Ajahn Sumedho Podcast by Amaravati Why I Became a Buddhist Monk
Oct 22, 2024
Opening chants set a contemplative mood. The speaker describes a lifelong search for meaning that led from Christian doubt to Zen, haiku and Theravada practice. He recounts confronting repressed anger, witnessing emotions, and a luminous shift to radiant clarity. Topics include meditating on space and consciousness, reframing suffering as universal, and finding compassion through shared awareness.
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Practice Over Doctrine
- Buddhism appealed because it encourages direct investigation of life's experience rather than accepting taught answers.
- Ajahn Sumedho says this personal inquiry motivated his path into monastic life.
Discovering Zen In San Francisco
- Ajahn Sumedho describes reading D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts in Golden Gate Park and discovering Zen through haiku and The Way of Zen.
- This early encounter seeded his deeper interest in Asian spiritual traditions.
Peace Corps To A Hut In Nongkai
- He joined the Peace Corps, worked in North Borneo, then moved to Thailand to study Theravada and ordain as a novice monk in Nongkai.
- He practiced a stylized Bangkok technique then retreated alone in a hut to deepen meditation.
