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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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2019-12-07 Preparing the Heart and Mind for Practice 63:48
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge The Touch of Dhamma - May 2019 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2019-05-30 Associating with Good People 54:35
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
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

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