The printed English translation is in the Abhayagiri chanting book. It’s in the section called “Reflections and Recollections” and its title is “The Highest Blessings.” Here’s a link to the PDF version of the chanting book. The sutta is on page 32.
I downloaded the MP3 of the English tranlation of the Mangala Sutta from the Abhyagiri web site @ http://www.abhayagiri.org/index.php/main/medium/916/ but I could not find an English written translation. Does one exist? The chanted version is different from all four versions of the Mangala Sutta at the Access to Insight website or any other translation I found on-line, and although I could type it out by listening to it line by line, I was hoping to save the time.
Your blog-tales are fascinating, and the work everyone has done is impressive. How wonderful that all your plans and efforts are bearing fruit. The tents look comfortable and inviting. It must feel wonderful to have the monks at the hermitage. Keep us posted on developments!
Thanks for sharing that passage from Majjima 91—I hadn’t seen it before and enjoyed learning something. I’m still looking for the exact story and teaching I mentioned in my original post, though, and when I find it I’ll try to remember to share it with others. I mentioned it to another vipassana teacher, Grahame White, who just did a 2-day vipassana “workshop” here this past weekend on Oahu, and he had heard it mentioned, too, but alas could not emember its source either.
Thanks to all.
There may be a person or two amoung us interested in what’s happening over here in the “Great Pacific Northwest” (as those of our region like to refer of ourselves, lol). Obvioulsy I’ve not posted for awhile and though I do intend for this to not be the norm, this too remains uncertain. Still, here’s a casual invitation to take a peak at what’s been keeping myself and many others in our community busy of late. Here’s a hint; its bigger than a bread box, is animal, vegetable and mineral and when coming into contact with it often enough can render one’s resistance as futile. So, fair warning’s and all...Enter at your own risk: http://pdxdhamma.blogspot.com/
I have a couple more references that might be useful to you.
In a book by Ajahn Sumedho called The Way It Is , chapter 6 is devoted to the precepts.
Also, there a work called]The Craft of the Heart that seems to have a lot on the precepts (It’s in my E-Library but I’ve only just scanned through it). It’s by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya) translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu that I got either through Wat Metta or Access to Insight. If you have any trouble finding either I can e-mail them to you.
The next constituent of practice is moral restraint (sıla). Sıla watches over and nurtures the practice in the same way as parents look after their children. Maintaining moral restraint means not only to avoid harming others but also to help and encourage them. At the very least you should maintain the five precepts, which are:
1. Not only to kill or deliberately harm others, but to spread goodwill towards all beings.
2. To be honest, refraining from infringing on the rights of others, in other words, not stealing.
3. Knowing moderation in sexual relations: In the household life there exists the family structure, based around husband and wife. Know who your husband or wife is, know moderation, know the proper bounds of sexual activity. Some people don’t know the limits. One husband or wife isn’t enough, they have to have a second or third. The way I see it, you can’t consume even one partner completely, so to have two or three is just plain indulgence. You must try to cleanse the mind and train it to know moderation. Knowing moderation is true purity, without it there are no limits to your behavior. When eating delicious food, don’t dwell too much on how it tastes, think of your stomach and consider how much is appropriate to its needs. If you eat too much you get trouble, so you must know moderation. Moderation is the best way. Just one partner is enough, two or three is an indulgence and will only cause problems.
4. To be honest in speech - this is also a tool for eradicating defilements. You must be honest and straight, truthful and upright.
5. To refrain from taking intoxicants. You must know restraint and preferably give these things up altogether. People are already intoxicated enough with their families, relatives and friends, material possessions, wealth and all the rest of it. That’s quite enough already without making things worse by taking intoxicants as well. These things just create darkness in the mind. Those who take large amounts should try to gradually cut down and eventually give it up altogether. Maybe I should ask your forgiveness, but my speaking in this way is out of a concern for your benefit, so that you can understand that which is good. You need to know what is what. What are the things that are oppressing you in your everyday lives? What are the actions which cause this oppression? Good actions bring good results and bad actions bring bad results. These are the causes.
Once moral restraint is pure there will be a sense of honesty and kindness towards others. This will bring about contentment and freedom from worries and remorse. Remorse resulting from aggressive and hurtful behavior will not be there. This is a form of happiness. It is almost like a heavenly state. There is comfort, you eat and sleep in comfort with the happiness arising from moral restraint. This is the result; maintaining moral restraint is the cause. This is a principle of Dhamma practice - refraining from bad actions so that goodness can arise. If moral restraint is maintained in this way, evil will disappear and good will arise in its place. This is the result of right practice.
From: Wat Nong Pah Pong website
From: Meditations: Given by Ajahn Chah at the Hampstead Vihara, London, 1977
Q: Do lay Buddhists adapt these principles to their situation?
A: There are five principles to follow: refrain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxicants. These guidelines enable us to look into our life and see that which causes conflict: to see the impulse which is always wanting something. We look into our heart and see that which exploits and is bound by sexual energy, which doesn’t use it wisely. We see the impulse to distort the truth. And recognise how drugs and alcohol are unskilful ways of avoidance. When someone is not living by these principles their ability to endure hardships is wasted away. But if we do accord with them, then the result of that spiritually is that we become able to bear with things. If we’re not able to bear with things, we’re not able to understand suffering.
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/see-way/con-act.htm
From: Contemplation and Action by Venerable Kittisaro
(He became a samanera at Wat Pah Pong in February 1977, and received upasampada from Ajahn Chah four months later.)
From: Seeing the Way: Buddhist Reflections on the Spiritual Life
An anthology of teachings by English-speaking disciples of Ajahn Chah
Thanks! I found a rich little section in Small Boat, Great Mountain on the five precepts. It’s about six pages long (pp. 151-156) and has a very good bit on why the fifth precept should be understood as precluding *all* intoxicants—rather than just precluding getting high on intoxicants. This is often a good discussion point.
I really appreciate your finding this for me. I didn’t search for precept material in Small Boat, Great Mountain because I just assumed that the book would be focusing on Dzogchen/Theravada issues and wouldn’t be discussing the precepts.
It’s a wonderful book!!
Thanks again,
Dorothea
P.S. I’ll still be happy to hear of other references that people might know of.
I am now in the process of reading Ajahn Amaro’s book Small Boat Great Mountain which I highly, highly recommend. I would like to find a hadcopy version, but a PDF can be downloaded via this web site. I wish I could be a part of your study group.
A group of us in my local area are considering getting together for a little study series—maybe four or five sessions on a theme or a book. We’d do some study and practice on our own, and then we’d get together to discuss our experience. Our group is focused on the teachings of Ajahn Chah and his monastic disciples, so any study we do will be from those teachings. We’re not interested (right now) in other sources.
We’re considering using the five precepts as a theme, and I’ve been looking for readings on this topic. I’ve found a chapter in Ajahn Amaro’s book “Silent Rain,” and I’ve found chapters in Ajahn Sumedho’s books “Cittaviveka” and “The Mind and the Way.” Each of these ar short readings, and I’d like to find something more extensive, but any other references would be helpful. Again—it must be from the disciples of Ajahn Chah.
Can anyone point me to further readings that we might use?
Accepting rice in the bowl accepts the right amount, without turning or twisting the bowl. Accepts soups and curries enough to suit the amount of rice, but not to make a salve of it. Good Gotama chews the food in the mouth two or three times and does not swallow unbroken particles, does not keep any particles in the mouth, when the next mouthful is taken. Good Gotama partakes food conscious of the taste, yet not greedy for tastes. Considering eight things good Gotama partakes food not for, play, intoxication or adornment. He partakes food to support the body, without greed for tastes, thinking I should make an end of earlier unpleasant feelings, and not arouse new, just the right amount for a pleasant abiding, without faults.
Majjhima 91
Bhikkhu Nanamoli/Bodhi’s translation is better if you have it.
Thanks for the reply. I too went to Access to Insight, searched elsewhere on-line for an hour, and could not find it! I would think it was all just some mental hiccup, if it were not for the fact that I paraphrased the story at lunch one afternoon here on Oahu during a retreat given by Dr. Thynn Thynn, and she had heard this anecdote as well.
Is there anyway to simply ask Ajahn Amaro? It may very well derive from a Mahayana sutra.
Thanks for asking.
With metta,
Steve
Dorothea - 30 June 2007 07:12 PM
Hi, Steve.
Welcome to the Upasika Life forum!
What an interesting story about the Buddha “lending” Ananda his taste experience. I can’t say that I’ve ever heard it before. It would really be helpful if you could find the Dhamma talk in which you heard it told. This might give us a clue.
I went to the Access to Insight web site and used search words like “taste,” “eat,” and “Ananda,” but none of them seem to point to the sutta that you’re looking for. I’m stumped. Maybe someone else will have an idea about how to find it.
What an interesting story about the Buddha “lending” Ananda his taste experience. I can’t say that I’ve ever heard it before. It would really be helpful if you could find the Dhamma talk in which you heard it told. This might give us a clue.
I went to the Access to Insight web site and used search words like “taste,” “eat,” and “Ananda,” but none of them seem to point to the sutta that you’re looking for. I’m stumped. Maybe someone else will have an idea about how to find it.
