From Ancient Texts to Living Practice

Teacher: Bhante Sujato (In Person in Concord, Australia)

Sat 24 Oct | 11.00am-12.30pm AEDT| 8.00pm-9-30pm EDT

Location: In person at Concord (exact address will be emailed to registered attendees prior to the event. Please register by sending an e-mail to contact@mettacentre.com)

or Online (Zoom link below)

Cost: Free

Special event: A conversation with Bhante Sujato on the Pāli Suttas, the Chinese Āgamas, and the path of practice

Metta Centre, Agama Meditation Centre (Toronto) and Sutta Central will be organising monthly conversations with Bhante Sujato on the early Buddhist texts: the teachings preserved in the Pāli Suttas and the Chinese Āgamas. For many Buddhists, the Suttas and Āgamas may feel familiar in name but distant in practice. This event is an opportunity to approach them anew—not only as ancient scriptures, but as living guidance for the mind and heart.

In this conversation, we will explore questions such as:

• What can we learn when we read the Pāli Suttas alongside the Chinese Āgamas?
• How do these parallel collections help us come closer to the earliest layers of the Buddha’s teaching?
• What do the early texts have to say about meeting restlessness, suffering, craving, and confusion in daily life?
• How can the teachings become something we personally investigate and practise—not simply something we read about?

This will not be a discussion of texts for specialists alone. It is an invitation to see how early Buddhist teachings speak directly to the challenges of being human: how we relate to the body, feeling, thought, suffering, kindness, and freedom.

Whether you come from a Buddhist background, are curious about the Suttas and Āgamas, or are beginning to explore early Buddhist practice, you are warmly welcome to join us.

If you are in Sydney and would like to attend in person, please register by sending an e-mail to contact@mettacentre.com

About the Teacher: Bhante Sujato is a former musician who became a monk in the ascetic Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah in 1994. After years of living in Thailand he returned to Australia and stayed at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia before going on to found Santi Forest Monastery in 2003. Following Bhante Sujato’s wishes, Santi became a Bhikkhunī (Buddhist nuns’) monastery Vihara in 2012, and he returned to live in Bodhinyana.

Bhante Sujato co-founded the Buddhist website SuttaCentral in 2005 to provide access to early Buddhist texts in their original languages and make translations available in modern languages. From 2015-2018, he lived on the island of Chime, off the coast of Taiwan, undertaking the task of creating English translations of the four Nikāyas. These translations have since been published on SuttaCentral, and as free edition books. In 2019, he established Lokanta Vihara in Sydney to explore what it means to follow the Buddha's teachings in an era of climate change, globalised consumerism, and political turmoil.

Bhante Sujato along with his teacher Ajahn Brahm were involved with Re-establishing Bhikkhuni Ordination in the Forest sangha. More info can be found here and on Wikipedia.

Online event: Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an interactive session online by clicking on this link to access the session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83506489824?pwd=cmpNQ1ljSmFVYURLWVN1dWllYUN1dz09

Meeting ID: 835 0648 9824 Passcode: 718905

Alternatively, you can dial in from your telephone (call charges apply): +61 2 8015 6011