3. Story: Ajahn Sundarā stays with a nun who lived at Wat Pah Pong with Ajahn Chah. Told by Ajahn Sundarā. [Ajahn Sundarā] [Mae Chee ] [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Chah]
Story: The first nun at Wat Pah Pong. [Artistic expression] [Determination] [Sequence of training] [Eight Precepts]
Story: The Wat Pah Pong nuns go pindapat. [Almsround]
Quote: “Does anyone find having nuns around difficult?” – “Yes.” – “Well, you can go then.” — Ajahn Chah. [Pāṭimokkha] [Women in Buddhism]
Story: A woman brings only enough food for the monks, so Ajahn Chah asks the nuns to chant the blessing. [Generosity] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Chanting] [Fierce/direct teaching]
Note: Stillness Flowing Chapter 9 contains more information about the Wat Pah Pong mae chees at the time of Ajahn Chah.
2. “I noticed a monk cutting a tree [in The Buddha Comes to Sussex]. Isn’t that against the Pāṭimokkha?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Pāṭimokkha] [Vinaya] [Chithurst]
2. I was the first Westerner, so he gave me an enormous amout of attention for the first two or three years. Reflection by Ajahn Sumedho. [History/Western Buddhist monasticism] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Mentoring] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Mahā Amorn] [Other Thai Forest teachers] [Pāṭimokkha] [Conceit] [Paul Breiter] [Truth] [Compassion] [Humor]
Story: Venerable Varapañño chants the Pāṭimokkha better than Ajahn Sumedho. [Pāṭimokkha] [Competitiveness] [Jealousy]
Note: The story that Ajahn Sumedho didn’t tell is probably told in Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 189.
8. Reading from the draft biography: Ajahn Chah ordains at age 20. Read by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ordination] [Ajahn Chah] // [Culture/Thailand] [Military] [Merit] [Spiritual urgency] [Learning] [Pāṭimokkha]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 37
2. “You said that starting with chanting can help focus the mind. But I find myself daydreaming while chanting.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Chanting] [Tranquility] [Proliferation] // [Pāṭimokkha] [Energy]
Story: An elderly woman chants the Dhammacakka Sutta every day. [Ageing]
7. “Did the Dhammayut/Mahanikai differences matter to serious practice monks?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Thai sects] [Monastic life] // [Pāṭimokkha] [Saṅgha] [Ajahn Baen] [Ajahn Mun] [Ajahn Mahā Boowa]
1. “Are there any stories you can share from the times when you were attendant to Luang Por Chah?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Upatakh] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Mentoring]
Quote: “I never asked him for anything. It never occured to me to ask Ajahn Chah for anything.” [Contentment]
Story: Ajahn Chah makes fun of Ajahn Pasanno’s first Pāṭimokkha chanting. [Pāṭimokkha]
Quote: “He would be unrelenting if you were stuck in some aversion....He wouldn’t indulge it. It was inevitably painful if one did.” [Aversion] [Fierce/direct teaching]
21. “When it says neither pleasant nor unpleasant, is this neutral?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] [Jhāna] // [Mindfulness] [Pāṭimokkha]
29. “Do monastics talk with each other about the precepts they have broken or having wrong thoughts?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Vinaya] [Saṅgha] [Christianity] // [Pāṭimokkha] [Confession] [Rains retreat] [Learning] [Abhayagiri] [Faith]
4. Story: Learning the Paṭimokkha. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāṭimokkha] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Chanting] // [Ajahn Chah] [Culture/India]
Responses by Ajahn Ñāṇiko, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Pāṭimokkha]
13. Reviewing knowledge #4: Immediately acknowledging our mistakes. Teaching by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Confession] [Vinaya] [Communal harmony] // [Pāṭimokkha] [Abhayagiri]
Sutta: MN 48: Kosambi Sutta.
10. “Were there any memories from the period of training with Ajahn Chah that really stand out in your mind? In what ways did you find it difficult?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno skips morning pūjā to meditate diligently at his kuti. Ajahn Chah calls him lazy. [Monastic routine]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno sits vigil at a cremation and makes a bathing cloth from the cloth used to wrap a corpse. [Funerals ] [Robes ] [Wat Pah Pong] [Recollection/Death]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno joins the Wat Pah Pong Saṅgha, exchanges his requisites, and excitedly attends his first Pāṭimokkha at Wat Pah Pong. Ajahn Chah keeps the monks sitting until 3 am. [Vinaya] [Requisites] [Not handling money] [Pāṭimokkha] [Compassion] [Relinquishment]
15. “When you first arrived at Ajahn Chah’s monastery, how did you communicate with him?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Language] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Translation] [Paul Breiter] [Thai] [Isan]
Story: Venerable Varapañño could recite the Pāṭimokkha perfectly. [Pāṭimokkha]