There Is Only One Book Worth Reading: The Mind | Venerable Mettaji | 21 May 2023

This talk is republished with permission by Metta Centre, teaching retrieved from http://Dhamma Talks – Metta Centre.

There can be a tendency to read lots of Dhamma, watch heaps of YouTube from many Monks – in the hope of finding the perfect answer and path to Enlightenment! One very wise monk (extra points if you know who it was, and why he said it) famously pronounced: ”There is only one book worth reading: the Mind”. Our sentient experience comes from within and therefore practice is best centered on your own 5 aggregates, and not on the “outside”.

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:57 - Meditation
00:35:33 - Brahmaviharas
00:37:24 - Meditation works when you get out of the way
00:39:28 - The next book...
00:41:07 - Ajahn Chah's methods
00:46:40 - Negative states in meditation
00:49:28 - Mudita - scientific studies
00:53:24 - Modern distractions
00:55:03 - Conditioned preferences
00:58:50 - Mental illness
01:01:56 - Meditation practice - happy place
01:05:51 - Q&A
01:06:11 - Looking into the feeling of metta
01:09:01 - Transition from cerebral to contemplative
01:13:02 - We're writing the book every moment
01:17:40 - Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace Treaty
01:22:18 - Finding more purpose as a monk
01:24:38 - Mindfulness apps causing distress
01:27:55 - Dedication of merits
01:29:37 - Announcements

#buddhism #meditation #metta #mudita #lovingkindness #dharmatalk #dhammatalk

** About the Speaker **
Bhikkhu Mettaji believes that he is a very fortunate Bhikkhu to be given the opportunity to ordain late in life at Bodhinyana, a very precious and rare gift. His lifelong search for absolute truth started a long time ago in Europe in his teens. He is now in his mid-60s and believes he only found the real teachings when he touched Theravada Buddhism 10 years ago. Good people with Metta sustained and nurtured him through the difficult years. He was fortunate to run into an ex-monk from the Thai Forest tradition in 2009, in Sydney, who had been one of Ajahn Chah’s carers. Soon afterwards he discovered that all the teachings of the Buddha are very honest and thorough, and passed all experiential investigation. There are no loopholes in the Suttas and the Eightfold Path does gradually reduce suffering. He finds it a blessing to have Ajahn Brahmavamso as his preceptor and access to other marvellous teachers like Ajahn Brahmali, Bhante Sujato and Bhikkhu Bodhi. Such riches! His name, Mettaji comes from a monk in the time of the Buddha and translates as ” Victory through loving kindness.” That is the aspiration he wants to fulfil in his practice and in meeting anyone, anywhere.

** About Metta Centre **
To find out more about the Metta Centre & how you can support us you can visit https://www.mettacentre.com

 

Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.

To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.