The official Dhamma.org Vipassana meditation app is now available on the AppStore

The official Dhamma.org Vipassana meditation app is now available on the AppStore. You can get it by searching for Dhamma.org or by clicking this link from your iOS device: https://appsto.re/us/3dZodb.i

Features of this App

Learn more about Vipassana Meditation.

Find locations near you that offer Vipassana Meditation courses from a complete worldwide listing or map of over 300 locations spread across 80+ countries.

Locate Vipassana Meditation courses using search criteria such as dates, regions, and instruction languages.

Apply and register to attend a Vipassana Meditation course.

For Old Students

If you have completed a 10-day course in this tradition then you can enter the Old Student section of this App to access the following:

One hour group sitting recordings in 25+ different languages.

Play group sitting recordings with an option to log your daily sittings. Dhamma.org does not collect this data. All logged data is only stored locally on your device.

Old Student reference materials to guide your practice, including the 10-day discourse summaries.

More Information

Video tutorial and more information about the app is available on the following webpage https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/about/mobile-app

key teachings of Buddhism - What are the limbs for stream winning?

"Sāriputta, 'the limbs for streamwinning, the limbs for streamwinning,' so it is said. What now, Sāriputta, are the limbs for streamwinning?” 

“Bhante, 

(1) associating with the true persons, bhante, is a limb for streamwinning; 

 (2) listening to the true Dharma is a limb for streamwinning; 

 (3) wise attention is a limb for streamwinning; 

 (4) practice of the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma is a limb for streamwinning.” .........

"Sāriputta, 'the stream, the stream,' so it is said. What now, Sāriputta, is the stream?” “The stream, bhante, is this noble eightfold path itself, namely, right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.” 

SN 55.5

key teachings of buddhism - The Selected Discourses of Webu Sayadaw

So you have heard the Doctrine. You have learned the Buddha’s advice. But you do not remain satisfied with just hearing the Doctrine and just remembering it. You want to practice it. So you strive energetically and begin to walk the path. You establish the necessary effort (viriya), and in time, you must surely enjoy the fruits of your effort. Even now you know, of course, don’t you!? You’re getting results commensurate with your application and dilgence.

You are all here now because you have acquired sufficient pāramis to do so. The Blessed One said that if you stay with the Dhamma and follow the Doctrine you are dwelling near him although physically you may be at the other end of the universe. On the other hand, if you reside near him, so near, so close that you could hold the ends of his robes with your hands, yet, if you don’t follow his advice and practise the Doctrine according to his instructions, there is the whole distance of the universe between him and you...

Following his advice diligently, with due meekness, you will achieve what you wish, you will win the goal that you have strived for throughout samsāra. Innumerable are the holy ones who have trodden the Path and reached Nibbāna. So also, you, from different countries, different towns, all holy people, arriving simultaneously at the place of sanctity, if you set up sufficient effort (viriya) and work diligently with all humility you will also arrive at your goal.

Venerable Webu Sayadaw

From, “The Selected Discourses of Webu Sayadaw”

Key Teachings of Buddhism - With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation

Most of the cruelty in the world comes from people who are suffering and fearful. Only rarely do people who’ve been acting unskillfully react skillfully to their suffering and change their ways. All too often they do just the opposite: They hunger to make others suffer even more. So the world would be a better place if we could all simply follow the path to true happiness by being generous and virtuous, and by training the mind.

With these thoughts in mind, see if you can express goodwill for this sort of person: “May you learn the error of your ways, learn the way to true happiness, and look after yourself with ease.” In expressing this thought, you’re not necessarily wishing to love or have continued relations with this person. You’re simply making the determination not to seek revenge against those who have acted harmfully, or those whom you have harmed. This is a gift both to yourself and to those around you." ~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Boring

"So there are things going on all around you and inside you that you’re not paying attention to. And as a result, you don’t learn from them. So when you find yourself feeling bored, ask yourself, 'Is there some way I could pay closer attention? Is there something going on here that I’m not curious about or not learning how to question, taking too much for granted?'

Because that’s a lot of what the problems in the meditation are: things that you just take for granted. They’ve 'got to be that way.' Well, do they really have to be that way?" ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Boring"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - The Wise, Experienced Cook

"There’s that phrase: The great way is not difficult for those with no preferences. And here they’re not talking about having no preferences in terms of results. The preference is to put an end to suffering. That’s a very clear preference and that has to drive everything we do. When they’re talking about having no preferences it means that if you find that something works, then whether you like it or not, you do it. If something doesn’t work, then whether you like it or not, you don’t do it. You can’t let your preferences for those actions get in the way of the goal." ~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Wise, Experienced Cook"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Can All Beings Be Happy

"So when we wish that all beings be happy, part of it is that we're trying to develop this motivation that we don't want to harm anybody in our actions. Because that's all we're responsible for is our own actions. And then you also think about the fact that the happiness there, "May all beings be happy," has to come from causes. It's not simply we go around with a magic wand and touch beings on the heads and say, "Okay, whatever you're doing right now, be happy.” Because a lot of activities that people do are harmful to themselves, to other people. It's a part of being truly happy – and that's the important part, the //true// happiness – part of being truly happy is to learn how to stop doing unskillful actions." ~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Can All Beings Be Happy?", 16min mp3 audio,

Key Teachings of Buddhism - The Basic Medicine

"You’re working on a skill. Try to think back to whatever manual skills you’ve developed — carpentry, sports, cooking skills, whatever — and the attitude you had to foster to help master the skill.

If there’s a mistake, you don’t let yourself get upset by the mistake. Just start all over again. When things turn out well, don’t let yourself be complacent. Try to think of other ways to improve what you’ve done. Or if it can’t be improved, learn how not to mess with it, how to keep it going as it is.

There’s a certain balance, a certain maturity that you have to bring to any skill. That’s the kind of attitude you want to bring to the meditation. If you let yourself get too easily discouraged by bad sessions in the meditation or start getting complacent or cocksure about your good sessions, you’re setting yourself up for a fall, and no skill is going to come from that. You want to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. Whatever mistakes there are, you learn from them.

Whenever things go well, you try to learn from them. If you come out of a good meditation session, don’t leave it immediately. Reflect on what you did this time, what went right this time. And the more often you do that, the more precise your observation’s going to be, the more you start seeing cause and effect as they operate in the mind."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Basic Medicine"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Stubborn Clinging

This is why the Buddha taught the four noble truths, why he began the path with the four noble truths: pointing out first that our clinging is suffering. This is the essence of all the mind’s sufferings: its ways of clinging to the five aggregates. The recognition of this suffering—the stress, the pain you’re causing yourself—and the recognition that it’s not necessary: Those are the only things that are going to get you out of those really stubborn mind states.~Thanissaro Bhikkhu " Stubborn Clinging"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - The End of the World

"[A world is] your six senses. And samsara is not a place, it's an activity. In other words, it's made up out of your actions. That's where the danger lies, but that's also where the promise lies.

Because if we were just physical beings: there's no way you could use the processes of the physical world to get out of the physical world. But because the world is made of our actions: you can use the processes of actions to get out of this web of actions that we've woven for ourselves. This is where the fact of the complexity of karma actually works to our advantage." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The End of the World", 11min mp3 audio,

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Past & Future in the Present

"you’re acting here with intention. You’re not just being passively aware of what’s happening in the present moment. You’re trying to shape the present moment skillfully, and through shaping the present moment, you shape the next moment and the moment after that, at the same time remembering your original intention to stay with the breath.

So even though our primary focus is on the present moment, we’re bringing past and future to bear on the present: a clear memory of why we’re here, and what we should be doing, what we should be focusing on. And when you find something good, what you do to maintain it." ~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Past & Future in the Present"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - A Post by the Ocean

you're building your path here out of.... all these aggregates that are inconstant, stressful, and not-self. When we're resisting that to some extent, we know that we can't ultimately make our state of concentration permanent. But what we //are// doing is giving the mind the strength it needs to let go of things that cause harm, of things that cause suffering, because we're letting go from a position of strength. We don't let go out of weakness. If people let go out of weakness, there's bound to be an element of sour grapes, an element of dissatisfaction or resentment, which means that they don't really let go. They're hoping for some other time when they can latch on again. But if you let go out of strength, you let go for sure." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Post by the Ocean"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Appropriate Attention

before you get into the present moment, the Buddha recommends that you start thinking in a more universal way because otherwise there’s that problem I mentioned just now. You sit there you think, “Gosh, I’m a miserable meditator. I can’t do this.” But when you realize that everybody faces the same problems, it’s a lot easier to stick with it. There’s less personal recrimination and more of a balanced, equanimous, objective view. And not just that. The questions you’re bringing into the present moment depend on what your larger view is." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Appropriate Attention"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Wilderness Wealth

"This is one of the reasons we go into the wilderness, to remind ourselves that we don’t really need all that much — just some basic shelter, just enough food to keep going. If you can train the mind to be happy in a situation like that, that’s genuine wealth. There’s a real lightness that comes from being able to find happiness simply sitting here breathing. It means that your happiness is dependent on very few contingencies. The people with money, the people with investments, are the ones who have to read the newspapers every day to figure out what’s safe, what’s not safe out there in the world. But if your investment is in the skills of the mind, then no matter what the situation, you’re secure." ~ ThanissaroBhikkhu "Wilderness Wealth"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Living Forward, Understanding Backward

"Mindfulness is basically the ability to strengthen your memory — in this case, your active memory. If you want to do something, you keep reminding yourself to do it. You sense that it’s going to be a good thing, that it will be in your interest, so you don’t forget. Don’t get distracted by other ideas or other intentions. As for alertness, that’s what enables you to pay close attention to what you’re actually doing. So while we’re focused on the breath, we’re developing mindfulness and alertness, and a quality called ardency, which means the desire that, whatever you do, you try to do skillfully. In this case, try to relate to the breath in a skillful way." ~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Living Forward, Understanding Backward"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Bodies & Minds Outside

Whatever you’re experiencing in your mind, other people are experiencing the same sorts of things. And what they’re experiencing, you’ve experienced before. This can help with compassion and empathetic joy. There’s that passage where the Buddha talks about seeing people who are extremely wealthy and realizing you’ve been there before. When you see people who are extremely poor or ill, you’ve been there before as well. This helps to equalize things to counteract resentment or pride.

But this reflection can equalize things in another way. You can think about people who are faced with the same mental problems that you have: the mind when it’s depressed, the mind when it’s scattered. All the great meditators of the past and the present have had just exactly the same kind of problem. Yet they were able to get past it.

In the same way, when you’re sitting with pain, realize that other people have sat with pain, too, and yet they were able to keep sitting with it. What did they have that you don’t have? They had persistence. Where did they get that from? It wasn’t that they were born with it. They developed it. You can develop it too.~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Bodies & Minds Outside"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Gifts of Noble Wealth

"So it’s good to read the Dhamma, to listen to the Dhamma, to memorize the Dhamma. Have that as your wealth, something to remind you as you go through life and you get tempted to do something you shouldn’t do, or you don’t feel strong enough to do something you should. Those words are words of encouragement, words that help you get your priorities straight. Because this is an important part of the Dhamma teaching: helping you to see clearly what really is important." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Gifts of Noble Wealth"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - Outside of the Box

That craving is based on ignorance, and ignorance can be ended. What is it ignorant of? It’s ignorant of what really is stress and suffering; what’s causing it; what the end of stress and suffering is; and what qualities you have to develop to get out, to put an end to suffering. So you focus on them. What are you doing right now that’s putting a burden on the mind? You’re making choices that are putting a burden on the mind totally unnecessarily. So get the mind quiet to see if you can watch that happening. Until you watch it happening, it sounds pretty abstract. But when you can actually see the movements of the mind, that’s when you can see: “When the mind does this, it hurts. When the mind does this, it’s harmful, and I don’t have to do that—it doesn’t have to act that way. It doesn’t have to think in those ways.

This is where you resolve the issue. When you end this ignorance, all the other causal factors that lead to clinging, craving, and suffering fall down like a line of dominoes. So this is where the problem lies, this is where it can be solves, and it’s up to us to take responsibility for it right here, right now. If we don’t, who’s going to suffer? Well, we’re going to suffer. And when we suffer, we find it easy to make other people suffer, too.

The Buddha doesn’t force anyone to practice. He simply says that if you want to resolve the issues in your life, this is how they get resolved. This is what you have to do, and it’s up to you to choose: “Am I going to finally take the way out, or do I want to go back and settle a few old scores before I go?” The choice is yours, and you’re making that choice over and over and over again. If you see that the desire to settle scores is dominating your mind, you can always choose to change. That’s one of the good things about the path. You’re never committing yourself to suffering forever. You can always say, “I’m out of here.” This is not a question of irresponsibility. You’re taking your contribution to the troubles of the world and you’re removing it. That’s a choice each person has to make for him or herself alone. We’re the ones who choose to get involved, so we’re the ones who have to choose to say, “I’m out of contributing to that particular problem. I’m out of that unending back-and-forth. I want to focus on the real problems, the real causes of stress and suffering in life.~Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Outside of the Box"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - An Overview of the Path

"The Buddha talks about different levels of discernment. To begin with, there’s the discernment that comes from listening or reading, and the discernment that comes from thinking things through. And although it’s important to master those levels of discernment, the really important level is the discernment that comes from actually developing skillful qualities in the mind. That’s when you get hands-on practice.

And as you work on the factors of the path, they do their work on your mind. The mind becomes more sensitive, more alert to what it’s doing, more open to the possibility that the suffering you’re experiencing in life is not something you can blame on other people, or on conditions beyond your control. The essential suffering that’s weighing down the mind is something that you’ve been creating through your own actions, and you can learn how to stop. That’s what abandoning means. You realize that there’s something you’ve been doing over and over again and you don’t have to do it. So you stop.

The way to get yourself to stop is to see that these actions really aren’t worth doing. Whatever pleasure you get out of them is nothing compared to the pain that you’re causing. You have to see that fact in action, as it’s happening, if you want to be able to drop that particular habit. And often the habits we have to drop are the ones we really, really, really like. Only by getting the mind a lot more sensitive will you be able to see through that liking, to see through the blindness and the ignorance that underlies it, so that you’re willing to let go.

This is why we’re sitting here with our eyes closed, focused on the breath. We’re not off reading through the texts and trying to learn all we can about what the texts have to say. We’re here looking at our own breath to see what our actions have to say — when viewed from the point of view of a mind that’s centered, still, clear, stable here in the present moment. That’s the point from which we can develop a more refined sense of where there’s suffering and what action it’s coming from, so that once we really sees where it comes from, we can let go. We can stop." ~ ThanissaroBhikkhu "An Overview of the Path"

Key Teachings of Buddhism - To Be Your Own Teacher

"Learn how to question any impulses that seem to be unskillful, how to encourage the ones that are skillful, and how to ride herd on yourself in a way that really is sensitive to what’s just right. For this ability to find what’s just right is an extremely important principle in developing discernment. So the more you can become your own teacher, the better. The discernment that’s involved in becoming your own teacher is going to be essential for release. Discernment is not just a matter of seeing things in line with the texts; it’s a matter of learning how to watch your own mind, question your impulses, look at your intentional input into any situation. And the best way to see that intentional input is to start asking questions about when it’s skillful and when it’s not." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "To Be Your Own Teacher"