According With Conditions

อาจารย์ ปสันโน

According With Conditions

In terms of living as monastics and lay practitioners, there are two helpful principles we can return to again and again in our daily life. The first of these is learning how to accept and adapt to whatever conditions we find ourselves in. This doesn’t mean being indifferent or not dealing with things but really engaging with conditions in a skillful, attentive way…

What are our habits? How can we develop habits that better accord with Dhamma, that accord with changing conditions so that a sense of equanimity and balance is more readily available to us? That’s very much a part of monastic training in this lineage— and how Ajahn Chah trained the monks who came to live with him.

The second principle is renunciation—nekkhamma—which is an integral part of adapting to conditions. The English word “renunciation” suggests that we’re pushing away or running away from something. But that doesn’t reflect the real meaning of nekkhamma, which is a sense of rising up to conditions with a noble attitude. It’s a quality that brightens the mind and allows us to engage with the Dhamma. If we neglect opportunities to practice nekkhamma, we miss much of what monastery training is for.

Ajahn Chah used to speak about people who became discontented while practicing in a monastery. They might leave and go out into the forest, which was fine for a while, but then they’d get fed up with the forest and go off to the seashore to practice. And after a while they’d get fed up with that, so they would go off to the mountains. And after a while they’d get fed up with that, too. They neglected to practice renunciation in the circumstances they were in—they didn’t engage or rise up to that opportunity.

So in our daily lives, it’s important that we apply these two training principles: accepting and adapting to conditions, while sustaining a noble attitude of renunciation. These principles can serve as aspirations for everybody, lay and monastic, because we’re all apt to spend so much time and effort trying to manipulate circumstances to get what we want, grumbling and complaining about how things are. Instead, we can learn to accommodate, rise up, and meet conditions with a sense of relinquishment, letting go of discontent.

When we practice like this we are likely to find that there is no need to make conditions into a problem for ourselves.

This reflection by Luang Por Pasanno is from the book, Beginning Our Day, Volume One, (pdf) pp. 159-160.

What is happiness?

ฐานิสสโร ภิกขุ

What is happiness?

First, though, it’s good to think about happiness. What is happiness? The Pali term sukha has a wide range of meanings. It starts with basic pleasure and ease and works up to well-being and bliss. But it’s one of those terms that the Buddha never defines. Lots of other terms he defines very precisely, but some of the really basic terms—mind/citta, happiness/sukha, and stress/dukkha—never get defin…

With Nanda

พระไตรปิฎกบาลี

With Nanda

Standing to one side, the god Nanda recited this verse in the Buddha’s presence: “Time flies, nights pass by, the stages of life leave us one by one. Seeing this peril in death, you should do good deeds that bring happiness.” “Time flies, nights pass by, the stages of life leave us one by one. Seeing this peril in death, one looking for peace would drop the world’s bait.” This reflection is from t…

Adaptability

อาจารย์ อมโร

Adaptability

The changing weather is a fine teaching in adaptability. One day warm sunshine, spring flowers, birds singing. Now, howling winds and snow. Tomorrow what will it be? If we are wise, then the heart will always adapt to receive the changing qualities of the present circumstance. Stillness and movement, calmness and wind, brightness, darkness, praise, criticism, gain and loss, the familiar or the une…

The Ethical Basis of Conceiving

อาจารย์ สุจิตโต

The Ethical Basis of Conceiving

The human mind is endowed with the capacity to think. In this capacity, the act of conceiving can generate an Ideal; but for truth and action, what is important is the ethical basis of the conceiving. This ethical basis must rest not on idealistic righteousness but on an empathic relationship that is structured around respect and compassion. When we get intoxicated with ideas, that relationship su…

My Alms Bowl —Soul of My Mendicancy

อัยยา เมธานันทิ

My Alms Bowl —Soul of My Mendicancy

My alms bowl is central to my life. A symbol of the Theravāda Buddhist monastic tradition in which I trained, it is the soul of my mendicancy – coming empty-handed before the laity to receive material nourishment and responding to their generosity. Sometimes that means reciprocating with a teaching from the Buddha, sometimes with a blessing chant or simply an expression of gratitude and kindness.…

Inching Along

อาจารย์ วีรธัมโม

Inching Along

In monastic life, we’re taught to work with very simple reflections that we try to bring forth at different times. For instance, before the main meal, we say: “Wisely reflecting, I use alms-food not for fun, not for pleasure, not for fattening, not for beautification, but only for the maintenance and nourishment of this body, for keeping it healthy, for helping with the holy life. Thinking thus, I…

The Development of Friendliness

อาจารย์ ถิรธัมโม

The Development of Friendliness

The development of friendliness (mettā), sometimes translated as ‘loving-kindness’, progresses through various stages in much the same way as an evolving friendship gradually deepens. The practice starts with learning to be more friendly towards those aspects of ourselves to which we are averse or resistant. This doesn’t mean that we have to like them, but at least we can be less negative and mor…

Going for Refuge

ฐานิสสโร ภิกขุ

Going for Refuge

The act of going for refuge marks the point where one commits oneself to taking the Dhamma, or the Buddha’s teaching, as the primary guide to one’s life. To understand why this commitment is called a “refuge,” it’s helpful to look at the history of the custom. In pre-Buddhist India, going for refuge meant proclaiming one’s allegiance to a patron—a powerful person or god—submitting to the patron’s…

Community Life: Unity in Diversity

อาจารย์ ชยสาโร

Community Life: Unity in Diversity

At the conclusion of an Ordination ceremony for Western monks, Luang Por would usually take the opportunity of this gathering of the Western Sangha to give a Dhamma talk which would encompass the whole monastic training from its most basic foundations to the ultimate goal of the Holy Life. On one such occasion, he began – as was his custom – by emphasizing the importance of living together in harm…