Bhante Sujato left a career as a musician to become a Buddhist monk in 1994. He took higher ordination in Thailand and lived there in forest monasteries and remote hermitages. He spent several years at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia before founding Santi Forest Monastery in New South Wales in 2003. Following Bhante Sujato’s wishes, Santi became a nun’s monastery in 2012, and he returned to live in Bodhinyana. In 2019, Bhante Sujato moved to Sydney to establish Lokanta Vihara (the Monastery at the End of the World) with his long term student, Bhante Akaliko, to explore what it means to follow the Buddha’s teachings in an era of climate change, globalised consumerism, and political turmoil.
Guided meditation of awareness of the messy mind, being aware of consciousness brings fearlessness. Dhamma talk on papañca with reference to The Honey Cake sutta MN18 and Concept and Reality by Ven. Ñāṇananda's analysis of MN18 16.1. How venerable Kaccāna presents a sequence where the self slowly emerges, creating the person who then is beset by papañca; nouns turn to verbs.
Guided meditation on sīlanussati. Dhamma Talk: SN22.1 Nakula's Father. Discussion of Sāriputta's analysis of what is meant by the Buddha's statement on coping with old age: “Even though I am afflicted in body, my mind will be unafflicted.”
Guided mettā meditation. Dhamma Talk: The ghost is not in the machine. The question of robots and the soul. The Buddha's views on the soul versus others at the time e.g. Brahmanism's atta and Jainism's jiva. Understanding things through relations and processes rather than substances or a soul. Self-awareness and purpose in robots, AI.
Guided breath meditation on the ease of thoughts stopping. Dhamma talk on Right Speech in the context of Twitter collapsing, the rise and fall of authoritarians and fraudsters, current large positive changes taking place. How might we use social media with Right Speech.
Bhante Akāliko's Rainbodhi booklet. Thoughts on tradition and its evolution. Bhante Sujato on meditation going against the stream of result based thinking. Breath meditation guided by Bhante Sujato. Dhamma talk: the 8 parts of the 8fold path. Q+A: right livelihood. Connection lost during Q+A.
Honoring Thich Nhat Hannh. Breath meditation explained and guided by Bhante Sujato. Q+A: sīlā, samādhi, paññā as a comprehensive framework for the elements of the path, derived from the Buddha's teaching on the Gradual Training, e.g. in Dīgha Nikāya 2. Breath meditation as opposed to ancient pranayama techniques trying to control the breath. Meditation methods require balance between receiving and doing. Threshold concentration. Weird experiences during meditation.
from Mantra Hotel. Introduction by Bhante Akāliko: the trapped monkey. Meditation guided by Bhante Akāliko. Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato on the Buddha's idea of mantras as a skillful means, a tool to work with the mind, without intrinsic power. Snp 4.14: craving drives thinking. Q+A: resistance to meditation. Fear. Simile of the cat and the elephant.
Bhante Sujato on meditative states vs. meditative process. Meditation on impermanence guided by Bhante Sujato. Dhamma talk on a passage from the Madhupiṇḍikasutta (MN18): about the proliferation going on in the mind. Katukurunde Ñānananda: concept and reality. Q+A: choice without a chooser.
Mettā for mosquitoes. Mettā meditation for small creatures led by Bhante Sujato. Dhamma talk on AN 4.67 Ahirājasutta (The Snake King). Q+A: The first nun.
