Author name: Christopher

Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world. He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme and the Living Dharma programme, an online mentor programme for Dharma practitioners. He gives retreats, participates in pilgrimages (yatras) and leads Dharma gatherings. Christopher has been teaching annual retreats in Bodh Gaya, India since 1975 and leads an annual Dharma Gathering in Sarnath since 1999. A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Transforming Our Terror. A campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is a member of the international advisory council of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. . Poet and writer, he is the co-founder of Gaia House, an international retreat centre in Devon, England. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England.

A Government Health Warning to Meditators

The Government has determined that meditation is harmful to your health.

The Government’s health warning states that early physical symptoms in the process of meditation include pain in the knees, sore ankles, tension in the shoulders, and various degrees of back pain.

Early mental symptoms arise in meditation include lust, negativity, boredom, restlessness, fear and doubts. Meditators are liable at any time to multiple hindrance attacks.

Meditators believe they can resolve these issues without recourse to  the National Health Service, medication and years of weekly analysis in the private sector.

As early symptoms abate, meditators will sit motionless for hours every day or will find themselves, at fixed times, walking up and down, repetitively, unable to offer reasons for their behaviour. Some meditators stand still for an hour or more unable to move. They appear catatonic. Other lies on their back for lengthy periods perfectly still with eyes open, half open or closed. They appear dead.

They show no interest in blind pursuits of pleasure, endless hours in shopping malls or building up debts on their credit cards.

Surveys from the government show that some meditators remain vulnerable to reaction.

It is advisable to avoid talking to meditators who are in meditation. Such an approach can provoke strong irritability from the meditator. Under no circumstances touch a meditator as it can release a sudden outburst of hostile reaction such as ‘Can’t you see that I’m meditating?’

Government inspectors said that such meditators will probably apologise for their reaction and spend days, morning, noon and night, developing more loving kindness meditation.

The ability of meditators to spend most of their lives in an office or studying for years for degrees is greatly reduced. Hard core meditators stop obsessing about sense objects – sights, sounds, smells, taste or touch – nor want to chat constantly about sex, money, sport, work, cars  or computers. They tend to explore a different way of life.

In advanced stages, meditators will intentionally cut off all memories and any associations with the past. Such meditators will show a complete unwillingness to plan for the future and a refusal to cling onto anything that is happening in the present.

The government firmly rejects a timeless way of living in accordance with the rhythmn of nature and in harmony with the necessities of daily life as well as the needs of others.

Some are willing to work up to one hour per day in a retreat centre but they are known to work very slowly; they barely accomplish anything. Some advanced meditators take an hour to slice a single carrot.  Meditation teachers will ask their meditation students why did they cut the carrot so quickly.

In the most advanced cases, meditators spend long periods in solitude and silence ranging from a few weeks to many months or even years. These meditators require total care and support from retreat centres.

More and more advanced meditators claim they have no self while others claim they are the self of all. In either case, these meditators develop loving kindness, compassion and appreciative joy and cease to be competitive and ruthless in the private and public sector.

After they leave these centres, they might teach meditation and engage in a way of life free from any drive for personal sucess. They believe in co-operation, sustainability and the happiness of simple living.

The Government has defined meditation as a serious mental health hazard and advises the public to take all precautions necessary to avoid exposure to this dangerous activity.

If meditation is not stopped immediately, it can cause an end to craving for consumerism, desire for wealth and a total loss of interest in the constant pursuit of recognition.

Meditation has become associated with street protests, Occupy! and action for revolutionary change.

If meditation continues, it will bring about an end of  to the rebirth of “I” ‘me” and “mine”  upon which capitalism, economic growth and  State/Corporate control over the lives of citizens depends.

The Government report makes it clear that meditation is putting an end to people’s freedom to suffer.

In its conclusion, the Government has determined meditation as a threat to our society and our way of life.

A Government Health Warning to Meditators Read More »

The Buddha Wallah DVD available

Dear Friends,

I am writing to let you know that The Buddha Wallah is now available on DVD. It can be ordered through www.zinnober.de

Below there are links to  two minute clips about the film, as well as some background to making of the film.

The Buddha Wallah

A 90 minute documentary

by Dieter Zeppenfeld and Georg Maas

about Christopher Titmuss, his work

and the teachings of the Buddha

A two minute trailer of “The Buddha Wallah” is now on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Buddha-Wallah/240540865989196

Dear Facebook Friends, Would you kindly click “like” so that all your friends will get the message. Bless you.

Or you can watch the same trailer on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iixvx1odupk

I found out that the making of a documentary film requires an immense amount of work and dedication.

Around five years ago, I agreed with the kind invitation of  Dieter Zeppenfeld,and Georg Maas directors of  Zinnober Film Company in Germany, for a documentary film to be made about my work and teachings.

I requested that  the film communicate as much as possible the Dharma through meditation, inquiry, service, human rights and environmental initiatives, despite the thread of this wallah running through the film.

To their credit, Dieter and Georg kept faithfully to the remit. It was an immense undertaking. They travelled with me to Germany, France, India, Israel, Palestinian territories, Thailand, Burma, as well as at home here in Totnes, Devon, England. They arranged for filming to be made in Australia, New York and San Francisco.  Filming took place over four years with a total of 120 hours of filming.  Dieter, Georg and their editors spent months editing the film down to 90 minutes, plus extra scenes, for the DVD.

Various focus groups, including Sangha members and regular householders, watched the film to give feedback. The film went through several edits before the Premiere.

A company in Brighton, England bought the world distribution rights for television after the successful premiere in two cinemas in Germany.

Frankly, it was far easier to be on my side of the camera than their side. There is a lot of equipment, huge attention to detail,  plus music, colour enhancement and texts.

You will probably recognise a few people in the film, perhaps even yourselves.

Dieter told me that Mr and Mrs TV Watcher often imagine spiritual teachers are  not very down-to-earth, dressed in  silks, and appearing very holy with devotees attending to all their needs. Oh, I should be so  lucky. Very early in the film I am hanging out my clothes on the line inside a wooden building in Wat Sai Ngma monstery, Supanburi, Thailand.  Outside, it is the monsoon. Rain is pouring down. Stripped to the waist, I am explaining how long it takes for clothes to dry. Made of cotton, of course. Mr and Mrs. TV Watcher in the focus group said they could relate to this wallah.

Dieter is a mentor in our Mindfulness Training Course and a participant in the Dharma Facilitators Programme for the past 10 years. He has made more than 100 documentaries in the past 20 years or more.

After watching the two minute clip, I felt viewers could regard it as a study in the ageing process. Is it a coincidence that I have dropped jogging as my primary form of exercise and switched to the gym and the upper part of the body

I hope you get the opportunity to see the film.

Love

Christopher

The Buddha Wallah DVD available Read More »

The Buddha never had it so good. He should try teaching in the West.

Few would dispute that the extra-ordinary awakening of the Buddha is a seminal moment in the history of humanity. He realized human beings must face suffering, the causes and conditions for its arising, the total and unshakeable resolution of suffering and the Way. …

The Buddha never had it so good. He should try teaching in the West. Read More »

A Precious Statement of the Wall Street Occupation

The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters.

It proposes something new. …

A Precious Statement of the Wall Street Occupation Read More »

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