Dispassion (virāga)
Skillful qualities / Progress of insight / Dispassion
Part of tag cluster Dispassion in key topic Fruits of the Practice
Alternative translations: Fading away
Also a subtag of Cessation of Suffering
34 excerpts, 2:59:25 total duration

All excerpts (36) Most relevant (29) Questions about (13) Answers involving (5) Stories (4) Quotes (5) Texts (1)


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 2 – Apr. 28, 2001

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3. Teachings to Marjorie by Ajahn Chah, English only. Read by Kittisaro. [Ajahn Chah] // [Similes] [Moods of the mind] [Heedfulness] [Continuity of mindfulness ] [Cessation of Suffering] [Dispassion ] [Nibbāna ] [Unconditioned]

Reference: “Living with the Cobra,” Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 233.

Maintain mindfulness throughout the day and night. [Continuity of mindfulness ]

“There’s just suffering arising and passing away.” [Suffering ] [Impermanence ]

“You’ll want to make an end of things.” [Dispassion ] [Cessation ]

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“This is the nature of enlightenment. It’s the extinguishing of fire, the cooling of that which was hot. This is peace. This is the end of saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death.” [Liberation] [Nibbāna ] [Cessation ] [Saṃsāra]

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“If the tears don’t come, we don’t really accept truth.” [Suffering ] [Truth]

Note: “Living with the Cobra” omits this quote and other more personal aspects of Ajahn Chah’s teaching to Marjorie.


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 3 – Apr. 28, 2001

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8. Story: Ajahn Sumedho wants Ajahn Chah to affirm whether he had attained a degree of insight. Told by Ajahn Jitindriyā. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Stages of awakening] [Ajahn Chah] // [Impermanence] [Liberation] [Bowing] [Becoming]

Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 606

Quote: “We talk about things to develop and thigs to give up, but there’s really nothing to develop and nothing to give up.” — Ajahn Chah. [Right Effort] [Relinquishment] [Emptiness] [Dispassion]

Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 102


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 26 – Apr. 29, 2001

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24. The compassion that came because he didn’t want anything from anybody. Reflection by Jack Kornfield. [Compassion] [Dispassion] [Ajahn Chah] // [Relinquishment] [Tranquility] [Teaching Dhamma]


Ānāpānasati: Mindfulness of In-and-Out Breathing, Session 15 – Jan. 18, 2005

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[Session] Passion is the deep belief in what feelings, objects of attention, and views represent. Expounding the fourteenth step of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118), Ajahn Pasanno explains how to cultivate dispassion with each in and out breath. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Dispassion]


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1. Story: A man diagnosed with AIDS loses his story. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sickness] [Self-identity view] [Dispassion] // [Amaravati] [Ajahn Amaro]


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2. Developing dispassion by reflecting on the body. Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of body] [Unattractiveness] [Dispassion] // [Food] [Self-identity view]


Ānāpānasati: Mindfulness of In-and-Out Breathing, Session 16 – Jan. 19, 2005

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[Session] The contemplation of death resets our priorities and lays the ground for dispassion to cool the heart of its impusles to follow desires, moods, and biases. [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion]


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1. Simile: As dawn precedes sunrise, when one recognizes the quality of appamāda (heedfulness), one can expect the unfolding of the Eightfold Path. (SN 45.55) — Ajahn Pasanno. [Similes] [Heedfulness] [Eightfold Path] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Liberation]


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2. Story: Larry Rosenberg watches a 1938 film and realizes that the actors, directors, and producers are all dead. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Larry Rosenberg] [Artistic expression] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion]


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3. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: If this were the last moment of my life, is this the kind of mental state I want to carry into death? [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Mindfulness of breathing] [Ajahn Pasanno]


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4. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno from Ajahn Koon Balisoodtoh: “Am I dying?” with each breath. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Amulets]


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5. Story: A group of Thai villagers are afraid to dig up their dead in order to conduct funeral rites. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Funerals] [Fear] [Death] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Dtao Dum]


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6. Story: A Thai monastery turns into a makeshift morgue after the 2005 tsunami. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death] [Disasters] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion]


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7. Quote: “Ajahn Chah was larger than life, but he’s been dead for over 10 years now.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Naturalness]


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8. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: We will be alone when we die. [Death] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Heedfulness] [Rodney Smith] [Mindfulness of breathing]

Quote: “In the end, one is cooked and eaten by the King of Death.” — Varapañño Bhikkhu (Paul Breiter). [Paul Breiter]


The Whole of the Path, Session 2 – Jun. 22, 2013

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2. [When talking about the qualities for developing the Eightfold Path, seclusion, cessation, and dispassion.] “Could you distinguish between cessation and dispassion?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Eightfold Path] [Progress of insight] [Cessation] [Dispassion] // [Pāli] [Etymology]


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3. “Could you give the Pāli words for dispassion, cessation, and maturing? Also the word you used with otappa?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāli] [Dispassion] [Cessation] [Release] [Conscience and prudence] // [Seclusion]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 1 – Nov. 23, 2013

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1. “Thank you for your talk. Can you flesh out: ‘dispassionate about what?’ Also, trying to encourage dispassion along with arousing energy.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dispassion ] [Energy] // [Craving] [Sense bases] [Form] [Emotion] [Contentment] [Tranquility]

Quote: “When there’s a coolness towards the world around one, that frees up a lot of energy for directing attention to what’s actually useful and beneficial.” [Dispassion ] [Discernment]


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4. “Thank you for the wonderful teachings...Can you further discuss dispassion and nonattachment in the context of the ‘middle way.’ (particularly for a layperson in a loving relationship)” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relationships] [Dispassion]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 2 – Nov. 24, 2013

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12. “Is there a distinction between dispassion and equanimity?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dispassion] [Equanimity]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 4 – Nov. 26, 2013

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9. “I’ve been sitting on this question for the past few days. It has to do with dispassion, shedding, simplifying and being easily satisfied on the one end of the spectrum and being engaged and active in the world, even taking an unpopular stand, on the other end. How can one practice shedding internally but still be responsive and engaged regarding the suffering from environmental and social issues? It seems that would complicate things, but that is where my heart is drawn.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dispassion] [Simplicity] [Contentment] [Politics and society ] [Environment] // [Suffering]

Quote: “When there is displassion and shedding, a clarity arises in the mind, when can then more easily be applied to something that is useful or beneficial without complicating things.” [Dispassion] [Clear comprehension] [Compassion]

Quote: “Do you think there’s any hope for saving all the forests in Thailand?”—“I don’t think there’s hope that it’s going to make a huge impact right now. I’m just planting the seeds for the future, and maybe something will change. It’s not an option not to do it.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Culture/Thailand]


Our Roots in the Thai Forest Tradition, Session 31 – Feb. 17, 2014

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14. “She talks about virtue being the other hand of discernment in the meditation experience, and whenever discernment discerns stress, virtue is what lets go of the cause of stress, that virtue does the disbanding of it. Is virtue an unusual word to use there?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Virtue] [Discernment] [Cessation of Suffering] [Dispassion] // [Pāli] [Conscience and prudence] [Ajahn Chah]

Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 14: Many levels of sīla. [Commentaries] [Eightfold Path]


Mindfulness of Breathing, Session 2 – Oct. 26, 2014

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2. Comment: Dispassion, fading away—these things are happening anyway, and we’re learning to see them. [Dispassion] [Learning] [Mindfulness of breathing]


2014 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 2 – Nov. 23, 2014

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6. “You mentioned that asubha practice can cool sensual desire. But what if what you are attracted to is not so much a physical thing but an attraction of the heart—of good qualities you see. What cools the heart if you are hooked?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Unattractiveness] [Dispassion] [Clinging] // [Ageing] [Impermanence]


2014 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 5 – Nov. 26, 2014

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16. “Was the fire sermon a ‘teaching moment’ of hyperbole? I love to take photographs, for example, and it helps me engage much more deeply with the world outside my skull. And it fills me with rapture, compassion, and joy! Does the Buddha’s recipe for liberation truly entail cutting off this experience of beauty? Where’s the Theravada equivalent to the Zen ‘suchness’ —the awe of life and its ephemerality? Thank you!” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dispassion] [Impermanence] [Suchness] [Recreation/leisure/sport] [Liberation] [Compassion] [Happiness] [Beauty]

Sutta: SN 35.28: Ādittapariyāya Sutta


The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Session 22 – Feb. 2, 2015

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1. “Which Pāli word is translated as “fading away?”” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāli] [Translation] [Dispassion] // [Cessation]


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 2 – May. 27, 2015

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8. “Do you think it’s enough to just be aware of the suffering that’s caused by the clinging to self?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Suffering] [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Dispassion] [Not-self] // [Characteristics of existence] [Cessation] [Ignorance] [Knowledge and vision] [Release] [Proliferation]

Quote: “The most efficacious investigation comes from a still mind.” [Concentration] [Calming meditation] [Insight meditation]


Can We Function without Attachement?, Session 3 – Oct. 1, 2017

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2.Snp 4.6 says something about not clinging to passion and dispassion. Usually I hear that cultivating dispassion is a good thing.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clinging] [Sensual desire] [Dispassion]


Developing Skill in Reflective Meditation, Session 1 – Dec. 1, 2019

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4. “You mentioned ‘Look for the gap.’ Is this related to looking for fading away?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Insight meditation] [Dispassion] [Recollection] // [Cessation] [Cessation of Suffering] [Impermanence] [Faith]

Follow-up: “So we’re not just looking at the blank...” [Wrong concentration] [Emptiness] [Nature of the cosmos] [Unwholesome Roots] [Not-self]