The Venerable Nyanatiloka Maha-Thera (1878-1957) was an eminent German-born Theravada Buddhist monk who entered the Sangha in Sri Lanka, and became renowned for exact and precise scholarly understanding of that school’s complex Dharma teaching. He possessed the ability to a) understand and contextualise often obscure Pali terms and concepts, and b) correctly transliterate and translate those terms into Western languages. His work regarding the Theravada School is reliable and insightful.
Tag: buddha
Potaliya Sutta – Why Householders are Not Monks
Indeed, in the Vinaya Discipline, a member of the Sangha is defined as someone who has left the life of a householder and taken the all the monastic vows as decreed within the Vinaya Discipline. The breaking of these vows either attracts reforming behaviour, or expulsion from the order. However, the Vinaya Discipline also defines a ‘member of the Sangha’ as someone who has ‘realised emptiness’ irrespective as to whether they have renounced the lay-life.
Do Not Worship Cause and Effect
Religion as it currently exists (even its good manifestation) keeps humanity at a certain level of thought, and does not allow any progress beyond this point. The working class, simply for evolutionary purposes, must progress beyond the limitations of theology for the betterment of the psychological and physical health of humanity.
Buddhism Should Not Have a Flag
The idea of a Buddhist flag is tantamount to Buddhist terrorism in as much as it symbolises the alignment of Buddhism with the modern, capitalist State, and signifies a disturbing trend of replacing Buddhist philosophy with the ideology of greed. This is a false Buddhism that ‘normalises’ suffering in the mind and body of the masses. In fact it is not ‘Buddhism’ at all, but rather a superficial mirage in saffron robes.
Scientific Buddha
The Buddha advises that all those who follow his path must ‘uproot’ ALL ignorance. This instruction alone proves that the Buddha was a ‘scientist’ and not a religious teacher in the conventional sense.
Buddhist Responsibility of Speech
The modern liberal notion of ‘freedom of speech’ is an error of interpretation for the Buddha, because such speech is never ‘free’ of greed, hatred and delusion in the unenlightened state. In reality ‘freedom of speech’ is the institutionalisation of the freedom to spread greed, hatred, and delusion throughout the world, with no thought for the consequences.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 