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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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2018-11-15 15 Learning to Cultivate Relationship 61:41
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We can learn to relate to the conditioned world with a sense of knowing it doesn’t work, dealing with the inevitable clashes and frictions with a mind that is spacious, that can digest the chafing. Nourish and strengthen citta through qualities of goodwill, patience and acceptance facilitate disengagement. Then the heart is not troubled by things not going its way.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-14 14 Sangha Heals Afflictions of Exclusion 50:17
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With devotional practices we choose to direct ourselves in terms of awakening. Pūjā gives the occasion to settle in our Refuge quality rather than our personal kamma. This is the way we build up a reference point to cultivate and clear the kamma of the person within the field of sangha.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-14 13 Soothing and Steadying Body Energies 53:33
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The deeply ingrained reactivity to jump from unpleasant feeling is saṇkhāra. We leave the richness and intelligence of embodiment for the virtual world of programs and drives. Steadying and stabilizing the bodily energies with ānāpānasati develops a different kind of saṇkhāra, one that responds to phenomena with non-demand and acceptance.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-12 12 Nourishing the Citta 47:31
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Creating a feedback loop to keep citta refreshed and nourished strengthens our ability to meet the uncomfortable. This can’t be done through the virtual realm of the intellect; take time every day to touch into bodily presence without adjusting anything or turning away. That steady presence becomes the place of regeneration and refreshment.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-11 11 Q&As 53:17
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Q1: ways of strengthening the citta; Q2 31:37 How can one best work with the citta? Q3 34:01 What is the relationship of intuitive awareness to the citta? Q4 36:56 Could you say something more about the sacred? Q5 40:10 greed and aversion – are they two sides of the same coin? Can one exist without the other? Q6 46:46 What is animita (signless) samādhi as opposed to nimitta samādhi or jhāna?
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-11 10 Weaning the Citta from Clinging 63:27
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The habit of clinging stems from a search for safety and security, yet we cling to that which can never provide security. It’s not easy to give up clinging, so an inner strengthening is required – energetically, psychologically and emotionally.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-11 09 Guided Meditation: Feeling Grounded and Safe in the Space 40:02
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Before reviewing the themes that present themselves to us in meditation, we need the support of safety and ground. Guidance is provided to establish center, ground and safety in this embodiment.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-11 08 Resourcing the Faculty of Heart, Our Responsive Capacity 58:10
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Phenomena that are mutable, not solid, and dependently arisen become experienced as fixed and solid by unconscious grasping and holding on. The relationship is then one of fixation. A more mature relationship is not based on eliminating displeasure but on responsiveness and flexibility. With practice one can feel comfortable with things that are uncomfortable.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-10 07 Intention - a Property of Citta 31:53
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Meditation practice instructs us to sustain harmonious relationship with our minds, bodies and the world – to not be dominating, not to grasp or push away, but to be present. Sometimes an open accepting awareness, rather than a focus on a particular object, is the proper mode. When mental and body energies are in sync there’s a sense of harmony and unification. This is samādhi.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-10 06 Walking Instructions: Human Bodies Walk Like This 12:46
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Our walking gets programmed by the drives of the mind. Whatever affects the mind affects the nervous system of the body – the body shows us the effects of our thinking. Walking meditation can return us to the natural quality of the body, so the mind can relax.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
In collection: A Moving Balance
2018-11-09 05 The Wisdom Faculty 52:10
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The search for happiness, security and steadiness binds us in a tangle of stressful and unsatisfactory experiences – because we’re looking in the wrong place. Wisdom/discernment helps us detangle and discern what to set aside and what is worth bearing in mind.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-08 04 Calm and Discernment Work in Tandem 20:02
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Discernment helps filter from the amalgam of experience what’s skillful now. Having picked up what is skillful one lingers in it, dwells in it, sustains it. This is calming. So skim off stressful habits of “trying to make it work”, “getting on to the next”. Use the body to learn what the mind is happy to linger in.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-08 03 Regaining Our Natural Intelligence 37:28
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In meditation both the topic and the manner in which we attend can help train our mode of mental engagement. Shifting from stressful tendencies of “making it happen” and “getting it right”, come back to the natural body. This living system is the source for a steady, safe and easeful state.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-07 02 Going for Refuge - Reorientation of Citta 58:37
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What is it that we need to take Refuge from? The poisons of greed, hatred and delusion that mask themselves and corrupt our hearts and minds. This requires reorienting from worldly ways and orienting around what has value and meaning, that which you can trust: virtue, embodiment, nature and other people.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-11-07 01 Setting up the Relational Context of Dhamma 22:24
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Four compass points to orient around while on retreat: how you relate to the earth, to other people, to your body and to the sacred; an explanation of pūjā – recollections and making offerings, as with the offering of food.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge :  November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2018-10-15 21 Day 6 Closing talk: The Smallest Unit in the Cosmos is Two 32:38
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When we reflect on the nature of fields, we notice everything is a duality. How we relate in this twosome is the practice. Unskillful latent tendencies are revealed in relationship, giving us an opportunity to clear them. Kalyāṇamitta (spiritual friendship) is essential. It’s only others that can show us what we don’t see in ourselves.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-14 20 Day 5 Evening Puja: Wilderness Training 25:00
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We struggle for certainty and clarity, but the true orientation of Dhamma is disorientation from old maps, thereby allowing forms to arise and change with disengaged attention. Then we’re much more alert and agile. This is wilderness training.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-14 19 Day 5 Morning Instructions: Maps that Dispel Differentiation 53:22
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The Buddha expounded Dhamma using various maps. The map of the khandhā and dependent origination provide means for understanding and responding to experience without the sense of a fixed self. Meeting and relating to phenomena in the body, free from aversion and resistance, you don’t have to like it, just accept it. This is the way out of suffering.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-14 18 Day 5 Guided Meditation Intention – a Softer Effort 46:47
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Using intention in practice means there is a wish, a prayer, an aspiration – subtle movements of energy rather than the push of effort. If we use intention too forcefully we block receptivity. It’s up to us to determine what’s skillful at this time. Perhaps it’s the intention to relax, set aside, widen, soften. Wisdom is our guide, and effort is just to use wisdom to arrive at deeper wisdom. [8:15 Begin Standing Meditation Instructions] Translating Anatomical Descriptions into Felt Sense: We all use anatomical descriptions of the body as a sketch, but the encouragement in this meditation is to translate them into energetic or felt experiences. Beginning with physical experience, guidance is provided to sense into subtler energies and felt tones and meanings.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-14 17 Day 5 Morning Puja: Lingering 54:42
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Beginning our day, we make the intention to enter the Dhamma field before entering the hallucinatory field constructed of time and space. Refrain from what’s not needed, linger in what’s needed. What you linger with increases. If you linger in the world of suppositions - ‘got to do, should do’- that increases. Find out what’s truly needed and linger there.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-13 16 Day 4 Evening Puja: Q&A 67:49
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Different ways of presenting Dhamma in Theravada Buddhism (single-pointed, ‘dry insight’; Thai forest). Are there certain thought patterns that are related to nervous energy in the body? How do you do discharge? Metta practice as cultivating non-aversive, non-contractive state rather than a doing/sending out. Clarifying the term ‘fields’. Qi Gong questions (is it normal to get so hot while practicing Qi Gong? Is it good to use wu qi for standing meditation?); Responding to sexual awareness in the presence of others. Skillfully handling trauma that are still alive. Distinction between perception and consciousness. How feelings and emotions are experienced in Samadhi. Reclining meditation
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-13 15 Day 4 Qi Gong 9:17
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Ajahn Sucitto responds to a question about how he got started with Qi Gong.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-13 14 Day 4 Guided Meditation: Goodwill 23:27
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Citta is moved by images that can be sparked by thought, visual, auditory or somatic/felt experience. This guided meditation accesses these portals to generate receptivity and resonances of goodwill within yourself, then spread them out.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-13 13 Day 4 Morning Instructions: Heart Yoga 48:49
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Relationship is always necessary, always there, whether with other people or with ourselves. To absorb into comfortable relationship, and clear this area from greed, hatred and fear, there has to be a lot of negotiation, the back and forth movement of disengaging, then returning again. This is true yoga of the heart. To keep the heart flexible and responsive, brahmavihārā ‘asanas’ are suggested.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
2018-10-13 12 Day 4 Morning Puja: Think Short, Listen Long 22:31
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Instruction on disengaging attention from mental contact. Disengagement allows for longer listening time. The quality of listening has a different tone – softer, more open, the ability to be with but not in. That non-engaged space allows for signs of comfort, contentment and gladness to arise. It’s not in the object but in the relationship. Keep re-establishing relationship to the chosen object.
New York Insight Meditation Center :  Entering the Dhamma Fields: A Five Day Residential Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto

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