Ajahn Kovilo joins me from the Clear Mountain Podcast and Richard Josephson – a lay yogi living in a California temple.
We discuss the intersection of yoga, Buddhism, and mysticism in general. We cover Emptiness, pranayama, and the different paths of the renunciate and the layperson and how they can both lead to awakening.
This is a deep-dive discussion covering the transformative effects of sadhana in the modern world. We wonder what Samsara is and if we escape from it.
Ajahn Kovilo is an Ohio-born Theravāda forest monk. Having been introduced to meditation, the five precepts, and the Pāli Canon through the Goenka tradition, Ajahn Kovilo’s growing interest in Dhamma led him to enter the monastery in 2006 in hopes of devoting his life to practice. Ajahn Kovilo received full ordination from Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California in 2010, and spent the next decade training at monasteries and with teachers of the Ajahn Chah tradition in America and Thailand – Ajahn Jayasaro and Luang Por Piak most especially. During this time, in addition to learning the basic crafts of being a forest monk (hand-sewing, broom-making, crochet, etc.), and engaging in much memory practice (See “A Fun Way to Memorize Long Dhamma”), Ajahn Kovilo also studied Pāli and Thai helping to collate, edit, and produce several Dhamma books including: “Thus Should You Train Yourselves”, “The Pra Farang Thai Primer”, “Stillness Flowing”, and the digital edition of “Buddhadhamma”.
In 2020, Ajahn Kovilo spent a year practising meditation at the Pa Auk International Meditation Center in Angthong, Thailand, after which he enrolled at Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Ukiah, California. There he studied Pāli and Sanskrit while learning more about many of the main texts and practices of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism: Chan meditation, compassion meditation on Guanyin’s name, and bowing practice, among others. During his studies, Ajahn Kovilo also spent time at Chuang Yen Monastery studying with Bhikkhu Bodhi.
In May of 2024, Ajahn Kovilo moved full-time to Seattle, WA to continue helping to found Clear Mountain Monastery with his good friend, Ajahn Nisabho. Ajahn Kovilo is deeply grateful for the guidance and compassion his teachers and friends have shown him and he aspires to fully live up to all the gifts he has been given during his time in robes.
https://www.clearmountainmonastery.org/
Richard Josephson
Richard aims to present a survey of meditation ideas from the perspective of a variety of philosophical and religious systems. To be open to a variety of approaches began as a teen and spurred my search in Nepal and India for a thirteen-year period where I drew close to a variety of “gurus,” male and female, yogis Buddhist and Hindu, and Chan where I went on to become a fully ordained bhikshu for ten years under the guidance of Master Hsuan Hua. Traditions blend and support each other. If one is open, and “openness” practised, one cannot help but find that insight is blind.
http://www.youtube.com/@richardjosephson