DHAMMA REFLECTION in the month of December 2013
Advice from Ashin Thittila
Take each thing that comes and decide how you will use it. Choose some definite form of activity, for no one can do everything. What is known as greatness is not sufficient for real success in life unless there is also goodwill and love for humanity. For real success, body and mind must be well occupied.
One should not bother one's head about things outside one's power, but take good care to occupy oneself with the things within one's power. So, before you let anything worry you, ask yourself if the thing is in your power, and if it is not, turn your attention to something else.
Treat your body well. Let it have rest, recreation. Avoid fear, reason it out of your life. Do what you can, and be content with that. Avoid anger, for there is no enemy more harmful than one's own anger to oneself. Do not dwell again and again on the same trouble or argument. If a difficulty arises, do not procrastinate, deal with it there and then. Do not let anxiety, fear and distress ramble about the mind.
Practise meditation on loving-kindness. In this meditation, first you fill yourself with love mentally, "May I be well and happy." After a while you extend it to all others, saying mentally, "May all beings of the universe be well and happy." Mean it, and feel it. Try to see that the whole world is filled with your love, with a great desire that all beings may be well and happy, even as a mother loves her only child and earnestly wishes for its well-being and happiness.
If you send out these thoughts of metta (loving kindness) before you go to sleep, I am positive that you will have extraordinarily peaceful sleep. If you can maintain these thoughts of metta you will have a serene, peaceful, successful life, and you will be loved because you are loving.
Extracted from ‘A Buddhist’s Companion’ By Ashin Thittila – Some Parting Advice given, on request, to students uopon Venerable Sayadaw U Thittila’s departure from England in 1966.
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Advice from Ashin Thittila
Take each thing that comes and decide how you will use it. Choose some definite form of activity, for no one can do everything. What is known as greatness is not sufficient for real success in life unless there is also goodwill and love for humanity. For real success, body and mind must be well occupied.
One should not bother one's head about things outside one's power, but take good care to occupy oneself with the things within one's power. So, before you let anything worry you, ask yourself if the thing is in your power, and if it is not, turn your attention to something else.
Treat your body well. Let it have rest, recreation. Avoid fear, reason it out of your life. Do what you can, and be content with that. Avoid anger, for there is no enemy more harmful than one's own anger to oneself. Do not dwell again and again on the same trouble or argument. If a difficulty arises, do not procrastinate, deal with it there and then. Do not let anxiety, fear and distress ramble about the mind.
Practise meditation on loving-kindness. In this meditation, first you fill yourself with love mentally, "May I be well and happy." After a while you extend it to all others, saying mentally, "May all beings of the universe be well and happy." Mean it, and feel it. Try to see that the whole world is filled with your love, with a great desire that all beings may be well and happy, even as a mother loves her only child and earnestly wishes for its well-being and happiness.
If you send out these thoughts of metta (loving kindness) before you go to sleep, I am positive that you will have extraordinarily peaceful sleep. If you can maintain these thoughts of metta you will have a serene, peaceful, successful life, and you will be loved because you are loving.
Extracted from ‘A Buddhist’s Companion’ By Ashin Thittila – Some Parting Advice given, on request, to students uopon Venerable Sayadaw U Thittila’s departure from England in 1966.
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