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Ceramah ini membahas tentang rasa terima kasih (gratitude) sebagai kunci untuk menghadapi tantangan hidup, dengan penekanan pada refleksi, kesabaran, dan ketidakkekalan. Pembicara memulai dengan mengungkapkan rasa terima kasih kepada komunitas dan guru, lalu mengutip Ajahn Chah yang menekankan kesabaran dan refleksi ketidakkekalan sebagai fondasi praktik, bukan hanya meditasi. Ia juga merenungkan perjalanan Buddha yang berterima kasih kepada guru-gurunya namun melampaui mereka, serta pentingnya jalan tengah. Pembicara menjelaskan bahwa tantangan masa lalu membantu pertumbuhan dan pelepasan, tetapi pelepasan tidak bisa dipaksakan; diperlukan latihan yang benar. Ia membahas saddha (keyakinan) yang muncul secara alami melalui praktik, dan cara menumbuhkan rasa terima kasih dengan merefleksikan kebaikan orang tua dan guru, serta mengatasi kecenderungan mencari kesalahan. Selanjutnya, ia membahas abhaya dana (pemberian rasa aman) melalui pengampunan, baik meminta maupun memberi maaf. Ia juga mengungkapkan rasa terima kasih pada tempat dan lingkungan, serta menjelaskan bahwa defilemen muncul dari kebiasaan tetapi bukan diri, dan pentingnya sati-sampajañña (perhatian dan pemahaman jernih) untuk mengenali dan melepaskannya tanpa melawan. Ceramah ditutup dengan refleksi ketidakkekalan ('tidak pasti') untuk melepaskan kemelekatan, serta harapan baik dan rasa terima kasih kepada pendengar. Pesan utamanya adalah bahwa rasa terima kasih, kesabaran, dan refleksi ketidakkekalan adalah alat penting untuk menghadapi tantangan hidup dan mempraktikkan Dhamma.
May 24th, 2026, and time of coming together, and I actually have quite a good feeling about
this 30th anniversary coming up, at least part one of our 30th anniversary, and that'll
be six days from now, even before that, five days from now, be having a bigger ordination,
things go as planned, more or less as planned, so I'm just going to continue on the overriding
theme of gratitude, so that's been coming up for me quite a bit lately, just the help
that we receive here in the monastery, that the sutta, as it says, monks, the lay people,
are of great assistance to you, therefore you can have gratitude and appreciation to
them.
Yes.
They assist you in keeping the monastery going and feeding the sangha, so there's gratitude
to the lay community, gratitude to the help we receive, and gratitude to the monastic
community, gratitude for having good friends, good teachers, and so this is, we can't mandate
that people be grateful, I'm a senior monk, you should be grateful to me, so that has
to happen naturally, but if we reflect on
these ways, then gratitude arises very naturally, and if we hold it in the right way, then we
can even be grateful for the challenges we've had to face in our lives, if we've been able
to grow from them in various ways, learn from them, so it's like we say, if there's a meditation
retreat or a period of practice, or even, say, the winter retreat, three-month winter
retreat here at Abhayagiri, and we don't judge that retreat, if it was good or bad, by
necessarily, if we were in bliss the whole time, or whatever, but if we learned something,
that's the important part, so, and it also reminds me of when somebody asked Lumpur Cha
what were the most important qualities that he felt that led to success in his practice,
and he said, patient endurance and reflection on Anichang, reflection on uncertainty, so
it's striking.
I mean, what he didn't say, you know, samadhi, definitely samadhi, get as much samadhi as
possible, don't even think about anything else, he didn't say that, he said, patient
endurance and reflection on uncertainty, and why is that?
Those are foundational, and those are foundational to the practice.
So, very grateful to Lumpur Cha, grateful to all of our teachers, grateful to the Buddha,
and the Buddha even expressed gratitude to his teachers, Alara Kalama and Udukha Ramaputa,
because they taught him the fundamentals of meditation, so even though it's said that he
eventually surpassed them in the path of his own practice, and he surpassed Alara Kalama in terms
of, he actually equaled him, but then he ended up getting to the point where he was able to
even surpass the attainments of his teachers.
So, being offered equal stature, and even to lead the community, but then he saw that
wasn't the deathless, that wasn't the end of the practice, that wasn't the end of the
path, so he struck out on his own, and underwent the, it's called the dukha giriya, the severest
of austerities, what I like to translate as the maximum penance, and even that wasn't
the path, and then finding the way of balance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The middle way, the way of balance and equipoise, and then teaching that to the world, and that
we have what we have today, we've inherited that, so we're, and it's really great that
we're surrounded by good people, surrounded by kind people, and really that the monastery
does attract good people, and then we say, like, people from good families coming to
ordain, the Anagar coordination.
Last night, and both of the families coming, good families, get the feeling of good families,
so sons of good families coming to the Buddha's asana to ordain, to try it out, so just, I
feel, personally feel very grateful for just being surrounded by good people, and also
even the paritta chanting, that was quite nice, hearing Lompoa do the calling the devas,
and just feeling grateful for those chants, feeling a fair amount of well-being coming
up during that chanting.
I think if it wasn't for the challenges I've faced in the past, I wouldn't be able to experience
ease and well-being, my mind wouldn't be able to let go as easily, so I'm grateful for the
challenges that I've had in the past, that have tested me, and in a way, those challenges
can force us to let go.
If we don't let go, we just keep suffering, but then at the same time, we can't will ourselves
to let go, so letting go doesn't happen by an act of will, say, or at the end of the
defilements doesn't happen by an act of will.
If we get angry, and we just tell ourselves, you shouldn't get angry, don't get angry,
you're in the monastery, don't get angry, then that doesn't work.
We can't just let go of anger through an act of will, we can't just let go of greed through
an act of will, that's where the path comes in, so the whole path of practice is necessary
for this, starting with right view, then we have right intention, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, or if we
think of the seven factors of awakening, we have mindfulness, investigation of dhammas
or dhamma vichaya, energy, joy, tranquility.
That's samadhi and equanimity, so however we think of the path, we can even think of
it the five faculties, satta, virya, sati, samadhi, paññā, so that faith, energy,
mindfulness, steadiness of mind, and discernment, so however we think of these, the path, whatever
set of dhammas we're able to connect with, this is bhikkhu bodhi.
He also was here, so I've just been really getting some good encouragement, some good
inspiration as of late, and he was talking a little bit about the word satta, and that's
always a bit of a difficult one to translate, it's generally translated as faith, but then
he was highlighting the aspect of devotion, that there's actually a devotional quality
to it.
And then satta being the first of the five faculties, it's shown as a necessary factor,
it's something necessary to cultivate, so that sense of devotion is similar to gratitude,
and gratitude and devotion are going to be linked, and similar to gratitude, we can't
just will that into existence or force it to come into being.
We can't tell ourselves to be more devotional, but it's something that'll happen naturally
when we gain benefit from the practice of devotion.
And if we do that in practice, then we will naturally feel devotion.
That's something that will very naturally come up, so that all these qualities arise
in a very natural way.
When we give rise to various reflections, so this is part of discernment, say we want
to cultivate gratitude, we can't just say, I should be grateful, or tell somebody else
you should be grateful.
But when we reflect on the good that has been done to us in the past, we might reflect on,
And things that say that our parents, when we were little babies and we were completely helpless, so whatever we might think about our parents now, we think about when we were little babies and we were helpless and who may have raised us, and if they didn't raise us, we would have died, and there's nothing we could have done to help ourselves.
We're completely helpless babies. Then that can give rise to a sense of gratitude that we're here now doing good things, and so that's a blessing.
And so whoever and however our parents may be, or whoever raised us, then we can reflect in that way, and then a sense of gratitude will start to naturally arise.
And the same is for teachers.
And when we can reflect on, so when we live with people for a long time, we'll start to, it's natural, the mind will start to find fault with the people we live with, and that's just human nature, that's just something that happens.
And the real challenge is to find ways to harmonize, so it happens all too often in, say, relationships, marriages, and there's a long list, a tally of all the things you've done wrong.
All the mistakes, all the times you didn't listen to me, so then it ends in divorce or just living together miserably, then the real challenge, the real test of our Dhamma practice is can we live together harmoniously?
And I know that was a theme of Lungphal Liem last year, is that developing a sense of forgiveness, abhaya dana, we're at abhaya giri, so we develop abhaya dana.
Abhaya dana, which is the, it's a type of dana, there's these different types of dana, there's the dana of the generosity in terms of giving things, giving requisites, giving material things, offering goods, offering food, there's the kamma dana, the offering of service, the offering of work, even the offering of time, and there's abhaya dana, which is the offering of fearlessness, so abhaya giri, fearless mountain.
We want to learn how to give abhaya dana, the offering of fearlessness, and that is done by offering forgiveness, when there's a sense of really both asking for forgiveness and giving forgiveness, as it says in the Dhammapada, a wise person asks for forgiveness and a wise person gives forgiveness, if we're really able to do that and we're really able to mean it, and it's hard to do.
This was a theme of a two-day.
Retreat that I had the opportunity to give in Singapore was the abhaya dana and abhaya dana retreat, a forgiveness retreat, so that trying to guide people in just thinking about someone who has been difficult for you or thinking about someone who has wronged you in some way, some seemingly unforgivable way even, and then attempting to give.
And then attempting to forgive them as a mental exercise, and people finding that very difficult to do, and it is difficult, that's why it's the third type of giving, it gets more difficult as you get up the progression, and then having a Q&A session in Singapore, and people asking questions about my boss treats me so bad, how can I forgive them, or just how can I forgive this person if they keep doing this to me over and over again.
And I said, wait, am I in America or Singapore?
So even though it's a different country, people asking the same questions.
And then there's dhamma dana, which is the giving of dhamma, and the Buddha also praised not being stingy with dhamma, so that if there is some sort of dhamma that is applicable in the moment or it's an appropriate time to teach dhamma, then being able to be available, open.
And then with teaching the dhamma, also printing dhamma books, and helping distribute dhamma books, we would consider that a type of dhamma dana, a very important type of dhamma dana.
I'm grateful for this monastery, just June 1st, 1996, that Ajahn Amaro and Anagarika Tham walked into the monastery, walked into the land.
And it does...
To clean up this dilapidated old house, live in it.
So grateful for this place, grateful for the surroundings, too.
It's so quiet here.
And just how wonderful it is just to go up in the forest, and whether it's the work period or the afternoon time, whether it's evening or morning, just to be able to hear the insects and the birds.
And even...
We're coming into summer now, so even when it's hot outside, still the mornings have been really...
Really nice.
And just the clean air, which is like medicine.
So seeing a lot of these positive things, I can speak for myself.
It's kind of unbelievable to be in a place where I can see positive things everywhere.
It's just starting out, just coming here, it was all kind of the opposite, actually.
Not only seeing negative things, finding fault with myself, whatever defilements needed to be dealt with, or...
Finding fault with others, because I thought they weren't practicing well.
And this is...
It can...
It is possible to make progress on the path.
It just takes a long time.
So don't worry, it'll get better in 20 years.
Or if you started practicing 10 years ago, it'll get better in 10 years.
But then it's so interesting.
Yeah, when things are better, then you're in that.
You live in that.
We live in that.
So it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter how long it takes.
So that willingness, though, the willingness to develop a long, enduring mind,
and to be able to surmount the challenges that arise, that's important.
We only don't progress when we give up.
So then, whatever challenges there are, if we just develop that mindset where we can learn from them,
then we can keep going.
Things can get better.
We learn about the...
Discernment where we can see, how do I respond skillfully to any given situation
when my own greed or anger arises, which it's still...
These things are still going to arise when fear arises,
when even things like covetousness or stinginess arise.
For us senior monks, these can easily still arise.
But the defilement is whether we relate to them in a skillful or unskillful way.
So the real defilement isn't what is just arising.
Because what's just arising, that's what we call vipaka.
That's the past comma.
So that's not self.
That's the not-self nature of the mind.
And so these things just arise.
And so, based on habit, tendencies, our character, what we call our nisaya,
then, say, anger or greed might arise.
But then, if we were able to use mindfulness, then we can reflect on it as...
Oh, this is...
Let's reflect on the types of suffering that this causes,
or what's the result of that mental state.
And what we would call the defilement, that's when we respond unskillfully to it.
So we either...
Say we either follow the anger or get angry at the anger,
try to get rid of it, try to destroy it.
Or the same with greed, they follow it.
Either we follow along with it or we try to destroy it, try to get rid of it.
So the sati sampajanya is...
is when we can know it and reflect on it.
Where does it come from?
It's like it says in the third foundation of mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutta.
Then, when one, with sati, knows that there is this particular mental state,
I'll use anger as an example,
then one knows how that unarisen anger arises.
One knows how that anger came to be.
One knows how it persists.
And one knows how it comes to pass and how it comes to pass away.
So that's...
That's a developing skill.
The Buddha doesn't give a catch-all technique for that.
It's just more about mindfulness and seeing it clearly.
So over time, when we see these things clearly...
And we might...
We might read into some of the suttas, say,
oh, if you have a thought of greed or lust, you know,
obliterate it, destroy it, get rid of it, absolutely annihilate it.
Yes.
But the way to do that is not how we would normally relate to those words.
The way to do that is sati sampajanya, mindfulness.
And clear knowing, clear comprehension that can put the brakes on those things.
But we see that and we might think, okay, well, I have to absolutely kill this.
And then we end up reacting with the defilement.
We end up reacting with getting anger, anger directed at ourselves.
I heard a...
I either read this in a book or heard somebody talk about this,
a story about Ajahn Mahabua, who was known for being very fierce
and kind of no-nonsense Ajahn.
And somebody asked him, you know,
you say anger isn't okay, but what about getting angry at anger?
Is that okay?
And he said, if you get angry at anger, the defilements will just laugh at you.
So it's, even though we might think, okay, we hear about these fierce Ajahns
or we see these really no-nonsense teachings and get down to it,
get rid of it, purify the mind and so on.
We have to back up a bit and say the way to do that is take your time,
develop patience.
Develop mindfulness, clear knowing in the moment,
being clearly aware of what we're doing,
getting up, sitting down, being clearly aware of what we're doing,
speaking, keeping silent, clearly aware of what we're doing.
If the mind gets into a state of restlessness,
so what you're reflecting on it, where is this coming from?
Why is this happening?
Reflection on impermanence, uncertainty, not sure, not sure, not sure.
It's like when Tanajan Jirat was visiting us, he's saying,
Bhutto, Bhutto, Bhutto, not sure, not sure, not sure, not sure.
Using those two mantras together.
The moment we think something is a certain, this person is just like this,
that person is just like that, this situation is just like this,
this situation is just like that, not sure, not sure, not sure, not sure.
That's the path to purity.
Or I am like this, not sure.
I'm always going to have this problem, not sure.
This person's definitely going to ordain, not sure.
This person is definitely not going to have this problem, not sure.
stay very long not sure i heard after i was five vasas i heard that the uh the thai community uh
when i was in anagarika the thai community all agreed that i was going to leave but they had
running bets as to when i was going to leave so they all lost so i was not sure
so they owe me they owe me now
so yeah the the spirit i say like the the chitta is like the spirit can get trained it is possible
so just a few kind of thoughts coming up and don't want to go on for too long tonight i feel
like it's nice to be a little bit so by so by as they say in thai kind of just a little bit
easygoing tonight so just want to wish everybody well i'm grateful for
everybody's support and i'll see you next time
everybody's practice here and i'll leave it at that