April 3^rd, 2026

AVIRODHANA

Avirodhana means non-deviation from righteousness, or conformity to the law—the dhamma. Non-deviation from righteousness sounds oppressive, doesn’t it? When we become righteous, we can often become oppressive... But avirodhana isn’t that kind of patriarchal, oppressive righteousness; rather, it is knowing what is right, what is appropriate to time and place.

In the West, we tend to believe that thinking rationally and being reasonable is right. So everything that seems rational or reasonable, we think of as right, whereas everything that is irrational or unreasonable, we see as wrong. We don’t trust it. But when we attach to reason, we often lack patience, because we are not open to the movement and flow of emotion. We overlook the spaciousness of life. We are so attached to time, efficiency, quickness of thought, and the perfection of rational thinking that we view temporal conditions as reality, and we no longer notice space. So the emotional nature—the feeling, the intuitive, the psychic—all are dismissed, neglected, and annihilated. 

Avirodhana, or conformity to the dhamma, entails a steadiness in one’s life that enables one to conform to the way things are. The only reason we don’t conform to it is that we don’t know it. Human beings are quite capable of believing in anything at all, so we tend to go every which way and follow any old thing. But once we discover the dhamma, our only inclination is to conform to the law of the way things are. 

Ajahn Sumedho, from The Duties of a Wise Ruler Tricycle, March 30, 2026