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Product Details
Paperback: 184 pages
Publisher: Paraview Special Editions; Special edition (September 15, 2004)
"Paul has produced a real treasure. Many here felt that they got the message of Ajahn Chahs presence." -- - Ajahn Amaro, Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
"We are obliged to Paul Breiter for giving us A Still Forest Pool. This book will be a useful companion." -- - The Middle Way
From the Inside Flap
"Paul has produced a real treasure. Many here felt that they got the message of Ajahn Chahs presence for the first time." - Ajahn Amaro, Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
"We are already obliged to Paul Breiter, along with Jack Kornfield, for giving us A Still Forest Pool. This book will be a useful companion." - The Middle Way
"Pauls depictions of life at Wat Pah Pong in the early seventies were delightful and helped us develop a sense of the origins of many of the modes of practices and training that are carried on today. Also, Pauls sense of humor and numerous experiences with Ajahn Chahs fierce training were greatly enjoyed." - Fearless Mountain, Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery newsletter
I've bought and read both Being Dharma and Still Forest Pool, and enjoyed them very much. But Venerable Father is far superior to them in giving this soft American a real idea of what it was like studying under and living with Ajahn Chah. I both envy Paul Breiter for his experience, and am really glad it was him rather than me going through it! :)
But seriously, this humble yet assured voice resonates throughout the book. Yes, it is the skill and compassion of Luang Por that is responsible for the quality of much of the book, but truly Breiter's frank evaluations of his experiences during and after life as a forest monk makes this much different from other, more traditional memoirs that I have read. I'm not saying that he's enlightened with a capital E, but during the course of the book the training (when fully followed, as Ajahn Chah taught) seems to automatically make the monks into more awake, more compassionate, less suffering people. The importance of even trivial-sounding Vinaya rules becomes apparent, and thus Chah's way is illuminated.
The sections of the book after he disrobes are even better. You can take the monk out of the forest (and his robes), but you can't take the forest out of the monk. These chapters were poignant and in some cases very funny indeed. Ajahn Chah's total intuitive understandng, and effortlessly devastating criticism, of Mahayana double-talk was especially amusing. For instance, to the Mahayana claim that we don't need to do anything to improve because our nature is originally perfect, when he says that's like saying if you put sh*t on a silver platter, you don't need to clean it before eating from it because the platter was originally clean!Read more ›
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Venerable Father, I didn't want to put it down A 1970's true story of a western monk in Thailand monasteries, living the monk's life while living with and under the guidance of the very well respected Ajahn Chah. Entertaining and sometimes very funny, or other times almost painful is the image as you read, the story tells of the monk's real day and night life, the rules of practice, the daily and seasonal routines of practice, the tasks of maintaining the place, the meals, the living arrangements, and all the walking they do. Then there are the joys, hardships, issues, occurances and problems. It's interesting to find out how the monastic community tends to lay visitors and newly ordained monks, offering the teachings to one and all, even to children who are sent by their parents. It's a lot of work for the monks and Ajahns, often at it very late at night only to rise at three a.m. to do their own practice. But then in turn you read of lay people showing great reverence, bringing dona, meals, cloth, and caring for a monk outside the monastery grounds, when he goes out for alms, or into town to see a doctor for instance. He tells of other mundane life instances you don't generally get to read about. You really get a sence of, and then wonderment of how they do it. A deep appreciation grows.
A major aspect of the book is directed at Paul's path of Buddhism, through the wisdom and sometimes harsh guidance of Ajahn Chah. A monk is faced with many hardships and questions, and the enlightened Ajahn Chah's direction and answers were not often what Paul expected or wanted, but there was always so much love, friendship and faith in this joyous Ajahn's wisdom grew.Read more ›
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
I found Paul Breiter's "Venerable Father" poignant and compelling, both as a reminder of what it was like to come of age in those years of the 1970s and as a happy experience of the great friendship two persons can share.
First, the honest searching of a privileged generation for authenticity in life has largely been forgotten, or washed away in commercialism and popular culture. But Breiter's memoir is like turning a page back to the good and the bad of those times, but mostly to the energy and naivete.
Second, and relevant to all readers, is the insight into human friendship the book offers; albeit on an unconventional level more often pigeonholed as student-pupil or master-disciple.
In this case, the book is about basic human love, something that transcends Buddhism or any particular sect or religion. Obviously, Ajahn Chah saw something of himself in Breiter, perhaps a kindred humility and humor embodied in a younger person from a vastly different superficial world. And Breiter found a kindred spirit in the venerable father, but one who had learned and traveled his own way, and who saw the value in this young wayfarer.
Watching their relationship unfold, and with it Breiter's own inner evolution, proved immensely involving as a story. It was also spiritual on a gut level - and without any didacticism or heavy-handedness; certainly what Ajahn Chah embodied and the best testament one friend could offer to another.
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From the moment I picked this book up I could not really put it down until I finished it. It took about two days and the feast was over. I go frequently to the branch monasteries of Chah in the UK, Chithurst and Amaravati - the fantastic food, the beautiful gardens and land dedicated to wildlife and contemplation. None of this possible without Chah. But this book gives the other side. I can only paraphrase from a cynical card sent to a friend after reading this book:
"There was a spiritual sadist called Ajahn Chah. Western disciples flocked to him. The food was so bad that you couldn't have been paid to eat it. The disciples suffered sleep deprivation, starvation, not being allowed to get into a comfort zone, cholera and typhoid. Some of those that survived are now the abbots of 20-500 acre monasteries in BUANC (Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada) - living in comparative luxury compared to the huts, hard wooden floors and privations of a forest Wat. There are people running around them desperate to feed them - some of these monks may even be genuine. Religion is a funny thing."
As this book points out, a monastery is at best like a hospital though a comparison to military barrack life is not far off - there was a hierarchy, you had to put up with orders, tight discipline and having your complaints thrown right back at you. You had to try and put in five years ....
I don't think things at the Buddha's time were so different somehow. In the Mahaparinibbana sutta, when a monk called Subaddha (not the Subaddha who had a deathbed conversation with the Buddha) hears of the Buddha's final nibbana, he says - good, now we won't be ordered around and forced to do things we don't like (words to that effect).Read more ›
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