Background	#FFD068 | color = black
Name	Ajahn Amaro
Caption	Ajahn Amaro (right) with lay visitors in 2007
Birth name	Jeremy Horner
Birth date	1956
Birth place	Kent, England
Religion	Theravada
School	Thai Forest Tradition
Title	Ajahn
Location	Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery
Website	www.abhayagiri.org/

Ajahn Amaro (born 1956) is a Theravadin teacher and co-abbot of the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California's Redwood Valley. The center, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai Forest Tradition and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation techniques, as an effective way of dissolving stress.

Biography

Amaro was born Jeremy Charles Julian Horner in Kent, England. He was educated at Sutton Valence School and Bedford College, University of London. His father, Tom Julian Horner, was one of Britain's foremost writers on dog breeding, an expert in particular on the bull terrier. He was a leading judge at dog shows, and in 1993 was judge of the best in show at Crufts. IB Horner, the noted Buddhist scholar and late President of the Pali Text Society, was his second cousin; her father, Leonard Horner and his grandfather, Charles Horner, were brothers.

Apart from a certain interest in the theories of Rudolf Steiner, to which he had been introduced by Trevor Ravenscroft, author of The Spear of Destiny, Amaro's principal enthusiasms on leaving university were, by his own admission, pretty much those standard-issue among skeptical students of the day: sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.

In 1977, having completed his honours degree in psychology and physiology, he went to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand on an undefined "open-ended" spiritual search. He somehow found himself in northeast Thailand, at the forest monastery of Wat Pah Nanachat. Ajahn Chah's charismatic impact and the encouragement of the senior American monk Ajahn Pabhakaro were decisive. It changed his life. Having become a lay renunciate, four months later he became a novice and in 1979 he received upasampada from Ajahn Chah and took profession as a Theravadin bhikkhu.

Amaro stayed in Thailand for two years, and then went back to England to help Sumedho establish Chithurst Monastery in West Sussex.

With the blessing of his abbot, in 1983 he moved to Harnham Vihara in Northumberland. He made the entire 830-mile journey on foot, chronicled in his 1984 volume Tudong: The Long Road North. Amaro's co-abbot at the monastery is Ajahn Pasanno.

Amaro announced on 8 February 2010 that he would be leaving Abhayagiri and returning to England, having accepted a request from Ajahn Sumedho to succeed him as abbot at Amaravati.

Bibliography

Tudong: The Long Road North (1984, English Sangha Trust)

Silent Rain (1994, Amaravati Publications)

Words of Calm and Friendship - by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro (1999, Abhayagiri Monastery)

The Pilgrim Kamanita: A Legendary Romance - by Karl Gjellerup, Ajahn Amaro ed. (1999, Amaravati Publications)

The Dhamma and the Real World - by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro (2000, Abhayagiri Monastery)

Broad View, Boundless Heart - by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro (2001, Abhayagiri Monastery)

Food for the Heart - by Ven. Ajahn Chah; Introduction by Ajahn Amaro (2002, Wisdom Publications)

Small Boat, Great Mountain: Theravadin Reflections on the Natural Great Perfection (2003, Abhayagiri Monastery)

Who Will Feed the Mice? (2004, Abhayagiri Monastery)

The Sound of Silence - by Ven. Ajahn Sumedho; Introduction by Ajahn Amaro (2007, Wisdom Publications)

Rugged Interdependency (2007, Abhayagiri Monastery)

Like a River - by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro et al. (2008, Patriya Tansuhaj)

The Island: An Anthology of the Buddha’s Teachings on Nibbāna (2009, Abhayagiri Monastery) - by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro

Rain on the Nile (2009, Abhayagiri Monastery)

References

Category:Ajahns Category:Modern Buddhist writers Category:Theravada Buddhist monks Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:English Theravada Buddhists Category:Old SV

Name	Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha
Caption	A statue of the Buddha from Sarnath, 4th century CE
Birth date	c. 563 BCE or 623 BCE
Death date	c. 483 BCE or 543 BCE (aged 80)
Birth place	Lumbini, today in Nepal
Death place	Kushinagar, today in India
Known for	Founder of Buddhism
Predecessor	Kassapa Buddha
Successor	Maitreya Buddha
Ethnicity	Shakya
Father	Śuddhodana
Mother	Maya

Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: ; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India who founded Buddhism. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE.

Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni ("Sage of the Śākyas"), is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

He is also regarded as a god or prophet in other religions such as Hinduism, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Bahá'í faith.

Life

Traditional biographies

The primary sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are in a variety of different and sometimes conflicting traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda sect is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE.

From canonical sources, the Jātaka tales, Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14), and the Acchariyaabbhuta Sutta (MN 123) include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātaka tales retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Acchariyaabbhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.

Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma." Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.

The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.

Conception and birth

, Bihar, India. Pāla period.]]

Gautama is thought to have been born in Lumbini, in modern day Nepal and raised in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilvastu. At the time of his birth, the area was at, or beyond, the boundary of Vedic civilization, the dominant culture of northern India at the time. It is possible that his mother tongue was not an Indo-Aryan language.

Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. At the time, many small city-states existed in Ancient India, called Janapadas. Republics and chiefdoms with diffused political power and limited social stratification, were not uncommon amongst them, and were referred to as gana-sanghas. The Buddha's community does not seem to have had a caste system. It was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the Shramana type Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.

According to the most traditional biography, the Buddha's father was King Suddhodana, the leader of Shakya clan, whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime; Gautama was the family name. His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man.

While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

Early life and marriage

Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.

When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rahula. Siddhartha is then said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.

Departure and ascetic life

, 8th century.]]

At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.

Accompanied by Channa and aboard his horse Kanthaka, Guatama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of the new bodhisattva's departure. This event is traditionally known as "the great departure".

Guatama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. Having been recognised by the men of King Bimbisara, Bimbisara offered him the throne after hearing of Siddhartha's quest. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.

He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Guatama felt unsatisfied by the practise, and moved on to become a student of Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.

Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.

Enlightenment

. Sanskrit manuscript. Nālandā, Bihar, India. Pāla period.]]

According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative jhana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One." ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One.") He is often referred to in Buddhism as Shakyamuni Buddha, or "The Awakened One of the Shakya Clan."

According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.

Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:

The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikshus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scrptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence." His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.

According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the and , the coronation of Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Aśoka is 116 years after the death of Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 543 BCE, because the reign of Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates.

At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Mahamoggallana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.

Physical characteristics

.]]

An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive."(D,I:115).

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A,I:181)

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an Arahant, was so obsessed by Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.

Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's (D,I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").

Teachings

Some scholars believe that some portions of the Pali Canon and the Āgamas contain the actual substance of the historical teachings (and possibly even the words) of the Buddha. This is not the case for the later Mahāyāna sūtras. The scriptural works of Early Buddhism precede the Mahayana works chronologically, and are treated by many Western scholars as the main credible source for information regarding the actual historical teachings of Gautama Buddha. However, some scholars do not think that the texts report on historical events.

Some of the fundamentals of the teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha are:

The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this.

The Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.

Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama Sutta for details.

Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things that come to be have an end.

Dukkha (Sanskrit: ): That nothing which comes to be is ultimately satisfying.

Anattā (Sanskrit: anātman): That nothing in the realm of experience can really be said to be "I" or "mine".

Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāna): It is possible for sentient beings to realize a dimension of awareness which is totally unconstructed and peaceful, and end all suffering due to the mind's interaction with the conditioned world.

However, in some Mahayana schools, these points have come to be regarded as more or less subsidiary. There is disagreement amongst various schools of Buddhism over more complex aspects of what the Buddha is believed to have taught, and also over some of the disciplinary rules for monks.

According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned everyday notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is only a guide and teacher for beings who must tread the path of (Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and understand reality. The Buddhist system of insight and meditation practice is not claimed to have been divinely revealed, but to spring from an understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by treading the path guided by the Buddha's teachings.

Other religions

of god Vishnu in a traditional Hindu representation.]]

Gautama Buddha is also described as a god or prophet in other religions. Some Hindu texts say that the Buddha was an avatar of the god Vishnu, who came to Earth to delude beings away from the Vedic religion.

The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.

See also

Bodh Gaya

Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu

Buddha as viewed in other religions

Buddhahood

History of Buddhism

Iconography of the Buddha

List of the 28 Buddhas

Maitreya Buddha (Future Buddha)

Prem Sanyas, a 1925 silent film, directed by Franz Osten and Himansu Rai.

The Light of Asia, a book by Edwin Arnold

Zen

References

;Notes

;References

Further reading

Ambedkar, B.R. The Buddha and His Dhamma, 1957.

Armstrong, Karen. Buddha. (New York: Penguin Books, 2001).

Bechert, Heinz (ed.) (1996) When Did the Buddha Live? The Controversy on the Dating of the Historical Buddha. Delhi: Sri Satguru.

Conze, Edward (translator). Buddhist Scriptures. (London: Penguin Books, 1959).

Sathe, Shriram: Dates of the Buddha. Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Samiti, Hyderabad 1987.

Susan Roth: Buddha. (New York: Delacorte Press, 1994).

Deepak Chopra: Buddha. (Newsarama, 2008).

Jon Ortner: Buddha. (New York: Welcome Books, 2003).

External links

A sketch of the Buddha's Life

Critical Resources: Buddha and Buddhism

What Was The Buddha Like? by Ven S. Dhammika

Category:483 BC deaths Category:563 BC births Category:Buddhas Category:Buddhist philosophers Category:Consequentialists Category:Early Buddhism Category:Founders of religions Category:Hindu philosophers Category:History of Bihar Category:Indian philosophers Category:Journey to the West characters Category:Monomyths Category:Ascetics

Name	Ajahn Sumedho
Caption	Pictured (left) with a visiting Thai monk
Birth name	Robert Jackman
Birth date	July 27, 1934 (Age: 76 years)
Birth place	Seattle, Washington, USA
Occupation	Buddhist teacher
Title	Luang Por Ajahn Sumedho
Predecessor	Ajahn Chah
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Luang Por Ajahn Sumedho () (born Robert Jackman, July 27, 1934, Seattle) is the senior Western representative of the Thai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. He has been abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery just north of London since its consecration in 1984. Luang Por means Venerable Father (หลวงพ่อ), an honorific and term of affection in keeping with Thai custom; ajahn means teacher. A bhikkhu for 43 years, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha's teachings to the West.

Biography

Sumedho was born Robert Jackman in Seattle, Washington in 1934. During the Korean War he did military service for four years from the age of 18 as a United States navy medic. He then did a BA in Far Eastern studies and graduated in 1963 with an MA in South Asian studies at the University of California, Berkeley. After a year as a Red Cross social worker, Jackman served with the Peace Corps in Borneo from 1964 to 1966 as an English teacher. In 1966 he became a novice or samanera at Wat Sri Saket in Nong Khai, northeast Thailand. He took profession as a bhikkhu in May the following year.

From 1967-77 at Wat Nong Pa Pong, trained under Ajahn Chah. He has come to be regarded as the latter's most influential Western disciple. In 1975 he helped to establish and became the first abbot of the International Monastery, Wat Pa Nanachat in northeast Thailand founded by Ajahn Chah for training his non-Thai students. In 1977, Ajahn Sumedho accompanied Ajahn Chah on a visit to England. After observing a keen interest in Buddhism among Westerners, Ajahn Chah encouraged Ajahn Sumedho to remain in England for the purpose of establishing a branch monastery in the UK. This became Cittaviveka Forest Monastery in West Sussex.

Ajahn Sumedho was granted authority to ordain others as monks shortly after he established Cittaviveka Forest Monastery. He then established a ten precept ordination lineage for women, "Siladhara".

Ajahn Sumedho is currently the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near Hemel Hempstead in England, which was established in 1984. It is part of the network of monasteries and Buddhist centres in the lineage of Ajahn Chah, which now extends across the world, from Thailand, New Zealand and Australia, to Europe, Canada and the United States. Ajahn Sumedho has played an instrumental role in building this international monastic community.

Sumedho's imminent retirement was announced in February 2010. His successor is to be the English monk Ajahn Amaro, hitherto co-abbot of the Abhayagiri branch monastery in California's Redwood Valley.

Teachings

Ajahn Sumedho is a prominent figure in the Thai Forest Tradition. His teachings are very direct, practical, simple, and down to earth. In his talks and sermons he stresses the quality of immediate intuitive awareness and the integration of this kind of awareness into daily life. Like most teachers in the Forest Tradition, Ajahn Sumedho tends to avoid intellectual abstractions of the Buddhist teachings and focuses almost exclusively on their practical applications, that is, developing wisdom and compassion in daily life. His most consistent advice can be paraphrased as to see things the way that they actually are rather than the way that we want or don't want them to be ("Right now, it's like this..."). He is known for his engaging and witty communication style, in which he challenges his listeners to practice and see for themselves. Students have noted that he engages his hearers with an infectious sense of humor, suffused with much loving kindness, often weaving amusing anecdotes from his experiences as a monk into his talks on meditation practice and how to experience life ("Everything belongs").

Sound of Silence

A meditation technique taught and used by Ajahn Sumedho involves resting in what he calls "The Sound of Silence". He talks at length about this technique in one his books titled "The Way It Is". Ajahn Sumedho said that he was directly influenced by Edward Salim Michael's book : The way of inner vigilance (republished in 2010 with the new title : the Law of attention, Nada Yoga and the way of inner vigilance" and for which Ajahn Sumedho wrote a preface).

The "Sound of Silence" is also the title of one of Ajahn Sumedho's books (published by Wisdom in 2007). In his book, the "Sound of Silence," he mentions that it was not directly influenced by his study of Ven. Hsu Yun's works or by the Shurangama Sutra, though he has heard that the Shurangama mentions a similar practice.

See also

Thai Forest Tradition

Ajahn Chah

References

External links

BuddhaNet entry on Ajahn Sumedho

Profile of Ajahn Sumedho on Amaravati

Books of Ajahn Sumedho (PDF, HTML)

Mp3 Talks by Ajahn Sumedho

Video of interview on YouTube English with Portuguese sub titles.

Ajahn Sumedho's eBooks in English and other Languages

Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:American expatriates in Thailand Category:Buddhist philosophers Category:Modern Buddhist writers Category:Theravada Buddhism writers Category:Theravada Buddhist monks Category:Ajahns Category:American Buddhist monks Category:American Buddhists Category:American Theravada Buddhists Category:Thai philosophers

Name	Kevin Griffin
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kevin Griffin
Born	October 01, 1968
Instrument	VocalsGuitar
Genre	RockAlternative rock
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter, and Producer
Years active	1988–present
Associated acts	Better Than Ezra

Kevin Griffin (born October 1, 1968) is an American guitarist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter.

Griffin formed the alternative rock band Better Than Ezra in 1988. The band had great success in the 1990s with hits such as "Good", "In the Blood", and "Desperately Wanting", and has continued in the 2000s with hits such as "Extra Ordinary", "A Lifetime", and "Juicy". They continue to tour and produce new recordings, the most recent of which was Paper Empire, released in 2009. As a singer and performer, Griffin is known for singing in falsetto, inviting audience members onstage to play guitar, and interrupting his own songs with verses of well-known rock songs. He is a skilled mimic, imitating singers from Aaron Neville to Bruce Springsteen.

Personal life

Kevin Griffin grew up and attended high-school in Monroe, Louisiana. Later, Griffin received a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in political science from Louisiana State University in 1990.

Griffin purchased a home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles and has resided in that city since July 2006.

Songwriter

Griffin has also produced, written, and co-written songs for other artists, such as Sugarland, David Cook, Missy Higgins, Howie Day, and Josh Radin. Recently, Taylor Swift performed Griffin's "Breathless" for the Hope for Haiti telethon. Griffin co-wrote the Top 40 hit "Collide" with Howie Day. He also co-wrote four tracks on Missy Higgins' debut album, The Sound of White, which included the hit "Scar" The album went ten times platinum in Australia. Griffin also co-wrote Tristan Prettyman's single "Madly," and "Avalanche" on the self-titled, major-label debut of American Idol winner David Cook. Better Than Ezra released their 7th studio album, Paper Empire in May 2009. Kevin co-produced the Album with Producer Warren Huart. Most recently, Griffin is credited with having co-written "Stuck Like Glue," the debut single from the upcoming Sugarland album, "Incredible Machine."

References

External links

Official web site

Category:1968 births Category:American alternative rock musicians Category:Better Than Ezra members Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American rock singers Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Musicians from Louisiana Category:People from New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Louisiana State University alumni Category:American rock songwriters

Background	#FFD068 | color = black
Name	Ajahn Brahm
Caption	Ajahn Brahm (front left)
Birth name	Peter Betts
Birth date	August 07, 1951
Birth place	United Kingdom
Nationality	British
School	Theravada
Title	Venerable Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera
Location	Bodhinyana Monastery
Education	Cambridge University
Website	http://www.ajahnbrahm.org/

Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to most as Ajahn Brahm), born Peter Betts in London, United Kingdom on 7 August 1951, is a Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia, the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia, Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, and Spiritual Patron of the Bodhikusuma Centre in Sydney.

Early life

Peter Betts came from a working-class background and went to Latymer Upper School. He won a scholarship to study Theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. After graduating from Cambridge he taught in high school for one year before traveling to Thailand to become a monk and train with the Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana Mahathera. Brahm was ordained in Bangkok at the age of twenty-three by the Abbot of Wat Saket. He subsequently spent nine years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition under Ajahn Chah.

Bodhinyana Monastery

Brahm was invited to Perth, Australia by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia to assist Ajahn Jagaro in teaching duties. Initially they both lived in an old house in the suburb of North Perth, but in late 1983 purchased 97 acres (393,000 m²) of rural and forested land in the hills of Serpentine south of Perth. The land was to become Bodhinyana Monastery (named after their teacher, Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana). Bodhinyana was to become the first dedicated Buddhist monastery in the Southern Hemisphere and is today the largest community of Buddhist monks in Australia. Initially there were no buildings on the land, and as there were only a few Buddhists in Perth at this time, and little funding, the monks themselves began building to save money. Brahm learnt plumbing and bricklaying and built many of the current buildings himself.

In 1994, Jagaro took a sabbatical leave from Western Australia and disrobed a year later. Left in charge, Brahm took on the role and was soon being invited to provide his teachings in other parts of Australia and South-East Asia. He has been a speaker at the International Buddhist Summit in Phnom Penh in 2002, and at three Global Conferences on Buddhism. He also dedicates time and attention to the sick and dying, those in prison or ill with cancer, people wanting to learn to meditate, and also to his Sangha of monks at Bodhinyana. Brahm has also been influential in establishing Dhammasara Nuns' Monastery at Gidgegannup in the hills north-east of Perth to be a wholly independent monastery, where the Sri Lankan trained, Australian nun Ajahn Sr. Vayama is currently abbess.

Bhikkhuni controversy

On October 22, 2009 Brahm facilitated an ordination ceremony for bhikkhunis where four female Buddhists, Venerable Ajahn Vayama, and Venerables Nirodha, Seri and Hasapanna, were ordained into the Western Theravada bhikkhuni sangha. The ordination ceremony took place at Ajahn Brahm's Bodhinyana Monastery at Serpentine (near Perth, WA), Australia. For his actions of October 22, 2009, on November 1, 2009, at a meeting of senior members of the Thai monastic sangha, held at Wat Pah Pong, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, Brahm was removed from the Ajahn Chah Forest Sangha lineage and is no longer associated with the main monastery in Thailand, Wat Pah Pong, nor with any of the other Western Forest Sangha branch monasteries of the Ajahn Chah tradition.

Achievements

Whilst still a junior monk, Brahm was asked to undertake the compilation of an English-language guide to the Buddhist monastic code - the vinaya - which later became the basis for monastic discipline in many Theravadan monasteries in Western countries. Currently Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia, the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia, Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, Spiritual Patron of the Bodhikusuma Centre in Sydney.

In October 2004, Brahm was awarded the John Curtin Medal for his vision, leadership and service to the Australian community by Curtin University. He is currently working with monks and nuns of all Buddhist traditions in the Australian Sangha Association.

Famous Quotation By Ajahn Brahm

Our modern Western culture only recognises the first of these, freedom of desires. It then worships such a freedom by enshrining it at the forefront of national constituitions and bills of human rights. One can say that the underlying creed of most Western democracies is to protect their people's freedom to realise their desires, as far as this is possible. It is remarkable that in such countries people do not feel very free. The second kind of freedom, freedom from desires, is celebrated only in some religious communities. It celebrates contentment, peace that is free from desires (from Opening the Door of Your Heart)

Life is a series of interwoven stories, not a set of concept (from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung)

What's done is finished (from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung)

Whatever you do in your life, know this. The door of my house will always be open to you (the door of my heart will always be open to you) (from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung)

Publications

Opening the Door of Your Heart: And Other Buddhist Tales of Happiness. Also published as Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties. (2005). Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-278-1

Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook. (2006). Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-275-7

References

Further reading

The full transcript from the February 28, 2009 interview is available on Buddhanet

Category:1951 births Category:Ajahns Category:Australian Theravada Buddhists Category:Theravada Buddhism writers Category:Converts to Buddhism Category:English Theravada Buddhists Category:Modern Buddhist writers Category:Theravada Buddhist monks Category:Living people Category:Nonviolence advocates