3. Quote: “He made sense out of monasticism.” [Monastic life] [Saṅgha] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Vinaya ] [Dhamma] [Trust]
4. Quote: “I think with any Westerner, we’re so full of ourselves when we go [to Asia]. We want to get enlightened....” [Culture/West] [Conceit] [Liberation] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Mentoring] [Respect for elders]
6. How Ajahn Chah taught me. [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho ] // [Ageing] [Faith] [Happiness] [Vinaya] [Humor] [Self-identity view] [Culture/West] [Goodwill] [Right Effort] [Idealism] [Clinging]
Quote: “It was through example that I really learned.”
1. Reflection: From idealism to the way it is. [Idealism ] [Equanimity] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Culture/Thailand] [Culture/West] [Suffering] [Delusion] [Aversion]
Story: A Thai monk’s perspective on worldly stupidity. [Military]
Quote: “Someone with that kind of pure presence is really a mirror.” [Personal presence] [Teaching Dhamma]
5. Story: “Sumedho, Wat Pah Pong, is it suffering?” [Wat Pah Pong] [Suffering] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Lunar observance days] [Work] [Monastic crafts] [Aversion] [Cleanliness]
Quote: “To want something that’s not present, something you don’t have, is suffering.” [Craving] [Cause of Suffering] [Culture/Natural environment] [Saṅgha] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Culture/West]
7. Quote: “When I saw Luang Por Chah when he had his stroke, I felt an almost unbearable sense of grief and loss. Then I remembered, ‘This is the way it is.’” [Sickness] [Grief] [Equanimity] [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Faith] [Aversion] [Relinquishment]
2. “Did Ajahn Chah pass his teaching style to you or do you use your own separate style?” Answered by Ajahn Sumedho and Paul Breiter. [Personality] [Ajahn Chah] [Teaching Dhamma]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho, first abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat. Told by Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Abbot] [Wat Pah Nanachat ] [Sequence of training] [Culture/West] [Joseph Kappel] [Aversion] [Suffering] [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] [Humor]
Quote: “The special thing about Luang Por Chah was that he was at ease and completely himself.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Contentment]
Response by Paul Breiter: “The elements are there, but different teachers are expressing them in a living way.”
8. Quote: “Luang Por Chah always allowed margins for differences and for practice.” [Conventions] [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah] // [Western Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Attachment to precepts and practices]
6. Recollection: The June 2000 Saṅgha Meeting concludes in harmony. [Wat Pah Pong] [Saṅgha] [Saṅgha decision making] [Communal harmony] [Ajahn Chah] // [Views] [Harsh speech] [Asking forgiveness ceremony] [Three Refuges] [Culture/West]
Quote: “Luang Por Chah wasn’t giving us views and opinions....[He gave] us all a confidence in the unspoken unity of our humanity.” [Faith] [Human]
7. Quote: “Luang Por Chah was always pointing us beyond the limitations of ourself.” [Self-identity view] [Liberation] [Not-self] [Ajahn Chah]