A talk given by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi during the ordination of Thitābho Bhikkhu and Sāmanera Cunda in 2007. I would like to express my great joy to be here today on this auspicious occasion. Originally when I planned my trip, I was to fly back to New York last night, but when I arrived at Abhayagiri last week I heard that an ordination was planned for today. Many people said to me, “It’s too bad…

When I lived with Ajahn Chah, he often admonished us not to worry about teaching others but instead to worry about teaching oneself. The foundation of teaching is always to teach oneself, to teach and encourage oneself. Then, later, one may teach others from the perspective of knowing how to teach oneself. One looks after oneself and then one looks after others. There is a fundamental difference b…

I remember before I was a monk, before I had considered making the big step into monastic life, I was considering, “What am I going to do with my life in a way which is actually going to be beneficial for the world?” The idea of making the world a better place seemed so overwhelming to the point of being hopelessly idealistic. It was like trying to clean up the entire environment in the world; it…

A difficulty with the word Nibbana is that its meaning is beyond the power of words to describe. It is, essentially, undefinable. Another difficulty is that many Buddhists see Nibbana as something unobtainable—as so high and so remote that we’re not worthy enough to try for it. Or we see Nibbana as a goal, as an unknown, undefined something that we should some-how try to attain. Most of us are con…

When the weather turns wet and grey like this, the world is a bit less inviting outside, and it’s easy to follow the natural instinct to seek shelter and find a cozy spot. You might find yourself hanging around in the kitchen, the library, or the monk’s office. It starts off with waiting for the rain to ease off; then, an hour goes by, and then two hours go by. You can end up spending hours doing…

Remember the importance of one-pointedness of mind. Find skillful means to sustain one-pointedness. Mindfulness of the body is an important anchor to help that focus and sustain attention. Mindfulness of the body and one-pointedness don’t mean blocking out things around one, but rather having an anchor or focal point. It’s so easy for the mind to get distracted into different things going on aroun…

There has been a lot of busyness these days. There are things that need to be done and we’re doing them, but it’s really important to be careful and attentive to how much one gets swept up into the busyness. Those are two different things—actually doing something and the frantic, busy, scattered energy that you bring to the task. Try to watch and reflect on the feeling behind what you’re doing. Wh…

I don’t ever preach about what I’m doing but I can’t hide the fact that this is my life because I do live in a monastery. That was a big step to take, actually. I’m sure in the early days my family didn’t completely understand what I was doing. I live at Abhayagiri in a way that’s straddling both worlds, straddling the monastic life but it’s also straddling the lay life. Over the years my parents…

Something that is helpful, whether we’re doing chores or sitting in meditation, is a sense of centering. It’s essential that we have this recollection of centering, of bringing things to a central place so that we’re working from a still point, rather than being scattered and disbursed and having our attention diffused out into the world around us. As we collect ourselves at that center point, it…

It is important that we consider and reflect on the theme of the four requisites (clothing, food, shelter and medicine) —trying to both be clear in terms of what is that we actually need and what is it that we want or desire. It usually gets a bit cloudy or confused around these two points. If we try to rely on what is necessary for a simple life and question the desire or feeling of need that com…