I've been a monk for 2 years AMA

[Malkom]

Interesting 

[Michal__]

How many hours a day do you meditate?

[Cathal]

@emptiness dancing Chon Buri south of Pattaya

[Cathal]

@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

[Cathal]

@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

[Cathal]

@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

[AerisVahnEphelia]

Last time an american did this, he started a streaming live of his old youtube channel and he was insulting people to give him donation with naruto make up on his face crying in his shower with clothes telling he has been a buddhist monk for 7 years and that you're all schizophrenics.

do you think this won't happen to you ?

[Cathal]

@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 

[Cathal]

@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

[Breakingthewall]

4 hours ago, Cathal said:

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

Good point that of dissatisfaction. For me, what sustains this "suffering " is the need to move forward, to move in one direction. But on the other hand, that's human life. Even Buddha spent many years advancing.

Maybe Buddha, in the absolute openess to the totality, with his heart and his mind being one with the source in perfect harmony, sometimes miss the times of dukkha, when he was a warrior. There is something alive in the movement, even Its always driven by dissatisfaction. 

Edited 13 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[UnbornTao]

@Cathal Thanks for answering. Good points. 

[Ramasta9]

So in a nutshell you traded one mask for another  or one robe for another