Glosses: Study
4. “What technique to use to realize the fruits of this practice in this life? What technique is easiest and most effective?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation/Techniques ] [Stages of awakening] // [Ardency] [Energy] [Right Effort] [Learning] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
Quote: “I can guarantee that looking for the easiest way is the least effective way.”
Quote: “Practice is one mistake after another.” — Dōgen. [Dōgen]
Story: Someone asks the Dalai Lama, “What is the easiest and quickest way to realize emptiness?” The Dalai Lama cries. [Dalai Lama] [Emptiness] [Fierce/direct teaching]
Sutta: AN 3.137: A teaching of effort.
1. “You have so much community-building experience. Can you talk about what you have found challenging or effective in this? How did Ajahn Chah build community?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Community] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] // [Saṅgha] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Virtue] [Trust] [Communal harmony] [Compassion] [Culture/Thailand] [Ajahn Chah lineage] [Recollection/Saṅgha] [Sequence of training] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abhayagiri] [Eightfold Path] [Learning]
Sutta: MN 48.6: Kosambiya Sutta [Principles of Cordiality] [Goodwill] [Generosity] [Right View]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno pays respects to Ajahn Chah: “If you want to stay here, you have to stay at least five years.”
Quote: “The whole path of the Buddha is a path of learning, of education.” [Learning]
10. Recollections of almsround and learning Thai at Wat Pah Nanachat. Recounted by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Almsround] [Ajahn Ñāṇiko] [Learning] [Thai]
Quote: “If you want to learn something, recite it every morning on almsround.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Learning]
13. Reflection by Ajahn Ñāṇiko: The pulse of the year at Abhayagiri and the annual Vassa Vinaya studies. [Monastic life] [Rains retreat ] [Vinaya] [Learning] [Abhayagiri ] // [Protocols] [Not handling money] [Kaṭhina] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Meditation retreats]
1. “How about a teaching that is aspirational yet practical approach to stream entry? Or if stream entry is to rigid of a topic, how about talking about path and fruition?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Stream entry] [Stages of awakening] // [Precepts] [Learning] [Ordination] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Faith] [Ajahn Chah] [Becoming] [Insight meditation] [Requisites] [Unattractiveness]
Story: Dabba Mallaputta becomes an arahant at age seven while his head is being shaved. [Great disciples] [Arahant] [Impermanence]
Reference: Dabba Mallaputta, The Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names by G P Malalasekera.
3. “What book of suttas would you recommend to read after the Majjhima Nikāya?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sutta ] [Learning] // [Bhikkhu Bodhi] [Ven. Ñāṇamoli] [Buddha/Biography]
References: In the Buddha’s Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi (commercial); The Life of the Buddha According to the Pāli Canon by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli.
4. “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 …” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Phleng Vipassanā] [Wat Pah Pong] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Monastic life] [Idealism] [Travel] // [Learning] [Dhamma books]
2. “After you grew up and went to college, you travelled around the world and ended up in Thailand. What set you off on this journey around the world?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Travel ] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Spiritual search] [Learning] [Zen]
Follow-up: “What attracted you to Thailand?” [Culture/Thailand]
11. “As abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat, you were involved in a model reforestation project. How did this come about and what motivated you to promote reforestation in Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Environment ] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Culture/Thailand] [Commerce/economics] [Geography/Thailand] [Food] [Agriculture] [Community]
Quote: “It’s not just forest that you want to pay attention to. … The villagers need to make a living.” [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Right Livelihood] [Learning]
Quote: “I had good people helping me. It wasn’t just me.”
3. “Have you ever regretted choosing the monastic life? Has your mother ever thought you made a wrong choice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Doubt] [Parents] // [Gratitude] [Retirement] [Energy] [Mentoring] [Christianity] [Abhayagiri]
Reflections on leadership. [Leadership ] [Ajahn Chah] [Abbot] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Discernment]
Quote: “You can’t lead just by telling people what to do and they are going to obey. Forget it!” [Leadership ]
Quote: “Everybody else is a mirror for oneself if one is willing to learn in teaching or leading others.” [Leadership ] [Learning]
1. “How can we have a renunciant life outside the monastery?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Renunciant practice] [Everyday life] // [Simplicity] [Learning]
4. The precepts are foundations for training ourselves in body, speech, and mind. [Precepts] [Learning]
13. “When you started teaching and taking on the role of leader of a community, did that affect the way you related to your own practice because you were being seen by others, having to be more careful about conduct?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Abbot] [Leadership] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Chah] [Fear] [Faith] [Culture/Thailand]
Ajahn Chah always emphasized, “Whatever you’re doing, you have to learn from it.” [Learning]
2. “You were saying the chanting takes 50 minutes. I understood the Buddha tells Ānanda the early suttas because Ānanda was not there in the beginning. Was it more like a summary?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Chanting] [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography] [Great disciples] // [Spiritual traditions] [Teaching Dhamma] [Learning] [History/Sri Lankan Buddhism]
Sutta: SN 35.28: The Fire Sermon (Chanting book translation).
7. “According to the Buddha, is the maximum spiritual potential found in the human realm?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Human ] // [Stages of awakening]
Follow-up: “How do you integrate this with daily life?” [Everyday life] [Monastic life] [Saṅgha] [Buddha/Biography] [Liberation] [Recollection/Saṅgha] [Culture/West]
Comment: I work with human potential in children and their families. … It’s so segregated … in the educational system there is no spiritual element. [Children] [Education ]
Response by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Western psychology] [Learning] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas]
Reference: Beyond, p. 441 in Happily Ever After by Ajahn Amaro.
3. “I have the impression that Ajahn Chah concentrated on direct realization and the practice of meditation. He didn’t recommend reading too much, but instead reading our mind. You mentioned the 37 faculties/tools to purify our mind. For a lay person, this is a long study. Is it enough for us as laypeople to just have the practice of being here now?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Meditation] [Aids to Awakening] [Lay life] [Present moment awareness] // [Paul Breiter] [Four Noble Truths] [Right View] [Faith] [Learning]
Quote: “There needs to be a catalyst. We have to challenge the mind. That’s where the structure of the teachings is important.” [Teaching Dhamma] [Delusion]
Follow-up: “If we practice meditation, does understanding come naturally?” [Discernment]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Liberation] [Spiritual friendship] [Learning] [Appropriate attention] [Tranquility] [Relinquishment]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho spends his first year as a monk in solitary meditation reading only Word of the Buddha by Venerable Ñāṇatiloka. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Monastic life] [Learning]
Follow-up: “Having kids is a big structure.” [Children]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
5. “Is it correct that if something happened before and I remember it, it means there is some clinging?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Memory] [Clinging] // [Mindfulness] [Learning]
Sutta: SN 48.9.3: Mindfulness means remembering things that happened long ago.
3. “You talked about the end of striving, the end of straining, the end of forcing just now. Yesterday you were talking about standing on one side and neither straining nor moving back. It seems to be a bit of a paradox. Do we strain now and stop when we get there?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Right Effort] [Energy] // [Middle Path] [Learning] [Aspects of Understanding]
Sutta: MN 39: Don’t be content with wholesome states.
Sutta: AN 2.5: The qualities that allowed the Buddha to realize full Awakening.
1. Story: Ajahn Buddhadāsa gives up formal studies and returns to the forest and the suttas. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa ] [Learning] [Commentaries] [Sutta] // [Spiritual traditions] [Geography/Thailand]
3. “People are fortunate these days because teachings are readily accessible. Could you talk about the difficulties you had [accessing the teachings 50 years ago]?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Learning] [Dhamma books] [Travel] [Culture/Thailand]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno stays in a hotel in Chiang Mai and visits a monastery to read an English-language Tipiṭaka every day. [Tipiṭaka]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s first meditation retreat was a month-long solitary Mahasi Sayadaw-style retreat. [Meditation retreats] [Mahasi Sayadaw]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno takes temporary ordination at Wat Phleng Vipassanā. [Temporary ordination] [Wat Phleng Vipassanā]
9. Recollection: Ajahn Pasanno’s first lunar observance night at Wat Pah Pong. Recounted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Pong] [Lunar observance days] [Ajahn Chah] // [Monastic life] [Pace of life] [Patience]
Quote: “You learn as you go. You expand your ability to go beyond the limitations you set for yourself.” [Learning]
Quote: “The more you resist and complain in your mind, the more you suffer.” [Aversion] [Suffering] [Habits]
6. “How did you learn Pāli syntax?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāli] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Learning]
4. Reflection by Ajahn Pesalo: The first 12 years of monastic life are an opportunity to soak in the Dhamma practice. [Sequence of training] [Learning] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Abhayagiri] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Humility] [Cleanliness] [Happiness] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Meditation/Techniques]
2. Ajahn Pasanno compares his experience of Buddhism at university with that of a Three Jewels visitor. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Learning] // [Spiritual traditions] [Meditation]
10. “People encourage my children to follow their passion. How does this relate to dispassion? Do you have any advice for kids growing up?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Children] [Desire] [Dispassion ] // [Benefit/gratification] [Skillful qualities]
Quote: “You can’t really pursue a path of virtue, integrity, meditation, wisdom, and reflection if you’re not passionate about it.” [Eightfold Path]
Recollection: Ajahn Pasanno had no passion for his university career. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Learning]