1. In the Vinaya (monastic discipline) there’s no role of abbot. [Vinaya] [Abbot] [Saṅgha decision making] [Ajahn Chah] // [Respect] [Confession]
1. Gratitude to Joseph Kappel. [Ajahn Amaro] [Joseph Kappel] [Gratitude] // [Wat Pah Nanachat]
2. Reflection: The qualities of the heart are what really matters. [Skillful qualities] // [Memory] [Impermanence]
Quote: “This is a broken glass.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah]
10. Reflection: Abhayagiri 20 years later. [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Amaravati]
13. Reflection: The world of things we leave behind, but the qualities of the heart are the abiding refuge. [Relinquishment] [Skillful qualities] // [Abhayagiri] [Monastic life] [Faith] [Simplicity] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support]
2. Reflection: Affinities between the communities of Ajahn Sumedho and Master Hsuan Hua. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Master Hsuan Hua ] // [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Mahāyāna] [Vinaya] [Ascetic practices] [Elders' Council] [Abhayagiri]
Story: Master Hua invites Ajahn Sumedho to help conduct an ordination ceremony at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. [Ordination]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho invites Master Hua to the English monasteries.
15. Shedding, impermanence, and not-self: Reflections on moving to Amaravati by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Amaro] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Amaravati] [Abhayagiri] [Relinquishment] // [Lodging] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Travel] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Spaciousness]
Quote: “Die before you die.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Death]
Quote: “The tone and flavor of Dhamma is bittersweet.” [Dhamma] [Grief] [Happiness]
16. Reflection: Do you miss Abhayagiri? [Ajahn Amaro] [Grief] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Relinquishment] [Nibbāna] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Sutta: Snp 5.11: The island you cannot go beyond.
1. “When it comes to what is being reborn [in the metaphor from SN 44.9, The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 52]. What sustains [the flame] is the air of oxygen, but this is still quite vague. Can you elaborate on this> Often when we talk about reincarnation but there is no self this question comes up again and again. So I’d love to hear what is actually reborn?” [Rebirth] [Similes] [Not-self] // [Hinduism] [Etymology] [Conditionality] [Habits] [Self-identity view] [Insight meditation] [Knowing itself] [Liberation]
Sutta: DN 9.49: The Buddha asks an inquirer if they existed in the past and future.
Simile: Waves coming into the shore.
Sutta: SN 1.25: The Buddha uses personal pronouns.
1. Reflection: Addiction to becoming is the core source of suffering. [Addiction ] [Becoming] [Cause of Suffering]
Reference: The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, pp. 68-69.
3. Reflections on the career of the Bodhisattva. [Bodhisattva ] // [Compassion] [Perfections] [Tipiṭaka] [Mahāyāna] [History/Early Buddhism]
Sutta: MN 26.19: The Buddha hesitates to teach.
5. Three kinds of selfing. [Self-identity view] [Not-self] // [Commentaries] [Insight meditation] [Relinquishment]
Sutta: SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (Chanting book translation).
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. ...” [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]
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]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “Identification is the glue that holds suffering together.” [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]
1. Teaching from the commentaries: Only the Buddha overcomes all personality tendencies. Contributed by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Buddha] [Personality] [Commentaries] // [Arahant] [Great disciples]
3. Reflections by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno about the Dhamma and Vinaya aspects of dependence. [Dhamma] [Vinaya] [Dependence] // [Middle Path] [Four Noble Truths]
Sutta: Snp 752-753: “There is danger in dependence.” [Clinging]
Quote: “The Dhamma is all about letting go, and the Vinaya is all about holding on. When you figure out how these work together, you’ll be fine.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Relinquishment]
8. Ajahn Amaro recollects and reflects on the receipt of Ajahn Chah’s only letter to Ajahn Sumedho (quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 164). [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 339.
2. Simile from Ajahn Chah about desire: “Are you going to eat the coconut shells?” [Ajahn Chah] [Desire] [Similes] // [Right Effort]
Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 280.
4. Reflections by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno comparing the diversity of expression in the Six Sets of Six (MN 148) to the Mahāgosiṅga Sutta (MN 32). [Great disciples] [Buddha/Biography] // [Determination]
Sutta: SN 14.15: Students gravitate towards the personality of the teacher. [Personality]
2. “When Ajahn Chah reached full liberation, did he wait two years just to be sure?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Chah] [Liberation] // [Delusion] [Doubt]
Simile from Ajahn Chah: “To me that’s just the chattering of the birds.” Related by Ajahn Amaro. [Similes]
Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: People get infatuated and enthralled by attainment. [Craving] [Meditation/Results] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “[Ajahn Chah’s] duty was to try to teach people Dhamma, as opposed to being something for anybody.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Teaching Dhamma] [Becoming]
5. Reflections on “Passion is a maker of measurement; aversion is a maker of measurement ...” (SN 41.7). [Perception] [Judgementalism ] [Sensual desire] [Aversion] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Conventions]
Quote: “Is this long or short?” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah]
7. Reflections by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno on the Buddha’s experience of chronic pain in DN 16.2.25. [Buddha/Biography] [Pain] // [Suffering] [Equanimity]
Suttas: DN 33; MN 53; AN 10.67-68: The Buddha stretches his back.
6. “In animitta samādhi, is the mind one-pointed or just sharp? Does it fall into the world of jhāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Concentration] [Nimitta] [Unification] [Jhāna]
Quote: “The point that includes.” — Ajahn Sumedho. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Spaciousness]
Teaching from Ajahn Chah: “Being Dhamma.” Related by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Knowing itself] [Not-self] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 95.20: The sequence of hearing, understanding, practicing, and realizing Dhamma.
Reference: Being Dharma by Ajahn Chah (commercial).
1. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: When Ajahn Chah went to America, he emphasized the importance of sīla. [Ajahn Chah] [Culture/West] [Virtue] // [Insight Meditation Society]
Story: Jack Kornfield asks Ajahn Chah what he thinks about Buddhist teachings coming to the West. Ajahn Chah replies, “I haven’t seen any Buddhism yet.” Told by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Jack Kornfield]
Story: Ajahn Chah discerns that Jack Kornfield isn’t accurately translating his teachings about sīla. Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Joseph Kappel] [Translation]
Reflections by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno about SN 20.7 and poetic and literary expressions of Dhamma. [Teaching Dhamma] [Verses] [Great disciples] [Isan]
Sutta: SN 8: Vaṅgīsasaṁyutta.
4. Reflection: In each of the five similes for the aggregates in SN 22.95, there is a form but no essence. [Aggregates] [Similes] [Emptiness] // [Spaciousness]
8. Reflections by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno: The meaning of the word ascetic and the nature of forests. [Ascetic practices] [Etymology] // [Recreation/leisure/sport] [Culture/Natural environment] [Culture/West] [Beauty] [Elders' Council]
4. “If one cultivates certain pāramis during one’s lifetime, one can lose them in another lifetime?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Perfections] [Rebirth] [Impermanence] // [Aversion] [Clinging] [Fetters] [Stream entry] [Ajahn Chah]
Simile from Ajahn Chah: Tending a plant. [Naturalness] [Similes] [Stages of awakening]
7. Reflection by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno: Stream entry is a really good retirement plan. [Stream entry] [Purpose/meaning] [Retirement] // [Factors for stream entry] [Meditation] [Association with people of integrity] [Hearing the true Dhamma]
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] [Liberation]
Sutta: AN 3.40: Three traits that can predominate (adhipatteyya).
9. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro: SN 55.21 indicates that the last mind-moment is not the primary determinant of rebirth. [Death] [Rebirth] // [Commentaries] [Skillful qualities] [Treasures] [Christianity]
Commentarial story: A monk is reborn as a maggot living on his robes. [Robes] [Clinging]
Story: Ajahn Chah declines to visit a dying villager. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Paul Breiter] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Heedlessness]
11. AN 10.61 explains that not drawing close to good people is the root of ignorance. Teaching by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Association with people of integrity ] [Ignorance] [Conditionality] // [Saṅgha] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support]