Part of key topic Unskillful Qualities
5. Recollection: Ajahn Chah learned to deal with the machinations of the minds of his Western disciples. Recounted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation] [Culture/West] [Ajahn Chah] // [Tranquility] [Patience] [Investigation of states]
1. Quote: “The kindest thing you can do for your parents is to not create them.” — Ajahn Sumedho. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Parents] [Goodwill] [Cessation] [Not-self] // [Amaravati] [Sīladharā] [Proliferation]
2. “During my sitting this morning, the thoughts keep arising one after the other. It seems endlessly. How do I notice, learn, and recognize thoughts as a function of the mind and not be affected by them? Also, how can one make use of skillful thoughts in meditation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Restlessness and worry] [Proliferation] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Mindfulness of mind] [Recollection] // [Craving not to become] [Characteristics of existence] [Insight meditation] [Relinquishment] [Goodwill] [Patience] [Concentration] [Attitude]
Quote: “Kae nun lae (Thai) – It’s just that much.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah]
12. Comment by Ajahn Pasanno: These days Ajahn Sumedho is on fire teaching Dhamma. [Ajahn Sumedho ] [Teaching Dhamma] // [Amaravati] [Ageing]
Quote: “He’s not talking a lot about the details. He’s talking about the essence. It’s very beautiful.” [Liberation] [Knowledge and vision] [Simplicity] [Proliferation]
Note: As of mid-2024, Ajahn Sumedho continues to give weekly Dhamma talks available on Amaravati’s YouTube channel.
3. “During times of intense joy and happiness, I find that joy and happiness itself can trigger worry, fear, or desire to control. From this morning’s teachings, I took that one way to skillfully hold happiness is to share it; another is to express gratitude for it. Do you have any advice on how to hold happiness when it feels almost too big to release into?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Happiness ] [Fear] [Gratitude] // [Self-identity view] [Compassion] [Discernment] [Right Speech] [Admonishment/feedback] [Humility]
Sutta: AN 2.126: Two conditions for the arising of Right View. [Right View] [Spiritual friendship] [Appropriate attention]
Quote: “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings? You are not what you think.” [Not-self] [Proliferation]
8. “Can building a continuous narrative regarding impermanence hinder the perception of beauty?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Proliferation] [Perception] [Beauty]
Quote: “It’s not about finding a perfect position that you can be in. What you’re doing is finding a place of balance that you’re not shaken by anything.” [Proliferation] [Middle Path] [Equanimity]
8. I arrived when Abhayagiri turned five. Recollection by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Ajahn Ñāṇiko ] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Karuṇadhammo] [Ajahn Sudanto] [Ordination] [Debbie Stamp] [Sīladharā]
Recollection: The little house was the beating heart of Abhayagiri. [Lodging] [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Questions] [Gratitude] [Goodwill]
Quote: “I want to ordain. What do I do?” — Ajahn Ñāṇiko’s first email to the Abhayagiri guestmonk. [Ajahn Achalo] [Idealism]
Story: “Look, I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to practice.” [Spiritual friendship]
Quote: “Don’t think about it too much.” — Ajahn Pasanno to Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Monastic life/Motivation] [Proliferation]
3. “Why don’t we concentrate not so much on personal liberation, but think more about our practice? What are your thoughts about the Bodhisattva ideal, thinking of others all the time rather than achievement or personal liberation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Liberation] [Bodhisattva] [Compassion] [Nibbāna]
Quote: “Thinking of yourself is isolating. Thinking of others is proliferating. … Suffering is an experience rather than a conceptualization.” [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] [Suffering]
Quote: “Don’t be an arahant. Don’t be a Bodhisattva. Don’t be anything at all. As long as you’re anything or anybody, you are going to suffer. And as long as you’re suffering, you’re going to be sharing that out with everyone else as well.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Arahant]
3. “What to do with negative thoughts?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation ] [Unskillful qualities] [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] // [Skillful qualities] [Views]
4. “How did Ajahn Chah speak about non-self and consciousness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Not-self] [Consciousness] // [Impermanence] [Doctrine-of-self clinging] [Language] [Thai ] [Pāli] [Sense bases] [Unestablished consciousness] [Knowing itself] [Cessation of Suffering]
Quote: “One of the beauties of the Thai language is that it is wonderfully imprecise. … It’s a feeling language.” [Thai ] [Proliferation]
Story: George Sharp asks Ajahn Chah why he teaches “Buddho” all the time. Ajahn Chah responds, “Namo viññāṇa dhātu” [Homage to the element of consciousness]. [George Sharp] [Buddho mantra] [Elements]
4. Quote: “Mindfulness is the graveyard of all things.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Mindfulness] [Cessation] // [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] [Compassion]
1. Comment: I was thinking about our obsession to create things. We create our world out of the things that we create. So Nibbāna being no thing-ness seems just right. [Proliferation] [Nibbāna] [Non-identification]
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Volitional formations] [Conventions] [Impermanence] [Philosophy] [Aggregates] [Insight meditation] [Suffering]
Quote: “The things of this world are merely conventions of our own making …” — Ajahn Chah in Convention and Liberation. [Ajahn Chah]
3. “How do you tell the difference between genuine insight and conceptual fabrication?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Insight meditation] [Proliferation] // [Cessation of Suffering] [Spiritual friendship] [Suffering] [Lawfulness] [Doubt] [Stream entry] [Self-reliance]
Follow-up: “The fact that it can’t be verified intuitively makes me uncomfortable. I can see how that would lead to delusion of falsity.” [Delusion]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho asks Ajahn Chah whether he [Ajahn Sumedho] is a stream enterer. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Chah]
5. “Is no-self in the observer? … I find myself noticing the observer, and then I find myself noticing that I’m noticing, and then I get in a tangle.” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Not-self] [Perception] [Proliferation] // [Humor]
2. “I’ve been noticing during meditation that my mind goes a lot into planning. Can you consider this bhavataṇhā?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Becoming] [Proliferation] // [Volition] [Discernment] [Ajahn Amaro] [Habits] [Amaravati] [Building projects] [Suffering]
2. “You could have a reasonable intention to stop a habit or stop seeing someone. By telling yourself, ‘I want to stop,’ you identify with the object. But you can go round and round and round thinking about it. …” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Spiritual friendship] [Volition] [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] // [Right Effort] [Mindfulness] [Discernment] [Attitude] [Becoming]
Sutta: Snp 2.4: Maṅgala Sutta.
Simile: Stinging nettles and dead nettles together in the same hedgerow. [Similes]
Quote: “I am an unenlightened person who has to do something now to become enlightened in the future.” — a paradigm based on self-view pointed out by Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Liberation]
Follow-up: “The only arbiter [of whether intention is based on self-view or wisdom] is your own experience …” [Self-reliance]
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Teaching Dhamma]
Sutta: AN 9.3 Meghiya Sutta.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Skillful qualities] [Unskillful qualities]
6. “The characteristic of thinking is that one joins another and we are not aware. So in this context, ‘Nothing is fit to be clung to,’ in practice, what does it mean? Does it mean that we step back and we realize … ?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation] [Clinging] [Ignorance] [Relinquishment] // [Directed thought and evaluation] [Discernment] [Investigation of states]
Sutta: MN 19.8: Dvedhāvitakka Sutta.
7. “Can you say, ‘Why do you go out and bother the thoughts?’” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Proliferation] [Sense bases]
4. “The naming of proliferation—I’m getting to this idea that, okay now that I named it, it will stop now. I have this hope that I’ve found the key that’s gonna stop it all and then I get frustrated with myself because it’s still going on. Do I have to name it again? What do I do now?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Noting] [Proliferation] // [Relinquishment] [Non-identification] [Mindfulness of body]
5. “Is conceptual proliferation an aspect of Dependent Origination?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Proliferation] [Dependent origination] // [Sense bases]
1. Discussion comparing the modern scientific project and Rohitassa the skywalker’s attempt to reach the end of the world (SN 2.26). [Science] [Similes] [Proliferation]
Quote: “Anyone who claims they understand quantum mechanics is lying.” — Richard Feynman.
2. “You said that when a negative, unpleasant thought comes up, the noble being doesn’t want it but doesn’t act upon it. Is this taṇhā? Is it a mild form of craving, not wanting the thought?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Proliferation] [Arahant] [Craving] // [Knowledge and vision] [Non-identification] [Ajahn Dune] [Spaciousness]
Suttas: AN 9.7-8: What an arahant can’t do.
3. “For good or right contemplation, do you need some amount of samādhi so that it won’t proliferate in thinking?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Discernment] [Concentration] [Proliferation] // [Thai Forest Tradition]
4. “How do you deal with the fear of renunciation and sacrifice that you do on the path of practice? Giving things up that are familiar and comfortable, or even that you know are uncomfortable, but there’s still that dukkha around it. Or after you’ve given up, the mind can proliferate on these subjects a lot. What has your experience been like?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Cunda. [Renunciation] [Fear] [Suffering] [Proliferation] // [Self-identity view] [Cessation of Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Discernment] [Happiness] [Monastic life]
Quote: “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.” — David Foster Wallace. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clinging]
Story: Just sweep the leaves in front of your broom. Told by Ajahn Cunda. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Present moment awareness] [Similes]
Story: A young child struggles to give Ajahn Sumedho a candy on almsround. Told by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Generosity] [Almsround] [Ajahn Sumedho]