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Reflection on Winter Retreat 2021 from Richard

Signs of spring are making themselves felt. The early birds have started arriving, showering us with
their multiple calls and exhibiting their mating dances. The sun now feels quite warm, even on days
where the air is cold. The snow is all gone; the coyote and deer are free to roam unconstrained by their
narrow trails. Hello, I am Richard. I have been a steward at Tisarana for the past two years. Luang por
Viradhammo has invited me to write a blog entry about the winter retreat.
Every year the community at Tisarana works hard to maintain and further establish the monastery,
doing so both on the grounds and in the offices. The winter retreat is thus set aside expressly to provide
an opportunity away from these duties in order to focus on meditation. The winter retreat is quite quiet
both in terms of routine and nature that surrounds us. The pace, with its daily work period, already
begins to slow down as the cold weather arrives. And so, very naturally the monastery settles into the
long wintery quietness of retreat, like the first dusting of snow gently falling to the ground. In order to
relieve the monastic community from their mundane duties yet keeping the monastery functional, a lay
retreat crew is invited to serve on the retreat.… Read the rest

Practicing when your Attention is Like the Weather

Venerable Khemako discusses how calmness and stillness associated with meditation is a means to a higher end, not the end itself. He describes how one’s attention is variable like the weather, and how one can start with a coarse object of meditation and then see whether the mind can observe more details of, for example, the subtleties of the breath. (Dhamma talk recorded at OBS Arnprior retreat on 25 November 2019. Duration 31:34).… Read the rest

Stillness Flowing Audio Book

Stillness Flowing » Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

At long last, the much-awaited ‘Stillness Flowing’ audio book is now available online. 
Thanks to the efforts of Aj. Jayasaro and Aj. Siripanyo, the audio book is made available in time for Ajahn Chah’s memorial day today (Jan 16th). 

There are several ways that Stillness Flowing audio book can be accessed:
Directly from Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasaro website:
https://www.jayasaro.panyaprateep.org/en/audio-album/9


iOS devices can be listened to through Apple Podcasts app:
https://podcasts.apple.com/th/podcast/stillness-flowing-audiobook/id1482419439

Android devices can listen through any podcast app or Podbean Pro free app:
https://www.podbean.com/pi/dir-gcht8-a31c9

Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasaro Youtube channel:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgeFTePFzP7oyrAbO9bGsEp39RmnggWcr

… Read the rest

Ajahn Pavaro’s Reflections on 2020

Reflections on 2020

Ajahn Pavaro

December at Tisarana. Each day we walk by the deer in their thickened fur – the does with their observant young, foraging on grass and congregating at the salt lick near our main buildings. The Canada geese have now flown South with their happy racket. Only a few hardy species of birdlife remain, like the chickadees with their pinprick eyes, darting between the low bushes to feeders we fill for the simple pleasure of seeing them thrive.

I’ve now been at Tisarana for half a year; it’s my first Canadian winter after living in Thailand for nine years. Each morning’s community meeting contains a brief weather update – seldom a pressing matter in S.E. Asia. Since returning my supply of clothing and footwear has tripled. Snow has come and gone… and come and gone, and come. Almost without noticing, my acquaintance has returned with the crackle of ice underfoot, the moods of a wood stove, and the uncanny compaction of sound in dense cold.

Yet for all the differences, living as a bhikkhu in this tradition ensures a fair continuity of purpose and practice, something that differing weather, and alterations of flora and fauna, do not disrupt.… Read the rest