Hello.
This is Ajahn Achlo.
I've been a bhikkhu in the Thai forest meditation tradition for around 30 years now.
And this is my second talk in a series on what I teach my students or how I encourage fellow practitioners.
This talk is What Does Ajahn Achalo Teach?
Intermediate and Advanced Practitioners.
Actually being a Buddhist teacher who teaches online.
There are certain challenges that present themselves.
Because you can't necessarily see.
The person before you.
Who is listening.
It's hard to know exactly what teaching would be most helpful or relevant.
But as someone who has been supported a great deal in my own practice.
There is a healthy,
Natural desire to share information that has been shared with me.
About the teachings,
About practices.
And to encourage others.
As I have been encouraged.
The problem is.
.
.
The very same teaching.
Might be encouraging.
To one person.
But discouraging to another.
And it's hard to know exactly how to address that issue.
But suffice to say,
What I usually do is just make sure I'm coming from.
A noble and pure intention to encourage people.
And to be truthful.
To share.
According to my understanding.
Truthfully.
So I hope that some of what I say will be helpful to you.
Part of my intention in recording these talks is that for my own students to be able to check if they're considering themselves a beginning practitioner.
Or an intermediate practitioner.
Or an advanced practitioner.
It's a bit of a checklist for my students and other interested people.
To get a sense for.
Where they're at in the practice.
How much they've accomplished,
How much they are committed,
And whether they're more can be done.
If you're a person who meditates every day,
Suppose 30 minutes,
40 minutes,
45 minutes or an hour,
And if you do one 10-day meditation retreat a year for example,
A 7-day or a 10-day,
I would consider you,
From my perspective,
Someone who's been a monk for 30 years,
I would consider you to be a good,
Sincere,
Committed practitioner.
Still at the beginning stages.
That might be a bit painful for some people to hear,
Especially if they've been practicing for many years.
There's nothing wrong with being a beginning practitioner.
Who is sincere and consistent.
This is in fact the necessary foundation.
And it's something to rejoice in.
If you are consistent in your practice,
If you really do do.
45 minutes an hour a day and make some time to do a retreat.
You are a practitioner that myself and my teachers,
My fellow monastics,
We would sincerely rejoice.
It's a good start,
It's a good foundation.
If you want to grow,
However.
If you truly want to grow in Dhanba.
It is necessary.
To increase one's efforts.
I sometimes meet people who come and chat with me.
And they say that they've been meditating for 10 years,
15 years,
20 years.
And they sometimes describe a feeling of having reached a plateau.
They feel like they're not really getting anywhere.
And they've asked me if they're using the right method.
If I have any advice.
Normally,
I then inquire.
Just how much are you practicing.
And oftentimes they say half an hour or 45 minutes or one hour a day plus a retreat,
Sometimes two per year.
And I rejoice in their practice because for modern people,
Maintaining this level of commitment and discipline is not easy.
It is noble.
It's a good effort.
But I do have to let them know.
That the reason that they feel that they have not gained great heights in their practice the reason they feel their practice has hit a plateau.
Is because they're not actually doing enough of it.
If a normal person sleeps between seven and eight hours a day and then spends 14,
15 hours doing all sorts of other things,
This period of time without meditation.
Allows ignorance and delusion to be strong in the mind.
So for sincere practitioners,
We do have to meditate several times a day.
This is a gradual progression,
So I would recommend that people go from.
.
.
If you're sincere and you want to develop into a sincere intermediate practitioner,
You want to go beyond the beginning stages.
Then I would add another session.
Suppose you're doing some chanting.
Or listening to a Dharma talk and then meditating once a day.
Try to break up your practice into two sessions.
And suppose,
For example,
You have a practice of chanting for 15 minutes and sitting for 45 minutes.
You might chant for 15 minutes and sit for 45 minutes in the morning.
And then once again in the evening.
And depending on what kind of hindrances you experience,
If you're very sleepy at night.
Perhaps you do a longer session of chanting.
Half an hour of chanting.
Half an hour of sitting.
If your mind is bright at night and there's not much thinking.
Then you can sit for longer.
So you do your chanting.
And meditation in the morning.
And you do another session.
In the evening.
Mindfulness is,
In fact,
A sankhara,
A condition.
It's part of the eightfold path.
It's one of the conditions that leads to the unconditioned.
But it is a condition.
What does that mean?
It means it needs to be generated.
So everybody has some mindfulness,
But in terms of developing our mindfulness so that it inclines the mind to having right collectedness,
Samma samati,
And insight,
Vipassana.
Then we need above average,
Stronger mindfulness.
We're aiming for very good mindfulness and eventually mahasati.
And great mindfulness.
For anybody aspiring to very good mindfulness.
We need to put forth a very good effort.
For somebody aspiring to Mahasati.
Great mindfulness.
We actually do need to put forth a great effort.
So wherever you are.
Rejoice and congratulate yourself for your good efforts thus far.
But then I would like to encourage you to ask yourself,
Firstly,
Are you consistent?
Do you practice every day?
A sincere Buddhist practitioner really must practice every day because When we don't practice,
Ignorance and delusion seeps back into the mind.
Darkness increases.
If we do practice,
Consistently,
Over a period of time.
Mindfulness gets better,
And the samadhi gets better.
Some people will be thinking now.
Why does Ajahn Achalo put so much emphasis on the formal practice?
Surely practice is about being mindful in all postures.
Yes,
It is.
My point is that if a person doesn't do the formal meditation practice,
The mindfulness will not be good enough to be mindful in all postures.
So we need to consider here what is good mindfulness and what is weak mindfulness.
If a person has truly good mindfulness,
They won't just be mindful when they're experiencing their mind states.
If it's an unwholesome mind state.
When they know it.
The mind will have the power to abandon it,
To let go of it.
If an unwholesome mind state arises and a person practices being aware of it,
And it stays and it lingers and the thoughts continue and we can't let go of it,
It is not yet good mindfulness.
So consistent practice,
Several sessions a day.
Over a period of time is what produces good mindfulness.
How so?
When we practice with the meditation object.
We're sharpening and strengthening the mindfulness for that period of time.
And yes,
After that we set the intention to be mindful in all postures and all activities throughout the day.
But without the formal practice clarifying,
Making that sati sharper,
Clearer,
Making that presence of mind truly present,
The mindfulness throughout the day will tend to be weak.
You don't have to just believe me.
I am quoting my own teachers.
So as a Buddhist monk.
Living in Thailand,
I have had the great opportunity,
The great good fortune,
To be able to practice with some wonderful meditation masters.
So Arjan Anand is my main teacher in Thailand,
And Lompop Biak is another of my teachers.
Both these monks are considered to be excellent meditation practitioners,
And in fact,
Considered to have finished their work,
Having abandoned greed,
Hatred,
And delusion.
I've also studied with Ajahn Sumedho,
Lumpur Pasano,
And Ajahn Jayasaro,
The Western monks.
Atan,
Anan,
And Atampiyek.
Both told me the same thing.
Now that I think of it,
So did Tanajan Tan.
Another wonderful monk,
A contemporary of Lumpopi Ekanatana.
It's interesting that they all said the same thing to me as a junior monk.
What they said was.
You need to meditate at least three hours a day.
As a monk in the meditation tradition.
That is the minimum requirement.
You should be doing some practice in the morning.
Some practice in the afternoon,
And some practice in the evening,
Every day.
And I committed to that.
And I truly believe that it is good advice because I can see that the quality of my mindfulness and the consistency of my mindfulness has developed.
Over a period of decades.
They said further,
So this is the bit that I said could be.
I don't want to discourage people,
But I also feel that I should share truthfully to the best of my ability.
According to what has been told to me,
Taught to me by my own teachers.
Than Ajahn Anand,
Lompop Miek,
Ajahn Tan,
All said the same thing.
They said to me as a junior monk,
If I didn't want to disrobe,
If I wanted to experience happiness as a celibate monastic.
I should be aiming to do five hours of meditation a day.
And I have tried to make that my standard.
Sometimes I don't quite get there.
But oftentimes they do.
On top of this,
I also try to take several periods of retreat each year.
Now,
I'm supported in doing that as a monk.
I'm very grateful.
I would normally try to do.
A six-week retreat twice a year.
And during that time,
I would aim to do about eight hours of formal practice.
So once again,
I don't want to discourage people.
I just want to lay down the facts bare.
In a way,
Empower people with the information.
If you want to go from a beginning to an intermediate and from an intermediate to an advanced practitioner,
This is the kind of effort that is required.
So we do start where we are and try to increase slowly but consistently.
So if you're doing one session a day,
Increase to two.
And encourage and rejoice in your effort.
Never belittle your effort because the foundation is the foundation and the foundation is wonderful.
If we want more than the foundation,
We have to put in more effort.
If we don't want our practice to hit a plateau,
We need to make effort to climb.
Nobody climbed a mountain by walking uphill 45 minutes a day.
Great results come from great effort.
Increased to two sessions and people can experiment.
It might work better if there's a lot of sleepiness in the morning,
It might work well to listen to a dharma talk or chant in the morning.
But we're making the effort to be in the place where you meditate in some kind of formal posture.
And then meditate a little bit after that.
And if you're the type of person who has a clear mind late at night,
Maybe you don't listen to a Dhamma talk,
Maybe you have a longer session of sitting one hour in the evening,
But it's like a.
.
.
Bookmarks.
You begin and end each day with some practice.
Similarly,
If your mind is clear and bright in the morning,
Maybe you get up a little bit earlier,
Go to bed earlier,
Sit quietly.
And if there's a lot of tiredness or thinking about the day in the evening.
Then you do some chanting.
Or listen to a Dharma talk.
Can adjust things for yourself according to what works.
I sincerely believe.
To get the best results in terms of consistent mindfulness.
I sincerely believe that.
Three sessions a day.
Is best.
Some practice in the morning.
Some practice in the afternoon,
Some practice in the evening.
So that can also be walking meditation,
That can be listening to a Dharma talk.
I do recognize that a lot of modern people.
Are very busy.
Some people have kids,
Some people holding down two jobs.
I get it.
But I also want to say.
.
.
The reasons to practice are superior.
To the excuses not to.
If we truly want to get the results of the practice,
Deep peace,
Profound insight,
Letting go of the causes of suffering,
Experiencing a cessation of suffering,
At least for periods of time,
Having true insight into deeper truth that destroys delusion,
Then we need to wrestle with our resistance,
With our laziness,
With our excuses.
Suppose you have to drive to or from work.
That could be a time that you chant.
Chant on the way to work.
It could be a time that you listen to a Dharma talk.
We have to look at the ways we spend time.
So if you are going beyond being a beginner,
Getting serious about being an intermediate practitioner,
You will find ways to insert more practice into your day.
Not listening to news which is depressing,
Not doom-scrolling too much,
Not getting lost in entertainment and distraction.
Looking at how much time you spend on the devices,
How do you spend your time.
Are there periods in the day where you can add more practice?
If you can practice morning,
Afternoon and evening each day.
I sincerely believe that your mindfulness will get better.
You will be able to see the content of your mind very clearly as a thought arises.
Rather than getting lost in the thoughts or realizing halfway through saying something that there's some negativity.
Good mindfulness will recognize a thought as it arises.
It will even recognize the feelings that impinge on the mind which give rise to the thought.
Good mindfulness will be aware when hearing or whether it's a pleasant or unpleasant thing to hear.
And then the feeling in the heart area.
And then the thought as it arises.
That's good mindfulness.
Not so good mindfulness is being halfway through a paragraph and then realizing,
Oops,
This is unskillful.
This is ordinary mindfulness.
So the benefits of being consistent in practice and increasing practice are enormous.
Upon that foundation if you can take time for longer retreats.
I just want to say now,
Like I said,
My intention here is to be a matter of fact and give people the information.
As an encouragement.
In my own practice.
I can say from my observation.
That the times where I experienced something that can be considered a true insight of vipassana jnana or some kind of a profound letting go.
Some kind of glimpse into a deeper reality.
And experience of deep,
Cool peace.
The times where I experienced such things has been when I have been doing eight hours of meditation.
For a period of weeks.
For myself,
Three decades of experience.
That's how it's been for me.
And I would like to mention now that the advice that Ajahn Anand,
Ajahn Bhikk,
And Ajahn Dhan They all said the same thing.
They said three hours minimum,
Otherwise it's actually bad karma to be a meditation monk and not be meditating.
Five hours if you want to make it as a monk for your lifetime.
I've known many who've given up along the way.
But if you want actual liberating insights,
Eight hours a day.
And Thanajjana Nanhi says,
You know,
The study monks in Thailand,
The Pariyatti monks,
They study many hours a day and memorize many texts.
The people who support the monks,
The lay people,
They're also working eight hours a day.
Nine hours a day.
So Than Ajahn Anand says,
Meditation monks should put forth a similar amount of effort.
Not everybody can,
Because it really does depend how many lifetimes.
If a person can find that kind of enthusiasm,
Conviction,
Determination.
But many people can do four or five.
And then we can take periods of retreat where we can practice eight or more hours a day.
So for myself,
People who are familiar with my life,
My teachings,
You will know that I frequently go to Bodh Gaya.
I sit between 8 or 9 or 10 hours a day for a month or 5 weeks or 6 weeks.
I've done that.
Somewhere between 15 and 20 times.
As a junior monk when I was training at the International Forest Monastery.
I went off to the jungle retreat facility that the community had on the border of Burma in that situation.
The monks were staying on a bamboo,
Dieng it's called,
A bamboo bed with a forest monk's umbrella and mosquito net and just a flysheet.
We would go for about 10 weeks and during that time.
.
.
I would spend about.
.
.
20 hours a day alone.
For 10 weeks in the jungle.
And the jungle is a mirror,
Helps practitioners see their minds.
You can't really build much of a self when there's no one to talk to and there's no buildings.
The idea of being eaten by a tiger or a big tree falling on you or a bear coming and biting you or getting malaria,
These kind of things.
Tend to sober the mind.
Tend to incline the mind inwards and also cultivating loving-kindness.
Becomes not just an inspiring idea or a nice thought,
It actually becomes something that one has to depend upon.
As you're falling asleep in the deep dark jungle at night by yourself,
Aware that a tiger might come by.
Or a mosquito might bite you with a parasite in it.
Having loving-kindness because we believe it is a protection.
Becomes a tremendous support.
So some people will be wondering.
Some people actually do put forth this kind of effort meditating two or three times a day and they might do it for six months a year and they might find that they don't get good results and things feel dry,
Tedious and it just becomes a chore and it's hard.
What would my advice be to people who have that experience?
So firstly,
If you do practice to that level,
I sincerely rejoice.
I think it's wonderful.
And I think you can have absolute confidence that the results will come.
Laying the causes.
One thing we can do is intensify the loving kindness practice.
If you're sitting there and you have an experience of things feeling dry,
Practice plateauing.
Not feeling like you're getting anywhere,
And there's some feeling of dejection or depression,
Frustration,
Boredom.
This is all very normal.
What to do in such a situation is to recognize that you are a sentient being who has some suffering in that moment.
The thing about metta practice,
For it to work,
It has to be sincere.
It's not just a thought.
It's not just a nice idea.
The Buddha says in the 11 Benefits of Loving Kindness Sutta that for people who cultivate loving kindness,
The mind concentrates quickly.
Now we all want a mind that can concentrate quickly.
But to have real meta.
.
.
You have to really mean it.
So I recommend going to where that feeling of frustration is,
Or dryness,
Or boredom.
And feeling,
Is there any pain associated with that thought?
There usually is.
And then opening the heart with kindness,
With friendliness,
With warm encouragement.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
And we just have to hold that sincere goodwill in the heart space with utter sincerity.
Until a beautiful feeling of unconditional love Tender kindness.
Warm encouragement arises.
When it does arise,
We expand it.
Think of your kalyāṇamitā,
Your spiritual friends,
Think of your teachers.
It's a great place to start.
Breathing in.
Radiate the loving-kindness towards yourself generated in your own body and mind.
Breathing out,
Share it with your teachers and your wise spiritual friends.
Don't send your mind out to them.
Visualize them before you smiling.
We do this,
We go from beings for whom it is easy to have loving kindness towards,
Neutral beings,
And eventually difficult beings,
And finally all beings.
But if a person can sincerely embrace the loving-kindness practice.
Practice stops being boring.
Lord Buddha describes the Brahmaviharas as a pleasant abiding here and now.
A divine abiding.
Metta practice,
Compassion practice,
Mudita practice can lead to the jhanic states.
Literally the mind-state of Brahma-Devas.
And Lord Buddha encourages the cultivation of this,
And my main teacher,
Ajahn Anand,
Explains that the cultivation of loving-kindness is a support to the development of mindfulness,
Concentration and wisdom.
It weakens and lessens and helps to uproot anger,
Irritation,
Excessive fault finding.
And it produces merit,
And the kind of merit,
Punya,
That it produces.
Is the kind of merit that will ripen as deepening Samadhi.
Deepening wholesome mind states.
We can also do the anusatis.
So you're putting forth the effort to sit,
To walk,
To sit,
To walk.
Things are dry sometimes.
Then really think about the Buddha.
What are your favourite suitors?
What do you appreciate about his teaching?
Are you grateful?
For a lot of people,
Faith is something a bit cerebral,
A bit heady.
We don't think about it that much.
It's like you study the teachings and then you decide,
Yeah,
I have faith in this.
But it hasn't quite manifested as a powerful heart-based quality.
When we have the list of the five spiritual powers,
Faith comes first.
Conviction.
Confidence,
Satta,
Faith.
For faith to be a true spiritual power.
We have to mean it.
We have to really have faith so we can put some effort in.
Rather than sitting there feeling frustrated if things don't seem to be.
Working.
Brighten the mind.
Think about the Buddha.
Think about what his teachings meant for you,
For me,
For us practitioners who aspire to liberation.
Think of the millions of beings who practiced according to his teaching who realized liberation.
That's Sangha Nusati.
And rejoice.
You can do things like read the great disciples of the Buddha.
Learn those stories of those practitioners.
And you can know those stories so well that you feel like you know these people and you rejoice.
How wonderful,
What a beautiful Bhikkhu Sariputta was.
How awesome and inspiring Mahamoggalana was,
How kind,
How tender.
Selfless Venerable Ananda was,
Similarly with the Bhikkhunis.
Which ones are your favorite?
Your favorite lay patrons?
With Sarkar.
Anathapindika.
So I really recommend reading those books and try to establish a feeling of being in relationship with the great disciples.
Read biographies of Lumpur Man Ajahn Chah,
Master Suryun.
And be inspired by there.
Awesome effort.
Don't be intimidated,
Feeling like,
I can't do that,
I'll never be able to do that.
Feel confident that whatever practice you do is laying the foundation and is taking steps towards becoming just like that.
If we practice consistently.
And if we keep increasing our efforts.
That will be the result.
So I did make a promise to myself that I would try to keep this.
Somewhat succinct.
A good,
Beginning,
Committed Buddhist meditator.
Meditates every day for 45 minutes or an hour.
That's the beginning stage.
A sincere,
Determined,
Intermediate practitioner who wants to lay the causes for their liberation in this lifetime meditates several times a day.
And takes longer retreats if possible.
An advanced practitioner.
Who practice every morning.
Every afternoon.
Every evening.
Every day.
If life gets busy for periods of time,
It might be the case that.
.
.
You can't manage three times a day.
The period where you can manage it,
You do a longer session.
Go to bed earlier,
Get up earlier.
Meditate for a couple of hours.
This is the kind of effort that is required.
For people to have true insight,
Where they see the three characteristics clearly,
Anitta impermanence.
Anatha,
Not self,
Dukkha,
Unsatisfactory.
This is the kind of effort that produces the quality of mindfulness that knows a thought as it arises,
As it stays for some time,
As it ceases.
The kind of mindfulness that can actually investigate a body.
And see it as parts and see those parts as elements.
This is a practice which has led many practitioners to liberating insight.
But for the mind to truly have that quality of presence of mind and clarity,
To truly see the body as parts and see those parts as elements,
It does require the consistent practice for a period of years,
Several times a day.
And then the presence of mind,
The collectedness,
The power of the path factors will be powerful enough to uproot the root kilesas,
The great hatred and delusion.
Lying on the foundation of ignorance.
Ignorance is not knowing.
Delusion is knowing things incorrectly.
Mindfulness,
Concentration,
And wisdom.
Is the antidote.
It's like the power of the key laser is darkness,
Mindfulness,
Concentration and wisdom is light.
Uttananan explains that.
Samadhi is brightness,
Brightens the mind.
Satyampanya is the clarity.
When we have sati,
Samadhi and panna,
Brightness and clarity.
The darkness has to disappear.
It will be uprooted.
Weakened,
Uprooted for periods of time.
Eventually completely uprooted.
But we do need to sow the causes.
So I offer this for your encouragement.
I hope that something I said may have been helpful,
Clarifying.
I'm not going to make a claim of being.
Liberated or enlightened.
I do know some people who I believe are.
I will,
However,
Say that in general.
When I wake up in the morning,
I tend to be aware of the first in-breath when I walk to the bathroom.
Tend to be aware of the feelings at the bottom of the feet.
When thoughts arise,
I tend to be mindful of the quality of the thought and whether it's wholesome or unwholesome.
And that gives me a lot of choice in my life,
What kind of karma I make.
They hope to incline to me.
Only wholesome kamas,
Good kamas.
Contain and pacify.
The unwholesome,
Unskillful.
Along the process of uprooting the seeds.
So I can see benefits from my practice,
Which is why I would like to encourage you all.
At a certain point,
If we are consistent,
The practice becomes self-sustaining.
Peacefulness is deeper,
The well-being is more resilient.
And then putting forth the necessary effort is less of a chore.
It becomes something that we are happy to do.
Because we can see the benefits,
As Lord Buddha said.
Peacefulness is the greatest pleasure.
Of course,
To be free from the conceit I am,
Is the highest,
The realization of Nibbana.
But we practice in stages.
So I encourage you to lay the causes.
Do as much practice as you can.
May you get great results from your meditation practice.
