Ariya B. Baumann left her career as a music and dance teacher in favour of her deep yearing to understand herself and the world. Based on her many years of practice, twenty-one of them as a nun in the Burmese tradition, she now lays a strong emphasis on the practice of loving-kindness (including metta chants) as a basis for the vipassana meditation practice. She has translated a number of Dhamma books from Burmese to English and German, among these are Mahasi Sayadaw’s ‘Manual of Insight’. She is a co-founder and president of ‘Metta In Action’ which supports a variety of social and medical projects throughout Burma, especially nunneries.
The practice of the Dhamma is a powerful protection that comes about by wholeheartedly applying mindfulness, the four protective meditations, restraint, virtue, going for refuge, patience, or the parittas.
Confidence is crucial for any undertaking, also for our spiritual journey. Our confidence in the teaching, the actual practice, and in our ability to do the practice grow and deepen as we move along the way.
Thoughts are a natural manifestation of the mind. We need to understand the nature of thoughts and then use them wisely and skillfully in our meditation practice and life.
Instead of being at the mercy of desire and attachment we need to understand the sticky nature of every form of desire – and then to weaken and abandon it. Besides using mindfulness there are a number of approaches to skilfully deal with desire.
The world (loka) and beyond the world (lokuttara) are distinguished by only one thing: loka is what is constantly disintegrating and disappearing whereas in lokuttara there is peace with no arising and passing away.
What is our relation to death? To our death? Are we prepared for this certain event in our life? The frequent reflection on the inevitability of death sets free the energy to do what is meaningful and beneficial in our life. Our priorities become clear and we do not waste time with trivial things.
