Death (maraṇa)
Death (maraṇa)
6. “Could you tell of your personal experience with a tiger?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Animal] [Tudong]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno hears and smells a tiger while doing walking meditation. [Dtao Dum] [Culture/Natural environment] [Posture/Walking] [Fear] [Death] [Impermanence] [Mindfulness] [Clear comprehension]
Sutta: MN 4: Fear and Dread
2. “You said in the chanting, ‘I am the heir to my kamma.’ Gam in Thai is what we cultivate in body, speech and mind. In the Thai concept, we also have jao gam nai ren. Can Ajahn help me sort this out?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Kamma] [Culture/Thailand] [Nature of the cosmos] // [Suffering] [Health care] [Birth]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55: Five Recollections
Follow-up: “My mother is dying at age 88. She had a plane accident 20 years ago and has been completely immobile....In Thai we say, jao gam nai ren must have been chasing after her.” [Family] [Sickness] [Death]
2. “How common is burial as opposed to cremation in Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Culture/Thailand] [Funerals] // [Death] [Suicide] [Ghost] [Rebirth]
Story: A person killed by a gunshot wound doesn’t realize that he is dead. [Death]
10. “How can we interest the mind in the recollection of death?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Recollection/Death] [Desire] // [Mindfulness of breathing] [Sickness] [Death] [Poo Jum Gom] [Mindfulness of body] [Sense of urgency]
10. “So they do temporary ordinations in Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Culture/Thailand] [Temporary ordination] [Novices]
Follow-up: “What would be the duration, was there a range?” [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Chah]
Story: Ajahn Chah ordains 80 temporary monks for his mother’s funeral. [Parents] [Death] [Funerals]
Follow-up: “Did they come in as anāgārikas or sāmaṇeras?” [Sequence of training] [Postulants]
Story: Ajahn Chah takes on temporary ordinations for three years.
9. “Is the goal (Nibbāna) a thought-less state of mind?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Nibbāna] [Heart/mind] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Formless attainments] // [Cessation of Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Impermanence]
“Who is the only person who doesn’t think? An arahant? A Buddha?” “No. The only person who doesn’t think is a dead person.” – Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Arahant] [Buddha] [Death]
15. “AN 5.38 says, ‘Not by sorrow can even the slightest good come.’ How does this work with the natural process of grieving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Grief] [Skillful qualities] // [Cultural context] [Family] [Ajahn Chah] [Death] [Characteristics of existence]
1. “In Canada, medical assistance in death is legal. As an old person who will be sick and dying not too far off, it raises the question: If I got to the point where I felt even with good palliative and hospice care, I couldn’t withstand the pain any longer, it’s an option. But what about the first precept of not taking life?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sickness] [Pain] [Health care] [Euthanasia] [Killing] // [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Idealism]
Quote: “Being present for the falling apart of the body opens doorways to release that don’t really happen with, ‘I just want to be done with this. This totally sucks.’” [Present moment awareness] [Death] [Mindfulness of body] [Release] [Aversion] [Fear] [Clinging] [Saṃsāra]
1. “Ajahn Chah was ill for the last ten years of his life. How could he endure that and why did this take place?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Sickness] // [Perfections] [Teaching Dhamma] [Saṅgha] [Death] [Monastic teachers] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Upatakh] [Generosity]
9. Comment: The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) brings the Buddha’s quest full circle. [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ageing] [Sickness] [Death]