Have you ever offered dāna to monks and shared merits with your departed relatives? Have you ever wondered about how that works? Well, today we’re going to hear about an incident that happened in the time of our Supreme Buddha where a ghost came back and asked his former brother for help. I know that may sound like a scary thing, having a ghost visit. But in this situation, the person wasn’t scared because he was a monk and understood all about ghosts. He knew exactly what to do to help this ghost, and soon we’ll know too.

5:59 Sermon on Petavatthu 3.2

• The Voice of Enlightened Monks: Theragatha. Get your own copy.
• Stories of Ghosts from the Petavatthu. Get your own print copy.
• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

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When the Supreme Buddha was still alive, people would go and ask him all kinds of questions. Some people asked questions to try and trick the Buddha, but some wise people asked very important questions, and so they got very important answers. We’ll meet one of these wise people today. His name is Bhadraka. Actually the word bhadraka means a fortunate person. And this Bhadraka really was a bhadraka because he was fortunate to learn the cause and ending of suffering from the Supreme Buddha’s own sacred mouth. And we’re also a bhadraka because we get to learn this too.

5:23 Sermon on the Bhadraka Sutta

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How have you been doing with your job of being an investigator? Remember I asked you to start looking around you to see if you could find anything that lasted forever, using your powers of investigation. Well, today we’ll learn about a man who was shocked when he realized that things were impermanent. If we keep with our job of investigating, then we won’t be shocked like he was.

5:19 Sermon

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Get your own copy.

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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What do you think? Does a gift need to be very big and expensive to collect merit? No, it doesn’t. Our teacher, the Supreme Buddha taught us that how we are thinking and the way we give the gift are more important. This is really good news, since sometimes we don’t have big things to give, do we. That means that if we learn the proper method of giving, we’ll always be able to collect powerful good karma, even if our gift is very small. Today we’ll learn five ways to give so we get great benefits from whatever we give. They are really valuable, so I’d like you to write them down as the Bhante teaches us.

5:36 Sermon on the five factors of giving

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The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Today we have some of your questions and the Bhantes will answer them. We’ll also practice loving-kindness meditation in a new way. You’ll want to know which direction is north, so if you’re not sure, now’s the time to ask someone. There’s a PDF with the compass points in the shownotes you can download to help you remember.

5:07 Q&A

PDF with compass points.

Cut out these squares and stick them on your kids bedroom walls to teach the directions.

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Today we are going to become investigators. An investigator is someone who likes to look very carefully at things and discover the truth. Because we have minds that are very strong, we can use our other senses to look at things and see them exactly as they are. Today we are going to use our investigation powers to see where things come from and how long they last. This was the kind of investigation the Supreme Buddha when we was trying to become enlightened. So get ready to become an investigator just like the Buddha.

5:37 Sermon on impermanance

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Yesterday we learned three things that help us to get along with people. Do you remember what they are? Showing people loving-kindness to people with our bodies, showing people loving-kindness with our speech, and showing loving-kindness with our minds. Well, today we will learn three more things to help us live in harmony, and these three have to do with sharing. Maybe your parents have told you for a long time to share things, but did you know that the Supreme Buddha also taught us to share? We’ll learn about that today.

5:56 Ssermon

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The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Today we are going to learn advice from the Supreme Buddha on how to live in harmony with people. Do you know the word harmony? When we live in harmony, we get along with the people around us. We don’t fight. We don’t argue, and we don’t get upset with them. That’s a happy way to live, isn’t it. So we’ll start to learn the Buddha’s advice on living in harmony so we can get that kind of happiness.

5:15 Sermon

• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Get your own copy.

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Have you ever been stuck somewhere you didn’t want to be? If we can’t be content where we are, then it’s hard to be happy. Today we are going to hear the story of one of the great disciples of the Supreme Buddha named King Bimbisara. This king understood the Dhamma very well, so much that he could even be happy when he was forced to live in the dungeon of the palace, even worse than being in prison. But still, he kept practicing the Dhamma and lived peacefully.

5:24 My Merit Method

• The Voice of Enlightened Monks: Theragatha. Get your own copy.

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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Today we are going to talk about a very special word, a word that if we can remember and practice it, it will be really easy to be happy. That word is “contentment”. When we are content, then we are happy with whatever we have. We don’t keep thinking about all the things we don’t have but wish we had. I’m sure all of us can think about a time, maybe even today, when we weren’t happy with what we had and we wanted something that we didn’t have. Maybe we wanted to go outside for a walk, or go outside to play, but we couldn’t. Even though we may be already sitting in a very good place, we wish we were somewhere else. Maybe we weren’t happy with the food we had and we wanted something different. As long as we aren’t happy with what we have, then we can’t be happy. Especially if we are stuck in the house with no where to go.

In the sermon today we will learn about the life of the great Arahant monk Maha Kassapa. You may remember sometimes we recite a paritta that was given to him when he was sick. Well, today we’ll learn about a different event in his life, one that shows how he could be content with whatever he got.

9:22 Sermon on contentment

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a voicemail. Or record a longer segment on your phone. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo. You can also sent us a voicemail on Whatsapp.

The best way to listen to the podcast version of Monks in the Morning is on the Free Radio Public app

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