Ep. 245 – Monastic Life Insights with Pema Chödrön and Ajahn Sumedho
Heart Wisdom with Jack Kornfield
Be Here Now Network
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 July 2024
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Teaching a nature retreat amidst softly chirping birds and cooling rain, Jack, Pema Chödrön, and Ajahn Sumedho illuminate joyful insights of monastic life.
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"Mostly what draws people to monastic life in the healthiest and best sense is its joy." – Jack Kornfield
In this special outdoor retreat, Jack, Pema Chödrön, and Ajahn Sumedho explore:
- Chanting the powerful seed syllable mantra, "Ah"
- Joys and misconceptions of monastic life in modern times
- Why someone would take vows and become a monk or nu
- Kabir's poetry, being human, and walking the spiritual path
- Sexuality and celibacy in spiritual communities
- Relating to both ultimate and relative reality
- Dealing with the body in physically taxing situations
- Working with injustice, inequality, and hierarchy within monasteries and spiritual institutions
- The nature of change and how our present creates our future
- Open-heartedness and open-mindedness
- Living the Dharma every second of our existence
- Letting our issues be our teachers
- A surprise Q&A appearance from Heart Wisdom family, Brother David Steindl-Rast, along with Ajahn Sundara, and Sister Columba
"Quite clearly the future is the result of how we work with our minds now. To the degree that we open our hearts and minds to the present moment, that creates our future." – Pema Chödrön
"I like to reflect that the Buddha only taught two things: suffering and the end of suffering." – Ajahn Sumedho
About Pema Chödrön:
Pema Chödrön is a Buddhist teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. She served as the director of Karma Dzong, in Boulder, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche asked her to work towards the establishment of a monastery for western monks and nuns. Check out her new book, How We Live Is How We Die, and learn more at PemaChodronFoundation.org
About Ajahn Sumedho:
Ajahn Sumedho is a prominent teacher in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. He was ordained in 1967, trained under Ajahn Chah, and has been instrumental in helping bring Buddha's teachings to the West. Learn more about Ajahn Sumedho in Teachings of a Buddhist Monk, including a forward by Jack.
This Dharma Talk recorded on 5/26/1990 on the land which would become Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.
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Transcript
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| 1:00.0 | I think quite clearly that the future is the result of how we work with our |
| 1:09.1 | minds now to the degree that we open our hearts and minds to the present moment, that creates our future. Hello and welcome back to Jack Hornfield's podcast Heart Wisdom on the Be Here Now Network. |
| 1:33.0 | I'm Ginesh honored to welcome you to episode 245 |
| 1:38.0 | Monastic Life Insights with Pema Children |
| 1:42.0 | and Ajin Somato. |
| 1:44.3 | This is a very special one as this is a collection of highlights from a retreat which took place on the spirit rock land in late May of 1990. |
| 1:58.8 | It has all the outdoor retreat allure of chirping birds and soft cool rain. I was a bit curious |
| 2:08.7 | about this very sweet ambience so I messaged Jack to ask a little bit about the retreat, and he wrote back, |
| 2:18.4 | we are on the Spirit Rock land in a big white tent, before there were any major buildings. |
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