Only by familiarizing ourselves with all the elements, allowing these things to pass into our awareness untrammelled, and then out again — to allow them their changing nature — only in this way can we learn to live with them, accept them and be free of them. What we do not accept, what we love and hate, we are bound to.
You sometimes hear widely accepted teachings in Buddhism being argued about and all but dismissed, but Buddhism is for testing. Isn’t that the whole point? But you do hear these tussles going on…
In this troubled world of ours, there are plenty of opportunities for thoughts and deeds of compassion; but there seem to be all too few for sharing in others’ joy. Hence it is necessary for us to create new opportunities for unselfish joy, by the active practice of loving-kindness (metta) and compassion (karuna), in deeds, words, and meditative thought…
Buddhism, by its very nature, leads practitioners towards compassion for all beings…
The Buddha in effect produced a manual for seeing life as it is and dealing with it and its problems, undeluded by idealistic belief systems or the claims of great yogic power…
The path, the way, reality, is open for us all to see and know for ourselves. It can be done and we can do it if we wish. That, to me, is what the message is, at least in most forms of Buddhism.
Selfishness is a terrible burden for the entire world. You can see that all the problems, all the conflict, all the crises, are the result of selfishness. Many people come to Asia to get away from the constant sense of crisis that they meet with in the West. But they can’t escape it by coming to Asia. The same problems are here as well!
Ajahn Sumedho gives a Dhamma talk on meditation, the Four Noble Truths and the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena… Short film 43mins
Buddhism now 