Ajahn Sucitto

Ajahn Sucitto, a Theravadan Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition for twenty-eight years, is the Abbot of Chithurst Monastery in England. He is a popular teacher of meditation who conducts retreats around the world.

Books, Courses & Podcasts

Rude Awakenings

Half raucous adventure and half inspirational memoir, Rude Awakenings documents an unusual pilgrimage. Two very different men—life-loving naturalist Nick Scott and austere Buddhist monk Ajahn Sucitto—together spend six months retracing the Buddha’s footsteps through India. Told alternately by Sucitto and Scott in their distinctive voices, this story blends self-effacing humor, philosophical explorations, drama, travel observations, and the occasional giant fruit bat. Rude Awakenings is a heady record of survival and spirituality set against the dramatic backdrop of one of India’s most lawless regions.

Being Human and a Buddha Too

Coming soon! This book will be available in August 2023. Enter your name and email below to be notified when this book is available for purchase.

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In writing that sparkles and inspires, Anne Klein (Lama Rigzin Drolma) shows us how to liberate our buddha nature to be both human and a buddha too.

This first volume in the House of Adzom series centers on Longchenpa’s seven trainings in bodhicitta, our awakened mind, the ultimate purpose of our practice and training. Anne Klein’s original composition masterfully weaves in Adzom Paylo Rinpoche’s commentary and Jigme Lingpa’s five pith practices and commentary on the trainings, in keeping with Longchenpa’s skillful integration of sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen, to resolve our most challenging questions about what awakening involves and how it relates to the truth of our human situation right now. As foundational teachings for Dzogchen practitioners, the seven trainings are framed as contemplations on impermanence, the adventitiousness of happiness and its short duration, the multiple causes of death, the meaninglessness of our worldly activities, reliance on the Buddha’s good qualities, the teacher’s pith instructions, and ultimately nonconceptual meditation on bliss and emptiness, clarity and emptiness, and reality itself.

Shaila Catherine: Beyond Distraction (#158)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features Shaila Catherine, who has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than eight years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught insight meditation since 1996 in the U.S. and internationally, dedicating several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal, and Thailand. She is the founder of Bodhi Courses—an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay—a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley. Shaila has completed a one-year intensive meditation retreat and trained in jhana, metta, samadhi, and vipassana practices. Shaila is also the author of Beyond Distraction, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity, and Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā.

Beyond Distraction is also available as an upcoming Wisdom Academy online course!

In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and Shaila discuss

what distraction and intention mean for meditators at every level of experience;
‘wholesomeness’ and mental states rooted in greed, hate, and delusion;
mindfulness, the construction of identity, and recognizing conditioning;
realistic strategies for overcoming restlessness and distraction as presented in her new book Beyond Distraction;
her experience with deep meditative states and practical wisdom we can apply now;
shifting habitual patterns and thoughts by identifying and examining them gently;
wisely approaching concentration and the joyful cultivation of insight;
and much more!

Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!

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The Dharma of Well-Being 2

Welcome to The Dharma of Well-Being 2! In this three-part course, drawn on insights and methods from both the Buddhist tradition and Western psychology and philosophy, Lama Alan Wallace invites you to investigate the causes of both genuine unhappiness and genuine well-being.

In this second module, Lama Alan explores the wisdom of the second turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the deeper causes of mental distress and mental well-being. Lama Alan introduces the deepest root of suffering: grasping to inherent existence. The Middle Way teachings of the Buddha’s second turning of the wheel of Dharma look at the nature of identification and the way phenomena exist. Understanding how the self is perceived, we can reveal the process by which we form attitudes and behaviors in our relations to other sentient beings. With this deflating of self-centered delusion, we are brought into accord with reality and able to inspire well-being for all, including ourselves.

While not necessary, we recommend completing The Dharma of Well-Being 1 before engaging with parts 2 and 3.

In this second program, you will learn about:

the nature of identification and the way phenomena exist;
dependent arising;
the nuanced view of Mādhyamaka Prāsaṅgika philosophy;
holistic well-being;
the transformation from renunciation to bodhicitta;
turning within for satisfaction and cultivating selflessness;
and more!

Lama Alan Wallace, internationally renowned for the clarity and profundity of his teachings, invites you to explore the inner causes of suffering alongside the causes of genuine well-being, and learn practices and techniques that will help you on your journey to develop genuine and lasting well-being.

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Beyond Distraction

The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind. Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.

Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind:

Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts.
Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts.
Avoid it, ignore it, forget it.
Investigate the causes of distraction.
Apply determination and resolve.

Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities. And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key realization: In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.

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Alejandro Chaoul on Body Buddhism (#135)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Dr. Alejandro Chaoul, who has studied Tibetan yoga for thirty years with the tradition’s greatest masters, including Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Dr. Chaoul and host Daniel Aitken explore

Tsa Lung Trul Khor (“channel/wind obstacle-clearing techniques”) yoga practice and its place in Dzogchen meditation;
the practice of “Body Buddhism,” integrating the body with the mind and breath;
the benefits of purification practices like Tsa Lung Trul Khor and the subtle body;
practices to help restore “dimmed awareness” to clarity;
quick techniques that can be applied immediately in practice and daily life for balancing;
his book with Wisdom, Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind;
and more.

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Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Early Buddhism and Dzogchen (#133)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a discussion with special guests Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

Ven. Anālayo, Rinpoche, and host Daniel Aitken discuss many Buddhist ideas and practices, comparing what different Buddhist traditions have to say about them, including

how the Buddha practiced;
understanding mindfulness across different Buddhist traditions;
the difference between mindfulness and awareness and how we translate the original terms for these practices;
defining terms like space and emptiness and how we think about emptiness;
emptiness and compassion;
and much more.

Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!

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A Peaceful Piggy’s Guide to Sickness and Death, Sadness and Love

When someone we love gets sick, we little piggies worry! It can feel scary when a person we care about is sick or in a hospital. Luckily, there is one good thing we peaceful piggies can do: meditate.

This is a story about love.

Experiencing a loved one’s illness or death is challenging for both children and their grownups. With three distinct sections to choose from—when someone we love is sick, dying, or has died—this guide will help you easily find soothing and practical mindfulness activities focused on what your young one needs in order to guide them through their big emotions and questions. These practices will help calm and empower children—and their grownups—as they discover they can still be with their loved ones through their heart connection, no matter where they are.

Click here for an animated video based on the story.

Pamela Weiss: Real Health, Real Freedom, and Fierce Feminine Buddhism (#131)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Pamela Weiss. Pamela is the author of A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism, a teacher in the Insight tradition, and has received Dharma transmission from Teah Strozer at the Brooklyn Zen Center.

Pamela and host Daniel Aitken discuss

how she found Buddhism through illness, and the vital role of self-compassion on her path;
key ideas in Zen, such as the practice of “just sitting,” and Pamela’s own journey and insights with these practices;
her fascinating journey between the world of the monastery and the lay world;
her recent book;
and much more.

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Koshin Paley Ellison: Making All of Life a Place of Practice (#125)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison. Koshin is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and certified chaplaincy educator. Koshin and host Daniel Aitken discuss the Commit-to-Sit: 90-Day Commitment to Practice he ran earlier this year; his most recent book, Wholehearted; his wisdom for making all of life a place of practice, from the bedsides of the dying, to intimate relationships, and to the heart of New York City and beyond.

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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Dharma for Difficult Times (#124)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with beloved teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

Rinpoche and host Daniel Aitken discuss

practice during lockdown (this episode was recorded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic),
working with anxiety and stress,
how to choose which teachings to follow,
how to understand the nature of your mind,
how Rinpoche structures his teachings for his students,
and much more.

Rinpoche is the author of several bestselling books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers. He is the son of the renowned meditation master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and was formally enthroned as the seventh incarnation of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche by Tai Situ Rinpoche when he was twelve years old. When he was twenty years old, Rinpoche was appointed as the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling Monastery. In addition to his extensive background in meditation and Buddhist philosophy, Mingyur Rinpoche has held a lifelong interest in psychology, physics, and neurology. He teaches regularly throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia.

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Living with Uncertainty: When Will I Die?

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Guy Armstrong: Illuminating Emptiness (#121)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with beloved teacher Guy Armstrong. He and host Daniel Aitken discuss many aspects of Guy’s journey into Dharma and his practice with many famous Theravadin masters, as well as themes of interest to Guy, like emptiness.

Guy has been leading insight meditation retreats since 1984 in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is the author of the Wisdom book Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators and taught a Wisdom Academy online course based on the book. His training included living as a monk for a year in the Thai forest lineage. Guy is a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council and a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society. He lives in Woodacre, California.

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The Mindful Menopause Workbook

The Mindful Menopause Workbook will help you bring mindfulness into your day-to-day activities during menopause. The teachings, exercises, and meditations will show you how to recognize and achieve a more balanced, peaceful, and joyful orientation to whatever you experience at menopause and beyond.

A year’s worth of daily teachings will offer you micro-moments of self-care and self-development—mentally, physically, and spiritually. Following each teaching is space for you to journal whatever thoughts, emotions, or sensations arise. The exercise section includes an illustrated guide to yoga postures and outlines sequential poses that foster greater ease and awareness of the body, while the guided meditations and breath exercises promote body-mind unity through expanded peaceful awareness. The book addresses issues common to women during menopause sensitively and gives recommendations for dealing with common complaints such as insomnia, fatigue, low energy and libido, anxiety, depression, hot flashes, physical discomfort, poor digestion, and weight gain.

Together, these teachings, exercises, and reflections will help you approach menopause mindfully, and joyfully, as you deepen your practice and transition into a new stage of life.

“The Mindful Menopause Workbook is an ideal companion for navigating the transitional tidal waves of feminine growth. It is a great resource to rejuvenate the heart, mind, and body as you step into the next phase of life with renewed hope, confidence, and wisdom. Francesca Dupraz-Brossard has mapped out exciting pathways for women to appreciate and connect with their heart, mind, and body with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and to rediscover the beauty of their lives.”
—Dr. Charika Marasinghe, PhD, trustee, Vishva Niketan International Peace Centre

Tibetan Yoga

Discover ancient Tibetan yogic practices that integrate body, breath, and mind on the journey to personal cultivation and enlightenment.

Tibetan Yoga offers accessible instructions for performing the ancient yogic techniques of Tibet’s Bön religion. This is Tibetan yoga, or trul khor, a deeply authentic yogic practice. Drawing on thirty years of training with Bön’s most senior masters as well as advanced academic study, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul offers expert guidance on practices that were first developed by Bön masters over a millennia ago, framing them according to the needs of contemporary yoga practitioners and meditators.

No matter their level of experience, dedicated practitioners of Tibetan yoga will discover their ability to clear away obstacles and give rise to meditative states of mind. In Tibetan Yoga, you’ll learn what it means to practice for the benefit of all beings and to experience your body as a mandala, from center to periphery. These movements help you live in a more interconnected mind-breath-body experience, with benefits including better focus, stress reduction, the elimination of intrusive thoughts, better sleep, and general well-being.

Save 20% on the Tibetan Yoga online course when you buy this book! Your discount code is at the end of the book.

Awake Where You Are

“Embodied awareness is the way back home—intimacy with where and how we are right now, with what is happening and how we are meeting it. This book will lead you into the heart of your life, into your body, where everything happens—with quality of listening rather than knowledge, of feeling rather than reaction. Practicing in this way is radically transformative.”
—Martin Aylward

Pulled around by desires and distractions, we’re so easily disconnected from ourselves. Life is happening right in front of us, and within us—but still, we manage to miss so much of it.

Awake Where You Are provides the antidote, inviting us to go deep into our own bodies, to inhabit our sensory experience carefully; to learn the art of living from the inside out, and in the process to find ease, clarity, and an authentic, unshakeable freedom.

The practices in the book literally bring us back into our skin, where we can reconnect with a more rich, meaningful, and peaceful life. Aylward writes with sophisticated subtlety, as well as the heart-opening simplicity and clarity born of deep experience.

More than a meditation guide, this book is a guide to living an embodied life. You’ll learn about the following areas and practices:

- Understanding and liberating our primal human drives.
- Integrating psychological understanding with meditative practice.
- Investigating the nuances of love.

“Martin is a marvelous teacher and offers us the refreshing wisdom of an embodied life.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of No Time Like the Present

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The Dharma of Well-Being 1

Welcome to The Dharma of Well-Being 1, first in a three-part program! In this course, drawn on insights and methods from both the Buddhist tradition and Western psychology and philosophy, Lama Alan Wallace invites you to investigate the causes of both genuine unhappiness and genuine well-being.

In this first module, you’ll start by looking into what genuine well-being is before delving into what it is not as Lama Alan explores the causes of suffering, mental afflictions, and unhappiness, along with the internal factors that often prevent us from being truly happy. He then turns to the causes of genuine happiness and offers skills, practices, and insights that will help you achieve genuine happiness and well-being in your own life. This foundation in experiential psychological insight prepares students for exploration of deeper insights in later modules.

The Dharma of Well-Being 2 and The Dharma of Well-Being 3 are forthcoming.

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Exchanging Air with Trees

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Leo Babauta: Zen Habits (#111)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a conversation with simplicity blogger and bestselling author Leo Babauta.

Leo created Zen Habits, a Top 25 blog with over a million readers, when he started writing to chronicle and share what he’s learned while changing a number of habits, including waking early, losing weight, quitting smoking, becoming a runner, eliminating debt, and more. In this wide-ranging conversation, Leo shares some of his approaches to eliminating “bad” habits and developing “good” habits, explaining how bringing awareness to thought and behavior allows for examination of deeply embedded psychological patterns and is thus instrumental in creating sustainable change within oneself.

Remember to subscribe and give the Wisdom Podcast a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show!

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