14 excerpts, 1:01:16 total duration
8. Story: Ajahn Sinuan meets Ajahn Chah. Told by Paul Breiter. [Ajahn Sinuan] [Ajahn Chah] // [Perception of a samaṇa] [Personality] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Cleanliness] [Unattractiveness]
Story: It was always said that Ajahn Chah had it in for Ajahn Sinuan. [Sloth and torpor] [Work] [Suffering] [Saṃsāra] [Teaching Dhamma]
3. You weren’t there to prepare for something else. Reflection by Paul Breiter. [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Sequence of training] [Everyday life] [Disrobing] [Kamma] [Monastic life] [Ascetic practices] [Suffering] [Happiness] [Saṃsāra]
Quote: “Talk about the benefits of lay life....on paper you can make a good case for it. In practice it’s a constant challenge just to keep your head above water and remember how you’re supposed to deal with things. I urge people in robes to stay there.” [Lay life] [Right Action]
Quote: “Ajahn Pasanno doesn’t want me sending everyone to ordain with him, but I think you do better following his way than my way.” [Ajahn Pasanno] [Paul Breiter]
6. Story: Ajahn Chah visits Ṭhānissarā‘s meditation community. Told by Ṭhānissarā. [Ṭhānissarā] [Non-monastic centers] [Ajahn Chah] // [Idealism] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Pace of life] [Personal presence] [Saṃsāra] [Disenchantment] [Monastic life/Motivation]
10. Reading from the draft biography: Ajahn Chah accepts his dying father’s request to stay as a monk for life. Read by Ajahn Pasanno. [Parents] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Sickness] [Death] [Ajahn Chah ] [Determination] // [Mindfulness of body] [Spiritual urgency] [Saṃsāra]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 40
Quote: “I dedicate my body and mind, my whole life, to the practice of the Lord Buddha’s teachings in their entirety. I will realize the truth in this lifetime … I will let go of everything and follow the teachings. No matter how much suffering and difficulty I have to endure I will persevere, otherwise there will be no end to my doubts. I will make this life as even and continuous as a single day and night. I will abandon attachments to mind and body and follow the Buddha’s teachings until I know their truth for myself.” — Ajahn Chah [Ardency] [Patience] [Doubt] [Continuity of mindfulness] [Relinquishment] [Knowledge and vision]
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 42
The singular quality of Ajahn Chah’s resolution. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno.
2. “If the Buddha had been born elsewhere, would he have turned out the same way?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha/Biography] [Cultural context] // [Commentaries] [Culture/India ] [Spiritual search] [Renunciation] [Mahāyāna] [Saṃsāra]
13. “What is the difference between a fetter and a hindrance?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Fetters ] [Hindrances ] // [Pāli] [Stream entry] [Tranquility] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Stages of awakening] [Saṃsāra]
1. “Please explain more how did the Buddha cross the flood, by neither going forward nor standing still. What does this mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Middle Path ] [Saṃsāra]
Sutta: SN 1.1
6. ““Buddha is Teacher of Gods and Humans”, so according to Buddha, there is no one God but many Gods or it depends on what is meant by God?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Recollection/Buddha] [God] // [Hinduism] [Deva] [Saṃsāra]
6. Comment: Keeping in mind that everything is cyclical helps me look at the state of the world. [Saṃsāra] [Lawfulness] [Politics and society]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right Effort]
5. Reading: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 533-535 “A Snake in the House” Read by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Similes] // [Relinquishment] [Cessation] [Saṃsāra] [Nibbāna]
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] [Death] [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] [Mindfulness of body] [Release] [Aversion] [Fear] [Clinging] [Saṃsāra]
3. Comment: Coming out af a long-term relationship where someone was killed in an accident after 42 years, the way you presented the disadvantages and advantages of a conventional loving relationship was perhaps a little light on the advantages. [Relationships ] [Death] // [Monastic life/Motivation] [Gratitude] [Long-term practice] [Suffering] [Courage]
Response by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Saṅgha] [Saṃsāra] [Spiritual urgency]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha/Biography] [Saṃsāra] [Ageing] [Rebirth] [Treasures]
Reference: AN 4.55: Nakula’s mother and father aspire to see each other in this life and the next.
3. “You mentioned the example of the monk who wanted to commit suicide and then he remembered his virtue and that uplifted him. In the Saṃyutta Nikaya there are a few instances where monks committeed suicide, but the Buddha said they attained Nibbāna (SN 22.87 Vakkali; SN 35.87 Channa). How is that possible?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Monastic life] [Suicide] [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography] [Recollection] [Nibbāna] // [Jhāna] [Māra] [Saṃsāra] [Delusion]
1. “From the Christian perspective, I understand we get knowledge or wisdom from God, but it is through our human effort that we get a taste of the wisdom. You mentioned [neither] moving backward, forward, or being still. In Zen meditation, they taught being present. Is this grace or effort?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Christianity] [Discernment] [God] [Human] [Right Effort] [Zen] // [Relinquishment] [Faith ] [Three Refuges]
Sutta: SN 1.1
Quote: “To me it’s much more faith that surrenders, that relinquishes, that’s willing to let go.”
Quote: “Suffering and being stuck in saṃsāra and in the world is just a bad habit.” [Suffering] [Saṃsāra] [Habits]