The Buddhist Meditation Temple, Inc. was founded by the Buddhist community of Huber Heights, Ohio, in 2004, as a Southeast Asian Theravada Buddhist Temple. The purposes for founding this Temple were to establish a teaching and practicing center for Buddhism according to the Theravada tradition, and to create a focal point for Thai culture, tradition, and Thai language. The Temple is located at 4545 Fishburg Rd., Huber Heights, Ohio, 45424. The Temple normally houses three to five Buddhist monks, who have been ordained in Thailand according to the Thai Theravada tradition and who have been in the monkhood for at least ten to twenty years. They depend on the lay community for the basic necessities of life, which include food, clothing, shelter, and medication. In return, they give spiritual guidance to the lay community. The Thai Buddhist monks observe 227 precepts or moral codes, including the practice of celibacy. The Temple, since its beginning, has been successfully serving the Thai and Laotian community of the Miami Valley, as well as the general public. There are three fundamental, core principles of Buddhism:
To avoid doing bad deeds
To do good deeds
To purify one’s mind through Insight Meditation
Insight or VIPASSANA Meditation, is taught to the general public, free of charge, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Thursday and Sunday (chant and meditation), at the Temple. Those who want to study VIPASSANA meditation in-depth may join the monks every Saturday evening from 5:30 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. All schedule changes will be posted in advance or you may call the temple at (937)237-0378. Insight Meditation is very important. It is the key for one to understand clearly, through one’s own Buddha Nature, all phenomena of life, and allows its students to live life in peace, in perfect harmony with nature, while experiencing freedom and happiness. Buddha Nature already exists and resides in everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, dialect, literacy, occupation, wealth, or religious belief. Buddha Nature can be realized by oneself through Insight Meditation using one’s own effort. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is freedom from emotional conflict, affliction, disease, unsatisfactoriness, and suffering in life. The Buddha declared over 2593 years ago that, “Just as the ocean has only one taste, the taste of salt; this teaching also has only one taste, the taste of freedom.” He exposed the secret of nature, which he discovered through his enlightenment, and this ultimate freedom is synonymous with ultimate peace and true happiness. It is based upon intellectual & emotional freedom, the highest form of freedom or human dignity that anyone can achieve, i.e., NIRVANA. With mindfulness and wisdom resulting from mind development through practicing Insight Meditation, one will see clearly the true nature of all existence in its reality without any bias or distortion, i.e., gaining Insight. One will realize the difference between conventional truth and ultimate truth and understand the three universal characteristics of existence, namely, Impermanence, Imperfection, and Not-self. One will witness how everything arises and how they are interrelated through dependent origination, and one will see the mechanism of how one imprisons oneself in the self-created endless worlds of thoughts. Because of this understanding and seeing one’s thought process as it arises, one will stop the cravings of greed, hatred and delusion, and the sneaking in with such unintentional and biased thoughts, in order to please oneself with temporary worldly pleasure or happiness. One will become totally free emotionally and intellectually from one’s own imprisonment in this small, narrow-minded and biased world of “self”, which is the root of disease, unhappiness, and suffering. One will be opening up oneself to the unlimited, unconditioned universal experience, living in perfect harmony with nature, according to the flow of nature, in ultimate peace, with freedom and true happiness. Anyone who is interested in Buddhism, the awakened way of life, is welcome at our Temple, and may contact us at the address below, through e-mail, or by calling us.
