Concepts lie at the essence of mental fabrication. The mind thinks of matters either past or future and then starts elaborating on them as good or bad, liking or disliking them. If we see them as good, we get pleased and taken with them: This is delusion. If we see them as bad, we get displeased, which clouds and defiles the mind, making it irritated, restless and annoyed: This is ill will. The th…

Compunction is rarely discussed in modern Buddhist circles, even though it appears in many of the Buddha’s lists of qualities to be developed along the path. He calls it a guardian of the world in that it keeps people from violating trust and behaving promiscuously. In a simile where the Buddha compares different qualities needed on the path to features of a frontier fortress, compunction is a hig…

I have found the contemplative life is better viewed as an artistic exercise. In the beginning we need to learn the skills involved in an art form, like playing a musical instrument. Inevitably, applying ourselves to these techniques can be boring; becoming adept calls for repetition. To play a violin we must learn how to move our fingers, how to hold the wrist. If we don’t hold the instrument cor…

The Buddha defined Right View firstly in a conventional sense: that is, a confidence in the Buddha’s enlightenment, in the Dhamma, and in the Sangha; conviction in the efficacy of generosity; belief in heaven and hell. These are fundamentals of Right View. But the Right View which leads to liberation is the Right View which is based on the Four Noble Truths. This Right View is also defined as the…

The first verses of the Dhammapāda tell us that everything we say and do is coloured by our state of mind just as the wheels of the cart follow the ox that pulls it. Virtue protects us not only from the seductive influence of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes but also the subtle undertow of craving, memory, obsessive thought, and idle musing that brew in consciousness. Whatever ethical code we es…

The first teaching the Buddha gave is called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the sutta on the turning of the wheel of Dhamma. In it he expounds the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and states very clearly how to use them. When we understand that craving (taṇhā) is the cause of suffering (dukkha) we abandon craving and thus realize nirodha, cessation. Nirodha is to be realized, so it’s not a matt…

I have heard that on one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly self-awakened, he was staying near Uruvelā on the bank of the Nerañjarā River, at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan Tree. Then, while he was alone & in seclusion, this line of thinking arose in his awareness: “One suffers if dwelling without reverence or deference. Now on what contemplative or brahman can I dwell in dependence, hono…

People sometimes ask me about the precepts. They ask, “Can I keep three?” I reply, “Which three? They’re all pretty important.” That’s where the binding aspect of a religion or spiritual tradition comes in. If you surrender to its form, and the form is skillful, you can truly benefit from it. But if you decide to throw out all the teachings that conflict with your own desires or preferences, you c…

Two days ago it was the anniversary of Ajahn Chah’s birth. Many aspects of his life are well worth recalling and reflecting upon. Certainly one of them is the practical approach he used to teach and encourage us. He always emphasized the importance of reflecting on the Four Noble Truths and the experience of dukkha–suffering, dis-ease, discontent–and the different ways we create dukkha within the…

Samādhi–the next of the Spiritual Faculties–is often translated as “concentration,” but I prefer the concept of peace. It is the ability to let go of what is disturbing and go to a place in the mind which is less disturbing. As we progressively give things up and tranquilize the mind, then the mind is going to become more and more peaceful and blissful. Then it can even give up blissfulness and go…