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Jonathan Watts wrote:

Hi All-

I've been a serious DO/PS student since my first retreat at Suan Mokkh in 1990 and was lucky enough to take a few extended retreats there in the late 1990s where I spent alot of time studying PS with Santikaro and gaining access to other sources. There is a manuscript which goes into much more practical detail than the presently published one on PS. Santikaro is now working on finshing this, perhaps to publish we hope in 2006. About a year ago I offered to mail anyone interested this manuscript for their personal illumination, but never got around to it. As long as Santikaro agrees, I'm happy to send it on now if you send me a mail........concerning these previous points about where mindfulness can begin - what I remember from this manuscript is "Sati at Phassa" - it's been my "mantra" for years.

I have also written my own understanding of the whole 12 link cycle based on my study over the years in a short 5 page paper and would be happy to share this with anyone. Just drop me a note.

sati at phassa,

Jon
                              .................................

  รายที่ผมประทับใจมากคือคุณ Matt. ลองดูตัวอย่างการทำหน้าที่ของเขาสิครับ ..
มีคนถามเรื่องการปฏิบัติและขั้นของความสุขที่จะไปให้ถึง  คุณ Matt. แกตอบเสียสะใจเลยทีเดียว ..

  คำถาม " ..   I know reach the second level. But I am not sure if it is possible for us to reach the third level. Do you think you reached the highest level? How does one knows if one attains that level? Did THan Buddhadasa reach the third level ? "

   คำตอบของคุณ Matt.

" ... Tan Ajarn pointed out that we already do in moments when we are not attached to "I" and "mine".   When you are sitting and reading Than Payutto's book, when you are absorbed in it and your mind is not wandering, there is the happiness of non-attachment to me-and-mine, isn't there?  And so there you have it, it's there in that moment, it just doesn't hang around all the time, because "me-and-mine" tends to crop back up, out of habit, does it not?  But me-and-mine is just a habitual way of thinking that one can watch out for, and examine and dismiss when it comes back up, no? So the unattached moments can be extended and brought about more and more often, if one is mindful and on guard for the arising of "me-and-mine" thinking.  

Don't get hung up in this business of chasing permanent unattachment, of becoming a person who is enlightened, or never attached to anything, or who has attained this or that level.  Tan Ajarn doesn't say it works that way.  That's just another attachment, to becoming this or that. We only live in this moment, so we only have to deal with this moment, don't we?  That's plenty enough to deal with, anyway, isn't it?   So in being mindful of "me-and-mine" in this moment, and this moment, and this moment, and examining where it comes up from: the distorted thinking, the belief in this or that that brings about the notion that "I am angry because..." or "I want this because...." or "my pain...", we can let go of the underlying assumptions that bring about the birth of the I-My'ing, and our misery eases away.  It's a process of confronting the habitual assumptions we have grown up with that cause us to attach to this or that, and and get our emotions all wrtapped up in them. ..... "

    ยังมีต่ออีกมากครับ อ่านแล้วปลื้มใจ และอดนึกถึงคำของท่านอาจารย์พุทธทาสไม่ได้ครับ .. ท่านเคยกล่าวว่า อีกหน่อยคนไทยอาจต้องเรียนพุทธศาสนา(แท้) จากอเมริกา

    ผมอดไม่ได้จึงเขียนให้กำลังใจคุณ Matt. แกไปว่า ..

" Dear Matt,
    I am a member of the Yahoo's Buddhassa group. I was a monk at
Suanmoke for 3 months over 10 years ago,the time that Santikaro and Viriya were there also. Infact, I was born in Chaiya and used to help working at Suanmoke since I was in secondary school. Now I'm an instructor in a university in Bkk.
    I know you from the discussion in the group and quite appreciate the
way you try to help others to uderstand the right ways in Dhamma
practice,especially,the last message you gave to Nat.

    Please let me know you so that we can co-operate or join something together in the future for the sake of Dhamma.

        Best Regards,
            Pinit.

     ...........................

  และนี่คือคำตอบยาวจากคุณ Matt. ที่บ่งบอกความ น่านับถือในความเป็นเขา จนเราปลื้มแทบน้ำตาซึม

" Hello, Pinit,

I am an American living in Denver, Colorado, US.  I started investigating dhamma a couple of years ago.  I waded through a lot of belief-system-based stuff before finally discovering Tan Ajarn's teachings.  I am happy to find his work,because through my internet travels I sensed that at the core there were universal truths, I could see them through the shell of the teachings I was reading.  I think that Tan Ajarn has presented a set of explanations of dhamma teachings and practice that can be useful to everyone, that Westerners who think of themselves as "rationalist" can find a way to peace of mind in. I think that one day, if his interpretations and explanations of the dhamma become widely known, that Tan Ajarn will be known as the most important religious thinkier of the 20th century,perhaps the most important person of the age. I think that has has successfully cleared the dust of two-and-a-half millennia off of and ancient and universal teaching, and shown it to be as relevant to all now as it was back then.  My intention now is to do whatever I can to help disseminate his teachings. 

    You know, I am a musician, and when I was sixteen I participated in a
performance of "Jesus Christ Superster", which poses the irony, "If you [Christ] had come today, you could have readhed a whole nation -- Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication".   Today, that mass communication is there, even better now with the internet than it was when the verse was written in the 70s.  The Buddha's message of unselfishness is the same as Christ's, and -- as I recently saw so elequently pointed out by a lay woman here in the States -- Christ tells us to love our neighbor as we would our self.  The Buddha tells us *how*.  And Buddhadasa tell us how in a language we can all understand in this day and age. So I see:  Here is the Truth, and here is the way of mass communication, the way to reach almost everyone on the planet,  that both the Buddha and the Christ lacked in their time.   All that remains is for those who have seen and are learning the Truth to use the tools in front of them to pass it on and make it easily available to all who will listen.   Is there anything at all more important than that for any one to do?  So here I study and try to walk the Path, and to pass on what I am learning.  I would like to see all of Tan Ajarn's teachings translated to English, and at present I am trying to dig up everything that is already translated to English and get it all easily available on the internet.  As you probably have seen, I have sent a manuscript of "Toward the Truth of Buddhism" to Santikaro today, and I'm now working on the "Mindfulness of breathing" .pdf file, which unfortuately was not set up for copy/pasting and thus can only be printed out if one has 500 pages and a lot of ink to spare, but I have figured a way to use the "print screen" function in Windows to get the bitmap files my OCR program needs for
conversion to text.  Should be ready for approval in a week or two, give or
take.

       Gotta run, it's off to work for me.  I'll keep in touch.  I am pleased to make your acquaintance.

Matt

..................

     ผมว่า (โดยไม่รู้ตัว) คุณ Matt กำลังเฉลิมฉลอง " 100ปี พุทธทาส " ในรูปแบบของ "ปฏิบัติบูชา" ได้อย่างน่าชื่นชมทีเดียว  หรือใครว่าไม่จริง ..

    เอ๊ะ หัวเรื่องของบันทึกนี้ ตั้งไว้ว่า .. " Could an arahant  cry? " นี่นา ขออภัยที่พาเดินอ้อมเสียไกล .. มีผู้ถามไว้จริงๆแหละครับ  ใครว่างช่วยแปล ช่วยตอบด้วยก็จะเป็นพระคุณครับ .. เขาเขียนไว้ว่า ..

  " ... anyone have any thoughts on whether an arahant could cry?
in the digha nikaya in the sutta on the buddha's passing away the
arahants do not cry upon his death.  so apparently they would not cry
out of sadness.  could they cry out of joy, or compassion, or just
spontaneously out of a charismatic gift of tears? in the christian
tradition saints are often crying, and this is considered a gift of the
spirit. saints like st. francis and st. clare would even have group
crys.  i'm not sure this charism is always from sadness or from joy,
but it is probably just a human response to encountering divine mystery
at some deep level.  have any arahants had the gift of tears in the
history of buddhism? have any cried for any reason?   and what about
laughter? i imagine arahants could laugh alot at the way most
worldlings behave?  or perhaps they are beyond laughter?  i have never
met an arahant in person, but most of the more spiritual people i have
met are naturally joyous and do laugh and seem to enjoy laughter.
very curious,
       YTHU .

      สวัสดีครับ.