Biography
Ajahn Martin Piyadhammo has lived as a Buddhist forest monk in jungles of Thailand for 20 years in the Thai Forest Tradition founded by Luangphu Mun (1870-1949). He stayed at Wat Pa Baan Taad for many years under the guidance of Luangta Mahā Bua (1913–2011) who was widely considered to be the successor of Lungphu Mun. Ordained in Thailand as a Buddhist monk in December 1995, he has lived there ever since, going on tudong (journeying alone in solitude through the forests) for a few months each year and meditating about 14 hours every day.
Martin was born in Stuttgart in 1957. From an early age, he had a penchant for tinkering with things, and he subsequently studied electrical engineering. With a Fulbright scholarship, he went to the USA to extend his studies to computer engineering and to work entirely in the university sector. After graduation, he worked in a research lab on image analysis and artificial intelligence in Hamburg. Also involved in the 'Scientists for Peace' campaign, he was earning enough money to be happy with his life. However, he was not. Instead, he felt dissatisfied, as if something was gnawing at his heart.
At the end of the 1980s, he discovered meditation. Soon after, he met his first meditation teacher - Vimalo Kulbarz, who taught him sitting and walking meditation in line with the Theravada tradition. At first, it was hell for him to sit still and watch his mind, but he stuck with it, and at the end of a ten-day meditation retreat with Vimalo Kulbarz he discovered a silence which filled him completely. "It was similar to coming out of a loud disco at three o'clock in the morning and finding oneself suddenly immersed in the silence of the street. Starry night is all around, the silence permeates everything, and the sound of the disco has fallen away ", he recalls. From this point onwards, he vowed to continue with the meditation practice that had given him such joy. He built his life around meditation, practicing in the morning by sitting one hour before going to work, and for one hour again in the evening.
In the summer of 1990, he again went on a retreat with Vimalo Kulbarz, at the end of which a kind of 'breakthrough' experience occurred, a state of inner rapture (piti) that can occur when the mind comes to rest. This experience lasted for three whole days, and was the decisive catalyst for dramatic change. Martin decided to go into homelessness, but making the decision was a terrible heartache; as he says, "Whenever I thought about it, it seemed like sharp needles were piercing my heart."
The two experiences of inner stillness and great joy, which deeply affected his heart, helped to sustain him on the path and to march forward without deviating, for they made the external sparkling world look pale by comparison. He still went to work, met friends and had a girlfriend, but none of these things had the same power to touch him, such was the experience of absolute silence and the 'uplift of the heart'. Finally, in March 1991, he decided to leave the research lab, gave away all his belongings and went into homelessness, i.e. without worldly goods and living in monasteries.
He needed to be able to focus fully on his practice. He realized that the meditation practice which he was doing regularly was still inadequate for the task. As Ajahn Martin explains, "Wisdom has to be developed, and it doesn't arise by thinking about this or that in the usual worldly way. Our thinking does not lead to insight; it remains stuck in the ordinary world, the world of ideas and concepts. Rather, we have to reach the heart (citta). A person who does not see through his worries, fears and troubles remains a prisoner of the darkness, for these are veils which cover and obscure our minds and hearts – and in darkness no realization is possible. In this darkness, we do not, in fact, rule our own lives, but are ruled by the defilements (kilesas) in our hearts. As long as we have not gained any clarity of mind, we will always be deceived by the false promises of the deceitful mind. We know that it does not make us happy when we give in to its enticements and promises, yet we follow them again and again. Maybe I would be happier in a new job? Maybe it would be easier not to tell the truth? Maybe today I should skip meditation and rest instead? With questions like these, we should ask ourselves, 'who is the one who suggests these things?' and 'where do these impulses come from?'. If we continue to ask such things persistently, always going back and anchoring ourselves on the mediation object, usually the breath as it comes in and out, then we will arrive suddenly at a point of certainty. We will reach the 'observer' who knows. Once we become one with this 'knowingness' in the state of deep samādhi, in absolute one-pointedness, then everything around us, including the world, disappears. If everything collapses into one point, duality ceases to exist".
It was this goal that Martin began to glimpse more clearly during the early stages of his practice, the goal that he desired to attain permanently.
For four years, he lived in various Theravada monasteries in England and with Ayya Khema at Buddha House in Germany. But he found that he barely had adequate time or opportunity to practice meditation, being involved in different activities. He also felt dissatisfied with the teaching he found in Europe. No one could show him the way to overcome greed and hatred.
It became clear to Martin that he would not reach his goal in the West. He had read the book, 'Straight from the Heart' from the famous meditation master Than Ajahn Mahā Bua who was abbot of the forest monastery at Baan Taad. Instinctively, he realized that Than Ajahn Mahā Bua knew the whole Truth, and that if he himself wanted to discover it, he would have to take him as a teacher. At that time, Wat Pa Baan Taad was known for being a very tough place and Than Ajahn Mahā Bua a very strict teacher.
In 1995, Martin flew to Thailand and arrived at Wat Pa Baan Taad. Residents in the monastery, mainly Buddhist monks, were expected to meditate all day long, and this was exactly Martin's burning desire. It was only after being accepted as a disciple by Than Ajahn Mahā Bua that he learned that this great teacher had not accepted any new Western students for more than a decade. Than Ajahn Mahā Bua made an exception for Martin, and told him on a later occasion, "I am your teacher. If you're going to drink coffee, just drink coffee and go back to your meditation. Do you understand?". Martin could not speak Thai at this time, but nevertheless the meaning became clear as Than Ajahn Mahā Bua spoke to him. It was also clear to Martin that he had come to the right place; his first meeting with Than Ajahn Mahā Bua was like coming home. "It was as if I had met my father and mother wrapped up in one person, and it was immediately clear that I was in the right place", he explains. After nine months in the forest monastery, Martin was ordained as a Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu) in December 1995, and has been a monk ever since. His monastic name is Than (Thai: venerable) Martin Piyadhammo, where 'Piyadhammo' is a Pali word that can be translated as 'the one who has perfect confidence in the Dhamma'.
He spent the first five years living inside the monastery walls, except for when he went on daily alms round in the local village or when he went to the city once a year to renew his visa. Meditation practice was no walk in the park, of course, but Than Martin went deeper and deeper into practice as the years progressed. If obstacles arose, and problems came up, he used his previous life experience to overcome them, reflecting that whatever he had experienced in his life prior to homelessness had led to nothing but dissatisfaction (dukkha). In ordinary life, he had never experienced the satisfaction and joy that came from meditation, so he reflected that it would not be sensible to return to the 'everyday' world of a layperson. "And if those reflections were ineffective", he says laughing, "I thought back to my childhood and youth. Would I want to repeat the confusions and torments of school or puberty? No thanks!". It was clear for him that he did not want to be reborn again.
These reflections were enough to make him continue practicing. His teacher, Than Ajahn Mahā Bua, was also doing his part. "He kept coming at the right moment ", Ajahn Martin recalls. "Sometimes I didn't see them [the kilesas coming up], of course, and then my teacher would point them out to me, sometimes not in a nice way, as if to say, "What the hell do you think you are doing, do you know yourself?" That was the way of his admonishment. He wasn't whispering, "Dear little brother, you have a black spot on your trousers, maybe you'd like to get rid of it?" He wasn't using soft language like that. Rather he used the language of the tiger, for if there are no tigers in the monastery the teacher has to be the tiger to scare the monks that dare to show off their kilesas."
When his five years of apprenticeship in the monastery were over, Than Martin went on 'tudong' ( journeying alone through the forests) around the surrounding provinces for two to five months each year, returning thereafter to Baan Taad forest monastery to live with his teacher. At first, he spent his periods of solitude at a very remote monastery, initially with five other monks but eventually with only one other monk. He preferred to be alone on tudong, spending time in caves located far away from the villages and largely undisturbed, so that his daily alms round might take from one to two and a half hours, depending on the location of the cave.
Even before becoming a monk, he had already a strong base of sati and samādhi. So his main focus was now on body contemplation and especially 'asubha' practice (seeing the loathsomeness of the body) using samādhi once in a while to rest the citta. In the forest tradition, the practice of asubha or seeing the loathsomeness of the body is one of the key practices to overcome sexual craving and greed and hatred. As Ajahn Martin explained in one of his talks: "I practiced meditation for 6 years in Europe and when I came here, I had to start anew. Because nobody was really teaching asubha in the West, nobody was really teaching how to get rid of the root of greed and hatred". He often teaches that this body is the pot where the plant of greed and hatred grows. Once we destroy the pot –i.e the body or our view about the body, the plant of greed and hatred has to die.
After 2002 an increasing number of German people came to visit Wat Pa Baan Taad . Ajahn Paññavaddho – who was responsible for instructing western lay visitors - asked Ajahn Martin to take on the instruction of these German visitors who wished to know more about the Dhamma. Two years later, in 2004, Ajahn Paññavaddho died, and the teaching of lay visitors was shared between Ajahn Dick and Ajahn Martin. After Ajahn Dick left the monastery in 2007, Ajahn Martin carried the sole responsibility for teaching lay visitors about Dhamma and meditation.
Since 2006, at the request of a group of western laypeople, the Dhamma talks of Ajahn Martin have been regularly recorded. This website now contains all of Ajahn Martin's recorded talks in English, German and Thai. Most of the talks from 2006 to 2017 were given to laypeople at Baan Taad Forest Monastery who wished to receive instruction on Dhamma and meditation. Most of the newer talks (from 2017 onwards) were given to laypeople and newly ordained western monks at Wat Phu Khong Tong (Nong Bua LamPhu province) where Ajahn Martin is currently vice abbot. These talks have not been corrected and therefore should not be transcribed or translated into another form without Ajahn Martin's written consent. If you have any questions about the content of the talks, please send an email to th.forest.dhamma@protonmail.com.
contents extracted from here
Dhamma
《Let go of jhana ,access concentration is enough》
Student : I have been practicing buddho for 2-3 months ,and I practice for over 6 hours a day, but still cannot get into jhana, any tips to enter into jhana?
Ajahn martin: why do you want to enter into jhana?
Student: I want to experience the bliss of jhana
Ajahn martin: I mean not everybody can experience jhana.
Student: yeah, but how can I enter into jhana?
Ajahn martin: jhana practice is a very difficult practice. My venerable master teacher says that if you really want to practice a jhana, you have to be somewhere on a getaway for 18 years before you can do it. Within 18 years, you maybe able to enter into sotapanna, sakadagami, anagami, arahantship. So why do you practice a jhana? Enter into samadhi. Have you enter into samadhi yet?
Student: yeah, but not the level of jhana, just samadhi
Ajahn martin: yeah, that is enough. When you go into samadhi, you know that there are two stages of samadhi, the upacara samadhi when there is no thoughts no memory coming up, still you know stillness leaving but when you go deeper, when you stick with your buddho, stick with the breath, until you cant take one more thought, then you jump into this knowingness , and everything disappears. This you can do, this doesn’t require, people who can enter into jhana this life, are mostly the people who practiced jhana in their previous life. So if you have never practiced jhana in the previous life, you never can go into it, it is just pretty much impossible for you to get into jhana , so don’t worry about it, it is a waste of time. Samadhi is the thing you need. Because when you come out of samdhi, our mind is very clear and sharp. And when our mind is very clear and sharp, then you can do the investigation, cutting down the fetters that bind us in the realm of birth and death, so end the realm of rebirth. Understand ?
I don’t know where you get the idea from that people can get into jhana. Luang ta maha bua, my venerable teacher never taught about the jhana. If you really want to practice, you practice in solitude. If you happened to enter into jhana , you practice it in your previous life. But you don’t end up, just end up to samadhi, that is enough. You want to go out of the cycle of birth and death. And you know 6 hours is very good time , how many months have you do this?
Student: 3 months.
Ajahn martin : you should at least go into upacara samadhi, can be able to stay in upacara samadhi for an hour or so.
Student :I don’t know whether it is upacara samadhi, but my mind is very still, sometimes a little bit piti arises, but it vanishes right away.
Ajahn martin : you have made a mistake! When the piti arises, the piti arises because of your practice, so don’t go to the piti. Stay with the buddho and the piti increases
Many people don’t understand , when there is a feeling arises because of our work, compare the work of samadhi to digging a hole. The longer we dig, the deeper the hole is . When we stop and watch how deep the hole is , it will fill up. And this is the same thing, when you go into these feelings, being the feeling of stillness or being the feeling of piti or whatever it is , it will disappear because you don’t remember the thing that bring up piti is concentrate on the buddho and breath.
Try the next three months, six hours a day and don’t go into the piti , and see what is happening. Maybe you have the opportunity of having jhana in your previous life, then it comes on its own. Don’t try to make something , because upacara samadhi you don’t really make anything, because there is nothing you want, there is no dukka , there is no desire. In upacara samadhi, you do not think anymore, and without thinking without intentions, there is no dukka
Student : is it ok for me to start my investigation right when the buddho starts? Like I chant buddho buddho and I am already aware of the impermanence of this thought of buddho, is it ok?
Ajahn martin ; ya, only when the mind is , when you rested your mind in samadhi, then after the mind is clear, when there is no more thoughts and memories coming up, then you stay there for a while , then when you come out from samdhi, then you can investigate anicca anatta and dukka , or you can investigate the body , or you can investigate, go back into the memory lane, when I was born, I was there to train my body ,and then and then, go though the life , extend the life , getting sick , you know , getting old , and then die. Together understanding , it is not our life, just we have a new car, we have to train the car, and then in the end you put it into the scap yard and then you look for another car. It is the same, you have this body, you train it for 18 years , then it works ,it get strength of 30 years , and then it slowly decay and die, and then you look for a new body. You do that over and over again, unless you investigate, your attachement to the body .
You have to investigate that the body is nonself, that the body and the citta are two different things. You can feel the body , but who is the one who feels the body? Its not the body who feels the body . Who knows about the thought, thought cannot feel the thought, subject cannot be object. So we work to the subject, there is a thought , and the thought arises and cease. Know the memory arises and ceases, know the same thing about the body. The body is born and then it dies. It gets old , get sick and it dies. Know that anicca, anatta, that you are not the thought , not the memory. Because you believe you are the thought, that is where you get into trouble . You believe you are the memory , then you can get into trouble. You believe you are the feeling. I feel good , or I feel sad. There is a feeling of sadness , and you can look at it , and then you can eradicate the thought of desire.
You let it do it in everyday’s life . You know the friend that you see, you are not your friend . Just because you are seeing it is not you. Just because you know he is there or she is there, it is not you.
9-12-23 Q&A
《ajahn martin teahes a disiple how to deal with spirit》
17-12-22 Q&A
*AJAHN martin is luang por mahabowa's pupil
student: I have been haunted by a spirit for 2 years,have been feeling a heay moving object on my chest . it stops me from studying because it weakens my cita, sometimes it is hard for me to focus on the meditation object like buddho , thus making me drowsy.
I have seen many ajahns and tried transfering merits after sanghadana, also bow at him for forgivesness, but someone with divine eye says that he doesn't accept , just want to take revenge .
Could ajahn please advise or be a mediator?
Ajahn martin: did you talk to him?
Student: I cannot communicate with him
Ajahn martin: what is it? Does it possess you? Or just around you?
Student:in my body, I can feel it
Ajahn martin: does it change your behaviour?
Student : At first when it comes into my body I think so, I become crazy and I lose control of myself, but now I am normal.
Ajahn martin: This spirit cannot enter if you have a very strong citta. So you have to build up your citta. The spirit cannot enter , if you have a lot of sati, a lot of awareness, awareness of what is going on. A sopirit can only enter your body when you are weak in mind, a very weak mind. So if you have a very strong mind, very determined, then the spirit cannot do anything, it cannot possess you. And you do not have to be afraid of it, fear of the spirit. You allows it to come. Ya, so don’t be afraid of it ya . Fight it with meditation ya. It dosen’t matter, if the buddha appears at the moment , you notice the buddha disappears and bring it back.
Student. Ya but like the citta is very weakened by it and I easily feel drowsy, hardly can I build up the sati. I practise every day for one hour –walking meditation or sitting meditation—but it doesn’t work very well. A friend of me teaches me white kasina ,saying that by practising white kasina I can protect myself with it. I try to imagine, but it fails, it just stop me from thinking anything.
Ajahn martin: if it stops you from thinking anything, it is fine. This is how samadhi meditation works—to stop thinking . When we want to be present, what happens here is if you use buddho or whatever object you use say anapanna sati. The moment the mind get calm, it likes to go to sleep . And there itrs where you need to counteract. The mind tells you—now I am tired, now I want to go to sleep ; and this is the thought that you comes to serve a separate time before you go drowsy and fall asleep. So you counteract the thought and say ‘ no, I want to stay awake’ and then you stay awake.
No mater other spritis possess you, what possess you now is the kilesa , they tell you what to do. They tell you who you are, where you are and so on , it constantly tells you . It tells you I am hungry , to do this , it tells you I want to sleep ya.
So you think like this: you are possessed by the kilesa , just like everybody around you . They all are possessed by the kilesa , that’s really matter. If you are possessed by another being, then it tells you what to do. The more you fight the kilesa,. Not to give in to the wantingor the desire, the stronger you are and the outside spirit cannot possess you .
Student: so my main direction is to build up my practice until it goes away
Ajahn martin: I mean how old are you?
Student:22
Ajahn martin: I mean you remember how you learn to walk?
Student: forget.
Ajahn martin: try to remember it, I mean you got up and fall down , you get up and you fall out but you always try, it took about a year ya. Ask your mother, it takes you a year for you to be able to walk . Once you walk you started to run. And this is the same with the practise, the same with to read. There is nothing we can read and learn from reading , it is something to practise . So don’t give up!
I mean not only do one hour a day but 2 hours a day. One hour in the morning and one hour in the evening . And if you have free time, I mean to do three hours .
Student :three hours hehe . I mark it down. .
Ajahn martin martin: it’s the same thing, when you go to school and you have one class per week, you don’t remember , the more often you do the meditation , the better it is , the more you strengthen your citta . And don’t feel upset if it dosen’t work out . I mean I know the young generation is so impatient , they want to work it now! NO! its not possible ! meditation takes a long time to build up.
If you feel like you are drowsy, then you open your eye, throw some water into your eye and continue , write that down !
Student: drowsiness is one obstacle that I face with , another obstacle is that I become very bored
Ajahn martin: yeye, that is so typical , every person who starts meditation has the same problem .
Student: how do I overcome it?
Ajahn martin : to overcome is to have interest . You should be more interested as to how is the buddho or how is the breath . Do you take buddho or you take anapanasati？
Stuident : usually walking meditation and aware of my own body
Ajahn martin: NoNo, you have to have a fix object , if you concentrate on the breath, the point of concentration should be around the nose . The whole biody it shifts too easily . Or if you are on the buddho you concentrate on the buddho . At the moment you know the concentrartion goes or the buddho goes away , then you bring it back to the buddho . You always have to have an anchor . If you don’t have an anchor, you are from Singapore? Ya ,if you go on a ship, and it flows in the water to any direction if it doesn’t have an anchor . So to have an anchor, a point where you can always rely on and that is where we can put our attention always at that point .with the buddho or being around the nose .
Student: So I treat buddho as my anchor point , so I practise until I go into jhana right? To overcome..
Ajahn martin: forget about jhana, samadhi is enough . I mean every body wants the jhana . Samadhi is enough until you get calm, until there is no thoughts and memories coming up. When you observe the buddho, observe if it is fast , if it is slow , if it is continuous , observe if it is at the beginning or at the end . If it’s the end observe it is at the pause , you know, observe and then the next buddho. Be interested in it . Look at whatever kind of hobby you have .
Most of the hobby they doesn’t have the hobby anymore , they just playaround with the smart phone . This is the worst draining, I mean if you have to smartphone, use it as little as possible . Don’t just scroll through, this takes over your ability to concentrate
Student: yaya, true.
Ajahn martin : because you go so quick , that means your mind is very quick going forth and back , and meditation is just the opposite , you staying at the same point . So use the smartphone as little as possible , just when it is important then use it . That also helps your concentration to grow . ok? Understood?
Student :understood! Thankyou ajahn !
《do arahants love themselves the most too?》
17-12-22 Q&A
*AJAHN martin is luang por mahabowa's pupil
Student : the buddha says that everyone loves themselves the most , do arahants love themselves the most too? Does the loving kindness they have to themselves more than they have on others?
Ajahn martin:the lord buddho is correct, everybody loves themselves the most. An arahant doesn’t love himself , because there is no self that he can love . They have overcome self . The path to liberation is to overcome self , because then you are free. If you overcome self, then you love everybody , not the love that the rest is streming with oil, I mean the love that is the compassion to every being, you don’t differentiate
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