Fear of loss cripples us. It makes us grasp too tightly to the things and people we love. It makes us anxious. It makes us angry with anything or anyone who threatens us with loss.

One mark of great teachers is their ability to explain the most profound matters in language that is simple and yet in no way betrays their deep meaning.

Meditation allows us to understand the meaning of the word ‘defilement’, and to experience the wonder of its absence.

Two virtues that protect the world

1) Hiri: viewing bad Kamma as shameful as excreting in the middle of the marketplace.

Give kind actions

Give kind speech

Give kind thoughts

‘Sappurisa’ is one of the terms used by the Buddha to refer to wise, cultivated people. The seven qualities of sappurisas provide a useful checklist for assessing one’s own level of education.

When Kisa Gotami’s child died she went mad with grief. Grasping the child’s body firmly to her breast, she refused to believe the truth. Kisa Gotami searched ceaselessly for someone to cure her child of its illness.

Ajahn Chah did not speak English but he was very skilled in teaching his Western disciples who knew little Thai. One day, in the weeks following my arrival at Wat Pah Pong, I was sweeping leaves when he walked by on an inspection tour.

In the Buddhist sense, contentment is the feeling that comes when we know how to appreciate the good points of something, …

These days there seems to be so much contention throughout the world on so many important issues. Often we don’t have the time or resources to be able to make reliable judgements as to where the truth is really to be found.

It is because we have all created a great deal of good kamma in our past lives that we have been born into the human realm and come into contact with Buddhism.

The Buddha often spoke in praise of practising the recollection of death. He declared that if well cultivated it leads to the deathless. When he once asked a group of monks how they developed this practice

In all parts of the world, a long life is considered a blessing. But what is a long life? What if it were defined in terms of the time we are conscious of being alive?

It was cool and damp this morning here in the hermitage. After my daily meal I returned to my kuti, wrapped myself in my shawl, and made a cup of tea.

Forbearance (Khanti) was praised by the Buddha as the ‘supreme incinerator’ of defilement. It has been defined as ‘peaceful co-existence with the unpleasant’.

The other day a lay Buddhist told me of the frustration she felt in trying to encourage her daughter to take an interest in the Dhamma. She said that her daughter insisted that at her age there was as yet no need to do so.

Human beings are not so good at self-assessment. Over-estimation of knowledge, skills and understanding is rife in every walk of life. A study of high-tech firms in the U.S. found that between 30 – 40% of software engineers rated their skills in the top 5% in their company.

If we are willing to stand back from the relentless flow of our lives, we realize that the brevity, the unpredictability of our existence is asking us questions: What is and what is not essential?

The practice of Dhamma can be summed up simply as learning how, grounded in the present moment, to experience:

seeing as seeing

hearing as hearing

Yesterday, I was sitting with a fellow monk in the grass-roofed pavilion at my hermitage. A gentle rain was falling and the temperature was pleasantly cool.