The Story of the Buddha

The Buddha was originally named Siddhattha Gotama. He was born in Northern India two-and-a-half thousand years ago as a prince in a wealthy family, but even with his wealth and worldly status he still felt unfulfilled.

Seeing that life's fleeting pleasures were quickly fading, he set out in search of lasting happiness. He undertook a quest of asceticism that brought him to the brink of death, and seeing the folly in these extremes, discovered a way of meditation that culminated in the attainment of profound enlightenment: the realization of the ultimate true nature of reality; the cessation of sensual desire, anger, and delusion; and the perfect peace and happiness.

He was then known as the Buddha, the Awakened One, and he devoted the remaining forty-five years of his life to helping others realize the same sublime freedom and bliss that he had discovered. His teachings, known as the Dhamma, describe the conditioned nature of all phenomena, explaining both the sweet taste of the world and the danger lurking in it.

The Buddha laid out a clear course of spiritual training designed to lead others to the ending of all forms of mental suffering. He established communities of monks and nuns, the Sangha, for those people inspired to dedicate their lives to the practice and preservation of this path of virtue, meditative peace and wisdom.

The Monastic Way of Life  

The monastic Sangha has survived throughout twenty-five centuries and is one of the oldest continuous institutions in history. The contemplative life of a Buddhist monk or nun is one of simplicity, celibacy and contentment.

They do not seek the happiness based on sensuality and worldly distractions, but instead strive for the more subtle and satisfying inner happiness that blossoms forth when peace and wisdom take root in the heart.

Meditation is an indispensable part of this lifestyle, and monastics cultivate those qualities that support it: generosity, renunciation, restraint, modesty, humility, loving-kindness, sincere dedication and mindful awareness in all activities.

 

The Thai Forest Tradition                                                                                                     

Venerable Ajahn Mun

The contemporary Thai Forest Tradition is a down-to-earth, back to the roots movement that models its practice and lifestyle on that of the Buddha and the first generation of his disciples. The advent of the modern age notwithstanding, forest monasteries still keep alive the ancient traditions through following the Buddhist Monastic Code of Discipline (the Vinaya) in all its detail and dedication to the preservation and realization of the enlightenment of the Buddha.

Since the time of the Buddha there have always been monks who have retreated into the depths of the forests, mountains and caves seeking physical isolation to aid them in the development of meditation and realization of the Dhamma, the truth of the Buddha's teaching. Whether in solitude or in small groups, such monks lived a life of simplicity, austerity, and determined effort. They have included some of the greatest meditation masters since the Buddha himself. Far from cities and towns, willing to put up with the rigors and hardships of living in the wild for the opportunity to learn from nature, and uninterested in worldly fame or recognition, these forest monks often remained unknown, their life stories lost among the jungle thickets and mountaintops.

In former times Thai monasteries were often the principle centers of learning. The monks in the towns and villages emphasized scholastic study of the Buddhist scriptures and the performance of ceremonies. For the most part they placed little emphasis on meditation, used money, and did not closely adhere to the Vinaya, the monks' and nuns' training rules laid down by the Buddha.

Venerable Ajahn Sao Kantasilo


The revival of the Thai Forest Tradition in the twentieth century was an attempt to return to the lifestyle and training that was practiced under the Buddha. The two main figures in this movement were Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta and Ajahn Sao Kantasilo. Their intention was to realize in their own hearts and minds the inner peace and wisdom of the Dhamma. The busy village monasteries were abandoned for the peace and quiet of nature. The Vinaya was followed strictly, emphasizing the importance of every detail. Monks lived without money, accepting whatever was offered and patiently enduring when nothing was. Ascetic practices recommended by the Buddha were instituted as part of the lifestyle: eating only one meal a day from one's almsbowl, wearing rag robes, and living in the forest, in cemeteries or in simple shelters.

The monks would often wander barefoot through the countryside seeking places conducive to meditation, carrying their few possessions: an almsbowl, three robes, a glot (an umbrella with a mosquito net, which was hung in the forest and used like a tent), and a few personal requisites.

From Ajahn Mun, Ajahn Sao, and their numerous distinguished disciples has come a legacy of powerfully relevant examples of an uncomplicated and disciplined way of life. Their teachings are directed towards those who wish to purify their minds by living the way of the Buddha. The very heart of the Forest Tradition is the development of meditation. By cultivating deep states of tranquility and systematically investigating the body and mind, insight arises as to the true nature of existence. 

When entering a good forest monastery, the spirit of practice is evident everywhere. There is an air of simplicity. The buildings are clean and tidy. The remote setting supports an atmosphere of renunciation. Simple unadorned huts are individually nestled in small forest clearings. Monks or nuns mindfully and quietly do their chores or engage in sitting or walking meditation. In developing meditation one may encounter many obstacles, and the forest masters were noted for their creativity in overcoming the hindrances and defilements of the mind. They were distinguished by their daring determination to realize enlightenment.

The disciples of Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Sao gradually grew in number, and due to the excellent teaching they received and the intensity of their effort many of them became great masters in their own right. Today the Forest Tradition is well established in Thailand and is beginning to take hold in western countries as well.


Venerable Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana Thera 

 Thailand has been blessed with many profoundly wise Buddhist meditation masters, and one of the most eminent was Venerable Ajahn Chah.

Born in 1918 he studied and trained in remote monasteries with some of the most impressive teachers of his era - Ajahn Mun, Ajahn Kinaree, Ajahn Taungrut - before establishing his own forest monastery near the city of Ubon. Until his death in 1993 he guided and trained his disciples in the simple, austere, and peaceful ways of the Buddha.

During Ajahn Chah's many years of wandering and practicing in seclusion he encountered numerous obstacles, and the qualities of patience and endurance that he developed became central to the teachings he gave to his own disciples. He was highly motivated in his Dhamma practice to discover the causes of worldly suffering and the source of true freedom. By his own account he held nothing back and gave up everything for the Dhamma.

Though he encountered much hardship and suffering, illness, pain and doubt, he never gave up. Out of this resolute fearlessness and effort grew unshakeable peace, wisdom, and boundless loving-kindness.

Ajahn Chah taught in a direct, uncomplicated, and straightforward manner. He instructed with charm and humour and was a master at using everyday situations as opportunities for learning. He stressed that true insight can never arise from mere intellectual knowledge, but only through direct personal experience and transformation. Lasting happiness is a result of wisdom that arises naturally when the mind is still, quiet, and radiant.

He encouraged us to confront the mental defilements that poison our minds and to use the tools of renunciation, awareness, and perseverance to overcome them. He urged his followers to learn how to not get lost in moods and emotions, but to train themselves instead to clearly see and directly experience the true nature of the mind and the world.

Ajahn Chah's popularity grew steadily and at present there are more than 300 branch monasteries around the world that look to his teachings and example for inspiration.

Bhante Sujato

Bhante Sujato (Anthony Best) was born in Perth, Western Australia on 4/11/1966. He was brought up in a liberal Catholic family and attended a Christian Brothers' school. Impressed by the profound visions of the world opened up through science, and especially the Theories of Relativity, he rejected his Catholic beliefs while in his teens.
 
He read philosophy and literature at the University of Western Australia for two years, but left to play rock n' roll guitar. Together with the singer Peggy van Zalm, he formed Martha's Vineyard, a successful indie band in the late eighties, which however broke up before realizing its potential.
 
After a number of years drifting around the alternative music scene, he became disillusioned and, needing a drastic change, went to Thailand in 1992. There, despite having no previous experience of Buddhism, he fell into an intensive retreat at a monastery in Chieng Mai. Afterwards he began to seek ways to embody and deepen the insights offered by this experience. Within a year he had arrived at Wat Pa Nanachat, the International Forest Monastery run for and by English-speaking monks in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. He asked for and was granted novice ordination, and in the following year took full ordination as a bhikkhu on 5/5/1994.
 
He spent three vassa studying under Ajahn Brahm at Bodhinayana Monastery, and several years in remote hermitages and caves in Thailand and Malaysia.  In early 2003 Bhante Sujato returned to Australia, arriving at the property then known as the Citta Bhavana Hermitage. The decision was made to develop the hermitage into a training monastery, and the name was changed to Santi Forest Monastery. Since that time the monastery has grown rapidly and has accomplished a number of milestones, including the first samaneri ordination on 9th Mar 2008 and several bhikkhu ordinations.
 
The vision for the monastery has always included a role for nuns, and Bhante Sujato has become well known for his articulate and passionate support for the fully ordained bhikkhuni lineage, the most pressing controversy within contemporary Theravada Buddhism.
 
The main influences in Bhante Sujato's spiritual development have been threefold. Most obvious is the lifestyle of the forest tradition in which he was immersed. This demanded a strict application of the Buddhist monk's code of discipline (Vinaya) and the repeated reminder that one's entire life must be dedicated to the practice.
 
The second great influence was the Buddha's early teachings. Having spent nearly ten years studying the canonical Pali scriptures, he became increasingly aware of the outstanding and little-known fact of the existence of thousands of parallel passages in Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan texts. This congruence is regarded as the single most important historical clue to the Buddha's original message, and Bhante Sujato has taken the lead in introducing cross-tradition text studies to the Buddhist community.
 
The third major spiritual influence comes from his two main meditation teachers. From the little-known Thai monk Ajahn Maha Chatchai he learnt the practice of loving-kindness that still forms the backbone of his own meditation and teaching. From Ajahn Brahm he learnt especially how to understand this practice within the overall context of the Buddha's path. In recent years Bhante Sujato has taught Dhamma and meditation to a varied audience in his local area and internationally, and has spoken at several major international Buddhist conferences and events.
 
His writings explore the earliest Buddhist scriptures, using a comparative and historical approach to illuminate the process of formation of Buddhist ideology and identity; books include A Swift Pair of Messengers, A History of Mindfulness, Beginnings, and Sects & Sectarianism.
 
A special field of interest is the role of women in Buddhism, and particularly in the revival of the bhikkhuni order within the Theravada tradition. Bhante Sujato brings his text-critical faculties to bear on this urgent modern dilemma, in addition to his work in actually establishing a bhikkhuni community at Santi.
 
He has acted and spoken fearlessly on supporting the bhikkhuni ordination. He had explicitly expressed his genuine wish (see Dark Matter) in the statement, "My vocation is to work with the international Sangha for the establishment of the four-fold community worldwide. I think we need to accept that this is where the future lies."