Cathal

Hi again friends. Follow up from last year. I am a monk in Thailand. If anyone is interested in this kind of monastic lifestyle or whatever really i can try to answer you best i can Cat

@Tistepiste Most of the time, a lot more before than nowadays but sometimes theres a feeling of going at it more, a time for striving and time for maintenance if that makes sense its intuitive and depends on what is going on For about 4 years i would call my teacher quite often nearly weekly, when i lived at certain monasteries, most monasteries with a really good monk around - its normal they would sit around after breakfast to answer questions for anyone to approach them so ive been lucky in that regard but these days more so focused on practice and ill listen to tapes

Yes youre fully right the path was taught from the get go by the Buddha as "The Middle way." Theres a video of a prominent well known Arahant called Luang Ta Maha Bua on youtube crying openly about the degrading state of the world, that if one could truly see beings in suffering as they are they couldnt help but feel overwhelming compassion which at the time garnered a lot of attention due to the held view that Arahants are emotionless robotic like beings. He also went on to be a sort of saviour of the Thai economy when he was alive, and was extremely active and involved helping others. So for sure, really purified beings will have no problem being totally in the world will remaining at ease with how it is

@Breakingthewall My personal experience with those very mystical profound nondual states was through psychedelics, in meditation has been many various states but nothing close to usr of DMT, it was levels of blissfulness and at ease states free from suffering and the attachment to the body. Sometimes of course very strange things happens in meditation. My way i see enlightenment, is the process of entertaining the stream according to the Buddha and the various stages of "confidence" one has through truly understanding how suffering arises and ceases. So, with defilements, the fading away and cessation of defilements, one can think of enlightenment as "lighting up the load." So theres really nothing to attain, or gainin that context, its just a total let go. Anytime you let go of a defiling thought, youre lighting that load right there in the moment, the heavy load of selfishness. It could be a thought of desiring enlightenment, and being satisfied with the here and now, thats good enough, and doing that moment by moment, until theres really nothing left but reality and basically continually developing that confidence i mentioned until theres no falling back. That moment one would be an arahant, or a fully purified being free from all the troubles of the defilements (greed , hatred delusions) and considered fully awakened

Hi friend thank you for the questions; @MuadDib

@Tistepiste Anapanasati is the most complete technique you can find, it is how one trains the 8th fold noble path for the awakening of the 7 factors of enlightenment and comprehension pf rhe 4 noble truths. Vipassana is not really a technique either, im not sure why that is so popular in the west. It means literally "in sight" which in the suttas is always yoked with Shamatha, or tranquility. The Buddha also says if you have no Vipassana, get Shamatha. To see clearly a skill of making the mind still is important, insight (Vipassana) arises from this. So this vipassana is not a doing technique but a result of correct practice. Insight into impermanence, dissatisfactoriness and not-self making the heart let go of its misunderstandings

@LordFall Yes for sure. I agree, i can read the statement "Be in the world but not of it" by Christ, that is the ideal, the mirror to that inner perfection and potential we all inherently have. The problem is not the phone, the world, people etc but the mind that has defilements. Also A.I is not a problem, but people have defilements so its going to be warped by that. The people who have less defilements will be able to influence it positively more. If you think of a prodigy child, the parents can raise it and only do so much. One day it will break free and all that potential becomes actualized, one can only hope that initial influence shapes the destiny the child takes on in a responsible positive way. So with a.i its possible the less defilements a human has, theyll influence it to develop in its own way. The removal of defilements is thrle essencd of all goodness, clarity and harmony with reality and how the Buddha became such a perfect teacher as you mentioned with his monks, walking across all of India with one singular purpose, by sheer clarity to the way the reality really is and guiding everyone to that refuge from ignorance. So ww3 and a.i is scary, but if we can diminish our defilements we can be better off to " save" each other as people stuck in ignorance, its how i see it. Its a two way street, freeing yourself and others

@Nercohype Yes we all have our own trip... monastic life can be a great maybe like 'pit stop' to clear out ones mind and really get centered, a good break from all that social conditioning but everyone is so different and unique and it might be good for others and not good for some, i think being the best version of yourself is all that is asked of us

@LordFall Not sure i think about it sometimes, its way more satisfying that normal life but its been a mixed experience. In my experience when you say impact on life, the people who have impacted my life the most was not by what they "do" but because of so much years on inner work, how they are just by there presence alone was quite transformative for me. So depends on what level impact you mean.

@Applegarden8 Well there definitely are clear defintions of selfishness, but i can see what you mean by that - an enthusiasm to want to the best for yourself possible. Selfishness that i mentioned that which is unbeneficial and destructive all around the board would be the craving and clinging that which is rooted in the three main human defilements, greed hatred and delusions.

@AerisVahnEphelia Not at all if you want to help others you have to help yourself and become really clear on what it means and then become consistent at that. Ottherwise your own garbage will affect others. People always want to save others to feel satisfied but there own garbage gets mixed in. It is a different case with starving children, drug addicted people on the streets and all these symptoms of widespread selfishness. Truly taking the dust out of your own eyes is the way to help others. And one should be very clear and honest if they have dust and stop doing and fixing the world and spend some really dedicated time to there inner world so something genuinely fruitful comes out, thats my take it might not be fully the best thing or way i dont know what is

@Ulax Never heard of him sorry.

@Someone here Yes for sure some im aware of and some i know im not even aware of, thats the best part but difficult is being around really pure and noble people is you become very aware quickly what you hold onto that is not so good, many of which stem from childhood not knowing any better. My diet is pretty great because each morning ill go on alms and get very healthy food from the thai people. They always make sure the monks have plenty. Havent had western food for a while though

@Applegarden8 For me I dont personally believe i have a personal like special purpose, its just aligning with the actual reality that governs what i am, and being out of tune with that causes a lot of suffering for sure, which is selfishness- the lack of, freedom of, selfishness . At least it seems to be all spiritual texts point at freedom from selfishness to be the aim of our lives. So practically speaking doing inner work and hope that it pays off and is useful for others

@emil1234 i think when it comes to talking about that, i can say for sure these things dawn on you, come to you, as your mind becomes more pure through meditation. Thats about good enough for me. The pure in heart will see God, rings a bell

@Michal__ if you mean like sitting and walking im not sure a good portion of the day, other portions are well you know fairly ordinary stuff ha. Especially first 1.5 year, it was really a lot, but it got calmer now. I think the calmer you get the less youll want to do it, but i always try to remind myself that even though im happier i can keep doing more. It becomes just a joy to let go, it slowly becomes an addiction (in a good way)

@Lyubov Oh yes sounds like the typical tourist places, Thailand is amazing. I have been in Chaiya for 2 years roughly, and Chon Buri for 1.5 - jungles and mountains, and time to time through bangkok for visa

@Yimpa Yes i have very vivid dreams usually, most of them seem to be mental concocting nonsense but time to time very suprising stuff comes up, emotions and stories from way way long ago

@Myioko How is your day to day life satisfaction? A significant lot more than before, naturally just emptying the mind out there is a persistent sense of well being amongst the constant changing mind stuff coming up ~Do you feel like you have room to act out your desires, and what is your relationship with desire? Which ones do you act on vs let go? (like desiring to go to a place, have a thing, learn something, have a relationship, create something, eat certain foods, experience things, feel and act out a particular emotion, etc). Yeah it feels like there is an animal that is being tamed and sometimes it really desires this and that some more some others, especially women. I just keep letting go, but i think some things are bone deep and i will probably experience them again if im being honest. I see parts of my spiritual growth i need to look at, being a monk though allows a really lot of mental training, you feel like no matter what you can trust in letting go ~How has your relationship with relating to other people changed? Like amazingly good for me. But also, living in community has shocked me to see how much garbage i held in my heart towards people. If it wasnt for the long term noble monks around, i probably wouldnt have learned much about love

Hi guys not sure if this is of interest I recently saw Leo Guras face and was reminded of almost 5 years ago my first awakening experience through DMT and a few other psychedelics, although i havent used psychedliecs in years. I haven't posted here in years. Since then I have been very interested in meditation, I especially found the teachings of the Buddha interesting. 2 years ago I ordained as a monk in Thailand. If anyone is interested in asking me something go ahead but im not really a teacher or consider myself a guide in any sense. This community was really helpful for me, around that time I had a lot of mental unbalance and no support structure. Its always comforting to know how many of us are out there following the truth.

@UnbornTao What insights have you had? I would say the fact that all the moments of great clarity i had were also changing, were also impermanent not worth clinging too. With genuine clarity the heart stops clinging. Without genuine clarity we cling and condition ego How do you deal with boredom, given that you may have developed some ability to control your mind? Can you find happiness in ordinary moments and experiences? I think boredom is an interesting way to describe restlessness, it comes up with taking away stimulations, the unruly inner animal rebels and then practice kicks in. I have to time structure. I find happiness arises any moment from being at ease with the way things are, when the mind has been purified of being affected by craving - the i dont like this, I like this mind - what is mundane experience and special seems to just be how we associate things, in reality associations dont even exist. That's also another thought to throw out Have you contemplated pain? Yes pain is important to look at in the sense of truly seeing aversion is painful. We dont recognize it is our mind that feels. When we see this very clearly, the mind can become totally serene with bodily pain if you dont resist it. It can also be a profound change in how still you can experience your mind and enter jhana How do you see mental activity as the precursor to certain forms of suffering? I think all suffering seems to come from ignorantly taking things to be 'mine' because without mindfulness we cling to i like this and I don't like this states of mind, which bring about actions, and then results of that action is suffering. Although I would translate suffering more closely as dissatisfactoriness if we use the word dukkha the Buddha used Thanks for the cool questions

@Sincerity Thanks for the cool questions. How do you look back on DMT and your awakenings on psychedelics? Very profound and important but limiting in the overall goal. I share the same views and conclusions as Ram Dass about my experience. But im not sure if thats true for everyone at all, I find it interesting one person can do them a few times and get the message and one person can do it a thousand more times trying to get to the state, there's some reality to our mental structure thats very individual, some beings are ripe at moments for understanding, cant force it What caught your eye in the Buddha's teachings? What interested you the most? Definitely the exquisite detail he went into, and it became and becomes continually clear he reached a point he uprooted his own liability to cling to anything What school of buddhism do they teach at your monastery? Why did you choose that particular one? I have been hanging out in theravadan sphere, I first went to a temple in England and found myself travelling to thailand. All the while I had an american teacher who was a monk for 20 or so years What are the greatest developments that you observe in yourself after these 2 years? I am surprised I am actually happier and this stuff works, but it takes time to kick in How old are you approximately, and what was your profession before turning into a monk? Just to get some context about your journey. 29 and I was kind of hanging out in monasteries since I was 25 and travelling on my savings and teaching English to keep it topped up Cheers You too

@Eskilon Tahn Ajahn Suchart is an interesting monk to be around. I've met a few very spiritually developed people. They usually dont say much and are very light and kind. That's the thai style though. Well some are more active than others... everyone has there style. He's no Osho ill tell ya that

@Husseinisdoingfine if you feel like doing it i really recommend it. Come to thailand and hangout travel around find a place you like. Its not a big deal. You will only come out on top

@Michal__ One answer is whenever I remember too, but I am guessing you mean to formally sit or formally walk, a few hours a day. It can vary with factors... If I leave my phone away down at the main monastery its a lot more