Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
Solstice Heart
With the advent of the Winter Solstice – the shortest day of the year – comes the promise that the light will return. We can honour this principle in our practice by turning towards the light that is revealed in our own minds. The…
Batik Buddha
Ayya Medhanandi reflects on the meaning of the different mudras or hand gestures used by the Buddha himself when he gave teachings. Each represents an important quality for us to practise and develop such as fearlessness, faith or compassion. You can see these mudras…
Energy Audit
You can conduct an energy audit on the strength of your attention when you sit down to meditate. Notice if your attention is wavering and then patiently seal up the leaks so that your mind is no longer tempted by the world that the…
Medicine Heart Metta: Guided Forgiveness
May you be well, happy, and peaceful. Learn how to connect with the radiant, loving energy in your heart. Dissolve your opinions and unwholesome attitudes and deepen a quintessential quality for the Path – forgiveness. It is the key to greater loving-kindness for all…
Bhikkhuni Pioneers
Ayya Medhanandi offers a historical perspective on the bhikkhuni tradition as well as insights on how to live with compassion in the world. She describes how the monastic communal experience provides abundant opportunities for the exploration of personal and collective aspirations to fulfill the…
Moral Integrity, Courage and Peace
The real path to peace lies in developing moral integrity. Our spiritual strength depends on purity of heart and action. We learn to identify unwholesome habits that obstruct our well-being and practice courageous compassion to discover the joy of harmlessness. These are the qualities…
Sowing Grace
A talk given at Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community in 2015.
How Do I Know I’m Deluded?
A breakthrough step on the spiritual path is realizing just how deluded we really are – otherwise we would not have to seek happiness outside ourselves. To see our true state of mind, we have to properly investigate and honestly peel away the layers…
Sacred Heart: First Inside the Temple
Within us we have a sacred space that we need to reclaim – the very space inside the heart. Here the Four Noble Truths come to life. Know our suffering, not blaming anyone or any conditions for it, see its origin within us, and…
First Aid
To free us from our relentless conceptualising and the suffering that comes of it, the Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We can grab hold of it by continually using the perspective that “this is impermanent”, and thereby we can pull ourselves to safety….
~ Dhammapada Verse 54