Your favourite contemporary teachers

Pictures of revered teachers, places, rupas, temples, bhikkhus, shrine rooms etc. that bring inspiration to our members. Pilgrimage advice, devotion etc.
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Zom
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Zom »

1) Ven. Ajahn Jayasaro - for his sincerity, for his skill to explain Dhamma via his personal understanding and practice (and not just by learning commentaries, suttas, ect., and repeating what is said there).

2) Ven. Bodhi Bhikkhu - for his learning, for his translations, and for the middle-way approach to theravada texts.

:candle: :buddha2: :candle:
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by befriend »

munindra
dipa ma
john daido loori (zen)
ajahn chah
chas dicapua
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Alobha
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Alobha »

Too many to list but i'd specially like to mention:

Bhikku Gavesako
Bhikku Pesala
Bhikku Samahita

Thanks for hanging around here!
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by cooran »

Bhikkhu Bodhi
Bhikkhu Pesala
Patrick Kearney
Sujin Boriharnwanaket
Satya Narayan Goenka
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farmer
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by farmer »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Ajahn Succito.

I've never met him, but I've found a lot of useful perspective in his writing and dhamma talks. He strikes me as having deep, empathetic insight into individual and interpersonal psychology and a talent for connecting those insights with the concepts the Buddha used to analyze the mind. His book "Kamma and the end of Kamma" helped me see family life as an opportunity for, rather than a distraction from, practice. It improved my marriage, helped me grow up a little, and best of all, it is free:

http://www.forestsangha.org/index.php?o ... hn-sucitto" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ajahn Succito talks quite a bit about the frustrations and frictions that go with living in a monastic community -- good medicine for anybody who sees monastic life as a way to escape the dukkha inevitable in living with other people.
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by mikenz66 »

The ones I have personal access to.

:anjali:
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bodom
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by bodom »

farmer wrote:I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Ajahn Succito
I did.

I really enjoyed his book Turning the Wheel of Truth and enjoy listening to his online talks.

Turning the Wheel of Truth
http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Wheel-Tru ... 159030764X" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Cittasanto »

Well besides the Monastics who frequent here, who are invaluable members, I would include (and have added two member monastics I feel deserve special note)
Sitagu Sayadaw
Ajahn Liam
Ajahn Munindo
Ajahn Amaro
Ajahn Vajiro
Ajahn Ghandhasilo
Venerable Pasala
Venerable Bhikshu Hufieng (hope the spelling is correct)
Venerable Analayo
Michael Kewley
and last but not least Greagory Krahmer.

I could continue, but the list would be just people I liked then.

Except for Venerable Analayo I have met each of these teachers, and whether they know it or not have given me fine examples, even if I havn't lived up to their examples. and those who are underlined have changed my opinion in a big way, even if they hadn't done so directly.

They are also not necessarily in order of how much I like them but Vassa/when I met them in person.
Last edited by Cittasanto on Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Goofaholix »

Sayadaw U Teganiya
Ajahn Viradhammo
Ajahn Jayasaro
Stephen Batchelor
Shaila Catherine
Stephen Armstrong

... and if I were to add some I haven't met, or who have passed away...
Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Thanissaro
Charlotte Joko Beck
Shunryu Suzuki
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Kokoro
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Kokoro »

For me it would be:

Ajahn Brahmavamso
Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Punnadhammo
Ajahn Brahmali
Bhikkhu Samahita
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Buckwheat »

Besides the many great teachers already listed, I would like to add a few that mabye don't teach dhamma (or at least not Theravada), but they certainly teach the heart of the dhamma:
Lin Jensen
Steve Hagen
Genpo Roshi (even if he sometime teaches by showing us what not to do)
My parents
The little sense of mystery and suspicion that lets me believe the Buddha may have been onto something instead of being on something.
Mother nature, her topography, ebb and flow, flora and fauna, rocks and water, soil and space, human shame and human dignity.
Zen wrote:Before practice, there are mountains and valleys. During practice, there are no mountains and no valleys. After practice, there are mountains and valleys.
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Bodom,
You forgot to put me on your list... just kidding, but that is quite a long list. If you had to pick your top 5 (most influential - however you decide to determine that), who would you pick? The reason I ask is from your previous posts I respect your opinion, but I need to know where to start on your list.
Sotthī hontu nirantaraṃ - May you forever be well.
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bodom
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by bodom »

buckwheat wrote:Bodom,
You forgot to put me on your list... just kidding, but that is quite a long list. If you had to pick your top 5 (most influential - however you decide to determine that), who would you pick? The reason I ask is from your previous posts I respect your opinion, but I need to know where to start on your list.
Hey buckwheat

It was very tough too narrow down to 5! All of the teachers I listed have impacted my practice in numerous ways but after much deliberation here they are:

Bhante Gunaratana
Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Sumedho
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
Upasika Kee Nanayon

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by Buckwheat »

Thanks, Bodom!
Sotthī hontu nirantaraṃ - May you forever be well.
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by DNS »

Good choices above.

See also this thread on your favorite historical teacher (other than the Buddha):

http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9304" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Your favourite contemporary teachers

Post by SDC »

Venerable Madawela Punnaji
Ñānavīra Thera
Maurice O'Connell Walshe (Thanks for mentioning him, tilt. His DN translation is fantastic IMO)
Bhikkhu Bodhi
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
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