Why sit around feeling sorry for yourself?

Being scolded by your boss, being scolded by your husband, being scolded by your children, being scolded by your co-workers, being scolded by customers. You are suffering, sad, discouraged, disappointed, lamenting that we have tried our best but they do not see our goodness and intentions. Let me put it this way: I believe and understand that we have done our best. I support women. I sympathize with women. I always secretly hope that in the future, many women will attain the Dhamma. Those unwholesome emotions that make the mind depressed and stuck will return to wholesomeness, moving forward without giving up. Like Queen Pajapati, the Lord Buddha’s aunt. She held a high position. She was old but shaved her head. She walked barefoot to see the Lord Buddha to ask for ordination. But the Lord Buddha did not permit it. She cried and was sad. But in the end, Venerable Ananda tried to persuade him until the Lord Buddha agreed to let her ordain. And in the end, she attained the Dhamma. Do not be immersed in sorrow today. There is still a path to freedom from suffering. Women, do not wait for fate. Do not wait for the next life. Do not wait for it to be this or that. No matter who you are, where you are, or how much suffering you have. Now, you are born as a human being. You have met Buddhism. You have learned the Noble Eightfold Path, put aside your sorrow or suffering, and regain your mindfulness, and return to being a human being to make it worthwhile to be born as a human being. If there was anyone who was sad, Nang Patacara was more sad than anyone else. But on the day she was most sad, she regained her senses because of the Buddha’s words. The Buddha said to Nang Patacara, “Regain your senses, little sister.” At that moment, she regained her senses by the power of the Buddha. At that moment, she determined that her cloth had come off, which caused her to have shame and embarrassment, so she sat on her haunches. Then a man threw a blanket to her. She put on the cloth and went to see the Buddha. She paid homage with the five-tiered garlands at his golden feet, and said, “Please be my refuge, O Lord, because a hawk clipped one of my sons. One was swept away by the water. My husband died on a deserted path, Mother, father and elder brother were crushed to death by the house, and they were cremated on the same pyre.” Hearing her words, the Buddha said: “Do not think, Patacara. You have come to the abode of one who can be your refuge and shelter. Just as one of your sons is snatched away by a hawk, another is swept away by the water, your husband dies on the deserted road, and your mother, father and elder brother are crushed to death by the house. So are the tears that you shed in this suffering, when your beloved children and so on die, more than the water of the four great oceans.” Then he uttered this verse: “The water in the four great oceans is very little. The tears of a person who, when touched by suffering, grieves are no less than the water of the great ocean. Why are you heedless, my sister?” As the Buddha was reciting the Anamatakkapariyaya Sutta, the sorrow in her body Attained the lightness. Then the Buddha, knowing that her grief had lightened, warned her again and said, “Patacara, a beloved person with children, etc., cannot be a resistance, a refuge or a protection for those who have gone to the next world; therefore, even if they exist, they are considered to be nonexistent. A wise man who has purified the precepts should only purify the path that will lead beings to their own nirvana.” When he was about to teach the Dhamma, he said these verses: “There are no children to resist, no father, no relatives. When a person is overcome by death, there is no resistance from relatives; a wise man who, knowing the power of that benefit, restrains himself in the precepts and purifies the path to nirvana quickly.” At the end of the sermon, Patacara burned up the defilements as small as dust on the great earth and established herself in the Sotapanna stage. Many others also attained various noble stages, such as the Sotapanna stage, etc. Thus. 2013-09-24