Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge)

(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) 00:23 Q1 How do we define a real state of meditation? Is it merely focus and concentration? Should we do samatha first or vipassana or both combined? 23:39 Q2 During walking meditation do we still observe breathing at the nostrils or radiating metta? 28:17 Q3 Is it okay to use the mantra Budho for walking meditation and during daily life activities? 29:32 Q4 I have committed some mistakes in the past, one which lost me a dear old friend and another one which causes me huge embarrassment every time I think about it. I feel a huge degree of sense...

(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society)

(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society)

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre) 00:07 Q1 There is body contemplation and contemplation of death. Can I contemplate things such as my work, my relationships with a fear of failing? How do I do it? 20:28 Q2 You mentioned during Qigong making a circle with the arms and concentrating within the ring. I found this very helpful to calm the mind. Is there something similar to help calm the mind during sitting or standing meditation? 29:40 Q3 You said the world begins and ends in the body. I'm rather used to hearing that the mind is the source of everything. Can you clarify this...

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre)

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre)

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre)

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre)

(Nira Nara Retreat Centre)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves) Q1 In sitting meditation I have much less distraction but I feel a sense of torpor. Where does this come from and how can I deal with it? 07:10 Q2 I spend the majority of my life trying to ignore my difficult emotions. Since I began meditation I’ve tried to welcome them all but they take a lot of space. Will it be like this the rest of my life? [A similar one:] I find myself in a deep groove of negativity which is hard to shift. After a couple of decades of practice I am embarrassed by...

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves) Q1 I couldn't keep up with this morning's talk. Could you talk about the meaning of kalyana? Q2 04:20 What can we doing instead of getting rid of stuff that bothers us? 09:49 Q3 my inner tyrant has been very active. What is it and how can I deal with it? 14:32 Q4 What does "sitting with emotions" mean more concretely? It feels a bit abstract. 22:26 Q5 Is there something like embodied thinking? In other words, how to reflect upon my meditation when words are sankaras? 25:33 Q6 How to create a more permanent sense feeling of safety in the body? 29:28...

(Moulin de Chaves) Q1 How can I differentiate whether it's the ghost that's speaking or the thing that I should work harder on. I feel that if I work a little harder I can be a little better. How should I know it's time to stop ... and where to go? Q2 16:18 if done with love can accomplishment make the heart sing? Q3 17:50 How do I stop longing for emotional connection with a partner and of one of my children? I practice with letting go of the wanting but sometimes the longing arises and it's painful. Q4 25:38 Can you explain again...

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Moulin de Chaves)

(Cittaviveka) Within the world of praise and blame gain and loss, one’s balance grows. This plane of accomplishment neither binds to, nor rejects social and personal systems and customs, but uses them with kindness and integrity. As the heart sustains this, layers of one’s unconscious grasping are revealed and released.

(Cittaviveka) When handled contemplatively, the energy of goodwill feeds, repairs and strengthens the heart. It can govern our speech and convert our mental attitudes from those of the competitive world. It can also be taken in to clear the residues that these worldly habits have established; anxiety, performance drive and self-criticism.

(Cittaviveka) Through a steady inclining towards release from personal habits, the root clinging of 'me' is exposed. Training challenges this, and with dispassionate perseverance, there can be a surprising release from the 'me bag'.

(Cittaviveka) The citta/heart is affected or confronted by external and internal conditions. Apply wise attention to draw the energies of wholesome conditions into the heart – this is the foundation for samadhi. With a collected heart one can review and release from the constructs of time and space.

(Cittaviveka) Ingrained habits and obsessive emotions can be met and released through mindfulness established in the body. The practice of mindfulness of breathing purifies perception and volition to undo the sense of self based in time,

(Cittaviveka) The indriya work together – if one's faith is placed with wisdom and mindfulness sustains the focus on the wholesome, concentration occurs and one's energy is replenished. Effort should be wisely applied to break the pull of negative obsessions, The sense of time is to be uprooted, for example in walking meditation.

(Cittaviveka) The five indriya are factors that are accessible and take one's attention from the sensory world of circumstance to the citta -heart or mind. The initial indriya is faith, a quality that serves as a wellspring off support through the ups and downs of life.

(Cittaviveka)

(Buddhist Society Summer School)

(Buddhist Society Summer School) 00:11 Q1 I have an urge for an inspirational, imaginational arising. It shows itself as a wish to be inspired. I find it hard to connect with Buddhist mythology, "seeing things as they are” seems not to be beneficial all the time. Some people in places seem to have a special effect on me and I can have so many positive feelings just by thinking about them. It feels like a gift. Is it real? Or constructed idea? 26:11 Q2 What is the relationship between the citta which is intrinsically luminous, nibbana, sensation and the anidassana viññāṇa describ...

(Buddhist Society Summer School) 00:09 Q1 Could you explain again what is meant by the phrase “post-truth world”? 02:15 Q2 - mic was far away, very difficult to hear; seems to be: What advice can you give regarding speech? 11:08 Q3 My dilemma is whether I watch the news or switch it off. It’s so overwhelming. But if I don’t watch it, what am I doing?

(Buddhist Society Summer School)

(London Insight Meditation)

(London Insight Meditation)

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Cittaviveka)

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Cittaviveka)

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) The presentation of the satipatthana is of experience divided between ‘me’ and ‘the world’. Through practice, we see through this boundary and undertake the responsibility of participating in and co-generating a reality rooted in Dhamma.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge)

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Q1 - What would you suggest as priorities for lay practice, recollections to establish a steady orientation to Dhamma?; 13:08 Q2 - Mindfulness when talking and using computers etc.; 18:30 Q3 - Energy, qi, anapanasati and integration of energy; 26:24 Q4 – I feel lots of unpleasant skin sensations when sitting, What might these be? 28:46 Q5 You’ve referred to integrating energy as a new way to consider. What does this mean? 36:09 Q9 Why couldn’t it be that nibbana is like chasing the unicorn; 37:23 Q10 Can you speak about wisdom and samadhi; 40:33 Q11 Can you provide some guidan...

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Based on a heart that integrates around goodwill, key features of letting go arise. These are a successive process of disengagement, dispassion, cessation and release (or relinquishment). For example bitterness and guilt can be felt as they are and move on.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) The renunciate quality of retreat removes our psychological cushions. Therefore soothing, not intensity, is needed. Gaining health and psychological flex, we can disband the fantasies that haunt the heart.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) 1 How is there embodiment in the formless realms? 2 Is unwavering mindfulness possible? 3 Cultivating the brahmavihāra with samādhi 4 How are happiness and unhappiness equal - and what about Nibbāna? 5 What is the ‘spinal sense? 6 How do we practice forgiveness?

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Resonating with images and meanings of the Triple Gem generates positive waves that place in the field of the True, the Good and the Beautiful - the best place for practice.

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) Ajahn responds to several questions around the themes: Is it necessary to have an attitude of sanctity or divinity when one is mindful in the sati sampajanna way? Is it possible to get anywhere in the practice without being ordained? How long should I sit and what particular process should I go through? Will I arrive at a certain recognizable state?

(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions)

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Investigate the casual process of how dhammas arise and subside, and learn how to be with that.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Bringing to mind and resonating with benevolent occasions in one's life to build up a solid resonant sign to sit with.