Q&A on starting a monastry in Japan in Ajahn Chah tradition

Below are just simple reflections.  I looked at some of the answers and I think I would answer them differently at different time.  So please read them as meditation practice.  You already know:-).

Why Japan? 
Answer: US and Canada, EU each already has quite a few established monastries in this tradtion. But Japan has zero, to my surprise initially.

なぜ日本にこういうふうな施設を作りたいですか?
アメリカ、カナダ、ヨーロッパにアジャン、チャー(Ajahn Chah)のお寺はすでに何か所あります。日本にはひとつもいない。最初は本当にびっくりしました。

Why is this important? 
Answer: When people lost touch with ulimate reality, it's like losing touch with your true nature. And life became a disllusion, which is not very beautiful. It's much better to live in touch with our true nature. On a worldly mind level, your true self is actually deathless and boundless.  When the Lord of death come smiling at you, would you be able to smile back:)?  (On a more mundane worldly level, having massive happy and peaceful human beings would definitely solve a lot of social and economical problems the world faces today, not to mention the severity of weather and human psychy are also intricately related.  Japan is particularly impacted by this one, since the country spent billions and billions of dollars just to clean up after each disaster.)

このプロジェクトの重要さを教えて下さい。
全然重要ではありません。ダラダラする何人のお坊さん毎日平和に暮らすだけ、どこか大事？

What is Ultimate Reality?  Why am I not seeing it?
Answer: Ultimate reality is with us all the time.  But most people are very attached to themselves, so all their energy are directed at their personality, which is outward.  When you start losing the grip on the idea of self, which is ficiton anyways, you slowly begin to realize your true nature.

Are you saying personality is bad?
Answer: You can be an attractive person, there is nothing wrong with it.  Personality is helpful when we interact with others.  The key is to see it as changing natural phenomenom.  When you are at home, you have one personality; when you go see your parents, you assume another; when you go to work, another.  When enjoying really good food, it's gone!  It just keeps changing according to conditions.  When you start getting lost in your own created self, then you lose touch with what's real.

Why this Tradition, why Buddhism?
Answer: The historical Buddha was never a buddhist.  He never tought Buddhism.  He shared what he found with others and help others by established the Monks order.  Ajahn Chah was very skillful at taking this teaching and create a system for training.  I chose this particular project because it benefited me the most.  No tradition is perfect, but I think this project would help us to go from imperfection to perfection.  All these terms are just conventions.  Anything helps us see the truth would work.  In the end all these matters none whatsoever.

I don't like buddhist monks, I think they are useless!
I used to think the same^^.  But once you try a bit one meal a day and celibacy lifestyle, you would notice how much it brightens your mind.  As mentioned above, the historical Buddha never touch Buddhism, but he established the monks order because it's most direct at seeing our true nature.  Also in this tradition, monks cannot be recluse or yogi, they have to live within a community and guide lay supporters to live a moral and happy life.  And a monastry offers oppurtunity for giving and compassion, all these really gladden the heart and make life joyful.

Isn't one meal a day and celibacy unhealthy?
Answer: Buddha never encouraged self-motification, i.e., acesticism.  It's well known he tried all kind of body denying technique and in the end it's like torturing an innocent person, it didn't lead to freedom.  The rules for monks, vinaya, shouldn't make a person sick.  In fact, the Japanese are quite generous, so overweight would be more of a concern for the monks here!  Also celibacy is not denial of sexuality, which is normal natural function of the body.  Sexuality posses no problem as you see it arises and passes away as all conditioned things.  Also with meditating regularly, the mind beame peaceful and joyful.  Some would say this lifestyle is the best as a human being.

What about other religions, or non-religion?
Answer: Today is Christmas day 2019, so it's a good time to say something about this topic.  I think most of people nowadays fall into the non-religion category, which believes in Science, logic, democracy, justice, and human intelligence, etc.  All these are really nice things, but when it comes to questions like "Why universe is here?", and "Why do we exist?", most scientists would scratch their heads.  Now most Christians would answer this with triump, "because God created the universe and us".  But then when asked "what is the meaning of life?", or "why did God created a world with so much suffering and apparent impection?", it's Christian's turn to scratch their heads.  Now it's Buddhists' time to shine.  The answer to questions like "Why are we here? "Why there are suffering" is answered quite intelligently as "We are here to wake up to ultimate reality or true self, and all sufferings are impermenant so in essence it leads to enlightenment".  But when asked "What is ultimate reality and true self", it's Buddhists turn to scratch their heads, because these cannot be explained with words and concepts.  The saving grace here for Buddhists is even the unexplainable, the untouchable is also an expression of the ulitmate reality, so it's included and allowed.  Clever, isn't?

All these questions are just concepts and thinking, so they are all impermenant; and to dwell in these questions does not leads to freedom, more likely it leads to doubt, which is one of the fetters prevent one getting enlightened in Buddhism.  Now I've see examples of meditative Christian monks arrive at the same Oneness or Unity as all human being would eventually arrive.  So in the end, one has to go beyond thinking.  A belief is just a belief, whether you believes in Science, which is believing is unknown, or you believe in God, it's still in the subset of thinking and comes and goes.  But I know for someone who believers, it is very precious and helpful, as individual human experience is not easy.  In the end this is something to be understand.  All all included in True Self.  You can still be a Christian even if you meditate:-).  In the end, you let go of the identity.

How is this project funded?
Answer: Generousity^^.  The project will start when funds became available.  If there is no fund coming in, the project will stop.  So it really depends on conscious level of the human kind.  Human beings have all these beautiful qualities within them, like love, compassion, and generousity.  This project will not creat burdens on people because it's a freeing the mind kind of project, so it would only bring happiness and freedom to people.  Things like burden would only exist if we get attached to the outcome.

Answer 2: Faith^^
Answer 3: Wisdom^^

About human being

• A human being is very funny combination.  According to buddhist cosmology, there are different forms of existence.  Now even though it's depicted in pop culture, movies etc often, I cannot see ghost, beings in hell realm, or beings in the heavenly realms(I had a short involuntary out-of-body experience, so I can certainly understand how it's possible).  The only other form of existence I can see clearly is the animal realm.  And I can tell the similariy between human and animal.  The body, the emotions, sexuality, desires like waiting to get warm in winter time(we have a cat and the cat would always park herself in front of stove if it's on), and even thinking as animals can be quite intelligent sometimes, of course human's brain are much more powerful.  So this is the kind of animal aspect of a human being.  
• But a human being also possesses something beyond.  For meditators who after meditating a while, would know this quite clearly that a human being could also experience very blissful states of mind.  And it's because of this combination, a human being is made to wake up.  And once you get in touch with the Formless and established in practice, you can let go of relying on blissful states and stay with the knowing in our natural human state(this will come once you let go of relying on analyzing mind).  What I found is no matter how wonderful the blissful states of mind is, the animalistic side of a human being will always come and remind me the impermanent and unsatisfaction nature of existence.  It's very humbling to know my own limitation as a human being and learn from my animalistic side, often it's what so-called 'mistakes' that really turns into wisdom teachings.  
• It's said Buddha reminded people time and time again being born as a human is most fortunate and valuable rebirth, even better than beings who experiences blissful states all the time in heavenly realms.  I used to be very doubtful and critical of this:-).  Now Buddha in scripture likes to use extravagant metaphor to get his point through, but it highlights the possiblitities of being born as a human being.  And the rest is really up to each individual.

Covid-19, a practical application
When I first encountered Ajahn Sumedho's teaching 10 years ago, I actually found it not usable and moved onto something else.  But after 10 years, let's use current Covid-19 outbreak as an example to show how this works.

First, the fear around this virus is quite high right now, but when I looked at the source of fear, I see it concerns with attachment to the body.  Once you recognize this and let go of the attachment, the fear cannot rise again(this doesn't mean you don't take care of the body and precautions like washing hands.  Treat your body with loving care and keep it happy is key to a happy life!).  The wisdom factor here is knowing body is not yours, sakiyaditti as in the 10 fetters.

Now the mind will start to analyze the virus and its impact, but a lot of that is unknown, so it can still be a source suffering just due to our mental habits.  So relying on 'trusting your awareness', you observe the hopeless feelings, and emotional habits like worry, anger, etc, and see them as comeing and going natural phenomenon.  This way none of them causes you problem. And the resulting of this mindful observation is peace and freedom from the virus.

About Practice
(To be filled whenever time is right)

If you have any other questions, please feel free to comment.  I'm also in a human form, so it's natural it possess joyful nature, love, compassion, and generosity(it also possesses animalistic impulses, so excuse me if I offend you in any ways. No one is perfect^^).  This kind of project is pure "charity" non-profit project, so it's really relaxing and fun to be part of it.