[Buddha-l] Ajahn Brahm

[jkirk]

>From an interview reproduced on amazon.com's page on his latest book:
 Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, an encapsulation of the meditation wisdom 
Ajahn Brahm has cultivated since 1973.


Q. People call you "the Elvis of Buddhism," "the Seinfeld of Buddhism." They 
want to make you into a celebrity. Do you ever have difficulty reconciling 
that with being a monk--and not just a monk, but a forest monk, which is 
very different from living as a famous person?

A. You know, I think one of the first times when it really hit me is I was 
giving a talk in Singapore. There was a huge crowd of five thousand, 
cheering as if they were watching a basketball match or something. Huge 
crowd. In the front where I was sitting, I was just by myself on this huge 
stage. As I walked in, I thought, now what am I doing? But then I thought of 
my teacher, Ajahn Chah. I thought he would be very happy that I was 
spreading Dhamma to so many. So you never think of yourself; you think of 
your teachings. You think of what you're doing, rather than who's doing it. 
So you actually depersonalize everything.

Q. That's how you avoid the cult of personality?

A. [You get] where you can actually play the role without being the role, so 
you get up there and you can really connect with your audience. You can 
enjoy the interaction between yourself and five thousand [other people]. 
That way you are not shortchanging the Dhamma. Too often, people -- because 
they're concerned about their ego -- don't actually put themselves forward 
enough to be able to present the Dhamma in a beautiful way. Whatever you 
believe in, you just give it everything you've got, you go for broke. If 
you're going to talk to ten people, it might as well be ten thousand. It's 
the same as how I'm talking to you now. You just connect and just give a 
talk the very best you can, and then off you go. So it's very powerful. If 
you've got a good teaching, then go out there and give it.

Q. Do you see yourself and your popularity as a vehicle for the Dhamma?

A. Sure, yeah, sure. I mean, when I started [as abbot and giving talks], I 
thought, "Well, I'll give it everything I've got. If it works, great. If it 
doesn't work, I can be a nice, peaceful, solitary monk." So you've got 
nothing to lose.

Q. It's funny. You almost have to disguise your useful teachings in an 
entertaining and funny way -- 

A. Packaging, that's what it is.

Q. -- but you're known for being totally scrupulous to the Vinaya. In the 
evening, you'll have orange juice while other people are having their steak 
dinners, things like that. That gives you a kind of authority that simply 
being a monk or an abbot doesn't necessarily confer, because there are 
scandals every day with religious figures.

A. That's correct, yeah.

Q. So what do you think that the Theravada tradition as practiced and taught 
by Western monastics has to offer that maybe the other traditions don't?

A. I think it's just clarity. Clarity and simplicity. That just shows that 
you can keep all your rules scrupulously without being uptight. If you see a 
person who really keeps those rules, they just so easily go along with it 
and they're just relaxed because it's one of those almost, like, koans of 
life--the more rules you keep, the more freedom you feel. People think, "Ah, 
if you keep precepts and you keep these rules, you feel just so enclosed. 
You can't go where you want. You can't do what you want." But [monastics] 
don't feel it that way at all. All these rules -- I can't do this, I can't 
do that -- seem so free and liberating.

Q. And part of the clarity of the Theravada is that there are not a lot of 
cultural accretions added to it.

A. That's right. Of all of the types of Buddhism, Theravada has been the 
least cultural and most international. [As] a Theravadin, I can go to 
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the other traditions -- old 
traditions and new traditions -- and know exactly what I'm doing. Like last 
night, I stayed in the Sri Lankan temple in Toronto. Tonight is in the Thai 
temple [in Chicago]. So you just fit in so easily. If you're a Theravadin 
monk or nun, it's like having a Diner's Club card or gold card, and you can 
go to any of these hotels called "monasteries" in the whole world and get 
free bed and board. [Laughs.] It's a great, great club to join.