Do things that honour and support a good heart, and live up to that in yourself. We can begin to see more clearly and intimately the difference between good and bad, wholesome and unwholesome, not from an abstract judgmental way. Feel the d…
Suffering isn’t simply something you passively endure. It’s an activity, the activity of clinging, in which the mind feeds off the things to which it clings. Its cause is also something you’re doing: You crave either to fantasize about sens…
Mudita is translated as gladness in the Divine Abidings chant, but the term commonly used is sympathetic joy. Mudita is characterized as a gladdening at others’ success, a delighting in the success, the goodness, and the well being of other…
Inner turmoil and negativity are by-products of our reactions to the worldly assaults on our six senses. Pierced by the arrow of craving and poisoned by ignorance, we stand defenceless against Mara’s band of rogues that tempt us and crowd o…
We go around with cravings as our companions. These aren’t old companionships that you’d like to get a nice closure on. You can just stop them. And the way to do it is to focus on the present moment. You notice in the Buddha’s teachings the…
[Ajahn Chah] compared practice with paying attention to the food you eat. Some foods will upset your stomach; some foods will give you energy, while some foods will make you sluggish. Some food might taste good but may not be good for you,…
One of the Thai women meditating here had an insight into the quickness of the mind. Even meditating with the wholesome desire to bring the mind to a place of peace, tranquility, and clarity, she could see the mind go out to the sound of a…
I would like to offer some thoughts on the cultivation of asubha kammaṭṭhāna or ‘Reflection on The Unattractive’. We have a standard practice in the monastery of regularly reciting the asubha chant. This is recommended particularly for a…
As long as you’re on the path, you have to hold on to things. Hold on to your strategies. It’s simply a matter of replacing unskillful ones with more skillful ones and being very clear about what your choices are. When you think about yours…
Luang Por did not consider a drastically simplified lifestyle to be liberating in itself; he knew well enough that the tendency towards attachment is far too strongly embedded in the unenlightened mind to be so simply bypassed. But a life p…