Paññobhāsa Bhikkhu's Blog

[Sokehi]

I certainly appreciate his honesty, he is a very good writer too. But the way he tried to find cracks within the vinaya to watch at pornography (especially... strange to say the least on computers he doesn't own) to express his very special fondness to the priestess incl. getting undressed, touching etc. etc. is irritating to say the least. If he were a layaman I'd say well done. Experimenting with ones lust, trying to find new ways of becoming friends with women on a deeper "spiritual" level... but as a monk he is the heir of a very long tradition and should be not only careful but strict in his observance. He was constantly putting down his fortification of the vinaya with trying to stay within the allowable. I guess trying to be clever in playing around with the vinaya to find ways to be a bit more easy going with ones conduct is shameless.

As Ajahn Jayasaro said: the Vinaya and even the most minor rules are like concentric rings of an inner fortification. If you keep the minor rules strict the most major rules would be kept easier if even tested.

Some things shouldn't become public too. In german we call it "Bärendienst" when one causes damage to something. He is honest and that in itself is great, but has he been asked to spread it to the WWW? Discuss it with fellow Bhikkus, very close Layfriends or Familymembers. For some people who are not as understanding or coming from a more informed background this testimony is another proof that something is really wrong with celibate monks (or nuns). That he violated the trust of the boyfriend by watching porn and being thrown out of the shelter is a saddening event. This man surely will most probably never ever again trust a buddhist monk.

The damage done to the buddhasasana can't be evaluated. But even the slightest scratch that a celibate monk causes especially when public attention is given is a desaster.

Although, as I say, I feel no real remorse, I am concerned that my behavior, and my subsequent writing about it, may harm the reputation of the Bhikkhu Sangha, an institution to which I am very much indebted. If so, I sincerely apologize for that.

Indebted indeed. If ... then he apologizes. Why not do all this in the first place or at least keep it for himself, learn skillfully out of this for ones own benefit in practicing a celibate renunciate lifestyle? No he writes publicly about it - why does he needs to? what drives him to make it public? - and risks all the possible outcome out of it. If he would really feel indebted and would be really concerned about the reputation he wouldn't have done it in the first place.

In some places ordaining is as easy as disrobing. Monk in a day. So if any monk feels the urge to engage in some tantric adventures like he did he should follow the advice of that canadian monk: disrobe, do what you think you need to do and if you've gained that oh so valuable experience ordain again - or become a good respectable lay person. Every monk who disrobes deserves respect since he honestly noticed he can't live that life. This I call being truly honest.

I don't think Theravada Buddhism needs millions of monks. A few good ones are good enough.

This story makes me feel even moreso confident that the practice for example of the western Ajahn Chah Sangha of the threefold training (Anagarika - Samanera - Bhikkhu) is best for many. Check out the lifestyle, the rules, bit by bit until you can make a decision based on experience.

I'm sorry if I have offended anyone here.

[pilgrim]

Good post..

Why not do all this in the first place or at least keep it for himself, learn skillfully out of this for ones own benefit in practicing a celibate renunciate lifestyle? No he writes publicly about it - why does he needs to?

Perhaps he enjoys the reputation of being an "honest" monk. In another post he writes about his experimentation with psychotropic substances at a religious ceremony and then when queried about it in the Comments section, he dismisses the breach of rule as no more serious than a monk opening a door while holding a bowl. He may be technically correct, but it tells a lot about the way he relates to the rules.

[gavesako]

Someone's comments on this case which are spot-on:

This is typical American, i.e. making a public confession and repentance. Famous people such as Lance Armstrong who have done something shameful go on the Ophrah Whitney show and tearfully confess and repent. (See e.g. http://thecripplegate.com/its-just-oprah-not-metanoia/ and http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=4617) Americans, with their strong Protestant roots, love the public display, and forgive. The sinner can then make a new start, and when he crawls back up again to the top, fulfilling the American Dream, Americans love it even more. God's forgiveness has worked, and the former sinner is saved and becomes an American hero again through hard work.

See Susan Wise Bauer, The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America,
Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008

I have mixed feelings about Ven. Panyobhasa's confessions. I don't know him but it seems that he finds himself very clever, but his cleverness, as often happens with clever people, turns into cunningness and it seems to me that he is deceiving himself and others.

Although I referred to the American habit of publicly confessing one's sins and repenting, there is something more going on too, i.e. that the distinction between private life and public life is increasingly fading away. All aspects of one's life, which before the rise of internet and reality TV would have been private and limited to one's immediate community, are now shared globally.

Ven. Paññobhasa would certainly be an interesting guest for Oprah: “American forest monk who sinned after returning to America repents: 'My love affair with her was the happiest time of my life, but I now see the suffering of it!'.”

The Sangha is to be a moral example, and a monk such as Panyobhasa writing about sleeping with a woman without actually falling into Parajika, however courageous , authentic and interesting it might appear, makes many people lose their faith and could be used by those opposed to the Sangha such as Christian missionaries or those nationalists in the Sangha who don't like Western monks. According to the Vinaya, offences are to be confessed within the Sangha, not to lay people. To expose the Sanghadisesa offence of another monk to a lay person is a pacittiya offence. One could argue, by extension, that to expose one's own Sanghadisesa offence to laypeople is an offence too.

[Mkoll]

Good post..

Why not do all this in the first place or at least keep it for himself, learn skillfully out of this for ones own benefit in practicing a celibate renunciate lifestyle? No he writes publicly about it - why does he needs to?

Perhaps he enjoys the reputation of being an "honest" monk. In another post he writes about his experimentation with psychotropic substances at a religious ceremony and then when queried about it in the Comments section, he dismisses the breach of rule as no more serious than a monk opening a door while holding a bowl. He may be technically correct, but it tells a lot about the way he relates to the rules.

It doesn't get much more intense and crazy than ayahuasca in my experience. A Buddhist monk who's willing to try such mind-blowing substances is not a good role model.

[Shaswata_Panja]

To be frank though Buddhist monasticism is against drug use, Hindu monasticism (at least the Yoga Sutras) are not..May be with his getting inspired from Hinduism has a lot to do with Ayahuasca experience

I find the breakage of celibacy as serious a offence perhaps more serious than the acid trip

I am beginning to wonder whether it is even possible to be sexually continent for a considerable amount of time (like several years without an orgasm/emission in the waking state)

Do monks EVER get rid of the sexual desire? There was this story on BuddhistGeeks about a very strict and earnest 92 year old Thai monk whose mind would frequently wander towards sex (if it ever wandered off at all)

and mind you Bhikkhu Pannobhaso was very heoric in his practice..he spent 18 years in the forest..for a year he never entered any building..alone in the forest battling ghosts! he said the meditation had become kind of like trench warfare----Nobody can convict him for his lack of earnestness...it seems however which way he tried to kill the sex monster, it came back


What is the average duration of celibacy streak that serious monks manage to achieve on a regular basis? (1 month? 2 months? 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? b4 another waking state orgasm/emission)



The Sangha in Bhutan is less hyprocritical though the "thigh sex" of elderly monks with young boys is kind of rampant there..The Government has started distributing condoms to the monks

Unbroken Waking State Celibacy is the defining factor of any monastic order....


It seems whichever religious order it might be, monks have been failing heavily to stic to celibacy the past 100 years?

Was the Prophet of Islam right then? Is celibacy unnatural? Questions Questions I have in my mind......and this is because I am an aspiring celibate (though not an aspiring monk)

[cooran]

Thigh Sex
http://www.tibettelegraph.com/2013/06/w ... dhist.html

[Boris]

Questions Questions I have in my mind......and this is because I am an aspiring celibate (though not an aspiring monk)

Good! Sensual desire is just mental sickness very hard to remove and only non-returners and arahats rooted it out, although some persons may temporally be free from sensual desire not being in fact non-returners.

Below non-returner it is like AA idea - where one's should keep in mind "I am an alcoholic". Reduction of sleep, reduction of food, contemplation of body's ugliness help a lot and make celibacy quite easy in the most cases. But the fundamental rule is:

Avoid casual association with members of the opposite sex. Never be socially alone with a member of the opposite sex. This is an absolute. Make no exceptions based on seemingly spiritual character, age, or intention. When an older woman tells you that she is your “mother” run away! The same thing applies when a man tells a woman that he is her “father.” This goes on in both India and America, including close–and private–association of men with female gurus and of women with male gurus. No one knows what impulses carried over from previous lives–many even from centuries past–are lying not far beneath the surface of the conscious mind, waiting to manifest. “Spiritual” friendships with members of the opposite sex are doors to disaster. I have seen it over and over. Even in my early teen years I watched “spiritual” associations inevitably turn into sexual associations. And that had usually been the intention from the first moment. If what I have said does not convince you, at least I have discharged my responsibility.

http://www.ocoy.org/original-yoga/twelv ... hmacharya/

"Lord, how are we to treat women?"
"Do not see them, Ananda."
"Lord, if they are seen, how should we treat them?"
"Do not address them, Ananda."
"Lord, if we do address them, how should we treat them?"
"Mindfulness should be maintained, Ananda."

D 16

and mind you Bhikkhu Pannobhaso was very heoric in his practice..he spent 18 years in the forest..for a year he never entered any building..alone in the forest battling ghosts! he said the meditation had become kind of like trench warfare----Nobody can convict him for his lack of earnestness..

Well, I would say that there is nothing heroic in living in the forest, it is rather more pleasant then heroic It could be also very supportive to wisdom, but it seems it was not helpful for Ven B.P. Forest rangers also are known as forest dwellers

[rowboat]

Ven. Gavesako: Although I referred to the American habit of publicly confessing one's sins and repenting, there is something more going on too, i.e. that the distinction between private life and public life is increasingly fading away. All aspects of one's life, which before the rise of internet and reality TV would have been private and limited to one's immediate community, are now shared globally.

Hello, bhante. See contemporary German-Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han. From his Transparency Society - original title Transparenzgesellschaft: The imperative of transparency makes us slaves to visibility. A transparent society is a pornographic society, an exhibited society.

I've talked with Ven. Paññobhāsa and there is no doubt he is of a certain type. But he is very earnest, and I believe he has seen the other side of the problem.

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” - ― Blaise Pascal

[Viscid]

Paññobhāsa is back in the United States after spending a year and a half in Myanmar, and is now looking to organize a group of 'serious' spiritual practitioners (whom he unfortunately calls 'Dharma Samurai--' a term liable to attract inflated egos.)

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... lenge.html;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He's an intriguing character, who shouldn't be hastily dismissed on the grounds of his past indiscretions and lack of absolute adherence to tradition.

Also an interesting recent article he wrote, on Nirvana being 'Ultimate Reality,' which is guaranteed to make an orthodox Theravadin's brain boil:

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... eresy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Zom]

Also an interesting recent article he wrote, on Nirvana being 'Ultimate Reality,' which is guaranteed to make an orthodox Theravadin's brain boil:

Why boil? What is described there is simple eternalism, as usual.

When people say things like this: "Theravada leans more than most systems toward the mistake of "isn't" although, probably wisely, the traditional position on the subject is rather ambivalent. There is enough "isn't," however, that some, especially Western intellectuals, choose to interpret Nirvana simply as "extinction," as mere non-existence" - I ask them in return: "What is BAD in extiction?" And they can't answer, they indeed start to "wriggling like an eel". Why so? Because of "craving to be", which they do not want to admit. No craving - no problem with extinction. Craving - problem with extinction. Just that simple, and together with that, so hard to accept. Why again? Again because of enormously poweful underlying tendency called "craving to be".

[dhammarelax]

Paññobhāsa is back in the United States after spending a year and a half in Myanmar, and is now looking to organize a group of 'serious' spiritual practitioners (whom he unfortunately calls 'Dharma Samurai--' a term liable to attract inflated egos.)

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... lenge.html;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He's an intriguing character, who shouldn't be hastily dismissed on the grounds of his past indiscretions and lack of absolute adherence to tradition.

Also an interesting recent article he wrote, on Nirvana being 'Ultimate Reality,' which is guaranteed to make an orthodox Theravadin's brain boil:

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... eresy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

His Nirvana article shows he has no clue about it:

" Nirvana, assuming that It "exists," is more than just an ethical attainment, more than just "the cessation of suffering" or "the cessation of greed, hate, and delusion." Nirvana is, simply stated, Reality. And because it is Reality, everything that we merely think is real arises from it, being filtered through the limitations of our ignorance and habitual karmic momentum. One poetic way in which the Hindus explain it is by personifying formless Ultimate Reality as the god Brahma, and giving him for a wife or consort the goddess Maya—"Illusion." The Neoplatonists of the late Roman Empire explained the formless infinity from which all things arise as "The Good," and postulated a kind of demiurge, nous, "mind," between the highest Reality and us, being somehow the mother or matrix through which we and everything else emanate from the formless ultimate essence. The Tao Te Ching puts it this way:

Tao gave birth to one.
One gave birth to two.
Two gave birth to three.
And three gave birth to the ten thousand things."

Compare this to:

From http://talks.dhammasukha.org/mn-020-jt1-060219.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

""When the Buddha was talking to someone about the way to experience Nibbāna, he described it in dozens of places in the
suttas that the way that you experience Nibbāna is by seeing dependent origination. That’s the way you experience Nibbāna ...
not by seeing anicca, dukkha, anatta; you see that automatically. But it’s seeing and recognizing the process as being an
impersonal process, and that’s the way it works. Your understanding is the thing that gets you to Nibbāna. It’s not a
mystical, magical pop... there it is. It’s your understanding of the process."

From http://talks.dhammasukha.org/mn-043-o05-051013.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"And the cessation of perception and feeling is not the state of Nibbāna. It’s the state right before Nibbāna... not exactly right before. There’s the cessation of perception and feeling, when the perception and feeling come back up, you will be able to see very clearly all of the links of dependent origination. And because you see the links of dependent origination, and you realize this to be absolutely true: "This is the way things work", that realization is so deep that Nibbāna occurs; that understanding is so pure that Nibbāna occurs."

smile all the time
dhammarelax

[pilgrim]

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... lenge.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I just read his June 6 blog entry and I get the feeling that I'm reading the early beginnings of a cult.

[Viscid]

http://thebahiyablog.blogspot.ca/2015/0 ... lenge.html"
I just read his June 6 blog entry and I get the feeling that I'm reading the early beginnings of a cult.

Not that I'm sure what Pannobhasa is trying to organize should be called a 'cult,' but I think that word as a pejorative is much too hastily applied to burgeoning religious communities. Unless there's some sort of exploitive element to the organization, a 'cult' isn't necessarily something to be feared.

I am unclear as to what exactly a group of 'Dhamma Samurais' would be doing if everyone had independent ideas as to what the ultimate goal or purpose of the group should be. Monastic institutions gradually evolved into the form we see today, developing codified rules and an established relationship to the lay community as a means to maintain their stability. Simply throwing a bunch of people together who believe they are enlightened would just result in much grandstanding and head-butting, eventually leading to some dramatic break-up.

Though I respect Pannobhasa for engaging in the attempt.

[Nippapanca]

Hello everybody,
Just letting you know (to whom it may concern) that after a year's vacation I've started another blog. This one will be markedly different from the first one, which may be a slight relief for some: This one is sanctified to Political Incorrectness. Less explicit Dhamma/Dharma, although it will raise its head from time to time. There's no escape from Dharma. (As an old Christian saying goes, once God sics his dogs on you, you can run, but you can't hide.)
One recurrent Dharma-oriented theme of the new blog will be attacking the new politically correct notion that if you are unhappy, then you should blame somebody else for it, like, for example, patriarchal white males. The new feminized progressive left has turned this delusional attitude into a kind of spiritually bankrupt religious movement, complete with fanaticism, witch hunts, and persecutions. So, as I've always endorsed freedom of thought and expression (too much for some people's stomach, I know), I am moved to make a stand. Western Buddhism, along with academia, science, the mainstream media, etc., has been hijacked by this new movement; so I'm essentially agitating for cold, hard reality.
Those of you with a taste for the intellectually forbidden may get something worthwhile out of it, anyway.
Metta (really)
Paññobhāsa (Migadawun Monastery, Yay Chan Oh village, upper Burma)

[Nippapanca]

Ha, forgot to mention that the site address is http://politicallyincorrectdharma.blogspot.com/. Enjoy.