[4] On January 4, 1974, at the age of 24, Ajahn Pasanno took ordination at Wat Pleng Vipassana in Bangkok, Thailand with Venerable Phra Khru Ñāṇasirivatana as preceptor.

[5] During Ajahn Pasanno's tenure as abbot, Wat Pah Nanachat developed considerably, increasing in size from 40 acres to 140 acres, and Ajahn Pasanno initiated an extensive tree-planting project that made Wat Pah Nanachat a model site for reforestation with the Department of Forestry in Ubon Ratchathani.

One year later, he established Dtao Dum Hermitage inside Sai Yok National Park in Kanchanaburi Province as another forest retreat for facility Buddhist monks.

In addition to their function as places of meditation practice and monastic training, they help to protect the surrounding forests and natural environment and thus have received support from the Department of Forestry and the Thai military.

[6] In 1991, he helped to draw a group of people together in the Ubon Ratchathani region who were interested in forest conservation and community development, which was formally established as the Nature Care Foundation in 1992 and continues to work for the benefit of the community, facilitating environmental education, cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the initiation of projects to support sustainable livelihood.

Spending 24 years living in Thailand, Ajahn Pasanno became a well-known and highly respected monk and Dhamma teacher.

[8] In addition to leading the community at Abhayagiri, his spiritual activities shortly after arriving in California ranged from traveling to San Quentin Prison in order to provide spiritual counseling for Jaturun "Jay" Siripongs, who was executed on February 9, 1999,[9] to leading monks from Abhayagiri to visit, make offerings, and chant for Julia Butterfly Hill, who was living in a 1500-year-old California Redwood tree in order to protect it from Pacific Lumber Company loggers.

[10] With Ajahn Pasanno's help, support, and spiritual guidance, three lay followers, Sakula (Mary Reinard), Barbara Backstrand, and Chris Robson, founded Portland Friends of the Dhamma in 2000.