In order to feel comfortable helping others, we have to leap over the hurdle of self, of me and mine. We put ourselves in a vulnerable position by helping others; it can be frightening or trigger our vulnerability. Acts of service invite us to step out of the boundaries that we set up for ourselves. Whenever those boundaries are jostled in any way, we feel uncomfortable or threatened. These bounda…

Exactly what is dana? How do we cultivate this quality of giving, generosity, liberality and munificence? There are many translations of the word dana. It is the quality of generosity that gives physically and from the heart. Hearts with dana are generous, open-handed, and liberal in terms of willingness to give, share, to be present and to help. All of those qualities take us away from me and my…

The Venerable Acariya Mun taught that all hearts have the same language. No matter what one’s language or nationality, the heart has nothing but simple awareness, which is why he said that all hearts have the same language. When a thought arises, we understand it, but when we put it into words, it has to become this or that language, so that we don’t really understand one another. The feelings wit…

In Buddhism, we gain a type of experientially acquired knowledge that grows in our hearts through what we call “practice.” We use the word “practice” in Buddhism much more than we use the word “belief.” We don’t say to each other: “How’s your belief going?” Instead, we ask, “How’s your practice going?” It’s a different way of learning. Intellectual learning gives us intellectual knowledge. Having…

As you practice being aware of objects (such as moods) from the time they arise until the time they pass away, you develop insight. You begin to realize that it’s not pleasant to attach to objects that are constantly changing. So you stop holding on to them. When you stop attaching to these objects, they lose their capacity to overwhelm you. For instance, you might be very inspired by something, s…

Our birth and death are just one thing. You can’t have one without the other. It’s a little funny to see how at a death people are so tearful and sad, and at a birth how happy and delighted. It’s delusion. I think if you really want to cry, then it would be better to do so when someone is born. Cry at the root, for if there were no birth, there would be no death. Can you understand this? This refl…

When people would say to Ajahn Chah that they found it impossible to practice in society, he would ask them: “If I poked you in the chest with a burning stick, would you say ‘I’m suffering, it’s true, but since I live in this society I can’t get away from it?”’ Ajahn Chah’s response makes a point not unlike the Buddha’s parable of the poisoned arrow. The Buddha tells of man who had been shot by an…

Actually there’s nothing much to this mind. It’s simply radiant in and of itself. It’s naturally peaceful. Why the mind doesn’t feel peaceful right now is because it gets lost in its own moods. There’s nothing to mind itself. It simply abides in its natural state, that’s all. That sometimes the mind feels peaceful and other times not peaceful is because it has been tricked by these moods. The untr…

Worried about attachment to jhānas? The worst that can happen is that we will be reborn in a heavenly realm for up to 84 thousand eons of celestial bliss. Considering the range of possible rebirths within samsara that’s still not a bad option. The best that can happen is that we realize enlightenment. Virtue and states of samādhi are like rungs of a ladder. We have to hold onto higher and higher…

Renunciation is a lovely reflection to bring up from time to time. Sometimes people talk about how they’ve renounced something they were strongly attached to. They say that having renounced it, they’re now done with it, once and for all. However, it’s rarely as simple as that. Being attached to something means we don’t want to let it go. If we recognize that something is harmful, a desire may aris…