There is a small lump of sandstone on my shrine. For fourteen centuries it was part of one of the two huge Bamiyan Buddhas in Central Afghanistan. I received the rock from a Thai lay Buddhist nearly twenty years ago.

Cultivating samādhi has three important benefits:

Firstly, it increases mental power. To understand this, we might compare meditation to using a magnifying glass to focus the rays of the sun.

“Monks, even if bandits were to sever you savagely limb by limb with a two-handed saw, if you were to give rise to a mind of hate towards them, you would not be carrying out my teachings”

Study the nature of change

as if your life depends on it.

(It does)

The more you understand impermanence

the lighter your step

The Buddha encouraged his disciples ‘Whatever is not yours, abandon it; abandoning it will lead to your long-lasting welfare and happiness.’

Today is Asalha Puja day, the day when we commemorate the teaching of the Dhammacakkha Sutta, the Buddha’s first discourse.

It might be said that the July (Asalha) full moon day, exactly two months after the Buddha’s enlightenment, signified the birth of Buddhism.

Monkeys often appear in Buddhist texts as symbols of mental unrest. When agitated, the mind is commonly referred to by meditation teachers as the ‘monkey mind’.

It is usually much easier to notice a new presence than a new absence. Presence is immediate: ‘What’s that strange object in the corner?’, ‘What a surprise, they’ve come to visit at last!’ Absence is more subtle and we often completely overlook it …

Religious faith gives people a sense of meaning and purpose, and provides emotional comfort through the ups and downs of life. A study of history suggests strongly that these psychological benefits are enjoyed independently of the objects of faith.

Imagine an artist at work, He makes a rough outline of the landscape of an imaginary world and then starts to fill it in. Some of the features in his emerging landscape are recognizable. Others are distortions of flora and fauna we are familiar with in our own world.

The seventeenth of June marked the 103rd anniversary of the birth of Ajahn Chah. That night, sitting in the moonlight surrounded by a group of monks, I asked each of them to share one teaching of Ajahn Chah that had particular meaning for them.

One key characteristic of Dhamma is ‘sanditthiko’. Translations of the term include, ‘directly visible’, ‘knowable’, ‘verifiable’ and ‘apparent here and now’. The Buddha illustrated its meaning with a statement: …

Buddhist meditation practices are not intended to be relaxation techniques. Relaxation is one of the first welcome results of meditation, but is by no means its final goal.

People often feel that they must make a choice between telling the truth and thereby hurting someone’s feelings, or else telling a ‘white’ lie to spare their feelings. But it is a false dilemma.

It has been observed that over the past two hundred years, as the number of pirates in the world has steadily declined, average global temperatures have steadily increased.

Two monks arriving at a river ford noticed a beautiful young woman sitting under a tree, crying. She told them that she was frightened and lost and didn’t dare to cross the swift-flowing river by herself. The younger of the monks felt sorry for the woman.

The most effective means to ensure that our actions and speech remain in harmony with our values is practising mindfulness of precepts. When we commit ourselves to the precepts and frequently reflect on them, we create the conditions for them to pop up in our mind whenever the intention to transgress arises.

Theravāda takes a rather modest and downbeat approach to helping others. Whereas the Bodhisattva vow states boldly, ‘Suffering beings are beyond number; I vow to save them all’ the Theravāda are more circumspect.

Looking back on my teenage years, wandering alone through places like Afghanistan, I am struck by how reckless I could be at times. It is tempting to look on my attitude on such occasions as fearless. But, in fact, it was simply intoxication.

To most householders, the accumulation of wealth seems the best way to provide a safety net for the uncertain future. This is reasonable: there is no question that material resources have an important role to play. But the wise give equal precedence to less tangible preparations.