39 excerpts, 2:35:42 total duration
8. Comment: For me it is a question of whether I can believe it or not. It depends on where I place my mind. [Faith] [Science] [Emptiness] [Proliferation] [Deva] [Recollection/Devas] [Dalai Lama] [Death]
Response by Ajahn Yatiko. [Doubt] [Trust] [Tranquility]
4. “Can suññatā (emptiness) be used as a kammaṭṭhāna, and if so, how?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emptiness] [Meditation/Techniques] // [Seclusion] [Not-self] [Liberation] [Relinquishment]
Sutta: MN 121: The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness. [Emptiness]
6. Comment by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo comparing putting the mind towards the Deathless with Dzogchen practice. [Deathless] [Vajrayāna] [Emptiness] [Progress of insight]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Spiritual bypass]
6. “What is the difference between piti and sukha? Also equanimity and emptiness as a felt sense?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rapture ] [Happiness ] [Equanimity] [Emptiness] // [Self-identity view] [Theravāda] [Relinquishment]
Teaching: The difference between pīti and sukha. [Rapture ] [Happiness ] [Emotion]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139: Similes for pīti and sukha. [Similes] [Rapture ] [Happiness ]
3. “How is Dzogchen similar to the Thai Forest Tradition?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Amaro] [Vajrayāna] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Emptiness]
Ajahn Pasanno describes the context of the Small Boat, Great Mountain retreat. [Spirit Rock] [Tsoknyi Rinpoche] [Theravāda]
Reference: Small Boat, Great Mountain by Ajahn Amaro.
3. “If you get the mind empty, you get everything.’ How to understand this?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emptiness] // [Self-identity view]
12. “What is the difference between emptiness, nothingness, and space? How can I use colors to develop the mind?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emptiness] [Kasiṇa] // [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Conceit] [Middle Path] [Etymology] [Not-self] [Elements] [Tranquility] [History/Early Buddhism] [Culture/West]
2. “Tibetan Buddhism seems to have a stronger emphasis on compassion and emptiness as a practice. Can you talk about this from the perspective of the Ajahn Chah lineage, including steps as to how it is done?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Vajrayāna] [Compassion] [Emptiness] [Ajahn Chah lineage] // [Ajahn Chah] [Eightfold Path]
Quote: “What is the mind of an Arahant like?” – “Only compassion” — Ajahn Mahā Boowa. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Arahant]
5. “How to contemplate the state of emptiness, stillness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Insight meditation] [Emptiness] [Tranquility] // [Relinquishment] [Gladdening the mind]
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.
4. Comment: When I’ve heard the phrase ‘abiding in emptiness’ used, it hasn’t been a reification; it has been exactly what the sutta (SN 35.85) says, abiding in a place that’s empty of self. [Emptiness] [Not-self]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Theravāda]
9. “It’s interesting that the Buddha usually speaks of wholesome qualities in the negative, like non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion. Even the precepts are phrased in the negative. Could you say that’s pointing towards emptiness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Skillful qualities] [Precepts] [Emptiness] // [Western psychology] [Language] [Teaching Dhamma]
1. “When the Buddha had a backache and the only time he gets relief is in the signless concentration of mind (DN 16.2.25), there still seems to be that non-emptiness connected with the six sense bases (MN 121.11-13) ...” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha/Biography] [Pain] [Concentration] [Emptiness] [Sense bases] // [Body/form]
3. “Is my understanding correct that everything is empty, nothing is there from the horses to the ... (MN 121)? When the body dies, and with it the senses, do [the body and the senses] disappear in the same way the horses disappear [in MN 121]?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Emptiness] [Death] [Body/form] [Sense bases] // [Outflows] [Rebirth] [Buddha] [Aggregates]
Sutta: MN 72.16: Aggivaccagotta Sutta.
Sutta: Snp 5.7: Upasīva’s Question.
Sutta: AN 2.25: Statements whose meaning should and should not be drawn out.
5. “Everything arises from emptiness, right?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Emptiness ] // [Conditionality]
Quote: “There is no discernable beginning to this world (SN 15.1); what we’re looking for is an ending to it.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Nature of the cosmos] [Cessation]
Sutta: AN 4.77: Imponderables.
4. “Luang Por Chah’s teaching, “Not go forward, not go backward, not stand still;” is this like empty?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Emptiness] // [Relinquishment]