Thai Forest Dhamma

in the tradition of Lungphu Mun Bhuridatto

and his western disciples

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Talks from Ajahn Martin

This website now contains all of Ajahn Martin's recorded talks in English and German (a few in Thai and in French).

Most of the talks were given to laypeople at Baan Taad Forest Monastery who wished to receive instruction on Dhamma and meditation.
Most of the newer talks (from 2013 onwards) were given to newly ordained western monks. The talks are preserved exactly as they were originally given – they have not been cut or corrected. For that reason, they should not be transcribed or translated into another form without Ajahn Martin's written consent.

If you have any questions about the content of the talks, please send an email to th.forest.dhamma@protonmail.com.

Back to All Talks

Date Title Description Album Duration
28-12-16 Attachment to friends and family
Talk to monks.
Dhamma Talk 18:14
21-12-16 Investigation is all about asking the right questions
World prophecies; end of civilization / war; finding motivation; asking right questions vs. Over-thinking; loathsomeness of the body; not being distracted; arousing effort
Dhamma Talk 01:20:05
18-12-16 Why do we go after the fake and not the real thing?
Buddho meditation; Mae Chee; ordination & visa procedure; Birth, old age, sickness & death; Monotony of the worldly life, killing our time; Dhamma is in the heart not outside, taking care of the citta; setting oneself a goal; avoiding distraction
Dhamma Talk 00:43:24
16-12-16 Patience, patience, patience!
Learning from difficulties; patience; factors of enlightenment; food and meditation; gratitude; stopping thoughts; reflection vs. analysis, reflection on life from birth to death
Dhamma Talk 00:56:30
13-12-16 Our body is created by the kamma of our previous lives
The body and kamma, rebirth; Arahants in Thailand; kammic connection with friends and family, Bhikkhu ordination
Dhamma Talk 00:58:41
11-12-16 Only through observation will we really understand
satipatthana; observing not concluding/theorizing; aspects of the citta; loathsomeness of the body; contemplation of birth, sickness, old age & death; pain investigation; practice at home; sticking to the parikamma
Dhamma Talk 01:11:52
9-12-16 Western attitude: ‘That’s his problem, it’s not my responsibility’
Helping each other: generosity & giving time and help; reprimanding vs. criticizing; Eating with sati; Doing one action at a time
Dhamma Talk 00:28:23
9-12-16 Why do we constantly look after the body but never the citta?
Samadhi; Knowingness; Training sati through concentration; Body + Citta; Pain + feelings investigation
Dhamma Talk 01:01:31
7-12-16 We don't want to see the bad in ourselves
Dhamma Talk 56:57
4-12-16 Whatever happens to us is what we have done onto others
Dhamma Talk 01:03:57
2-12-16 Why don’t the forest monks practice metta meditation?
Dhamma Talk 37:46
30-11-16 Is the purpose of life just to kill time until we die?
Dhamma Talk 1:14:19
27-11-16 Which four degrees can we earn at the Forest University?
Why does Luangta call this place the Forest University? You can get 4 degrees: sotapanna, sakadagami, anagami and arahant; 5 and 8 precepts; Samadhi: all the worries stop when thoughts stop, calm and happiness are there in the heart; Samadhi: we need at least upacara samadhi to start investigating properly, to have a knife sharp enough; Dukkha: it's not just suffering, but also boredom, dis-ease, dissatisfaction, restlessness, pain & suffering. Even in the heaven they have dukkha; Dukkha: it is the reason behind all our actions; Younger generation: always distracted (playing with their phones), more difficult for them to get concentrated; Samadhi: explanation of khanika, upacara and appana samadhi; Dropping into samadhi: like jumping in a pool, you can't explain it, you just have to jump; Body reflection: reflection about sickness, old age & death; Body loathsomeness: why everything that comes out of the body is disgusting?
Dhamma Talk 59:34
25-11-16 Take a holiday from your ‘Self’
Kilesas: why do we take all this junk (past, futur, greed, anger, loneliness) with us? "Take a holiday from yourself" as Ayya Khema was saying; Samadhi: the key of samadhi is interest and determintation; Ajahn's personal story when he was a layperson and was setting up his sati: he was always training it (walking in the street or going to his work on his bike); "Everything else was unimportant" Other people and co-workers could have some fun about him but he didn't care and in the end, they change their mind. Walking & sitting meditation: can we get the same results?
Dhamma Talk 31:42
23-11-16 What is the path to happiness?
Happiness: “Happiness is born in our heart, but also anger & free”; Dukkha: if we could be contented the way the world is, the way people are, we wouldn't be dissatisfied, we would be happy and contented all the time; 3 characteristics of this Universe: anicca, anatta & dukkha; The 4 Noble Truths; Sila and the 5 precepts; What is 'I'? We identify ourselves with the 5 groups/khandhas (body, feelings, thoughts, memory & associations and consciousness) but they are constantly changing and out of our control; How to deal with moods; Samadhi: a place to rest the mind before doing the work (of investigation/panna); Body contemplation: everything that comes in contact with the body is nice & beautiful (food, cloth etc.) everything that comes out is disgusting (spittle, sweat, falling hears or nails etc.), why? Misunderstanding of body contemplation in the West: you don't have to make the body loathsome, you will see it naturally; The 4 stages of liberation and the 10 fetters to overcome; Kilesas: it's a real fight not to let the mind going out.
Dhamma Talk 52:22
20-11-16 If you’re afraid of making mistakes, everything will go wrong!
Talk given to monks. Sati: with this kind of sati, it will take you 7 aeons to get free; Training of bhikkhu: all the duties with sati, staying with sati whatever one does. Evening reflection: it shows you where you make mistakes and why; Training of Luangta: every cup, every object has to be put as the same place, a great training for sati; Sati: without sati in all those activities, your meditation is fruitless.
Dhamma Talk 17:48
20-11-16 We’ve lost the connection to our heart
Opposing the kilesas: "swimming against the current"(of our habits); Generosity, joy for others, gratitude: why do we deprive ourselves from those nice feelings?; Why are we heartless people?: we lost the connexion with our heart, we don't listen to our heart anymore and we became robots following our programs ; Kilesas: Practice is about becoming the Master, not being their slaves; Thai people: they start the day with generosity (putting food in the bowl for monks) and sometimes listen to Dhamma, what a good start compare to the way in the West; Learning meditation: like learning sports or piano, it takes time, step by step, we learn and don't give up;.
Dhamma Talk 1:02:29
18-11-16 Get rid of your master and then you’ll be free!
Changing sex overtime: we change from man to woman from one life to the next. Both can be liberated; Animals: they have much more dukkha (like fear) than human beings; Story of the body: we train it for 20 years, enjoy it for a few more 20 years, then it slowly breaks down for about 30-40 more years; Death: the real cause of death is birth, nothing else; Kamma: we are born because of our kamma and we die because of it as well; Rollo-coaster of life: we're going up (heaven) and crushing down (hell) without an end; Thinking: over the last 100 years, it has become the most highly considered sense (compare to the other 5 senses); "cogito ergo sum" - I think therefore I am: in samadhi when thoughts stop, the ego disappears and we're happy; World of humans: it's the world of thoughts and they make us unhappy; Being alive: the moment you're not in thoughts, that's when you're alive; Kilesas: get rid of your master and then you'll be free; Arahant: the only one who is free, liberated, unconditioned; Feelings: fear, pain etc. so many words & symbols, but we have to go back to the experience, how does it feel like?
Dhamma Talk 1:17:16
16-11-16 Make meditation your number 1 priority
Spiritual practice: only thing you can take with you (after death); Material possessions: they all fall under the law of anicca, they all break down; Death: it can happen any time; Life after life: old age, death, are we not tired of this? Do we want more? Bhikkhu: they also can get caught in the comfort of this life and forget about dukkha, the first Noble Truth; Conditioning: w are never in the present moment, we just follow our programs, our habits like sophisticated robots.
Dhamma Talk 20:17
13-11-16 How do we get to know the tricks of the kilesas?
Dhamma Talk 1:04:10
10-11-16 Guided metta meditation (meditation on loving-kindness) #2 (morning)
Guided meditation on 'Metta' (Loving-kindness).
Guided Meditation 17:30
10-11-16 Get a handle on your life and observe what you are doing (morning)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia). Human beings: without access to our heart, how do we differ from robots?; Attitude: observe what you are doing, do good deeds, don't do unwholesome things, be generous, have respect and gratitude; Anicca, anatta & dukkha: they are core principles of Buddhism; Kilesas: they build the castle of "self", everything we want, we like or don't want or don't like. Everything we think we are, it's the kilesas; Avijja: it's the master mind, we need to get rid of it and then we're free; The 10 fetters to overcome to become liberated; Problems & difficulties: they arise in our own hearts, so it's here we have to look not outside; Meditation retreat: we restrain the senses to see more clearly the kilesas; Session of Q&A: Samadhi: we need a firm base of practice, we need to have a fix point of reference. "it's useless just to concentrate on awareness"; Experience of one-pointedness: "all what you know is that you dive in and then you dive out"; How to listen to a Dhamma talk with the heart; What kind of Dhamma and meditation for children; How to start body contemplation: focus on one part of the body until you can visualize it;
Malaysia 1:22:42
10-11-16 Only in this one present moment are we really alive (guided meditation) (morning)
Guided meditation on the attention on the breath and/or the mental repetition of 'Buddho'.
Guided Meditation 45:32
9-11-16 Guided metta meditation (meditation on loving-kindness) #1 (evening)
Guided meditation on 'Metta' (Loving-kindness).
Guided Meditation 38:57
9-11-16 Q&A – About generosity, body contemplation, pain, women's ordination & the present moment (evening)
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Generosity; Body: measure the time you spend cleaning your body, you should do at least as much for your heart; Evening reflection: how to do it and the benefits to see and realize what one is doing during the day; Pain: only fighting pain, you will always loose but you can try to understand it; Sickness and kamma; Old age, sickness and death: we don't want to see them; Women and ordination: even in the time of the Lord Buddha, the bhikkhunis have to pay respect to the bhikkhus even young monks and there was a reason for this; Present moment & past: memory is very important to investigate and see what one is doing; Heaven and Hell.
Malaysia 41:30
9-11-16 We are heartless people, for we live disconnected from our hearts (evening)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia). Retreat: it means “retreating” to ourselves; Dream: we live in a dream, dreaming about the future and the past, never in the present moment; Lord Buddha's teaching: so logical and easy to understand, yet difficult to do; Science: we cannot rely on it when we practice, but on the knowingness inside our heart; Kilesas: why do we let them come up? Why do we deprive ourselves from happiness? That's something we should ask ourselves; Training meditation is like learning to walk: falling over and trying again without giving up; What is avijja: wanting to know and understand but not in line with the truth; Social-networking: why do we need to post our whole life on this? Is it out of boredom or to prove something? Kamma: it's written in our genes at birth (like the time of our death); Desire (food, sexual craving): we always need something different, not satisfied with what we have; Problems: they only exist in our head, the moment we start to think; How to use money wisely according to the Lord Buddha: 30% for the present needs, 30% for generosity and 40% as savings for the future; Kamma: examples of what leads to wealth, beauty, ugliness etc. Sotapanna: the 3 fetters to cut to enter the stream.
Malaysia 1:21:53
9-11-16 How do we investigate the body to reach Sotapanna or Anagami? (afternoon)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia). Dukkha: how to investigate pain, boredom, loneliness, greed, irritation, anger; Body investigation - how to start: take a part of the body ('hair', or 'hand' or whatever) until we can see or visualize it internally; Sotapanna: method and practice how to realize that the body and the citta/mind are not the same thing (required to enter the stream); Body contemplation: everything that comes into contact with the body (cloth, food) becomes dirty or disgusting, why is that so?; Loathsomeness / asubha practice: it brings up a lot of irritation and anger, the practitioner should be warned, it's a good sign; Anagami: method or practice how to end and overcome greed and hatred, and go beyond good and bad; Session of Q&A: Investigation: method how to question the kilesas until the knowingness from the heart arises; How to fight sleepiness.
Malaysia 52:05
9-11-16 What exactly is pain? (morning)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 49:01
8-11-16 Q&A – About sati helping sila, laziness, anger, sharing merits & metta practice (evening)
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Stories of Ajahn's aneurysm (4 times); Importance of the practice of sati to keep the precepts: “you cannot perfect sila without sati and panna”; Overcoming laziness: tips to get disciplined; Strictness of Luangta Maha Bua; The wrong view of the Buddhism in the West “don't worry, be happy, we are buddhists”: “if somebody makes you angry, it's your anger”; Jhanas: “Luangta teaches that if you want complete mastery of the Jhanas, you need 18 years of complete hard work and solitude” (if you haven't developped them in previous lives), but upacara samadhi is sufficient for our practice; Sotapanna: can one attain it by listening to Dhamma?; How sharing merits works: “Of course it works”, like transferring money. It works depending on the connexion you have with the person; Wrong view about Metta meditation: you cannot spread it around, first you need to find it in your heart and then you can invite beings to have a share; How to develop the “body scan” and remove tensions.
Malaysia 1:20:29
8-11-16 Stop dreaming - start practicing! There is no happy pill! (evening)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia). Old age, sickness, death, a monk: the 4 signs that made a deep impression on the mind of the Lord Buddha. The 4 stages of liberation and the 10 fetters: sotapanna, sakadagami, anagami and arahant; Hell and Heaven: these worlds do exist, it's not like some teaches "Hell on earth, heaven on earth", this has nothing to do with the Lord Buddha's teaching; Body decaying & old age; Dukkha: observe one day of your life, if you see it's too much dukkha, "just get the hell out of here" and the way to do it is to practice meditation; Body: what pleasure does this body really give to us? Only when we get rid of unpleasant feelings, then we find this body comfortable; The 4 elements (earth, water, air and fire): everything in this Universe (even thoughts and feelings) is made out of them; Body: it's not something nice or beautiful, it's a chemical factory or a sophisticated biological robot; Pain investigation: do you think the body dies when you seat 3 or 4 hours in meditation? Compare it when you sit 12 hours in the plane (with all the entertainment and distractions), you don't even notice the pain;
Malaysia 1:20:01
8-11-16 Guided meditation #3 (afternoon)
Guided meditation on the attention on the breath and/or the mental repetition of 'Buddho'.
Guided Meditation 24:44
8-11-16 Wake up! Get a handle on your life (afternoon)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 39:01
8-11-16 Guided meditation #2 (morning)
Guided meditation on the attention on the breath and/or the mental repetition of 'Buddho'.
Guided Meditation 19:56
8-11-16 Get to know yourself (morning)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 49:12
7-11-16 Guided meditation #1
Guided meditation on the attention on the breath and/or the mental repetition of 'Buddho'.
Guided Meditation 30:15
7-11-16 Q&A – About walking & sitting meditation, kilesas, pain, sleepiness & over-eating
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Explanation how to do sitting & walking meditation. Is desire always bad? Turning bad desires into good desires “We need to have the desire to get to Nibbana”; How to stop thinking?; Breath meditation: don't focus on the abdomen; About avijja & the kilesas: avijja is the mastermind, kilesas are its soldiers; Pain investigation: we use it to unhide the kilesas; Trick to fight sleepiness: bring up a situation that made you really angry or excited; Over-eating: “you don't care about the body, you only care about the tongue”;
Malaysia 32:25
7-11-16 Retreat means going back into our hearts!
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 1:35:53
6-11-16 Q&A – About kamma, free will & anatta
Session of Q&A given at Sri Lankan Temple - Mahindarama Buddhist Temple (Penang / Malaysia). Kamma: intention creates kamma; Principle of anatta: “there is 'sadness', not 'I' am sad”; Ants & mosquitoes: “they are beings, don't kill them”; Body: when we start practicing, we realize we have a body with a lot of unpleasant feelings; Kamma & free will: “everything is not pre-determined, every moment you have the choice”; Judging others: in Buddhism, you focus on yourself;
Malaysia 37:28
6-11-16 The true Dhamma comes only from the heart
Talk given at Sri Lankan Temple - Mahindarama Buddhist Temple (Penang / Malaysia).
Malaysia 1:53:51
5-11-16 Q&A – About kamma & its fruits, intentions and precepts
Session of Q&A given at Sri Lankan Temple - Mahindarama Buddhist Temple (Penang / Malaysia). Kamma: impossible to get rid of bad kamma with good kamma, you have to get the result of it, but you can dilute it if you do a lot of good. Stories of Arahants still getting results of previous bad kamma; Body: you have to take care of it (wash it, feed it, cloth it), it can 2 hours but people spend all their life taking care of the body; Kamma: intention creates kamma, but generally we don't know our true intentions. You can even kill (like a hangman) without doing bad kamma if you don't have the intention to do it; Fruits of kamma: most of it, you will get in the next life, not this life. The 5 precepts and the 3 virtues (generosity/respect/gratitude): they can lead you to heaven; The 8 precepts helps you to become more pure.
Malaysia 25:50
5-11-16 The three stages of samadhi
Talk given at Sri Lankan Temple - Mahindarama Buddhist Temple (Penang / Malaysia). Understanding the truth of dukkha: not only 'suffering' (wrong translation), it's also boredom. restlessness, dissatisfaction, discomfort, pain & suffering. - 5 precepts: following the law given by the Lord Buddha not to go down to the lower realms - Outmoded? The Teaching is always up-to-date because the kilesas have not changed - Samadhi: all worries and fear disappear because thoughts disappear; 3 stages of samadhi: description of khanika, upacara and appana samadhi; Appana samadhi: this is a preview of Nibbana as Luangta Maha Bua describes it; Body: like a car or a biological robot, but the driver (i.e the citta) is not the car, "we are not the body"; Body contemplation: "looks what comes out of this body. do you think the body is still a nice thing?"; Investigation of the mind / nama khandhas: impossible to go through as long as you have not finished to investigate the body first; session of Q&A.
Malaysia 1:39:33
4-11-16 Each time we are born, we need to train this body (afternoon)
Talk given at Sri Lankan Temple - Mahindarama Buddhist Temple (Penang / Malaysia).
Malaysia 1:47:52
4-11-16 Q&A – About combining breath & Buddho, real metta and how to choose the right teacher (morning)
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Advice for beginners: combining breath and Buddho, the mind doesn't slip away so easily; Metta meditation: a lot of fake metta practice ('spreading metta'), the real metta is in your heart, you need to go there first and invite beings to share it then; Different teachers, who to trust?: like the Lord Buddha said to the people of Kalama, try it and see if the results are wholesome by yourself; Sleeping well: if you have trouble with sleep, Buddho is the best medecine, when the mind gets calm, it wants to sleep; Light appearing in meditation: don't pay attention about it, or if it's stable, try to bring it to the heart.
Malaysia 19:34
4-11-16 Happiness arises when the heart is empty (morning)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 1:34:36
3-11-16 Q&A – About the purpose of life, the nature of the kilesas & Nibbana
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Need to know what you want in your life: being a human, going to heaven, getting out of the cycle, but you need to know not to waste your life; Choices: every moment, you have choices, but you need to fight to go against the likes & dislikes of the kilesas; Human life is very precious, but we forget that; Buddho: everything subsides (anger, greed, all sorts of feelings) when you put your attention on the Buddho; Blindness: we're like blind people when we talk about the Dhamma and fight about our views; Investigation: like a physicist, we have to catch every moment of the experience; Greed & anger is rooted in the body, delusion is rooted in the mind khandhas (mainly thoughts and memories); Kilesas: don't call them defilements, they are the soldiers of avijja, we need to fight them; Confusion about kilesas and anatta: some thinks they are liberated because they considered kilesas are not-self/anatta, but that's not the Nibbana of the Lord Buddha where kilesas don't arise anymore at all.
Malaysia 1:05:32
3-11-16 There is nothing in the world that has more value than Dhamma
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 1:19:47
2-11-16 Q&A – About the citta, knowingness, heart & mind
Session of Q&A given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary – Malaysia. Is “Citta” and “Knowingness” the same thing? Is “heart” and “mind” the same thing? In Thailand, it's almost the same, in the West, it was separated by the Greeks 2000 years ago; “The knowingness of the citta is the only permanent thing” - “the everlasting tourist” in the words of Luangta Maha Bua; Moment of death: it's important to recall the good deeds that a dying person did for him to go to a good destination; Pain investigation: you go to the point where you really think you're going to die; Heart: only the heart has the ability to let go, not the mind; Evening reflection: you show the heart what it does and when it sees clearly that something has bad results, it lets go; Body investigation: you can see all part very clearly and know your body much more than any doctor can, “it's the citta who built this body”.
Malaysia 1:10:43
2-11-16 Don't get bossed around! (the principle of anatta)
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 1:45:20
1-11-16 Do we want to become human beings or stay just being sophisticated robots
Talk given at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary - Penang (Malaysia)
Malaysia 1:47:25
26-10-16 The monster inside we believe is "us"
Dhamma Talk 32:32
23-10-16 The black spot is on our face, but we keep wiping the mirror!
Dhamma Talk 1:05:32
21-10-16 What is true compassion?
Learning by making mistakes: only if we fail, we can learn; Compassion: what people calls compassion is in fact self indulgence. Compassion is being there for others, knowing what's going on in them, not trying to change or console them; What is true compassion? It comes from the heart, but our views & thoughts prevent us from accessing it; Nurses: if they do it with the true intention of helping others, then they won't burn out; Selfishness: we are all selfish, to a lesser or higher degree.
Dhamma Talk 51:40
19-10-16 What place does God have in Buddhism?
5 precepts: they keep us from falling down to the lower realms like hell; Blinded by science: every 5 years, they change their views but we still believe them; God: in Buddhism, the Creator God is called Avijja but it's a deceiving power that we fight; Avijja: it's the mastermind behind everything. It has 3 armies: greed, hate and delusion; Body contemplation: we have to destroy our illusion about the body (that it's something nice and beautiful), this is the root of greed and hate; The 'top' kilesas: laziness, fear, boredom, restlessness; Fasting & ascetic practices: greed comes up when we don't have what we used to have;
Dhamma Talk 1:12:29
16-10-16 Investigation – Finding the common denominator
Talk given to monks.
Dhamma Talk 48:31
16-10-16 If we could only understand the importance of Kamma
Dhamma Talk 1:14:54
14-10-16 An interesting question – who are we?
Dhamma Talk 1:11:34
12-10-16 Though we know it’s not real we still get caught up in a movie
Dhamma Talk 1:24:46
9-10-16 Trying to achieve is not the way of practice.
Talk given to monks.
Dhamma Talk 38:06
9-10-16 Without awareness, we're like blind people living in a world of guesswork
We're like blind people if we don't have awareness, we know that there is something but don't know what; Sati/awareness: knowing what's going on at every moment in our life; “No matter how many years we practice, without sati, we won't go further”; “We always fall in the same trap, but we would have sati, we would see, we would understand”; “Why do we constantly want to see faults in others?”; We have to see our thoughts and our intentions before and even what triggers an intention; Beautification: we always put effort to beautify the outside (house, body) but the inside stays as ugly as before.
Dhamma Talk 30:09
5-10-16 Avoiding unpleasant situations is the way of the world
Dhamma Talk 27:45
2-10-16 Understanding the body is not self
Dhamma Talk 50:58
28-09-16 Modern society – the robot factory
Dhamma Talk 28:56
25-09-16 We can’t change the world, we can only change ourselves
Dhamma Talk 58:21
21-09-16 Q&A – About energy, special faculties, medicine, martial art & stream-entry
Teatime Q&A 21:11
21-09-16 Meditation – cleaning the skeletons out of our closet
Exposition of the 4 Noble Truths; What dukkha is; No being in no realm(human, ghost, animal, heaven and hell) is eternal; 2nd Noble Truth: our desire create all this dukkha, we don't accept things as they are; Sila & the 5 precepts; Internet, youtube etc.: “you have to be careful, it depends how you use it, the object itself is neither good nor evil”; The 3 fetters to overcome to enter the stream (sotapanna): doubt about kamma/heaven/hell, not keeping the 5 precepts and thinking the body is “I”; Kamma: if we could see a few of our previous lifes, we would understand much better; About the hippie generation: they tried to find an alternative way to live, they pushed people to think, but failed to find the satisfaction they were looking for; Samatha; Difference between jhanas and one-pointedness.
Dhamma Talk 39:50
19-09-16 Q&A – About fear & anger, death, awareness and supreme happiness
Teatime Q&A 22:57
18-09-16 How important is the body to us?
Dhamma Talk 45:01
14-09-16 What are moods, why do we get stuck in them?
Dhamma Talk 42:51
11-09-16 A lifetime spent looking after the body - how much fun do we really have?
Dhamma Talk 1:05:38
7-09-16 Is fasting helpful to develop samadhi?
(background noise / strong rain) fasting; Samadhi; Avoiding dukkha; Tricks to keep interest on Anapanasati / breath meditation; Arahants who don’t teach Dhamma;
Dhamma Talk 14:47
4-09-16 Everything I can observe is not-self, so who am I?
Dhamma Talk 49:49
28-08-16 We are dissatisfied, there is something missing – this is Dukkha
Exposition of the 4 Noble Truths; Dukkha: we are dissatisfied, something is missing; Hunger, thirst, pain, boredom, desire to do this or that: all of this is dukkha; Explanation of the 5 precepts & the lower realms; practice of samadhi.
Dhamma Talk 12:39
24-08-16 How to start practicing meditation
Meditation - advice to beginners: 'Buddho' and breath meditation; Meditation is about stop thinking and start experiencing; Patience in meditation: like learning how to walk, we have to keep trying until step by step the mind calms down; Stages of concentration: first thoughts disappear (realm of experience or upacara samadhi), then going further, everything disappear (body, thoughts, all the Universe), it's deep samadhi or appana samadhi, a preview of Nibbana; Exposition of the 4 Noble Truths; Principle of anatta: we are absorbed like in a movie but they (body, feelings, thoughts etc.) are not us.
Dhamma Talk 27:48
21-08-16 When we die, what can we take with us?
Death: every effort we put in the body and material things is gone at that time; Body: in the world, people just live for their body; “The world doesn't show us the path of practice but the path of entertainment, of distraction”; Fighting against tyranny: not external tyranny but avijja, the internal tyrant, fighting for inner freedom, free from greed and hate which are rooted in the body; Body contemplation: the body is like a robot and we have programmed it for 15-20 years (digesting, walking, talking and thinking) and after 50 y-o it starts to break down. We use it in our practice to understand what's not 'I'; The skin hides the true nature of the body; Investigating pain: when we know how to do it, we can investigate all the negative feelings & emotions in the same way.
Dhamma Talk 57:18
17-08-16 How to maintain awareness back in everyday life
Meditation at home: we might think it's better because kilesas like boredom or restlessness won't come, but our sati is not as strong as in the monastery; How to keep sati at work; Interest in the practice: it's the key, 100% interest = 100% concentration; Tricks to fight tiredness and boredom; Power of thee kilesas: it's a constant voice in our head, but we have to become the boss and not follow their order; Staying on one point (like the breath or Buddho): it's difficult but necessary to develop samadhi.
Dhamma Talk 36:32
14-08-16 How to practise meditation in daily life
How to practice in daily life: wake up, 1 hour of practice, reflect upon the situations that can happen and we try to have sati during the important situations, back from work, samadhi practice and reflection of the day: what did I do and what results did it have? Reflection: we teach to see what it is doing without judgement; Practice more on the week-ends;
Dhamma Talk 34:29
10-08-16 How to investigate pain, emotions & thoughts
Investigating the citta/the mind: first we try to have some expertise with the investigation of the body and strong emotions; How to investigate emotions: see step by step how the avalanche is created; How to investigate thoughts: decide one subject and stay on it, and see that “after 3 thoughts, it will jump to another subject”; Investigation painful feelings: what came just before the pain?
Dhamma Talk 10:05
7-08-16 The truth that delivers us to freedom
The 4th Noble Truth: sila (morality/vertue), samadhi (to quieten down the kilesas), panna (to uproot and eliminate them); Panna: investigation of the 5 gorups/khandhas starting with our biggest problem which is the body; Dukkha of the body; How to understand the body is not 'me' or 'I'; Asubha: understanding the true nature of the body, that is not something nice and beautiful, like everything that comes out of the body (saliva, digested food etc.)
Dhamma Talk 48:00
3-08-16 Kamma: you only get what you deserve
Kamma: what you do onto others, others will do onto you; Whatever happens to us right now is the result of our past actions; Examples of kamma: wealth, health, beauty, poverty etc. what kind of kamma/actions lead to them? Kamma like seeds: some reap quickly, other take a long time (a few lives).
Dhamma Talk 28:46
31-07-16 Stop playing with symbols and get down to the real experience
Panna: wisdom is understanding through experience, investigating & asking the right questions; 'Greed', 'Pain', 'Irritation': they are just words, pointers, symbols, not the value, we have to go back to the value itself; Practice of meditation: go back to the root, the reality beyond the symbols; Learning how to deal with unpleasant feelings can make our life very happy and peaceful; Desire: we don't see all the dukkha involved to get what we want.
Dhamma Talk 32:22
27-07-16 The key Pali words in Buddhism explained
Explanation of key pali words: avijja, kilesas, citta, khandhas, anicca/dukkha/anatta; Avijja: 'will' of doing something, wanting to know and being unable to know; Kilesas: soldiers of avijja; Citta: similar to 'soul' in the west but it's different, it's the essence with no materiality; Avijja and its 3 armies: greed/hatred & delusion; 5 khandhas: body, feeling, thoughts, memories & associations and consciousness; Tilakkhana: anicca, dukkha and anatta; Emotions work like an avalanche, they are build up.
Dhamma Talk 29:45
24-07-16 Dissatisfaction is there all the time
Explanation of the 4 Noble Truths; Dukkha: dissatisfaction is there all the time (hunger, thirst, cold, hot, bordedom, restlessness etc.). Our lives are full of dukkha; Desire: it's the cause of dukkha, in samadhi there is no desire and so momentarily no dukkha; The path: sila (5 precepts for lay people), samadhi, panna); 3 more virtues required on the path: respect/generosity/gratitude; Body investigation & disgust: when we really see the body we'll be disgusted, it's natural, nothing to force or to create; Meditation to understand that the body is not Self: cutting it part by part, one by one, putting those parts in front of our inner eyes, until clearly seeing that this heap of body parts cannot be the same as the one who observes, the one who knows, the citta.
Dhamma Talk 52:38
20-07-16 The mind is a sequential machine
Awareness: can't be aware of the awareness, but the awareness becomes clearer when it's increased; Mink like a computer: only one job at one moment, “it's a sequential machine” even if it seems to be multitasking; Pain investigation: pain comes when we try to meditation, not when we read a book or sit in the plane, why? Walking meditation: the faster you walk, the less the mind can think.
Dhamma Talk 21:35
19-07-16 If we don’t stay at one point, we don’t know when the citta wanders
Following the tracks of the ox (the breath) to find the ox (the knowingness); Breath: not focusing on sensations but knowing the breath ; Focus on one point: then we know when we go astray; Upacara samadhi & appana samadhi; Investigating the 5 khandhas; Disassembling the body by parts; Investigating like a scientist makes an experiment: observing every step carefully; Knowing comes when the heart has understood.
Dhamma Talk 43:11
21-06-16 Kamma - is there still free will?
Dhamma Talk 39:59
20-06-16 About death
Dhamma Talk 31:21
22-05-16 Meditation first, everything else after
Talk given to monks.
Dhamma Talk 40:33
9-05-16 How do we deal with fear?
Dhamma Talk 53:46
1-05-16 Distracting ourselves from Dukkha
Dhamma Talk 38:47
24-04-16 Kamma is the basis of this life
Dhamma Talk 44:06
19-04-16 Understanding the first Noble Truth
Talk to monks from Wat Pa Nanachat visiting Wat Pa Baan Taad. Accepting unpleasant feelings & emotions, investigating dukkha vedana (painful feelings arising after sitting for a long time); Understanding the first Noble Truth of Dukkha: “as long as we don't understand it, we don't understand the path of the Lord Buddha”; Arahants are not free of bodily dukkha: story of Luangta bitten by a scorpion; Developing sati to be as fast as the mind to catch all the mind moments; stories about Ajahn Martin's practice: sleeping 2 hours, practicing up to 18 hours a day, fasting a lot; Work of a recluse is essentially walking & sitting meditation; Duties: do it silently, fast and with sati; Eating in the time of Luangta: “you had 12 minutes to eat”; Defining the mind, heart & citta: mind, heart, greed, anger are all facets of the citta like facets of a diamond.
Dhamma Talk 20:39
18-03-16 Dealing with nimittas
Dhamma Talk 34:22
15-03-16 Being there for others
Dhamma Talk 47:15
12-03-16 Self-discipline needed in the forest university
Kilesas: they constantly deceive us, lie to us and we still believe them. We still believe they are "us". Heart/Upacara samadhi: it's the safe place where we can rest & recharge. Appana samadhi / one-pointedness: a preview of Nibbana; Forest University: free to choose when you practice, you need self-discipline, but it's the only university that ends in the 4 Noble grades (Sotapanna up to Arahant); Kamma: whatever we see in others we can find in ourselves (like finding faults, looking down on others); Sati-panna: the 2 only weapons to defeat the 3 armies of greed/hatred/delusion and Avijja the master-mind; Examples of kamma and results.
Dhamma Talk 1:01:02
11-03-16 Do spirits really exist?
Spirits: ghosts & devas are not proofable like animals, humans, the moon and the sun, so we don't believe they exist. Forest monks are accustomed to meet them; Wisdom: wisdom is not being smart. In the west, wisdom has been replaced by knowledge: how to do things to get what we want; Kamma: what happens to you is what you did to others, but the results of our actions take decades or lives to come back, so we don't see it. Doing good deeds: it's not wrong to expect something back; Exposition of the 4 Noble Truths; Samadhi: when thoughts stop, the ego disappear and we can enter upacara samadhi; Investigation of the 5 khandhas; Principle of Anatta applied to feelings, thoughts; Anicca: nothing is permanent & lasting in this universe (trees, plants, chickens, dogs, houses); Training of our past lifes coming up when practicing a mantra (buddho).
Dhamma Talk 1:24:53
25-02-16 Kamma can be really scary
Law of Kamma: whatever happens to us is the result of our own doing, but we don't like to hear that; Unwholesome kamma: we need awareness before we think, say or do something and check if it's in the 5 precepts. Sometimes, we think we do good but we can create a lot of unwholesome kamma; Example of sati and difference with mindfulness; Entering samadhi: happiness, stillness, peacefulness, no loneliness, no fear, why do we prevent ourselves from going there?; Appana samadhi: how to go there with Buddho or the breath, “it's a preview of Nibbana”; Guided meditation on pain investigation: accepting it, investigating it, questioning it, going through the pain of death (3 different stages: suffocating, burning, being torn apart).
Dhamma Talk 1:02:53
23-02-16 Q&A - About ghosts and spirits
Teatime Q&A 23:15
22-02-16 Q&A - Kamma insurance
Teatime Q&A 18:32
22-02-16 Heirs to our kamma *
Dhamma Talk 1:05:39
21-02-16 Q&A - Devas: Mysticism or reality?
Teatime Q&A 32:09
20-02-16 Q&A - Tricks to fight the kilesas
Teatime Q&A 37:07
19-02-16 Q&A - About the forest tradition
Teatime Q&A 20:28
19-02-16 Without sati we are like robots
Dhamma Talk 50:16
18-02-16 Q&A - The difficulty of escaping the cycle of rebirth (en/fr)
Teatime Q&A 1:13:45
17-02-16 Following the plan of Buddhism
Dhamma Talk 1:03:08
15-02-16 Rebirth & Stages of enlightenment
Dhamma Talk 53:41
14-02-16 How to practice body contemplation **
Guided Meditation 1:07:22
12-02-16 Reflection about this life **
Guided Meditation 34:23
14-01-16 True gratitude
Dhamma Talk 19:31
12-01-16 The value of respect *
Common sense: observing a situation before acting, not rushing 'blood-headed'; True respect: it's not commodities like in the west, the content matters, not only the form; How to respect a Dhamma teacher: being like a bottler, never seen but always taking care; without the basic values of respect/generosity/gratitude, we get stuck on the path.
Dhamma Talk 26:55
6-01-16 Buddhist practice – the path to liberation
Buddhist path: like climbing the mount Everest, it's tough. The higher you go, the more you can see and understand; Not avoiding difficulties, but facing and cleaning them away; Daily life: getting up, eating, working, sleeping, until death or retirement, what's the purpose of it?; Roller coaster of life: going up to heaven and then straight to Hell again & again; self and the 5 khandhas.
Dhamma Talk 1:14:22
3-01-16 The teaching about freedom – the 4 Noble Truths
Dhamma Talk 54:42
1-01-16 The true Dhamma is only in Thailand
Dhamma Talk 1:21:11