Month: July 2014

Ten Things

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Last night after evening chanting, the other bhikkhu and I were discussing how meaningful some Pāḷi chants are, particularly the one we chant on Monday evenings – AN 10.48 Dasadhammasuttaṁ, The Discourse on the Ten Dhammas. To keep this post short, I’ll only list the reflections themselves. Each verse begins or ends, depending on the translator, with something like “One who has gone forth should reflect often…[ref]”..pabbajitena abhiṇhaṁ paccavekkhitabbaṁ.”[/ref]”.

1. “I have become one who has no caste,”[ref]”Vevaṇṇiyamhi ajjhupagato’ti”[/ref]

2. “I am bound to others for my livelihood,”[ref]”Parapaṭibaddhā me jīvikā’ti”[/ref]

3. “I should comport myself differently,”[ref]”Añño me ākappo karaṇīyo’ti”[/ref]

4. “Can I myself find no fault with my virtue?”[ref]”Kacci nu kho me attā sīlato na upavadatī’ti”[/ref]

5. “Will my wise companions in the spiritual life, after testing me, find no fault with my virtue?”[ref]”Kacci nu kho maṁ anuvicca viññū sabrahmacārī sīlato na upavadantī’ti”[/ref]

6. “There is alteration in, and separation from, all that is dear and appealing to me.”[ref]”Sabbehi me piyehi manāpehi nānābhāvo vinābhāvo’ti”[/ref]

7. “I am the owner of my kamma, the heir of my kamma; I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my relative, kamma as my resort; I will be the heir of whatever kamma, good or bad, that I do.”[ref]”Kammassakomhi, kammadāyādo, kammayoni, kammabandhu, kamma­paṭi­saraṇo, yaṁ kammaṁ karissāmi kalyāṇaṁ vā pāpakaṁ vā tassa dāyādo bhavissāmī’ti”[/ref]

8. “In what way do the nights and days pass for me?”[ref]”Kathaṁ bhūtassa me rattiṁdivā vītipatantī’ti”[/ref]

9. “Do I delight in empty places?”[ref]”Kacci nu kho ahaṁ suññāgāre abhiramāmī’ti”[/ref]

10. “Has a state beyond (ordinary) human beings, the distinction of what is truly noble knowledge and seeing been attained by me? Will I at the end, when questioned by my companions in the spiritual life, not be embarassed?”[ref]”Atthi nu kho me uttari manussadhammo ala­mariya­ñāṇadas­sana­viseso adhigato, pacchime kāle sabrahmacārīhi puṭṭho na maṅku bhavissāmī’ti”[/ref]

 While this admonition was directed to the bhikkhus, no reason a layperson couldn’t consider these as well.

How to Type Pāḷi and Sanskrit

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Here are two methods for inputting romanised Pāḷi and Sanskrit. There are undoubtedly other excellent ones out there, but these are the two with which I am familiar. For fonts, as not all font sets have all the letters, you can find some to install here (auto-download) and here (Bhikkhu Pesala’s fonts; in fact, this blog’s preferred font is Verajja Serif). Search engines will serve up hosts of others.

WINDOWS: This input method comes courtesy of Anandajoti Bhikkhu and can be used across applications. Download this file and unzip the Unicode-Input.exe file to the desktop. It can either be launched on an as-needed basis, or added to the Startup Programs list, meaning it launches automatically when the computer is booted, to be available as and when. Included is a text file listing the various key combinations to input the characters, copied here for convenience:

alt + a, i, u gives macron over a, i, u (ā, ī, ū)
alt + t, d, n, l, s, h gives dot under t, d, n, l, s, h (ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ḷ, ṣ, ḥ)
alt + m gives dot over m (ṁ)
ctrl + alt + m gives dot under m (ṃ)

alt + j (jay) gives tilde over n (ñ)
ctrl + alt + n gives dot over n (ṅ)

win + s gives acute over s (ś)
alt + r gives ring under r (r̥)
win + r gives dot under r (ṛ)

For CAPITALS use shift, i.e.
alt + shift + a, i, & u gives macron over A, I & U, etc. (Ā, Ī, Ū)

 

LINUX: This method takes a few more steps to set up, but it also allows for input of other languages. It should work across all Linux distributions, but for sure it works on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Bodhi Linux (all Ubuntu derivatives anyway).

  1. Install IBus, IBus-m17n, IBus-table. If you want other language input methods, you may need to install the respective IBus tables here as well.
  2. Copy and paste everything between the lines into a text editor then save the file as pa-translit.mim

    ;;; <li> pa-translit.mim
    ;;;
    ;;; Input method for Pali transliteration using the ITRANS scheme.(input-method t pa-translit)(title “pa-translit”)

    (map
    (trans

    (“aa” “ā”)
    (“AA” “Ā”)
    (“ii” “ī”)
    (“II” “Ī”)
    (“oo” “ō”)
    (“OO” “Ō”)
    (“uu” “ū”)
    (“UU” “Ū”)
    (“.r” “ṛ”)
    (“.R” “Ṛ”)
    (“.rr” “ṝ”)
    (“.RR” “Ṝ”)
    (“.l” “ḷ”)
    (“.L” “Ḷ”)
    (“.ll” “ḹ”)
    (“.LL” “Ḹ”)
    (“.M” “ṁ”)
    (“.m” “ṃ”)
    (“.h” “ḥ”)
    (“.H” “Ḥ”)
    (“;n” “ṅ”)
    (“;N” “Ṅ”)
    (“~n” “ñ”)
    (“~N” “Ñ”)
    (“.t” “ṭ”)
    (“.T” “Ṭ”)
    (“.d” “ḍ”)
    (“.D” “Ḍ”)
    (“.n” “ṇ”)
    (“.N” “Ṇ”)
    (“;s” “ś”)
    (“;S” “Ś”)
    (“.s” “ṣ”)
    (“.S” “Ṣ”)
    ))

    (state
    (init
    (trans)))

  3. Copy that file to /usr/share/m17n
  4. Go to Application > Preferences > Keyboard Input Methods. This will launch the daemon. (You might want to add “Ibus” to start-up applications via the settings panel)
  5. Click on the keyboard icon in the taskbar
  6. Choose Preferences.
  7. In the field “Enable or disable”, you should already see the option “Control+space”, plus a couple of others. If not, click the box next to this field and choose that option. This is how the keyboard is launched
  8. Under Fonts and Style, I prefer “Horizontal” and “When Active”, which may be the defaults, but you can change them later to suit your preferences.
  9. Click the “Input Method” tab
  10. Check the “Customize Active Input Methods” box
  11. From the dropdown menu, select “Other – pa-translit (m17n)”, Other languages can also be chosen, Thai, Chinese (pinyin, chewing, etc). The first language in the list is the default language.
  12. Open an application, hit CTRL+Space Bar at the same time, and you should see a little pop up tool on the lower right side of the monitor. Clicking on the cog icon will give you the input options. Select and type away!

Please note, a few years ago, I had problems using this in OpenOffice and LibreOffice, so I switched to AbiWord. The issue could have been solved by now, but I don’t know, so please, please, do not ask for assistance to get it working. I cannot help and would only do what you would end up doing – Google-ing for a solution. If, on the other hand, you know how to fix the issue, please include it in the comments!

Do you already have a favourite method? Please tell us in the comments below.

Buddha and the Angry Man

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As the inaugural post, we’ll kick off with a popular one from the previous blog, which is a modern take on the Akkosa Sutta.

buddha and the angry man“One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him.

“You have no right teaching others,” he shouted. “You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake.”

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”

The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”

The Buddha smiled and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself.

“If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy.”

The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. “You are right, o Blessed One,” he said.

“Please teach me the path of love. I wish to become your follower.”

The Buddha answered kindly, “Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn. Come with me.”

Angry responses to assault, be they physical or verbal, are not innate, natural, and automatic. They arise due to a lifetime of learning and conditioning. Reversing the kneejerk response mechanism is not something that comes easily, but with time and retraining, one can respond more and more like the Buddha in the story above.

The training steps themselves are not that difficult; remembering and actually practicing them in crisis situations, on the other hand, takes real presence of mind, strength, and diligence. They are essentially:

  • Reigning in the mind, not allowing it to rush off, reciting internally “My mind will be unaffected”;
  • To essentially bite one’s tongue, thinking, “I will utter no evil words”
  • And finally, to cultivate compassion and loving kindness, reflecting “I shall abide compassionate for his/her welfare, with a mind of loving kindness”