Ayyā Medhānandī Bhikkhunī, is the founder and guiding teacher of Sati Sārāņīya Hermitage, a Canadian forest monastery for women in the Theravāda tradition. The daughter of Eastern European refugees who emigrated to Montreal after World War II, she began a spiritual quest in childhood that led her to India, Burma, England, New Zealand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and finally, back to Canada.
| 2021-06-19 Where the Flame of Truth Burns Bright 25:58 |
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| Dhamma is like mother, father, guardian, the Truth that we can rest in. So rest in the purity of one moment. Offering to listen, what is the message we receive? In the silence of the mind, what do we hear? If there is no silence we listen more intently and dive more deeply. Where there is no past, no future, nothing to run away from, nothing to run towards, we stop to truly listen. And we see. This is pure presence – the gift of our attention. With the compass of the mind, open to the Dhamma. No where do we find any solid essence to call a self, a me, a mine. This is the most sacred knowing. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2021-05-15 The Teacher is Present – Vesak Joy and Dhamma Refuge 54:25 |
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| To celebrate the Buddha’s life is to be his disciple in enlightenment. Every day becomes a day of Vesak when we emulate the Buddha’s virtues and follow his gradual training in Dhamma-Vinaya and spiritual warriorship. We vow to purify the mind, realize the vision of Dhamma, and practice perfect compassion for all living beings. At last we find the teacher present within us. |
| Indonesian Buddhist Fellowship of Canada : Honouring Vesak |
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| 2021-01-03 The Value of Death 25:53 |
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| This path takes us to our true home through cultivating sanctity, and understanding the value of death: the death of greed, hatred and delusion. When we see all things as impermanent, death gives definition to our life. It delimits our experience. That’s how we learn how to love – because if things were permanent, we wouldn’t know the meaning of love. We would not know how to love. And that would be a terrible loss – not to know, not to learn, how to love. |
| Portland Friends of the Dhamma : Ever Present Refuge |
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| 2021-01-03 The Nimitta of Suffering 31:53 |
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| When we’re out of balance, it’s due to the worldly winds. Even if you call them Dhamma winds, they end up being worldly – as soon as we grasp them, we’re back in samsara and we’re circling. The ending of circling always begins within us. It doesn’t end out there. Even if the balance of Dhamma out there is perfect, that moment of perfection is impermanent. Once we truly see what we could not see before, balance is restored. |
| Portland Friends of the Dhamma : Ever Present Refuge |
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| 2021-01-03 The Basis for Our Happiness 4:41 |
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| When we take refuge and commit to ethical precepts, we deepen the purification of virtue within us. This creates the basis for our happiness. We take refuge in enlightened wisdom, and in our ability to awaken. We have faith that we can realize that Truth by ourselves – in this life, and that this is a timeless teaching, worthy of our effort, worthy of our attention, worthy of our faith, and worthy of our refuge. |
| Portland Friends of the Dhamma : Ever Present Refuge |
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| 2020-12-13 Love Everyone Or Die 24:23 |
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| We may speak of or feel that we know about death but until we truly contemplate, approach and move into death, what do we know? This is a tale about looking into the eye of a tortoise shell butterfly while it lay dying on the shrine. Straining as it reached up towards us waving its frail antennae when it heard our chanting, we felt at one even with this tiniest of creatures – who also wanted only to be loved. |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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| 2020-10-17 Contemplation and the Special Quality of Mindfulness – Two Questions 20:57 |
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| Practice deepens when we are present here and now, able to apply intuitive understanding rather than concepts to our experience. So contemplate contemplation. Know the mind directly, not through thought. Similarly, mindfulness is not to be forced or refined by willpower but with humility – offering our full attention and devotion to intuitive seeing and understanding what is before us in terms of the 3 characteristics. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society : Day of Mindfulness |
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| 2020-10-17 Be Like A Satellite Dish: Extraordinary Sati and Undistracted Samadhi 43:08 |
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| Respect means to stop enough to see truly – not to be ruled any longer by objects and experiences, not to be locked in by our greed, ill will, deluded ideas or ignorance. Turn the field of kilesas into pure earth – an untarnished unblemished field of wisdom, a paññā bhumi instead of a kilesa bhumi – with proactive frequent contemplation. Learn what it means to abide in the purity of the mind, undisturbed, able to receive all signals from the sense world with equanimity. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society : Day of Mindfulness |
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| 2020-10-17 Lifeboat – On Our Own 14:08 |
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| Intuitive knowing is the lens that connects us to the heart through our meditation. Leave the world behind and tap into that energy to enter the realm of pure receptivity, not known through the senses but fully known in complete Awareness that is a safe and liberating refuge. It leads us inward, beyond all wanting, to the ending of suffering, to an emptiness that surpasses all experience, all knowledge. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society : Day of Mindfulness |
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| 2020-10-16 This Is Where the Mind is Liberated 29:49 |
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| Human beings have that special ability to deeply see and fathom things as they truly are. But we are so impatient. We resist letting go. Clinging, we harm unknowingly and stray from truth, gaining no peace. How can we recover and free ourselves from fear, anger, and mental distress? Purify the mind and directly know the larger truth of impermanence. See blessings where there was darkness. And in the heart’s core, touch the Unconditioned. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society : Day of Mindfulness |
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| 2020-08-22 Metta, Mantra, Addiction, Recovery: Three Questions 21:39 |
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| We are braver than we know and can endure more than we realize if there is a readiness to renounce and be creative. Learn to refine, adapt, repeat teachings until they are embodied, and deeply listen to all that life offers. Reaching out to others according to our skills and strength, connect and offer guidance if it is welcome. Compassion born of growing wisdom will be our trustworthy compass. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-21 Friendship and Freedom 33:47 |
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| Two overarching supports for gaining the fruits of the Path are mental purity and spiritual friendship. Consummate virtue and prize virtuous friends, the highest being the Blessed One himself. Emulate his conduct and mental practices in everyday life. Gradually transform mundane right view into transcendent right view and do the same for all eight limbs of the Path. And as they ripen, you will enter into the stream of transcendence. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-21 Empty the Basket 15:10 |
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| Let us hone our expertise to witness the charade of gain and loss arising each moment. Seeing the eight worldly winds, impermanent, not giving in when the mind perches in ‘self’, purify wrong view, empty the basket, and begin here where we are, balanced, the Middle Way. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-20 A Safe Domain: How the Quail Escaped a Hawk 27:01 |
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| The contemplative path of purifying the mind is the most important journey of all – inward. Just as the little quail that tricked a hawk, we no longer fall prey to the ‘maras’ of the world, safe in our proper ancestral domain of virtue. Therein, the heart of generosity is further refined into qualities of joy, selflessness, compassion and wisdom, thus benefiting ourselves and all beings. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-19 The Inner Stopping 26:54 |
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| Wherever we go the mind does not remain happy – unless we fully awaken. How can we end the restless tides and remain inwardly stable, content within ourselves like the well-hewn wheel that stood still when it stopped rolling and did not fall down? Purifying our bodily acts, speech, and mind in the Buddha’s gradual training, we go beyond the eight worldly winds, coming to cessation, to the Deathless. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-19 Into the Quiet 21:28 |
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| We go forth into the quiet of the heart, distant from the world, to glimpse the Unconditioned. We are alone but we are as if with all beings. There is no ‘one’ who wakes up, there is just awakening. It is freeing and it’s free – but it will cost us absolutely everything. We give up everything but there is nothing to give up. And we gain the understanding of the ancients. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-08-18 Chopping and Burning the Tree of Emptiness 24:41 |
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| Too busy in the world, all entangled, we yearn to be free. So direct the mind to Nibbana – like a tree that leans to the East. And when it falls, it will fall in that direction. We too will arrive if we aim well. Aim for the far goal but keep attention in the present where we are. Chop wood for a thousand days, but in a single moment, we see into the emptiness of it all. We burn everything and light the mind with the fire of wisdom. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : Chapin Mill Retreat |
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| 2020-07-18 Secure Connection, Free Roaming 23:03 |
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| Removing our harness to the world, we really detach and make the intention in the mind to stop. Having moved inwardly into this now moment, we pause and secure our internal connection to truth. This work requires our faith, vigilance, sustained attention, care and perseverance. We long for freedom and it will arise, releasing us to roam free in the vast space of the mind – empty and awake. A guided meditation and Dhamma talk. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-07-18 Practise Like the Barley Reaper 25:32 |
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| In a dialogue between King Milinda and Venerable Nagasena, we hear the Buddha’s instruction on mental training and how to apply our allies of mindfulness, restraint and wisdom. Devoted to the training, we can overcome ignorance, take hold of the mind and cut off the defilements just as the barley reaper cuts his barley. Our mission is to lean towards Nibbāna, not believing the self-making stories, and gradually, patiently, wrestle free from ignorance, waking up right in the middle of any storm we may face. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-07-17 We’re Not Separate At All 32:43 |
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| During times of global pandemic, it’s easier to see how deeply connected we are in our vulnerability to disease. Meditating and touching the silent space of the heart, we see how deeply connected we are at all times – connected in dis-ease – in fear, in sorrow, in suffering; and also in our potential for joy. And we discover the well-spring of goodness within us from which that joy arises. A guided meditation and Dham |
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| 2020-07-17 Four Astounding Things 24:36 |
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| Four astounding things happen when the Buddha teaches the Dhamma. When he teaches about non-attachment, people want to listen and to understand how to give up attachment. When he teaches about the removal of conceit, people lend ear and try to understand it. People delight in excitement, but when he teaches the way to peace, people want to lend ear and understand it. And when he teaches how to remove ignorance, people want to listen and follow the Way. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-06-20 When Fear Dies 61:24 |
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| In the Sallekha Sutta, MN 8, the Buddha teaches us how not to imitate the faults of others, and how to be fearless in the good and vanquish unwholesome mental habits. We start where we are and trust the path, learning to live wisely, to glimpse the fruits of letting go, reaching for the farther shore so that when fear dies, unconditional love will prevail. A talk given online during the Covid-19 pandemic. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group |
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| 2020-06-20 Mantra of Compassion 14:15 |
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| Fear is the absence of love. Our inner purification is a movement away from fear to the embodiment of pure love – even to love the dying moment. We grow in stillness and peace as if sailing an ocean of joy, in the peace of the mind’s deepest waters where we can touch the Deathless. A guided meditation and reflections offered during the Covid-19 pandemic. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group |
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| 2020-06-05 The Unequivocal Law of Kamma 13:44 |
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| Responding to questions about social change during pandemic time protests: seeing that we are the owners of our actions, subject to the law of kamma, we can embody the Buddha’s teachings by respecting all beings with compassion, nonviolence and our foundation in virtue, and choosing wise leaders who uphold these principles. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-06-05 Bowing On Two Knees: Covid Compassion and Nonviolence 19:27 |
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| When change and unrest foment around us, we must guard the mind and protect it from disruptive emotions such as fear or anger that may lead us to speak or act unskillfully. In this pandemic of moral decay and heightened fear, seeing how we are not in control, we care both for ourselves and others, morally and spiritually. To bring reform or healing in the world, we speak or act from an inner quiet, not boiling with anger or resentment, but from a heart tempered with patience, compassion, wisdom and peace. A talk given online during Covid-19 and global anti-racism protests. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-06-05 On the Altar of This Moment 23:36 |
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| A guided meditation into the heart of our struggles and fears where, on the altar of our tears, the jewels of the Dhamma are revealed radiant within us. Breath by breath, wisely seeing through and courageously defying all obstacles to our freedom, we embark into the miracle of pure presence in this moment. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-05-24 A Cry of Surprise 21:05 |
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| In the inner sea, we know what is truly true. Knowing is the mother, breathing is the child. Going beyond past hurts, beyond thought, being old or young, desolate or delighted, go even beyond Covid, there in the timeless emptiness of present moment awareness of the breath itself, teach your mind its true home. Given at an online meditation during the Covid pandemic. |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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| 2020-05-24 The Quail’s Tale: A Path to Harmlessness 41:38 |
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| Praising Truth for its own sake, we lean in the direction of Truth. We make our intention not to harm by body, speech, or thought. Harmlessness leads to selflessness. Selflessness leads to the Deathless. To boundless compassion. It will save us from the flames of greed, violence, and delusion raging around us. Like the baby quail. What saved it from the forest fire was the purity of its own truth developed over lifetimes. A talk given in a Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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| 2020-05-01 The Currency of Covid: Protection from Harm Through Spiritual Awakening 24:16 |
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| Waking up to our spiritual wealth, we learn the true currency of Covid – it is not fear and frailty but courage, compassion, loving-kindness, community and connection. We see what is protection for ourselves and for each other, dwelling with the Dhamma, the Truth, as our safety – our island and refuge. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2020-05-01 On the Cross of Our Illusions: A Guided Dying Meditation and Reflections 42:36 |
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| To simulate the natural process of death is to experience the impermanence of the five aggregates and a pure awareness that knows the inherent emptiness of things as they truly are. Dying is a potent doorway for liberation of mind and the best death we can die is shattering the ego. Then we can let go of fear once and for all. This guided meditation was given during a death and dying retreat in an Australian church in 2004. |
| Australian Insight Meditation Network |
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| 2019-11-16 We Are Here To Forgive 42:16 |
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| Digging deep through life’s trials and pains with unfaltering compassion, discover the way beyond harming, the way beyond anger. At last, can we forgive all the monsters of the mind, letting them go, setting them free? Living harmlessly, fearless in the good and devoted to this radical healing, the face of enlightenment appears in the trenches of our own suffering. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto : SIMT Fall Monastic Retreat |
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| 2019-11-10 Nothing There: Beyond the Prison of ‘Self’ 29:14 |
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| The Fourth Insight known as udayabbaya ñāņa arises bestowing six qualities of upekkha as well as intimate knowledge of anicca through seeing the arising and disappearance of all conditioned things – most importantly, the emptiness of ‘self’. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2019-11-03 The Ratana Sutta – a forest chant from Sati Saraniya Hermitage 4:20 |
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| Most highly revered treasures and our true refuges – the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha – are extolled in this devotional chanting of a traditional Pali sutta. The style of the chant arose in the heart while walking in the forests of Sati Saraniya Hermitage. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2019-08-15 A Gift from the Sea – Unbroken Paua Shell and Consummate Trust 42:15 |
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| There are many skills and restorative qualities needed for us to grow in our spiritual work. Let us not underestimate the essential ingredient of mettā. This universal quality of love will unfailingly nurture the unfolding of the Noble Eightfold Path. It enhances our energy to persevere with courage, agility and joy so that the journey is sustainable and our trust becomes unwavering. We reach out more to others and support them in the good, while rejoicing that as we accomplish the Way, we draw close to the Buddha. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-15 Dwell in Intrinsic Emptiness – The Liberating Quality of Loving-kindness 37:52 |
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| What are the prerequisites and supports for walking such a path of awakening? Kindness and a loving forgiveness rank with those qualities that are foremost. They allow us to repair the seemingly unforgivable, to heal what we could not see or wish to see, to dwell in the real not in our concepts, and so to ascend with the strength gained from that groundwork. Try forgiveness first. Recovery opens the way home to healing, to Truth. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-15 Don’t Be Afraid, Mahanama – Lean Towards Nibbana 32:54 |
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| The Buddha told Mahanama not to be afraid of the muddled mind, just to keep developing the qualities which incline the mind to Nibbana. This Dhamma is for one who is content. A mind unburdened can pacify itself and be calmed. A mind fortified by faith, virtue – in particular, the virtues dear to the noble ones – learning, generosity and wisdom, will go to distinction. But for mental peace we have to consider how to seclude the mind and what we are giving our consent to in daily life. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-14 Repair What Feels Broken – The Hardest Walk of All 37:45 |
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| The path is a gradual one. Don’t go to the depths immediately. First develop the strength. Going slowly but deeply. Forgiveness, supported by patience endurance, acknowledging and seeing the breakage and repairing it regularly, repairing what has been broken or harmed, and freeing ourselves from the prison of our anger. How can we creatively counter the current of our addictions instead of gratifying it. If we do, we tap into the joy of the heart. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-13 A Mystical Ladder – Patience, the Incinerator of Defilements 39:26 |
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| We are ascending a mystical ladder which must be done so carefully and gradually. For a spiritual warrior, the path of practice is a gradual one. We are in a cloud of unknowing but patiently the cloud is emptied and we begin to see everything as impermanent. We know what is the path and what is not. This clarity will be for us a refuge. It is a natural unfolding through purification. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-13 Breaking the Cycle of Harm – Patience and Friendship With the Lovely 35:38 |
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| The insight into not-self requires a deeper seeing and understanding of reality. Virtue is our saving grace. It gives us the energy for enlightenment which we transform into right effort. Thus we are guided through the wilderness of the world to develop and sustain the heart like an ocean of peace. Patience works with Restraint, Renunciation and Resolve, and with a host of other wholesome qualities to take us beyond the cycle of harm; but we must also keep practising kindness and forgiveness. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-13 What is Killing You – Thorns, Barnacles, and Buoys on the Middle Way 30:32 |
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| When you know what is killing you then you will know what will save you. Right effort protects us and offers safety and seclusion. We find saving grace within if we can navigate through the wilderness of the mind assisted by a host of special qualities. It’s like being at sea. Through the thorns, barnacles and buoys on the Middle Way, learn and understand how to let go – be free. Nothing remains hidden to a true seeker. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-12 A Swallowtail Butterfly at the Hummingbird Feeder 30:58 |
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| The quality of energy manifest as courage, commitment and compassion is the way forward. We have to be brave – like a lion. Brave warriors face the powerful maras, monsters of the mind, to overcome them. They train the mind to gain its freedom by developing heroic energy and superpower wisdom. These qualities are further ennobled with forgiveness and association with true spiritual friends. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-12 A Matter of Death, Life, Truth and Recovery 24:13 |
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| Call suffering by its true name and the face of the Dhamma will emerge from within us. We meet the truth of impermanence, of death, and the universality of pain as we carve out the understanding of who we are and why we are here. Nourish the mind with virtue and shine the light to our true home, to insights that repair what has been broken and free us from fear, anxiety, and the many sufferings we have endured. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-11 Death – Portal of Deliverance 38:50 |
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| Contemplating the 4 elements, the 32 parts of the living body, and the remains of the body in a charnel ground, we gain a deeper understanding of impermanence and the intrinsic impersonal and empty nature of the body. Seeing it for what it truly is can free us from fear of death. We study it and gradually unveil the true gift of death as a portal to our liberation. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-11 Masquerade of the Hindrances – A Blameless Life 26:25 |
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| Clearly see the danger of the hindrances in the mind and stop killing goodness. The story of Angulimala’s life reveals the power of moral rehabilitation to end our harmful ways and urgently revert to the path of goodness, wholeness and purification. There’s no one to blame for our suffering. Instead, as spiritual warriors, we reset our moral compass, cross the floods of existence, and live blamelessly. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-11 Beautiful Qualities – Five of the Ten Perfections 20:15 |
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| The Buddha taught about ten perfections or beautiful qualities of mind that are needed to help us cross the flood of samsara, the cycles of existence. The first five of these are generosity, virtue, energy, wisdom and renunciation. When embodied, these qualities help to lead us out of the prison of impermanence. Overcoming ignorance and responding to life with greater joy, we live compassionate and harmless. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-10 How To Cross the Flood – Seven Enlightenment Practices 37:34 |
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| The Buddha answers a deva who wants to know how to cross the flood of sensuality, the flood of existence, and all its dangers. Walk the Middle Way, he taught, not stopping and not over-struggling with obstacles. Use the seven enlightenment practices to train our minds so that we can make this dangerous and urgent crossing. No matter how long it takes, never give up. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-08-10 I Will Not Be Angry – How Ajahn Gunhah Won the Hearts of Outlaws 12:33 |
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| Laying down weaponry, giving up hostility, we can abandon negativity and establish sanctuary within us. We hear the inspirational tale of how Ajahn Gunhah transformed his kidnappers in northern Thailand. Through his embodiment of mettā they became his disciples, just as the Buddha had done with his adversaries 2600 years ago. Such is the power of pure mettā – good will or loving kindness. It is our true protection from harm. We too can rescue ourselves by developing it with great inner vigilance, wisdom, compassion and courage. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) : For Our Long Lasting Benefit |
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| 2019-04-20 Lifetime Vow 52:52 |
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| To vow for life not to compromise our faith, our virtue, our goodness even in a moment of terror. We need not retaliate, we can be generous even in a hopeless-feeling-moment and offer non-harm, safety, a good word. So we grow stamina, generosity and equanimity if we remember to keep the practice alive within us. Keep good-will in the heart at all times. |
| Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center : The Heart of Wisdom: Monastic Retreat |
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| 2019-04-17 The Winds of Change – A Guided Meditation 33:27 |
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| We are here, on the mountain, with a tremendous view. Let the breath speak to us. Stay and watch, even the suffering, investigate patiently like a parent, even if their child objects and runs away – patiently keep trying, be receptive, be available. Gently soften, mellow, give the mind back to the moment, trust, receive it and discover its hidden truths. |
| Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center : The Heart of Wisdom: Monastic Retreat |
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| 2018-11-04 First Aid 10:51 |
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| To free us from our relentless conceptualising and the suffering that comes of it, the Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We can grab hold of it by continually using the perspective that “this is impermanent”, and, thereby, we can pull ourselves to safety. A breakfast reflection given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in 2018. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2018-10-20 At The Core of The Coreless 28:20 |
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| All of us are capable of opening to this core within the heart which is coreless, and seeing the treasures therein. But because we are conditioned by worldly ways to own and to cling, this opening can be excruciating. How can we bear it? Our practice unfolds when we can see through the illusion of things, bow to the law of kamma, and take refuge in awakened wisdom. A breakfast reflection given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in the fall of 2018. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2018-10-14 Empty Mirror: Awake, Forgiving, Free 45:26 |
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| Forgiveness is the greatest generosity we can give ourselves. We come to it by wisely seeing that the harm in the world, whether it originates within ourselves or others, comes from ignorance. So there is nothing to fear and nothing to forgive. We can surrender to the challenges of life which seem to overwhelm us by staying in the present moment awake and aware. And in this way we polish our hearts until they can reflect the Truth. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2018-10-13 Delusion is Not the Way Out 32:50 |
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| How can we have compassion for others without falling apart? The Buddha’s path of awakening teaches us how to disarm our internal armour, to be harmless. This will be for us a true basis for following precepts and thereby developing enough inner quiet to investigate ill-will. We begin to clearly see and understand our mind-states. This full presence enables compassion that is tireless and unconditional. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2018-10-12 When the Tree Withers & the Leaves Fall 30:11 |
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| We can feel torn apart by life and unable to cope. Repair can be a long process but through meditation we learn how to hold things safely. If we can contemplate the ill winds of life in a way that allow us to understand their impermanent nature, we will also understand that they are unsatisfactory and empty of self. Therein is true peace of mind. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2018-08-16 Entering the Gate: Four Spiritual Powers 38:34 |
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| Satipanna Insight Meditation Toronto (SIMT) Retreat, Chapin Mill, Batavia, N.Y. Entering the Gate: Four Spiritual Qualities Though our spiritual paths are many and varied, we can all practice with enough present moment awareness, faith, energy and commitment to realize the boundless nature of the heart that seemed at first beyond our reach. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2018-08-15 What Obstructs the Dhamma Eye 25:09 |
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| We all experience some pain, mental, physical or both. And we work with pain both in the body and in the mind until it is exhausted. This is how we care for the mind, healing its sickness and removing the sand that obstructs the spring of truth in our hearts. Then we can see clearly. We see what obstructs the Dhamma eye and we open our eyes to the truth of the Dhamma. A talk given given during Satipanna Insight Meditation Toronto (SIMT) Retreat, Chapin Mill, Batavia, N.Y in 2018. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2018-06-18 Come to the Edge 35:32 |
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| In our meditation practice, we journey inwards to come to the edge and see ourselves as we really are. To do this, we have to cultivate special qualities, the paramis or perfections. And so we learn to grow a silent harmless space within ourselves which does not know how to be afraid. |
| Buddhist Insights |
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| 2018-06-17 Fearlessness 47:36 |
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| Buddhist Insights, East Village, New York City |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2017-11-12 How Do I Save That Moth? 20:06 |
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| The Winter of the World is here… How do we bear it? What does the mind need in order to open to the teachings? Dana. Sila. Generosity and virtue. Cultivating generosity, starting with the material, can mature into acts of sharing one’s time, energy, abilities, kindness and compassion. Let us cherish these noble qualities and develop them in a boundless way, for all beings. The Buddha advises us how to be fearless and present with a loved one near death. A talk given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in November, 2017. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2017-08-17 Polish the Moon & Sweep the Clouds 39:05 |
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| What stops us from realizing Truth? We face the human condition besieged with obstacles in the mind that can be overcome with a total commitment to giving up our many forms of addiction. We learn to stay present and to develop the enlightenment factors which defy all the hindrances until we see the jewels in the mind that are brighter than the sun. These are the gifts of the Path. A talk given during a 7 day Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat at Chapin Mill Retreat Centre, Batavia, Rochester, NY. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2017-08-15 Body-Wise Guided Meditation 10:46 |
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| As we establish awareness on the breath, notice where the mind is, polishing it until it shines like a bright moon. Use the sublime abidings to spread calming energy throughout the breath and the body. The hindrances fall away. Relieved of our attachments, we become like a lotus, a violin, able to hear our true voice in the silence. We tune the instrument of the mind to full understanding. A guided meditation given during a 7 day Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat at Chapin Mill Retreat Centre, Batavia, Rochester, NY. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2017-08-11 Turning to Dust: Death Contemplations 26:36 |
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| The nine-cemetary contemplations presented in the Satipatthana Sutta work with elemental perspectives on the parts of the body by simulating their condition after death. The clarity of mind realized in these special practices sheds light on how valuable death contemplations are for a wholesome and happy life. Not only does the mind gain immense lucidity and peace, but we are able to access and develop special qualities of mental composure, joy and discernment. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2017-08-04 Truth & Reconciliation 32:44 |
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| The first step towards Truth is taking responsibility for our own actions, intentions, and their consequences. Distractions are not a support but only numb us to what is difficult to face or remember. Truth will always emerge, despite all attempts to bury it. Bring into the light unskillful acts, our own or those of others towards us, and make forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Penetrate into the marrow of life to reveal both the garbage we must purify and the treasure to be discovered in the process. What are we really running away from? |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2017-06-18 Give Up What Destroys You 6:53 |
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| Ayya Medhanandi talks about developing virtue and moral disarmament for true peace in this world at the 10th Global Conference on Buddhism, Neuroscience, and Mental Health, Toronto 2017. |
| 10the Global Conference on Buddhism |
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| 2017-05-24 The Last Meal Blessing 1:31 |
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| Pāli chanting for all the retreat yogis with a brief Dhamma reflection and blessings for the good kamma and happiness of all beings. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-24 Standing for the Dhamma 7:56 |
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| Standing up in pure presence is one of the four great postures. In this simple act of being present, know one mind-moment at a time, repeatedly. Grateful for one breath, one posture, one point, we gain balance and poise. We allow our suffering to dissolve in the suffering of all the world. This is how we stand for the Dhamma in a practical way – with the body; and in a practice way – with compassion and understanding of the Dhamma. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-23 When Truth Speaks Out – Limbless Man On the Bridge 31:21 |
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| When delusion, impatience and lack of trust prevail in our spiritual work, we rape our own goodness and execute ourselves over and over again. This suffering, clearly known, helps us to see how we cling and how we let go. When clinging again, let go again – stop the subterfuge of clinging and undermining ourselves. Actually, we are our own liberators. We are powerful beyond our understanding. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-23 Rising Up Like A Swan 15:05 |
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| Reviewing our effort to practise, recalibrate and make adjustments as needed. Make peace with what arises – neither controlling nor being passive; like a parent – compassionate, mindful, discerning. Whatever hindrance is most predominant, make it skilful, waking up if we’re asleep, or settling down if we’re restless, calming when agitated or patiently balancing. This is nothing short of the way to Nibbana, the supreme goal. Step by step, through all manner of sufferings and joys, we radiate blessings in the ten directions. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-23 Funeral of the Ego & Chant on Impermanence 3:45 |
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| We come on retreat from our busy lives where we can easily relapse into old unworthy mental habits, hoping that here, at last, we can put them to sleep. They too are impermanent. Reflect on their impermanence using these chants for the funeral of our ego and the death of our ignorance. Once their corpse is seen and placed in a coffin, it’s possible to sustain open compassionate awareness wherever we are. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-22 On the Look Out 33:59 |
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| Venerable Punna was one of the great bhikkhus of the Buddha’s time, known especially for his fierce faith, practice skill, and his fearlessness. When the Buddha hears that Punna plans to wander on foot in a remote and dangerous frontier region, he questions Punna how he would respond to the inevitable perils and violent ways of the native people of that place. Their dialogue reveals Venerable Punna’s remarkable courage, wisdom, and selflessness. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-22 As Still As the Earth 8:22 |
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| Standing as still as we can like the earth, aware, embodying qualities of heart that we treasure, share the goodness with all who are dear to us, and with all beings. Live wisely from that kind of pure inner space. As we chant these essential five recollections, reflect: we are all subject to aging, sickness, and death; we shall all be separated from what is ours, it will fade and be lost; and we are the heirs of our karmic deeds – for good or for ill. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-21 Don’t Own the Second Arrow 36:33 |
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| How do we deal with life when it bites us? Without trusting the Path, there is no way we can fulfill it. Practise seeing what works and what doesn’t, what binds us and what frees us. Seeing pain as our teacher, we can face whatever we are feeling and not lament. Not owning our suffering is letting go the second arrow of mental pain. This will be for our safety, and when wise insight into suffering reveals the truth in us, there arises incalculable joy and peace. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-21 The Gift of Walking 10:47 |
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| Walking as a meditation posture is dynamic and complementary to breath meditation. With more to distract us from being attentive to our own experience, walking requires sharper effort, mindfulness, focus, and present moment awareness. This provides an invaluable template for practice in the many walking times of our daily lives. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-05-21 Noble Virtues, Reflections & Chant of the Ten Pāramῑ 7:07 |
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| We are gardeners putting in the right ingredients to develop ten perfections. These noble qualities are essential to enhance tDhamma he practice of growing in wholeness, unconditional love and balance. Reflecting on how they support each other and work together, we fill the beautiful chant of these Ten Pārami with our voices. |
| Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out |
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| 2017-04-07 Going Forth – A Refuge 1:32:05 |
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| Entering a period of silent retreat simulates the monastic ‘Going Forth’ with an aspiration to deepen our virtue, samadhi, and wisdom. We take Refuge in our highest spiritual potential as human beings, working from faith in our ability to do this; training and transforming the mind through good-will, wise reflection, and selflessness; and opening our hearts to offer that refuge and safety to others. |
| Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center : Holistic Awareness: Monastic Retreat |
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| 2016-12-10 The Novice With An Empty Bowl 24:50 |
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| A humble novice with his bowl empty exemplifies where true riches lie in this world. Meditating deep in the unchartered borders within, gain those riches by giving up worldly pursuits. See the value of what is true and what reveals the truth to us. Beyond confusion, beyond wanting and harmful ways of being, purify the mind and seek that jewel of the heart’s true peace, clarity, and freedom. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2016-11-20 Redemption 40:34 |
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| SIMT-TBC Retreat, Toronto |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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| 2016-11-18 Great Equanimity – Change for the Good 37:24 |
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| Are we ready to look at our opinions? How can we develop the ability to let go and trust? If we can listen within and learn to fully inhabit our bodies, then we will put our burdens down so that we can live and die with joy and peace. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2016-11-18 Look Within and Wake Up 22:02 |
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| What are we, and what are we doing on this planet? We easily get lost in the dream of the world. It is a very good time to wake up. Right here in your own heart is the greatest adventure possible. See the danger and look inwards into the centre of the storm for sanctuary. That is how we will create a wave of awakening in this world. A talk given at a joint Theravada Buddhist Community & Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2016-11-17 What Will Heal Us 22:49 |
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| An introduction to the Noble Eightfold Path with instructions for beginners on sitting and walking meditation practices. A talk given at the joint Theravada Buddhist Community of Toronto/ Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2016-11-08 Chant, Breathe, Trust 16:01 |
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| One way animals restore themselves after an attack and regain their inner equilibrium is through the trembling of the body. We too as human beings can create this inner rhythmic movement through chanting and resonating vibrational waves in the body that help to settle, cleanse and clear traumatic events from our nervous system. Using the beginning of the homage to the Buddha chant, the collected assembly experiment with this purifying vibrational healing sound. Recorded at an Ottawa Buddhist Society daylong retreat. |
| Ottawa Buddhist Society |
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| 2016-08-18 Holding the Lotus to the Rock 42:43 |
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| Sariputta said (SN 21.1): “There is nothing in the world with whose change there would arise in me sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair.” It is hard to remember the Buddha’s teachings when the mind is beset with fear and anxiety. But we can escape from these bonds by disempowering the hindrances, calming the mind and seeing with greater wisdom. For this process to bear fruit, we have to fully trust the path alone and not put our trust in the world. A talk given at a 7 day SIMT retreat in the Chapin Mill Zen Retreat Centre, Batavia, Rochester, NY. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2016-08-17 Love Wisdom More Than Life 8:08 |
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| Find out what brings peace. To lead the mind to peace, we must learn about all that makes it unquiet. We must learn how to prevent those things from arising and how to deal with them if they do. Love the Buddha. Love wisdom more than life. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2016-08-17 Fall Apart, Fall Apart, Rise Anew 24:57 |
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| Intuitive wisdom develops gradually as we learn more and more to drop the story and view the flood of impermanence in the silence of the mind. Eventually we will be able to answer the question: what remains after the work of purification? A talk given during a Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2016-08-16 Who’s Sitting Under the Bodhi Tree 33:52 |
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| The mind is so easily duped by its own delusion. By holding perceptions, views and opinions – our own, as well as others – as “uncertain”, and being circumspect, we can bear witness to experience as the Knowing Mind, unburdened by its conditioning. When the five faculties are strengthened through practice, this knowing mind can arise in its utmost purity. We can overcome delusion by stripping our experience of any packaging; only when we know things authentically for what they truly are, can we let them go. We practice fearlessness, harmlessness, selflessness, until there is nothing to fear, except delusion itself. If we are awake to that Truth, then we can be sitting under the Bodhi Tree in the truest way. A talk given during a 7 day Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat at Chapin Mill Retreat Centre, Batavia, Rochester, NY. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2016-08-16 Break Down 16:32 |
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| On the question of striving: early practice needs to be precise and strategic, focused on precepts, developing mindfulness, and faith in the Buddha’s awakening. Later, working in community, with support, one protects the process as it unfolds, while trying not to control, to let go of competitiveness. Ways of the world do not work in this practice. We are not taught by the world to let go with complete surrender using skills not revered by the world. We need to give up what the world is telling us to go for. This is a path of selflessness and breaking it all down. A talk given at a 7 day SIMT retreat in the Chapin Mill Zen Retreat Center, Batavia, NY. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2016-08-15 Reading: Ajahn Chah – In the Dead of Night 15:27 |
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| Ajahn Chah describes his process of overcoming fear while staying in a charnel ground in Thailand and urges us to try it out! What he means is not in the charnel ground, but right here wherever we are and with the ghosts of our own minds. A reading given during a Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016. |
| Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) |
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| 2016-08-15 Be Like Bamboo 35:58 |
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| The jhana factors serve as antidotes to the five hindrances as well as supports in developing the Noble Eightfold Path. But they are not enough in and of themselves to establish wisdom. Studying the body and mind through samatha and vipassana, we come to understand the Four Noble Truths. As we transform consciousness, we transcend the world. A talk given at a 7 day Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in the Chapin Mill Zen Retreat Centre, Batavia, NY. |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2016-03-30 The Power of Metta 54:12 |
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| The practice of metta bhavana leads to liberation and has 11 benefits 1) One sleep well; 2) One awakens happily; 3) One does not have bad dreams; 4) One is pleasing to human beings; 5) One is pleasing to spirits; 6) One is protected by dieties; 7) One is not injured by fire, poison or weapons; 8) One’s mind quickly becomes concentrated; 9) One’s facial complexion is serene; 10) One dies unconfused; and 11) If one does not penetrate further, one fares on to the Brahma world. AN 11:15 |
| Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center : Finding Inner Peace: Monastic Retreat |
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| 2015-12-20 Seven Freedom Lights 32:17 |
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| The Buddha gave us seven factors of enlightenment to brighten and polish the mind. Three of these factors are dynamic – they are the spiritual skills that help us to remove obstacles, make the path smooth, and allow us to practice forgiveness and compassion. These in turn give rise to the four brightening enlightenment factors which wash out the defilements and enable us to move towards freedom. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2015-12-20 Virtue Goes Full Circle 30:11 |
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| Virtue creates a force in the heart, a field of goodness, from generosity to joy to enlightenment and back again. Once there is joy in the heart, the mind finds ease to go to its depths. Be your own doctor, self-examine, see with the inner eye to discern and resolve our inner dis-ease and free the mind. Dukkha is not the problem, it is our teacher. |
| Sati Saraniya Hermitage |
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| 2015-11-22 Sowing Grace 22:07 |
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| Toronto Buddhist Community (TBC) |
| Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto |
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| 2015-11-22 Many Intersections – Reflections & Guided Meditation 19:02 |
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| Just like the Buddha, we have the potential to touch the Truth with our own mind if we follow the precise instructions he has given us. No doubt, we will cross many intersections and, at each one, we must patiently examine the state of the heart, discerning what is harmful and what is wholesome in everything we face. In this way, we gain the benefits of wisdom, happiness, and inner peace. A talk given at Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community in 2015. |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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| 2015-11-22 Fictitious Noodles 21:21 |
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| What are we doing on this planet? How do we cope with feelings of fear? Can we observe wisely and penetrate through the fictions of the mind? To abandon them, we must understand them. Ayyā Medhānandī coaches us to investigate emotions like fear and anger, viewing their characteristics as tiny fragments of physical sensation and learning how to refresh the mind in one instant. Then we touch the space of non-fear, serenity and joy within us. A talk given at Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community in 2015. |
| Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) |
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