Exploring the interface between Buddhist teachings, meditation techniques, academic Buddhist Studies, and the practical application of them into our lives as lay Buddhists
The Buddha's teachings are rich with wonderful imagery and inventive metaphors that help us not only to relate the teachings to our own ordinary experiences, but also help us to reimagine an experience from a completely different perspective. I found another one of these rich images last week in a sutta that I hadn't come … Continue reading The Well Made Wheel
Buddhist practice is the practice of letting go; of thoughts, feelings, habits, opinions, even our sense of who we think we are. Unsurprisingly letting go and Buddhism are pretty much synonomous. Ajahn Chah famously said: “Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a … Continue reading Letting Go Too Soon
I don’t spend a lot of time studying other schools of Buddhism, but every now and again I find something that really supports my practice. I found myself pondering an aspect of Zen teaching this week, from the book Being-Time by Shinshu Roberts. Zen very much focuses on exploring non-duality and aims to break down … Continue reading Not Either But Both
When you have access to Dhamma talks, sutta studies, essays, retreat recordings, guided meditations and books from some of the most well practiced people on the planet available to you 24/7 it can be easy to forget that our own ordinary lives are rich in sources of learning. I've always taken a fascination with the … Continue reading The Dhamma of the Everyday
The early days of practice can be an amazing time. You are full of enthusiasm, bursting to learn everything you can, champing at the bit to throw yourself into new challenges, and every day feels like a progression. Naturally this level of intensity wears off as your practice stops being something new and becomes part … Continue reading The Ruts That Lead to Better Places
The limitations of lockdown have given me, and many other practictioners, the opportunity to spend our now spare time doing some extra work that we don’t usually have the time or space to focus on. For me this has involved some gentle striving, a bit of finding my edges and seeing if I can go … Continue reading Finding The Middle Way
Watching a Dhamma Q&A this week I noticed there was something of a theme in the questions. Many of them revolved around asking about ways to alleviate fear, pain, grief, or anger. While it isn't unusual to ask these kinds of questions, even of ourselves, I wondered if this was part of a tendency we … Continue reading No Feelings? No Chance
How do you become a Buddhist? Is it complicated? Well no, actually, it can be very simple. In some traditions all you need to do is take the three refuges, these being the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. The Buddha is of course the Buddha himself, the Dhamma is the teachings, and the Sangha … Continue reading The Three Refuges
If you know anything about Buddhism then the phrase ‘letting go’ is nothing new to you. We all know that letting go can be hard, but sometimes we don’t even realise that we haven’t let go because we can’t recognise that we are holding on to something. We might think that we have no problems … Continue reading Living Without Resistance
Kalyana Mitta 