【放下 Letting Go】

The Dhamma TALK of the nite were briefly recorded as follows:

Dhamma blessing to all of the presence!

Today the senior monk felt ill and unable to attend tonite's talk. He is very old now at 75.

I consider myself new and not familiar much with the people here as to what they want to hear, and I just want to share Dhamma.

We comes different culture and country. We comes to Malaysia and learn a lot of Mahayana Buddhism; the tradition of sharing merits seems the same. Like Guan Yin, practice Sila , Dana & Meditation.

This is a very nice principle and we can live together with happiness and at the same time train our habits of thinking about others before ourself. The Mahayana tradition starts with the society and at the same time train us to develop our quality , like the compassion of Parami.

The Theravada emphasis on meditation, pacify the mind in order to see the Dhamma. Arising and passing. We learn about the delusion that poison our mind, that we hurt ourself and hurt others. We train not to persuade by anger.

We train the mind, strengthen the mind not to distract, not following the unwholesome way, and to see things clearly. We thought everything belongs to us; but if we observe the cause and condition, this thing is just passing by and we can't make anything different. We want see that everything that belongs to us, house or car, they either leave us or we leave them. It will be easier to let them go and not attach to it. We just make use of them and by the time comes, we'll just let them go. We will face significant death and nothing belongs to us.

We can sense the connection and must keep the precept at all time. Do not say bad things about people. We must train ourself to concentrate. We starts with breathing meditation or recite "Buddho". We can also contemplate on our mind. We'll do this continuously and scan control our mind against being poison. When we see things clearly we see our merits that we do. Every time we give things away, letting go and we'll feel free. We understand this is all merits, purifying the mind, cleansing the mind and the Wisdom arising. When we can put that into practice and know the real meaning of giving, we can see things clearly. Our wisdom will becomes deeper and deeper. We then understand our mind. We gain spiritually and becomes more and more refine. We'll get into concentration. We will not do anything to harm, body, speech and mind. Harming others is like harming ourself. We purfiy our speech more and more and we'll increase our wholesome state; Sila and Panna. We'll slowly learning to let go. Every time we let go we will be free from that. When we understand this, our life will change.

We think about our future generation. How can we train this process? Some baby are clever, some are not, this is because some have done something different in heir past lives. For people who give, they will be born in a wealthy family because of the karma and we'll see this connection. This is the way of training for purification, and Letting go of attachment.

I hope my talk will help you let go more and more.

Question 1 by Audience: What is the systematic way of letting go? because saying is easier than talking!

Reply: Contemplate death and contemplate everyday. When time comes and we can let go easier.

The other way is to contemplate on 32 parts of body!

The technique of letting go may be different from people.

Question 2 by Audience: I find myself like to find faults on others and how do I not doing that?

Reply: Finding fault on people basically know who is doing work and who is not doing work, but internally our mind is not peaceful. We may not see thing in an all round way but just one aspect of it. We can contemplate on cause and condition. We can go to the world without wanting to shape the people. We may contemplate on compassion.

We may think certain people may not be incomplete in certain manner but they may have something that they possess their area of expertise and we can complement each other.

These are just some techniques we could use... we could be dead even in our own way.... and have more connection and compassion. Know your mind and do your training in your own way.

Question 3 by Audience: Can Ajahn elaborate his life in the Forest Monastery under LP Liam?

Reply: LP Chah left the temple to LP Liam. He is the monk capable of doing construction, emphasis on meditation but not so much of scriptures. He did a lot of hard labour work. He lead the monks to build buildings. Ajahn Mai basically stayed with him and helping him building the monastery.

What is the teaching of the early days that help to stick with him as the great monk. The impression he has of LP Liam is: he is a monk that can let go, when you are at the top there, some people says bad words about you, but he never took it personally, he doesn't look at the person and his action. So.... he see thing in a Dhamma way. People came to tell him all sort of thing but he just listen. And he just leave it there and continue to do his thing. When LP Chan passed away and pass the temple to him, LP Liam appear totally different from LP Chah; and a lot of people didn't like him. One of the big task after LP Chah passed away, LP Liam started to plan and prepared for the funeral of LP Chan. During the early day, nobody understand it. When would you build the road in the monastery and started criticizing him. He admitted wrong but still continue doing it. When after LP Chah passed away, a lot of people come and the also the Thai King came. People then only realized what he did is a right decision. The monk who criticize him before later apologize to him. After he proved himself, people started to support him. He managed to unite the whole sangha.

LP Liam always use the money received as donation in the monastery for building. People see the money is put into good use.

When people go to the monastery, people will first go to the museum, then walk about 1Km to the LP Chah stupa to pay respect and by the time they walk back, people got tired and won't disturb the monk anymore. So.. this is a very good planning. And keep the monastery peaceful.

Question 4 by Audience: Economy is not good in Malaysia, how can we face it?

Reply: Economy is not good not just in Malaysia but in every part of the world. During the LP Chah time, people ask for something so that they can be prosperous. People asked for Amulet so that they will get something special. We should instead follows the "Sufficient economy". Which means go for the right amount but not to stimulate for more and more. Be just the right amount and be contended. If it is up to a point of material thing , the it will be a burden. There is always a ceiling for Material thing. May be one should try happiness of mind, not eternally but internally. We should then develop the inner quality and we rely on that. We should cultivate from the inside.

Question 5 by Audience: How do we practice like Ajahn?

Reply: The easier way is to be ordained. It is a very hard job to be at the top, this thing doesn't comes in a short time but comes thru many years of practice or many life time. Need to perfect perfection for many aeons, kappas to achieve that.