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

The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings

With Kittisaro recorded on January 31, 2021.

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

On a Full Moon in the early years after the Buddha’s awakening, 1250 enlightened disciples spontaneously gathered to be in the presence of the Blessed One. His succinct teachings on that occasion, known as the Ovada Patimokkha, distill the essence of the Path leading to Nibbana.

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

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Wisdom and compassion in our relationships: two sides of the same coin.

    Wisdom and compassion are two wonderful qualities that grow in us as our practice deepens. Diving into each one and into the inseparable nature of the two reveals the way in which they support and give rise to one another, and the way they manifest in our relationships: with ourselves, with others, with the world….

    Read More

  • An Experience is Not The Point

    A deep application of attention includes the sustained application to any important experience. This includes a vast range of happy or painful, spiritual or conventional experiences. There is the view of the experience and the experience. What is a fresh way to see an important experience? Does the view of the experience matter more than…

    Read More

  • Dave Smith

    Mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths

    Across all Buddhist lineages and traditions, the four noble truths hold the utmost importance. They are the Dharma’s most fundamental teaching. In modern society, the focus of Buddhism often shifts to meditation, particularly mindfulness, as the practice continues to be integrated into contemporary culture. How can we bring the teachings of the four noble truths…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of December 12, 2022

    This week’s topic is “Interwoven and Free”

    The Buddha invited us to investigate our experience moment by moment. One of the key things we uncover as we do this is that separation is an illusion, and that we are deeply interwoven and interconnected with all beings and all things. This week we will disentangle the habitual knots of isolation and ignorance and open to the freedom available as we open our exploration of inter-being.

    Read More

  • Lisa Ernst

    The Gap and The Second Noble Truth

    There’s a moment before craving takes hold – a gap. In that space, we gradually cultivate choice in how to respond. This talk explores the Second Noble Truth: how reaching and pushing away pulls us from the present, and how the practice of recognizing the gap – whether a split second or something larger –…

    Read More

  • Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

    Wake up to your Life: Cultivating Courage & Compassion in the Everyday

    Awakening to Life means harmonizing our values and our actions. Many of us merely go through the motions, sleepwalking through the hours, without actually feeling alive. Cultivating courage and joy entails slowing down, paying close attention, and practicing being fully engaged with what each moment has to offer. Koshin Sensei will share Zen teachings and…

    Read More

  • JD Doyle

    Practicing the Middle Way: Navigating Between Extremes

    The Buddha invites us to travel the Middle Path, between extremes. How do we navigate this path that leads to knowledge, understanding and liberation? We practice with mindfulness and kindness to meet our day to day experiences and our conditioning: societal, familial, cultural, and historical. Inviting in curiosity and diligence, we learn to practice to…

    Read More