Search results for: "Dhamma"

1. Play AudioListening to the True Dhamma
   An important part of the practice is listening to the true Dhamma. That means two things: You have to know how to listen and you have to know how to recognize what’s true Dhamma and what’s not. For “listening,” the ajaans say that you listen not just with your ears, but with your whole heart. In other words, you think of the … 
2. Play AudioThe True Dhamma Has Disappeared
   The True Dhamma Has Disappeared November 29, 2014 The Dhamma—the Dhamma as the truth—is something that’s always in the world. In one of the suttas that we chant, the Buddha says that whether Tathagathas arise or don’t arise, there are truths that are always true across the board: All fabrications are inconstant, all fabrications are stressful, all dhammas are not … 
3. Play AudioIn Accordance with the Dhamma
   Ajaan Suwat commented several times that there were two Dhamma themes that Ajaan Mun would repeat again and again in his Dhamma talks. One was following the customs of the noble ones; the other was to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. We can take these as the basic principles of the practice—basic principles of the Forest tradition—that we’re … 
4. Play AudioPay Careful Attention
    … Then you practice the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma as you’ve understood it, for the sake of dispassion, for the sake of being unfettered. Those were two of the tests that the Buddha gave to his stepmother: True Dhamma, when you practice it, should lead to dispassion and being unfettered. But to practice the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma, you’ve … 
5. Play AudioIn Accordance with the Dhamma
    … You show respect by practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. After all, he went to all that trouble to find the Dhamma. He never made the Dhamma up. A lot of people say that we should refashion the Dhamma to fit with our time and place, but the Buddha never fashioned the Dhamma. He had to find it. As in that chant … 
6. Play AudioHow to Listen to the Dhamma
   The Buddha would often begin his Dhamma talks by saying, “Listen and pay careful attention.” By that he didn’t just mean, “Listen to every word.” He also meant, “Listen using appropriate attention.” He never taught bare attention. As far as he was concerned, there were only two types of attention—appropriate and inappropriate—and appropriate attention is what you want to bring to … 
7. Play AudioFactors for Stream-entry
   Factors for Stream-entry July 21, 2007 The practice of the Dhamma is ultimately aimed at awakening. It was the Buddha’s own experience of awakening that formed the basis for the Dhamma he taught, and also the aim of the Dhamma he taught that put an end to suffering. The end of suffering comes only with the experience of awakening, total awakening. But … 
8. Play AudioDhamma is Timeless
   The Dhamma doesn’t change. That’s one of the reasons why it’s said to be akaliko, timeless. The Buddha was wise enough to see what in his mind was universal. That’s one of the reasons why Buddhism was the first world religion. It didn’t have anything to do with any tribe or somebody’s vision of a spirit who came … 
9. Play AudioAlighting on the Dhamma
    … It’s the Pali word for Dhamma talk, and it actually means pointing to the Dhamma. And it’s pointing into your mind, because that’s where the real Dhamma lies. The words outside are not the true Dhamma. The true Dhamma is what’s developing in your mind. So have some confidence that when the Buddha’s talking about the five aggregates, he … 
10. Play AudioMaking the Dhamma Your Own
    A recurrent theme in the teachings of the forest ajaans is that you have to make the Dhamma your own. In other words, you can read about, you can hear about it, think about it, but if that’s as far as you go, that’s still the Buddha’s Dhamma— somebody else’s Dhamma. You can practice it a little bit, but unless … 
11. Play AudioThe Dhamma Without Price
     … In other words, they were going to live off people’s gifts, which meant that they could teach the Dhamma as a gift. It wasn’t an exchange. It’s not, “You feed me, and I’ll teach you the Dhamma.” They taught the Dhamma to many people who hadn’t fed them. But the fact that they lived off gifts meant they could … 
12. Play AudioIn Accordance with the Dhamma
    One of Ajaan Suwat’s favorite Dhamma topics was the practice of the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. He picked this up from Ajaan Mun. He said it was one of Ajaan Mun’s favorite topics. We tend to think of the Forest tradition as being very Thai. But when Ajaan Mun was going out into the forest along with Ajaan Sao, he … 
13. Play AudioPissing on Palaces
     … But the Dhamma’s something already there, and so he said that the Dhamma was something he simply pointed out. All he had to do was point it out so that people could see. So this is a skill we have to develop: the ability to hear the Dhamma all the time, to see the Dhamma all the time, so we don’t have … 
14. Play AudioAll Dhamma, All the Time
     … Sometimes, he said, he didn’t understand a word Ajaan Mun would say in his Dhamma talks. That’s probably because it didn’t fit in with his ideas of what Dhamma should be. He challenged Ajaan Mun one time saying, “Here I am, living in Bangkok with all these famous Dhamma teachers around, and even then I find problems that come up in … 
15. Play AudioDhamma Medicine
    The Buddha often compared himself to a doctor treating the diseases of the mind, and the Dhamma was his medicine. This fact is directly related to his strictures for what he would say, what he would teach. One, it had to be true. Two, it had to be beneficial. And three, it had to be timely. These things are connected because that’s the … 
16. Play AudioA Sense of Entitlement
     … You need to have a sense of how precious this is, this teaching of the Dhamma. It’s not that beings get to meet with the Dhamma every lifetime. There are whole eons where the world has no notion of the Dhamma at all. We were born in a time when the Dhamma is still alive. There are still people practicing. The world is … 
17. Play AudioThe Dhamma Points Inside
    The Buddha recommends two things to do after you’ve heard the Dhamma and while you’re listening to the Dhamma: You ask yourself, “How does this apply to my mind?” In particular, “How does this apply to the problem of my mind, in which I’m creating suffering for myself?” It’s called appropriate attention. You take the lessons you learn from the … 
18. Play AudioTo Be Debt Free
     … This practice is called “practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma,” making sure that the true Dhamma doesn’t turn into what’s called in Pali, saddhamma patirupa. It’s an interesting term. Patirupa can mean imitation or counterfeit: to be a counterfeit or an imitation of the true Dhamma. But it can also mean improvement. This is something we have to watch … 
19. Play AudioBorrowing the Buddha’s Wisdom
    **](https://www.dhammatalks.org/audio/evening/2024/240404-borrowing-the-buddhas-wisdom.html) April 4, 2024 One thing I’ve noticed in Thailand when the ajaans get old, is that their Dhamma talks tend to focus more and more on the essentials. When you’re younger, you have the time and the energy to talk about all kinds of things. But as time gets … 
20. Play AudioA Quality of the Character
    For most of us, our first encounter with the Dhamma is not through a person. It’s through Dhamma books or Dhamma talks, ideas you can read or listen to, and techniques you can try. And we can come up with all kinds of misunderstandings as a result. You have to remember that back in the days of the Buddha, when you first met … 
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