Podcast, Page 35

Ajahn Vīradhammo answers questions from the Noble Eightfold Path Study Group about the talk he gave on vedāna (pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling).… Read the rest

Ajahn Chah would explain to people that his teaching method was through frustration. Ajahn Viradhammo explains: By being with our experiences of not getting what we want, we see our attachment to the conditions we desire and the suffering that ensues when we do not have access to these conditions. Through seeing this suffering we can more easily learn to let go of this attachment and grasping so we are available to the unconditioned. This talk is followed by a short question and answer series.… Read the rest

In this talk Ajahn Viradhammo encourages us to see how conditions can be held in awareness.  When anger goes out to an external object there is always an internal experience where this intention arises. Awareness hold this space of the mind moving outward. By quoting Ajahn Dune Atulo’s inverse order of the Four Noble Truths, he expresses how we can come home to awareness:

The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering.
The result of the mind sent outside is suffering.
The mind seeing the mind is the path.
The result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering.

From: Gifts He Left Behind, trans. by Ajahn Geoff… Read the rest

At the Ottawa Buddhist Society’s Friday night meeting Ajahn Viradhammo asks us again to investigate: “What is in awareness? What is the knowing?” By attending to the transcendent truth we can ask these liberating questions and experience peace whereas questioning the necessary but conventional truth, such as “Its hot in the room, turn on the fans . . .” is limited. Peace comes with knowing, in the sense of non-grasping. Thus knowing is not limited. The mind moving outward comes from grasping or seeking an object whereas knowing, being with, and receiving an object in awareness is an experience of non-grasping and has a liberating quality.… Read the rest

Ajahn Viradhammo explains how to use the precepts for our practice and also focuses on the theme of attention and how to consistently keep awareness on a particular object of mind.… Read the rest

Ajahn Viradhammo explains the Paramitas and how they can help us realize the goals we have set in our lives.… Read the rest

Ajahn Viradhammo gives an explanation and overview of the Eightfold Path and speaks about mindfulness of the body (the first Satipatthana tetrad).… Read the rest

This question an answer session follows the above titled talk. Please note that the first question could not be heard well and was deleted. Ajahn Viradhammo summarizes this first question before giving an answer. The questions include: using insight to deal with craving (without using thought), group kamma, and right livelihood.… Read the rest

Ajahn Viradhammo begins this talk by encouraging us to accept help when we need it rather than refusing it from a self reliant, egocentric or self-centered reaction. He goes on to explain the difference between knowledge and insight using examples from his own recent history: getting a visa for India, building ladders, etc. and shows us how to come back to our skillful intentions as if we are “touching stone.”… Read the rest

Ajahn Viradhammo offers a talk explaining how we compare ourselves to others and create this sense of self out of the 5 Khandas. Using reflections from the various stages of a monk’s life he shows how to watch this self creating habit by using both awareness and restraint.… Read the rest