Part of key topic Unskillful Qualities
3. “During times of intense joy and happiness, I find that joy and happiness itself can trigger worry, fear, or desire to control. From this morning’s teachings, I took that one way to skillfully hold happiness is to share it; another is to express gratitude for it. Do you have any advice on how to hold happiness when it feels almost too big to release into?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Happiness ] [Fear] [Gratitude] // [Self-identity view] [Compassion] [Discernment] [Right Speech] [Admonishment/feedback] [Humility]
Sutta: AN 2.126: Two conditions for the arising of Right View. [Right View] [Spiritual friendship] [Appropriate attention]
Quote: “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings? You are not what you think.” [Not-self] [Proliferation]
5. “Is physical sexual desire the same as the desire for food and water? Or should it be avoided?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sensual desire ] // [Monastic life] [Human] [Self-identity view] [Sexual misconduct] [Food] [Sense restraint] [Relationships] [Trust] [Five Precepts]
Sutta: AN 8.39: The five great gifts.
5. “How does one know the difference between appropriate grieving and honoring the memory of a beloved versus clinging and attachment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Grief ] [Clinging] // [Cause of Suffering] [Self-identity view] [Spiritual urgency]
Recollection: Grieving for Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Recollection/Saṅgha]
Quote: “It’s that personalization of experience that gets us into trouble over and over again in different ways.” [Self-identity view] [Suffering]
6. “Could you give a Dhamma talk about the Five Aggregates?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] // [Cause of Suffering] [Form] [Feeling] [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness]
Simile: A dog tied to a post (SN 22.100). [Similes] [Self-identity view]
5. “I have had many losses over the year, and both my parents passed away six years ago. I found that taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, keeping the precepts, and having daily meditation practice helps. There is peacefulness and gratitude. I have heard that if one wants to share merits with the deceased, one could. What is the proper way? Could you give some guidance?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death] [Grief] [Parents] [Merit ] // [Recollection/Virtue] [Goodwill] [Translation] [Three Refuges] [Precepts] [Generosity] [Happiness]
Sutta: Iti 22: “Do not be afraid of puñña.”
Quote: “Puñña is accomplished through the heart itself.” [Heart/mind] [Cultural context]
Quote: “A spark of merit is worth more than a mountain of effort.” — Tibetan saying. [Vajrayāna] [Self-identity view]
3. “Does the concept of refuge in Buddhism contain an element of grace?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Three Refuges ] [Theravāda] [Hinduism] // [Relinquishment] [Knowing itself] [Truth]
Quote: “Did you come here to die?” — Ajahn Chah’s greeting to newcomers. [Ajahn Chah] [Death] [Liberation] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “If you really understood refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, there wouldn’t be a time when you bowed without bursting into tears of gratitude and devotion.” [Bowing ] [Gratitude] [Ajahn Jayasaro]
2. Comment: When I hear “renunciation,” I have the feeling that I’m losing something. [Renunciation ]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Simplicity] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “What renunciation gives is inexhaustible strength of simplicity.” — Martin Heidegger.
3. “Why don’t we concentrate not so much on personal liberation, but think more about our practice? What are your thoughts about the Bodhisattva ideal, thinking of others all the time rather than achievement or personal liberation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Liberation] [Bodhisattva] [Compassion] [Nibbāna]
Quote: “Thinking of yourself is isolating. Thinking of others is proliferating....Suffering is an experience rather than a conceptualization.” [Self-identity view] [Proliferation] [Suffering]
Quote: “Don’t be an arhant. Don’t be a Bodhisattva. Don’t be anything at all. As long as you’re anything or anybody, you are going to suffer. And as long as you’re suffering, you’re going to be sharing that out with everyone else as well.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Arahant] [Self-identity view]
4. “Is the practice of jhāna necessary for attaining Nibbāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Jhāna ] [Nibbāna] // [Self-identity view] [Greed] [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]
1. “When it comes to what is being reborn [in the metaphor from SN 44.9, The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 52]. What sustains [the flame] is the air of oxygen, but this is still quite vague. Can you elaborate on this> Often when we talk about reincarnation but there is no self this question comes up again and again. So I’d love to hear what is actually reborn?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Rebirth] [Similes] [Not-self] // [Hinduism] [Etymology] [Conditionality] [Habits] [Self-identity view] [Insight meditation] [Knowing itself] [Liberation]
Sutta: DN 9.49: The Buddha asks an inquirer if they existed in the past and future.
Simile: Waves coming into the shore.
Sutta: SN 1.25: The Buddha uses personal pronouns.
4. “My perception of Theravāda is that it’s a lot about striving but then Advaita Vedanta and Luang Por Sumedho talk about acceptance of what is right now. It doesn’t have the same morality. How do you reconcile these two things?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Theravāda] [Right Effort] [Advaita Vedanta] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Virtue] // [Self-identity view] [Suffering] [Eightfold Path]
6. “Does the Buddha require faith in order to complete the path?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Faith ] // [Self-identity view] [Faculties] [Courage] [Trust] [Recollection/Buddha]
11. “Insights give a lot of confidence in the practice, a lot of trust. So when insights come, is it important to nourish them?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Insight meditation] [Faith] // [Bases of Success] [Desire] [Discernment] [Craving] [Self-identity view] [The New Yorker] [Calvin and Hobbes]