Have you ever made a promise before? Today we’ll learn about seven promises, or vows, that the God Sakka made when he was in the human world. By keeping these promises to do good things, he was able to be reborn as the lord of gods in two heavenly realms.

Have your notebook ready so you can write down these wholesome vows. Maybe you’ll even like to make the same seven promises.

1. As long as I live may I help my parents.
2. As long as I live may I respect the family elders.
3. As long as I live may I speak gently.
4. As long as I live may I not speak divisively.
5. As long as I live may I live at home without greediness, removing the stain of stinginess, open-handed, always ready to give, always free to help others, delighting in giving and sharing, and well organized in giving charity.
6. As long as I live may I speak the truth.
7. As long as I live may I be free from anger, and if anger should arise in me, may I remove it quickly.

5:04 Sermon.

• Stories of Heavenly Mansions from the Vimanavatthu

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Do your parents ever scold you? Do they ever accuse you of things you haven’t done. I hope not. But if they do, how do you react? Did you know it’s possible to not get angry at people who scold us and wrongly accuse us of things? Today we’ll learn from the example of the Great Arahant Sariputta and see how he endured terrible abuse from his mother.

6:10 Sermon.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Do you know what a deva is? A deva, or devata, lives in one of the heavenly worlds. In those worlds they get to live in beautiful palaces and have all the most wonderful things. Today we’ll get to meet a deva who collected a special kind of merit when they lived in the human world and we’ll learn about their life in the heavenly world.

5:16 Sermon.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Today we are going to meet a very wise disciple of the Supreme Budha named princess Sumana. I know that she is wise because she went to the Supreme Buddha and asked a very good question. She already understood the importance of saddha, sila, and pañña. Do you know the meaning of those three words? Shraddha means faith in the Supreme Buddha’s enlightenment. Sila means virtue, keeping the precepts, and pañña means wisdom. But she wanted to know if two people had the same saddha, sila, and pañña, would it matter if only one of them practiced generosity? What do you think? Is giving still important if you have faith, virtue and wisdom? In today’s sermon we’re going to find out.

6:23 Sermon on the Sumana Sutta.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

In

5:51 32 Marks of a Great Man

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Today we’re going to talk about listening to the Dhamma. You may spend time listening to the radio, TV programmes, or movies. And those things can be easy to listen to, can’t they? But listening to the Supreme Buddha’s Dhamma is much more difficult. We have to give all of our attention to what we are hearing. Without doing that, we don’t have a chance to really understand what the Buddha is wanting us to do.

6:52 Sermon.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Today we are going to learn about the blessing of being generous and the things we need to do to practice generosity in the best way. We’ll learn about five things we need to remember when we are giving things to others that will help us bring the most blessings and happiness into our lives. They’re so important you may even want to write them down. You might find it helpful to get a blank notebook and write down the things you learn on each show. Not because there will be a test, but because it’s important to remember and actually try and follow the advice we learn from the Supreme Buddha.

If you haven't listened to the previous episodes on the Maha Mangala Sutta, you might like to start at the beginning of the series. Click here. But you don't have to!

6:18 Sermon on Mahamangala sutta.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.

Today we have a special show. There’s a sutta that I’ve been wanting to chant with you, but it’s a little long. So today we’re dedicating the entire show to reciting the Alavaka Sutta. I think maybe you are familiar with that name, Alavaka. He is a yakkha. Yakkha’s are a type of non-human being who are sometimes friendly, but mostly not very nice. In English sometimes we call them demons or devils. Whatever we call them, they can be kind of scary. But here’s the thing we need to remember. Our Supreme Buddha was able to convert this yakkha from being really nasty to being really good. In fact, he became a disciple of the Supreme Buddha when he learned the Dhamma. Because that’s how the supreme Buddha tames others, by preaching the Supreme Dhamma. That means if we feel scared when we think about yakkhas, we can remember that we are disciples of a great teacher who can tame not only humans, but non humans as well.

6:05 Reciting the Alavaka Sutta. Download a copy or read on line.

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

We'd love to hear from you! You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo.

Have you ever practiced loving kindness meditation? Well, today we are going to learn a sutta that talks about the benefits that the Supreme Buddha gained by practicing loving kindness in one of his previous lives when he was a hermit. Do you know what a hermit is? That’s an English word for someone who lives all alone, far away from other people. Sometimes a hermit is a monk or a nun. Sometimes it’s just a person who doesn’t like to talk to people or even see people. But in that life, the Supreme Buddha was a hermit so he could practice loving kindness.

5:48 Sermon sutta number 22 in the Itivuttaka.

• This Was Said by the Buddha: The Itivuttaka. Get the print book.
• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We'd love to hear from you! You can write to us at [email protected] or contact us through Facebook at facebook.com/ColomboDhammaFriends or Instagram at instagram.com/SereneColombo.

If you haven't listened to the previous episodes on the Maha Mangala Sutta, you might like to start at the beginning of the series. Click here. But you don't have to!

Today

6:00 Sermon on Mahamangala sutta.

• Stories of Ghosts from the Petavatthu. Get your own print copy or listen free online.
• Mahamevnawa Pali-English Paritta Chanting Book. Print Book.

We'd love to hear from you! 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.