Upāsikā Day, Oct. 1, 2017
Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley, California and online
3 sessions, 20 excerpts, 1:06:09 total duration
Show featured excerpts (2)
Ajahn Pasanno discusses clinging and attachment and their antidote: release and relinquishment.
External websiteSessions: 2 3 4
1. [20:40] “How do you deal with attachment to relationships? My dad has cancer and may possibly not be here next year.” [Clinging] [Family] // [Parents] [Birth] [Impermanence] [Gratitude]
2. [24:33] “How do we deal with the complications that go into the loss of loved ones?” [Grief] [Clinging] // [Self-identity view] [Suffering]
3. [28:26] “I heard the word samatonsin all my life, but never knew it means ‘to hold it rightly.’ Is there a way to hold it wrongly?” [Thai] [Clinging] // [Precepts] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Three Refuges]
Story: Ajahn Passanno accidentally drinks fruit juice mixed with vodka at a family gathering. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Intoxicants]
4. [32:52] “Is there a way to skillfully form and investigate opinions about the world in terms of Right View?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Views] [Right View] // [Four Noble Truths] [Suffering] [Conditionality] [Proliferation]
Follow-up: “What happens when we see that another person’s view causes suffering and pain?” [Communal harmony]
5. [38:26] Story: A black man asks a KKK member, “Why do you hate people you have never met?” [Discrimination] [Ill-will] [Views]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Listening]
1. [46:26] “Does physical pain fit under sensuality as the opposite, pushing away?” [Pain] [Sensual desire] [Aversion] // [Fear] [Health care]
2. [49:36] “Snp 4.6 says something about not clinging to passion and dispassion. Usually I hear that cultivating dispassion is a good thing.” [Clinging] [Sensual desire] [Dispassion]
3. [50:59] Discussion about the meaning of quarrels in meditation and in daily life. [Conflict] [Meditation]
4. [54:28] “Can you distinguish between clinging and craving?” [Clinging] [Craving] // [Dependent origination]
5. [56:33] “How do we break the chain of dependent origination?” [Dependent origination] // [Suffering]
Quote: “As you’re falling out of a tree, you’re not counting the branches as you go down. All you know is that when you hit the bottom, it’s going to hurt.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah]
6. [58:25] “Snp 4.5 and Snp 4.6 refer to what is seen, heard and thought. Is there more to this than developing awareness of what you’re thinking, hearing, and seeing?” [Sense bases] [Direct experience]
1. [0:07] “How do we make sense of the whirlpool of assumptions?” [Proliferation] [Clinging] // [Discernment] [Perception] [Impermanence] [Ajahn Chah] [Views]
Quote: “Welcome to the human existence.” [Human]
2. [22:09] “In AN 9.41, does the Buddha enumerate the drawbacks of sensuality?” [Sensual desire] [Drawbacks]
Reference: “Drawbacks,” part of A Path to Freedom: A Self-guided Tour of the Buddha’s Teachings on accesstoinsight.org. [Dhamma online] [Desire]
Sutta: MN 13: Mahādukkhakkhandha Sutta
3. [24:24] “Can you speak about the relationship between renunciation and moderation?” [Renunciation ] // [Habits] [Suffering] [Sensual desire] [Spiritual urgency] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Faith] [Conditionality] [Appropriate attention] [Perfections]
4. [31:32] Reflection: The common root of renunciation and compassion is the relationship to suffering. [Renunciation] [Compassion] [Suffering]
Reading: “The Balanced Way” by Bhikkhu Bodhi on accesstoinsight.org.
5. [35:16] Comment: The mind can get caught on relinquishment itself. [Relinquishment] [Clinging] // [Compassion]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Views] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Self-identity view] [Appropriate attention]
6. [38:06] Comment: Renunciation sometimes requires decisively turning against established patterns. [Renunciation] [Clinging] [Determination]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
7. [39:40] “Is it possible that Parami: Ways to Cross Life’s Floods by Ajahn Sucitto will be reprinted?” [Dhamma books] [Ajahn Sucitto] // [Free distribution]
8. [42:50] “How does renuciation reinforce compassion?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Renunciation ] [Compassion ] [Sloth and torpor] // [Suffering] [Clinging] [Goodwill] [Right Intention]
Sutta: Snp 1.8: The Metta Sutta.
9. [55:04] Quote: During the construction of a new hall, an engineer asks when it will be finished. “Tonight. Comes the evening, it’s finished. Tomorrow morning, I might do it again.” — Ajahn Liem [Ajahn Liem] [Building projects] [Wat Pah Pong] [Relinquishment]