To honour the auspicious occasion of the 80th birthday of Luang Por Liem Ṭhitadhammo (Phra Thepvajiranyan), a faithful group of disciples has arranged to print his biography. Luang Por Liem is a senior Buddhist monk presently ordained for 60 years in the Thai Forest Tradition of the late Ven. Ajahn Chah (or “Luang Pu Chah”) of Wat Nong Pah Pong in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. This book covers the prominent chapters of Luang Por Liem’s life, beginning from his roots as a simple farmer in Northeast Thailand, to his quest for deeper knowledge and understanding of the Buddha’s teachings as a monk, his life in accordance with the monastic discipline, his meditation practice, the search for the guidance of a teacher, and finally his joining Wat Nong Pah Pong as a disciple of Luang Pu Chah. Presently Luang Por Liem serves as the abbot of Wat Nong Pah Pong himself, and teaches Dhamma all over the world. He has become a living example for countless people.

The content of this book is based on Luang Por Liem’s own accounts and the memories of his disciples — monks and laypeople — who have had the opportunity to meet him in all kinds of situations and circumstances in various places and countries.

Since 2018, a group of monks and laypeople have taken on the task of collecting the material, compiling and editing it, and from time to time going to see Luang Por directly for confirmation of some of the unclear details. If there are any inaccuracies remaining, we would like to apologise, and hope that they won’t prevent the reader from getting a good picture of Luang Por’s ways of training as a Buddhist monk, his meditation practice, and his approach in teaching. For the main passages, we have been able to provide an English version of the respective texts. Some of it is more of a summary than a direct translation, and not all chapters have been included in the English material.

May this compilation of episodes from the life of a great Buddhist monk and teacher be of great benefit to all. May we all take his quiet example to heart and practice diligently within the situations of our own lives.

Within this little booklet are teachings on the nature of the mind and the world given by Luang Por Liem Thitadhammo. During a visit to Sri Lanka in March, 2013, Luang Por had this Dhamma discussion with the resident monastic community at Na Uyana Forest Monastery. The sincere interest in practising Dhamma and developing meditation led to practical and profound teachings on training the mind and understanding the world:

“….The guests that come to the monastery are only visitors, just like these visiting mental states that arise in our minds. Some make us laugh, some we delight in, while others bring up aversion and disappointment. When we see them from non-delusion, then we see it all as maya — as illusion and trickery, a system of deceiving….Know how to abandon the world. Know how to put it down.”

Luang Por explains that what we understand as the world is a misunderstanding. As a consequence of delusion we are overwhelmed with craving and attachment. Attaching to mental states and mind objects as ‘me’ and ‘mine’ makes us a victim of delight and aversion. This illusion of ‘self ’ and ‘belonging to self ’ arises from feeling and craving:

“….what we call the ‘Eight Wordly Dhammas’ arise from our sense of self-importance. Delight is a lokadhamma — this is sukha, or what we call happiness. Aversion is a lokadhamma, it’s dukkha — we don’t like it and we’re unhappy. See these lokadhammas as simply nature — things come, things go. The guests come and they go — it’s not their residence. For what do we go delighting and getting angry about?….‘Rupa, vedana, sañña, sankhara and viññana — having arisen they cease’. Seen in this way, everything is empty.”

In the practice of Dhamma things progress bit by bit. It is not possible to force or hurry things in any way, similar to how we build this monastery. If one wants to build a monastery, one needs to proceed gradually, bit by bit. One allows for adaptations and new developments to take place during the course of the work. This also should be the attitude towards Dhamma practice. To accomplish everything in a single day is probably impossible, so we need to go step by step.

“The Ways of the Peaceful” is one of the many possible renderings of the term “Samana-Dhamma”, an expression that summarizes the whole lifestyle of a Buddhist monk. “Samana” means somebody who is peaceful. Generally in the time of the Buddha all kinds of recluses, ascetics, contemplatives, and members of ordained communities living the life of a homeless practitioner (anagarika) were referred to as “Samanas”. The Buddhas disciples were often called the “Samanas of Gotama” or the “Samanas of the Sakyan clan”, using the Buddhas family and clan names. Whenever the aspect of celibacy of these religious practitioners is stressed, the term “brahmacariya” is used, which translates in short as “Holy Life”. The Buddha himself called his monks “Bhikkhus”. This literally means beggars, but especially in the Thai Forest Tradition a second translation is popular: “Those who see the danger in the round of rebirth”. Besides the specific monastic code that the Buddha established for his monks (the “Vinaya”, with its 227 major training rules and countless minor rules), that spells out the conduct of a Buddhist monk in great detail, there was a general understanding of the etiquette, the virtues and qualities of a Samana, a peaceful ascetic. This is the “Samana-Dhamma”