New Edition of News & Musings.

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It looks likely that News & Musings will continue now over at my WordPress site. Please go to http://luangpor.wordpress.com/ and look at the News & Musings page there.


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On This Day, 1971.

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Today is the thirty-sixth anniversary of my ordination as a samanera (novice) in Section 5 of Wat Mahadhatu in the heart of Bangkok. Back then on Boxing Day in 1971, I had been in Thailand just over three weeks staying in Section 6 but practising meditation under the instruction of Ven. Chao Khun Dhep Siddhimuni, the Head of Section 5, who became my Uphajjaya or Preceptor. Before it's too late I've rescued a few old photos of the ordination and posted them here . The monk with me who looked after me was Phra Maha Raundeg Simuni. I had known him in England at Wat Buddhapadipa and it was he who had first told me of Ajahn Chah. Phra Maha Simuni was from a large wat in the middle of the city of Ubon called Wat Tung See Muang. On January 1st 1972, Phra Maha Simuni took me to Ubon and eventually introduced me to Ajahn Chah. But before I could go and stay at Wat Pah Pong I had to go with Phra Maha Simuni to a remote village called Ban Pai Yai which he wanted to study and include in h
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Vesak at the London Buddhist Vihara.

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I had accepted an invitation from Venerable Seelawimala to speak at the London Buddhist Vihara's Vesak celebration and so on Sunday down to Chiswick I went again. The title of my talk was The Challenge of the Dhamma. While I got a few laughs for them, the stories I told focussed on how the Dhamma challenges our defilements, our views and our conduct. And I spoke pretty directly on the importance of having the courage to rise to the challenges and always to do the right thing and to keep growing. Naturally, I spent some time on the Five Precepts, and encouraged my listeners to not be afraid of being particularly careful of the fifth. The questions that followed showed what a raw nerve that exposed. I assured them that doing the right thing and leading a moral and decent life is in the end always respected.
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Admitting to a Mistake.

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Any day now I ought to tweet a reminder about our Songkran next Sunday, which reminds me that last time I tweeted a reminder about an event here I made a mistake. For several days no one commented, or perhaps even noticed, that I’d given the wrong date by a whole month, until one of our neighbours kindly sent me a text pointing out my error. Now I could have tried to cover it up and perhaps even suggested it was a teaching and demanded to know why everyone had been so unobservant and unaware and why it had taken so long for anyone to notice. Covering up and not admitting to errors is what small minded people often do but a long time ago I learnt how a big man handles a mistake. It was when I was a young actor and in my second year at the National Theatre. I was really excited when the legendary Sir Tyrone Guthrie joined the company to direct two productions and I was cast, albeit in a small way, in one of them, in Volpone. I remember one day I was in the rehearsal room, I suppose wai
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