Dhamma Tāpasā is the spiritual name of Andrew Hallas a trained ex Buddhist Monk who now Creates Original Moral Stories to Inspire our Imaginations, build character and Teach us Valuable Life Lessons.
Of course you Fart, everyone Farts, right? Maybe your a silent but violent kinda of girl or perhaps your just a loud and proud type of guy. The Fact is we all Fart right? But
Have you ever wondered why you fart?
It wasn’t until I had decided to rid myself of the toxins in my body and try a three day meditation and fasting retreat, that the subject of Farting and Burping really took hold in my mind. After finishing the fasting and meditation it was time to replenish the body, and after filling my stomach with exciting new foods, the action really took off.
I began farting! And far more than usual, I was passing so much wind that I could probably of powered a wind turbine. After three days of no food my stomach was doing somersaults and producing the accompanying notes of joy.
So Farting simply put is just that “the accompanying note of joy as our stomachs process the food we consume”. Now I know that’s not the official Oxford English Dictionary’s version of a Fart, but it is surprisingly similar.
So Does Everyone Fart and Burp?
As stated above, Farting and Burping are a result of the process of consumption. The accompanying notes of joy, to indicate we are all well fed and watered.
So No We don’t all Fart and Burp, yes we all have the capacity to Fart and Burp but not all of us are lucky enough to eat as well as those of us in prestigious countries.
So the next time you have a good Fart, or a decent Burp, instead of feeling embarrassed or shy, I want you to feel proud and satisfied. After all it means you are well fed and watered, and you have the money and food in your life to create these wonderful noises that makes us all laugh. (Well maybe not in front of your mum)
Seriously Now
On a more serious note. There are a lot of people in this world who are a little less fortunate than ourselves and they don’t have the means to be well fed and watered. So every time you pass wind, or burp loudly, remember how fortunate and lucky you really are.
P.s I personally apologise to any Mums reading this. I know your job is hard enough without some ex Buddhist monk explaining how wonderful it is to burp and fart. So too all you guys I apologise if your kids tell you that Dhamma Tāpasā said it was alright to Fart & Burp.
Along a beautiful enchanted river path, two zebra’s walk side by side, enjoying the fresh air and tranquility of each moment.
They are best friends and have been for many years. Both have taken a different lifestyle approach to the main zebra herd, and choose instead to seek enlightenment.
The path twists a turns matching the river it’s following until It comes to a crossing point. It is here our two zebra’s must cross the river, wading through the current to the other side.
As they start taking their zebra socks and shoes off, suddenly a lion jumps out from the bushes beside them!
“Excuse me,” politely asks the Lion, “but I’m terribly frightened of the water and fast flowing current, would one of you be able to carry me across.”
Without thought or hesitation one of the zebra’s tells the lion to climb on his back, and hold on tight. With shoes and socks in one hand and a lion on one of the zebra’s backs, the three wade across the river to the safety of the other side.
The lion thanks the zebra and disappears into the undergrowth. The two zebra’s look at each other for a moment, then carry on wandering along the path, in silence. Once again enjoying the tranquility of each moment.
It turned out that one our our zebra’s wasn’t enjoying the moment at all. The zebra who hadn’t picked up the lion was beginning to get himself quite worked up about something. Muttering under his breath as they walked, and the more he muttered under his breath, the more he was getting worked up.
Finally he broke the silence, it was too much for him to bare any longer, “why did you pick that lion up and allow it to climb on your back, are you insane?” He demanded, “lions eat us for breakfast, lunch and dinner! What were you thinking?” He raged further.
“Brother,” the second zebra calmly replied, “this happened many many miles back, it was I who carried the lion on my back and it was I who placed him down on the other side, over an hour ago. So why, brother, are you still carrying the lion with you?
We all can become obsessed with thoughts running around in our minds, Letting Go is easy to say but sometimes seemingly so difficult too do. To master this vital skill for happiness requires practice and training of the mind. Seeing how we naturally Let Go of our sense impressions, sound, smells, sights, that we have no interest in, as just one example, helps us see the skills needed to truly Let Go.
Meditation is about observing or watching the minds function and how each action has an equal an opposite reaction, seeing this dance of consciousness is humanities true purpose to living a fully satisfying life without the need for constantly more!
Now Available as Audio
*Dhamma Tāpasā a trained ex Buddhist Monk and the spiritual name given to Andrew Hallas. An inspirational teacher of mindfulness and meditation techniques through the art of storytelling. Dhamma Tāpasā is able to capture our imaginations whilst teaching us valuable moral principles and deepening our understanding of the human consciousness and the everyday problems we face.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride, from simple humble beginnings of just starting a blog to post my original moral stories, a place to share my experiences about meditation, from my life as a Buddhist monk and somewhere I could share my views and opinions on life, this website has grown and grown.
It’s not been easy, I have had to learn so much about social media, website building, hosting, domain names, all of which in the beginning I really didn’t have the foggiest clue about.
Over the last month this website and the moral stories have grown massively, not just by reaching the amazing milestone of 100,000K views but my moral stories have now appeared in the New York chronically and featured on Spotify. We have been featured in the Nigerian news and this month two large corporate companies use one of my moral stories in their latest newsletters to promote wellness and positivity in the work place. The personal emails and comments have been uplifting and inspiring and have given me the energy and focus I needed and I thank you all so very much.
At present I am trying hard to get my original moral stories published in a series of two books, on Amazon. This website needs to start bringing in a small income for myself and my adopted dog, Marley to survive and then flourish. We have plans or a dream too establish a charity dedicated towards kindness and compassion with kindness-walks, both for the soul and wellbeing of those that take part but we want to stretch a hand of friendship out to all those that may have been forgotten during these strange times of corona.
I would love to hear your opinion on how I could take this website further and impact more lives. I am a one man one dog outfit and an ex Buddhist monk who doesn’t really know much about the modern world of internet and computers. Any advice would be invaluable.
What do you like about this website at the moment?
What would you like to see different or change?
Is an Audio or a Podcast something of interest?
Would a meditation practice group set up on Zoom, to share experiences with like minded individuals be of use to anyone?
You guys are my audience and you guys matter the most, without you I would never have grown to 100,000k views. I value your opinion, and who knows maybe you could have a direct impact on helping me move forward with my life and my dreams.
Dhamma Tāpasā starts this silent meditation with 3 slow strikes of the gong. Take this time to get yourself comfortable in your chosen position and begin to feel yourself unwind.
Breathing in try to become truly present in the experience. feel your lungs expand, the air dance across the hairs in you nose. Feel it and be present.
Remember to be kind to yourself if you find your mind wanders. Don’t scold or punish just be gentle, kind and compassionate and slowly the power of mindfulness increases.
Once upon a time there lived an apple farmer. He was very good at growing apples and it gave him great satisfaction to see all his hard work over the year come to fruition with a glorious harvest.
On one particular morning as the farmer is taking his dog for a walk, he notices something out of place.
There’s one bad apple sitting high up on his most prized bountiful tree.
“If that one bad apple were to spread to the rest of the apples and then the rest of the field my whole crop will be spoilt” he says to himself “I must do something, but what?”
He goes to the tractor shed to fetch a long pole. “That way I can poke it out the tree and stop the problem” He says to himself.
Try as he might the long pole just isn’t quite long enough and in an attempt to get that one bad apple a few goods ones are knock to the floor.
“This is no good” he says to himself “I need a better idea”
It’s once again back to the tractor shed, this time for a catapult. “That way I can shoot the one bad apple off it’s branch and my problem will be solved” he says to himself
Try as he might, our farmers aim isn’t so good and he can’t hit that one bad apple to save his life. In all the badly aimed and missed attempts a few good apples are also knocked to the floor.
“This is no good” he thinks to himself “a better solution is need one that is fool proof.
It’s once again back to the tractor shed, this time the plan is to shake the tree so that one bad apple may fall to the ground solving the problem once and for all.
Try as he might no matter how hard the farmer shakes the tree that one bad apple just won’t budge. And in all his attempts a few good apples are shaken loose and fall to the ground.
A few more days pass and the farmer is now obsessed with that one bad apple sitting at the top of the tree.
With one final fool proof plan of attack the farmer arms himself with a chainsaw, if he can’t poke it out, shoot it out, or shake it out of the tree then he’s going to cut off the branch. That way he is sure he will rid himself of that one bad apple.
The farmer arrives at his prized apple tree and notices something for the first time. With all his concentration and days being taken up with that one bad apple, he had knocked, shaken and poked all the other apples to the ground where they now lay rotting. In an attempt to stop that one bad apple spreading to the rest, he had forgotten to notice all the other wonderful apples that had ripened on his prized apple tree.
Sometimes we spend too much time and effort looking at the One Bad Apple in our lives. What we forget to do is remember all the other wonderful apples we already have sitting in our apple tree.
Take time today too focus not on the one bad apple but the many ripe and wonderful apples you already have in your life.
Maybe if your struggling to find those positives in your life at the moment. Try this wonderful exercise to do just that. It’s called The 7 Wonders Of Life an exercise I developed when I was a Buddhist Monk for foreign tourists to focus their minds towards a more positive outlook rather than that of negativity. Give it a go!
Also Available as Audio
*Dhamma Tāpasā a trained ex Buddhist Monk and the spiritual name given to Andrew Hallas. An inspirational teacher of mindfulness and meditation techniques through the art of storytelling. Dhamma Tāpasā is able to capture our imaginations whilst teaching us valuable moral principles and deepening our understanding of the human consciousness and the everyday problems we face.
From very small all of us start to learn individualism, we may not realise this is what we are learning but with re-enforcements from parents, teachers and peers we soon begin to experience ourselves and those around us as individuals. We begin the process of labelling each other and ourselves, Matt’s rich, Katie’s an artist, Gordon’s good at sport. We start to see where we fit in life, and who we associate with. Groups start to form of likeminded individuals, and labels soon follow to identify each other. I am French I am Scottish, I am Male, I am Female. This is a good thing right?
Individualism is welcomed and even encouraged in our society as a good thing. Finding what your good at and enjoy, what you like and dislike is all normal behaviour. You and I have been participating in this game all our lives.
We find our passions, what we like and dislike. We find the right type of work befitting to our character maybe that’s manual work or working in an office. We find what types of food we like, books to read music to listen too. We also gain country, religious, race and sexual identities. By the age of 20 most people have formed so many characteristics we can easy state; Josh, he is a white Male, heterosexual, of no particular religion, wants to be an engineer, likes football, swimming and T.V. All very normal behaviour. So is it actually good behaviour?
I do actually indeed salute individualism and believe it plays an important role in our societies and lives of today. However I am also a firm believer and advocate of the complete opposite of individualism that of similar-ism , or togetherness, and how we are also very much more alike than individual. I feel this vital piece of information is missing from our educated lives and if we can only see how alike we all really are, I see a real beginning to the ending of racism, sexism, and religious conflict.
If we could truly understand how more alike than different we are, I see the start of a kinder more understanding society that starts to loose its hatred for other religions, countries or the colour of skin. If we could only see how our brothers and sisters from every corner of the world are more alike than individual, maybe, just maybe, our collective consciousness can have a shift in its thinking and start to distribute the wealth, food, water, and medicine more fairly.
How does this shift in consciousness begin? If I take a look at the person next to me I only see differences? How do I associate myself with someone on the other side of the world?
This all starts with recognising and embracing our similarities, seeing how each and every single one of us experiences pain, disappointment, anger, boredom, happiness, in exactly the same way. How my happiness is the exact same feeling of pleasure you also experience. The difference is the intensity of that happiness and the context in which it arose. The pain of loosing a child is exactly the same sadness no matter where you grew up, what education you received, religion you support, job you do, or football team you support. The intensity and context for arising will always be different.
As humans we experience the world through our 5 senses. The sense of smell, touch, taste, sound and sight these sense impressions are then experienced within our six sense, that of the consciousness and can only be experienced in three ways. They will be either positive, negative or neutral. Since everyone reading this is a human everyone of us experience the world around us in exactly the same way. The education, parents, health, country and a trillion billion other possibilities happen to create different contexts and levels of intensity for us to experience pain, or hatred, happiness or love. This illusion of individualism gives rise to an impression and feeling that no one can truly understand my suffering believing that this is personally happing Me, I or Mine.
Everyone of us is living and experiencing life exactly the same way. We all suffer with anger, frustrations, love, fears, and anxieties. We are a complicated bunch on an individualistic level. But as we start to see these same similarities of experiencing the world, we start to see that everyone is our brothers and sister no matter what side of the world you come from. We soon develop a deep empathetic compassion for the other, no matter who he/she maybe. We see the others suffer as our suffering is to us and can only have compassion for say the shop keeper who might have been a little bit off with you this morning.
I honestly believe if we could truly start to see this simple truth of life, if we could just start to teach our children this fact, that we are more similar than individual, I can only see a better and better society of individuals but also of common unity. After all we have given ourselves the proud and noble title of MANKIND so let’s try to live up too this Kindness we so proudly named ourselves, and see how the suffering and it’s pain associated are felt by us all. How the elations and joys of life are also felt by us all. Then we will begin to act more kindly towards our fellow man and truly live up to the name MANKIND.
