Kittisaro, from Tennessee, a Rhodes Scholar and a Buddhist practitioner for over 35 years including 15 years as a Theravada monk in the Forest School of Ajahn Chah. He is also a practitioner of Pure Land and Chan Buddhism. He is co-founder, with Thanissara of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa and has completed two year long retreats. Kittisaro currently lives in the North Bay, California, teaches at IMS and Spirit Rock, and is co-author of Listening to the Heart, A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism. He lives in the North Bay CA, and is on the Teacher Council at Spirit Rock, and is a core teacher at IMS.
Balance within practice. A compassionate response. From is emptiness, emptiness is form. The gift of fearlessness. The way of generosity, kindness and integrity.
The Shurangama Sutra, Matangi’s daughter & Ananda’s enlightement
Sky Like Mind
Those who delight in mental proliferation (papanca) never know Nibbana
The end of birth and death
Apartheid of the mind
Nisagardatta’s method
What Remains - What doesn’t move
The chipmunk, the donkey and the dew drops
Aspiration, despair, depression & Ajahn Chah’s encouragement
Suffering for the sake of ending suffering
Touching obstructions patience & kindness
Giving credit for practice already done & the highest merit
Like an empty bell
Direct knowing of emptiness
Between existence and nihilism
Emptiness isn’t empty, wonderful existence doesn’t exist
Grasping & papanca is the root of birth and death
Surface & depth of ocean is all water
Change of lineage from reliance on papanca to pure knowing
Angulimala and original hua t’ou – STOP
The Dharma door of Chan / Zen
The King of Samadhi’s – the Shurangama – Durable – Samadhi
The context of the Shurangama Sutra – Ananda, Matangi’s daughter, Manjushri, the Buddha & Avalokitesvara
Kuan Yin’s favoured meathod – ‘returning the hearing’
The pure, bright and primordial essence of consciousness
Anuruddha seeks out advice from Sariputta – ‘Turn your mind to the Deathless’
Avalokitesvara – the Lord of Ease
Ekayana – All streams lead to the ocean - all Dharma doors lead to the One Heart
All Dharma doors are connected to Mindfulness
Crossing over beings of the self nature – being kind is being Kuan Yin
All Beings have been our mother, father, relative and are potential Buddha’s
Kittisaro’s mother’s death and his tribute to her
Turning the state rather than being turned by the state
Liberating the orphans of consciousness & being liberated from them
Stories of Ajahn Chah – Knowing pain & ‘What About the Rest of Us?’
The man who wanted to hang himself
Returning to the Still
Bestower of Courage & Fearlessness.
Compassion says ‘I am Everything’ - Wisdom ‘I am Nothing’
Where emptiness leans into aversion and compassion into grasping
Ajahn Chah’s reflection on teachings as way of providing balance
Metta and the attendant blessings of metta
Meeting English football hooligans
The 4 truths that en-noble as we grow through them
The 8 kinds of Dukkha – Anando, ex marine & monk, bowing through anger
Death is also impermanent, seeing through impermanence, one touches peace.
When the causes of dukkha break up, it ceases - revealing the timeless dharma.
