Chapel Address for Trinity College School
Bhante Mudita Bhikkhu Thera
A message on inner peace, renunciation, and the search for the Deathless.
This talk was delivered at Trinity College School during their morning chapel service. It introduces students to the essence of Gautama Buddha’s discovery, the purpose of renunciation, and the inner tools that help all people — young and old — find clarity in a busy world.
1. Opening — A Moment to Arrive
Good morning, dear teachers and students.
Thank you for welcoming me into your beautiful chapel and school community.
For most people in today’s world, it is rare to begin the morning in quiet reflection.
Before we begin, I invite you to take one soft breath.
Let yourself arrive fully in this moment.
2. Why Monastics Exist — The Ancient Quest for the Deathless
In today’s world, being a monk can seem strange.
People sometimes ask:
Why would anyone leave social and family life?
Is it to escape problems?
Is it because someone dislikes society?
Or is there something deeper behind this choice?
To understand this, we need to look back about 2,600 years into history.
Gautama Buddha left his palace at the age of twenty-nine — not because he was running away from life.
In fact, he lived a life of luxury, comfort, and refinement.
But he saw a deeper truth:
everything born in this world must age, grow sick, and die.
And he began to ask a question that very few people in any age ever ask:
“Is there a way beyond aging and death?
Is there a true, eternal life?”
This was the beginning of his quest for Amata — the Deathless.
Across ancient India, China, and Southeast Asia, this quest was not unusual.
There were long traditions of forest sages, hermits, and mountain meditators who searched for a higher form of life —
a life that could transcend the limits of the body,
a life where mind and consciousness could separate from the body and rise beyond.
So our future Buddha entered this ancient stream of seekers.
For six years he trained in the forest under great meditation teachers.
Through deep concentration he ascended to the highest heavens.
But even there he saw something profound:
even the highest heavens end in death.
So he continued his search.
Under the Bodhi Tree, he made the breakthrough.
He discovered what he later called the Middle Path or Middle Escape —
So it is not in the highest heavens, the formless heavens, not in the lowest sensual desire realms, but in the middle, the refined form realm, there is a way to the deathless, we call it Nibbana-Dhatu, the deathless realm.
This was the true purpose of his renunciation.
He did not abandon life.
He sought permanent life.
He sought the end of aging and death.
This is the common theme of monastic traditions in this world — Buddhist monks, Catholic monks, and others. They belong to a very old human heritage:
the heritage of those who seek truth, freedom, and a life deeper than the world can offer.
In this sense, renunciation is not an escape from life.
It is truly a love for life —
not temporary life, but the possibility of an eternal life.
3. What Buddhism Really Teaches — Why Renunciation Leads to the Deathless
Then how renunciation, becoming a monastic, lead to the Deathless?
He discovered a truth that is simple to say, but profound to understand:
This world is not designed for lasting peace.
It operates under two natural laws:
- The law of decay — everything born must age and die.
- The law of power — that everyone has to consume life force to sustain its own life, the strong prevail, the weak struggle, and every being is pushed to compete and survive.
In such a world, suffering is not accidental.
It is built into the structure of worldly existence itself.
If a person seeks a life free from decay and domination,
they must find a path beyond the world’s jurisdiction.
That is the purpose of renunciation, from the world:
to let the mind gradually step out of the world’s gravitational field.
How the World Holds the Mind Down
The Buddha described three forces that bind the mind to this world:
1). Rāga — attachment to the world
Not only desire,
but the deeper pull of wanting this world:
its pleasures, relationships, identities, and experiences.
2). Dosa — anger born from survival
In a world ruled by power,
beings must protect themselves or be harmed,
compete or fall behind,
consume or be consumed.
This pressure produces:
- fear
- irritation
- frustration
- aggression
Dosa is the emotional shockwave of living in a power-based system.
3). Moha — forgetting the possibility of liberation
Moha is the fog that hides the truth:
that there is a path beyond this world,
that the mind does not have to be trapped here.
Together, rāga, dosa, and moha function as the gravity of the world.
They keep consciousness tied to a system that cannot offer stability.
Renunciation is the technical process of releasing that gravity.
How the Buddha Taught Us to Overcome These Forces
— The Three Trainings
Gautama Buddha condensed his entire method into three trainings.
These are not beliefs;
they are the engineering steps that free the mind
from rāga, dosa, and moha.
1) Sīla — Ethical Withdrawal from the World
Sīla is not merely precepts, or morality. If we look at the sila, say the five precepts, it is about morality. But if we look at the whole sila training, from 5 precepts to 8 precepts, to 10 precepts, to the full monastic code, it’s clear that it is a It is a gradual training system the pull the mind out of worldly life.
2) Samādhi — Concentration power of the mind that Lifts the Mind from this physical realm
It carries the mind into higher dimensions and realms.
3) Paññā — Wisdom That Sees the World Clearly
With purity and concentration, the mind sees directly:
- everything in this world is impermanent,
- everything is shaped by decay,
- everything is ultimately unsatisfactory.
And it sees something more:
beyond this universe lies Nibbāna-dhātu, the Deathless Realm —a dimension where aging and death do not exist.
With this vision, the mind naturally turns away from the world’s trap, and toward freedom.
The Liberation Triad — The Result of Training
When Sīla, Samādhi, and Paññā mature, three realizations unfold:
- Nibbidā — disenchantment with the world
- Virāga — fading of worldly attachment
- Vimutti — liberation from the world
This is the movement from worldly existence, into the Deathless.
This is why renunciation leads to the Deathless.
And this is why the Buddha left his palace —
not to reject life,
but to discover the life that does not end.
4. How the Buddha’s Teaching Applies to Life Today
Now that we have looked at the Buddha’s journey and his training system, the question becomes:
What does this mean for us today?
For students, for adults, for anyone living in this world?
The Buddha’s teaching applies to three kinds of people:
1). For those who want to walk the same Path of Liberation
For people who feel a deep calling —
the path of renunciation and liberation is still open.
The doorway to Nibbāna has never closed.
Anyone who follows the Buddha’s three trainings —
Sīla, Samādhi, and Paññā —
and gradually cuts the ties of rāga, dosa, and moha,
can walk the same Path the Buddha walked
and reach the Deathless Realm.
This teaching is timeless.
2). For those who are not ready to leave the world
Even if you are not ready for full renunciation,
the Buddha’s solution is still incredibly practical.
Whenever you face a difficult moment in life —
stress, conflict, pressure, disappointment —
you can apply a small version of renunciation:
Step back.
Pull yourself out of the situation.
Give your mind space.
This is a “mini-escape,”
a moment of pulling yourself out of the world
to end unnecessary suffering.
This alone changes everything.
3). For Those Who Seek Higher Heavenly Realms
This is more practical for today’s world. That we can join our ancestors in the higher heavenly realms.
The Brahmavihārā — the Ancestral Values
These are not just “virtues.”
They are ancient moral frequencies — qualities that keep our hearts connected to the higher worlds:
- Mettā — loving-kindness
- Karuṇā — compassion
- Muditā — joy with the ancestral values
- Upekkhā — to transcend from lower realm to higher ones to join our ancestors
These qualities elevate the mind
and prepare us to join the heavenly kingdoms with our ancestral gods.
Before the Buddha’s parinibbana, he foretold that his true Dhamma teachings, would remain pure for only five hundred years. Few people would be able to walk the complete path of liberation, from the world to the Deathless Realm.
This would mean the end of the age of individual liberation. But this is not the end of salvation for mankind on earth, as we see and a new age emerged — the Age of Collective Salvation.
In the East, such salvation is through the Pure Land tradition, where beings sought safety in the vow of Amitābha Buddha and his heaven. In the West, it took shape as early Christianity, where people seek salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Both movements preserved the same essence: the wish to rise above a world ruled by death, and to live under the law of love, justice, and light.
5. The Challenge of Today’s Students
Now let’s return to your lives,
here and now.
You face pressures no generation before you faced:
- social media comparison
- constant connectivity
- academic expectations
- managing friendships and identity
- the feeling that you must always “be something”
and now, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, the fear of a future where many jobs may disappear, uncertainty about what kind of world you will inherit.
When you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or tired,
you are not weak.
You are human.
And you need a space inside yourself, that is not shaped by noise or expectation.
Yet this also means something important:
In a time when machines take over many external tasks,
your greatest opportunity is internal —
to develop the mind, ethics, compassion, and inner freedom.
6. The Inner Training That Helps Everyone
Whether or not you walk the full Path,
the Buddha taught three universal human skills
that help every person in daily life:
1). Clarity of Conduct
Living with honesty and kindness.
It makes your life lighter.
2). Clarity of Mind
Learning to calm down, focus, and be present.
It makes you stronger.
3). Clarity of Understanding
Seeing things as they are.
It makes you free.
These are not religious beliefs.
They are basic tools for emotional health
and human flourishing.
7. How Spirituality Illuminates Education
Education is not only about what you learn.
It is about who you become.
And the qualities that shape a meaningful life —
kindness, integrity, compassion, clarity —
are not human inventions.
In the ancient age, when humanity still lived in harmony
with our ancestral gods and higher beings,
these qualities were taught as the frequencies of the heart
that allow us to rise toward the heavenly worlds.
This is why they are called Brahmavihārā —
“the dwellings of Brahma,” our ancestral gods
the emotional qualities through which the mind can dwell
in the same purity and nobility as the higher realms.
• Kindness is the frequency that softens the heart
and aligns it with goodwill.
• Integrity is the foundation that stabilizes the mind
so it does not fall into confusion or harm.
• Awareness transforms knowledge into wisdom
by keeping the heart open and the mind clear.
These are not just moral habits.
They are inner qualities that connect us
to the ancient lineage of light and to the higher worlds.
They shape a life of depth, purpose,
and inner nobility.
9. Wutai Shan Buddhist Garden & Meditation
At our Garden, we bring together many dimensions of human experience:
• nature, which calms the body
• stillness, which settles the mind
• spirituality, which opens the heart
• religion, which gives meaning and direction
• culture, which connects us across histories
• community, which supports our growth
• sacred art, which lifts the mind toward beauty and wisdom
meditation is not magic.
It is simply a way of giving your mind something
it rarely receives in daily life: deep rest.
And when the mind rests,
clarity naturally emerges —
awareness becomes brighter,
stress softens,
and you discover a quieter place inside yourself
that is always there but often unnoticed.
This is why we practice it:
to remind you that peace is not far away.
It is just beneath the noise.
10. Closing Inspiration — One Minute a Day
If you remember one thing from this morning, let it be this:
“When you cultivate peace within, you bring peace into the world.”
And it begins very simply:
One quiet minute. Every day.
No pressure. No expectation.
Just breathing.
This is the beginning of your healing journey inward.
Thank you very much for your attention this morning.
It has been an honour to share this time with you,
and I wish each of you clarity, strength, and peace as you continue your path forward.
Gautama Dhamma 
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