Ayyā Medhānandī

Peace, patience, and practice ripen with the quality of faith. We trust the teacher on a path distinguished by compassion and a diet for awakening the heart. “All suffering arises when we think about our own happiness. And all happiness arises when we think about the well-being of others.” So we forsake harm to free ourselves from selfishness. Learning to understand and know our true nature, we sow the seeds of unconditional compassion and peace. This is the highest blessing.  A talk for the Ottawa Buddhist Society, April 2021

As seekers of truth, we turn the wheel of Dhamma inwardly. There alone can we understand the mind’s purity and directly know the true rhythm of the heart, undiluted by worldly refrains. The sounds of the world can turn coarse and invasive until we listen to the silence in our interior depths. Secluded from life's relentless currents, we traverse the ‘cloud of unknowing’ with the riches of our virtue. Then we shall dis-cover and gain strength enough to fulfill the way of the Buddha – our transcendent going forth through the gates of the Deathless.  A Dhamma talk and guided meditation, Ottawa Buddhist Society, April 2021

As the witness of suffering, we gain new eyes to see. A doorway to knowing non-duality opens – there is no 'you', no 'me'. We are in the realm of no separation in one moment – gone beyond opinions, beyond wanting, beyond our pains and brokenness, and our enslavement to all that drives us. Can we see them as empty and powerless apart from the power we give them? Emptying the mind's rubbish each day, every moment that we can – enough to see, to intuitively know unconditional love – we ascend the Everest within to behold the jewel of the heart’s Himalaya.

Too long we have been caught in the grip of anxiety, anger, and clinging that lead nowhere. But there is an oasis in the depths of our native humanity. To understand what is true, we must empty all that is untrue. This is ultimate care of the mind: disentangling the knots in the heart that obstruct the moral-ethical fabric of our true nature. So we set our inner compass beyond all these blinding mental habits to witness that inner radiance. In the mirror of pure emptiness we reflect that silent knowing the truth of what we are.

Fire is our teacher – the fire of pain, the fire of persevering through difficulty and the fire of going beyond what we think we are capable of. For we are greater that we know and our journey is one of learning to trust what is right and true. When the heart’s compassion, wisdom, and generosity mature, there is no space for fear. All the dross of the world melts away in the silence of pure presence. Here is the absolute sanctity of awareness, unencumbered and joyous in the knowledge of pure love itself.

The winds of change blow constantly. We seek shelter, gazing attentive and unobstructed into the mind – aware, in pure presence each moment. We sit, warming the heart and our precepts with gratitude. Stopping in this way, letting be, we truly see. In loving care of the mind, not harming ourselves or any living being, uplifted, we realize our true nature. This is supreme refuge. The Dhamma is there to be fully known. Clear, empty, joyful, open – we prepare to receive it.  Guided Reflections, Portland Friends of the Dhamma, Jan. 2024

When universal love leading to liberation of the heart is ardently developed, unrelentingly resorted to, it becomes the foundation of our life. We travel in a divine vehicle, our inheritance from the Buddha, the sublime abiding of mettā, loving kindness. This is our shelter from unwholesome states, a true salve for impure and damaging mental afflictions. More and more as we purify the mind, it triumphs over hateful feelings and forgiveness and compassion are perfected. Indeed, by the power of loving kindness, we are crossing the stream to the farther shore, awakening to the Deathless.

Our suffering may feel too great or the mountain may look too high. But we are resilient and we have it in us to do this work, to walk this path – if we can give up thoughts of self-cherishing and feel compassion for ourselves and for all beings. The fruit of this work is a treasure to be gained even in the smallest instant of awareness. With radical patience, just make peace with one moment of painful feeling. Then offer up the pain or misery. From the ashes of suffering, we turn inward to the clarity of the mind. Stay fully present in awareness, listening to that silence. Such a song comes – the pure sound of this awareness. That's what we are. We are that song.

By deeply examining the mind as the Buddha taught, we see our stark human predicament, why we suffer, and the real source of happiness. For he awakened to suffering’s end and the noble path to freedom. With immense gratitude for his teaching, we learn how we are caught grasping the world, compelled by its impingement and tormented ever after. We realize the ineffable vanquishing of that disease – when we stop giving vent to the wanting mind and live each moment from a pure compassionate and wise awareness. And so, quite apart from the world, we directly know here and now, within our own heart – the truest joy, the supreme peace of Nibbana.

When the mind is completely silent, we experience the peace and happiness of pure awareness. This far surpasses any worldly promise of impermanent gains or pleasures. Instead, through wise intuitive insight, we enter into a blessed interior seclusion. Metaphorically speaking, not a shred of love exists in the cloud where we trust storing all our important digital data. Yet with our pure awareness, we see what can never be seen in the cloud. Where else but within does the Buddha guide us to know our true nature? Giving up all self-preoccupation for unconditional love, we know the heart’s true freedom. A talk given at the OBS Arnprior Retreat, Nov. 18th, 2022

Contentment and generosity nurture a quality of metta that is kind through and through. We learn to respond to life like the good earth that is ever patient with and tolerant of our heedlessness. Whatever you throw on it – even if it’s harmful – the earth receives that. Generating such a depth of goodwill, we endure through hardships with contentment even if we’re struggling. And, with a generosity of harmlessness, we weave great compassion and benevolence to ourselves as well as to others. Such measureless kindness never dies. It is our true wealth and the bedrock of our path to liberation. A talk given to the Portland Friends of the Dhamma, January, 2024.

What does it mean to be noble? As a daughter of the Buddha, I learn that no name, title, degree or pedigree can confer true wisdom, authority or respect; nor do opinion, tradition or entitlement bestow them – for as the Buddha wisely teaches, “One does not become noble 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.

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. Portland Friends of the Dhamma, US, Jan. 2024

The Buddha gives us a flawless positioning system that will guide us to the coordinates of Truth. That ultimate refuge and peace is not to be known anywhere but in the sanctuary of our own heart. To find our spiritual bearings, we explore our true nature and the real origin of our sufferings. Step by step, our wise friends and daily practice of virtue, mindfulness, heroic forbearance, and faith will reinforce and steady us as we navigate the tempests of life. But this is a journey of great joys as well as trials. Like the hollow reed that becomes a flute, we empty ourselves of fear to be the true love we seek. A talk given at the Insight Meditation Society monastic retreat, Ma. USA, May 2013

Though we may feel lost in the world, on the path of purification we find secure refuge and blessings shower down upon us. It is by the power of our own mind that we bring forth what is resplendent in this world. We use suffering as our teacher and live in forgiveness, gratitude, and clear seeing – grounded in the treasures of Truth. Doesn't the ocean care for each wave until it reaches the farther shore? Just so, we entrust our aspiration to liberate the heart in the care and protection of the Dhamma. An OBS talk, Dec. 17, 2021

With selfless awareness, we radiate good-will, that quality of loving-kindness, inwardly and to all beings, even to those who are indifferent or hostile, or to those who cause harm. This is the Buddha's instruction to us in the Metta Sutta. Can we unequivocally wish all beings freedom from harm? Can we forgive enough to convert thoughts of fear, anger or enmity into benevolence? It takes courage to enter a dark space without a light. So we try as much as we can because unconditional compassion and kindness in this world give peace, healing and reconciliation a chance. Guided reflections for the Ottawa Buddhist Society, Nov. 18, 2023

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 harm 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.  A talk at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, December, 2023.

Let us not serve the false, fierce tyranny of fear – withering, unworthy, not to be clung to, and not who we are. By emptying the mind of fearful thoughts, we stop clinging to anything of the world – one moment at a time. Tasting the joy of true freedom, we enter that dimension of transcendence, beyond the prison of grasping a self and all its adornments. For there is no 'one' to be afraid, no ‘one’ who dies, and no ‘one’ to awaken. But there is waking up as we let go into the peace of selfless awareness. A talk with the Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community, Dec. 17, 2023

Through the lens of Truth, mindful and attentive, we pierce anger, sorrow, fear and complacency. We are on the cusp of realizing who we are. Clear present awareness leads us inwards. We are on track to let go, relinquish and abandon all that is harmful. Discarding ancient beliefs one after another with microscopic insight, we empty out the rubbish from the mind. Radical awareness directly knows the impersonal, imperfect and empty nature of all that we experience. Now we see the face of holiness. Giving our hearts to truth, we are set free. A talk at IMS retreat, Barre, MA., USA, April. 2019.

When the inner fires flare, stay in your lane – aware, present and know – even if you are on fire, you can still the inner turbulence and sustain peace. Resist wandering to the past or future; resist the viruses of the mind’s obsessions. On the magnanimous wave of Dhamma, let go fear and control. Wise, patient, and pure-hearted, sit fearless in the truth of this moment, and right there, at the very core of the raging storm – watch it die. When the chains of life unravel and the bonds of wanting gently fall away, you enter the chrysalis. It’s a prayer, a holiness, the heart’s peace – indeed, the way from sacrifice to sanctity. At a week-long SIMT retreat, Batavia, NY, USA. Aug. 24, 2021