Oregon Ariyamagga Okasati Refuge, or OAOR, is a Theravadan Buddhist Hermitage in the Thai Forest tradition established in early 2015 by students of Ajahn Jamnian (Jumnien) Seelasettho. The purpose of OAOR is to promote the teachings of the Buddha, provide spiritual support and guidance to the lay community, be a place of refuge, and residence for monastics. OAOR is a place where everyone regardless of background or culture can come together to share, learn, and practice the Middle Way and the Noble Eightfold Path.

Over 2600 years ago, the Buddha established strict and complicated rules for monastics to follow. As Theravadan monastics, the monks are required and bound to these rules (called the Vinaya). The monks commit to living a disciplined life of celibacy, no intoxicants, to do no harm, and service that fosters the end of suffering for all beings. This is a requirement of monastic life, and lay people are asked to respect the same basic precepts when visiting a monastery.

One aspect of the monastic rules is that they create a symbiotic and mutually dependent relationship between monastics and the lay community. For example, the monks are dependent on the lay community for all food, monetary, and material needs. In return, lay people receive spiritual support and teachings. The monks are never allowed to charge for any service or teaching and all support is given freely by lay people.

Luang Por (Venerable Father) Jamnian, as he is affectionately and reverently called, is a happy, wise, and playful charismatic Buddhist monk in the Theravada Thai forest tradition. He teaches with limitless energy and boundless love and compassion. Luang Por Jamnian’s teachings include many different insight meditation methods (Vipassana), all of which direct a person to see and understand the impersonal process of the mind and body which are impermanent (Anicca), unsatisfactory (Dukkha), and non-self (Anatta). These teachings encourage us to continuously explore the presence of desire and aversion in the mind, and to see living meditation practice (in which the development of insight pervades every aspect of our life and not just the hours devoted to meditation) as a “life long process of constant observation and continuous investigation.”

The abbot, Phra Ajahn Vuttichai, or Phrawoody as he prefers to be addressed, is a senior student of Ajahn Jamnian. Luang Por Jamnian has said “Phrawoody carries my teachings in his heart.” Following the tradition of his teacher, Phrawoody teaches in an informal style that is filled with humor, joyfulness, and an ease that is contagious.