Ajahn Viradhammo conducts a question and answer session with the lay retreat crew. He talks about the difference between equanimity and indifference, reflects on the time spent caring for his elderly mother, explores the nature and function of mindfulness, suggests skillful means of dealing with the hindrances, recommends lying down meditation and speaks on gratitude and other heart based practises.… Read the rest
Venerable Cunda reflects on a mind which experiences sankharas and goes into a proliferation of thinking, and a mind which experiences the same sankharas, yet experiences no proliferation. He explains how we can use the skillful technique of ‘No Thought’ to train the mind towards the abandonment of proliferation. He shows how this training can help us work with doubt, praise and blame.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo expounds the teachings on generosity and morality, and explains how they are methods for reaching the final goal and not the goal itself. He stresses the importance of knowing unwholesome mind states in awareness. This knowing can then strengthen Right Mindfulness, instead of allowing these unwholesome states to become problems or obstacles.… Read the rest
Venerable Cunda explains how awareness is a sankhara that is conditioned by our efforts. He describes how practicing Right Effort and Right Mindfulness can fine tune our awareness, and uses the analogy of a spinning top to illustrate the different levels of awareness.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo reflects on the beauty of those who are currently well, but taking care of those who become sick. He recounts the tale of our Thai friends’ support and generosity for a new Buddha Rupa, and how the Thai’s love of Dhamma helps Buddhism spread to the West, and Western Buddhist teachings integrate back to the East.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo stresses a wise relation with the world of sensory objects, and how noticing a sense of space and the silence of the mind allows for a resting in awareness and a letting go of the objects of awareness. He integrates this teaching with Tan Ajahn Dtune’s reflection on an alternate interpretation of the Four Noble Truths.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo leads a guided meditation which emphasizes fully conscious awareness as a way to establish Right Mindfulness. He then walks through a scanning of bodily sensations followed by mindfulness of breathing. He stresses the key to the meditation as knowing all hindrances as they are instead of trying to control them, and points out how this knowing can strengthen the awareness.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo describes how the skillful use of language can aid us in knowing all sankharas for what they are, instead of indulging in them or becoming averse to them. He presents Tan Ajahn Dtune’s alternate version of the Four Noble Truths, which illuminates how the mind either creates suffering or knows freedom from suffering.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo gives techniques for handling distractions that arise during meditation. He stresses the importance of setting a firm intention before starting formal practice, and uses the example of counting the breathing to demonstrate this importance.… Read the rest
Ajahn Viradhammo contrasts two different types of attention, one which remains dependent on its object and one which leads to awareness. He explains how renunciation can help us in developing this awareness and in freeing ourselves from the objects of attention.… Read the rest
