This book is based on a series of talks on the Seven Factors of Awakening given at Bodhinyanarama Monastery in New Zealand during the Rains Retreat in 2007. My intention is to give some basic information about the Factors based upon the teachings in the Pali Canon, the scriptures of the Theravada school of Buddhism, to readers ranging from complete beginners to experienced meditators, including guidance on how to develop these important spiritual qualities. Thus this is a series of meditative contemplations to help support a direct experience of the Factors. I have therefore tended to emphasize certain aspects of particular Factors, for example, acknowledging natural energy rather than only will-power, making Awakening more accessible rather than explaining the ‘higher stages’, etc. I have included a suggested meditation at the beginning of each chapter to encourage a meditative enquiry. The book is by no means a definitive presentation of this theme. I suggest that those interested in more information on these themes should consult the Pali Canon directly, or the other books listed in the bibliography.

THE VENERABLE AJAHN CHAH often reminded his disciples that the Buddha was born in a forest, was enlightened in a forest and passed away in a forest. Ajahn Chah lived nearly all his adult life following a style of Buddhist practice known these days as the Thai Forest Tradition, a tradition which adheres to the spirit of the way espoused by the Buddha himself, and practises according to the same standards the Buddha encouraged during his lifetime.

The first volume of ‘Seeing the Way’ was printed in 1989. Our teacher, the Venerable Ajahn Chah, had been seriously ill for a number of years. Publishing this collection of Dhamma talks in English was one way of expressing our love and gratitude to him.

Numerous requests to reprint that original anthology have been made over the years. The two decades that have passed since that time, however, have found the shape and size of our community change considerably. Hence, rather than reprinting, I decided to offer a ‘Seeing the Way’, Volume Two.

This book contains a selection of 52 verses taken from The Dhammapada. Accompanying each verse is a short paragraph by Ajahn Munindo, a Theravadin Buddhist monk and currently abbot of Aruna Ratanagiri monastery in Northumberland, UK. The complete Dhammapada contains 423 verses, each a timeless example of the Buddha’s radiant wisdom. They are: ‘very old artefacts that miraculously contain within them the profound utterances of the Buddha’, as Thomas Jones says in the Afterword of “A Dhammapada for Contemplation” 2006, the publication from which these verses are taken.