Various Ajahns - Forest Path, 2nd Edition

Forest Path

Published by:

Aruno Publications,
Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery
2 Harnham Hall Cottages,
Harnham, Belsay,
Northumberland NE20 0HF UK

Contact Aruno Publications at www.aruno.org
This book is available for free download from www.forestsanghapublications.org

ISBN 978-1-908444-44-8

Digital Edition 1.0

Copyright 2013 WAT PAH NANACHAT

Inquiries concerning this book may be addressed to:
The Abbot
Wat Pah Nanachat
Bahn Bung Wai
Amper Warin Chumrab
Ubon 34310
THAILAND
www.watpahnanachat.org

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Abbots of Wat Pah Nanachat

A collection of talks, essays, and accounts
from the community at Wat Pah Nanachat

Aruno Publications

This book and many others from Venerable Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Sumedho, and their disciples are freely offered and available in various electronic formats as well as in print. You can find them via our monasteries and through the websites listed below, along with other resources such as audio talks, meditation instruction and retreats. Everything is free of charge, and everyone is welcome.

For books and audio:
www.forestsanghapublications.org
www.amaravati.org

For a list of Ajahn Chah community monasteries worldwide:
www.forestsangha.org

For further Theravada Buddhist literature including English translations of much of the Pali Canon:
www.accesstoinsight.org

Dedication to the first edition, 1999

In commemoration of Wat Pah Nanachats twenty-fifth Rains Retreat, we offer this publication as a dedication to Luang Por Chah and to the first Abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat, Luang Por Sumedho.

No them, no this.

Dedication to the second edition,2013

We would like to offer the good kamma that arises from this publication to the editor of the first edition, Pavuddho Bhikkhu, our companion in the Holy Life, who passed away in 2005.

Forest Path was first printed in 1999 and originally planned as the first edition of a Wat Pah Nanachat newsletter. Over-enthusiasm and considerable proliferation resulted in a one-off book publication which more or less coincided with the monasterys twenty-fifth anniversary. Since then we have been surprised by the number of requests to reprint this collection of little essays, talks and anecdotes about life in Wat Pah Nanachat as it was at that time. Apart from the formal Dhamma talks the book contains, we were hesitant at first to reprint its other contents, the old stories and personal accounts by then younger authors. But it was those other parts which in fact added much of the books authentic flavour and made so many people find it beneficial and joyful to read.

Hence it appears that our hesitation over reprinting this book was due to a concern that the snapshots of life in the monastery offered by those individuals at that time had become dated. In fact, though, on recently going through the various contributions again, we found that many of those snapshots could still be written today there would be a new cast of players, but the atmosphere experienced then, and communicated so vividly in the old outdated accounts, is still very similar.

So we are happy to realize that when we take the wholehearted present-day Dhamma approach of genuinely experiencing what is happening at a particular sasric moment in life, we also embark on something timeless. Beyond the specific details, all our little hopes and sorrows around daily life in the monastery and the higher values and principles of our life the Buddhas core teachings become apparent in these snapshots. Better still, the details of an individuals unique experiences are in fact exemplary: they are transferable and thus pass the test of time. Thinking in these terms gives the monks and novices at Wat Pah Nanachat extra encouragement, as in many ways it makes the limitations and the suffering inevitably entailed by each ones specific experience worthwhile.

Once we became aware of all the good examples already to be found in the original Forest Path, the option of rewriting some of the material in a 2012 setting as a Forest Path II suddenly seemed pointless. With sasra essentially repeating the same old drama endlessly anyway, we thought that simply revisiting the old setting once more with a simple reissue of the original would be a much more effective and honest choice than reworking the text and suggesting it was new. It is also true tradition to go back a little into the past, with the hope of taking the opportunity to realize some timeless truths.

So the material in this new edition of Forest Path is an almost exact reprint of the old 1999 version, although with editorial assistance we have taken the opportunity to correct some of the punctuation and grammar. We have also created a few links to the present-day situation (which seems fair enough, considering that a big impersonal monastic community only becomes a reality when it is embodied in some specific individuals). For us now, the present dwellers in the monastery, who in most cases did not arrive there in time to meet the great example Luang Por Chah in person, it seems most affirming that the principles of monastic life as his disciples still permeate the scenes that each new generation of monks, novices,