Bodhi Mandala

In many Buddhist Southeast Asian countries, merit making is an important fabric of community life. Merit making, or the practice of generosity (Pali: dana ) generally involves rituals such as making donation to help upkeep temples, offering alms to the Sangha or just simply giving one’s time to help in the maintenance of temple facilities. While some do these out of personal altruism, many indulge in these rituals with the hope that their “acts” will bring future blessings, such as a life with less disturbances, better livelihood opportunities or even improved social prospects for members of their family. Without doubt, the dana economy adds a small number into local and country wide GDP, with many days in a year just dedicated to the various rituals. Some however, view these pursuits as a lowly practice, which emphasized on just getting and a "me first (or me always)" focus. Others however, say that true merit making should focus on higher Buddhist practices, such as practi...

  “ Upaya ” is a pali word which literally means “way”, “means” or “resources”. It is usually associated with kusala , i.e. upayakusala which means “clever in resources” or kosalla i.e. upayakosalla which stands for “cleverness in expedient.” (Ref: “Concise Pali-English Dictionary, A P Buddhadatta Mahathera, U Chandradasa De Silva – Publisher, 1968).   To understand the extant of means used by the Buddha to skillfully communicate the Dharma to his audience of various level of understanding, we cannot move away from the discussion of upaya . In fact, there is direct reference between the Buddha’s perfect communicative ability and the application of skillful means in His prescription of advice.   In the Sangiti Sutta of the Digha Nikaya, it is stated that among the “threes” we have “three kinds of skill: Skill in progress, Skill in regress, and Skill in means” ( tini kosallani: aya kosallam, apaya kosallam, upaya kosallam ; D III 220).   In the Nava Sutta of the Sut...

  The Triratna (Pali: ti-ratana) is a Buddhist symbol which is thought to have been prevalent during the reign of King Ashoka, the great Maurya ruler (c. 268 – 232 BCE). The symbol represents the Three Jewels of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. It is shaped by a trident - the 'trisula' - a popular ancient Indian symbol at the time, framed with two golden fish on the left and on the right. The two fishes represents the Yamuna river on one side, and the Ganga on the other. These two rivers, regarded as the most sacred in India, joined as one to form the mighty Ganga. When they were adopted into Buddhism, the fish came to symbolize happiness and spontaneity, due to their freedom to move through water. In a deeper sense, this was freedom from the cycles of birth and death. The central spine between the fish is a parallelogram - which is always four in numbers - that represents the four fold assemby of the monks, nuns, layman and laywomen. Further below the trisula is ...