About
Ajahn Chandako was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1990 in the Thai Forest Tradition under the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Originally from Minneapolis, he practiced intensive meditation in monasteries throughout Thailand and traveled in Tibet, Nepal, and India. He was based at Wat Pah Nanachat, Ajahn Chah's monastery for English-speaking disciples, where he translated teachings into English. He authored 'A Honed and Heavy Ax: Samatha and Vipassana in Harmony.' He is abbot of Vimutti Forest Monastery near Auckland, New Zealand, and teaches internationally.
Teaching focus
Ajahn Chandako's core teaching draws on mindfulness of breathing, noting practice, body sweeping. The frame is early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, but the language stays plain. Ajahn Chandako doesn't lecture from height. The talks tend to think alongside whatever's actually present in the room. Recurring themes include sila, samadhi, and the four foundations of mindfulness. None of those get presented as abstract ideas. They're worked into the body, into ethics, into how a practitioner shows up in family life or at work, so that the dharma stops feeling like a separate compartment. Ajahn Chandako works comfortably with longer-term practitioners. Talks assume some familiarity with sitting, and the questions tend to circle around how to keep practice alive once the early enthusiasm has thinned out. Format-wise, Ajahn Chandako teaches in in-person, online, retreat, and the tone moves easily between guided sittings, dharma talks, and Q&A. Questions tend to get answered the way they were asked, without being reframed into something cleaner. That alone tells you a lot about how the room feels.
Background
Ajahn Chandako was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1990 in the Thai Forest Tradition under the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Originally from Minneapolis, he practiced intensive meditation in monasteries throughout Thailand and traveled in Tibet, Nepal, and India. He was based at Wat Pah Nanachat, Ajahn Chah's monastery for English-speaking disciples, where he translated teachings into English. He authored 'A Honed and Heavy Ax: Samatha and Vipassana in Harmony.' He is abbot of Vimutti Forest Monastery near Auckland, New Zealand, and teaches internationally. Originally from Minneapolis, Ajahn Chandako was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1990 in the Thai Forest Tradition in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. After practicing intensive meditation in various monasteries in Thailand and traveling extensively in Tibet, Nepal, and India, he settled at Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, the monastery established by Ajahn Chah for his English-speaking disciples. He translated many of the teachings into English and is also the author of 'A Honed and Heavy Ax: Samatha and Vipassana in Harmony.' In recent years, he has taught internationally, and is now the abbot of Vimutti Forest Monastery, near Auckland, New Zealand. Ajahn Chandako teaches across several communities, including Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. That work sits within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, and the recurring concerns of Ajahn Chandako's teaching, ethical foundation, steady attention, and the slow softening of habitual reactivity, echo the older texts without sounding distant from a 21st-century practitioner's life. What stands out across Ajahn Chandako's talks isn't a single technique but a steadying tone. Practice is treated as something built slowly, in ordinary life, with care. There's room for the difficulties practitioners actually bring into the room, grief, restlessness, the body's complaints, family obligations, and the encouragement is consistent without being pushy.
Lineage
Ajahn Chandako teaches within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon. Current affiliations include Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. The lineage shows up less in titles than in the way Ajahn Chandako talks about practice, with steady reference to the older Buddhist vocabulary while keeping the door open for people who've never read a sutra. Whether that framing lands as monastic or lay depends on the specific talk, but the consistent thread is care for the form without letting the form become the point.
What to expect
Sitting with Ajahn Chandako, you can expect grounded instruction in mindfulness of breathing, with space to ask questions and bring whatever's actually showing up in your practice. On retreat the structure follows a classical rhythm of sittings, walking practice, and dharma talks, with silence held between sessions. Online sessions tend to keep the same shape, shorter sits, a talk, and time for Q&A, in a format that's accessible from home. The teaching voice is steady. Ajahn Chandako won't push you past your edge, and there's a clear preference for slow, sustainable practice over breakthrough chasing. Bring a notebook if you like, or don't. Either way, you'll be met where you are.
