Dhammagiri Buddhist Podcasts

A teaching on Dhammapada Verse 204 of the Buddha: Contentmet is the greatest wealth.How can we relate to our material posessions in a skillfull way, so that we use them for a good purpose rather than increasing our defilements?No matter how much you have - you can always want more and have the feeling that you haven't enough yet, even if you already have $ 1 billion. While someone with relatively simple material posessions can feel...

The Buddha says that every perfectly awakened one has a pair of monk disciples who are the most outstanding among all the several thousand Arahants (completely liberated disciples). The Buddha calls them "the pair of chief disciples, an excellent pair". For our Buddha the pair of chief disciples were Ven. Sariputta and Ven. Mahamoggallana.This is a Dhamma-Talk recollecting the life and the outstanding qualities of the disciple of t...

The Buddha was not only perfect in knowledge and conduct and developed supreme purity, compassion, wisdom and liberation but he was also the unsurpassable trainer of trainable people and teacher of gods and humans and as supreme teacher he had the ability to guide others to awakening.

Just like the sun is not only bright and radiant only for itself, but also provides the energy for the entire ecosystem of the planet earth and all be...

The Buddha says that every perfectly awakened one has a pair of monk disciples who are the most outstanding amongall the several thousand Arahants (completely liberated disciples).

The Buddha calls them "the pair of chief disciples, an excellentpair". For our Buddha the pair of chief disciples were Ven. Sariputta and Ven. Mahamoggallana.

This Dhamma-Talk by Ajahn Moneyyo is recollecting the life and the outstanding qualities of the ...

Ajahn Dhammasiha talks about thoughts coming up while we're meditating.

How can we abandon unwholesome thoughts, and can we perhaps even use thoughts to further our meditation if they are of a wholesome nature.

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Ajahn Dhammasiha is asked about the meaning of Saddhanusari and Dhammanusari.

Both are considered 'Noble Individuals' by the Buddha, although they have not yet attained stream entry. However, their spiritual faculties have matured so much that they will definitely experience sotāpatti in this life, at the latest at death.

Their distinction is that one has an emphasis on the faith faculty ('saddh'indriya'), whereas the other one has...

Ajahn Dhammasīha describes monasteries of the Ajahn Chah tradition that he's going to visit on his travels from 13 May to 21 June.

Talking about the 'Incineration Toilets' they have installed at Skiptvet Monastery in Norway leads Ajahn onto a little sidenote about 'Asubha Bhāvanā', contemplating the unattractive nature of the human body.

Asubha is a very important meditation object, menitoned by the Buddha for example in the first ...

There is no objectively 'right' of 'wrong' way how we perceive and experience the breath in Ānāpānasati (Mindfulness of In & Out Breath) meditation. Perception of internal phenomena is entirely subjective.

However, there are ways of perceiving and feeling the breath that are conducive to deepening our samādhi & insight, and there are other ways of perceiving that have the opposite effect.

Therefore, when doing breath medita...

Have you ever deliberately broken social conventions to follow your own true conviction?

We can't realize awakening by just following the norms and expectations of society.

Enlightenment, realizing the Dhamma, is a complete flip-over of all conventionality.

We have to become aware how much we're conditioned by what's conventionally expected from us by society and family.

Only once we're aware how much of our life we're doing not ou...

Ajahn Dhammasīha cites the following short Pali quote at the beginning of his Dhamma Talk :

"Yena yena hi maññanti, tato taṃ hoti aññathā."

"By whatever they conceive, that is becoming otherwise."

= "Whatever they use as support for their illusion of identity, that is all changing and becoming otherwise"

(Majjhima Nikāya/Middle Length Discourses #113, "Sappurisa Sutta" / "Discourse on the Authentic Person")

In order to build up and...

Ajahn Dhammasiha is asked to give examples of attachment to Self, clinging to the illusion of an identity, called Sakkāyadiṭṭhi = Entity View by the Buddha.

The quote Ajahn mentions:

"Yena yena hi maññanti, tato taṃ hoti aññathā."

"By whatever they conceive, that is becoming otherwise."

= "Whatever they use as support for their illusion of identity, that is all changing and becoming otherwise"

(Majjhima Nikāya/Middle Length Discour...

Our education system is set up to learn almost exclusively about external processes. But we don't learn about what's going on in our mind internally, we don't understand all these different feelings and emotions, we're not educated how to become aware or them and how to deal with them.

For example, most people have a good knowledge how to use their mobile phone. They know how to use Youtube, how to publish a reel on Insta, how to u...

This is the concluding session of our 1 Day Meditation Retreat at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage with Ajahn Medhino.

Venerable Ajahn Medhino has been ordained as a bhikkhu for 33 years. Originally from the Netherlands, he received his ordination as a Buddhist monk at Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand. However, for the last 12 years he has lived in Sri Lanka, where he has established a hermitage in Badulla district, at Udakiruwa Forest, loc...

This is the initial session of our 1 Day Meditation Retreat at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage with Ajahn Medhino.

Ajahn explains the program and provides instructions for meditation, including a guided meditation. He also leads the community in taking the Triple Refuge and the five or eight precepts.

Venerable Ajahn Medhino has been ordained as a bhikkhu for 33 years. Originally from the Netherlands, he received his ordination as a Bu...

Ajahn Dhammasiha explains suitable meditation objects for investigation (vipassana/insight/wisdom) that we can direct our attention to, after the mind emerges from Samatha/Samādhi meditation.

Samādhi/Concentration imbues the mind with calm, tranquillity, hightened mindfulness, brightness and radiant awareness, as well as wholesome joy, rapture and bliss. At the same time, the five hindrances of sensual desire, aversion, laziness, r...

Venerable Ariyananda Thero explains fundmental Buddhist contemplations. We have been circling through Saṃsāra, the wheel of repeated death and rebirth, since beginningless time.

We don't know where we came from (what was our last rebirth?), we don't know where we're going (what will be our next rebirth?), and still we pretend everything's fine and try to be merry.

Instead, the Buddha ecourages us to contemplate death and impermanen...

Ven. Ariyananda Thera explains fundmental priciples of Buddhist meditative practice, emphasising that the Buddha uses a scientific method that doesn't require belief based on pure faith, but that is open to and actually inviting investigation.

Venerable Angulgamuwa Ariyananda Mahāthera is the abbot of Na Uyana Aranya, the largest forest monastery in Sri Lanka:

https://nauyana.org/

He has kindly accepted our invitation to visit Dham...

Venerable Ajahn Medhino has been ordained as a bhikkhu for 33 years. Originally from the Netherlands, he received his ordination as a Buddhist monk at Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand. However, for the last 12 years he has lived in Sri Lanka, where he has established a hermitage in Badulla district, at Udakiruwa Forest, located roughly between Bibile and Monaragala. Ajahn plans to develop the hermitage into a full fledged monastery tha...

In response to a question about the supernatural psychic powers and unique knowledge of the Buddha, Ajahn Dhammasiha examines a passage from 'Mahā Sīhanāda Sutta' ('The Greater Discourse on the Lion's Roar'), Majjhima Nikāya / Middle Length Discourses No 12.

In this passage on the 'Tathāgata Bala' , the Buddha himself describes 10 powers he is endowed with, and 4 unshakeabilities.

You can read and download the whole sutta in Englis...