Ajahn Sona is a first-wave Western Theravada ordained monk and the Abbot of Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery ('Birken'). He has spent over thirty years as a monastic and is now referred to as 'Luang Por' ('Venerable Father') by his closest disciples – a traditional honorific for senior monks of the Thai Forest Tradition. He is the abbot of Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery (‘Birken’), a Canadian Theravada Buddhist monastery following the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah.