New in the September 2025 release:
- New content:
- 2016 Winter Retreat: All except four sessions are included
- 2025 Winter Retreat: Includes the first 20 sessions
- 2025 Q&A at Chithurst Monsastery
- Sutta links go directly to SuttaCentral.
- Links to sutta subsections, e.g. MN 26.13.
Content
This release contains 3097 excerpts from 61 events, comprising over 170 hours of audio. Ajahn Kaccāna typically transcribes audio by hand and later types these transcriptions into the computer. As of this release there are 528 transcribed pages, of which 473 have been entered into the Archive. The detailed status of transcription is as follows:
Thanksgiving Retreats
The Archive incorporates previously existing transcriptions of questions asked during the 2013-2016 Thanksgiving Retreats. Some questions have been listened to in detail, but many have been tagged based on the existing transcriptions alone. Untranscribed audio recordings of Ajahn Pasanno question and answer sessions are available for the 2010-2012 Thanksgiving Retreats. Question and answer sessions with other Abhayagiri teachers have been recorded for four more Thanksgiving Retreats. If you would like to help transcribe and tag these retreats, see Want to help? for details.
Winter Retreats
Ajahn Pasanno's detailed 2005 Ānāpānasati teachings and the 2014 and 2015 Winter Retreats are included in the Archive. The 2016 Winter Retreat is nearly complete. The 2013 Winter Retreat has been transcribed on paper. A series of interviews and discussions with Ajahn Pasanno at the end of the 2018 Winter Retreat is included as The Teaching and the Training. Audio recordings are available of many more Winter Retreats on abhayagiri.org. Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro read from The Island during Amaravati's 2025 Winter Retreat; the first 20 sessions are now included in the Archive.
Spirit Rock Daylongs
Six daylong events led by Ajahn Pasanno at Spirit Rock Meditation Center from 2010 to 2024 are included in the Archive.
Upāsikā Days
All 21 Upāsikā Days led by Ajahn Pasanno with recordings on abhayagiri.org are in the Archive. Two more on YouTube haven't made it yet.
Abhayagiri Anniversary Events
The Archive contains material from the 2016, 2021, and 2024 anniversaries.
Other
Almost all teachers have given consent for their 2001 Ajahn Chah Conference audio.
Known issues and limitations
- References do not link to specific pages within the pdf on mobile browsers.
Previous releases:
December 2023:
- Completed Winter Retreat 2015: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
- Added five Upāsika Days: On Pilgrimage and Tudong, Two Kinds of Thought, Practice in a Global Context, Love, Attachment and Friendship, and Developing Skill in Reflective Meditaton
- Numerical tags page
- Tags in the tag hierarchy show the number of excerpts described by any subtag.
- Various bugs and glitches fixed.
January 2024:
- Completed Winter Retreat 2014: Our Roots in the Thai Forest Tradition
- Text search feature
July 2024:
- Added much material from the 2001 Ajahn Chah Weekend. Some sessions have been omitted pending obtaining teacher consent.
- Finalized the license details.
- Allow search engine indexing (we hope!).
August 2024:
- October 2017 Upāsikā Day: Can We Function Without Attachement?
- Two Q&A sessions with Ajahn Pasanno from Abhayagiri's 25th Anniversary Retreat.
- Almost all excerpts from the 2001 Ajahn Chah Weekend are now available.
- Search for tags
October 2024:
- Featured excerpts marked highlight the best material in the Archive. Look for them at the top of any tag page or see them all together.
- Key topics group tags and featured excerpts into a thematic progression.
- Tag clusters group related tags together. For example, the tag cluster Buddha, contains [Buddha], [Recollection/Buddha], and [Buddho mantra].
- Events by subject page
- Added three recent events: Following the Path of a Forest Monk, Madison Insight Retreat 2023, and The Interreligious Retreat-Seminar on Dhamma and Non-duality.
- Listened to and annotated selected questions in the 2014 and 2015 Thanksgiving Retreats.
- Improved tag information including breadcrumbs: Skillful qualities / Divine Abidings / Goodwill.
- The back button now consistently restores the correct scroll position.
November 2024:
- All subtopics feature at least one excerpt, substantially improving the Key topics page.
- Improved tag hierarchy interface.
- Fragment annotations allow the Archive to feature only the best part of an excerpt.
- Audio splicing allows joining non-contiguous audio clips and removing silence.
December 2024:
- Search all allows searching key topics, tags, teachers, events, and excerpts at the same time.
- Random featured excerpts
- Material from Abhayagiri's 20th, 25th, and 28th anniversaries
- Practice and Study Day 2023: Mindfulness of Breathing
- More featured excerpts including Ajahn Chah's teaching to Marjorie
May 2025 release:
- Winter Retreat 2005 Ānāpānasati talks: Ajahn Pasanno's most detailed teachings about mindfulness of breathing.
- 2021 Awaken to the New Year Retreat.
- Spirit Rock daylong events: Happiness on the Buddhist Path (2023) and Perspectives on Buddhist Practice from Ajahn Chah (2024).
- 2025 Q&A session with monks at Wat Pah Nanachat.
- Most tags applied to over 25 excerpts feature at least one excerpt.
June 2025 release:
- Redesigned home page including daily featured excerpts.
- Floating search bar available on all pages; press '/' to bring up the search bar anywhere on the page.
- Improved support for devices with small screens.
July 2025 release:
- Auto complete menu drops down from the floating search bar.
- Illustrate many pages with icons.
- More material added to the 2016 Winter Retreat.
August 2025 release:
- Added events at Amaravati:
- Questions and Answers about Ajahn Chah
- What Luang Por Chah Taught.
- Color icons represent each key topic.
- Can be installed as a progressive web app (but has no offline capability).
- Advanced search features: negation and regular expressions.