This week's featured monastic is Ayya Santussikā.

Have been reflecting on sensual pleasures lately, and how I can reduce the attachment to it.

Here are some thoughts from some of the Dhamma talks I have heard and my reflections:

- There are indeed pleasures, happiness for example when you are eating nice food, watching a show, and so forth. But they are short lived.

- Because those are short lived, once you don't have it anymore, or when it ends, you crave for it. So you become more thirsty as you consume it. And the more you consume, the thirstier you become. It is never truly enough. Those craving and desires are simply insatiable.

- The mind is usually full of greed and craving when you are consuming those pleasures (which means unwholesome mind). Sometimes we might also use improper means to satisfy those craving (unwholesome actions). These could then become unwholesome Kamma that could give even more suffering in the future.

What do you think about my reflections? Am I going at the right direction? How do you reduce your craving and attachment to sensual pleasures? What other defect have you observed?

Kāladāna Sutta (Timely Gifts)

“Monks, there are these five timely gifts. What five?

A gift to a visitor.

A gift to someone setting out on a journey.

A gift to someone who is sick.

A gift at a time of famine.

Presenting the freshly harvested grains and fruits first to those who are ethical.

These are the five timely gifts.

The wise give at the right time,

being bountiful and rid of stinginess.

A religious donation at the right time

to the noble ones, upright and unaffected,

given with a clear and confident mind,

is indeed abundant.

Those who rejoice at that,

or do other services,

don’t miss out on the offering;

they too partake in the merit.

So you should give without holding back,

where a gift is very fruitful.

Merit is what supports beings in the next world.”

— AN 5.36, Kāladāna Sutta

Something I was just reflecting on:

No one ever really consciously wants and intends to be nasty or bitchy or rude and cause suffering for others/make other people's lives difficult, and even if they think they do, clearly that is coming from a place of delusion and mental illness, and no sane and emotionally well person would ever intend or wish that.

And I see all such unfortunate and offensive behaviour as being caused by "not yet having had enough to eat" that day in the spiritual sense, as in their heart is spiritually malnourished and hungry and weak and that manifests as them behaving in a poor and distasteful way.

And so when this kind of behaviour manifests in people, instead of being upset, revengeful or judgemental and reacting back badly with negativity, instead try and react to people's poor and substandard behaviour with metta and compassion and understanding. See if you're able to help "build them up" by offering kindness and support and gifts of "food for the heart" or even material gifts to help make them feel cared for, if the situation allows it. Or if it doesn't you may still wish them well in your heart and share merits and have well wishes for them.

One of the best things we can do is look after our own health and wellbeing, physical and emotional, so we can be strong and well and healthy enough to have energy and balance to help stabilise and support others, and to prevent ever getting into the situation where we ourselves become emotionally unwell and unable to be restrained and behave well and we become taxing and burdening on others as a result.

I hope this is a suitable dhamma reflection for r/theravada. If not feel free to delete. Much metta to everyone.

As a person who is often more angry and cold than I'd like to be, practising Metta is very important for my development. However, I struggle greatly when trying to generate Metta towards humans, even my friends and family, during meditation.

To overcome this, i make great effort to practice Metta toward animals and insects, and this helps foster Metta in me.

Just the other day, I rescued a drowing moth and felt good when it recovered and flew away.

I hope this methid helps others who have similar struggles.

I’ve been going to the gym consistently for around two and a half years, and I’m very close to getting a six-pack. Alongside this, I practise mindfulness of the body (kāyagatāsati), particularly contemplation of its unattractive aspects, as well as corpse contemplations (asubha) and reflection on impermanence.

I’ve been reflecting on my motivation for training. Some of it is about health, strength, and keeping the body in good condition, but there’s also a desire to look a certain way.

For others who combine these practices with regular exercise, how has your motivation changed? As attachment to the body’s appearance and sensual attraction diminish, what keeps you motivated to train?

Have you found that aesthetic goals naturally fall away, or that you can still pursue them while holding them more lightly?

I’d appreciate hearing your experiences, especially how you distinguish caring for the body from becoming attached to it.

"Now that you have gone forth out of faith,
Bhadrā, be devoted to goodness.
Cultivate wholesome qualities,
the utmost safety from bondage."

"Saddhāya pabbajitvāna,
bhadre bhadraratā bhava;
Bhāvehi kusale dhamme,
yogakkhemamanuttaran"ti.

• Bhadrātherīgāthā: Verses of the Elder Bhadrā (Thig 1.9)

Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā:

Bhadraratā means be one who delights and takes great pleasure in excellent qualities such as virtue. 'The supreme security from bondage' (yogakkhemamanuttaraṃ) means Nibbāna, which is secure from the four yokes, without oppression, and supreme; the meaning is: develop the wholesome factors of enlightenment to attain it.

“Monks, there are these three fires. What three? The fires of greed, hate, and delusion. These are the three fires.” - Iti 93

“Reverend Sāriputta, they speak of this thing called ‘Nibbana’. What is Nibbana?

“Reverend, the ending of greed, hate, and delusion is called Nibbāna.” -SN 38.1"

"Now that you have gone forth out of faith,
Mittā, appreciate your spiritual companions.
Cultivate wholesome qualities
for the attainment of safety from bondage."

"Saddhāya pabbajitvāna,
mitte mittaratā bhava;
Bhāvehi kusale dhamme,
yogakkhemassa pattiyā"ti.

• Mittātherīgāthā (Thig 1.8)

Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā:

'O Mittā' (mitte) is addressing her. 'Appreciate your spiritual friends' (mittaratā) means delighting in spiritual friends. Be one who shows them honor and respect. 'Develop wholesome qualities' (bhāvehi kusale dhamme) means develop the qualities of the noble path. 'For security from bondage' (yogakkhemassa) means for the attainment and realization of Arahantship and Nibbāna.

Saṁvarasutta (A sutta on restraint):

https://suttacentral.net/an4.14/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin

I believe the whole path can be seen through the lense of knowing when to act and actively do things and put in effort to preserve existing wholesome qualities and bring up new wholesome qualities, and when to be restrained and inhibit maladaptive responses, and train the mind to resist unwholesome paths of action.

To put it simply: when to act and when to exhibit restraint.

May we all have the wisdom to know when to take action and when to be restrained...

The experience of so many people is that life and the mechanism and process behind life are something which happens so fast and quickly that it's like a blur or a flash in the pan, and people write off the possibility that it's even possible to understand life and the mechanism and mechanics behind how life works and what the process is behind things which allows things to happen.

And so people live their lives recklessly and mindlessly, often either intoxicatedly consumed by hedonism or giving their lives away cheaply by taking silly risks and failing to understanding the true value behind the precious opportunity this human birth during the dispensation of a Buddha allows for us to practice and become peaceful and still and awaken to truth.

The genius and uniqueness of the Buddha was that he was able to slow down enough and become still and peaceful and poised enough to be able to see the exact mechanism behind life and exactly what was going on in depth and detail, and to explain it so other people could awaken to the same truth and experience that truth for themselves. The samadhi he attained was like a long-exposure photograph that perfectly captured what is happening so he could gain complete, consummate awakening knowledge.

He painted a clear picture of what is happening and gave a process and instructions that people can follow and get the exact same results as he did.

I don't wish to use this post to regurgitate what he saw and taught, since he already expressed that truth in all the different formulations and permutations there are to do so with. Rather, I just wanted to highlight and point to the rare and auspicious opportunity we have to be slipstreaming someone like a Buddha who was able to break out of the status quo of not examining life sufficiently to the extent that it should be examined to and who emerged as the first in this generation to be able to completely break through to awakening, and to then use the remainder of his life as a human torch piercing through darkness and being a source of hope and warmth for spiritual seekers and the faithful and devoted.

Namo buddhāya.

“I ask you, Blessed One; please tell me this,”
said Venerable Mettagū,
“for I think you are a knowledge master, evolved.
Where do all these sufferings come from,
in all their countless forms in the world?”

“You have rightly asked me of the origin of suffering,”
replied the Buddha,
“I shall tell you as I understand it.
Attachment is the source of suffering
in all its countless forms in the world.

When an ignorant person builds up attachments,
that dullard returns to suffering again and again.
So let one who understands
not build up attachments,
contemplating the inception of suffering and rebirth.”

“Whatever I asked you have explained to me.
I ask you once more, please tell me this:
How do the attentive cross the flood
of rebirth, old age, sorrow, and lamenting?
Please, sage, answer me clearly,
for truly you understand this matter.”

“I shall extol a teaching to you,”
replied the Buddha,
“that is apparent in the present, not relying on legends.
Having understood it, one who lives mindfully
may cross over clinging in the world.”

“And I rejoice, great seer,
in that supreme teaching,
having understood which, one who lives mindfully
may cross over clinging in the world.”

“Once you’ve expelled relishing and dogmatism,”
replied the Buddha,
“regarding everything you are aware of—
above, below, all round, between—
having cast aside consciousness,
don’t continue in existence.

A mendicant who wanders meditating like this,
diligent and mindful, calling nothing their own,
would, being wise, give up the suffering
of rebirth, old age, sorrow and lamenting right here.”

“I rejoice in the words of the great seer!
You have expounded non-attachment well, Gotama.
Clearly the Buddha has given up suffering,
for truly you understand this matter.

Surely, sage, those you’d regularly instruct
would also give up suffering.
Having met, I bow especially to you,
O spiritual giant;
hopefully the Buddha may regularly instruct me.”

“Any brahmin recognized as a knowledge master,
who has nothing, unattached to sensual life,
clearly has crossed this flood,
crossed to the far shore, kind, wishless.

And a wise person here, a knowledge master,
having untied the bond to life after life,
free of craving, untroubled, with no need for hope,
has crossed over rebirth and old age, I declare.”

Mettagūmāṇavapucchā: The Questions of Mettagū (Snp 5.5)

Ajahn Ganha gave another really good, praiseworthy dhamma talk yesterday:

"The Dhamma-Vinaya Is the Teacher:

In the final days before his Parinibbāna, the Buddha imparted a crucial principle: after his passing, the Dhamma and Vinaya he had expounded and established would serve as the teacher in his stead. This teaching clarifies that the stability of Buddhism does not depend on any single renowned individual, but on how faithfully the Sangha reveres the truth and lives by the Dhamma-Vinaya. Persons may err, schools may shift, societal trends may fluctuate—but the principles of virtue, concentration, wisdom, and the Noble Path remain the standard for scrutiny...

The Final Exhortation: A Timeless Reminder:

The Buddha's last words were: "All conditioned things are subject to decay. Strive diligently!"

He did not say, "Perform the most rituals," nor "Compete for fame," nor "Await divine intervention"—but entrusted us with heedfulness. The heedful know that time dwindles with each breath, that the body decays, that loved ones may part, that chances for goodness are fleeting, and that unchecked defilements today become entrenched habits tomorrow.

Heedfulness is not living in fear but in wakefulness: eating with awareness of sustenance, speaking with awareness of consequences, working with awareness of duty as training for the heart, loving without assuming permanence, and utilizing things before they perish.

After this final exhortation, the Buddha entered the jhānas in sequence, reversed the order, then re-entered them once more. Emerging from the fourth jhāna, he attained Parinibbāna.

While concentration is a refined state and a vital strength of mind, Nirvāna is not mere temporary peace nor any jhānic attainment. Nirvāna is the quenching of greed, hatred, delusion, and the cessation of clinging.

Source:

https://www.facebook.com/WP.Subthawee/photos/saturday-sermon-october-17-2026-buddhist-era-2569by-venerable-luang-por-ganha-su/122136776247011217/

In the Chapter on Right View, under the subheading of 'Superior Right View', Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi writes the following passage as part of the justification for the two kinds of right view and why 'Mundane Right View' alone isn't sufficient for liberation.

"The right view of kamma and its fruits provides a rationale for engaging in wholesome actions and attaining high status within the round of rebirths, but by itself it does not lead to liberation...... There is nothing within the logic of kammic causality to impel the urge to transcend the cycle of kamma and its fruit. The impulse to deliverance from the entire round of becoming depends upon the acquisition of a different and deeper perspective"

When I first read the book a few years ago, I accepted this passage completely (as I did the whole book).

But later with my sutta study deepening I learnt of MN 57 which has the following extract spoken by the Buddha (translation by Bhikkhu Sujato) -

“Puṇṇa, there are four kinds of action proclaimed by me after realising them for myself with direct knowledge. What are the four? There is dark action with dark result; there is bright action with bright result; there is dark-and-bright action with dark-and-bright result; and there is action that is neither dark nor bright with neither-dark-nor-bright result, action that leads to the destruction of action......

..... And what, Puṇṇa, is action that is neither dark nor bright with neither-dark-nor-bright result, action that leads to the destruction of action? Therein, the volition for abandoning the kind of action that is dark with dark result, and the volition for abandoning the kind of action that is bright with bright result, and the volition for abandoning the kind of action that is dark and bright with dark-and-bright result: this is called action that is neither dark nor bright with neither-dark-nor-bright result, action that leads to the destruction of action. These are the four kinds of action proclaimed by me after realising them for myself with direct knowledge."

I infer the extract from MN 57 to mean that within the logic of kammic causality there is sufficient reasoning and explanation to justify the "urge to transcend the cycle of kamma and it's fruit". What do you guys think?

The Buddha's teaching, Ajahn Pannavaddho says, deals first with one's own problem: a discontent that is always present, in small things and large. We only want something because we lack it, so wanting is itself a sign of dissatisfaction. People try to solve this by cause and effect but lack wisdom, so their remedies often make things worse, as any newspaper shows. Without wisdom they act on feeling, like a goat nibbling one plant after another to see what works.

https://timelessdhamma.org/teachings/selected-sections/why-are-we-never-satisfied/

Some extracts from a dhamma talk given by Ajahn Ganha yesterday:

"People today have access to far more information than those in the past. A single smartphone can reach the scriptures, the teachings of revered masters, and knowledge from around the world in just seconds. Yet, access to information does not equate to access to truth. Search engines help us find answers quickly, but they cannot train our hearts for us. Artificial intelligence may summarize Dharma principles for us, but it cannot uphold precepts on our behalf. Dhamma videos can be played all day, but if the mind refuses to let go of stubborn views, suffering remains the same...

In the age of social media, many suffer by comparing their real lives to the curated images others present. Seeing others' achievements, we feel like failures; witnessing others praised, we doubt our own worth. But practitioners of Dhamma must realize: "Like" counts are not measures of virtue, follower numbers are not indicators of purity, and polished appearances cannot replace an honest heart. Some may never have their goodness acknowledged by others, yet that goodness purifies their minds. Others may have the world's eyes upon them while remaining blind to their own defilements. Thus, practicing Dhamma is not about crafting an image of goodness for others to admire—it is about truly refining one's heart, even when no one is watching...

In the digital world, every click, share, or comment feeds the mind. Consume anger daily, and the mind learns to rage faster; indulge in comparison, and envy takes root; immerse in lust, greed, or delusion, and the mind is trained toward them. Just as technology learns from input data, so the psyche absorbs patterns from what we repeatedly think, say, do, and consume. Browser history may be deleted, but the mental traces of such consumption are not so easily erased—for everything ingested becomes an impression, memory, habit, and foundation for future decisions.

Therefore, practitioners must also uphold digital precepts: knowing how to choose what they consume, not spreading falsehoods, not mocking those who make mistakes, refraining from using online platforms to harm others, avoiding actions that shame their conscience, and not allowing the devices in their hands to control their lives. A phone should be our tool, not we the tool of the phone; technology should make life more convenient, not shorten our mindfulness; information should increase wisdom, not distraction."

-Ven. Ajahn Ganha

Source:

https://www.facebook.com/61580336518692/posts/pfbid02u8gTFvgUyyCkf2kKADWFPNPC8SPEbyMPufqvNxhej2V48QQJDdDEQfAa4LeAdwSQl/

The hard-to-find, supernatural quality of jhana is piti, best translated ‘energy’ - not as effort/cause but as a fluid, floating result. Piti is sankharakhandha intention of its own: it may act and speak, see ubbega below. Piti is not vedanakhandha «joy» or «rapture». To find jhana you must find this energy, which is not easy, which may be why Ajahns translate it as «joy» and «rapture», which makes it seem more accessable/common than it really is. In comparison, sukha as bodily ease isn’t that hard to find, nor is ekkagata/unification/concentration. Jhanas are forms of supernatural experienced energy.

Which explains Buddha’s use of water similes for 1.-3. jhana: 1. Foaming that bathsoap, 2. wellspring up in that lake, 3. lotus floating up from root to top. Buddha used similes to point to experiences with different forms of piti, described such by Ajahn Lee in his Craft:

*Minor energy (khuddaka pıti): Your hair stands on end, and tears come to your eyes, either with or without your being aware of the fact. This happens, not through a sense of sadness, but through a feeling of pleasure, fullness, and satisfaction in a skillful preoccupation.

*Momentary energy (khanika pıti): A shiver runs through the body, and a feeling of satisfaction appears for a flash in the heart, like a flash of lightning or the flicker of lightning bugs.

*Recurrent energy (okkantika pıti): A stronger sense of thrill comes over the body, like waves washing over a shore.

These three initial forms of piti are vividly described by Bhikkhuni Ajahn Candā at 48:24 https://youtu.be/hI_X3Qlfpas?is=YZKYK1730aW_sQgh

The three initial forms are temporary, while the next form starts with energy taking a more permanent hold as «pīti, a compelling sense of fullness and refreshment for body and mind, going straight to the heart, independent of all else.» (Ajahn Lee’s Breath in Mind) -

*Transporting energy (ubbega pıti): A sense of transporting energy comes welling up through the body [~second jhana water simile] to the point where you lose control and start acting or speaking in various ways. For instance, sitting in concentration, you may suddenly raise your hands in adoration or bow down. If the feeling grows really strong, you may not be conscious of what you’re doing. You may start speaking, the words coming out on their own without any forethought on your part. [note that Jesus spoke of pneuma (breath-spirit) as an inner fountain of «living water»; and Paul said this pneuma can act and speak.]

Ajahn Sona describes how piti energy calms down from second to third jhana; from ubbega to pharana piti at 5:22 https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/ajahn-sona/id1448321339?l=nb&i=1000426907322

*Pervading energy (pharana pıti): A flush or tingling sensation spreads through and permeates the body [~third jhana water simile]. Sometimes the body itself seems to grow and swell, or else to become very small.

Ajahn Sona describes the floating-away experience of third jhana pharana piti at 20:00 https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/ajahn-sona/id1448321339?l=nb&i=1000426907394k