Ajahn Karuniko reflects on his own personal experiences, including his first visit to Wat Pah Nanachat, to show how he once overcame fear by returning to an awareness of the physical body. He relates an experience he once had on a snow capped mountain in Slovenia, where, by facing a perilous situation one step at a time, the final result was an enjoyable ascent.
On Magha Puja, Ajahn Ahimsako recounts how the Buddha offered the Ovada Patimokkha to the assembled Sangha nearly 2,600 years ago. He points out how today’s Sangha of monastic and lay practitioners can benefit from making their own offerings to support each other and the whole community, thus creating an environment of safety and trust in which insight and wisdom can arise.
On the Lunar Observance new moon of February, Ajahn Ahimsako explores the role of the ethical and renunciant precepts in providing a framework for mental cultivation. He illustrates how this framework allows a way of working with both wholesome and unwholesome desires, and the possibility of realizing the wisdom and peace that lies beyond.
Following the Sunday evening guided meditation, Ajahn Ahimsako encourages us to distinguish between the objects we hold in awareness, and awareness itself, showing how a mind that doesn’t cling to these objects can be at peace in all situations.
Reflecting on his recent visit to Thailand, Ajahn Ahimsako recalls an incident from over two decades past at Wat Pah Nanachat, in which he experienced mental suffering in anticipation of potential physical discomfort and pain. He explains how the Buddha’s path of practise to liberation is to meet each moment with wisdom and full awareness.
Abiding in the world as it is.
The use of puja (chanting, devotion) to generate a supportive atmosphere and perspective for Dhamma practice.
Direct experience comes through three bodies: the flesh body, the emotional body and the body of awareness. Energy runs through these and by moderating it, our awareness extends beyond the limitations of the person and even language.
The habit of identifying with our experience and views is distressing because experiences and views change. This is the story of a woman who happened to find the good Dhamma: a teaching about the “Five Khandhas” (Groups of Clinging) which opened her eyes about the nature of our suffering and prepared the way for her to be ordained as a Buddhist Nun.