Includes tags: Death, Recollection/Death
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
1. “I was struck by the simile of the stone being heavy, but you won’t know it’s heavy unless you pick it up, and it’s just like suffering. You don’t have to pick it up. I’m battling a loss in my life, and I’m suffering. I didn’t pick up the stone. It was flung at me. I’m not sure how to deal....” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Similes] [Ajahn Chah] [Suffering] [Grief] [Christianity] // [Human] [Naturalness] [Equanimity] [Self-identity view] [Goodwill] [Discernment]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 55: Five Recollections [Characteristics of existence] [Recollection/Death] [Kamma]
Quote: “Whenever you get into a fight with nature, you always lose.”
Quote: “What makes it heavy is the ‘me’ bit.”
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. “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.
8. “I know parting with loved ones is a natural course of life, but deep sadness and grief arises when I reflect on that. Could you instruct on how to work with this grief? Is there a level of understanding when there is no grief? Thank you!” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Grief ] [Naturalness] // [Recollection] [Recollection/Death] [Impermanence] [Kamma] [Goodwill]
Sutta: AN 5.57 Five Recollections (Chanting Book translation)
Suttas: SN 47.13, SN 47.14: The deaths of Sariputta and Moggallana. [Buddha/Biography] [Great disciples] [Death]
Quote: “Now I’m an orphan.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Parents] [Death] [Wat Pah Pong] [Mae Chee]
13. “Dear Aj. Karuṇadhammo, could you say a bit more about how you find a belief in rebirth to be motivational? And that it ‘just makes sense?’ Do you think, perhaps, about the person who will inherit your rebirth and how it would be good to load them up with good kamma? Thanks!” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Rebirth ] [Kamma] [Faith] // [Death] [Nature of mind] [Form] [Views] [Spiritual urgency]
5. “The guidance through seeing the non-self in relationship to the elements was very helpful. Can you explain what to look for in order to see the non self in relationship to strong emotions like grief. When do you look for the emptiness in emotions and when do you experience or express them. How does one balance the two?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Not-self] [Elements] [Emotion ] [Grief ]
Ajahn Pasanno reflects on his feelings after Ajahn Chah died. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] [Death] [Sickness] [Gratitude] [Respect]
Ajahn Pasanno’s response to his father’s death. [Parents] [Death] [Spaciousness]
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]
20. “Last night you spoke about balancing tranquility of mind with investigation or a theme for contemplation. Can you clarify how this can be accomplished without getting into the usual mind states of planning, associating, etc.?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Tranquility] [Investigation of states ] [Recollection ] [Proliferation] // [Impermanence] [Directed thought and evaluation] [Discernment] [Recollection/Death] [Visualization] [Divine Abidings]
Mistaken assumption: “I think, therefore I suffer. If I didn’t think, then I wouldn’t suffer.” [Suffering]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 104: Forty subjects of meditation.
4. “I was wondering if the merit we have done for meditation practice can be dedicated to the people (dead or alive) we pray for? How do we know it? Also, I have heard that the merit from practicing meditation will accumulate and stay with ones who have practiced that, which also carries over throughout the life or the subsequent incarnations. Can you clarify this?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Merit] [Prayer] [Rebirth] // [Theravāda] [Mahāyāna] [Vajrayāna] [Science] [Faith] [Selfishness]
Stories told by Ajahn Paññānanda about dedication of merit. [Ajahn Paññānanda] [Culture/Thailand] [Superstition] [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]
7. “I’m a mother to four kids, one of whom has special needs. I’m lucky if I can meditate 10-15 minutes a day. Are there practices one can do when one is frequently around little ones?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Children ] [Meditation/General advice] // [Posture/Sitting] [Three Refuges] [Precepts] [Recollection/Virtue] [Recollection/Generosity] [Gladdening the mind] [Mindfulness of body] [Clear comprehension]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 104: Forty subjects of meditation.
Sri Lankan Buddhists keep a book of good deeds which is read near the time of death. [Culture/Sri Lanka] [Merit] [Death]
Story: Debbie Stamp served as primary caregiver to her father during the pandemic. [Parents] [Pandemic]
3. “Does the concept of refuge in Buddhism contain an element of grace?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Three Refuges ] [Theravāda] [Hinduism] // [Relinquishment] [Knowing itself] [Truth]
Quote: “Did you come here to die?” — Ajahn Chah’s greeting to newcomers. [Ajahn Chah] [Death] [Liberation] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “If you really understood refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, there wouldn’t be a time when you bowed without bursting into tears of gratitude and devotion.” [Bowing ] [Gratitude] [Ajahn Jayasaro]