5. Context of “Teachings to Marjorie.” [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Chah]
1. Story: Ajahn Amaro tells his mother that he’s never eaten so well since he became a Buddhist monk. [Ajahn Amaro] [Food] [Monastic life]
2. Story: Ajahn Chah’s early life. [Ajahn Chah] // [Culture/Thailand] [Truth] [Leadership] [Ajahn Jayasaro]
5. Story: Novice Chah disrobes at age 16. [Novices] [Disrobing] [Ajahn Chah] // [Sensual desire] [Restlessness and worry]
7. Story: Ajahn Chah ordains at age 20. [Ordination] [Ajahn Chah] // [Monastic life/Motivation] [Spiritual urgency] [Forest versus city monks]
4. Story: “Sleep is delicious.” [Admonishment/feedback] [Goodwill] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Amaro ] [Joseph Kappel] [Upatakh] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Robes] [Mentoring] [Faith]
4. Stories about the people who criticized Chithurst Monastery in the early days. Told by Joseph Kappel and Ajahn Amaro. [Conflict] [Chithurst] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Anando] [Culture/West] [Communal harmony]
2. “Why did Ajahn Chah found Wat Pah Pong? [Inaudible question removed]” [Wat Pah Pong ] [History/Thai Buddhism] [Ajahn Chah] // [Tudong] [Teaching Dhamma] [Personal presence] [Seclusion] [Compassion] [Family] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support]
Story: The first Rains Retreat with Ajahn Chah. [Rains retreat] [Devotion to wakefulness]
3. Question related to age and ordination (audio unclear). Answered by Ajahn Sumedho. [Ordination] [Older monks] [Ajahn Chah] // [Culture/Thailand] [Meditation] [Mae Chee] [Relationships] [Liberation] [Culture/West]
Story: A doctor ordains later in life. Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Health care]
4. Story: A hit man hired to kill Ajahn Chah ordains instead. [Crime] [Killing] [Ordination] [Ajahn Chah] // [Older monks]
5. Teachings hanging in the trees at Wat Pay Pong. [Wat Pah Pong] [Culture/Natural environment] [Teaching Dhamma]
4. Story: Ajahn Anando tries to heal Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Anando] [Health care] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Sickness] [Fierce/direct teaching]
6. Story: Ajahn Chah vows not to look at a woman for the duration of the Rains Retreat. [Determination] [Sensual desire ] [Sense restraint] [Rains retreat] [Ajahn Chah] // [Discernment]
7. Story: Ajahn Chah hallucinates female sexual organs for ten days. [Sensual desire] [Mental illness] [Ajahn Chah] // [Ajahn Kinaree] [Posture/Walking] [Determination] [Patience] [Rebirth]
8. Story: When asked about the potential for sacred sexuality, Ajahn Chah picks his nose. [Sensual desire] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Ajahn Chah] // [Insight Meditation Society]
Quote: “There’s nothing more to it than that except what your mind adds to it.” — Ajahn Chah. [Proliferation]
3. Story: Ajahn Amaro hears of Master Hsuan Hua through Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Amaro] [Master Hsuan Hua] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Chithurst] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas]
Quote: “I always thought I would never meet anyone else like Luang Por Chah, but I just met another one.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Chah]
4. Story: Ajahn Sumedho asks Ajahn Amaro to go to California. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Amaro] // [Master Hsuan Hua] [Elders' Council] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Ordination] [Jack Kornfield]
5. Recollection: The virtual monastery in San Francisco. [Saṅghapāla] // [Ajahn Amaro]
6. Recollection: Ajahn Sumedho delays the opening of a San Francisco vihara in 1992. [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Sumedho] // [Ajahn Chah] [Disrobing]
7. Story: Master Hua offers land to Ajahn Sumedho the day after the Elders’ Council approves a land search. [Master Hsuan Hua] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Elders' Council] [Abhayagiri ] // [Saṅghapāla] [Gratitude] [Amaravati] [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Viradhammo] [Sickness]
Quote: “It had been the dream of my life to bring the Northern and Southern Traditions together again, and I never thought I was going to be able to do it until I met Sumedho.” — Master Hsuan Hua. [Mahāyāna] [Theravāda] [Communal harmony]
8. Testing times: Saṅghapāla Foundation scrambles to purchase the plot of land adjacent to Master Hsuan Hua’s gift. [Saṅghapāla] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Amaro] [Faith]
9. Story: Moving onto the Abhayagiri land. [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Karuṇadhammo] [Ajahn Amaro] [Saṅghapāla] [Gratitude]
11. Recollection: Origins of the Abhayagiri co-abbotship. [Abbot] [Abhayagiri] // [Master Hsuan Hua] [Three Conditions Monastery] [Jealousy] [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Leadership]
Quote: “You can’t have two tigers living in the same cave.” — Ajahn Mahā Prasert. [Ajahn Mahā Prasert] [Culture/Thailand]
12. Recollection: The connection with Ajahn Mahā Prasert and Casa Serena. [Ajahn Mahā Prasert] [Abhayagiri] // [Gratitude] [Father Damien]
1. Story: Ajahn Sumedho’s early visits to California. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Abhayagiri] // [Jack Kornfield] [Mutual lay/Saṅgha support] [Amaravati]
2. Reflection: Affinities between the communities of Ajahn Sumedho and Master Hsuan Hua. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Master Hsuan Hua ] // [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Mahāyāna] [Vinaya] [Ascetic practices] [Elders' Council] [Abhayagiri]
Story: Master Hua invites Ajahn Sumedho to help conduct an ordination ceremony at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. [Ordination]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho invites Master Hua to the English monasteries.
3. Story: The formation of Saṅghapāla Foundation in December 1988. [Saṅghapāla] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Sumedho]
4. Story: Ajahn Sumedho visits the Bay Area in 1990 and chooses Ajahn Amaro to lead the California project. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Amaro] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Sundarā]
5. Story: Ajahn Amaro leads a series of temporary California vihāras. [Ajahn Amaro] [Abhayagiri] // [Saṅghapāla] [Elders' Council] [Disrobing]
6. Story: In May 1994, the English Saṅgha Trust gives Ajahn Amaro permission to start looking for property in California. Master Hua offers 125 acres of forest in Mendocino County the next day. [Elders' Council] [Ajahn Amaro] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Master Hsuan Hua] [Abhayagiri] [Generosity] // [Amaravati] [Ajahn Viradhammo]
7. Story: Ajahn Amaro visits the Abhayagiri property for the first time. [Ajahn Amaro] [Lodging] [Culture/Natural environment] [Abhayagiri] // [Master Hsuan Hua] [Funerals] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Lay supporters] [Simplicity] [Holy Transfiguration Monastery]
8. Story: Buying the property next to the land Master Hua donated. [Saṅghapāla] [Commerce/economics] [Generosity] [Lodging] [Abhayagiri] // [Lay supporters] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Amaro]
9. Story: Moving onto the Abhayagiri land. [Lodging] [Abhayagiri] // [Ajahn Karuṇadhammo] [Postulants] [Ajahn Amaro] [Saṅghapāla] [Lay supporters]
10. Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s involvement in the Abhayagiri project. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Abbot] [Abhayagiri] // [Forest versus city monks] [Humility] [Ajahn Amaro] [Personality] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Hua tou] [Three Conditions Monastery] [Communal harmony]
11. Serendipitous generosity in the early days of Abhayagiri. [Lay supporters] [Generosity] [Abhayagiri] // [Buddha images] [Building projects] [Lodging]
5. “Could you speak more about how to prevent feelings from becoming aversion or desire? How does this relate to Dependent Origination?” [Feeling] [Aversion] [Craving] [Dependent origination] // [Arahant] [Buddha] [Pain] [Mindfulness] [Birth] [Impermanence] [Happiness] [Direct experience] [Proliferation] [Master Hsuan Hua]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno breaks his pelvis in Thailand. [Ajahn Pasanno]
2. “Something that I’ve noticed is that my wish to translate something differently at one point in my practice changes later when I realize, ‘Hmm…perhaps I’m just trying to get around the point.’ I feel uncomfortable with that translation and then later on realize I have to practice with this one. Does that sometimes happen to you?” [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Translation] // [Truth]
Story: Jack Kornfield translates for Ajahn Chah at Insight Meditation Center and puts his own spin on the precepts. Ajahn Chah figures it out. [Jack Kornfield] [Ajahn Chah] [Joseph Kappel] [Insight Meditation Society] [Precepts]
4. “When Sariputta and Moggallāna died, [the Buddha] expressed almost a sense of grief in the context of the absence from the assembly. I wonder how that fits with the idea of Nibbāna.” [Great disciples] [Death] [Buddha/Biography] [Grief] // [Pain] [Suffering] [Emotion] [Tranquility] [Theravāda]
Sutta: SN 47.14: Ukkacelā Sutta: “This assembly appears to me empty now....”
Sutta: SN 36.6: The Arrow.
Story: Ajahn Sumedho’s experience of his mother’s death. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Parents]
1. Story: Reprinting The Enlightened Nuns from the Time of the Buddha by Panadure Vajira Silmatha. [Dhamma books] [Bhikkhunī] [Buddha/Biography] // [Ajahn Amaro] [Artistic expression] [Non-return] [Bodhisattva]
Story: Upaka falls in love with Cāpā, marries her, then returns to the Buddha, ordains as a monk, and becomes a non-returner.
Vinaya: Mahāvagga 1.6: Upaka meets the Buddha.
Sutta: Thig 13.3: Cāpātherīgāthā (Upaka is apparently called Kāḷa here).
Reference: Upaka, The Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names by G P Malalasekera.
Sutta: SN 2.24 mentions Upaka as a non-returner.
3. “How do you tell the difference between genuine insight and conceptual fabrication?” [Insight meditation] [Proliferation] // [Cessation of Suffering] [Spiritual friendship] [Suffering] [Lawfulness] [Doubt] [Stream entry] [Self-reliance]
Follow-up: “The fact that it can’t be verified intuitively makes me uncomfortable. I can see how that would lead to delusion of falsity.” [Delusion]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho asks Ajahn Chah whether he [Ajahn Sumedho] is a stream enterer. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Chah]
3. “When Luang Por Sumedho talks about resting in awareness in which everything is included, is this connected to the subject part [of non-duality] or is this neither there nor in between (Ud 1.10)?” [Ajahn Sumedho] [Knowing itself] [Non-identification] [Equanimity] [Advaita Vedanta] // [Buddhist identity] [Not-self] [Language] [Ajahn Chah] [Wat Pah Nanachat] [Unestablished consciousness] [Brahma gods]
Recollection: When Ajahn Amaro first arrived at Wat Pah Nanachat, a monk recommended Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. [Ajahn Amaro] [Zen]
4. “I’ve heard that to become a Buddha one must ask the blessing of an existing Buddha. Is this true?” [Previous Buddhas] [Buddha] [Bodhisattva] // [Determination]
Story: The Brahmin Sumedha vows to become a Buddha (found in the Buddhavaṃsa and Jātaka tales).
Follow-up: “This makes it even more surprising that the Buddha doubted to fulfill his role (MN 26.19).” Aswered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Buddha/Biography] [Doubt] [Brahma gods] [Teaching Dhamma] [Addiction]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 124: Dhamma talk request.
4. “When you talked about the little girl crying, was she really crying because she was miserable?” [Suffering] [Happiness]
Story: A little girl cries because she got what she wanted. [Desire]
3. Story: Ajahn Mahā Boowa argues with Ajahn Mun, then can’t access higher states of concentration. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa ] [Ajahn Mun] [Concentration] // [Conceit] [Insight meditation]
Story: Mae Chee Kaew insisted that meditation connected with [supernatural] beings was the right way; Ajahn Mahā Boowa threw her out. Told by Ajahn Sundarā. [Mae Chee Kaew] [Non-human beings] [Fierce/direct teaching]
3. “Does the Buddha speak about karma in relation to the family we find ourselves in?” [Tipiṭaka] [Kamma] [Family] // [Jātaka Tales] [Great disciples] [Rebirth] [Buddha/Biography] [Previous Buddhas] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Sutta: MN 81 Ghaṭīkāra Sutta
Story: An eight-year-old girl remembers being her grandmother’s mother.
4. “I’ve been pondering Ajahn Chah’s phrase, ‘Right but not true; true but not right.’ I’ve never been able to figure our ‘Right but not true....’” [Ajahn Chah] [Truth] // [Clear comprehension]
Quote: “You are right in fact but wrong in Dhamma.” — Ajahn Chah. [Dhamma]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho reports Ajahn Buddhadāsa’s different approach to Vinaya to Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Vinaya]
Story: Ajahn Sumedho criticizes an outspoken monk’s loud speech at Paṭimokkha. The monk leaves Wat Pah Pong soon after. [Harsh speech] [Admonishment/feedback]
2. “Does Ajahn Chah’s phrase, ‘Right in fact but wrong in Dhamma,’ imply that there is an objective world of facts and then a world above that which is Dhamma?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Truth] [Dhamma] // [Etymology] [Conventions] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Harsh speech]
Note: This phrase was discussed during the previous session.
Stories about the Buddha’s disciples who had killed people. [Great disciples] [Killing]
Suttas: MN 86: Aṅgulimāla Sutta; the story of Kuṇḍalakesī (Commentary to Dhp 102-103, Dhamma Verses Commentary translated by E. W. Burlingame and Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, p. 500).
Recollection: The lay disciple Pansak would sometimes show up drunk after work and spend the night under Ajahn Chah’s kuti. Recounted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Lay supporters] [Intoxicants]
Story: The monk Por Suey had been a hit man hired to kill Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah lineage] [Crime] [Wat Pah Nanachat]