Aphorisms

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Just one moment of samādhi and you will never doubt again


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Whisper the truth and it shall roar through the cosmos


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trust only the eyes of freedom, the true eyes of the heart


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in being truly human lies a sacred blend of wisdom and compassion,
this is the alchemy of liberation


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imperfection and frailty are our guide toward liberation, not strength and idealism – to gracefully enter into decline is not to fail but to deepen


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what human-kind needs is not progress but regress


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the heart is softened by melancholy


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the spiritual path is ultimately not about going anywhere but staying right where you are –
space can give the illusion of movement when actually it remains always still


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wisdom makes air into cool water for the heart


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we think ourselves above the world –
the world has to come up as the stuff in our minds
because we have not come down to earth


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the truly open mind is like a question.


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The Buddha never speaks about the ultimate, he speaks from the ultimate.


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life is a dialogue between the present and the past


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The Buddha’s teaching was aimed mostly at correcting the eternalist view. These days what is needed more is to correct the nihilistic view.


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The practice is all about letting go of selfish desire. We begin with letting go of selfishness through generosity and virtue. The mind becomes peaceful and, enjoying that peace, can then let go of our desire altogether through a natural wisdom.


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The Buddha represents an eternal letting go rather than grasping, the opposite and also the healing of the worldly mind.


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If we are walking along a path in the forest we can be delighting in the scene around us or we can be taking note of where we are in relation to home. These are two completely different experiences of the same situation. One holds an enduring truth, home. The other is merely sense impressions that arise and cease. Then there are deeper truths than this that can be ever present, providing a base for the mind. Because it is possible for truth to generate mind just the same as it is for mind to generate truth such truth can be the source of a transcendent mind.


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Can you still love the mangy old dog? Love is perfected, transformed from passion into dispassion, when harnessed to the plough of impermanence.


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In a human being everything comes together – the direct experience of the physical world which is the body; the mind which brings together information or truth; the spirit or empty mind which is that which can encompass body and mind in a way that reaches beyond both to liberation.


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Gaining insight is like the art of divination – full attention to the present yields an insight as to the future.


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The Dhamma is part of nature, that is where to look for liberation, nowhere else. We pursue the spiritual goal not by looking for somewhere else to get away to, there is nowhere else to go, but by making the mind empty through withdrawal first of all and then returning to look again at the world, by learning to encompass the world within this empty mind.
Understanding this prevents a conflict arising between the striving for a spiritual goal and our life in the natural world which can be one and the same thing.


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The practice of mindfulness might sometimes make us start looking for perfection within the world. Right mindfulness (sammā sati) on the other hand is looking for the imperfections of the world.


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The mind does not know how look after the body. Most of us don't even know how to stand or walk properly never mind understanding sickness. The mind is one step removed from the physical world. This is good. The mind can be free.


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It is the grief of the world for itself that washes away the hosts of Mara.


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Suffering is the past and future wrestling with each other in the mind.


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With the advent of computers peoples' minds are getting very fast but don't seem to be really thinking very much or to really stay with something difficult and work it out.


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Just as mind can create truth, truth can create mind. When the natural, universal truth of Dhamma creates mind, the formless mind of the Buddha, this is the transcendent, being Dhamma. The mind has reached beyond materiality, beyond time and space.


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No wonder modern man is so confused! What we see as the body is not really the body, it is actually feeling. What we see as the mind is not really the mind. There is no 'me and my mind' there is just the mind in the present aware of the flow of the mind from the past, mental action and result.


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Mankind has been confused since the advent of psychology when we started watching our minds; our minds are made for watching the world, not for being watched.


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Meditation can seem boring but actually boredom is a very interesting state of mind to observe. Meditation is an act of giving, you give everything to it, you get everything out of it; meditation is just boring if you want something


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Rather than the mind inhabiting this precarious world, a sense of wonder and mystery opens us to the sense of meaning which holds the world within the mind – free of time and space.


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Perhaps we can all recognise how it is in truth that our voices come together and for a moment we share the same thoughts and dreams. The deeper the truth we share, the deeper is the feeling of union – the love of truth becomes a true love. Ultimately, perfect love, perfect union lies in the deepest truth, where the spacious mind is born. Our minds may become one within the eternal space of everlasting truth.


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A very small percentage of people who practise meditation will have some kind of truly profound experience. For these people monastic life, a life dedicated to this practice, will be the obvious choice.


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Science can show us the power of truth in the world.
The Dhamma can show us the power of truth in the mind and heart.


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Letting go of craving creates space in the mind. This space is our spirit. The quality of our spirit can transform everything that arises within the mind.


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Let go. The space of the mind is bright, illuminating everything within it.


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The untrained mind is grasping by its nature, the only way to let go is first of all is to take hold of something else. Taking refuge in the space of the mind is, therefore, the temporary way to let go of everything.


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If we then remain aware of the space that surrounds all our experience we can rest in this refuge. In order to secure our refuge in our active life our very way of looking at things must cause us to let go, we need to acknowledge the impermanence of everything we see compared to the space.


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The way to permanently let go is to see everything in a way that causes us to let go rather than attach to things.


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Contemplation is the process of seeing what we are holding onto and changing our way of looking in order to let go.


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It is not a moralistic but an open, non-judgemental awareness that sees the suffering of all our craving and lets go.


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Open up to see the whole picture, then your direction will become clear.


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Our very first moment of samādhi can ruin our worldly lives but it can take many years after the experience to realise that everything is suffering compared to this and let go into a still higher samādhi. The first experience can be like finding our eternal soul. The highest samādhi is not the same, it is not like living forever but like dying, there is no sense of self. But this is a kind of dying where you don't go anywhere, where you realise that when everything ends your consciousness can mysteriously remain. Regardless of whether we believe that this state is the Deathless or not it remains as a source of truth that remains in the heart. When we see impermanence it shines its cool, blissful light of recognition on the world.


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The purpose of life is to find happiness. The highest happiness lies in letting go. Such a life is a natural training for death.


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When we truly have insight into impermanence the result is a mind that opens, as though this truth were first an answer but then a question – it remains as a source of wonder that opens the mind. This is a refuge in a mystery not in a fact. Karma is a mystery, the transcendent is a mystery. They are part of the same mystery.


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To feed our wholesome karma, past or present, dead or alive, is to feed ourselves.


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Space with suffering is our first refuge.
Space without suffering is our second refuge.


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Far greater than all the things that change is the one thing that remains the same.


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The universe does not care about us. It is our job to care about the universe.


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We can be the everlasting truth, the truth of impermanence, and not be the impermanent objects that arise and cease.

This is like bringing God down to earth.


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Good thought, happy feeling; wise thought, liberating feeling.


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Physical disciplines can help us optimise the system and generate energy. The Dhamma uses the same system with a different master.


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The pure mind is in here not out there. When reading about the pure mind we should always imagine a picture on the paper of a little hand pointing back at us so that we don't begin to think it is out there.


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If we want something magical from the practise we will never find it – the wanting will block the experience.


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The whole psychic realm will degenerate into false magic, superstition and a fear of ghosts amongst those with no real practice.


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Do you really forgive or do you just want to get rid of the grudge?


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Some people are worried they will go crazy if they meditate too much – if you have no patience or kindness in the mind this is true.

It is also true that meditation can drive your craving crazy – so is it you or your craving going crazy?


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Psychic sanity is not believing in everything your spirits tell you just because they are spirits but watching for good and bad. The same applies to mysterious energies, they are not all good.


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Goodness is like the sun wisdom is like the moon.


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The content of our mind is something we are doing or something that arises as a result of how we are looking. So we should watch the mind like something we are doing and be aware of how we are looking.


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We create the battle of thought and feeling, top-down versus bottom-up by placing thought in the head and feelings in the body.


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Real wisdom is what helps us let go and takes the mind into emptiness (samādhi).


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Seeing nature's futile struggle against impermanence is to see the suffering inherent in all things.


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Through mindfulness of the body we become brothers and sisters in old age, sickness and death. We find a natural source of morality. Our morality becomes a natural response, free of inner conflict. There is compassion without desire.


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In a world of limited resources our desires will always be a source of conflict with others. Generosity or sharing might solve the problem externally but not internally. Only the ability to let go frees us of all inner conflict.


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People say there is no evidence in science for the existence of a stable ground to consciousness, it has never been found. But the scientific instruments are all attuned to change. If something is universal and unchanging then it will be necessarily off all the dials.


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Mindfulness is to see that perception is active and action is passive, it merely follows. Mindfulness sees the act of perception; meditation calms this action. Wisdom arises naturally when perception is calmed.


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Dependent origination is a tautological statement – this means that the links are beyond doubt, the propositions are not claimed or asserted – for example birth leads to death, what birth and death really are is not the point.


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Looking, awareness is active. This activity is the source of all we see within the mind. The watcher is doing everything that we are watching. If the watcher is calm, the mind is empty.
Calm mind, empty mind. If the mind is not completely empty (silent) it is not completely calm.


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“I am not all this stuff, I am the watcher” is just a conceited view. Period.


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The struggle of nature to find stability, coherence between its truth and its substance, is played out in the relationship between the mind and the body. This is the most intimate relationship of material form and meaning within our experience. Having a body compels us to find a solution to the mind-body problem.
The solution is that the body is in the mind, not the mind in the body.


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The refuge has two levels, 'mundane' and 'supra-mundane', both are in emptiness or space: our mundane refuge is our refuge in the world, we can 'be the space' and watch the suffering arise and cease – if we watch with a calm mind we do not add to the suffering. The supra-mundane refuge is where there is no suffering arising.


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True equanimity arises from seeing the way things really are, not accepting the way it seems to be.


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The acceptance of suffering allows us to respond rather than react.


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Buddhism trains us to find a natural, stress-free morality.


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The renunciant path is humble relinquishment, not conceited dissociation.


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Oneness comes from letting go of self, not conceiving All.


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Even if you are just watching thoughts, hot eyes means hot karma.


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When there is a habitual reaction to a memory, then past and present get all mixed up.


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We can use wisdom or samādhi to control the mind.


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We can't really let go unless we have something else to let go into – samādhi.


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If we have faith we have time – faith is energy, energy is time.


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The body is both in the mind as an image and in the world as a feeling.


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Only having no desire takes one beyond evil.


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Therapy is curative. The Dhamma is preventative. Seen like this they do not conflict with each other. The preventative medicine clearly takes priority; moreover, there is no permanent cure.


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In Buddhism goodness leads to brightness of mind – becoming this brightness is being in heaven already.


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Acceptance is the end of greed and hatred but not of the delusion that is their cause. So through acceptance we can abandon greed and hatred but they will keep coming back.


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The purpose of periods of celibacy is to help change the perception of the body to a neutral one that leads to freedom from attachment.


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The establishment of mindfulness is, at the same time, the emergence of the spirit.


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Mindfulness becomes most naturally and firmly established when the mind is free of both the regrets that draw us into the past and the desires that draw us into the future.


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Through patiently tolerating (harmless) pain our relationship to pain changes and in time this can change the pain itself.


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We practice in order to get into a good space. There are lots of different spaces we can get into – some are higher than others and therefore are more pleasant, some are freer than others and therefore last longer.


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If looking for meaning becomes looking for importance then we can add stress to life rather than take it away.


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It is still true that everything is alright the way it is, but we need to truly see the way it is, all the time, to be free of suffering.


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If our sense of need is seen in the context of that which needs – that is the body – then we have sanity, or more than this, we have a source of natural ethics.


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Interestingly the study of the relationship between mind and body is often assumed to be concerned with developing power of mind over matter in some way or another. What we discover when we are truly mindful of the body, however, is that if we don't mind, it doesn't matter.


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Allowing the body to be simply present develops simple, humble presence of mind.


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Rather than being drawn into emotions, draw the emotions into you.


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The most useful questions are: What am I averse to in this? What am I attracted to in this? Do I really need this? Do I really know this?


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Acting, talking and thinking in the opposite direction to our unwholesome mind is what really seems to count.


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We gradually see that it is worth giving up craving for the future to win perfect mindfulness – because mindfulness is such a pleasant state.


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We practice until the extraordinary becomes ordinary and the ordinary becomes extraordinary.


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Liberation requires the complete reapplication of body and mind to a new purpose


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There are two ways or purposes for attention, sensual interest or wisdom and compassion


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In terms of karma, specifics do not need to be resolved, a positive balance takes things in a positive direction.


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In contemplation, tease yourself... In samādhi, play dead...


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Everything in the mind is really outside. Inside the mind is empty.


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We are continually projecting the suffering of body and mind out into the world. If we look down at ourselves and really see the suffering, we block this projection and the suffering ceases. The stronger this perception of suffering is the more it can protect us from the feelings of suffering.


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Contemplation is our way of letting go of things. Virtue is our way of holding on to them. If we combine these two we will have a very light touch on life.


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Letting go of the body is the way to sort the mind out for good. The reason that this works is that all our problems are inherently the result of our attachment to our physical existence.


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The only way to prevent the affairs of the body pulling us out of a nice space is to pull the space into the body


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If you don’t get any pleasant feelings from your practice of ānāpānasati, the reason might be that you don’t have sufficient body awareness to feel the breath fully – and this general body awareness can be developed through your daily life tasks.


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Some people ask, “Is it really necessary for liberation to see the body as unattractive?” The answer is that it isn’t, what is necessary strictly speaking is to see the body as not-self (or anattā), however many times it is necessary to see its unattractive aspect (asubha) at least momentarily for this to happen. The reason for this is that attraction leads to identification.


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Some people think that the higher practice is to work through your stuff with the world and not “run away from it”. But going out into the world actually constitutes a running away from the body and our predicament of physical existence, and this predicament is truly what we need to come to terms with to work through our stuff – or rather to prevent it from arising in the first place.


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The body is a mirror to the mind: Tense mind, tense body.


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The passions grasping at the body always leads to a mind-in-the-body-experience of life rather than a body-in-the-mind-experience. Not mind-in-body but body-in-mind equals not mind-in-the-world but world-in-the-mind.


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The body is also a manifestation of past karma, part of the karmic flow. Our genes are one way in which our karma is carried. So the body is not just materiality, it is also a source of information in the physical world encoded in its form. Although the energy related to information and to materiality are inseparable, the reader of the information is potentially in a parallel and detached existence.


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You can’t solve the problems of the mind within the mind, but only through two things – samādhi and mindfulness of the body.


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Perception and feeling are respectively cause and effect, but are not always recognized as such. This is because perception is not always clearly manifest. It is necessary to try to find the perceptions that are the source of feelings and not to merely focus on the feelings.


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We relate to thought and feeling as though these are mind and body respectively, but they are not. Thought is not the mind itself but the content of it. Feeling is not the body itself but a separate phenomena that is dependent on it. To be aware of the mind in and of itself, the emptiness of it, keeps thought in its proper context. To be aware of the body in itself keeps feelings in their proper context. To look for feelings in the body is a mistake, it merely limits them.


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We have to be aware that we cannot let go of our feelings – these are our karma. What we need to let go of is the source of them.


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The not-self nature of the mind means that its automatic reactions cannot be controlled, but there need not be any of these. There can be silence, or just the flow of deliberate thought in the present without any inflow from the past or future. What arises in the present can then affect the world – the mind working as a passage of truth and virtue; but this mind exists in a different relationship to the world than the mind did before – it is not attached and tied down by its own proliferation but abides independent.


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Our suffering arises from a limited view of reality. Dhamma offers a different view of what is real and what is possible.


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We can be aware of the mind itself, the knowing (as inner light) just the same as we can be aware of the eye that sees. This mind needs no awareness of itself from another standpoint. This light illuminates the world.


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True vipassanā is not letting go of one thing for the next but letting go of everything. It sees absolute impermanence and not relative impermanence.
We can let go of everything and yet this is not annihilation – this is the great mystery of life.


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Materialism is when we grasp at the things; eternalism is when we grasp at the space.


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In the process of the formation of perception, seeing is believing. Believing is not seeing. Through the development of wisdom, deeper seeing is deeper believing.


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Buddhism can at the outset seem very complicated and yet the more you understand it the simpler it gets. You realise that the practice is very simple.


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We live in a crucial time. The tradition is in decline in the East, and there is an open field here in the West. If we manage to get it right, the true Dhamma will take roots here; if we get it wrong and throw out all the challenging teachings in order to please everyone, then it will all go pear-shaped.


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True wisdom always has love. But does love always have wisdom? Maybe true love is that which has wisdom, because it has truth.


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On a spiritual path we are not denying ourselves sense pleasure but seeing the suffering of feeding the craving.


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In social terms Buddhism represents not society forming people but people forming the society – this is a loving and organic process.


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In the teachings of the Buddha there is a lot of material that might seem depressive, such as reflections on our inevitable mortality or on the impermanence and hollowness of all worldly achievements, and we might wonder why those things are being highlighted in such a way; did the Buddha want to make us depressed?
The answer is that if you truly see the suffering you won’t experience the suffering; you will defeat it, once and for all, and enter into a new world of bliss.


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Impermanence ‘aniccaṃ’ is not just a view to go around and plaster onto everything. Then it turns into just another view or ‘diṭṭhi’. Instead it is a sign calling us to a quest for the eternal. If we are on the search for the eternal we will just simply be noting that whatever we encounter of impermanent conditions are ‘not it’ and proceed onwards without getting bogged down in it.


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We see self as subject or object, limited or infinite. These selves change with the dynamics of the mind – is it open or closed, does it go in or out?


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On one level mental suffering arises in the difference between what we get and what we want, but it is not as easy as just accepting things the way they are. This is merely trying to take refuge in passivity. We may not regret or desire what we have done but what we have left undone.


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The mind cannot just be told to be equanimous. It will always search for pleasant feeling.


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We can act, looking for inner happiness and accept at the same time if we have patience.


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People today often underestimate the fruits of the practice. They seem to expect it to be just a matter of some little psychological readjustment that makes the daily life simpler. But it goes much, much further than that. And likewise, the necessary commitment and effort you have to put into it to reap these fruits are also much greater than they expect.


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The fact that studies of different aspects of the same phenomena are not cited alongside each other is an example, I think, of a much wider modern phenomenon – the inappropriate compartmentalization of areas of knowledge and study. This is very much a symptom of the age of the computer word search as a research method. In Dhamma practise this leads to a mind that is overly focused and lacks the broader, open view.


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“Healthy body – healthy mind” that is what they say, and it is true – to some point. But what you ultimately need to be looking for is a mind that can remain healthy even when the body gets sick, because it will turn sick one day.


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What is mindfulness? If we see the mind clearly we see that the mind is established in the present already, where else can it be? The past is only a memory, the future is uncertain. Isn’t this right? Certainly our lack of attention to the present means that memory and uncertainty drift into the mind but even with this attention, regret or desire will automatically surround the objects of the mind dragging it in to past or future.
So a mind with morality has far greater, more natural mindfulness
A natural morality also comes about when we see each other as human beings – and a lack of morality through dehumanization. To see the real nature of the body is to see each other as human beings, avoiding making people into objects either of desire or hatred.
In this way world peace begins inside and extends outward.


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A worldly view will lead to a worldly morality, a spiritual view to a spiritual one. So a spiritual view cannot define morality to people with worldly priorities, it is only as a view changes that it will naturally, healthily change people’s priorities. Life is seen as hugely precious but for completely different reasons.


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Only an arahant will naturally have perfect morality through a lack of desire. The rest of us will need help.


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When we attempt to describe our everyday experience of thoughts and feelings we are often surprised to see how much of it is relatively unformed, unclear. We can assume that everything we experience involves clear thoughts as words or images because there is the experience of a constant stream of so-called inner life. Actually most of our cognition is only partly formed inside, it is for the most part formed by things outside. It is a continuous stream of karma based on the things of the world, of perceptions.
It is when we turn inside to examine thought and feeling that we begin to create something fuller and more coherent that does not then necessarily relate to the outer world, but it needs to be tested against it. Introverts will develop such an inner world to a greater extent and will have greater use of the imagination.


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The Refuge is in emptiness – and everything is potentially empty if it is empty of self. But it is a mistake to see the refuge as the space or silence or apparent emptiness of samādhi because to place the mind there requires effort and the state arrived at is impermanent. It is a stepping stone in the right direction, however. It is the way to let go of the objects to find the obvious space and the enjoyment of this to begin with, then to see this space in everything. It is the need for pleasure outside the objects of the senses that makes this a necessary stepping stone.


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How do we find the independence, permanence and stability of the unconditioned? We establish the unconditioned through the unconditional. This is what is meant in the teaching by the practice of Dhamma being established in the deathless and culminating in the deathless. We establish, for example, the spiritual factors as unconditional qualities – faith, love, patience, and determination are perhaps the most important.
As the deathless becomes established it is then experienced first of all in subtle ways and we begin to be able to tune into it and strengthen it directly in our meditation. This is the culmination of the practice.


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The two sides of the practice, calm (samatha) and insight (vipassanā) require opposite attitudes. The samatha requires fixed routine and discipline, as little of variation and involvement of thought as possible. Vipassanā, although ideally going beyond thought requires an active and innovative approach, like skilful study, getting involved with and creative with the material and so on. When the mind is restless we do samatha, when it is sluggish we do vipassanā, until we reach a balanced state where the two come together.


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For some people issues from the past will come up over and over again. Just calming the mind does not prevent this or resolve anything. In terms of karma the most important aspect to hone in on are the mental images associated with memories. This is where there is the greatest potential for change. If we can hold an image or allow images to arise (often this means being able to experience the feelings without getting drawn in) we can relate to an experience completely fresh with a calm and skilful mind and resolve the issue.

To do this we can need to see that the image is not the event, merely an image. It is the same with desire; the image is not yet the desire but merely karma. We can see an image from the past in a new light and the desire will not arise.


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The practice can be a bit like learning to steer a car. You learn how the break works, how the throttle works, how the clutch works, how the gear works. You are confused over what all these things are for, and you can’t make sense of it at all, then all of a sudden you realize that you can be steering your car down the road. “Wooah I can control this thing now!” And it is the same with the mind. You learn how all the path-factors work, and all of a sudden, after many years perhaps, you can be steering your mind along the road of samādhi. “Aha, so that was what that thing was for...”

Don't ever let anyone tell you that it can't be done!


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It is contradictory to talk about being mindful of the hindrances. The hindrances are one thing and mindfulness is another. Mindfulness is not being aware of our lack of awareness but establishing our awareness. Having said that – the hindrances are not a problem in themselves, they are just in the way of something else. So we don’t make a problem out of them in themselves, we are just out to get past them.


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If we have no samādhi or insight then to accept everything is all we can do, we have no real lever on the mind. But a touch of equanimity means we can keep the love going even when we are getting nowhere.


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To reflect that we are not feelings or thoughts is good. To think we are the good and not the bad is just conceit.
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One thing that is often underestimated among meditation practitioners is the power of shorter meditation sessions. It is true that big breakthroughs usually come out of longer meditation sessions, for example six hours or so, but to simply go to one’s meditation object whenever there is a short break in activities, or if one finds oneself amidst a conversation which doesn’t concern one, is a great habit that helps building the foundation of the bigger breakthrough. It is a practice that breaks the momentum of the unwholesome thoughts in your daily life.


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We can spend a lot of time trying to get around our karma in one way or another when the quickest way is straight through with patient endurance.
We can think that we can resolve our karma when we just need to endure it. We can think that we cannot resolve our unwholesome thoughts when we can, or at least we can get beyond them.


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Proliferation (papañca) is our conditioning; mental formations (saṅkhāras) are our instincts.
As saṅkhāras flow out, papañca flows in.


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Once we have truly let go of something we can pick it up again and we won’t stick to it.


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The five precepts kept to a very refined degree represent the abandoning of these five precepts.


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If we fall in love with the present moment we also fall in love with everyone in it.


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Balanced practice is not too far in or out. The teaching of C.G. Jung is an example of too far in.


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If we follow our desires, our desires follow us like hungry dogs. If we don’t follow our desires, our desires follow us like obedient dogs.


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We tend to assume that the mind must either go into something or away from it – so we miss the possibility of the light touch of detachment.


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Give the spiritual training one hundred percent. This does not mean that you should constantly pressure yourself to your limit, or beyond it; but that you in each mind-moment will be presented with a choice – a choice between the Dhamma and the unwholesome thoughts, and then you will have to make the right choice.


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Faith is tremendously important.


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Advice for practising the mantra Buddho:
Find a rhythm in your everyday chores. One of the reasons for why this practise is so much easier walking than it is, for example, while you are doing the washing-up is that there is such a natural rhythm there in the footsteps. Once one starts to master this practise, the thinking required to do your daily chores can almost start to “blend together” with Buddho.


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Ajahn Anan said that when the mind is applied to something, then it is mindfulness (sati); and when it simply spins around, it is proliferation (papañca). And to elaborate on that: the mind, or auto-pilot, lost in papañca  is always, by necessity, connected with the unwholesome thoughts, and this idle speech inside you can only say things to you that you already know.


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Chanting is a great thing to to during a retreat, because it is a mental activity, and thereby it wakes your mind up, but it does so without inviting very much proliferation


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If unwholesome thoughts are giving you a particularly rough time you might want to ask yourself what you have been doing to feed them lately. However, there is another possibility as well; if you have been very energetic in opposing them lately it could all be a matter of desperate counter-attacks. They can become very coarse and brutal when they are opposed. And then we can really realize what a dark force it is that we are dealing with here.


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It is not possible to save the Dhamma by writing it down, it is only possible to save the Dhamma by practising it.


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The only way to prove the value of this path, at the end of the day, is to be happier than the people of the world.


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The implications of this path are not merely psychological but also existential. It is not merely about a different way of experiencing the world, but a new understanding of experience in itself.


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It is a popular practice these days to simply watch the mind, but this practice is based on the deluded view that the watching mind is not involved in what it is watching – but in reality really it is. If you change the way you watch you will see how much this changes the mind.


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If you manage to suppress the unwholesome thoughts then for the first time you will get a clear vision of the body, because the body is what they are most concerned about concealing. You could say that the unwholesome thoughts are our misguided defence mechanisms.


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You might be sitting there with both knees and the back blazing with pain, but around the corner awaits an insight that will change your life forever.


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Have you chosen your favourite among the Buddha's disciples? Who would you like to resemble? Who suits your character? Ajahn Anan asked me this question, and my reply was Mahā Kaccāna – the mysterious poet who appears from nowhere and explains something very profound, and then disappears again.


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A happy monastery is a strict one, not a slack one. A well-tamed and trained dog is a happy dog. Slackness is absolutely not equivalent to kindness. It just means that one is letting the unwholesome thoughts do as they please.


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Sometimes certain monastics feel a bit cynical about the etiquette that is part of the monastic life (for example that there is a prescribed way of washing the bowl, etc.) but these things could be compared to the custom of soldiers polishing their boots before going to a battle. It can have a very steadying effect on the heart in difficult times.


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Don't follow the unwholesome thoughts when they want to choose this or that for the meal. Instead follow an awareness of what is appropriate for the situation. This can be applied for all everyday situations. We cannot try to 'have our cake and eat it'. That is a method that is based on a deluded view of the mind. We cannot just do what we want and solve all our problems internally.


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[Speaking to a junior monastic:] To become too preoccupied with folding cloth in the proper way or something is a huge trap in the monastic life. People get into arranging beautiful flowers or performing ceremonies, and when you ask them if anyone of them are progressing in their meditation, they will say: “Ahem, we will meditate tomorrow, today we have this important ceremony!”


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Sometimes throughout my monastic life I have encountered an abuse of the teachings on acceptance and letting go. People who gladly let go of the precepts or of safety regulations during building projects, putting people's lives at risk. But really the Buddha didn't teach like that. Instead we should be striving to do our best in whatever we engage ourselves with. And if things doesn't work out, then that is a good time to let go and be accepting. In other words, we do our best, and whatever happens, happens. This is a marriage between the two beautiful qualities of effort and acceptance.


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Teresa of Ávila said that determination is the primary quality of the spiritual life. If you are determined you'll make it through eventually. And I think we can add patience as the second. Those are the two to keep looking for within yourself – determination and patience.


Maximum effort together with maximum patience gives us right effort.


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If we have the wisdom not to grasp things and yet the compassion to stay with things, together this creates the light touch of detachment that is free of suffering. 


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There is no way to escape the stress of the world. There is only a way to escape 'the world'.
The way out is in.


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Clarity comes if you direct thought at the future, let feeling represent the past and silence live in the present. 


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Spiritual aesthetics is a different kind of beauty that makes the mind peaceful.


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We can see the space between things as having meaning as well as any object within it. We can see the deeper space within the space, samādhi as, in a sense, between between. Liberation as between between between.


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We do not need to see God, we only need to see suffering and let go to be liberated.


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Unconditional love is won not when we love despite the cancer that is killing us or love someone through their cancer. Love comes to its highest when we can even love our cancer as that which can liberate us.


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Language is so limited. What about all the feelings there are no words for
And all the words there are no feelings for 


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Truth is everlasting. Stay with the truth until the mind becomes truth and the mind will be everlasting.


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