Limerick Insight Meditation Centre

Meditation for Today:

“I don't know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.” -- Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

Meditation for Today:

People say to me, "I can't do all that, I'm just an ordinary person, a layman; when I think of doing all that, I realize I can't do it, it's too much for me." I say, "if you think about it, you can't do it, that's all. Don't think about it, just do it." Thought only takes you to doubt. People who think about life can't do anything. If it's worth doing, do it. ~ Luang Por Sumedho

Meditation for Today:

The word "meditation" can mean all kinds of things. It's a word that includes any kind of mental practice, good or bad. But when I use this word, what I'm mainly using it for is that sense of centering, that sense of establishing, resting in the centre of the mind. The only way one can do that is to not try and think about or analyze it; you have to trust in just this simple act of attention, of awareness. It's so simple and so direct that our complicated minds get confused. ~ Luang Por Sumedho

Meditation for Today:

We all have the ability to reflect, to observe and watch the mind – to be the observer of mind-states rather than becoming lost in them. All these mind-states we experience can teach us – they are important messages. We live not only with the results of our own kamma but also with the character tendencies of those around us. And, until we learn how to watch the mind in the right way, we suffer unnecessary fear and anxiety from the endlessly changing conditions within and around us.
Soon after I joined the Sangha I was taken by Ajahn Chah to meet a very senior monk, Luang Por Khao. Somebody had given Ajahn Chah a Philips tape recorder. This was back in the sixties, when there were only reels, not even cassettes. Ajahn Chah loved gadgets so when we visited all these old Ajahns in the North East, Ajahn Chah would record them. At this time I still couldn’t understand the Thai language very well, so on that occasion I didn’t understand much of what was being said and just sat there until it was time to leave. Eventually Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Maha Amorn, who was with him, got up to leave but Luang Por Khao, who was sitting in a wheelchair, beckoned for me to come over. He couldn’t speak English, but he gave me a profound sermon. He said, in Thai: ‘The truth of Dhamma is here’, and he pointed to his heart.
It was a brilliant teaching. I couldn’t understand the language very well, but I could understand that. It has stayed with me ever since. That message is the way of reflective observation of suffering, its causes and the absence of suffering. You see and know the Dhamma in your heart, not from what people tell you or by reading about it in books. ~ Luang Por Sumedho

Meditation for Today: