The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings of Ajahn Sumedho

by Sumedho, Amaro (Introduction), Samanera Amaranatho (Editor)

Overview

The sound of silence is like a subtlety behind everything that you awaken to; you don't notice it if you're seeking the extremes. Yet as we start to become more poised, more present, fully receptive of all this moment has to offer, we start to experience it vividly and listening to it can draw us ever--deeper into the mysteries of now.

Always skillful and good humored, Ajahn Sumedho's teachings defy boundaries. Anyone--from laypeople looking to deepen their grasp of the Buddha's message, to lifetime Buddhist monastics--will appreciate the author's sparkling insights into to such key Buddhist themes as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body. The Sound of Silence represents the best of Ajahn Sumedho's masterful work to help us all see each life with a new and sustaining clarity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861719587
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	08/10/2007
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	583,649
File size:	776 KB

About the Author

For nearly fifty years Ajahn Sumedho has embodied the Buddha's way. As a young man he completed an M.A. at the University of California at Berkeley, was a medic in the Navy, and taught in the Peace Corps in Borneo. For twelve years, beginning in 1966, he studied closely with the renowned meditation master Ajahn Chah, who appointed him to be the first Western abbot of a Thai monastery. Now based in England, he is the spiritual head of a global community of monks and nuns.

Ajahn Amaro is abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in southeast England and author of numerous books and articles on Buddhist themes across traditions. Born in England in 1956, Ven. Amaro received his BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. He studied Buddhism in Thailand in the Forest Tradition and was ordained as a bhikkhu by Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah at Wat Pah Nanachat in 1979. He returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England, and in 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California. He lived there until 2010, when he was called back to Amaravati to assume the duties of abbot.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Introduction   Ajahn Amaro     1
Editor's Preface     15
Body Contemplation I     21
Here and Now     29
Intuitive Awareness     45
The Way It Is     61
Anatta     73
Identity     89
Body Contemplation II     101
Trust Your intuition     109
No Exit     119
When You're an Emotional Wreck     133
Suffering Should Be Welcomed     145
The Sound of Silence     161
The End of Suffering Is Now     171
Views and Opinions     183
Don't Take It Personally     195
Refuge in Awareness     213
Cittanupassana     227
Questions about Rebirth and Awareness     237
Ideals     247
Consciousness     255
Thinking and Habits     267
Form and Convention     281
Trusting in Simplicity     291
Observing Attachment     303
Ending     309
Toward the Future     321
Not Looking for Answers, Not Asking for Favors     331
Appendix     337
Glossary     339
Index     347
About the Author     361