For many years I had a kind of subliminal negativity going on; quietly grumbling away, usually about myself: ‘You’re not good enough. You’ve been meditating all these years, and still your mind wanders and you fall asleep. You’re never going to be any good.’ – those kinds of voices. Are they familiar … just quietly there, mumbling away, undermining any sense of well-being? It took me a long time t…

The differentiation between right and wrong is an especially meaningful one for us. With that comes success, failure, praise, blame, reward or punishment: there’s a big charge around getting it right or getting it wrong. Meanwhile direct experience – thoughts, sensations, emotions – is just what happens. It’s not based on right or wrong. Its sole fundamental quality is that it just happens. Our co…

So when we analyze the style and function of humor in the Canon, we have to remember that both style and function vary with the source. But even when we take these variations into consideration, the Canon’s humor has some overall features that make it distinctive. After all, the compilers of the Canon were the ones who chose which speech to report and which not to report, so when they are quoting…

The present moment is the place where we can recognize: There is the content of experience; there is something in the content that we find appealing—something that tempts us to make it our own; and there is a desire compelling us to grab onto that content. When we’re connected to our present-moment experience in this way, there is the wisdom that tells us, “I know this process of content-appeal-de…

Sitting here in silence, some might say, “feels like a waste of time. Sitting here waiting … waiting for something to be said.” It could be a waste of time if we are sitting here waiting mindlessly. But it is not a waste of time if there is mindfulness present and an awareness of the present moment. Usually, at this time of day, there is a sense of anticipation as the work period draws near. There…

[From a Morning Reflection, September 2013] There is a fairly well-known sutta where the Buddha indicates that one who contemplates death about every few seconds develops mindfulness of death heedfully, with diligence, while one who contemplates death every few minutes or more develops mindfulness of death heedlessly, with sluggishness (AN 8.73). It only takes two or three seconds for someone to d…

We can easily be carried away by the desire to perfect tools or means for practice. It’s almost as if we’re focusing so much on the hammer that we’ve forgotten the piece of wood we’re working on. We focus on all the tools in the workshop, and we forget the piece of furniture we’re making. Not exactly the best analogy, perhaps a bit masculine for a nun, but sometimes I think of my mind as a worksho…

We need to train and develop when we practise. Any aspect of the practice relies on this training. It relies on doing things over and over. There are certain qualities in the life of an anagarika, one who isn’t bound to a home, that the Buddha called treasures. They are valuable goods. You probably know some of them. One of them has to do with our body – it is what the Buddha called kayasamvara, r…

You have a valuable treasure within you—the treasure of being a human being. So you have to look after this treasure until it grows more complete, until it becomes the treasure of the heavenly realms, the treasure of nibbāna. Look after this treasure. It’s hard to look after if you don’t know how to use it, if you don’t know how to take care of it. If you’re not discerning, this treasure can turn…

The Buddha said there are three points to check before we do something: ‘This is for my welfare’, ‘This for the welfare of others’ and ‘It leads to nibbāna, [Majjhima Nikāya 19]’, which means it leads to letting go, to release, to non-compulsiveness; it leads to the mind’s becoming less feverish or gripped and finally towards peace, towards ceasing of this inner compulsiveness – however you want…