Monks In Cyberspace

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.

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 the Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Other References: D&D Essay: On the brahmin who said "huṁ" by Bhante Sujato, Mahākhandhaka chapter 2 translated by Ajahn Brahmali

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on merit.

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 movements who can variously dismiss things from the tradition or revitalise them.

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.

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.

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

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath and feeling. Dhamma talk on the Buddha's birth, early life and renunciation, given Vesak is approaching. Discussion of the Buddha going into jhana as a child, and a reading of the start of the Attadaṇḍa Sutta (Taking Up Arms).

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on how you look at your breath. Dhamma talk on Snp4.4 Suddhaṭṭhakasutta (Eight on the Pure).

Bhante Sujato. Mettā meditation and discussion of Simon (Bhante Akāliko)'s recent disrobing. Brief talk on some things learned at the digital Buddhism conference Bhante Sujato is currently attending in Taiwan. Resources mentioned: Chan scholar Christian Wittern's Web Space

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath, natural state of peace. Dhamma talk on consciousness and the relationship of nāmarūpa (name and form) to viññana (consciousness). Discussion of consciousness as subtle, in deeper meditation, differences with Yajnavalkya's definition.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the bright breath. Dhamma talk on MN43. Discussion of Venerable Sāriputta's and Venerable Mahākoṭṭhita's dialogue on the relationship between wisdom and consciousness, which they do with reference to the jhanas. Definitions of yonisomanasikāra; the three uses of the word 'yoniso'. Right view being supported by ethics, learning, discussion, serenity, and discernment.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on letting go. Dhamma talk on rebirth and different perspectives on rebirth. Discussion of Jain understandings of rebirth, annihalationist views, .

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on ethics. Discussion of precepts and their role, comparisons with Western ethics and utilitarianism.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on each of the five faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. Some definitions taken from SN48.9. Wisdom as the "thumb" that holds the others together.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on compassion and leadership.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on AI and the novel Dune, now that the Dune 2 film has come out.

Bhante Sanathavihari. Mettā Bhavana Meditation. Dhamma talk on bringing it back to basics of the practice and the three middle parts of the eightfold path (right right speech, right action). Discussion of going out to meet people in communities, developing character, Q&A: What is sati? and other very practical questions.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath. Dhamma talk on dana and sīla.

Venerable Kassapa. Q+A on topics such as radiating kindness, sustaining mettā meditation, the quality of kindness.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on softness and observation, also 'watching the locusts eat your brain'. Dhamma talk on MN86 Aṅgulimāla Sutta. Dicussion of the will to power, redemption, that the Buddha's way of convincing Aṅgulimāla is a practical and brave way of practicing non-harmfulness.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on faith and reflection/inquiry. Dhamma talk on laying the foundations for dhamma practice: meditation as part of the eightfold path. Meditation's relationship to life directions/what you consider important versus more utilitarian approaches. Discussion of meditation's role in the eightfold path, how the eightfold path works according to nature.

Continuing the practice Download entire retreat as .zip

Recap of mettā meditation instructions

The four noble truths

Mettā for a neutral person

Entering jhana

The Five Jhana Factors

Mettā for a loved one

The Five Spiritual Faculties

The Five Hindrances

Mettā meditation instructions

Bhante Sujato. Meditation and discussion of ~ 'things end all by themselves'. Discussion of cessation. Discussion that even the jhana qualities are progressive cessations, also the hindrances such as sloth and torpour fading away. Discussion of having faith in cessation and possible fear of cessation.

Bhante Sujato. Mindfulness of breathing meditation - how important consistency is in medtiation, how unwholesome thoughts can come up if we define ourselves in specific ways. Dhamma talk on sankhāras. Discussion of how sankhāra relates to energy, relativity, neuroplasticity. Broader discussion of sankhāras as moral choices, sankhāras patterns in meditation, relationship to time, the bhavanga citta. Recording also seemed to speed up and slow down seemingly due to a bug in jitsi or OBS.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on impermanence, steadiness and stilness. Dhamma talk on impermanence. Question on precognition, the relationship of the present to consciousness. Discussion of the relationship of time to impermanence. How many religions involve a search for things that don't change. The subtle desire to live forever. Q+A question of how momentariness was introduced into Buddhism.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on doing nothing because the breath is calming you down. Dhamma talk on making decisions.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the breath as radiant and changing dependent on the hindrances. Dhamma talk on "looking on the bright side" with discussion of the role of happiness on the path.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the simple breath. Dhamma talk on mid-life crises. Discussion of the positive aspects of a mid-life crisis, the nature of faith and science, discussions about death, the difference between right thought and wisdom, God and Nietzsche, the three kinds of dukkha, with focus on viparinamadukkha, should we have hope?.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the caring breath and brightness of the breath. Dhamma talk part 2 on the MN38 Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhayasutta (The Longer Discourse on the Ending of Craving). Discussion of Ven. Sāti's harmful misconception that 'this very same consciousness that roams and transmigrates, not another'.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on seeing the knower. Dhamma talk on the MN38 Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhayasutta (The Longer Discourse on the Ending of Craving). Discussion of Ven. Sāti's harmful misconception that 'this very same consciousness that roams and transmigrates, not another'.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on craving. Dhamma talk on the MN37 Cūḷataṇhāsaṅkhayasutta (The Shorter Discourse on the Ending of Craving). Discussion of how insisting on something is a strong form of craving, the role of Sakka in the suttas.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on feeling and form, two of the five aggregates. Dhamma talk on the MN35 Cūḷasaccaka Sutta (The Shorter Discourse With Saccaka). Saccaka as an early "troll" figure. Discussion of the dramatic way the debate takes place and how the Buddha refutes Saccaka's argument that Self is the five aggregates.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on light and the breath. Dhamma talk on the story of Anuruddha, Nandiya and Kimbila found in both MN128 Upakkilesasutta (Corruptions) and MN31 Cūḷagosiṅgasutta (The Shorter Discourse at Gosiṅga) . Discussion of the background to these three and why the sutta is framed the way it is, Anuruddha evading questions and gradually revealing things. Discussion of the eleven things that blocked the Bodhisatta's meditation. Comparison of how this sutta talks about light with Yajnavalkya's description of the self and light in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.1.1

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on the parts of the body. Dhamma talk on Ven. Sāriputta's MN28 Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (The Longer Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint) . Discussion of the elements as gods that reflect the sacredness of the world we live in. The integration of the four elements, and a shorter discussion of how Ven. Sāriputta also fits in anicca, non-self, forgiveness, metta into the four noble truths.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on consciousness of the gradual movement and subtle dimensions of the breath. Dhamma talk on MN26 Pāsarāsisutta/Āriyapariyesanasutta (The Noble Quest). The question of what Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta taught and what may be missing from MN26. Āstika versus the nāstika/neti neti wings of Upanishadic thought, the dimension of nothingness. Also mentioned are MN29 and DN3.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on finding anything that is ourself. Dhamma talk on MN22 Alagaddūpamasutta (The Simile of the Cobra). The simile of the raft, and the various comparisons of self and non-self: 6 grounds for views. How non-self is almost always grasped in tthe wrong way like the simile of the snake/cobra.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation on "what's done is finished". Dhamma talk on MN23 Vammikasutta (The Ant-Hill). Dicussion of how "the gods love hidden things" in the Vedic literature and the possible obscure meanings of the various things that the hero is digging for in this sutta with reference to the Vedic culture.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation using the five stratgies of calming unskilful thoughts in Madhupiṇḍikasutta: 1. Focus on another thing that gives rise to more wholesome thoughts. 2. Examine ther drawbacks of unskillful thoughts 3. Ignore and forget the thought 4. Stop the causes of unskilful thoughts 5. With exertsion 'crush mind with mind'. Dhamma talk on the final on the trilogy in Majjhima on thought: the same five strategies found in MN20 How to Stop Thinking / Vitakkasaṇṭhānasutta.

Bhante Sujato. Meditation using the Dvedhāvitakkasutta strategy of dividing thoughts into two classes: wholesome and unwholesome, focus on the drawbacks of unwholesome thoughts. Dhamma talk following on from last week's trilogy of suttas in Majjhima on thought (vitakka/sankappa) MN19 Dvedhāvitakkasutta (Two kinds of thought).

Bhante Sujato. An insight practice meditation on being aware of how far away from your meditation you are when you realise you have lost your meditation. Dhamma talk on MN18 The Honeycake Sutta. Discussion of Bhante's updated version of this sutta. The Buddha's interlocutor Daṇḍapāṇi as representing someone with a past grudge. Discussion of the senses -> contact -> feeling -> perceiving -> thinking -> proliferating -> judging -> being beset by proliferation and judgements sequence from Mahākaccāna's explanation of the Buddha's words explored in Concept and Reality. References: Concept and Reality by Bhikkhu Ñāṇananda lotuslibrary.com/ebooks/concept-and-reality-in-early-buddhist-thought.