Key to Natural Truth Mindfulness with Breathing Nibbāna for Everyone Paticcasamuppāda: Practical Dependent Origination
Reading: “The Dhamma-Truth of Samatha-Vipassana for the Nuclear Age” from Key to Natural Truth by Ajahn Buddhadāsa pp. 111-131. Read by Ajahn Ñāṇiko.
Our Roots in the Thai Forest Tradition [2014], Session 42
“Could you recommend a book about ānāpānasati or mindful approaches to the jhānas?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Jhāna] [Dhamma books]
Reference: Mindfulness with Breathing by Ajahn Buddhadāsa.
Reference: Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation by Larry Rosenberg (commercial).
Reference: Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation by Bhante Gunaratana (commercial).
Note: More recent books about mindfulness of breathing from the Thai Forest Tradition include Keeping the Breath in Mind and Lessons in Samādhi by Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo, With Each and Every Breath by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro, and Breathing like a Buddha by Ajahn Sucitto.
Thanksgiving Retreat 2004, Session 13, Excerpt 9
“MN 44.14 defines perception and feeling as mental formations. I thought those were just conditional arising on account of contact (MN 109.9)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Perception] [Feeling] [Volitional formations] [Conditionality] [Contact] // [Pāli]
Ajahn Buddhadāsa’s translation of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118.19; 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.
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness [2013], Session 24, Excerpt 5
“This state of nothingness or no-thing-ness is kind of liberating. Is that something that can be quick or something we attain and is forever?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Non-identification] [Liberation] // [Insight meditation] [Long-term practice] [Arahant] [Ajahn Chah]
Reference: Nibbāna for Everyone by Ajahn Buddhadāsa.
Readings from The Island [2025], Session 2, Excerpt 2
Reading: Paticcasamuppāda: Practical Dependent Origination by Ajahn Buddhadāsa, selections from pp. 22-45. Read by Debbie Stamp.