In this essay Thanissaro Bhikkhu analyzes the profound importance of understanding the nature of our intentions and the actions that arise out of those intentions. In many ways, as he points out, this issue is at the very heart of the Buddha’s teaching—looking deeply into intention, into cause and effect, and seeing how to “unbind” […]
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Why Working with Suffering is Essential to Our Awakening
2011/09/14 
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The following is an excerpt from an interview with Ajahn Sundara, a French-born ordained monastic in the Buddhist Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. She has been teaching and leading retreats in Europe and North America for 20 and currently resides at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in southeast England. May this sharing inspire you to discover […]
Continue reading Look at Karma in Terms of What One is Doing Right Now
2011/08/02 0 Comments
Karma—It’s About What We Can Do Now An excerpt about karma from “Noble Strategy” by Thanissaro Bhikkhu Karma is one of those words we don’t translate. Its basic meaning is simple enough—action—but because of the weight the Buddha’s teachings give to the role of action, the Sanskrit word karma packs in so many implications that […]
Continue reading Desire-our “most precious possession” or the root of all suffering?
2011/07/06 0 Comments
The Buddha’s Second Noble Truth is that craving—desire, attachment, clinging—is the cause of suffering, unsatisfactoriness, stress. Anyone who has looked into the cause of suffering can affirm this great truth for oneself. From this insight, one might conclude that the way to end suffering and find lasting happiness is to kill all desires. From that […]
Continue reading Working with The Six Properties in Meditation-Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Space, and Consciousness
2011/05/10 0 Comments
For the past few months I’ve really been focusing on “body work” in my dharma practice. I’ve been working with full-body awareness and vipassana, as well as using deep loving-kindness meditation to embrace mental and physical pains. This essay by Thanissaro Bhikkhu has been especially helpful in getting in touch with the actual feelings of my […]
Continue reading Did you know that the Buddha almost didn’t teach the Dharma?
2011/05/05 4 Comments
According to the Pali canon, not long after the Buddha attained enlightenment, he mused to himself: “This Dhamma that I have realized is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced only by the wise.” The Buddha then apparently seriously questioned whether he could […]
Continue reading The Importance of Alertness and Attention in Developing Concentration
2011/05/05 3 Comments
As I have grown in my meditation practice, I have been able to develop deeper and deeper levels of concentration and corresponding insight. And yet, when I’ve read about some of the various deeper levels of jhana (deep concentration, or samatha) I’ve sometimes wondered about my progress and whether I’m going “deep” enough. This great […]
Continue reading Choose life! Choose love! Choose to live!
2011/02/11 9 Comments
“Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under […]
Continue reading How Letting Go Helps Us See the Truth of Non-duality
2011/02/01 2 Comments
Ayya Khema is a highly-skilled Theravadan teacher who brought a remarkable love and light to her service as a nun in the Theravadan tradition. I highly recommend her book Who is My Self? A Guide to Buddhist Meditation. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read on developing deep concentration and insight (samatha and […]
Continue reading The Dhamma Brothers-A Film to Inspire Your Meditation Practice
2011/01/16 3 Comments
Last night my wife and I watched on of the most moving documentaries we have seen in a long time. It’s called The Dhamma Brothers, and I can’t recommend it enough. Brief Synopsis (from website) An overcrowded, violent maximum-security prison, the end of the line in Alabama’s prison system, is dramatically changed by the influence […]
Continue reading New Year Message from Thich Nhat Hanh on Suffering
2011/01/01 5 Comments
“The New Year is a great opportunity to begin anew. Because many people look at the new year, the year to come, with hope. “I will do better next year,” you promise yourself…Of course we have made mistakes. Of course we have been not very skillful. Of course we have made ourselves suffer. Of course […]
Continue reading How Not to Get Swept Away by Mindstorms
2010/12/28 4 Comments
Here is another skillful teaching by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. We’ve all been swept away by the “storms” and epics stories and worlds we create in our minds. Happily, the Buddha showed how we can not only find safe refuge from these storms, we can learn how to stop their creation. Mindstorms Thanissaro Bhikkhu There’s a part […]
Continue reading Meditation is About Our Whole Life, not Just the Inner Workings of the Mind
2010/12/15 1 Comment
In this essay, I want to look into how we can broaden and deepen our understanding of meditation, so that it encompasses more of our life and isn’t just something we do “on the cushion.” I’ve found the meditation instruction of J. Krishnamurti especially helpful in gaining this broader view, and so I share some […]
Continue reading The Buddha on Attachment to Views and Disputations
2010/12/07 2 Comments
In Buddhism, Right View is part of the Noble Eightfold Path. But attachment to views, even right views, is always a hindrance. In The Mind Like Fire Unbound, Thanissaro Bhikkhu comments: “Attachment to views can block an experience of Unbinding in any of three major ways. First, the content of the view itself may not […]
Continue reading The Great Freedom of Seeing the Body for What It Is
2010/12/06 0 Comments
Here is a very helpful teaching on the body by Ajahn Chah from a talk he gave called “Clarity of Insight.” “The Buddha taught to transcend delusion. The way to transcend it is through clearly seeing the body for what it is.” Ajahn Chah “With penetrating insight you must see that the true nature of […]
Continue reading Life Isn’t Just Suffering-but Clinging Always Is
2010/12/06 0 Comments
Here is another great teaching from Thanissaro Bhikkhu. I have to admit that in my pre-dharma days, I too had the impression that Buddhism was “negative” or “pessimistic.” Looking into Buddhism for myself and breaking free of the dogmatic beliefs of my religious upbringing, I found the way of the Buddha to be the happiest […]
Continue reading Why it’s Important to Know What Mindfulness Is and Is Not
2010/11/19 3 Comments
Mindfulness Defined by Thanissaro Bhikkhu What does it mean to be mindful of the breath? Something very simple: to keep the breath in mind. Keep remembering the breath each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. The British scholar who coined the term “mindfulness” to translate the Pali word sati was probably influenced […]
Continue reading The Unshakable Peace of a Mind that Can Let Go
2010/10/22 4 Comments
The following in an excerpt from a dhamma talk by Ajahn Chah titled Unshakable Peace. It is a wonderful and deep teaching explaining how to practice the mind that lets go—the mind of liberation and peace. The Buddha did not teach about the mind and its psychological factors so that we’d get attached to the […]
Continue reading Training the heart by seeing what is and letting go
2010/09/21 5 Comments
Here is more on “Training the Heart” by Ajahn Chah. It is a follow-up and further development of yesterday’s teaching: Train your heart! Don’t just follow its moods! May this teaching help liberate your heart and awaken the mindfulness and presence that lead to liberation and freedom! Training the heart by seeing what is and […]
Continue reading Train your heart! Don’t just follow its moods!
2010/09/20 1 Comment
From “Training the Heart” by Ajahn Chah Train your heart! Listening to your own heart is really very interesting. This untrained heart races around following its own untrained habits. It jumps about excitedly, randomly, because it has never been trained. Therefore train your heart! Buddhist meditation is about the heart; to develop the heart or […]
Continue readingMay All Beings Be Happy
- Looking at the Ninth Zen Precept-I Do Not Indulge In Anger
- True God, True Buddha
- The Difference Between Compassion and “Idiot Compassion”
- Ajahn Brahmavamso teaches Loving-kindness Meditation
- Now-and-Zen-Are you still carrying her?
- A Buddhist Mantra based on the Prayer of St. Francis
- Mindfulness of Breathing-The Anapanasati Sutta
- Buddhist Forgiveness-When We Have Hurt Another-Part 3
- Healing the Body with Mindfulness of Breathing
- Practicing the Middle Way-not too much, not too little
- Look at the Three Characteristics in Terms of Actions
- Thich Nhat Hanh – Healing Through Resting in the Breath
- How Metta Can Help You When Meditation is Hindered by Overwhelming Feelings
- The Importance of Taking the “Should” out of Spiritual Practice
- Can We “Choose” to Be Happy? No—and Yes!
- Ken Mcleod on how to use Thich Nhat Hanh’s Five-Step Method of Emotional Releasing
- Non-resistance and the Art of Resisting without Resisting!
- Don’t be fooled! There is a Way and We Can Walk It!
- The Importance of Compassion in Assessing Our Dharma Progress
- Jesus and the Buddha on Good Friday
Metta Refuge 