Straight from the Heart

Thirteen Talks on the Practice of Meditation
by Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa Ñanasampanno

Translated from the Thai
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

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Contents
Introduction
The Language of the Heart
The Marvel of the Dhamma
The Prison World vs. the World Outside
Birth & Death
A Taste for the Dhamma
Feelings of Pain
Investigating Pain
The Principle of the Present
At the End of One's Rope
The Radiant Mind Is Unawareness
An Heir to the Dhamma
Unawareness Converges, Concealing The True Dhamma, the True Mind
The Conventional Mind, The Mind Released
Postscript
Glossary
Notes
Note: In these talks, as in Thai usage in general, the words 'heart' and 'mind' are used interchangeably.
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Introduction

These talks — except for the two marked otherwise — were originally given for the benefit of Mrs. Pow Panga Vathanakul, a follower of Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa who had contracted cancer of the bone marrow and had come to practice meditation at Wat Pa Baan Taad in order to contend with the pain of the disease and the fact of her approaching death. All in all, she stayed at Wat Pa Baan Taad for 102 days, from November 9, 1975 to February 19, 1976; during that period Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa gave 84 impromptu talks for her benefit, all of which were tape recorded.

After her death in September, 1976, one of her friends, M.R. Sermsri Kasemsri, asked permission of the Venerable Acariya to transcribe the talks and print them in book form. Seventy-seven of the talks, plus an additional eight talks given on other occasions, were thus printed in two massive volumes together totaling more than 1,000 pages. Six talks from these two volumes have already been translated into English and published in a book entitled Amata Dhamma.

The talks in the present collection all deal with the practice of meditation, and particularly with the development of discernment. Because their style of presentation is personal and impromptu, they will probably be best understood if read in conjunction with a more systematic introduction to the techniques of meditation, such as the Venerable Acariya's own book, Wisdom Develops Samadhi, which is available separately or as part of the volume, Forest Dhamma.

The title of the present book is taken from a request, frequently made by the Venerable Acariya to his listeners, that his teachings be taken to heart, because they come straight from the heart.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Rayong
June, 1987