Today I'm very happy to see, in addition to our staff and volunteers, the participation of some of our staff members as well as students from IBC. We just had the IBC academic conference last weekend and on the whole the conference went very well. It was very successful due to the cooperation of everyone. So I like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all of you, whether staff or volunteers from Than Hsiang or staff and students from IBC. You all worked very well together for a successful conference. The successful conference is an outcome.

Week 1 (1/6/2006) ( related in third person )

I first read about the Sakyadhita when I read a book about your very first conference in Bodhigaya. You have made tremendous progress in the past 20 years. Over the years, some of the earlier issues had become lesser issues or non issues. In our tradition, the ancient Chinese Enlightened Masters call this "seeing the mountain again as mountain".

In Part I of this series we talked about taking the eight precepts at Than Hsiang Temple and also about the five and the eight precepts itself. Well as you know, the eight precepts day is a day when we try to live a simple life following the eight precepts instead of the normal daily five precepts. We also practice fasting, chanting, meditating and listening to dharma talks.

(Transcribe by Bro. Michael Leong)

For humanistic Buddhist view, we focus on this time, this world and this form as a human being. It is a superior form of practice.

(This dharma talk is also available online)

Venerable Dr Mettanando, Bhikku of Wat Rajaorasaram, Bangkok, was ordained as a Buddhist monk on April 8, 1982 at Wat Paknam Bhasecharoen. He is a member of the Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, and teaches Buddhist philosophy at Assumption University and Mahachulalongkorn Monastic University,Bangkok. He was the Initiator and Project Manager of the computerization of the Buddhist Pali Canon and production of the Pali CD-ROM for the Dhammakaya Foundation between 1982 – 1994.

Venerable Dr Mettanando, Bhikku of Wat Rajaorasaram, Bangkok, was ordained as a Buddhist monk on April 8, 1982 at Wat Paknam Bhasecharoen. He is a member of the Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, and teaches Buddhist philosophy at Assumption University and Mahachulalongkorn Monastic University,Bangkok. He was the Initiator and Project Manager of the computerization of the Buddhist Pali Canon and production of the Pali CD-ROM for the Dhammakaya Foundation between 1982 – 1994.

"A Tibetan teacher by the name of Tsongkhapa, wrote a book titled 'Stages of Spiritual Path (Tibetan – Lamrim)'.Tonight I’m going to use that framework to introduce Buddhist teaching to you. "

I will briefly talk about the meaning of Kalyana Mitra. In a more simple and direct term Kalyana Mitra means a good spiritual friend. It is through a spiritual friend in the form of a human being that we come to contact with Buddhism. Of course, there are different grades as well as different levels of Kalyana Mitra. For example, the Buddha himself is the greatest Kalyana Mitra of all. If he had not decided to share his enlightenment experience, then we would not be sitting here today.