Our personal journeys are often messy and chaotic, and our collective evolutionary journey is also messy and chaotic. I hear people say, “I can’t just sit here on the cushion. I need to do something. I need to stop this from happening.” Yes, there is a lot to be done, but whatever we do must be based on right understanding. On the ultimate level, nothing can be gained or lost, but in our conventio…

The religious and spiritual traditions alive in the world today are many and various. The Buddhist customs and practices of monasticism and mendicancy are only one model amongst many of how a community can live and work to bring forth its most worthy qualities, to use an economy of gifts to generate and support well-being. The dynamic found in this Buddhist tradition is only one way of sustaining…

During my years in Thailand, I was often asked why I ordained, why I was interested in Buddhism; but, one time I was asked a more specific version of that question: What was it that Ajaan Fuang taught that attracted me to him particularly? I didn’t have a ready answer right away; but as I thought about it, I began to realize that there was one teaching that had really struck me when I first went t…

Let’s look at another example of this disbanding of things. Imagine that I’m worrying about a presentation I have to give at work next week. Because the mood of worrying is arising, the fearful mind is generating the image of a future possibility of failure, public humiliation, etc. Then I begin to think, “I’m going to be giving this speech and that’s going to happen and it’s going to be very bad…

Looking outside the self is to compare and to discriminate. You will not find happiness that way. Nor will you find peace if you spend your time looking for a perfect person or the perfect teacher. The Buddha taught us to look at the Dhamma, the truth, and not to look at other people. #104 Someone once asked Ajahn Chah about the way he taught meditation: “Do you use the method of daily interviewin…

When strange and unusual things occur in your meditation, just let them happen. Don’t become attached to them. Such things are really an external focus and should be let go of. Put them down and move on — don’t hold on to them. All realms of consciousness originate from the mind. Heaven and hell originate from the mind. Pretas and devas, lay people, nuns — all living beings originate from the mind…

Suffering and mental stress aren’t for sure. They’re inconstant. Keep this point in mind. When these things arise, we know them right now and we let them go. This strength of mind will gradually see more and more. When it’s grown more resilient, it can suppress defilements extremely fast. As time passes, whatever arises right here disbands right here, like waves on the sea coming ashore. As soon a…

Luang Por Waen calls the present ‘correct Dhamma’. He refers to the past and future as ‘drunken Dhamma’. That conveys the right message. We are lost if we are not in the present moment because the present moment is mindfulness; mindfulness is present moment awareness. Past and future exist only through our thoughts, which remember the past and project the future. The Forest Masters are very creati…

A second fundamental principle underlying our lives as samanas is that of contentment. We are taught to cultivate gratitude and appreciation for the robes, almsfood, lodgings and medicines that we receive, whatever their quality. We go against the worldly desire for the biggest, the finest and best. We’re willing to make do with second best or third best. We find we can be happy with the worst, th…

You don’t have to straighten out your thoughts. A thought comes up that’s not related to your object of meditation; you just let it go. You don’t have to figure out what it’s about or turn it into an intelligent thought, because the mind turns out a lot of random stuff. You have no need to keep track of everything. What you want to keep track of is the breath and that it’s not destroyed by the wor…