Oct 2: An Inside Source of Strength: The power of recollecting our your goodness The Buddha answer's the question how to practice well while living a busy lay life. Oct 9: Buddhanusati Buddhanusati is the recollection of the attributes of the Buddha. It is one of the 40 types of meditation that the Buddha taught. It provides a beautiful uplift to the heart which can lead to samadhi and thus to the insights that open to full Awakening.

Knowing Oneself and Knowing What's Suitable AN 4:21 The Buddha shares personally from his own life and teaches us in the process. Sept 15: Reproval: AN 5:167 This talk is part three of a three part series on emotions. We started with a talk by Ajahn Brahm on how to practice equanimity, which is one of the antidotes for disturbing emotions. Secondly we focused on a particular emotion: rejection. Today we look at the Buddha's teaching on how to prepare ourselves before we repr

The Profundity of Kindness AN 3:66 The Buddha has so much to say about the importance of kindness, to ourselves and to others. Aug 11: Sense Restraint The Buddha teaches us to use sense restraint to prevent the arising of desire and aversion. However, it's not really clear how to do this. Thankfully, Ajahn Munissara gives a very animated, detailed talk on how to actually carry out sense restraint....and she does it with a lot of humour. Here is the link to her talk. This

July 10: Changing Habits Bit by Bit Choices are happening all the time but "we" are not making them - our choices happen due to our conditioning and conditions. To change our habits we need to change our conditioning and conditions. July 17: Kamma Kamma is intentional action: thinking speaking or behaving. The law of kamma is that skillful intentions naturally lead to positive results and harmful or unskillful intentions naturally lead to suffering. This talk was based on Ven

June 4: What Has Your Attention Has You What we pay attention to creates our experience in the present moment and influences who we are becoming. Our attention is our most valuable resource and the Buddha knows this. He gives us practical, immediately doable instructions. June 12: The Gift of Honesty AN 4:11 Giving and receiving honest feedback is a lifeline for each of us. It has played an important role in the longevity and continuity of the Sangha. June 19: What Matters Wh

May 5: The Chariotmaker AN 3:15 The Buddha uses an analogy to teach us patience in the development of our meditation practice. Several other suttas from AN 2 and 3 were used to reveal advice from the Buddha on developing our practice. May 12: The Four Noble Truths This is the basic teaching of the Buddha. All his other teachings fit into this teaching. May 19: Authority There are three levels of authority we can call on to help purify our minds: ourselves, others who are psyc

Feb 6: Gratitude to Parents and The Skillful Attitude towards and use of Wealth Sanghamitta selected two topics from the Anguttara NIkaya for today and there is a connection between them. Feb 13: Faith in Action The Pali word that gets translated as faith is saddha. sad- means heart and --dha means nourish or support. Faith is what we do that nourishes our heart.

Jan 9: Wisdom: the beginning and end of the Path We have started a new series: Count on the Buddha. We will be going through the Buddha's teachings in the Anguttara Nikaya: the numbered sayings. Today Ayya Ahimsa discusses several verses that emphasize the importance of wisdom. Jan 13: The Case for Self Reflection The Buddha gives poignant advice to us about developing self reflection. Jan 20: Morality: the underpinning of our spiritual journey Sanghamitta shares teachings of

Dec 2: Pema Chodron Pema Chodron was the first American woman to receive full ordination as a Tibetan nun (via the Mahayana community of monastics in Hong Kong). Dec 12: Listening: A Language of Love Thich Nhat Hanh says deep listening is the foundation of Right Speech. Ayya Ahimsa maps out the necessity to listening internally in our meditation, externally in our relationships and the advance skill of being able to listen internally and externally simultaneously. Dec 19: Bud

Nov 11: Energy and Joy We've finished pedalling uphill with Mindfulness and Investigation of Dhamma. Now we're on the downhill run.....the rest of the Factors of Awakening are resultants of the causes we have been inputting. Nov 18: Tranquility and Stillness Sanghamitta talks about the 5th and 6th Factors of Awakening: tranquility and stillness (samadhi/jhana). Nov 28: Looking On - Equanimity The culmination of the Awakening Factors is upekkha, equanimity. Ayya describes what

Oct 3 - Part 6: Giving Up What's Not Yours In the final three verses of the Mangala Sutta the Buddha gives a compelling description of the liberated heart, a heart that no longer ignorantly, mistakenly experiences a sense of self. Oct 1 - Magnificent Metta-cine Metta practice is not just another tool in our meditation tool belt; it is a central foundation for our spiritual lives. Oct 17 - In Search of Kusala: The Seven Factors of Awakening The Seven Factors of Awakening are

Sept 5: Part 4 - More about living the good life In the Mangala sutta the Buddha continues to describe aspects of a good life:...

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