Luang Por Piak to Visit in April

Luang Por Piak to Visit Wat Buddha Dhamma

 

Friday  24th April        
Meal Time                   10 am
Dhamma Talk               6 pm

Saturday  25h April        
Meal Time                  10 am
Q & A                           6 pm

Sunday  26th April       
Meal Time                  10 am
Dhamma Talk               6 pm

Monday 27th April
Meal Time                  10 am

Buddhist Library
Dhamma Talk  6 – 8 pm

TBC

Tuesday 28th April
Leave for Thailand

The above schedule is subject to last minute changes depending on LP Piak’s health and energy. Please plan to arrive by 9:30 am for dana at 10. Any queries, please call the office at 0409-389-887 or email: wbdretreats@gmail.com. 

About the Teacher: 

Luang Por (Venerable father) Piak is one of Thailand’s most respected  teachers of Dhamma and meditation. Born in 1948, Luang Por Piak’s  given name is Prasobchai but he was nicknamed ‘Piak’. As a child and young man Luang Por Piak did not have much interest in religion or meditation. It was when he was studying for his Masters in New York that Luang Por Piak began to develop an interest about the mind.

The first time Piak began to develop an interest in his own mind was during the years in New York. On the subway, for example, while heading to work, he would find his mind naturally observing and converging on his breath. There he found both pleasure and peace. He also noticed that he was able to wake up in the morning at whatever time he wished simply by mentally determining the time the night before. Even if he’d spent most of the night at a party, he’d still wake up exactly at the predetermined time. These experiences made him curious about how the mind worked and led on to an interest in meditation.

Venerable Piak then received full bhikkhu ordination from Luang Por Chah on July 3rd 1976, just before the beginning of the rains retreat that year.  In 1981, when Venerable Piak had been ordained for five years, a piece of property was offered outside of Bangkok for a branch monastery.  Luang Por Chah asked Venerable Piak to live there as the Abbot. It was unusual for a monk to be asked to take on so much responsibility at such a young age, but Venerable Piak had had quick progress in his Dhamma practice and was also native to that region.  Initially surrounded by rice fields as far as one could see, within ten years his small monastery had been completely engulfed by Bangkok’s urban sprawl. Noise, heat and pollution notwithstanding, Luang Por Piak has remained a refuge of peace and soothing coolness within the heart of Thailand’s largest city. Although he never completed his masters degree, he quickly came to be recognized as one of the most respected  masters of our time.

Picture Gallery

LP Piak Visit 2025

LP Piak Visit 2024

LP Piak Visit 2017

Wat Enews June 2024

Ajahn Dtun at Sydney Harbour Bridge
Ajahn Tiradhammo at Borobudur Temple

Ajahn Tiradhammo in Borobudur

Ajahn Tiradhammo celebrated Vesak in Indonesia in May. He also visited Borobudur for two nights. 

Luang Por Piak visited New South Wales and Queensland in April

It was with great pleasure that we hosted Lung Por Piak, Ajahn Sprite, and Ajahn Mudito  from 3rd to 11th April. Luang Por gave teachings at WBD, Dhamma Home, and Dhammacakka Forest Monastery in Gatton, Queensland. 

Photo Gallery:  Luang Por Piak 2024 

Ajahn Dtun in Sydney from 12th to 18th March…and a Monastery is Born

It is with much joy and gratitude that we announce Ajahn Dtun has accepted a piece of land on the Mid Coast of New South Wales to be a branch monastery of Wat Boonyawad.  The new monastery will be called  Wat Buddha Metta.  The land is a 1,250 acres of forest just outside of Kempsey NSW.  The majority of the property is under a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement, which helps to conserve habitat for native species and ecosystems.  Tan Ajahn said that he plans to bring 2-3 monks with him when he returns in April 2025 to spend the Rains at Wat Buddha Metta.  

Photo Gallery:  Ajahn Dtun 2024

Upcoming Retreats and Events

Rains Retreat 2024
21st July to 18th October


Monks
Luang Por Tiradhammo
Ajahn Khemavaro 
Ajahn Chaiyaporn–TBC
Ajahn Bhuripannyo 

Lay people
Anagarika Luke
Annie
Tam

Robes Offering Ceremony

Sunday 3rd November

Activities include: Shared Meal, Auspicious Chanting, and Dhamma Talk 10 – 3 pm. 

New Year Retreat

Wisdom of Stillness 

5-Day New Year Retreat with Ajahn Khemavaro
Saturday 28th December to Wednesday 1st Jan 2025

Dhamma Talks on YouTube

The World is an Internal Thing   
by Luang Por Piak

The Path to Arahantship   
by Ajahn Dtun

True Happiness
by Ajahn Dtun

Nourishing Your Mind with Meditation  
by Ajahn Dtun

Buddhism and Psychology
by Ajahn Tiradhammo

Putting the Teachings into Practice
by Ajahn Tiradhammo

Growing in Goodness
by Ajahn Khemavaro

True Wisdom
by Ajahn Khemavaro
 

Intoxications of Youth and Good Health

The Buddha taught that the unenlightened relationship to the agreeable aspects of life such as youth and good health, may be best characterized as a kind of intoxication.  We take the good things in life for granted, forget their impermanent nature, and as a result, act, speak and think in ways that cause suffering to ourselves and others.


For this reason the Buddha taught us to constantly remind ourselves:
1.  I am subject to old age.  I am not exempt from old age.
2.  I am subject to illness.  I am not exempt from illness.
3.  I am subject to death.  I am not exempt from death.
4.  Sooner or later, I will be separated from everyone and everything dear and agreeable to me.
5.  I am the owner of my kamma, heir to my kamma; I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my relative, kamma as my support.  I will be the heir of whatever kamma that I do, good or bad.

The strength of resistance we feel towards these reflections is a measure of the strength of the intoxication.  It is dwelling on the truth that makes us sober and clear minded. 

Excerpt from:  From Heart and Hand Vol II  by Ajahn Jayasaro
For more teachings of Ajahn Jayasaro, please click here:  Teachings by Jayasaro
 

Empty Space

People want to go to Nibbana but when you tell them that there is nothing there, they begin to have second thoughts.  But there’s nothing there, nothing at all!  Look at the roof and floor here.  Think of the roof as a “becoming” and the floor as a “becoming” too.  You can stand on the roof and you can stand on the floor, but in the empty space between the roof and the floor there is no place to stand.  Where there is no becoming, that’s where there’s emptiness, and to put it bluntly, we say that Nibbana is this emptiness.  People hear this and they back up a bit.  They don’t want to go.  They’re afraid that they won’t see their children or relatives.

That’s why whenever we bless the laity by saying, “May you have long life, beauty, happiness and strength,” they become very happy.  But if you start talking about letting go and emptiness, they don’t want to hear about it.  But have you ever seen a very old person with a beautiful complexion or a lot of strength or a lot vitality?  No! But we say, “Long life, beauty, happiness and strength,” and they are all pleased. They’re attached to becoming, to the cycle of birth and death.  They prefer to stand on the roof or on the floor.  Few are they who dare to stand in the empty space between.

Excerpt from A Tree in a Forest–A Collection of Ajahn Chah’s Similes
For more teachings of Ajahn Chah, please click here: Teachings in English