Dhammagiri Buddhist Podcasts
Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage
Dhammatalks, Chanting, Precepts and Meditation with Ajahn Dhammasiha and other experienced Senior Buddhist Monks in the Theravada Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. Recorded at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Brisbane, Australia. You can learn more about our monastery, Ajahn Dhammasiha and our Sangha at our website: https://www.dhammagiri.net We've also got a Youtube Channel, including regular live podcasts on the weekend "Dhammatalks at Dhammagiri": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJINt0JJBfFm_x0FZcU9QJw Our email Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive .
- 29 minutes 56 secondsGratitude: Count Your Blessings | Guided Buddhist Meditation | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Kataññu Katavedi
At the end of the year, we're usually focussed on resolutions for the future. But we may overlook good things we already have, and good qualities we already have developed in our character.
Reflecting on all the good things we can be grateful for doesn't mean denying all the bad things happening in the world. However, if we're only focussed on the bad stuff, our mind is in danger to become angry of depressed.
If we acknowledge all the good things we receive, our mind will be uplifted and joyful.
In this guided meditation, Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to recollect those fundamental things we usually take for granted, but which are in reality great blessings.
Instead of having a long list of complaints, rather let us consider what we have to be grateful for:
- Born as a human being in a peaceful, wealthy country like Australia
- In reasonable good health with unimpaired mental faculties
- At a time when the teaching of Buddha is still available
- When we have 'Kalyaṇa-Mitta' (good spiritual friends)
- When we have Forest Monasteries
- And when we have at least some confidence/faith in the Triple Gem
- (...)
- ( There are many more, feel free to fill in all the other blessings you can find in your own meditation 😊 )
When we count our blessings, we feel contenment, satisfaction and joy in our meditation, and the mind can settle down easily.
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#meditation #buddhistmeditation #buddhism #dhamma #blessings
30 December 2025, 12:00 am - Born as a human being in a peaceful, wealthy country like Australia
- 30 minutes 21 secondsSanta Meditation - Empty the Heavy Sack! | Guided Meditation | Buddhist Xmas | Ajahn Dhammasiha
In this guided meditation, Ajahn Dhammasiha uses Santa Claus as a metaphor for the process of emptying the mind.
Santa's job is to give gifts to all the kids for Christmas. He's working very hard to fulfill this task, travelling on his sleigh carrying a very big and heavy sack with all the presents. Similarly, our mind is carrying around the heavy load of all kinds of different emotions, feelings, moods, worries, desires, hopes, concerns, phantasies, images, thoughts... and so on.
When Santa takes the gifts out of his sack, his task is simply to give it away to the kid that requested that particular gift. Whether the gift is some beautiful doll, or some ugly monster, or some boring game, Santa is not getting involved at all:
- He's not terrified at the monster
- He's not attached to the handsome doll trying to keep it for himself
- He's not throwing away some yukky looking Ninja Turtle in disgust
Whatever he finds in the sack, he just acknowledges it and then gives it away to the kid it's meant for, without clinging or aversion to the gifts.
Similarly, whatever comes up in our mind, we just acknowledge it for what it is, but don't get involved at all. We don't attach to the pleasant stuff, we're not averse to the unpleasant mental objects, no liking, no disliking, no holding on. It's not our's anyhow, so we just give it all away, letting go, emptying our mind.
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#xmas #christmas #meditation #buddhistmeditation #buddhism #dhamma
26 December 2025, 8:00 am - He's not terrified at the monster
- 26 minutes 22 secondsBe Like Santa Claus - Give Everything Away! | Buddhist Xmas | Christmas | Ajahn Dhammasiha
Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to "be a good Santa".
A good Santa Claus will give all the gifts to the kids.
A bad Santa may cheat and keep the most expensive presents for himself.Similarly, our task as followers of the Sakyan Sage is to not hold back, but to give absolutely everything away.
Not literally giving away, but letting go of absolutely everything:
Whether it's material objects, or relationships, loved ones, or our own feelings, emotions, thoughts, views, intentions, consciousness...If we're a good Santa, we let go completely without holding back.
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#xmas #christmas #dhammatalk #buddhism #buddhistwisdom #dhamma
21 December 2025, 8:00 pm - 9 minutes 33 secondsTAN SAMVARO | The Essence of Dhamma Practice | Essential Buddhist Teaching | Ven Saṃvaro
Ven. Samvaro has stayed with us for here at Dhammagiri for one month in November to December 2025.
In this short (10 min) video, recorded after the Saturday morning Changting and Refuge & Precepts Session, Tan Samvaro answers a question from the audience:
With all the various Buddhist teachings we here about, what's the gist of them all?
What do we really have to focus on in our practice?
Venerable Saṃvaro is currently resident at Vimutti Monastery, Auckland, New Zealand, looking after the management of the monastery, and conducting most of the Dhamma teachings there: https://atba.nz
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#dhammatalk #buddhism #meditation #buddhistmeditation #buddhistwisdom
19 December 2025, 8:00 am - 44 minutes 52 seconds10 Ways to Make Good Karma | Ten Bases for Punya | Dasa Puññakiriyavatthu | Ajahn Dhammasiha
Ajahn Dhammasiha talks about the 10 Foundations for Making Good Karma (Dasa Puñña-kiriya-vatthu):
- Generosity (Dāna)
- Virtue (Sīla)
- Mental Cultivation / Meditation (Bhāvanā)
- Reverence / Respect (Apaciti)
- Service, Offering One's Labour & Skills & Talents, e.g. our now monthly held Working Bees 🔨👨🌾⛏️👩🌾 ✂️(Veyyāvacca)
- Transference of Merits / Sharing Good Karma with Past Relatives (Pattānuppadāna)
- Rejoicing in Other's Good Karma (Abbhānumodanā)
- Teaching Dhamma (Desana)
- Studying Dhamma (Savana)
- Straightening One's Right View (Diṭṭhujukamma)
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#dhamma #buddhism #dhammatalk #buddhistwisdom #meditation #buddhistmeditation
15 December 2025, 8:00 pm - 29 minutes 46 secondsWe Meditate to Let Go, Not to Get Anything | Buddhist Dhamma Talk | Ajahn Dhammasiha
Ajahn Dhammasiha encourages us to refocus our meditative effort on letting go.
We can get overly obsessed with focussing on a particular meditation object, and lose sight of our general mindstate: We may fall back into the long established habit of acquiring things, of trying to get something.
Instead, everything in our cultivation of bhāvanā should aim towards letting go.
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#dhammatalk #buddhism #theravada #meditation #buddhistmeditation #lettinggo #buddhistwisdom
12 December 2025, 8:00 am - 47 minutes 29 secondsContentment, Full Body Awareness, Knowing Right Measure when Eating, Wakefulness | Ajahn Dhammasiha
Ajahn Dhammasiha talks about steps in the Buddha's 'Gradual Training' that lead on from fully established virtue to the develpment of samādhi.
- Sense Restraint / Indriya-saṃvara
- Contentment / Santuṭṭhi
- Maintaining full awareness of all bodily movements / Sampajāna-kārī
- Wakefulness / Jāgariyam-anuyutta
- Knowing the right measure when eating food / Bhojanasmiṃ Mattaññutā
These steps form the necessary foundation for the next stage in the gradual training: Abandoning the five hindrances to develop samādhi in solitude.
If we struggle to unify our mind in samādhi, we should give more attention to these five.
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#buddhism #dhammatalk #contentment #wakefulness #awareness #buddhistwisdom #buddhistteachings #insight
8 December 2025, 8:00 pm - 26 minutes 2 secondsDispassion, Cessation & Letting Go to Underlie All Dhamma Practice | Ajahn Dhammasiha | Viraga Nirodha Patinissagga
In the last Tetrad of Ānāpānasati, the last four steps of Breath Meditation, the Buddha teaches us to breathe in and out focussing on:
- Anicca - Impermanence
- Virāga - Fading Away of Passion = Dispassion
- Nirodha - Ending/Cessation
- Patinissagga - Letting Go
However, these four contemplations do not apply only to breath meditation.
In fact, they should be underlying principles of our whole Dhamma practice: Whether it's generosity and kindness, or purifying our ethical behaviour through keeping precepts, or practising sense restraint, or cultivating any meditation object - all of it should be done with these four modes, these four guidelines informing and directing our efforts in bhāvanā.
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#lettinggo #ending #nirodha #viraga #dispassion #dhammatalk
5 December 2025, 8:00 am - 56 minutes 26 secondsTAN JAYADHAMMA | Guided Meditation | 'Tuning In' | 6 Sense Spheres, 5 Hindrances, Distractive Thoughts
Tan Jayadhamma has stayed at Dhammagiri for 7 months, spending the vassa (rains retreat) 2025 with us.
Just before leaving, he kindly offered this comprehensive guided meditation as a parting gift.
His one hour guided meditation consitsts of three parts on the theme of "tuning in":
- Part one explores the six sense spheres, based on the Buddha's simile of the six animals found at SN 35.247.
- Part two focuses on the five hindrances, with the Buddha's simile of the five bowls of water found at AN 5.193.
- Part three zooms in on the mind and how to remove distracting thoughts, with five different methods the Buddha taught at MN 20.
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#meditation #buddhistmeditation #tuning #intune #balance #insight #wisdom
1 December 2025, 8:00 pm - 37 minutes 9 secondsTAN JAYADHAMMA | Tuning In | Balance in Meditative Practice | Dhamma Talk at Dhammagiri
Tan Jayadhamma has stayed at Dhammagiri for 7 months, spending the vassa (rains retreat) 2025 with us.
Just before leaving, he kindly offered these reflections on balance in practice, based on the Soṇa Sutta (AN 6.55) and the Buddha’s simile of the lute.
His talk explores the meaning of sama (“in tune”), the five spiritual faculties as five strings, and how to maintain harmony in practice.
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#dhamma #dhammatalk #meditation #buddhistmeditation #tuning #intune #balance
28 November 2025, 8:00 am - 26 minutes 10 secondsCalm and Insight: Advice to New Meditator | New to Meditation | Samatha & Vipassana | Ajahn Dhammasiha
Ajahn Dhammasiha provides advice to a newcomer to meditation. Although it was his first time visiting Dhammagiri, and only the second attempt in his life to practice formal meditation, he had sat through a full our of guided meditation forehand, and had also joined the almsfood offering earlier in the day. Ajahn Dhammasiha gives a broad outline of the development of the two main aspects of Buddhist meditation:
- Samatha / Samādhi / 'Concentration'
- Vipassana / Wisdom / Insight.
Ajahn also gives some general encouragement helpful to establish a regular meditation practice.
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#meditation #buddhistmeditation #introtomeditation #samatha #vipassana #insight
24 November 2025, 8:00 pm - More Episodes? Get the App