Tell me, children, how can we protect ourselves? How do people ususally think about protecting themselves from the dangers in this world? Sometimes people try to build up strong bodies so they can protect themselves by fighting other people. Sometimes people even buy weapons thinking that if they have a gun or a knife, they will be protected. When we ride in a car, how do we protect ourselves? We wear a seat belt, don’t we. That protects us if we get into an accident. Now, those methods of protection keep us safe from external things. That may be true. But when our teacher, the Supreme Buddha talked about protecting ourselves, he was most concerned about the actions that we do. Because when we do bad actions with our body, our speech, or our minds, then we can be in a real danger. When we do bad things, then the results of our actions can come back a hurt us.
So the Buddha taught us that there are two things that can help protect us from doing bad actions. In Pali they are called hiri and ottappa. In English we can say feeling shame at the thought of doing bad things and feeling fear for the results of doing bad things. In today’s sermon we will learn the importance of these two things.
Contents
6:57 Sermon
14:12 Maha Mangala Sutta. Read online or download a pdf.
Related Books
- Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Get your own copy.
