Live from Birken: Dhamma Q&A with Ajahn Sona (10.15.2023)

Join us on Sunday as Ajahn Sona answers Dhamma questions from listeners around the world. Questions may be submitted during the live chat (opens ~3:00pm day of stream) or in advance, here: bit.ly/LivestreamQnA
Ajahn Sona Podcast:
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Index of Questions
00:00 - Introduction
00:47 - KARMA: What is the evidence base for karma? It seams apparent that the outcomes of individuals/groups are poorly correlated with their intentions or levels of virtue, at least in this life.
10:16 - COMPASSION: How can you comfort someone when physical suffering like illness arises? How can you respond to people who are worried about other people’s suffering or their own suffering?
13:04 - ENCHANTMENT/DISENCHANTMENT: The Buddha speaks of “disenchantment with feeling”. You talk about emotions of those well developed in the path still changing but being only in the positive. Is there still enchantment with these emotions? How does that connect to what the Buddha said?
17:35 - EGO & SOUL: Could you please give your definitions of the words ego and soul? I understand that ego is a self-made concept and dies with the body, but if there is no soul, where does karma then accumulate and what part of the being is reborn?
25:38 - BUDDHIST SCHOOLS: You said you mostly focus on the suttas because these are closest to what the Buddha probably actually taught. There was an early school called the sautrantika who rejected all abhidharmas and held the suttas as supreme. How close was this school’s teachings to what the Buddha actually taught?
32:34 - DELUSION: Can you speak a little about what is meant by delusion? Is it an aggravated daydream?
37:42 - MENDICANCY: I was wondering why Buddha Gautama has chosen for himself and subjected other monks to the particular lifestyle of collecting food from lay people and nothing else like agriculture, commerce, etc.? I'm sure that Sammāsambuddha does nothing for no reason, so there must be a special reason for this. Could you please clarify this for me?
43:17 - WAR & PEACE: Complexities and conflicts the world is facing currently “peace by peaceful means,” valued in Buddhist practice seems like an unachievable goal.If we can collectively create a war so quickly why does it take so long to work together to achieve peace? What can we do collectively or individually as Buddhists to promote peaceful coexistence?
48:46 - EMPTINESS: In the parayanavagga the lord says to Mogaraja that to not be seen by the lord of death we must be forever mindful, see the world as empty, and abandon all views of a self. Can you explain what it means to see the world as empty and how it differs from having no self view.
51:49 - BREATH MEDITATION: I've been struggling with a difference between your breath meditation videos. In one, you go in-depth about filling the whole head, but the other focuses entirely on the in/out at the nose.
55:49 - MERIT: What do you do with merit?