Feeling (vedanā), in the Buddhist definition, is just the basic affective tone of our experience, most simply as either pleasant, unpleasant or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant, distinct from the mental or emotional reactions which it often initiates. Feelings are present whenever there is consciousness, whether we are aware of them or not. Sometimes they may be quite subtle, and other times we are…

The kind of attention required for liberation arises from a calm and clear mind and is called ‘insight’ (vipassanā). What insight ‘sees’ on a wider scale is ‘co-dependency’ –idappaccayatā. This view reveals our world of direct experience and consciousness as arising in a mutual dependency. It’s a world-changing view because it undercuts the notion of consciousness being separate from the rest of…

I remember a woman telling me that it was hard for her to come into her body. As we spoke, I noticed that she was sitting in a way that was collapsed just below the ribs and that her shoulders were hunched forward. All her energy was in her head, thinking about how she couldn’t be in her body. I invited her to lie down on the floor and breathe deeply into her belly. I encouraged her to let her che…

Another way of peacefully abiding in the present moment is to go to the heart and listen from there. So often our focus is on trying to analyze life’s complexities or resolve various issues using the brain. As an alternative to this rather stressful way of living, one can instead bring attention directly to the center of the chest—or what is sometimes known as the “heart chakra”—and allow the sens…

Our ultimate refuge in Buddhist practice we can call “the one who knows.” Sati-Paññā is the Pāli term, mindfulness and wisdom. In Buddhist terms, this is the ultimate cure for suffering, the end of suffering. Mindfulness and wisdom together, not just mindfulness but wise mindfulness, the right kind of mindfulness, not just awareness in the present, but the right kind of awareness in the present, h…

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…