Shravasti Dhammika

[WorldTraveller]

He lives in Townsville, Australia now.

Can you or anyone say exactly where he lives in Townsville? Email address? Thanks

Here it's given as [email protected]

[SarathW]

I am not the 5th or 9th reincarnation of a great lama, I have not recived any empowerments or initiations, I am not the holder of any lineage, I am yet to attain any of the jhanas, I am not a widely respected teacher, I am not a stream enterer (at least I don't feel like one)and I do not have many disciples. Nontheless, you may find some of my observations and musings interesting. I have been a Buddhist monk for 32 years and am the spiritual advisor to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.

What a humble statement from a great man!

[budo]

I am not the 5th or 9th reincarnation of a great lama, I have not recived any empowerments or initiations, I am not the holder of any lineage, I am yet to attain any of the jhanas, I am not a widely respected teacher, I am not a stream enterer (at least I don't feel like one)and I do not have many disciples. Nontheless, you may find some of my observations and musings interesting. I have been a Buddhist monk for 32 years and am the spiritual advisor to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.

What a humble statement from a great man!

Some might say someone who has done something for 32 years without achieving anything is foolish. If anything, it shows how much someone can do without achieving much at all, and the opposite as well, you can do very little and achieve a lot.

The teaching is not easily understood and hard to comprehend, as the Buddha said

[Bundokji]

I am not the 5th or 9th reincarnation of a great lama, I have not recived any empowerments or initiations, I am not the holder of any lineage, I am yet to attain any of the jhanas, I am not a widely respected teacher, I am not a stream enterer (at least I don't feel like one)and I do not have many disciples. Nontheless, you may find some of my observations and musings interesting. I have been a Buddhist monk for 32 years and am the spiritual advisor to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.

What a humble statement from a great man!

Which goes back to my previous comment. Examining my own feelings/impressions/reactions when i read or listen to experienced practitioners reveals uncomfortable truths about the quality of my own mind. Because i generate pleasure when i impress people, i tend to pay more attention to how they present what they know rather than the content of what they say.

The video you shared on his explanation of Anatta did not appear very special for a monk who has been practicing for decades, and yet, there is nothing wrong or difficult to understand in the content of his answer.

The above is not falling into the stupidity of measuring a bhikkhu but a reflection on our minds and how they operate. In this context, the notion that wise people know each other makes a lot of sense.

[form]

I am not the 5th or 9th reincarnation of a great lama, I have not recived any empowerments or initiations, I am not the holder of any lineage, I am yet to attain any of the jhanas, I am not a widely respected teacher, I am not a stream enterer (at least I don't feel like one)and I do not have many disciples. Nontheless, you may find some of my observations and musings interesting. I have been a Buddhist monk for 32 years and am the spiritual advisor to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.

What a humble statement from a great man!

Some might say someone who has done something for 32 years without achieving anything is foolish. If anything, it shows how much someone can do without achieving much at all, and the opposite as well, you can do very little and achieve a lot.

The teaching is not easily understood and hard to comprehend, as the Buddha said

After 32 years, one will have the 32 marks of a great man. If no, means not a great man.

[DooDoot]

Here it's given as [email protected]

.
Ok. Thanks for that. With metta.

[budo]

What a humble statement from a great man!

Some might say someone who has done something for 32 years without achieving anything is foolish. If anything, it shows how much someone can do without achieving much at all, and the opposite as well, you can do very little and achieve a lot.

The teaching is not easily understood and hard to comprehend, as the Buddha said

After 32 years, one will have the 32 marks of a great man. If no, means not a great man.

You have existed for an infinite amount time, in that infinite amount of time you were a great man and a bad man, and a great man again, and a bad man again, and over and over and over cycling through heaven and hell.

[SarathW]

After 32 years, one will have the 32 marks of a great man. If no, means not a great man.

Actually, I can relate to him.
More I know, more I know how much I do not know.

[form]

After 32 years, one will have the 32 marks of a great man. If no, means not a great man.

Actually, I can relate to him.
More I know, more I know how much I do not know.

Have u spoken to him before?

[SarathW]

No.
I started listening to his Dhamma talk.
I just finished this.
I have no doubt that he has earned lot of practical expeience.

[budo]

No.
I started listening to his Dhamma talk.
I just finished this.
I have no doubt that he has earned lot of practical expeience.

Going to have to disagree with his perspective on transcendental meditation. I agree with the poor health part because that's in the suttas. But if you never make enlightenment your goal, then you're going to be just like him, never achieving anything.

He said that you shouldn't make enlightenment your goal because you'll get frustrated or have bad emotions, etc.. and for me that's a good thing. If you have needles in your arm and something brushes against your arm causing you pain, that's a problem with the needles in your arm, not the object brushing your arm.

I'm not saying you should be masochistic and chase pain, I'm saying you should focus on the goal and know how to handle the obstacles when they arise, and not do what he's saying, which is to not to have a goal because you're scared of the obstacles. Earlier I was contemplating the attributes of this monk, it is clear he is honest, but I was wondering what his weakness was, whether it was lack of discrimination or lack of courage, and I would say in my opinion it is mostly lack of courage.


“In the same way, there are ascetics and brahmins who live withdrawn in body and mind from sensual pleasures. And they have internally given up and stilled desire, affection, stupefaction, thirst, and passion for sensual pleasures. Regardless of whether or not they feel painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings because of their efforts, they are capable of knowledge and vision, of supreme awakening. This was the third example that occurred to me. These are the three examples, which were neither supernaturally inspired, nor learned before in the past, that occurred to me." -MN 85

[SarathW]

Going to have to disagree with his perspective on transcendental meditation.

Perhaps you have to listen to the whole series before making this comment.

[budo]

Going to have to disagree with his perspective on transcendental meditation.

Perhaps you have to listen to the whole series before making this comment.

As I said, he's honest, he made his point clear in that moment.

[StormBorn]

I was reading his The Broken Buddha. On page 68, he wrote about a "Buddhayana". I take his vision of another "organized religion" to be unwise.

Buddhayana would be governed by a properly constituted and legally recognized mahasabha, something like the Board of Governors of the Methodist Church, the Board of Jewish Deputies or perhaps better, the Western Buddhist Order (WBO) and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order
(FWBO)...

[Zom]

I take his vision of another "organized religion" to be unwise.

I'd say naive and idealistic.