Q&A session with Venerable Ajahn Amaro during his visit to Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Brisbane, Australia.

Tan Ajahn Ajahn is asked if it was tough for him in the beginning, when he was a newly ordained monk at Ajahn Chah's monastery in Thailand in 1979.

Ajahn answers that he didn't find it difficult at all in the first year, but quite the opposite, he could hardly believe his good fortune to have found exactly the place, lifestyle and community that he would aspire to. And people would even love to offer food and support to him, for doing exaclty what he likes to do anyhow himself!

Ajahn Amaro also responds to a few other questions, for example about the highest happiness of Nibbāna:

Who actually exxperiences this highest happiness, if the Buddha teaches that everything is not a Self?

Ajahn Amaro is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near London, UK, the largest Western monastery in the lineage of Ajahn Chah.

Born in England in 1956, Ven. Ajahn Amaro received a BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979. Soon afterwards he returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.

In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010.

In 2010, he was invited to return to Amaravati, to become the successor of Luang Por Sumedho as abbot of this large monastic community. He was appointed an official 'Upajjhāya' (preceptor), with the authority to formally ordain Buddhist monks, and has since ordained and trained a large group of monks and nuns as his direct disciples.

Pictures of Ajahn Amaro's visit at Dhammagiri

Website of Ajahn's monastery, Amaravati

Website of Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage

Dhammagiri Youtube Channel

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