Jun. 15, 2023
Online from Clear Mountain Monastery Project in Seattle, Washington
13 excerpts, 42:54 total duration
Show featured excerpts (5)
Ajahn Pasanno answers questions from Ajahn Kovilo, Ajahn Nisabho, and an online audience about his early life in robes and the progressive understanding of Dhamma.
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1. [0:23] Ajahn Kovilo introduces Ajahn Pasanno with a brief biography. [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Western Ajahn Chah lineage] [Travel] [Wat Phleng Vipassanā] [Temporary ordination]
Ajahn Pasanno corrects the narrative. [Ordination] [Ajahn Chah] [Wat Pah Pong] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Wat Sai Ngam (Suphanburi)] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Vinaya]
Quote: “If you want to stay here, you have to stay at least five years.” — Ajahn Chah. [Sequence of training]
Recollection: The 1974 Māgha Pūjā gathering at Wat Pah Pong. [Festival days]
2. [8:35] “It sounds like the experience at the monastery you spent the Vassa at before returning to Luang Por Chah was meditation-focused and technique-focused. Holistic practice monasteries are a new phenomenon in the West. What would you say to someone who has only had retreat experience and their practice has been measured by meditative attainment or calm based on a technique [about the] holistic approach in Ajahn Chah lineage monasteries? What’s unique about it?” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Sai Ngam (Suphanburi)] [Meditation/Techniques] [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah monasteries ] // [Eightfold Path]
Quote: “Buddhism is not a meditation technique. It’s a training in one’s whole life of body, speech, and mind.” [Buddhist identity]
3. [11:14] “I know people who have seen the fruits of the fully-developed Eightfold Path in someone [else] or have been to a monastery and felt what it feels like to live in line with that. They find the life they return to at home is very distant from that. Because of obligations or kammic ties, they aren’t able to bring their life into alignment with the Dhamma in the way they would want. What would you tell someone with one foot in the monastery and the other foot on a banana peel?” [Eightfold Path] [Monastic life] [Lay life ] // [Doubt] [Spiritual friendship] [Factors for stream entry] [Association with people of integrity] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Idealism] [Contentment]
Story: “I could cry every day, but what’s the point? It’s better to just get on with life.” [Retirement] [Pain] [Purpose/meaning]
4. [17:09] “You talk about coming from the meditation monastery where you ordained to Ajahn Chah’s [monastery] and seeing the beauty of the interaction between the laypeople and the monastics. What is your vision of a healthy monastery and by extension, a healthy monk? People come to a monastery with a very high ideal that a monastery should be just meditation ...” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Phleng Vipassanā] [Wat Pah Pong] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Monastic life] [Idealism] [Travel] // [Learning] [Dhamma books]
5. [20:38] “Would you tell the story of the tiger in Dtao Dum?” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Animal] [Dtao Dum ] // [Tudong] [Lodging] [Posture/Walking] [Fear] [Recollection/Death] [Renunciation]
Sutta: MN 4: Bhayabherava Sutta. [Buddha/Biography]
6. [27:29] “[Ajahn Pasanno], do you practice now also? If so, how do you practice?” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Meditation] // [Long-term practice]
Quote: “You realize that there’s this truth of the Dhamma, the truth of reality, and there’s this capacity of the heart to penetrate it and let go of all perceptions of self and clinging. And that’s all you need to do.” [Truth ] [Dhamma] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Clinging]
7. [28:52] “In 2005 you lead a retreat at Abhayagiri talking about the breath, and Debbie has now turned that into a book. In conversation you mentioned that you will add how your understanding of breath meditation has changed over the last 15-20 years ...” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Meditation retreats] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Debbie Stamp] [Long-term practice] // [Naturalness]
Note: A 14-second silence due to a streaming glitch has been removed.
Sutta: AN 10.61: Rain falling on a mountain. [Similes]
8. [30:47] “Could you say a little more about that clarity? You talked about knowing that there is this factor of the truth of Dhamma? How do you be into that?” [Knowledge and vision] [Truth] [Dhamma ] // [Cause of Suffering] [Unwholesome Roots]
Quote: “It’s intrinsic to us all, but we get in the way.”
Sutta: AN 1.49: “This mind, bhikkhus, is radiant, but it is defiled by adventitious defilements.” [Nature of mind]
Follow-up: “Does the academic speculation about AN 1.49 fall away when you’re actually practicing?” [Views] [Direct experience]
Quote: “First you have to know the Dhamma. Then you have to see the Dhamma. Then you have to be the Dhamma.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Insight meditation] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view]
Follow-up: “In Ajahn Chah’s progression of knowing Dhamma and seeing Dhamma and then being Dhamma, what is Dhamma in that context?”
9. [34:12] “How long should we stick to a meditation technique? How do we know when we should change things up?” [Meditation/Techniques] // [Direct experience]
10. [35:07] “Is it possible to get enlightened living in a Muslim country where there are no monasteries?” [Liberation] // [Dhamma online] [Association with people of integrity]
Quote: “You mean there are no good people in America?” — Ajahn Chah to Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Culture/West] [Virtue]
11. [37:52] “Is there a difference between metta and non-hatred?” [Goodwill] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Right Intention]
12. [42:05] “Are there any misunderstandings of Buddhism that have developed as it comes to the West that you would correct?” [Culture/West] // [Monastic life] [Selfishness] [Community] [Environment] [Abhayagiri] [Dogmatism]
13. [44:30] “What would you say to two young monks on a mission to maybe start a community in Seattle?” [Clear Mountain] // [Patience] [Truth]