Ānanda: ‘Sir, fully half of this religious life is good friendship, good companionship, good association.’ Buddha: ‘Not quite so, Ānanda, not quite so. It is the whole, not the half, of this religious life, this good friendship, good companionship, good association.’ (S.V,2) Although self-reliance is an important foundation for spiritual practice, we can also greatly benefit from the support and…

We can say that the retreat formally closes this evening; this is the last day. But what really makes today special? The mind creates time, schedules. We come to human agreements. We say ‘beginning,’ ‘ending.’ These are all qualities that are imputed, determined, agreed upon. They don’t have any existence in and of themselves. As Luang Por Chah said, ‘The things of this world are merely perception…

We can see how the Buddha says over and over how spiritual practice is something that goes against the ways of the world, goes against the stream of sensuality. So, when we embark on this, it can be a little bit daunting and can seem rather negative – we have to give everything up, be very good, and then we’ll be happy. This can seem a difficult thing to do; it seems like self-sacrifice, going aga…

During my time at Wat Kow Chin Laa, I spent a lot of time in the caves for the first 6 weeks; after that, the rains came and the caves became rather too damp to stay in. But caves really are good in the hot season. They are cool and silent, except for the bats, and a lot of them are quite dark inside, so that one needs a flashlight or a candle. I found sometimes that a lot of nimittas arose, somet…

It is helpful to contemplate how to use khanti, patience, in our daily practice, and how we can cultivate it as a mental attitude during meditation. Patience is an underrated pāramī and considered in different ways, sometimes even misinterpreted. I remember Varapañño Bhikkhu disparaging himself, saying: “I just don’t have any pāramīs of wisdom, meditation, loving-kindness, or anything like tha…

…When I was in Thailand, many years ago, I came in contact with the Theravada tradition. I had gone to a monastery to do a retreat there and this was when I first came into direct contact with the teachings of the Buddha. Hearing the Four Noble Truths gave me an incredible sense of relief. I had finally found what I had been looking for all my life or, let’s say, for many years of my life. It gave…

The teachings around the openness of the heart also include equanimity. Equanimity is the capacity to be at peace with success and failure, gain and loss, good and bad health, and so on. It’s this steadiness of mind that allows us to remain balanced when confronted with life’s ever-changing circumstances. However, equanimity without an open heart can easily become cold indifference, repression, or…

Happiness is an undefined term that’s really important in our lives, and yet all too often we don’t really look carefully at the experience of happiness. We don’t think seriously about happiness. We just see other people going for this pleasure or that, and we think it looks like fun; so we follow them without really looking at what we’re doing. The Buddha wants you to look very carefully inside y…

What is the future? The future is what we don’t remember. You can’t remember the future because it hasn’t happened yet. So it has to happen in the present before it becomes the past – a memory to remember. We don’t know the future, but it implies infinite possibility, doesn’t it? We can ignore the present by worrying about the future: ‘What will I do when my loved ones leave me? What will I do if…

This morning I was talking to the community about making resolutions and commitments. It’s a big part of our practice, but we need to learn how to cultivate them in the right way; there’s some subtlety in it. You can make an intention or a resolution to look at where you’re stuck or where you’re getting habitual, stale or compulsive: ‘OK, let’s determine to do that – or to not do that.’ You get a…