June 6 Upasika Day - Schedule change and readings

Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery will continue with the Upasika Days with a day of community, Dhamma study, and meditation. The Upasika Program exists to provide an opportunity for lay women and men (upasikas/upasakas) to deepen their practice and their relationship to the monastery.

The theme of the June 6, 2010 Upasika day is sutta study, and we will be focusing on the Therigatha and Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks and Nuns). The readings for the day appear below.

The schedule for Upasika days has changed as of June 6, with the refuges and precepts ceremony occurring before the meal:

10:30 am - Refuges and Precepts
11:00 am - Meal offering (bring a dish to share)
1:00 pm - Meditation, teachings & discussion
4:00 pm - Tea with the monastics

More information about the upasika program. If you have questions, please contact Mettika at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). For directions to the monastery visit the Directions page within this website.

Our readings, listed below, are drawn from several sources and translations of the Therigatha (Thig.)and Theragatha (Thag.), including Great Disciples of the Buddha, by Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker (GDB); Sons and Daughters of the Buddha, by Andrew Schelling and Ann Waldman (S & D), and translations by Andy Olendzki. GDB is available for viewing online. Andy Olendzki's translations are below.

Here is a list of sources for each Elder's verses, and some translations. Other translations of some of these suttas are available at Access to Insight: Theragatha and Therigatha.

1) Ananda: GDB, page 140 = Thag 1039-40 + GDB p148 = Thag 1041-43 + GDB p179 = Thag 1035-36

2) Khema: GDB p266 = Thig 139-42 + GDB story pp263-4

3) Maha-pajapati: Thig 157-62 (Andy Olendzki's translation, below)
[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.06.06.olen.html]

Buddha! Hero! Praise be to you!
You foremost among all beings!
You who have released me from pain,
And so many other beings too.

All suffering has been understood.
The source of craving has withered.
Cessation has been touched by me
On the noble eight-fold path.

I've been mother and son before;
And father, brother — grandmother too.
Not understanding what was real,
I flowed-on without finding [peace].

But now I've seen the Blessed One!
This is my last compounded form.
The on-flowing of birth has expired.
There's no more re-becoming now.

See the gathering of followers:
Putting forth effort, self controlled,
Always with strong resolution
—This is how to honor the Buddhas!

Surely for the good of so many
Did Maya give birth to Gotama,
Who bursts asunder the mass of pain
Of those stricken by sickness and death.
************ ********* ********* ****

4) Bhadda: GDB pp271-3 = Thig 107-9 + Apadana story + Thig 110-11 [also at S&D p94]

5) Patacara (and her disciples): GDB p296 =Thig 112-16 [also at S&D p58-9]
GDB 298-9 = Thig 125-6 + Thig 119-21 + Thig 176-7 (disciples)

6) Isidasi: GDB pp310-16 = Thig 403-47 [also at S&D pp79-88]

7) Angulimala: GDB pp330-33 = Thag 871-91

8) Ratthapala: S&D pp20-23 = Thag 776-93

9) Sirimando: Thag 448-52 (Andy Olendzki's translation, below)
[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thag/thag.06.13.olen.html]

The world is assailed by death
And smothered by old age;
Pierced with the arrow of craving
And always obscured by desires.

The world is assailed by death
And besieged by old age;
Eternally beaten, with no relief--
Like a thief beneath the rod.

Old age, illness and death approach
Like three great masses of fire.
No strength can resist them.
No speed can out-run them.

Spend your days without confusion,
Whether few or many [remain].
For every night that slips away,
There is that much less of life left.

Whether walking or standing,
Sitting or lying down
— Your final night is drawing near.
You have no time to be lazy.


10) Kisagotami: GDB pp276-8 = Thig 213-23 [also at S&D pp68-70]

11) Sona Kolivisa: Thag 637-9 (only in PTS: story of feet & tuning the vina at 'Life of the Buddha,' p170-1)

12) Anuruddha: GDB p241 = Thag 869-900, 904