Ben wrote:
Despite the book deal and marriage proposal - I wonder whether this is just a tragedy in the making. After 27 years of seclusion and silence re-entering society via jail/prison and international media attention is probably a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, much metta to him.
kind regards,
Ben
You said it. Unless of course his meditation has led to an ability to deal with such stresses. It's a shame he was a stealing to survive. It's cases like this where you sort of wish you could have introduced the guy to a monastery, where he could have had all he wanted (solitude) without the thievery.
metta
Jack
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta
Ben wrote:After 27 years of seclusion and silence re-entering society via jail/prison and international media attention is probably a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, much metta to him.
You are assuming that this is a re-entry to society. My deluded hope is that he learns his lesson, moves to California, and does the same thing minus the theft.
Sotthī hontu nirantaraṃ - May you forever be well.
Ben wrote:After 27 years of seclusion and silence re-entering society via jail/prison and international media attention is probably a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, much metta to him.
You are assuming that this is a re-entry to society. My deluded hope is that he learns his lesson, moves to California, and does the same thing minus the theft.
Yes, Buckwheat, I am assuming a re-entry to society. I think he is too curious an oddity for the media to leave him alone. In time, that attention will disappear but I do think the sudden re-entry, perhaps jail, perhaps some temporary celebrity status, may have a deliterious effect. And you are right, they are just assumptions I am making and I could be wrong.
kind regards,
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
I would be curious to know how he managed to survive. I was told there is another american guy in Myanmar who has spent a decade or so alone in the forest.
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli
Sekha wrote:I would be curious to know how he managed to survive. I was told there is another american guy in Myanmar who has spent a decade or so alone in the forest.
Infinitely easier in Myanmar where you have a culture which supports bhikkhus. It would not surprise me if the American gentleman living alone in Myanmar is ordained.
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
If I remember properly, he is just an ascetic ("isi" in Burmese) because he doesn't want to be affiliated to a particular monastic sect. He surely benefits from the people's generosity, but it's still the heck of a performance even in warm tropical climate. I wish I were able to do the same.
I was told he has eventually been forced to join a monastery for administrative purposes.
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli
Sekha wrote:I was told he has eventually been forced to join a monastery for administrative purposes.
Yes, I can't imagine the Dept of Immigration looking to kindly on an American overstaying his visa for the better part of ten years.
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
I was actually told it did last for a decade or so because he was kind of protected by a high profile official. But unfortunately this protection was not to last forever.
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli
Ben wrote: you don't need a fire to stay warm or cook.
being a young city-dweller I don't know too much about camping. How can one stay warm or cook without a fire?
The article stated that he stole propane tanks and cooked with it.
Also, there are sleeping bags rated to -30F. I have slept in such bags at near those temperatures and they do manage to keep you warm. Although, you have to cover your face or your breath will freeze on your face. I suspect during the coldest winter days he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag for very long.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis
Ben wrote: you don't need a fire to stay warm or cook.
being a young city-dweller I don't know too much about camping. How can one stay warm or cook without a fire?
The article stated that he stole propane tanks and cooked with it.
Also, there are sleeping bags rated to -30F. I have slept in such bags at near those temperatures and they do manage to keep you warm. Although, you have to cover your face or your breath will freeze on your face. I suspect during the coldest winter days he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag for very long.
Yes, I have one of those bags but rated to -32C. If you also look at his set up, it looks quite smart how he set up his sleeping area in a tent within a larger tent/or tarp. But I also agree that he probably didn't leave his sleeping bag much during winter.
kind regards,
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725