Ajaan Maha Boowa

(1913-   )

Note: Many of Ajaan Maha Boowa's books are also available free of charge, in both print and electronic form, from » Wat Pah Baan Taad, his forest monastery in Thailand.

The Dhamma Teaching of Acariya Maha Boowa in London translated from the Thai by Bhikkhu Paññavaddho (1980; 324k/108pp.)

A wide-ranging collection of formal Dhamma talks and informal question-and-answer sessions, directed to a group of lay followers in London. Here you will find this memorable exchange, among many others: A questioner asked, "I would like to ask if people can practice meditation in a city like this [London]?" Maha Boowa replied, "Only the dead cannot practice meditation."

Straight from the Heart: 13 Talks on the Practice of Meditation, by Maha Boowa Ñanasampanno, translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1996; 466k/155pp.)

This collection of talks was originally given for the benefit of a lay disciple who had come to Ajaan Maha Boowa's monastery to receive guidance as she faced her approaching death from bone marrow cancer. These talks offer important lessons about how to learn from pain, illness, and death, by seeing through to their ultimate nature.

Things as They Are: A Collection of Talks on the Training of the Mind, by Maha Boowa Ñanasampanno, translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1996; 391k/130pp.)

These extemporaneous talks were delivered to the monks living at Ajaan Maha Boowa's monastery. There is much valuable Dhamma teaching here for all meditators, monastic and lay alike. In these talks Ajaan Maha Boowa often recounts conversations with his teacher, Ajaan Mun, that reveal the power and depth of Ajaan Mun's teachings and of the teachings of the forest tradition in general.

To the Last Breath: Dhamma Talks on Living and Dying, by Maha Boowa Ñanasampanno & Upasika Kee Nanayon, edited by Bhikkhu Ariyesako (1992; 421k/140pp.)

This book is really two books in one. The first part contains a collection of talks by Ajaan Maha Boowa (many of which were previously published in the book Amata Dhamma). Most of these talks were given for the benefit of an ill lay disciple of Ajaan Maha Boowa, Mrs. Pow-panga Vathanakul, and thus touch on many aspects of Dhamma practice concerning life, illness, and death. The second part of the book is a collection of Dhamma talks by Upasika Kee Nanayon, an extraordinary woman who was renowned for the depth of her meditation practice and her unwavering commitment to the Dhamma. These talks have been published previously as Directions for Insight and Directing to Self-penetration; the last four of them have recently been retranslated and published in the anthology, An Unentangled Knowing. The present book stands as a powerful reminder of the universality of the Dhamma, a reminder that the door to liberation awaits all those who would put forth the effort, without regard to race, age, or gender.