In this videoconference talk from 3 Sep, 2021, Ajahn Anan talks about experiencing discouragement and despair, which is common amongst people in these difficult times, and how we can overcome them.
“So a good method to overcome our loss of motivation and spirit, is by trying to charge the battery of our spiritual heart. We need to inject the vaccine into our spiritual hearts in order to protect against all serious illnesses. We do this through exercising and through accepting the success that others gain. We are happy with them for their success in their activities, studies, learning, and in their various occupations. When we feel this way, then we are not putting too much pressure on ourselves. We do our thing, according to our abilities, and according to our vassana parami, spiritual accumulations.”
When dye is mixed with clear water, it takes on that colour. But whenever we separate the two out, then the water returns to its original clarity. So too, our original mind is clean and pure, but when it gets mixed with defilement, it becomes dirty and dark. But the defilements and the mind are two separate things, so it is possible to extract them and realise this state of inner purity and clarity.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
2021.08.19 | Ignorance, craving, and attachment are constantly building houses for the mind, revolving in the cycle of birth and death. It is our great good fortune that the path to freedom that the Lord Buddha taught is still here. We do not know when we will get the chance to meet with this path again, so we should practise wholeheartedly while we still can.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
2021.08.18 | When we start out on this path, even though we learn the teaching of not-self, we still have a self. This attachment to ‘me’ and ‘mine’ is not something that we are able to instantly put down. Therefore, we need to make this self good first, by teaching it to be kind, generous, moral and peaceful. Only when we have a stable and wholesome sense of self can the insight into not-self appear.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
In this morning talk, Ajahn Anan tells us of the benefits that accrue from keeping the practices that the Buddha laid down. He recalls how the establishment of his monastery, Wat Marp Jan, came about through maintaining the practice of going on alms round.
2021.08.17 | The processes of the body are constantly displaying the ways of nature for us to see; the heart beats on and on, the breath comes and goes. Everything in this world is forever changing. When we understand this, we see the Dhamma.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
2021.08.16 | None of us want to be angry, yet we still get angry… So what should we do? If we have great desire to just be a good person who never gets angry, we will suffer a lot. So, when we walk this path, we need to do so with a sense of letting go.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
In this talk, Ajahn Anan tells many stories of monks narrowly escaping harm to illustrate how taking good care of our virtue can help keep us safe from danger.
2021.08.15 | Everyone desires freedom. We see this in a nation’s struggle for independence from oppressors, or a child’s struggle for maturity. But even though we may gain external liberation, the mind is still controlled by ignorance, craving and clinging, and thus still bound to suffering. It is only the path of virtue, samadhi and wisdom that can lead us to real happiness and genuine emancipation from the defilements.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).
2021.08.14 | When we gain an understanding of the nature of the world, we see how all beings must pass away and that nothing here truly belongs to us. We then get the feeling that we must strive to seek out that which doesn’t die.
To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm – 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).