Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Impatience can cause all sorts of problems in our lives, and the Buddha said that patience is the highest of the spiritual qualities. Moreover Buddhism always emphasises the importance of patience - they understand that there are many lives after all! So if you're in a hurry to get enlightened, don't forget to go slowly. Sit back, relax and enjoy this talk about patience.

Ajahn Brahm offers a practical and wise attitude to life, including how to let go of painful experiences. We can't control everything that happens to ourselves and others in the world, but we can impact upon how we choose to look at it. Ajahn Brahm explains how to have a wise attitude to life.

The Buddha said that "the mind is the forerunner" to all thought, speech and action. Ajahn Vayama talks about how Buddhist practice helps us to see directly how the mind is the forerunner of all actions of body, speech and mind, and to train the mind to act skillfully in order to avoid the painful consequences of karma, and to cultivate the pleasant consequences of skillful karma.

Ajahn Brahm talks about the nature of consciousness.

Ajahn Vayama gives an uplifting talk about the benefits of developing the mind through generosity, virtue and meditation. As she explains, the benefit of practice isn't about changing the world for the better, but about the inner transformation - the miracle in the heart.

Doubt is a big problem in many people's lives causing them anxiety and stress. Ajahn Brahm talks about what doubt is and how to deal effectively with it.

What is "good" and "bad", "right" and "wrong", and how are we to understand these moral concepts really mean? Ajahn Brahm offers a Buddhist persective.

Ajahn Vayama tells stories from the time of the Buddha about the Awakened Nuns and what they can teach us today.

Ajahn Brahm talks about mental illness from a Buddhist perspective.

Rebirth isn't just a fundamental teaching of Buddhism, but also a very useful teaching that helps us see the BIG picture, not just of one life, but of many lives. It can help us to understand where we've come from, how we've developed certain characteristics and tendencies, and where we're going. Equipped with modern evidence about the reality of rebirth, Ajahn Brahm gives a talk about the nature and value of the teaching of rebirth.

Faced with critics spreading doubt about whether we really can know about such things as rebirth, Ajahn Brahm counters that the point of Buddhism isn't just to blindly believe but to investigate phenomena ourselves. The Buddha's teaching doesn't insist on blind obedient faith, but encourages inquiry, and offers people the tools to understand our own experience with greater clarity and depth. This talk by Ajahn Brahm isn't so much about what to know, but how to know.

Ajahn Brahm gives a talk on what the Buddha talk, taking the audience into a deeper perspective of what the Buddha realized on the night of his Awakening and what that really means for us all.

Guest speaker and abbot of the Bhavana Society in West Virginia, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana gives a talk about the source of happiness by cultivating the mind.

Ajahn Brahm offers a fresh slant on the Western view of injustices and the constant desire to right the wrongs and set things right.

Having just injured his foot by taking short cuts, Ajahn Nyanadhammo gives wise advice on the perils of trying to take "short cuts" on the Eightfold Path to Awakening, and how those perceived short cuts often end up being the long way around for those that attempt them. In the long run, the fastest route on the spiritual journey involves patience and persistence in developing the spiritual qualities that lead to liberation.

We usually only notice kamma and its consequences (fruit) when we receive the consequences of bad kamma that makes us suffer. So how we to understand this? And how are we to deal with the consequences of bad kamma made in the past? Ajahn Vayama offers advice on how to take a wise approach to dealing with the fruit of bad kamma.

Ajahn Brahm discusses the Buddhist attitude to responsibility - what responsibility really means and how to deal with it.

One of the Divine Abodes (brahmaviharas) taught by the Buddha that is often overlooked is that of sympathetic joy (mudita), that feeling of joy for the happiness of others. Ajahn Brahm explains what it is and how to arouse this divine emotion.

Ajahn Brahm offers a Buddhist perspective on sex and sexuality.

If you've got an itchy head, would you scratch your bum? Ajahn Brahm explains that one of the elements of the spiritual path is the attention and wisdom to recognise where and when you have a problem and thereby directing your efforts in that area - rather than the wrong area - in order to get a the right result. And ultimately we need to recognise the causes of happiness and suffering within ourselves, rather than blaming others for our problems.