Monday, 5th May 2025 - What kind deeds did I do today?

1. I made my bed.

2. I brushed my teeth.

3. I washed my face.

4. I had a shower.

5. I cleaned the bathroom.

6. I oiled my body.

7. I put on my deodorant.

8. I emptied the bins in the rooms into the kitchen bin.

9. I emptied the kitchen bin and the recycling bin into the big bins outside.

10. I watered the flowers in the garden.

11. I had brunch.

12. I washed the plates after brunch.

Reflections on Buddha's teachings

• The three poisons of Buddhism are ignorance, greed and hate.

  
  

  Ignorance is being delusional which is having a lack of knowledge or information and not understanding reality. Nothing lasts forever so an example of ignorance is expecting possessions, people, self and jobs to last forever and being disappointed when they don't last when nothing lasts forever. Another example of ignorance is assuming the worse storyline of what you believe happened in the past without any evidence. The cure to ignorance is wisdom. Wisdom is an intense awareness of reality. Wisdom is knowing the truth definitely without any doubt. So making assumptions about anything is not wise. Wisdom is understanding the true nature of reality, which includes the impermanence of all things and the absence of a permanent self.

• Greed is desire and attachment. Greed is having a craving or holding on to things, people and experiences or wanting more than you have instead of being satisfied with what you already have. Greed is a selfish intense desire for a thing such as wealth, power and food. The cure to greed is generosity. This is the action of giving and letting go of desire for/attachment to things, people and experiences.

  
  

• Hate is anger, resentment and aversion (a strong dislike) towards others or situations. This cure to hate is loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is practising compassion, empathy, tenderness, consideration and goodwill towards all beings. Bee kind and loving to others and thus unselfishly wish them happiness and you won't feel angry with them.

So in a nutshell, Buddhism teaches us to not hold unto desires, be kind and loving and give generously to others. Nothing lasts forever so be kind and loving, generous and wise every day.