Peace Beyond Suffering

Here I am demonstrating an important and beautiful process, wherein we can incline the mind to peace and well-being through contemplating the body as elements.

In this meditation we brighten and calm the mind by generating metta first, and then take the good energy and even mindedness resulting from having generated metta, as the foundation for then investigating the true 'deeper' nature of the physical body.

A breath meditation and contemplation of the body, where hair, nails and teeth are meditated upon as earth element and not a self.

The meditation begins with awareness of the body and breath before contemplating death, and impermanence as a great equalizer that can illicit forgiveness.

Here we confront the habits of aversion to oneself and others by challenging some of our assumptions.

After establishing body based awareness a contemplation on forgiveness is presented.

A taken from Collection 4: Compassion Meditation, Forgiveness, Contemplation of Not-Self. Avaiable at www.peacebeyondsuffering.org 

When monks tell engrossing & inspiring true stories from their own experience, seemingly philosophical matters become less intellectual & much more compelling.

This guided Compassion Meditation is 'Level 3 - Advanced' in a three-part series. Here we add a greater number of beings as well as more diverse classes of beings to our meditation. Including enemies and even beings in hell. It is important to have listened to the two-part 'Cultivating Deep and Vast Compassion' talk and to have worked through levels 1 and 2 of the meditation before undertaking this advanced practice. Follow all of the steps diligently you are sure to develop Great Compassion.

In 'level 1' in this series of Compassion Meditations, we practised how to hold Compassion for Oneself, a Friend and a Neutral person. In level 2, we are increasing our capacity by including more friends, more neutral people, and also 1 'difficult person.'

This is the first in a series of three practice. In this meditation we do a body sweeping, establish mindfulness upon the breathing, move into Loving-Kindness practice and then establish the quality of Compassion firmly within one's own heart and mind. After this, we move on to include both another 'dear person' and then a 'neutral person.' In the follow up meditations we will train to include more and more beings within the Heart and attitude of Compassion.

This is part two of the podcast that acts as a pre requisite to the beautiful, compassion meditation practice of Ajahn's.

This is the podcast that acts as a pre requisite to the beautiful, compassion meditation practice of Ajahn's. Compassion is an incredible subject, for it can be both an emotion, an attitude a pure form of concentration as well as an powerful tool for transformation and purification. This being so, there is a lot to cover, which is why this talk has been presented in two-parts. The talk covers many interesting overlapping subjects, from the esoteric and cosmological, to the nitty gritty of integrating Compassion into our daily life.

A talk by Ajahn Achalo at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in 2007.

A talk about impermanence and change.

This meditation develops Loving-Kindness. It begins with body & breath awareness, followed by a visualisation of meeting the Bhikkhuni Mahaprajapati.

This meditation begins with body & breath awareness to settle the mind, followed by a visualisation of meeting the Lord Buddha & developing loving-kindness.

A loving-kindness meditation using visualisation of a lotus flower & colours.

This recording starts with an introduction to the different stages of this meditation. There is the option to end the meditation after each progressive stage.

Ajahn Achalo talks about the cultivation of Loving-Kindness (Metta).

Excerpts from teachings by Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Anan about Breath Meditation.

A meditation using the mantra "Buddho" (Knowing) to help keep attention focused on the breath.

The meditation starts with a period of body awareness before moving to the breath and noting "Rising - Falling" to help keep attention focused.

The meditation starts with a period of body awareness before moving to the breath and using counting to help keep attention focused.

In this guided meditation Ajahn Achalo presents a variety of methods to work with the breath. 

A guided meditation in which the attention is focused on the sensations of the body.

Ajahn Achalo gives a talk about the "Five Hindrances" and working with mental and emotional pain.

A talk that explains how to generate mindfulness through awareness of the body and the breath.

Guidance on establishing good meditation posture and how to work with physical pain.

On the face of it, encouragements to 'be mindful' and 'have more loving-kindness' are simply good, common sense. Yet without the development of important skills the mind's habitual resistance and distractedness make these simple injunctions difficult to realise. Learning how to meditate skilfully requires guidance, support and regular practice. The Readings and Talks in this collection help you to understand how to generate Mindfulness and develop Loving-Kindness through meditative training. To address the fact that people's minds and characters differ, a variety of guided meditations are presented in a graded sequence. All of the meditations begin by encouraging meditators to establish body-based-mindfulness, and move to awareness of breathing. May these teachings and practices help you realise your potential to experience inner peace, and to radiate the joy of Loving-Kindness both inwardly and outwardly. For more Dhamma talks and guided meditations by Ajahn Achalo please visit: www.peacebeyondsuffering.org