Abhayagiri, (monastically intimate) reflections of the monks after Vassa

I'm very inspired today by the end of Vassa reflections by the monks and monastics at Abhayagiri Monastery. (see for yourself, about 2 hours of audio, about 10 speakers) https://youtu.be/peec4nWL77M?t=5455

This is a very unique thing. Because...

• A lot of Buddhist sharing is polished, like Dhamma talks or Dhamma books by Monastics. And I find some of that quite stale. Even the good ones, like some of the things I've read by Luang Por (Ajahn) Pannavaddho which are amazing, they are polished, giving the answer.
• Most stuff found on the Internet are from "dhamma teachers", who may be only partly in a tradition or doing anything monastic. Some of it can be very useful, but a lot of it is clearly people who dabble in Buddhism and are trying to think about how to package it to an average person or average practitioner.
• In contrast, these are full time, full Vinaya monks. And they are in the middle of their path. They are in the middle of figuring it out. And they are honestly sharing what they've learned. There's exploration, muddling through, questions. Fascinating.
• As inspiring as it is to hear from "masters", we often learn just as much or more when we see someone who is learning closer to our level.

I'm also surprised (and delighted) because monks generally stay very silent about their practice at some of the other monasteries I've been to. (Wat Metta, Forest Dhamma Monastery). And, there are good reasons. As one monk explained, they aren't authorized to teach and they don't have the awakened insight that allows them to make sure their words are helpful and complete. But, I think that as long as we understand that caveat, it is worth a listen. After all, the eightfold noble path is a search, and we are tasked to look and re-look, and evaluate for ourselves.

But that silence from the practitioners creates an unintended consequence: we don't see the struggle. And, so we might feel that other people aren't struggling--that our struggling are all our own. It's helping to read a bit about the struggles, the search, the dead ends, the breakthroughs, and the re-evaluations as we practice and learn more.

A piece of writing in a similar vein is the Dear Jane letters, letters from the 1960s between an Englishwoman and a Thai monastic who was also from England.

Worth a listen. Intimate. Down to earth.

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cited works:

Dear Jane – Wisdom from the forest for an English Buddhist Dhamma Books

by Bhikkhu Paññāvaḍḍho, Jane Browne 2019 English