Abhayagiri Talks

Ajahn Pasanno reflects on the human tendency to pick up the conditions of our five khandas – form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness – as burdens. But the Buddha taught that if we make the choice to pick up these conditions of the khandas as objects of investigation and contemplation they can become catalysts for relinquishment, tranquility, and insight. This talk was offered on September 24, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Ajahn Jotipālo reflects on his practice of paying attention to the beautiful actions and efforts of those around him as well as his own, and noticing the results this brings. He stresses not pushing away the negative but instead turning toward the positive, and makes an interesting reverse correlation of the three core hindrances of greed, aversion, and delusion with the Buddha's reference to three personality types: faith-based, wisdom-based, and concentration-based. This talk was offered on September 16, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Picking up from the previous evening's reflections, Ajahn Pasanno teaches the path of sense restraint, which is not about denying or pushing away sense impressions but instead about using them skillfully to nourish and nurture our wisdom and well-being. This talk was offered on September 10, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Inspired by the community's chanting of the Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon, Ajahn Pasanno reflects on our tendencies to follow the lead of our sense bases (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) without examining the ways in which they lead us into the fires of suffering. This talk was offered on September 9, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

For the Spirit Rock Teen Weekend, Ajahn Pasanno begins his Saturday night reflection with an explanation of the purpose of chanting namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa before a talk. In recollecting the primary qualities of the Buddha – wisdom, purity, and compassion – the teacher is setting an intention for all of us to cultivate these qualities in balance, a very different preface than saying, “I will now convey information you need.” This de-emphasis of the self in teaching leads into contemplations on ways the self gets in the way of one's own liberation, especially in regard to how to work with dukkha. The key to seeing this can be found in the Buddha's core teaching, the Four Noble Truths, about which Luang Por emphasizes the importance of looking at “cessation.” This talk was offered on September 3, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Ajahn Jotipālo reflects on using images such as mandalas and icons for contemplating perception and perspective, cultivating stillness and silence, and becoming centered in a seemingly broken world. This talk was offered on September 1, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Having considered starting his evening reflection with ten minutes of silence to cause us to watch the reactions of our minds, Ajahn Jotipālo instead leads us onto some paths of gentler awareness. He first delineates the path of concentration meditation with its destination of states of jhana leading to equanimity. Then he shows us the path of contemplation meditation with its destination of dispassion, also leading to equanimity. This talk was offered on August 27, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

Ajahn Thanissaro defines samvega as “the oppressive sense of shock, dismay, and alienation that come with realizing the futility and meaninglessness of life as it's normally lived...and an anxious sense of urgency in trying to find a way out of the meaningless cycle.” In this talk, Tan Kaccāna reflects that when we recollect the drawbacks of our identification with what is born, gets sick, and dies, we can shed our fears of the future and cultivate the ability to reach out to others. He then offers ways to make samvega lead to energy rather than despair, including a contemplation of the ovadapatimokha – the Buddha's three simple steps that lead to joy of heart and stillness of mind. This talk was offered on August 26, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

When we see experience from the perspective of I/me/mine we are, as Ajahn Chah used to say, looking for a turtle with a mustache. We focus on the impossible task of satisfying the five aggregates of self – body, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness – and end up taking refuge in them. Instead, as Ajahn Pasanno teaches, we must see through the perspective of dukkha, the right view which allows us to use these aggregates skillfully until we can learn how to let go of them. This talk was offered on August 18, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.

When asked by a BBC interviewer what Buddhism teaches that's akin to “original sin,” the King of Thailand replied that what Buddhism has instead is original purity. Ajahn Pasanno reflects on this idea as being our birthright, for our minds are innately pure and luminous. Yet we overlook or completely forget this fact by continuing to proliferate over our fundamental habits of mind. Using the concept of Mara as well as metaphors of the head and tail of a snake and the fate of a contented chicken, Luang Por teaches us instead to lift up the heart to a place outside this limited spectrum of happiness and suffering, to see that peace and clarity have been waiting all along. This talk was offered on August 13, 2016 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.