What the Buddha Never Taught by Tim Ward

Author:Tim Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRV000000, book
ISBN: 9780887626203
Publisher: Thomas Allen Publishers
Published: 2010-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Let not a man trace back the past

Or wonder what the future holds:

The past is but the left-behind,

The future but the yet-unreached.

In the present let him see

With insight each and every instant

Invincibly, unshakably,

That can be pierced by practising.

The morning of my fast with Jim, Richard did not come on bindabat. Ruk and I went alone. I was glad for a break from the Texan’s metaphysical banter. It fed my ego and destroyed my calm. Conversation with Ruk, however, came as gently as the dawn. His smile was always full of joy sufficient to refute all of Jim’s pessimism. I wanted to put to him some of Jim’s tough questions.

“Ruk, everybody says the monks at Pah Nanachat are very strict and dedicated to the tradition compared to other wats in Thailand. People come all the way from Bangkok just to feed us breakfast.”

“It’s a lot stricter.”

“Does that make the monks better?”

“It does to the Thais.”

“But does it really make any difference?”

“I think so.”

We reached the lotus pond, a small lake on the side of the road filled with green lotus pads. The flowers rose above the surface, folded open to reveal brilliant pink, purple or white interiors. Ruk stopped and gazed at the lake. When he was a layman, he used to come to this spot and play a flute. Now his vows forbade him. He sensed his answers were not satisfying me.

“When Ajahn Chah was still teaching, this wat was a powerful place. He was a real example to us. He had a rare talent for teaching the farang monks. He was hard on us when we needed it. I remember having to sit for six hours without moving while he gave a dasana in Thai. Sometimes before meal he would talk with the villagers while we sat staring into our bowls until the food went cold. He knew our defilements and he knew how to break them. Sometimes he would yell at us. I remember one morning he threw a monk’s bowl out of the sala window. He got really angry it seemed. But if you looked closely, there was nothing but calm inside. He wasn’t disturbed at all. It was for our benefit. Inside, nothing.

“Since he’s stopped teaching there has been nobody to take his place. Many senior disciples disrobed after his stroke. The personal master-student relationship had gone for them. He has sixty-four monasteries now but the monks who are teaching in them aren’t doing it with the same experience or wisdom he had. They are teaching what they were taught. Ajahn Chah taught what he knew. Some of them are still depressed about the condition of the master. We try to live up to his example but we can’t. Even Pah Nanachat is much more slack than it was three years ago. Our reputation is perhaps better than we are.

“The previous Ajahn flew to Bangkok once a month to give a dhamma talk at the World Federation of Buddhists. He’s very popular in Bangkok. Maybe you

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