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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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2021-04-10 The Inner Tyrant Q&A 19:48
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How to take the teachings seriously but not make them into causes for suffering; strategies for non-compulsiveness when writing; how to skillfully relate to regret and remorse over our past actions; advice for living with the constant conditioning of the world that does not support a harmonious way of living; role of being a teacher seems to make the inner tyrant virus worse – any advice?
Dharma Realm Buddhist University :  Unseating the Inner Tyrant
2021-04-10 Being a Person 27:12
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Although Dhamma practice is often geared to dissolving the sense of being a person, ‘the person’ is a required entity in the everyday world. The firm center and open awareness developed in Dhamma practice work together to support this person. They provide stability and allow duties, purpose and engagement to arise straight from the heart rather than from mental habits, or from the idea of a person. Then the beauties, steadiness and generosity of Dhamma practice and Dhamma fruitions arise in our everyday lives.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-04-10 The Inner Tyrant 31:37
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We are engaging in a world that is innately unsatisfactory. Yet, within that it’s important to find an accurate sense of purpose, ethical orientation and belonging. These are areas where the self-critical ‘inner tyrant’ quality will inevitably be activated. The Tyrant’s ‘I’m not good enough’ message can be recognized as a program rather than a meaningful description of ‘who I am’. Through the practices of disengagement, embodiment and goodwill, the program can be dismantled.
Dharma Realm Buddhist University :  Unseating the Inner Tyrant
2021-04-10 Guided Meditation – Dissolving and Consolidating 18:56
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Instructions begin with dissolving: guidance for disengaging from contact, soothing and steadying the mind. Instructions end with consolidating: determining what I want to move forward with in the future, and what’s been learned or left behind.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-04-10 Guided Meditation – Disengaging from Sense Consciousness 14:51
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In meditation we’re stepping back from sense consciousness, dipping beneath it to find something deeper, balanced and bearing value. This is where the wealth of our life lies, and it naturally comes forth when we disengage from sense data.
Dharma Realm Buddhist University :  Unseating the Inner Tyrant
2021-04-03 Emptying the Sense Fields 15:50
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Instructions to help empty the sense fields and cultivate the right kind of attention. Sustain a wide focus as sense objects arise in awareness. Practice with spreading attention on body, the wider visual field and the quality of breathing.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-04-03 Q&A 32:06
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Please describe āsava in relation to citta; nagging sense something is wrong with me; how to access kalyāṇamitta for support in Dhamma practice; neck and head feel separate from body in meditation; please clarify terms vitaka-vicāra, dhammavicaya and vimaṃsa.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-04-03 Dhamma Stream Q&A 32:06
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Please describe āsava in relation to citta; nagging sense something is wrong with me; how to access kalyāṇamitta for support in Dhamma practice; neck and head feel separate from body in meditation; please clarify terms vitaka-vicāra, dhammavicaya and vimaṃsa.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-03-27 Rest Intention through Embodiment, Dhamma Stream Live Puja 33:43
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Intention is the basis for action, giving shape to what we do and who we become. Conditioned intentions around beliefs, work and security cause stress. The process of meditation takes us into the somatic domain, to the roots of the mind. Here intentions and reflexes can be reset to be lighter, more flexible and comfortable.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-03-27 Breaking Out of the Box 43:33
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Conditioned by ignorance, we can end up concocting the very scenarios we feel trapped in. The citta leaves its own center and gets stuck in conditions. Samādhi gives us the possibility of disengaging from the tangles, and allowing wisdom to be directed to the heart of the problem – ignorance and outflows. This directed wisdom can dismantle the box we unconsciously create for ourselves.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-27 Dhamma Stream Guided Meditation – Jhāna is Based on Disengagement 11:57
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Properly establishing jhāna begins with disengagement. With eyes slightly open, downcast, poised between the inner and outer world, widen attention. Open up sensitivity of awareness without focusing on any particular object, attentive to the qualities that sustain that cool balance.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-03-26 The Place Where the Floods Don’t Go 39:02
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The untrained mind is always half crazy. Citta has left the safety of its home and is affected by conditions and circumstance. But it can be trained to turn back to immovable ease, to remain in the place where the floods and tides of suffering don’t go.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-25 How to Not Go Crazy 41:31
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On account of the untrained citta, consciousness is skewed – its input is unstable, unsatisfactory, doesn’t fit. It can make one feel crazy. How to get free? In meditation we practice disengagement, the possibility to be ‘with it’ rather than ‘in it’. Lingering in that space, what can arise is action based on sanity, that comes from a trained and healthy citta.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-24 The Work of Ease 40:23
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It’s a natural inclination for citta not to suffer, but it’s confused, it needs to be trained. Citta can turn away from the tangles of ignorance towards signs that produce ease. Training with nimbleness and flexibility, citta becomes grounded, stable, not easily knocked over, easily handling what comes its way.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-23 Open the Centre, Reset the Boundaries 35:56
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Meditation is often approached from the standpoint of a person who ‘does’ the meditating. This self view is not a position that will give rise to calm or release – it’s the condition we want to be released from. Meditation can be used to change the ways we attend that form the separate self. Eventually the steadiness of mindfulness, rather than the ‘I am’ sense’, can become the orientation.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-22 The Happy Misfit 41:04
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Citta jumps and rushes towards experience it thinks will bring security. It’s a compulsion, an addiction. But citta can turn, starting with disengagement, then stabilizing and calming. Settle into the happiness of these effects, and you have a good foundation to eliminate the irrational drives and compulsions that cause suffering.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-21 Opening into Consciousness 38:01
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In meditation we rest into what’s always here. Like dropping a net into the river and seeing what we catch, we simply take note with awareness, deep listening and open presence. Use structures and qualities as a skillful tetherings, to turn citta away from the complexity of stimulation, activity and abstraction. When energies are no longer running out, citta settles in itself. This is samādhi.
Cittaviveka :  2021 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
2021-03-17 Guided Meditation – Filtering the Flood 52:55
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In meditation we practice viewing the stream of circumstance from the place of acknowledgement. Let the stream flow past without getting into the details. Centering practices of body, presence, ethics and heart strengthen the possibility to shift attention from the outflows to here.
Cittaviveka
2021-03-13 Desperately Seeking Non-desperation 56:31
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The tendency to keep running out into concepts eventually results in overload, insecurity, anxiety, collapse. We’re desperately looking for sanity. The steadiness and fulfillment we seek is already here, in the non-conceptual intelligence of body and heart. Rather than going out, return to where body, mind and heart energy come together. In this presence our real home appears.
Cittaviveka
2021-03-03 Guided Meditation – Whole Body Awareness 54:38
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We may assume, and learn, that meditation is about focusing on details, but the Buddha advocates whole body awareness. Make an exercise of it, extending your awareness. Maintaining attention on the whole body doesn’t allow the mind to fixate – it stays open so the tangles and storms have no place to take hold. Posture, breathing and a receptive mind state all act as supports.
Cittaviveka
2021-01-29 Devotion and Discipline – Dhamma Protectors 47:34
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The 5 indriya are known as the Dhamma protectors. The complimentary qualities of devotion and discipline balance our approach to cultivation. Recommended is collecting oneself in body which provides leverage on restraining the thinking mind. Embodied intelligence – the inner, esoteric Dhamma – can then be accessed.
Sacred Mountain Sangha
2021-01-28 Dhammavicaya - Head and Heart 47:39
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There is fundamental puñña – value – in just being human. But citta doesn’t know its value, it gets lost in dreams, worries, passions, opinions. Collect oneself where body, thought and heart come together and investigate – where does the suffering end, where does fulfillment come from? Return to the place of innate value, stability, composure and clarity.
Cittaviveka
2021-01-21 Freshen Up through Integrity and Resolution 47:44
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Being affected by hindrances is a natural hurdle in Dhamma practice. Meet them by cultivating and suffusing wholesome heart qualities through the body. Application of integrity and resolution as we practice encourages citta to grow up and learn from the difficulties.
Cittaviveka
2021-01-16 Ācariya Puja – Aim Your Intentions High 60:08
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In Ajahn Chah, we commemorate and honor what’s possible in a human form. A seemingly ordinary person who applied all he had for noble purposes, training in what was difficult and cultivating pāramī. With this comes the severing of the outflows and the liberation of heart, a practice that many people can cultivate while engaging in life.
Cittaviveka :  At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down
2021-01-12 Untangling the Heart through Equanimity 44:34
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Place attention on themes that hold the mind and heart steady, using body to anchor the tangle of reactivity. Heart (citta) can then step back from phenomena and return to its own center that is knowing, equanimous, open. Investigation and handling of the somatic and emotional effects, rather than the topics, lead out of the tangle.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-11 Of Donkeys and Riptides 50:32
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When citta is collected in itself, it can begin to review the aspects of its experience that overwhelm and bind it, aspects not sensed or felt before. Train attention to go lightly, slow down, and open awareness to these unknown places. Fortify the citta with the rich energy of goodwill and recollections that warm the heart.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-10 Opening out of Reactivity 50:36
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We are encouraged to investigate the region of feeling, perception and reaction. By creating space before the reactivity, citta has the choice to go down the same path of agitation or settle back into itself. Develop citta’s capacity for this through seasoning the heart to be contented in itself.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-09 The Real World Begins in the Heart 44:01
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When we step back from the sense fields, citta can become steadied on itself. Clear meaning can come from this place of rest and ease. Then we can steer through input of the sense sphere, discern the meanings, and notice the effects in the heart and body. This is practice.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-09 Guided Meditation – Sensitivity in Embodiment 58:30
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The ability to sense and feel, read how citta is affecting body and body is affecting it – this is initiation into the process. Use the language of touch rather than seeing. Our fundamental base to support this process is the wide-open body. It contains all of the kammic stuff we need to work through.
Bodhi College :  Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit
2021-01-08 Contact that Is a Release from Contact 43:20
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Liberation by wisdom comes from a healthy citta having resources to experience the range of contact and its effects. The gentle fluidity of practices like breathing and walking help soothe the agitation and fixity of contact so we can be with the feeling rather than in it. Then it can move, release, empty, cease.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-07 Unbind and Protect the Heart 42:33
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Citta’s receptive quality is both its vulnerability and strength. It has to be protected until it is strong enough to repel corrupting influences. Cultivate themes and meanings that unbind and strengthen the heart – Buddha, precepts, lovingkindness. Citta then has a place to withdraw to.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-06 Guided Meditation - The Inner Experience of Body 53:17
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What is directly here? It’s not the anatomy of the body with its individual parts. Using body and breathing as a base, tune into the inner experience of body. There’s energy there – living, vital, sensitive. Keep turning towards the calm and bright places in the heart and body.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2021-01-06 Settling into the Buddha Domain 38:40
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Retreat is an occasion for clearing away certain inputs and intentionally placing others. Buddha – upright, clear, deeply centered. Emphasize the receptive aspect, listen deeply, linger. Gently allow awareness to become enriched by Buddha qualities, pervading body, heart mind.
Cittaviveka :  Awakening Through Heart, Cittaviveka Winter Retreat 2021
2020-12-29 Correcting the Foundations - Full Moon Lunar Observance 54:39
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Citta is confused. It has taken the wrong baseline and lost its foundation in itself – its own clarity, purity, knowing. Direct experience is the way back. Touching into qualities that strengthen and uplift citta, feeling the effects, and listening. Citta is freed from false baselines and settles in itself.
Cittaviveka
2020-12-20 Guided Meditation - View from the Balance 22:06
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Encouragement to have the courage and faith to go against the obligations of our lives and take time to center in citta. Amidst the activities of mind, there’s a place of balance and rest, release and non-clinging.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-20 Open to Wise Attention 48:39
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We bounce off dukkha rather than digesting it, bound to experience the same characteristic of dukkha in another form. The guiding capacity of citta is wise attention. We must learn to widen and lengthen our attention span. In this space we can contemplate dukkha rather than react to it. Dispassion and goodwill, the natural actions of heart, can then arise.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Q&A - Energies, Afterlife, Art, Cruelty, Self and Asubha 39:38
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Walk Like a Boat 3:57
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A suggestion for walking meditation, to move like a boat down a river, citta open like a sail spread on the mast. Move through the water of thoughts, impressions, memories. Walk with difficult moods that arise, holding lightly, listening and receiving.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Learning and Expanding Stillness 45:25
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Citta is used to feeding on stimulation. Use balance and breathing to settle it, get it interested in that still point. Focus on the stillness of dispassion and cooling.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Stillness Flowing 46:11
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Meet the constant flow of life with the stillness and poise of citta. Relate to it all with respect and mutuality, learning to adapt, flow and listen to life. Practice with cultivation of subtle energies of body and heart and with samādhi. Sutta Reference: SN1:1
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Q&A - Balancing Attention, Intention, 3rd Satipaṭṭhāna, Sound of Silence 29:06
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-19 Guided Meditation - Turning to 'I' 14:48
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Beginning the process of centering, set aside what isn’t relevant right now. Strengthen the bodily reference to help support citta. Acknowledge the sense of I am – what is the I, how is that experienced?
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-18 Q &A - Citta, Clearing Afflictive Moods, Restoring Relatedness 32:04
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-18 Easeful Ceasing 48:56
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Citta needs to be trained to rest back from engagement. By not going into the stories, spreading awareness over the entire body, and letting emotions rise and pass. As citta releases from contact, it accesses a finer more lasting and agreeable sense of security and well-being.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-18 Guided Meditation - The Still Centre 35:28
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The energy of citta is conjoined with bodily energy. Steadying and brightening body gives citta a place to rest so it can withdraw from phenomena. With the disentangling from phenomena, the quiet center of citta, the knowingness, becomes more apparent.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-18 Q&A - Causality, the World and the Way 29:44
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-17 Bojjhanga and Q&A on Citta 43:10
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-17 Exploration and Patience 9:10
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Dhamma is a direct experience. You can directly touch it and open up to it. Handle it more with curiosity than trying to figure out what to do about it. Patient, receptive, as the meditator becomes more open stuck mental states can fall away.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-17 Touch What You Don't Know 57:19
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The tool of wisdom cross references thinking, emotion and body. Body helps reveal the heart. Use it to sense and handle emotion. This is using embodied wisdom for the purposes of calming and revealing. It’s how you get to know the bits you don’t know.
Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation
2020-12-16 Tune in and Open 53:19
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Cittaviveka :  Living, Dying and Liberation

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