Boonhome.net

Boon (Buddhist term) is the form of merit that enables us to accomplish our targeted duties, and is the factor protecting us from any kind of evils. Boon is also the logistics required for the traveling in this current birth and in the next birth. Boon will help us to reach more prosperity and to receive every good thing into our life. Boon helps us to be happier, and to eventually reach the state of absolute happiness or being detached from any form of sorrows. Boon can be categorized into 10 forms……

First: Giving donation or doing charity
Second: Pursuing morality or practicing precepts
Third: Practicing meditation and mindfulness
Forth: Being respectful to others
Fifth: Helping others
Sixth: Dedicating our boon to others, or wish others to have boon and to be happy
Seventh: Appreciating one who making boon or doing good thing
Eight: Having conversation on valuable topics or dharma with decent persons
Ninth: Teaching dharma or valuable topics to others
Tenth: Having right opinion and setting oneself in the righteous course.

If needs boon, one must practice the whole processes of boon by oneself, beginning from setting righteous will inside and then physically doing boon, or giving righteous word, or providing well mind. One can not buy boon with money, nor will he can steal boon, rob boon, or threaten others for boon. Thus one must makes boon by oneself. For boon is the most secure asset planted in mind, no insurance is needed as natural disasters-either flooding or fire-can not damage boon. In summary, boon is implanted in our mind, helping us to dismantle our ego, self, attachments, wrong attempts, and any kind of greed or sorrow. Let us enlighten boon in details, as follows:

1. Donation or charity including forgiving and sparing life: This first practice of boon is basic and simple, donating items, food, and money to the needed persons as our economic status can afford. We make donation outward; meaning that we first donate to the nearest persons such as wife, son, and daughter; this boon is one of our duties to take care family as the good citizen should. Next is our parent, the holy persons to us, we should support them when they get old. We should also donate to colleagues at our work places as it will create good relationship among staffs, and good working climate at office. Other needed person is the monks (real monks) as they can survive with our donated food and other items. Buddhist monk is the ideal person to make boon to, who is liken to the fertile field for cultivating the rice. Fertile paddy field can grow high production rice. The same is true with good monks that one can earn higher boon when donate food and other necessary items to them, because monk, survived with our donation, will certainly practice meditation, mindfulness, learning dharma and seeking enlightenment. Later on, monks will come out to teach us with knowledge they gain. And that we shall be a good citizen and our social become a peaceful pace. This charitable boon also includes another difficult kind of donations; forgiving one who commit bad thing to us, and sparing life of other. If one can forgive, his state of mind will rise; and he will reach happiness. Forgiving avoids retaliation and as a result society will be clam and happy. Sparing life is just like the donation of life; thus helping people who is suffering or dieing is the highest form of charitable boon. Avoid killing and hurting others will also render harmonious society that is vitally important.

2. Pursuing morality or practicing precepts: This form of boon is more difficult to practice, need no money, but also will render excellent result to us and society. Buddha set different groups of precepts for his followers to practice in order to prevent them from hurting, harming other people or themselves; either on body or mind; either indirectly or directly; either now or affect in the future. If all of us observe precepts or pursuing morality, our society will surely be peaceful and police man will work less. Practicing precepts will bring us into peace, safety, prosperity, and happiness. Thus, we should practice at least Five Buddhist Precepts. Buddha never forces us to practice precepts, but recommend us to, by refraining from 5 bad conducts; there are:

First: Refrain from killing or hurting other people or oneself
Second: Refraining from stealing, embezzling, cheating, taking asset of other that one is not deserved to or without permission
Third: Refraining from having sex affaire with other rather than our couple or avoid infidelity
Forth: Refraining from saying hurting word to other or to oneself such as lie, tease, mock, sarcasm or mindless chat
Fifth: Refraining from addiction of any kinds of drug that will damage brain or mentality, and will lead one down to bad behaviors, and prevent one from raising state of mine that is required for the achievement of the absolute happiness in Buddhist sense

3. Practicing meditation and mindfulness: This boon is vitally important, much difficult to practice, but absolutely needed by one who really wants to reach the state of Buddhist absolute happiness as this boon will raise one's mind to dharma course; the path to the end of all sorrows, to the end of all attachment. One can practice this boon by doing meditation; be it sitting meditation, or walking meditation during which one will always stick his mind to particular code of focus such as silently keeping saying the word “Buddho”. Meditation is the state of mind where one can concentrates in one particular thing. One with meditated sate of mind will be able to concentrate, will not be swerving or derailing, his mind will not easily taken away by the stream of dispersed thought, and will be quite confident with equanimity. The easy way, perhaps, for people in this era or for office worker to do this boon in his daily life is to raise mindfulness at every of his activities, meaning that he will realize the continuity of all his activities. By realizing all the time what he is doing, he will not doing wrong thing; that is the merit of mindfulness.

4. Being respectful to others: This boon will set proper relation among members of society, and lead to peaceful, harmonious, and compassionate society. One should pay respect to other, to whom one has gratitude for, to whom one receives support from. Respect should also be made to those who are higher than him in any appropriate sense such as higher in age, higher in knowledge or experiences, higher in having boon, higher in practicing precept, higher in having meditation or mindfulness, higher for reason that one must be grateful. Respectful way can be made by doing proper treatment or respectful body language, by proper saying, and even by setting respectful mind toward persons. Respectable persons are, for example, our parent, relatives, ancestors, teacher, our beloved king, Buddha, dharma, real monk, our supporters, good people, persons with knowledge and experiences, and so on so forth. Respect can even made to something that useful, essential to us such as nature, environment, and other creatures on this earth or other universe.

5. Helping others: This boon will help build better society as everybody will help each other. One should help or dedicate his hand to other who is really in need. Helping is not limited at only individual or private, but one should also help public, government sector and eventually our nation. As good father, one should help grow up his children, helping wife to clean house, and so on. As good boss, one should help his subordinate to solve problem and so on. Helping if exists in any society, people there will surely be happy.

6. Dedicating our boon to others, wishing others to have boon and to be happy: This boon is very important for us and for other especially those who can not make boon but badly need boon. As to us, dedicating boon or whishing to give boon to others make us being selfless, being detached, and happier. We always dedicate boon to the udder-privilege persons, and those who does not has body to make boon; roaming spirit. As to roaming spirits who badly need boon as logistics to quit their temporarily unhappy place and traveling to better places, they are waiting for us to dedicate boon to them. These spirits are in every where; battle areas where many soldiers died; in city roads where people dead by car accidents, and so on so many places. This is the reason why Buddhist people often invite monks to receive donation, in another hand to make boon (Tamm boon; Tamm mean make or do) and dedicate boon they gain to roaming spirits so that all parties concerned will be happy.

7. Appreciating one who making boon or doing good thing: This boon is very easy to do, and will also render boon to one who make it. Merit of this boon is that if one practices it, he will be detached from envy or jealousness, and for that his life will be filled with happiness. Roaming spirits or god can do this boon, for they can appreciate human when doing boon. And if they do so, these spirits will also gain boon, the almost only way they can.

8. Having conversation on valuable topics or dharma with decent persons: This boon is very important for one can get better knowledge and valuable teaching or dharma when he talk to decent persons such as good people, real monks, teacher and so on. With valuable dharma one can set his life into righteous course. One will be happily imbued when listening to dharma. One should refrain from mindless chat that is not useful for forming wisdom, but will drag our mind down to dispersed state without any concentration. Stop mindless talking, and there are still many things to do for our better life such as helping other, raising mindfulness, working hard, and so on.

9. Teaching dharma or valuable topics to others: This boon is very important to people in society as our society is now quite messed because many people underestimate mental value, but cult only materials. Many of them try every measure to obtain materials they want; regardless right or wrong, forgetting precepts. Thus it is timely that we together restore our society, revitalizing dharma or valuable teaching necessary for healing the ailment of our social. Five Buddhist Precepts as already mentioned is needed to sincerely re-teach. Restoring of idea about boon is vitally required for the peaceful and harmonious society. Therefore one should help teach every good thing; be it a dharma, boon or precepts to others as much as one can, at least to nearby people; son, daughter, relative, colleagues and so on. This boon will render highest result to those who make it as said “giving dharma is the highest giving”.

10. Having right opinion and setting oneself in the righteous course: This boon is the last one meaning that one should viewing thing (the present of thing is dharma) as it is, having right opinion on thing, and set his life accordingly (not against thing) by using every mindfulness and wisdoms of his to. The purpose of this boon is to eventually reach the state of Buddhist absolute happiness. Easy way to practice this boon is to use wisdom to view thing, to view daily problem and to develop correct solution. It implies that one must solve problem with clearer wisdom that is gained from meditation and mindfulness, without any un-neutral or imbalance mind. One must face and solve problem with his equanimity obtained from meditation.

All the abovementioned describing, the author has taken from the Buddha’s teaching. This teaching is not only for Buddhist, other religious followers can also practice them in order to reach happiness and prosperity. The presentation of this article might not be as good as expected because the author is not the professional writer. All recommendations are, therefore, highly appreciated. And if you find this article useful, you can send it to your friends or your lovers for making your boon. There no patent on this article, because every dharma already exists in the universe as said the Buddha. The more you practice it, and teach or send it to your friends, the more boon you will obtain.