There are only a handful of books that I read with such captivating interest as Ajahn Sumano’s Q&A book. I first heard of Ajahn Sumano while perusing through Youtube videos, I watched one of the Ajahn Chah videos and saw a video titled “Monk in the Mountain” in the sidebar. That video relayed a portion of the life story of this monk and contained compelling and novel answers to some of the basic and more intermediate questions in Buddhism- what is happiness, what do I when I see through the emptiness of materialism.Ajahn Sumano graduated from law school in Chicago (not sure which) and was a successful businessman before giving up the worldy life and donning the robes. But what is more fascinating than his life story are AS’ teachings. Throughout the book AS takes great care to provide answers not fashioned solely from Buddhist texts and doctrine, but rather from insightful and personal life experience. The depth of his wisdom echoes in aphorisms such as: “simplicity is sanity” and “You have to remember that whatever you do, wherever you go, you go there and do it with the mind as is.“
AS reiterates throughout the book that most people do not understand the real meaning of Dukha or stress/suffering because most people have no idea of how much of their live is spent floundering in unskillful mental states such as doubt and anxiety. He criticizes the conventional world for promoting outward knowledge and ignoring or giving short shrift to the importance of the cultivation of inner wisdom. He even sometimes refers to it, in the strongest terms, as a conspiracy (he uses this term in another book Monk in the Mountain), or at least an ultimately incorrect conventional understanding. For example when a student asked why bother meditating when the mind spins wildly Ajahn Sumano answers that a meditator should not be discouraged from the thought that it is a waste of time because time does not exist. AS says once one trains themselves in this way the mind will automatically begin to settle down and will learn to more effectively deal with agitation and disturbance in the mind. This makes practical sense and also corresponds with the axiom in neuroscience: “neurons that fire together wire together.”
The difficulty in reading Questions from the City is that AS' perspective is so unconventional and goes against the grain so much that you may have to take (if you accept at all) some of his propositions on respect for his authority, especially his opinions on karma and rebirth. Nevertheless, even those who do not believe in rebirth can also interpret his rhetoric as encouraging mediators to abandon their preconceptions about the cycle of life and death. Another core theme throughout this book is to encourage sincere inquiry into the reality of life, without extra desires, anxieties, or delusions. AS’ wisdom reminds the reader to abandon their preconceived notions on what meditation should be, and even how life should be, and instead just focus on understanding the fundamental truths of life: all experience is inconstant.
In all this is more of a perspective widening book rather than a meditation manual. I strongly encourage Questions from the City- Answers from the Forest to anyone interested in reading a perspective from a meditator who clearly has a tremendous experience and wisdom.
