Bite-sized Dharma on the go!
“You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit.
If it eats the rabbit and plays with the rabbit* apple,
I’ll buy you a new car.”
~ Harvey Diamond ~
Interestingly, I thought of a similar comparison earlier on and wrote a blog entry on http://buddhavacana.net/2012/01/21/which-would-you-eat-carrots-or-rabbit/
* How many of you spotted this? Thanks to a nice friend who pointed this out! 😮
Maybe if we take a page from this gamer, then folks of different faiths need not be so eager to attack other religions?
Tomorrow is Vesak Day 2556! Yes, you didn’t read it wrong. It is 2556 years since the Buddha’s final passing into Mahaparinibbana (Sanskrit: Mahaparinirvana) and 2601 years since his Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree.
Buddhists around the world celebrate the Birth, Enlightenment and Mahaparinibbana of the Buddha around this period. Some countries such as Japan has evolved into a flower festival, said to have developed over time with the offering of flowers to Buddha in Buddhist monasteries and later developed into the former.
While commonly seen as a Buddhist celebration, it is significant to all people, all sentient beings. The celebration marks the conquering of our common human state of unknowing, of delusion, of ignorance, of worry, of anxiety, of stress, of suffering. Of transcending the extremes of sensual pleasure and extreme ascetism. Of going beyond words and petty differences, and seeing how things truly are. Of fulfilling the maxim of human potential, Nirvana, Arahanthood, Buddhahood!
This potential is in each and everyone of us, whether we believe or subscribe to it or not. That despite our faults and flaws, we can cultivate wholesome mental habits and attain to Perfection. That while we look so different, speak different languages, think and act so differently, we share the common human experience of wanting happiness. And if we start cultivating in ourselves love (metta 慈), compassion (悲) and wisdom (智), we can slowly but surely overcome the defilements of greed, hatred and delusion.
We can and we should strive towards this goal. For this is our birthright as sentient beings. For all sentient beings have Buddha Nature, the potential to become a Buddha, to be free from defilements, free from Cravings and Attachments, free from Suffering.
Happy Vesak!
The Daily Readings was recently updated with the Dhammapada verses and I received a comment suggesting for the previous verses from “Buddha Vacana” to be available.
After writing a php script to order the Dhammapada verses uniformly according to the sutta count in each book, I wrote an option to choose the book to read from.
From the screenshot above, you can find the dropdown list option with “Buddha Vacana” and “Dhammapada”. The new code will remember your choice and display verses from the same book you chose.
For your convenience, you can change your options any time you want. There is nothing to register or login to.
To keep it simple, the cookie just store ONE value, a bookid with value “1” or “2” (defaulting to “2”). No personal information of yours is captured or stored, only this bookid.
If you do not have cookies enabled, it will default to “Dhammapada” and require you to choose the other available books manually.
If this new code breaks or crashes your browser, let me know. I’ll fix it. If it gives your cat sleepless nights and make your dog growl incessantly, let me know. We may have discovered something amazing or crazy. Or it could be totally unrelated.
Be Good, Be Mindful, Be Happy.
A 30,000 feet view of Singapore with Buddhist centres and monasteries listed!
This map was created under Singapore Buddhist Federation by the Web team in KMSPKS
The inSync project will link up our friends and family with Dharma activities nearest to them, keeping them inSync with the Dharma! 🙂
Keep a look out for it! 
View BUDDHIST CENTRES, SINGAPORE in a larger map
