Ajahn Sumedho est un moine de la Tradition de la forêt. Il fut ordonné en Thaïlande, à Nong Khai, en 1967 et s’étant rendu peu après à Wat Pah Pong, il fut le premier disciple occidental d’Ajahn Chah. Après avoir passé une dizaine d’années auprès de son maître, ce dernier lui proposa d’aller en Angleterre à l’invitation de l’English Sangha Trust qui invitait des moines venus d’Asie pour vivre, pratiquer et enseigner le bouddhisme de la tradition Theravada.

Ses enseignements clairs et directs attirèrent rapidement l’attention d’un grand nombre de personnes venues de toutes parts, et en 1979 fut créé Chithurst, le premier monastère de la Tradition de la forêt en occident.

Ce livre est un des premiers recueils d’enseignements qu’Ajahn Sumedho donna à la communauté de moines et de nonnes ainsi qu’aux résidents laïcs au cours de plusieurs retraites d’hiver entre 1979 et 1989. Il offre au lecteur un vaste éventail des aspects les plus importants du Bouddhisme et, par son approche approfondie de la pratique, il nous transmet une vision limpide du chemin du Dhamma. [...]

Ce livret a été élaboré et édité à partir de discours donnés par le Vénérable Ajahn Sumedho à propos de l’enseignement central du Bouddha, à savoir que la souffrance de l’humanité peut être vaincue à l’aide de moyens spirituels. L’enseignement est transmis à travers les Quatre Nobles Vérités du Bouddha, exposées pour la première fois en 528 avant J.C. dans le Parc aux Cerfs à Sarnath, près de Varanasi, et a perduré depuis dans le monde Bouddhiste.

When I reflect on my life as a Buddhist monk, I found one of the most significant turning points was when I started experiencing gratitude (kataññū-katavedī). Gratitude arises spontaneously when one reflects on one’s parents, who made it possible for one to exist as a human being, Luang Por Chah, the teacher, whose wisdom was always directly pointing to the way out of suffering, and the Lord Buddha’s teaching giving direction for one’s life.

This book is compiled from talks given mostly in 2001 by Ajahn Sumedho. The first edition was originally published in 2004, but has long since been out of print. This new edition has been reviewed for typographical errors and redesigned, and some re- editing has been done. However, the Dhamma content has not been changed. The talks were transcribed, edited and proofread by various members of the sangha as well as people from the broader community, and a variety of people helped with the creation of the front cover. The editors wish to express their deep gratitude for all of the generous and kind-hearted effort put into making these teachings available in book format.

The title of this book refers to the image of the Buddha’s teaching, the Wheel of Truth (or Dhamma). It is a wheel that he set rolling in his first discourse by proclaiming the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of practice. This teaching remains as the axis of Ajahn Sumedho’s teaching and personal contemplative work. This particular collection of his Dhamma talks and dialogues is composed of material that has appeared in various newsletters and magazines before; it derives from different periods in Ajahn Sumedho’s teaching career, but it has been gathered into three parts to address overarching themes.

The aim of this book is to provide instruction and reflection on Buddhist meditation as taught by Ajahn Sumedho, using material extracted from talks he gave in the early 1980s. These talks were almost all given to monastics who were familiar with the language and terms of Theravada Buddhism – but Ajahn Sumedho’s approach is not technically intricate, and so we felt that many more people could benefit from these instructions than the small gatherings in the monasteries. You are therefore invited to make use this book for your own spiritual practice.