..续本文上一页eachers in all traditions. Sometimes he teases the experts from the government, United Nations, and so-called charity organizations who meet in fancy hotels and air-conditioned halls to discuss the problem of the poor. Only strong rains chase his discussions here under a roof, but not so far as to go indoors.
This appreciation for nature is one of Suan Mokkh”s way of honoring all Buddhas (the Ones Who Know, the Awakened Ones). The man who came to be called "The Lord Buddha" was born outdoors, in a grove of trees, on the ground. All the major events of his life happened in similar circumstances: the Great Awakening under the Bodhi tree, the first sermon in the Deer Park at Isipatana, and the passing into parinibbana 6 at his body”s dissolution. Many hours of , untold miles walking through the Indian countryside, and forty-five years of tireless teaching mostly took place outdoor, beneath trees, on the earth (perhaps with a pile of leaves or grass covered by a simple cloth as a seat). Nor was the Buddha unique in this closeness with nature. Christ, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, and most of the "Ones Who Know" spent much of their time in the "desert" or "wilderness." And what of their disciples living in this world of petroleum derivatives, steel, and silicon wafers
The Buddha”s advice remains the same. Bhikkhus, these bases of trees, these quiet places, you ought to practice diligently. Don”t be careless, don”t live as a person who will have regrets later. 7
WE MUST HELP OURSELVES
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu had six Rains when he returned from Bangkok to found Suan Mokkh. 8 By then he had passed and subsequently taught the recommended basic studies and had begun the formal Pali studies necessary for status and advancement in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Although he was dissatisfied by the worldly atmosphere and trappings of those studies, by their conservatism, and lack of free thought, he gained from them a solid enough understanding of the Buddha”s teaching to go independent. The decadence, busyness, filth, and noise of Bangkok - even sixty years ago - sickened him, so he sought a proper place to put the teachings into practice. He moved into an abandoned Wat in the woods near the town of his birth and began his exploration in earnest. When younger bhikkhus and novices heard of Suan Mokkh and came to stay there, he required that they too have enough study knowledge, commitment, and maturity to be self-reliant. Basic training was available elsewhere; Suan Mokkh sought a deeper practice.
The Buddhist analysis of the human dilemma is that we bring suffering upon ourselves and others through our own ignorance. The naturally pure mind is deceived and lured by sensual experience. Things are taken to be permanent, satisfying, beautiful, ownable, and most profoundly, to be selves. 9 Viewing our lives and world in such a way, we pervert the basic experiences of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and knowing (including all the mental processes such as thinking, feeling, remembering); along with the feelings (pleasant, unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant) that arise toward those experiences; into craving, lust, hatred, delusion, worry, fear, and all forms of selfishness. Such deluded thinking and acting is misery, all of which is rooted in our own blindness and misunderstanding. Ultimately, then, the solution is to remove that ignorance. And if that ignorance is within our own hearts-minds, how could anyone else remove it for us
To depend on outside help is childish; we must cure ourselves.
This being the case, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu set off to cure himself and never fell under the delusion that he could cure others. He simply wanted to study, practice, and penetrate to the heart of the Buddha”s Dhamma, and never had intentions to set…
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