38 min
Talk · Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu
Natural Truth
Dhamma as something found in nature rather than in a scripture.
Overview
What does theravada & insight point to?
Theravada Buddhism is one of the oldest surviving Buddhist traditions, with roots in the teachings preserved in the Pali Canon. It places strong emphasis on ethical living, meditation, and the careful cultivation of wisdom through direct observation of experience. The tradition is especially associated with Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.
Insight, or Vipassana, practice grew from these foundations and has become widely taught around the world, both within traditional monasteries and in contemporary retreat settings. Through mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and changing conditions, practitioners learn to see more clearly how suffering arises and passes, and how greater freedom can emerge through understanding, steadiness, and compassion.
Test it against your own experience, and keep what holds.A central teaching within Theravada & Insight
Explore Theravada & Insight
Clear ways in.
The full history is complex. The browse experience does not need to be. Start with a recognizable living tradition and discover its deeper context naturally.
Living tradition
Thai Forest
Forest monastic lineage within Theravada Buddhism, emphasising strict monastic discipline and meditation in a natural setting.
Explore Thai Forest↗
Living traditionInsight Meditation
The modern Insight movement that brought Theravada meditation practice to lay audiences in the West, largely independent of monastic robes and ritual forms.
Explore Insight Meditation↗
Teachers
Voices within this path.
Theravada & Insight holds many schools and lineages beneath it. Its teachers are gathered below.
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Amaro
Theravada monk in the Thai Forest tradition; co-founder of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England.
LineageThai Forest
AD
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Dtun
Thai Forest monk and abbot of Wat Boonyawad in Chonburi province, Thailand, known for direct, practical instruction on meditation and the abandoning of unwholesome states of mind.
LineageThai Forest
AM
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Munindo
Ajahn Munindo, born in New Zealand in 1951, is a monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who received full ordination under Ajahn Chah in 1976. He came to Britain in 1980, helped establish a monastic community in Devon, and since 1991 has been abbot of Aruna Ratanagiri, Harnham Buddhist Monastery, in Northumberland. His teachings, including "A Dhammapada for Contemplation" and "Unexpected Freedom", are published for free distribution.
LineageThai Forest
AP
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Pasanno
Ajahn Pasanno was ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand in 1974 and trained under Ajahn Chah in the Thai Forest Tradition. He served as abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat, the international forest monastery in north-east Thailand, before co-founding Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in northern California, where he is now the guiding elder. He teaches meditation and Dhamma at the monastery and in retreats.
LineageThai Forest
AS
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Sona
Ajahn Sona, born Tom West in Canada in 1954, trained as a classical guitarist before taking up monastic life in the Thai Forest Tradition. After training in Thailand, he returned to Canada and in 1994 founded Birken Forest Monastery, a monastery of this tradition in British Columbia, where he is abbot. He now teaches mainly at the monastery and online, including regular question-and-answer sessions.
LineageThai Forest
Theravada & Insight
Ajahn Sucitto
British Theravada monk in the Thai Forest tradition, long associated with Cittaviveka (Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) in the UK.
LineageThai Forest
Upcoming events
Gatherings across theravada & insight.
Events attached to unpublished lineages still roll up to the nearest public path, so this hub remains complete.
06NOV
Remembering Awareness
Medlow Bath, New South Wales, Australia · Residential insight meditation retreat
$954.99Residential insight meditation retreat
06NOV
Foundations in Vipassana
Online · Online weekend retreat
See event pageOnline weekend retreat
06NOV
Tea and Dhamma with Ajaan Geoff
Portland, Oregon, United States · Evening talk
See event pageEvening talk
07NOV
Daylong with Ajaan Geoff
Portland, Oregon, United States · Daylong retreat
See event pageDaylong retreat
Talks & videos
Watch across theravada & insight.
Documentaries, interviews and talks connected to this path and its lineages.
62 min
Talk · Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu
Anattā and Rebirth
His reading of rebirth once no-self is taken seriously, which is not the usual one.
67 min
Talk · Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu
The Prison of Life
An hour on the cell we build ourselves and call a self.
52 min
Talk · Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu
The Heart of Buddhism
What he thought the whole teaching comes down to, in one complete talk.
Listen
Recordings from across theravada & insight.
Talks, guided meditations and podcast conversations from the teachers within this path.
Tara BrachInsight Meditation
A Apple Podcasts
A Path with Joy — A conversation between Tara Brach and James Baraz
From the podcast Tara Brach
Tara BrachInsight Meditation
A Apple Podcasts
Tara BrachInsight Meditation
A Apple Podcasts
Listening to the Song: The Transformative Power of Deep Listening - Part 2
From the podcast Tara Brach
Tara BrachInsight Meditation
A Apple Podcasts
Reading Room
Source texts
The source texts beneath this path, free to read.
The Dhammapada
Translated by F. Max Müller
The standard free translation, from the Sacred Books of the East — formal but clear.
The Questions of King Milinda
Translated by T. W. Rhys Davids · 1890
A Greek king's dialogue with the monk Nagasena — Buddhist philosophy made through conversation.
Discernment
Clarity should include the human context.
This tradition invites verification rather than belief, so a teacher who discourages questions is departing from it, not upholding it.
Ask about contextIs a statement philosophical, meditative, relational or practical?
Notice powerHow are authority, money, intimacy and complaints handled?
Include embodimentDoes the teaching make room for emotion, the body and nervous-system limits?
Keep agencyA useful teacher supports clear choice rather than demanding surrender of judgement.