“There I saw some delightful countryside, with an inspiring forest grove, a clear-flowing river with fine, delightful banks, and villages for alms-going on all sides. The thought occurred to me: ‘How delightful is this countryside, with its inspiring forest grove, clear-flowing river with fine, delightful banks, and villages for alms-going on all sides. This is just right for the exertion of a clansman intent on exertion.’ So I sat down right there, thinking, ‘This is just right for exertion.” – Buddha

Mindfulness meditation at the GoodLife Fitness headquarters in London, Ontario. Founder and CEO of GoodLife Fitness, Mr. David Patchell-Evans, also came to meditate with us. A big thank-you to Sheila McCallum for organizing this session at the home office for her colleagues

Dear Friends,
In addition to feeding this “ME” with knowledge by reading books, you also feed this “ME” with kindness, compassion, love, light and wisdom.
If you feed “ME” with bad knowledge, the world will suffer from this “ME.” Therefore, make sure to feed this “ME” with the right knowledge, so that this “ME” would be a great blessing to the whole world.
Feed this “ME” to be kind to oneself and others!
Feed this “ME” to care for oneself and others!
Feed this “ME” to love oneself and others!
Feed this “ME” to be generous to everyone!
Feed this “ME” to live a simple life!
Feed this “ME” to be contented with few things!
Feed this “ME” to accept everything with an equanimous mind!
Feed this “ME” not to hurt anyone!
Feed this “ME” to forgive!
Feed this “ME” not to dwell in the past!
Feed this “ME” not to live in the future!
Feed this “ME” to live in the present moment!
Feed this “ME” to meditate every day!
Feed this “ME” not to harm anyone!
Feed this “ME” to be honest!
Feed this “ME” to refrain from taking life!
Feed this “ME” to refrain from taking what is not freely given!
Feed this “ME” to refrain from sexual misconduct!
Feed this “ME” to refrain from lying!
Feed this “ME” to refrain from consuming alcohol, drugs and substances!
Feed this “ME” to embrace all sentient beings with kindness and love ❤️!
If we can feed this “ME” in this way, this “ME” will make happy not only you, but also others!
With many blessings !
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

According to Buddhism, we are not sinners for good. A person is called a sinner, because of his/her sinful actions. Once you stop such actions, you become a good person. The purpose of Buddhist practice is to change people from doing sinful actions to doing good actions, transforming people from sinners to good people. Buddhism points out no matter what you have done, the moment you have stopped doing the sinful actions and the moment you have chosen to do good deeds, you have become a good person. You are not a sinner anymore
With many blessings!
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

Friends,

Let’s train ourselves to be patient and equanimous. These are great spiritual virtues praised by enlightened masters. No matter what we do and how we live in the society, someone is going to criticize us. They are going to nag us. This can’t be stopped. If someone criticizes you, try to bear it up with an equanimous mind and remain calm. If someone yells at you, you should not yell at him in return. If someone despises you, don’t despise him back. In these circumstances, see if you can be patient with yourself and them. Learn to endure it with clarity and stability of the mind. Instead of yelling and despising back, reflect for a second and see if you can understand why they are criticizing you, yelling at you and despising you. There is a reason for that person to behave in such a way. May be it is your certain behaviour causing the person to behave that way. With much patience and equanimous mind, see if you could help the person to alleviate his/her pain by changing your behaviour. I strongly believe, with the virtues of patience and equanimity all detrimental circumstances can be avoided in any circumstances. With virtues of patience and equanimity heated arguments and fights can be neutralized. Patience and equanimity are great blessings that pave the way to sustainable peace !
With many blessings !
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

Dear Friends,
We make mistakes. It doesn’t mean we are bad people. We should understand we were not born with enlightened minds and clear instructions. This is why we have weaknesses. Our biggest weakness is giving in to emotions which make us blind. By and large we are doing things in life under the influence of self-centredness. This is so deeply rooted in us. When we make mistakes, we should not get sunk in them with regrets/guilt and suffer from them for the rest of our life. Mistakes should not make us weak, instead we should learn lessons from every mistake we make and become stronger and stronger to become better human beings. This is why we practice Dhamma. The purpose of the Dhamma practice is to free us from guilt and regrets that normally arise from mistakes we make through weaknesses.
With many blessings !
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

Let’s be kind and patient with everyone in the society. Let’s try to have a good heart for everyone from all walks of life. When in trouble, someone will unexpectedly and surprisingly be there in our great time of need!
With many blessings !
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

Good Morning, Friends, and Happy Sunday !
Past is past. The past might hurt us, however, we should be able to tolerate it. Present is present. We get exhausted with it, but we should face it though. Future is future. We don’t know what future will bring us, but we should move on with a positive outlook and emerge victorious!
With many blessings !
Bhante Saranapala
The Urban Buddhist Monk

Interview after two days of successful millennial summit in Ottawa. Met great millennials of different living faiths in Canada. What a way to build a peaceful nation and the world