Ajahn Chah

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Ajahn Chah bigraphy, stories - Philosophers

Ajahn Chah : biography

17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992

Chah Subhaddo (Chao Khun Bodhinyana Thera) ( alternatively Achaan Chah, occasionally with honorific titles Luang Por and Phra; 17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992) was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition.

Respected and loved in his own country as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Beginning in 1979 with the founding of Cittaviveka (commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) in the United Kingdom, the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah has spread throughout Europe, the United States and the British Commonwealth. The dhamma talks of Ajahn Chah have been recorded, transcribed and translated into several languages.

More than one million people, including the Thai royal family, attended Ajahn Chah’s funeral in 1992.http://www.abhayagiri.org/index.php/main/community_member/303/ He left behind a legacy of dhamma talks, students, and monasteries.

Early life

Ajahn Chah was born on 17 June 1918 near Ubon Ratchathani in the Isan region of northeast Thailand. His family were subsistence farmers. As is traditional, Ajahn Chah entered the monastery as a novice at the age of nine, where, during a three-year stay, he learned to read and write. He left the monastery to help his family on the farm, but later returned to monastic life on 16 April 1939, seeking ordination as a Theravadan monk (or bhikkhu). According to the book Food for the Heart: The Collected Writings of Ajahn Chah, he chose to leave the settled monastic life in 1946 and became a wandering ascetic after the death of his father. He walked across Thailand, taking teachings at various monasteries. Among his teachers at this time was Ajahn Mun, a renowned meditation master in the Forest Tradition. Ajahn Chah lived in caves and forests while learning from the meditation monks of the Forest Tradition. A website devoted to Ajahn Chah describes this period of his life: For the next seven years Ajahn Chah practiced in the style of an ascetic monk in the austere Forest Tradition, spending his time in forests, caves and cremation grounds. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life.

Notable Western students

  • Ajahn Sumedho, former abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire England
  • Ajahn Khemadhammo, abbot of The Forest Hermitage, Warwickshire, England
  • Ajahn Munindo, abbot of Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery, Northumberland, England
  • Ajahn Pasanno, abbot of Abhayagiri Monastery, Redwood Valley, California, USA
  • Ajahn Amaro, abbot of Amaravati Monastery, Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire England
  • Ajahn Viradhammo: Abbot of Tisarana Buddhist Monastery, Perth, Ontario, Canada
  • Ajahn Jayasaro, ex former abbot of Wat Pa Nanachat, He is now living alone in a hermitage at the foot of Kow Yai mountains.
  • Ajahn Brahm, abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, Serpentine, Western Australia.
  • Jack Kornfield
  • Mitsuo Shibahashi

Monasteries founded

Ajahn Chah welcoming as a novice a [[New Zealander, later to become Ajahn Munindo, abbot of a monastery in the north of England]] After years of wandering, Ajahn Chah decided to plant roots in an uninhabited grove near his birthplace. In 1954, Wat Nong Pah Pong monastery was established, where Ajahn Chah could teach his simple, practice-based form of meditation. He attracted a wide variety of disciples, which included in 1966, the first Westerner, Venerable Ajahn Sumedho.http://ajahnchah.org/book/About_Ajahn_Chah.php Wat Nong Pah Pong includes over 250 branches throughout Thailand, as well as over 15 associated monasteries and ten lay practice centers around the world.

In 1975, Wat Pah Nanachat (International Forest Monastery) was founded with Ajahn Sumedho as the abbot. Wat Pah Nanachat was the first monastery in Thailand specifically geared towards training English-speaking Westerners in the monastic Vinaya, as well as the first run by a Westerner.