This book contains a miscellany of my writings, rather than transcribed talks, from throughout my life as an ajahn in the Western Thai Forest sangha. The first part, ‘Roots’, is mainly historical; its chapters introduce Ajahn Chah, our founder and inspiration, and Ajahn Sumedho who led us to the UK and beyond, and then describes various events in our Western history. The second part,

‘Currents’, contains both teachings and personal reminiscences, accounts of some of my recent travels. Of course, in both parts of the book teachings mingle with history, and history with teachings.

Many of the chapters were originally written as much as twenty years ago and hence are inevitably somewhat out-of-date. I have made some adaptations with a view to rendering them timeless or making them more topical; but sometimes it seemed better just to leave them in more or less their original state. Any historical account of a movement such as our sangha is likely to become out-of-date even before it is published. So lists of monasteries and numbers of monastics may no longer be relevant; what really matters is that our sangha continues to grow and flourish, for the benefit of humans and all beings.

Ajahn Amaro