This little collection was never intended as a ‘collection of teachings.’ It came about in response to a request and a suggestion. The request was from Sarah Wallis who wanted to sponsor a publication in celebration of her sixtieth birthday, and to mark thirty years of the Banbury Buddhist Group. The suggestion, also from Sarah, was to gather together the reflections that had been individually prepared for the twice-yearly editions of our Milntuim Hermitage Newsletter.

It was a surprise to find that there are twenty of these – and even more of a surprise to find that the reflections are all quite different. Every time I wrote a reflection, my intention was to offer encouragement for practice with the prevailing conditions; it seemed to me that it was always the same Dhamma1 practice that I pointed to. However, what I had failed to appreciate was that the actual conditions were different each time!

So, after an initial hesitation, I asked some of my monastic and lay friends to read what was there. Ajahn Sucitto, Ajahn Munindo and Ajahn Sundarā all offered encouraging and helpful feedback, as did several kind lay friends. Members of the Lotus Volunteer Group gathered the material in one place, and Mariah O’Neill gave it a thorough edit. Eleonora Monti has helped to prepare the text for publication. Nicholas Halliday offered his expertise in preparing the practical and artistic elements, patiently to-ing and fro-ing with proof-readers until it was ‘just about right’ enough.

May it serve as an encouragement to attune to the Dhamma, the Timeless, as we navigate the uncharted waters of the times to come.

Ajahn Candasirī (from the Foreword)

The idea for the topic and title, ‘The Secret of Happiness’, came about after reflecting on my first meeting with Ajahn Sumedho in 1977, just a few weeks after his arrival in the UK. I had been very impressed by the sense of ease and joy that he seemed to carry with him. That, in itself, it was remarkable. What made it even more remarkable was what I had been told about the monks: that they followed an extremely exacting way of life and a discipline that required them to rise at 4.00 a.m. for meditation, and to eat only one meal a day before noon. They had no money, no entertainment, no sexual contact of any kind. The list of things they had given up was long – and yet… and yet… they seemed deeply happy and at ease.

This collection of nuns’ talks, which were originally offered to the monastic communities and during meditation retreats for lay people, focus on two main themes. The first is obvious but, remarkably, overlooked by many people: our very existence as a physical presence – how that changes and how it ends. The second theme, the Buddha’s teaching, which he referred to as the Four Noble Truths, begins with what is obvious: ‘Life is stressful’, However, having enumerated the causes of this state of affairs, it quickly moves on to the supremely subtle remedy – what the late Ven. Ajahn Chah referred to as ‘letting go’.

The practice of Buddhism is most frequently associated with the quiet, reflective and introspective aspects of formal meditation, with little recognition or realisation of the many means by which we can cultivate such qualities as joy, gladness and the uplift of the heart.

The devotional aspects of our practice as seen through solitary meditation can seem pointless, or even foolish, but experience teaches us that meditation alone is not a guaranteed entry into the sublime – it can be a wearisome struggle with a wayward mind!

This booklet therefore is about the recognition and cultivation of those means whereby we bring emotive forces into our daily lives.

We need to make the Buddha-Dhamma-Sangha a vital, integral part of our world-view, to inculcate a clear sense of reverence and pride in being disciples of the Blessed One and a sense of fellowship with all those who have trodden and are currently treading the Path to Peace and Truth.