October 2017

Announcements (Friday, 27 Oct 2017)

1) All devotees are welcome to our Monday Metta Meditation session at SJBA Meditation Hall from 8.30pm to 9.45pm. This cultivation of metta focus on loving kindness to oneself, loved ones and all other beings. On every 1st Monday, our Resident Monk will be guiding the meditators especially the newcomers.

2) There will be Day Retreat in SJBA during New Moon and Full Moon Days from 9am to 5pm. The Retreat is free and easy and participants can feel free to join in or leave any time. Vegetarian lunch will be provided.

3) This year is the 12th anniversary of the Educare Program in SJBA. For the last 11 years, we have been providing needy students with school items to start the new school term. It is expected that about 500 needy students will receive the school items on 3 December 2017. Each student will receive a full set of school items which consists of school bags, shoes, books, stationary, etc. which costs about RM100.00. The amount may not be a lot but it is a simple yet significant gesture of ours to show our care and concern to poor students. We hope that through this simple but sincere gesture, the students are motivated to study better and achieve academic success and eventually success in life. If you wish to sponsor one or more students, please contact Sis Lily at 03-56315299.

4) SJBA invite you for a spiritual and mentally enriching morning at this Sunday’s Buddha Puja. The Puja will start at 9.15am with Offerings of lights, flowers, incence to the Buddha, Chanting, Dhamma Talk by Bro Ong Beng Chung, Hymns and Guided Meditation.

Announcements (Thursday, 19 October 2017)

1) This year’s Annual Vipassana Meditation Retreat in SJBA Vihara will be conducted by our Abbot, Ven. Nyanaramsi Maha Thera from 13th December 2017, Wednesday to 23rd December 2017, Saturday.

If you wish to join in the Retreat as yogi or wish to be a helper or sponsor food for the monks and yogis, and other expenses during the Retreat, please contact our Office, Sis. Lily at 03-56315299. Alternatively, you may also whatsapp to us at 0162817686.

2) This year is the 12th anniversary of the Educare Program in SJBA. For the last 11 years, we have been providing needy students with school items to start the new school term. It is expected that about 500 needy students will receive the school items on 3 December 2017. Each student will receive a full set of school items which consists of school bags, shoes, books, stationary, etc. which costs about RM100.00. The amount may not be a lot but it is a simple yet significant gesture of ours to show our care and concern to poor students. We hope that through this simple but sincere gesture, the students are motivated to study better and achieve academic success and eventually success in life. If you wish to sponsor one or more students, please contact Sis Lily at 03-56315299.

3) All devotees are welcome to our Monday Metta Meditation session at SJBA Meditation Hall from 8.30pm to 9.45pm. This cultivation of metta focus on loving kindness to oneself, loved ones and all other beings. On every 1st Monday, our Resident Monk will be guiding the meditators especially the newcomers.

4) There will be Day Retreat in SJBA during New Moon and Full Moon Days from 9am to 5pm. The Retreat is free and easy and participants can feel free to join in or leave any time. Vegetarian lunch will be provided.

5) SJBA invite you for a spiritual and mentally enriching morning at this Sunday’s Buddha Puja. The Puja will start at 9.15am with Offerings to the Buddha, Chanting, Dhamma Talk by Bro Tan Siang Chye, Hymns and Guided Meditation.

Kathina message from SJBA Abbot, Ven Nyanaramsi

To : Exco, members of sjba and all devotees

Sukhī Hotu ! May all of you be happy and safe, endowed with mental happiness always.

Offering of Kaṭhina robe is a significant observance in the Buddha Sāsana (Teachings of the Buddha).
It is the aspirations of faithful followers of Triple Gem to perform every meritorious deed as merits is the source of worldly blessings and mundane happiness — of health, wealth, long life, beauty and favourable rebirth. As such, those desire to reap mundane happiness often emphasized the accumulation of merits from the practice of various meritorious deeds. There is no doubt about this element of truth i.e. meritorious deeds yield the results of fulfilling the doer’s mundane desires, but it should not eclipsed the noble aim in the practice of the Dhamma. Seen in the right perspective, merits is a supporting condition to living a Holy Life (living a noble life guided by the Noble Eightfold Path), a means of self-development leading to the pinnacle of Holy Life — destruction of all kinds of mental defilements and attainment of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment which signifies ultimate purity of mind.
Thus, accumulation of a “store of merits”, to be sure, is not in itself sufficient to guarantee the attainment of this goal. It should be kept in balance with its counterpart to achieve the noble aim. The counterpart of merits is the practice of insight knowledge (ñāṇa) or wisdom (paññā) which has the function to uproot ignorance or delusion — the root of defilements and evils.

The aspirants of Holy Life, in the quest for Enlightenment, need to accomplish the practice of merits and wisdom. The practice of merits give rise to mundane happiness, favourable rebirth in saṃsāra (cycle of birth and death), association with wise friends to guide one’s footsteps to tread on the Noble Path, and cultivation of virtues which is the primary requisite for higher attainment. The practice of wisdom is to see all conditioned things as they really are, which is noble and penetrative, which leads to the complete destruction of mental defilements and attainment of Enlightenment. Such wisdom that is functioned together in unison with the practice of merits will lead to the achievement of noble aim. It is said that if wisdom be the flower that gives rise to the fruit of Enlightenment, and faith or confidence (saddhā) the seed out of which the flower unfolds, then merits is the soil, water, sunlight and fertilizers all in one, the indispensable nutrients for every stage of growth in the Path.
Deeds are merits if it is performed with purity of mind — a state of mind which involves volition that is not defiled by craving, conceit and wrong view. As such, this process of merit-making involved the mind and in turn, serves as a conducive condition for the mind to absorb wisdom. When one undertakes the performance of merits and the practice to develop wisdom diligently and repeatedly, there will be growth of a various wholesome qualities in the mind as well. It would then lead to the arising of supramundane wisdom of the Noble Path. It is the supramundane wisdom that has the power to eradicate totally the mental defilements, and achievement of ultimate purification of mind. In other words, ultimate purity of mind should be the noble aim in following the Buddha Sāsana.

On this auspicious occasion of Kaṭhina offering, let’s make a right aspiration to direct our effort to the practice of merits and wisdom for the sake of realizing this noble aim. May all pious devotees of Triple Gem will realize the Noble Truth soon and live in peace and happiness.

With mettā,
U Nyanaramsi.

Announcements (Friday, 13 October 2017)

This year’s Kathina Ceremony in SJBA will be held on Sunday, 15 October 2017. Kathina is a traditional Buddhist Ceremony started by the Buddha Himself for lay devotees to offer robes and other requisites to the Sangha at the end of Vassa (rainy season).
The Ceremony will begin at 7.15am with the Taking of the Three Refuges and Observance of the Five Precepts administered by the Sangha, Procesion round the Vihara, Offering of Robes and other Requisites, Sharing of Merits and Lunch Dana. A blood donation campaign will also be held on this auspicious day. Please come and join us to perform these meritorious deeds together.
(Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances, there will be no Kathina Eve Celebration this year)

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