Glosses: Integrity
See also: False speech
43 excerpts, 3:16:29 total duration
2. Story: Ajahn Chah’s early life. Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Chah] // [Culture/Thailand] [Truth] [Leadership] [Ajahn Jayasaro]
8. Reading from the draft biography: Ajahn Chah’s dying father asks him to remain in robes for life. Read by Ajahn Amaro. [Sickness] [Recollection/Death] [Parents] [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah] [Determination] // [Learning] [Culture/Thailand] [Unattractiveness] [Forest versus city monks] [Sutta] [Spiritual urgency]
Quote: “I dedicate my body and mind, my whole life, to the practice of the Lord Buddha’s teachings in their entirety. I will realize the truth in this lifetime … I will let go of everything and follow the teachings. No matter how much suffering and difficulty I have to endure I will persevere, otherwise there will be no end to my doubts. I will make this life as even and continuous as a single day and night. I will abandon attachments to mind and body and follow the Buddha’s teachings until I know their truth for myself.” — Ajahn Chah [Buddha] [Dhamma] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Knowledge and vision] [Truth] [Relinquishment] [Suffering]
Reflection: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 40 [Energy] [Doubt] [Continuity of mindfulness]
1. Teachings to Marjorie by Ajahn Chah, Part 2. Thai audio with English translation read by Kittisaro. [Thai audio] [Ajahn Chah] // [Dispassion] [Nibbāna] [Unconditioned] [Cessation of Suffering]
Continued from Part 1.
Reference: “Living with the Cobra,” Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 233.
Quote: “If the tears don’t come, we don’t really accept truth.” [Suffering] [Truth] [Wat Pah Pong]
Note: “Living with the Cobra” omits this quote and other more personal aspects of Ajahn Chah’s teaching to Marjorie.
9. Story: Dump your money in the river. Told by Jack Kornfield. [Conceit] [Commerce/economics] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Truth] [Ajahn Chah] [Humor] // [Compassion]
12. Story: Ajahn Chah to Jack Kornfield, “Did I heal her?” Told by Jack Kornfield. [Jack Kornfield] [Sickness] [Health] [Protective chants] [Ajahn Chah] [Teaching Dhamma] // [Wat Pah Pong] [Truth]
15. Quote: “He just accepted life on its own terms from this place in the center.” — Jack Kornfield [Equanimity] [Truth] [Dignity] [Ajahn Chah] // [Present moment awareness] [Knowledge and vision] [Relinquishment]
10. Surrender, dignity, honesty: Qualites of Ajahn Chah. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Dignity] [Truth] [Ajahn Chah] // [Saṅgha] [Funerals]
1. “I am curious about ways to know if one is lying to oneself and what to do?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Truth] [Delusion] // [Suffering] [Discernment] [Bases of Success]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah said the fastest way to enlightenment is to look directly at the mind, point your finger, and say “Liar!” [Ajahn Chah] [Liberation] [Proliferation]
12. A retreatant expresses appreciation for Upasika Kee Nanayon’s exhortation to be honest with ourselves. [Unwholesome Roots] [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Truth] [Gratitude]
“You can lie to the entire world if you like, but you must never lie to yourself.” – Mae Chee Kaew: Her Journey to Spiritual Awakening and Enlightenment by Ajahn Dick Sīlaratano, p. 235. [Mae Chee Kaew] [False speech] [Truth]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Truth] [Self-identity view] [Culture/West]
13. “Can you recommend any practices to develop honesty with ourselves?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Truth] [Delusion] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Direct experience]
Quote: “You can’t take yourself too seriously. That’s really deadly.” [Humor] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “Do we have to sweep all of this?” “No, just sweep what’s in front of your broom.” [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Cleanliness]
4. “With the succinct teaching “know and let go,” I notice a tendency in the mind to go through the motions of that without really being able to enter into it – what do I do about that?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] [Truth] [Perfections]
3. Reflection by Ajahn Yatiko: “Authenticity and Freedom”: Ajahn Yatiko reflects on his brother Glenn’s life, values, and suicide from the perspective of a “Siamese twin joined at the soul” and from the perspective of a Buddhist monk. Originally offered at Glenn’s memorial service on September 30, 2013, at Ascension Lutheran Church in Edmonton, this talk was replayed during the 2014 Upasika Day on Death and Dying. [Family] [Suicide] [Truth] [Liberation] [Death] // [Christianity] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Mental illness] [Idealism] [Spiritual search] [Judgementalism] [Impermanence] [Kamma]
1. Commentary on the Cankī Sutta (MN 95). Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Views] [Right Effort] [Truth]
17. “Have you broken any precepts where only you know if you broke them?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Vinaya] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Right Speech]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s uncle offers him alchohol. [Intoxicants] [Truth]
10. “Did you mention what the trancendent truth of the Saṅgha was?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Saṅgha] [Truth] [Three Refuges] // [Eightfold Path] [Stages of awakening] [Conventions] [Chanting] [Recollection/Saṅgha]
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.
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]
11. “Abhayagiri is not near a major city, but there has been plenty of interest from both laypeople and those wishing to ordain. What do you credit for the sucessful establishment phase of Abhayagiri Monastery?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Abhayagiri ] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Monastic life/Motivation] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Trust] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Vinaya]
Quote: “We are what we say we are. That helps.” [Truth]
3. “Does the concept of refuge in Buddhism contain an element of grace?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Three Refuges ] [Theravāda] [Hinduism] // [Relinquishment] [Knowing itself] [Truth]
Quote: “Did you come here to die?” — Ajahn Chah’s greeting to newcomers. [Ajahn Chah] [Death] [Liberation] [Self-identity view] [Truth]
Quote: “If you really understood refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, there wouldn’t be a time when you bowed without bursting into tears of gratitude and devotion.” [Bowing ] [Gratitude] [Ajahn Jayasaro]