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.
Discussion
One thought on “Citta and Right Speech: Cultivating the Voice of Kindness and Wisdom”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of 7 October, 2024
This week’s topic is “Emptiness and Fullness, the Dharma of Everyday Life”
Together we’ll embrace a week of practicing together, amidst whatever arises.
-
Methodology, Ideology and Cosmology: Three Dimensions of a Full Spectrum Practice
Recorded :
October 11, 2020 Dharma practice is sometimes seen too reductively through a uniquely meditative lens. This class looks not only at what you practice (methodology) but also at why you practice (ideology) and at your understanding of the nature of reality; the way you make sense of the universe, of time and space, self and world, life and…
-
What does Liberation Mean?
Recorded :
June 22, 2025 Buddha-Dharma teachings offer unparalleled insight into Truth, both ultimate and relative. Yet many practitioners fall into the belief that regular meditation alone will lead to breakthrough experiences and liberation-reinforced by the image of Buddha sitting under the Bodhi Tree.True liberation requires more than mindfulness practice. It transforms our entire conditioning: our ethics, how we view…
-
Cultivating Resilience: Heart-Mind Awareness in Challenging Times
Recorded :
May 11, 2025 This session focuses on finding freedom from suffering by validating our emotions and deepening our connection to the present moment. We will explore how non-judgmental awareness can help us release limiting beliefs and cultivate inner peace.
-
The Beauty of Being
Recorded :
May 27, 2018 Leela says: “Over the years my interest in awakening has be reformulated as how to be a real human being. In this session I invite you to explore, with me, the possibility of being grounded in the natural goodness of being. We will inquire how to live a full life from the ground of presence,…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 8, 2021
This week’s topic is The Freedom of an Unassuming Mind.
The Buddha used the image of a tangled and knotted thread to represent the complex roots of human suffering and distress. It takes sensitivity, persistence, and care to disentangle the tangle of ‘dukkha’. A tricky part of this is that our assumptions about the world radically shape the way the world appears, while remaining quite hidden to us. Fortunately, wisdom teachings and practices bring assumptions into view and support the untying of these unseen knots, opening us into a wide and free existence.
-
Waking down
Recorded :
November 26, 2017 Rather than waking up it seems that most of us need to wake down. How can our insights and the awakening process move from being primarily experiential to becoming functional, relational, and lived? In this session Leela explores spiritual practice as a fundamentally earthly practice. How do we awake a presence that does not contract…
-
Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 19 January, 2026
This week’s theme is: The Seven Stages of Purification in Insight Meditation
The Seven Stages of Purification in Insight Meditation is a 5-day exploration of how insight naturally unfolds through practice, as described in the classical Theravāda map of purification. Each day will combine a short teaching with guided meditation, helping practitioners-whether new or experienced-recognize how challenge, insight, clarity, and release arise as part of a single, coherent developmental process. Rather than presenting the stages as goals to attain, this series offers them as an orienting framework: a way to understand what is already happening in your practice, normalize both ease and challenge, and cultivate confidence, patience, and continuity on the path of awakening.
Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.
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.