Monks In Cyberspace

2024-10-25 Brother Pháp Hải. Meditation on the first four Anāpānasati excercises. Dhamma talk on Silk Road Buddhism, the introduction of Ānāpānasati Sutta to China from Baghdad, and the Gandharan fragments/community. Dicussion of Vietnamese Zen teachers and teachings and who illuminates the forest?. References: Mountain Spring Monastery in Bilpin, NSW, MN32 Mahāgosiṅga Sutta, MN118 Anapanasati Sut...

2024-10-18 Bhante Sujato. Mettā meditation. Dhamma talk on fear and stories about other monastics, among other Q and A questions. Last talk from Bhante Sujato for the year.

2024-10-11 Bhante Sujato. Mettā meditation. Dhamma talk on climate change/global chaos. References: 1989 global warming projections, Volcaholic thread on flooding events

2024-10-04 Bhante Sujato. Meditation as not being optimised for input-output efficiency. Dhamma talk on intergenerational influence/trauma and trauma in general.

2024-09-27 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on letting the breath come to you. Dhamma talk on a range of Q and A questions: stopping thoughts about the past, why do we sometimes feel anger after metta meditation or after a retreat, if you can't stay focused on the breath for long, what is a good meditation to do instead? Do all defilements arise from a wrong view? How can an impermanent not-self has a co...

2024-09-20 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on pleasantness of the breath. Dhamma talk on Baka the Divinity (Brahma), from the eighth stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. The Buddha's visit to Baka the Divinity and Māra in MN49 On the Invitation of Divinity and its links to MN1 The Root of All Things. References: Roko's basilisk (Wikipedia), Roberto Calasso - Ardor (goodreads)

2024-09-13 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on Nandopanda the serpent elder, from the seventh stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. Readings from recounting of this Jataka story by Buddhagossa in the Visuddhimagga BPS edition 2010 pages 1055-1060. Discussion of how to read such magical stories mythologically as signs rather than just symbols.

2024-09-06 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on Saccaka part 2, continuing the last part of MN35 Shorter Discourse with Saccaka and MN36 from the sixth stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā.

2024-08-30 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on Saccaka who argued with the Buddha in MN35 Shorter Discourse with Saccaka from the sixth stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. Saccaka as an early 'troll' figure. MN35's elaboration of the argument in the cardinal sutta Characteristic on Non-self that having a self implies control.

2024-08-24 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the growth of the mind, letting the breath do its work. Dhamma talk on sexual assault and accusations of sexual assault in the vinaya/suttas. Discussion of Udana 4.8 With Sundari, a similar story to that of Ciñcā which is found in the Jātakas in the fifth stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. Discussion of the monks' rule on believing a woman without a monk's co...

2024-08-16 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the mind healing itself, control and progres as natural; dhammata. Dhamma talk on the Aṅgulimāla Sutta, from the fourth stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā .

2024-08-09 Bhante Sujato. Meditation as something you achieve, just nature bringing us to peace. Dhamma talk on Nāḷāgiri the elephant who attacked the Buddha under the direction of Devadatta, from the third stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. Readings from the Theravada Vinaya Khandhaka 17 The chapter on schism in the Sangha. The way Devadatta was dealth with by the Buddha and the scripture's descri...

2024-08-02 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on mindfulness of the breath. Dhamma talk on Ālavaka the Yakkha from the second stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā. Alavaka's role as a local deity, the local deities that people erected shrines to and the role Buddhism had in stopping ritual sacrifice as seen in the gentleness and conversion of Ālavaka in Ālavaka Sutta. Around 20 minutes of recording was missed,...

2024-07-26 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on letting the breath calm you down. Dhamma talk on peace and war, with reference to the genocide in Gaza. First in a series of talks discussing each stanza of the Jaya-maṅgala Gāthā which will be discussed throughout this year's Rains. 'Slave to craving' in Raṭṭhapālasutta as a reference to waging war.

2024-07-19 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on distractions/attention. Dhamma talk on the third noble truth. Discussion of the end of desire and delusion, the three types of suffering: painful feelings (dukkha dukkha), the suffering of change (viparinama dukkha), the suffering of not-nibbāna (sankhara dukkha).

2024-07-12 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath and contentment, cause and effect. Dhamma talk on a range of Q&A questions: Is it advisable to sctively change the breath? MN135 and the idea of getting rich in a future life via your deeds, manifesting, synchronicity and conspirituality, free will vs determinism.

2024-07-05 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on leaning back from the breath and control. Dhamma talk on the four iddhipadas: chanda (enthusiasm), viriya (energy), citta (consciousness), vīmaṁsā (investigation).

2024-06-28 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on investigating causes and qualities rather than only a method. Dhamma talk on Rohitassa Sutta SN2.26. The many layers of meaning in this sutta that are not immediately obvious. The relationship of this sutta's definition of the world to the rays of the sun, the noble truth of suffering, lights. Other References: SN35.116 Lokantagamana Sutta, SN 46.33 Upakkile...

2024-06-21 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on finding rapture to keep your meditation going. Dhamma talk on Poson day and the foundations of all traditions being the same, with reference to the time of Ashoka's missions. Discussion of the reliability of various records, the different positions of early sects.

2024-06-14 Bhante Sujato. How to approach pain in meditation. Dhamma talk on Bhante's new discovery and new translation of Udāna 1.4 The Mysic Syllable Huṁ. Huṁ is the syllable at the end of the famous chant Oṃ maṇi padme hūṁ, and the first person who the Buddha spoke to after his enlightenment was a Brahmin priest who was a reciter of this syllable. Discussion of its role as the 13th stobha in th...

2024-06-07 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on merit.

2024-05-31 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on the SuttaCentral Pirivena Project to sponsor English translations printed for the Pirivenas (schools for monastics in Sri Lanka). Discussion of the historical work and carefulness preserving the tradition. Discussion of how much we all owe to these early traditions, which may be easy to forget. Brief discussion on skeptical/reform...

2024-05-24 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on keeping your meditation simple. Dhamma talk on 5474 - the five hindrances, four mindfulness meditations, seven awakening factors, and four noble truths - an inference made by venerable Sāriputta on the qualities of all historical Buddhas in SN47.12 Nālandasutta.

2024-05-17 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on sharpness of knowing. Dhamma talk on the Buddha's life (part three); the first Buddhists, found in the Theravada Vinaya in the first Khandhaka - Mahākhandhaka / The Great Chapter. Readings of the verses of exclamation and how each went for refuge.

2024-05-10 Bhante Sujato. Meditation on purification of the mind and doing as few things as possible. Dhamma talk on part two of the Buddha's life covering the Buddha's practices before his enlightenment, focusing on self-mortifications and MN19 Two Kinds of Thought and MN128 Corruptions. References: Earliest example of sunk cost fallacy: DN23#29.1 Pāyāsisutta