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Welcome to Wat Sacramento Buddhavanaram

A Thai Buddhist temple in the Dhammayut tradition

Our temple is a center for Buddhist and those interested in Thai culture to meet and explore.

We offer you a place where your knowledge can grow and you can focus on a way of life and living that leads to greater understanding and achievement along the Lord Buddha's great path.

The Buddhist Monk's Discipline:
 Some Points Explained for Laypeople

Bhikkhu Khantipalo

"It is well to reflect about kamma and how each person is — 'owner of kamma, heir to kamma, born of kamma, bound by kamma, determined by kamma' — for such reflection cultivates equanimity. Each person trains himself, a bhikkhu according to his knowledge and ability and a layman likewise."

Every action, word, and even thought in some way touches our kamma. With that in mind, consider reading through Bhikkhu Khantipalo's short essay before your next encounter with Buddhist Monks.

Beneficial is control of eye,
Control of ear is beneficial too,
Beneficial is control of nose,
Control of tongue is beneficial too,
Bodily control is beneficial,
Control of speech is beneficial too
Beneficial is control of mind,
Everywhere restraint is beneficial.
The Bhikkhu here restrained in every way
Free utterly is he from every ill.
— Dhp 360-361

 "The Buddhist Monk's Discipline:
  Some Points Explained for Laypeople", by Bhikkhu Khantipalo.
  Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013,
  https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/khantipalo/wheel130.html.

Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection

Jarā-dhammomhi jaraṃ anatīto.

I am subject to aging. Aging is unavoidable.

Byādhi-dhammomhi byādhiṃ anatīto.

I am subject to illness. Illness is unavoidable.

Maraṇa-dhammomhi maraṇaṃ anatīto.

I am subject to death. Death is unavoidable.

Sabbehi me piyehi manāpehi nānā-bhāvo vinā-bhāvo.

I will grow different, separate from all that is dear & appealing to me.

Kammassakomhi kamma-dāyādo kamma-yoni kamma-bandhu kamma-paṭisaraṇo.

I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and live dependent on my actions.

Yaṃ kammaṃ karissāmi kalyāṇaṃ vā pāpakaṃ vā tassa dāyādo bhavissāmi.

Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.

Evaṃ amhehi abhiṇhaṃ paccavekkhitabbaṃ.

We should often reflect on this.

These are the five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.
  – Upajjhatthana Sutta – AN 5.57

An Ancient Path Rediscovered

"It is just as if a man, traveling along a wilderness track, were to see an ancient path, an ancient road, traveled by people of former times. He would follow it. Following it, he would see an ancient city, an ancient capital inhabited by people of former times, complete with parks, groves, & ponds, walled, delightful. He would go to address the king or the king's minister, saying, 'Sire, you should know that while traveling along a wilderness track I saw an ancient path... I followed it... I saw an ancient city, an ancient capital... complete with parks, groves, & ponds, walled, delightful. Sire, rebuild that city!' The king or king's minister would rebuild the city, so that at a later date the city would become powerful, rich, & well-populated, fully grown & prosperous.

"In the same way I saw an ancient path, an ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times. And what is that ancient path, that ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times? Just this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration... I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of birth... becoming... clinging... craving... feeling... contact... the six sense media... name-&-form... consciousness, direct knowledge of the origination of consciousness, direct knowledge of the cessation of consciousness, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of consciousness. I followed that path.

"Following it, I came to direct knowledge of fabrications, direct knowledge of the origination of fabrications, direct knowledge of the cessation of fabrications, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of fabrications. Knowing that directly, I have revealed it to monks, nuns, male lay followers & female lay followers, so that this holy life has become powerful, rich, detailed, well-populated, wide-spread, proclaimed among celestial & human beings."

    — SN 12.65

Padīpa Pūjā ~ Light Offering

Lay person properly lighting altar candles
With lights brightly shining
Abolishing this gloom
I adore the Enlightened One,
The Light of the three worlds.
Ghanasārappadittena
Dīpena tama-dhaṃsinā
Tiloka-dīpaṃ sambuddhaṃ
Pūjayāmi tamo-nudaṃ
 

 

The Middle Way realized by the Tathāgata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

 

Nagavagga: Elephants

Appamādaratā hotha!
Sacittamanurakkhatha!
Duggā uddharathattānaṃ,
 paṅke sannova kuñjaro.

Delight in heedfulness!
Guard well your thoughts!
Draw yourself out of this bog of evil,
 even as an elephant draws itself out of the mud.

Dhammapada 327

 

Excellent ...

Yo dhammam desesi
  ādikalyāṇaṃ,
    majjhekalyāṇaṃ,
      pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ
The Buddha has pointed out the way:
  excellent in the beginning,
    excellent in the middle,
      and excellent in the end.

From the Dhammapada

Refuge ...

They go to many a refuge,
to mountains, forests,
parks, trees, and shrines:
people threatened with danger.

That’s not the secure refuge,
that’s not the supreme refuge,
that’s not the refuge,
having gone to which,
        you gain release
        from all suffering and stress.

But when, having gone for refuge
to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha,
you see with right discernment
the four noble truths—

stress,
the cause of stress,
the transcending of stress,
and the noble eightfold path,
the way to the stilling of stress:

That’s the secure refuge,
that, the supreme refuge,
that is the refuge,
having gone to which,
        you gain release
        from all suffering and stress.

Dhp, 188-192

Nibbaana sacchikiriya ca etammangalamuttamam

Endeavoring for the realization of Nibbaana is the highest blessing