Ajahn Brahm's rains retreat talks

I heard Venerable Canda say that Ajahn Brahm’s rains retreat talks are especially powerful. Are these available and easily identifiable online (e.g. YouTube, Podbean, BSWA website)?

Generally, Ajahn Brahm has asked that these specific talks are not released to the general public, as they are usually targeted towards the Sangha on their annual retreat. Sometimes the themes and subjects relate to specific contexts and are part of the overall retreat.

There are plenty of other great Ajahn Brahm talks out there though.

6 Likes

There used to be a tab on the old bswa website. It was called deeper dhamma. There were such talks online. I don’t know about now, but yes, I listened to those talks myself.

1 Like

The previous thread started by @musiko comes to mind about whether such talks should be shared here (the consensus arrived at in that discussion was a no). @musiko has shared many deeper dhamma talks here (just put “deeper dhamma” into the site search engine) plus lots of other audio talks, but the publicly available rather than the more monastic-oriented ones.

7 Likes

Thanks for the linked thread.
Consensus from users is good, but more importantly, if known, it’s good policy to abide by the stated wishes of the speaker/author when it comes to sharing.

10 Likes

Yes, thanks for the linked thread and this clarifying comment.

2 Likes

I’ve stumbled across one or two of those over the years. The depth and tone are noticeably different from his talks for popular audiences.

1 Like

Perhaps Ajahn @Brahmali could give an authoratative answer on this.

4 Likes

I believe these are all talks given on retreats for lay people, not the rains retreat talks for monastics.

3 Likes

Correct. These are from week long lay retreats at the end of the rains retreat. The monastic talks, including those outside of the rains retreat, are not shared. This is not just a

8 Likes

It is in both the Dhammasara and Bodhinyana Kor Wat (monastery rules of conduct) that the Rains retreat talks are not shared without permission of Ajahn Brahm

7 Likes

Ajahn Brahm may give permission to individuals, but in the past he has not released these talks for the general public. So I ask you all to please respect his choice. Thank you!

12 Likes

Also please note that there are plenty of talks recorded in meditation retreats for lay people. Those are very inspiring and easily available.

6 Likes

For those interested in monastic talks given by Ajahn Brahm, you can read Simply This Moment which is a collection of Rains and Wednesday night monastic talks released for the general public. The text in The art of disappearing are also collated from monastic talks

12 Likes

I’ve had it on my Kindle Paperwhite for a while. Hopefully I will get to it soon.

UPDATE: Rains Retreat talks to be made publicly available

Annouced on BSWA Facebook group:

Rains Retreat teachings at Bodhinyana will be made available to the public. We will start by publishing the 2005 series and more series will be released as we try to catch up with the large volume of talks. Kindly note that these are deeper Dhamma talks as the main audience was the Sangha.

24 Likes