Who’s So Sure? with Kittisaro Weinberg

QUICK SUMMARY

What happens when a champion wrestler and Rhodes Scholar has a vision of Christ in an empty English church and then walks straight into a Buddhist monastery? In this episode of Religion to Reality, Kittisaro Weinberg shares his path from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Ajahn Chah’s forest monastery in Thailand, two full years of silent retreat, and three decades building an interfaith sanctuary in South Africa. It’s a rich, personal conversation about surviving typhoid fever, falling in love as a monk and a nun, and what it really means to listen without an agenda.

IN THIS EPISODE WE EXPLORE

Hosts Dave Plisky and Fr. John Gribowich close out their season-long Buddhism arc with one of their most wide-ranging conversations yet. Kittisaro Weinberg, raised in a Unitarian household by a Jewish father and Southern Baptist mother in the Bible Belt, takes listeners through his unlikely journey: a wrestling career at Princeton, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, a life-altering vision of Christ in a rural English chapel, and, almost immediately after, his first encounter with a Buddhist monk. From there, the story moves to Ajahn Chah’s forest tradition in Thailand, a near-fatal bout of typhoid, monastic life in the UK, falling in love with fellow monastic Thanissara, and an improbable move to South Africa just as Nelson Mandela was elected president. Along the way, Kittisaro reflects on his two year-long silent retreats, the Buddhist-Christian common ground he’s spent decades exploring, and how he practices deep listening every single day.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• [00:04:00] Growing up Unitarian in Chattanooga, Tennessee, between a Jewish father and Baptist mother and getting told by classmates he was “going to hell”
• [00:10:00] A five-time state wrestling champion at Princeton whose obsession with winning masked a deeper anxiety
• [00:13:00] At Oxford, sitting alone in ancient churches and experiencing a vivid, life-changing vision of Christ
• [00:18:00] Walking out of that church and, minutes later, discovering a Buddhist center and meeting his first monk
• [00:20:00] Leaving Oxford for Thailand in 1976 to ordain under the forest master Ajahn Chah
• [00:21:00] Nearly dying of typhoid fever in rural Thailand and the overnight train ride that saved his life
• [00:24:00] Relocating to a new forest monastery in Sussex, England, where he met Thanissara (then a novice nun named Binny)
• [00:36:00] What actually happens during a full year of silent monastic retreat, prayer, mantra, and “minding the gap” between thoughts
• [00:42:00] The improbable series of events, including a chance phone call to an old Oxford friend — that led Kittisaro and Thanissara to South Africa in 1994, the year of Mandela’s election
• [00:50:00] Founding Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat and building an interfaith community through apartheid’s aftermath and the AIDS epidemic in KwaZulu-Natal
• [00:52:00] How Buddhist and Christian contemplative practice share common ground and where “the pure of heart shall see God” meets Buddhist teachings on seeing things as they are
• [00:53:00] Kittisaro’s daily practice for deep, agenda-free listening: the simple, humbling question “who’s so sure?”

ABOUT KITTISARO WEINBERG

Kittisaro Weinberg grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated from Princeton as a Rhodes Scholar before studying at Oxford. He ordained as a Buddhist monk with Ajahn Chah in Thailand in 1976 and spent 15 years in monastic life, including helping establish Chithurst Monastery and Devon Vihara in the UK. After disrobing in 1991, he and his wife Thanissara co-founded Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa, where they spent over 20 years teaching and supporting community development in rural KwaZulu-Natal. He holds an MA in Buddhist Classics from Dharma Realm Buddhist University and co-authored Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism. In 2017, he and Thanissara co-founded Sacred Mountain Sangha in northern California.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism by Kittisaro & Thanissara

• Aldous Huxley’s Crome Yellow and The Perennial Philosophy
• Ajahn Chah and the Thai Forest Tradition
• Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat, South Africa
• Sacred Mountain Sangha, Northern California