5. The sea of faith in Northeast Thailand. [Faith] [Culture/Thailand ] [Ajahn Chah] // [Poverty] [Culture/Natural environment] [Geography/Thailand] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Self-reliance] [Patience] [Teaching Dhamma] [Suffering]
In Central Thailand, lay people don’t come to the monastery on observance days. [Lay life] [Lunar observance days] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Tudong]
8. Ajahn Chah used the forest environment to train us. [Culture/Natural environment ] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Pace of life]
Story: Two mating lizards fall out of a tree. [Almsround] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Animal] [Sensual desire] [Suffering]
8. Ajahn Chah’s time of illness was a gift to the Saṅgha. [Sickness] [Generosity] [Saṅgha ] [Ajahn Chah ] // [Bodhisattva] [Renunciation] [Communal harmony] [Saṅgha decision making]
Ajahn Chah’s emphasis on Saṅgha was unique. [Thai Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Teachers] [Conflict] [Personal presence] [Three Refuges]
Quote: “People in the world are attached to status. People in the religion are attached to their views.” — Thai saying. [Monastic life] [Views]
9. The sea of faith: Ajahn Chah’s funeral. [Faith] [Funerals] [Ajahn Chah] // [Meditation] [Chanting] [Almsfood]
10. Surrender, dignity, honesty: Qualities of Ajahn Chah. [Relinquishment] [Dignity] [Truth] [Ajahn Chah] // [Saṅgha] [Funerals]
2. Reflection: The meaning of Buddho. [Buddho mantra] [Clear comprehension] [Mindfulness] [Mindfulness of breathing]
1. Reviewing our meditation habits and the purpose of meditation. [Meditation] [Discernment] // [Equanimity] [Knowledge and vision] [Liberation]
1. Reflection: Long-term effective strategies for dealing with pain. [Pain ] [Long-term practice] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling] // [Mindfulness] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Aversion]
2. Applying the factors of first jhāna in mindfulness of breathing. [Jhāna] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling] // [Directed thought and evaluation] [Rapture] [Unification]
3. The importance of sustaining attention with neutral sensations. [Neutral feeling] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling]
Sutta: SN 36.6: The Dart.
1. Simile: Sensual desire is like being in debt. (MN 39.14) [Sensual desire] [Hindrances] [Similes]
2. Simile: Ill-will is like being sick. (MN 39.14) [Ill-will ] [Hindrances] [Similes] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Sickness] [Happiness]
3. Simile: Sloth and torpor is like being in prison. (MN 39.14) [Sloth and torpor] [Hindrances] [Similes]
4. Simile: Restlessness and worry is like being a slave. [Restlessness and worry ] [Hindrances] [Similes] // [Mindfulness of body]
5. Simile: Skeptical doubt is like a merchant travelling through a dangerous desert. [Doubt] [Hindrances] [Similes]
1. Bringing attention to the breath is an alternative to sensual gratification. [Sensual desire] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of body] [Hindrances]
2. Recognizing subtle forms of irritation. [Aversion] [Ill-will] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of body] [Hindrances]
Tibetan Buddhism translates klesha as affliction. [Vajrayāna] [Unwholesome Roots] [Translation]
3. Preventing the settled mind from sinking into dullness. [Sloth and torpor] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of body] [Hindrances]
1. Attending to attractive objects nourishes sensual desire. (SN 46.51) [Sensual desire] [Hindrances]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55: The Five Recollections
2. Attending to what we feel obstructed by nourishes ill-will. (SN 46.51) [Ill-will] [Hindrances] // [Divine Abidings] [Discernment]
Story: A monk with an aversive temperament worsens it with repeated asuba and death contemplation. [Aversion] [Unattractiveness] [Recollection/Death] [Idealism] [Goodwill]
3. Following the path of least resistance nourishes sloth and torpor. (SN 46.51) [Sloth and torpor] [Hindrances] // [Energy]
Story: The novice’s nibbāna.
1. Reflections on the value of noble silence during Winter Retreat. [Meditation retreats] [Idle chatter] [Right Speech] // [Community] [Culture/Natural environment] [Tranquility]
2. Ajahn Pasanno urges the Abhayagiri community to cultivate mindfulness, composure, sensitivity, and silence in the details of moving and speaking during Winter Retreat. [Meditation retreats] [Posture/Walking] [Tranquility]
Note: Abhayagiri’s communal space consisted of two small buildings in 2005.
3. The commentaries contrast the Five Hindrances with the five factors of first jhāna. [Hindrances] [Jhāna] // [Directed thought and evaluation] [Sloth and torpor] [Doubt] [Rapture] [Ill-will] [Happiness] [Restlessness and worry] [Unification] [Sensual desire]
Story: Ajahn Boon Choo dispels sloth and torpor. [Ajahn Boon Choo] [Devotion to wakefulness]
Quote: “Sensual desire is like looking for the turtle with the mustache.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Similes]
Meditation instruction: Breathing with the five factors of first jhāna. [Mindfulness of breathing]
1. Meditation instruction: Be present with the physical experience of the breath. Bring a sense of ease into the body. Ground awareness in the body. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of body]
Quote: Keeping the breath in mind is like getting the spoon into the mouth and the mouth onto the spoon. — Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo. [Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo] [Similes]
Story: “The body understands!” [Direct experience] [Zen] [Koan] [Ajahn Pasanno]
Body and mind are not separate things. [Body/form] [Heart/mind] [Aggregates ] [Dependent origination] [Consciousness]
Water similes for the mind with and without hindrances. (SN 46.55) [Hindrances] [Sensual desire] [Ill-will] [Sloth and torpor] [Restlessness and worry] [Doubt]
Sutta: DN 2.98: “These are shoals of fish...”
Quote: “You can get a lot of wisdom from walking meditation.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Posture/Walking] [Discernment]
2. Relaxing into the breath when experiencing pain in meditation. [Pain] [Tranquility] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Perception]
3. Maintaining alertness in the midst of pleasant feeling. [Happiness] [Energy] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Perception]
4. Developing sensitivity to neutral feeling. [Neutral feeling] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Perception] // [Equanimity] [Factors of Awakening]
4. Discerning the fundamental mind base amidst the moods of the mind. [Mindfulness of mind] // [Ajahn Mun] [Ajahn Chah] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Similes] [Concentration] [Relinquishment]
5. Reflection: Differing interpretations of citta; returning to the knowing, our refuge of peace. [Heart/mind] [Nature of mind ] [Knowing itself] [Mindfulness of mind] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Unconditioned] [Commentaries] [P. A. Payutto] [Ajahn Chah]
1. Reflection: Fine-tuning the balance between stillness and investigation. [Calming meditation ] [Insight meditation ] [Gladdening the mind] // [Mindfulness of breathing]
Sutta: SN 15.1: “Bound by ignorance and obstructed by craving.” [Ignorance] [Craving]
2. Reflection: Gladdening the mind through corpse contemplation. [Recollection/Death] [Unattractiveness] [Gladdening the mind] // [Mae Chee Sansanee] [Disasters] [Dispassion]
1. Delighting in the beautiful and benevolent breath. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Gladdening the mind] [Concentration] // [Ajahn Brahmavaṃso]
2. Reflections on jhāna and attainment. [Jhāna] [Conceit] [Concentration] // [Ajahn Chah] [Mindfulness of mind] [Suffering]
Sutta: SN 43.1: “Meditate [jhāyatha] bhikkhus, do not be negligent, lest you regret it later.”
3. Ārammaṇupanijjhāna (meditation using an object as a focus) and lakkhaṇupanijjhāna (meditation using the characteristics as a focus); when to contemplate anicca, dukkha, anatta. [Jhāna] [Calming meditation] [Insight meditation] [Characteristics of existence] [Concentration]
4. The four results of samādhi described in AN 4.41. [Meditation/Results] [Concentration] // [Jhāna] [Perception of light] [Psychic powers] [Mindfulness] [Clear comprehension] [Aggregates] [Impermanence] [Outflows]
Story: As a novice, Ajahn Puth directed his mind to which questions would be on the Nak Tam exams. [Ajahn Puth] [Learning]
1. Simile: A trap for monkeys who don’t let go. [Animal] [Clinging] [Similes]
2. Reflection: We’re not diminished beings if we don’t get what we want. [Sensual desire] [Clinging] [Liberation] // [Food] [Drawbacks] [Mindfulness of breathing]
Simile: A dog gnawing on meatless bones (MN 54.15). [Similes]
3. The drawbacks of wrong view and clinging to views. [Drawbacks] [Views] [Clinging] [Liberation] // [Kamma] [Conflict]
4. Attending wisely to the breath versus blindly clinging to the practice. [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Clinging] [Liberation]
Sutta: MN 57: The Dog-Duty Ascetic.
5. Attending to what is rather than concepts about a self. [Doctrine-of-self clinging] [Direct experience] [Clinging] [Liberation] // [Mindfulness of breathing] [Cause of Suffering] [Self-identity view]
6. Reflection: Our suffering is fed and sustained by clinging. [Suffering] [Cause of Suffering] [Clinging ] [Liberation] // [Translation]
1. Making impermanence the focal point for attending to the breath. [Impermanence] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Characteristics of existence] // [Insight meditation] [Direct experience]
2. Animitta samādhi takes impermanence as its object and is not drawn into the characteristics of things. [Concentration] [Impermanence] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Characteristics of existence] // [Robes] [Nimitta] [Knowing itself]
3. When one sees through dukkha, the concentration that develops is called appaṇihita samādhi. [Suffering] [Concentration] [Impermanence] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Characteristics of existence] // [Desire] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Liberation]
Quote: “Imagine a mental state that isn’t looking for anything else.”
4. Emptiness is the experiential counterpoint of not-self. [Not-self] [Emptiness ] [Impermanence] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Characteristics of existence] // [Conditionality]
2. Developing dispassion by reflecting on the body. [Mindfulness of body] [Unattractiveness] [Dispassion] // [Food] [Self-identity view]
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) [Similes] [Heedfulness] [Eightfold Path] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Liberation]
3. Reflection: 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]
4. Reflection from Ajahn Koon Balisoodtoh: “Am I dying?” with each breath. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Recollection/Death] [Dispassion] // [Amulets]
8. Reflection: 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]
1. Simile: The mind that does not allow cessation is like the derelict Chithurst House stuffed with junk. [Chithurst] [Cessation] [Similes]
2. The cessation of self view is a window into emptiness. [Self-identity view] [Emptiness] [Becoming] [Cessation] [Cessation of Suffering] [Mindfulness of breathing]
Meditation instructions from Ajahn Jumnien: Rest attention midway between the eye and a visual object. [Sense bases]
Samatha practices allow us to become familiar with peaceful places in our mind. [Calming meditation] [Tranquility]
Teaching by Ajahn Chah: Can you be continuously angry for two hours? [Aversion] [Impermanence]
3. Ajahn Buddhadāsa translates nirodha as quenching. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Cessation] [Translation]
3. Reflection: Seeing things as they are. [Knowledge and vision ] [Relinquishment] // [Aggregates] [Self-identity view]
4. Attending to the simplicity of the elements. [Elements ] [Direct experience] [Relinquishment] // [Mindfulness of breathing] [Self-identity view]
5. Ajahn Buddhadāsa translates paṭinissagga as “giving back”. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Translation] [Relinquishment] // [Naturalness] [Mindfulness of breathing]
4. The four constituents of Right Mindfulness. [Right Mindfulness] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Mindfulness] [Ardency] [Clear comprehension] [Relinquishment] [Right Effort]
Sutta: MN 10: Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
Commentary: Clear comprehension has the characteristic of non-confusion, its function is to investigate, and it manifests as scrutiny. (Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 154)
Commentary: Mindfulness has the characteristic of remembering, its function is not forgetting, and it manifests as guarding. (Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 154)
5. When mindfulness is established and the breath becomes subtle, attend to the presence of the breath and the knower itself. [Tranquility] [Knowing itself ] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Relinquishment] [Delusion]
Quote: “If you let go a little, you get a little peace. If you let go a lot, you get a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you get complete peace.” — Ajahn Chah.
3. “Could you please explain about the death process…how quickly does rebirth occur?” [Death ] [Rebirth] // [Recollection/Death] [Delusion] [Self-identity view] [Recollection] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Theravāda] [History/Early Buddhism] [Sutta] [Vajrayāna] [Clinging] [Culture/Thailand] [Chanting] [Goodwill] [Relinquishment] [Ceremony/ritual] [Kamma]
References: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55: Five Recollections; Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 12: The body is impermanent... [Similes] [Craving]
Simile: Fire blown by the wind (MN 72: Aggivacchagotta Sutta)
Story: A former monk asks Ajahn Chah about working with dying people to give them the opportunity for wholesome rebirth. [Ajahn Chah] [Teachers] [Fierce/direct teaching]
Quote: “I practice dying.” — The Dalai Lama. [Dalai Lama]
9. “Could you talk more about working with the hindrance of doubt?” [Doubt ] // [Fear] [Aversion] [Sensual desire] [Mindfulness of body] [Tranquility] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Right Speech] [Delusion]
Simile: A dish of muddy water placed in a dark cupboard (SN 46.55). [Similes]
11. “It’s been so helpful to hear stories from your own experience. Could you talk about some of the more challenging moments in your practice and how you worked with them?” [Gratitude] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Long-term practice] // [Doubt ] [Patience]
Quote: “It’s not me resolving doubt, but it’s allowing the practice or the Dhamma to work.” [Self-identity view] [Dhamma] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Faith] [Three Refuges]
Simile: “Getting in the vehicle and allowing it to carry you.” [Similes]
19. “What is the difference between pīti and sukha?” [Rapture] [Happiness] // [Continuity of mindfulness] [Concentration] [Jhāna] [Tranquility] [Unification] [Mindfulness]
Simile: A traveller through a desert learns of an oasis (pīti) then drinks and bathes at the oasis (sukha) (Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139). [Similes]
7. “Just to clarify – when doing loving-kindness practice, is any phrase OK to repeat? They can be said as a chant, right? At any speed? Is any chant best for achieving concentration?” [Goodwill] [Meditation/Techniques] [Chanting] [Concentration] // [Nature of mind]
Quote: “What is really important is not so much the phrases or the methodology but the feeling that is established within the heart of lovingkindness.” [Emotion]
Simile: A tradesman with only one tool. [Similes]
3. Reflection: The impact and inspiration of Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] // [Thai Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Western Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Ajahn Chah Remembrance Day] [Wat Pah Pong]
10. Reading from the draft biography: Ajahn Chah accepts his dying father’s request to stay as a monk for life. [Parents] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Sickness] [Death] [Ajahn Chah ] [Determination ] // [Mindfulness of body] [Spiritual urgency ] [Saṃsāra]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 40
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. [Determination ] [Ardency] [Patience] [Doubt] [Continuity of mindfulness] [Relinquishment] [Knowledge and vision]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 42
The singular quality of Ajahn Chah’s resolution. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Determination ]
1. Teaching: The role of walking meditation. [Posture/Walking] [Ajahn Chah] // [Thai Forest Tradition] [Continuity of mindfulness] [Lodging] [Sloth and torpor]
Quote: Ajahn Chah admonishes the monks: “I’ve looked at the huts in the forest where you monks live. I see the walking meditation paths, and I don’t see human tracks. All I see are dog tracks!” [Fierce/direct teaching]
1. Reflection: Context of Ajahn Chah’s early efforts at meditation. [Meditation] [Ajahn Chah] // [Thai sects] [Ajahn Mun] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
1. The tradition of almsround. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Almsfood] [Almsround] [Generosity] [Almsbowl] // [Ajahn Chah] [Vinaya]
2. The monks’ requisites sustain our livelihood and are a focal point for our cultivation of mindfulness and attention. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Requisites ] [Almsbowl] [Mindfulness] // [Robes]
1. Explanation of the meal blessing chant. [Anumodanā] [Almsfood] // [Pāli] [Gratitude] [Merit]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 50
4. Reflection: Why Ajahn Chah spent only three days with Ajahn Mun. [Ajahn Mun] [Ajahn Chah] // [Thai sects] [Politics and society] [Psychic powers] [Dreams]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 61
Quote: “Mahānikāya needs good monks as well.” — Ajahn Mun to Ajahn Chah.
10. Quote: “It all comes back to that simple quality of mindfulness. From the mindfulness, then the different qualities of practice that we need to rely on are cultivated.” [Mindfulness ] [Faculties] [Tudong] // [Concentration ] [Thai] [Translation] [Discernment] [Perfections]
Reflection: In Thai, samādhi is translated as “the firm establishing of the mind.” [Concentration ]
Quote: “The base and foundation is the mindfulness. Being the knowing is always the foundation, and then the mind is able to become still, become settled, become steady.” [Knowing itself] [Concentration ]
Recollection: “It’s rare that Ajahn Chah would use [the Pāli term] pañña on its own. More often than not, he would use satipañña, which is mindfulness and wisdom together.” [Ajahn Chah] [Pāli]
[Session] Dhamma talk: Ajahn Pasanno reflects at the beginning of the retreat on what is helpful to establish in the mind during a period of formal practice. Drawing on the distinction of wholesome and unwholesome dhammas he brings together the topics of the Five Hindrances, Mindfulness, Clear Comprehension, and the putting forth of effort. [Right Mindfulness]
[Session] Dhamma talk: The attention to bringing the mind to the freeing of the hindrances is essential. Ajahn Pasanno reflects on the Five Hindrances and recalls various metaphors and tools the Buddha suggests for understanding and working with the hindrances. [Hindrances]
[Session] Dhamma talk: Bringing the theme of the Five Hindrances to focus again, Ajahn Pasanno offers more advice for working with the hindrances and focuses on the positive qualities that we can turn to to enable relinquishing of the hindrances. [Hindrances]
[Session] Dhamma talk: Beginning with the Buddha’s metaphor of the skilled cook (SN 47.8) who carefully watches what his king prefers in order to gain favor. Ajahn Pasanno relates the importance and methods of relating to the meditation object in the framework of what works and what doesn’t work.
[Session] Dhamma talk: Ajahn Pasanno reflects on the importance of practicing dhamma in accordance with dhamma and how this subtle, but important shift in our intention is a key to right practice. [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
[Session] Dhamma talk: Ajahn Pasanno explains the Buddha’s similes for spreading well-being and awareness throughout the body and describes mindfulness of breathing in terms of inclusive awareness. [Mindfulness of body]
[Session] Dhamma talk: To commemorate the Ajahn Chah’s 21st death anniversary, Ajahn Pasanno reads three talks on meditation from Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah: “Tranquility and Insight”, “The Path in Harmony”, and “The Place of Coolness.”
[Session] Dhamma talk: Reflecting on a question, Ajahn Pasanno talks about the usage of Kor Wat, translated “protocols” or ways of relating to requisites and the community, as a basic tool for training mindfulness and circumspection. [Protocols]
[Session] Dhamma talk: Ajahn Pasanno reflects on the basic teaching of the Four Noble Truths and how investigating and contemplating dukkha enables us to see our habits and conditioning and the obstacles to practice. [Four Noble Truths]
1. Teaching: The relationship between the Five Hindrances and the Seven Factors of Awakening. [Hindrances] [Factors of Awakening] // [Mindfulness of dhammas] [Āgama] [Abhidhamma]
3. Reflections on SN 42.13: The Buddha’s clarity with definitions and bringing doubts about views back to conduct. [Teaching Dhamma] [Doubt] [Views] [Virtue]
1. Reflections on MN 109: The danger in clinging to khandhas. [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Aggregates]
Reference: Reflection on dukkha from the Morning Chanting.
Sutta: SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (Chanting book translation).
2. Teaching: MN 64.9 explains how jhāna forms the basis for insight. [Jhāna] [Characteristics of existence] [Insight meditation] // [Formless attainments]
Follow-up: “Does that imply that insight is realized during that absorption?”
2. The meaning of perception. [Perception] // [Sense bases] [Thai] [Memory]
Sutta: SN 22.79.
5. “MN 44.14 defines perception and feeling as mental formations. I thought those were just conditional arising on account of contact (MN 109.9)?” [Perception] [Feeling] [Volitional formations] [Conditionality] [Contact] // [Pāli]
Ajahn Buddhadasā‘s translation of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118; Chanting Book translation) translates cittasaṅkhāra as the mental conditioner. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Translation] [Mindfulness of breathing]
Reference: Mindfulness with Breathing by Ajahn Buddhadāsa, p. 72.
Follow-up: “The bodily fabrication doesn’t seem to involve volition, but vitakka and vicāra do.” [Body/form] [Volition] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Aggregates]
Comment: In the Ānāpānasati Sutta, much of the practice is intentionally calming different saṅkhāras. [Tranquility] [Mindfulness of body]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
9. Explanation of “The Questions of Māgaṇḍiya” (Snp 4.9) and Dr. Saddhatissa’s translation of the Sutta Nipāta. [History/Early Buddhism] [Dr. Saddhatissa] [Translation] // [Great disciples] [Pāli] [Culture/Sri Lanka]
Story: Ajahn Chah tells Ajahn Sumedho to take Dr. Saddhatissa as the Saṅgharāja of England. [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Study monks]
10. Reflection: In SN 22.3, Venerable Mahākaccāna extrapolates from the literal to the figurative. [Great disciples] [Teaching Dhamma] [Symbolism] // [Commentaries] [Aggregates] [Sense bases] [Proliferation]
5. “Sorry, I missed something. Did you say that instead of dwelling on our hindrances and getting depressed, we could instead work with the Factors of Enlightenment to brighten the mind? What are the Factors you would suggest?” [Factors of Awakening] [Gladdening the mind] // [Divine Abidings] [Perfections] [Right Effort] [Hindrances]
Reflections on Unbinding as a translation of Nibbāna. [Nibbāna] [Translation] [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro]
Quote: “Practicing Dhamma is like taking a screwdriver and unscrewing something rather than putting the screwdriver in and tightening it up.” [Ajahn Chah] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Similes]
[Session] Ajahn Pasanno begins the retreat by encouraging us to return to the basics of the Noble Eightfold Path. He mentions Iris Landsberg, a long-standing lay supporter dying of lung cancer, both to set the tone for the monk’s final visit to her and to encourage us to practice while there is still time. Iris passed away February 1, 2014. [Eightfold Path] [Sickness] [Death] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Spiritual urgency] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Meditation retreats] [Family] [Health care]
Sutta: DN 16.5.27: The world will not be devoid of awakened beings as long as people are practicing the Eightfold Path. [Stages of awakening]
Story: Ajahn Pāvaro decides to practice in Bodh Gaya after receiving worrying medical news. [Ajahn Pavaro] [Visiting holy sites] [Impermanence]
Sutta: MN 131: Bhaddekaratta Sutta (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 75)
1. Introductory comments by Ajahn Pasanno and Tan Pamutto clarify some of the terms in the reading. [Ajahn Liem] [Perception of a samaṇa] [Association with people of integrity] [Thai] [Abhayagiri] [Worldly Conditions]
7. The character of Ajahn Chah and his relatives. [Ajahn Chah] [Personality] [Aversion] [Humor] // [Leadership]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah’s older brother had the same personality. [Family]
3. “Was there a time in Thai history when meditation was a routine part of childhood education?” [History/Thai Buddhism] [Children] [Education] [Meditation] // [Three Refuges] [Chanting] [Right View]
Reflection: Ajahn Liem’s mother and sister were nuns with similar demeanor. [Ajahn Liem] [Family] [Mae Chee] [Wat Pah Pong] [Personality]
1. Ajahn Pasanno introduces Ajahn Koon and Twigs and Branches of the Bodhinyana. [Dhamma books] [Ajahn Koon (Na Pho)]
1. Introduction to The Natural Character of Awakening and Chao Khun Upāli. Teaching by Ajahn Jotipālo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Chao Khun Upāli] [Ajahn Mun] [Forest versus city monks]
Story: Ajahn Mun takes on the role of abbot at a city temple out of respect for Chao Khun Upāli’s request. [Abbot]
1. Background information about Ajahn Suwat. [Ajahn Suwat] // [Ajahn Fun] [Ajahn Mun] [Ajahn Dune]
1. “Sometimes I will see a bit of greed come up, I apply an antidote, for example, if its craving, apply some asuba; but it seems to exacerbate it–do you have any encouragement or similes from Ajahn Chah?” [Unwholesome Roots] [Right Effort] [Meditation/Results] [Ajahn Chah] // [Investigation of states] [Patience]
Simile: Putting a tiger in a cage. [Similes] [Mindfulness] [Discernment]
1. Biographical information about Ajahn Sim and Simply So. [Ajahn Sim] [Ajahn Jayasaro] [Dhamma books]