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