Dhamma Quotes and Guides to the Handful of Leaves ...

[sīlānanda]

 

Dear Dhammafarers,

 

Here is sharing with you the following:

 

 

Dhamma Quotes and Guides to the Handful of Leaves

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“Inconceivable, bhikkhus, is the beginning of this samsara.

A first point is not known of beings roaming and wandering the round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving."

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"Which do you think, bhikkhus, is more:

 

the stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed

and wandered on through this long course, weeping and wailing because of being united with the disagreeable and separated from the agreeable – this or the water in the four great oceans?

 

The stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed and wandered on through this long course…this alone is greater than the water in the four great oceans…For such a long time, bhikkhus,

you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and

swelled the cemeteries.”

 

(S.15.3 “Assu Sutta”)

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Furthermore:

“There will come a time when the mighty ocean will dry up, vanish and be no more…There will come a time when the mighty earth will be devoured by fire, perish and be no more. But yet there will be no end to the suffering of beings roaming and wandering this round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving.”

 

(S.22.99 “Gaddulabaddha Sutta”)

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"Through many a birth I wandered in samsara,

Seeking, but not finding the builder of this house.

Painful it is to be born again and again." 

“O house-builder! You are seen.

You shall build no house again.

All your rafters are broken.

Your ridgepole is shattered."

"My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving."

 

[Builder: craving; House: body (the five aggregates);

Rafters

:defilements; Ridgepole: ignorance]

(Dh.153-154 “Udana Vatthu”)

 

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This precious human birth

"Monks, suppose that this great earth were totally covered with water, and a man were to toss a yoke with a single hole there. A wind from the east would push it west, a wind from the west would push it east. A wind from the north would push it south, a wind from the south would push it north. And suppose a blind sea-turtle were there. It would come to the surface once every one hundred years. Now what do you think: would that blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole?"

"It would be a sheer coincidence, lord, that the blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, would stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole."

"It's likewise a sheer coincidence that one obtains the human state. 

 

It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a Tathagata, worthy & rightly self-awakened, arises in the world.

 

It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a doctrine & discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world."

 

"Now, this human state has been obtained.

 

A Tathagata, worthy & rightly self-awakened, has arisen in the world.

 

A doctrine & discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world."

 

        (Samyutta Nikaya 56.48 "Chiggala Sutta")

 

 

So do not waste this precious human birth

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Who knows by tomorrow, one may still be living or  dead. Thus reflecting, without procrastinating tomorrow or the day after, One should incessantly exert right away on this very day.

 

(Uparipan Bhaddekanatta Sutta 226)

 

 

 

   more here : http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Articles/Dhamma_Quotes.htm

 

 

mahakaruna,

silananda