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]
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]
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]
4. “What are the three kinds of seclusion? What is upadhiviveka?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Seclusion] // [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Aggregates] [Becoming]
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: AN 9.36 Jhāna Sutta: Passion for Dhamma leads to non-return. [Dhamma] [Rapture]
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]
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]
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]
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]
3. Comment: In “Selves & Not-self by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro,” Ajahn Ṭhānissaro talks about generosity and metta as wisdom practices. [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Generosity] [Goodwill] [Discernment] // [Self-identity view]
Response by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Becoming] [Not-self]
3. “Could you talk about practicing with intention?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Volition ] // [Pāli] [Ajahn Chah] [Precepts]
Follow-up: “Is volition the same as becoming or an aspect of becoming?” [Becoming]
3. “Could you say something about the problem of swinging back and forth with restraint practices?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense restraint] [Determination] // [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Learning] [Becoming] [Self-identity view] [Eightfold Path] [Discernment]
Follow-up: “I remember you saying something similar in respect to sīla.” [Virtue] [Attachment to precepts and practices]
4. “How are contact and viññāṇa nutriment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Contact] [Consciousness] [Nutriment ] // [Feeling] [Aggregates] [Becoming]
Sutta: SN 12.63: Son’s Flesh.
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
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?”
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]
7. “What exactly is reborn in Buddhist teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rebirth ] // [Craving] [Sensual desire] [Becoming] [Craving not to become] [Consciousness] [Relinquishment]
3. “When we develop this awareness of the self and the non-self there is sometimes this shock about annihilation and how to avoid that. I think it can be a shock sometimes when we realize that we are not that self and we notice this aversion to the self.” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Not-self] [Aversion] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Becoming] [Craving not to become] [Right Effort] [Self-identity view] [Attitude] [Appropriate attention]
2. “You could have a reasonable intention to stop a habit or stop seeing someone. By telling yourself, ‘I want to stop,’ you identify with the object. But you can go round and round and round thinking about it....” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Spiritual friendship] [Volition] [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] // [Right Effort] [Mindfulness] [Discernment] [Attitude] [Becoming]
Sutta: Snp 2.4: Maṅgala Sutta.
Simile: Stinging nettles and dead nettles together in the same hedgerow. [Similes]
Quote: “I am an unenlightened person who has to do something now to become enlightened in the future.” — a paradigm based on self-view pointed out by Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Liberation]
Follow-up: “The only arbiter [of whether intention is based on self-view or wisdom] is your own experience....” [Self-reliance]
Response. [Teaching Dhamma]
Sutta: AN 9.3 Meghiya Sutta.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Skillful qualities] [Unskillful qualities]
3. “I don’t have any clear memory of past lives, and I’m happy not to overly speculate about that. But some monks suggested that you need to take on the doctrine of rebirth as part of Right View. Do you have any thoughts about this?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Rebirth ] [Right View] // [Self-reliance] [Ajahn Amaro] [Four Noble Truths] [Ajahn Chah] [Becoming]
Sutta: MN 117.6: Definition of Right View.
Quote: “You don’t have to believe in past lives or future lives in order to be a practicing Buddhist, do you?” — The Dalai Lama. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Dalai Lama] [Buddhist identity]
Story: Ajahn Chah describes the supernatural beings who live at Wat Pah Pong to two sincere Dhamma practitioners, then refuses to answer inquiries about this topic by a group from Bangkok. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Non-human beings] [Wat Pah Pong]
2. “How to find a good balance between personal individual practice and helping the community? How have you practiced with this yourself, having had the role of abbot for such a long time?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation] [Service] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Abbot] // [Seclusion ] [Restlessness and worry] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Idealism] [Becoming] [Craving not to become] [Monastic routine]
Quote: “You really have to learn how to step back from your own mind and give attention to that sense of solid connection with the Dhamma practice.” [Dhamma]
Quote: “If we don’t really develop a sense of giving and sharing and lovingkindness and compassion, any amount of meditation that you do never really comes to much fruitition.” [Generosity] [Goodwill]