Map to Baan Rai Thawsi (Ajahn Jayasaro) in Pak Chong, Thailand

Map to Baan Rai Thorsri in Pak Chong

Huangpo and Thai Masters

I am listening to Ajahn Buddhadasa's teachings of Hung-po, which was frequently quoted by LP Dune Atulo of the Thai forest tradition. It's amazing that the both Ajahn Buddhadasa and LP Dune liked Hung-po's piece, which they called "Puttha" (Buddha).

The truth is always the truth wherever and whenever it is. Buddhadhamma is really timeless and is not confined to certain traditions or territories.

Site on Huang-po

Dependant Origination....

Ajahn Baen a long time ago...

This photo was probably taken even before I Knew Ajahn Baen, which I did more than 20 years ago...

Ajahn Sumedho at Dhammaram

Previous weekend

Luang Por Dune and Mae Chee (Nun) Yos

From Larndham.net

Photos at Wat Tam Yai Prik. It was said that Luang Por Dune and Mae Chee Yos were Bharami couple, which implied that they had been practicing dhamma together for many many lifetimes .

Ajahn Chanai - Wat Wang Serm - Phra Bhavana

"Wat Wang Perm - Phra Bhavana"

Wat Wang Perm - Phra Bhavana is a branch monastery (in Kao Yai, about 150 km from Bangkok) of Wat Doi Dhamma Chedi (in Sakon Nakorn) where Ajahn Baen is the abbot. Current Ajahn Chanai is the most senior monk there. Evening meditaion sessions are held everyday from 7pm to 11pm except Satuarday where the session goes to midnight.

Awareness Itself by Ajahn Fuang

Bit from Awareness Itself 

Once the mind is firmly established in the breath, you then try to separate the mind from its object — from the breath itself. Focus on this: The breath is an element, part of the wind element. Awareness of the breath is something else. So you've got two things that have come together. Now, when you can separate them — through realizing the breath's true nature as an element — the mind can stand on its own. After all, the breath isn't you, and you aren't the breath. When you can separate things in this way, the mind gains power. It's set loose from the breath, and is wise to the breath's every aspect. When mindfulness is full, it's wise to all the aspects of the breath, and can separate itself from them.

Now if it so happens that your mind is strong and your mindfulness sharp while you're doing this, that's when insight occurs. The knowledge will arise in that moment, letting you know that you've really let go. If your mindfulness is still weak, though, you won't be able to let go. Only when your mindfulness is really resilient will you have mindfulness and insight arising together.

This is something you have to keep contemplating whenever you have the chance. When you can separate the mind from its objects, it'll be freed from all its burdens. So focus your attention right down, in the area of the heart. Keep it focused there, and then observe the breath and what it is that's aware of the breath. Be as observant as you can, and eventually you'll see that they separate from each other. When they've separated, that gives you the chance to investigate further inside. And once you've investigated this one element, you'll find that what you learn applies to everything else.

When you investigate the breath, you'll find that it's not a being, not a person — so what is there to latch on to? You can't latch on to it as your self, for it simply goes its own way. When you look at the breath you'll see that it doesn't have a body — no head, no legs, no hands, no feet, nothing at all. When you see this, you let go of it, in line with the way it really is.

The texts say, 'Cago patinissaggo mutti analayo': You move out of the breath. You remove your concerns for it. You don't make it your home any longer — because it's not yours. You let it go in line with its original nature. You give it back.Whatever it's got, you give it back to nature. All of the elements — earth, water, wind, fire, and space — you give back to nature. You let them return to what they originally were. When you examine all five of these things, you'll see that they're not a being, not a person, not 'us', not 'them'. You let them all return to their original nature in every way.

This then brings us to the mind, what it is that's aware of these five elements. What is it going to stay with now? Turn your powers of observation on this knowing element that is now standing on its own, with nothing else left. Examine it to see what's what, and that's when another level of insight will arise.

If you want to gain the insight that will let go of all things in line with their original nature, there has to be a special realization that arises in the act of letting go. If there isn't this realization, your letting go is simply an ordinary, everyday label or perception. It's mundane discernment. But when this special realization arises in the act of letting go — the instant you let go, the result comes right back at you, verifying, certifying what's happened for what it really is: You know. You've let go. You then experience the purity within you.

This is called transcendent discernment. When the realization arises within you, verifying what you've seen and what you've done, that's called transcendent discernment. As long as this realization doesn't arise, your discernment is still mundane. So you keep working at your investigation into things until all the conditions are ripe. Then when they're ripe, there's nothing more you have to do, for transcendent discernment penetrates things completely the very instant it arises. It's not like mundane discernment at all.

The path we follow, then, is to be observant, to investigate things. Keep making a focused investigation until you reach the strategic point. When the mind reaches that point, it lets go on its own. What happens is that it reaches a point of fullness — the Dhamma within it is full — and it lets go. Once it lets go, the results will appear immediately.

So. Keep on practicing. There's nothing to be afraid of. You'll have to reap results, there's no doubt about it. You reap results all along the way. Like right now, while you're sitting in meditation here. You know that the breath and the mind are comfortable with each other. That's a result of the practice. Even though you haven't yet reached the end of the path, you're still gaining a sense of comfort and ease in your meditation. The mind is at peace with the in-and-out breath. As long as the mind and breath can't separate from each other, they have to help each other along. The mind helps the breath, and the breath helps the mind until they can get fully acquainted. Once the mind gets fully acquainted, it can let go. When it knows, it lets go. As long as it doesn't really know, it won't really let go.

What this means is that you have to associate with the breath, spend time with it, and gradually come to know it. As the mind gets more and more acquainted, it will be able to unravel its attachments to body, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, and consciousness. Its identity-views — seeing these things as the self — will fall away. This is the way to freedom. The moment this transcendent discernment arises, you'll be free. You'll be able to disentangle yourself from all the conventional truths of the world that say, 'person', 'self', 'man', 'woman', 'us', 'them', and so on.

But as long as you can't yet let go, you still have to depend on these things. They're your resting spots, but not your refuge. You simply lean on each other, and help each other along, so that you can make progress on your way. You can't abandon these things, for they're the path of your practice. As long as you stick with the practice, you won't fall back. But as soon as you let up on the practice, you'll start back-sliding immediately. You'll fall prey to doubts, wondering whether or not the Dhamma is true.

You have to keep being observant of the mind: awareness itself. It's not the case that the mind isn't aware, you know. Its basic nature is awareness. Just look at it. It's aware of everything — aware, but it can't yet let go of its perceptions, of the conventions it holds to be true. So you have to focus your investigation on in. Focus on in until the mind and its objects separate from each other. Simply keep at it. If you're persistent like this, without let-up, your doubts will gradually fade away, fade away, and eventually you'll reach your true refuge within you, the basic awareness called buddha that sees clearly through everything. This is the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha appearing within you as your ultimate refuge.

This is when you'll know what's actually within, what's actually without, what's actually a resting spot, and what's really your refuge. You'll be able to distinguish these things.

Things outside are simply resting spots. Like the body: It's a resting spot. For the brief moment that the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire stay balanced together, you can rest with the body. But as for your true refuge, you've already seen it. It's this basic awareness itself, within the mind. Your awareness of the breath is a refuge on one level. When it separates from the breath, it's a refuge on another level. And as for your true refuge — buddha — that's the awareness that lies further within. Once you realize this, that's all there is. It's sovereign in and of itself. It knows clearly and truly, all around. That's the true refuge within you.

As for things outside, they're just temporary supports, things you can depend on for a little while, like a crutch. As long as there's the breath to keep them alive, you make use of them. When there's no more breath, that's the end of the problem. The physical elements separate and no longer depend on each other, so the mind returns to its own true refuge. And where is that? Just where is that buddha awareness? When we've trained the mind to be its own refuge, there will be no sorrow at that moment in the meditating heart.

The Buddha's own search was for this refuge. He taught all of his disciples to take refuge in themselves, for we can depend on others only for a little while. Other people merely show us the way. But if you want what's really true and good in life, you have to depend on yourself — teach yourself, train yourself, depend on yourself in every way. Your sufferings come eventually from you. Your happiness, eventually from you. It's like eating: If you don't eat, how are you going to get full? If you leave it up to other people to eat, there's no way you're going to get full. If you want to be full, you yourself have to eat. It's the same with the practice....

Liberation

Bit from Ajahn Thanissaro...

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/refuge.html

Liberation 

There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support (mental object). This, just this, is the end of stress.

— Ud 8.1

Where water, earth, fire, and wind have no footing: There the stars do not shine,  the sun is not visible,  the moon does not appear,  darkness is not found. And when a sage, a worthy one, through sagacity  has known (this) for himself, then from form and formless,  from pleasure and pain,   he is freed. 

— Ud 1.10

Aggivessana Vacchagotta: 'But, Venerable Gotama the monk whose mind is thus released: Where does he reappear?'

Buddha: '"Reappear," Vaccha, doesn't apply.'

'In that case, Venerable Gotama, he does not reappear.'

'"Does not reappear," Vaccha, doesn't apply.'

'...both does and does not reappear.'

'...doesn't apply.'

'...Neither does nor does not reappear.'

'...doesn't apply.'...

'At this point, Venerable Gotama, I am befuddled; at this point, confused. The modicum of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured.'

'Of course you're befuddled, Vaccha. Of course you're confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. For those with other views, other satisfactions, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit. What do you think, Vaccha: If a fire were burning in front of you, would you know that, "This fire is burning in front of me"?'

'...yes...'

'And suppose someone were to ask you, Vaccha, "This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?" Thus asked, how would you reply?'

'...I would reply, "This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and timber as its sustenance."'

'If the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know that, "This fire burning in front of me has gone out"?'

'...yes...'

'And suppose someone were to ask you, "This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction from here has it gone? East? West? North? Or south?" Thus asked, how would you reply?'

'That doesn't apply, Venerable Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on a sustenance of grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that sustenance and not being offered any other — is classified simply as "out."'

'Even so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Tathagata would describe him: That the Tathagata has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard-to-fathom, like the sea. "Reappears" does not apply. "Does not reappear" does not apply. "Both does and does not reappear" does not apply. "Neither reappears nor does not reappear" does not apply.

'Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental fabrication...

'Any [act of] consciousness by which one describing the Tathagata would describe him: That the Tathagata has abandoned... Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard-to-fathom, like the sea.'

— M 72

A busy morning

One busy morning about 8 years ago (I believe the photo was taken in 2000) when Ajahn baen just completed the meditation place/branch sub-monastery (whatever the right word is) in Kao Yai. Normally there are less bhikkhus than this, except for important occasions.

Old photo of Ajahn Baen and the King

This photo is about 30 years old, taken (not by me) at Wat doi Dhamma Chedi when the King of Thailand went to visit Ajahn Baen in Sakon Nakorn. A bit of background...Ajahn Baen is a student of Ajahn Kongma. He is now 80+ and usually stays at Wat Doi dhamma chedi, about 20 minutes drive from Ajahn Mun's museum. Ajahn Kongma is the one of the fist generation students of Ajahn Mun. He passed away a long time ago. 

Bhavanga - Ajahn Thate

A post by Santerisuro at E-Sangha on Ajahn Thate's teaching

.....Here are few words of great forrest meditation master, Luang Por Thate, about bhavanga

The Autobiography of a Forest Monk

"The weather had been incredibly hot when I was organizing the building of shelters and meditation huts at Wat Pah Salawan in Korat. I don't like hot weather but I had gritted my teeth and endured, persevering in my meditation without let up. I had trained my mindfulness so well that there was stillness and calm throughout day and night. Sometimes it would converge and enter the bhavanga and totally disappear for many hours. This, however, is certainly not the way that allows wisdom to be born.I had been trying to correct this tendency for a long time both by my own efforts and by asking others for help. It had never previously succeeded but this time I found a way out for myself. This was by being ready to apprehend the heart when it was right at the point of convergence into bhavanga. At that moment the condition of awareness becomes unmindful and there is the inclination towards indulgence in the pleasure of the tranquillity and happiness. When mindfulness fades the mind will converge into bhavanga. The thing to do is to apprehend it right at the point when it is fading towards indulgence in that refined tranquillity. Catch it there and swiftly set mindfulness on to a coarser object and focus and examine it more externally."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/thate/thateauto.html

Luang Por seems to be saying, that dropping into the state of bhavanga during meditation is not a good thing. At least not always.Luang Por Thates experiences of bhavanga are interesting to contemplate. The bhavanga he is talking about, is equivalent to some kind of a state of samadhi. This samadhi is not jhana... There is no sharp vitaka and vicara. One-pointedness seems to be there. It is just not very stong.The bhavanga state that Luang Por is talking about, is a samadhi state without strong mindfulness. It is like a lucid dream state without any dreams.This are just my own contemplations of Luang Por's words. Not he's own....

The Mindful Way ...Ajahn Chah

Mindfulness...of senses

About a year ago, after attending a meditation session in Kao Yai (with my teacher), I went to listen to a group of upasika practitioners who were discussing meditation and practice. One upasika that has been practicing for quite a while and has also been observing 8 precepts since I remember seeing her, was saying something along this line...

"..The key is to watch the mind right where the senses arise. Catch the sensations when they arise, and don't let them lead to anything. Keep being extremely mindful of these sensations, and keep on letting go of any follow-on mental factors, and never stop doing so (i.e. a 24/7 type thing). Whenever you fail to stop these sensations from leading to further mental factors, that is when you loose mindfulness...So keep mindfulness right at the mind, and watch the sensations as they arise. If any mental factors arise due to these sensations, stop them dead where they are..."

Ajahn Dune on nibbana

I have been reading a bit of "posts" at my usual Buddhism forum. I can't be bothered to post there though. However, I always like Ajahn Dune's small bit on nibbana, as well as Ajahn Mun's bit on Avijja (in his biography, posted here somewhere already)

108. Final words

A few moments after we had finished chanting the Mahasatipatthana Discourse, Luang Pu began speaking about the Lord Buddha's total nibbana, from the beginning to the end. Here, I'll ask just to quote his concluding remarks:

"The Lord Buddha didn't attain nibbana in any of his jhanic attainments. When he left the fourth jhana, his mental aggregates all ceased at once, with nothing remaining. In other words, he allowed his feeling aggregate to cease in an awake state of mind, the normal human mental series, complete with mindfulness and alertness, with no other mental states coming to blind or delude the mind at all. This was the mind fully in its own state. You could call that state great emptiness, or the original cosmos, or nibbana, whichever you like. That's the state I've been practicing all along to reach."

Those were Luang Pu's last words.

Two planes of meditation and "intuitive awareness"

Another bit of my post on a Buddhist forum regarding Ajahn Sumedho's "intuitive awareness."

....To expand on this, simply put, there are 2 planes of meditation [not saying that one is better than another]. One is meditation on the "contents" of experience. Another is meditation on the experiences themselves, not on the contents. The first is simpler to understand as in everyday experience, since we were born, we have been conditioned to think that "I am thinking.", "I am hearing", "I am meditating.", etc. As this is the mode of our thinking, it is easier to start meditation by paying attention to the "breathing that I am doing" or "the arising and falling of my abdomen". This is a duality-type meditation.

On the second plane of meditation, instead of going into the "contents" of experience, we can simply meditate on the experiences themselves. This is, IMO, a non-duality type of mediation. Instead of starting with the "I am doing something, etc", we simply rest in the awareness – aware of experiences objectively. There is no observer. Instead of saying that "I am meditating on the sound in my brain", or "the sound outside my brain", just aware of sound without conception that this is even a sound, as any perceptions that “the sound is heard by me”, “inside my brain” or “outside my brain”, are all concepts. Similarly, instead of saying that "I am observing the breathing in and out", just aware of breathing without putting any label. If labeling arises (as we have been conditioned to think that it is me who is breathing), just be aware of this thinking. If there is a labeling that "it is no-self that is breathing", also just be aware of that too. Both are mind-produced concepts. So simply aware of them. That is all. Stand back from labeling, and simply stay with awareness without prejudice. This is a non-dual type of meditation.

In the opening chapter "Intuitive Awareness", this is quoted from Maharahulovada Sutta 62.17, Majjhima Nikaya:

"Just as space is not
established anywhere,
so too,
develop meditation
that is like space,
for when you
develop meditation
that is like space,
arisen agreeable
and
disagreeable contacts
will not invade
your mind"

Forest Tradition books...

Something I posted in a Buddhist forum...

The good thing about books by ajahns in the Thai Forest Tradition, for example, The Sound of Silence, is that you can pick them up, open any pages, and start reading. You don't even have to start from the beginning of a chapter. Most of the books are from talks given during meditation retreats to lay practitioners and in some cases to only bhikkhus during morning or evening meditation sessions.

If you compare these books to books that are scripture-based, you may be disappointed because they may seem so shallow. But are they? Many teachings are different ways of telling us how to meditate; to encourage us to practice, practice and practice and never stop practice; to guide us to watch the arising and falling of bodily pains or the popping up of thoughts, and see the nature of these feelings and thoughts as what they really are. Perhaps that is all there is to it, see for ourselves if the Buddha's teaching that all conditioned things have the nature of anicca, dukkha, anatta ...or not. That is the way to realize for oneself if the teachings are true or not true. Once in a while ajahns would guide us back to mindfulness, to be mindful of the experience of whatever arise and cease, to be with the present moment - as our minds tend to wander around, going into the past or the future.

In my recollection, teachings and books by the Thai Forest Tradition ajahns are mostly introductions in meditation sessions, not dhamma discussions. So the aim is to lead the readers or listeners to calm their minds and become more concentrated, for the minds to be relaxed and not tense, so that they can go on to meditate easily. If someone prefers to read scripture-based books, then they may not find what they are used to in these books by Thai Forest Tradition ajahns.

Are these books for you or not? That depends on how one practices. I myself prefer to start my meditation session by listening to talks by ajahns (MP3). If I read a book, say The Sound of Silence for example, I may not even finish the chapter, and start a meditation session when my mind has become a bit more quiet. It's "a" way to practice, to see for ourselves, without pre-conception, of how things really are; to let go and not to hang on.

Uneasy feelings !@#?

Till today I still feel a bit strange naming this blog "forest dharma". Even though I have been practicing in the Thai Forest Tradition for about 20 years, I am not an authority in the tradition. I am simply a lay Buddhist who practice according to the teachings of Ajahns in the Thai Forest Tradition.

Anyway, over the past years, I have also witness that some changes in the way some younger Ajahns in the Thai Forest Tradition teach. I won't go into detail, but I hope that the spirit of teaching and practice of Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Chah will continue to be at the hearts of those who teach and learn Buddhism in the Thai Forest Tradition.

( 57 ) from "The Hundred Verses of Advice"

I really like this (57) from "The Hundred Verses of Advice" quoted below the dotted line, and I don't see this to be different from "anidassana vinnana", which I believe is described by:

"There is monks a domain where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no wind, no sphere of infinite space, no sphere of nothingness, no sphere of neither awareness nor non-awareness; there is not this world, there is not another world, there is no sun or moon. I do not call this coming or going, nor standing nor dying, nor being reborn; it is without support, without occurrence, without object. Just this is the end of suffering."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

(57)

The unborn absolute body is like the very heart of the sun -
People of Tingri, there is no waxing or waning of its radiant clarity.


The Dharmakaya, the absolute dimension, the ultimate nature of everything, is emptiness. But it is not mere nothingness. It has a cognitive, radiant clarity aspect that knows all phenomena and manifests spontaneously. The dharmakaya is not something produced by causes and conditions; it is the primodially present nature of the mind.

The recognition of this primordial nature is like the sun of wisdom rising and piecing through the night of ignorance. The darkness is dissipated instantly; the shadows cannot remain. The clarity of the dharmakaya does not wax and wane like the moon, but is like the unchangeable brilliance that reigns at the center of the sun.

(Dilgo Khyentse & Padampa Sangye, The Hundred Verses of Advice, page 106)