My nineteenth birthday found me living by the side of a lake with a Hindu monk. He was an inspiring teacher whose practices were similar to Buddhism and he taught me many things. While I stayed with him, I had plenty of time to contemplate my life. In the afternoon I liked to climb up a nearby mountain, sit under an old tree, and enjoy the breeze. Looking down to the lake below and the desert that…

Suffering is the illusion that we project onto life because of our ignorance and through the habits of our unawakened heart or mind. If, instead of focusing on this illusion, we look into the present moment, whatever it is, then we can see that, ‘This is the way it is.’ By recollecting we bring the moment to consciousness. It reminds us that this is the way it is right now. We’re not trying to say…

Can the creation and enjoyment of art be considered a spiritual path? Yes, but in the Buddhist view its spiritual benefits are relatively superficial. Great art may elevate the mind and may illuminate the human condition in profound and emotionally satisfying ways, but it lacks the power in itself to induce the lasting transformation of consciousness provided by the practice of the Eightfold Path.…

The goal of Buddhist practice, nibbāna, is said to be totally uncaused, and right there is a paradox. If the goal is uncaused, how can a path of practice—which is causal by nature—bring it about? This is an ancient question. The Milinda-pañha, a set of dialogues composed near the start of the common era, reports an exchange where King Milinda challenges a monk, Nagasena, with precisely this questi…

Part of all relationships is the unspoken. It sits right there under the ribs. Then what can you say that’s real at a time when you have to say something? One answer is: you stop thinking and chant. With Luang Por, there were probably all kinds of things that each individual would have liked to say, but the ‘impersonal’ communality of monastic life doesn’t accommodate – at least among the large nu…

Generosity represents the emotional binding agent in every community, in every relationship between even just two people. In some Asian cultures, especially those who have integrated Dhamma values, generous conduct is practised daily from early on. Small children are taught, for example, to place some small offering into the alms-bowls of the monks. One is ready to assist the young donor when some…

Once the mind is settled down, give it time to stay there. Don’t be in too great a hurry to move on. Here the questions are, “Which parts of the process were necessary to focus in? Which can now be let go? Which do you have to hold onto in order to maintain this focus?” Tuning into the right level of awareness is one process; staying there is another. When you learn how to maintain your sense of s…

So the Buddha taught that we should learn to go against the grain and skilfully develop patient endurance, with mindfulness well established and our minds well focused, especially in situations that we have never encountered before. The process is similar to catching animals in the jungle. Catching a wild animal is not easy. Until one can catch one, one needs to learn a lot about its behaviour and…

When I started going on retreats in my early twenties, I’d find myself getting really angry with whoever was teaching yoga. I didn’t consider myself a particularly angry person, but the yoga teacher always made me very angry. Through the stretching exercises, the anger that was locked away in my body started to wake up. At some point, I finally put it together—it wasn’t the fault of the yoga teach…