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PART ONE: A CRITIQUE OF THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF REALITY
Dear Reader,
This critique falls into two parts. The Limits of Science. The Limits of Consciousness. Foot of the page has a link to Part Two in the subsequent blog.
In this article, I draw upon decades of experience of consciousness and its inter-action with the rest of the mind, the body and past/ present/ future. Mindfulness, depths of meditation, reflection and more continue to contribute to my understanding of the dynamic of consciousness. …
Ajahn Buddhadasa has a new book out Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma.
Click on Photo.
If you love the Buddha-Dharma and know the value of meditation/reflection, then do secure a copy of the Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma. This new book covers the comprehensive teachings of Ajahn Buddhadasa of Wat Suanmoke (Monastery of the Garden of Liberation) outside Chai Ya in southern Thailand.
Translated by Dhammavidu and Santikaro, you can hear the Ajahn’s voice in the text as book consists of a translation of a selection of his public talks. The book addresses the core teachings of the Buddha in a language for the 21st century – a radical, insightful teaching with a depth respecting the human potential for profound realisations.
Zoom Talk Info. No registration required
Link to the information: https://web.facebook.com/suanmokkh.bkk
I will speak about some of the important features of the book along with anecdotes of my time with the Ajahn during my years as a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
Do lend an ear.
19.00 – 20.30 Thai time (14.00 -15.30 CET). Thursday 7 April 2022
JOIN ZOOM MEETING
https://bit.ly/3JDZsdW
Meeting ID: 487 652 6053
Passcode: 12345
The Buddha inspired a Buddhist tradition of more than 2000 years. The tradition includes responses to the Dhamma from illustrious teachers, including Buddhaghosa, Nagarjuna and Dogan. Ajahn Buddhadasa (1907 – 1993) stands in the same company as these masters.
Probably the most outspoken Thai teacher of the 20th century, Ajahn Buddhadasa called upon a radical change in priorities to make Buddhism fit for the 20th and 21st century. He addressed governments, religious leaders, educators, secular culture and spiritual seekers offering a diverse range of teachings.
He endorsed meditation, reflection, inquiry, research and public discussion to develop ethics and wisdom in daily life. His teachings regularly irritated conservative and liberal wings of the Buddha-Dharma with his determination to forge a middle way requiring boldness, realisations and vision. He does not fit into any kind of box.
Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma (Pali spelling. Sanskrit spelling: Dharma) embraces the expanse of his teachings, rich with insights, suitable for daily life. Readers will find in the pages a body of teachings to open the mind to the depth of the human experience. The book offers teachings/reflections on cultivation of the mind, inquiry into the self/ego, superstitious beliefs and the importance of the observation of life.
You will find explanations of the core Buddha’s teachings on mental suffering, conditionality, dependent arising, emptiness of self, the elements, mental concoctions, emptiness, the goal and Nirvana. As with the Buddha, the Ajahn steers away from identification with the religious features of Buddhism and its secular features, such as reliance on mindfulness. He has a truly expansive view of liberating insights.
There is a wealth of Buddhist academic books, Buddhist self-help books and books on specific Buddhist themes. Readers will benefit through contact with a wide range of important points, reflecting on them and applying into daily life. Grounded in direct experience, his teachings contain countless jewels in this straightforward text backed up with the deep teachings of the Buddha.
Ajahn Buddhadasa spent more than 60 years in the forest in southern Thailand engaged in meditations, reflections, study of the words of the Buddha, living close to the elements and teaching. He revealed an exceptional range of realisations throughout his life.
Translated by Dhammavidu and Santikaro, the text captures in English the teachings of Buddhadasa often given in a clearing under the trees to monks, nuns and householders.
Note to Readers: Ajahn means Teacher. Buddhadasa means Servant of the Buddha. Dhamma is the Pali (language of the Buddha) for the Sanskrit word Dharma – meaning teachings/practices and the nature of things.
A profound book provides a mid-opening reading experience. Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma falls into this category.
Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma
Ajahn Buddhadasa
translated by Bhikkhu Dhammavidu and Santikaro
Published 2022 by Shambala Inc, USA.
310 pages.
$22.95
Christopher Titmuss, a senior Dharma teacher in the West, offers retreats, facilitates pilgrimages and gives Zoom teachings worldwide. His teachings focus on insight meditation (vipassana), the expansive heart and enquiry into emptiness and liberation. Poet, blogger and social critic, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, The Political Buddha and Poems from the Edge of Time. Christopher is a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India. His primary teachers were Ajahn Buddhadasa at Wat Suanmoke and Ajahn Dhammadharo at Wat Chai Na, Nakornsridhammaraj, Thailand. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England.
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I read an online news report this week of a famous person in the entertainment business slapping another famous person in the same business over a remark at the Oscars in Hollywood.
Their fame has not reached into my living room. I am not familiar with the two men. The report revealed the emptiness of the media wallowing in the insensitive and uncomical comments of one famous person and the aggressive reactivity of another.
Show business converts people into products. The business encourages them to draw attention to themselves, so the stars increase their market value. The craving for attention can gradually become a dominant form of behaviour.
I wrote this poem in 2014 for people to read aloud to themselves who want to be famous.
WHO WOULD WANT TO BE FAMOUS?
I have become a star of my own show,
I want to get myself a status high,
a possibility of what could be.
I rise and rise, then must fall, then I die.
I have no clothes to add to my person.
Why dress myself up seeking name and form?
Why does the cat walk while the dogs do bark?
Then all these thoughts become a hounding storm.
What will I be? How will I be? Will I?
What burrows down into recesses lame?
These dreams can act like sucking ticks on blood,
and scratch again on claims to gain and fame.
Is future life a type of running scared?
Why can’t we make desires come to stick?
I throw my thinking back and forth so much.
Are all my hopes and hooks a cruel trick?
This longing goes,
No more this clueless view,
I wake to this endless splendour at hand,
admit beyond is closer than I thought,
such completion does shatter dreams so bland.
Poems from the Edge of Time
Christopher Titmuss
193 pages
£9.95
Published 2015. Available on Amazon.
