Members Bios - please contribute yours

Introduce yourself to others at Dhamma Wheel.
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rowboat
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by rowboat »

Piyatissa wrote:Hello to everybody,

I am a retired engineer of age 75. I am a born Buddhist.I am very much engaged in studying deep Buddhism and meditation. I have read the Tripitaka about three times. I deliver sermons in the temples. Also conduct Buddhist discussion forums. Write books and articles on Buddhism. I have been following Dhamma Wheel for quite a some time. It is very interesting. Today only I signed as a member. What is important in a discussion forum like this to not only to show their personal opinion, but also quote the source from which the material has been taken if referring to Pitakas, Nikayas, Sutras etc. So we can cross check the authenticity of the material. It is not happening in most cases.

In time to come I also can contribute some material for the forum.

With metta,
Piyatissa
Elder Piyatissa, I am happy to welcome you to Dhammawheel!

:anjali:
Rain soddens what is covered up,
It does not sodden what is open.
Therefore uncover what is covered
That the rain will not sodden it.
Ud 5.5
Cormac Brown
Posts: 355
Joined: Sun Dec 22, 2013 10:10 am

Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Cormac Brown »

Piyatissa wrote:Hello to everybody,

I am a retired engineer of age 75. I am a born Buddhist.I am very much engaged in studying deep Buddhism and meditation. I have read the Tripitaka about three times. I deliver sermons in the temples. Also conduct Buddhist discussion forums. Write books and articles on Buddhism. I have been following Dhamma Wheel for quite a some time. It is very interesting. Today only I signed as a member. What is important in a discussion forum like this to not only to show their personal opinion, but also quote the source from which the material has been taken if referring to Pitakas, Nikayas, Sutras etc. So we can cross check the authenticity of the material. It is not happening in most cases.

In time to come I also can contribute some material for the forum.

With metta,
Piyatissa
Sadhu. If we would stay faithful to the suttas more often, it would conduce to much greater harmony and less suffering on here. Let's hope your advice is heeded.
SN 36.19 trans. Ven. Thanissaro wrote:"When I have taught the Dhamma by means of exposition, it can be expected that when there are those who do not consent to, assent to, or accept what is well-said and well-stated by one another, there will be arguing, quarreling, & disputing, and they will dwell wounding one another with the sword of the tongue. Thus I have taught the Dhamma by means of exposition. When I have taught the Dhamma by means of exposition, it can be expected that when there are those who do consent to, assent to, & accept what is well-said and well-stated by one another, they will live in harmony, with courtesy, without quarreling, like milk mixed with water, regarding one another with friendly eyes."
MN 70 trans. Ven. Thanissaro wrote:"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this: 'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I.' For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, the Teacher's message is healing & nourishing."
Our duty is to bring our views in line with the Dhamma, not the Dhamma in line with our views.
“I in the present who am a worthy one, rightly self-awakened, am a
teacher of action, a teacher of activity, a teacher of persistence. But the
worthless man Makkhali contradicts even me, (saying,) ‘There is no
action. There is no activity. There is no persistence.’ "
AN 3.138, trans. Ven. Thanissaro
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DNS
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by DNS »

Piyatissa wrote: With metta,
Piyatissa
Bhante? Piyatissa,

Is this you?
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... bl068.html

Welcome to DW!

:bow:
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U Obhasa
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by U Obhasa »

Hello Dhamma friends,

My monk name is Obhasa. I ordained and have lived in Myanmar since January 2015, still relatively new to the monk life. I took my first Vipassana course in 1995 in Bodhgaya under the guidance of Michael Kewley. I had sold everything I owned and bought a one way ticket to Asia in my mid 20's and amongst Tai Chi in China, yoga in the Himalayas, I also found the Dhamma. Without internet though it was hard to continue with Michael in the UK while I was home in the US so I found my way to and spent the next 15 years as a pretty hardcore student of SN Goenka. After fading away from that technique and floating without any Dhamma practice for about a year and a half, I found my way to the teachings of Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw as taught by Sayadaw U Tejaniya whose open, investigative, wider scoped teachings rekindled my interest in Dhamma. So much so that I eventually became a monk.

And so here I am sitting in a small bamboo hut in the pine forests of Shan state writing this. Speaking of writing, my connection is poor and I one-finger type on a tablet. So please pardon the many typos that often occur from my fat fingers. I'll try to correct but I sometimes miss.

I have degrees in both psychology and comparative religions and have long been interested in the workings of the mind. I have some familiarity with other beliefs and practices. I studied yoga for many years and taught a bit. I have tried 4 different methods of Vipassana and so more and more I am becoming aware of the wider scope of Buddha's teachings as I slowly emerge from past sectarianism. I am a Shwe Oo Min monk in the Shwe Kyin sect of Theravada Buddhism and live in a strongly traditional, faith based country. That being said, I would drop most of these titles and would be happy to just be a simple Buddhist monk. Yes Buddhist. That us what I'm exploring, Buddha's path. I tend towards more simple wisdom based Dhamma from the Suttas and what is called Early Buddhism. More than enough for an intro.

I look forward to sharing and learning from all the wisdom available here.

Obhasa
U Obhāsa
"Once in awhile you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right." -Hunter/Garcia
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rowboat
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by rowboat »

I'm glad you are here, Venerable Obhasa. Welcome to Dhammawheel!

:anjali:
Rain soddens what is covered up,
It does not sodden what is open.
Therefore uncover what is covered
That the rain will not sodden it.
Ud 5.5
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DNS
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by DNS »

rowboat wrote:I'm glad you are here, Venerable Obhasa. Welcome to Dhammawheel!

:anjali:
+1 Glad you are here, Venerable and interesting bio and practice. Welcome to DW!

:anjali:
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cjmacie
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by cjmacie »

cjmacie = Christopher J Macie, b.1943 -- in California since 1949 (a "forty-niner"), but for 1976-1984 in (West) Germany.

Age 14 or 15, reading Descartes "Meditations", saw clearly that when the blood stops flowing, this brain would power-down, and with it all this "cogito" stuff -- "ergo" no more "sum". So much for the "eternal soul" and having to live life towards heaven or hell. Goodbye Christianity in general, though I still marvel at Gothic cathedrals, stained-glass windows, the music, etc.

A high-school teacher inspired ambitions in a friend and myself: reading, writing, thinking "great thoughts". And music: late one night, while reading some "great book", tuned-in the radio (some choral music by J.S.Bach), which triggered first recalled "mystical experience" (which I now would characterize as an extreme piti –rapture episode). Not to mention starting with piano as an infant, and (ca. 8th grade) lessons on the pipe-organ – that turned into a passion to learn, play, ALL of J.S.Bach's music.

So, college (Stanford 1960-1964) as music major, but bigger was getting in with a group of teachers & students (living together off-campus) in a sort-of Platonic academy. A bit of Greek (read Aristotle's "peri psyche") and a ton of German (notably GFW Hegel's "Die Phaenomenologie des Geistes", auf deutsch, 20 or so pages/week in a study group – it took a whole year). Also Edmund Husserl's "Cartesian Meditations" (in English – a primer in 20th century phenomenology). And a bunch of Carl Jung, cultural history, etc Academically speaking, that was then mostly "counter-cultural" – topics not taken seriously within the standard framework of (Anglo-Saxon) university curriculum.

Graduate school 1964-1970 at UC Berkeley (first profession was "professional student", and avoiding having to go fight in Viet Nam), first MA in Musikwissenschaft (Musicology), then ½ way through PhD work when it got boring. Up to then, getting to know the entire history of (Western) music and the cultural history around it, was enthralling; last stages of PhD involve digging-out some deservedly forgotten corner of history and researching it to death.

Serependipitously, a friend studying composition led me to Karl-Heinz Stockhausen's music, who spent a year teaching at near-by UC Davis, and was, without knowing it as such, a master at khanika samadhi. And I happened to take a course back at Stanford (John Chowning's first such course, 1967) in "computer generated music" – blew my mind, as one said back then. The course was held at John McCarthy's (author of LISP, early pioneer in AI) lab in the Stanford hills – state-of-the-art computer hardware (PDP-6, graphics terminals, etc.), and a weird bunch of geeks, who were mostly also into music. Was allowed to go down there (from Berkeley) any night and have the whole place to myself. Took Fortran and machine-code (CDC-6400) courses, and promptly transferred out of the music department into the newly formed Computer Science department at Berkeley, which was then teeming with many of the folks who later moved across the SF Bay to help spawn many of the seminal accomplishments of "Silicon Valley".

Also, by accident, got to see "Smalltalk-72" at Xerox PARC about 1975, and spent the next 25 years inspired by that, in the end totally immersed in Smalltalk culture. (That's a computer language system that models epistemology/philosophy, and cognitive ergonomics, so to speak, while most languages just engineer higher-level machine-models.) Last full-time job (1993-1997) in that field was at PARC-Place Systems – the commercial Smalltalk spin-off from PARC.

BUT, had premonitions, and mid 1980's also went through oriental-medicine college (in San Diego), got Calif. acupuncture license in 1992, while still software professional. (As a kid, friends of my parents were engineers, back in their youth big on then state-of-the-art "ham-radio" technology; by my youth, radios were throw-away gadgets mass-produced in Japan; having a sense of history (from university days), it was clear that computers would eventually go the same route.) Also 1st-wife was, in the 1970s, into shiatzu massage, and studied with a Taoist Chinese doctor; she taught me much of that, which proved beneficial enough to motivate later exploring it on my own.

Also, an interlude in the 1980's was involvement with one "Sun Bear" (combo Chippewa-Cree and hippy/new-age teacher) and his "Bear Tribe". One teaching of his that struck a chord: one may be big into this or that (e.g. being a computer hot-shot), "but what are you doing for your people?"

So, when the "dot.com" crash (2000) wiped-out the careers of us 50s-something software types rendered obsolescent by young hot-shots from China and India who worked for a fraction of the money, I was able to, again virtually by accident, buy an established acupuncture practice in Palo Alto, and that's been the (third) "profession" for the last 16 years.

Aside from the exposure (during the formative era of "new age" – 1970s) to things like the I Ching, tai-ji-quan, etc., other subtle influences accumulated to shape the present. One teacher at the acupuncture college – the one who sucked me in with an into-lecture at an "open-house" – it turns out (as I learned only earlier this year, after his untimely death) was an avid Buddhist (Zen and Tibetan). There were Tibetan Lamas around in San Diego in the 1980's (as they were/are most everywhere, in their "diaspora"); one weekend they held a "Medicine Buddha" initiation at the acupuncture college – weird hocus-pocus with strange chanting, lots of flowers, icons, bowls of butter, etc. Didn't understand a word, but, purportedly, was "initiated" as a medicine Buddha!?

But late 1990s-2000s also undertook a major course of study with a Chinese Taoist priest (who specialized in the medicine), who was able to make sense of the medical tradition (what one learns in school is, well, textbook knowledge – "scribe-knowledge" as Thanissaro once put it, vs. the "warrior knowledge" of the practitioner). And imparted teachings that illuminated Chinese medicine (to understand which, one must know the history, as well as the philosophy and the religions). One point that came up again and again was that virtually all the "great masters" of the medicine (across 2000 years) were also adepts at Taoism AND/OR Buddhism (as was this teacher) – in Chinese culture, it's hard to differentiate the two influences.

So, about 10 years ago, again by accident, I got mixed-up with a group into Parmahansa-Yogananda lineage Kriya yoga – i.e., meditation. That got old quickly, with all the emphasis on bakhti, subjective emotionalism, True Self, etc. So, by accident, a colleague directed my to Shaila Catherine's (a personal student of Pa Auk Sayadaw) Insight-Meditation "sangha", held at a church half-way between work and home here, and I was off-and-running with Theravada. She hosted B. Bodhi a couple of times, and U. Jagara on retreats. At nearby IMC (Redwood City) I got to spend a weekend per year listening to Thanissaro Bikkhu ("Than-Geof" as he's known there), and collect all his books CDs, routinely free at IMC.

After a series of 7-10 day retreats with Shaila (specializing in "hard" jhana as well as vipassana) and a couple with Spirit Rock Meditation Center, at $1000-$2000 a crack, the Insight-Meditation scene also started to get old, for reasons now clear from reading (twice already) Than-Geof's "Buddhist Romanticism" – which, from all the previous cultural history and Germanic studies, I'm able to relish perhaps more than most readers.

And then, again by accident, it turns out that the Tathagata Medication Center is just 10 miles from where I live (closer than any of the many other meditations centers, which abound in this area) – a genuine outpost of Mahasi-Pandita Burmese Theravada. Weekend retreats FREE; 4-times/year month-long retreats at $25/day (+dana) – that's half the cost for a month that IM/VM retreats cost for a week! (Tellingly, the IM people around here never mention that place.) About the time I started going there, Sayadaw U. Pandita gave the last of his annual retreats there (40 days), but I wasn't ready for that (and it was booked-out well in advanced). And the eminent Sayadaw Silananda, who largely implemented that center, already died 10 years earlier. But the current abbot, Sayadaw Thuzana, knows his stuff too, and is very approachable.

And now there's the internet thing – a couple of years into Dharma-Overground, more recently DhammaWheel. Several years ago I lurked here a bit, pretty much intimidated by it all; though I was impressed that one "Tilt Billings" had also read (and, ostensibly, understood) Piatigorsky's "The Buddhist Philosophy of Thought". Noa Ronkin (protégé of Rupert Gethin and author of "Early Buddhist Metaphysics") lives/works at nearby Stanford, and once gave a month-long introduction to Abhidhamma at Shaila Catherine's sanga. Corresponding with her about meta-reflexive issues, she recommended Piatigorsky's book, which I was able to find ($140!) and read, though his style is s/w challenging; a background in phenomenology helped a lot.

That's pretty much it. After several careers, lots of been-there, done-that, Buddha-Path seems the right thing to go out on.

One memorable teaching from Than-Geof: the Path can seen as a matter of training restraint – what comes in, and what goes out (of the mind). Both still work-in-progress, the "output" part particularly in tending to write longish essays. But the OP here asked for it.
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mikenz66
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by mikenz66 »

Thanks Christopher, That's quite a bio...

:anjali:
Mike
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fivebells
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by fivebells »

cjmacie wrote:reading (twice already) Than-Geof's "Buddhist Romanticism" – which, from all the previous cultural history and Germanic studies, I'm able to relish perhaps more than most readers.
That book is a gem, the ideas in it clarified my own history with Buddhism so much. There is also his much shorter essay on the topic, and the recording of his daylong on the topic.
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Coëmgenu
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Coëmgenu »

Hello all,

I skipped this biography section accidentally when I joined a bit ago, but seeing as it seems that I have a proclivity for getting into long threads on this forum that I didn't intend to get into, I figured I might as well formally say hi to everyone.

My name is Caoimhghín Aindréas, my family is from near Belfast, Ireland, but we currently live in central-Southern Ontario in Canada.

I just started to get serious about Buddhism a few years ago. I'm a Mahayana Buddhist but I have a great deal of respect for Theravada Buddhism. I recently moved and the only temple near me is a Sri Lankan Theravada temple, so I might reach out to them soon to see if I can connect with the local Buddhist community near me more often.

I joined Dhamma Wheel because I figured it would be a good place to see what the Theravada community was like, and I am very impressed at the high level of scholarly discourse on this site. I've managed to learn how to navigate the Pali Canon online just from reading threads, so much more of it is available to me now, without having to buy it, so I thank Dhamma Wheel for that certainly.

I'm currently trying to get into a Masters program in Quebec to study archaeomusicology. I guess thats all?

:anjali:
Caoimghín
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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tiltbillings
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by tiltbillings »

Coëmgenu wrote:
My name is Caoimhghín Aindréas,
An labhraíonn tú Gaeilge?
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Coëmgenu
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Coëmgenu »

tiltbillings wrote:
Coëmgenu wrote:
My name is Caoimhghín Aindréas,
An labhraíonn tú Gaeilge?
Níl Gaeilge agam. My gramma had some Gaelic, but its not as common up in Cúige Uladh to preserve or value your Gaelic and treat it as something to be proud of. My gramma actually married an Orangist, so that pretty much squished proper Gaelic in our family.

My parents didn't even know how to spell enough Gaelic to spell my name, although they wanted to give me a properly Irish name, so they spelled it "Keveen", and that remains the legal spelling of my name on my driver's license to this day, although I never use it when I don't have to, lol.
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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tiltbillings
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by tiltbillings »

Coëmgenu wrote:
tiltbillings wrote:
Coëmgenu wrote:
My name is Caoimhghín Aindréas,
An labhraíonn tú Gaeilge?
Níl Gaeilge agam. My gramma had some Gaelic, but its not as common up in Cúige Uladh to preserve or value your Gaelic and treat it as something to be proud of. My gramma actually married an Orangist, so that pretty much squished proper Gaelic in our family.

My parents didn't even know how to spell enough Gaelic to spell my name, although they wanted to give me a properly Irish name, so they spelled it "Keveen", and that remains the legal spelling of my name on my driver's license to this day, although I never use it when I don't have to, lol.
The sad fate of Irish in Ireland, but there is hope.
Mahayana Buddhist
Which school?
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Coëmgenu
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Coëmgenu »

tiltbillings wrote:
Coëmgenu wrote:Mahayana Buddhist
Which school?
I am most interested in the Tiāntái Buddhism, but the only proper Buddhist instruction I have received so far, in a traditional teacher-based person-to-person setting, was for a little over a year when I was in school in Toronto, from a Jōdo Shinshū representative from the local "Toronto Buddhist Church" (http://tbc.on.ca/about-us/).
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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tiltbillings
Posts: 23046
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am

Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by tiltbillings »

Coëmgenu wrote:
tiltbillings wrote:
Coëmgenu wrote:Mahayana Buddhist
Which school?
I am most interested in the Tiāntái Buddhism, but the only proper Buddhist instruction I have received so far, in a traditional teacher-based person-to-person setting, was for a little over a year when I was in school in Toronto, from a Jōdo Shinshū representative from the local "Toronto Buddhist Church" (http://tbc.on.ca/about-us/).
That is a bit unusual. Dogen comes out of Tendai. I like his stuff a lot, and if I were still a Zennie I pursue Soto Zen.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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