Part of key topic Meditation Practices
36 excerpts, 2:12:58 total duration
Quote: “Dhamma is not about the words, about the concepts, about the ideas. It’s about the experience.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dhamma ] [Language] [Direct experience ]
7. One of Ajahn Chah’s main methods was the monastic training. Recollection by Ṭhānissarā. [Monastic life] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Suffering] [Direct experience] [Idealism] [Relinquishment]
20. He encouraged people to let go in so many different ways. Recollection by Jack Kornfield. [Relinquishment ] [Teachers] [Views] [Eightfold Path] [Ajahn Chah] // [Idle chatter] [Seclusion] [Aversion] [Ghost] [Fear] [Restlessness and worry] [Sense bases] [Direct experience] [Liberation]
Story: Sit in the middle of your anger. [Jack Kornfield] [Robes] [Lodging] [Direct experience]
Story: Walk backwards in the forest in the middle of the night. [Sloth and torpor] [Posture/Walking] [Culture/Natural environment]
3. “Reflecting on your 35 years in robes, do you have any strong lessons that stand out?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Monastic life] [Long-term practice] [Discernment] // [Patience ] [Ajahn Chah] [Virtue] [Meditation retreats]
Quote: “Oftentimes we don’t really recognize the goodness that we’re doing.” [Perfectionism] [Judgementalism]
Quote: “Patience isn’t just enduring. It’s being able to be present with experience.” [Direct experience] [Present moment awareness]
6. “What are the characteristics of personality? Are they conditioned by kamma and our family, culture, and nationality? How do I learn not to take mine as truth and real?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Personality] [Conditionality] [Kamma] [Family] [Cultural context] [Self-identity view] // [Suffering] [Characteristics of existence] [Humor]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah tended to translate anicca as uncertain or not sure. [Ajahn Chah] [Impermanence] [Translation] [Proliferation] [Direct experience]
4. “What is the difference between mindfulness, bare attention, and clear comprehension? Can you flesh out the word understanding?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness] [Direct experience] [Clear comprehension] // [Right Effort] [Discernment] [Right Mindfulness] [Ardency] [Investigation of states] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Greed] [Aversion]
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta
8. Comment: Your statement that faith comes from building confidence and confidence comes from direct experience is so true. [Faith] [Direct experience] [Conflict] [Gradual Teaching]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
2. “Would you be willing to talk about the difference between mindfulness, bare knowing, and the one who knows?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness ] [Direct experience] [Knowing itself] // [Buddha] [Clear comprehension] [Thai] [Discernment] [Ardency] [Seclusion] [Cessation of Suffering]
Sutta: MN 10: Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
29. “The Buddha teaches to end suffering, but from the ordinary person’s view, cultivating the practices of forest monks is also suffering. Who is right?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha] [Suffering] [Ascetic practices] // [Four Noble Truths] [Faith] [Investigation of states] [Happiness] [Feeling]
Quote: “The teaching of the Buddha isn’t about language....The teaching of the Buddha is the language of experience.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Language] [Dhamma] [Direct experience]
8. Comments regarding the intellectual framework of the aggregates versus bringing it back to experience. [Aggregates] [Learning] [Direct experience] [Not-self]
4. Comment about working with not-self in direct experience in relation to discomfort and awareness of embodied release. [Direct experience] [Feeling] [Suffering] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Mindfulness of body] [Relinquishment] [Fear]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation]
2. “How could you accomplish studying Buddhism in Thailand with Luang Por Chah? How did Luang Por Chah teach you as a you were a foreigner new monk? How did you cope with the language issue?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah ] [Teaching Dhamma] [Monastic life] [Language] // [Culture/Thailand] [Patience] [Wat Pah Pong] [Novices]
Quote: “It’s just like teaching buffaloes.” — Ajahn Chah [Western Ajahn Chah lineage] [Similes]
Quote: “Dhamma is not about the words, about the concepts, about the ideas. It’s about the experience.” — Ajahn Chah [Dhamma ] [Direct experience ]
9. “In this afternoon’s talk, Ajahn Karunadhammo mentioned the benefits of the bhava that results from practice or the Eightfold Path, but he described a consciousness that doesn’t land in or on a self and results in freedom. Is that a consciousness that results in neither arising nor non-arising. Could you elaborate? The moment between in and out breaths seems to hold potential for this kind of consciousness.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Eightfold Path] [Becoming] [Unestablished consciousness] [Self-identity view] [Liberation] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Proliferation] [Consciousness] [Relinquishment] [Fear]
Quote: “You want to pay attention to the experience rather than the idea about it.” [Direct experience]
Suttas: DN 11.85, MN 49.25: Consciousness luminous all around.
Sutta: SN 12.64: Simile of the western wall. [Similes]
12. “It’s a common phrase: “If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Obviously it’s using hyperbole for effect but I think it means to trust only in your own experience. At what point do the guidelines and precepts leave off and the way to proceed on findings begins? I know it’s not a linear path, but I’d appreciate your thoughts.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Direct experience] [Precepts] [Trust] [Long-term practice] // [Zen] [Vinaya] [Dhamma] [Relinquishment] [Middle Path]
Quote: “The Vinaya and the precepts are for holding on, and the Dhamma is for letting go. When you learn how to balance those two, then you will be free from dukkha.” — Ajahn Chah to Ajahn Sumedho [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Liberation]
6. “Snp 4.5 and Snp 4.6 refer to what is seen, heard and thought. Is there more to this than developing awareness of what you’re thinking, hearing, and seeing?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Direct experience]
4. “At the beginning of this retreat, Tan Ajahn Anan advised us, “Don’t forget Nibbāna.” How do we orient ourselves towards Nibbāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nibbāna ] [Ajahn Anan] [Monastic life] // [Dispassion] [Cessation of Suffering] [Etymology] [Stream entry]
Sutta: AN 10.60: Girimānanda Sutta [Cessation]
Sutta: SN 56.11: “Whatever is of the nature to arise, that is of the nature to cease.” [Conditionality]
Quote: “[The goal] is incredibly worthy, and it is not beyound our capability and means to experience.” [Direct experience]
8. “Kataññu-katavedi refers to receiving kindness and the recognition of the gift of kindness. How are we to understand cultivating the intention to offer kindness to others?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Gratitude] [Compassion] [Generosity] [Ajahn Chah] // [Happiness] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Aversion] [Contact] [Spaciousness] [Direct experience]
Story: Villagers ask Ajahn Chah how he can teach Westerners when they don’t speak Thai. [Culture/West] [Language] [Direct experience]
Quote: “Dhamma is the language of experience.” — Ajahn Chah [Dhamma] [Direct experience]
1. Comment to Ajahn Ñāṇiko: I really appreciate the honest of your sharing. In terms of self-criticism over the years, what brought about any shift was being authentic, but whilst I wanted not to be critical, it was still there. By watching that process and not identifying with it so much, it gradually shifted until I was able to wish myself well more genuinely. [Truth] [Judgementalism] [Long-term practice] [Direct experience] [Not-self] [Goodwill] // [Buddhist identity] [Faith]
Response by Ajahn Ñāṇiko.
2. Quote: “Learning how to be comfortable with dukkha...is a willingness to open the heart to the whole realm of experience. That’s an act of love.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Noble Truth of Suffering] [Direct experience] [Goodwill] // [Generosity] [Fear] [Listening] [Clear comprehension]
6. “How do we deal with a world full of view and opinions?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Views ] // [Idealism] [Conditionality] [Impermanence] [Truth]
Story: Sariputta doesn’t approve of a teaching of the Buddha until he puts it into practice himself. Told by Ajahn Chah. [Great disciples] [Teaching Dhamma] [Direct experience] [Faith] [Ajahn Chah]
3. “How do I know what is the Middle Path?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Middle Path] // [Four Noble Truths] [Direct experience]
Quote: “It’s not a concept. It’s like are you on your bike or are you on the ground?” — Ajahn Amaro [Direct experience]