Feeling powerless and without choices is depressing. But having too many choices can cripple us. When there are a great many options available,

In order to let go of defilements we have to see them, and to see them without any sense of ownership or identification with them.

The discourses of the great teachers in the Thai Forest tradition often included martial imagery. Defilements are referred to as our bitter enemies,

Sometimes Dhamma practice feels like it is making life darker and heavier rather than brighter and lighter. If so, it can be a warning that you’ve lost your way.

Sitting under a Bodhi tree in northeast India, more than 2,500 years ago, the Buddha realised the true nature of all existence, and the means necessary to accomplish that realization.

Usually, when we shine light on an object we see it more clearly. But sometimes the light shows us that our perceptions were mistaken.

‘Kamma’ means intentional action.

Deliberately treading on an ant is bad kamma. Unintentionally doing so is not.

Untrustworthy people retreat from their lies step-by-step:

“It is absolutely untrue. I feel insulted that you could think this of me.”

One of the great underrated powers in the world is the power of familiarity. Human beings can feel indifferent in the presence of great beauty or great horror,

Right effort is the sixth constituent of the Eightfold Path. The Buddha explained it as consisting of:

(i) the effort to prevent the arising of as-yet unarisen unwholesome mental states

Yesterday, I arrived in England and went to visit my only surviving uncle. He is 93 years old and his mind is still very bright. Although he lives alone, his daughter’s house is visible from his kitchen, and he has many friends.

Sanghānussati, recollecting the virtues of the enlightened ones, can suppress the hindrances and bring joy to the mind. One great monk well worthy of such reflection is Ven. Sāriputta.

May 1977. I’d just crossed over the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was standing at the side of the road trying to hitch a ride to Kabul when a taxi stopped. In its back seat were sat a couple of well-dressed Westerners

I was never an enthusiastic student of the hard sciences. One topic in physics did, however, capture my attention. I discovered that light could be understood as being composed of either particles or waves.

Practice is not just a matter of establishing ourselves in the present moment. It is the values and qualities of mind that we bring to it which are crucial.

If someone were to say to us that they think that they should not be who they are, that they should be someone else, someone better, it would sound sad.

One of the most fundamental aspects of our physical experience is the presence or absence of warmth. Subjectively, we can classify this experience as feeling hot, cold or neither hot nor cold.

There is an old English saying much admired by my father: ‘Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.’

The elderly abbot of a monastery close to where I used to live had a special ability. During the weekly Wan Phra all-night practice sessions it was his custom to give very long Dhamma talks.

The more we look at our body and mind, the more we see their impermanence and unpredictability.