This is a short film made for the Open University series Man’s Religious Quest in 1977 and is set at the main monastery for Ajahn Chah: Wat Pah Pong in Ubon Rachathani, Thailand.
The main interest in the film is that it has recordings of Ajahn Chah himself answering questions on the nature of the monastic life and the teaching of the Buddha.
We also get glimpses of a very young Ajahn Liem (now head of that group of monasteries), identified as a very well respected young monk in the film, and Ajahn Anan, one of the leading meditation teachers in the school (walking behind Ajahn Chah on pi??apata).
We also see an interview with a young monk from England, but I have been unable to identify him by name, and apparently he disrobed soon after returning to England.
The film looks at the daily life of the monks, shows them on pi??apata, in the danasala, doing walking and sitting meditation, and going about their daily life and work.
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Hi.
Who is the english monk in ” The Mindful Way”,
Is he still in robes?
Kind regards and Metta from Rune from Denmark 🙂
As far as I remember the monk, whose name I forget, disrobed a few years after this film was made.
I met the person who was the English monk in ”The Mindful Way” documentary in the mid 1980s once when I attended the Edinburgh Theravada Buddhist group . As stated above he had disrobed several years earlier after his return to the UK. However, he had only a very loose connection to the Edinburgh group and I never saw him again. I think he found questions regarding his time with Ajahn Chah and his period as a Bhikkhu quite awkward. I do think I recall his full name but see no need to get into that here. If my fragile memory serves me correctly his first name in lay life was Alan.