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Writings and Readings Blog

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Lessons Learnt

Posted on August 14, 2009
in Being in Nature
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Lessons Learnt: Tao te-Ching Like Dhammapada, Tao te-Ching is a treasury of spiritual teachings. Recently, as I re-read it. As I basked in the richness of its glorious path, I thought of sharing its life lessons with you. Inner Guide Tao te-Ching inspires us to access our sacred center within and listen to its guidance during the good times and the bad. The inner guide is no one but our original self, what we are capable of becoming-our potentiality, and what we were before we started to put on masks to interact with various people in our lives. When our gaze is turned within we see the world with a new light. Rather than trying to understand others, we make earnest attempts to understand ourselves. Time comes when we replace the...

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Chapter Eleven: Dhammapada

Posted on August 14, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Eleven: Dhammapada Old Age 146. How can there be laughter, how can there be pleasure, when the world is burning? When you are living in darkness, why don't you ask for a lamp? 147-149. This body is a painted image, subject to disease, decay and death, full of imaginings. What joy can there be for the one who sees that his white bones will be thrown away like dried gourds at the end of the summer? 150-151. A house of bones is this body, plastered with flesh and with blood. In it dwell pride and pretence, old age and death. In the course of time even the glitter of a king's chariot wears out, same way the body loses its strength and vigor. But the goodness and virtue never grow old. 152. A...

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Chapter Ten: Dhammapada

Posted on August 7, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Ten: Dhammapada "Punishment" 129. All fear punishment; all fear death, just as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. 130. All fear punishment; all love life, just as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. 131. For the sake of happiness if you hurt others who also want happiness, you will never find happiness here and hereafter. 132. For the sake of happiness if you do not hurt others who also want happiness, you will find happiness here and hereafter. 133 Speak quietly to others and they too will be gentle in their speech. Harsh words are painful and come back to the speaker. 134 If your mind is silent like a broken gong, you have entered Nirvana, leaving all quarrels behind. 135. As a cowherd drives his cows to...

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Chapter Nine: Dhammapada

Posted on July 31, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Nine: Dhammapada "Evil and Good" 116. Hasten to do good; stay away from evil. If you neglect the good, evil will enter your mind. 117. If you do wrong, do not repeat it, or take pleasure in it as a habit. An evil habit results in suffering. 118. If you do something good, keep repeating it and make it a habit. A good habit causes nothing but joy. 119. An evil-doer may find pleasure in his habits as long as he has not reaped what he has sown, but when he does he suffers. 120. A good man may suffer as long as he has not reaped what he has sown, but when he does, pleasure prevails over him. 121. Let no one who has done wrong say to himself, "Sorrow will...

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Chapter Eight: Dhammapada

Posted on July 24, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Eight: Dhammapada "One Against Thousands" 100-103. Better than a speech of thousand useless words is one thoughtful word, which brings peace to the mind. Better than a poem of thousand vain verses is single thoughtful verse, which brings peace to the mind. Better than a hundred useless poems is one single verse, which brings peace to the mind. 103-105 A man who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on battlefields. Be victorious over yourself and not over others. When you attain victory over yourself, not even gods can turn it into defeat. 106. Better than performing a thousand rituals month by month for a thousand years is reverence for a man who has conquered the self. 107. Better than worshiping or tending sacrificial...

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Chapter Six: Dhammapada

Posted on July 10, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Six: Dhammapada "The Wise" 76. If you meet a wise man who steers you away from the wrong path, follow him as you would one who can reveal hidden treasures. Only good can come out of it. 77. Let him admonish or instruct or restrain you from what is wrong. Such a man is loved by the good and hated by the bad. 78. Make friends with people who are good and true but not with those who are bad and false. 79. Those who follow Dharma, the truth revealed by the noble ones, live in joy with a serene mind. 80. Those who make waterways control the waters; arrow-makers make their arrows straight; carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds. 81. As a solid rock is not moved by the...

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Chapter Five: Dhammapada

Posted on July 2, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Five: Dhammapada "The Immature" 60. Long is the night for the watchman; long is the road to the weary. Long is the cycle of birth and death to the one who does not know the dharma. 61. If on the spiritual path you find no one to support you, travel alone. The immature cannot be your traveling companion. 62. He thinks, "These are my sons. This is my wealth." He cannot call himself his own, much less his sons and wealth. 63. If the immature knows that he is immature, he has a little wisdom. But the immature who thinks he is wise, is indeed foolish. 64. An immature cannot understand dharma even if he spends his whole life with the wise. How can the spoon know the taste of soup? 65. But if...

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Chapter Four: Dhammapada

Posted on June 26, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Four: Dhammapada "Fragrant Life" 44. The garland-maker seeks flowers and gathers the most beautiful ones. 45. As when an aspirant searches for a spiritual path, and chooses the path of dharma. On this path he goes beyond the realms of death and of gods. 46. He who knows that this body is the foam of a wave, the shadow of a mirage, breaks the flower tipped arrows of Mara, the god of death. Death can never touch him. 47 & 48. As a torrent of rushing water sweeps away a slumbering village, death sweeps away those who spend their lives half-awake gathering flowers of sensuous passions. 49. The ones fully awake live without injuring nature, as the bee drinks honey without harming flower's beauty or perfume. 50. Think not the faults of others, of...

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Chapter Three: Dhammapada

Posted on June 19, 2009
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Three: Dhammapada "Thoughts" 33. Thoughts are restless, difficult to restrain. The wise straighten their thoughts just as an arrow-maker straightens his arrows. 34. Like a fish on dry land thrashing in agony, a novice meditator agonizes to escape from the power of Mara, the lord of temptations and death. 35. Thoughts are difficult to restrain, they go wherever they want and fancy whatever they wish. But a trained mind is a source of health and joy. 36. The wise can guard their elusive and subtle thoughts wherever and whenever they choose. A well-guarded mind is a source of great joy. 37. He who can guard his thoughts, that wander aimlessly, is free from the bonds of death. 38. He whose mind is unsteady and restless does not know the path to Dharma. 39. But he whose...

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Chapter Two: Dhammapada

Posted on June 12, 2009
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Chapter Two: Dhammapada "Being Watchful" 21. Watchfulness is the path of immortality: unwatchful-ness is the path of death. Those who are watchful go beyond death: those who do not watch are already dead. 22. The wise understand the importance of vigilance and rejoice in the wisdom. 23. The wise strive for Nirvana in meditation and attain infinite joy and freedom. 24. The man who meditates earnestly, pure in mind, kind in deed, leading a disciplined life in harmony with the teachings arises in glory. 25. The spiritually disciplined man can make an island for himself that can never be overwhelmed by floods. 26. The foolish are never watchful; but the wise consider watchfulness as their greatest treasure. 27. They never surrender to sloth and carelessness and attain the supreme happiness. 28. The wise overcome sloth through...

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