The Imperfections of Insight
From The Path of Purification Chapter XX, paragraphs 105-130
There is a list of ten pitfalls called the ten upakilesas. These are subtle forms of defilements and they are very treacherous for the meditator who makes good progress. As you will see, even a very senior bhikkhu was thinking for sixty years that he was fully awakened because of the deception wrought by one of these imperfections of insight. We should always be aware of these. They are given a detailed treatment in the Visuddhimagga.
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Upali
The Venerable Upali approached the Blessed One, paid respects to him, sat down to one side, and said: “Bhante, I wish to resort to remote lodgings in forests and jungle groves.”
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Excerpt from The Basic Study of the Buddha's Dhamma and their Correct Application
Compiled By Thray Sithu Sayagyi U Ba Khin
There are three ways of teaching: (1) Teaching through similies, also called the “snake charmer’s way”, (2) Teaching to effect the escape from the round of birth and death, and (3) Teaching like a treasurer.
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The Use of Resources
From a discourse by Webu Sayadaw
If you offer candles to a monk as a gift, you give them to him so that he has a light at night. But if he lights candles in broad daylight, in the view of everyone, you will think that this monk is shamelessly wasting things. Remember this, will you? There are plenty of things like this. Of course one can say that he can do with his own possessions what he wants, and indeed he can. But if he uses them uselessly, he wastes them.
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The Supreme Form of Forbearance
Once a bhikkhu came to pay respects to the Buddha only the day after he had arrived at the monastery, explaining that this disrespect was because of difficulty with his elderly father. In reply, the Buddha told this story from the past.
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The Monkey and the Brahmin - Jataka Stories
The story of the monkey king and the brahmin is a story of a past life of the Buddha when he was developing the perfections necessary to become a Buddha. It illustrates the practice of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity very well. Here is the way the Venerable Webu Sayadaw retold this Kapi Jataka.
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