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Retreat Dharma Talks
at Bodhi College
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Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit
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| ‘Citta’ is perhaps the single most important reference point in Buddhist practice; it is that which is subject to ignorance and has the potential for liberation. Although the word is often translated as ‘mind’, in practice ‘mind’ falls short of the scope and the intimacy of ‘citta’. Although ‘heart’ is another useful option, this doesn’t cover citta’s full potential for samādhi, wisdom and release.
In this online retreat, we’ll explore some ways in which the term is used in the context of the Pali Canon, as well as practices for revealing and clearing citta through meditation and inquiry. |
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2020-12-06 (37 days)
Bodhi College
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2020-12-08
Guided Meditation On Primary Citta
31:51
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The baseline of citta is openness, but it’s forgotten, mesmerized by its constrictions. Return to this primary citta, beneath the external and internal concerns. Take as support breathing out and breathing in.
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2020-12-08
Citta as Luminous Awareness
45:20
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Reading from several sources, the unrestricted citta is described. Beyond the world of phenomena, its baseline is open luminosity. The encouragement is to get in touch with its knowingness – jhāna is how we deepen into mind’s nature.
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2020-12-08
Q&A
26:16
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Please explain Ajahn Maha Boowa’s comment that citta ‘does not die’; is the experience of something that sees and receives experience citta; is citta what Tibetans call ‘mind itself’; is pure citta synonymous with pure knowing; please clarify comment about ‘storms passing through’ in relation to suicide; do we know when we are experiencing citta; how to rest in citta, the place of no ‘I’?
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2020-12-08
Guided Meditation – Responsive Intelligence
25:20
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Meditation is a process repeatedly placing attention. Keep touching references of comfort and steadiness, listen and linger until citta picks up the sign. We begin to learn what is suitable, what is working to gladden citta. It then has the strength to break down the afflictions of heart and body.
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2020-12-08
Q&A
52:23
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Please expand on terms kusala and akusala; right effort when working with body tension; is thought consciousness the same as anusaya (latent tendencies); please describe Thai Forest’s particular way of teaching dhamma; does stepping back out of the conditioned into the unconditioned refer to the unrestricted unbounded citta; how is yoniso manasikara different from mindfulness; comments on Venerable Paññavaddho’s view on citta.
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2020-12-09
The Absorption Process
50:53
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Meditation is a whole life process. Proper cultivation of citta – diligence, vigilance, careful attention in our attitudes and actions – can lead to degrees of liberation. Topics of samadhi, jhāna, wisdom are addressed.
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2020-12-09
Q&A 1
16:13
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Misguided jhāna; how to practice with the three characteristics (anicca, dukkha, anatta); is ānāpānasati enough for liberation?
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2020-12-09
Q&A 2
47:53
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Questions about involuntary movements in practice; please you comment on the third tetrad of ānāpānasati; please review the potential value of jhāna experiences; say more about how ignorance sucks energy from citta; deep fears and primal memories.
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2020-12-09
Guided Meditation – Brahmaviharā
30:11
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Ajahn Sucitto
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If we keep picking up and resonating the brahmaviharā heart tones, citta will naturally open and move in that direction. These are natural expressions of citta – it feels rewarded with these expressions and is energized.
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