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Dhamma Talks by Ayya Medhanandi and Others at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in Perth, Ontario, Canada
264 Episodes
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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, kindness, and care for others. We practise humility, patience and forgiveness, and observe our own conduct – instead of blaming or judging others' faults. Each day, for as many moments as possible, we abide in the sublime states of loving-kindness, compassion, and gratitude for the blessings of our life. These practices bestow peace of heart and equanimity with all conditions – and towards all manner of beings. Truly, we shall know deliverance of the heart from all suffering. Breakfast reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Sept 24, 2025
When the mind opens to the present moment in a humble, homage, witness way, sustaining that, know every wave in the ocean of the heart. In the silence of here and now, awareness melts all thought. We can see with clarity and listen with great compassion. Awareness deepens as we dive into the timeless, vast dimension of pure consciousness. We are awake. And we know – I am not fear, I am not anger. So let fear die. Let anger die. We are free, not separate – awareness aware of itself. Love prevails. And we never time out. Theravada Buddhist Community retreat, Toronto, May 23, 2025
Spiritual abuse is a hidden danger even among the most well-intentioned. If we allow the ego to undermine our nobler instincts, we fall prey to power and authority. Vigilant awareness will alert us and open our eyes to truly see and wisely protect the heart. When we are with the Dhamma, we are with the Buddha. We may not be perfect but we are on a noble path. So guard the mind and bear no hatred. Enshrine this pure presence and connection to the heart, to life and to each other with humility, respect, and loving-compassion – and share these blessings with all beings.
As an alms mendicant nun, dependent on the kindness of others for nearly four decades, I reflect on the generosity as well as the violence in this world. And yet, this path yields immense blessings. For the Buddha’s teaching is founded on the Noble Truth of suffering. If we care only about our own happiness, we suffer. But if we care about the happiness of others, peace of heart ripens. With humility, we free ourselves from darkness. The ego blinds us until we see with the eyes of kindness and compassion. Madison, WI. Retreat, Oct. 18, 2024
There is much fear in this world and yet there is a wondrous way beyond fear. Just as humans create weapons of mass destruction, we are capable of the exact opposite – nurturing the enlightened mind. We need only wake up from the toxic delusion and deceit of this world. Just as we turn from darkness to discernment, from fighting to forgiveness, grow in wisdom and see things as they truly are. Unconditional love and compassion shield us to peacefully work with what is not peaceful. At last, empty yourself of fear and be the true love you seek. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, June 15, 2025
Do we really want to wake up? We may have to face painful truths about ourselves. So we examine the depth of our dedication to this spiritual work and we watch out for the ego. The Buddha had zero tolerance for young monastics who resisted his advice. Yet pivotal to this training of the mind is just that – being open to reflections or feedback from a wise spiritual friend – if they are willing to guide us. Even if we think we are doing well on the path, their perspective may mirror a critical blind spot that will clear our path to awakening. Madison, USA retreat, Oct. 18, 2024
How do we extinguish the fires of greed, hatred and delusion that burn within the mind? The Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We grab hold of it right here and now – one moment at a time. Free yourself from relentless conceptualizing and the suffering that comes of it. Stop and be aware – again and again. What is happening within you? The Buddha's first aid is just this – see each moment of turmoil or fear that is assaulting us as impermanent. Witness these feelings of despair or darkness arise and pass away – not what you are. Breathe free. Breath by breath, we let the heart heal – at peace. Breakfast reflections, Sati Saraniya Hermitage, 2018
How true can we be so we don’t have to lie? Not just in what we say or think but also in how we live this precious life both in our doings on the outside, and also what goes on inside the mind – where no one can see! But we see. We know the state of the heart. When we turn away from self- deception to the inner shining, we are set free from our deepest pain – with pure love. So live caring for yourself as for others – spiritually in tact and whole, with measureless kindness and compassion. Sitting in the school of Truth, more than pilgrims, we are stars crossing space. We shine, even in the dark.
Living in the forest, we are always aware of the trees. Patient, deep-rooted, even in fierce storms, they stand. So stand like the trees, committed and enduring. See the world with pure awareness, just the way it is. Living in a state of gratitude, we make peace with the divisiveness of this realm. We offer the blessing of our own inner harmony – the heart's compassionate, pure presence – to live and die in a state of grace, gratitude and love. Some will be blessed by that. But can we spread peace in the world without being peaceful ourselves? Ottawa Buddhist Society, June 20, 2025
The Buddha encourages us to abandon the unwholesome and develop wholesomeness in our daily acts, words and thoughts. As we learn to trust in pure awareness and present moment mindfulness, the weight of the world is lifted from the heart. Here and now, we abide in the formless, changeless, and eternal. Not only do we bear testimony to others that this is within our reach but we are also directly blessed by it ourselves. We see the nature of emptiness and know the peace of true freedom.
What is true joy? All too soon, joy declines because of its nature to change, like all conditions of life. True joy is not an idea or belief in a perfect moment but it is knowing the truth of change and how to free ourselves from clinging to ephemeral happiness. Just as we avoid poison ivy when walking in the forest, refrain from touching anger or hatred. To see beyond the duality of likes and dislikes, the beauty of flowers or the fear of danger, wisely investigate and know the nature of all experience. Day by day, living the middle way with pure present moment awareness, we discover the joy of peace in the midst of change.
Do we know the truth of what we are? If not, how can we love unconditionally? When the heart abides in loving-kindness, the misery of fear, anger and despair is vanquished. If we look for unconditional love outside of us, we will never find it. Nor can we know it by thinking. The mind must grow in silence and stillness, in unsullied conscious awareness. Then we can see what we truly are – intuitively, beyond thought, in the quality of this very breath, this moment. We pierce through the dust of lifetimes to know the core of our being, to wake up – here and now. Just to live in that kindness is the truest life of all. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, January, 2025
The heart’s splendor is known in pure awareness – not tainted by any harmful thought or feeling. It is integrity itself – present now. Traverse from the self, the narrow sense of me and mine, to surrender – knowing that we are nothing of this realm. But this emptiness is a fullness, measureless and complete – so vast that it dwarfs everything. It is universal love, compassion, supremely gentle, kind. Once known, it can never not be known. We are not separate from awareness. Like the sky. It is always there – a silent homage, our true home. Ottawa Buddhist Society meditation, June 2025
Anger and fear are perilous, flammable states of mind – like barnacles attached to a ship's hull that undermine its power to sail. So we call on wise discernment and forgiveness to rescue us. We take stock: is there any anger within me? Or fear? The Dhamma purifies and frees us from these stains of the heart. So seek refuge. Guard the mind from the fires of anger or unwholesome states by directing full attention to present moment awareness. This is the blessing of our work, and the promise of awakening. Ottawa Buddhist Society, Quaker House, June 21, 2025
Just as one refines gold, we temper the restless thoughts and moods of the mind. We listen and deepen awareness in joyous silence, peaceful and benign. It's a noble healing of every harm we may have suffered in life. Instead of running from pain, we are freed from it – seeing its cause and its falling away into the luminosity of pure consciousness. Awareness of fear is not fearful – is not burdened by any darkness in the mind. So we walk intrepid, daring to forge our path to awakening. Quaker House, Ottawa Buddhist Society, May 2017
Between beauty and terror lies the Middle Way, at times crushing, at last – transcendent. Can we receive all of life with the pure love of awakened awareness? Just listen and watch in silence. Open and understand the heart in pure presence – the way a valley receives a flood. To witness the truth of impermanence is to know there is nothing at all we can cling to in this vast universe. Rumi wrote, “If you want the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not run from its thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself.” Sati Saraniya Hermitage, July 2024
We are caught up in the world – as if we're in jail. But we are also on the threshold of silence wherein lies the key to pure, infinite, wordless presence. Isn't that love – timeless, universal, here and now? Sustain that purity of heart and abide in pure presence, aware of awareness itself. There is no 'one' there, no solid being, and no experience is refused. Why is that? Because we cease to live in fear. The Buddha guides us to witness this process – not as a person identified with self or ego but just letting the world go. For we are not what we know, and that consciousness is the Deathless. Theravada Buddhist Community, Toronto, May 25, 2025
Our practice is a unique opportunity to develop our deepest potential for happiness as human beings. We use the skills of interior investigation with patience and courage to study the intimate workings of the mind. Well-guided by the Buddha’s teachings, we gradually learn intuitively how to direct ourselves on this path of wholesomeness and devotion. By trusting our spiritual practice, we are strengthened, growing inwardly as we directly experience freedom from fear and the heart's true compassion.
Hatred is a mental prison. We are blessed with freedom from it as long as we can abide in universal love well-nurtured in our own heart. For nature is its own reward and our true nature is nothing short of that pure metta. So, we guard this precious jewel vigilantly. Our primary obstacle is not knowing – first, that such a gem is within reach, and second, how to turn to it for true protection and safety in dark times. When universal love takes its rightful place on the throne of the heart, it shall preside unobstructed. Ottawa Buddhist Society, Friday, May 16, 2025
The world goes on the way it does. We have no control over these conditions – just as we cannot escape diseases of the body. But waking up is not beyond us. Bowing to the present moment is our homage to awareness, to pure presence that transcends all conditions. We see what is true – all else is a sham, arising and falling away. If we hold onto any of it, we have not yet shed the myriad faces of the ego. Mara will dance on our bones, pull out our hair, cut us to pieces or throw us off a cliff. But seeing the masquerade of Mara, we rise above all brokenness. For what is there to get – compared to what we already are? The ego dies at the feet of true sanctuary. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Sept. 30, 2024
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Thank you for this excellent teaching! I bow three times😀