[Buddha-l] (no subject)

[David Webster]

A 7 day mediation course - and they expect it to be blissful? What about an
honest advert - 'experience 7 days of misery, frustration and self-loathing,
with the distant promise of potential bliss' - maybe not as alluring?

---------------------------------------- 
Dr David Webster 
Course Leader: Religion, Philosophy & Ethics 
University of Gloucestershire 

01242 71 4778 
e-mail: dwebster at glos.ac.uk 


University Site: http://www.glos.ac.uk

 

Course blog: http://www.r-p-e.blogspot.com  
---------------------------------------- 


-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Randall Jones
Sent: 27 June 2008 03:24
To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
Subject: [Buddha-l] (no subject)

Curt Steinmetz wrote:

>Well, certainly meditation is practiced in the Theravadin tradition.
>After all, the whole phenomenon of Vipassana/Insight Meditation in the
>west comes from westerners who have traveled to Asia and received
>meditation instruction in the Theravadin tradition. My guess would be
>that Theravadin monks who are primarily interested in meditation would
>have very little interest in living in the United States - and prefer to
>stay in Asia.

Makes sense to me.  Monks here (Thailand) are not expected to be 
experts at everything.  Some specialize in meditation, others in 
dhamma study ...  So just being a monk doesn't imply that one could 
or would teach meditation.  (This said, I have on occasion meditated 
with monks who were not meditation specialists but they were not 
teaching meditation, just doing it.)

Somewhat off topic, this just came into my email from TAT (Tourism 
Authority of Thailand) a few minutes ago:

"Experience a vividly colourful and exotic myriad of all things Thai. 
The Land of Smiles has something uniquely Thai to suit everyone's 
varied taste, whether it be exhilarating boxing, exquisite classical 
dance, rejuvenating massage, sumptuous cooking, top-notch 
accommodation or even blissful meditation."

I like the "or even."  Among the offers is a 7 day meditation and 
Thai cooking class at Kanchanaburi.  I was pleased that these were 
sequential, not simultaneous.  Thai cooking got the first two days 
and meditation got the rest.

Randall Jones
Chiang Mai, Thailand
rjones at cm.ksc.co.th


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