Dhamma Articles And Talks By Subject
Articles And Talks Archive - Newest First
True Refuge - The Ratana Sutta
Becoming Explained - The Loka, Bhava, and Mula Suttas
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta - The Buddha's First Discourse
Magga-Vibhanaga Sutta - Analysis of The Eightfold Path
Shamatha-Vipassana Meditation, Samadhi, Jhanas
Satipatthana Sutta - Four Foundations Of Mindfulness
Anapanasati Sutta - Breath-Mindfulness Meditation
Anicca, Anatta, Dukkha - Three Marks Of Existence
Four Noble Truths Articles and Talks
Eightfold Path Articles and Talks
Meditation - Concentration - Jhanas - Samadhi Articles And Talks
Refined Mindfulness Articles And Talks
Five Common Hindrances To Be Mindful Of
Modern Buddhism - A Thicket Of Views
Dependent Origination, Anatta, And The Myth Of Non-Duality
Theragatha and Therigatha - Poems Of Awakened Monks and Nuns
Dhamma Articles And Talks Archive
Click On Title For Full Article And Talk
Yasadatta – Hearing True Dhamma
In this poem, Yasadatta shows the foolishness of debating the Dhamma rather than actually practicing a Buddha’s teachings…
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta – Four Noble Truths
The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is the very first teaching ever presented by the Buddha. It occurred a few weeks after Siddhartha Gotama awakened…
The Yasa Sutta – Freedom From Entanglements
The Yasa Sutta – Freedom From Entanglements teaches importance to avoid creating a “Dhamma” practice that depends on external entanglements as its theme…
The Arahant Sutta – Awakening in a Single Paragraph
Seeing the “five clinging aggregates as they really are” is understanding Anatta, not-self, or a self-referential ego-personality in relation to Anicca, Dukkha and The Four Noble Truths…
Bhikkhuni Sujata’s Final Knowledge
Sujata, enamored with the world and her position of wealth and privilege encounters the Buddha. She hears from him a simple, pure, and direct Dhamma and her mind clears…
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta – Mindfulness of What Is Occurring
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta teaches the importance of being mindfully present of life as life unfolds. The title of this Sutta means an auspicious day…
Kuta Sutta – A Good Roof
In the Kuta Sutta, the Buddha teaches Anathapindika the importance of protecting one’s mind through restraint. Anathapindika was a wealthy businessman and early benefactor of the Buddha and the original Sangha…
Subhuti – A Comfortable Abode
This poem is from the Theragatha. The Theragatha preserves 264 poems of elder monks and is the eighth section in the Khuddaka Nikāya.
Here, the monk Subhuti describes in concise and profoundly sublime detail the quality of an awakened mind…
Agantuka Sutta: For All Who Reside In The Dhamma
In the Agantuka Sutta, the Buddha uses the metaphor of a common residence to show that the Eightfold Path is a true refuge for anyone seeking to develop the profound understanding of the nature of stress and suffering,..
Vitakkasanthana Sutta Relaxation of Thoughts
The Vitakkasanthana Sutta — the sutta on the relaxation of thoughts — the Buddha teaches that the refined mindfulness developed through the Eightfold Path brings a relaxed and peaceful quality of mind…
Sona – A Mother Of Ten Awakens
In this poem, Sona comes to the Dhamma late in life and quickly develops a profound understanding of key elements of the Dhamma including Five Clinging Aggregates, Three Marks Of Existence, restraint at the Six-Sense-Base, meditative absorption, and a penetrative understanding of Four Noble Truths..
The Nagara Sutta – The Buddha Describes His Awakening
The Nagara Sutta is remarkable in its simplicity in describing Dependent Origination in a practically applied way. In this sutta the Buddha clearly shows how ignorance of Four Noble Truths and of The Three Marks of existence “originates” the process that all manner of disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, distraction, and suffering – in a word Dukkha – is “dependent” on…
Kumma Sutta: The Tortoise
These short sutta shows the importance of restraint in the Dhamma. The Four Noble Truths show that all manner of disappointment and suffering arises from craving and clinging. ..
Vimala – A Courtesan Unbound
This poem describes the nun Vimala’s awakening, gaining full human maturity. Through developing the Eightfold Path, [2] Vimala, abandoned all self-referential views rooted in ignorance of Four Noble Truths [3] and gained release from self-imposed suffering…
Bhikkhuvaga Sutta – To a Monk
In the Bhikkhuvaga Sutta, the Buddha teaches the importance to develop the virtuous factors of the Eightfold Path of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood to recognize and abandon unskillful thoughts, words, and deeds…
Sundari Sutta, The Liberation Of Restraint
The Sundari Sutta, the liberation of restraint, teaches the unending peace gained through developing the Eightfold Path…
Aparihani Sutta: Not Losing The Way
“Having developed four qualities a Dhamma practitioner cannot lose the way and is free of clinging to views. When one has fully integrated the Eightfold Path they are…
Mahākāla – The Corpse
This poem directly shows the wisdom of understanding the reality of human life and the inevitable conclusion for every life. When understood in the context of Dependent Origination and Four Noble Truths, this poem contains the wisdom of a Buddha…
Pamadaviharin Sutta: Dwelling in Mindfulness
It is mindful restraint at the Six-sense base that develops awakening or full human maturity. The Six-sense base is our five physical senses and interpretive thinking. In this way, the teachings on restraint directly relate to Dependent Origination in a very practical way…
Mittakali – A Nuns Path Completed
In this poem, the nun Mittakali recounts her going forth still affected by continued clinging to wrong views ignorant of Four Noble Truths. ..
Dhammannu Sutta – One With A Sense Of The Dhamma
The Dhammannu Sutta is similar to the Dhamma-Viharin Sutta. [1] In both suttas the Buddha describes in detail what it means to have developed a well-integrated Dhamma practice..
Dhamma-Viharin Sutta – Dwelling In The Dhamma
In the Dhamma-Viharin Sutta, the Buddha is teaching that engaging with the Dhamma through intellectual study alone will not develop cessation of craving after and clinging to views ignorant of Four Noble Truths, and the confusion and suffering that follows…
The Nidana Sutta – Ending The Defilements
In the Nidana Sutta, the Buddha focuses on recognizing and abandoning the Three Defilements of greed, aversion, and deluded thinking. All three of the defilements are rooted in ignorance of Four Noble Truths and the resulting ongoing self-referential “I-making”…
Upaddha Sutta – An Admirable Sangha
The context here is a Dhamma practitioners associations. Having admirable friends and admirable companions supports the joyful camaraderie that follows a well-informed and well-focused sangha…
The Phena Sutta – Emptiness and The Five Clinging-Aggregates
The Phena Sutta is another sutta on emptiness as the Buddha uses the term. In this sutta he teaches the emptiness of The Five Clinging Aggregates and the emptiness of creating self-identities by clinging to fleeting objects, events, views and ideas…
Brahma-Vihara’s Exalted Mind States
There are four exalted states of mind taught by the Buddha. These are perfected mind-states that reflect an enlightened view of humanity…
Samadhi Sutta – The Purpose and Practice of Concentration
The Buddha taught Shamatha-Vipassana meditation as one factor of the Eightfold Path for the purpose of developing the concentration necessary to support the refined mindfulness of the other seven factors of the path…
Fire Discourse Attachments to Passion
About one month after the Buddha’s first two discourses, he presented The Fire Discourse to approximately 1,000 followers. Upon hearing this short discourse, most of those in attendance awakened…
Karma and Rebirth
This is an article and talk on Karma and Rebirth. Karma and Rebirth are misunderstood and misapplied key teachings…
Tissa Sutta: Uncertain
Tissa is a cousin of the Buddha and a monk in the original Sangha. Tissa’s mind is still troubled from continued clinging to wrong views rooted in ignorance of Four Noble Truths…
Vipallasa Sutta: Fabrications
The Vipallasa Sutta is a sutta on fabrications. A fabrication is a conclusion formed from false, misrepresented, or incomplete information…
Introduction To The Buddha’s Dhamma
Here is a video and two talks that introduce the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha awakened to Dependent Origination and taught Four Noble Truths to end suffering that arises from ignorance of the true nature of reality…
Skillful Insight And Knowledge Gained
These are recordings of our end-of-year classes at Cross River Meditation Center in Frenchtown New Jersey On December 26, 28, and 30, 2017…
When Dhamma Practice Is Stressful
Often “Buddhist” practice is initially engaged with as a response to the unsatisfactory nature of life. This begins to develop Right View but meditation and Dhamma practice should not create additional stress…
Vitthara Sutta: Five Strengths
In this sutta, the Buddha teaches five strengths to be developed and maintained that directly support integration of the Eightfold Path…
Rohitassa Sutta – Inner Mindfulness
Rohitassa Sutta – Mindfulness of what occurs is an article and talk on the Rohitassa Sutta where the Buddha answers Rohitassa’s question regarding the possibility of awakening by seeking outside of himself in an actual or figurative sense…
Precepts and Paramitas
Jiddu Krishnamurti often said “Look at the lives you are living.” He was stressing the importance of being mindfully present in thought, word and deed in our interaction with others and with ourselves…
The Lakkhana Sutta, Mindfulness of Actions
In this sutta the Buddha teaches that actions are the outward expression of either foolishness originating in ignorance, or wisdom originating in understanding…
Simsapa Sutta A Handful Of Leaves
“This is what I teach. I teach these things because they are related to my Dhamma and they support the principles of a life integrated with the Eightfold Path. These things that I teach lead directly to disenchantment, to dispassion…
Sariputta Sutta And Cessation Of Ignorance
In the Sariputta Sutta, Sariputta is questioned by Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin, and attendant. Ananda is confused about a fundamental aspect of the Dhamma.
My Dhamma articles and talks are based on the Buddha's teachings (suttas) as preserved in the Sutta Pitaka, the second book of the Pali Canon. I have relied primarily on Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s excellent and insightful translation of the Pali generously made freely available at his website Dhammatalks.org, as well as the works of Nyanaponika Thera, John Ireland, Maurice Walsh, Hellmuth Hecker, and Sister Khema, among others, as preserved at Access To Insight.
Also, I have found Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations from Wisdom Publications Pali Canon Anthologies to be most informative and an excellent resource.
I have made contextual edits to the suttas from these sources for further clarity, to modernize language, to minimize repetition, and maintain relevance to Dependent Origination and Four Noble Truths.
Becoming-Buddha.com and Dhamma articles and recordings by John Haspel are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
