Series: Monks in the Morning

Have you ever seen a baby before? I think you have, haven’t you. Do you remember when you were a baby? Probably not. But you know for sure that you were a baby at one point. And if you think about it you will probably know that when you are reborn, you have to be a baby again don’t you. But do we think about this every time we see a baby? No. But the Supreme Buddha wanted us to remember every time we see a baby that we have to be a baby if we are reborn in samsara. Today we’ll learn all the things to watch out for that remind us about samsara.

Contents

5:40 Sermon on the Divine Messengers
12:06 Buddhanussati meditation. Read online, download a PDF or MP3.
23:00 Kavi: Sadu! Sadu! Mama Gautama Munindu Sarana Yanne. Read online.

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Today we’ll learn more details about the Maha Mangala sutta. Do you remember what Mangala means? It means blessings. That’s really just a fancy word for things that are good for us. Today we’ll learn four more things that are good for us.

Contents

5:07 Sermon on Mahamangala sutta.
13:19 Chanting Maha Mangala Sutta. Read online or download a pdf.

Related Books

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

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In the last show we learned about the value of associating with wise people. Today we are going to hear about a very famous situation where someone was doing terible things, but then they had the chance to associate with the most wise person in the world, the Supreme Buddha.

Contents

6:03 Kavi: Sadu! Sadu! Mama Gautama Munindu Sarana Yanne. Read online.
8:31 Sermon on Angulimala
15:20 Angulimala Paritta. Download a PDF or read online.
19:47 Dhammapada Chapter 4: Flowers. Read online. Listen online.

Related Books

• Dhammapada: What Does the Buddha Really Teach. Get a copy of the print book or read online for free.
• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

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We should always remember that even just by coming together for this programme, we are following the Supreme Buddha’s instructions. Have you thought about that? When we listen to these teachings together we are associating with wise people. Who are the wise people? Well the most important wise person is of course the Supreme Buddha himself. When we listen to his teachings, then we are associating with him in a way. And when we learn about the great arahant disciples, we are also associating with them.

Today we’ll start to learn about the Mahmangala sutta. And one of the blessings we’ll learn about is this very blessing of associating with the wise. I know that most of you are really familiar with the Maha Mangala sutta, but starting today we’ll get to think very deeply about it.

We’ll also associate with some enlightened nuns and find out how they attained enlightenment by also associating with enlightened nuns.

Contents

6:07 Sermon on Mahamangala sutta.
14:54 Verses of 500 Arahant Nuns from the Therigatha
17:10 Mittānisansa Sutta. Download a copy or read online.

Related Books

• Voice of Enlightened Nuns: Therigatha. Get a copy of the print book or listen for free online.
• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo

Today we are going to learn the last part of the CullaKammaVibhanga Sutta. Now, you may remember that Culla means litter, or shorter. Well, don’t think that means it is somehow less important. You may be small, but your still important, aren’t you? In the same way, eventhough this discourse is called shorter, it has some big Dhamma in it that will help our lives now and in the future. We’ll learn why we can see people in the world who are very powerful and some who don’t have any power. Why some people are wealthy and some people are poor. And most importantly we’ll learn why some people are wise and some people are foolish.

Contents

6:41 Sermon on CullaKammaVibhanga Sutta.
17:04 Maha Kassapa Thera Paritta. Download a copy or read online.

Related Books

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo

Today we are going to learn about the defilements. Another word for defilements could be impurities. So when we eat food, we don’t like it to have any impurities in it do we? Things like chemicals, or dirt, or stones. So we could say that those things are defilements of the food. They are things that make the food difficult to eat and could even hurt us. In the same way, the Supreme Buddha taught that the mind can have defilements. And when there are defilements or impurities in the mind, we can hurt our selves and other people around us. We’ll learn about the three big defilements we have in our mind: greed hatred and delusion.

Contents

6:02 Thirty-two marks of a Great Man
7:22 Sermon
20:20 Metta Bhavana: Loving Kindness Meditation Download PDF or MP3.

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Today we’ll we’ll learn what Christmas is all about. Unless one of your parents or relatives are Christians, you may not know what the significance of Christmas is and why it is important to people. As Buddhists, we should at least know a little bit about these things, especially because people who are Christians may ask us why we don’t celebrate Christmas and it’s good to have a clear answer.

Contents

5:30 Sermon
20:20 Khanda Paritta. Read along online or download a PDF.

Related Books

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo

Today we’ll learn a new simile taught by the Supreme Buddha about the different kids of speech people use. The first kind is speech like dung? Do you know that English word, dung? It’s a polite word for poo or poop, or excrement. Now, which end of the body does dung come out of? The back end, doesn’t it? Well the Supreme Buddha is going to explain how for some people, their speech is just like what normally comes out of our back ends! He’ll also teach us about speech like flowers and speech like honey.

Contents

5:30 Sermon on AN 3.26
14:37 MahaMangala Sutta in Pali and English. Read online or download a PDF.

Related Books

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo

Today we’ll learn a new simile taught by the Supreme Buddha about the difference in people’s minds. Normally we look at people and see that their bodies are different. Some may be tall, some may be short. Some may have dark skin and some may have light skin. But the Buddha didn’t care about those things so much, did he. He cared most about our minds. And when we look carefully we can see that different people have different kinds of minds. Now, the good news is that we can develop our minds and make them better. We can’t do so much to change our bodies, but our minds we can completely improve to bring happiness into our lives. So we’ll learn some similes to help us think about different kinds of minds.

Contents

6:05 Sermon on AN 3.25
16:02 Therigatha 92-96. Arahant Nun Mittakali
17:47 Suriya Paritta. Download a PDF or read online.

Related Books

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.
• Voice of Enlightened Nuns: Therigatha. Get a copy of the print book or listen for free online.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo

Today we’ll hear answers to a couple of questions your friends from Dhamma School have asked. We’ll also hear a new segment where we can learn about the 32 marks that all supreme Buddhas have. I think you may have heard about these before. There is the very famous story of when the Bodhisatta baby was taken to the Brahmins to predict his future. When the brahmins looked at him they could see these signs that showed he would either become a ruler of the entire world, or a Samma Sambuddha. So for each of these marks we want to pay close attention for three things. First, what was the action he did in the past. Second, what was the mark on his body that came as a result of that action. And finally, what was the special ability or quality the Supreme Buddha had in his life as a result of that mark.

Now, I bet you remember how the Supreme Buddha’s cousin Devadatta tried to kill the Buddha. But he wasn’t successful, was he. Well, when we learn this first mark, we’ll understand why. It was because of the Buddha’s good karma done in his previous lives.

Contents

6:02 32 Marks of a Great Man, #1
7:59 Q & A
17:58 Karaniya Metta Sutta. Download a PDF or read online.

We’d love to hear from you! You can write to us at info@serenecolombo.org or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo