I’ve been thinking about these patterns of weather and patterns of nature the last little while. At the community work day a few days ago, people dragged dead branches and leaves out of the forest. Everything there on the ground was alive and growing with sap running through at one time. The leaves…

There’s always a mood present in our experience. It’s amazing to think how the presence of a mood so completely shapes and conditions both our attitude and the way that we see things. It’s really important that we have straight vision, some sense of what our life is about, what it’s for, and what we…

Last night, I gave encouragement to reflect around themes of death and the drawbacks of physical existence. These recollections around death bring up a sense of urgency or cognition that there isn’t time to waste, that there aren’t unlimited opportunities for spiritual practice. We have excellent co…

Last week at the Spirit Rock family retreat we saw many small, young humans beings surrounded by wholesome structures and examples and offered much in the way of skillful guidance. Seeing the good results of that in just a few days made me reflect on the idea that if you catch things early and have…

During the time of the Buddha there was a lady who was pregnant for a long period of time. After asking the Buddha for a blessing, the monks chanted some protective verses for her and she finally gave birth to a child named Sivali. The woman was very grateful to the Buddha and asked if she might be…

I had a learning experience when I was a junior monk of two or three pansa. A good friend of mine with whom I ordained was the monastery stores monk. Once he went away to Pu Jum Gorm for a week and I was stores monk in his absence. I was keen to be helpful and do something supportive or generous as…

We often think of insight meditation as something that we do as part of the formal practice. The usual instructions are to take some time to focus and concentrate the mind, and when it is steady, begin to reflect upon the flow of experience in terms of anicca, dukkha, and anatta—impermanence or unce…

The theme of contentment is a good theme for all of us - the aspect of learning how to be content with both the circumstances around us as well as our own mind. Sometimes the agitation, restlessness, negativity and fault-finding that the mind cranks out is not so much about any big thing that’s happ…

(Ajahn Nyaniko recently returned to Abhayagiri after spending five years in Thailand. The Abhayagiri Publications Staff invited Ajahn Nyaniko to write a reflection on his time there. Numbers indicate footnotes which can be found at the end of the article.) Poo Jom Gom was founded in 1990 by Ajahn Pa…

It’s good to remind ourselves of the importance of bringing mindfulness to our day to day activities. It’s easy to say “OK, just be mindful”. You hear it so often, if it becomes rote or trite it loses its impact. A core part of practice is mindfulness, the application of mindfulness and learning how…