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Thammajareea Dhamma notebook

A Dhamma notebook for lay people

Thammajaree, a Dhamma notebook

Notes on Theravada practice written from the cushion, not the pulpit: how to breathe with the sixteen steps, how to read a sutta without a commentary, how the five hindrances actually feel on an ordinary evening, and what to expect when you sit your first temple retreat in Thailand.

Both formerly and now, I make known just suffering and the cessation of suffering.

Alagaddupama Sutta, MN 22

01-06The six doors of the notebook

Six ways into one practice, from the breath on the cushion to the words that hold it.

  1. Simple meditation hall at dawn with a single lit candle beside a small bell on a plain wooden altar and cushions in straight rows

    01

    Meditation Practice

    The core instructions: breathing with the sixteen steps, mapping the four foundations, and shaping a sitting you can actually keep.

  2. Open cloth bound book with thin pages of Pali script resting on a reading desk beside a brass paperweight in warm afternoon light

    02

    Suttas Made Accessible

    The discourses are the most approachable part of the tradition once someone hands you a reading order and the habit of checking references.

  3. Whitewashed temple wall and sloped roof line of a northern Thai meditation monastery framed by frangipani branches in soft evening light

    03

    Retreats in Thailand

    Real, public, long running retreat centers, described from the lay guest side: how to arrive, what a day costs, what a day looks like.

  4. Still water in a stone basin holding a few fallen bodhi leaves with late sun crossing the surface in long warm bands

    04

    The Five Hindrances

    The canon names five clouds and assigns each an antidote. The guides here translate both lists into what an evening sit actually feels like.

  5. Kitchen table at dusk with a notebook, a cup of tea and a phone face down, evening light lying across an open weekly planner

    05

    Daily Life Practice

    The notebook’s home ground: the day reviewed, the commute walked, the journal kept. Small forms that hold a practice together between sits.

  6. Handwritten index cards with Pali words and short English notes spread across a wooden desk under a small reading lamp

    06

    Pali Glossary

    Words are practice tools. The glossary keeps the vocabulary small, defined from the suttas, and free of mystery.

The ledgerEvery note, dated

The whole notebook in one column, newest first, as a notebook should be read.

  1. A small bedside table at dusk, with a glass of water, a closed notebook and a low lamp, shot from the side at eye level in warm indoor light.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Sleep, stress and slow practice: a lay notebook

    A Theravada lay notebook on sleep, stress and slow practice, with a French magazine on relaxation and well-being for readers who want concrete, free methods.

  2. A quiet morning on a Baltic beach near Gdansk, low sun over wet sand, a single wooden breakwater in the foreground, wide horizontal framing.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Travel, Property, and Daily Life in Poland

    A practical notebook on travel, property, language, and daily life in Poland, with context for German-speaking readers and a calm look at the practical side.

  3. A wooden kitchen table in early morning light, a small ceramic cup of black coffee, a closed paper notebook, and a single pen placed at an angle, shot from slightly above with soft window light from the left.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Lifestyle as practice: a lay Dhamma notebook

    Lifestyle, in a Theravada reading, is not decoration but the daily container of practice: sleep, speech, work, and the small rituals that hold a life together.

  4. A single oil lamp burning steady beside a closed notebook on a dark wooden desk with faint evening shapes of cushions behind it

    · The Five Hindrances

    The five hindrances and their canonical antidotes

    The canon names five clouds over the mind and assigns each a specific counter move. Here are both lists on one table, with the references to check them against.

  5. Late afternoon light on the curved outer wall of Kuélap, seen from a grassy ridge with low cloud behind it and a narrow footpath in the foreground.

    · Daily Life Practice

    A Slow Cultural Trip Through Northern Peru

    A practical notebook on preparing a slow cultural trip through northern Peru: Chachapoya archaeology, Kuélap access, wet quebradas, and local guides.

  6. Cushions in tidy rows on the polished teak floor of a village meditation hall with a folded fan resting beside each seat in morning quiet

    · Meditation Practice

    Anapanasati: the sixteen steps of MN 118

    The Anapanasati Sutta is the clearest instruction manual in the canon. Here are its sixteen steps, kept in their own order, with an honest note on which four carry most lay practice.

  7. A parked touring motorcycle on a gravel pull-off beside a narrow Roslagen road, late afternoon side light, shot from a low three-quarter angle with pine forest behind and a paper route map tucked under the tank bag strap.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Motorcycle Touring as Practice: Notes for Riders

    How motorcycle touring and rider culture overlap with contemplative habits: preparation, attention, group riding, and local route checks before departure.

  8. A shaded campsite pitch in central Italy at mid-morning, a small tent under a tree with a tarp stretched above it, a folded camp chair and a two-burner stove on a low table in the foreground, soft side light and long shadows on dry grass.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Camping in Italy: a calm first trip

    A calm, practical look at camping in Italy for beginners: tent, camper and van rhythms, food planning, and how to choose a pitch without rushing.

  9. Late afternoon light on a dry stone jas in the Luberon, a pale livestock guardian dog lying at the edge of a sheep flock in the middle distance, low camera angle from the path.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Dogs and cats on the Luberon trails

    How livestock guardian dogs, herding breeds and village cats shape a walker's day in the Luberon, and how to read their signals calmly.

  10. A small family-run pension terrace at dusk on the Aegean coast, whitewashed walls and a wooden table set with tea glasses, the sea visible between two buildings, warm low light from the west.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Aegean Coast Travel: Slow Days, Seasonal Food

    A calm guide to slow travel on Turkey's Aegean coast: coastal lodging, seasonal food, and how to plan unhurried days by the sea.

  11. Simple guest dormitory at a forest temple with a thin mattress on a raised wooden platform and a mosquito net tied above it

    · Retreats in Thailand

    How a Thai temple retreat actually works

    Thailand keeps an old institution alive: temples that teach meditation to lay guests and hand them a broom afterward. Here is the common machinery, described plainly.

  12. Early morning on the ría in Bilbao, the Guggenheim's titanium curves catching a low, soft light from the left, framed from a low angle along the wet stone embankment with a single pedestrian crossing in the distance.

    · Daily Life Practice

    Urban Photography in Bilbao: A Practitioner's Notes

    A calm guide to photographing Bilbao's streets, bridges, and light, with practical notes for contemplative walkers and visiting photographers.

  13. Single round cushion on a bedroom floor beside a small brass timer with a folded shawl, first light falling across unopened curtains

    · Meditation Practice

    A thirty minute daily sitting that survives real life

    Duration is negotiable, regularity is not. Here is a half hour sitting that fits before work, with a roadmap you can shorten to ten honest minutes on bad mornings.

  14. Commuter standing calmly by a train window in morning light with a cloth bag held in both hands and eyes resting on the passing fields

    · Daily Life Practice

    Mindfulness off the cushion, in an ordinary day

    The sutta on clear comprehension names four places where practice happens off the cushion. An ordinary working day contains all four, several times, for free.

  15. Travelers resting by a village well at the edge of fields with cloth bundles and staffs, dust on their robes under a high bright sky

    · Suttas Made Accessible

    The Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65) and how to read it

    The Kalama Sutta is quoted everywhere and read rarely. Read whole, it is not a license to believe nothing: it is a method for testing teachings by what shows up in a life.

  16. Cloth bound notebook lying open to a page of short dated handwritten lines with a pencil resting in the fold on a quiet wooden desk

    · Daily Life Practice

    Keeping a Dhamma notebook for your practice

    This site is named after the habit it recommends: a dated notebook where practice becomes visible enough to be corrected. Here is the smallest workable version.

  17. Four smooth stones arranged in a line on a windowsill above a meditation cushion, each stone holding a small paper label in soft daylight

    · Meditation Practice

    The four foundations of mindfulness: a lay map

    MN 10 is longer than its reputation. This map keeps its four territories, body, feeling, mind and dhammas, in the order the sutta gives, and marks the entry points that suit an ordinary week.

  18. Open window at dusk with a linen curtain moving slightly inward above a cushion on a wooden floor and a cool lamp switched on nearby

    · The Five Hindrances

    Sloth and drowsiness: working with the heavy sit

    The after work sit starts foggy and ends in a long blink. Here is the hindrance of heaviness met with posture, light, walking and honesty about sleep.

  19. Map spread on a wooden table with three folded paper notes beside it and a pen resting across a train timetable in the afternoon light

    · Retreats in Thailand

    Choosing between three public retreat temples

    The three best known public retreat centers ask for different things. Here they are side by side at the level of public fact, with a decision rule that starts from your calendar.

  20. Three river stones of different sizes standing upright in a row on a windowsill above a meditation cushion in clear morning light

    · Pali Glossary

    Sati, sampajanna, appamada: three shaping words

    If three Pali words decide the texture of a lay practice, these are they. What each one means literally, where the suttas put it to work, and how they hold together.

  21. Five slim cloth bound volumes stacked on a reading desk with thin cloth bookmarks trailing from each spine in soft lamp light

    · Suttas Made Accessible

    Five suttas to start reading, in a workable order

    The canon is large; the entrance is not. Five discourses, in this order, give a lay reader the frame, the practice, the test and the daily recollections.

  22. Bedside table at night with a small notebook open under a warm lamp, a pen laid across the page and a cup of water beside it

    · Daily Life Practice

    The evening reflection: reviewing the day

    The Buddha taught reflection twice over: to a seven year old in MN 61 and to everyone in AN 5.57. Both fit in five minutes before sleep, if the questions are kept small.

  23. Index cards spread across a wooden desk with a Pali word in careful handwriting on each and a small reading lamp warming the paper

    · Pali Glossary

    Twenty Pali terms a lay practitioner actually meets

    A small working vocabulary beats a big mystical one. Twenty terms, each tied to the discourse where it does its job, with the references left visible so you can check.

Thammajaree is written for people who sit at home, work ordinary jobs and read the suttas in translation. The desk keeps its method on the about page, its rules in the editorial policy, and its door open through the contact page. Nothing here is teaching you to become a monk: it is a notebook kept in public, in the hope that a well kept note saves someone else an evening of confusion.

ElsewhereNotebooks kept on other subjects

Seven notebooks on retreats, travel, animals and daily habits, each kept on its own domain.

For readers who want to know what a silent retreat involves before committing to one, the independent guide at silent retreat what to expect documents retreat practice and the history of the Houston Cenacle in plain, third-person prose.

For readers curious about long-term service abroad, Teranga Fieldnotes offers plain reporting on daily life for volunteers in Senegal, from village routines and community gardens to Wolof first words and the etiquette of teranga.

For readers curious about calm places and slow attention, a German journal on Lake Constance and Lake Zurich gathers notes on fasting rituals and forest walks, morning and evening routines, lake ferries, and regional food.

For readers curious about how bathing customs and mountain walking fit together, a Japanese notebook on Unazuki Onsen and the Kurobe river basin describes bath words and gestures alongside seasonal canyon views and packing notes.

Readers curious about a Turkish notebook on zodiac seasons, monthly food and household care may find seasonal zodiac living notes useful alongside the practice pages kept here.

For readers who also plan long overland journeys, the German-language editorial atlas FERNLINIE maps the rail route from Cologne to Beijing, with sections on staging, costs, and preparation, at silk road rail planning.

For readers who want to place a period of quiet sitting within a longer journey, Lake George and Adirondack guides gather practical notes on seasonal lodging, trails, lake wildlife, and the slower rhythms of the northern New York year.