Oh I’m very sorry. I was making a humorous reference to when Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. The media started referring to him simply as “the artist formerly known as Prince” because nobody could figure out how to say his new name
As a mod recently pointed out though, humor may not carry well across cultures and is probably inappropriate for this forum so I apologise for my (accidentally) misleading speech
I am an insight meditator by temperament, and follow the Satipatthana sutta as a central focus to the internal integrity of the Pali Canon. No I don’t want to chat via PM.
Yeah, that’s right. We had one long-term monk disrobe after less than a month in robes (!) and the monk on the right of this photo wasn’t planning on staying but did. The rest disrobed as they originally intended: after the three months of the rainy season.
AN3.24:1.1: “Mendicants, these three people are very helpful to another. AN3.24:1.2: What three? AN3.24:1.3: The person who has enabled you to go for refuge to the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha. AN3.24:1.4: This person is very helpful to another. AN3.24:2.1: Furthermore, the person who has enabled you to truly understand: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. AN3.24:2.2: This person is very helpful to another. AN3.24:3.1: Furthermore, the person who has enabled you to realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with your own insight due to the ending of defilements. AN3.24:3.2: This person is very helpful to another. AN3.24:3.3: These are the three people who are very helpful to another person. AN3.24:4.1: And I say that there is no-one more helpful to another than these three people. AN3.24:4.2: And I also say that it’s not easy to repay these three people by bowing down to them, rising up for them, greeting them with joined palms, and observing proper etiquette for them; or by providing them with robes, alms-food, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick.”
To me the people who first introduced me to the Buddha’s teaching 35 years ago will always be very close to my heart. They always have been, even long before I came across this lovely little Sutta.