This morning I was talking to the community about making resolutions and commitments. It’s a big part of our practice, but we need to learn how to cultivate them in the right way; there’s some subtlety in it. You can make an intention or a resolution to look at where you’re stuck or where you’re getting habitual, stale or compulsive: ‘OK, let’s determine to do that – or to not do that.’ You get a…

You shouldn’t chase after the past or place expectations on the future. What is past is left behind. The future is as yet unreached. Whatever quality is present you clearly see right there, right there. Not taken in, unshaken, that’s how you develop the heart. Ardently doing what should be done today, for—who knows?— tomorrow death. There is no bargaining with Mortality & his mighty horde. Whoever…

During these days of practice together, we have been reading the names of our departed loved ones as well as those of family and friends who are suffering untold agony and hardship at this time. There is so much misery around us. How do we accept it all? We’ve heard of young and vibrant people lost to suicide, cancer, aneurysm, AIDS, and motor-neurone disease. And so many elderly who still cling t…

Night is falling swiftly. The forest reverberates with the undulating buzz of countless crickets and the eerie rising wail of tropical cicadas. A few stars poke dimly through the treetops. Amid the gathering darkness there is a pool of warm light, thrown from a pair of kerosene lanterns, illuminating the open area below a hut raised up on stilts. Beneath it, in the glow, a couple of dozen people a…

One of the teachings Ajahn Chah emphasized most consistently was on the theme of uncertainty—that everything is not for sure. In a monastery, for instance, it’s common for the number of visitors to increase, like today, and then decrease; they’re here for a while, then they disappear. This creates a constant sense of circumstances being uncertain, always changing. We tend to conceive of our practi…

But kamma and rebirth focus on past and future. Doesn’t the Dhamma teach us to focus totally on simply being mindful—i.e., fully present—in the present moment? The Buddha talks about the importance of focusing on the present moment only in the context of what he taught on kamma: You focus on the present because you know that there’s work to be done in training the mind in developing skillful prese…

When we’re looking for kindness, we’re usually doing the wrong thing. Kindness is only something we can give, not something we can get or have. It’s something we can always give; there’s no limitation to it. Once you know what it’s about, you don’t find the world a disappointing place because there are always opportunities to give a little bit, to venture out a little bit. The sense of self, of be…

As monastics, it’s worth keeping in mind where our focus is. It is not on worldly skills such as well-honed public speaking. The Buddha said that in former times the monks who were respected and praised were those who lived and trained in the forest and put effort into practice, but later, respect and praise went to the monks who had good speaking skills. Skills, talents, and even an ability to gi…

For me, this story [The Buddha’s Awakening] represents the awakening of a human mind to the limitations of sensory experience. Personally I can relate to this from a time when I was at university. I questioned life a lot: “What is it all about? Where is this all going to?” I used to wonder about death and started thinking: “What is the point of getting this university degree? Even if I become a fa…

Once the Buddha was staying in a forest and took up a handful of leaves. He asked the bhikkhus which they thought were more numerous, the leaves in his hand or those in the forest. When they replied that the leaves in the forest were more numerous, the Buddha responded: Even so, bhikkhus, those things I have known directly are numerous, while those I have taught are few. And why, bhikkhus, have I…