Community
Includes tags: Community, Communal harmony, Conflict, Leadership
13. “When you started teaching and taking on the role of leader of a community, did that affect the way you related to your own practice because you were being seen by others, having to be more careful about conduct?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Abbot] [Leadership] // [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Ajahn Chah] [Fear] [Faith] [Culture/Thailand]
Ajahn Chah always emphasized, “Whatever you’re doing, you have to learn from it.” [Learning]
4. “What advice would you give to future abbots and teachers of Wat Pah Pong branch monasteries so that the communities maintain the most important characteristics of Ajahn Chah’s style of leadership?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Abbot] [Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Saṅgha] [Leadership ] [Ajahn Chah] // [Dhamma] [Vinaya] [Chanting] [Translation]
Sutta: DN 16.6: Dhamma-Vinaya is your leader.
Quote: “Ajahn Chah was conservative, but he wasn’t fundamentalist.” [Leadership ] [Monastic life]
Story: The Dalai Lama asks the Abhayagiri monks to chant the Maṅgala Sutta (SN 2.4, Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 46) in Pāli. [Dalai Lama] [Pāli]
Story: Ajahn Chah was one of the first forest monks to ban smoking in the monastery. [Smoking] [Lunar observance days]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah was unique in consulting with senior monks and laypeople when making decisions. [Leadership ] [Saṅgha decision making]
8. “Many of Ajahn Chah’s direct disciples have become revered teachers themselves. Would you say the harsher conditions and more rigorous practices of the early days of Wat Pah Pong played a necessary role in their training and development or was it mostly due to Ajahn Chah being such a masterful teacher?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah lineage] [Ascetic practices] [Wat Pah Pong] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Humility] [Ajahn Mun] [Mae Chee]
Quote: “There’s this nostalgia for the good old days....To me it’s a fallacy or a fantasy.” [Suffering] [Poverty]
Quote: “To be able to lay a foundation that was carried on is really exceptional.” [Saṅgha] [Leadership]
11. “Could you tell us your very first encounter with Luang Por Chah? How did it happen? What did he say to you? What impression did you have then?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Ajahn Chah] // [Temporary ordination] [Wat Pah Pong] [Culture/Natural environment] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno is impressed by handwritten notes about Ajahn Chah’s teaching by a visitor to Wat Pah Pong. [Wat Phleng Vipassanā]
Quote: “If you want to stay here, you have to stay at least five years.” — Ajahn Chah.
Quote: “The place itself [Wat Pah Pong] was a reflection of Ajahn Chah.” [Lay life] [Lunar observance days]
Story: The branch monasteries and lay community gather for Māgha Pūjā. [Festival days] [Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Community]
3. “When Luang Por Chah’s physical condition deteriorated and he was no longer physically active, how did the Saṅgha and lay community react to it? And how did you feel about it? How did the Saṅgha manage to organize new leadership? Any challenges, confusions, or conflicts?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sickness] [Saṅgha] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Leadership] [Ajahn Chah] [Conflict] // [Impermanence] [Saṅgha decision making] [Grief] [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Liem]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah told the Saṅgha that his illness was incurable and they would have to look after him. [Health care ]
I did my grieving when Ajahn Chah was still alive and sick. Recollection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death]
Recollection: Caring for Ajahn Chah as a community. [Health care ] [Mae Chee] [Communal harmony] [Leadership]
Recollection: Preparing for Ajahn Chah’s funeral. [Funerals] [Building projects]
Quote: “His example was always one of giving himself to what was of benefit to the Dhamma, to the Vinaya, to others. There was so little personal agenda and personal preferences ever shown.” [Generosity]
14. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: His leadership and his teaching came from his example. [Leadership] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Lunar observance days] [Devotion to wakefulness]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah sits until midnight despite having malaria. [Sickness] [Posture/Sitting] [Sitter's practice]
5. “It sounds like you’re quite a community builder in various places.... When I first came here (to Chithurst), I was struck by the way the community works amazingly well. Have you seen any examples of communities of laypeople living together based on monastic principles?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Ahiṃsako, Sister Ñāṇasirī and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Community ] [Saṅgha] [Lay life] // [Precepts] [Vinaya] [Portland Friends of the Dhamma] [Amaravati] [Gaia House] [Culture/Thailand] [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Culture/West]