Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks (Gaia House)

(Uttama Bodhi Vihara) Viveka, stepping back, is about adjusting attention and energizing in a different way. Morning chanting, for example, is a beautiful way to bring up energy. It’s not about doing or making something happen. Rather, it’s very much towards stillness. Most cittas will benefit from the inner stability of the body, where the nervous system is awake but not firing, stirring, agitated.

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Listening to the unique but common struggles of others; Ajahn Sucitto on a 40 year retreat; some personal history of how Ajahn came to meditation and his early struggles; thank you to all participants; coming from a place of gratitude; being firm with all the reasons that we throw up not to practice; take a little time every day to sit and breathe; it's as important as eating or bathing every day; the citta goes one way - it does not go down, it goes up. “Thank you for your determination and your company and your honesty in the practice. May you all progress and develop and may your cittas rise to happiness and peace.”

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Review thoroughly how your mind works; the world is created by the mind in this very body; seeing uncertainty; using the body to receive and allow the citta to calm; see how the citta sits on its worry and flies on its desire and is carried along by its fear; the citta sankhara never stops creating reasons why it has to keep going just a little bit further; watch how craving paints the world with beautiful but very thin paint. You can do it, you can see it. Pause, check, be aware.

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) What can you take with you from the retreat? Using the occasion of retreat to develop wisdom of understanding - the 4 satipatannas / foundations of mindfulness; the transient nature of satisfaction; the rich man and the Porche; things are never finished; this is “mine”; seeing how conditions give rise to certain kinds of thinking; the release of the citta from clinging generally happens a little bit at a time; training the wisdom element.

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) A place to stay, a place to sit, a place to feel more comfortable in yourself; taking time and practicing with all four positions; the spider and the web of impressions, memories, sensations and feelings; what is it that compounds it and sticks it altogether? Seeing/ listening to the citta moving and the stirring up of thoughts; releasing the citta from being a someone; using samatha to calm and separate the citta from its endless spinning

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Finding a place to rest; preparing a nest to allow the citta to settle with the body; breathing through the body; releasing the past, cleaning the house; mindfulness of death; forgiveness of oneself and others

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Bring yourself into Sangha - the community who practice; staying present; the body as a symbol of the upright mind

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Three things to bear in mind: Pay attention, soften and widen, include it all

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Bringing to mind, to recollect, to bring into your body what is good and upright every time; remembering things in the body; to sustain or protect attention with the breathing; keep pushing away whatever is unskillful or unhelpful; taking care of the baby;

(Young Buddhists Association of Thailand) Bring our understanding into line with the Dhamma; direct experience rather than what we think we experience; getting a feel for the citta; the experience of something happening to citta; how perceptions are seen as real and the clinging that results; sankhara/ the activities/ the reactions