Working with anxiety about an uncertain present and future - with Ajahn Achalo

The COVID outbreak and the world’s governments responses to it have, in recent years, demonstrated that life can change in unexpected and unpredictable ways. How should we prepare and practice with anxiety?

0:00 - Introduction
3:12 - Guided meditation
30:22 - The world is inherently uncertain
37:11 - Long-term optimism
38:23 - Grief for attachments
39:18 - Things may get worse
45:05 - Inflation
46:20 - Preparing financially
49:24 - Preparing for disasters
54:08 - "Heedfulness is the path to the deathless"
56:12 - Geopolitics during the Buddha's life
57:20 - Liberation
57:58 - Wisdom & recognising blessings
1:01:37 - Death contemplation
1:06:48 - Metta & merit cultivation
1:15:59 - Conclusion
1:18:26 - Question: How to do death contemplation?
1:22:48 - Dedication
1:24:34 - Announcements

** About the Speaker **

Ajahn Achalo will be joining us from Thailand. Ajahn Achalo was born in Australia in 1972. He developed a keen interest in meditation at the age of twenty and a year later left for Thailand to study Buddhism more intently. After a two year period practising in various centres and monasteries, in 1996 Ajahn Achalo ordained as a Bhikkhu (monk) under Ajahn Liem at Wat Pah Pong, the monastery founded by venerable Ajahn Chah. Although most of his training has taken place in Thailand, Ajahn Achalo has also lived in several International Forest Monasteries in the Ajahn Chah lineage. Ajahn Achalo is deeply grateful for his many opportunities to study with well-practiced monks, as well as for having been able to train in several traditional contexts, including meditation monasteries, remote forests, and periods on pilgrimage. During his years of training, he has received personal guidance from many remarkable teachers, among them, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Jayasaro and Ajahn Kalyano. For most of his Bhikkhu life, he has considered Tan Ajahn Anan, abbot of Wat Marp Jan, to be his principal mentor. In addition, he has found the Dalai Lama’s instructions and example to be of tremendous value. On the website all of Ajahn Achalo’s Talks and Meditations have been presented in a more thorough and specialised context: https://www.peacebeyondsuffering.org/

You can watch Ajahn Achalo’s previous talk at the Metta Centre here:    • Practical tips for daily formal meditation...  

** About us **

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