“Is there any other language that can describe things correctly? For example, mathematics or physics?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Language] [Unconditioned ] [Science] // [Suchness]
Sutta: Ud 3.10: “Whatever you conceive it to be, it is ever other than that.”
Reference: “Suchness and the Square Root of Minus One,” Happily Ever After by Ajahn Amaro, p. 507.
Readings from The Island [2025], Session 13, Excerpt 5
“The citta is sometimes defined as pure awareness, and it being in the fourth khanda, but it sounds like here [Ajahn Wanchai] is talking about the activity of awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Ajahn Wanchai] [Knowing itself] [Volitional formations] // [Rebirth]
Quote: “There is that which is beyond birth and death. And then you start asking, ‘Well, what is it and how is it? How should it be?’ It’s just the same as in the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2.7)...As soon as you get into conceiving, you’ve already started the process of dukkha.” [Unconditioned ] [Proliferation] [Conceit] [Suffering]
Follow-up: “So is it better to hear what he said and let it go when I notice awareness that’s good, but I don’t have to make anything out of it?”
Quote: “The investigation is not a conceiving. The best investigation is when the mind is exceedingly still and not conceiving, not creating concepts.” [Discernment] [Concentration]
Follow-up: “So is it a realizing, not a conceiving?” [Knowledge and vision]
Our Roots in the Thai Forest Tradition [2014], Session 51, Excerpt 2
3.4. Quote: “This is the nature of enlightenment. It’s the extinguishing of fire, the cooling of that which was hot. This is peace. This is the end of saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death.” — Ajahn Chah. Read by Kittisaro. [Liberation] [Nibbāna ] [Similes] [Cessation] [Ajahn Chah] [Saṃsāra] // [Dispassion] [Discernment] [Relinquishment] [Delusion] [Unwholesome Roots] [Happiness] [Unconditioned]
4. Ajahn Chah’s inner freedom. Reflection by Ajahn Sundarā. [Liberation] [Courage] [Conventions] [Unconditioned] [Ajahn Chah] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Dhamma books] [Personal presence]
25. Quote: “What is the Buddha?” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Jack Kornfield. [Ajahn Chah] [Buddha ] // [Three Refuges] [Knowledge and vision] [Unconditioned] [Recollection/Dhamma] [Liberation]
11. “Once I aspired to open my mind beyond this conditioned world. Now I mostly try to be at ease with my limitations. Am I mistargeting something important?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stages of awakening] [Unconditioned] [Contentment] // [Idealism] [Four Noble Truths]
15. “‘There is no-self in the created or the un-created’...Does this statement conceal an asymmetry? Surely we investigate the created to separate from it – But can we investigate the uncreated? And if so, is it not to identify with it?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Not-self] [Unconditioned] [Self-identity view]
4. “What does “the longing for the good is the cause of the trouble” mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Mun] [Craving] [Skillful qualities] [Right Effort] // [Eightfold Path] [Aggregates] [Liberation] [Self-identity view] [Virtue] [Relinquishment] [Jhāna] [Ignorance] [Cause of Suffering]
Story: Sixth Patriarch Sutra: “No mirror, no dust.”
Recollection: Ajahn Chah taught you could grasp at either samut (the conventional) or vimut (the transcendant). [Ajahn Chah] [Conventions] [Unconditioned] [Clinging] [Discernment]
2. “The citta is sometimes defined as pure awareness, and it being in the fourth khanda, but it sounds like here [Ajahn Wanchai] is talking about the activity of awareness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Ajahn Wanchai] [Knowing itself] [Volitional formations] // [Rebirth]
Quote: “There is that which is beyond birth and death. And then you start asking, ‘Well, what is it and how is it? How should it be?’ It’s just the same as in the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2.7)...As soon as you get into conceiving, you’ve already started the process of dukkha.” [Unconditioned ] [Proliferation] [Conceit] [Suffering]
Follow-up: “So is it better to hear what he said and let it go when I notice awareness that’s good, but I don’t have to make anything out of it?”
Quote: “The investigation is not a conceiving. The best investigation is when the mind is exceedingly still and not conceiving, not creating concepts.” [Discernment] [Concentration]
Follow-up: “So is it a realizing, not a conceiving?” [Knowledge and vision]
4. “‘Luminous is the mind.’ Is the luminous mind conditioned or unconditioned? If unconditioned, then it’s Nirvana. If conditioned/impermanent, then Nirvana is beyond the mind? Yet it can be known by the mind?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nature of mind] [Unconditioned] [Nibbāna]
Sutta: AN 1.49
4. “Could you talk more about the two levels of understanding the true nature of karma: mundane and transcendent?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Kamma] [Conventions] [Unconditioned] // [Right View ] [Four Noble Truths] [Impermanence] [Conditionality]
Quote: “Outside of cause, beyond effect; outside of suffering, beyond happiness.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Unconditioned]
7. “As I get deeper insights how conditioned the mind is, there is a sense of burden being released but also a doubt began to arise: If the mind is conditioned, how is it even possible to arrive at the Unconditioned? Does free will even exist or am I just pushed around by kilesas? If the trick is to recognize that there is no free will, how can I sincerely believe that when I’m making choices to practice and do wholesome deeds, they really matter and it’s not my delusion? Please dispel my doubts!” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nature of mind ] [Doubt] [Unconditioned] [Delusion] // [Four Noble Truths] [Self-identity view] [Questions] [Conditionality]
10. Comment by Ajahn Pasanno: Throughout the whole teaching (DN 16) there is the sense of the ordinary and the transcendant together all the time. [Conventions] [Unconditioned] [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography] // [Nature of mind] [Ceremony/ritual] [Precepts] [Meditation] [Devotional practice] [Middle Path] [Release]
Sutta: Aniccā vata saṅkhārā... (SN 6.15) [Cessation] [Happiness] [Recollection/Peace]
2. “I understand that the Dhamma is beyond duality. But does the distinction between conditioned and unconditioned support duality?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Dhamma] [Advaita Vedanta] [Unconditioned] // [Language] [Conventions] [Non-identification]
Reference: Richard Gombrich, ‘Metaphor, Allegory, Satire,’ in How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, pp 86-87, quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 118.
Sutta: SN 1.25: “Skilful, knowing the world’s parlance, he uses such terms as mere expressions.”
Follow-up: “The usage of symbols sometimes helps as well....” [Symbolism]
Quote: “All similes and anologies are partial.” [Knowing itself]
2. “Dependent co-origination is referred to as Dhamma. The unoriginated and unconditioned is also Dhamma. Could you explain?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Dependent origination] [Dhamma] [Unconditioned] // [Cessation] [Conventions]
Sutta: MN 28.22: One who sees Dependent Origination sees the Dhamma.
1. “Ajahn Geoff often says that non-duality is not part of the Buddha’s teachings because it refers to unity rather than complete trancendance. In your experience, do most teachings on non-duality refer to an allness or something more compatible with the Buddha’s teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Right View] [Unconditioned] [Advaita Vedanta] // [Equanimity] [Non-identification] [Knowing itself] [Language] [Culture/West] [Culture/India]
Sutta: MN 137.17: Equanimity based on diversity, etc.
Sutta: MN 1.25: They are attached to the All.
Quote: “One of my pet peeves is when people say, ‘I really love non-duality.’” — Eric McCord.
2. “If the Unconditioned is above distinctions of right and wrong, how do you reconcile this with the fact that we live in a moralistic society? If you are not enlightened, how do you live with the truth of the Unconditioned?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Unconditioned] [Virtue] // [Conventions] [Dhamma] [Vinaya] [Buddha] [Ven. Ananda Maitreya] [Clinging] [Suffering] [Recollection/Buddha]
Reference: “Still, Flowing Water” in Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 373.
Reference: Time & Timelessness.
Reference: T. S. Elliot, The Dry Salvages.
Vinaya: Mahāvagga 1: The story of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 4: Recollection of the Buddha: vijjācaraṇa-sampanno.
5. “Is there any other language that can describe things correctly? For example, mathematics or physics?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Language] [Unconditioned ] [Science] // [Suchness]
Sutta: Ud 3.10: “Whatever you conceive it to be, it is ever other than that.”
Reference: “Suchness and the Square Root of Minus One,” Happily Ever After by Ajahn Amaro, p. 507.