Loving without clinging

Adhering to the Buddhist concept of non-attachment does not mean you have to abandon people you love. But you do need to approach your love differently, says AJAHN SUMEDHO, a highly revered monk based at Amaravati Forest Monastery.

First, you must recognise what attachment is, and then you let go. That's when you realise non-attachment. However, if you're coming from the view that you shouldn't be attached, then that's still not it. The point is not to take a position against attachment, as if there were a commandment against it; the point is to observe.

We ask the questions, What is attachment? and, Does being attached to things bring happiness or suffering? Then we begin to have insight. We begin to see what attachment is, and then we can let go.

If you're coming from a high-minded position in which you think you shouldn't be attached to anything, then you come up with ideas like: Well, I can't be a Buddhist because I love my wife, because I'm attached to my wife. I love her, and I just can't let her go. I can't send her away.
Those kinds of thoughts come from the view that you shouldn't be attached.

The recognition of attachment doesn't mean that you must get rid of your wife. It means that you free yourself from wrong views about yourself and your wife. Then you find that there is love there, but that it's not attached; it's not distorting, clinging or grasping.

The empty mind is quite capable of caring about others and loving, in the pure sense of love. But any attachment will always distort that.

If you love someone and start grasping, things get complicated; then, what you love causes you pain. For example, you love your children but if you become attached to them, then you don't really love them any more because you're not with them as they are. You have all kinds of ideas about what they should be and what you want them to be. You want them to obey you, and you want them to be good, and you want them to pass their exams.

With this attitude, you're not really loving them, because if they don't fulfil your wishes, you feel angry and frustrated and averse to them. So, attachment to our children prevents us from loving them. But as we let go of attachment, we find that our natural way of relating to others is to love them. We find that we are able to allow our children to be as they are, rather than having fixed ideas about what we want them to be.

When I talk to parents, they say how much suffering there is in having children, because there's a lot of wanting. When we want them to be a certain way and don't want them to be another way, we create this anguish and suffering in our minds.

But the more we let go of that, the more we discover an amazing ability to be sensitive to, and aware of, children as they are. Then, of course, that openness allows them to respond rather than just react to our attachment. You know, a lot of children are just reacting to our saying, "I want you to be like this."

The empty mind - the pure mind - is not a blank where you're not feeling or caring about anything. It's an effulgence of the mind. It's a brightness that is truly sensitive and accepting.

It's an ability to accept life as it is. When we accept life as it is, we can respond appropriately to the way we're experiencing it, rather than just reacting out of fear or aversion.

by Ajahn Sumedho, Bangkok Post

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Archan Sup Brohmano love charm amulets

Been receiving good feedbacks from people who had used Archan sup amulets. Archan sup had made many charming metta and love amulets to his disciples and people since he was ordained. Many people had experience good love and wealth luck from his amulets. This time, I will introduce some more special amulets made by Archan Sup Brohmano.

Archan sup Mae TaKian amulet

(Front view)

(back view)

This is a mae takian female spirit amulet and made by Archan sup.The special ingredient added in by Archan sup is the mae takian tree powder.

(Takian tree)
These are tall forest trees. They are of course not fit to be grown in a limited house ground. Beside, such big trees are believed by the people to be abodes of tree spirits. There are two kinds of spirits that reside in the trees. One kind is a male spirit half "phi" half thevada or god, and the other is a female spirit like the wood nymph. The former, as surmised from the tree cult usually resides in a big tall tree, the wood of which has no economic value, while the latter resides in a tree which supplies economic wood or fruits. Even today people in outlying districts will not dare to cut down any big tree for fear of the tree spirit residing in it. Even in felling a tree of smaller size, the people will first make an offering to the spirit to atone for the offence made. A very big and very tall tree of the kind which the people believe to be the abode of the spirit will not be felled at any cost. In the old days when certain big trees were required for the making of the traditional royal barge or posts for the tall roof of a royal pyre, an offering was made and a royal proclamation was read to the spirit under the tree before it could be cut down. This was a wise practice to preserve big trees of the forest from wanton felling by the simple folk.

The Takian tree in the particular is a very well-known one where a female spirit has her habitation. She is known as "Nang Takian" or Lady Takian. In the imagination of the people, Lady Takian usually takes the form of a beauty maiden who sometimes makes a wailing and piercing sound when the tree, her abode, is felled. A female spirits residing in this tree.

Many Thai people believe in the power of the mae takien tree and even touch the tree wishing for windfall luck and love luck.


(Thai people praying and touching the takien tree)

According to Archan sup, the mae takian tree powder is known as magical thing that has super power protecting from bad things and evil. The mae spirit can help in both love and good windfall wealth luck.
Made only limited pieces due to the little amount of mae takian tree powder.

Do see more information of archan sup Mae takian spirit amulet at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skybeliever2000/2475947986/ (Sold out)

See another mae takien amulet by lp amnard at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skybeliever2000/3671319636/

Archan sup mae per attraction lover with 3 takruts (Sold out)


(Front view)

(Back view)

One of the best love charm amulet ever made by Archan sup.
Front feature a mae per sitting on a skull.
Behind ingredients are:
1)Three handwritten silver takrut wih love charm yantra inserted.
2) Skull bone fragment of a lady.
3) Special holy herbs wahn and soil din chanted for many years by archan sup.

According to archan sup, this is one of the best amulet for attraction and charming a lover back.
She is known as to have the super power and ability to bring luck and help the owner to be admired and love. Also, she will make your relationship work for you.
See more information of this Archan sup mae per attraction lover amulets at:
(Sold out)

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Wisakha Bucha Day

Pattaya City gets ready to celebrate Wisakha Bucha on May 19

Pattaya, Thailand -- Pattaya City is making preparations for Buddhism‘s most important festival, Wisakha Bucha Day, May 19, 2008, (the anniversary of the Lord Buddha‘s birth, enlightenment and entry into nirvana, or paranirvana, to be precise) by holding a Meditational Run and Procession.

The activities will focus on observing the five Buddhist commandments and refraining from all vice. There will be collaboration between Pattaya City Council, clubs, societies and the people of Pattaya to celebrate the event. Activities will start at 4.30 pm, with sixty Buddhist monks being invited to pray for the auspicious ceremony, with a dedication to His Majesty the King on the occasion of his 80th birthday. After the prayers and a sermon at around 5pm, athletes will start a Meditational Run and Walk.

The winner will receive a trophy and any participants who reach the finish line will receive a sacred coin and a Dharma book, to be presented by Mayor of Pattaya City. There will also be a Buddhist ceremony afterward at around 6.30 pm

In addition, all participants and Buddhist monks will join in procession to walk from Pattaya Hill Public Garden to Chai Mongkol Temple, where the procession will circumambulate (circle) the temple three time, with each carrying flowers, three glowing incense sticks and a lit candle in silent homage to the Triple Gem, i.e. Buddha (the Great Teacher), the Dhamma (the Truth) and the Sangha (the community of followers).

This triple circumambulation ceremony will be repeated at all the wats (temples) throughout Thailand and is a marvellous opportunity to make merit. Wisakha Bucha (or Puja) Day, falls on the full moon of the 6th lunar month. Agriculturally, it is the season of seeding and ploughing, and on this day the workers leave the fields to participate in the circumambulation ceremony. Shortly after transplanting is completed, the rainy season, with its annual monsoons, arrives to inundate the farmland. Daily rainfall refreshes the fields and much of the family's time becomes occupied with the holy Rains Retreat (Phasa in Thai), observances.

During the annual, three-month Rains Retreat, Buddhist monks remain in their monasteries overnight. In a tradition which predates Buddhism, in Ancient India the monks gave up their itinerant habits and instead remained in permanent dwellings, avoiding travel across fields so as not to tread on the young plants In deference to popular opinion, the Buddha decreed that his follows should also abide by this ancient tradition.

This marked a movement towards a more permanent, communal life and the establishment of Buddhist monasteries and temples, especially in countries to which the young religion had spread.

Phansa (lent) is a time of spiritual practice; a time to emulate the Buddha. Specifically, it concentrates on Bhavana (meditation) or development of the mind, working from a base of morality (Sila), together with the development of concentration (Samadhi) and mindfulness (Sati). This practice enabled Siddhattha Gotama to become a self-awakened Buddha and many of his noble disciples to become Arhats.

Accordingly, ever since it has been the period, when the monkhood becomes more spiritual vigorous, meditating, studying and teaching more. It is also the time young men enter the monkhood to become temporarily ordained and receive spiritual training, to gain merit for themselves and their parents, and achieve maturity, after which marriageable girls will regard them as fit persons to marry.

The Buddhist ordination is a mixture of religious solemnity, merit-making and boisterous celebration, reflecting a Thai belief that the three most important events of a man's life are his birth, ordination and marriage. Socially, the ordination of the young novice-monks is an opportunity for the whole village to join in celebration. Village monks represent the presiding chapter and act as preceptors. Villagers gain merit and they and small children accompany the tonsured, white-robed candidates for monkhood in a lively procession to the monastery, marked by joyous dancing and deep beat of long drums.

Laymen, too, during this traditional holy season, attempt to be more conscientious in following the Buddha's precepts, renouncing hard liquor, cigarettes and other vices, and try to be better people and donate both financial and physical support to their local monasteries.

Source(Pattaya daily News)

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Help victims of Myanmar disaster

On 2 May 2008 tropical cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar and devastated large parts of the low-lying delta region of the Irrawaddy River. Winds exceeded 190 kilometres per hour as the storm ripped through the Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon (estimated population 6 million) for over than ten hours. Homes were flattened, more sturdy structures damaged, trees uprooted and power lines downed. In rural parts of the country up to 95 per cent of all homes were destroyed.

This is a situation that the country has not dealt with before and the scale of the needs is clearly massive. Casualty figures continue to rise. The data that is currently available to the International Federation suggests that up to 1 million people might have lost their homes.



Tropical cyclone Nargis has devastated large parts of the mid-south of Myanmar. Casualty figures
continue to rise. At the launch of this appeal, latest reports indicate 22,000 people killed, 41,000 people missing and millions affected. It is a huge disaster by any measure.

No one knows how many are now homeless, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen. Estimates range from 90,000 and up. Hundreds of thousands of people are without clean drinking water, said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The disaster puts the government's credibility on the line, as general anger could build if relief efforts are not accelerated. There was little sign of official efforts to repair the damage in Yangon, but the worst-hit areas were in the countryside, now inaccessible by road because of storm damage.

The cyclone was the greatest recorded natural disaster in Myanmar, also known as Burma, since a storm killed 2,700 people in 1926.
The government had apparently taken few efforts to prepare for the storm, which came bearing down on the country from the Bay of Bengal late Friday. Weather warnings were broadcast on television saying that winds could reach 120-150 mph and tides could rise as much as 12 feet above normal levels.

Stanley: There is a Buddhist saying," Ability to save a life is worth more than anything else."
Do help the victims of the Myanmar disaster. Our good deed is to help support them to survive and help them to help themselves as soon as possible.
In general, we should support the poor, the disabled people, the aged, and those who suffer from natural disasters like a flood, big storm, earthquake, fire or so on. We can support them by sharing food, shelter, clothes, medicine and other necessary things.
This is a way of doing merit in Buddhism, and in return, we receive a great deal of merit.
Do Follow your heart, have compassion and donate now for Myanmar Relief.
Click on the link below and you will be link to banner of networkforgood.org website , click on the badge to donate. Do procced to donate from your heart .

Thanks to all and may Buddha bless us all.

http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/Badge.aspx?BadgeId=111613

From Stanley
http://thailand-charms-amulets.blogspot.com/