“Desire causes Suffering” goes the Noble Truth. But it is hard to see. Desiring a good grade, job, house for your family – does this cause suffering?
Desire is not bad per se, only when it becomes your master is it to be feared. Newspapers are full of stories that show the kinds of things desire [...]
Archive for the ‘Sense Desire’ Category
Desire your Master
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 27 June, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Ruin of Xmas
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire, tagged Meditation Bangkok, Thailand on 21 December, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Christmas is here again, though it is hard to get into the spirit of things in Thailand. In the West most people feel that Christmas has become too commercialised, and has lost its original values. What are those values that have been lost? Family spirit? Often the family is the problem, and one that cannot [...]
Love of Money
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 25 July, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Greed, the saying goes, causes all bad things – fights, wars, theft, prisons …. Most especially destructive is the Love of Money, which it is said, is the Root of All Evil.
A recent story reveals two elderly ladies, one 78 years of age, fighting in a supermarket after falling out over money. They apparently used [...]
Chicken Wings
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 11 July, 2008 | 3 Comments »
On Saturday Boxer Tony Thompson clashes with the world’s top Heavyweight, Vladimir Klitschko. A capable fighter in his own right, Thompson is nevertheless the clear underdog, and has a difficult time ahead of him. For him it is kind of like being booked in for a nasty car crash, on Saturday evening.
This is a lot [...]
Old Toys and VAW Turbines
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire, tagged sustainable energy on 18 February, 2008 | 1 Comment »
[Summary: final blog on the topic of wealth and money, in advance of tomorrow's talk on this subject. Having a small footprint.]
The Quakers have forty-two suggestions, known as ‘Advices and Queries’, which they draw inspiration from. Number forty-one goes like this:
Try to live simply. A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength.
[Thanks Marcus [...]
Discalced Enlightenment
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 17 February, 2008 | 2 Comments »
[Summary: is wealth or money the antithesis of the meditative life? Further look at the role of money in Buddhism in anticipation of the Dhamma Talk on Tuesday by Ven U Vamsa]
***
Arunachala is a famous ‘mountain’ in India – more of a hill actually, but a significant bump in the otherwise flat landscape of Tamil Nadu. There it [...]
The Eye of a Needle
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire, tagged money on 14 February, 2008 | 5 Comments »
[Summary: First of several blogs on the nature of money and wealth to a meditator - in anticipation of Tuesday 19 Dhamma Talk on this topic]
Harder it is for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven
than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
.. says the bible. In Christianity [...]
All for Lobha
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire, tagged greed on 30 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The newspapers are always full of stories of just what lengths people will will go to under the power of greed (lobha). In New York last week two men wheeled a dead friend to a store and tried to cash one of his cheques, getting arrested for their efforts:
Two men have been arrested in New [...]
Burger King
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 6 November, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Ananova, an endless source of amusing stories, often reports winners of various eating contests. This is prime fillet of lobha – pure greed. Not for the items that are eaten, but for the obscene effort involved in entering these competitions:
A Californian man ate 103 burgers in just eight minutes to set a new world record.
Officials [...]
You can’t always get what you want
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 1 November, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Interesting that when Mick Jagger sang “You can’t always get what you want” in Brazil in 2006, there were one million people listening to him. One million people – we Buddhists have been saying the same thing for 2500 years …. but the crowds we draw in Bangkok have not reached a million, not even [...]
Lunging after Lunch
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 8 October, 2007 | 1 Comment »
People often ask me how often I go ‘home’ to England. Which tickles me somewhat, as it might be more productive to ask how often I leave my room …. We monks like to hide away and be alone. In fact, the opportunity to be alone is the main reason I remain a monk. However, [...]
Even in a Temple …
Posted in All Posts, Sense Desire on 5 September, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
[Summary: Professional theives in temples - things people do for money]
I warn all visitors, especially Westerners, to our temple here to carry their shoes with them all the time. Even a 300 baht pair of shoes I once got new, got stolen from outside my door. The reaction seems to be “even in a Temple?” [...]
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