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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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2020-02-06 3 Channels for Energy 29:57
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There is a 3-fold system through which energy operates: bodily, conceptual and emotive. As we practice to resolve and release negative energies, we need resources. Bringing together the 3 aspects of body, mind and heart provide a way to open channels to drain and release unresolved energies.
Dharmagiri :  Firm Center, Open Heart
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

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