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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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2020-01-13 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

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