Delayed Gratification Means giving up short term desires for a long term happiness. One of the central ideas for the group is to practice meditation in order to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves for long lasting happiness. In a dharma talk, 'The Three Characteristics' , by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, the teacher tells this story to show a clear example of delayed gratification: "...When a little girl's mother died, her father promised not to take another wife. The little girl was very happy with her father's decision. But when her father brought with him a new wife after his business travels, the little girl was very sad. The new stepmother understood this, and wanted to help the little girl. So she asked to play a game of chess with the little girl. During the game, the stepmother explained to her, 'In order to get what you want in life, you look for the important thing and give up the other.' The little girl wasn't paying attention to what her new step...
Vipassana Meditation Why people quit & tips on how to makes your a success This is a discussion given during Sunday Jade Buddha Temple , English Dharma Group , so you are welcome to ask questions any time or leave a comment I this case. Also, in an hour we can cover one aspect of Insight Meditation so by no means an exhaustive discussion. Most of it are based my personal study and experiences of the past 20 years. I have been very lucky to find like minded practitioners supporting my journey. Without, this community, I might have stopped years ago. The other is that, is partly due to my self determination and effort, I have managed to participat in many retreats from 1-day up to 20 days. During these period, I have gone to at least one long retreats every year. In this talk you will hear statement, like ' Insight Meditation requires mindfulness, alertness and ardency '. The statement is simple and direct but loaded with meaning. O...
Opening the Doors to Happiness With the thorough teaching approach by Venerable Kaizhao (開照法師) and Venerable Kaiyin (開印法師) and skillful English translation from Ven. Zhihan (智翰法師) many of the yogis experience first hand the benefits of Loving Kindness (Metta) Meditation. Venerable Kaizhao and Venerable Kaiyin are well respect monastics from East Malysia Santavana Forest Hermitage ( temple website in Chinese ). The 7-Day retreat covers extensive material from the fundamentals to the exhaustive practices of Metta Meditation. The fundamentals gave everyone a solid base of understanding, such as that expressing anger is healthy, missing the important point that often time we are the first causality of the acts of hatred. Bhikshu Zhihan ( 比丘 智翰 ) provided effective instant English translation. Venerable Zhihan is fluent in many languges including English, Chinese and more importantly Spanish. For Spanish speaking people you can visti his web sit...