Part of key topic Unskillful Qualities
4. Quote: “Mindfulness is the graveyard of all things.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Mindfulness] [Cessation] // [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] [Compassion]
6. Ajahn Chah’s letter to Ajahn Sumedho: “Whenever you have feelings of love or hate for anything whatsoever, these will be your aides and partners in building pārami. The Buddha Dhamma is not to be found in moving forwards, nor in moving backwards, nor in standing still. This, Sumedho, is your place of non-abiding.” [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Feeling] [Perfections] [Dhamma] [Emptiness] // [Self-identity view ] [Knowing itself]
Quote: “As long as we’re willing to be a somebody, we’ve got to be willing to suffer. We volunteered.” [Self-identity view ] [Suffering]
5. “I work as a psychotherapist and it seems to be useful to have a more or less stable self, a more or less stable ego, to be able to transcend the ego.” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Western psychology ] [Self-identity view] [Liberation] // [Mark Epstein] [Virtue] [Happiness] [Conditionality] [Language] [Ajahn Chah] [Conventions]
Reference: “The Wisdom of the Ego” in Head and Heart Together by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro.
Sutta: SN 1.25: “Skillful, knowing the world’s parlance, he uses such terms as mere expressions.”
3. “What is the difference between the fetter of self-view and the one of conceit? Where does the desire to be personally known and cared for stop?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Conceit ] // [Not-self] [Aggregates] [Similes] [Insight meditation]
Sutta: SN 22.89: Khemaka Sutta.
5. Three kinds of selfing. Teaching by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Not-self] // [Commentaries] [Insight meditation] [Relinquishment]
Sutta: SN 22.59.7 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (Chanting book translation).
4. Comment by Ajahn Kaccāna: MN 2.8 leaves out ‘I perceive not-self with not-self’ from its list of speculative view. My assumption is that this view is incorrect as well. [Views] [Self-identity view]
Response by Ajahn Amaro.
4. “How does [the preceding discussion of insight meditation] differ from sakkāyadiṭṭhi?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Insight meditation] // [Pāli] [Etymology] [Not-self]
6. “Could sakkāyadiṭṭhi also mean viewing someone else as having a self?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view]
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] [Self-identity view]
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]
1. Comment: When you were reading from the passage from Ācariya Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā (quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 109), it struck me that the use of the word essence is equivalent to the way the Buddha uses the word self. [Ācariya Nāgārjuna] [Language] [Self-identity view] // [Mahāyāna] [Philosophy]
Sutta: SN 5.10: The Bhikkhunī Vajirā.
3. “I have never come to the bottom of this self or not self, and I come to the point where I just give up. Should I worry?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Self-identity view ] [Not-self] // [Present moment awareness] [Proliferation] [Insight meditation] [Knowing itself] [Relinquishment]
Reflection by Ajahn Amaro: This which knows the person is not a person. [Personality]
Follow-up: “This goes strongly against what we experience outside of Amaravati; in work life there is very strong identity. To find a balance is very challenging.” [Work] [Self-identity view ]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “Identification is the glue that holds suffering together.” [Self-identity view ] [Suffering] [Non-identification]
Quote: “When were you ever made any the less by dying?” — Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī] [Death] [Right View]
5. “Is sakkāya-diṭṭhi different from the ten speculative views described in MN 63?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Self-identity view] [Views] // [Doubt]
Sutta: MN 57: Kukkuravatika Sutta.
3. “If sakkāyadiṭṭhi is seen or penetrated, then do doubt and the other two follow?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Doubt] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Fetters] // [Impermanence] [Great disciples] [Characteristics of existence]
Sutta: SN 56.11.21: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Kondañño’s knowing (Chanting Book translation).
6. “According to what you read in the book (The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 123-124; MN 18.16-19), first there is contact and then phassa and vedanā. So first when we have contact there is no self yet. For example, if I contact something painful, at that time I feel I have no self, and then when I feel painful there is still no self, but then I feel like, ‘Oh, I don’t like this painfulness,’ the desire not to have it. Is feeling more self related with desire? It always comes together or not always?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Contact] [Feeling] [Pain] [Self-identity view] [Craving] // [Clinging] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Ascetic practices] [Heedfulness]
Sutta: Ud 1.10: Bāhiya.
Sutta: AN 10.58: “Rooted in interest are all things. …”
Reference: Catastrophe/Apostrophe by Ajahn Amaro, p. 139.
Quote: “Just a few more things for you to let go of.” — Ajahn Chah’s response to Jack Kornfield’s description of his travels and meditation experiences. [Ajahn Chah] [Jack Kornfield] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Conceit] [Restlessness and worry]
8. Comment about how the sense of self shows up in relation to others. [Self-identity view] [Community]
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Contact] [Meditation retreats]
9. Comment: Practicing the Four Brahmavihāras is a relation practice that is very powerful in letting go of the self. [Divine Abidings] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment]
Response by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Emotion] [Ajahn Vajiro]
Reference: Abundant, Exalted, Immeasurable by Ajahn Pasanno.
4. Reflections by Ajahn Pasanno on MN 106.13: “This is personality as far as personality extends.” [Clinging] [Self-identity view] // [Concentration] [Formless attainments] [Relinquishment]
10. Recollections of Ajahn Paññānanda’s quality of internal seclusion. Recounted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Paññānanda ] [Seclusion] [Emptiness] // [Western Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Teaching Dhamma] [Dhamma recordings] [Media] [Self-identity view]
4. Recollection: Ajahn Chah would often make the distinction of holding but not clinging. Recounted by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Clinging ] // [Relinquishment] [Emptiness] [Everyday life] [Sense bases] [Self-identity view]
Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 583: “Sense Contact: The Fountain of Wisdom.” [Discernment]
Sutta: DN 16.2.25: The Buddha compares his body to an old cart. [Buddha/Biography] [Pain]
Suttas: MN 35.5; AN 10.67: The Buddha stretches his back.
8. “Are the Pāli terms for anger and ill-will similar? With anger, you don’t necessarily wish harm on someone else, it just arises, and it’s involved with sakkāyadiṭṭhi …” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāli] [Ill-will] [Aversion] [Self-identity view] // [Hindrances] [Stream entry] [Unwholesome Roots]
Follow-up: “Are there any suttas that say that a sotāpanna does not have anger and ill-will?” [Sutta] [Non-return]
Simile: SN 56.51: The amount of suffering that a sotāpanna relinquishes. [Suffering] [Similes]
9. “Because a sotāpanna is supposed to have finished sakkāyadiṭṭhi, does that mean that if they do any actions which involve [unskillful qualities], they don’t carry any kamma?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Self-identity view] [Unskillful qualities] [Kamma] [Volition] // [Habits] [Personality] [Virtue]
Sutta: SN 14.15: Caṅkama Sutta.
8. Reflection by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno: Our strongest habit is to practice Dhamma in accordance with self-view. [Habits] [Self-identity view] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] // [Factors for stream entry] [Dhamma]
Quote: “I am an unenlightened person who has got to do something now in order to become enlightened in the future.” — a wrong framework for practice pointed out by Ajahn Sumedho. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Self-identity view] [Liberation]
Sutta: AN 3.40: Three traits that can predominate (adhipatteyya).
2. “In theory I get it, but my self, my ego, doesn’t want to let go of itself, even when it’s miserable.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Self-identity view] [Suffering] // [Release] [Not-self] [Pāli] [Conventions]
Reference: “The Not-Self Strategy” by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro.
Sutta: SN 44.10: The Buddha does not answer the question, “Is there a self?” [Questions]
6. Comment: Some people identify with their own suffering or feel they are not worth of not suffering. The grooves in the mind—it becomes a cycle, your own suffering. [Suffering] [Self-identity view] [Guilt/shame/inadequacy]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Conditionality] [Dependent origination] [Ajahn Chah]
1. “Have you had experiences of clarifying motivation that go beyond the theoretical or abstract?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Spiritual urgency] // [Ajahn Chah] [Wat Pah Pong] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “Was it suffering?” — Ajahn Chah. [Suffering] [Self-identity view]
Story: Ajahn Chah used ancient stones to mark the Wat Pah Pong sīmā. [Sīmā]
Quote: “Are these rocks heavy?” — Ajahn Chah. [Cessation of Suffering]
Sutta: SN 22.86: Dukkha and the ending of dukkha.
8. “I am’ and ego are very deeply embedded in our consciousness. You mentioned that observing impermanence could help. Are there any other practical steps we can take every day to dismantle ego and ‘I am?’” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Self-identity view] [Impermanence] // [Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Not-self]
Sutta: Ud 3.10: “For however one conceives it, it is always other than that.”
3. “Intellectually I understand and can observe the illusion my eye presents, and I can detach from it. But at 3am, when I wake up and something comes into my mind, I really attach. It’s like everything I learned is out the window. I try to remind myself that it’s temporary and impermanent and try not to get involved. Any suggestions?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Self-identity view] [Clinging] // [Tranquility] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Relinquishment]
Follow-up: “Sometimes a thought will completely wipe out [my perception] of my whole body.” [Proliferation] [Mindfulness of body] [Goodwill]
15. “Having lived in Thailand for over 20 years and in America for 30 years, do you see any American patterns of dukkha, ways that Americans get caught?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Culture/West] [Suffering] // [Self-identity view] [Selfishness] [Judgementalism] [Conceit] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “I can never get enlightened.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Self-identity view] [Liberation]
Quote: “The ‘I’ does not have inherent existence. We have to make it. And then we have to look after it.” [Not-self]