The Buddha described awakening not as a leap to the summit but as a gradual training, one step laid down after another. Drawing on the image of walking (forest monks on tudong, pilgrims, and the cleared trails of these woods), this talk explores the anupubbasikkhā through generosity, ethics, meditation, and wisdom. With the Buddha’s teaching to Gaṇaka Moggallāna, the bird that carries only its wings, and poetry inspired by freedom, we reflect on how one thing lawfully leads to the next. We set up the conditions, and the dhamma does the rest. The arc of the path is long, but it bends toward freedom.

Ajahn Viradhammo, contemplates, the means we have to attain fulfilment. He reflects, on Generosity, as means, living an ethical life, via the precepts, and finally on "Humility". Humility here as a that which is free from the sense of me and mine, or Ahankara Mimankara. Acknowledging the uncomfortable/unpleasant, but residing in the sense of the background, the awareness, that is always here, always present and unchanging.

"giving. generosity. care. giver, receiver, gift. view, intention, action. beginning again as we enter into the flow and container of retreat. this is the opening talk for the retreat titled: Rooted in Presence: A Natural Path of Insight and Belonging"

A main way to understand generally our practice is by seeing it as combining (1) avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), and (2) developing skillful or wholesome qualities. We explore different aspects of this way of seeing our practice: Understanding its relationship to the teaching on wise effort; seeing the core unskillful quality as reactivity (dukkha) in its two forms as grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant, each in myriad ways; and developing positive qualities like concentration, mindfulness, kindness and compassion, generosity and the other paramis, and the Seven Factors of Awakening. We examine some of the complexities of practicing with reactivity, with a main one being that reactivity is often enmeshed with discernment; I can be judgmental and caught in reactivity, for example, as an activist who sees injustice clearly, with discernment. This calls therefore for transforming the reactivity, so we can make use of the discernment skillfully. We also look into some examples of both forms of practice, both in meditation and in the flow of daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.

Reflections on carrying retreat practice into daily life through gentle mindfulness, the Three Refuges, the precepts, generosity, and connection with Sangha. The talk offers practical ways to sustain practice at home while exploring how lineage and community can nourish and support the path.

Drawing in the Buddhist teaching of dependent co-arising, this talk explores what it means to belong to a living world

Finding joy in everything good: generosity, kindness, letting go, virtuous behavior. Seeing how the qualities of generosity lay the groundwork for awakening and show up in that process as well. Cultivating mudita, appreciative joy, for the good in ourselves, in others, and goodness wherever we find it.