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Ajahn Sucitto's Dharma Talks
Ajahn Sucitto
As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
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2024-01-02 Reflecting on the Mangala Sutta 48:01
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-02 Q&A 54:13
Q1: Can you say more about the air and water elements. I am confused. 04:20 Q2 How can we observe our citta? I read there are 52 states of citta. Can you explain further? 10:43 Q3 I’m used to watching the breath as an object but with too many instructions I get distracted. What is your advice? 15:49 Q4 I’ve had pain for three years, back etc. It seems pain is teaching me about impermanence and uncontrolability. 25:55 Q5 You mentioned the sankhara get less as we cultivate wholesome deeds. What about wholesome sankhara? Can you expand please? 39:39 Q6 You said meditation can cause some people to go crazy. How do we prevent this? 42:06 Q7 Can you explain sati and sampajanna again please? 52:10 Q8 How to support a fortunate rebirth for my pet chicken?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-02 GM - Sharing heart 7:13
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-02 The Buddha's teaching on loving kindness 48:09
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-03 GM - Using the breath current 22:10
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-03 Q&A 57:54
Q1 Can you expand on your ideas about effort and energy? Does the same standard of 70-75% apply to normal life? 12:09 Q2 I find it difficult to still well with eyes half open. 15:55 Q3 Can you give advice on sense restraint please? 31:54 Q4 How should one guide the mind from over indulging in socializing? 39:23 Q5 I saw the 5 khandhā / aggregates dissolve when I was sitting at home, not meditating. It was disorienting and seeing I had no identity was scary. What is your advice when I feel anxious during this experience? 49:58 Q6 Cittas arise all over us. What is it that that observes the cittas?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-03 Reminders for Walking 8:52
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-04 Transforming passion into warmth 44:45
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-04 Q&A 44:15
Q1 You mentioned there are also other bodies such as the energy and emotional body and others. Could you elaborate please? 22:02 Q2 How does a sotapanna / stream enterer still have conceit as a fetter if they have uprooted self view? 36:11 Q3 It seems there is a very strong “not enough” mind. Not still enough, not calm enough, not practicing enough. How can I shift this negativity to a more positive chanda / motivation? 41:41 Q4 How can we measure our spiritual progress?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-04 GM - Using retreat experience 8:18
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-05 GM – Unifying body and mind 34:48
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-05 GM - Standing and sitting 33:06
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-05 Liberate the citta from grasping 53:04
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-05 Q&A 44:43
Q1 Can you explain more about patiggha phassa / impact on consciousness. 17:50 Q2 How do we link contact, impact and impression to cause and effect and the action we then take? 24:18 Q3 How do you know if a spiritual teacher is best for an individual? 29:11 Q4 I notice a good amount that you’ve taught us (like QiGong) is not dhamma but corroborates with Taoism and other traditions I may not be familiar with. How can we be sure to tell true dhamma from false dhamma. 37:30 Q5 How can we spread positive energy in a toxic environment? 43:11 Is it normal to feel wobbly / unbalanced during walking meditation?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-06 Some key terms and their usage and meaning 55:37
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-06 Q&A 50:10
Q1 In samadhi, kāyasankhāra unifies with cittasankhāra. In this state what does the citta feel like? 16:25 Q2 Having associated wanting with a negative connotation I have been habitually suppressing my wants/ desires so sometimes it is hard to know what I want when it comes to important decisions. 31:41 Q3 During meditation is it OK to let my body move back and forth as I feel being pulled by a subtle energy flow. 33:00 Q4 Regarding death practice, do you have any advice? 39:52 Q5 When one becomes too comfortable in walking it becomes monotonous and the mind becomes dull but that’s not what we want, right? Any suggestions? 43:07 Q6 How do we practice dhamma in our daily life, especially in a hectic environment?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-06 Guided Meditation - A meditation memo 15:16
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions
2024-01-06 What is deathlessness 37:20
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions
2024-01-07 Contemplating the five elements 44:47
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-01-07 Closing remarks 32:08
Ajahn reviews key retreat elements: name, form, consciousness and contact – sanya, vedena
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Sharing Merit with the Broken Heart
2024-02-11 Opening Talk 27:06
Retreat practices mean using receptivity, our most fundamental quality.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-11 Understanding the precepts 15:13
Ajahn provides a way to hold and use precepts
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-12 The most important thing is to regain the centre 47:23
The Buddha taught the end of suffering. It is also called “regaining the centre”.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-12 Walking suggestions 6:13
Ajahn models some key elements of walking meditation.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-12 GM - Review of the four postures 33:47
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-12 The elements of retreat 59:10
The abiding principle is “skillful” because this causes a stable but not rigid centre to open and lighten up.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-13 Cultivation is alignment to truth 49:59
We exist with and must respect other beings. How can we develop mutuality, the “we” sense?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-13 Q&A 49:32
00:13 Q1 How can one develop self-love without being accused of being selfish? 08:33 Q2 How can I cope with repeating pain in the shoulders or back and strong surging of energy? Should one change position? 14:45 Q2 What is the purpose of being alive if not to experience the senses? Trying to dull out the senses to be mindful makes me wonder if we miss the true beauty of life. 27:40 Q3 I'm wondering about the effects of tension on the citta/ sensitivity. I'm aware of deep tension in my body which could have been there since childhood. Qigong and reclining meditation are good. 45:11 Q4 The manifestation of a category such as apple in your example, is that what is meant by nama? 47:25 Q5 What's a good balance of walking, standing and sitting?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-14 Gestures of devotion 15:23
Devotion allows an openness which is beyond personality. We give back to our deepest selves through mindfulness of citta.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-14 Undergoing the process of retreat 43:25
Opening to the we sense.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-14 GM - The brahmavihara 25:57
The brahmavihara provide a dwelling place where ideas pop up that can resolve our dilemmas.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-14 Q&A 23:41
00:08 Q1 How do we remain at ease in the face of great suffering? 06:50 Q2 I have been practicing a long time but I cannot relate to Buddha images in an authentic way. Can you help? 13:02 Q3 Is it a luxury to immerse oneself in the scriptures? What about the need to be good and to help others in basic ways? 17:29 Q4 If you didn’t teach would you still find purpose in contemplation and study of scriptures?19:22 Q5 Where does tiredness come from? How to tackle chronic exhaustion?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-15 Me and you arising 54:28
In place of the “I” that thinks, we can enter the “we” sense, deconstructing and creating a “not to do” list.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-15 Q&A 43:24
Questions are précised: Q1 Do we have to unattach ourselves from intense bonds to our parents and children to attain enlightenment? Also, can you explain what the Buddha meant to “fully understand suffering” as the first noble truth? 26:42 Q2 If we don't purify our mindstream or cleanse our karmic baggage and live virtuous lives, we will not attain our Buddha self and seek a cyclical existence as we would have failed to realize the wisdom of reality. 27.54 Q3 Can you suggest some guidance on waking up in the mornings? 32.18 Q4 Reclining posture somehow feels less than the other postures. Is this so? When is the reclining posture appropriate? 37:29 Q5 can you speak on non-aversion? Is it possible?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-16 Centre and path 50:28
The epitome of the path to an ancient city described by the Buddha exists between the extremes of affirmation and denial, destroying things and holding on to things.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-16 Anussati - recollection 35:12
In meditation we practice staying mindful in the presence of something. What are the things that are worthy of being “in mind”?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-16 Q&A 35:35
00:10 Q1 Please share tips to manage the flurry of emotions that might arise when we're back in our day today busy lives. 20:18 Q2 Sometimes when I think of my own death I don't care. How do we manage acceptance in a way that doesn't become apathetic or dull sense of I don't care. 27:47 Q3 How do you establish presence and find your center when your body is in unbearable pain? 34:16 Q4 Can you speak about the use of pharmaceuticals for perceived mental and physical imbalances?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-17 Reference points for practice 45:34
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-17 Q&A 24:12
Could you speak more on Buddha mind? Does it involve the heart? Is it with us all the time like an inner guide, below the ego and self-constructed identity?
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-18 GM - Starting the day 31:19
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-18 Learning from the retreat 17:06
Pay attention to what demands more attention, what to be glad about, what to remember whenever you are transitioning.
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa :  Regaining the Center
2024-02-21 Using a communal form 18:18
A retreat is a practice container that emphasizes cooperation and presence in a steady and communal form.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-22 GM - Basics of reclining meditation 35:08
Ajahn outlines some basic considerations on reclining
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-23 Tools for examining direct experience 26:13
Looking into dhammas means looking into the mental, psychological and emotional experiences that arise and saturate, that we cling to.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-23 How we know who we are 54:58
Examining the mechanisms of the body-mind we see the absence of identity and the presence of experience in consciousness.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-23 Q&A 51:13
Q1 Is chi a teaching of the buddha? How does it affect dhamma practice? Q2 12:25 How do you know when the body is telling you something? Q3 20:25 When sitting if truly inspired thoughts arise, do we treat them the same as we would any other thoughts? Letting them go? Is there no value in storing them for later contemplation? Q4 24:31 Attention and intention, which comes first? How does restraint work in relation to these two for well-being? Q5 36:15 I've heard teachers translate upekkha in other words other ways other than equanimity. Equipoise or perspective, clear perspective. Do you have any insights you can share please? Q6 40:26 I investigate the causes of my suffering. Sometimes I get the impression that some of it may have been handed over through body memories by past generations. Sort of unfinished business. Can you comment on this? Q7 43:04 Can you comment on the importance of rituals and symbols, and one's ancestral language and healing tools. How can they be used to transform whatever I may be carrying from my ancestors? Q8 48:43 Can you speak more about the power of craving?
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-24 The satipatthāna 47:33
The framework of body, feeling, heart, and phenomena arising is helpful and can be continued throughout the day.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-24 Q&A 43:11
Q1 Yesterday I had this thought that there is no shame in suffering. I'm wondering what is noble about the noble about the suffering in the first noble truth. Q2 06:17 Could you differentiate between awareness and consciousness? Q3 16:18 Please speak about bowing. Q4 20:39 Do you start and end your day with any reflections or recollections or practices? Q5 28:03 What is happening when right view and release become partially obscured again after right view has been attained? Why is it becoming obscured? Is cultivation of the empty field the main practice then and purification? Q6 33:32 It's taken several retreats to uncover this tremendous sense of guilt. When it arises it makes sense to avoid reconstructing the stories. the habit is to shut down the feeling. It appears as a pain in the chest. It shifts to holding back tears. Is this karma rather than the person?
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-24 Right effort is fulfilling effort with 20 min GM 34:53
Notice the potency of unskillful language and how it can seem to squeeze us and create limitations in the mind.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-25 Practicing with direct experience 39:04
Examining direct experience we go deeply, beyond the constructions, finding in the heart that which is worthy of praise and emulation. This generates sangha, a living teaching.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-25 Q&A 16:02
Q1 This person says that they are very sensitive and that things like traffic signs, noises, imperfections and the bustle of reality disturbs them. Do you have any advice? Q2 01:23 Could you comment on aging, sickness and death. Most of my friends and myself are in their late 70s or 80s and want to be more skilled in working with different stages and pain so as to be as prepared as possible for the dying phase.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-02-25 The empty field 30:28
Here volition stops and we can examine what normally clogs the heart. We discard the endlines and deadlines. Observe conditionality without becoming.
Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat :  Cultivating the Empty Field
2024-03-01 Determining the centre we want to regain 40:51
In a retreat we become very fundamental, putting things aside.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-02 Retreat - an authentic and encompassing space 42:10
We practice sensing the whole before we can find the centre. The Buddha taught that all forms of wisdom find their fruition in mindfulness of the body.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-02 Gathering what's helpful. 19:49
Attention is a natural faculty but developing the wisdom of what to focus on and how to focus, allows cultivation of meaning in the heart.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-02 GM - Standing 12:01
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-02 GM – Steadying attention, stepping back, lifting the heart 16:01
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-03 The heart is a growing baby 49:31
We often feel driven, controlled by forces, social and otherwise that we don’t even know. Cultivation happens with careful application.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-03 Citta is a crucial experience 35:53
The ‘I am’, the sense of me is the citta - receiving, reacting. Using the four foundations allows it to be resplendent and happy.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-04 Concentration without concentrating 48:13
Ajahn explains how it is that the Buddha didn’t tell us to concentrate, but he did recommend concentration.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-05 Training the citta is your best bet 37:11
The teachings are not philosophies, abstract concoctions or attitudes. They point to direct signals of the citta with no position to stand on.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-05 Re-gaining the centre 50:11
Practice establishes a wholeness, a container where we can settle and witness the suffering, those random, sometimes painful stresses we call “ours”.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-05 Insight breaks up grasping 39:33
The centre has no name but is harmonious, unsqueezed and released from (often unrecognized) clinging.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-06 Harmony and forgiveness 48:26
Consider the deep learning or openness that has been experienced. What has found its way to the exit? This allows a regaining of the awakened centre.
Emoyeni Retreat Centre :  Regaining the Centre
2024-03-17 Right view and intention are the basis for the satipatthāna 37:08
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions
2024-03-25 The Circular Process: Right View, Right Mindfulness and Right Effort 42:34
Three key factors of the Noble Eightfold Path circle around and support each other: Right View, which scans to see which skilful qualities need to be developed; Right Mindfulness, which sustains attention on this development; and Right Effort, which provides the energy to complete the transformation.
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-03-26 Ethical Responsibility Leads to Concentration and Release 44:17
Liberation is always a step-by-step process. Each stage flows into the next. It’s a natural process, according to Dhamma. Start on the right track, with virtue – relational sensitivity. Acting in this way gives rise to gladness, then concentration, leading to liberation. (Sutta reference AN 10:2)
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-03-27 The flow to liberation: Feeding the Citta 44:01
The flow to liberation isn’t a flash in the pan miracle, but a gradual, step-by-step process. Begin with the 4 establishments of mindfulness. When held carefully, steadily, with patience, the enlightenment factors develop. It can’t be done out of will power. Rather, nourishment for the process are restraint, mindfulness and careful attention. (Sutta reference AN 10:61)
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-03-28 Development without Becoming 49:57
Our general mode follows a track called becoming. It’s a track that keeps moving, flavoured with craving that never arrives at satisfaction. The Buddha presented a more natural way – step-by-step, chart the course, with friendliness and purity of intention. Mindfulness of body and contemplative thought (vitaka-vicara) support a wider, wholistic mode. Use the process to adjust your world, so you’re not driven and pushed by it.
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-03-29 Dhamma practice shapes the Citta into a more fulfilling state 47:35
The emphasis on virtue, beyond keeping rules, customs and procedures, is to bring about harmony. It enables us to establish a fluent relationship that isn’t domineering nor indifferent, clearing of heart from destructive tendencies. It’s the tonality of careful attention in what we do. Not seeking results, but just bringing forth harmony, beauty, purity in our daily lives. (Sutta reference SN 46:1)
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-03-30 The ongoing focus for cultivation is ‘me’ 52:02
The compulsive shaping and drives of the citta are held by grasping – an involuntary reflex that can be mastered through careful cultivation. As the end of this grasping and shaping is the sense of self, that sense of ‘me’ ‘I am this’ is the ongoing focus of our Dhamma practice.
Cittaviveka Step-by-Step: the Upwards Flow
2024-04-08 Freedom from Fear 53:07
Bhavana, cultivation, is associated with bringing into being fruitful states and dwelling in them. Without this ground, citta- heart - goes out, focuses on conditioned phenomena. The natural result will be uncertainty, anxiety, fear. Practices for clearing fear at its root are described: contemplation of death, mindfulness of body and breathing, generosity, virtue.
Amaravati Monastery
2024-04-21 GM - The ending of the residues 12:13
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions
2024-04-21 Q&A 32:03
Q1 How important is it to maintain continuity of the meditation object? 0857 Q2 I'm confused by the word citta. For a long time I thought it was the physical organ of the heart, but now I understand that it may be mind. Can you help please? 2334 Q3 you talked about adhiṭṭhāna, resolution as being as one way of manifesting accepting and bowing to all the negative and unskillful thoughts that kept rising in the mind. Can you elaborate on this please? 2521 Q4 what is the relationship or differences between viññāṇa (sense consciousness) and sati (awareness). 2724 Q5 Can you comment on scattering ashes of a body after cremation? Is this about attaching to a body?
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions

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