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
Tag Archives: end of suffering
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 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 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 A Buddhist prayer for the well-being and happiness of all beings
2010/09/23 7 Comments
I recently came across this beautiful metta, or loving-kindness meditation by the dhamma teacher Venerable Visuddhàcàra One could certainly call it a prayer, although in Buddhist prayer there is no appeal to a supreme being. Rather, it’s a deep and earnest aspiration and wish for happiness from one being’s heart to the hearts of all […]
Continue reading Using Meditation to Get Acquainted with Pain-Are You Serious?
2010/08/09 6 Comments
Everybody has to deal with pain. It’s one of the biggest problems we face as human beings. If we are dealing with chronic or acute disease, pain can literally fill our world. Over time, chronic pain can feeling like we are being ground down by a mountain. And one of the worst aspects of chronic […]
Continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh-Can We Understand the Suffering of our Enemy?
2010/08/06 6 Comments
Few people in the world have worked as tirelessly for the cause of peace, individual and collective, as Thich Nhat Hanh. His effort to bring peace—to be peace—began during his days as a young Buddhist monk during the Vietnam War and led Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in […]
Continue readingIndependence Day-independent from what?
2010/07/04 2 Comments
Independence Thanissaro Bhikkhu July 4, 2003 Independence Day. A good time to ask yourself what you’d like to be independent from. What are the things that weigh down on the mind, that oppress the mind? If you ask most people, they’ll talk about things outside: their job, their family, their worries about the economy or […]
Continue reading The End of Suffering-The Light at the End of the Tunnel
2010/06/10 3 Comments
This is the third in a series of articles sharing insights of some spiritual thinkers on the First Noble Truth, the truth of suffering. The first article shared insights from Ken Wilber and can be read here: Dissatisfaction with Life—the Start of Discovery The second shared insights from Daniel Ingram and can be read here: […]
Continue reading Dealing with Suffering *is* Spiritual Practice
2010/06/10 1 Comment
This is the second in a three-part series of articles sharing the insights of some spiritual thinkers on the subject of suffering and the First Noble Truth. In the first article, I shared insights from Ken Wilber’s No Boundary. You can read the post here: Dissatisfaction with Life-the Start of Discovery This excerpt in this […]
Continue reading What Actually Happens Inside Us When We Are Hurt By Another?
2010/06/04 2 Comments
We feel that someone has hurt us, but is the hurt we feel caused by the other person? Or are the actions of others merely the “approximate cause” of the suffering—in other words, the trigger, but not the actual cause of the suffering itself? Put that way, it might seem obvious. Others can’t really make […]
Continue reading Samsara-It’s a Verb not a Place
2010/04/14 4 Comments
If you read “Nirvana is a verb, not a place,” and it helped your practice, then this short article will probably make a lot of sense too. One of the things I love about Buddhism is that it makes us look at our actions—what we do and don’t do—as the literal creator of our individual […]
Continue reading We Are All on Fire-But There’s a Way to Put Out the Flames
2010/03/17 0 Comments
The Buddha’s insight into the human condition is both immensely hopeful and immensely sobering. Hopeful, because he sees the potential of every human being to be set free by skillful means that can liberate one from all suffering and bring true freedom and happiness. And sobering, because as a good doctor, the compassionate Buddha understood […]
Continue reading Nirvana is a Verb, Not a Place
2010/02/22 3 Comments
A Verb for Nirvana by Thanissaro Bhikkhu “Back in the days of the Buddha, nirvana (nibbana) had a verb of its own: nibbuti. It meant to “go out,” like a flame. Because fire was thought to be in a state of entrapment as it burned — both clinging to and trapped by the fuel on […]
Continue reading Karma-no big deal, just the way things work
2009/11/19 3 Comments
Karma-just the way things work In Buddhism, dharma has many meanings but at its simplest level, dharma is just the way things work. When through experience, suffering, and observation, you gain genuine insight into how the world really works, in that moment you are an awakened one. Why we are fooled about life The problem […]
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
- Practicing the Middle Way-not too much, not too little
- Healing the Body with Mindfulness of Breathing
- 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 