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The Open Buddhist University

buddhistuniversity.net

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Re: The Open Buddhist University

#81

Post by fogzen »

esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

There are no rules against publishing or teaching dhamma in the vinaya except for the (outdated) rules about which specific persons cannot be taught.

“Monks, do not wage wordy warfare, saying: 'You don't understand this Dhamma and discipline, I understand this Dhamma and discipline'; 'How could you understand it? You have fallen into wrong practices: I have the right practice'; 'You have said afterwards what you should have said first, and you have said first what you should have said afterwards';[1] 'What I say is consistent, what you say isn't'; 'What you have thought out for so long is entirely reversed'; 'Your statement is refuted'; 'You are talking rubbish!'; 'You are in the wrong'; 'Get out of that if you can!'

"Why should you not do this? Such talk, monks, is not related to the goal, it is not fundamental to the holy life, does not conduce to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, tranquillity, higher knowledge, enlightenment or to Nibbana. When you have discussions, monks, you should discuss Suffering, the Arising of Suffering, its Cessation, and the Path that leads to its Cessation. Why is that? Because such talk is related to the goal... it conduces to disenchantment... to Nibbana. This is the task you must accomplish”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.009.wl...

Also please read https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pc2/en/brahmali?layout...

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#82

Post by gorgonical »

esbeeb wrote: post #58
p-e-w wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? From what little I know about it, Buddhism isn't like the Catholic church, where everything is a hierarchical pyramid with a single individual at the top, through which authoritative declarations can be made. Plus, schools like Theravada and Zen seem to differ quite significantly from each other,…

>What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? That's a fantastic question, and the short answer is: "given my expertise is in the Theravada world... how authority works is complicated". An overly simplistic answer is: the number of years of a monk's seniority is the easy and fairly-reliable gauge of a monk's authority. It would take a good 1-hour Dhamma Talk for me to explain what I know. Most people would be bo…

As a Westerner with a lot of cultural knowledge of Christianity but very little of the structure of Buddhism, yes please give the long answer.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#83

Post by NovaDudely »

esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

One thing that I have heard many times from Ajahn Brahm here in Oz was that when it comes to Buddhist stories, professors are generally seen as negative. That would explain why so few Computer Science degrees. ;)

Ok here is my go to Buddhist computer joke.

You do know that Buddhist are not forbidden from using email, only they can have 'no attachments'.

Ahem... I will see myself out.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#84

Post by [deleted] »

NovaDudely wrote: post #83
esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

One thing that I have heard many times from Ajahn Brahm here in Oz was that when it comes to Buddhist stories, professors are generally seen as negative. That would explain why so few Computer Science degrees. ;) Ok here is my go to Buddhist computer joke. You do know that Buddhist are not forbidden from using email, only they can have 'no attachments'. Ahem... I will see myself out.

[deleted]

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#85

Post by wraptile »

snthpy wrote: post #69
wraptile wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spending 5 years in Thailand I've learned that Buddhism while funamentally different from other religions in the best ways operates just the same in practical reality. It's almost like classification and status is inherit to any group activity and not in a good way unfortunately. To give perspective on the "dark" side of Buddhism I highly recommend "Come and See" documentary on Netflix which is hard to explain withou…

It's not on my Netflix unfortunately and I just find this Russian anti war film: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See

Seems like it's only available on Netflix in Thailand. So you'd need a VPN that has a server in Thailand or find it somewhere else. Here's the IMDB page though: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10985730/

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#86

Post by tasuki »

esbeeb wrote: post #54
logicchains wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Who's decision was it to call the website a "university"? Was that my decision, or his? The decision to call it a "university" is what makes me want to clarify what peer-perceived credentials he might have to that extent. If you were considering enrolling in a university, would you look into the reputation of that university? I'll bet you would. You'd want to know what it's reputation is like. Well, I'm offering insi…

I'd expect a buddhist teacher to be a lot more chill. You took issue with him calling himself a "dean" while he only called himself a librarian. The website is called a "university" but obviously he's not pretending to be a real credentialed university, it's just a cute website title.

Here you had a good chance to reflect and backtrack. But no, he's quite a junior monk to be running his own website. Well, I'm not even a monk and run my own website, how about that?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#87

Post by nicky0 »

esbeeb wrote: post #58
p-e-w wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? From what little I know about it, Buddhism isn't like the Catholic church, where everything is a hierarchical pyramid with a single individual at the top, through which authoritative declarations can be made. Plus, schools like Theravada and Zen seem to differ quite significantly from each other,…

>What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? That's a fantastic question, and the short answer is: "given my expertise is in the Theravada world... how authority works is complicated". An overly simplistic answer is: the number of years of a monk's seniority is the easy and fairly-reliable gauge of a monk's authority. It would take a good 1-hour Dhamma Talk for me to explain what I know. Most people would be bo…

Yes! I await the 1 hour youtube video with great interest

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#90

Post by KingMob »

cko wrote: post #30

accesstoinsight.org has been online for many years now. Very similar content, with less stuff from Bhikkhu Bodhi and more from a guy named Thanissaro.

Access To Insight contains English-language translations of the Pali canon. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Thanissaro Bhikkhu are two of the preeminent Pali translators around, so most stuff with their name on it just means they translated it, not that they're the authors.
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