Wat Metta
Metta Forest Monastery (Wat Metta in Thai language) is outside of Valley Center, California. It is at the end of a road in an avocado orchard surrounded by the mountains and chaparral of northern San Diego County.​
Being a monastery, its primary purpose is to give men the opportunity to ordain as bhikkhus to practice in line with Dhamma and Vinaya (training rules) taught by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. Laymen and laywomen are also welcomed at the Monastery to practice in line with the Buddha’s teachings. Please see the Visiting section about day and overnight visits.​
Kammatthana
Kammatthana: Literally, “basis of work” or “place of work.” The term is most often used specifically to identify the Thai Forest Tradition, i.e., the forest tradition lineage founded by Phra Ajaan Mun and Phra Ajaan Sao. For an introduction to the history of the Kammatthana Tradition, see the essay “The Customs of the Noble Ones,” by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Phra Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto
(1870-1949)
Ajaan Mun was born in 1870 in Baan Kham Bong, a farming village in Ubon Ratchathani province, northeastern Thailand. Ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1893, he spent the remainder of his life wandering through Thailand, Burma, and Laos, dwelling for the most part in the forest, engaged in the practice of meditation. He attracted an enormous following of students and, together with his teacher, Phra Ajaan Sao Kantasilo Mahathera (1861-1941), established the Kammatthana Tradition that subsequently spread throughout Thailand and to several countries abroad. He passed away in 1949 at Wat Suddhavasa, Sakon Nakhorn province.
Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
(1907-1961)
Ajaan Lee was one of the foremost teachers in the Thai forest ascetic tradition of meditation founded at the turn of the century by his teacher, Phra Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto. His life was short but eventful. Known for his skill as a teacher and his mastery of supranatural powers, he was the first to bring the ascetic tradition out of the forests of the Mekhong basin and into the mainstream of Thai society in central Thailand.
Phra Ajaan Funn Acaro
(1899-1977)
A native of Sakhon Nakhorn province, Ajaan Funn ordained in 1919 and met Ajaan Mun the following year. After studying under Ajaan Mun and wandering through the forests and hills of northeastern Thailand, and reordained in the Dhammayut sect in 1925, and spent his first rains retreat living under Ajaan Mun’s guidance. For the next forty years,
he continued wandering through the forest, setting up monasteries in secluded spots, until he settled near his home village in 1964. Known for his wisdom, kindness, and the power of his concentration, Ajaan Funn developed a nationwide following, at the same time becoming a personal teacher to His Majesty, the King. He passed away quietly of a heart attack in January, 1977.
Phra Ajaan Fuang Jotiko
(1915-1986)
Ajaan Fuang was one of Ajaan Lee’s most devoted students, spending some 24 rains retreats in the company of his renowned teacher. After Ajaan Lee’s death, Ajaan Fuang continued on at Wat Asokaram, Ajaan Lee’s bustling monastery near Bangkok. A true forest monk at heart, Ajaan Fuang left Wat Asokaram in 1965 in search of greater solitude more conducive to meditation, and ultimately ended up at Wat Dhammasathit in Rayong province, where he lived as abbot until his death in 1986.
Phra Ajaan Suwat Suvaco
(1919-2002)
Born on August 29, 1919, Ajaan Suwat ordained at the age of 20 and became a student of Ajaan Funn Acaro two or three years later. He also studied briefly with Ajaan Mun. Following Ajaan Funn’s death in 1977, Ajaan Suwat stayed on at the monastery to supervise his teacher’s royal funeral and the construction of a monument and museum in Ajaan Funn’s honor. In the 1980’s Ajaan Suwat came to the United States, where he established four monasteries: one near Seattle, Washington; two near Los Angeles; and one in the hills of San Diego County (Metta Forest Monastery). He returned to Thailand in 1996, and died in Buriram on April 5, 2002 after a long illness.
Phra Ajaan Geoff Thanissaro (Abbot)
(born 1949)
Widely known as Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff), Ajaan Geoff is an American Buddhist monk of the Kammatthana (Thai Forest) Tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European Intellectual History, he traveled to Thailand, where he studied meditation under Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, himself a student of the late Ajaan Lee. He was ordained in 1976 and lived at Wat Dhammasathit, where he remained following his teacher's death in 1986. In 1991 he traveled to the hills of San Diego County, USA, where he helped Ajaan Suwat Suvaco establish Wat Metta. He was made abbot of the Monastery in 1993.