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New Life by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (1/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given on 1^st April 1986.

« Before everything else I would like to express my happiness that all of you have come here to this place and have come in the way that you have come, which means that you have come here in order to find and discover the highest thing that the human beings can receive. That highest thing that human beings can receive ... we can call this highest thing a ‘new life’ or a ‘new world’... »  [Audio]

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The Things Called Elements (Dhātus) by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (2/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given on 7^th April 1986. 

« Today, we will be talking about the thatu [Thai] or dhātu. Dhātu is the Pāli word often translated ‘elements’ into English. Some of you may think it’s a lot of nonsense. So please listen very carefully. Set yourself to listening as closely as possible otherwise what is said will go past you and will only seems like nonsense... »  [Audio]

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The Noble Eightfold Path by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (3/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in April 1986. 

« Today we will speak about the ‘Eightfold Path.’ When we have met up with a ‘New Life’ then we must follow this new path or we could also that we follow this new path, this way of new life, in order to realize a new life. So this Noble Eightfold Path is a new way appropriate to a new life... »  [Audio]

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The Instinct by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (1/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in May 1986. 

« Before everything else, I would like to express my joy and happiness that you have come to this place in order to study and practice the Dhamma. In short, the Dhamma is the thing which will allow us to make most use of this opportunity of human life. As much as possible, we will be able to make use of this human good through the study and practice of the Dhamma... »  [Audio]

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Something Which Most of You Probably Misunderstand by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (2/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in May 1986. 

« Today, I would like to talk about something which many of you may misunderstand – you may misunderstand this thing quite a bit. For this reason, please gather your mental energies and set your mind upon the task of listening carefully. Please pay very careful attention to what will be said today. The subject that we will be talking about is ‘sukha’ or ‘happiness’... »  [Audio]

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The Basic Foundation of Knowledge for Practice of Ānāpānasati by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (3/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in May 1986. 

« Today, I am going to talk about the ‘basic foundation of knowledge for the practice of ānāpānasati.’ If the basic knowledge, the fundamental knowledge of the practice of ānāpānasati is correct, then it will be very easy for you to practice ānāpānasati successfully, and you will achieve the proper benefit from this practice... »  [Audio]

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Defilements and Dukkha by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (1/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in June 1986. 

« The kilesa (the defilements) and dukkha disturb us and bother us so that we cannot be cool or joyful. The problem is that dukkha arises from the fact that we don’t know ourselves. The thing we call dukkha has many symptoms, conditions, characteristics but we can summarize it as saying dukkha is what makes the mind agitated... »  [Audio]

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Defilements and the End of Defilements by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (2/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in June 1986. 

« Today I’m going to speak about ‘the defilements and the end of defilements.’ You’ll be hearing the word kilesa very often tonight. The usual translation for that is ‘defilement’ or ‘defilements,’ but I’ll be using the Pāli word kilesa or the Thai word gileet (gi-leet). The reason we’re talking about this subject is because all of the various problems that arise in human activities are a problem of the kilesa... »  [Audio]

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Defilements and Enlightenment by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (3/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in June 1986. 

« Tonight we’re going to speak about two very important things. These two things are kilesa (defilements) and bodhi (enlightenment). Please observe that throughout the day, during each and every day, the mind appears in only two roles – the role of kilesa and the role of bodhi. These are the only two roles that the mind can play. We need to observe and study our own minds... »  [Audio]

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The Advantages of Having Dhamma by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (1/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in September 1986. 

« On the first day of this session, of this retreat, I’d like to speak to you about something that we call ‘tham’ [Thai] or ‘Dhamma,’ to speak about it in different aspects and from different points of view because I think that this is something that you don’t understand very well. We should begin with the question of – in coming to this retreat ... what are you going to receive?... »  [Audio]

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« To Have Dhamma by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (2/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in September 1986. 

« Last time we spoke about ‘the benefits of having Dhamma.’ This time, today, we’d like to speak about the having of Dhamma or about ‘having Dhamma’; and in the third talk we will speak about ‘using Dhamma.’ What this is all about is reaping the benefits of Dhamma. In order to reap the benefits of Dhamma, it is necessary to have it... »  [Audio]

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Using Dhamma Advantageously by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (3/3 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in September 1986. 

« Today we’re going to speak about ‘how to use Dhamma successfully or beneficially.’ The first time we talked about ‘having Dhamma or the benefits of having Dhamma,’ and yesterday[’s talk] was ‘how to have Dhamma.’ Today is how to use it. We can compare this with money. We have to know how to acquire money; and then how to have it; and then how to use it... »  [Audio]

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The Burden of Life by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (1/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« Today, at this first talk, I feel that we should talk about one specific topic. That topic is our problem – everyone’s problem. The reason that I want to talk about this topic is because if we don’t understand what our problem is and what our problems are, then we don’t know why we are here and we don’t know what we’re doing when we come to study the Dhamma... »  [Audio]

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The Problem of Every One of Us by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (2/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« Today we’d like to continue speaking about the topic we began yesterday which is talking about our problems. If we understand our problems clearly and completely, then we’ll be able to start doing something about it [them]. And therefore we need to give adequate attention this subject of our problems... »  [Audio]

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The Things Called The Five Khandhas by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (3/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« The last two days we have spoken about the burden of this thing we call ‘life.’ We’ve been speaking about this in order that you will understand what this burden is or what our problem is. And if you truly understand it, then you will be able to let go of it – toss it away – and be free of it... »  [Audio]

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The Things Called The Five Khandhas (continued) by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (4/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« Today we must continue to speak about the five khandhas (the five aggregates). We need to look at this – or we will continue looking at this – from some angles and in different aspects which we haven’t looked at yet. In order to understand the burden of life we need to understand the five khandhas completely... »  [Audio]

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Originating Cause That Turns Life into Dukkha by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (5/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« Today we’d like to speak on the topic of the original cause for life becoming a heavy burden or dukkha – the original cause for life becoming a heavy burden or dukkha. The answer to this that we can give right off the bat is that the cause is not knowing the five khandhas according to reality. Life becomes a heavy burden because we do not understand the five khandhas... »  [Audio]

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Fruits of Removing Self from the Five Khandhas by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, translated into English by Santikaro Bhikkhu. Lecture (6/6 of the series) to participants in the monthly Suan Mokkh international retreat, given in December 1986. 

« Due to the fact that this is the final talk of this series, I would like to talk about the final topic associated with what we’ve been talking about. So today I would like to talk about the results or fruit of uprooting the idea of a ‘self’ or an ‘I’ associated with the five khandhas. So today we’ll be answering the question: what are the benefits of pulling out the self from the attachment to the five khandhas?... » [Audio]