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In the famous discourse on the 'Foundations of Mindfulness' (Satipaṭṭhāna) the Buddha promises us that we can attain Nibbāna or Non-Returning in just 7 days, if we practise as descibed by him.
Why, then, are we still enmeshed in suffering?
Ajahn Dhammasiha describes six obstructions that we have to abandon first - otherwise we're not able to practise Satipaṭṭhāna in the way the Buddha described them:
Delight in Work Delight in Chatting (including social media!) Delight in Sleep Delight in Socialising (including social media!) Lack of Sense Restraint Not knowing the Right Measure when Eating [Anguttara Nikāya/Numerical Discourses, Book of Sixes, #117Dhammagiri Website
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Ajahn Dhammasiha responds to two closely related questions from the audience:
1.
We may experience highs and lows in our meditation practice. Sometimes it even seems like we're suddenly back to zero, almost like riding a roller coaster.
How can we make our Dhamma practice more consistant?
2.
How can we prevent unwholesome mindstates from arising?
This is actually the first of 4 factors of Right Effort (sammā-vāyāma), number six in the Noble Eightfold Path: Rather than trying to abandon unwholesome states once they have come up, it's better to 'nip them in the bud', as they say, by eliminating the conditions that potentially cause defilements to arise in the first place.
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Dependent Origination (Paṭicca Samuppāda) is one of the core teachings of the Buddha.
However, it is a teaching that the Buddha himself described as 'deep, profound, subtle, difficult to see...'.
Ajahn Dhammasiha explains how we can observe aspects of dependent origination during a common, every-day activity:
Taking food from a buffet! 🍚🍛🥄🥣
Ajahn offers reflection how we can observe the relationship of:
Sense Contact (phassa)
Craving (taṇhā)
Clinging / Grasping (upādāna)
While taking food from the buffet.
The moment we lift up some food from the buffet, and put it onto our plate, something remarkable and very powerful happens in our mind:
We now regard this food as 'mine', it has somehow become 'my food'.
However, nothing has changed in the food. It's still the same food. But once it's on our plate, something has very much changed in our mind, 'mine-making' has occurred.
We have actively done something to dramatically change our attitude to that food, by taking possession of it mentally.
This same process of mine-making we do all the time, every moment with all 5 groups of clinging (pañc'upādānakkhandhā):
Form / Body (rūpaṃ) Feeling (vedanā) Perception (saññā) Intention / Will (sankhārā) Consciousness (viññāṇaṃ)However, it's more difficult to clearly see in regards to these 5 groups of clinging.
What's happening with our mind at the buffet is easier accessible to direct observation, and can get us started in investigating upādāna.
If we can carefully, mindfully observe how we're doing 'mine-making' while taking food from the buffet (or even while buying a new iPhone from the shop), we can hopefully understand how upādāna arises in our mind, and then STOP mine-making.
That would be all that's required to fully liberate ourselves:
If we stopped all mine-making, our heart would be fully released and experience Nibbāna!
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Loving Kindness is an extremely beneficial mental quality, and an excellent meditation object. However, in some situations Compassion (Karuṇā) or Sympathetic Joy (Muditā) may work even better to overcome unwholesome mind states, and develop wholesome ones.
(Of course, there is also the extremely important 4th 'Divine Abiding' (Brahmavihāra), namely Equanimity (Upekkhā), but that will have to be covered in another talk)
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Ajahn Dhammasiha responds to a question from the audience:
What's the meaning of Anatta ( Not Self ) ?
In particular, Ajahn reflects about the important distinction between Not Self (anatta), which the Buddha expounded very frequently, and No Self (natth'attā), which the Buddha actually never taught.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha and Ajahn Moneyyo recite the traditional Pali verses of blessing, anumodanā, and sharing of merits with departed loved ones.
This is what we chant every day for our kind and generous donors, when they offer alsmfood for the monks' daily meal.
You can read the full Pali text and English translation in this blog post on our website.
Below is only about half the chant, as much as fits into the podcast description:
"Yathā vāri-vahā pūrā
paripūrenti sāgaraṃ
Evam-eva ito dinnaṃ
petānaṃ upakappati.
Icchitaṃ patthitaṃ tumhaṃ
khippam-eva samijjhatu;
Sabbe pūrentu sankappā
cando paṇṇa-raso yathā
maṇi joti-raso yathā.
As all the water in the streams
is flowing to the boundless sea,
Just likewise all your offerings
are flowing to the spirit world.
And all you wish for and desire
shall soon and safely be attained;
May wholesome wishes be fulfilled
just like the moon at full-moon night
just like a wish fulfilling gem.
Sabb'ītiyo vivajjantu,
sabba-rogo vinassatu;
Mā te bhavatv-antarāyo,
sukhī dīgh'āyuko bhava.
May all distress come to an end,
may all desease be quickly healed,
May all your problems be resolved,
may you live long and happily.
Abhivādana-sīlissa,
niccaṃ vuḍḍh'āpacāyino;
Cattāro dhammā vaḍḍhanti:
Āyu vaṇṇo sukhaṃ balaṃ.
When someone's always honouring
the elders worthy of respect,
Then they will grow in these four things:
long life, strength, beauty, happiness.
( ... )
(Not enough space in this description to include everything)
Also, please note the monks only chant the Pali part, English translation above is just for your information.
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A couple getting married was interested to get some advice on Buddhist teachings how to make a marriage work, so that it lasts long and both spouses can live in harmony.
Ajahn Dhammasiha cites a study done in Italy with functional MRI brain scans, that claimed to have found that the feeling of romantic love biologically is not designed to last for decades.
In fact, the researchers considered the absolute maximum duration as approximately 4 years or so (though often it is much shorter).
This seems to agree with personal experience of most people.
As marriage is usually supposed to last a whole lifetime, it follows that romantic love lasting max 4 years can not be a sufficient foundation.
Instead, a married couple has to build up other qualities in their relationship, which sound much less 'romantic', but actually do last for a lifetime...
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#wedding #marriage #love #commitment #respect #buddhism #dhamma
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"For one dependent, there is wavering.
Without dependence, there's no wavering.
Without wavering, there's tranquility.
With tranquility, there's no inclination.
Without inclination, there's no coming and going.
Without coming and going, there's no passing away and rearising.
Without passing away and rearising, there's no here or there or anywhere in between.
This, just this, is the end of suffering."
Udāna 9.4 "Catuttha-nibbāna-paṭisaṃyutta-sutta"
Inspired Exclamations 9.4 "4th Sutta re Nibbāna"
Ajahn Dhammasiha offeres some reflections on this profound sutta, an inspired exclamation the Buddha uttered in verse when he was teaching Dhamma related to Nibbāna, and the monks where all listening fully attentive.
Ajahn Ṭhānissaro's (Ajaan Geoff's) translation of the Udāna is available for free download as epub, pdf and other formats here.
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It's so important not to only look at all the bad things happening, or to be mostly focussed our own faults. Without denying negative events, we can discoved so much that's good, wholesome and admirable, both in ourselves and in others.
If we only pay attention to the bad things, we feel miserable.
If we notice and appreciate all that's good, we fill our lives with rejoicing, joy and muditā.
Ajahn Dhammasiha also addresses questions about:
23:27 Meaning of 'psasāda' (confidence/faith)?
25:10 Is the desire to realize Nibbāna a 'good' desire?
29:20 Why didn't the Bodhisatta's first teacher didn't attain nibbāna themselves, as they had already realized very deep samādhi?
33:55 Anāpāṇasati (mindfulness of the breath) or Mettā (loving kindness) as meditation object?
Related to the last question, Ajahn explains how to easily find any of our podcasts: Just enter any subject you're interested in, and all the relevant podcast will show up to listen to.
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#joy #rejoicing #mudita #goodness #meditation
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At almsoffering before the meal, the monks usually chant the blessing, anumodanā & verses for sharing merits with the spirits of departed relatives.
Does that sharing of good karma really reach the departed?
Under what conditions, in which sphere of rebirth can they they benefit most from sharing merits?
Ajahn Dhammasiha quotes from Anguattara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha), Book of Tens, #177, 'Jānussoni-sutta'.
In this discourse, the Buddha explains that direct material benefit in the form of food, drink, clothing & shelter can only be transferred to loved ones reborn in the 'Peta-loka', ('Realm of Hungry Ghosts'/'Deprived Spirits'). It's so important for them, and they really depend on it so much for satisfying their basic needs, that the Buddha established it as a duty for us to regularly share merits with departed relatives, just in case that they ended up in this realm.
Moreover, we had relatives also in our countless previous lives. Therefore, even if the relative we're thinking of primarily is not reborn among the deprived spirits (and won't required our sharing anyhow in a deva or human rebirth), the Buddha asserted that there will always be some relative from on of our past lives that can benefit from our sharing.
Consequently, we should include all past relatives when sharing merits, additionally to the main recipient.
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On occasion of his first visit to Australia at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Brisbane, Ajahn Amaro shares insights about the four noble truth, one of the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha. In particular, Ajahn provides guidance how to apply contemplation of the 4 Noble Truths in our daily life.
Ajahn Amaro is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near London, UK.
Born in England in 1956, Ven. Ajahn Amaro received a BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979.
Soon afterwards he returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.
In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010.
He then returned to Amaravati to become Abbot of this large monastic community.
Ajahn Amaro has written a number of books, including an account of an 830-mile trek from Chithurst to Harnham Vihara called Tudong - the Long Road North, republished in the expanded book Silent Rain. His other publications include Small Boat, Great Mountain (2003), Rain on the Nile (2009) and The Island - An Anthology of the Buddha's Teachings on Nibbana (2009) co-written with Ajahn Pasanno, a guide to meditation called Finding the Missing Peace and other works dealing with various aspects of Buddhism.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha shares reflections on the five faculties (pañcindriya), crucial spirtual qualities in our heart that power our Dhamma practice.
We can gradually develop each of these using suitable skillful means. Fortunately, they are not erased at death, but carry accross to our next life, allowing us to cultivate them over several life times, till they are strong enough to eradicate the defilements (kilesa) and free ourselves from suffering with their help.
Confidence / Faith / Conviction (saddhā) Energy / Persistant Effort (viriya) Mindfulness (sati) Unification of mind / 'concentration' (samādhi) Wisdom (paññā)Dhammagiri Website
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#spiritualfaculties #pancindriya #faith #energy #mindfulness #samadhi #wisdom
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Ajahn Dhammasiha reflects on skilfull means to overcome the 5 hindrances (Pañca Nīvaraṇā).
It is exactly these 5 obstructions which stop our mind from unifying in samādhi, and weaken our wisdom:
Sensual desire (kāmacchanda) Ill Will / Anger / Aversion (byāpāda) Laziness / Tiredness / Sloth & Torpor / Lack of energy (thīna-middha) Restlessness & remorse (uddhacca-kukkucca) Doubt / Wavering / Vacillation (vicikicchā)Dhammagiri Website
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The Buddha explains in this short but powerful discourse:If we're trying to find all our happiness only in socializing and interacting with friends & family, we will not be able to enjoy the happiness of solitude.Without enjoying the happiness of solitude, we will never understand our own mind.If we don't understand our own mind, we can't realize stream entry, sammā samādhi and Nibbāna.Sutta Study of Anguttara Nikāya, Sixes, No 68Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Book of Sixes No 68
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Ajahn Dhammasiha goes through the 8 factors of the Noble Eight Fold Path, and explains how they are relevant to guide our action and speech, both in daily life as well as in our formal meditation.
The Noble 8-Fold Path Ariyo Aṭṭhangiko Maggo, also know as the 'Middle Way' Majjhimā Paṭipadā is one of the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha, mentioned prominently already in his very first formal teaching, the Discourse on Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma.
In fact, the Noble Eightfold Path constitutes the Fourth Noble Truth, the way leading to the end of suffering.
However, if we don't know in detail what are the 8 factors of the Noble 8fold Path, we won't be able to practise on progress along that path.
If we know them well, we can apply one or several of them troughout our daily activites, and make bhāvanā (meditation/cultivation/development) an integral part of our daily life.
Right View Right Intention Right Communication Right Action Right Job Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right Samādhi (Concentration/Unification of Mind)Dhammagiri Website
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Ajahn Dhammasiha is asked by a newcomer to Buddhism for some advice how to get started with both study and practice of the Buddha's teaching.
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Ajahn Dhammasiha leads a guided meditation on Mettā, Loving Kindness, cultivating the intention of unconditional good will to all beings without distinction.
In particular, he encourages us to 'get the feeling going, i.e. to not just 'think' about loving kindness, but to recognize and nurture the ulifting, joyful emotion we feel while practising mettā.
He also points out how important it is to develop loving kindness to ourselves.
Finally, he shares some reflections on cultivating mettā while walking, and on maintaining the intention of good will to everyone throughout once daily life.
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#buddhism #dhamma #meditation #metta #lovingkindness
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Question & Answer session with Ajahn Amaro on the occasion of his first Australia visit at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Queensland, Brisbane.
Ajahn Amaro is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near London, UK.
Born in England in 1956, Ven. Ajahn Amaro received a BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979. Soon afterwards he returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.
In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010.
He then returned to Amaravati to become Abbot of this large monastic community.
PHOTOS OF AJAHN AMARO AT DHAMMAGIRI
Pics of Ajahn's visit at Dhammagiri can be seen here:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/ajahnamaro
and here:
https://latest-pics.dhammagiri.net/
MORE INFORMATION
Dhammagiri Website:
https://www.dhammagiri.net
Dhammagiri Newsletter:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/newsletter
Dhammagiri Podcasts:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast
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Although Nibbāna is beyond all description and can not possibly comprehended by the thinking mind through language and concepts, the Buddha still used various similes to convey some idea to us what Nirvāṇa is all about.
In particular, many times he compared the eperience of Nibbāna to a fire gone out.
However, there's a big problem with that simile nowadays:Our current understanding how fire functions is very different from the theory of fire in ancient India. In our time, after a fire has gone out, we simply regard it as non-existant.
But that would be a serious misunderstanding regarding the experience of Nibbāna. The statement that an enlightened person after death doesn't exist anymore has been explicitely rejected by the Buddha as not applicable (of course, to state that he exists is just as inapplicable). In ancient India, fire was regarded as 'clinging' to the fuel dependent on which it burns. When the fire goes out (e.g. through exhaustion of its fuel), the fire is released and enters a non-manifest state. Indian's at the time of the Buddha would not see an extinguished fire as non-existant.
Instead, they believed an extinguished fire is simply freed from its entrapment to the fuel, and has entered a state in which it can't be defined or described.As Ajahn Geoff Thanissaro will visit Dhammagiri end of November, Ajahn Dhammasiha uses the opportunity to introduce us to an excellent essay of Ajaan Ṭhānissaro on exactly this subject:
"The Mind Like Fire unbound"
By the way, our Spotify Playlists can be found here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/8z4dmrysnbbnjtz9f0wzjgcre
Our Podcast is also available on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast
More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news
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Our email Newsletter:
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In this short guided meditation, Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to be aware of the breath, but also to be aware of not turning our meditation into an excercise of I-Making and Mine-Making ('Ahaṃ-Kāra' & 'Mamaṃ-Kāra').
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Our Podcast is also available on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast
More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news
Our Youtube Channel:
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Our email Newsletter:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/newsletter
#guidedmeditation #meditation #buddhism #notself #not-self #anatta
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