A Dhamma talk given on 2025-03-14 by Ajahn Vajiro at Sumedharama Forest Monastery in Ericeira, Portugal. For more Dhamma talks, please visit sumedharama.pt.

Q&A:

1. From where come these distortions? From the fears and wants?

2. Although I enjoy practising Dhamma, I still can never understand how to really ''take refuge in the Triple Gem''. Please can Ajahn advise. Thank you.

3. A colleague offered me a cup of coffee with 3 drops of whisky. Does this count as me 'drinking alcohol' thus breaking my precept?

4. Low self-confidence always creeps in. It seems it's bound together with insecurity in oneself. I wonder can this ever be solved?

5. Are you related to Sister Vajiro?

6. One of the five obstacles is craving pleasure, which the Buddha said leads to rebirth. On an intellectual level, I understand that pleasure is impermanent, but this alone doesn’t seem enough to genuinely aspire to abandon it. So, what level of wisdom is required to truly abandon craving sense pleasure? And what practice can make really this happen?

7. Could you meditate while you were sick?

8. Are these distortions you mentioned a kind of memory (Sankara ?)

How to make the present more informed from the present momoment, than from past stories (sankaras -- can memory be understood as a Sankara) ?