Patience

Ajahn Sumedho

Patience

One can be a very selfish Buddhist and want life to be very quiet and want to be able to ‘practise’ and have plenty of time for sitting, plenty of time for studying the Dhamma and ‘I don’t want to have to receive guests and talk to people about silly things’ and ‘I don’t want to … blah blah blah.’ You can really be a very, very selfish person as a Buddhists monk. You can want the world to align it…

The Dhamma Remedy

Ajaan Khao Anãlayo

The Dhamma Remedy

When Venerable Ajaan Khao became ill while he was living in the forests and hills, he was never much concerned about finding medicines to cure himself. He tended to rely upon the ‘Dhamma remedy’ much more than any other method, for it was effective both for the body and for the citta at the same time. He would grasp the problem, fix his attention on it and reflect upon it for a long time – much lo…

Simply Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah

Simply Ajahn Chah

Meat Stuck in Your Teeth, Ajahn Chah Sensual desire is something hard to escape from. It’s no different from eating meat and getting a piece of meat stuck in your teeth. Boy, does it hurt! Even before you finish the meal, you have to take a toothpick to get it out. Once it’s out, you feel relieved for a while and you don’t want to eat meat anymore. But when more meat comes your way, another piece…

Dhamma When Ill

Upāsikā Kee Nanayon

Dhamma When Ill

September 3, 1965 Normally, illness is something we all have, but the type of illness where you can still do your work isn’t recognized as illness. It’s called the normal human condition all over the world. Yet really, when the body is in its normal state, it’s still ill in and of itself—simply that people in general are unaware of the illness of the deterioration of physical and mental phenomena,…

Stepping Outside Our Comfort Zones Again

Ajahn Vīradhammo

Stepping Outside Our Comfort Zones Again

As we try to integrate the Buddha’s teachings into our daily lives, we can reflect on the following questions: Why is life burdensome? And how does life become burdensome? When does it feel like I’m carrying around a mountain of problems? And when does my attention get entangled in thoughts and worries about the past and future? How does that entanglement work? We’re obviously not free from suffer…

Motivating Yourself

Ajahn Sumedho

Motivating Yourself

I assume that you are capable of motivating yourself, and so I present this opportunity for practice. Sometimes people can have very low opinions of themselves which are not really true. Maybe they’ve never had an opportunity or never felt that anyone trusted them enough to motivate themselves. We are trying to bring into our monastic life that kind of value, that kind of beauty, so that monastici…

The Middles of Appropriate Attention

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu

The Middles of Appropriate Attention

When discernment turns to the larger questions of understanding the framework of the practice—in other words, when it focuses on the processes of discernment itself—its middleness is no longer a shifting point on a continuum. It becomes a range of points off the continuum entirely. In cases like this, the middleness of the path is less a matter of moderation and more one of appropriate attention:…

Clarify, Let Thinking Become Thoughtfulness

Ajahn Sucitto

Clarify, Let Thinking Become Thoughtfulness

Walking slowly, tune in to how the body walks in a comfortable and calm way. Let your shoulders and arms be free and bring your whole body into a walk that’s a ‘going nowhere special’ stroll. Because a lot of our walking is hasty, with the upper body stiff and disconnected from the legs, you might need to give some attention to getting into flow. So, imagine you’re stepping over a row of sleeping…

On Love 2

Ajahn Jayasāro

On Love 2

In learning about love, these are the kinds of questions we can ask ourselves: What is love? What are the advantages and drawbacks of love? How does love arise? How is love sustained? How does love decay and end? What are the impurities of love? What preserves and purifies love? How should we behave with respect to love so as to maximize happiness and minimize pain? Mundane love has natural limita…

Collected Teachings 2

Mae Chee Kaew

Collected Teachings 2

The body is an important object of craving; and the resulting attachment is a tenacious defilement. Suffering is the consequence. To overcome it, focus your attention on the decay and disintegration of the human body so that the mind becomes clearly disgusted with the human condition, thoroughly weary of the true nature of human embodiment. As repulsion to the physical grows stronger, lightness an…