23 excerpts, 1:26:56 total duration
5. “How would you describe the jhana states and do you teach this kind of meditation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Jhāna] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Concentration] [Energy] [Clear comprehension] [Knowledge and vision] [Ajahn Chah] [Relinquishment] [Craving] [Conceit]
10. “What is upekkha – equanimity – and how does one practice it?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Equanimity] // [Kamma] [Conditionality] [Not-self] [Proliferation] [Divine Abidings] [Knowledge and vision] [Impermanence]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55: Five Recollections
3. Comment: You spoke about suffusing the body with extreme well-being. But I’ve been in states like that and my body seems to disappear. [Jhāna] [Happiness] [Rapture ] [Mindfulness of body] [Gradual Teaching] [Meditation/Unusual experiences]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
Quote: “It isn’t so much the experience of extreme well-being that is the goal. It’s the ability to gain clarity and stability so that one can see through the experience as something that is uncertain or impermanent, has a changing nature. The mind often wants to disregard that. The tendency to identify self with experience on a refined mental level is tempered by the body experience.” [Clear comprehension] [Concentration] [Knowledge and vision] [Impermanence] [Delusion] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment]
Follow-up: “Are you saying you can become attached to these states?” [Clinging]
8. “I appreciate your emphasis on clarity, stability, and spaciousness. How does concentration relate to these?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clear comprehension] [Unification] [Spaciousness] [Concentration ] // [Pāli] [Thai] [Etymology] [Tranquility] [Happiness] [Rapture] [Conditionality]
Suttas: AN 10.3: Virtuous Behaivor; AN 6.10 Mahānāma [Virtue]
Quote: “The way my mind worked before was, ‘Boy, when I get my concentration together, I’m going to be happy...’” [Ajahn Pasanno]
Quote: “The happy mind is easily concentrated.” [Hindrances] [Relinquishment] [Knowledge and vision]
3. “When Ajahn Mahā Boowa says that the peaceful mind is the gathering place for the defilements, are these the underlying tendencies?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Concentration] [Unwholesome Roots] // [Knowledge and vision] [Relinquishment] [Delusion] [Stages of awakening]
1. “With your meditation object, when you turn to contemplate it in terms of the three characteristics: anicca, dukkha and anatta, and that doesn’t come up, does that mean you need to stabilize the mind more to see the object more clearly?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation] [Disenchantment] [Characteristics of existence] [Concentration] // [Self-identity view] [Knowledge and vision] [Relinquishment] [Dhamma]
2. “The citta is sometimes defined as pure awareness, and it being in the fourth khanda, but it sounds like here he’s talking about the activity of awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Knowing itself] [Volitional formations] // [Rebirth]
Quote: “There is that which is beyond birth and death. And then you start asking, ‘Well, what is it and how is it? How should it be?’ It’s just the same as in the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2.7)...As soon as you get into conceiving, you’ve already started the process of dukkha.” [Unconditioned ] [Proliferation] [Conceit] [Suffering]
Follow-up: “So is it better to hear what he said and let it go when I notice awareness that’s good, but I don’t have to make anything out of it?”
Quote: “The investigation is not a conceiving. The best investigation is when the mind is exceedingly still and not conceiving, not creating concepts.” [Discernment] [Concentration]
Follow-up: “So is it a realizing, not a conceiving?” [Knowledge and vision]
1. Meaning of “will become cool right here?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] // [Characteristics of existence] [Knowledge and vision] [Nibbāna] [Pāli]
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]
7. “Are there different stages of enlightenment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stages of awakening] // [Stream entry]
Follow-up: “And how would one know if you’ve reached the first stage [of awakening]?” [Doubt] [Self-identity view] [Not-self] [Liberation] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Knowledge and vision]
4. “Where is the middle way taught in the suttas? and how might that help some of us who consider extensive sitting practice an ascetic practice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Middle Path ] [Sutta] // [Virtue] [Concentration] [Discernment] [Right View] [Cessation of Suffering] [Knowledge and vision] [Eightfold Path] [Etymology]
Sutta: SN 22.22: Dhammacakkappavattanasutta (Chanting Book translation).
Quote: “It’s not a middle way that is a compromise where you can cut ot the hard bits and split the difference so you feel good about it.”
6. “A question about Dogenji’s teaching: ‘To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.’ Can you reflect on this teaching from the Theravāda Thai Forest Teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dōgen] [Zen ] [Eightfold Path] [Not-self] [Liberation] [Theravāda] [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Knowledge and vision] [Four Noble Truths] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Aggregates] [Proliferation] [Discernment] [Compassion]
Quote: “Everything is teaching us. Everything is a manifestation of Dhamma and truth.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Truth] [Suchness]
4. “Please speak about sense consciouness and how the release of attachment is acheived.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Consciousness] [Clinging] [Relinquishment] // [Delusion] [Insight meditation] [Knowledge and vision] [Feeling] [Contact] [Drawbacks] [Compassion]
Quote: “Dhamma practice is not difficult. There are only two things you need to do: know and let go.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Knowledge and vision]