In search of a wandering Buddhist monk

[Gerard]

Nice story to read:

 

Link

 

I liked the following:

 

"A bearded man wearing torn clothes and leading three dogs is keen to have a chat. He has a lovely smile and warm voice. We discuss the memory span of dogs. He reckons they’re very lucky because, unlike us, they don’t worry about the past or the future. He says he was able to exist in the present for a day once, and it was one of the best days he’s had."

 

"The idea of him being a mirror for those he meets is interesting. I once spoke to the Abbot of a Buddhist monastery in the Southern Highlands of NSW, who said the same thing in relation to nuns falling in love with him. He said they project their desire onto him, and think they know him."

 

"Jason sits at the front beside a large golden statue of a Buddha, and describes to the gathered Buddhists his reasons for taking up this path of asceticism. He says that in all the monasteries he’s lived in—and they range from the Southern Highlands of NSW to a Chan monastery in Taiwan to a remote Theravada forest monastery in Sri Lanka—he has never encountered any monks who are free, liberated and enlightened.

 

"He says this is due to a very common problem. Where there is ownership of land and buildings, even in a spiritual community, there is power and wealth, and with power and wealth comes corruption. So after spending a dedicated year at a monastery in Sri Lanka, he simply walked out with an alms bowl, three robes, and a blanket. This is the way the Buddha lived until he died in his eighties, and Jason is trying to live in a similar homeless way. He has been told it couldn’t be done in this day and age, even in Asia, let alone in Australia, but he’s going to give it a go."

 

"When I ask if I can record his talk, Jason says he would prefer if I didn’t, then mentions Yoda from Star Wars. Yoda is a mysterious yet equanimous character who doesn’t speak much, but nonetheless points the way for those who are faltering in life. Jason sees himself as a kind of Yoda, but without the publicity. He says that the Buddha warned against celebrity* because it is ‘poison to wisdom’."

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Edited March 30, 2015 by Gerard

[cheya]

Hey Gerard,

Great story!

I'd like to check that out, but the link doesn't work.

[Gerard]

Sorry, no idea about why the hyperlink did that. Anyway, fixed.