Becoming (bhava)
Indeterminate qualities / Dependent origination / Becoming
Part of tag cluster Becoming in key topic Dependent Origination
Subsumes: Craving to become (bhava-taṇhā)
Also a subtag of Outflows
See also: Craving not to become
25 excerpts, 1:24:54 total duration

All excerpts (25) Most relevant (12) Questions about (10) Answers involving (12) Stories (1) Quotes (1)


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 3 – Apr. 28, 2001

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8. Story: Ajahn Sumedho wants Ajahn Chah to affirm whether he had attained a degree of insight. Told by Ajahn Jitindriyā. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Stages of awakening] [Ajahn Chah] // [Impermanence] [Liberation] [Bowing] [Becoming]

Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 606

Quote: “We talk about things to develop and thigs to give up, but there’s really nothing to develop and nothing to give up.” — Ajahn Chah. [Right Effort] [Relinquishment] [Emptiness] [Dispassion]

Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 102


Metta Retreat, Session 2 – Sep. 10, 2008

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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]


Metta Retreat, Session 4 – Sep. 12, 2008

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18. “When I think of people with spontaneous open generous hearts, they are full of mettā, karuṇā, and muditā, but do not seem equanimous. Can upekkhā come naturally or is it a result of cultivation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Divine Abidings] [Equanimity] [Conditionality] // [Becoming] [Liberation] [Craving] [Technology]

Quote: “When we say not moved, it doesn’t mean dull, shut down, closed off, but being completely in tune, being very clear, and then not being shaken by anything.” [Clear comprehension]


The Whole of the Path, Session 3 – Jun. 22, 2013

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4. “Can you say more about the practice of awareness of arising and ceasing in relation to discernment and right view?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming] [Cessation] [Mindfulness] [Discernment] [Right View] // [Impermanence] [Ajahn Chah] [Conditionality] [Self-identity view] [Happiness] [Mindfulness of mind] [Patience]

Reading from an unnamed recent Ajahn Chah book. [Relinquishment] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]

Quote: “I don’t teach you guys much. Just be patient.” — Ajahn Chah.


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 2 – Nov. 24, 2013

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4. “Could you please talk about different places in the chain of dependent origination can be broken? For example, does contact always result in vedanā? If the intention to be conscious is let go of, is that breaking the chain of ignorance conditioning saṅkhāra and saṅkhāra conditioning viññana?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dependent origination ] [Contact] [Feeling] [Ignorance] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness] // [Craving] [Clinging] [Becoming] [Relinquishment]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 5 – Nov. 27, 2013

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15. “Please explain which comes first birth or becoming for example with anger or any feeling or character?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Birth ] [Becoming] [Dependent origination]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 10 – Jan. 19, 2014

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4. “What are the three kinds of seclusion? What is upadhiviveka?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Seclusion] // [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Aggregates] [Becoming]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 35 – Feb. 21, 2014

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1. “Is bhavataṇhā both the desire to exist and the desire to be a certain way?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming] // [Self-identity view]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 40 – Mar. 2, 2014

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5. “What is the difference between abandoning craving and realizing the abandoning of craving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Cause of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Doubt] [Relinquishment] [Concentration] [Gladdening the mind] [Desire] [Becoming] [Non-return] [Right View]

Sutta: SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. [Four Noble Truths]

Sutta: MN 121 Cūḷa Suññata Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness [Emptiness]

Quote: “The characteristic of cessation is not just ending something and annihilating [it], but it’s being willing and able to stop. The nature of the mind is that it doesn’t like to stop. And it’s [through] that not stopping that we keep creating that sense of me.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Cessation] [Nature of mind] [Self-identity view]


Thai Forest Tradition, Session 2 – Jun. 14, 2014

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12. Comments by Ajahn Pasanno about being aware of awareness itself. [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Knowing itself] [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Tranquility] [Becoming] [Cessation] [Fear] [Relinquishment]


Thai Forest Tradition, Session 3 – Jun. 14, 2014

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4. “When Ajahn Liem says, ‘Practice is just for practice,’ what arises for me is that any time I put a meaning on practice, there has to be an ego state that arises around that meaning....It’s like letting go even o fthe idea of practicing in order to become enlightened.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Liem] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Self-identity view] [Becoming] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Liberation] [Relinquishment]

Quote: “Practicing for Nibbāna is just another kind of desire.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Nibbāna] [Desire]


2014 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 4 – Nov. 25, 2014

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7. “Regarding yesterdays teaching that rebirth is happening every moment, could you give instructions on how to discern the preceding step, becoming (bhava)? Would you consider transition from sleep into an awakened state being as ‘rebirth’ and whether there is becoming manifesting upon waking up?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rebirth] [Becoming ] [Nature of mind] // [Self-identity view] [Birth]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 15 – Jan. 24, 2015

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4. “Can you speak about the roots of wholesome and unwholesome desire?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Energy] [Desire] [Becoming] [Skillful qualities] [Unskillful qualities] // [Discernment] [Right Effort] [Learning] [Ajahn Chah]

Sutta: AN 10.58.

Reference: Listening to the Heart by Kittisaro and Ṭhānissarā (commercial).


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 1 – May. 27, 2015

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15. “Is the heir to my thoughts, words, and deeds me or some other guy?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Kamma] [Rebirth] [Not-self] // [Becoming] [Cessation] [Self-identity view] [Direct experience]


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 2 – May. 27, 2015

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9. Comment: What you said reminds me of ‘da resin.’ [audio unclear] [Not-self]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “It’s that sticky bit that creates the problems.” [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Views] [Becoming] [Present moment awareness]


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10. Quote: “One of the things I often attend to is the juxtaposition of stillness and movement. It’s not that one is right and the other wrong. We can be still and really dull or the mind can move with clarity and acuity. But stillness and movement, what’s generating it, what’s pushing it? That bhavadiṭṭhi/vibhavadiṭṭhi is the engine behind it and the force behing the arising of a sense of self, a sense of me.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Insight meditation] [Calming meditation] [Right Concentration] [Not-self] [Clear comprehension] [Nature of mind] [Conditionality] [Becoming ] [Craving not to become] [Views] [Self-identity view ]


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13. “Is bhavadiṭṭhi the same word as cultivation (bhāvanā)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming] [Views] [Meditation] [Pāli] [Not-self] // [Etymology]


Jhāna: A Practical Approach, Session 4 – Oct. 10, 2015

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9. Comment: Hearing about vitakka and vicāra, I just realized that they’re not exclusive to getting jhāna. [Directed thought and evaluation] [Jhāna]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 1 – Nov. 21, 2015

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3. “This morning you talked about crossing the floods of obsessive thought by not holding on to or pushing them away. I get that, but it feels like there’s something missing – a hole that needs to be filled up with something – a solution?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation] [Becoming]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 5 – Nov. 25, 2015

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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


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 6 – Nov. 26, 2015

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9. “In this afternoon’s talk, Ajahn Karunadhammo mentioned the benefits of the bhava that results from practice or the Eightfold Path, but he described a consciousness that doesn’t land in or on a self and results in freedom. Is that a consciousness that results in neither arising nor non-arising. Could you elaborate? The moment between in and out breaths seems to hold potential for this kind of consciousness.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Eightfold Path] [Becoming] [Unestablished consciousness] [Self-identity view] [Liberation] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Proliferation] [Consciousness] [Relinquishment] [Fear]

Quote: “You want to pay attention to the experience rather than the idea about it.” [Direct experience]

Suttas: DN 11.85, MN 49.25: Consciousness luminous all around.

Sutta: SN 12.64: Simile of the western wall. [Similes]


The Teaching and the Training, Session 2 – Mar. 13, 2018

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2. “Are their multiple levels of brahmacariyā (celibacy)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Celibacy] [Christianity] [Sensual desire] [Monastic life] // [Becoming]

Sutta: AN 7.50 Sexual Intercourse


The Teaching and the Training, Session 7 – Mar. 23, 2018

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3. “Can you talk about Ajahn Chah’s use of bowing, communal pūjās, and chores?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Monastic routine] [Chanting] [Saṅgha] [Monastic life] [Work] [Bowing] // [Becoming] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Respect for elders]

Story: A Westerner asks Ajahn Chah, “Why do we bow?”


Tea Time Q&A with Ajahn Pasanno – May. 16, 2021

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6. “Are there any mindful techniques that can be used during the transition from the old self to the new high vibrational self?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness] [Self-identity view] // [Suffering] [Becoming] [Relinquishment]


Madison Insight Retreat 2023, Session 3 – Oct. 15, 2023

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7. “What exactly is reborn in Buddhist teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rebirth ] // [Craving] [Sensual desire] [Becoming] [Craving not to become] [Consciousness] [Relinquishment]