Ajahn Maha Bua

Luangta Maha Bua Yanasampanno (Thai: หลวง ตา มหา บัว ญาณ สั ม ปัน โน - Pronunciation: lǔaŋ ta ː máhǎ ː bua yes ː násǎmpanno ː ;) ( born August 12, 1913 in Ban Taad ( บ้าน ตาด ), Thailand as Bua Lohitdee; † January 30, 2011 ) officially Phra Thamma Visuthimongkon - ( พระ ธรรม วิ สุทธิ มงคล ) was a highly revered in Thailand Buddhist monk and abbot of Wat Pa Ban Tat in the province of Udon Thani. He was also Ajahn Maha Bua respectful ( alternate spelling: Maha Boowa Acariya ) called, which means literally translated as " venerable teacher Big Lotus ".

Life

Bua Lohitdee was born in a village in Tambon Ban Tat, which is located in the province of Udon Thani in northeastern Thailand. He was one of 17 children of a family of rice farmers. As a child, he left school after the third grade, which corresponded to his time the highest level of education that could be reached in the village.

On 12 May 1934 he was ordained at Wat Yothanimit in the province of Udon Thani theravada Buddhist monk. His teacher, the Venerable Chao Khun Dhammachedi the Order of Thammayut - Nikai, gave him a native of the Pali religious name Ñāṇasampanno, which means as much as " one of wisdom has ."

In the following years he studied the Pali language and the Buddhist canon. After a seven-year period of study he passed the exams for the third level of Pali studies and to the highest degree of the courses on the Dhamma and Vinaya. His Pali 's degree entitled him to wear the title of Maha.

Now he could be quite the barren life of a monk Dhutanga ( Wander-/Wald-Mönch ) pay according to the Thai forest tradition. As the meditation exercises were initially unsuccessful in his wanderings, he decided to embark on the search for Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta, one of the most famous monks and meditation teachers at that time. He eventually met him in 1942 in Northeast Thailand and could convince him to become his teacher. Under the guidance of Ajahn Mun he lived until his death in 1949.

Ajahn Maha Bua has now becomes one of the central figures of a group of monks who continued the guess at that time almost forgotten Kammatthana - Dhutanga tradition and would thus preserve the unique practice of Ajahn Mun for future generations. As part of this effort he gave in 1971 the biography of Ajahn Mun out.

In the 1960s, the onset of modernization and the consequent deforestation of the Thai forests prompted the Dhutanga monks to reorient itself. They had to learn to limit their hikes or even give up. Some teachers, including Ajahn Maha Bua, opted to establish stable monastic communities where forest monks a suitable environment was offered, in which they could their hard acquired virtues, such renunciation, strict discipline and intense meditation within the meaning of Ajahn Mun live on. Who received large inflow of practicing monks and thus developed to major centers of Buddhist practice -: So the so-called " forest monastery " ( Wat Pa วัด ป่า Thai ) originated.

From the 1960s, a community of lay people to Ajahn Maha Bua, the self from Bangkok and the central region traveled to him to hear his sermons and to be near him rallied. Maha Bua, like other monks who come from farming families, known for a very popular and direct language with descriptive compare and images. His disciples worshiped him already during his lifetime as an Arahant, a fully- dents Buddhist saint.

Ajahn Maha Buas Forest Monastery Wat Pa Ban Tat in Udon Thani was founded by the monk - students themselves, who gathered here for purely spiritual reasons, to receive instructions from an authentic master. Even monks from western countries could ordain later here; some live here still, others founded in the West like monasteries. Born in England, former vice - abbot Ajahn Pannavaddho died in August 2004.

Maha Bua took in his sermons always on political sermons position. During the Asian economic crisis of 1997/ 98, the hard- hit Thailand, he called the campaign "Thai help Thai " ( Thai Thai Chuai ) to life. They rallied to save the Thai state treasury until the end of 2000, over 3 tons of gold from the possession of wealthy donors until October 2007 there were 11.5 tons of gold and 10.2 million U.S. dollars in foreign exchange. This national ( and Ajahn Maha Bua with religious- nationalist rhetoric advertised ) campaign was largely responsible for the relatively rapid recovery of Thailand after the crisis and with timely repayment of loans from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF).

Ajahn Maha Bua, however, did not agree with the commingling of donations that should be reserves for the absolute emergency, in his view, with the government budget, and use to repay the loan. Furious, he criticized the ruling Democratic Party of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. However, he supported Thaksin Shinawatra of the Thai Rak Thai Party, which in 2001 became Prime Minister in the year in which proceedings for alleged concealment of assets. In subsequent years, however, he became a sharp critic of Thaksin. This appointed 2005 Somdet Kiaw from Mahanikai Medal for interim Patrarchen who should assume the duties, instead of seriously ill and virtually incapacitated Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara Supreme Patriarch. In a in the opposition newspaper Phuchatkan ( "Manager") printed sermon claimed Maha Bua in September 2005, Thailand was under a dark influence, Thaksin wants to be president (ie the king replace ) and would the Thai nation, religion and monarchy trample. Maha Bua expressed hostile to democratic governments, as elected politicians would always be greedy and would abuse their positions for personal benefit. In contrast, the king was an incarnation of the Dhamma and a righteous " father" of the nation for him.

Maha Bua passed away on 30 January 2011 at the age of 97 years.

Appreciation

The Cistercian monk Thomas Merton, who occupied himself on his trip to Asia in particular with Buddhism, commented in his diaries the work of Wisdom Develops Samadhi:

Ajahn Maha Bua followers of have in Kanchanaburi province established a Forest Temple, which is named after Ajahn Maha Bua. Tourists he is known as "Tiger Temple " because the monks resided there several Indochinese tiger.

Writings (selection )

• Wisdom Develops Samadhi. Translated by Bhikkhu Pannavaddho into English. The original was published in May 1967 in the Thai Visakha Puja Magazine, a publication of the Buddhist Association of Thailand.
• Dhamma Teaching of Maha Boowa in London Acariya, Thailand 1974 (English, The talks and answers to questions givenName by Ven Maha Boowa Acariya [ Bhikkhu Maha Thera Nanasampanno ] while visiting the Dhammapadipa Vihara in London in June 1974 - PDF file.. ., RAR, 577 kB)
• Straight from the Heart. Thirteen Talks on the Practice of Meditation. . Thammasat University Press, 1987 ( PDF of the English version ( ZIP; 28.9 MB ) or the German version )
• Things as They are. P. Pamphan Panich, Thailand 1988 ( English PDF file, ZIP, 31.6 MB).
• Venerable Mun Acariya Bhuridatta Thera: A Spiritual Biography. 3rd Edition, Thailand Forest Dhamma of Wat Pa Baan Taad, Wat Pa Baan Taad ( Udorn Thani / Thailand), 2005, ISBN 974-92007-4-8. ( English PDF file, ZIP, 4.2 MB)

Explanations of the names and titles

Ajahn Maha Bua The Honorable can be called in different ways, the name can appear in a wide variety of spellings. It may be one of the following names, but also a combination of the individual components.

• Full Title: " Maha Bua Luangta Yanasampanno ": Luangta ( หลวง ตา, "Venerable Grandfather " ) as a title of honor for senior monks;
• Maha ( มหา ) as title after obtaining the third level of Pali examination;
• Bua ( บัว, writing in the English language: " Boowa ", literally: "Lotus" ) as call, short name;
• Yanasampanno, other spellings: Ñāṇasampanno or Nyanasampanno as ordained name.

• Ajahn ( อาจารย์, pronounced [ ʔa ː ː t͡ɕa n ], literally: "teacher"), another way of writing (Sanskrit ) " Acariya ", also: " Acharn " as a title of honor for meritorious monks.