“Ajahn Happy” coming to California (live)

Seth Auberon, Mara Schaeffer, Gary Sanders, Wisdom Quarterly; Forest Retreat.org

Meditating in the light of wisdom (planetgreen.discovery.com)

FREE: See "Living Buddhist Master" and aryan in Pomona 6-10-13 (forestretreat.org)

  
"I  love the light-up-Buddha on his belt. There is something Yoda-like  about him, a child-like joyousness, but with depth. The discussions of Pali-language translations in some of his talks on DharmaSeed are really great for gaining a fresh perspective on the original meanings of the Buddha's words. He seems to be a genuine Buddhist master."

- Mara Schaeffer, Wisdom Quarterly

Ancient Thai temple (Hendry Niveo/flickr.com)

California is very fortunate to have a visit during June 2013 from Ajahn Jumnien, a Thai Buddhist meditation teacher recognized as one of the few living Buddhist masters from the Theravada tradition in the world today.

 

He will be giving a free day of a Dharma transmission-talks and also leading a three-day retreat high atop Los Angeles on Mount Baldy.

 

Several of the talks from his previous visits are available online for download. Listening to these talks will be helpful to understanding the profound complexities of the rich insight meditation tradition he represents.

The master speaks little English, yet his various translators are able to express in English his enthusiastic message of finding a joyous heart, happiness, and freedom in today’s world through skillful practice.

• Jack Kornfield's "Living Buddhist Masters"

"Ajahn Happy"

“Happy Ajahn,”  as he urges people to call him, does not rely on a single method of practice. Instead, he offers his students a variety of meditation techniques depending on their individual needs and attachments.
 
These could be to focus on breath, focus on bodily sensations, specific visualizations, or even his own special version of loving kindness (metta) practice, which once enabled him to bring harmony to warring populations in South Thailand.
 

Ecstatic-Insight Meditation (ruahyoga)

“Cling to nothing,” he advises his students as the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, not techniques, teachers, love or hate, not even doctrine(s).
 
What is important is the faith (confidence, saddha) and energy one brings to the success of one's own practice right now in this present moment.
 
Always question what you are doing and practicing. Is it leading progressively, minute by minute and even moment by moment, to more profound stages of enlightenment?
 
Ajahn Happy also brings a shamanic dimension to his teachings, for originally his training as a child apprenticed to his father was as a local medicine man, folk healer, and shaman. [This is very closely related to the shraman or "wandering ascetic" tradition of the Buddhist forest tradition.]

(CittaMagga) Ajahn Jumnien, Samana and Shaman, Dhamma Talk 8

 
One of his YouTube videos shows him dressed in beads and overflowing with talismans tucked into his Buddhist robes. SoCal is very privileged to have the opportunity to sit at the feet of such a master. More

• The Buddha's Dharma or Teaching, particularly his way of  meditation, aims at producing a state of perfect mental [psyche- or psychological] health, composure, equilibrium, and tranquility. It is unfortunate that hardly any other part of the Teaching is so misunderstood both by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. This is a rare opportunity to see success.