Bhante Sujato

Okay, sorry.

Um, so it, it, it's an interview with Ajahn Sujato, who is a, a, as it says, former punk rock [chuckles] musician from Australia, whose band [chuckles] apparently was named Martha's Vineyard, [chuckles] which, uh, apparently in Australia that would sound like a really exotic name, you know? Sort of odd for some of those of us from the East Coast.

[coughs] Anyway, he spent three years in, in, uh, isolation translating the Pali Canon, and then created the website, um, Sutra Central, which ma- some of you may be aware of.

It's got a, a, many...

So he's, you know, a scholar on, in that way and, and ver- It's ver- The, the beginning of the podcast, there's a lot of very technical stuff about suttas and the history of Buddhism and, which can be interesting just in terms of sort of, uh, you know, the mythology, what we believe happened and like, "Oh," and he's like, "Well, probably this, you know, we don't know," or, or, "No, that's not what, you know, really happened," whatever.

So, so there's that historical stuff, but the...

But where I think the interview gets really interesting, 'cause he's being interviewed by another monk, by one of these younger monks, is when, uh, the monk brings up AI and, uh, [chuckles] a-and Ajahn Sujato says that AI is a, an engine of delusion.

So, uh, [chuckles] and he takes it from there and, and then he makes very much a, an economic a-and sort of social argument against it and, and y-you can kind of hear his punk rock, uh, [chuckles] values coming through.

So it was in my early years as a monk, and when you get to about five rains, they start to ask you to give talks.

Now, I was used to great teachers like Rinpoche Medo, Ajahn Sujato, Ajahn Amaro.

These people sat on a high seat, and they gave a talk.

And now they're asking me to get on this high seat or in, in Chithurst it was the center of a kind of asana.

buy that one.

I will not buy the word that is used on Sutra Central by Sujato when he calls them choices.

There may be some basis of choices in there, but using the word choices as a translation, is highly misleading.

In fact, it would be better if we didn't actually translate it into one word at all, because it needs an entire explanation, partly because there is no such concept as sankara in the English language, nor is there the concept vedana, which is translated as feeling, which is not emotion at all.

He went to the village temple with his grandfather from a very young age, yet he came to practice meditation only after meeting the then Ajahn Jagaro and Ajahn Brahm around 1987.

He has been meditating for about 25 years and considers Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Brahmali, and Bhante Sujato as his spiritual teachers.

He and his family started visiting Bodhinyana and Dhammaloka regularly in 1991, and he has served in the committee in different capacities, including treasurer and as the secretary.

He has also contributed to the Buddhist communities overseas in various ways and is a student of early Buddhist texts from the Tripitaka, Trip-Tripitaka, relying mostly on Bhante Sujato's English translations of Sutta on Sutta Central, and also Dhammaloka Sutta classes and Sutta retreats at Jhana Grove.

So I'll pass it over to Ananda for meditation, followed by his talk.

Thank you.

That is what the Buddha call, uh, Sampajañña, um, awareness.

Mm.

If we look at the first third, it ends with stilling mental processes.

At least that's Sujato's translation, stilling mental processes.

Now, there are a few levels in which we can read the instructions there in the Anapanasati.

Instilling mental processes can mean some things that are quite refined and nuanced, and it can also mean some things that are quite simple.

So let me repeat the basic instructions from the Buddha.

This is the first quarter of his instructions with regard to breath meditation, and this is from, uh, Bhikkhu Sujato's translation that you can find on Sutta Central.

"Breathing in heavily, they know, 'I'm breathing in heavily.' Breathing out heavily, they know, 'I'm breathing out heavily.' Breathing in lightly, they know, 'I'm breathing in lightly.' Breathing out lightly, they know, 'I'm breathing out lightly.' They practice like this: 'I'll breathe in experiencing the whole body.' They practice like this: 'I'll breathe out experiencing the whole body.' They practice like this: 'I'll breathe in stilling physical processes,' and they practice like this: 'I'll breathe out stilling physical processes.'" Before I'll continue, I will look at the chat to see if there are...

Okay.