Buddhism is full of numbered lists, but what does it all mean? Find out in this article along with a a 'Buddhism cheat sheet' of many important items!

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta - Buddha addresses five monks just before to his final liberation. The Buddha instructs the monks to go for the Middle Way. Free PDF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ql6aOG75s

Thousands of important statues and artefacts of the Gandhara civilization, have been caught in a conflict of ownership between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. K-P has been angling for possession of these artefacts for over three years – ever since the recent Constitutional Amendment was passed that devolved the Federal Ministry of Archaeology and Museums to the provincial governments. And yet, it seems the claims are falling on deaf ears so far. The Punjab government is unwilling to hand over possession of the antiquities displayed at the Lahore Museum, including the famous Fasting Buddha, an especially unique and valuable sculpture. Sumaira Samad, director of the Lahore Museum, categorically expressed her department’s intentions to contest K-P’s claim to the art, and asserted that the artefacts were shifted to Lahore before 1947. “Whatever is on display at our museum, established in 1865, is our property. We will never return any of these antiquities.” Similarly, in a series of official letters, the K-P administration pleaded that over 3,000 artefacts exhibited at the National Museum in Karachi and museums in Taxila be returned to museums in Peshawar and Swat. This request, too, has been unheeded. Officials from K-P’s archaeology and museums department are suspicious that precious art has been stolen from museums outside the province in the last few years. Concerned authorities in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad have been reluctant to share lists and records of Gandhara relics in their keeping, despite repeated requests. “So far, the federal government and the other provinces have not provided detailed information about the Gandhara pieces with them,” said Dr Shah Nazar Khan, former director of K-P’s archaeology and museums department. According to Samad, the reason that the Lahore Museum has not released its records is because registers cannot be found. “Those registers have been misplaced,” she explained. The provincial government has not only corresponded with the governments of Punjab and Sindh, and the inter-provincial coordination division, Islamabad, but has also referred the issue to a UNESCO convention, according to an official letter, dated April 2, 2012, by the directorate to its own government. “It is a universally accepted principle that the archaeological material recovered from ancient sites located in a particular region/province is the property of that area and should go back to the institution /museums at the place of its origin,” the letter stated. According to another memo, the federal and provincial governments have been reminded, in multiple letters from K-P, that ‘geological boundaries of Gandhara were limited to present day K-P (except Taxila)’. Therefore, Punjab and Sindh have no cultural, historical or legal right to the Gandhara art, it inferred. Districts of Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Swat and Dir, as well as Malakand and Bajaur agencies formed the bulk of the Gandhara civilization. Khan recalled, rather sadly, how material recovered during the British era and after partition from various sites, including Takht Bhai, Sahri Bahlol, Jamal Gahri and Rani Gat, was either retained by the federal government or shifted out of the province. Adapted from The Express Tribune [January 08, 2014]

Recently I went to see the newest exhibition at the Museum of Asian Civilizations, ‘Cities and Kings, Ancient Treasures from Myanmar’. The exhibition is only a small one, giving the visitor a rather hurried tour of Burmese art, mainly religious, from the Bagan period to the 19th century. Nonetheless, most pieces are exceptional and demonstrate the refinement of Burmese civilization. After seeing the exhibition I had a look at some of the museum’s recent acquisitions, including several pieces of Buddhist sculpture from Mathura, Gandhara and China. The exhibition is on until the 5th of Match 2017

Reviewing the Buddha’s high praise of education...

Please join PFOD in welcoming Luang Por Pasanno on June 11 for a daylong of meditation and Dhamma reflections in support of Portland Friends of the Dhamma.

Q: If an individual has an injury... A: Yes, now there is a big storm because of the injury. If you observe your sensations, your mind becomes equanimous. Take all the important steps to cure...

Question and Answer and Dhamma Discussion with Overseas Disciple from USA (Part I) QUESTION : Sayadaw, how should we contemplate on if we experience pain during meditation? Should we contemplate on the pain as 'to be experienced-only'? Sayadaw : The pain is to be experienced-only and not to be taken as reality ... you need to understand and contemplate on in this way. If not, you will be suffering from the pain and take the pain as if it is meant for feeling (suffering). If the sensation is good, you will feel good but if the sensation is bad, you will feel frustrated. In order to avoid this, you have to keep on understanding the truth of just to be experienced only and not to take the pain as reality. Human mind can do only one thing at a time. Human mind can focus only on one thing at a time. By trying to understand and contemplate on the truth and consider the pain as just to be experienced-only, you will be able to abandon placing central emphasis on pain as reality. By nature, the degree of physical pain could either go up or down, severe or weak, etc as it is beyond one's control. In order not to place central emphasis on this nature, it is important for you to remember and contemplate on the truth of 'to be experience-only and not to centre your attention on the pain'. You need to train your mind to do non-routine actions or works like this. By doing so, your mind will stop focusing on usual and routine actions. Don't Forget The Truth To use only ... To experience only ... To do only ... To know only QUESTION : If this is the case, should we contemplate on as 'things got destroyed just because their time is up and things got created just because their time is up'? Sayadaw : Contemplating on this way is not complete and conclusive. It is also weak in truth as the content percentage of truth in this statement is small. Superficially, the statement seems correct but it is not a complete and conclusive understanding. 'Just to experience only' is an ultimate truth. The pain is to be experienced only. You should not place central emphasis on pain as the truth. 'To be experienced only' is non-rejection. 'Not to place central emphasis on it' is non-attachment. Not only the pain that you experience during meditation, but also for all kinds of pains, sufferings and happenings due to kamma actions (kammic efforts), you always need to understand the truth of 'experience-only and not to take them as reality'. As long as you understand and contemplate on the truth, your actions can be considered as 'you are using the truth in a right way' and 'experiencing and enduring all the pains and sufferings in a right way'. It is called 'changing the direction or actions of your mind'. Traditionally people associate all the good and bad feelings with 'I' ... 'this is good', 'this is bad', 'pain', 'ache', 'suffering', 'increasing', 'decreasing', etc. Mind is always working along those traditional believes because it has been trained to do so over the years. Hence, in order to abandon mind from doing traditional actions and dissociate mind from those actions, you always need to remember the truth of 'experiencing only and not to take your actions as reality'. By nature, human mind is capable of doing multiple actions. Your duty is to abandon multi-tasking of your mind but keep on doing single most important task of 'abandoning' those multi-tasking of your mind. Depending on the severity of the pain, your mind will automatically be focusing on the pain and enduring the pain. In order to abandon the habit of your mind, e.g. automatically focusing and enduring the pain, you continuously need to remember the truth of 'experiencing-only and not to take the pain as reality'. In other words, you must always remember the truth of 'abandoning and not to take the pain as reality' in your mind. 'Abandoning' means to abandon all kinds of created actions and actions which we always place central emphasis on, e.g. pain, noise (sound), sight, taste, etc. Your duty is to abandon placing central emphasis on those habitual created actions and keep on doing non-habitual action of 'abandoning' continuously. Do by abandoning ..... Do with abandoning ..... Do to abandon. QUESTION : You always remind people to 'do Good Deeds continuously'. In my personal point of view, Good Deeds means dana, sila and bhavana. Out of these three, bhavana, which we traditionally understand is - to keep your body in correct posture during meditation, observe our breathing closely (concentrate on your nostril), etc. In your point of view, what really is the action during meditation and how to contemplate on? Please kindly explain ..... Sayadaw : As far as practicing meditation is concerned, the traditional understanding of most of the meditators (yogis) are not so correct because they traditionally understand meditation as 'doing'. In truth and reality, practicing meditation means 'abandoning', to abandon all your created actions and do the single most important action of 'abandoning'. Traditionally, we are taught to 'do' something during meditation. This is the reason why most of the meditators always try to do something during meditation. Moreover, we traditionally believe that result can be achieved by doing or working hard, so we naturally try to do something to achieve desired result. The real meditation is 'abandoning', doing nothing but 'abandoning', abandon placing central emphasis on living and non-living things (beings). Traditionally we use living and non-living beings with grasping such as use living beings as my relatives, my family, my race (ethnic group or nationality), etc with the mind action of centering and attachment. In reality, the ability that can use living and non-living things as abandoning purpose is a real and genuine 'dana'. If you do not do 'dana', you will use living and non-living things with grasping, you will resort to all sorts of methods and approach to earn money, you will use all sorts of ways and means to widen up your circle of friends and connections, you will take living beings with the mind action of grasping, etc. This kind of understanding is not correct. Doing real Good Deeds means abandoning the grasping. Traditionally we understand kaya kamma (physical actions), vaci kamma (oral actions) and mano actions (mental actions) as 'actions to do'. Due to this understanding, even during meditation, we automatically center our attention on 'doing this, doing that', 'saying right things and trying not to say wrong things', etc. Those actions are called observing sila in a traditional way. The real and genuine sila is 'abandoning' ..... abandoning power to all physical and oral (verbal) actions. We normally do not know how to use living and non-living beings for abandoning purpose. This is the reason why we always use them for grasping purpose. As far as kaya kamma (physical actions) and vaci kamma (oral actions) are concerned, we tend to do all sorts of actions (activities) up to our limits, we tend to say whatever we can say or whatever we wish to say, we tend to do everything until there is nothing which we do not know how to do, we tend to learn everything until there is nothing left for us to learn .... those are the norms of human beings. The real sila is to try to 'abandon' all those created physical and oral actions without placing central emphasis on doing or not-doing. Real sila emphasises only on the power of abandoning. As long as you carry out your actions with the power of abandoning in mind, there is no problem. But the problem is that we tend to do things without the power of abandoning in mind. That is the reason why we cannot live without doing anything, saying anything, etc. By doing so, in long term, some might develop signs of mental disorders. Dana, which we traditionally understand is also 'doing something'. Human beings possess ability to do donations but unable to abandon the mind action of grasping on living and non-living beings along the way. This is the reason why we always need to work so hard to earn money in order to do good deeds. Dana Ability that can use living and non-living things as abandoning purpose. Sila Abandoning power to all physical and oral actions. Bhavana Abandoning power to all mental actions. Panna Abandoning power to any attachment concerning with physical, oral and mental actions. To be continued ...

Those of you who know me, know how much I love inspirational quotes and encouraging adages. In fact, on a bad day it's these hopeful words that keep me keeping on. I know it's easy to dismiss them as platitudes and even easier to stay in your grumpy mood. All I know is repetition (and reflection) of these so-called platitudes really help me climb out of some dark holes. With that said, I'd like to share some of my favorites, "oldies but goodies", from ancient Asian wisdom. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do! The Wisdom of Chinese Proverbs: The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. (What great advice! I must be one brilliant stone by now!) If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. (I know, easier said than done- but again, what great advice!) Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. (I really like this one because it urges you to act. Too many times, we become victims. We complain, place blame, wait around for someone or something to solve our problems. You're the only one who can light your candle and fan the flame. So what are you waiting for? Stop complaining, create a spark, and light your fire!) I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. (Not so much for cheering purposes, but I just love this old adage. It describes the Montessori philosophy of education (of which I'm a huge fan) perfectly. For all of you parents out there, truer words can not be said of meaningful and effective learning. There simply is no substitution for learning by doing.) The one who pursues revenge should dig two graves. (So true. Life's too short and precious to hold onto anger and pain. Letting go is the only sane and healthy choice to make...unless you're content spending the rest of your life in that dark grave. And really, what kind of life is that? So stop digging, put down the shovel, back away from that grave- and LIVE!) Along the same lines of letting go, here is a great quote from the wisdom of Buddha: Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. (Ouch!) Some more brilliant advice from our friend Buddha: You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. (So true! Have you hugged yourself yet today?) Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. (I like this one. Helps me remember not to take short cuts or keep score. Just be your best and do your best. As they say, the proof is in the pudding!) Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. (Smile! You won't lose yours by giving it to someone else! Also, I have found that faking a good mood, often results in one. Pretty neat!) To sum it up: Throw down that shovel, give yourself a big hug, use that hot coal you've been carrying around to light your candle- and don't forget to smile!

Dedicating goodwill toward others