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Dharma Talks
given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2024-02-10
In the Name of Wisdom
14:12
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Ayya Medhanandi
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What does it mean to be noble? As a daughter of the Buddha, I learn that no name can confer authority or self-respect, nor does opinion, tradition or entitlement bestow them, for as the Buddha wisely teaches, “One does not become a noble one by birth. It is by one's deeds that one attains to nobility.” Just so, the riches of our human journey are revealed in the fire of inner purification. Therein we find our true name. It is nothing less than the pure presence behind every name – the emptiness in which all personal identity dissolves. And where only unconditional love abides.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2024-01-07
What is Refuge in Buddha Anyway?
29:24
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Stay true to seeing with wisdom and be compassionate to yourself – then, gradually to all beings. Preserve, treasure, grow and rejoice in the moral fabric of your true nature and know its incomparable radiant light. But first, we must have complete trust in the Buddha as our guide. Then we set our compass to the heart's journey of transcendence on the Noble Eightfold Path. Reflecting on the benevolence of the Buddha's awakening, we walk in gratitude, courage, joy and empowerment.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-12-22
Darkness Just Before Dawn
28:16
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Could we really love if we lived forever? There is no true love without suffering. This is revealed through our mortality and the impermanence of all conditioned things. We are not the body but its fragility reflects our true essence. Just as when a candle melts, the flame burns. Just as the sun arises out of the darkest night, so too, our awakening to truth is grounded in understanding the Buddha's Noble Truth of suffering. We witness how suffering begins, how it ends, and how to free ourselves from it. As the heart breaks open, we are waking up to the truth of what we are, nothing less than unconditional love. In the words of Victor Frankl, “To give light, we must endure burning.”
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-12-17
A Jet Plane To Nibbana
23:04
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Across millenia, the Buddha speaks of his awakening – teaching us how to take refuge, how to be fearless, how to walk the Middle Way, how to understand suffering, and how to know what to trust. Fear is the opposite of trust. So be willing to relinquish concepts and questions and let yourself live into the answers day by day where fear can end – there in the pure sanctuary of the heart. For this, we learn to have compassion even for those who kill us. But we must give up what is not trustworthy. With courage, compassion, and clear awareness of what we face now, stay quietly present and listen carefully. The truth will speak, and we shall understand.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-11-30
Trust The Journey Itself
32:20
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The core teachings of the Buddha offer us a ready escape from the hells of hatred and hostility. Though the heart is perturbed, we reach deeply into our core to connect to that aquifer of Dhamma within us, calming the mind again and again. This fiber of peace is more than an intention. It's energy sets in motion the wheel of Truth that stirs us to forgiveness, restores us to kindness, and compels in us a breadth of compassion for all beings and all conditions. At last, even in the face of vitriolic treatment, wisdom and peace shall prevail. We are in the shelter of the Sacred.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-11-19
The Four Noble Truths in Action
23:07
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha realized a state of pure awakened consciousness. We try to emulate his moral excellence by turning inward to bring the mind to silence. In that stillness, we can relinquish habitual unwholesome and harmful thoughts, thus revealing the same universal moral essence within us – just as in all beings. It is our pathway to the heart’s peace and freedom from suffering. Here, when loving-kindness and compassion preside, the gates to the Deathless are open.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-10-15
What Is The Solution?
25:48
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha said it simply. The awakened mind is the best solution. The mind-heart needs happiness to be well and to extend that well-being to others. So we tune inward, listen, meditate and resolve the dis-ease. We teach ourselves to be resilient, joyful and discerning rather than feeding on delusion and misery. When the loss is too great or madness reigns everywhere, we pour benevolent ingredients into awareness itself, patiently practising this way. Then we radiate true compassion, true forgiveness and true peace in all directions.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-08-20
The Fire of Illumination
26:34
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We wish for perfect conditions in life. But true perfection only arises within the awakened mind. So we are like mendicants of the present moment – not able to control or know what lies ahead. Let us not lose heart. In truth, this Middle Way of awareness has great fruit and great benefit, and we can walk it – even in this digitally driven era. Being patient, brave, and staying true to the wisest course, we gain strength and skill at each step. It may feel like balancing on a tightrope of fire. But with unflagging resolve and care, we burn out delusion. And that will be the fire of our illumination.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-05-07
That Seed of Awakening Within Us
24:07
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Remember compassion like the Buddha’s. Remember courage like the Buddha’s – a mind strong, centered, wise and welcoming; spacious, supple and open. We look within and wake up to that seed of awakening. Standing for truth instead of delusion and weakness, even if what we have is not enough – we make it enough. Even from a tiny seed of awakening, plant it in the soil of contentment. Watch it grow into a tall, magnificent refuge in Truth that is not conceptual but is realized intuitively. You are here in the moment like never before.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-03-27
My Religion is Kindness
22:39
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Joy comes softly. First, we plow through the labyrinth of our emotional compost. We know anguish, selfishness, and all their truant cousins. Then we learn skillful ways to let go. Dying to the ‘self’, the heart is purified. Even despair and the darkest energies vanish in the presence of a happiness that is beyond ownership. There is no ‘one’ to hold on, die, or awaken, but the heart is compassionate, free, and at peace with all things.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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