Daily life / ethics

16 August 2026 Talk 58 min

Delson reads and interprets AN 7.57, the Siha Sutta, in which the Buddha lists the benefits of giving.

10 August 2026 Talk 34 min

Delson closes a retreat by arguing that the real practice begins when people return to ordinary life, where enthusiasm and plans often fail and situations test patience and surrender.

9 August 2026 Talk 16 min

Delson encourages listeners to rest in the knowing awareness they touched on the previous night, rather than trying to reach or return to it.

12 July 2026 Talk 1 h 6 min

Delson reads and comments on DN31, the Sigalovada Sutta, in which the Buddha gives a young householder advice on living as a lay person: abandoning the four defilements of action, avoiding…

11 July 2026 Talk 1 h 16 min

Delson works through AN 6.63, the Penetrative Discourse, which lists six subjects to be understood: sensual pleasures, feelings, perceptions, the taints, karma, and suffering.

14 June 2026 Talk 38 min

Delson gives the last-day talk of a retreat, asking students to carry discipline and consistency back into daily life.

17 December 2025 Talk 1 h 12 min

Delson reads through MN 41, the Sala Brahmins discourse, in which the Buddha lists bodily, verbal and mental conduct that is skillful or unskillful and explains how each leads toward a…

5 November 2025 Talk 47 min

Delson closes a seven-day series by recapping the seven enlightenment factors as the basic ingredients of practice, with mindfulness at the base, leading to tranquility, collectedness and…

1 November 2025 Talk 43 min

Delson explains karma as intention and separates the Buddha's teaching from other Indian views, such as fatalism and the Jain idea of karmic dust.

10 October 2025 Talk 1 h 3 min

Delson explains the first and second Noble Truths by unpacking dukkha as instability or "bummer" and its three categories: dukkha-dukkha, viparinama dukkha and sankhara dukkha.

10 October 2025 Talk 42 min

Delson explains karma as the Buddha taught it: intention is karma, and the fruit of past actions (vipaka) arises through causes and conditions.

10 October 2025 Talk 47 min

Delson explains the three characteristics of existence (anicca, dukkha, anatta) and the three gates of liberation (signlessness, undirectedness, emptiness) as a sequence that begins with…

9 October 2025 Talk 51 min

Delson explains the seven factors of awakening (mindfulness, discernment, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness and equanimity) and how they run alongside the Eightfold Path.

9 October 2025 Talk 46 min

Delson explains the Eightfold Path as a practical, non-religious lifestyle and walks through each factor in turn, grouping them under sila, samadhi and panna.

8 October 2025 Talk 42 min

Delson works through MN 70, the Kitagiri Sutta, beginning with the Buddha's advice to abstain from eating at night and the monks who refused it.

29 September 2025 Talk 29 min

Delson reads MN 87, the Piyajatika Sutta ("Born from those who are dear"), and explains the Buddha's teaching that grief, sorrow and despair arise from those we hold dear.

4 August 2025 Talk 36 min

Delson reads and comments on AN 9.20 (the Velama Sutta), in which the Buddha contrasts giving done respectfully and mindfully with giving done carelessly, and then ranks the results of…

3 August 2025 Talk 56 min

Delson reads and comments on MN 109, the Mahapunnama Sutta, the full moon discourse, on the five aggregates affected by clinging.

1 August 2025 Talk 38 min

Delson explains karma as the Buddha taught it: intention (chetana) is karma, expressed through body, speech and mind, while vipaka is the result that is experienced.

11 July 2025 Talk 41 min

Delson closes a retreat with advice on keeping the practice going after it ends.

23 June 2025 Talk 53 min

Delson explains karma as the Buddha taught it: karma is intention, and it is the basis for how old and new karma arise, ripen and can cease.

22 June 2025 Talk 48 min

Delson reads AN 5.57, the five reflections: I am subject to aging, to illness, to death, I must be parted from what is dear, and I am the owner and heir of my karma.

9 March 2025 Talk 22 min

Delson responds to a questioner who finds that effort and intention seem to push out the relaxed state, and that kindness appears to be undercut by the idea that everything arising just…

2 March 2025 Talk 51 min

Delson reads AN 10.76 ("Incapable") and explains its chains of qualities, each of which must be abandoned before the next can be.

26 February 2025 Talk 1 h 27 min

Delson gives the final Dharma talk of a Mumbai retreat, on how to carry the practice back into daily life.

20 October 2024 Talk 1 h

Delson closes a retreat by presenting sila (ethical living) as the foundation for meditation and explaining karma as the mind's immediate response to actions.

29 September 2024 Talk 51 min

Delson closes a Zoom retreat with a short talk and then takes questions.

15 April 2024 Talk 1 h 35 min

Delson explains the three factors of sila on the Eightfold Path: right speech, right action and right livelihood.

15 February 2024 Talk 1 h 19 min

Delson describes his path from Hatha yoga at 13 through Himalayan study, Kriya Yoga and other mystical traditions to teaching TWIM and the 6R's within Suttavada.

21 October 2023 Talk 1 h 12 min

Delson closes a retreat by explaining how the Eightfold Path applies off the cushion.

21 October 2023 Q&A 1 h 1 min

Delson answers a series of listener questions on TWIM practice.

21 October 2023 Q&A 1 h 38 min

Delson Armstrong answers questions submitted through the Suttavada website about TWIM practice and Dhamma.

3 October 2023 Talk 59 min

Delson Armstrong gives the last-day talk of a nine-day retreat on the Noble Eightfold Path, presenting it as the practice to continue off the cushion.

23 July 2023 Talk 1 h 8 min

Delson gives closing advice on the last day of a retreat about carrying the retreat mindset into ordinary life.

17 June 2023 Talk 1 h 15 min

Delson reads MN 48, the Kosambiya Sutta, in which the Buddha rebukes quarrelling monks and gives six principles of cordiality: bodily, verbal and mental loving-kindness, shared virtue…

9 June 2023 Talk 1 h 44 min

Delson talks to retreatants about what to carry off the retreat, presenting sila, dana and bhavana as a way of living the path alongside the five precepts.

16 May 2023 Talk 1 h 9 min

Delson Armstrong answers a series of interview questions about money, spirituality and ethics.

12 May 2023 Talk 1 h 32 min

Delson reads and comments on the Sigalovada Sutta (DN 31), the Buddha's advice to the householder Sigalaka on how to live well as a layperson.

11 May 2023 Talk 1 h 11 min

Delson reads and explains the Sigalovada Sutta (DN31), the Buddha's advice to the young householder Sigalaka on how to cover the six directions, which means caring for and being cared for…

1 December 2022 Talk 1 h 39 min

Delson, with a co-speaker, continues the account of the Buddha's awakening from the Mahavagga and the Udana, covering the seven weeks after his awakening under different trees.

17 November 2022 Talk 22 min

Delson closes a retreat with a talk on wise friendship (kalyanamitta), the companions who support a person's practice.

8 September 2022 Talk 45 min

Delson reads and comments on DN31, the Sigalovada Sutta, in which the Buddha tells the young householder Sigalaka that paying homage to the six directions is not the Aryan way.

19 August 2022 Talk 50 min

Delson reads and explains DN31, the Sigalovada (Sigalaka) Sutta, as advice on how to live as a lay person.

11 October 2021 Talk 1 h 50 min

Delson reads MN 142, the Dakkhinavibhanga Sutta, on the exposition of offerings, which ranks gifts by the attainment of the recipient and says gifts to the Sangha are especially fruitful.

26 November 2020 Q&A 37 min

Delson answers questions from the final day of an online 10-day retreat.

24 November 2020 Q&A 33 min

Delson answers audience questions on the final day of an online 10-day retreat.

18 November 2020 Q&A 33 min

Delson answers audience questions from the seventh day of an online retreat.

18 November 2020 Q&A 28 min

In this closing question-and-answer session from day nine of an online ten-day retreat, Delson Armstrong answers questions on whether lay people can become arahants without joining the…

14 October 2020 Q&A 32 min

Delson answers questions from a Q&A session at a DSMC Global Sitting Group about linking the 6 R's to right effort in the Eightfold Path.

22 August 2026 Interview 43 min

Delson Armstrong and Andrzej discuss everyday awareness: a simple, non-conceptual knowing of what is happening that remains when the ego's stories and identifications are let go.

20 August 2026 Guided meditation 1 h 6 min

Delson guides a short recollection of one's own generosity drawn from AN 6.10, then reads AN 8.31 and explains its eight motivations for giving.

7 July 2026 Talk 43 min

Delson reads and comments on SN 41.6 (Kamabhu Sutta), in which the monk Kamabhu answers the householder Chitta's questions on the three formations, the attainment of cessation of…

4 July 2026 Talk 1 h 7 min

Delson introduces the morning refuges, precepts and recollections as a way of setting intention for practice, then reads SN 56.11, the Buddha's first sermon on the middle way and the Four…

7 June 2026 Talk 1 h 4 min

Delson explains the Buddha's first sermon (SN 56.11) and walks through the Noble Eightfold Path as a foundation for meditation, starting with right view and ending in right collectedness.

12 January 2026 Talk 1 h 7 min

Delson opens with photos from a recent trip to Sarnath, Varanasi and Prayagraj, where he and his group offered food and supplies to a line of about 120 Thai monks walking across northern…

26 February 2025 Talk 1 h 51 min

Delson explains dependent origination as an elaboration of the Four Noble Truths that shows how the mind creates its own suffering.

5 November 2023 Talk 1 h 16 min

Delson continues his talk on dependent origination, covering contact (phassa), the six sense bases, mentality-materiality, the five aggregates, and the formations, asavas and ignorance…

5 November 2023 Talk 56 min

Delson closes a retreat by explaining the Noble Eightfold Path as a way of living, not only a sitting practice.

11 February 2023 Talk 13 min

Delson reads through MN 143, the Anathapindikovada Sutta, in which Sariputta visits the gravely ill householder Anathapindika and instructs him not to cling to or depend on the senses…

9 February 2023 Talk 42 min

Delson reads and comments on SN 56.11, the Buddha's first discourse at Isipatana (Deer Park) near Varanasi.

6 June 2022 Talk 44 min

Delson reads AN 10.2 (Chetana, Volition) as a guide to what to do after retreat.

4 April 2021 Talk 1 h 3 min

Delson reads the Metta Sutta (Sutta Nipata 1.8) and explains it as a progression that starts with keeping the precepts and right intention, grows into loving-kindness, and leads toward the…

20 November 2020 Q&A 33 min

Delson answers questions from day three of an online ten-day retreat in November 2020.