You can also change your perception of the breath. When you breathe in, exactly what’s happening? What’s moving? And what’s moving what? Often we have cartoon ideas about the process, and those ideas determine which muscles we’re going to expand, which ones we’re going to contract, which sensations we believe have to be part of the in-breath, which sensations have to be part of the out-breath. But…

As long as you conceive of yourself as someone who has to do something in order to become something else, you will get caught in being a ‘self’ and never understand anything properly. No matter how many years you meditate, you will never really understand the teaching; it will always be slightly off the mark. The direct way of seeing things – that whatever arises, passes away – doesn’t mean that y…

Sīla can also be called an awareness of the dangers and drawbacks in one’s actions and the intention or feeling that one doesn’t want to commit anything that is not good any more. Possessing such intentions – a sense of concern regarding actions that cause enmity and danger – we need to develop and improve our capacity to resist. Bodily resistance depends on factors like food, the weather and our…

When sitting in meditation, just think of all the wholesome qualities you’re cultivating. You’re certainly developing the capacity to be conscious of inner movement. And when sitting is difficult, you’re learning to acknowledge that you don’t want to be there. Whatever’s going on, you’re fostering this lovely strength to be awake to the experience of the meditation session. This doesn’t mean that…

Today I have brought nothing of material substance to offer you, only the Dhamma, the teachings of the Lord Buddha. You should understand that even the Buddha himself, with his great store of accumulated virtue, could not avoid physical death. When he reached old age, he ceded his body and let go of the heavy burden. Now you too must learn to be satisfied with the many years you’ve already depende…

From time to time we come to a stuck place in our dhamma practice, sometimes for long periods. This happens to everybody because it is a stuck place in our life process, a place of holding on based on false assumptions of how the mind is supported and how it is released. That is, we tend to come from the mode of self-orientation, in which we determine, struggle, learn, adapt and get results. This…

The world needs more true people—those who are accountable and compassionate in their actions. Human society, to be livable, has to be based on trust, and people true in this way are the only ones really worthy of trust. The Buddha offers a way to train people to be true, starting with their experience of pain. Pain, he once noted, sparks two reactions: The first is bewilderment—we don’t understan…

It’s not that things will always feel good—that’s impossible—but as we practice, little by little, our old tendencies start to shift, and new ways of responding get stronger. Guided by our own wisdom and a wish for freedom, things start to open up. We feel the joy of being aligned with the Path, and we can direct our internal compass to this joy as we navigate our way through the journey of life.…

But just as it is important to have an adequate conception of the goal of our practice, it is also important to gain proper knowledge of the path leading to that goal… In a discourse in the Udāna, the Buddha describes the path of practice by comparing it to the continental shelf off the coast of India. [Ud. 5.5] This image gives a sense of the training required to reach the goal of Nibbāna: a grad…

At Sāvatthī. Then Ven. Ānanda early in the morning adjusted his under robe and—carrying his bowl & outer robes—went into Sāvatthī for alms. He saw the brahman Jāṇussoṇin leaving Sāvatthī in an all-white chariot drawn by mares. White were the yoked horses, white the ornaments, white the chariot, white the upholstery, white the reins, white the goad, white the canopy, white his turban, white his clo…