Part of key topic Dependent Origination
5. “How are contact and viññāṇa nutriment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Contact] [Consciousness] [Nutriment ] // [Feeling] [Aggregates] [Becoming]
Sutta: SN 12.63: Son’s Flesh.
4. Comment by Kondannyo Bhikkhu: The training is designed to attenuate the conception of name and form by radically attending to things like the body. [Volition] [Appropriate attention] [Aggregates] [Right Mindfulness] [Perception]
5. “Does name and form cease or not arise?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] [Cessation] // [Language] [Proliferation]
Sutta: DN 11.85.10: Kevaṭṭasutta.
2. “What is the difference between upadhi viveka and citta viveka?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Seclusion ] [Concentration] [Discernment] // [Relinquishment] [Aggregates] [Characteristics of existence]
Quote: “Upadi viveka is more transportable. You can carry it with you.”
Sutta: SN 22.22: The Burden (Chanting Book translation).
2. Discussion about perception and name and form. Led by Ajahn Pasanno. [Perception] [Aggregates] // [Thai] [Language] [Memory]
Reference: “Working with Perception,” by Ajahn Sucitto in The Insight Journal, Winter 2009, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
4. Discussion of sañña and paññā. Led by Ajahn Pasanno. [Perception] [Discernment] [Pāli] [Volitional formations] // [Abhidhamma] [Consciousness] [Recollection/Buddha] [Unwholesome Roots] [Aggregates] [Habits]
Reference: AN 10.60: Girimānanda.
9. “Was sati, vedana, jhana part of the religious climate current at the Buddha’s time? How revolutionary was he seen to be then? Do we know?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [History/Early Buddhism] [Buddha/Biography] [Mindfulness] [Feeling] [Jhāna] // [Four Noble Truths] [Aggregates] [Culture/India ] [Kamma] [Volition]
4. “There are teachings about different levels of generosity (e.g. AN 7.52). Are there similar teachings about love or attachment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Generosity] [Goodwill] [Clinging] // [Dhamma] [Desire] [Teaching Dhamma] [Aggregates] [Mindfulness] [Relationships] [Spaciousness]
6. Quote: “We have to get out of the habit of being thieves.” — Ajahn Buddhadāsa. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Relinquishment] [Stealing] [Recollection] // [Aggregates] [Clinging] [Naturalness]
Quote: “The peace of Nibbāna is not something that you gain, that you get, that you claim ownership over; it’s by relinquishing and releasing these bases of identity.” [Nibbāna] [Recollection/Peace] [Release] [Aggregates] [Self-identity view]
6. “A question about Dogenji’s teaching: ‘To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.’ Can you reflect on this teaching from the Theravāda Thai Forest Teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dōgen] [Zen ] [Eightfold Path] [Not-self] [Liberation] [Theravāda] [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Knowledge and vision] [Four Noble Truths] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Aggregates] [Proliferation] [Discernment] [Compassion]
Quote: “Everything is teaching us. Everything is a manifestation of Dhamma and truth.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Truth] [Suchness]
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?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [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.
6. “Could you give a Dhamma talk about the Five Aggregates?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] // [Cause of Suffering] [Body/form] [Feeling] [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness]
Simile: A dog tied to a post (SN 22.100). [Similes] [Aggregates] [Self-identity view]
1. “What is the translation of sabbaṃ dukkhaṃ? The way you translate it seems psychological. In Sanskrit, dukkhaṃ means out of the cosmic flow of Dhamma. But perhaps dukkhaṃ is best left untranslated. If untranslated, does dukkhaṃ mean the same thing in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Suffering] [Pāli] [Equanimity] [Dhamma] [Translation] [Advaita Vedanta] // [Thai] [Human] [Aggregates] [Clinging ] [Knowing itself] [Relinquishment]
Ancient etymology of dukkha: du = bad, unwanted, unpleasant, uncomfortable, not easy; kha = where the axle fits into the wheel. [Language] [History/Indian Buddhism]
Sutta: SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Chanting Book translation)
Teaching: The four forms of clinging. [Clinging ] [Sensual desire] [Impermanence] [Naturalness] [Happiness] [Neutral feeling] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Views] [Doctrine-of-self clinging] [Not-self]
Quote: “Nibbāna is the reality of non-grasping.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Nibbāna] [Cessation of Suffering]
1. Comment: I was thinking about our obsession to create things. We create our world out of the things that we create. So Nibbāna being no thing-ness seems just right. [Proliferation] [Nibbāna] [Non-identification]
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Volitional formations] [Conventions] [Impermanence] [Philosophy] [Aggregates] [Insight meditation] [Suffering]
Quote: “The things of this world are merely conventions of our own making ...” — Ajahn Chah in Convention and Liberation. [Ajahn Chah]
3. “What is the difference between the fetter of self-view and the one of conceit? Where does the desire to be personally known and cared for stop?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Self-identity view] [Conceit ] // [Not-self] [Aggregates] [Similes] [Insight meditation]
Sutta: SN 22.89: Khemaka Sutta.
6. “What would you say is the importance of experiencing the four immaterial jhānas? Is there the possibility of investigation in these states?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Formless attainments] [Insight meditation] // [Thai Forest Tradition] [Jhāna] [Impermanence] [Aggregates]
6. “I’m super perplexed and baffled with defining or understanding the term suchness or thusness. Are you able to communicate what it actually means?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Suchness ] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Language] [Knowing itself] [Aggregates] [Unconditioned] [Dhamma] [Recollection/Dhamma]
Quote: “It’s like this.” “Reality is unimaginable.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Direct experience]
Sutta: MN 72.20, quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 172.
1. Comment: The separation between the mind and the sense/mind objects can be helpfully contemplated at multiple levels of acuity. Contributed by Ajahn Kaccāna. [Nature of mind] [Knowing itself] [Sense bases] // [Nibbāna] [Ajahn Chah]
Sutta: AN 11.9.
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, pp. 90-91.
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Perception] [Etymology]
Quote: “The Five Khandhas exist, but they aren’t real. The Dhamma is real, but it doesn’t exist.” — Ajahn Paññāvaḍḍho. [Ajahn Paññāvaḍḍho] [Aggregates] [Dhamma]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
Quote: “Bright, loud, and mobile is the false; subtle and indistinct is the true.” — Master Hsuan Hua to Ajahn Amaro in a dream. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Master Hsuan Hua] [Ajahn Amaro] [Dreams] [Truth]
5. “I was trying to imagine what it would be like to look into the world through the eyes of an arahant. Something like looking through The Matrix or looking at people as children ...” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Arahant]
Quote: “What is the mind of an arahant like?”—“Only compassion.” — Ajahn Mahā Boowa. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Compassion]
Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: Ajahn Chah’s form of compassion could be pretty demanding sometimes. [Ajahn Chah] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Patience] [Humor]
Reflection by Ajahn Kaccāna: From the perspective of an arahant, what drives the entire world is feeble (MN 112.6). [Aggregates] [Dispassion]
3. “The connection between tathatā and suññatā—would you like to expound a bit more?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Suchness] [Emptiness ] // [Proliferation] [Relinquishment] [Pāli] [Conventions] [Aggregates] [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Characteristics of existence] [Self-identity view]
Quote: “It’s just that much.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah]
Sutta: MN 72.20: “... unfathomable like the great ocean.” [Buddha]
Sutta: Ud 8.3: “There is the unborn, the unoriginated, the uncreated, the unformed.” (Chanting Book Translation).
Reference: The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard.
9. “Could you say something about the name-and-form step in Dependent Origination?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates ] [Dependent origination] // [Heart/mind] [Body/form] [Self-identity view] [Human] [Realms of existence]
Sutta: MN 43.9: Conjoined not disjoined.