Dharma Seed - dharmaseed.org: Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks: Recent Episodes
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As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
(On the road) 00:29 Q1 Could you talk about working with distraction? 07:27 Q2 Karma and the end of karma. 27:48 Q3 What carries on [when we die]?What doesn’t carry on? 33:52 Q4 Could you recommend a book or a source that discusses this [the phases of transition]? 45:36 Q5 What is the difference between awareness and consciousness? 50:42 Q6 So when we say: ‘Be the knowing’, that is resting in awareness? 51:40 Q7 Could you speak about how you got on this path?
(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) The original questions were live. They have been précised and read by a third person. Q1 A woman asks: I have a sister who's in a care home and lives far away. She's younger than I and I feel a degree of responsibility and want to help her. It's been discovered there's been some theft from her bank account which she has control over. The police and care home staff are involved. So the teaching on activation seems very appropriate for me. I'm noticing that my activation to get involved seems to take me over is getting really difficult to handle. What can you repeat or recommend?03:02 Q2 I find as I practice more and more, I am less willing to deal with worldly things like money, focusing on the future. There's also a sense of contentment with the way things are. How can I go about my practice as this unfolds?05:51 Q3 My question is similar to the previous one, finding opportunities to reflect internally rather than be wrapped up in work and everything. These opportunities exist and have improved but they seem to be fewer than I would like. How can I incorporate this with having to live my everyday life? I feel I can't leave everything and just go like the Buddha did and I don't seem satisfied with my current situation. Anything else you can offer?10:19 Q4 Regarding the kandhas, did the Buddha or could you recommend any dedicated formal practice in this area?15:39 Q5 I've recently extricated myself from a 5-year relationship which was very difficult for me. It seems like when we extricate ourselves from an arrangement like this it seems like it's become just a dream. All the entanglement and energy put into it and then it just ... ends. I'm asking myself 'Was there ever any love, any care?' And it seems very shocking and it seems like the whole of life is like that. Part of me wants to reach out and say: 'Did you care?' But it's over and that seems pointless. Could you say something about that please?
(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) Questions are précised: 01:17 Q1 You mentioned during meditation to start with breathing out. I noticed in my own practice that I don't fully breathe out. In fact breathing out intentionally is more exhausting. How can I be more balanced? 12:27 Q2 I have a mental pattern with deep roots, obsessing over details like the entomology of words that arises when I get panicked or upset. This seems to give me some respite from the panic. Can you offer any advice? 19:02 Q3 I feel both sense of fatigue and desire for connection. I'm confused about how to be with this desire because my mind tells me I should go out and connect with other people. But this isn't the point of meditation is it? How can I understand this tension between internal and external needs in this case? 25:03 Q4 In the last retreat I would wake up not knowing who I am and dream about somebody stabbing my heart. These feelings returned when I went back to domestic duties. In my dreams I am lost. How can I move past this black hole? 30:02 Q5 For me it's very difficult to be mindful every minute every second of my daily life. I do my best. It's easier on retreat or in a monastery. Can you comment? 36:17 Q6 The state of becoming entails grasping and craving then suffering. How can one abide in non becoming?
(Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)) 00:08 Q1 You mentioned we should all contemplate/ meditate on death every day. How does one do that? 21:10 Q2 What to do when the ease of well-being and kindness of metta morph into profound awareness of suffering in the world and the lives of loved ones? 37:34 Q3 You wrote in ‘Breathing like a Buddha’ that “Full liberation therefore is equated with breaking the compulsive link between name and form". You mentioned this here as well. Can you re-explain please?
(Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)) In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.
(Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)) 00:07 Q1 You use the term energy more than I have heard it used in dhamma discussions. Can you say why it is important? 10:03 Q2 Where would you place craving for stability within the three types of tanha? 16:23 Q3 You said that citta arises from name and form. Can you say more about how and why? 26:37 Q4 How do you think one might continue to cultivate citta as we age and with Alzheimers, dementia etc.? 31:18 Q5 Regarding medically assisted suicide, doesn’t it break the first precept? 36:35 Q6 What are some useful practices for going to sleep?
(Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)) In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.
(Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)) In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.
(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) Q1 How important is it to maintain continuity of the meditation object? 0857 Q2 I'm confused by the word citta. For a long time I thought it was the physical organ of the heart, but now I understand that it may be mind. Can you help please? 2334 Q3 you talked about adhiṭṭhāna, resolution as being as one way of manifesting accepting and bowing to all the negative and unskillful thoughts that kept rising in the mind. Can you elaborate on this please? 2521 Q4 what is the relationship or differences between viññāṇa (sense consciousness) and sati (awareness). 2724 Q5 Can you comment on scattering ashes of a body after cremation? Is this about attaching to a body?
(Amaravati Monastery) Bhavana, cultivation, is associated with bringing into being fruitful states and dwelling in them. Without this ground, citta- heart - goes out, focuses on conditioned phenomena. The natural result will be uncertainty, anxiety, fear. Practices for clearing fear at its root are described: contemplation of death, mindfulness of body and breathing, generosity, virtue.
(Cittaviveka) The compulsive shaping and drives of the citta are held by grasping – an involuntary reflex that can be mastered through careful cultivation. As the end of this grasping and shaping is the sense of self, that sense of ‘me’ ‘I am this’ is the ongoing focus of our Dhamma practice.
(Cittaviveka) The emphasis on virtue, beyond keeping rules, customs and procedures, is to bring about harmony. It enables us to establish a fluent relationship that isn’t domineering nor indifferent, clearing of heart from destructive tendencies. It’s the tonality of careful attention in what we do. Not seeking results, but just bringing forth harmony, beauty, purity in our daily lives. (Sutta reference SN 46:1)
(Cittaviveka) Our general mode follows a track called becoming. It’s a track that keeps moving, flavoured with craving that never arrives at satisfaction. The Buddha presented a more natural way – step-by-step, chart the course, with friendliness and purity of intention. Mindfulness of body and contemplative thought (vitaka-vicara) support a wider, wholistic mode. Use the process to adjust your world, so you’re not driven and pushed by it.
(Cittaviveka) The flow to liberation isn’t a flash in the pan miracle, but a gradual, step-by-step process. Begin with the 4 establishments of mindfulness. When held carefully, steadily, with patience, the enlightenment factors develop. It can’t be done out of will power. Rather, nourishment for the process are restraint, mindfulness and careful attention. (Sutta reference AN 10:61)
(Cittaviveka) Liberation is always a step-by-step process. Each stage flows into the next. It’s a natural process, according to Dhamma. Start on the right track, with virtue – relational sensitivity. Acting in this way gives rise to gladness, then concentration, leading to liberation. (Sutta reference AN 10:2)
(Cittaviveka) Three key factors of the Noble Eightfold Path circle around and support each other: Right View, which scans to see which skilful qualities need to be developed; Right Mindfulness, which sustains attention on this development; and Right Effort, which provides the energy to complete the transformation.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) Consider the deep learning or openness that has been experienced. What has found its way to the exit? This allows a regaining of the awakened centre.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) The centre has no name but is harmonious, unsqueezed and released from (often unrecognized) clinging.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) Practice establishes a wholeness, a container where we can settle and witness the suffering, those random, sometimes painful stresses we call “ours”.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) The teachings are not philosophies, abstract concoctions or attitudes. They point to direct signals of the citta with no position to stand on.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) Ajahn explains how it is that the Buddha didn’t tell us to concentrate, but he did recommend concentration.
(Emoyeni Retreat Centre) The ‘I am’, the sense of me is the citta - receiving, reacting. Using the four foundations allows it to be resplendent and happy.
(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) 00:42 Q1 How can one protect one’s axis/ centre after a retreat is over? 11:55 In daily life my system gets stuck in a previous experience with someone. Although they have left, the turmoil is still there and I feel stuck.
(Cittaviveka) Within the movement of walking, the mind becomes still. There is a lovely quality of movement and stillness. That’s where a centre that begins to occur, a centre of awareness. Not held through fixation or obsession, it arises with the factor of ease, factor of repeated process, just going through it again and again, and clearing out the obstacles.
(Cittaviveka) In walking meditation, move through the identifiable world. Feel its resonances and triggerings and keep walking, see them as changing flickering phenomena. Maintain a steadiness as you walk through your world – it’s not actually yours, it’s always going its own way.
(Cittaviveka) Walking meditation can be difficult because the mind doesn’t feel concentrated, or it can feel oppressive just walking back and forth. But being with the movement of the body, it’s possible to come out of our protective and stiff states, and enjoy the carefree fluidity.
(Cittaviveka) Practice with keeping the front centre of the body open, as if the skin boundary is feeling and reading the movement through space. Mind opens, drops some of its congestion. Thought patterns can be ventilated. Most important is to remain open and moored to a firm centre.
(Cittaviveka) The soles of the feet are incredibly sensitive, like receptors. Notice when the foot comes to the ground, the sole wakes up: this is firm, this is reliable, space around me. Walking like this is agreeable.
(Cittaviveka) Walking meditation is a whole body experience. Set up the upright and lateral frame, and extend the web of energy across the whole body. ‘Listen’ with the skin as you walk, taking in the space. When the body feels its wholeness, it becomes more balanced and relaxed, conducing to release.
(Cittaviveka) Explore how the body moves in space when there are no boundaries, no time pressures, no destination. Feel the swing of the pelvis and shoulders, moving through your environment with fluidity. Focused on your intimate environment, you’re not grabbed by the sense world. You can deal with the external environment more wholesomely and comfortably.
(Cittaviveka) Walking helps to shift energies of the mind. The movement of walking holds the mind, helping it give up its preoccupations and come into the body. Breathing in and out, taking one step at a time, the afflicted stirred up energy recedes and you feel yourself in flow. Let your mind rest in that.
(Cittaviveka) Our walking gets programmed by the drives of the mind. Whatever affects the mind affects the nervous systems of the body – the body shows us the effects of our thinking. Walking meditation can return us to the natural quality of the body, so the mind can relax.
(Cittaviveka) The Buddha's Awakening and release came through firm intent and rigorous inquiry into the roots of mental behaviour: something we can all practise.
(Cittaviveka) To internalize Buddha, we can direct mindfulness to each of the four bodily postures. Through these they will guide our psychologies to balance and steadiness in the midst of conditions.
(Dhamma Stream Online Sessions) 00:18 Whenever I tell someone about my worries or problems I'll be told to think positive. Does positive thinking accord with the teaching of the buddha? 06:16 I've been practicing with the satipatana sutta, establishing mindfulness. Often I get confused with the words "externally and internally" parts of the awareness practice. Can you help please? 24:37 I'm working on opening, meeting and releasing with the sympathetic attitude. I've noticed some joy and yet in unexpected circumstances I've become defensive and angry and this leads to shame. What do you advise? 30:50 If I can't get to a center where there is a more authentically embodied practice, could I practice with traditions that are more disembodied? 33:20 You mentioned the Great Forty sutta (https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN117.html) regarding the basis of samadhi. Surely it needs the five precepts to be steadfast in right view etc? 37:44 As individuals we have creative potential, skills etc. Do we invite that unique particularity to manifest in our lives?
(The Buddhist Academy Berlin Brandenburg) Description pending; walking instruction at 32:29
(Singapore) 00:09 Q1 Could you speak about the experience of thinking and emotions. 06:09 Q2 I feel I have no control. The music in my mind keeps playing, I feel I am going mad. How can I cultivate mindfully without making thoughts and stories stronger. 20:59 Q3 How can I deal with grief over loosing loved ones? 28:19 Q4 Is it normal to feel warm and perspire during sitting meditation? 32:56 Q5 Does it matter how you place the hands during sitting meditation? 35:40 Q6 When one sees the light – I guess this is meditation nimitta – do you focus on the breath or follow the light? 37:47 Q7 [Should one] place attention on the entire body even when walking? 47:43 Q7 I have scoliosis and am uncomfortable in every position. Are there techniques to help with body and mental pain skillfully when I meditate? 52:59 Q8 Regarding the 12 links of dependent origination, which link is the weakest? 59:46 Q9 How do we enter the stream? 01:01:45 Q10 Can you elaborate on what you said about what Sariputta and Moggallana understood regarding the arising of the Tathagata?
(Singapore) 00:09 Q1 Could you speak about the experience of thinking and emotions. 06:09 Q2 I feel I have no control. The music in my mind keeps playing, I feel I am going mad. How can I cultivate mindfully without making thoughts and stories stronger. 20:59 Q3 How can I deal with grief over loosing loved ones? 28:19 Q4 Is it normal to feel warm and perspire during sitting meditation? 32:56 Q5 Does it matter how you place the hands during sitting meditation? 35:40 Q6 When one sees the light – I guess this is meditation nimitta – do you focus on the breath or follow the light? 37:47 Q7 [Should one] place attention on the entire body even when walking? 47:43 Q7 I have scoliosis and am uncomfortable in every position. Are there techniques to help with body and mental pain skillfully when I meditate? 52:59 Q8 Regarding the 12 links of dependent origination, which link is the weakest? 59:46 Q9 How do we enter the stream? 01:01:45 Q10 Can you elaborate on what you said about what Sariputta and Moggallana understood regarding the arising of the Tathagata?
(Vimutti Buddhist Monestary) 00:08 1. The word restraint brings up a lot of aversion in me. I feel as if it's an imposition on me. It is asking me to give up a known pleasure that can be felt now, or soon, for an unknown pleasure on the path that I may get to experience. It just doesn't add up. How do you see restraint? 06:33 2. You said something about how right views and virtue put the body and the mind in position that leads to right concentration and insight. I think I missed some steps. Can you clarify please? 15:24 3. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and struggle with doubt from time to time what is the nature of doubt? How can I work with it? 22:50 4. Questions about energy: a) You spoke about energy and awareness being open as opposed to closed. I have a hard time visualizing this as energy and awareness are all contained within the body. b) What's the relationship between steadiness in the flow of energy in the body and mind? c) How to turn to qualities in the bodies such as steadiness that support these same qualities in the citta? 37:56 5. What is it to be receptive? It seems receptivity also includes a skillful way of evaluating things too. Perhaps the other end of receptivity is being a doormat? 53:04 6. In walking meditation I'm learning to trust my feet to lead me to adapt to uneven terrain. However my left side gets tense. I find a reluctance to be at ease. 46:58 7. Regarding the subjects for frequent recollection, could you elaborate on the idea that the wise could find fault with my conduct.
(Cittaviveka) From New Zealand - 02:19 Q1 What is the difference between heedfulness and mindfulness? 10:24 Q2 I often hear the words: “Your dukka is not personal”. There seems so much behind this but it seems this does not heal the situation in the moment. What can you say about this please? 22:37 Q3 I have a chronic illness which comes on suddenly and affects many parts of my body. I carry a lot of fear about getting sick. It affects my breathing. Can I use something other than the breath in calming myself?27:10 Q4 I’d like a better understanding of papancha / proliferation please. 33:39 Q5 Sometimes I feel unsure of how to go about connecting with others. How can I get my social needs met without being demanding on others?
(Cittaviveka) Four standard themes for reflection that turn the mind inwards towards Dhamma.
(Cittaviveka) 01:32 Where can I get a print copy of your book Breathing Like a Buddha? (also PDF here: https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/27/Breathing-Like-a-Buddha-Web.pdf); 02:24 How can I contribute some dana to you? (also see here: https://www.cittaviveka.org/online-donations and navigate to Chithurst); 04:04 When you speak of the energy body, is that the embodied sense of self? 06:35 What did you mean when you said “The space within and without the body where mental formations form”? 11:33 Could you speak about the phrases the Buddha uses in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta? 13:12 What causes unskilful behaviour or though to arise and to stop? 20:28 How can I work for the benefit for other people without being fearful of making mistakes and hurting others? 22:42 How can I turn the mind from outside to inside with other people around? 27:51 I experience constant internal discussions, comments and judgements about past events. What do I do with this sense of self? 34:02 How do I follow Ajahn’s suggestion to make resolution and intention without getting into goal-seeking on the other hand?
(Cittaviveka) Contemplating citta reveals how its external manifestations are formed – in speech and behaviours from its internal moods and feelings that overwhelm. Taking refuge internally through embodiment supports the contemplation leading to liberation.
(Cittaviveka) A combined talk, examining how chanting contributes to external and internal practice, and guided meditation (at 12:15) addressing the framing of the body.
(Cittaviveka) Developing an awareness of mind states and their bodily feelings brings an understanding of the mental and energy bodies, a freedom from the prison of the self and a transformed “doing” energy.
(Cittaviveka) 04:57 Q1 How to work with jealousy at others’ good fortune. 21:15 Q2 Living through old age, sickness and death is really highlighting my dread of being unreasonable and fitting in with familyWhat to do? 23:33 Q3 How can we use grief after the loss of a loved one? 27:36 Q4 Two similar questions: (a) I have experienced a loss of direction and feel no zest for living and insecurity overwhelms me. (b) Angry thoughts / emotional intensity lead to self admonishment. What can I do?
(Cittaviveka) Questions are précised 00:00 Q1 When the body or place doesn’t seem like a safe place to be, how can we take refuge in the heart? 04:01 Q2 I have been experiencing a flight – fight response recently, triggered perhaps by the pandemic. Everything seems to get trapped in the brain although I have been meditating for years. It seems to be a bit of a fight. Do you have any advice please? 12:39 Q3 The pandemic mode seems to continue and these small text messages are very quick and short and I feel lost, not catching up to the mind states of others. How can we do body practices in this situation? 18:39 Q4 There is so much to worry about these days and it seems almost hopeless sometimes. My meditation helps, but how can I be more consistent with the practice please? 23:31 Q5 I’m a psychologist working with people who have experienced severe trauma. Do you have one or two suggestions as to how I can help other people to clear energies that affect the heart and body? 28:54 Q6 I have relationship issues with my sister over how she treats our mother. I have spoken rather harshly to her about this and she has stopped talking to me. How can I deal with this please?
(Cittaviveka) Incessant thinking is like a vehicle whose wheels have left the ground. Presence can be anchored by mindfulness of the body; this allows the heart safety from agitation and reduces addictive longing for sense stimulation.
(Gaia House) Cultivating receptive and responsive heart energies, provides an ongoing exploration. The field of body provides the best venue to experience how these energies move and to understand their characteristics.
(Gaia House) 00:00 Q1 What clings? 11;13 Q2 Laura, can you speak more about moving back and forth between the path and the world. 16:51 Q3 What is meant when a person says someone is their teacher? 19:43 A poem by Rabindranath Tagore is read. 21:00 Q4 How to skilfully help others in our lives to get them to slow down and be more present? 27:14 Q5 How to let go of regrets and uproot the self? 36:08 Q6 Please distinguish taking ownership of karma and clinging to everything else.
(Gaia House) A detailed description of the sitting posture allows the listener to gain fresh perspective on this form of meditation.
(Gaia House) Opening and closing happens everywhere, even with breathing. Discharging creates space for enjoyment, spontaneity and flexibility. Eventually even energy must be relinquished, so we practice recollection of death using the brahma viharas to expand awareness, closure with no regret, the deathless.
(Gaia House) Ajahn explores the Buddha's famous prescription: 'By not pushing forward and by not standing still, I managed to cross the floods'.
(Gaia House) Our energy is normally inclined to the front of our bodies. Is there a wider approach?
(Gaia House) The retreat theme acknowledges we need allies in cultivating awareness, something outside our normal self structure but available, in spite of the personality. Aspiration/ faith are the first of these.
(Gaia House) Words like “central axis” and “periphery” help create a template for awareness of all the senses in a field rather than seizing on points or a particular sensory experience. This is citta / mind/ heart, an awareness of a psychosomatic field.
(Gaia House) Becoming aware of the spinal axis and the space around it. This can be used in any position.
(Gaia House) Refuges and precepts provide a field of conscience and concern that wards off carelessness, imbalance, distractedness and negativity – and helps in moving towards a true norm that won’t let us down.
(Gaia House) Gathering ourselves into a field of collective awareness, we tune into a sense of shared belonging and support with other human beings.
(Cittaviveka) Using the body's sensitivity we can notice what stabilizes and gladdens the citta, that moment the Buddha touches our heart. How can our practice continue this? Ajahn recommends cultivating sampajañña - fully and directly knowing what’s happening - and describes its four qualities.
(London Insight Meditation) Contemplating the internal experience of “me” and the way “me” reacts with external phenomena reveals how our identity is constantly manufactured by our reactions. Widening and relaxing supports a heart that is modest, clear and open, without stress and without identity; a heart that can comfortably meet and deal with what arises.
(London Insight Meditation) Who or what you think you are is not your fundamental home. Learning to contemplate the citta/ mind/ heart and the five aggregates (form, consciousness, perceptions, feelings and mental formations) reveals a way to dismantle the driven ego and liberate the citta from aging, sickness and death.
(London Insight Meditation) A guided chanting / sound exercise to generate internal harmony and harmony with others.
(London Insight Meditation) Identity is actually a process of making a self through clinging to what mind creates through contact with our environment and other people. This process comes down to the interplay of form, consciousness, perceptions, feelings and mental formations – the aggregates (khandha) But am I really any part of this? Investigation allows us to unclog the heart and release the inherent suffering. Ajahn recommends walking as a way of experiencing flow and fluidity. No identity is needed!
(London Insight Meditation) Investigation reveals this to be a mix of causes and conditions (inherited karma) along with actions and attitudes established through compulsive reactions. Using the Buddha's core teaching of the dukkha/ suffering that comes with clinging, we learn to use the feelings in the body as a guide to allow us to move out of this programmed self.
(Cittaviveka) Our practice comes down to building up Path factors. Building up skills of integrity, loving-kindness, clarity of mind, and calm in order to be able to fruitfully meet dukkha. Clearing the ground, so citta is properly fed and encouraged to meet where the sense of self, the identification experience, comes to light – then citta can speak from its depth.
(Cittaviveka) The mind is affected by the world of sense consciousness – creates boundaries and generates a self. But what’s to be cultivated is the unconditioned where those limitations and differentiations don’t exist. Relax the boundaries with the practice of goodwill. Incline towards harmony, respect, integrity, and paying careful attention, for your welfare and the welfare of others. This is an end to our proliferations.
(Cittaviveka) The thinking mind conceives, weaves into being other people and self; it’s very convincing. But there is a choice – you can refer to things, people, situations – or you can refer to where faith arises. Turn to that faith-vehicle and let the energies and the tonality of faith, generosity and virtue shape mind (or ‘heart’ citta). Then you find a proper basis for mindfulness.
(Cittaviveka) A lot of our practice is to recognize the ‘I am’ cannot do it – it has to be understood carefully as energies, habits, stories. Find another vehicle, the 5 indriya, the spiritual allies. The beauty of the practice is it works beyond the ‘I am’. The ‘I ‘can’t do it, but the indriya can. Give them a chance to keep working, and nature of citta is it does recognize these transpersonal qualities, like when a dog knows where its true master is.
(Cittaviveka) Practice with directly experienced meanings, dhammas, qualities that touch the heart. Looking into causes and conditions, we begin to sense, this is causing certain phenomena to cease or arise. See where it goes; dhammas lead on by themselves. If you stay in touch with them they lead on to further clearance, or to further stress and suffering.
(Cittaviveka) Investigate feeling as an energy rather than as content. Refer to that which is affected, the heart itself. It’s up to us to apply energy, investigate, turn the mind around, turn the heart, get it to see clearly. Use body to stabilize and simplify content, and the concoction of thought dissipates. This is release; the heart becomes unrestricted.
(Cittaviveka) Aspiration connects to the very fundamental wish of the heart, and acts as the basis for energy. What does the heart really rise up for? Rather than just getting by in life, where is the sense of purpose and meaning that brings forth the best in us? All of our actions and words should proceed from that place of faith. Body helps ground and moderate that energy.
(Cittaviveka) The one thing we can train in and recollect is that we can aspire. No other creature aspires. We are born with desire, and if we don’t use it for aspiration it leaks out into sensuality and thinking. Then the mind loses its alertness. One of the most fundamental things we aspire to is a different alignment. Finding a place to stand which is true, empowering, dignified, blameless – a refuge. This is how you stand apart from the worldly currents, and live in the quality of good intent.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) When your heart becomes buried under thought, or you can’t manage what’s happening in the heart, then you need your body to bring you back. Body provides the steadying effect that allows the heart to come out. The other approach is through kindness, the ability to maintain presence, pausing and lingering whilst waiting for the heart’s response. This is how we begin to put aside the reactions and compulsiveness, and find our way out of the tangled web of confusion and distraction.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) 00:06 Mind in body or body in mind; 01:31 Citta voice and thinking mind voice – how to bring them together; 03:12 Mind storm leads to confusion, compulsive thoughts; 05:51 Sleeplessness, especially accompanied with anxiety; 08:02 how to ensure qualities like love are not coming from self-centeredness or craving; 11:09 Fear around upcoming surgery; 13:34 Losing the balance of mind when overcome with pain; 20:22 Others means of practice in addition to meditation; 21:59 Practicing meditation with the aim of attaining jhānas; 27:04 Getting a sense of pīti during meditation; 34:55 If there's no self who inherits the karmic residues from past lives; 36:51 discernment vs judgment.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) Wherever you are, you’re always present. We tend to focus on what we’re present with, the sights and sounds, but what’s the capacity to be present with them? Remove the fear, agitation, craving, imagined hostility of other people – these block presence. Presence is a certain stability, freedom from regret and agitation, goodwill towards myself and others. This is the most peaceful abiding.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) 00:30 Questions about meditation; 16:01 What is awareness of awareness? Difference in mano, manas, citta and viññāṇa; 26:00 How to deal with impatience and restlessness; 30:27 How to know if I’m cultivating well; 31:37 Obsessive compulsive disorder; 36:47 Meditation on the 32 parts of the body; 39:54 When thoughts stop and fade away; 41:10 How to deal with death and loss; 43:20 Standing meditation; 45:02 Easier to recognize some feelings but not others; 48:42 Conditionality, saṇkhāra and the aggregates.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) By and large we’re looking for the ending suffering, for the possibility of bringing forth what’s good. This is the realm of citta, it wishes to do good. This body is just a tool, to do good deeds with, to work with this person, rather than being it. It’s a vehicle to bring forth the good, the true, the beautiful. Don’t be deceived by appearances, this is a transformation. Bring forth your aspiration vehicle.
(Cittaviveka) 00:53 Please explain the idea of the pāramī; 04:59 Letting go of thinking/expectation; 07:44 Using the sound of silence in practice; 15:58 How Qigong connects to practice; 24:47 Tension in tongue and jaw; 25:03 Remaining “upright and joyful”; 29:23 Family does not agree with my practice; 34:13 Dealing with pain; 38:10 Experience of a deep horrific fear; 43:45 Out of body experiences while meditating; 45:19 Relationship between release of somatic knots and releasing the citta; 48:55 Regrets and resentment; 50:13 Can you speak about the āsava? 53:37 Difference between peace, serenity and tranquility? Pīti and sukha?
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) The natural shape of the heart when it’s not dragged out by the sense world has the quality of stable well-being to it. This is the highest happiness. Do what you can do from good intention, restraint and kindness. Keep returning to that because that’s your home base where your heart is naturally able to express itself, manifest its values and qualities into your life.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) 00:40 Guidance on the reclining position; 08:48 Managing energy, not overexerting but staying diligent; 15:06 Samādhi process as a settling “downwards” of the citta; 16:17 How can we meditate on space in the body; 22:08 How to distinguish cultivation from craving to become; 24:27 What weakens resolve; 26:29 Feelings of disappointment and resentment; 31:25 Feeling like the “I” was inclining to drop but felt stuck in recent meditation.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) The theme of mindfulness of breathing is to regulate so our bodily system comes into a moderated state. When heart-mind tunes into that it naturally gives rise to beneficial psychologies – simplicity, generosity, sympathy, warmth. When we begin to take in the qualities of our good actions, it helps to repair our nervous system so it’s no longer so tense, irritable, jumpy or feeling so guilty – things shift. That’s the process. Therefore, we should cultivate this way.
(Bandar Utama Buddhist Society) Heart-mind will be shaped by whatever we put our attention into, so aim to shape it with supportive influences. A commitment to integrity will shape the mind to be steady, strong, confident, reliable. Shape it around refuges and precepts, for your own welfare and the welfare of others.
(Cittaviveka) Of all the things to be sensitive about, the most urgent and important, is to know how you’re activated and to calm the citta saṇkhāra. We get morphed by what we plug into, so unplug and let go of the unskillful, and plug into what’s necessary for calming and steadying. It takes time for citta to get it. Keep making an effort with friendliness, aligning everything in our lives to support this present awareness.
(Cittaviveka) The cultivation of wisdom is not just a matter of intellectually knowing something, it’s a practice of handling, and staying in touch with what’s felt. Steadying citta so it can come out of its fixed gripped state, there’s a turning towards dispassion and right response. Stay in touch with the process, do the process and see where it goes – that’s how you learn.
(Cittaviveka) The process of cultivation is a pleasant one of cleaning away the dross and delusions that cause us suffering and stress. Drop by drop the bucket fills up with skillful actions and overflows into something more deep, steady, reliable. Be a stable presence rather than search for it, ‘out there’ – gradually the chaos will begin to still. There’s a process there, and the result is purification.
(Cittaviveka) With careful attention we pick up those qualities within experience that are most supportive for liberation. It means we notice how things affect us and the results that follow. Mindfulness of body gives you something to rest in as you breathe through the rocky areas of heart and mind. Citta comes out of its restricted state and there’s a widening, stepping back, letting go.
(Cittaviveka) There is the nutriment for ignorance and the nutriment for true knowledge and liberation. Both are dependently arising on other factors. What arises, whether skillful or unskillful, is based on how one places attention, moderates attitudes, and relinquishes self-view. This is a transpersonal process – keep filtering experience in these transpersonal terms.
(Cittaviveka) With mindfulness of breathing, subtle beneficial signs are picked up and suffused into the body. We can relinquish the signs we’ve picked up from the concrete jungle, the fear, the dread, the lack of heartfulness; we can purify the internal environment. Refer to what’s beautiful, uplifting, noble and generous. With mindfulness of breathing you’re taking in these messages.