As we have noted, the Buddha saw that every truth expressed in words is instrumental, a means to an end. This is in line with the fact that all words are fabricated by the mind, and—as he himself observed—all fabrications are put together for the sake of something. They’re meant to serve an aim. The Buddha chose his words so that they would serve the most beneficial aim of all: leading the listene…

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There he addressed the monks: “Monks!” “Yes, lord,” the monks responded to him. The Blessed One said: “Even if a monk is not skilled in the ways of the minds of others [not skilled in reading the minds of others], he should train himself: ‘I will be skilled in reading my own mind…

Personally, I have found that when I approached practice with a striving-gaining attitude, my mind became more disturbed, not less. I spent many years trying to make my mind peaceful because that is what I understood the teachers were telling me to do. Eventually, when I came to realize that not everyone was out of balance in the way I was, I was able to accept that I needed to adjust my approach.…

To see something clearly depends on certain conditions. We learn to appreciate what it means to be still. What does that mean? It simply means that you stop moving with the movements of your mind. You stop agitating yourself with that which is agitated in yourself, being confused with that which is confused within you, being unhappy with that which is unhappy inside you. When we reach the place of…

The Buddha recognized that meditation can dig up unskillful thoughts in the mind, unskillful states, but he had a solution for them. It comes down to how you breathe, how you talk to yourself, the perceptions and feelings you focus on. The most famous case was that of some monks who were practicing body contemplation without any supervision. The Buddha had gone off on a personal retreat into the f…

(From a talk recorded in July 2013) Recently I’ve made visits to a physical therapist because I have some ongoing muscle issues that have plagued me for the last twenty years. Often this type of situation originates with a small abnormality that causes pain, and many people will subconsciously allow the body to adjust to it or slump in a certain way to relieve that pain. Although this gives tempor…

In our monastic training, we try to create a very low standard of what we need in life. I took care of my elderly mother for about nine years until she died. During that time, I lived with her in her condo apartment in Ottawa. When an extremely old person died, it was sometimes mentioned on TV or in the newspaper. Once, there was a British airman who died at 113 years of age; my mum was ninety-thr…

When we sit down to meditate, we are paying attention to whatever meditation object we use. When using the breath, we are paying attention to the in-breath, the out-breath; paying attention to the body; soothing the body with the breath; settling the mind with the breath-filled body. There’s an ease that comes from that awareness and mindfulness. There’s the appreciation of stillness, tranquility,…

You think, ‘This is a rip-off! I’ve been struggling away for five or six years with fear and lust and so on, and now I get to the free space – here we are out in the open – and it’s a desert. This is not right!’ But then, what you realize is that this is not what the Buddha was pointing to as the goal of the holy life, because even though one can’t see any outstanding objects causing obstruction o…

Theravada Buddhism, for instance, is often taken to represent the Hinayana position, the self-concern of ‘Quick, let me out of here, I’ve had enough of this mess; I want this to be over as quickly as possible.’ One can see that that represents a very definite stage in one’s own spiritual development. For example, we start out with just a worldly attitude; basically we’re not interested in spiritua…