Cambodia: Buddhist Monks, Police Clash During Protest To Show Solidarity With Vietnam Monks

What ever the problems are and no matter if anyone is suffering from because of the government, a monk should NEVER be involved in a physical attack. That is not what the Buddha thought. When I read that group of Khmer monks in Cambodia delivering an official letter of protest to Vietnamese embassy, they were blocked by the police. The monk began to throw things at them .

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Boun Kathin (Khatina)

Boun Kathin (Kathina in Pali)  is a Theravada Buddist Festival. It is celebrate at the end of Vassa (Buddhist Monk Rainy Season Retreat)   sometime during November. This is the only time when a community can donate robe to the monks and make other donations. Think of it as a mega alms-giving. 

I will be at Watlao Rockwall for Boun Kathin tomorrow.  I make sure to take a lot of pictures.

Wisdom of Ajahn Chah

Before I discovered Ajahn Chah’s teaching, I felt as if I was lost. I was drifting between Catholicism and Buddhism. Ajahn Chah is a Theravada Buddhist monk for a Forest Tradition. He is Thai citizen of Lao ancestry. He had established a forest temple in the northeastern part of Thailand Thais, other Asians, and many Farangs (White/European) have ordained in his temple. His teaching have been published and well known worldwide. This monk had made an impact on me that I now considered myself a Buddhist.

Here is a twist. We have a monk in a family not sure how he is related. We always call him Pou Ajahn because he had adopted my father before he became a monk I presume.

When I discovered Ajahn Chah, I was so excited that he is the monk I wish all the monk was like him (beside Pou Ajahn). I told my mother of him and how he had established a Forest Monastery (Wat Pa) in Ubon Ratchani, Thailand.

Immediately my mother told me that Pou Ajahn had wanted to go to Ubon Ratchani to learn from Ajahn Chah and be part of Wat Pa when it first started it. Things never work out and Pou Ajahn never left Pakse since. Maybe I will have a chance to ask him about it if I see him when I go to Laos next year.

The monk that got me interested in Buddhism is the same one that Pou Ajahn wanted to go learn Dhamma from. How weird is that. It is a small world.

Embedded video below is only 7 minutes long. To see full length, CLICK HERE
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New face of Buddhism

I might be a little late on posting this but here it is anyway.
The Buddhist temple mention here is next to my wife parent’s house in Port Arthur, TX.
I think it is a good idea to have a monk that can relate or talk to the new generation of kids.
Most of them don’t speak Vietnamese properly and have difficult understanding the Vietnamese monks.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5247235.html

Oct. 26, 2007, 5:42PM
Port Arthur monk puts new face on Buddhism
Texan believed to be first white American to become senior monk in Vietnamese Buddhism

New face of Buddhism

PORT ARTHUR — Bhante Kassapa is the new, blue-eyed face of Vietnamese Buddhism.

The U.S. Air Force veteran, one-time Franciscan monk and former airport communications trainer will this weekend become what is thought to be the first white American to don the robes of a senior monk in the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition.

And he already has big plans to parlay his uniqueness.

“There’s been some discussion about setting up the first (culturally) American Buddhist temple,” said Kassapa, who was born Michael Schlosser. “I have my own ideas about it.”

Kassapa’s ascent within the Vietnamese Theravada lineage is unusual not only for his race and ethnicity, but also for its speed. High ordination, which will be celebrated Sunday, usually takes monks up to five years to achieve, but Kassapa, 55, has gotten there in one.

He doesn’t doubt the sangha, or governing body of more than 30 other venerable monks from more than a dozen traditionalist Vietnamese Theravada temples across North America, took his heritage into account in accelerating his promotion.

“I don’t know if it’s a calculated move on the part of the sangha, but they see me as a bridge between the children and the old people, which is fine,” said Kassapa, (pronounced KAH-sa-pa) who has spent the past year at the Buu Mon Buddhist Temple in Port Arthur. “I have a genuine like of people anyway.”

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