We can say that the Dhamma — in terms of doctrine, practice, and attainment — derives from the fully explored implications of one observation: that it is possible to master a skill. This point is reflected not only in the content of the Buddha’s teachings, but also in the way they are expressed. The Buddha used many metaphors, explicit and implicit, citing the skills of craftsmen, artists, and ath…

The attitude that the Buddha recommended was the attitude of the student, a student of life. In the meditation practice itself, it helps a great deal to consider the meditation practice as an exploration, as a study. If we consider meditation as an effort to achieve a certain state of mind or the accumulation of certain special experiences, then we are looking at meditation in a very worldly way.…

Nothing unusual is happening. I remind myself of this while contemplating the perplexity I’ve experienced during this attempt to share something from my rich, but stubbornly inchoate, impressions of the past year. The arid results of these writing labors have been humbling. Fortunately, a grateful heart has its own distinct agency. After visiting Abhayagiri for a month in late 2008, in December of…

Preface: Herein are some reflections by Ajahn Amaro on his 2008 walk in England with Nick Scott. This walk celebrated and roughly followed the route of a previous and longer walk undertaken 25 years earlier in 1983, also with Nick. One year after that first walk a book was published journaling their experiences entitled Tudong: The Long Road North, with illustrations by Nancy Sloane Stanley; parts…

“Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people, because you no longer regard people as a drain on your resources. They recharge your energy, because in the process of relating with them you acknowledge your wealth, your richness…. There is no feeling of poverty at all in this approach to life.” - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche - Ajahn Chah often said that it was after he became a teacher an…

“What is a day worth?” - Chakdud Tulku Rinpoche - Dispensing good advice about practice comes easily to us armchair Buddhists. Milarepa noted that, “Dharma practitioners may talk with elation, but when a task is set them they are wrecked and lost.” Still, while I rarely encounter real difficulty in life, and skillfully avoid it as soon as it appears on the horizon, when others are in deep trouble…

> This reflection is adapted from a talk offered by Debbie during the 2013 Thanksgiving Retreat. > > In a sutta in the Saṃyutta Nikāya, the Buddha asks King Pasenadi, “How is your day going? What’s your day been like?” King Pasenadi says, “Well, it’s a normal day for a king. Wars, keeping our territories, sensual delights…” and so on along the very worldly lines of a king’s life. > > So the Buddha…

February, 1976. It was that ominous time of year when the hot season could begin at any moment. I was lolling around the kuti, trying to shake off early-afternoon lethargy, when someone came to tell me to pack up my alms bowl (the bhikkhu’s suitcase)—Ajahn Sumedho was inviting me to accompany him on a trip around the Northeast. Every year Ajahn Sumedho would go to pay respects to his preceptor in…

Paul Breiter (who, thirty years ago, was Varapañño Bhikkhu) recollects his experiences with Ajahn Sumedho in the early 1970s. Part 2 After the Magha Pūjā observances, I finally got sent to stay with Ajahn Jun. While I was there, Ajahn Tieng came and told me that Ajahn Sumedho and some farang1 monks were establishing a new monastery near the railroad line not far from Wat Pah Pong. Projecting my ow…

Paul Breiter, who, thirty years ago, was Varapañño Bhikkhu, recollects his experiences with Luang Por Sumedho in the early 1970s. My first year in college I had one of those rare instructors who prodded and provoked students into thinking and investigating the world and themselves. One day he was talking about myth. He said that myths are something relevant to their time and place and fill a nee…