In working with the Hindrances, one of the most helpful supporting qualities is faith or trust. This is two-fold: trust in ourselves and trust in the teachings. If we lack either of these, we don’t have the incentive to try to find a solution to the Hindrances. Trust is one of the spiritual powers (and faculties), together with mindfulness, energy, concentration and wisdom. The commentarial litera…

Live your life well in accord with the Way – avoid a life of distraction. A life well-lived leads to contentment, both now and in the future. V. 169 With a heart of contentment as our foundation, we can tackle the tasks that confront us. There are times when we need to be brave warriors battling with the forces of delusion to avoid their taking control of our hearts and minds. At other times we ne…

Consider how much of one’s thinking is about trying to establish permanence. How much of one’s planning sees a future with certainty? How many activities are supposed to sort things out so that we never have to deal with them again—and how much of our disappointment is because we thought we had something solid and then it changed? All that breeds an unwillingness to enter into something unknown, e…

This morning we began our day with meditation and chanting. We chanted the words of the Bhaddekaratta Sutta (MN 131). [Also Here.] “Today the effort must be made. Tomorrow Death may come, who knows?” For some, the Buddha’s stern and compassionate injunction may seem alarming. However, it is simply an invitation to attend and to be concerned about what really matters – to the point where we discove…

In terms of living as monastics and lay practitioners, there are two helpful principles we can return to again and again in our daily life. The first of these is learning how to accept and adapt to whatever conditions we find ourselves in. This doesn’t mean being indifferent or not dealing with things but really engaging with conditions in a skillful, attentive way… What are our habits? How can we…

First, though, it’s good to think about happiness. What is happiness? The Pali term sukha has a wide range of meanings. It starts with basic pleasure and ease and works up to well-being and bliss. But it’s one of those terms that the Buddha never defines. Lots of other terms he defines very precisely, but some of the really basic terms—mind/citta, happiness/sukha, and stress/dukkha—never get defin…

Standing to one side, the god Nanda recited this verse in the Buddha’s presence: “Time flies, nights pass by, the stages of life leave us one by one. Seeing this peril in death, you should do good deeds that bring happiness.” “Time flies, nights pass by, the stages of life leave us one by one. Seeing this peril in death, one looking for peace would drop the world’s bait.” This reflection is from t…

The changing weather is a fine teaching in adaptability. One day warm sunshine, spring flowers, birds singing. Now, howling winds and snow. Tomorrow what will it be? If we are wise, then the heart will always adapt to receive the changing qualities of the present circumstance. Stillness and movement, calmness and wind, brightness, darkness, praise, criticism, gain and loss, the familiar or the une…

This whole-life Path is founded in deep attention: in seeing experience not in terms of self and becoming, but in terms of qualities that lead out of suffering and stress or into it. This sets us up to meet contact-impressions without reactivity; and that changes intention on a wider scale – away from getting things done on time, or my way, to one of a patient assessment of what is skilful right n…

My alms bowl is central to my life. A symbol of the Theravāda Buddhist monastic tradition in which I trained, it is the soul of my mendicancy – coming empty-handed before the laity to receive material nourishment and responding to their generosity. Sometimes that means reciprocating with a teaching from the Buddha, sometimes with a blessing chant or simply an expression of gratitude and kindness.…