Mental consciousness experiences in terms of points and lines, holistic awareness is the mode the body uses for its maintenance, health and balance. This is what we cultivate in meditation, so that the heart attunes to it and is also well-maintained, healthy and liberated from stress. Right livelihood is a matter of sustaining this kind of awareness in terms of duties, collaboration and the welfare of others. These clear mental hindrances and restrictions and bring joy into our daily lives.

A review of the Channa Sutta (S.22:90) in which Bhikkhu Channa receives Dhamma through being open and welcomed - despite his bad reputation. The teaching he receives from Ven. Ananda points to the openness beyond affirmation or denial of conditioned existence. This instructs us to handle our intentions, interpretations and perspectives carefully without fixation.

Cultivate what brings joy, and is immediately accessible. These bring us to our 'Dhamma home'. Here is an unbinding, a subsiding of the complexities of the mind that allows the factors of the Path of Awakening to arise and guide us.

Samadhi is generally translated as 'concentration' but it is based on one-pointedness of purpose, rather than on focusing on a point in the body. As a factor of the Path, concentration represents the gathering of uplifting qualities and the removal of hindrances that block wisdom.

March 2025 retreat - talk 1

Questions are précised. 00:36 Q1. Can you please clarify the difference between awareness and presence; 09:04 Q2 I became a monk but left due to overwhelming negative meditation experiences which are still continuing. Can you suggest something please? 15:24 Q3 In the evening I think I would like to get up early so there’s more time for practice; 19:42 Q4 I’ve been a Buddhist for 35 years but only recently have started to open up the heart. I’ve never been able to cry, only anger and depression. Since my mother died I cry a lot, even through the day. What can I do?22:43 Q5 I’m on two and a half solitary retreat. I use body practices but I am experiencing migraines. What can you suggest; 27:42 Q6 I live by myself after being asked to leave by house mates with no explanation. In my new place the neighbours pick fights with me and yell at my door. My previous housemates said I was psychotic. I am depressed. How do I not loose heart? 42:18 Q7 How can one embrace this human existence and remain unattached to any identity?

Retreat is an occasion in which to repair, reset. In terms of life and meditation practice. In this process, mindfulness is accompanied by atapi - ardour, keeping things fresh - and various forms of clear comprehension (sampajano): to sense what is appropriate and fitting. Through referring to what arises in terms of objects one cultivates comprehension of purpose: to know objects as they are, and not self. This is comprehension in terms of non-delusion. There is also comprehension in terms of context (gocara), both internal and. external. This cultivation brings stillness in the midst of conditions, and if we keep this going results build up. Through sustaining clear comprehension one realizes an openness that is stable, alert and all-encompassing

Aim to clarify, and strengthen the heart. This is through gathering energy in the heart – that is ‘samadhi’ (concentration). Letting go in the flood of life requires this strength and the relinquishment that support, and are supported by, samadhi. In the presence of a balanced and strengthened citta, we see and respond to the irritations of life in a full-hearted way; The aggregates are cooled. (refers to M64 and S47.42)

Progressive cultivation of mindfulness to maintain presence through the range of states, so that one allows then to pass. Attention is less snagged on different qualities. It opens to simple awareness. Familiar reactions, and with them, identification,subside. Undifferentiated awareness remains. (refers to S.47:42)

Practice is about fostering growth based on wisdom, effort and view. Wisdom is conditioned by a faith that leads on to motivation/desire, energy, heart and discriminative attention (iddhipada). Effort should be wisely moderated - to sustain, restrain, persevere, uplift, calm. Application of citta is fundamental to the Path; but make it relevant to uplifting the heart. Details on application to mindfulness of breathing.

Basis of healthy human life is goodwill. Our practice is to welcome, to allow and encompass differences. Speech and action based on Dhamma values establishes skilful common ground. We contemplate the effects of deluded reactions and release them - and the citta dwells in a beautiful place and grows beyond self towards measurelessness.

Messages arise from the citta/heart: world-weariness and a sense of resolve. One begins to withdraw from the input of sense-consciousness and attune to what the citta values: ethics, goodwill and skilful states. So there is a recognition of citta/heart, an intelligence that can reflect upon and moderate consciousness, and moves towards devotion and self-abandonment (refers to A.10:58).

To begin the three months' monastic retreat the community is encouraged to cultivate restraint so that energy can be drawn away from sense- contact and into the heart.

Having achieved some calm, where do we go from there? Seeking experience is a matter for the measuring mind. This mind doesn’t experience fulfilment. Attuning to the heart, there is access to the richness of a generosity and a virtue that doesn’t need a point. It is innately enjoyable and frees us from measurement.

Life is generally measured in terms of clock-and-calendar time. However, to attempt to live accordingly is stressful, binding us to impatience, regret, and expectation. The familiarity of these patterns makes them ‘myself’. In Dhamma practice, we attune to an embodied stability that yet moves us into fresh presence. Our practice then is free from seeking certainty.

00:19 Q1 What is the relationship between citta and yoniso manisikara? 05:27 Q2 Faith arises with the ability of the citta to realize the origins of suffering. Nekkhamma is the release anticipation of suffering [?]. Confusion arises here. The process of renunciation for the citta rather than thought. Is this the point where the felt sense doesn’t push forward or stand and enters the path? 08:45 Q3 After the high school shooting 96 km northwest of us that left 4 dead, we can feel the heat. False alarms on social media, another layer of community anxiety and mistrust arises. Our community is predominately black, transient, low income, familiar with violence. … How to step back and recognize the citta is unbalanced? How to avoid being too aggressive and suspicious? 11:12 Q4 How to skillfully investigate myself with a very challenging individual at work?13:01 Q5 When I started mediating 20 years ago I was taught that forgiveness was a preliminary practice to metta. This makes sense to me, especially with the deep groove of self-criticism I see in my mind. 13:56 Q6 I am chronically ill living a restricted and isolated life. It is a great joy but I feel remote from any attainment. Do you have any advice? 14:58 Q7 I recognize a form of vibhava tanha in nihilism that manifests as an inability to move forward in life. As I pondered this i came across a phrase : “Contemplate the dhamma body” and it felt so good.

The great assembly of lay women, laymen, monks and nuns comes together at Kathina. Kathina is a celebration of this great assembly; and the purpose of the assembly is to encourage cooperation and bring the light of Dhamma in the world.

Offered at the kathina at Tisarana Buddhist Monastery in Perth, Canada

00:29 Q1 Could you talk about working with distraction? 07:27 Q2 Karma and the end of karma. 27:48 Q3 What carries on [when we die]?What doesn’t carry on? 33:52 Q4 Could you recommend a book or a source that discusses this [the phases of transition]? 45:36 Q5 What is the difference between awareness and consciousness? 50:42 Q6 So when we say: ‘Be the knowing’, that is resting in awareness? 51:40 Q7 Could you speak about how you got on this path?

Citta freed is warm and bright (Offered in Bethany, near Toronto.)

The original questions were live. They have been précised and read by a third person. Q1 A woman asks: I have a sister who's in a care home and lives far away. She's younger than I and I feel a degree of responsibility and want to help her. It's been discovered there's been some theft from her bank account which she has control over. The police and care home staff are involved. So the teaching on activation seems very appropriate for me. I'm noticing that my activation to get involved seems to take me over is getting really difficult to handle. What can you repeat or recommend? 03:02 Q2 I find as I practice more and more, I am less willing to deal with worldly things like money, focusing on the future. There's also a sense of contentment with the way things are. How can I go about my practice as this unfolds? 05:51 Q3 My question is similar to the previous one, finding opportunities to reflect internally rather than be wrapped up in work and everything. These opportunities exist and have improved but they seem to be fewer than I would like. How can I incorporate this with having to live my everyday life? I feel I can't leave everything and just go like the Buddha did and I don't seem satisfied with my current situation. Anything else you can offer? 10:19 Q4 Regarding the kandhas, did the Buddha or could you recommend any dedicated formal practice in this area? 15:39 Q5 I've recently extricated myself from a 5-year relationship which was very difficult for me. It seems like when we extricate ourselves from an arrangement like this it seems like it's become just a dream. All the entanglement and energy put into it and then it just ... ends. I'm asking myself 'Was there ever any love, any care?' And it seems very shocking and it seems like the whole of life is like that. Part of me wants to reach out and say: 'Did you care?' But it's over and that seems pointless. Could you say something about that please?

Questions are précised: 01:17 Q1 You mentioned during meditation to start with breathing out. I noticed in my own practice that I don't fully breathe out. In fact breathing out intentionally is more exhausting. How can I be more balanced? 12:27 Q2 I have a mental pattern with deep roots, obsessing over details like the entomology of words that arises when I get panicked or upset. This seems to give me some respite from the panic. Can you offer any advice? 19:02 Q3 I feel both sense of fatigue and desire for connection. I'm confused about how to be with this desire because my mind tells me I should go out and connect with other people. But this isn't the point of meditation is it? How can I understand this tension between internal and external needs in this case? 25:03 Q4 In the last retreat I would wake up not knowing who I am and dream about somebody stabbing my heart. These feelings returned when I went back to domestic duties. In my dreams I am lost. How can I move past this black hole? 30:02 Q5 For me it's very difficult to be mindful every minute every second of my daily life. I do my best. It's easier on retreat or in a monastery. Can you comment? 36:17 Q6 The state of becoming entails grasping and craving then suffering. How can one abide in non becoming?

00:08 Q1 You mentioned we should all contemplate/ meditate on death every day. How does one do that? 21:10 Q2 What to do when the ease of well-being and kindness of metta morph into profound awareness of suffering in the world and the lives of loved ones? 37:34 Q3 You wrote in ‘Breathing like a Buddha’ that “Full liberation therefore is equated with breaking the compulsive link between name and form". You mentioned this here as well. Can you re-explain please?

In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.

00:07 Q1 You use the term energy more than I have heard it used in dhamma discussions. Can you say why it is important? 10:03 Q2 Where would you place craving for stability within the three types of tanha? 16:23 Q3 You said that citta arises from name and form. Can you say more about how and why? 26:37 Q4 How do you think one might continue to cultivate citta as we age and with Alzheimers, dementia etc.? 31:18 Q5 Regarding medically assisted suicide, doesn’t it break the first precept? 36:35 Q6 What are some useful practices for going to sleep?

In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.

In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.

00:00 Ajahn’s comments about retreat. 01:44 Q1 Could you offer any practice suggestions around eating? 10:55 Q2 How does designation consciousness relate to perception? 18:02 Q3 One is aware of feelings and the teaching on dependent origination. Is it possible to slow down the craving and the clinging that ensues? 24:49 Q4 How does one stay and not jump? 27:46 Q5 Is the citta a sankara? Is the purpose of practice to calm and purify the citta, which seems away of caring for life, or to uproot it and all of the khandhas which has to me a flavour of rejecting life. 37:59 Q6 I struggle with the first noble truth. Spending time with my daughter is certainly transient and structured by I-making. Buddhism says this is dukkha and seeks to change my relationship to experience or its qualities. But to me its value is intrinsic and undeniable. 42:39 Q7 Can one attain liberation or enlightenment without the knowledge of the path leading to it? What's the relationship between knowledge and wisdom?

Ajahn instructs on voice and breath issues and leads chanting of a refuge mantra.

00:16 Q1 I believe you said to not do concentration practices but rather to see if the breath could go deeper or have more calm. Isn't that a form of concentration? And aren't the brahma vihara a form of concentration practice? 18:26 Q2 If attention is a sankara can you suggest how one might let go of it? 29:02 Q3 Regarding the anapanadsati sutta, is it sequential? Must one follow the tetrads in order? 3818 Q4 A person relates some of their meditation experiences and asks if this is a wise reflection.

Ajahn provides a guide to resonant sound production, Pali pronunciation and leads a mantra.

02:00 Q1 Regarding the sankaras, is it possible for feelings to land on contact without being in the realm of sankaras? If so how would this perception manifest? 17:15 Q2 Could you please explain the distinction between mental formations and consciousness. 30:02 Q3 Some questions on mindfulness of breathing. Should we regulate the breath and use the length of the breath as the object of mindfulness? 38:24 Q4 Can you speak about the third tetrad of the anapanasati sutta.

Ajahn provides guidance on the power of group voice and offers a mantra: Metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha.

In this retreat Ajahn offered a series of guidance on voice production and resonant chanting.

An exploration of proliferations, kamma and self and the eightful path

Q1: You seem to be talking about citta as a persisting permanent thing not as arising every split second. Any comments? 11:34 Q2: How can I deal with not fully maintaining Buddhist standards after the retreat? 17:27 Q3: You said: Keep warming what can be warmed and the things that can't release yet ... it's not ready. Could you elaborate more on this please? 24:08 Q4: You wrote a book called Unseating the Inner Tyrant. The critic consumes a lot of energy. How do you restore that energy after a rage? Is there a shorter path to finding balance? 32:59 Q5: There's a lot of fear in my citta. How come? 34:46 Q6: I was afraid of coming to this retreat, and now I'm afraid of going out. 38:16 Q7: What is the relationship between tanha, craving, as the fundamental cause of dukkha and the three root kelasa, defilements, based on the scriptures and or their experience for interpretation? 47:51 Q 8: What is the effect of serious illness physical and psychological on the citta? Can they limit or make it impossible to take care of the citta?

Ajahn explores dukkha and the end of dukkha and the role of the 7 enlightenment factors, shifts of energy, identity and sabotage programs, disengagement/viveka, dispassion/viraga, cessation/nirodha.

Q1 If I remember it well citta follows moving, shifting energy. How can we feel moving energy? Is it the feeling of the breath or sound? What is non-moving energy? 08:37 Q2 what's the difference between virya, translated as energy, and citta energy? 12:12 Q3 You don't seem to use the word awareness which is often used to denote the knowing of something. Is there a connection between the felt energy and awareness? 28:28 Q4 How do you reconcile the fire of an animated heart with Buddhism's perfume of disengagement and dispassion? 32:36 Q5 how can sensation and the sequence that leads to it be described in a subtle energy approach? 43:43 Q6 What's the difference between vedana and emotion? 44:48 Q7 Sadness, sorrow, fear, joy. Are the emotions or more fixed states? 49:20 Q8 Observing the breath seems quite important, but as soon as I focus on the breath it gets forced and heavy. Do you have any advice on observing the natural breath without interfering? 52:17 Q9 What does it mean when you say the breathing is a messenger? What is the message?

Ajahn explores kaya and citta sankharas; building up resources; sabotage programs; mudita as a resource.

Q1 Can it be that Qi Gong releases long forgotten memories? 06:40 Q2 If everything is empty, who or what dies and what is reborn if rebirth is not only a concept? 16:19 Q3 Does the Buddhist path result in the loss of loved ones because they're not on that path. For example partner, family, friends? Is there a way to have both? I feel that one side goes at the cost of the other. 20:14 Q4 I've been feeling quite bored sometimes today. How do you recommend to deal with this phenomenon? How could it be explained from a Buddhist point of view? 27:13 Q5 When I'm meditating sitting down, I sometimes feel that I'm losing the perception of a three-dimensional space. I can still feel my body but I don't feel like there's an up or a down or left or right. Is this something common?

Exploring the territory of body, mind and heart and a kiss the frog practice.

Q1 You mentioned vedana as the knowing of a feeling tone. I always thought that vedana occurs very fast and almost unconsciously How could one practice or investigate vedana a more deeply? 23:51 Q2 What is conscience from the Buddhist point of view? 28:21 Q3 How come the mind prefers to get involved with negative instead of positive stuff? 30:31 Q4 What actually do we need a mind for? In another words is there a quick and easy way to distinguish useful and harmful thinking? 40:24 Q5 Where do you see similarities and differences between dhamma practice and positive neuroplasticity? How can we cultivate more joy? 37:01 Q6 If I don't proceed according to the map, then how do I know if I'm doing something wrong or whether it just takes time? 54:16 Q7 Is it easier to stay grounded when speaking to others? It seems easier to say grounded when not speaking to others.

Examining the theme of boundaries, Ajahn explores the four foundations of mindfulness and self.

Ajahn explores manas versus citta experience, using maps, breathing and walking to investigate.

Ajahn investigates bhavana/cultivation and suggests a step-by-step-practice, using developing skilful conditions.

Using devotional practices to cultivate sati. Includes meditation instruction and a 20 m silent sit.

Examining themes of the inanimate and the animate, Ajahn explores citta and provides walking meditation instructions.

Ajahn examines the theme of body, its elements including boundaries, moving meditation and voice.

A talk given at Amaravati at the celebration of Luang Por Sumedho's 90th year.