The big difficulty for human beings is the vital factor of renunciation. However, as we develop the good heart, we find we can relinquish. As we feel good in ourselves, we have fewer needs. Also when we feel good in ourselves, we don’t mind taking things on. So we can renounce things not in a dismissive or puritanical way, but because the clinging and neediness is alleviated. There are different k…

As is the time-honoured custom amongst Buddhist monks, Luang Pu Mun first asks the visitors how long they have been in the robes, the monasteries they have practised in and the details of their journey. Did they have any doubts about the practice? Luang Por replies that he does. It is at this point that he was later to take up the story himself. He said he had been studying the Vinaya texts with g…

What sets up Right Speech? Or, considering these factors in terms of their ‘Path and Fruit,’ am I on the Path towards it? Am I working towards developing Right Speech? If you look at the list of subjects the Buddha determined were not worth talking about, you will notice that these are the things that most people like to talk about — because they provide a warm fuzzy blanket over the here and now…

To begin with, the practice is essentially a practice, and not a theory to be idly discussed. Even the theoretical or philosophical aspects of the Buddha’s teachings are there to be used as tools in aiding in the escape from all suffering and stress. It’s because of this fact that the Buddha’s primary metaphor for his teachings was a path: the noble eightfold path, composed of all the “right” fact…

If we’re without Dhamma, then people can get together for all kinds of worldly victories, even to plot to kill somebody. So, harmony, really, actually means, practicing Dhamma-Viniya. If you practice just the Viniya alone or Dhamma alone, then it’s not a complete or whole practice. If you’re just totally into Viniya, that’s all you care about, it’s easy to get stuck onto these rules. You get very…

Without clearly understanding the processes of our minds, we create all kinds of problems. We are dragged about by emotional states. For there to be personal and global peace, these states need to be understood. The ways of the mind need to be seen clearly. This is the function and value of Dhamma. When we are feeling enthusiastic, we can easily give ourselves to the practice. But it can also happ…

Those of us born in these latter days haven’t had the opportunity to see the Lord Buddha. We’ve met only with the Dhamma, the teachings he taught. What he taught wasn’t anywhere else far away. In the list of the virtues of the Dhamma, it says that the Dhamma is ehipassiko: It’s for calling all living beings to come and see. It’s not for calling them to go and see. He wants us to come and see the D…

There’s a story with which many of you are probably familiar, that begins with the Buddha walking in the woods with some of his disciples. At one point the Buddha bends down and picks up a handful of leaves from the forest floor. He holds out the leaves to his disciples and says, ‘Tell me, are there more leaves on the trees and on the ground or more leaves in my hand?’ His disciples say, ‘There ar…

That mind wants to know a lot: how far the next town is, which is the most agreeable route – and many times a day it asks for a progress report. I’d be walking along quite happily, then get an urge to look at the map. Then the organizing mind would come in with estimates of how long it was going to take, or what state I’d be in, or how I could lessen the weight of this backpack … and so compound s…

In many ways, one of the most important aspects of living in a community – so mundane and obvious that we tend to overlook it – is the daily schedule. This is what Ajahn Chah would teach us so often and what has been passed down to us through Luang Por Sumedho, Ajahn Pabhakaro, Ajahn Jagaro, Ajahn Pasanno, myself, and Ajahn Ñāṇadhammo: look at your mind, look at your body, and see what comes up…