There are people who say that the idea of an independent self is the root of all evil. As long as you have the idea that you’re somehow separate, that you’re not totally dependent on everybody else, you’re going to be selfish. You’ll try to amass as much as you can for yourself and push other peopl...

So whenever you find yourself thinking about outside conspiracies, remember: The big conspiracy is the way the mind fools itself. That’s the conspiracy that you’re really suffering from. The world outside is never going to be free of conspiracies or conspiracy theories. As we all know, this is the ...

You notice that in the contemplation of the body, it doesn’t start with the other person’s body. It starts with your own. Now, partly this is because, as the Buddha says, the reason we’re able to lust for other people’s bodies is because we have a strong attraction to our own bodies. Even if we thi...

The Buddha talks about conceit in two places. In one, he lays out nine kinds of conceit, basically where you compare yourself with other people. In the first set of three, you actually are better than the other person and you think you’re better or you think you’re worse or you think you’re equal. ...

There’s that saying that how you do anything is how you do everything, but it’s not true. There are some people who are very together in their professional lives, but their personal lives are a mess. There was one person I knew who would come to the monastery and behave in a very self-indulgent way...

So it’s always a question of what you’re doing, not a question of who you are. There’s that one sutta [ SN 12:15 ], where the Buddha says, when you really focus on things as they are arising and passing away, you get to the point where the seeing how things pass away, the notion of their existence ...

Awakening doesn’t just happen. You have to have the desire for it. We hear stories of spontaneous awakening, but the question is, is it really awakening? Psychologists talk about what are called “neurotic breakthroughs,” where people have been struggling through a really dark period in their lives ...

We come here because we make mistakes. We’re attached to wrong ways of doing things. When they talk about attachment, it’s not so much that you’re attached to things. You’re usually attached to what you can *do* with the things. You’re attached to actions. After all, the mind doesn’t have a hand th...

If there’s suffering, the cause is not outside. Just turn around and look in your mind. This is not for the purpose of laying the blame on you. It’s for the purpose of offering you a path out of the suffering. What people do outside often is totally outrageous. Sometimes people don’t even behave li...

When I was teaching a retreat in Canada last year, one of the retreatants mentioned that she had been told that we can’t change our perceptions, which is probably one of the most un-Buddhist teachings imaginable. It’s because we *can* change our perceptions — learning how to identify the world in a...

Question 22: But can’t kamma be used to justify social injustices? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Only by people who don’t really understand or believe in kamma. If someone has the kamma that tends to poverty or a painful death, there are plenty of natural causes or accidents that will provide an opportunity ...

So as you’re trying to keep the Buddha in mind, your question should always be that old question, “What would the Buddha do? What would the Buddha say?” Well, one of the things he would say is to ask you a question: “What’s the most skillful thing to do right now?” Make that your determination, tha...

The Buddha talks about having goodwill [mettā] as solid and large as the earth, or as large and as cool as the River Ganges. In other words, you have to think of your goodwill as being too big to fail — i.e., too big to be affected by irritation — and that goodwill and kindness are not weaknesses. ...

There have been many cases where people talk about how their attitude of goodwill [mettā], when going into a difficult situation with lots of danger, has protected them, changed the energy of the situation. Again, it’s not trying to be tender or gentle toward other beings, it’s simply wishing them ...

There is a true happiness that can be obtained through human effort. It’s not in a lot of the activities that most people assume will lead to happiness, and that’s something you do have to accept. But, [the Buddha] says, your desire for true happiness is something you should honor. That’s what he h...