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Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
283 Episodes
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When we suffer in body or mind, we are called to investigate pain and its causes – are we ill, threatened, injured, broken in spirit, or have we hurt someone else? Awareness of the causes enables us to respond well. But reflecting on and understanding the Buddha's Four Noble Truths of suffering is core to complete freedom from it. When we let go our ideas about suffering, we directly experience its qualities. Our mental faculties sharpen and purify the mind for the arising of wise insight and ultimately – awakening. Ottawa Buddhist Society retreat, Nov 20, 2025
Where is peace if not within us? The world may be on fire but we start where we are, guided by the Buddha himself. Just being with the breath, studying the law of impermanence, see how it is ever changing – arising and ceasing. No breath is ever the same. No footstep, no moment, no day repeats. This practice of present moment awareness reveals that we are not our thoughts, nor the objects in the mind; we are not our mind states nor anything that the mind clings to in the world – just as a mirror is not what it sees. For we are the knowing that reflects all that is known – pure consciousness itself, boundless and peaceful. That is our true nature.
All around us, we witness suffering – greed, hatred, and delusion are burning everywhere. We too are burning. We may feel helpless to extinguish those external flames, but we can put out the fires within us. Seeing the harm of unskillful habits and disenchanted with worldly attachments, we live mindfully, using sila – goodness and virtue in all that we do, say or think – not just as a convention but as a force for peace. This is the path. When the inner fires perish, radiant happiness and peace prevail, to be shared with all beings. Sati Saraniya reflections, Aug. 25, 2019
The path between the beginning of our pains and their ending is the Buddha's Middle Way. Rare in this world, it is worthy of our trust – through a subtle shift in perspective. There is freedom from mental suffering – not by avoiding it but by understanding it. Know its impermanence and see its true nature – empty and not what we are! So we disarm the stress, fear, doubt, hatred, or any of their cousins and mindfully balance moment by moment. In the light of sacred awareness, gathering gentle joys and peace, we offer our silent heart to the Infinite Silence. OBS, May 19, 2023
We are blazing a trail out of the wilderness of ill-will, greed, and delusion in the world. It may feel as if we are walking a razor’s edge – at times bereft or lost – and we must all face death. But the Buddha teaches us to trust, to persevere, and live wisely. As a witness to life, we search deeply so that we can clearly see the true causes of our suffering. Thereby, we gain stability, patience, contentment and inner peace. In this joyful awareness and gratitude, the heart opens with greater loving-kindness and compassion towards all beings everywhere – for we are on the same path of awakening. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Nov. 2, 2025
By nature, we are inclined to care for ourselves. Do we also wish to see others well and happy? Reflecting that we are all subject to the universal law of impermanence, so too, let us consider how caring for ourselves is a way of caring for and blessing one another. Harmlessness and non aggression balance the heart and nourish a deep island of inner refuge, peace, and gentle stability. This is a blessing to the world. Just so, caring for ourselves, we care for each other – sheltering in love, kindness, compassion and wisdom. A talk at the Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community, Nov. 15, 2025
How powerful, disarming, and distracting is the sense world where the mind is easily caught in desire, hate and delusion. Clinging we suffer. But sufferings spur us on to discover a quality of peace that is unshakeable. When we learn to abide with the flow of experience, seeing that peace in stillness and pure awareness, we feel the true contentment and happiness of the Dhamma. This is blissful. The mind emptied of impurity – empty of ego – sees wisely and is filled with love and compassion. We know our true nature, and we see that we are all one. Ottawa Buddhist Society, Dec. 19, 2025
We are eager to know how to quiet the restless and anxious mind. But how will peace ever come in the face of life's struggles? Listen to that inner cry with present moment awareness. Softly, simply, be present, balance, and rest on the pinnacle of every breath. Practising like this, again and again, let the world fall away into a beautiful vast spacious awareness. We enter the timeless, tenderly knowing the joy and unsurpassable refuge of this universal silence – not out there, but right here within us. Meditation reflections at the Ottawa Buddhist Society, Oct. 17, 2025
As pure witness, we sail the inner sea in our own heart's silent awareness. Not plundering the mystery of this silence with concepts, we listen. Even in the midst of the noise of life, or the chaos of the world, we can stop there to wake up for one moment, and then another. Silently knowing, we are present. Being aware for one moment is peaceful. This knowing is boundless. For in all of life’s events, struggles, and unfoldings, here and now – fear has no grip, neither worry nor want for anything. We are whole in the peace of this awareness itself, reflected in the luminous truth of timeless presence. We are born for this – to plant seeds of awakening for ourselves and all beings. Sati Saraniya, Dec. 14. 2025
When fear, anger, sorrow, or shame arise, the Buddha advises us: "Be your own doctor." See. Feel. Know the suffering within. To cherish the silence of the mind is to go beyond fear and all cousins of darkness. When we rest in the present moment, intuitive awareness blossoms and shines its extraordinary light to illumine the truth of all that arises, lingers, and fades away. Impermanent. Moment by moment, timeless. Right here and now, we can know things just as they are. Fear breaks up into empty fragments of sensation. Nothing more. It has to because that is its true nature. This is how we bring forth fearlessness out of fear. And that will be freedom for our brave heart. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Dec. 7, 2025
We are ever concerned about what we eat and the condition of the body. Yet care for the mind brings spiritual health. It's a question of balance. Mind is the forerunner of all things. And happiness and joy will surely follow when we rejoice in goodness. If we lose hold of the Dhamma, then how can our ship leave the harbour? Though the currents of life – of the world – are huge, we persevere. Trust in purity of heart, kindness, compassion and wise awareness everyday, in all that we do. A loving heart opens to clarity of vision, peace and blessings for ourselves and for all beings. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Nov. 23, 2021
Compassion is the benevolent sister of harmlessness. Caring for ourselves, we care for each other – just as caring for each other, we care for ourselves. But how shall we live harmlessly in a world filled with anger, greed, and ignorance? May virtue prevail to protect us from their toxic currents. Fully aware and guided by wisdom, we shield the pure space of the mind with greater compassion, loving-kindness and peace. This practice of inner disarmament is the Buddha’s recipe for awakening. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Nov 24, 2024
To understand suffering is to know the way out of suffering in our life. So, we trust the perfectly enlightened Buddha – most noble friend and guide to the heart's awakening. Turning away from greed, hatred, selfishness and conceit, cleanse the cobwebs of delusion and sow seeds of virtue, wisdom, love and compassion. With pure conscious awareness, just listen to the silence – present and awake in the joy and peace of liberating insight. This is the path. Sunday reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage. Nov 2025
"Do not hate those who wrong you. How else can you manifest the unborn power of compassion.” Hatred even of our critics is not the resort of the wise. Day by day, know the blessings of peace, of forgiveness, kindness and pure awareness. Wisdom dispels our fears and sorrows in the clear light of awakening. Just like plants everywhere keep turning themselves towards the sun whenever it shines – the trees, flowers, vines, even weeds – they teach us. We always return to the unrelenting light. Sati Saranya Hermitage, Nov. 5, 2023
The world is forever fraught with the fires of greed, hatred and delusion causing much harm and suffering within and around us. Seeking refuge from the mind's vulnerabilities and restlessness, we secure our spiritual moorings. For here and now, as disciples of the present moment, we have full protection. We stand tall in virtue and wisdom. For we graze in the field of mindfulness and pure awareness. Whenever the ego drags us away, we return to pure presence, undaunted and aware – guarding the jewels of our heart. Reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Aug. 17, 2025
The Buddha left us a blessing key to wisdom and freedom. Can we use it for awakening? In the face of all the inevitable challenges of this human life: painful feelings, worries, fear, illness, betrayal, loss of the loved, aging – so many ways we suffer and are locked in by that suffering. The blessings are awareness and vital care of our actions, speech and thoughts regarding ourselves and each other. Living ethically, with kindness and humility, we wake up to universal truths, to what we really are. We see with new eyes: the shrine is within us and this life on planet Earth is pilgrimage itself. Sati Saraniya Hermitage breakfast reflections, Oct, 20, 2025
Though distinct, our body and mind share the ultimate characteristics of all conditioned phenomena, being impermanent, imperfect and impersonal. Nor do they have any solid core or trace of any 'self'. This is key to freeing ourselves from identifying with body or mind as what we truly are. So we investigate further to understand, clear and protect the mind. Virtue is our moral shield from harmful, unskillful states. Aware inner listening nurtures stillness. We are on track to enter the gates to the Deathless. Insight Meditation Society Retreat, May 6, 2013
Day by day, we bear witness to the flow of experience through which the world seems to tumble and thrash, as it did even a thousand years ago. In every age, doesn't life unfold through change, success, pain and struggle? How do we harm ourselves and each other and how can we repair and heal suffering with the timeless tonics of loving kindness, compassion and forgiveness? Such is the power of living harmlessly – the most ancient remedy of all. Sati Saraniya Hermitage Sunday talk, Oct 5, 2025
Can we stay true to our spiritual aspirations and fulfill them without compromise? Keep remembering and applying the Buddha's instructions to protect virtue, trust the practice and commit to this noble search and rescue. We hold the reins to free ourselves from life's inevitable trials, so let us see the way to emerge from unfathomable darkness with our compass of wisdom. Here and now, awareness ripens the heart in joy, compassion, and blessing. Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat, 2015
The Buddha guides our way to inner purity and awakening through cultivating the special qualities of universal love. First, we devote ourselves to a noble life of virtue, loving kindness, and care for others. We observe our own conduct – instead of blaming or judging anyone. We aim to abide with unconditional loving kindness, compassion and gratitude. Wisely reflecting, living in peace and understanding towards all beings, we shall surely know deliverance of the heart. Breakfast reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Sep 24, 2025
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Thank you for this excellent teaching! I bow three times😀