Small Boat, Great Mountain

by Ajahn Amaro

Small Boat, Great Mountain Paperback– January 1, 2003 by Amaro Bhikkhu(Author)

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mark Robison · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading Robert Wright’s excellent “Why Buddhism Is True,” I stumbled across this book in its bibliography and quickly devoured it. It’s definitely a more intermediate Buddhist book that seems to be a transcript of talks. You can get it — and many more books in the Thai forest tradition — for free at forestsangha.org. While I’ve read many books on the concept of not-self, this is the first one where it actually sunk into my brain: “Desire creates the self. If there is no desire, there is no self.” In other words, your brain creates the concept of self because brains that believe in a self are better at getting stuff and thus passing on genes. That serves your selfish genes well, but that isn’t reality. Excerpt: “Questions like ‘Who are you?’ imply the reality of personhood. Answering with one’s name is a reasonable answer on the relative level. But the trouble comes in when we blindly allow the relative to slide into the absolute. We believe this name is a real thing. ‘I am a real person; I am Amaro.’ Similarly, when we ask, ‘What day is it?’ that question automatically implies the reality of time. If we’re not mindful, we go from acknowledging a human convention — brought about by the passage of our planet around the sun, somewhere in the middle of this particular galaxy — to creating an absolute, universal truth.” Grade: A

[Angela Morelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mahayana monk of thai forest tradition. What a wonderful embodiment of the Dharma!

[rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small book, great merit 🙏

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ajahn Amaro is a very clear teacher - his talks (he has done many, many podcast talks and dharma book readings with his own commentary) are easy to follow. He really knows the dharma, and this book is absolutely one of those ones that I will read again. Available for free download, or physical copies are available if you live within driving distance of a monastery in the Thai Forest lineage.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best dharma books available, by one of the best teachers of any spiritual lineage.

[Haseeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amongst my top 3 favorite.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an intensity and a depth, and can be reread. You can get a free copy at http://www.amaravati.org/.

[Tom Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highlights interesting similarities between Dzogchen and Theravada, fun stories with Ajan Chah and Sumedho, and learned some cool new concepts like atammayata.

[Claudio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I first began looking into Buddhism, I got it for free, (it's a free distribution book, but I think I was suppose to give a donation for it,) although the style of the writing in this book was a bit "off putting at first, after the first few pages it gets quite interesting and feels like a different writer has taken the "pen"... An enjoyable read for anyone in the Buddhist path, this book is quite different from other free distribution buddhist books that I have read so far, it is one to read.