Venerable Ajahn Punnadhammo - Canadian, Monk, Scholar, Translator and Freedom lover.

It was such a pleasure for me, a student of Buddhism, to be able to chat with a lifelong monastic. A Venerable Teacher no-less!
He is a hermit in northern Ontario. He and visiting monks and the laypeople who volunteer rely on a propane fridge and wood for everything else as the Arrow River Hermitage is off-grid. 'Chop Wood, Carry Water' as the old saying goes.

In Buddhism, monastic traditions are seen as centers of learning and preservation of the actual teachings, as they were meant to be understood, i.e. with lots of meditation, and dedicated focus on "waking up", so to speak.

The watered down, wokefied "McMindfulness" movement of the west, missed the point entirely of depth of meditations' possibilities. A self help fad, is just that.
True awakening may require, according the The Buddha, a deep question to one's self of " is there a Self here at all?"

Ajahn Punnadhammo practices the original Indian Buddhist way of the Monastic Life.

We discuss his scholarly tome The Buddhist Cosmos a free book (Donations to the Monastery would be appropriate) : FREE DOWNLOAD
https://arrowriver.ca/book/cosmoBook.php

Help them build a new kitchen : https://arrowriver.ca/ donation button is on the homepage.