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4 EASTERN HORIZON | LEAD ARTICLE

The View

from the

Forest [Part 1]

By Venerable Ajahn Amaro

Ajahn Amaro is a British-born Theravāda Buddhist Often when I am in the presence of Dzogchen teachings,
monk and teacher, currently serving as the abbot I have a strange sense of hearing the echoes and seeing
of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Southeast the images of my own teachers, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn
England. Born Jeremy Charles Julian Horner Sumedho— not just in the way those teachings describe
in 1956, he earned a BSc in Psychology and principles I am familiar with, but even down to the
Physiology from the University of London. In 1979, use of the same analogies and phrases. When this
after a period of spiritual exploration in Southeast concordance first sank in, it made me realize that I’ve
Asia, he was ordained as a bhikkhu by the been practicing in a way somewhat akin to Dzogchen
renowned Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah at for at least the latter half of my monastic life, since
Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery about 1987. If I had eyebrows, I would raise them a
little bit. But perhaps the convergence shouldn’t be that
established for Western disciples.
surprising. After all, we all have the same teacher: the
Dharma comes from the Buddha and is rooted in our
Following his ordination, Ajahn Amaro returned to own nature. There may be 84,000 different Dharma
England to assist Ajahn Sumedho in establishing doors, but fundamentally there is one Dharma.
Chithurst Monastery. In 1996, he co-founded
There are several Tibetan teachings I have come to
Abhayagiri Monastery in Northern California,
appreciate over time, but especially those that describe
where he served as co-abbot until 2010. He then
the fine anatomy and nuances of rigpa, otherwise
returned to Amaravati, where he continues to lead
known as the view. The Thai forest tradition, the lineage
the community.
I have mostly trained in, is much more dependent on
the eloquence and inspiration of particular teachers
Ajahn Amaro has authored numerous books on
Buddhism, including Finding the Missing Peace, The extemporizing on themes of Dharma that occur to
Island, Roots and Currents, and Small Boat, Great them in the moment. This keeps the teachings alive
and fresh, but it also means that there can be a lot of
Mountain where this article is extracted from. His
inconsistency in the ways that things are expressed. So
works are freely available to support the practice I have learned a great deal from the very structured and
and study of Dhamma. This article is reproduced in well-patterned nature of the Dzogchen teachings.
two parts; the second part will be published in the
Jan 2026 issue of Eastern Horizon. We thank both Ajahn Chah’s teachings covered a very broad range, but
the author and the publisher for the opportunity to he was particularly notable for the open, skilled, and
share this article with our readers. free way in which he spoke of the realm of ultimate
truth. And this was to anyone he felt was able to
understand, whether layperson or monastic. His ways
of speaking of this domain, and about the awareness