Congratulations to AlexM on his ordination

The Watercooler
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Congratulations, Bhante. You have chosen what seems to be the best vocation one might choose for this life. With Metta to you and your family, and I trust they, as well, are proud of you and happy for you.

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I translate khema usually as “sanctuary”, so perhaps, “a lover of sanctuary”. But in this case, “safety”, “peace”, etc. would all work fine. If you wanted to get clever, a “sanctophile”.

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Thank you Bhante. Sanctuary is a nice translation for “khema.” And while I usually do want to get clever, “sanctophile” makes me think of “sanctify” so I think I’ll stick with “a lover of sanctuary.”

Funnily enough, my given name “Alexander” means “protector of man” :thinking:

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Perhaps the astrologer gave you name new that you are going to be a Buddhist Monk.

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:joy: My dad gave me my birth name and he definitely didn’t consult an astrologer :joy:

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Just kidding.
:smiley:

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Is khema used for nibbana?

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How about the whole ‘getting permission’ bit of it?

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“Khema” is most memorably used (to me, at least!) in the phrase “anuttaraáčƒ yogakkhemaáčƒ nibbānaáčƒâ€

Meaning: “[the] supreme security from bondage: Nibbāna” (B. Bodhi’s translation of MN26, among many other places in the canon)

But that said, I don’t think it’s a synonym for nibbāna. Just a memorable usage of the term.

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This phrase appears 16 times in the Nikayas, not always combined with nibbānaáčƒ. But still I feel in this context—at least in this combination “supreme sanctuary”—it is pretty synonym to Nibbana. For example in such a phrase:

Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu sekho hoti appattamānaso, anuttaraáčƒ yogakkhemaáčƒ patthayamāno viharati.

It’s when a mendicant is a trainee who hasn’t achieved their heart’s desire, but lives aspiring to the supreme sanctuary.
(Translation by Bhante Sujato)

it’s pretty clear that Nibbana is what they are aspiring to.

The general usage, however, does certainly have a broader range. As with many other words, they are taken from an “everyday” usage with a broad meaning, and when used in a particular context, gain a more specialized meaning.

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I’ve always understood this passage to mean that khema was a synonym for Nibbana: suttacentral.net/sn43.14-43/en/sujato#15.1

I would love to hear other’s thoughts.

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Thank you for this! In fact, the whole sutta—or actually it’s a whole sequence of suttas—appears to be a list of synonyms for Nibbana! And they all have to be expanded according to SN 43.12. Here it clearly says as the explanation for each of these qualities, “And what is the unconditioned (the 
, the sanctuary, the 
)?—The ending of greed, hate, and delusion.”, which, in other words, is how Nibbana is defined.

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At one time several senior mendicants were staying near Kosambi, in Ghosita’s Monastery. Now at that time Venerable Khemaka was staying in the Jujube Tree Monastery, and he was sick, suffering, gravely ill. In the late afternoon those senior mendicants came out of retreat and addressed Venerable Dāsaka:

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Ah! Nice find! I stand corrected. It appears it is indeed a synonym for nibbāna :slightly_smiling_face: Thanks @Snowbird

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Congratulations Bhikkhu

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Congratulations @Khemarato.bhikkhu ! Is it in Chonburi, which you mentioned in a previous post? i.e. with Ajahn Suchart Abijhato? I am reading his book ‘My way’, interesting that he practised fasting when staying with Ajahn Maha Boowa (I have also experimented with fasting, though so far I found it good for health but not really helpful for meditation). Do you practice fasting at your Monastery?

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38

Yes that’s right! I do fast some days, but usually only for one day at a time. There are some monks here who fast for weeks at a time, only consuming oil, honey, etc!

There are a few benefits: as you mentioned, there is a noticable health benefit to intermittent fasting. It actually gives you a lot of energy, surprisingly. The other major benefit is time: at this temple, when you’re fasting you can skip going to alms round, chores, etc and are thus free to meditate the whole day. Lastly, hunger can make you rather grumpy and irritable, so it provides an excellent (isolated and controlled) battleground to test your sati, samādhi, and paññā’s ability to deal with adversity.

But, that said, it isn’t helpful for everyone’s practice even here where it’s fully supported. So while I encourage you to experiment fearlessly, I also will warn against the extreme of self-mortification :slightly_smiling_face:

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7 posts were merged into an existing topic: How do Art and Meditation Relate to Each Other?

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I’m sorry, @paul1, but I think you’ll have to ask someone with an artistic background! I was an engineer in my lay life :man_scientist::rofl:

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(the artist formerly known as AlexM)

How is this explained then?

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