Date/Time
Date(s) - 28/04/2021
6:45 pm - 8:00 pm
Categories
Due to the COVID-19 Nagaloka is closed to the public. We decided best not to have any in person meditation or study group sessions on Wednesday evening or Sunday AM.
Instead we will be meeting online by Zoom on Wednesday evenings, 6:45-8:00pm if you would to join us. We value Sangha (spiritual community) and feel it is important for us to have the opportunity to be together. We will use this time to meditation along with a short check in to see how we can best support one another. Plus the facilitator will continue on our Dharma theme offering everyone a focus for our practice. We look forward to seeing you and sharing our love and kindness for the wellness of all beings.
Upajjhatthana Sutta : 5 facts for contemplation
Part Two
What distinguishes the Buddha’s teaching from other religions is his direct, thorough and uncompromising realism as he asks us to cease drifting thoughtlessly through our precious lives, and pay careful attention to simple truths that are available to us. The Upajjhatthana sutta offers 5 simple truths that we may try to avoid or hide from, yet by facing these 5 truths and contemplating them with kindness and calm curiosity, we can stimulate our practice and help bring to focus our energy and purpose and commonality with all beings.
This week we will focus on the 5th truth and introduce the teaching of Karma and Karma Vipaka.
There are these five facts that one should reflect on often. Whether one is a woman or a man , lay or ordained. Which five?
I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging…
I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness…
I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death…
I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me…
I am the owner of my actions (karma) heir to my actions, born of my actions, related to my actions and have actions (body, speech and mind) as my arbitrator. Whatever I do for good or evil, to that I will fall heir.
“Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect… That ‘I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging’?
There are beings that are intoxicated with a youth’s intoxication with youth. Because of that intoxication with youth, they conduct themselves in a bad way in body…in speech… and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that youth’s intoxication with youth will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker…
“Now, a disciple of the noble ones considers this: ‘I am not the only one subject to aging, who has not gone beyond aging. To the extent that there are beings — past and future, passing away and re-arising — all beings are subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.’ When he/she often reflects on this, the [factors of the] path take birth. He/she sticks with that path, develops it, cultivates it. As he/she sticks with that path, develops it and cultivates it, the fetters are abandoned, the obsessions destroyed.”
Click here to watch a short video on Karma.
Nagaloka’s Friends Night overview Nagaloka handout friends night July 2020
Please contact us if you have any questions. Email info@nagalokabuddistcenter.org
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