Ajahn Ṭhiradhammo
Q : What most impressed you about Ajahn Chah?
A : The most meaningful and impressive aspect to me was that he was a living embodiment of the Buddha’s teachings, which I had only previously read about and understood conceptually.
The first meaningful example was when I went to live at Wat Pah Pong. I thought that if I was living in the mon- asteries under his guidance, I should get to know who this great teacher Ajahn Chah was and what his basic teaching was. I arrived there a month before the Rains Retreat began, when there was a less formal schedule. Thus in the evening one of the best learning situations was to sit at Ajahn Chah’s hut and listen to him interacting with visitors and resident monks. Since my Thai was passable I could understand most of what was said.
However, as I listened to Ajahn Chah’s advice, counsel and teachings, I began to feel more confused about who he was and what his teaching was. I noticed that he gave different teachings to different people, sometimes even giving contrary advice. To me he thus came across as being inconsistent. So what was it?
Was he just putting on a front, or was he confused? This presented something of a spiritual dilemma for me. On the one hand Ajahn Chah was obviously an inspiring teacher, displaying considerable wisdom and charisma. On the other hand, his teachings were not consistent with how I thought an ‘enlightened being’ should be.
Then one evening as I listened to him, it suddenly occurred to me that there was no fixed and consistent Ajahn Chah. Rather than being a person with a particular teaching, he was actually just responding with mindfulness and wisdom to whatever situation arose. His apparent inconsistency was in effect a specific wise response to what the particular per- son or situation required at that time. I had previously been relating to Ajahn Chah as someone with a stable personality and a set body of beliefs and views. Now it dawned on me that he was not holding on to a fixed personality or definite views, but was the living expression of mindfulness and wisdom. What appeared to be inconsistency on the conventional level was in truth a relevant and immediate response to whatever was happening at the time. To me this was a living example of impersonality.
Another example which was exceptionally helpful to me personally was when I was bothered by the phenomenon of people’s faces coming up in meditation. They were not usually frightening, but just bothersome and distracting. I wasn’t sure what this meant or what caused it, and became preoccupied with trying to understand or do something with it. Fortunately I was able to ask Ajahn Chah about this. He called it ‘mental phenomena’ and said, ‘Just observe it, and don’t be fascinated by it. Know it and go back to the breathing.’ He explained that we can become attracted by such things because they’re new and interesting. He said that I might either become quite excited about them, thinking I had psychic powers like precognition, seeing the face of someone who next day might offer food, or I might think that maybe ghosts were haunting me. This was the best and most useful advice on the problem I had received from any teacher, and when I could apply it, the faces eventually faded away. And this principle has been very helpful for me in dealing with many of the unusual phenomena which arise in spiritual practice.
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Ajahn Thiradhammo is one of the most senior monks in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. He was born in Canada in 1949 and became interested in Dhamma in his student years while travelling through Sri Lanka.
Coming to Thailand and meditating at Wat Umong, he took ordination at Wat Meung Man in Chiang Mai with Venerable Tong in 1974. In 1975 he moved to study with Ajahn Chah at Wat Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat. He went on several tudong journeys through the northeast of Thailand and the mountains of Chiang Mai, visiting many famous forest meditation masters.
Ajahn Thiradhammo was invited to England in 1982 to help with developments there. He spent two years at Chithurst Monastery, and three years in charge of Harnham Vihara in Northumberland. In 1988 he helped establish Dhammapala Monastery near Bern, Switzerland and also later at its new location in the Bernese Alpine village of Kandersteg where he was the senior monk until 2005. In July 2005 he assumed the position of senior monk at Bodhinyanarama, Wellington, NZ where he remained as abbot for six and a half years.
He is currently of no fixed abode and travels widely.
Link:
http://www.amaravati.org/dhamma-books/contemplations-on-the-seven-factors-of-awakening
https://forestsangha.org/teachings/books/ajahn-thiradhammo-compilation?language=English
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