Although he is highly critical of a hybrid culture in which Westernized values are on the ascendant and traditional Asian/Thai values wane, he is by no means hostile to the building of a hybrid culture of resistance where Buddhism and Christianity join hands in confronting injustice.

After many years of observation I begin to perceive in Siamese religion a wise and generous pattern that accommodates the teachings of the Sage together with Hindu state-craft, and the fertility concerns of rice farmers, without doing violence to any one of them. It is a system that works, and has worked for many centuries, but today it is threatened by a new generation of thinkers, reformers, well-intentioned and well-educated, who have forgotten how symbolism works.

A brief word on how to view Thai religious “syncretism.”

The most striking rock formation at Phū Phra Bāt is locally known as Uṣā’s Tower, named after the stone chamber where the beautiful princess would have been forced to live in isolation. It is a natural rock formation, restructured into a chamber with one door and two side windows standing in the centre of an open space and marked with a circular ring of vertical stones.

Some odd rock formations in Udon Thani have been the focal point of religious practices from prehistory through to modern times.

The influence of สิ่งแวดล้อม¹ are directed out from the individual to his environment; the influence of สิ่งแวดล้อม² are directed inward from the environment to the individual.

If you have no merit there will be no wind. But either way, if you do not open the window you will get no breeze.

To the villager, a person is shaped—he does not shape himself—and, therefore, relating properly to one’s environment is of the first importance. You cannot think or will yourself into being a particular kind of person; you can only select and relate wisely to the influences impinging upon you. This implies a sort of limited free will; one can choose among available alternatives, but cannot create new alternatives.

¹: This first sense of sing waetlom (“environment”) is as the resources that one has around.
²: This second sense of “environment” is as our context—that which holds and shapes us.

No one visiting a Siamese monastery, popularly known as a ‘wat’, would fail to notice a certain structure, pyramidal in form with a slender tapering spire at the top…

A few pages on Thai Stupas and Cetiya.

There are no deliberate austerities or penances associated with such journeys; over-crowded buses or trucks seemingly without springs are common modes of transport in Northeastern Thailand. One informant stated that if people took a journey solely to make merit somewhere, then the trip would be no fun. However, if people went traveling purely for their own pleasure, with no planned stops at holy shrines, then merit would not be obtained.

An ethnographic investigation of pilgrimage in Thailand focusing on the Wat Phrathat Phanom Stupa in Isaan.

The paper explains how the hierarchy emerged historically out of the attempts by the Siamese government to exercise control over the monasteries and how its rigid hierarchy is tempered by the Thai sense of “suitability” leading to an organization that balances central goals against local concerns. Each level of the hierarchy and the parallel system of royally-bestowed honorifics are explained in detail, including their qualifications and responsibilities.

The khwan may therefore be described as something in the nature of a principle of life, vital to the welfare of man and animals.

An exploration of the Thai belief in animating spirits (ขวัญ) and the various rituals and ritual implements that attend them, including a thorough description of the บายศรี offering.

Spirits, ghosts, fairies, demons, or speaking collectively, ‘pi’ (ผี) may be divided into three classes: ‘Pi’ which are the ghosts of the dead or living; ‘pi’ which exist on their own account, and do not originate from human beings; and thirdly ‘pi’ belonging to other worlds…

Some field notes on Thai ghost beliefs and related rituals at the turn of the twentieth century.

For ผี beliefs in Thailand half a century later, see Rajathon, 1954.

Even as Vajirayan criticized the supernaturalism of indigenous Siamese religious forms, certain ideas and practices were left intact. In particular was a focus on karma or merit and morality…

The Western-style murals adorning the walls at Wat Bovorn Niwet reflect Prince Mongut’s vision for a reformed Thai Buddhism that would adopt the rationalism and advances of the West but still place the Buddha at its center.

The charismatic and idiosyncratic Ajaan Man and his widely revered forest-dwelling disciples remained on the rim of the establishment for much of their lives — yet constituted the mystical core of orthodoxy

This book provides an analysis of the political and historical context in which the modern Thai Forest Tradition arose.

a concise history of amulets and an overview of amulet culture in Thailand.

The general introduction to the Siam Society’s special issue all about the topic.

I examine a corpus of documents belonging to the Dhammakāya text genre and its different functions, revealing how a single genre can, in fact, fulfil functions from meditation, on the one hand, to consecrations and protective chanting on the other. I then conclude that the disappearance of the Dhammakāya text genre from Central Thai practice is further evidence for the suppression of Siam’s “boran”, or pre-reform, Buddhism in response to modernist concerns about canonicity and textual authenticity.

It actually saddens me as a monk that women don’t have the support to renounce. If we had bhikkhuni ordinations and monasteries just like we have for monks, women would flourish. That’s why we have to work really hard.

In this interview, Ajahn Brahm explains why granting Bhikkhuni ordinations is good for Buddhism in both Thailand and the West.

• What is the relationship between peace and happiness?
• What are our responsibilities to each other?
• What is new about “modern” Buddhism?
• Why worship stupas?
• What’s the purpose of the monastic rules and ceremonies?
• What’s the difference between Samatha and Vipassanā?
• What about Thai Buddhism is essential and what is cultural?

These arguments and cultural practices point to complexities of concepts on authorship in Thai Buddhism and strongly invite an analysis and deconstruction of ideas of ‘authorship’ as a clear-cut category.

we are dealing here not with two groups but with three: the Dhammayut order of the Third and Fourth Reigns, which is the parent group; the Dhammayut order of the Fifth Reign and later, which is the royal child; and the Forest tradition, which is the parent group’s peasant child.

This essay explores the roots of the contemporary Thai Forest Tradition with an eye to explaining the dynamics that other historians have missed.

The heart is what is aware. When the current of sound dealing with the Dhamma comes in and makes continual contact with the heart, the heart won’t have any chance to go slipping outside, because the Dhamma is something calming and absorbing.

In this short discourse, Venerable Maha Boowa explains that the Dharma is found in the stilled and purified heart, and this is something to be experienced rather than simply believed.

Samādhi, in all its glory is Samudaya.

Luang Dta Maha Boowa talks at the funeral for Ajahn Paññā about the importance of good teachers to keep us straight on the path.

This is the practice. I ask that all of you practise. Don’t ignore your heart, alright? Don’t let the Kilesa walk all over it.

Every religion teaches unselfishness, the differences are merely in methodologies.

For his 80th birthday, known as his ‘Age Teasing Day,’ Tan Ajahn Buddhadāsa prepared a souvenir book for his students, outlining what he hoped his legacy would be.

With illustrations from the contemporary Thai religious landscape, we can observe how various forms of relational karma intuitively account for spirits and material objects as an agency of relations.

To be spiritually and superstitiously effective, sak yant tattoos traditionally require their bearer to follow a certain lifestyle.

A collection of beautiful images from inside Wat Bang Phra, a temple known for giving the traditional Thai tattoos which feature sacred geometry, mantras, animals, and deities to deliver protection to the wearer.

We must practice putting the mind back into shape. Before we do anything, while we’re doing it, and after it’s done, we have to practice keeping the mind cheerful and bright, with a constant sense of well-being.

A concise overview of the teachings of Chao Khun Nararatana Rajamanit, a respected yet lesser-known teacher of the Thai City tradition.

If you want to be a good person, make sure you know where true goodness really lies. Don’t just go through the motions of being good

A brief collection of Ajahn Fuang Jotiko’s teachings in the form of stories and sayings. These teachings cover the essentials for a stable and fruitful practice.

in a living tradition of Buddhism such as in Thailand, the members of that tradition themselves are often not quite aware of how the whole system is meant to work.

In this short talk, Ajahn Jayasaro discusses the history of Theravāda Buddhism especially in Thailand, giving a brief overview of Thai Buddhism’s own understanding of Buddhist history and its place within it.

I am like a tree in a forest, full of leaves, blossoms and fruit. Birds come to eat and nest, and animals seek rest in its shade. Yet the tree does not know itself. It follows its own nature. It is as it is.

This enriching collection features Ajahn Chah’s most well-known similes, divided into two parts. Part I includes the 75 similes from the first volume of the bilingual edition of A Tree in a Forest, while Part II contains the 108 similes from the second volume.

Our cultivation of the mind is aimed both at firmly establishing calm and at developing the arising of true wisdom and insight. We depend on the practice as laid down by the Lord Buddha which I have been explaining in stages.

In this brief work, Somdet Phra Nyanasaṁvara illuminates the principles of mindfulness within the larger framework of mental cultivation. Each section is taken from twenty-two talks given between August and October 1961 to both monastics and laypeople, in which the venerable offers practical instruction for cultivating clarity, calm, and insight.

To practise Dhamma means to apply the Dhamma, to use the Dhamma in conducting your life and work.

This work is a translation of “Thamma chabap rian lat”, designed to help newcomers to Buddhism understand key principles and their practical applications. It is also valuable for those already practicing the Dharma, furthering their understanding. The book is divided into four sections, each with a focus on different aspects of practice.

It is a difficult task to compile the Buddha’s teachings, especially on the premise that one is presenting the true or genuine teachings, even if one cites passages from the Pali Canon which are considered the words of the Buddha.

The authoritative book of Thai Buddhist doctrine.

The symbolic ordination of trees as monks in Thailand is widely perceived in Western scholarship to be proof of the power of Buddhism to spur ecological thought. However, a closer analysis of tree ordination demonstrates that it is not primarily about Buddhist teaching, but rather is an invented tradition based on the sanctity of Thai Buddhist symbols as well as those of spirit worship and the monarchy. Tree ordinations performed by non-Buddhist minorities in Thailand do not demonstrate a religious commitment but rather a political one.

the religious life and work of Khunying Yai Damrongthammasan, who appears to have produced one of the first significant Buddhist treatises ever authored by a Thai woman.

Four monks’ life narratives, two from the Vipassana group and two from the Vidayagom group, are used as case studies. The study reveals that the narratives of these monks follow the structure of the Buddha’s life due to the Buddhist tradition of using the Buddha’s life as a paradigm to compose religious persons’ stories. However, the miraculous power of each monk is highlighted in his narrative. There is both miraculous power as found in the Buddhist canon and as influenced by Thai cultural beliefs and practices.

In the past, the temple was the center for learning, where elders taught their grandchildren how to chant and pay respect to monks. But in contemporary Thailand, this system is quickly losing influence. Because of this, a number of strategies have recently developed to communicate Buddhist teachings to Thai youth. This paper investigates two significant strategies: private schools with Buddhist-inspired curricula and media targeted towards Thai youth.

youth initiatives have remained a popular vehicle for support and recruitment despite numerous criticisms and scandals over the past decades.

The millennial statements in the Bun Phra Wet, acted out by the people, make manifest their aspirations within the Thai state. The festival creates an imaginary, a way for Isaners to conceptualize a political system in which they fully participate.

In a lecture which he gave in his monastery on the 12th of June 1971, Buddhadāsa criticised this Three Lifetimes Theory with sharp words. He compared this presentation of paṭiccasamuppāda with ‘cancer, an incurable tumour of Buddhist scholarship’.

A major challenge in the historical study of female monasticism in Thailand is the paucity of texts written by or about Thai Buddhist female practitioners prior to 1950…

Mae chee, while debarred from the alms round, both receive alms from the laity and donate alms to monks.

On the ambiguous station of the mae chee in Thai Buddhism

We very much doubt that most Thai Buddhists would be bothered by any need to distinguish a “miraculous” category. Their traditional religion teaches that at the highest level of enlightenment all forms are illusions; thus the whole world and everything in it can be interpreted as metaphors or “names” ultimately. Nothing in such a world can, in essence, ever be real or unreal, illogical or logical in the Western Aristotelian sense.

The murals are an assertion of certain core values expressed in ancient Buddhist symbols as a defense of the totality of the religious system against perceived threats from competing modern values.

[These] murals help to make Buddhist ideas concrete

The article first identifies and assesses two different strategies used by advocates of Buddhist environmentalism in Thailand, one being textual and the other practical. Then, after laying out the deficiencies of the textual strategy, the article argues that the practical strategy offers a more meaningful basis for a discourse of Buddhist environmental concern.

Since fear discourages the aspirant and dissuades him from seeking seclusion, staying in the wild was a proven method for reducing and eventually eliminating this kilesa (defilement).

This is the first part of chapter three from “Forest Recollections” focusing on Thudong monks of the early 20th century who used their fear of animals in the jungle to train their minds and overcome their attachments.

Chuchok fits into this genre of “Thai trickster figures.” When you think about the story not from the perspective of Vessantara but from the perspective of the peasantry, think about how amazing it is that a peasant would even think to ask a member of the royal family for their two children to be his wife’s servants! It’s absurd!

The humor and political themes found in the Northern Thai retellings of the Vessantara (Jujaka?) Jātaka.

Anyone who tries to emulate Buddhadasa, whichever life one has decided to lead, should first remember the authenticity in his life. Authenticity engenders humility because aspiring to any ideal can never be perfectly achieved.

A fascinating look at how Buddhadasa Bhikkhu responded to the challenges and opportunities of modernity in 20th century Thailand and provided an example able to inspire a new generation of Buddhists.

… harbingers of death, visions of hell, the Lord of the underworld, and the benefits of making donations to Buddhist monks and temples, can be understood within the framework of beliefs and customs unique to Southeast Asia.

Attitudes of the Thai embedded in the myths offer insight into the mechanism through which Buddhism was able to be integrated into the indigenous belief system.

In the 17th Century there was established an examination system where monks would have to take an oral test of translating Pāḷi passages into Thai. So, there was an attempt to regulate the quality of the Saṅgha and there’s still an examination system in Thailand today, although it’s evolved quite a bit (as we’ll talk about later) in the Bangkok period.

A brief overview of Thai, Buddhist history.

How can one make sense of ethical action when one is always already partly the other?

A medical anthropologist analyzes the Thai concept of the เจ้ากรรมนายเวร (čhao kam nāi wēn) and explores how a more porous sense of self helps Chiang Mai Buddhists to manage pain and assemble good lives.

The reasons for banning the Asoke group and using legislation to outlaw it have more to do with Thai politics than with Buddhist concerns.

An ethnography of the controversial group of vegetarian monks and nuns founded by Bhikkhu Bodhiraksa in Thailand in 1975 along with a few words on the reasons behind their persecution in the late ‘80s.

The [newborn] baby is bumped softly on the floor in order to acquaint it with the fact that harsh and startling events may occur in the world of the humans where it has now been received.

Each year, the local community celebrates the day that Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto became a monk.

Thai Buddhist nuns (mae chis) and bhikkhunīs are excluded from the country’s saṅgha, directly affecting their religious standing and social possibilities

An introduction to the status of women in Thai Buddhism and why it matters.

… mae chis are not, on the whole, eager to relinquish their present status

Don’t think that seeing the Dhamma means to see colours, lights, crystal balls or ghosts, angels, heaven and hell. That is just fantasy. It’s not the Dhamma. To see the Dhamma, we have to see ourselves acting, speaking and thinking.

The life and teachings of a Thai maverick.

The most important question becomes, “What can I do for you?”

Thailand has long been known to be friendly to the queer community. However this is not always the case for gay monks

This inspiring and engaging collection of short stories will be useful for both scholars and students of Thai Buddhism who are curious to learn what the tradition was like before the modern state.

Although the mediums and content have changed significantly, the methods used to instruct the Dhammapada have remained largely the same since the sixteenth century. Instruction still operates on a system of drawing selected Pali words from the text and offering expanded creative glosses and analogies to contemporary issues.

Over 15,000 photographs of Buddhist archeological sites, pilgrimage centres, and temples in SE Asia, as well as Videos, Maps, Posters, etc.

The Western adoption of Buddhism was fascinated by the intellectual side, but its enormous success in Southeast Asia and elsewhere came about by becoming so deeply embedded in the society.

An interview on a new translation of stories from the Thai collection of post-canonical Jātaka tales.

Only a couple of them are famous and some of them are just too over-the-top for words, but I was thinking when reading these, “you know, they’re not actually that different from super hero movies.”

It is as if an arrow has been pulled out of your heart.

The comprehensive biography of one of the most revered of the modern Thai masters.

You can find the official audiobook here.

The law of sacred centers imagines space from the inside out.

A fascinating meditation on the way modern culture thinks about space and sovereignty and what is lost, even by the state, when local communities are disrupted.

We manifest our humanity, we are most fully human, in learning.

On how Thai Buddhists respond to death, and how we can use the Buddha’s education system to live the good life.

Your ability to stick with these qualities is what’s going to help them grow. When you notice yourself wandering off, ardency means that you bring the mind right back. If it wanders off again, bring it back again. You don’t give up.

Book number four in Ajahn Geoff’s famous Meditations series, on breath meditation and how to approach the practice.

So, keep on practicing. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll have to reap results, there’s no doubt about it.

An intimate letter of encouragement, helpful for meditators who haven’t yet entered the insight path.

This case study of Dhammananda Bhikkhuni and her students at Watra Songdhammakalyani gives both a concise summary of the situation for female ordination in Thailand and a compelling case for ordination in general.

‘Iddhi’ means greatness and ‘pāda’ means path. Together they form the path to success. Whether it be in the Dhamma or the worldly sense, one simply needs the four bases of spiritual power in order to succeed.

A book of short, inspiring quotes organized around the oft-overlooked Iddhipadas.

“The person” has to be killed before one can be an arahant. If what we call “the person” has not been killed, there is no way one can be an arahant.

Transcribed from talks delivered to the students of Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1966, this short and readable series of question-and-answers gives a lucid corrective to many popular misconceptions and questions about Buddhism.

As for the question of suffering in the future—in this life or the next—don’t overlook your heart that’s suffering right now.

A collection of Luangta’s talks delivered to lay people. A beautiful collection of sermons from one of the great modern masters.