My Journey to Buddhist Practice this Life

Ajahn tells some personal stories regarding the way he began Buddhist practice at the age of 21, & found himself living in a monastery & becoming a monk by 23.

Transcript

Do you get the first introduction to Buddhism?

Yeah,

I think this is kind of intuitive.

I was looking for something and I prayed actually.

And this is interesting because my family is completely not religious.

I knew I was looking for something and I knew something was out there,

But I didn't know what it was.

When I was 15,

Something interesting happened.

I went to my best friend's mother's timeshare on the Gold Coast apartment.

We were coming back to Brisbane and her windscreen got broken.

When her windscreen got broken,

We went to a bookstore where we waited for it to get fixed.

And there was a new age bookstore called the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in a place called Kulangara.

Now,

I didn't learn anything about Buddhism,

But there was this lady in the shop,

Who was this kind of new age hippie kind of person,

And there were these crystals.

And she said,

Yeah,

If you hold onto these stones and you get the sense for which one is for you,

And different stones at different times,

Then you know you need to use different ones and they'll help you to heal.

And she taught me white light meditation,

Which was really helpful at times.

She said,

Yeah,

You're interested in meditation?

Yeah,

I am interested in meditation.

So what you do is you lie down on your bed and you just imagine white light and you fill your heart with white light and you just wash away all the.

.

.

And you just relax and you put yourself in a white bubble,

She said.

And so that was the beginning of my meditation practice.

I did that every day from the day she taught me.

And there were days when I was about to leave and I'm like,

Oh,

I haven't put myself in my white bubble yet.

The thing is,

There's probably been some summative practice in past lives,

Visualizing light or whatever.

But I was interested and I was looking for something.

And there were days when I didn't do it where I could feel like I felt dirty.

I hadn't washed my aura.

It really felt like that.

At 15,

So you must have practiced for a few lives.

I don't know.

But then something started to happen.

I got accepted to go to university and I didn't go because I knew I was wrong.

And I actually lied to my parents.

I told them I deferred.

But it was a course that you couldn't defer on.

You just had to reject it.

I rejected it and I told my parents I deferred for a year and I'm going to save up money.

I didn't save up any money and I didn't know what I was going to do.

So I went to the Hare Krishnas actually.

Because when I was 15.

.

.

Does Melbourne have this?

I'm sure you do.

You have the kind of civic pride festival where there's a parade or something.

So Brisbane has one of those.

It's called Worana.

And so I remember we were going to a movie and it was a Worana parade.

And the movie was Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds.

And there was my mum and there was my big sister and there was my twin brother and my younger brother.

And so we were watching the parade first and then we were going to watch the Cannonball Run.

And so the Hare Krishnas came by without their shoes and with their little bells and their shaved heads and their saffron robes.

Hare Krishna,

Hare Krishna,

Krishna Krishna,

Hare Hare.

And I was looking at them and they had a quality of radiance which I was very interested in and a quality of joy.

I remember looking at them and looking at my mum and looking at them and looking at my brothers.

And I really wanted to go with them.

I really wanted to go with the Hare Krishnas.

So I started going to the Hare Krishna restaurant at 15 and they have the vegetarian meal and the teaching and actually dancing with them and chanting with them.

And stuff on Sunday.

But I couldn't quite buy the doctrine that you'd get born as some milkmaid and get to live with this blue God in heaven and forever.

I liked the chanting and stuff but it didn't,

The philosophy and I couldn't quite buy it.

I'm sure I didn't understand it correctly but that's my memory of.

So I didn't join the Hare Krishnas.

I thought about it a lot when I was back in high school thinking maybe I should join the Hare Krishnas.

I didn't enjoy school.

But I started to pray.

This is actually a little interesting and I think what it was was this is my belief in devas because I think they help you how they can where you are.

They need to know what you want.

So I was like just searching what I'm going to do with my life,

What I'm going to do with my life.

And I was doing this white light visualisation.

One day I was in my department store and there was a book on the bookshelf and it was glowing white light.

I'm not lying.

I'm like that's really weird that book's glowing.

And it was called Reaching for the Other Side and it was by some new age guru called Dawn Hill.

And I and so I didn't have any money and my friend lent me the money.

Twenty dollars.

And in this book it had a prayer which was and I'd never been I'd never had any particular affinity with Christianity but it had a prayer to Christ.

And it said if you want a spiritual guide and if you want your life guided you have to pray and you should pray to Christ.

And I didn't have anything else.

I still remember the prayer because I did it every day.

It was in the name of Christ I call upon the spirits of light to stand guard at the doorway of my soul to protect me from the forces of darkness and delusion and lead me along a path of love,

Light and truth.

And so I started adding that to my white light meditation and somebody said at a coffee shop said you like meditation you should do the Goenka Vipassana retreat.

That was in Brisbane.

When I moved to Sydney and I was working in another coffee shop two people in that coffee shop had done the Goenka Vipassana retreat.

They said you should do the Goenka Vipassana retreat.

So I did.

And that was my introduction to Buddhism.

And I was thinking it was going to be like lying on the bed visualizing white light.

It's the hardest thing I did in my life.

I have to sit nine hours of meditation a day on the floor.

I'd never sat on the floor in my life.

There are bits,

Kind of these days,

Where people sit in chairs and things like that.

Because my teacher did it and he knew it was Goenka in the south and he was monk and he said he couldn't meditate because there were all these western women screaming out,

Literally screaming in the pain.

But apparently it's more reasonable now.

I was incredibly painful.

I remember.

But that changed my life because that's what completely reoriented my life.

Because it was all just pain.

Knee pain,

Back pain,

Shoulder pain.

And Goenka,

Start again,

Start again.

But this effort of just trying,

Just trying to start again,

You know,

Thank you Goenka very much,

Goenka-ji.

Start again,

Start again,

Start again.

It was like day seven that all of the pain disappeared.

And there was a feeling of coolness and there was a feeling of fullness in the heart.

A certain quality of fullness that I'd never felt.

And there was this recognition.

That's what I'm looking for.

And it lasted about three seconds and then all that pain came back.

But it was so nice.

And I had never felt that well,

That peaceful,

That full,

That content.

And then I really started to pay attention to what he was saying in those recorded talks in the evening.

And he was saying,

If you want the results of meditation,

You need to practice every morning,

Every day,

An hour in the morning,

An hour at night.

It's like anything.

Just like athletes train,

Meditators have to train.

It doesn't come easily.

Nobody says it's easy.

And I heard him and I made a commitment.

But it was like an hour in the morning and an hour at night for maybe three months.

Then it became an hour once a day.

Then it became 40 minutes.

Then it became 20 minutes.

But in that period of time I was already seeing something.

I still wasn't yet studying Buddhism.

But I knew it was the Buddhist methods and he talked about the Buddha a lot.

I wasn't convinced about precepts at all at that stage.

I was thinking.

How I understood what was okay by sexual conduct was if they want to do it and you want to do it,

It's okay.

That was my first interpretation of sexual misconduct.

Now I'm strictly celibate and happily so.

But alcohol,

I wasn't that into it.

But I was just saying,

One drink or whatever.

But you justify your kilesa.

And it's only when you keep them for a period of time that you really see the benefit.

And so I think the merit of doing that daily meditation practice,

I literally walked out of the coffee shop where I used to work with Yong,

Avi's husband.

We were working at the same vegan cafe in Glebe.

And I walked out of there,

And this is I think a past I have as well,

Was I was so fed up with myself.

I was trying to live,

I was trying to be happy.

I was trying to be happy and I was trying to be not too materialistic.

And I was a vegan.

And so my recipe for happiness was you should go to the beach a couple of times a week.

You should see a movie,

You should eat nice food,

You should have sex.

And I was miserable.

I was really miserable.

And so one of the things I hated was because I used to swim two kilometres three times a week.

That was another,

It was like a beginning of a meditation practice I think,

Because counting the breath and you're in the pool for 40 minutes.

And so I had a fairly attractive body swimming two kilometres three times a week.

And I was jogging and I was doing aerobics and boxing training as well,

It was ridiculous.

And I was miserable.

And the thing that really used to bug me was people thought I was a happy person.

Because I had this practice of being kind,

I was serving people their food.

Hi,

How are you?

They're being nice.

And inside when I was in my studio apartment I was really miserable and really depressed.

And I hated the disingenuousness,

I hated that people thought I was happy.

You didn't meet a nice girl?

I met many nice people.

But this is,

No this is part of this,

This is the thing,

There's got to have been some wisdom there.

Because there was that in me that,

Suppose one is with a beautiful person and I noticed that,

I fell in love several times.

And I noticed that there's a certain point where you don't love them as much as you did at first.

And what is it that noticed that?

And I noticed that this person is really attractive and a very nice person.

But you start to think about someone else even while you're having sex with them.

And so I was really confused,

I was like,

I've been told that this romance myth,

If you find someone who's attractive and beautiful and you're with them and you love them,

You'll be happy.

And I noticed but I don't love them as much as I did last week.

And I'm already starting to think about someone else.

And I had this feeling,

This is not love.

I don't know what it is but it's not love.

And I wasn't proud of it,

I was disgusted by it.

And I was very confused,

I was like,

How can it work for other people?

How come other people can fall in love and be happy but myself,

You know,

It wasn't working.

And so I was very confused about it.

And now I understand,

You know,

There is love but there is other things,

Isn't there,

In the sexual act?

We understand kamaraga,

Sexual passion,

Sexual lust,

It's achilles.

But there was,

Anyway,

There was that in me that was noticing these things and experimenting and I was not pleased with my life.

And so I had to clean this restaurant and I came out of the restaurant one day and I was so defeated,

I had to just admit that I didn't know how to be happy.

But I looked at heaven,

I looked to the sky and I made this plea for prayer.

Okay,

I admit it,

I don't know how to be happy.

And then I made a kind of determination,

I said,

Just looking skyward about 11 o'clock at night,

If you show me signs,

Lead me on the path towards true happiness,

I promise I'll follow.

And I meant it,

I really meant it.

I don't know who I was talking to but I meant it.

And then interesting things started to happen.

A few days later somebody forgot their copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand at the restaurant.

And I picked it up and I read and noticed that 95% of Thailand is Buddhist.

And I was thinking,

I was starting to think maybe I should go backpacking,

Maybe I should go traveling like Australians do when they're young.

And so a couple of weeks later it was payday and in those days we got it in an envelope as cash.

And I took out my wallet and I was taking out the money and I noticed this coin I'd never seen in my wallet.

And I asked my friend,

What's this?

It had like little stupas and it actually had the Thai King on it on the other side.

And I was like,

What's this?

She said,

That's five baht,

That's Thai money.

I'd never seen it before.

And I noticed the book and now the money.

The thing that was the clincher for me was I used to clean the fryer.

The fryer was Dorf brand.

What country is that made in?

Germany?

And the restaurant was Japanese inspired vegan food.

But there was this little pipe that was made out of galvanized iron and I used to have to clean the fryer once a week late at night.

And I'd never noticed this.

I'd been doing it for a year.

And so I'd already made my vow and I'd already had these two signs.

I'm putting on this pipe late at night.

My eyes are blurry and I'm filtering the oil.

There's one word on this pipe,

I've never noticed it before,

In English,

Thailand.

Now why on earth the galvanized pipe bit was made in Thailand?

I have no idea.

Didn't even say made in Thailand,

Just said Thailand.

And I made a vow,

Okay,

Within ten weeks I'm going to Thailand.

And I got my passport and I tried to save up money and I couldn't.

And it was like two weeks before I had to go.

I had no money.

I had my passport,

I had no money.

I sold my bed,

I sold my computer,

I sold my mountain bike,

I sold my carpet,

I had a Turkish rug.

I sold everything I could and I got a thousand dollars,

Which was quite a bit in those days,

20 years ago.

And I think it was about four days before I left,

Working at this restaurant,

This woman walked in.

She said,

Is there a job?

And I said,

Well I'm leaving so give us your details,

Maybe there is.

Where are you going?

And I said,

I'm going to Thailand.

She said,

I just came from Thailand yesterday.

And she said,

Why are you going?

And I said,

I want to go to the beach,

It's coming up to winter.

And I mentioned this in Buddhism.

She said to me,

I know where there is a meditation center on an island with a view of the ocean.

And she gave me the address.

She walked into where I worked and gave me the address.

So I spent nine months in Thailand,

It was the first overseas country I ever went to,

I spent nine months there.

And I spent five months at that meditation center.

And the teachers were westerners and they were teaching in English.

Methods that they were doing 10 day retreats and they had this program that you would sit one retreat and help them with the next retreat.

Sit one retreat.

So I think I did three or four of theirs and I helped them three or four.

And over a nine month period I spent five months at their center.

And that's when I think things really changed because they required that you keep the precepts.

And I couldn't help noticing that,

Although I had my own opinions about alcohol and sex,

I couldn't help noticing that when I was refraining I felt better.

And when I was meditating I had to meditate twice a day.

So for me I think a combination of many fortunate karmas that got me to that place.

And there's another thing as well.

Like if there was a meditation in Australia,

I don't think I could have done it.

There was something about the exoticness.

These tropical storms,

These coconuts,

These nuns.

There were these really fun old nuns and they were really funny and they used to tease me.

And I used to peel the coconuts for them and they used to make the coconut curry.

But they used to like spank me and things.

They were very funny.

And like 70 year old ladies.

They just feel it.

They're probably naughty,

They just give me a little spank.

But there's that kind of grandmother like,

Cantankerous kind of,

Just funny,

They were funny.

And so it was a combination of views of the sea,

Beautiful sunsets,

Amazing tropical storms,

Funny nuns.

And being away from Australia where I was miserable.

And all of that allowed the mind to sober up from keeping strict precepts.

And then I had to redo my visa in Malaysia.

And I broke a couple precepts.

And I came back and I had to not,

I just had to admit it's true.

You think that when you do this you'll feel better because a certain pressure is building up.

And you don't.

You're actually less happy.

And I could compare my mind state before I went for the visa run and when I came back from the visa run.

And I had to admit it.

It looks like the Buddha might have known what he was talking about.

And so a combination of many factors that,

And then I realized that I wanted to meditate a lot this lifetime.

I didn't want to go back to Australia but I ran out of money.

But I learnt massage in Chiang Mai during that period of time.

That came in incredibly handy because I got these really good stories out of Ajahn Anand by being able to massage.

That was very handy.

But I came back to Australia and I was living in Sydney.

It sounds a bit dramatic but I would wake up and before I was fully awake I was already crying.

That's how much I miss Thailand.

And there was this real sense of,

Because as a child I had this feeling that I was born in the wrong place.

And I had this feeling from a young age,

I was looking at my family and I was just kind of thinking,

No.

Wrong place.

Do you have a twin brother?

I do have a twin brother.

Did he talk to you?

Not close at all.

We shared rooms and we didn't talk to each other.

I'm pretty chatty.

He didn't like me much.

So I had this really disoriented feeling.

Even my name,

I thought,

This isn't my name.

Lydia can probably identify a pathology.

Anyway,

I came to Thailand and I was on this island and I went jogging.

I still remember the moment where I was by myself when I was around this hill and I was jogging.

And I stopped and I was looking at the sea and I was standing on this land and I felt,

Oh,

This feels like home.

Very interesting.

And then that's what made it possible to stay a longer time,

Nine months.

My first trip overseas was nine months.

And when I came back I would say,

Oh,

I wake up,

I was already weeping with,

Oh,

I want to go back.

So an interesting thing happened.

I have a friend of mine,

He said,

I see how you've changed from these meditation retreats.

I want to go and do one of those retreats.

And he said,

I don't want to wake you to save up the money,

So I'll offer you the plane ticket.

And then my best friend at the time,

She was studying shiatsu and other things because we were part of that kind of yoga hippie vegan crowd.

And she needed a place in town.

She said,

I'll rent your apartment because I just set up my apartment and I just started massaging at the hospice and I was trying to have this kind of Buddhist lifestyle in Sydney.

And she said,

I'll rent your apartment.

And these other guys said,

I'll offer you your ticket.

And so within about ten weeks I was back there again.

And it was on the second trip that somebody told me that there's a monastery for people who speak English in Ubon Ratchathani.

And so I went there and I,

Yeah,

It felt cool and it felt good.

But I never thought that I could be a monk.

I just thought that I'd like to,

But I never thought I'd be able to keep the rules.

But I had this experience of,

When I was there,

I had this experience of meeting people who really wanted to be,

But they had obstruction.

People had to go back and finish university or someone was putting their brothers through university or someone's parent was sick and they were taking care of them.

And I kept,

And I really believed in karma and rebirth.

And I had to notice something.

I had to notice all these people that wanted this opportunity,

That there were obstructions.

And then I noticed,

I don't have a debt.

I have five brothers and sisters,

My mum and dad,

Healthy.

Here there is a monastery where they're teaching in English,

Where they'll do your visa for you,

Where you're welcome to stay as a guest a long time.

And I had this feeling of this has to be the result of many lives of good karma and even must have prayed for the opportunity.

And I had this sense of,

I can't,

Even though I don't feel like I can do it,

I can't walk away from it.

I had that feeling.

And I also knew my artistic character.

I had the kind of a sense that I'd either be very good or very not good,

Judging by what I've seen so far.

So it really felt like a choice,

Okay,

Heaven and beyond or hell.

I said,

Okay,

I guess I'm going to try for heaven,

Heaven and beyond.

It wasn't easy.

Three o'clock morning rise and walking on sharp stones.

In those days they hadn't yet concreted the road.

It's like five kilometres of sharp stones on bare feet,

On an empty stomach.

And then the bowl's full of sticky rice.

And in these days they've got someone waiting at the corner and you can empty your bowl out.

In those days it didn't.

And these days they have people keeping eight precepts walking behind.

And in those days,

Sometimes you had,

Sometimes you didn't.

So you had to carry your Ajahn's bowl.

And you've got about five kilograms of glutinous rice in one bowl and the straps there.

And you've got the other bowl and the straps there.

There's experience of being strangled and suffocating.

Every footstep hurts.

And you have to get back and you've come from the beautiful life,

The vegan cafe with all the huggy types.

I didn't like the monks either.

They were so.

.

.

I know,

I looked back at it.

I don't know how I survived actually.

Well,

I made a few good friends.

And Ajahn Paswaner was very,

Very kind to me.

I was very lucky.

But many of the monks I just thought they were kind of cranky and critical and smelly.

And I wasn't particularly impressed.

So were they all best friends?

Yeah,

Mostly.

And they were always on about,

That's right,

That's wrong.

They always loved telling what was wrong about everything.

I just found it so boring.

They seemed to find that really interesting,

But I found it really boring.

That's not quite right,

You know.

And that's not quite what I like to argue about Buddhist philosophy and stuff.

And I just wanted to be peaceful.

And so I was pretty miserable.

But then the abbot,

I became his attendant.

He was very kind to me.

And then I ended up with a good friend who was a monk from England,

Ajahn Punyo.

So once I had a good friend and the abbot was kind to me,

That definitely helped.

And then I told you I went to the Emerald Buddha and asked for help.

I'm going to need more help to get through this.

And then not long after I met Ajahn Anand,

That was enormously helpful.

But there's a few things there.

I'm willing to share that story because to point out,

Obviously,

There's principles there as well.

One,

There's a sincere aspiration,

Isn't there?

When I was actually looking for something,

When people said you should go and do this retreat,

I did.

And I tried it and it was really,

Really difficult.

But I was willing to,

I was looking and I was willing to do it.

And then when Goenka said you should meditate every day,

I did.

And then when I said,

Okay,

If you send me signs,

I'll follow them,

They sent the signs I followed.

And so there was a sincerity.

But there's obviously also got to be a certain amount of supportive merit so that when you pray and ask for help,

Something responded.

So I'm very grateful.

That has to come,

Ajahn Bleehan,

When he went to Lumpok Bleehan,

Who's believed to be in Arahant,

When he went to Wat Nanachat,

He was talking to the monks and he said,

All of you here have been monks before.

So I suspect that's the case.

I don't think I'm special for having been a monk in previous lives.

I just understand that to be the case for all of us.

That if you're from another country and you get all the way to a monastery and you go forth as a monk,

There has to be some auspicious supportive circumstance.

You felt like you didn't belong here.

Right.

Wrong place.

And I felt at home in Thailand.

Even though I was a head taller than everybody and I did feel more at home.

You can't speak the language,

It's quite difficult the first few years.

Similarly in India,

I do feel quite at home in India.

Ajahn,

Even after being with you a few days,

When you teach as Jama,

You're a different person.

Yeah,

I think you're different.

It's coming from a wisdom.

She's saying,

Ordinarily I have no wisdom.

No,

I know what you're saying.

The thing is,

Monks have their personality and we're supposed to.

We're not supposed to be in this archetypal teacher mode all the time.

But when I'm teaching,

I set the intention to teach the very best I can in honor of what my teachers taught me.

So there's a lot of respect for the Dhamma and respect for my teachers.

And then respect for your sincere aspiration.

So I try to rise to the occasion.

Did Ajahn Ambedkar say that you had these lives where you were a monk?

Yeah,

That was the thing when I was really struggling.

He said,

It's like you're in this house,

It's on fire and there's nowhere to go.

But if you just keep patiently enduring,

The house is on fire.

But you'll have a place where you can rest and be aware of it.

And then I asked him,

Am I trainable and he said,

You have merit.

And he said it very emphatically.

It was very,

Very helpful.

It's good karma from somewhere,

But it wasn't until I went to live with him that I could ask more questions.

Did he give you a sense of that relationship,

Of keeping lives or was that quite.

.

.

He didn't tell me.

.

.

You have a life where you're kind of doing a holy life and then you have a life where other karma is keeping you in your own karma.

Yeah,

He didn't get that detailed.

And he only told me one thing per occasion and then you'd have to wait a good chunk of time.

It's not like tea leaves and tarot cards,

Giving you your past life regression thing.

He has to be very careful because if he tells that to publicly,

Then everybody wants to know that.

And he could end up being like this fortune teller that has to tell people about their past lives.

So he's very discreet and now even more than before,

Now that he's quite famous,

He's more careful about.

.

.

I'm sure his abilities are even better,

But he shares less.

But he would say things more like.

.

.

Because he wanted to affirm what I was doing,

He said.

.

.

He would just say,

You have a lot of merit.

And I'm like,

Why?

And he says,

You don't know how lucky you are to have met Ajahn Chah's teaching and Ajahn Chah's community.

And that must have merit as a cause.

So he would make more like statements like that.

And he said,

How many people in the world admit this training and come from another country?

So he would say things like that.

But it was very skillful because it was also affirming the value of what I was doing and where I was rather than saying I was special.

And it was only when I was much closer to him that I asked if I was a monk before.

No,

I actually had a dream.

I was actually practicing at Ajahn Dand monastery.

I was practicing very hard and I wasn't getting any rapture or any peacefulness.

And I got frustrated.

I was thinking,

Because like everybody,

I want amazing results quickly.

And I got frustrated.

And so I made this vow before sleeping.

I said,

If I can't get Jhana or if I can't get enlightened,

May I at least dream of a past life?

And just before I woke up in the morning,

I saw this monk in a dream walking towards me.

And he was,

Funny enough,

He was a white-colored monk.

And he had these bluey-green eyes.

In this dream,

I knew it was Afghanistan 1,

500 years ago.

And these monks walking towards me and I was like,

I know him,

I know him.

Who is it?

Who is it?

Who is it?

And I woke up and I was like,

It's me.

There's this incredible feeling of intimacy,

Of knowing that,

That bhikkhu.

And so I asked Ajahn and when I went back to what I had done,

I had this dream.

And he said,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Old memories.

But you have to work for these things.

You have to meet him halfway.

And you say,

Well,

I had this experience and can you confirm something?

Okay,

Let's dedicate merit.

Reviews

Fascinating and insightful, thank you for sharing your personal journey.

I wish some day I can come to your monestary and stay for few months.
With Metta
🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Very interesting and inspiring testimony. Thank you for opening your heart. I wish you all the best.

I really enjoyed hearing of your journey Ajahn and it was inspiring and incredibly relatable. 💗 I feel full of joy to sit and meditate today. Thank you for all your efforts and I wish you great success in your practice. May you always be happy and well. 🙏🏼 Boundless Metta 🙏🏼

Thank you for sharing honestly. Your dream of you being a monk 1500 years ago inspired me.
I also have felt I was born in a strange place and I never felt my family was my family.

A very engaging storyline! Thank you for sharing 🙏🙏🙏

A fascinating story. Your dream of your previous life as a monk is awesome. Thank you for sharing your story with so many of us.

Thank-you for sharing your experiences.

Namasté

Entertaining, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Interesting journey!

So endearing and enjoyable, thankyou Ajahn for sharing this part of you
🙇‍♀️💚🌺

You have to love a

Very interesting , enjoyable and relevant Thank you so much 🙏

Could have listened to more.

Wow. I really want to find my path like this guy did. He sounds so down to earth, or at least on my level. I have more fear than I thought. However, I’m open to the signs of the universe and will see where it leads.

Wonderful sharing of experience. Thank you so much.

Amazing! Many of the things you described in the beginning of your journey I feel to some degree, ie the familiarity I feel with meditation, like it is something I am meant to do! I am so grateful! Thank you!

Wow! I feel just like he did - miserable and don't know what to do with my life so i started on this Buddhist path. I was so inspired by his story

Good story - enjoyed it Ajahn!