People sometimes ask me about the precepts. They ask, “Can I keep three?” I reply, “Which three? They’re all pretty important.” That’s where the binding aspect of a religion or spiritual tradition comes in. If you surrender to its form, and the form is skillful, you can truly benefit from it. But if you decide to throw out all the teachings that conflict with your own desires or preferences, you c…

Two days ago it was the anniversary of Ajahn Chah’s birth. Many aspects of his life are well worth recalling and reflecting upon. Certainly one of them is the practical approach he used to teach and encourage us. He always emphasized the importance of reflecting on the Four Noble Truths and the experience of dukkha–suffering, dis-ease, discontent–and the different ways we create dukkha within the…

Samādhi–the next of the Spiritual Faculties–is often translated as “concentration,” but I prefer the concept of peace. It is the ability to let go of what is disturbing and go to a place in the mind which is less disturbing. As we progressively give things up and tranquilize the mind, then the mind is going to become more and more peaceful and blissful. Then it can even give up blissfulness and go…

…In Western cultures there is, of course, love and attachment between parents and children, but generally speaking the sense of mutual obligation is much weaker. Values such as independence and individual freedom are given more weight. A special, profound bond between parents and children may be felt by many, but it is not articulated as a moral standard that upholds the society, as it is in Buddh…

When the Buddha formulated his first noble truth–the truth of suffering and stress–he didn’t say something useless like, “Life is suffering,” or obvious like, “There is suffering.” Instead, he said something much more useful, insightful, and to the point: “Suffering is the five clinging-aggregates.” And as he explained elsewhere, the problem isn’t the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thoug…

The observance of moral precepts creates a strong foundation upon which we can establish our concentration practice. The strength of concentration in turn gives rise to sati-paññā, mindfulness and wisdom. We then use mindfulness to keep a watch on the mind, observing all of its thoughts and emotions. The emotions most easily noticed are the coarser defiling ones of pleasure and displeasure that we…

We should consider having taken birth as humans most dignifying, since we generally regard humans as highly cultivated and superior beings. However, most people’s minds are not yet truly human. There are billions of people living in the world and a great many, despite their human bodies, do not possess minds that make them worthy of being called human. Instead they behave more like fiends from hel…

I expect many of us have read some of the scientific articles around these days that extol the benefits of meditation. Research into the effects meditation practice has on the brain has produced evidence of considerable benefits. I’ve also come across articles disparaging and discouraging Buddhist meditation. Some people who have tried, but after a while given up, claim it can be unhelpful, danger…

There is a rather humorous text in the Middle Length Discourses called the Kukkuravatika Sutta, or The Dog-Duty Ascetic (M 57). In the Buddha’s time, the so-called spiritual scene was full of people who did extreme ascetic practices. In this text, we’re told of an ascetic who likes to practice like he’s a dog. He walks around on all fours, traipsing in and out of puddles, and will only eat food th…