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Teachings of the Earth. Back Over the Mountains.
English-Thai - All you have to know! The Rough Guide to the Philippines. Zen Words for the Heart. Travelling Bangkok Big Beaver Diaries. Masters, Mice and Men. Australia's Battlefields in Viet Nam. Never Not Ever Here Now. Myanmar - Culture Smart! Inspiring Stories for Children, Vol 3. Handy Pocket Guide to Tropical Seashells. Children of Silence and Slow Time. Square Sun, Square Moon. A Straight Road with 99 Curves. How to write a great review. The review must be at least 50 characters long. The title should be at least 4 characters long.
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Please review your cart. You can remove the unavailable item s now or we'll automatically remove it at Checkout. Continue shopping Checkout Continue shopping. Chi ama i libri sceglie Kobo e inMondadori. Available in Russia Shop from Russia to buy this item. Or, get it for Kobo Super Points! In Pahnanachat, the monks keep the rules laid down by the Buddha, including refraining from all killing. But how does a foreign monk cope with cobra in the outhouse, or the temptation of a Mars Bar in his begging bowl?
In many ways, it is an ideal book for readers who are just beginning their explorations of Buddhism, seasoned travelers will revel in it as well. This is a sweet book of self discovery on a path that many Westerners have taken over the past forty years using Asian ideas and practices to come to terms with an inner world they find uncomfortable.
Ajaan Cha is the lineage head of the many monasteries Sumedho has help found in England, America, Australia, and elsewhere around the world. By the time Tim arrived in Ajaan Cha had been disabled by water on the brain for more than five years.
Tim's tale of the monastery is revealing of the outer flaws of monastic life and his own struggle to come to terms with them. Monks influenced by Ajaan Cha and his students often promote monastic life as the answer to life's problems. The world Tim reveals is all too human. There are personalities, there is blind submission to Thai culture which treats monks almost as magical persons. Laypersons earn merit for themselves in this life and future lives by feeding and serving the monks, and the monks rationalize what they know to be a way too simple understanding of Buddhism because it maintains their lifestyle.
Tim befriends another novice with whom he can talk about all these contradictions.
The friend leaves and, although apparently not there much longer, Tim becomes really angry about what he feels are compromises. The anger is palpable and the reader senses how out of proportion it is to the inconsistencies in monastic life. The book is redeemed and Tim begins to understand what he has been missing when the very monks he dumps his anger on respond to him with authentic compassion. Their monastic life has imbued in them both a love and equanimity so they are not at all hooked by what they recognize as clearly Tim's discontents whatever the actual problems of Thai monasteries may be.
This is an engaging book. There are wonderful descriptions of the discomforts engendered by mosquitoes, ants, scorpions, and snakes of a countryside which had once been wild and was giving way to civilization. The dialogue between Tim and his friend, his taunting of others in the monastery, his easy explanation of Buddhist ideas make for interesting reading.
The book flows nicely and, as reader, I looked forward to what challenge would come next for Tim. These days Buddhism is presented as a cure all touted on the covers of popular magazines. The Dalai Lama has become a hero. While Buddhism can offer some people relief from their problems, it has a long diverse history as a religion with all kinds of awkwardnesses not revealed by its promoters. It is refreshing to get a look into one man's experience in a monastery. It has many familiar ordinary human failures along with redeeming qualities. And of course, other people in other monastic settings have had quite different experiences.
I think this is an important book to read for both Buddhist practitioners and people for whom Buddhism has been placed on a pedestal. Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World. Everyone can be a fundamentalist. This "problem" is not limited to Christians, however much we Buddhists would like to think so. Tim Ward shows how Theravada Buddhism, with its stress on the "perfect Dhamma" and hundreds of rules, can be corrupted in practice.
Not surprising; monks are people, too. Not surprising, of course, but you never hear about it. So, they take a layperson with them into the jungle, and say, "Get rid of this", pointing at weeds or whatever needs to be cleared. This is not consistent with the spirit of the rules, but it follows the letter of the rules. Thus the problems of literalism raise their head. Tim Ward is a gentle, well meaning traveller who does all Buddhists a favor by showing that Buddhism can fall victim to the problems of all religions.
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His struggle to use the discipline of the monastery to his advantage was interesting. There is still a place in the jungles of Thailand, where you can leave it all behind Thus the problems of literalism raise their head. The aloofness of senior sangha, the hypocrisy - as the writer sees it - of rules that can subtly be bent but never broken, and the rather distasteful living death of Ajahn Chah in his last days, are explored head on. Tim Ward is a gentle, well meaning traveller who does all Buddhists a favor by showing that Buddhism can fall victim to the problems of all religions. Here's how restrictions apply. Inspiring Stories for Children, Vol 3.
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