Still Flowing Water, by Ajahn Chah

Posted on 14 June 2013 by Buddhism Now

Still Flowing Water by Ajahn Chah A collection of eight new or significantly revised translations of Ajahn Chah’s Dhamma talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Two of them have never been translated before into English, and four of them are based on entirely new Thai transcriptions of the best and most complete source recordings available.

Dhamma is a condition that can cut through and reduce the problems and difficulties in the human heart—reducing them, reducing them until they’re gone.

Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah © forestsangha.org

From Abhayagiri

mobi  ePUB

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The Point of Intersection between the timeless and time, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 20 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Morning sunrise over Devon, EnglandPeople often believe contemplation is the same as thinking about something. But when I use the word it means rather ‘contemplating what an existing condition is like’. If you feel angry or resentful, contemplate that feeling. This isn’t to say you should try to figure out why or where the feeling came from, but look at the way it is. Let it be and notice what it feels like as an experience in the present.

The three characteristics of impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and not-self (anatta) are the guiding suggestions. Not in the sense of going around thinking that anger is just impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self, or to project those ideas onto experience, but to look at impermanence and to contemplate it. I remember noticing the passage of time—of how the sun rises and sets—and using impermanence as a subject to contemplate for the day or for several days. We can notice visual change and sound. When an aeroplane flies over or somebody says something, for example, we can be aware of how sound is very definitely impermanent, fleeting, ephemeral. And taste and touch—are these things permanent? No! (more…)

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On Losing Someone You Love, by John Aske

Posted on 9 November 2012 by Buddhism Now

I once asked Phiroz Mehta what the central problem of our lives was. He pinched his arm and said: ‘We think we are this body, but we’re not.’

Window View into Widecombe on the moor church. Photo: RSRWhen I lost my mother after looking after her for five years, not only had I lost the last member of my family, but I also lost the main motivation for getting up in the mornings.

First comes the self-pity. But since no amount of that helps you or the way you feel — it just makes you feel worse! — you have every reason to put it aside and no reason whatsoever to let it nibble at you; that’s just as pointless as concerning yourself with the weather!

Much more of a problem for me was seeing something interesting or going to the theatre or a concert, and not having anyone to discuss it with. If I went on holiday — I went to Mexico in the spring of 2011 — I could tell someone all about it, someone who was genuinely interested. But suddenly there was no one to tell, and no one to be interested in what I was, or did, or anything. Unsurprisingly, I lost interest in myself. (more…)

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The Mindful Way

Posted on 1 November 2012 by Buddhism Now

Television program on Buddhism with an interview with Ajahn Chah.

Ajahn Chah (17 June 1918 — 16 January 1992)
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In 1977, Ajahn Chah was invited to visit Britain by the English Sangha Trust, a charity with the aim of establishing a locally-resident Buddhist Sangha. He took Venerable Sumedho and Venerable Khemadhammo along, and seeing the serious interest there, left them in London at the Hampstead Vihara (with two of his other Western disciples who were then visiting Europe). He returned to Britain in 1979, at which time the monks were leaving London to begin Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in Sussex.

Theravada Buddhism, video, The Mindful Way, duration: 20 mins.

From forestsangha.org

Buddhist Videos

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Love, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 26 July 2012 by Buddhism Now

Sunlight through woodsWhen I was eighteen years old and at University, I fell in love. I had this powerful experience. For the first time in my life I would do anything for another person. That part was very pure. But, then, being eighteen I didn’t know how to handle the experience; my emotions were still very immature and I ended up being possessive, demanding and jealous. There was no wisdom involved. I thought, ‘If I have this girl, if I possess her, then I’ll get this feeling all the time.’ There was a kind of mystical moment of selflessness, but the emotions were unprepared. I simply reverted to the old habits of grasping, possessing, feeling jealous, making a general nuisance of myself and making myself totally unlovable. This was in about 1952. (more…)

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Realise the peace of the unconditioned, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 17 July 2011 by Buddhism Now

Ajahn Sumedho delivers an inspiring Dhamma talk centred around the conditioning we receive throughout our lives, and the tools one can use to see clearly and to realise the peace of the unconditioned.

The talk was given at the Ajahn Chah Remembrance Day on 16 January 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Part one:

(more…)

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Compose your minds, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 20 April 2011 by Buddhism Now

Stone Buddha. Photo: © David BlancoCompose your minds, look inwards and become aware of the here and now ― the body, the breath, the mental state, the mood you are in ― without trying to control or judge or do anything; just allow everything to be what it is.

For many people the attitude towards meditation is one of always trying to change something, always trying to attain a particular state or recreate some kind of blissful experience remembered from the past, or of hoping to reach a certain state by practising. When we practise meditation with the idea of having to do something, however, then even the idea of practice ― even the word ‘meditation’ ― will bring up this idea that ‘if I’m in a bad mood, I should get rid of it’, or ‘if the mind is scattered and I’m all over the place, I should make it one-pointed’. In other words, we make meditation into hard work. So then there is a great deal of failure in it because we try to control everything through these ideas, but that is an impossibility. (more…)

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Listening Beyond The Words, by Ajahn Chah

Posted on 23 December 2010 by Buddhism Now

Photo: Ajahn Chah © forestsangha.org.

When the mind has wisdom,
then what could there be beyond that?

Really, the teachings of the Buddha all make sense. Things you wouldn’t imagine really are so. It’s strange. At first I didn’t have any faith in sitting in meditation. I thought, what value could that possibly have? Then there was walking meditation — I walked from one tree to another, back and forth, back and forth, and I got tired of it and thought, what am I walking for? Just walking back and forth doesn’t have any purpose. That’s how I thought. But in fact walking meditation has a lot of value. Sitting to practise samadhi has a lot of value. But the temperaments of some people make them confused about walking or sitting meditation. *

(more…)

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I took the snoring as my meditation subject, by John Aske

Posted on 3 February 2010 by Buddhism Now

Reclining Buddha, Burma. © John AskeThere can be few sounds more maddening than snoring — someone else’s snoring I mean. A few years ago I put up a friend, who was between flats and who had just embarked on a university course. He had the back room and I had the front, where my books were.

Then, one night, an acquaintance appeared at my door, dishevelled and in a broken state, with nowhere to go. I didn’t want to put him up as well, as I had already parcelled out the rooms – all two of them – but I felt sufficiently concerned to do so — an old Hampstead custom. Unfortunately, he smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish. And when people do that, they apparently snore very loudly due to damage of the soft palate. (more…)

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