(E08)-01-Buddhist-do-not-Pray-to-a-Saviour

Good morning to all of you. Today, I'm going to give a talk on this topic, which is strife, not pray. Or you can say effort is crucial, not prayers. We know that in most religions, they pray to some super being, a savior. whether you call it God or whatever and that is very much emphasized and even in present-day Buddhism people pray to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas like they call on the name of Amitabha Buddha, Medicine Buddha And then when some Buddhists, they have difficulties, they pray to Kuan Yin and all that. But actually, in original Buddhism, in the original Buddha's teachings, he did not ask us to pray to any being. In fact, the Buddha said that nobody can help us. The Buddha said that even the Buddha cannot save us. The Buddha only shows the way. and we have to walk the way ourselves. He tells us what to do. We have to make the effort ourselves. So, you can see that the Buddha, he did not use his psychic power to heal people, to help people. Instead, the Buddha, he said that he has become enlightened or awakened to the natural laws in this world, this universe. And having understood the working of nature, he explained it to us, which way we want to walk is up to us. Even the Buddha himself is subject to certain laws of the universe. So in Buddhism, we don't pray to a god, because in Buddhism, god is mother nature. It's a natural force that rules the world, that creates the world. God in Buddhism is not a being up there with a long white beard looking down at you and passes out sentences, you shall go to heaven, you shall go to hell.

(E08)-02-AN-Prayers-and-Vows-Useless

In one discourse in the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said there are certain things in this world that everybody wants, but which are very hard to get. For example, you want to be born beautiful. You want to have a healthy body, a strong body. You want to have a happy life. And when you have a happy life, you want to have a long life. And when you pass away, you want to have a good rebirth, go to heaven if possible. If not, at least come back as a human being. So the Buddha said, all these things are very hard to get. And it is not to be got by prayers, or vows, or crying for it, etc. Because the Buddha said, if these things can be got by prayers or vows or crying for it. And why are beings suffering in this world? We know that there are beings in the hell realm who are suffering, who cry out every day because they are being cut, they are being pierced, they are being burned. And there are beings in the ghost realm, and there are beings in the animal realm. And these beings in these three woeful planes, they are suffering every day. and they are crying out for help every day, but nobody can help them. If there's anybody that can help them, then they won't be suffering in these three woeful planes.

(E08)-03-SN-Buddha-cannot-Bring-Us-to-Heaven

Also, the Buddha said in one sutra, at one time, a Brahmin, a type of high caste Indian came to see the Buddha. And he told the Buddha that their clan of Brahmins, they have a belief that when anyone of their relative passes away, they quickly take out his corpse. And they hold his corpse with their hands. They hold the corpse high and facing heaven. And they believe because he is facing heaven, he can see heaven and the direction to heaven. So they call out to his name. For example, if his name is Ali, they say, Ali, do you see heaven there? Go towards heaven. So they believe by showing him the way to heaven, that he can go to heaven, his lingun, his soul can go to heaven. So he said, Bhagavata, now you are a samasambuddha in this world, you are an arahant, samasambuddha. You have psychic power. We believe you can bring all of us to heaven, no need to shout and pray. Can a Buddha bring all of us to heaven? So the Buddha didn't want to answer him directly. The Buddha said, before I answer you, I'll ask you a question in return. You answer me first. The Buddha said, suppose you all went to the side of a lake and you took a big stone and you threw the heavy stone into the pond or lake. What happens? The stone sinks into the water. So when the stone is sinking, you all shout and praise the stone, good stone, clever stone, float up, float to the shore. Bole tak? Cannot, isn't it? Because the stone is heavy. So the Buddha says, in the same way, when a person is dying and he has done a lot of evil, that evil karma of his will drag him down to the woeful planes of rebirth. So when he is pulled by his karma down, you all come together and you shout and ask him to go to heaven. Can he go to heaven? And the man said, cannot. So the Buddha said, now suppose another day you all came to the edge of the lake again and you took a cup that was half filled with oil and you threw this cup into the pond. As the cup is sinking, the oil will float up, yeah? Because oil is lighter than water, the oil will float up. So suppose now you have come to the edge of the pond and you shout and curse the oil, you stupid oil, go down to the bottom of the sink, to the bottom of the pond. So the man said, cannot because the oil is lighter than water. So the Buddha said, in the same way, when a person is dying and he has a lot of good karma, he has done a lot of good deeds and he has not done evil deeds, this good karma of his will bring him up to heaven. So even if you curse him and ask him to go to hell or to go to the animal realm or to the ghost realm, he will still go to heaven. So in other words, what the Buddha is trying to say is that Kamma is the most important thing. What we do, we have to pay for it. Kamma is intentional action. So if you do something intentionally, purposely, you have to take the consequences for your action. If you help other people another day, your good actions will bring you to a good rebirth. If you harm other people, other beings, then your rebirth will be into the woeful planes of rebirth where you will suffer. Now all of us want to go to heaven if possible, or at the least we want to come back as a human being, right? Because the Buddha says there are five destinations of rebirth. Two are happy destinations of rebirth, namely the human plane and the heavens. But there are three woeful planes of rebirth, the ghost, animal, and hell realm. And the Buddha says, most of us, when we die, we are reborn in the woeful planes of rebirth. Even our Chinese also will believe, isn't it? When your relative passes away, they say, Seven days later, the spirit will come back. And true enough, Very often, the spirit does come back, but not necessarily seven days. Sometimes six days, sometimes five days, three days, two days, one day, come back. And when they come back, they make signs for you to know that they come back. For example, you can hear footsteps walking, but you don't see anybody. You can see the window opening and closing, but you don't see anybody. The lights get switched on and off. Or the fridge door was open and closed. Still hungry. So you see, they want you to know that they are around. And why do they want you to know? Because they need your help. When they are reborn in the ghost realm, they are suffering. So they want us to know so that we can help them in some way. When we know that our relative is reborn in the ghost realm, we should try to help them. And the Buddha said we should make some offerings to them. So normally if a person is reborn as a ghost, only then can you help that person. And when a person is reborn as a ghost, that person needs mainly two things. food and clothing. So normally Buddhists, we make an offering of food and clothing to monks if possible, and we transfer the merit to our departed relative. If we can't make an offering to monks, like certain places, you don't have monks, then you do charity, either to hold folks home or orphanage or something, and you transfer the merit to them.

(E08)-04-Dana-Sila-and-Bhavana

Now, all of us would like to be reborn in heaven if possible. But the Buddha says only those beings with a lot of blessings, a lot of merit, can go to heaven. So how do we get these blessings or merit? The Buddha says there is this formula. It's called Dana Sila Bhavana. Dana is charity, generosity. We help those in need of help. either with cash, or with our energy, or with time, or with kind words, all this is done. For example, if a friend of yours has cancer, and that person is feeling very bad, very sad, so you should go and talk some kind words to that person, so that person is comforted. If some friend or relative passes away, we should go and attend the funeral and all that. And if that relative or friend needs some monetary help, also you should try to help. So all this is charity or generosity. So when we help others, Next time, the help comes back to us. So next time, if you are reborn, cari makan pun senang. So for example, you open a shop. And then you hope customers will come. And Cantonese say, pong chan. So people come and help you. Hokkien say, kau kuan. So then you find it's very easy to sell your things. So it's easy to earn a living. That is the result of practicing dharma. The second way is sila. Sila is keeping precepts. The aim of keeping precepts is not to harm other beings. Because when we keep precepts, we refrain from killing. That's the first precept. Normally, lay Buddhists have to keep five precepts. If you consider yourself a Buddhist, you should keep the five precepts every day. So the first precept, when you don't kill, you allow other beings to have long life. And the natural result of that is that you have long life. Nowadays, you find some children, very young, they get leukemia. Cancer of the bone. How to explain? Suppose your son or your daughter has leukaemia and you believe in God. Don't you think you'll be very angry with God? Wah bani. Bookmanship macam mana. But if you believe in the natural laws of nature, then there's a natural explanation that it is a result of past karma. That's why if we have this killing karma, if we go hunting, shooting, fishing and all that, then we deprive other beings of life. So it's very natural that we will be deprived of life at a very early age. So the second precept is not to steal. We constantly take what is not given to us. Next time when you employ a maid or something, or a worker, they will naturally steal your things. Some people, they have this bad karma. Every time they employ people, their things get stolen. So that is the result of stealing. The third precept is not to commit adultery. You have a husband or a wife, not to fool around with other men or other women. If you constantly break this precept, then the natural result is to be reborn as an animal many times. And even when you are reborn as an animal, you get castrated. and then after that you come back as a human being or so people don't like you. So that is adultery. The fourth precept is not to lie. If we lie or cheat other people then next time we also get cheated. So sometimes you wonder why I'm so nice to that person and that person cheats me. That's the karma vipaka of your previous karma. So the fifth precept is not to take intoxicants, liquor, drugs, etc. Because when we take too much of this, it dulls our mind, makes us stupid. We are stupid enough already, don't make ourselves more stupid. So these are the five precepts. And in addition, the Buddha says that lay people should make an effort to keep the eight precepts once a week. Because as lay people, every day you are thinking of cari makan. Very busy with work, trying to find a living to take care of your family. But you forget that life is very short. Yesterday I went to see a monk friend of mine in Subang Jaya Buddhist Association. He's much younger than me. This year I'll be 60 years old. He's not even 50, 40 something. and he has a doctor diagnosed he has cancer. Cancer of the lung and spread to the spine and spread to the liver and spread to the thigh. How do you like that? He's sleeping on the bed. Even to move also, to turn his body around, he's in great pain because his spine He has cancer. So imagine to go to the toilet, how many steps of movement he has to make. Every step is painful. He turns his body a bit. He's in pain. He has to rest a while, take a deep breath to lessen the pain, to bear the pain. After that, he moves another two inches. Again, pain. He has to stand it for a while. And then move another two inches. So how many steps before he can go to the toilet? So life is so uncertain. Most of us, we think, oh, now I'm 40 years old. I got another, should have at least another 40 years. Had hopes we have. Life is very uncertain. You don't know when suddenly death, the cold touch of death would come and touch you. So don't make long plans, the Buddha said. Life is uncertain, but death is certain. So because of that, the Buddha said, lay people, at least you should make an effort once a week to keep the eight precepts. If you can, come to the Buddhist Society or the monastery to practice. Because when you practice together, it's more convenient, easier to practice together. When you meditate on your own, in your room, especially on your bed, after a while, you'll be doing sleeping meditation. So, if we practice together, everybody is sitting together, then, You think, everybody looking at me, I'm sitting in front, I better sit more straight. People say one hour, you also have to sit one hour. You cannot go and lie down. So if you want to progress, it's better to practice together. So the Buddha says that if you put aside one day to keep the eight precepts, once a week, then you are cultivating like a monk or a nun. So this is very meritorious. Of all the various things that we can do, cultivating ourselves, when you cultivate yourself, actually what are you doing? You are trying to control your mind. Because this mind is like a monkey. It is a source of great suffering. because it is undisciplined. Buddha says an undisciplined mind is a source of great suffering. A disciplined mind is a source of great joy and happiness. So one way is to discipline our mind. The other way in cultivation is to keep the precepts, refrain from harming others. Another thing you do in cultivation is to listen to the Dhamma, so they have more wisdom. A lot of things that you should know, you don't know. Common sense is not so common, you know. A lot of people don't have common sense. Bring it, they have. So this is Sila. So if you keep the eight precepts the Buddha says this merit can bring you to heaven and when you go to heaven you enjoy life for a very very long time millions and millions of years so long and so happy the Buddha says even if you become a king in this world you become a king of the whole of India or even you become a king of the whole world that happiness is nothing at all compared to the happiness of heavenly being. So it's worth the effort. You make once a week, you keep the eight precepts. Every day, you keep the five precepts. So this dana and sila, generosity and moral conduct, is basic for a human being. If you don't practice these two things, you will become a bad person. So, if you don't know how to be a human, you probably can't be a human. So, the Buddha says people who don't practice these two things, they'll be reborn in the ghost realm, or animal, or hell realm. But if you do practice these two things, dana and sila, even to a very low degree, the Buddha says it is most likely you will have a human rebirth. When you come back as a human being, you don't have much luck, you don't have much blessings. So, you cari makan, not so... You have to make the effort lah. It's not that you cannot cari makan. You have to make a lot of effort. And things don't come so well. You don't have such a beautiful life. But, on the other hand, if you keep these two things to a medium degree, you're fairly generous, and you always remember to keep your precepts at least to a certain degree. Then you come back as a human being with a lot of luck. You have a very good life. Maybe like Paris Hilton or Beckham, David Beckham. So, that is dana and si. Now, bhavana is development of the mind, what we call siu-eng, sao-hang. And this bhavana to develop yourself, just now I mentioned you need to do a few things. One is to listen to the Dhamma or read the Dhamma. And then to practice meditation to discipline your mind. So this bhavana, because it's harder to do, the merit is even more, much more. And also, this listening to the Dharma and practicing meditation can get you out of samsara. So, it is what we call in Mandarin, kong te. Kong te is the blessings, the spiritual blessings. The earlier two, dana and sila, is worldly merit. Fu te, hockey. Xiu heng is gong teng. So these both are important. If we have these worldly blessings, next time we come back we have a good life. But If you don't practice this spiritual merit, if you don't have, then you cannot get out of samsara. On the other hand, if you cultivate spiritual merit, you meditate a lot and listen to the Dhamma, but you don't keep your sila or do charity, then you don't have the worldly blessing. So next time you come back, when you become a monk or a nun, you go and beg for your food also, susah lah cari makan. So we need both, worldly merit as well as spiritual merit. So this listening to Dharma, we have to be careful nowadays, our Dharma is very very rojak. Maybe one or two days ago, somebody gave me this newspaper cutting from the star of this Tibetan monk who is a model as well as a monk. In his model clothes, he looks like a playboy. and at the time you wear his lama clothes. So because of that I see this our Dhamma is so rojak, so we have to listen to the earliest Dhamma, the original Dhamma of the Buddha and this is found in the earliest suttas of the Buddha, the Nikayas. So we have to make an effort to study the earliest teachings of the Buddha. When you study the earliest teachings of the Buddha, or listen to this type of Dhamma based on the earliest Nikayas, you find it is very, very practical. You can use that Dhamma, even as a layman, or as a monk. It is practical Dhamma, whereas a lot of the later Dhamma is very sometimes theoretical, like Abhidhamma. Abhidhamma is very theoretical. It's interesting to our brain. Teases our brain. But then, tak boleh guna. Every day, can't use. And then, like some Mahayana sutras, they always praise the bodhisattva, but you can't use it in your daily life. So we have to find those sutras, those discourses that are very practical, that you can use in your everyday life. And these earliest discourses are very practical. Why? Because they were actually questions that people asked the Buddha, questions that you yourself would want to ask if the Buddha was around. So if you ask this Buddha everyday things, then the Buddha answers how to solve your everyday problems. and also not only for lay people, for monks also and nuns. So the earliest discourses of the Buddha are very useful. They teach you the actual road map on how to live your life. Then the other aspect is meditation. Meditation Actually, in the Buddha's time, it's always Samatha, Samatha meditation. Because in the Majjhima Nikaya, Venerable Ananda was asked, what type of meditation is praised by the Buddha? And Venerable Ananda answered, the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna, the fourth jhāna. So only this is Buddhist meditation. But nowadays people talk of Vipassana meditation. But Vipassana meditation was not known during the Buddha's time. Vipassana meditation started about 30 years ago when Mahasi Sayadaw invented the Mahasi method of meditation. That's why it's not called the Buddha's method of meditation. It's called the Mahasi method of meditation. And after that you have people like Goenka also created another style of meditation. So it's called the Goenka method of meditation, never called the Buddha's method. So the Buddha's method in the suttas is always aiming to get at the jhanas. The jhanas are extremely important. Nowadays people don't understand. Why? Because trains you to focus your mind. When you practice Samatha meditation, it trains you to focus our mind. When our mind is not focused, it's like a camera that is not focused. When a camera is not focused, you try to take a picture, the picture is distorted. So in the same way, our mind is like a camera. If our mind is not focused, the way we see things are all distorted. For example, if you have color blindness and I show you a green leaf, ask you what color is this? You might say it's a blue leaf. And then I say it's not blue, it's green. Then you shout and argue. You say, I see it's blue. It's definitely blue. Right? Because it's blue to you because your color blind. So in the same way, the person wears dark glasses. Then I show him a certain color. I show him, for example, yellow. Then he says it's orange. Then I tell him it's yellow. He doesn't believe. Then I take off his dark glasses. Then he says, yeah, yeah. So the Buddha says that our mind is enveloped, covered by five hindrances, panca nivarana, that makes us see things distorted. So when we focus, pray to focus our mind, then we see things as they really are. That is very important. We see things as they really are. So you can see an example of how useful this focus of the mind is. You know originally when the Buddha, after the Buddha was enlightened and he wanted to look for disciples, he would go and look for those people who had attained jhāna either in this lifetime or in their previous human lifetime. So because they have attained jhāna, then their mind is very focused. Then the Buddha went to these people and preached the Dharma to them and they could become arahants. For example, the Buddha went to a group of jatilas, matted hair ascetics, who had wrong view, who prayed to fire. and bathed themselves in the river in the early morning and at night to wash away their sins. But because they practiced Samatha, the Buddha went to them and then impressed them by staying with them for a few weeks and showed them psychic powers until they were so impressed with him that they became his disciples. So when they became his disciples, he briefed to them one sutra and they became enlightened. They became arahants. Just one sutra. So you can see here the power of focusing the mind. Another time the Buddha went to a layman. This layman now, because of his previous, probably previous life, he was an ascetic who led the holy life, so he had very good karma. So he was born as a very rich man's son, and he had four wives, and he had many slaves to entertain him. Every day, the slaves would sing and dance for him, and he would drink liquor until he was drunk, mabok. And he enjoyed life like that every day. So the Buddha walked in front of his house. And then when the Buddha walked in front of his house, he was drunk and watching his slaves singing and dancing. Suddenly, something from the past memory made him look at the Buddha. and when he looked at the Buddha something stirred him up from the memory within so that he looked closely at the Buddha he stared at the Buddha and because his mind was strained to focus he focused on the Buddha and he managed to shake off all his drunkenness because no more drunk can just shake off his drunkenness like that and he went to the Buddha and now before the Buddha and then invited the Buddha to his place I think and the Buddha taught him the Dhamma and I think he became a monk and then later became an Arahant. So you see, if you are able to focus your mind like that, then you can do things like that, shake off the drunkenness. So in the same way, if you are able to focus your mind, then when you listen to the Dhamma or when you read the Dhamma, you are able to focus and absorb the Dhamma and become enlightened. That's why a lot of people nowadays, they don't realize the importance of this Jhāna, one-pointedness of mind. That is one use of the jhāna. Also, a lot of people don't understand. In the spiritual path, our aim is Nibbāna. And this state of Nibbāna is the state where the sixth consciousness ceases. This world actually is created by consciousness. Although to us it seems so real, actually life is like a dream. That's why when we are young, when I was in school, we used to recite this poem, row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. Yeah? Even orang putih also know that life is a dream. So, this life is created by consciousness. And in this dream, we always see ourselves like the hero, the mingxing, the great actor in the film. Just like when you go to sleep at night. When you go to sleep at night, this consciousness flows. This mind has a tendency for the consciousness to flow. This is called asavas. So when we go to rest at night, this asavas flow, consciousness flows. And then we dream. And in this dream, you see yourself as the actor again. And everything to you in that dream is so real. Until you wake up, then you wake up, then you realize, Aiya, just now I was so scared. A ghost was chasing me. Actually, no point to be scared. It's only a dream. So in the same way, now you're so excited about all the things in this world. You're so attached to all the things in this world. You think it's so important. But one day when you're about to die, all this is not important. Yeah. You know some people, because of ignorance, they create a lot of enemies. They do a lot of harm and all that. And then when they are dying, they regret. All those things that I thought were so important. I killed that man because of certain things that actually was not important at all. So then you regret. So, you see, life is like that. So, this state of Nibbana is the state where the consciousness ceases and this world disappears. Now, to attain this state of Nibbana, this state of Nibbana can be experienced in this very life itself. Arahants, some Arahants can experience it and it's called Nirodha Samapatti, cessation of perception and feeling. When the Buddha and some of his Arahant disciples, they enter this state of Nirodha Samapatti, They sit and their sixth consciousness stops. So they appear like a corpse, you know, a dead man. You go and test them, you see the breathing has stopped. The heart has stopped beating. Everything has stopped. But only one thing has not stopped. It's the body is still warm. The only difference between this person in Nirodhara Samapatti and the corpse is that the corpse is cold already. So next time your mother or your father passes away, you better check it's still warm enough before you even burn the body or bury the body as you wake up in the coffin. So, now this is the Nirodha Samapatti, it's equivalent to Nibbana. Now this state of Nirodha Samapatti, to attain that state, you have to attain the eight jhanas, the four Rupa Jhanas and the four Arupa Jhanas, before you can come to that state. So these jhanas are the different levels of the cessation of your body. When you enter the first jhana, your speech stops. You cannot talk already. When you attain the second jhana, your thought stops. You cannot think anymore. That's why it's called the state of the Aryan silence. When you attain the fourth jhana, the breathing stops. So when you attain the Arupajana, your mind expands, expands and expands, and then it gets stiller and stiller and stiller. When you attain the last Arupajana, the state of the base of neither perception nor non-perception, your consciousness is like a flame about to go off, just like a candle. becoming, going to die. Sometimes that got flame, sometimes no flame. So that's why it's called the state of neither perception nor non-perception. Sometimes you have perception, sometimes you have no perception. The consciousness is about to stop. So beyond that is Nirodha Samapatti. The consciousness stops entirely. So you see, to attain the state of Nibbana or Nirodha Samapatti, you have to go through the jhanas. That's why in the sutras, the Buddha calls the jhanas the footsteps of the Buddha. Footsteps of the Buddha. So to attain cessation or to attain this Nibbana is impossible without jhanas. But nowadays they teach that you practice Vipassana meditation is enough. You can attain Arahant Buddha, you can attain Nibbana. In the sutras, the Buddha says that is impossible. That's why there's one sutra, the Buddha says, that to attain anagamin, third fruition, or arahanthood, there is a path to walk. Without walking this path, this particular path, it is impossible to become an anagamin or an arahant. And what is that path? The Buddha says it's the first jhāna, second jhāna, third jhāna, fourth jhāna. So nowadays a lot of people, they don't investigate the sutras and they believe this kind of teachings that you can practice Vipassana meditation and become an Arahant. This type of teaching is based on later books, the commentaries, not on the Buddha's earliest discourses. That's why in the Suttas, the Buddha said, there are few things that conduce to the disappearance of the true Dharma. The Buddha said, in the Sanghuta Nikaya, the Buddha said, a time will come when five things will cause the disappearance of the true Dharma. First one is disrespect for the Buddha. Second one, disrespect for the Dharma. Third one, disrespect for the Sangha. Fourth one is disrespect for Samadhi. Samadhi is Samatha, the Jhanas. People belittle the Jhanas, saying Jhanas are not necessary. Saying that when you enter Jhana, what's the use of entering Jhana? When you enter Jhana, you have no mindfulness. This is because these people have never entered jhāna, so they say there is no mindfulness in jhāna. But when actually when you are in jhāna, you are extremely mindful, extremely mindful. The mind lights up, that's why. When you can attain jhāna, you can be reborn in the form realm, where these beings, their body is like a ball of light, very very bright, brighter than the sun, because they train their minds to be bright by attaining jhāna. So the fifth one is disrespect for the training, training of the monk, training of the holy life. So these are the five things that cause the disappearance of the true Dhamma. So one of them is disrespect for Jhana, disrespect for Samadhi. So this is the cultivation Bhavana. Bhavana is basically listening to the original teachings of the Buddha and meditation, meaning meditation or Samatha meditation. And this gives you very high merit You see these three things are dana, sila, bhavana. Dana is the easiest to do. And because dana is the easiest to do, it has the least blessings. Sila is more difficult to do because it's more difficult to do. It has more blessings if you keep your precepts. And then bhavana is the highest. It's most difficult to do. And it gives you great merit. You know, people like to buy that choy-san. They want to look for money. Buy choy-san. Chai-sin. But actually, they don't know that the biggest chai-sin is this dana and sila. If you practice dana and sila, you'll be a person with a lot of luck, with a lot of wealth. Everything you touch turns to gold. He does touch. So it's just like the thangkai nowadays. In Thailand, people are crazy over the chatukam, the round thangkai. You go to Bangkok, you find most of the men wearing the chatukam. They buy for a few hundred ringgit. But the chatukam, the outside thing, it can break. The insight which has to come is that this one, dana and sila, this is the best tankai, cannot break one. Can even bring to your next life. So, you really want these blessings, you do these two things, dana and sila. This bhavana, sauhang, siuheng, cultivation of the holy life is the highest merit. It can even eliminate very heavy karma. You see like this Angulimala, the bandit. He killed hundreds of people. This type of person is definitely bound to go to hell. But because he practiced so hard, he became an Arahant. And then he does not have to repay the karma. Even if you don't practice so hard, you become a Sotapanna, first stage. ariyala and then also you don't have to be reborn in the ghost realm or animal realm or hell you don't have to pay such heavy karma you see becoming arahant is very very difficult or anagamin also very difficult but sutapanna is not so difficult you know just listen to the dhamma more you can become a sutapanna so you see here the benefit of Listening to the Dharma and meditation is so high. That's why it's worth your effort. People like to buy share. They think a little investment can give you a big return. This one might be good. So these are the few things you have to do. If you want to go to heaven, practice charity or generosity. uphold your moral conduct by keeping the precepts, listening to the earliest teachings of the Buddha, and practicing Samatha meditation to focus your mind.

(E08)-05-We-Need-Many-Types-of-Blessings-not-only-Wealth

Now, you know, ordinary people, lay people, you like to have a good life. Everybody likes to have a happy life, enjoyable life. So because of that, a lot of people look for money. Always striving for money. Just now I said choi san. But then a lot of people don't understand where does that money come from. Because if you look around in this world, everybody is striving for money. And everybody is working very hard. And those people who work very hard, sometimes at the expense of family life. When I graduated from university, I chose a government service. We didn't pay so well as some of my friends in the commercial sector. But then I had more free time. I worked like 8 to 4.30, then I have time to enjoy myself. I see my friends, I work in SO, Shell and some of these consultant firms and all that. They work very long hours, sometimes up to 10 o'clock. So they come back, sometimes their children gone to sleep already. Tomorrow morning, their children go off to school early in the morning. And then they don't see them. So, you see, whole day they don't see their children. Only weekend only sometimes they see their children. But they thought it's worth it because eventually some of them became CEO, MD and all that. I had a friend, he became CEO of Exxon, based in Singapore. He's got a few countries under him. But worked so hard until he got a heart problem. So, everybody works hard. Either sometimes legal ways, sometimes illegal ways also. Even illegal ways, people work very hard, you know. When you're sleeping at night, 2 o'clock, somebody comes out to work. Make house calls, 2 o'clock house calls. Break into people's house, yeah. So you see, although everybody works very hard, some people they get good returns, some people they don't get such good returns. Some people even die trying to make money. Only one or two days ago, there's one burglar, he went up four storey or something to steal the aluminium or something. He fell down and died. So, what is it that decides whether you make big money or less? Actually, it is blessings. If you don't have the blessings, you strive very hard or so, you will become broke. Like some people, they do business, become bankrupt. Yeah? So, you got to have that blessings. And how does that blessing come about? Buddha says you have to understand the law of kamavipaka. To become rich or be born into a wealthy family, you got to have that luck. that wealth luck and that can be cultivated by doing charity if you are generous to others give to those in need of help then next time you have that wealth luck but then some people they keep thinking of money all the time actually is that itself is not sufficient why? you can be very rich but then you are not balanced, you know. Like many years ago, one of the richest men in Penang is Lo Boon Siew. His son was getting something like 50,000 a month salary. But at the age of 30-something, he died. Yeah? So you see, this person, he has the blessings of wealth, but not the blessings of long life. So you need the blessings of long life or so, isn't it? What's the use of having a lot of money? You don't have the life to enjoy it, isn't it? So, you have to take care of this long life also. But, you see, money also cannot buy you everything, right? Sometimes you can be very rich, but you're not happy, like Paris Hilton. A lot of money, but not happy. One boyfriend after another. Enjoy this, enjoy that, until go to drugs. So, happiness also you want, isn't it? How to get happiness? You give happiness to others, then happiness comes looking for you. Happiness comes knocking on your door. So when you give happiness to others, you get back happiness. Some people have a sickly body, from young until they're old. On the other hand, some people have a very strong body, very healthy body. Look at the footballers, English Premier League, so fit, so strong. That is a blessing, not everybody has. So you need that blessing also. How to get that blessing of strength and health? The Buddha said, don't torture other beings. Some people like to torture animals. Long time ago, they had slaves. So people like to torture slaves and all that. So when you make the bodies of other beings painful, you get a sickly body, a painful body. So you don't harm other beings. You get a healthy, strong body. Then some people They are rich, but not pretty, not handsome. And they wish, oh, I wish I could be pretty or handsome. So how to get this blessing of beauty? The Buddha said, don't have a bad temper. Some people have a bad temper. Little bit, little bit, they get angry. So angry, sometimes at night cannot sleep. So every time we get angry, our face becomes very fierce. Every day, you make your face very fierce. Then, of course, you are born ugly. But every day, you are very sweet. People say anything, so you just laugh it off. Then, mukha manis. So that is the blessing of beauty. Then, how to get the blessing of intelligence or wisdom? Somebody might be born into a rich family, might have down syndrome. So, the Buddha says, to get wisdom, we have to cultivate it. How? If there's anything you don't know, you have to investigate, you have to ask, inquire, find out, find out the truth behind it. Then you have this investigative nature, then you study, then you know, so you have wisdom. Even more so if you practice Samatha meditation, focus your mind, then you have high wisdom. You see somebody like Albert Einstein, supposed to have the highest IQ in the world, Albert Einstein, his mind is very concentrated on it. We give him a long mathematical problem, we cannot calculate it now without a calculator or a computer. But Albert Einstein can close his eyes and do all the mathematical calculations in his computer up here and then he can write down the answer. So if you don't have that concentrated mind, how can you focus like that? So Samatha meditation gives you that high IQ, that wisdom. And also don't drink liquor. Drinking liquor spoils your brain, damages, kills the brain cells. So these are the steps to get what you want. So we have to remember, wealth by itself is not enough. We want all these blessings. You want the blessings of beauty, the blessings of a healthy body, a strong body, the blessings of a happy life, a long life, to have wisdom, etc. You have to cultivate all these. Just now I said, if you pray, you make a vow, you cry for it, also you won't get what you want. You have to walk the path that brings you to what you want. You want long life, don't kill. You want wisdom, then investigate. You want beauty, don't get angry.

(E08)-06-Enjoy-Life-but-Replenish-Blessings

So the Buddha says that lay people, if you have the blessings, you can enjoy life. But enjoy life wisely. For example, if you have money, don't spend all of it enjoying yourself. Use it not only to make yourself happy, make your family happy also. Make your relatives and friends happy also. And then also make some investment, do some charity. Maybe make some offerings to monks and nuns or you do charity to old folks' home, orphanage and all that. That is buying insurance so that next time you can enjoy life again. So you want to enjoy life now, go ahead, enjoy life. But make sure you do the necessary things so that in future you keep on enjoying life. So we have to replenish our blessings by continuing to do good deeds and then we can enjoy life now and in the future. So remember these whole steps, generosity, keeping the precepts, listening to the earliest teachings of the Buddha and practicing Samatha meditation.