Wat Pah Nanachat
Wat Pah Nanachat
1. Ajahn Amaro introduces Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] // [Abhayagiri] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
1. Ajahn Amaro introduces Paul Breiter and Joseph Kappel. [Joseph Kappel] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Amaro] [Aruna Ratanagiri] [History/Western Buddhist monasticism] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
1. “What is the daily schedule like?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Joseph Kappel. [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Amaro] [Joseph Kappel] [Chanting] [Meditation] [Almsround] [Work] [Abhayagiri] [Teaching Dhamma] [Upatakh]
3. Story: “Sleep is delicious.” Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Admonishment/feedback] [Goodwill] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Amaro] [Joseph Kappel] [Upatakh] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Robes] [Mentoring] [Faith]
2. Context of the reading: walking into Wat Pah Pong. Reflection by Joseph Kappel. [Ajahn Chah] // [Joseph Kappel] [Wat Pah Pong] [Culture/Natural environment] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Shelter] [Posture/Walking] [Dōgen] [Ajahn Amaro]
3. Comment: Even the monastic life can be competitive. [Monastic life] [Competitiveness] // [Posture/Sitting] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Culture/West] [Conceit]
1. Story: My experiences with Ajahn Chah. Told by Nan Meister. [Gratitude] [Faith] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Liem] [Suffering] [Commerce/economics] [Sense of urgency] [Joseph Kappel] [Bowing] [Wat Pah Pong] [Mae Chee Kumfah] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Mae Chee] [Ghost] [Conceit] [Fierce/direct teaching]
2. “What happens when someone carefully builds the fire, but it turns into a forest fire–uncontrollable–and the person experiences mania, delusions, and paranoia? What is the spiritual treatment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mental illness] [Delusion] // [Precepts] [Association with people of integrity] [Generosity] [Becoming] [Medicinal requisites] [Thai] [Work]
Quote: “One of the first spiritual treatments is to get them to stop meditating.” [Meditation]
Recollection: Ajahn Pasanno learned by experience that meditation is not a panacea. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
16. “I had an experience yeserday in which I may have seen a group of beings above us, particularly above you....I don’t think I’m crazy, but I’m very interested in what the Dhamma says about otherworldly/non-material beings.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Deva] [Goodwill] [Compassion] [Mental illness] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Culture/Thailand] [Realms of existence] [Culture/Natural environment]
Recollection: Spirits at Wat Pah Nanachat would request Ajahn Pasanno to dedicate merit. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Funerals] [Ghost] [Merit]
Quote: “They always had to use an intermediary because I was thick, thick, thick.” [Psychic powers]
Story: Ajahn Plien declares Casa Serena free of ghosts. [Ajahn Plien] [Abhayagiri] [Rebirth]
10. “What does Pasanno mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Translation] // [Faith]
Story: Why Ajahn Pasanno’s name is mispronounced. [Wat Pah Nanachat]
1. Recollection: My connection with Ajahn Chah. Recounted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] // [Wat Pah Pong]
Quote: “If you want to stay here, you have to stay at least five years.” — Ajahn Chah [Sequence of training]
Jack Kornfield arrives with a large picture of Ajahn Chah.
Story: The needlepoint Ajahn Chah portrait at Abhayagiri. [Abhayagiri] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Devotional practice]
6. Story: How Ajahn Pasanno became abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abbot] [Tudong] // [Ajahn Chah] [Saṅgha decision making]
7. “What do monks do with Pāli study levels?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Learning] [Pāli] [Culture/Thailand] [Types of monks] // [P. A. Payutto]
Story: Tan Chao Khun Prayoon Dhammacitto, the head of the Buddhist University in Bangkok, visits Wat Pah Nanachat. [Chao Khun Prayoon] [Thai sects] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
Story: Ajahn Mahā Adisak, a ninth-degree Pāli scholar, spends a year at Amaravati. [Ajahn Mahā Adisak] [Amaravati] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Story: He found it difficult to translate Ajahn Amaro’s teachings to Westerners into Thai. [Ajahn Amaro] [Culture/West] [Translation] [Dhamma books]
5. “Was Ajahn Chah involved in training the abbots of those monasteries?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Thai Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Abbot] [Mentoring] [Ajahn Chah] // [Wat Tam Saeng Pet] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
5. “Ajahn Pasanno, did I hear correctly the other day that you met Luang Por Dune?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Dune] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Burapha] [Personality] [Teaching Dhamma]
6. “Do you think the vegetarian choice at certain centers and monasteries relates to different temperaments or personalities?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Vegetarianism] [Personality] // [Ajahn Gunha] [Simplicity] [Killing] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
Comment by Ajahn Cunda: At Abhayagiri when people ask, we tell them we prefer vegetarian. [Abhayagiri]
2. “Did Venerable Araññabho stay at Wat Pah Nanachat?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Pah Pong]
3. “How long did Venerable Varapañño spend in robes?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Disrobing] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Chah] [Wat Pah Pong]
Story: “I need a lawyer!”
Comment by Ajahn Pesalo: Even living for years in close proximity to Ajahn Chah isn’t enough to guarantee people will remain in robes.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
5. “Was there much coming and going between Wat Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Pong] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
6. Ajahn Pasanno tells how he went to Wat Pah Nanachat to make a bowl stand but got sick with scrub typhus. An extended discussion ensues. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Monastic crafts] [Sickness] // [Rains retreat] [Joseph Kappel]
13. “Can you recommend any practices to develop honesty with ourselves?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Truth] [Delusion] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Direct experience]
Quote: “You can’t take yourself too seriously. That’s really deadly.” [Humor] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “Do we have to sweep all of this?” “No, just sweep what’s in front of your broom.” [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Cleanliness]
5. “Did you think of relocating Wat Pah Nanachat to Wat Keun?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Keun] // [Seclusion] [Ajahn Puriso] [Deva]
Story: Ajahn Chah asks Ajahn Pasanno to take over as abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat. [Ajahn Chah] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abbot]
Story: Supporters offer Ajahn Pasanno several properties to start monasteries, but he passes them to others. [Generosity] [Culture/Natural environment] [Ajahn Gavesako] [Ajahn Liem] [Environment]
11. Story: A Saṅgha meeting decides that Ajahn Boon Choo should look after Wat Keun. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Boon Choo] [Wat Keun] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Saṅgha decision making] [Respect for elders] // [Ajahn Puriso] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Pah Pong]
12. “If you had moved Wat Pah Nanachat to Wat Keun, would you have left Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Keun] [Ajahn Pasanno]
Quote: “I had one plan and the devas had a different one.” [Deva]
Sutta: DN 16.6.15: Mahāparinibbāna Sutta [Buddha/Biography] [Great disciples]
5. Ajahn Jotipālo tells about Luang Por Teean’s technique at Wat Pah Nanachat. [Ajahn Teean] [Movement meditation] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “It isn’t a method that’s going to work. It’s how you apply and use it and become skilled with it.”
3. “Who offered the second reading?” Answered by Ajahn Pesalo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Gi] [Ajahn Tongrat] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
7. “How did Ajahn Chah communicate with his branch monasteries and how often?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Thai Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Monastery organizational structure] // [Abbot] [Technology]
Story: Growth of Wat Pah Pong branch monasteries from 1975 to 1980. [Wat Pah Nanachat]
11. “Did they do temporary ordinations at Wat Pah Nanachat?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Temporary ordination] // [Novices] [Ajahn Kevali] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support]
Story: Ajahn Siripañño’s first ordination was as a temporary novice. [Ajahn Siripañño]
2. “There were a number of different alms routes out of Wat Pah Pong. How was it decided who went on each one and how was the food distributed for the meal?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Pong] [Almsround] [Almsfood] [Saṅgha decision making] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Liem]
Discussion of almsfood distribution at different monasteries. Led by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Pesalo. [Ajahn Tongrat] [Wat Pah Ban Tat]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno helped pass out food at Wat Pah Pong. [Ajahn Pasanno]
Story: Ajahn Tongrat exposes a monk concealing fish in his ball of sticky rice. [Food] [Admonishment/feedback]
Comments by Ajahn Pesalo and Ajahn Pasanno about food distribution at Wat Baan Tat. [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support]
Quote: “It’s incredibly tiresome how organized we [Westerners] have to be....Organic spontaneity–that’s how things work in Thailand.” [Culture/West] [Culture/Thailand]
8. “You’d have one village supporting more than one monastery, is that right?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Almsround] // [Forest versus city monks] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
2. Reading: “About the Author” from Simply So by Ajahn Sim. [Ajahn Sim] // [Ajahn Mun] [Geography/Thailand] [Posture/Sitting]
Story: Ajahn Pabhakaro asks the Bung Wai villagers to sit full lotus. [Joseph Kappel] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Lunar observance days]
25. Comment: Merit is faith driven, so there aren’t any limitations to where that can take you, and it has real value. [Merit] [Faith] [Realms of existence] [Death]
Story: Two Thai doctors take temporary ordination to make merit to rejoin their deceased brother in a future life. [Culture/Thailand] [Monastic life/Motivation] [Temporary ordination] [Family] [Rebirth]
Story: The mother of a woman killed in a bus crash dedicates merit so that the dead woman will be reborn in the family. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ghost] [Relinquishment] [Ceremony/ritual] [Kamma] [Volition]
Quote: “We live in a fairly limited concept of the world; it’s very material in the West. There’s a lot more happening than what we can see.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Nature of the cosmos] [Culture/West]
4. “Does the current interest in meditation in Thailand extend to the villages around forest monasteries as well as urban areas?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Culture/Thailand] [Meditation] [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Pong] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Lunar observance days] [Festival days]
17. “Do American monks have a culture shock when they visit Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Culture/West] [Culture/Thailand] // [Wat Pah Nanachat]
25. “So what about the Bodhisattva practice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Bodhisattva] // [Theravāda] [Mahāyāna] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Generosity] [Ajahn Chah] [Upatakh] [Teaching Dhamma]
Sutta: AN 4.17-20: Practice that benefits self, others, both or neither.
Quote: “What are the mind states of an enlightened being?” “Only compassion.” — Ajahn Mahā Boowa [Arahant] [Compassion] [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
1. “What was the context in which this reflection was given by Ajahn Chah?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] // [Leadership] [Culture/Thailand] [History/Thai Buddhism]
Recollection: When Ajahn Pasanno first became abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat, he gave monthly teachings at the World Fellowsip of Buddhists. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abbot] [Teaching Dhamma]
12. Story about not killing a rattlesnake. [Killing] [Culture/West] [Animal] [Buddhist identity]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Culture/Thailand]
6. Story: Ajahn Pasanno visits the elderly Cambodian monk Mahāgossānanda who has Alzheimer’s disease. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Preah Mahāghosānanda] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Sickness] // [Dalai Lama] [Divine Abidings] [Ajahn Chah] [Heart/mind]
Quote: “That thing you learn in meditation—that you don’t lose.” — Ajahn Fuang [Ajahn Fuang] [Meditation] [Liberation]
Story: A monk known for psychic powers visits Ajahn Chah’s sick room and reports: “You don’t have to worry about Ajahn Chah. His heart is so bright.” [Psychic powers] [Dependent origination] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Lunar observance days]
7. A diligent early support of Wat Pah Nanachat reflects, “I don’t have money, but I’m not poor.” [Treasures] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Pah Pong] [Lay life] [Poverty] // [Lunar observance days] [Thai]
1. “What meaningful impact do Buddhist monks have on the community?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Community] [Saṅgha] // [Culture/West] [Culture/Thailand] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abhayagiri]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s first visit to Wat Pah Pong. [Wat Pah Pong]
5. Comment: It’s important for the Saṅgha to look after all members in terms of sickness and ageing. [Sickness] [Ageing] [Death] [Monastic life] [Saṅgha]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [History/Western Buddhist monasticism]
Vinaya: Kd 8.26.1-8: The Monk with Dysentery [Buddha/Biography]
10. “What role does spending time at other monasteries play in our training?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Abhayagiri] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Saṅgha]
6. Reading: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, p. 646-647 “Por Buapah” [Ajahn Chah] // [Death] [Grief] [Personal presence]
Story: Por Buapah did the cement work for the original shine at Wat Pah Nanachat and the bell tower at Wat Pah Pong. [Stupas/monuments] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Wat Pah Pong]
9. Story: Founding Dtao Dum Monastery told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dtao Dum] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Culture/Natural environment] [Environment] [Commerce/economics]
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]
3. “Did vibhavatanha arise in any of the monks at the loss of the Buddha? How do we notice vibhavatanha in practice, and what is a wise and compassionate response?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Craving not to become] [Death] [Grief] [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography] // [Stream entry] [Stages of awakening] [Recollection/Dhamma] [Three Refuges] [Precepts] [Spiritual friendship] [Devotional practice] [Suffering]
Sutta: DN 16: Mahāparinibbāna Sutta [Nibbāna]
Story: The funeral of a close Wat Pah Nanachat supporter. [Funerals] [Wat Pah Nanachat]
1. “You have so much community-building experience. Can you talk about what you have found challenging or effective in this? How did Ajahn Chah build community?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Community] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] // [Saṅgha] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Virtue] [Trust] [Communal harmony] [Compassion] [Culture/Thailand] [Ajahn Chah lineage] [Recollection/Saṅgha] [Sequence of training] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Abhayagiri] [Eightfold Path] [Learning]
Sutta: MN 48: Kosambiya Sutta [Goodwill] [Generosity] [Right View]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno pays respects to Ajahn Chah: “If you want to stay here, you have to stay at least five years.”
Quote: “The whole path of the Buddha is a path of learning, of education.”