Please sit down on your own, only small children nearer to one parent. ---
And could you lease stop speaking now, and close your eyes. --- Try to straighten your back a bit, and shift your weight slightly to the left, and then to the right, forward and backward … - so that you can find your inner balance. --- And if you have found a balanced way to sit, your inner pole, stay like this for a while. ---

And take a DEEP breath, feeling out and relaxing into the inner space. ---

Let go of all the breath in a long out-breath, so that you can fully take in fresh air. ---
Find your own rhythm of breathing in and out for a while. -----

Can you feel how the overall body is getting flexible with the small movements of breathing in and out? –

Now allow your awareness to reach out into the space around you, listening to all sounds in an open and accepting way. ---
These are the sounds of life, the sounds of your Dhamma family here in Amaravati.
A family which comes together to enjoy and support each other, trying to live in truth and harmony.

There is a Buddhist word for this – it is called SILA, and usually this means moral conduct, and for families and all of you here, it means keeping the 5 PRECEPTS.

Precepts are GUIDELINES – it’s not a law or something which you are told to do. In Amaravati, you have to ask for it. And they only work, if you remember them and decide to keep them. –
Why would you choose to follow guidelines, and not just do what you feel like doing? Like: “Give me your biscuit! I want it. And if you don’t give it to me, I’ll TAKE it!” ---

Over the last days, you have heard something about KAMMA, the actions we do, and which have certain results, good or bad, whether we like it or not.

I will read out a story of the Buddha now. Do you remember the story of Queen Mallika and King Pasenadi, where they asked each other: “Is there anyone more dear to you than yourself?” –
This now is a story in which the Buddha is giving reflections to village people in India, who asked him how to live in peace and happiness, and what they can do to enjoy life without regret.
If you like, you can listen with eyes closed, or eyes open.

And for those of you who want to do a LISTENING MEDITATION: Can you be aware of your breathing while listening? - Can you breathe IN from the space of sound, and breathe OUT into the space of sound?

(Read out the shortened version of “THE PEOPLE OF BAMBOO GATE”

- bell -

(If there is time for discussion about “THE PEOPLE OF BAMBOO GATE”? )

Did you recognize the PRECEPTS in this story? --- Which precepts did you recognize? –

What about the 5th precept? - Did the Buddha mention something about ALCOHOL or DRUGS? -
What happens when a person has drunken alcohol or taken drugs? Do you think that somebody who is drunk or drugged could keep the first 4 precepts? ---
I think that, because people who have drunken alkohol or taken drugs are not very much aware of what they are doing for a while (although THEY may think they are) – especially for that reason, the Buddha is usually adding the 5th precept. The people of Bamboo Gate may have known and kept it it already. So he didn’t have to mention it to them. ---
Does anybody remember how the 5th precept goes? ---
“ I take the precept to refrain from taking drinks and drugs which lead to CARELESSNESS.”

Do you remember: What did the Buddha mention in regards to the 4th precept, RIGHT SPEECH? – If someone were to damage my welfare with false speech …
- … divide me from my friends by divisive speech …
- … address me with harsh speech …
- … address me with frivolous speech and idle chatter …

Do you remember such situations where this was happening to you? --- Just take a while to remember how that felt like, what the result of that Kamma (action) was. ---
So if you can remember that this was not pleasing and agreeable to you – would you want to do that to another? ---
And what about REVENGE ? ---

What about BAD HABITS ? – If you are a lot together with people who are used to lie, or who are used to drink – how would that influence you? ---
What can you do to get away from those bad habits? ---
Do you remember the STORY about the man who fell into the whole on his way home? ---
What did he do so that it couldn’t happen to him again? ---
Would that be applicable to the situation with your friends? ---
What did the Buddha recommend in this Sutta to the people of Bamboo Gate, regarding false speech? --- Who remembers? ---
“Having reflected thus,
- he abstains from false speech, …
exhorts others to abstain from false speech, …
and speaks in praise from abstinence from false speech. “ …
Is that something you would be willing to do? – Would that be easy for you or not? --- Why wouln’t it be so easy sometimes? ---

For those of you who are interested to read the whole Sutta:
Sayutta Nikaya 55 / 7 / - THE PEOPLE OF BAMBOO GATE
Connected Discourses of the Buddha
Bhikku Bodhi’s translation – Wisdom Publikations 2000

At the end of this Sutta, the Buddha states, that keeping these precepts not only leads a person to a happier life, but that, because it is leading him to a happier life, this person will also gain confirmed confidence in the Buddha and his teachings. And from that he would wish to honour or take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha and develop his practice and virtues. - And by practicing in this way he will reach the first stage of enlightenment, STREAM ENTERER.

Again in this Sutta, the Buddha, asked by the people to show them a way to happiness in THIS lifetime, is answering the question. But he is also leading them to think a step further, BEYOND this lifetime:

If you have attained the first stage of enlightenment, stream entry, after REBIRTH you will be reborn at least into the human realm or even into higher realms, but you can't fall back into the animal realm, the domain of ghosts, the animal realm – that is: you are finished with the plane of misery. And you are bound to get fully enlightend at least within 7 lifetimes …