On the evenings of the twenty-second and twenty-third of November, 2017, a large number of monks, novices and laypeople gathered to participate in the official opening of a new monastery built under the auspices of His Holiness Somdej Phra Ariyavaṅsāgatañāṅa, the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. The monastery is called Wat Pah Amparopanyawanaram (more commonly referred to as Wat Pah Amparo). Also being inaugurated was the Chandakaranusorn Dhamma Museum. His Holiness entrusted Luang Por Tui (Preeda) Chandakaro, who is presently one of the most respected senior elders in the Thai Forest Tradition, to take responsibility for the monastery’s construction.

Luang Por Tui personally selected the biographies of thirty-four monks of the Rattanakosin era from the early 1900s up to the present to be housed in the Dhamma Museum. Sometime in the month of July, 2017, Luang Por Tui had a lay person who was also a disciple of Luang Por Akaradej Thiracitto request his autobiography for inclusion in the museum. Luang Por Akaradej had always felt he would wait until he was at least seventy before writing one. On being requested, he said initially he couldn’t be bothered to write it himself, so he allowed this lay person to draft a brief biography. When it was brought to him for checking, he thought some things they had written weren’t quite correct or necessary, some parts had been embellished, and important details had been omitted. He felt if he allowed this version to be printed it would later prove to be at variance with his own version. Recognizing that this might confuse readers as to which version is most reliable, he chose to compile it himself. However, by this time there remained just over three weeks in which to write the autobiography and it give it to Luang Por Tui for checking before the printer’s deadline. He was aided by notes he had made in the early years of his practice which could jog his memory and help him expand on details.

Due to his many commitments as abbot of Wat Boonyawad and the time constraint placed on him, he feels that his autobiography is only seventy percent complete. During the three to four weeks given to him, he had to work late into each night to come up with a draft. The first chapters of this book are detailed, the later ones less so owing to a lack of time, and the autobiography only goes as far as 2003. The final pages, in fact, were still being worked on until 1 a.m. on the night before it was to be given to Luang Por Tui. Fortunately Luang Por Tui expressed his praise on reading the draft copy, and did not have to make any changes.

Luang Por Akaradej has said that sometime in the future he might get around to writing a complete version of his autobiography by inserting missing details and incidents that he failed to include. For any reader wishing to know more about his life, you will find the audio version of his biography (recorded in Melbourne, 2007) to be of interest.

Today, his feelings about writing his autobiography remain the same as it did in 1980 when he first started recording some details of his life and practice: If it can be of benefit or provide inspiration to even only a few people, then writing it will have been worthwhile. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to all who have helped in bringing this book to fruition. For any errors that may still remain in either text or translation, the translator accepts full responsibility, and humbly begs both Ajahn Dtun’s and the reader’s forgiveness.

The Translator, Wat Boonyawad June, 2020

When I reflect on my life as a Buddhist monk, I found one of the most significant turning points was when I started experiencing gratitude (kataññū-katavedī). Gratitude arises spontaneously when one reflects on one’s parents, who made it possible for one to exist as a human being, Luang Por Chah, the teacher, whose wisdom was always directly pointing to the way out of suffering, and the Lord Buddha’s teaching giving direction for one’s life.

I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to all the Sangha members and volunteers who have helped with transcribing and editing these talks. I also give anumodana to everyone who has contributed to the printing costs of this book.

May the merit made by this gift of Dhamma be a cause for countless beings to grow in virtue, meditation and wisdom. May it serve as a source of inspiration for all who come in contact with it for many years to come, and may it be a cause for their complete liberation from suffering, for the attainment of nibbāna.

Ajahn Kalyāṇo
Buddha Bodhivana Monastery
2020

HISTORICALLY THERE HAVE BEEN differences of opinion about the relative merits of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism and, if you read much of the literature, they would seem to be quite divergent in their approaches toward Buddhist practice – yet there also seem to be some tremendous affinities.

When I arrived at the International Forest Monastery in Thailand, I had never read any Buddhist books and I wasn’t actually in search of becoming a Buddhist monk. I was a wanderer, a free-lance spiritual seeker, and I just happened to turn up at this forest monastery that Ajahn Sumedho had established a couple of years before, basically as a place for a free meal and a roof over my head for a few nights. Little did I expect, some twelve or thirteen years later, that I would be doing what I am doing now. But when I went there and asked the monks about Buddhism, to explain things a little bit for me so that I could get a feel for what their life was about, the first thing one of them did was to give me a copy of a book of talks by a Zen Master, and he said, ‘Don’t bother trying to read the Theravada literature; it’s terribly boring, very dry. Read this, it is pretty much the same thing that we’re doing, and it will give you a sense of what our practice is about.’ And I thought, ‘Well, obviously these guys are not too hung up on their tradition.’ The book was Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.

So, one could see right from the beginning that, even though there is a strength to the particular form within any Buddhist country, one is not necessarily constricted or limited by that. I was there for months before I even heard of ‘Theravada’ and ‘Mahayana,’ let alone the differences of opinion between them. It seemed that when you actually lived the life there really wasn’t any great disparity, but if you thought about it a lot, and if you were the kind of person who wrote histories and books and had got into the political side of religious life, then that was where the divergences occurred.

I have heard Ajahn Sumedho recount a few times over the years that, for the first year of his monastic life, he had been practising using the instructions from a Ch’an meditation retreat given by the Ven. Master Hsü Yün, and that he had used the Dharma talks from that retreat given in China as his basic meditation instruction. When he went to Wat Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah asked him what kind of meditation he had been doing, at first he thought, ‘Oh no, he’s going to get me to give this up and do his method.’ But, when Ajahn Sumedho described what he had been doing and mentioned that it had had excellent results, Ajahn Chah said, ‘Oh, very good, just carry on doing that.’

So, one sees that there is a very strong unity of purpose; even though there might be historical differences between the two traditions, they are very much in accordance with each other. And one begins to see what the different Buddhist traditions are talking about. They get sectioned out into Hinayana or Mahayana or Vajrayana, as different types of Buddhist practice, but they are basically just different labels which are talking about attitudes of mind and, when the traditions are used wisely, then they will address all aspects of our mind, from the most selfish and mundane to the most exalted. They address all the different levels of our life, and it’s only when they are not understood, when people take them as fixed positions, that there is any conflict amongst them.

The Dhamma talk was given on the 20th of June 2018 at the World Fellowship of Buddhists

The topic for this evening is ‘Not Sure!’ Sitting on Sukhumvit Road and not moving in a vehicle, with the evening scheduled to begin at 6:30 and realizing it had already passed that time, I thought: ‘That’s a very good introduction for this evening – Not Sure! – When’s Ajahn Amaro going to arrive? Is he going to arrive? What will happen? It’s uncertain (My Naer). We don’t know. It’s not a sure thing.’ So that was an unplanned but useful preparation for this evening because this is the principle we are investigating here. It’s a part of all of our lives. So, I will offer a few reflections this evening on this theme and hopefully some of the things that I say would be useful for you.

When we meet with a feeling of uncertainty usually what we do is we feel worried, we feel threatened. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future so what we tend to do is to try to fill up that unknown with a plan or a hope or a belief. We fill it with ideas of what might happen.

We often distract ourselves: ‘I don’t want to think about the future. I don’t want to worry about that. So, I’ll just look at my phone and catch up on my Facebook friends or see what communication I have coming through Line, what’s on the news or something.’ We thus deal with that feeling of worry or uncertainty with choosing distraction or, alternatively, we just switch off – we go blank, go numb and shut the world down, disengage all together. We do this because the feeling of not being sure is something that most of us don’t like and we relate to it as a problem, that feeling of anxiety, uncertainty. We automatically think of it as a problem, something that’s unwelcome.

From a talk given on the winter retreat, Chithurst, February 1991

Gotama Buddha said, when he was an old man, “This body is like an old cart, held together by straps; this body only keeps going by makeshift repairs. The only way I can feel comfortable is to absorb my mind into signless concentration.”

For all of us, the Buddha included, we are faced with the inevitable presence of dissatisfaction and physical discomfort. Ever present is the danger of pain and disease, because we are born. Because there is a physical birth, there must be physical decay, the two have to go together, they are one thing. Thus our only true refuge is the Deathless, that which is not subject to disease, not subject to defilement, not subject to time or to limitation, that which is unsupported. In this way, returning to our source, the Deathless, is our only way to cure disease, the only way to pass beyond it.

This returning to the Source, or realizing the Deathless, is the sense of coming to know the source of our life, the origin of our life. Because it is the very fabric of our life, the basis of our existence, it is something that has been exerting a power of attraction on us all through our life, the attraction of Truth, of the Real, the completely satisfying, the completely safe.

This story is intended to be both a partner to the novel The Pilgrim Kamanita, written by Karl Gjellerup in 1906, and a tale that stands on its own. There is no need to have read the earlier book in order to make sense of this one; however, should you wish to go to the source from which many of the characters and scenes of this tale have sprung, an English version of it is to be found here.

Today is the 100th day after the passing away of the king of Thailand: His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Also, at this time, a good friend of the sangha, Yom Ploen Petchkua, is very close to the end of her life. She was diagnosed with five brain tumours a few months ago and I had the chance to go down and see her with Ajahn Pasanno, and a number of monastic and lay friends in December, in her hometown in Songkla, southern Thailand.

Reflecting on these people – the king of Thailand and Yom Ploen – it is said in our Buddhist way of regarding things that these are people who have created a lot of merit, a lot of puñña in their lives. The king of Thailand dedicated himself, for the 70 years that he was on the throne, through living in a skilful way and endeavouring to establish wholesome principles of conduct in the hearts of the Thai people, to help them in genuine, practical and efficient ways: developing water systems, gardening systems, systems of communication and so forth. Yom Ploen has been very involved in supporting our monasteries and helping to publish many Dhamma books. In the last few days I have been conscious of giving away books that she was directly involved in producing books about the funeral of Luang Por Chah and the foundation of Amaravati. Over the years she has been responsible for bringing into being dozens of different Dhamma books.

Although it has been my intention that this book should be, as far as possible, a biography as opposed to a hagiography, I am not sure that I have been completely successful. My love for Luang Por and my belief in his enlightenment inevitably colour the text. What I have not done is suppress any scandalous or embarrassing information out of concern for his good name. Hard as it may be to accept nowadays when there is so much – and often well-founded – cynicism about the integrity of religious figures, Luang Por Chah had absolutely nothing to hide. The only skeleton in a cupboard at Wat Pah Pong was the one hanging on public display in the Dhamma Hall. In fact, that is one of the strongest reasons for my belief that the life of Luang Por Chah is so worthy of study.

All those that remember him have their own Ajahn Chah. This book represents mine. If it includes any mistakes or oversights I accept full responsibility, and ask for your forgiveness.