Thursday 20th May
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Dhamma Talk with Ajahn Pannyavaro
At Baan Aree
(near Ari BTS)
“The Case for Insight”
How withdrawing into meditation benefits daily life!
The final event with visiting Australian Vipassana meditation teacher and senior Western Bhikkhu Ajahn Pannyavaro, abbot of Wat Bodhi Tree, Australia.
We are very glad and appreciative to be back at one of Bangkok’s most active Dhamma centres Baan Aree , located near the Ari BTS (see below), for this last event with Ajahn Pannyavaro.
6:00 pm gather and settle in
6:30 pm Dhamma Talk
7:15 pm Guided meditation for 30 minutes
7:45 – 8:00 Q&A
Topic
Meditation involves withdrawing from the bustle of daily life for an hour or two and directing the mind inwards. What is the benefit of this? How does the non-attachment gained benefit daily life? In his role as teacher and abbot of Bodhi Tree temple, and as a long term teacher at many centres around Australia, Ajahn Pannyavaro has lots of experience teaching Vipassana (Insight) meditation. Before he leaves Thailand this talk will be an encouragement to start, or keep up with a regular sitting and walking meditation practise.
Speaker
Venerable Pannyavaro is an Australian Buddhist monk, ordained for 30 years, who has devoted his life to the meditational aspects of the Buddha’s teachings. During his meditation training he practiced under several meditation masters in Sri Lanka and Burma including Venerable Sayadaw U Janaka of Chanmyay Meditation Centre, Rangoon, who is the foremost disciple of the renowned Burmese meditation master, the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.
Ven. Pannyavaro was ordained at Wat Borvornivet in Bangkok under Venerable Phra Nyanasamvarva, the Sangha Raja of Thailand.
For the past thirty years, he has studied and practiced meditation in most of the major Theravada Buddhist countries, including long periods of intensive practise of Satipatthana-Vipassana meditation at the Mahasi Sayadaw centres in Burma.
As a Western meditation teacher, Ven. Pannyavaro naturally empathizes with the concerns and needs of meditators in their own culture. His long training and life experience combine to bring a practical in-depth approach to the teaching of insight (vipassana) meditation in contemporary life.
Pannyavaro was the resident teacher with the Buddha Dharma Education Association Centre, Sydney and gives retreats from time to time at the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, Medlow Bath. Most recently he has set up Bodhi Tree monastery and retreat centre in Eastern Australia: http://www.buddhanet.net/bodhi-tree/
He is perhaps best known however for setting up and maintaining probably the internet’s most comprehensive resource on Buddhism : www.buddhanet.net
Location
Baan Aree Library is a thriving dhamma site with library, meeting hall, and lots of excellent events organised in Thai. The Library itself is open daily from 9 am – 7 pm and has a few books in English, including much of the Tripitaka (Scriptures). The new Dhamma Hall is airconditioned and set in the attractive grounds, with many very reasonably priced vegetarian food stalls open in the daytime.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Baan Aree as the place where our Little Bangkok Sangha first started with the generous offering of great facilities free of charge for the English speaking community in Bangkok. Our group would not have gotten going otherwise.
Baan Aree has regular Dhamma meetings in Thai which are listed at their Thai website: http://baanaree.net/ .
The Library is right on the Skytrain line. Go to Ari BTS station and walk back towards the victory monument about 20 meters and you should see the passage way to Baan Aree Library on the right hand side.
Do arrive early and meet with some of the regulars in the coffee shop in the compound. Baan Aree car park is accessible from the rear (Soi Ari 1) where you see the sign for ‘ BANANA FAMILY PARK ‘. Bus routes 8, 28, 29, 38, 54, 63, 74, 77, 108, 157, 177, 502, 503, 509, and 510 all pass by. Get out at Ari BTS Station.
click map to enlarge:
click map below for a wide area view of Baan Aree location:
Baan Aree, Bahn Aree, Bahn Ari, Baan Ari are all the same thing – just various transliterations from the Thai. The Skytrain station is usually written ‘Ari’, while the Library itself usually renders it as ‘Baan Aree’ .