- Many of the listed books are available in .epub and .mobi formats. The .epubs work on all e-readers save the Kindle, and .mobis work on Kindles. All of the listed books are available as .pdfs as well. More information on e-book formats is available on the faq page.
Paperback copies of the books listed here are available free of charge from: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, P.O. Box 1409, Valley Center, CA, 92082, USA. More information is available on the faq page.
- New
Beyond Coping: A Study Guide on Aging, Illness, Death, & Separation. Passages from the Pali Canon arranged in five sections: the Buddha as physician; diagnoses of the conditions of aging, etc.; the conditions as motivations for heedfulness and diligence; specific remedies; and examples set by the Buddha and his disciples.
Udana: Exclamations. A complete translation of the book of the Udana from the Khuddaka Nikaya collection of the Pali Canon. The role of the Udana within the context of the Pali Canon is to focus on the values and principles—“meaning” in the larger sense of the term—that underlie the Buddha’s teachings.
Inner Strength & Parting Gifts: Talks by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo. A collection of 20 Dhamma Talks by
Ajaan Lee, from the basics of breath meditation to longer talks with extended metaphors on consciousnesses, knowledge and the defilements.
Refuge: An Introduction to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha. A short introduction to the basic principles of Buddhism. Included are readings drawn from the earliest Buddhist texts and essays explaining aspects of the Triple Refuge that often provoke questions in those who are new to the Buddha’s teachings.
The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon. The 37 Wings to Awakening were the Buddha’s own summary of his teachings. This book contains Sutta translations organized by topic and with relevant discussion by the author. The internal cross-references are hyper-linked in the epub & mobi versions.
- Translations
Dhammapada: A Translation, by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu. An anthology of verses attributed to the Buddha long recognized as one of the masterpieces of early Buddhist literature. This edition has the full Introduction, Historical Notes, and extensive Endnotes, which are hyper-linked in the epub & mobi versions.
Keeping the Breath in Mind, by
Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo. A fundamental guidebook for breath meditation and practicing the jhanas.
Frames of Reference, by
Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo. A practical explanation for meditators of the four frames of reference from the Satipatthana Sutta.
Awareness Itself, by
Ajaan Fuang Jotiko. A short volume of all of the recorded teachings of Thanissaro Bhikkhu's teacher.
An Unentangled Knowing, by
Upasika Kee Nanayon. Dhamma talks from the foremost woman Dhamma teacher in modern Thailand. This is a
336 MB .zip archive of 29 .mp3 audio files. Transcriptions are available from
accesstoinsight.org.
- Dhamma Talks
Meditations 5. Dhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 2006-2009.
Meditations 4. Dhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 2004-2008.
Meditations 3. Dhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 2001-2005.
Meditations 2. Dhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 2000-2005.
Meditations 1. Dhamma talks on breath meditation and various aspects of the Buddhist Path given during the evening meditation sessions at Metta Forest Monastery from 1996-2003.
epublished Dhamma Talks, vol. III. Dhamma talks from 2003-2011 similar to those in the
Meditations series, but which were never published as a book.
epublished Dhamma Talks, vol. II. Dhamma talks from 2002-2008 similar to those in the
Meditations series, but which were never published as a book.
epublished Dhamma Talks, vol. I. Dhamma talks from 1995-2004 similar to those in the
Meditations series, but which were never published as a book.
Individual Talk Transcriptions. Dhamma talk transcriptions are alternately available from the
.mp3 audio download page where pdf icons are associated with individual audio files.
- Essays
Head & Heart Together. The fourth collection of essays. Includes: The Lessons of Gratitude, No Strings Attached, The Power of Judgment, Think like a Thief, Strength Training for the Mind, Mindfulness Defined, The Joy of Effort, Head & Heart Together, The Wisdom of the Ego, Ignorance, Food for Awakening, The Buddha via the Bible, and Freedom from Buddha Nature.
Purity of Heart. The third collection of essays. Includes: Purity of Heart, Faith in Awakening, Untangling the Present, Pushing the Limits, All About Change, The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism, Right & Wrong Reconciliation, Getting the Message, Educating Compassion, Jhana Not by the Numbers, The Integrity of Emptiness, A Verb for Nirvana, The Practice in a Word.
The Karma of Questions. The second collection of essays. Includes: Life Isn't Just Suffering, Opening the Door to the Dhamma, Questions of Skill, Freedom from Fear, Samsara, Samsara Divided by Zero, The Agendas of Mindfulness, De-perception, The Weight of Mountains, Five Piles of Bricks, Perennial Issues, and When You Know for Yourselves.
Noble Strategy. This first collection of essays is recommended for new practitioners. Includes: Affirming the Truths of the Heart, Karma, The Road to Nirvana Is Paved with Skillful Intentions, The Healing Power of the Precepts, Right Speech, Trading Candy for Gold, A Guided Meditation, The Path of Concentration & Mindfulness, One Tool Among Many, What Is Emptiness?, No-self or Not-self?, and The Image of Nirvana.
Other Essays. Essays that have appeared in various Buddhist publications, but which have not yet been included in a collection.
- Study Guides
Into the Stream: A Study Guide on the First Stage of Awakening. For your practice to lead to Awakening, you must develop reliable standards for judging — which practices lead to stream entry, what indicates a true experience of it, and what its necessary results are.
The Ten Perfections. For people in the modern world facing the issue of how to practice the Dhamma in daily life, the ten perfections provide a useful framework for how to do it.
A Meditator’s Tools: A Study Guide on the Ten Recollections. The ten recollections are a set of meditation themes that highlight the positive role that memory and thought play in training the mind.
A Burden Off the Mind: A Study Guide on the Five Aggregates. An explanation of the Buddha's teaching of the five
khandhas and its proper place on the path of practice.
- Books
The Truth of Rebirth: And Why It Matters for Buddhist Practice. A short treatise explaining that the Buddha did not teach the doctrine of rebirth because he was blindly following the cultural norms of his time. Instead, our resistance to this teaching is pointing to cultural biases of our own that impede progress on the Path.
Selves & Not-self: The Buddhist Teaching on Anatta. A series of eight talks on
anatta, or not-self, given at a ten-day retreat in Provence, France. Also there are relevant selections from the Pali Canon at end of the book.
Skill in Questions: How the Buddha Taught. This is a book about discernment in action, centered on the Buddha's strategic use of discernment in framing and responding to questions.
The Shape of Suffering: A Study of Dependent Co-arising. An explanation of dependent co-arising through the analogy of feeding and pulling from the vocabulary of complex, non-linear systems.
The Paradox of Becoming. Although “becoming” is one of the most important concepts in the Buddha’s teachings, there is no full-scale treatment of it in English. This book attempts to fill that lack.
Mind Like Fire Unbound: An Image in the Early Buddhist Discourses (Fourth Edition 2010). Unpacking the Buddha’s metaphor for “Nibbana” in the context of ancient Indian physics regarding fire — what is implied and what isn’t.