Buddhadasa Bhikku

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu founded a forest monastery in southern Thailand known as Suan Mokh or "Garden of Liberation." It was to represent the ideal balance between humanity and nature, not a return to primitiveness. Many people, however, misunderstood his removal to the forest as a sign of otherworldliness as a retreat to the personal, not a commitment to the social. (Swearer, 1989)

He offers a kind of "spiritual politics" that are based on central Buddhist teachings of Dependent Co-Arising and nonattachment. With such politics, the proper balance between humans and nature leads to a middle way of self sufficiency whereby one is shaped by a primary motto: nothing in excess. It is a kind of socialism, what he calls "Dhammic Socialism" based on a "fellowship of restraint" that is rooted in truth (sila dhamma) and is, therefore, more lasting and effective than purely materialistic socialism. His teachings provided the framework for many reformist movements in Thailand that seek to return Buddhism to its original teachings. During my time in Thailand, I met several people for whom Buddhadasa's teachings have been primary: Ajaan Sulak, Samaneri Dhammananda, and members of the Santi Asoke sect, just to name a few.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the works of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu:

From Me and Mine

Buddhism is a system designed to provide a technical knowledge inseparable from its technique or practice, an organized practical understanding of the true nature of things or what is what.

At the highest level we make the mind rest high above domination of both good and evil.

Complete freedom is broken free and transcendent of that which we call goodness. Ariya is one who has transcended the worldly condition.

Buddhism is an organized practical system designed to reveal to us what is what. Once we have seen things as they really are we no longer need anyone to teach or guide us.

Insight is the means by which we can purify ourselves. Once free, one is pure, spotless, enlightened, tranquil.

To what do we cling? The world itself The world is the totality of all things. The World is divided into material and non material. This has four parts, the four mortal aggregates: feeling, perception, actively thinking and knowing or consciousness

There are no animals, no people, no elements, no aggregates. There are no things at all.

If one can completely give up clinging to the idea of Being oneself, then being oneself will no longer be suffering.

All phenomenal existence, whether in the sensual realm in the form realm, or in the formless realm is seen as inherently fearsome, because the decay and dissolution of all phenomena is perceived in every conscious moment.

The state of complete freedom and eternal happiness is the Buddha Dharma.

Pali texts use the analogy of a chicken in a shell. We are wrapped in a shell of ignorance. We will die if it is not broken. Buddha was the first to destroy the shell of ignorance.

There are two kinds of individual who free themselves:

1) atovimutta: through the power of concentration, developed through meditation and a strict life, as a bhikkhu
2) pannavimutta, through wisdom or insight, through observing one's own life and environment.

Sati: mindfulness= rope that ties the mind to the stake of breathing. The uncontrolled mind is a wild animal.

Nibbana costs nothing. All we have to do is throw away. Throw away the world completely and get nibbana in return. We do not have to invest anything, only have to be empty, live rightly, an nibbana will come of itself.

Buddhist monks are wanderers not hermits. They are involved with people in the world and their duty is to help people in the world.

Buddhist monks are always involved in society in order to teach people about the true nature of the world, rather than living in the forest out of the social context.

Buddhism teaches us how to have power over things of the world and not to be intoxicated by them.

Buddhism is not optimistic or pessimistic. It is right in the middle. Buddhism simply teaches us to see things the way they are.

Reform yourself by yourself so you can depend on yourself. The slef is the subject, the object and the tool.

To avoid evil, to do good, and to purify the heart. These are the teaching of all Buddhas.

Buddhism is for everyone. True Buddhism is pure dhamma. Buddhism simply means the teaching of those who know.

Many people think it's like falling into a bottomless pit with nothing to hold onto. They do not understand when there is no self, there is nothing to fall.

What are ordinary people to do? Living correctly with every breath.

Buddha said: Who sees the truth sees me. Who sees me sees the truth.

There is no Buddhism, no Christianity, no Islam. For how can they exist since there is no we, no they, no anybody.

Value (kha) is in one sense the cause of all problems. If there is no value, no problems arise.

Wanting only what is necessary. This is the first level of morality.

The basic moral problem is that we allow ourselves to be taken in by the value of material things.

The highest form of social service one could perform in these forward thinking times would be to help people go backwards.

Religion is like science in that it combines theory and application.

True religion must involve practice, or it can't correctly be called religion.

If we were to act according to the principles of religion, that everyone exists in God, in dhamma, in Tao, in nature, then our problems would disappear.

Nature's way is one of peace. When people go against nature the result is confusion and turmoil.

The role of religion is to show us the perfect, absolute power of nature. We need to live in harmony with the way of nature. When we do not, we are not fully human.

Social service means service to society. Buddhism is a kind of socialism but not the kind associated with communism.

Socialism is not taking more than one's fair share.

According to Buddhist scriptures, our problems began when someone got the idea of stockpiling grains and other foods.

To take only what we need and to try to accumulate or produce something extra for the benefit of the society as a whole.

The Buddhism we see nowadays is Buddhist philosophy. Buddhist religion is disappearing. Now it is just a discussion about overcoming self centeredness.

Be a scientist not a philosopher, but be a scientist of the mind.

The Buddha was truly a "comrade" of nature. He was born "on the ground," reached enlightenment on the ground, sat, slept, taught and died on the ground.

The socially moral way: act in best interest of entire community by living according to nature's laws. Avoid consumption of goods beyond our simple needs. Share all that is essential for us to have with others, even if we consider ourselves poor and give generously of our wealth if we are well to do.

If a monarch rules with the 10 royal virtues then his rule will embody principles of socialism and bring about contentment in society. A truly socialistic government would embody characteristics of dhamma.

Socialistic ideal finds its expression in Buddhism in the form of Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva not only helps others but sacrifices himself for others.

Characteristics of a Peacemaker:

1) well educated, moral person
2) healthy person, mentally and spiritually
3) come from righteous and peaceful family
4) moderation in living, spending, and possessions
5) know and practice dhamma
6) be unselfish and altruistic
7) moral in thought word and action
8) have right view
9) cooled life

From Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree

Sunnata is voidness, emptiness, too close to nothingness which means totally empty of everything.

Some critics have said sunnatta is obstacle to the country's economic and social development which they claim depends on desire and attachment. The only way to develop a country peacefully is with wisdom and voidness.

A fundamental principle of Buddhism is to aim at quenching dukkah and it has a logic that one can see for oneself without having to believe others.

The matter of I, mine, ego, and selfishness is the single essential issue of Buddhism.

Root principle of dhamma is "single handful." The Buddha realized things equal to the leaves in a forest but that which was necessary to know is equal to the number of leaves in his hand.

Everyone has spiritual disease. Buddha's teaching is the cure for it. Buddha is a doctor of the spirit.

The disease germ is the feeling of We, Ours, I, Mine. We receive the germ every time there is a sense contact.

Heart of Buddhism is that nothing whatsoever should be clung to. Sabbe dhamma natam abhinivesaya

At the moment of Being void of I and Mine there will be present every desirable quality in all the Buddhist scriptures. There will be perfect mindfulness and self awareness, a sense of shame about doing evil, fear of doing evil, patience and endurance, gentleness, gratitude, honesty, knowledge, and vision according to reality.

Inner voidness is to be truly normal and natural to have a mind that is not scattered and confused.

Nibbana is better than happiness. It is best happiness. It is not happiness people generally see or aspire to, a completely new meaning of happiness, a state of void of every thing that concocts, proliferates, spins, flows, and changes.

Whenever the mind is void, even if only for a moment, or a day or night, one has true sila (morality) for all that time.

Original mind is one with panna, void of grasping clinging at self. In voidness lies perfect wisdom, sati panna.

Mind is greater illusion than matter is. It is better to cling to the body because it changes more slowly.

NIbbana is true voidness, totally ungraspable.

If one grasps and clings, even to voidness, that is dukkha. Only when there is sunnata and one is beyond goodness can there be freedom from dukkha.

Other religions do not have the term grasping at and clinging to the word I and mine (attavadupadana). Why? Because they teach a self to be grasped at and clung to. They teach the attainment of self.

To feel there is nothing which is me, without worry or doubt that anything might be me. To feel that there is nothing which is mine without worry or doubt that anything might be mine.

It will feel as if you are helping out with someone else's work at someone else's home. Dukkha associated with home and work will vanish.

The quenching element is nirodha dhatu, utter quenching of me and mine.

Sunnata is the abode of the great person. Voidness is where the great person lives.

Chinese Buddhists say voidness is by nature always present but we don't see it. Huang Po said it's like a pearl attached to the forehead and we go out looking for it. Look at the child's mind before it's conceived in the womb.

Whatever method you adopt it should lead to equanimity or quenching.

None of them are pleasant: daughter, wife, husband…"all hope has been given up." Nothing is worth having or being at any time or in any place.

Why don't we ever talk about fighting with death, about conquering death and being free of both birth and death? If we did, life would become easier straight away.

Bodhi tree--ficus religiosa--poh tree in Thailand, lacks heartwood, the hard inner pith found in most trees---it is truly void.