2019 MONASTIC ANNUAL RETREAT Led by Luang Por Pasanno and the Abhayagiri Community December 6-15, 2019 at Applegate Retreat Center, Applegate, CA Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California and the Sanghapala Foundation invite you to join Luang Por Pasanno, and others from the Abhayagiri Community for a 10-day retreat in December. We will create a monastery environment during our time together, and we offer you this opportunity to explore the Dhamma in a setting that differs somewhat from a typical meditation retreat. We will all live the monastery life, following the Eight Precepts, taking only what is offered, and attempting to reflect on our every activity as part of our practice. This will include noble silence, morning and eve...
Posted July 15, 2019

All are welcome to attend the formal ceremonies for Sāmaṇera Cittapālo to enter the monastic sangha as a bhikkhu and Anagārika Nicholas to take on the sāmaṇera (novice monk) training. The event details are: Sāmaṇera Ordination Friday, August 23rd during evening puja, beginning at 7pm : Anagārika Nicholas will go forth into brown robes taking sāmaṇera (novice monk) ordination Bhikkhu Ordination Sunday, August 25th – Time to be determined: Bhikkhu Ordination Ceremony for Sāmaṇera Cittapālo
Posted July 11, 2019

Abhayagiri will celebrate Luang Por Pasanno’s 70th birthday on Saturday, July 27th and this will also be an opportunity to welcome him back after his year away. With his return from this sabbatical, he will be taking on his new role as Guiding Elder at Abhayagiri, leaving the abbot duties to co-abbots Ajahn Karunadhammo and Ajahn Nyaniko. Please arrive for the meal offering by 10:30 am. There will be an opportunity to gather with Luang Por after the meal, and also likely a Dhamma reflection from him at evening puja at 7 pm. Listen to Luang Por’s first talk after coming out of retreat
Posted July 4, 2019

It’s the same with the stuff we find within, the stuff that we fear – the big ‘monsters’ and the ghastly things we can’t bear to face or think of. Those kind of things actually feed off our resistance and denial. Yet, if we can give them space, we can see…‘Oh, just feelings; perceptions…just that much’ – not in denial or rejection but in a full acceptance and opening to just what is. The intensity caused by the struggle then fades out – the energy that was trapped there is released, unbound, freed. And that’s quite a relief to see and know! It’s as if we bec...