The Heart of Buddhism by Luang Pu Dteu Acaladhammo. Translated by Hāsapañño Bhikkhu.

The Heart of Buddhism by Luang Pu Dteu Acaladhammo. Translated by Hāsapañño Bhikkhu. 

The Buddha Gotama didn’t destroy bodily form–bodily form grows old and decrepit, sensation grows old and decrepit, cognisance grows old and decrepit... Only our hearts don’t get old and decrepit.

Rūpaṁ aniccaṁ – Form arises as something that is uncertain; it changes, transforms and becomes otherwise as a function of its nature.

However our minds plead with it, it doesn’t listen.

Akāliko – the property of space just is the way it is.

Cakkhu’ndriyaṁ – look at our eyes. The eyes break apart, the eyes disintegrate. We can’t stop the eyes (from this).

Sot’indriyaṁ – look at our ears. The ears become decrepit, the ears die. We can’t stop the ears.

Ghān’indriyaṁ – see and understand our nose. The nose catches a cold which singles out the nose, or there is sinusitis or rhinitis; we can’t stop this.

Jivh’indriyaṁ – look at our tongue. The mouth and the tongue catch a cold or a cough – we walk and we cough, we eat and we cough, we drink and we cough; we’re just coughing, coming and going.

Ānāpāna – this is the Pāli language; in English, it’s called ‘breath’. With bodily form there is breath, with sensation there is breath, with perception there is breath, with mental fabrications there is breath, with cognisance there is breath. When breath is finished and done, it’s called ‘being dead’. 

If you have money, gold or jewels, when you die you will abandon and lose that wealth. 

If you have a daughter, you will pass away from your daughter. If you have a son, you will pass away from your son.

If you have a husband, you will pass away from your husband. If you have a wife, you will pass away from your wife. 

If you have a father, you will pass away from your father. If you have a mother, you will pass away from your mother.

If we have a fortune of up to 80,000 or 90,000, it’s just neutral stuff that exists in the world. When we pass away, we have to throw it all away.

If we haven’t yet died, we have to bring ourselves to develop goodness and develop wholesomeness to a sufficient extent. Once we have died that goodness will be a refuge for us, something for us to rely on.

~••~•~

The Heart of Buddhism by Luang Pu Dteu Acaladhammo. Translated by Hāsapañño Bhikkhu. 

https://www.vimokkharam.org/_files/ugd/9c709d_8815da4ae3eb49939d7ac30cdacb3462.pdf

28 February 2023