..續本文上一頁eople, a solid and reliable expression of the Dhamma in a world of fast and furious modernization.

　　Buddhist history has shown that wilderness traditions go through a very quick life cycle. As one loses its momentum, another often grows up in its place. But with the wholesale destruction of Thailand”s forests in the last few decades, the Kammatthana tradition may be the last great forest tradition that Thailand will produce. Fortunately, we in the West have learned of it in time to gather lessons that will be help in cultivating the customs of the noble ones on Western soil and establishing authentic wilderness traditions of our own.

　　Perhaps the most important of those lessons concerns the role that the wilderness plays in testing and correcting trends that develop among Buddhists in cities and towns. The story of the Kammatthana tradition gives lie to the facile notion that Buddhism has survived simply by adapting to its host culture. The survival of Buddhism and the survival of the Dhamma are two different things. People like Ajaan Mun -- willing to make whatever sacrifices are needed to discover and practice the Dhamma on its own terms -- are the ones who have kept the Dhamma alive. Of course, people have always been free to engage in Buddhist traditions in whatever way they like, but those who have benefited most from that engagement are those who, instead of reshaping Buddhism to fit their preferences, reshape themselves to fit in with the customs and traditions of the noble ones. To find these customs isn”t easy, given the bewildering variety of traditions that Buddhists have spawned over the centuries. To test them, each inpidual is thrown back on his or her own powers of relentless honesty, integrity, and discernment. There are no easy guarantees. And perhaps this fact in itself is a measure of the Dhamma”s true worth. Only people of real integrity can truly comprehend it. As Ajaan Lee, one of Ajaan Mun”s students, once said, "If a person isn”t true to the Buddha”s teachings, the Buddha”s teachings won”t be true to that person -- and that person won”t be able to know what the Buddha”s true teachings are."

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