Theravada

Is Your Hair On Fire? by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

It is quite amusing and quite sad that most people seem to wander through life in a little cloud, as if nothing were wrong. And then, when something is obviously wrong, they pretend it isn’t. People rarely develop the keen and powerful urge to be free of all the dukkha…

The Burden of Selfishness, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

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!

We have a choice, by Corrado Pensa

Every difficult or unpleasant situation can be used as further training for our aversion, anger and hatred or as training in our dharma practise. Any pleasant situation can be used to further our training in attachment, fantasising and possessiveness or to kindle attention and exercise our capacity to open up and let go…

Trust in your awareness, by Ajahn Sumedho

‘This is the awareness ― listening ― relaxed attention.’ Then you will feel the connection. It is a natural state that sustains itself. It isn’t up to you to create it. It isn’t dependent on conditions to support it. It is here and now whatever is happening…

The Burdened Heart, by Ajahn Brahmamuni.

True peace is found only in the dharma. When we practise meditation and our hearts attain to the dharma of letting go, or non-attachment to all moods, feelings and emotions, when we do not incline towards or attach to any mood whatsoever, then we will escape the repetitious cycle of birth and death; then we will escape Samsara…

The Still Silence, by Ajahn Sumedho

We can get very angry if we become attached to silence and stillness and sensory deprivation; it is so pleasant not to have things impinging on the senses once we get used to it. And if we attach to the silence out of ignorance, out of greed, then when it is disrupted we can feel very angry.