… 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.
]]>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.
]]>This book is intended to provide an introduction to the teachings of the Buddha which will shed some light on a subject that, to non-Buddhists, can appear both unexpectedly rational and exotically strange.
A consise and admirable introduction to Theravada Buddhism by one of Thailand’s most charismatic converts.
]]>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.
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