Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Citta and Right Speech: Cultivating the Voice of Kindness and Wisdom

With Dave Smith recorded on July 31, 2022.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

Dharma practice encourages us to transform our thoughts, words and actions. The primary mechanism for how this is accomplished is vague. What often goes unnoticed is that the use of the term mind has undergone a radical psychologization from the time of the Buddha into present day. During this session we will explore the many nuances of the pali term citta and how it can be utilized as a voice for personal and global transformation.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

One thought on “Citta and Right Speech: Cultivating the Voice of Kindness and Wisdom

  1. Excellent and inspiring, as expected. Just want to add; the Buddha experienced monkeys first hand. I think the term “monkey mind” may be misunderstood by current westerners. Monkeys don’t “jump from one thing to the next” pointlessly. They are searching for food, looking for stimulation, etc., and when satisfied they lay around, sleep, or groom each other and socialize. All done without mindful purpose, but purposefully nonetheless, from the position of monkey culture. I think a better term would be “bored monkey mind” and we should recognize that the best way to settle down a monkey’s mind is to provide it with “right activity”. A little food for thought.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 6, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Finding Balance in the Midst of Uncertainty”. Dharma teachings support us in meeting the wholeness of our lives with interest, gentleness and creativity. Acknowledging the inconstancy and flux of our experience, both joys and sorrows, with sensitivity and care nourishes a deep wellbeing. Through the week we will cultivate a nurturing environment through which to connect with challenging aspects of the human condition. By prioritising spacious tenderness over contraction and demand, we can find the liberation of the true heart’s release.

    Read More

  • Ven. Pannavati Bikkhuni

    All Worldly Dharma is Buddha Dharma

    Nowadays, many Buddhist practitioners have mistaken views. Taking the false to be true, we can make some progress, but not much. Only in the light of wisdom can we awaken to the truth because it allows us to penetrate avidya — the karmic hindrance of non-understanding that is complicating our lives. Join us for a discussion…

    Read More

  • The Relative is the Absolute: Touching Race, Injustice, and Love

    When we engage in the distortion that the relative plane is separate from the absolute – that it is something to transcend or ‘just an illusion’ – we ignore the reality of the illusion. When we know ourselves as a whole which subsumes everything, we cease to diminish or dismiss the mystery of being human….

    Read More

  • Christelle Bonneau

    Body and space / matter and consciousness.

    How can we become more grounded and more intimate with ourselves while becoming more spacious and free from endless random mental chatter? Let’s explore in the ways in which the body is such a precious help for meditation practice and in mindfulness in everyday life. Let’s explore as well the central role of space, emptiness,…

    Read More

  • Lisa Ernst

    How to Recharge Your Practice with a Tried and True Inquiry

    Even if you’ve been meditating for years, you probably encounter old patterns that seem impervious to your mindful awareness. Maybe at times these patterns are dormant, but during challenging moments they reappear and perhaps feel intractable. In this session we’ll explore inquiry practices that can help interrupt and disentangle the mind from its habitual “stuck”…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of February 13, 2023

    This week’s topic is “Awakening in the Midst of Life”. Our relationship with life is revealed through our words, thoughts and actions. Reflecting on these in the light of the Dharma opens up possibilities of transformation and wellbeing. During this week we’ll explore ways of perceiving and engaging with experience that can help us to deepen our understanding and awaken to a fuller way of being in the world.

    Read More

  • Daigan Gaither

    Bodhisattva Practice

    Using the hagiography of the Bodhisattvas of Compassion, Wisdom, and Activity, let’s explore how to bring those ideals into our everyday life off the cushion. What can these perfections of compassion, wisdom and activity teach us about our own journey to practice-realization, and liberation.

    Read More