Luangta Maha Bua

Ajahn (Luangta) Maha Bua and Baan Taad Forest Monastery, Thai Forest tradition. Everything you want to know about Ajahn Maha Bua his books, audio, video.
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Is this how the Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment? But actually it was unnecessary to ask because I had encountered the Truth myself. Is this what the true Sangha is like? How can the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha be one and the same thing? The Dhamma is the Dhamma. The Sangha is the Sangha. But at the moment when the Supreme Dhamma arose in all its brilliance, all three were of one and the same nature—the true nature of amazing Dhamma.

Once it arose in all its brilliance, things that had lain in obscurity, things I never knew, were suddenly illuminated and revealed. Even now that extraordinary Dhamma moves and amazes me. It is all-embracing, an encompassing luminosity that lights up the entire cosmos, revealing everything. Nothing remains hidden or concealed. Then the consequences of good and evil and the existence of heaven and hell strike one with the irrefutable force of the obvious.

I wish they could strike all you skeptics with such force; all of you who have allowed the kilesas to deceive you into believing that there is no such thing as the consequences of evil, no such thing as the consequences of goodness, no such thing as heaven and hell.

Thai Forest Dhamma

They have existed since time immemorial and they have been all-pervasive. You just have not perceived them yet. These things have existed always. As I considered the cause, my thoughts seized on the path of practice that had led me to that realization. It was the same path that the Lord Buddha had taught: This was the path that led me to that point. There is no other way to reach it.


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Reviewing my past practice, I conceded that the same path could lead others there as well. Maybe there were only a few, but there definitely were some who could make it. I could not deny that.

The awareness that it would benefit at least some people encouraged me to begin teaching those who were worthy to be taught. After that, monks began to gather around me in the forests and mountains where I lived, and I taught them to be resolute in their practice. Gradually, little by little, my teaching began to spread, until it extends far and wide today.

Now people from across Thailand and around the world come to listen to Acariya Maha Boowa expound the Dhamma. Some travel here to hear me talk in person; some listen to taped recordings of my talks that are broadcast throughout Thailand on the radio and the Internet. I can assure you that the Dhamma I teach does not deviate from those principles of truth that I myself have realized.

Do you understand me? The Lord Buddha taught the same message that I am conveying to you. Having said this, I want to exclaim Sadhu! Although I am a mere mouse compared to the Buddha, the confirmation of that realization is right here in my heart. All that I have fully realized within myself concurs with everything that the Lord Buddha taught. Nothing that I have realized contradicts the Lord Buddha in any way. The teaching that I present is based on principles of truth which I have long since wholeheartedly accepted.

Speaking conventionally, I talk boldly as if I were a conquering hero. But the Supreme Dhamma in my heart is neither bold nor fearful. It has neither loss nor gain, neither victory nor defeat. Consequently, my teaching emanates from pure, unadulterated compassion. They are the ones who are biting, so, they are the ones in pain. I simply grab and separate them so they will stop biting each other. Such is the nature of Dhamma. Dhamma tries to separate people who are always quarreling, always arguing over who is right and who is wrong.

The comparison is appropriate. Let the Dhamma speak for itself. At this time I am very involved with the world. No one is more involved than Acariya Maha Boowa. These days, both lay people and monks act like dogs, shoving themselves forward and howling noisily as they fight for the honors. So I teach them Dhamma, which is equivalent to separating and restoring calm among fighting dogs.

Dhamma represents the Truth.

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If we relinquish all that is false and hold only to that which is true, then both the people in our society and the monks who uphold the sasana will live in peace. But since all the dogs—both the good and the evil ones—are fighting right now, the country is in turmoil. This great arena is now being broken up and scattered because those dogs are staging a dogfight in the one area which is most sacred to the hearts of all Thais—the Buddhasasana.

So I ask them all to cease and desist, for no benefit can be gained from fighting like dogs. For, in truth, there are no winners, only losers.

Was Ven Maha Boowa an arahant and why? - Discussion - Discuss & Discover

Both those who win and those who lose are hurt in equal measure. So disengage, stand back, and accept reason as your guiding principle. In that way, Thailand, its citizens and the sasana will all have peace and happiness. Nothing disastrous will then befall the country.

Luangta Maha Bua: “Kammathana (the basis of practice) are also kilesas” (sub en/de)

Whether an arahant or not he was definetely brave and sure of his points! Just that no one misunderstand me or possibly sandundhanushka: Maha Boowa as an accomplished master. I tend to have the opposite view. However, though it spins in unison with conditioned phenomena, the citta never disintegrates or falls apart. This deathlessness is a quality that lies beyond disintegration.

His ideas about the mind are really not strange or fringe in the broader context of Buddhism. They would fit in very well with some strains of Mahayana Buddhism, including Zen. He was very fierce and firm in his instructions but he did not bother to compare his approach to others.

Stirred, he becomes appropriately resolute. Resolute, he both realizes with his body the highest truth and, having penetrated it with discernment, sees. And it is defiled by incoming defilements. Senior monks command immense respect — even King Bhumibol bends the knee before them. While urban monks focus on studies of Buddhist texts, forest monks devote themselves to meditation and a life of simplicity as the path to spiritual liberation.

As abbot of the Wat Pa Ban Tat Forest Monastery in Udon Thani, near Thailand's northern border with Laos, Luangta Maha Bua was widely regarded as an "arahant'' — a monk who has attained spiritual liberation after having rid himself of worldly desires. Bua's finest hour came in when Thailand's economic growth rate fell from 5. Emerging from his forest retreat, Bua decided to make resuscitating Thailand's economy a personal crusade and launched a fund-raising drive to replenish state coffers. If Thais did not donate, he threatened to commit suicide, or "leave his earthly body".

On the last day of his campaign, an estimated , people lined up for five miles at his forest temple to give gold, jewellery and cash to save the monk's life and in Bua proudly presented some 12 tonnes and Ordained in at the age of 21, he became a disciple of Ajarn Mun Bhuridatto, a leader of the forest monk tradition in northeast Thailand. In he built his own monastery. After decades of contemplation, in he announced that this lifetime was his last and he would never be reincarnated, a sign, according to followers, that he had achieved spiritual enlightenment.

Bua's efforts on behalf of the Thai economy seem to have whetted his appetite for politics and from time to time he emerged to cause consternation in the corridors of power. In , after the Bank of Thailand announced it would consolidate its currency reserves, including Bua's donations, to pay off Thailand's debts, a furious Bua said that the funds should be called on only in dire emergency and accused government ministers of being "ravenous ghouls seeking to eat the people's guts".

He insisted the cash and gold must be kept untouched in what he called "the national vault". Meanwhile his followers demonstrated in Bangkok, demanding the impeachment of finance minister Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda and prime minister Chuan Leekpai. Within months the government had been forced to shelve its plans and the two ministers bowed down to Bua and offered him flowers.

The following year Bua publicly criticised Leekpai's successor Thaksin Shinawatra, who had upset him by appointing Somdet Phra Phuttacharn, abbot of Wat Saket in Bangkok, and a member of a different order of monks, as acting supreme patriarch — the effective leader of all Buddhist monks in Thailand. The appointment, Bua argued in a sermon, was a flagrant attempt to control the Buddhist clergy and usurp royal authority.