We Will Arrive – Beating a Path to Awakening

How can we beat a path to awakening? Meditate and develop deep, wise insight, training like a spiritual athlete in this new millenium. Like clearing a trail in dense forest, walk it again and again, with strong determination, truly knowing, and enduring difficulties to…

The Novice With An Empty Bowl

A humble novice with his bowl empty exemplifies where true riches lie in this world. Meditating deep in the unchartered borders within, gain those riches by giving up worldly pursuits. See the value of what is true and what reveals the truth to us….

We Are Stronger Than We Know: The Truth About Trauma

Practice wise attention, train in right view, and see things as they are. Touch the fires of trauma and rise from their ashes. Attend to ancient hurts with conscious full-hearted forgiveness. As we disown these old karmas, we augment the higher frequency and pure…

Opinions

Are you watching your breath or watching your opinions? It is not enough to just watch the breath; you must reflect closely on what is arising. Come to the truth of the way things are by identifying and letting go of your opinions. Reflect…

Fictitious Noodles: The Fake News of Old Fears

What are we doing on this planet? How do we cope with feelings of fear? Can we observe wisely and penetrate through the fictions of the mind?  To abandon them, we must understand them. Ayyā Medhānandī coaches us to investigate emotions like fear and…

Holding the Lotus to the Rock

Sariputta said (SN 21.1): “There is nothing in the world with whose change there would arise in me sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair.” It is hard to remember the Buddha’s teachings when the mind is beset with fear and anxiety. But we can…

In the Stream of the Noble Ones

Two overarching supports for gaining the fruits of the Path are mental purity and spiritual friendship. Consummate virtue and prize virtuous friends, the highest being the Blessed One himself. Emulate his conduct and mental practices in everyday life. Gradually transform mundane right view into…

Even as a Mother

How can we love everything the same? How can we come to a place of pure love within us so that whatever energy is arising in the heart, we can receive it, and we can accept it fully. We don’t have to run away…

Where the Flame of Truth Burns Bright – Reflections & Guided Meditation

Dhamma is like mother, father, guardian, the Truth that we can rest in. So rest in the purity of one moment. Offering to listen, what is the message we receive? In the silence of the mind, what do we hear? If there is no…

I Sit Here In Blessing

How can we care for ourselves and each other, using our formal meditation practice as a template for daily living? As we sit for meditation, mark an intuitive pathway through painful, burdensome mind states, teaching the mind to purify itself with every breath. Gradually,…