Dhamma...the word is so simple yet quite complex.

For many people, Dhamma basically means The teaching of the Lord Buddha. Apparently, Dhamma has other meanings too. This I've just heard from Bhante Kolita Dhammadesana on Saturday, Jun 13, 2009.

Dhamma has few meanings, some of it are the Truth, teaching of Buddha, and experience of the Buddha (that he got from attaining Buddhahood).

It is said, a person who lives his life according to the Dhamma is simply called Dhammacitta. It's funny, I have always like the name CITTA. Hub agreed that if we have a baby girl, we'd name her Citta. It has such a beautiful meaning in Pali.

So anyway, there is this story that a monk called Anurudha, who used to live in the forest thought to himself what kind of person that actually learn Dhamma, and suitable to learn Dhamma?

He came out with 7 types, that later on the Lord Buddha approached him and told him he agreed with his 7 types and the Lord Buddha further added the 8th type on top of his list.

Dhamma is:
1) For a person who has less or few "wanting" desire/feeling, than those who has lots of "wants".
A simple life is the key. If you have simple life, you have simple demand. Simple demand means lesser desire/kisela, which eventually we would be able to train ourselves, little by little, to stop this kilesa all over for once and hence, hopefully, to stop to be born again in Samsara world.

2) A person who is contented, aka you are happy with what you have right now; and not for those who is always discontented.

Lord Buddha said the typical person who falls into the 1st 2 types are the monk, and they'd have:
- To wear only robe that was used to wrapped a dead body, cut it into certain way and washed it with juices from the tree. Not to take robe from other people or trouble the lay people by asking for it.
- Except food from lay people and put it into their alms bowl. Not to eat from fancy plates. To prevent jealousy and injustice among monks (and lay people).
- Don't live on expensive house, but live under tree. (To live a simple life)
- They don't except beautiful nice rug, but only rug that's made by leaves.
- Monk don't except medicine, but only those that are made with cow's urine (there's a specific method to make this).
*i know that last part is weird eh...*

3) A person who is secluded (like to be alone), not to those who like to be in the crowd.
Buddha said when a person lives alone, he'll protect his words. But if a person lives with other people, he will tend to talk a lot about that other people, talk about other people's ill aka gossip.

Gossip or idle chatting isn't encouraged by the Buddha, in fact it's considered one of the sila that we, the buddhist, should abide by. It's consider bad kamma to idle chat, gossip.

This 3rd type basically means, a person need inner peace and calmness to achieve enlightenment. This Dhamma and enlightenment journey is not for those who likes to seek companion on the outside, like to be in the crowd, to only chat non stop, partying non stop. Those outside companion wont bring you inner piece and calmness. Only you, yourself, can make yourself calm and be at peace.

4) For energetic person
It means, we have to always guard our senses.
If we have wrong thinking, speaking and action, we have to get rid of it. And replace those with right thinking, speaking and action. This is called viriya. Viriya is one of the ten paramis (the ten perfection).

Dhamma is not for a lazy person. Not for those who are lazy and refuse to improve/remove their negative thoughts, words, and actions. Any lay people or monk can also be lazy. Doesn't mean you are a monk then you won't be lazy. NO wayy...

A monk is still a human being, they still make mistakes. So, if the monk get lazy, they should reliased it and improve their negative & wrong thinking, speaking and actions. So as we, the lay people.

5) Person who keeps their awareness in themselves.
As regular people, we always pay attention to outside thing. Buddha asked us to practice and keep attention on our inside, not outside. To observe how our mind works:
- On our body
- On our feeling
- On our emotion, and
- On the Dhamma

The Lord Buddha always emphasised on this:
Thinking is thinking,
Seeing is seeing,
Touching is touching,
Speaking is speaking,
Doing is doing,
Eating is eating

In other words, this simply means, don't think of other stuff when you are talking, thinking, touching something or even doing something. You should always be aware with what you are doing, even as simple as just drinking water, cooking, walking or running. Mindfulness.

We, as regular people, always like to think so much. Our mind always like to 'run' around and so busy thinking of useless stuff. Hence, we should practice this awareness to train our mind to always be focus.

6) Is for those who wants to practice tranquility in their life; it's not for those who have agitated mind.
When we practice our mind (Sati), our mind would become calm, thus called tranquility mind.

There are 5 hindrances that we should practice to reach that tranquility mind:
- Desire for sensual pleasure (the 5 senses: see, smell, feel, taste, and hear). Eg, if you always watch tv and don't study, how can you get a good grade?
- Angry thoughts
- No energy to practice Dhamma, always lazy
- No calming mind, instead the mind is always jumping around
- Always have regret feeling of the past actions
- Doubt of the Dhamma and Buddha (Buddhahood), in other words you prefer partying, gossiping, fooling around than practicing Dhamma.

Basically, the Lord Buddha emphasising that we shouldn't have too much thinking and judgment on anything. If the food is not tasty, you should still eat it with no complaint. If it is tasty, you should still eat it normally.

If someone praise you, you shouldn't be big headed and arrogant, just be normal. If they curse or criticize you, you should also be normal, no harm feeling or get angry.

Be neutral.

7) For those who are wise, aka understand the reality of life
Simply means, thing in this world is not permanent. Everything in this world is impermanence, anicca.

So don't hold on things, be it good or bad, because that too will go away one day. Thus, we should practice and generate wisdom. That nothing is permanent.

8) For those who don't categorize everything in their life
Most people always categorize thing in their life, anything. When we touch, smell, sense or taste anything, we would categorize it. Like, when you eat banana, you'd say "Oh it's a nice sweet banana", when you watch tv you'd think "I'm watching tv".

The Lord Buddha encouraged us to stop categorizing things in the world. Coz if we always categorize things, we tend to create desire.

If we know that banana is sweet, we want for more. If we know watching tv is fun, we want to have more of it. Then, it will be harder and harder for us to stop this desire feeling in our life, or kilesa. Since kileas is actually the biggest culprit that causes us to be born again and again in this Samsara life.

.....................................

Alrighty, that's the summary of what Bhante Kolita gave us on Jun 13, 2009. I hope this too will give some insight to your life

I know..Dhamma is not easy to understand, but I always believe in this simple mantra:

No to do any evil,
To cultivate good (Do good kamma),
To purify one's mind,
This's the teaching of Buddhas