Chuang Yen Monastery

The first snow at Chuang Yen Monastery this year. Such a beautiful, calm, and peaceful view!

The Noble Eightfold Path Bhikkhu Bodhi Cutting Off The Causes of Suffering (Part I) To free ourselves from suffering fully and finally, we have to eliminate it by the root, and that means to eliminate ignorance. But how does one go about eliminating ignorance? The answer follows clearly from the nature of the adversary. Since ignorance is a state of not knowing things as they really are, what is needed is knowledge of things as they really are. Not merely concept...ual knowledge, knowledge as idea, but perceptual knowledge, a knowing which is also a seeing. This kind of knowing is called wisdom. Wisdom helps to correct the distorting work of ignorance. It enables us to grasp things as they are in actuality, directly and immediately, free from the screen of ideas, views, and assumptions our minds ordinarily set up between themselves and the real. To eliminate ignorance we need wisdom, but how is wisdom to be acquired? As indubitable knowledge of the ultimate nature of things, wisdom cannot be gained by mere learning, by gathering and accumulating a battery of facts. However, the Buddha says, wisdom can be cultivated. It comes into being through a set of conditions, conditions which we have the power to develop. These conditions are actually mental factors, components of consciousness, which fit together into a systematic structure that can be called a path in the word’s essential meaning: a course way for movement leading to a goal. The goal here is the end of suffering, and the path leading to it is the Noble Eightfold Path with its eight factors: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. (Part I)

The Noble Eightfold Path Bhikkhu Bodhi The Causes of Suffering (Part II) The Buddha teaches that there is one defilement which gives rise to all the other, one root which holds them all in place. This root is ignorance (avijja).* Ignorance is nor mere absence of knowledge, a lack of knowing particular pieces of information. Ignorance can co-exist with a vast accumulation of itemized knowledge, and in its own way, it can be tremendously shrewd and resourceful. As ...the basic root of dukkha, ignorance is a fundamental darkness shrouding the mind. Sometimes this ignorance operates in a passive manner, merely obscuring correct understanding. At other times it takes on an active role: it becomes the greater deceiver, conjuring up a mass of distorted perceptions and conceptions which the mind grasps as attributes of the world, unaware that they are its own deluded constructs. In these erroneous perceptions and ideas, we find the soil that nurtures the defilements. The mind catches sight of some possibility of pleasure, accepts it at face value, and the result is greed. Our hunger for gratification is thwarted, obstacles appear, and up spring anger and aversion. Or we struggle over ambiguities, our sight clouds, and we become lost in delusion. With this, we discover the breeding ground of dukkha: ignorance issuing in the defilements, the defilements issuing in suffering. As long as this causal matrix stands we are not yet beyond danger. We might still find pleasure and enjoyment - sense pleasures, social pleasures, pleasures of the mind and heart. But no matter how much pleasure we might experience, no matter how successful we might be at dodging pain, the basic problem remains at the core of our being and we continue to move within the bounds of dukkha. *Ignorance is actually identical in nature with the unwholesome root "delusion" (moha). When the Buddha speaks in a psychological context about mental factors, he generally uses the word "delusion"; when he speaks about the causal basis of samsara, he uses the word "ignorance"(avijja). Part II (avijja)* *ignoranceavijjadelusionmohasamsara

The Noble Eightfold Path Bhikkhu Bodhi The Causes of Suffering (Part I) A teaching proposing to lead to the end of suffering must, as we said, give a reliable account of its causal origination. For if we want to put a stop to suffering, we have to stop it where it begins, with its causes. To stop the causes requires a thorough knowledge of what they are and how they work; thus the Buddha devotes a sizable section of his teaching to laying bare the truth of the o...rigin of dukkha. The origin he locates within ourselves, in a fundamental malady that permeates our being, causing disorder in our own minds and vitiating our relationships with others and with the world. The sign of this malady can be seen in our proclivity to certain unwholesome mental states called in Pali kilesas, usually translated defilements. The most basic defilements are the triad of greed, aversion, and delusion. Greed (lobha) is self-centered desire: the desire for pleasure and possessions, the drive for survival, the urge to bolster the sense of ego with power, status, and prestige. Aversion (dosa) signifies the response of negation, expressed as rejection, irritation, condemnation, hatred, enmity, anger, and violence. Delusion (mola) means mental darkness: the thick coat of insensitivity which blocks out clear understanding. From these three roots emerge the various other defilements - conceit, jealousy, ambition, lethargy, arrogance, and the rest - and from all these defilements together, the roots and the branches, comes dukkha in its diverse forms: as pain and sorrow, as fear and discontent, as the aimless drifting through the round of birth and death. To gain freedom from suffering, therefore, we have to eliminate the defilements. But the work of removing the defilements has to proceed in a methodical way. It can not be accomplished simply by an act of will, by wanting them to go away. The work must be guided by investigation. We have to find out what the defilements depend upon and then see how it lies within our power to remove their support. (Part I) kilesas

Get Out and Vote Bhikkhu Bodhi On November 3, the U.S. will hold what is likely to be the most important election in our lifetime. The results of this election will have an impact on the lives of everyone in this country and are likely to reverberate across the planet for decades to come. The election is just too critical for anyone with a sense of humane responsibility to sit out. If we truly esteem the values of good will, loving-kindness, and compassion, ...we must express these ideals in the simple act of voting. For whom should one vote? In making a choice, we should not expect any candidate to be perfect. Virtually any candidate is bound to have weak spots. Instead of looking for a perfect candidate, we should consider the alternatives before us and then determine which candidate seems most likely to contribute to peace and shared prosperity, to uphold democratic norms of governance, and to unify and inspire the country rather than incite violence and division. We should take into account not only whether their proposals will benefit us personally, but whether their ideas spring from a wide, sympathetic outlook that addresses the major challenges our country and the global community face today. Please read the full article with the link below: https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/get-out-and-vote/ 113 https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/get-out-and-vote/

VIRTUAL CYM Kuan Yin Renunciation Ceremony | Date: November 1st, 2020 (Sunday) Time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EST Watch on YouTube Live Stream YouTube... Request Light a Light service https://www.baus.org//virtual-cym-kuan-yin-renunciation-c/ According to the Great Compassionate Heart Dharani Sutra: "Since immeasurable kalpas, there is a bodhisattva named Guanyin At Ease, who has accomplished great compassion, and skillfully practiced immeasurable dharani doors to confer peace and joy upon sentient beings." A practitioner walking on the Bodhisattva path, starting from generating the mind until accomplishing all the merits, he or she is not deterred by all kinds of difficulties, and can stand the trial of time. He or she can imitate the spirit of Guanyin Bodhisattva who since renouncing the world and generating the mind to practice, has determination, forbearance, is not afraid of difficulties, and not deterred by any situations. To commemorate the day Guanyin Bodhisattva renounced the world, this monastery is initiating a lamp offering ceremony on YouTube. We pray that all motherlike sentient beings be spared of difficulties, that their calamities and obstacles be dissolved. May there be universal illuminations and all around purifications. YouTube

We will remain closed until 12/31/2020 | 20201231 In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Chuang Yen Monastery has not been opened so far! As a precaution, we are not allowing any vehicles or visitors into the monastery. Thank you for your support and understanding!

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++ (This activity is in Chinese-language only, we will further let you know if the English version comes up. Thank you for your understanding!) 1. | Ven. Chang Rui... 9177:30 PM-9:00 PM917zoom https://www.baus.org/tc/8786 2. $10 Chuang Yen Monastery 2020 Route 301, Carmel, NY 10512 3. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/Y0002

| Ven. Chang Rui ... 7:30PM-9:00PM917zoom(This lecture is in Chinese language only) https://www.baus.org/tc/8786

REGISTRATIONLive Stream Ullambana Ceremony The Ullambana ("deliverance from suffering") Ceremony will be held on August 30th, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Please view the youtube live stream during the event. The Ullambana Ceremony is one of the most exciting events every year! We welcome you to join us and share the benefits of DharmaPlease click the link below for more event information:... 08/30/20 https://www.baus.org//cym-/ullambana-ceremony-cym-8192018/ May you be happy and healthy.

The Noble Eightfold Path Bhikkhu Bodhi Even our pleasures, the Buddha says, are not immune from dukkha. They give us happiness while they last, but they do not last forever; eventually they must pass away, and when they go the loss leaves us feeling deprived. Our lives, for the most part, are strung out between the thirst for pleasure and the fear of pain. We pass our days running after the one and running away from the other, seldom enjoying the peace of content...ment; real satisfaction seems somehow always out of reach, just beyond the next horizon. Then in the end we have to die: to give up the identity we spent our whole life building, to leave behind everything and everyone we love. But even death, the Buddha teachers, does not bring us to the end of dukkha, for the life process does not stop with death. When life ends in one place, with one body, the mental continuum, the individual stream of consciousness, springs up again elsewhere with a new body as its physical support. Thus the cycle goes on over and over - birth, aging, and death - driven by the thirst for more existence. The Buddha declares that this round of rebirths - called samsara, the wandering - has been turning through beginningless time. Samsara, the wandering, is without a first point, without temporal origin. No matter how far back in time we go we always find living beings - ourselves in previous lives - wandering from one state of existence to another. The Buddha describes various realms where rebirth can take place: realms of torment, the animal realm, the human realm, realms of celestial bliss. But none of these realms can offer a final refuge. Life in any plane must come to an end. It is impermanent and thus marked with that insecurity which is the deepest meaning of dukkha. For this reason, one aspiring to the complete end of dukkha cannot rest content with any mundane achievement, with any status, but must win emancipation from the entire unstable whirl. (Picture: Golden Afternoon Meditation Painting by Laura Iverson)