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gift of the teachings
 
Ajahn Sucitto's Dharma Talks
Ajahn Sucitto
As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
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2020-02-05 Firm Centre Open Heart 60:00
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How to arrive at a grounded centre and undefended heart? Generally, attempts to firm up involve holding on or hardening the exterior that inhibit the heart’s opening. Instead, a shifting of attention and energy is suggested. Three reference points are offered to support this shift: food, work and rest.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-05 Centring through Standing Meditation 13:40
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In standing meditation we’re not waiting for anything, not going anywhere, but centring. Tracking up the body, we can locate and unlock potentials for space so energy can travel.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-05 Cultivation of Dhamma 53:19
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We practice Dhamma to clear through distortions and disturbances that become established. It takes training – setting aside what’s not needed and cultivating receptivity. Then what has always been there – the qualities of citta – are revealed.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-05 Chanting Brings Breath and Sound Together 45:50
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The main quality of chanting is spreading energy to the body and space around. We use sound to send out heart energy. Practice with bringing breath and sound together is provided. Overview of Pāli pronunciation and explanation of puja follow.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-05 Establishing a Firm Centre 12:13
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Instructions for using body and breathing to establish a firm centre that’s also open. Building firmness from the ground up, releasing congestion through the out breath, drawing in fresh energy with the in breath.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-04 Guided Meditation: Settling into Body 19:26
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Where attention goes, that’s where energy goes. Disengaging and restraining from what’s not needed now, we draw awareness to what it is to be in this body. Body and mind unify around breath energy.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-02-04 Precepts –Fundamental Principles for Purification 37:20
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The heart has tremendous potential for good or bad. We practice to clean up unfortunate effects that get established on it. Principles of respect, restraint and compassion are not only foundations for heart cultivation, but offerings to the world.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
2020-01-25 Citta, Kamma and Awakening (Evening Public Talk) 50:33
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In Dhamma practice we’re inclining citta towards itself, gathering in attention to recognize where the heart is engaged. Certain engagements will lead to liberation. The practice of recollection is one.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-16 Ācariya Puja - Recollect Pāramī (Evening Public Talk) 63:47
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A recollection of the qualities and effects of the teacher, Ajahn Chah. A teacher’s presence can bring forth a lot in people. They recognize the potential for strength that is there for all of us and help us develop pāramī.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-15 Sweeping the Body 44:25
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Something in us – citta – searches for release from suffering. It struggles to rise out of old patterns, which means one has to enter them. Sweeping meditation is a skillful means. It’s not just a physical exercise but an opportunity to clear kamma.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-14 Completing the Inner Conversation 40:51
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We come to Dhamma practice hoping for calm and quiet, but that may be down the track a while. Begin instead with dialogue, listening to the inner chatter with patience and steadiness. As agitated and troubling states are lovingly met, the passion around them fades. We can experience the nibbāna element here and now.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-13 What Shape Is Your Mind 46:45
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Unskillful saṇkhāras can be undone in the same way they are formed – through perception. Choose particular tones like friendliness and welcome. Introduce them into the body and ask how it feels. Skillful use of perception and attention can sooth and steady the body’s energy.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-12 Practising with Ground, Space and Rhythm 45:26
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Contact with the world causes citta to lose its sense of ground, space and rhythm. Use of body is recommended as a meditation theme. We practice to carefully meet contact impression, training intention and attention to be for one’s welfare.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-11 Anattā Is the Way Out (Evening Public Talk) 52:12
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The unawakened worldly mind seeks to accumulate. It generates a sense of self from holding on. The Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta points to release and letting go. We practice standing back from phenomena, allowing things to move and shift without reacting to them. Just witnessing and awake – this is liberation.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-11 Saṇkhāra – the Constructor of All 46:24
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We are encouraged to understand saṇkhāra, the programs that take hold of us and result in unskillful states. It is possible to not act on these programs, release some of their pressure, and turn the citta towards skillful states.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-10 Direct Practice – Feeling, Perception and Saṇkhāra 40:21
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Citta is only touched by feeling and perception. Through not seeing this, not feeling and directly handling it, the whole realm of dukkha gets fabricated. Meet experience directly, with mindfulness and wisdom, and suffering eases up.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-08 Finding Reference in Ground, Space and Rhythm 47:55
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Citta only experiences perception and feeling. We can cultivate skillful perceptions of ground, space and rhythm that result in comfort and ease.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2020-01-07 Citta and the Khandhā 37:17
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The paradigm of practice is discerning skillful from unskillful heart states. We begin to turn away from the states that entangle the heart, and learn to linger in wholesome qualities. Skillful states always carry the mark of freedom.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery Winter Retreat 2020
2019-12-24 Closing Comments and Encouragement 16:12
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Do resonances of gratitude reach other people? We can’t be sure, but our hearts feel richer and free, so we do it. The more you share, the richer you get. As Dhamma practitioners we lead the way in such sharing.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-24 The Four Noble Truths 63:26
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When we cultivate awakening, the first thing we awaken to is dukkha. Burdens that have been clung to remain in the heart. Incline towards what arises with acceptance and goodwill. When we experience contact without clinging, fighting or fascination, the tide washes over and what’s left is inner peace.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-23 The Four Brahmavihāras 67:38
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The 4 measureless states serve as powerful gates out of the personalized realm. They guide our actions and responses, making it possible to shift our kamma by generating new patterns. Their cultivation results in physical health, vitality, happiness, good friendship and serene heart.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-23 Duties towards Dhamma in Lay Life 66:36
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As we return to the duties of lay life, we are encouraged to incorporate duties towards the Dhamma. Structure in reference points that remind you to be mindful and skillful – daily meditation, association with kalyāṇamitta, and cultivation of pāramī are recommended. Be vigilant, stay awake, don’t go into automatic. If you don’t shape your own life, the world will shape it for you.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-22 It’s the Tone that Counts 62:25
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The habituated ways of the personality – craving to become good enough, burdened with self-criticism and fear – won’t bring about liberation. Citta, that which can be liberated, becomes available when the tone of our lives is warm, encouraging, compassionate. Relax the doing and tune into the receptive. The theme of practice is to feel comfortable.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-22 The Only Resolution Is Letting Go 51:07
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We live in an options culture, we’re used to getting our own way. We repeatedly give in to rāga, passions. Not the passions of liking things, but of feeling deeply stirred and agitated. In Dhamma practice, rather than adjusting the world to suit us, we adjust citta to form a harmonious, non-attached relationship to phenomena. This is how we develop pāramī.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-21 Q&A 3 69:00
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Body scanning; stuck areas; mental proliferation; ‘commander’ and ‘do-er’ aspects of mind; appropriate objects of meditation; thoughts that arise during ānāpānasati; dealing with hinderances; restlessness
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-21 Skillful Means for Handling Dukkha 56:38
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Citta is alternately translated as mind, heart and awareness. We use skillful means to apply these three aspects appropriately, for handling dukkha and understanding how it’s generated.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-20 What Touches the Heart Affects the Body 63:33
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Citta is susceptible to uncontrollable emotional reactions. It gets thrown around by feeling. The fundamental principle is to be able to feel unpleasant feeling. The body provides support.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-20 The Magnificent Navigation Aids Given Us to Cross the Ocean of Dukkha 52:53
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The contents of body and mind can become the prominent features of our attention. The content forms the ocean we need to cross over. We want to cross the ocean, not build a house there, not become too fascinated by it. The Dhamma offers tools to help us steer and manage our boats so we can cross the ocean.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-20 Comments on Walking 11:17
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We’re so conditioned to keep moving on to the next, the mind has already moved on before the foot has completed its step. Practice as if there’s no next. Tune into the fluid, easy movement of the whole body. Let the mind settle into samādhi.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-19 Guided Meditation – Body Sweeping 49:55
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Guided meditations can help in terms of timing, to demonstrate just how slow a process meditation is. Generally, the object of meditation is simple, it’s the handling of it that’s the skill. Body sweeping develops receptivity of the body. One cultivates tonal qualities of receptivity and care.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-19 The Five Aggregates 54:36
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The aggregates work together to create the phenomenological world. But citta isn’t affected by this world of sense data, it’s affected by kamma – various unresolved memories, feelings and conditioned phenomena. Tend to the point of saṇkhāra to replace reactive habits, soothing the heart and releasing the grip of kamma.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-19 Progressive Dispassion 24:15
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In meditation we repeatedly return to qualities that calm the citta. When we relate to phenomena in a reassuring, steadying way, citta experiences dispassion. There’s a progressive withdrawal from phenomena because citta begins to sense itself as stable, satisfying and valuable. It has no more purpose in going out. This is the maturation process.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-18 Q&A 2 1:18:41
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Restlessness/preoccupation with things to do; mental proliferation/lost in mind; bad memories; ānāpānasati; 5 khandā
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-18 The Frame of Mindfulness – Sympathetic Awareness 61:20
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The contents of the mind become the preoccupation, but there’s another reference point – the framework. Mindfulness is this frame. Don’t go into the content. Bear with the turbulences of mind within the frame of sympathetic awareness and just know, this the heart affected by feeling.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-18 Pick Up the Thread 30:41
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In meditation we practice to find the balance of both focused and open awareness. We place the mind on a concept, and linger there letting the meaning run through the heart. Mind finds it difficult, but body does it naturally. The body can teach us the right kind of attention that lifts the mind and makes it happy.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-17 Returning to the Fullness of Human Nature 59:24
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Human nature is empathic and seeks harmony. The personality structure masks our true nature. It tries to stop and dominate urges and emotions. But the practice is to go directly to feeling. We can use this natural body to help untangled the mind.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-17 How to Come to the Place of Harmony 67:10
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We’re driven by craving and it causes suffering. The relinquishment of craving leads to ease and harmony. Dispassionate acceptance of these drives makes liberation possible.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-17 Using Chanting to Steady the Mind 29:28
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The untrained mind energy is ragged, sluggish and incoherent. With its simple tones and slow, repetitive rhythm, chanting can steady the mind.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-16 Q&A 1 60:50
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Samatha and vipassanā; dullness and hindrances; samādhi for lay people; witnessing cruelty; awareness and mindfulness
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-16 Refreshing the Art of Sitting 39:39
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Finding the right posture when sitting can open up the belly and the chest. Safety is sensed in the belly, receptivity in the chest. When the body is relaxed the mind is happy in its own presence – this is samādhi.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-15 Sañña and Saṇkhāra Lead to Saṃsāra 67:35
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A description of the cycle of saṃsāra, from contact, to feeling, to perception (sañña), to habit reaction (saṇkhāra). We remain stuck in this cycle of rebirth. The way out is direct experience at the point of feeling. Unpleasant feeling is discharged through the body.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-15 Orientation and Instructions 63:06
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Opening instructions to start the retreat: set aside destructive influences, put forth an attitude of kindness and sensitivity, give attention to direct experience.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-15 Suggestions on Positions and Comfort 5:29
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We have to support the limitations of this body. Don’t add the unnecessary stress of expecting to keep completely still during meditation. Move the body, sense the whole body, take deep breaths, relax.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-15 Using the Food Offering Skillfully 12:53
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The meal offering provides an opportunity for practice. We practice to generate skillful qualities, to restrain the sense faculties, and to find balance in our actions.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-15 How to Cultivate Samādhi in Walking Meditation 17:27
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Walking meditation supports the mind to come to a very balanced state. Let unskillful states and attitudes steam off as you walk. What’s left is something bright, warm and comfortable. Let the mind rest in that.
Uttama Bodhi Vihara :  Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-13 Sīla – A Vehicle for Happiness 33:39
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When we make the intention to keep the precepts, we give ourselves the possibility to steer our own lives rather than being swept up in it. The basic principle is not fear and law but sensitivity and concern. We have the intention to live in an atmosphere of goodwill and respect for all sentient beings.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-12 Patient and Loving Acceptance 68:31
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The body is much more than an idea, it’s something that’s here for us. With patient and loving acceptance we can clear disturbances from the body and experience a pleasant and steady abiding here and now.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-12 Skillful Means in the Cultivation of Wisdom 61:02
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Wisdom is a natural feature of the mind. With its cultivation comes the ability to discern skillful from unskillful. But just knowing things are unskillful doesn’t stop the mind from doing it, we have to develop skillful means. We use mindfulness to be able to see through ignorance and stand back from the unskillful pulls of mind.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-11 Meditation as Re-education 66:35
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Modern modes of attention, information and meaning-making cut us off from our natural intelligence. Mindfulness of body and breathing puts us back in touch with the tonality, naturalness and rhythm of embodied intelligence. We use this way of meditation to re-educate us.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-11 Q&A 58:59
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1) What is citta? 2) Regrets, how to forgive oneself 3) How to practice appamano states in everyday life (mudita, equanimity) 4) How to work with obstructive mind-states (judgmental, not good enough, lonely, regretful, hopelessness) 5) How to practice reclining meditation 6) Headaches in certain mind-states
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-11 The Gentle and Harmonious Tonality of Puja 16:00
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Beginning the day with puja, a certain tonality is established. Not the abrasive, pushy, congested one of modern day, but something beautiful, timeless, gentle and steady. As we enact puja, we establish the Triple Gem as a heart quality that we can sit within. This is our refuge place.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-10 Guided Meditation: Heartful Sympathy for All Beings 42:01
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This guided meditation touches into a fundamental quality that arose with the Buddha’s final realization – anukamapa, heartfelt sensitivity and sympathy for the welfare of sentient beings. We practice by generating perceptions and relating directly to the resulting experience.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-10 Mind’s Nature Is to Be Happy 62:55
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We live in the sense world, but we don’t have to run out into it. We can see, hear and touch, but keep the heart collected inwardly. This gives a sense of balance and peace, an inner happiness.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-10 Make the First Effort of the Day with Wisdom and Persistence 16:12
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Take the opportunity when you begin your day to turn away from unskillful states and start putting down the seeds for skillful states. Committing to precepts and recollecting Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha bring mental firmness. Breathing and chanting bring physical vitality and brightness. This builds up the reserves of wisdom and vitality to sustain you through the day.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-09 Care for the Mind – It’s Your Home 56:52
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Whatever we incline our minds toward will affect us. Where do I want to give my attention? Where do I want to commit my time? These are helpful reflections. The mind is our home. Practicing with themes of restraint, mindfulness and careful attention, we have a chance to brighten and purify it.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-09 How to Stand Back from the Stream of Mind 63:35
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It can be humbling to recognize that we’re not getting the results we’re going for in practice. We cultivate 4 Dhamma factors – motivation, energy, relinquishment & investigation – to understand the stream of mind we keep getting caught in, and to develop the capacity to stand back from it.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-09 The Key to Standing Meditation: Balance 23:37
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If the back is not yet strong enough to sustain the sitting posture, standing offers relief. The feet, legs and ground sustain the upright posture so shoulders and upper body can relax. The key reference is balance.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-09 Skillful Placement of the Mind 38:47
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Beginning our day, we realize the potential of the mind for confusion or clarity. We need to be quick to steer the mind towards the skillful. In puja we raise up skillful qualities of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha as images and perceptions. This establishes a tone of brightness, persistence and open-heartedness.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-08 How to Settle and Calm 43:52
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When the heart can’t access its own centeredness and stability, the experience of insecurity and discomfort results. We can intentionally introduce skillful thoughts and perceptions to settle and calm the heart.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-08 The Path to Liberation Is through Direct Experience 53:17
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There are two modes of experience, conceived and direct. Conceived experience keeps us stuck in the endless cycle of saṃsara. The way out is through direct experience. Practice with sensing the direct experience of body.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-08 Puja: A Purification Process 1:16:15
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Puja is more than just thinking and recollecting. It’s very much an embodied, vocalized, participatory practice. You don’t really think about puja, you do it. In the doing of it there’s a particular energy, a collective harmony and a collective action that has purification effects.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-12-07 Preparing the Heart and Mind for Practice 63:48
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An explanation of the opening rituals: what offering respect to the Triple Gem means; what the shrine offerings represent; how the precepts support our intention to train. Closes with the exhortation to make an effort with friendliness.
Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand :  6-Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2019-10-12 Integrity Leads to Awakening 54:22
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With reference to AN10:61, this teaching reviews the nutriments that result in ignorance, and the nutriments that result in true knowledge and liberation. For the latter, it starts with a person of integrity, with kalyanamitta. We all model something to each other. Cultivating purity of mind, thought, intention, speech, action is then not only for our welfare, but for the welfare of others.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-12 Approach to Samadhi and Its Benefits 38:53
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Intention is conditioned to move forward, to move to the next thing. But the encouragement here is to moderate one’s citta – volitional tendencies. Recollect the skillful, linger and deepen into the feeling of it until the mind is gladdened, settled, brought to singularity. There is always more to do on the conditioned level – taking time to store up the good in this way should not be neglected.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-11 Sweeping the Path 29:54
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Like dust, defilements creep into the mind and build up. We live in a dusty world, it’s not a personal failing. The normal response is to be vigilant about sweeping – sustain mindfulness. Persistence, energy, and right attitude are required.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-10 The Way Out of the Jungle 32:50
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We can do better than just getting by. We can feel fulfilled in a deep way, released from our confusion and blind spots. We use meditation to cultivate qualities of non-suffering, comfort and steadiness and extend them. The resulting inner harmony becomes our vehicle for walking through the jungle of the heart.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-09 Meeting the Wild Stuff 36:10
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The way of the world is linked up to the five hindrances, so we can’t often see them. Automatic attention takes you straight into them. Train attention to be broad and dispassionate. Recognize sense objects for what they are, a secondary reality. Primary reality is contact impression, how citta is affected.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-08 Cultivating Factors for Release 30:10
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The mind requires both calm and energy for release. Then abandonment comes through investigation. The investigation is calm and sympathetic; thinking is minimal, mostly feeling and sensing how it is. A return to forest dwellers’ practice is recommended.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-07 Forest Awareness 54:54
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With reference to MN19, this teaching addresses the two kinds of thought – ones that lead to my welfare, the welfare of others and the welfare of both, and ones that don’t. But rather than giving attention to the particular thoughts, encouragement is given to tune into the underlying mind stream. Get the feel of it. This requires holistic attention – for one to be alert, sensitive and receptive.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-06 Guided Meditation: Introduction to Forest Awareness 49:39
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This guided meditation is an invitation to return to the kind of awareness standard of a forest dweller. Defocus and dislodge attention from particular points and details, and tune in to the overall sense of being here. Present, alert, attentive, knowing – not aware of anything, aware of everything.
Cittaviveka :  Vassa 2019 Closing Group Practice Retreat, Cittaviveka Monastery
2019-10-05 Walking in the Dark 47:48
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How can we turn from being an enemy to the planet? By turning off our “head-light” and turning on our “heart-light”. As humans we are uniquely positioned to produce morality, compassion and wisdom in this dark time of climate crisis. May we meet this opportunity heartfully, the way the Buddha described, trembling with compassion for the welfare of all living beings. May we open to the darkness, let it touch us deeply and wake us to a different way of seeing things.
Extinction Rebellion Brighton
2019-07-31 Clearing World from the Mind 49:02
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We look for certainty in things that can ever be certain. Constantly pulled out by the world, we leave the only thing that can ever be certain – citta. Rather than attempt to get away from unpleasant feeling, we can review it, soothe and release some of its tangles. We might find it’s possible to be with discomfort, yet free and deeply secure.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-29 Transmission of Dhamma to Cittaviveka 43:40
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Reflecting on the beginnings of Cittaviveka, there’s something to recognize beyond just the history. There’s the transmission, what’s happened in mind, heart and spirit. It can be tracked all the way to the Buddha and the first Noble Truth – a sign of inadequacy, suffering, stress and the wish to realize something further than that. A certain nobility of intention came out of that, and is the same thread of continuity that runs through the monastery today.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-23 Relevant Mindfulness 40:45
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Mindfulness is the ability to bear things in mind with a steady intention. Like the sides of the hand, there is a hard side with its ability to bar and repel corrupting influences, and a soft side that lingers and takes in the qualities. Select an object of meditation based on what’s needed, and give attention to the careful holding.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-22 Cooking Good Dhammas 36:53
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Dhammas are things that directly affect citta. They can be awakening factors or hindrances. We train to skillfully handle them, like taming a wild animal. The thinking mind acts as the trainer. Based on citta’s responses, appropriate themes to settle and calm the mind are presented. Citta rewards such sensitivity and responsiveness with pleasure, ease and wisdom.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-21 Guided Meditation - Receptivity of Mind 47:51
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In meditation we bring energy to receptivity of the mind. Generally, mind is in active mode. But through listening, sensitizing, and not moving onto the next thing, heart awareness opens more fully.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-21 Citta and Non-Grasping 38:30
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When the mind is not steady and has gone into activation, clinging is inevitable. The clung-to experience creates the person. But there’s a choice. Our responsibility is to manage the flood of the aggregates through mindfulness.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-20 Mindfulness and Non-Grasping 51:10
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The trained mind is fluid and flexible – natural. The untrained mind is fixed and grasping – loses its agility. Training comes through mindfulness of the 4 bases and 3 aspects of mind. Body gives mind something to anchor itself on so the habits of grasping that create a fixed self can be released.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-18 Body Trains Mind 48:58
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Body provides a steady reference for mind. Mind by itself runs off and gets lost it thoughts and emotions. Body gives a place from which to review mental phenomena. Simply by paying attention to what’s happening directly in the body, the mode of attention shifts. We can use body to empty mental proliferation.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-18 Whole Body Handles Feeling 40:36
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This energy field that carries sensation doesn’t just carry sensations from the physical world, but psychologically-induced experiences as well. This is where the experience of feeling starts to move between the bodily and mental base. If we practice with the feeling base of body, we have a guide for working with mental feeling.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-07-16 Asalha Puja – Middle Path 68:28
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We can get sidetracked with a focus on mindfulness or stress reduction or meditation techniques. We don’t understand what leads up to them, the Noble 8-Fold Path. This Path begins with right view - knowing the heart and how it’s affected - and right effort - bringing up skillful mindstates.
Cittaviveka :  Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
2019-05-31 Closing: Keeping Citta Fit for Practice 34:22
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There are places where the mind slips and slides into injurious patterns, subtle points of misconduct that do harm. Develop qualities of sīla to guard and protect the citta, shaping it according to Dhamma rather than to worldliness or old kamma.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-30 Guided Meditation: Sharing the Blessing 50:51
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The Offering of Truth: After making the dedication of offerings, a guided meditation that invites the qualities of generosity is provided. Through this, we recall what we’ve received from teachers, parents, the earth – and the challenges that have caused us to grows. As we recollect, we offer our ongoing aspiration.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-30 Advice for Ending Retreat 10:43
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Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-30 Associating with Good People 54:35
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Associating with good people is the nutriment that leads to true knowledge and liberation. We learn what’s most important from other people, not from books and ideas. To find good people, start by being one.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-28 The Unbiased and Unwavering Heart (Upekkhā) 61:00
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Cultivating equanimity (upekkhā) begins with touching into primal sympathy. As this develops, we are more able to meet experience without shrinking from it or becoming feverish for it. This paves the way for insight and release.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-27 Learning to Linger and Appreciate (Muditā) 59:27
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Liberation begins with appreciation of one’s own heart, one’s sensitivity. Learn to linger in it, and speak to it with kindness. Gladness and ease naturally arise, and the mind becomes concentrated. This is the natural Dhamma process.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-26 Guided Meditation: Begin with Intention 60:02
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Wherever intention is, there is citta. So we begin formal meditation practice there, establishing intentions based on goodwill, sensitivity and relinquishment. With these themes resonating in one’s heart, what can be put aside now?
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-26 Strengthening through Compassion (Karuṇā) 50:52
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Citta is made stronger and deeper through cultivating patience and resolution. It gains an imperturbable stillness and serenity that lets things pass through. Steady in the face of the pleasant and unpleasant alike, this ‘soft strength’ refuses to give way to the tides of ill will.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-25 Integration through Goodwill (Mettā) 63:01
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The territories of the somatic field and qualities of goodwill are offered as a clear, firm foundation for wisdom. Having cultivated them on retreat, we need to integrate liberation, purity and goodwill into our lives.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-24 The Lucidity of Careful Attention 51:05
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We use careful attention – yoniso manasikāra – to steward the meditative process. It helps us know the appropriate technique to use and to discern what is skillful to give attention to and what is not. Without it, clinging coopts experience and makes an ‘I’ out of it. With it, there is non-clinging – lucidity – and the cessation of dukkha.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-23 Dismantle the Do-er 61:06
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Contemplation of how form manifests as the 4 great elements – earth, air, fire, water. When sensed externally and internally, materially and mentally, the biases that create separateness, and hence identity, begin to soften.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-21 Nibbāna Here and Now 57:35
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The 5 aggregates represent the sum total of our conditioned experience. When the direct experience of them is penetrated, and the activations of body and mind calmed, one gains insight into the momentary, concocted, selfless nature of experience itself.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-20 Purifying Posture 11:15
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Guidance on clearing the posture of compressions and strain.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-20 Relationship – The Core of Our Practice 61:27
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The I/me sense arises within a field of kamma. This requires consistent relational practice as we respond to both phenomena (object-experience) and activations (subject-experience) in the field. Mindfulness and a good somatic sense are the keys to relate to experience without clinging or proliferation.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-18 Q&A 60:15
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1) The difference between tanhā and upādāna – which is more important to address? 2) Stream entry – what is it, what helps get to the next level, different definitions of the ‘noble disciple’. 3) Questions about citta – difference between citta and citta saṅkhāra, between mano and citta. 4) Jealously, loneliness, lack of love. 5) Ānāpānasati sutta – is it sequential, do we develop each step in every sitting? 6) Ajahn’s one word of advice. 7) Questions on identity and anattā.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-18 Commitment Is Necessary 57:03
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On the occasion of Vesak we are encouraged to make a commitment to training the heart. Then to steer the world of space and time we live in around that commitment. This is how actions (kamma) can build up helpful results and lead to the end of kamma.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-17 A Peaceful Abiding Is Possible 59:41
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We put energy into territory that can’t be under our sway, seeking security in systems and customs. What we do have sway over is this embodied mind. It can be trained to orient around wholesome qualities, and to realize that it’s most secure when clinging is released.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-17 Standing Meditation: Balance Is Conducive to Release 17:55
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The balance required in standing supports an uncontracted body. Lengthening, widening and deepening the somatic field, discordant energies, which may manifest as troubled moods, thoughts or impressions, can be ventilated and released.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-16 The Person Doesn’t Stop Clinging 59:04
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Clinging can’t be dealt with by the person. Meet it instead in the body where it manifests as stuck or numb places. Appropriate attention and the rhythm of breathing encourage constricted places to release, smoothing out the entire bodily field.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge

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