Dhammagiri Buddhist Podcasts

By Dhammagiri Forest HermitageReligion & Spirituality Buddhism

Dhammagiri Buddhist Podcasts episodes

August 21, 2023Loving Kindness Metta | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Talk on Buddhism at Dhammagiri
Mettā is unconditional, non-judgemental friendliness to all beings. Without distinction or discrimination, without any expectations or demands, without any preconditions:
Whether they like us or hate us
Whether they respond to our mettā or not
Whether they are cute or ugly
Whether they or of similar background as we ourselves or of a different race, colour, class, nationality, language...

We strive to make our loving kindless limitless, boundless, without any difference to absolutely everyone.

Listen to our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
38 min
August 17, 2023 To Stop Thinking, we First have to Think Wholesome Thoughts | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri
Meditators often complain that they just can't stop thinking in their meditation.
However, thoughts are not really the problem. The problem is only unwholesome or sensual thoughts.
We first have to learn to think only good, beneficial, wholesome thoughts, like Loving Kindness, before we can stop thinking.
Learning to think more wholesome is the basic practice we have to start with.
Only once we're thinking mostly wholesome thoughts thoughout the whole day, can we succeed to completely calm down thinking in our formal meditation.

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
28 min
August 14, 2023Is Rebirth for Real? | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri | Buddhism
We all know that the Buddha teaches Karma and Rebirth. However, unless we have special psychic powers, we have to admit that we do not know for sure what happens after death. We take it on faith in the Buddha that consciousness continues after death, and attaches to a new body in a new rebirth according to our karma. But we usually do not know it from our own experince, as we usually can't remember past lives.
The Buddha actually fully acknowledges that fact. He admits that life
after death is a matter of faith for someone without any psychic powers like past life memory.
However, the Buddha suggests that we're better off assuming that rebirth and karma are for real. The potential risks and rewards are just too great:
If we assume rebirth is not for real, we may end up making lots of bad karma, and we're really in big trouble, if it actually turns out to be real.
If we assume karma and rebirth are for real, we will lead a good
life, not harm other beings, and try to make lots of good karma. If then it turms out to really be real, we're enjoying millions of years in great happiness in heavenly world.
On the other hand, if it turned out that rebirth is not real, there would simply be nothing after death. No big difference in outcome, then, whether we believed in it or not.
There are actually many indications that rebirth and karma are for real! Ajahn Dhammasiha brings up quite a few in this talk:
Someone shares their past life memories, and later details of their
memories are verified in the real world.
Children remember a previous life, and researchers like Dr Ian
Stevenson succeed in finding the previous family of the child, and the child can even identify previous relatives on first encounter.
Near Death Experience (NDE). While they are 'clinically dead', someone sees a beautiful light their floating towards, or meets deceased loved ones, or observes their dead body from above. After successful medical resuscitation, they remember and share this experience. Sometimes, details of their experience can be verified in the real world.
Strange preferences in food, music and so on. Someone really likes the food, music, or culture of a foreign country they have no connection with in this life. But due to past life in that country/culture, they just really like it, and it feels very familiar to them even on first encounter.
Some people we meet we immediately get on with, like we know them already for a long time, although we just met them now. But due to past life association, we're very familiar.
and so on ...

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
41 min
August 10, 2023 The Serpent | Buddhist Pali Chanting | Sutta Nipata 1.1, Uraga Sutta | Dhammagiri
Buddhist Pāli Chanting of the very first Sutta in the Suttanipāta: "The Serpent" / "Uragasutta".
Snakes regularly have to shed their old skin, as it becomes too restrictive for their growing body. In the wilderness, one can sometimes find this old, worn out skin, left behind by the snake.
The Buddha uses this process as a simile for a monk who abandons a particular mental defilement or deluded mode of cognition just like the snake leaves behind it's old skin. And as result of leaving behind the defilement he gives up "the here and the beyond" like a snake its old worn out skin as well.
A Dhammatalk about the meaning of the Sutta can be found here.
An English translation of the Pāli Chanting:
1. One who removes the anger that has arisen
as one removes with herbs a snake's spreading venom:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
2. One who has entirely cut off desire
as if plucking a a lotus growing in a lake:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
3. One who has entirely cut off craving
having dried up its fast-flowing stream:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
4. One who has entirely swept up conceit
as a great flood does a fragile bridge of reeds:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
5. One who finds no core in states of existence
as one seeking flowers in udumbara trees finds none:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
6. One who has no irritations inwardly,
having transcended such and such states of existence:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
7. One whos thoughts have been burned out,
entirely well excised internally:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
8. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
who has transcended all this proliferation:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
9. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
having known about the world, "All this is unreal":
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
10. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
devoid of greed, [knowing] "All this is unreal":
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
11. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
devoid of desire, [knowing] "All this is unreal":
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
12. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
devoid of aversion, [knowing] "All this is unreal":
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
13. One who has neither run too far nor run back,
devoid of delusion, [knowing] "All this is unreal":
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
14. One who has no latent tendencies at all,
whose unwholesome roots have been uprooted:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
15. One who has no states born from distress
as a condition for returning to the near shore:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
16.One who has no states born from desire,
causes for bondage to existence:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.
17. Having abandoned the five hindrances,
untroubled, crossed over perplexity, free of darts:
That monk gives up the here and the beyond
as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

.
4 min
August 08, 2023 Dukkha Patipada: Using Challenges in Meditation for Insight | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri
Often we're not experiencing rapture and bliss in our meditation, but lots of challenges, painful memories, fears, and pain. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with us.
Only a person with a mind already very pure from advanced practice in previous lives will be able to sit down and quickly attain bliss and samādhi. Due to the weakness of their defilements, these individulas (like e.g. Venerable Sāriputta) develop sukha paṭipadā (easy/happy practice).
For most of us (and actually even for the second chief disciple, Venerable Mahāmoggallāna!), practice involves quite a bit of dukkha paṭipadā (tough/difficult practice).
However, these difficulties can actually be an excellent opportunity to develop wisdom and insight. If we don't complain or get discouraged by whatever challenges arise in our meditation, but take them up as an object of contemplation, analysing their impermanence and not-self nature, we can even have an advantage compared to those with easy practice, because we're not in danger of neglecting insight practice.

Our Podcast is also available on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
30 min
August 04, 2023 4 Noble Truths in 3 Circles | First Teaching of the Buddha | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
On Āsāḷhā Full Moon, the Buddha taught his first formal discourse, the "Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta" ("Discourse on Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma")
In his Dhamma Talk, Ajahn Dhammasiha goes through the essential content of this very famous Sutta, namely the Four Noble Truths. He tries to elicit answers from the audience 😉, to make sure that everyone knows the basic meaning of these most fundamental teaching of the Buddha:
1.
The Noble Truth of Suffering:
Birth, old age, sickness & death;
Association with the disliked;
Seperation from the liked;
Not getting what one wants;
In short, the five groups of clinging.
2.
The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering:
Craving.
3.
The Noble Truth of the End of Suffering:
The complete, remainderless cessation of craving.
4.
The Noble Truth of the Practice Leading to the End of Suffering:
The Noble Eight-Fold Path.
Next, the Sutta elucidates three aspects of each Noble Truth.
Only after his knowledge and vision of things as they truly are was completely purified in respect of the Four Noble Truths in their three aspects, did the Buddha proclaim supreme awakening.
1.
The Noble Truth in and by itself.
2.
The Duty attached to each Truth:
Suffering has to be comprehended;
The cause of suffering has to be abandoned;
The end of suffering has to be realized;
The Middle Way has to be developed.
3.
The accomplishment of the duty
Four Noble Truths in their three aspects constitute the 12-spoked Dhammacakka (4x3=12).
That is the reason why we often see the Dhammawheel represented with 12 spokes, like the one depicted on the pedestal of our main Buddhastatue. That is the meaning of the 'mudra', the position of the hands of our statue: The first circle represents the Four Noble Truths, the second circle indicates the three aspects, and both hands together illustrate the 12fold matrix of:
"Phenomena unheared of before, in respect to which vision arose, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, understanding arose, illumination arose."
31 min
August 02, 2023 Obsering how Craving creates Suffering | Guided Meditation | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri
The Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths are eminently practical. They are not just a theory or mental gymnastics, but they are directly applicable to our life with it's pains and pleasures, it's disappointments and tribulations. They can be experienced right here and now in our own conscious experience.
In this guided meditation, Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to observe with mindfulness and awareness how craving arises in our mind, and how it creates tension, stress, suffering for our mind. These are the first and second noble truth in action, right here and now in our awareness.
Similarly, we can observe how the moment we can let go of that craving, the tension, stress and suffering recedes. This is, at least partially, the third and fourth noble truth in action, right here and now in our awareness.

Naturally, our letting go is usually only partial, not deep enough to really experience the third noble truth fully, i.e. the experience of Nibbāna, or the arising of the Dhammacakka at the experience of Stream Entry. But whenever we succeed in letting go based on wisdon and insight, and then observe mindfully how suffering diminishes, we gradually train our heart to disengage and detach. One day, as wisdom sharpens and insight matures, we will be able to fully let go of craving and experience the total end of dukkha: Freedom, release, Nibbāna.

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
31 min
July 28, 2023Middle Way is More than just Moderation | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri | Majjhima Patipada
The Buddha mentions the Middle Way (Majjhimā Paṭipadā) right in the beginning of his very first formal discourse, the Sutta on "Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma" (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta).

If he mentions the Middle Way first, even before introducing the 4 Noble Truths, it's obviously really important.

Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to investigate any issues we encounter in life or in formal meditation in terms of the Middle Way. Can we identify the two extremes to avoid, and instead transcend the extremes and go beyond them on the Middle Way, the Noble 8-Fold Path.

Although the Buddha expounds the Middle Way in his first discourse by means of the extremes of sensual indulgence versus ascetic self mortification, there are numerous other extremes and applications of the Middle Way, for example:
Too much and ultimately counterproductive effort versus laziness and sloppiness - to be transcended by the middle way of wise effort based on mindfulness and insight
Believe in an eternal, blissful Self versus believe that there is simply nothing after death - to be transcended by the Middle Way of dependent origination
Eating too much versus eating too little - to be transcended by eating the right amount while contemplating food to wisely abandon attachment to it while still consuming it
and so on ...

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
40 min
July 24, 2023 Enhancing Our Dhamma Practice during Rains Retreat | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri
The annual three months 'Rains Retreat' period ('Vassa') abserved by the monks and nuns is also an excellent opportunity for the lay community to enhance their level of effort and commitment in their Dhamma practice.
Ajahn Dhammasiha discusses a wide range of options to increase one's 'bhāvanā' (mental cultivation), e.g.:
- Coming more regurlarly to the monastery
- Offering food, other requisites, or financial donations
- Staying as guest in the monastery on retreat
- Purifying one's observance of the 5 precepts
- Doing one day a month (usually around full moon) on 8 precepts, or
perhaps even one day a week
- Determining to do regular evening/morning chanting
- Learning chanting by heart, at least parts, in Pāli or English
- Perhaps even studying Pali
- Studying the Suttas, the original teachings of the Buddha (in
translation)

- Listening more regualrly to Dhamma Talks on Youtube, Spotify and so on.
- Making a resolution to sit formal meditation at least 30 min every day, or perhaps even one hour, or two hours (depending how much one is already regularly doing)
- Doing lots of walking meditation
- Determining: for these three months, whatever happens, whatever anyone may do, or not do, or say or write to me, I will not get angry. And
even if I get angry, I will not speak any angry words...

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
46 min
July 21, 2023Samadhi through Gladness, Tranquility and Bliss | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Dhammagiri
Many times the Buddha explains how the mind can unify in Samādhi via the following steps:
Gladness (pāmojja)

Rapture (pīti)

Tranquility (passaddhi)

Bliss (sukha)

Unification of Mind (samādhi)

Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to put effort in meditation not just into sitting in a certain posture for a certain amount of time, but predominently make an effort to arouse gladness through training our perception to enjoy our meditation, to make it fun and a happy activity.

Our Podcast on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast

More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news

Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724

Our email Newsletter:
https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive

Our Podcasts on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0SHWfWEGkO8OAtSWNJlqyD

Our Podcasts on Apple/itunes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dhammagiri-buddhist-podcasts/id1534539834

.
33 min