Famous Thai Monks; Ajahn Jumnien

Ajahn Jumnien is a Thai meditation master who has become quite popular in the west. The well respected Buddhist writer Jack Kornfield devoted a whole chapter to him in his book Living Buddhist Masters.

Ajahn Jumnien grew up in southern Thailand in Nakhon Si Thammarat province and began meditation at the age of six when his family sent him to learn from a local Mau Pii (spirit doctor). These Mau Pii use a mixture of Thai animist beliefs mixed with Buddhism to help villagers deal with ghosts and misfortune. As well as learning less Buddhist practices such as fortune telling he also began practicing concentration and loving kindness meditation. As he grew up he became increasingly respected by the villagers around who believed him to be an especially spiritually advanced. At twenty years of age he put on the robes and became a Buddhist monk.

Ajahn Jumnien continued to focus on meditation; he changed from concentration based practice to insight meditation. He became a student of the respected meditation monk Ajahn Dammadaro who was able to teach him insight practices. He continued intensive meditation for seventeen years in Nakhon Si Thammarat before moving to Surat Thani and eventually to Krabi in 1975 where he founded his own temple.

Wat Tam Sua is the name of the temple that Ajahn Jumnien created in Krabi; the name means tiger cave temple. He quickly became established as a meditation master and as well as teaching local Thais in the Krabi area he also began attracting Thai people from all over the country. His reputation spread and he began to also attract westerners to his door. Among these foreign visitors were people like Jake Kornfield who did so much to create a name for the Ajahn in the western world. He now visits the United States regularly to talk and more importantly to teach.

Ajahn Jumnien has managed to learn different forms of meditation during his many years of practice. The benefit of this is that he is a well-rounded meditation master. There is a lot of debate among different practitioners about which form of meditation is the best; concentration or insight. Ajahn Jumnien is able to appreciate the benefits of both of them. He firmly believes in the ability of meditation to lead people out of suffering, and has been heard to claim that monks who involve themselves too much with administrative duties have less chance of escaping suffering than lay people.

There is a wonderful audio talk from Ajahn Jumnien that you can download for free. It is a bit long at six hours, but it is well worth listening to. You will also find other audio talks available on the internet.

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/AjahnJumnien.html

Sources

Living Buddhist Masters (1977) - Jack Kornfield - Buddhist Publication Society; Sri Lanka

http://wattumsua.thaipulse.com/wat-tum-sua-ajahn-jumnien.htm