Ajahn Sucitto, the abbot of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in England, will be visiting Abhayagiri from May 22nd to May 30th. It is planned to have him offer teachings the evening of Vesakha Puja, May 24th, and on the following Saturday evening, May 25th. Below is a brief biography of Ajahn Sucitto from his recent book Parami : Ways to Cross Life's Floods “Born in London in 1949, Ajahn Sucitto entered monastic life in Thailand in 1975. He subsequently took bhikkhu ordination there in 1976, but returned to Britain in 1978 to train under Ven. Ajahn Sumedho in the lineage of the Thai forest master, Ven. Ajahn Chah. In...

With Luang Por Sumedho visiting, this last week has been a full one, with lots of contact and engagement. That’s the nature of monastic life, even though there’s a bottom line of simplicity. One goes through various phases of solitude and engagement. It’s important to make a conscious effort to bring things back to a life of more solitude and less engagement. It’s interesting to see how the mind picks up a particular way of relating or mood and then rolls along with it. Make that conscious effort to pull back. It’s not as if engagement is bad. It’s been really wonderful...