A Dhamma Article by Ajahn Amaro translated in Polish W dzisiejszych czasach te dwie tradycje mają możliwość zetknięcia się. Dostępny jest szeroki wybór pism buddyjskich, a wielu ludzi inspiruje się mistrzami różnych linii. Czytamy książkę, która zachęca nas do uwolnieniasię od pragnień, nienawiści i ułudy; do tego, by uciec od niekończącego się cyklu narodzin, i czujemy: „Tak, to jestto!”. Następnie czytamy o tych współczujących istotach, których głównym zmartwieniem jest, jak zostać w tym świecie i przynieść ulgę w cierpieniu innym, i znowu serce zaczyna bić mocniej: „To jest wspaniałe!”. Czy ..read more

A Dhamma article written by Ajahn Amaro in 2008 – ‘Don’t be an arahant, don’t be a bodhisattva, don’t be anything at all – if you are anything at all you will suffer’ [Ajahn Chah]. A student of Buddhism asked: ‘Which do you think is the best path: that of the arahant or that of the bodhisattva?’ Ajahn Sumedho replied: ‘That kind of question is asked by people who understand absolutely nothing about Buddhism!’ One of the larger and more significant elephants in the living-room of Buddhism in the West is the uneasy and often unexpressed disparity between the classically stated goals of the North ..read more

A Dhamma Article by Ajahn Amaro A talk given at The Humanities Center, Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University, California, on November 7th, 2018 When we consider Buddhism and Mindfulness – what are the prospects? What are the challenges? What can we look forward to? What direction are they heading in? My first response is ‘Good question!’ The future is unknown. It is uncertain but we can possibly see various trends that are already taking shape. There are projections that we can make into the future. One small caveat that I would make is that sometimes things that seem to be obvio ..read more

  Dhamma reflection offered on 3 March 2021:    This is the half-moon Observance Day, and we have the opportunity to reflect on Dhamma, the way it is. For each one of us, the way it is right now is going to be different: with our own moods, memories, thoughts, expectations or whatever. When we try to compare one person with another, we get confused because we’re all different. On the level of saṅkhāras, or conditioned phenomena, everything is different. Nothing can stabilize into a permanent quality or condition; it’s beyond the ability of saṅkhāras,&nb ..read more

  Dhamma reflection offered to volunteers and staff during Ajahn’s first visit to the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives (BIA) on 13 January 2015, in response to the question, “May we have your suggestions regarding what else BIA could do, to support Ajahn’s projects and promote Buddha-Dhamma?”    Well, I think you’re doing it at this centre. It is a special place. Thai people are open, they want to know. I’ve seen significant change in the many years I’ve been connected to Thailand, especially in the middle class. People aren’t content with just old traditional Buddhism ..read more

Reflections by Ajahn Sumedho   Reflections shared with volunteers and staff of the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives (‘Suan Mokkh Bangkok’) in response to the question, “We heard that in the 1970s you went to Suan Mokkh. Was it just one time or several visits?”, offered by Luang Por Sumedho on 13th January 2015 and first-published here on the occasion of the 88th Anniversary of Suan Mokkh.   I’ve always regarded Ajahn Buddhadāsa, along with Luang Por Chah, as one of my primary teachers. I could relate to their way of teaching because it was so direct and simple. Ajahn Chah was ..read more

A Dhamma reflection by Ajahn Jayasaro Offered on 29 May 2006 at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery (To download this article please click here) One of Luang Por Chah’s most well-known teachings is that of letting go. And one of the key phrases that he used to explain what letting go means, and how it is to be developed, is that we should let go ‘within action’. This immediately reminds us that letting go is not a refraining from action, not passivity, but that the letting go takes place within the action itself. As monks and nuns in this Thai Forest Tradition, we may sometimes find ourselves accused ..read more

A Dhamma Article by Ajahn Amaro Previously published in a shorter version, in 2019, by Equinox Publishing Ltd. (Sheffield, UK & Bristol, CT). ‘Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins’ Edited by Naomi Appleton and Peter Harvey Introduction The words that form the title of this article will be familiar to most people practising meditation as well as to those who are also teaching it in the West. Ours is a pragmatic and goal-oriented culture, in the main part, so we put effort into our jobs, our education, even our holidays and we expect to get certain results. W ..read more

From the archive… For these troubled times, dhamma reflections on mettā from Luang Por Sumedho, Ajahn Sucitto, Ajahn Jayasaro and Ajahn Amaro. The Practice of Mettā by Luang Por Sumedho There is a great lack of mettā in the world today because we have overdeveloped our critical faculties: we constantly analyze and criticize. We dwell on what is wrong with ourselves, with others, with the society we live in. Mettā, however, means not dwelling in aversion, but being kind and patient even to what is bad, evil, foul or terrible. It’s easy to be kind to nice animals like little kittens and puppi ..read more

From the archive… Dhamma reflections from Luang Por Sumedho about living peacefully in a world of chaos. Doom, Destruction, Death, Decay This journey is involved with pain, with loss, as well as with pleasure and with gain. This realm isn’t a realm that we create out of our fantasy life; this realm is the way it is — it’s all about birth and death, about coming together and about separating, about arriving and departing, about having good health and losing it, about being young, attractive and so forth and then then losing it. Separation, loss is the experience of a human lifetime. These are ..read more