It Is What You Are, Not What You Look Like: Ajahn Chah Memorial

Dhammapada verse 155, renunciation, youth, medicine, foundation, story, wealthy parents, education, poor, unshakeable realisation, fundamental principle, building a house, Ajahn Chah, visiting the West, going without to develop, affluence, option fatigue, overwhelmed, anxiety, entitlement, gratification, agrarian society, pre-internet, true principles, trust, merely reading, sport, music, medicine, research, Mozart, confidence in the Buddha, support, deluded ego, Four Noble Truths, craving, wholesome desire, Kosambi, trust, conflating belief and faith, friend, ‘my way’, attam saranam gacchami, anger, fear, anxiety, irrational, public speaking, smoking cigarettes, apparent reality, actuality, embodied mindfulness, intentional restraint, smart phone, confidence, addiction, self-respect, integrity, precepts, patience, ultimate transformer, wise reflection, disappointment, the past, countering, compassionate awareness, the Buddha’s last words, strive on towards fruition.

Dhammapada 163, goodness, benefit, overwhelm, evolution, Ajahn Sucitto, fault finding, neurobiologists, easy to criticise, politics, discriminative intelligence, whole body-mind, Ajahn Chah quote, Ajahn Thate, consciousness, brain, primary organ, guided meditation, dhammakatha.org, aliveness, vulnerability, open-hearted, spring, daffodils, snow drops, disagreeability, virtue, good fortune, precepts, spiritual fatalities, heart-awareness, slowing down, technology, talking, breathing, puja, appreciating the Buddha, out of balance, nourishing.

Wat Pah Pong, monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, honouring, defining teaching style, parents, frustration, comfortable, fierce, warm-heartedness, relatability, icon, human being, Ajahn Amaro, over-sleeping, eat little, eat more, ideal, idealistic, attentiveness, lost in doubt, ‘I’ve been there’, gift, understandable initial approach, forms, techniques, traditions, bowing, shaking hands, creative approach, vegetarian, fasting, spirit of the spiritual life, heart of hearts, essence, Dhammapada Verses 1, 2, reverse impulse, ascetic practices, lineage, social media, distraction addiction, dismissing forms, conduit, supermarket trolley, Te Awamutu, Judaeo-Christian culture, sin and guilt, comparing, nervous system, pointing, beyond forms.

New Year’s Eve, various teachings, Kalama Sutta, relevant, Magadhi, throwing a tantrum, cold-hearted conceptual analysis, Kisa Gotami, totally identified in our heads, approximations, anger, wimpish, ineffectual, transformative power, strength, wisdom, meditation, cultivate compassion, flavour of solitude, nectar of peace, mother, intentional wishing, ‘may I be free from suffering’, contentment, conflated with complacency, abdication, ocean, stillness, turmoil, multidimensional, anger, protection, determinations, spiritual muscles, atrophy, 5 minute meditation on compassion, metta bhavana.

New Moon, Uposatha Day, Dhammapada verse 132, external, internal, happy being, frightened self, foe, right and left hands fighting, festive season, collective insanity, equanimous evaluation, emotionally loaded, judgement, discipled attention, embodied mindfulness, conscious composure, work colleague, neighbour, fear, belly, letting go, relinquishing, vibhavatanha, heart energy, connection, allow, irrational fear, Prodigal Son, welcoming, alienated, not an academic exercise, self-harming, not getting lost in pleasure or pain.

(keywords) (slightly edited version)  Mahamangala Sutta, blessings, auspiciousness, protections, imperturbability, worldly winds, lokadhamma, nivata, humility, self references, false humility, hubris, limited being, our least, overshadowing, wholesome aspirations, betrayed, heart-broken, asking for help, bowing practice, having to be different, creative relationship with practice, psychological safety net, self-regulation, trying too hard, right amount of effort, zeal, striving, enthusiasm, goals, motivating, idealistic, servant, sat nav, clinging, Ajahn Chah, Wat Pah Nanachat, emulate an earthworm, shiny Buddha, impressive qualities, modesty, a smidgen of salt, iodine, oceans warming.

(keywords) (slightly edited version)  Skilful means, Ajahn Chah, Everything Is Teachings Us, learning, bored, disillusionment, positive, inherently limited, purification, 5 spiritual faculties, spiritual competence, trust in true principles, law of gravity, consciousness, motivation, preferences, bad food, wound, healing, embodied mindfulness, emotionally literate, disciplined attention, attention span, discernment, casual culture, contentment, addiction, Bhikkhuni Mahapajapati, disillusionment, detachment, dispersal, modesty, contentment, frugality, effort, solitude, one-upmanship, sapling, protection, acorn, oak tree, hurry, natural unfolding, ‘my way’, letting go

(keywords) (slightly edited version) Positivity, communication, 4 Divine Abidings, well-wishing, empathy, equanimity, generosity, self-centred, gratitude, warm-hearted, 5 ways of dealing with distractions, sorrow, compassion, struggle, may I be free from struggling, self-care, Ajahn Chah, untangling, Tuina massage, metta bhavana, authenticity, welcoming practice, positive context, drunk on positivity, Dhammapada 163, generating benefit, wisdom and compassion.

(keywords) (slightly edited version)  Transformative potential, trust, meditation, patience, compost, frustration, casual gratification, appointed as abbot, training monastery, resistance, teachers, boredom, terrible-twos, boundaries, indecisive, renunciation, setting limitations, nekkhamma parami, extreme asceticism, nothing special, overly zealous, phone, devices, AI, stress, anxiety, indulge, deny, embodied just-knowing awareness, letting go, raw, untamed, saying ‘yes’, intentional kindness.

(keywords) (slightly edited version) Kathina ceremony, dhamma talk, food, chanting, hungry, gifts, most important, true principles, benefit, blessings, Mahamangala Sutta, deva, auspicious, runes, virtue, anxiety, spiritual faculties, integrity, sila, precepts, beauty, transformation, remorse, joy, profound insight, insecurity, safety, confidence, sati, embodied mindfulness, literacy, emotional, intuitive, disappointment, investigation, victims, agency, fantasy, indriya samvara, container, intensity, anger, fear, resilience, meditation, goal, wisdom, pannya, Dhammapada 290, patience, mirror, curiosity, compost, nutriment, compassion, Kisa Gotami, grief, mustard seed, core elements, mindful hope, aspiration.