spells, Ven. Ananda became distracted and drifted toward the house of the girl and her father rather than going out for alms.   The Buddha started reciting the Jalanandana Pirith to break all the spells.  With this chanting, Ven. Ananda, who was wandering toward the house of the girl, suddenly returned to the temple because of the powerful effect of the Jalanandana Pirith. 

We note our thoughts of retaliation, our imaginary conversations with those who upset us - the undone acts, the potential acts and words.  We take samples of our thoughts by observing them for an interval of time.  Are they positive, negative or neutral thoughts? For example, when we see people, what are we thinking about them?  Our mental commentary might go something like this: AShe gained so much weight.  He is really balding. She laughs too loud, how obnoxious.  He has some low-class job.@  These, of course, are negative thoughts.  The more negative thoughts we notice, the more we can reduce them over time. 

Finally, if we experience any type of unpleasantness, we can quickly inject the thought: AThis is a test of  Dhamma practice!@ and observe, again as a scientist, ALet=s see how I react.@  Then ask ourselves, AWhat is my dhammic duty here- should I take any action or say something that is helpful to everyone involved?@  This is very tricky B  we easily justify bossing, nagging or giving unsolicited advice, by reasoning that we are Ahelping@ the other person, but we are really trying to make him stop doing something that annoys us.  We then observe, ADo  I speak harsh words or have thoughts of ill will?@ and AHow long do I remain upset?  Is it worthwhile to remain upset?@  We can remember that it is the result of my past action or heedlessness, a chunk of bad vipaka has arisen, which is a reminder not to do anything to cause more bad vipaka, a reminder to be mindful.  So we accept it, let it run its course.  We don=t agitate over it, place blame or waste energy thinking Athis shouldn=t happen to me.@  We remember, it is impermanent.  Like taking bitter medicine, we take it and endure it so we can get better.   And we can think, AThis is a dhamma development opportunity!   The more unpleasant it is, the more dhamma points we gain for enduring it!@

These are all modern methods of applying the teachings in Majjhima Nikaya Suttas 2 and 152 (Sabbaasava Sutta and Indriyabhavana Sutta), and Anguttara Nikara 5:140 (Sotar Sutta), to develop equanimity.  In the Sabbaasava Sutta, the Buddha says that when a bhikkhu sees a form and there arises what is disagreeable, he notes Athere has arisen what is disagreeable,@ recognizes it as conditioned, and injects the thought, Aequanimity is peaceful.@

When we apply these strategies to reduce our negative thoughts, invent new strategies, and decrease the duration of negative thoughts, it is  like winning more points in the game - and this is a very important game - self-purification, the real purpose of our lives.  We are improving ourselves in the most important way. 

We surely will get overwhelmed at times, and we will forget to be mindful. Remember, it takes practice, patience and perseverence, and meditation and mindfulness are only parts of the 8-Fold Path.  We need to practice the whole 8-Fold Path - each part of it supports the other parts, so they need to be in balance for the best result.  What result?  To purify our mind, a goal of every religion, leading to blissful happiness, beyond the fleeting worldly joys.

Many of you or your parents, like one of my parents, came to the U.S. for a better life, but that "better life" is very limited - it=s a rat race to keep going here.  Why not go for the really better life of getting those good results from practice of Buddhism!

When we continue this practice over time, we develop a habit of quickly converting negative thoughts into positive thoughts.  So we maintain a positive attitude, reduce distractions, develop calmness, equanimity and ability to cope with adversities.  We start to radiate that calmness, and teach by our example, like Sanghamitta, which attracts others to Buddhism.   Then we can start to feel, as the Buddha said,

AHappy indeed we live, unafflicted amidst those afflicted by craving.  Amidst afflicted men we dwell free from affliction.@ Dhammapada 198

If we can make an impact on just 10 people in our life by our serenity and good example, and each of those people impacts 10 or more people, over time we will have a great impact on so many, like Sanghamitta.