On the evening of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Ajahn Chah’s death, Ajahn Pasanno and the Abhayagiri community watched The Great Peace, an Italian television documentary of the state funeral of Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Pasanno helped extensively with preparations for the funeral, but it had been well over a decade since he saw this documentary. Amid discussion of the details of the funeral, a layperson…

A senior monk of the meditation tradition came to pay his respects to Luang Pu on the first day of the Rains Retreat in 1956. After giving him instruction and a number of teachings on profound matters, Luang Pu summarized the four noble truths as follows: “The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering. The result of the mind sent outside is suffering. The mind seeing the mind is the path.…

When we receive alms-food, it is our training that we should receive everything with appreciation, but we don’t have to eat everything we are given. This is an important dynamic. Learning to receive everything with appreciation is a very good symbol for our approach to our minds and the spirit of our practice. Whatever shows up in our mind, we receive it appreciatively. Suppose we are having a qui…

Normally, Ajaan Fuang was a man of few words who spoke in response to circumstances: If the circumstances warranted it, he could give long, detailed explanations. If not, he’d say only a word or two—or sometimes nothing at all. He held by Ajaan Lee’s dictum: “If you’re going to teach the Dhamma to people, but they’re not intent on listening, or not ready for what you have to say, then no matter ho…

When we consider the process of action and reaction, we probably know from our knowledge of physics, astronomy and chemistry that the universe contains forces like electromagnetic or gravitational fields. And when we look at the Buddha’s teachings on kamma and vipāka, action and its results, we see that he suggests this is also a moral universe. Though some physicists might disagree, the Buddha t…

Faith is the fuel, the energy which propels us on the spiritual path. For many Western people this quality is actually not very strong when we come to Buddhism because we often come to Buddhism with the approach of having rejected religions of faith, religions which demand belief. We’ve come from a rational, intellectual, and logical appreciation of Dhamma. So we find it difficult to develop those…

In order to feel comfortable helping others, we have to leap over the hurdle of self, of me and mine. We put ourselves in a vulnerable position by helping others; it can be frightening or trigger our vulnerability. Acts of service invite us to step out of the boundaries that we set up for ourselves. Whenever those boundaries are jostled in any way, we feel uncomfortable or threatened. These bounda…

Exactly what is dana? How do we cultivate this quality of giving, generosity, liberality and munificence? There are many translations of the word dana. It is the quality of generosity that gives physically and from the heart. Hearts with dana are generous, open-handed, and liberal in terms of willingness to give, share, to be present and to help. All of those qualities take us away from me and my…

The Venerable Acariya Mun taught that all hearts have the same language. No matter what one’s language or nationality, the heart has nothing but simple awareness, which is why he said that all hearts have the same language. When a thought arises, we understand it, but when we put it into words, it has to become this or that language, so that we don’t really understand one another. The feelings wit…

In Buddhism, we gain a type of experientially acquired knowledge that grows in our hearts through what we call “practice.” We use the word “practice” in Buddhism much more than we use the word “belief.” We don’t say to each other: “How’s your belief going?” Instead, we ask, “How’s your practice going?” It’s a different way of learning. Intellectual learning gives us intellectual knowledge. Having…