Jun 16, 2017
The Venerable shares his personal experience along with ancient
Buddhist practice methods of successfully handling life’s changes
and impermanence. Key components of this talk are creating harmony
in relationships by first caring for our own body, mind and
feelings. In described marriage ceremony, “mixing earth and
lighting a candle” becomes a valuable metaphor of individuals
coming together, transcending such differences as cultural
backgrounds and race with right effort for a successful union.
We are taught to live with greater happiness by having: faith,
precepts/trainings, generosity and insight. The art of happiness is
a skill that takes effort; much more effort than the art of fear,
despair and anger. We are encouraged to begin practicing when we’re
young, to learn and mature the practice of true love, known as the
4 immeasurable minds; cultivating love for ourselves and others. By
learning to love ourselves when young, we can avoid the complex of
inferiority and take better care of our body, and other 4 skandhas.
We learn that deep feelings of self-care are developed during
childhood with parental acts of unconditional love. Our self-care
and happiness are gifts for those around us.