The Four Noble Truths by Ajahn Sumedho

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Ascetic Bodhisatta Gautama with the Group of Five

For those with further interest in the Four Noble Truths, I provide this short, downloadable, booklet by the Venerable Ajahn Sumedho.

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The Four Noble Truths by Ajahn Sumedho

Ajahn Sumedho, or Luang Por Sumedho, was ordained in Thailand in 1966 and has had a long and varied career. He was Abbot of Amaravati Monastery in England from 1984 until 2010, when he retired back to Thailand. Luang Por Sumedho is considered one of the primary figures in the dissemination of Therevada Buddhism in the West.

The booklet I attach here is directly related to the Four Noble Truths, as can be seen by it’s title, and will serve as a backup, and reinforcement to the Suttas I have already provided. Over time I hope to increase the online library available to the discerning reader with much more valuable insight.

I have also launched a new page. eLibrary, in the top menu where such documents will appear in future.

The Noble Eightfold Path

31 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Majjhima Nikaya

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The Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path

I have been working on the Noble Eightfold Path articles and have put up the first two of the three that are to come. They are works in progress so please forgive any inconsistences you may spot. My knowledge of the path is somewhat limited so all I can do is my best.

I have also put up a copy of the Saccavibhanga Sutta: Discourse on The Analysis of the Truths found in the Majhimma Nikaya that shows the Buddha explaining what is required for each step on the path to be followed.

Of course there is a PDF download of the Sutta available, and please remember, any errors are entirely my own.

May you all live in peace.

The Mindfulness of Breathing

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Dhamma, Majjhima Nikaya

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Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness has become a byword for meditation these days; it is everywhere and has even become part of medical treatment for anxiety and depression. It could be said that Mindfulness is the latest Western craze for solving all your mental ills, and yet, according to the Buddha, this is exactly what it will do. The Satipatthana Sutta details exactly how to practice ‘proper’ mindfulness rather than what you might find in an NHS run Anxiety class. I know it does because I have attended NHS Anxiety Mindfulness treatment and their version of Mindfulness is very watered down, but for good reason. They are treating a particular ailment rather than trying to liberate you from Samsara. That is not to detract from the definite benefits of their systems, the CBT training I went through had definite results regarding the Stress Anxiety I suffer from and I still use their techniques today, including breath meditation, but, as I said, they do not train you fully in Mindfulness Meditation. Only the Buddha and his disciples can do that.

With this in mind I have decided to upload the Satipatthana Sutta. This is the Sutta that details, quite explicitly, exactly how to go about Mindfulness Meditation and the various steps you need to go through for your journey toward liberation. The breath is always in mind, but there are numerous other subjects that you progressively move on to during your practice.

I could enumerate them here but I think it best to let the Buddha speak rather than run the possibility of me leading you astray, so I shall stop wittering on and just leave you to read the Sutta in your own time. As usual, there is a PDF version available for download and printing should you so wish.

The Tipitaka: The Recorded Teachings of the Buddha.

24 Monday Jul 2017

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Burmese-Pali Manuscript.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

The Tipitaka, or Three Baskets, are the corpus of recorded teachings of the Buddha written in the ancient language of Pali. Reputed to contain approximately 84,000 discourses, it could be said it would take a little while to get familiar with them.

The term ‘Pali’ actually means ‘text’, yet it was a simple translational mistake made years ago that meant that the language used to write the Suttas was actually named Pali in itself.

Tipitaka, in Pali, literally means ‘Three Baskets’ and refers to the three divisions of the Pali Canon:

  1. The Vinaya Pitaka
  2. The Sutta Pitaka
  3. The Abidhamma Pitaka

Continue reading →

The Five Clinging Aggregates.

24 Monday Jul 2017

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Give Me More!

I cannot put the description better than that of Bhikkhu Bodhi. This article that follows was found at http://beyondthenet.net and is believed to be in the public domain. I have restructured it into one contiguous page rather than it’s original format but I believe it to be one of the best and briefest explanations of the five aggregates that I have found.

This is such an important subject for people to get their head around so I have placed it on the right hand menu as a separate subject. The post may need reading several times to grasp it, at least I had to do so, I intend no slight on the reader if they get it first time through. Continue reading →