1. “Could you talk about the time of the fires that came so close to the monastery?” [Disasters] [Abhayagiri] // [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Lodging]
2. “Sometimes when I meditate, I have a pleasant sensation similar to goosebumps or light massage on the back of the head....I would be grateful for your advice in understanding it.” [Meditation/Unusual experiences ] [Rapture] // [Ajahn Chah] [Clinging] [Impermanence] [Relinquishment] [Characteristics of existence]
3. “What are the sufferings that you still struggle with? How do you deal with them and why do you think you still suffer with these sufferings despite following the precepts and the Eightfold Path?” [Suffering] [Eightfold Path] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Monastic life] [Views] [Saṃsāra] [Liberation] [Long-term practice] [Rebirth] [Faith]
4. “Why do you think we sometimes don’t know what to do with our lives? Did you experience this before becoming a monk and do you sometimes still experience it? What helped you when you felt that way?” [Purpose/meaning] [Ajahn Karuṇadhammo] [Monastic life] // [Delusion] [Sensual desire] [Māra] [Impermanence] [Clinging] [Truth] [Determination]
5. “How does one practice wise restraint in lay life when one has to deal with family, friends, coworkers, and so on? Especially on the level of speech and emotions that one encounters.” [Sense restraint] [Lay life] [Right Speech] [Emotion] // [Discernment] [Unwholesome Roots] [Appropriate attention] [Continuity of mindfulness] [Mindfulness of body] [Clear comprehension]
Vinaya: Conditions for skillful admonishment in the Buddhist Monastic Code’s discussion of Bhikkhu Saṅghādisesā 8. [Admonishment/feedback]
6. “Is it possible that someone is following the Eightfold Path without being aware that it is the path laid out by the Buddha? It seems conceivable that someone could figure out [effort to increase wholesome states and decrease unwholesome states] but never realize what they are doing is Right Effort from the Eightfold Path. Could someone like this attain Nibbāna?” [Eightfold Path] [Buddhist identity] [Right Effort] [Nibbāna] // [Paccekabuddha] [Buddha]
7. “The concepts of non-self and rebirth seem contradictory to me. Can you expand on these topics? What is it that passes from one life to the next if there is no self?” [Not-self ] [Rebirth] // [Views] [Tranquility] [Insight meditation] [Aggregates] [Self-identity view] [Disenchantment] [Dispassion] [Unwholesome Roots] [Consciousness] [Proliferation] [Conditionality]
Sutta: DN 15.21 refers to rebirth and consciousness.
1. “How do Hsu Yun’s reflection ‘Who’s the guest and who’s the host?’ and Ajahn Chah’s metaphor of the one seat of awareness fit with [meditation practice]?” [Master Hsu Yun] [Ajahn Chah] [Similes] // [Knowing itself] [Discernment] [Equanimity]
2. Comment: If I’m able to settle into ease and spaciousness this time, the next time I sit, it doesn’t settle as easily, and I get frustrated and tense wanting to get to that ease again. [Tranquility] [Meditation/General advice] [Restlessness and worry] [Desire] [Judgementalism]
Response by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Mindfulness of body] [Present moment awareness]
2. “I am concerned about the clarity of mind if I have prolonged pain. How does one face death skillfully if one is in constant serious pain?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Pain] [Ageing] [Tranquility] [Death] // [Long-term practice]
Sutta: SN 55.22: Mahānāma worries about death. [Similes]
4. Comment: Sometimes when I contemplate maraṇassati, a strong sense of saṃvega will come over me and work seems pointless. But I’m currently in lay life, so if I get so much saṃvega that I don’t want to work, this is a problem. [Recollection/Death] [Spiritual urgency] [Work] [Lay life]
Response by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Right Effort] [Discernment] [Skillful qualities]
6. “What about a serious practitioner who refuses machines and procedures to extend life?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Health care] [Suicide] [Aversion] // [Relinquishment]
7. “According to the Buddha, is the maximum spiritual potential found in the human realm?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Human ] // [Stages of awakening]
Follow-up: “How do you integrate this with daily life?” [Everyday life] [Monastic life] [Saṅgha] [Buddha/Biography] [Liberation] [Recollection/Saṅgha] [Culture/West]
Comment: I work with human potential in children and their families....It’s so segregated...in the educational system there is no spiritual element. [Children] [Education ]
Response by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Western psychology] [Learning] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas]
Reference: Beyond, p. 441 in Happily Ever After by Ajahn Amaro.
1. “A question about physical pain. Sometimes it feels like I can deal with a certain level of pain, but every now and again there’s a level of pain that is too intense. Is there a technique for being okay with whatever level of pain?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Pain] // [Aversion] [Fear] [Goodwill] [Tranquility] [Buddha/Biography]
Sutta: SN 36.6: The Arrow.
Suttas: MN 53.5, AN 10.67, SN 35.243: Examples of the Buddha stretching his back.
Comment: In Viet Nam, native peasants needed less morphine than Americans paying for health care. [Health care]
Responses by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Attitude] [Sickness]
1. “When was the idea of merit [being like a celestial currency] incorporated into Buddhism?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Sundarā. [Merit] [History/Early Buddhism] // [Generosity] [Happiness]
Sutta: Iti 22: “Don’t belittle merit.”
Sutta: AN 7.52: Degrees of meritorious offerings.
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]
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]