The great monk of lord Buddha

Phra Dharmakosācārya (Nguam Indapañño)

 Phra Thammakosachan (Ngueam Inthapanyo)), also known as Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu was a
famous and influential Thai ascetic-philosopher of the 20th century. Known as an innovative
reinterpreter of Buddhist doctrine and Thai folk beliefs, Buddhadasa fostered a reformation in
conventional religious perceptions in his home country, Thailand, as well as abroad. Buddhadasa
developed a personal view that those who have penetrated the essential nature of religions
consider "all religions to be inwardly the same", while those who have the highest understanding
of dhamma feel "there is no religion".

Biography: He was born Nguam Phanit in 1906 in Ban Phumriang, Chaiya District, southern
Thailand. His father, Sieng Phānit, was a shopkeeper of second generation Thai
Chinese (Hokkien) ancestry and his mother, Klaun, was Thai.
Buddhadasa renounced civilian life in 1926. Typical of young monks during the time, he traveled
to the capital, Bangkok, for doctrinal training but found the wats there dirty, crowded, and, most
troubling to him, the sangha corrupts, "preoccupied with prestige, position, and comfort with little
interest in the highest ideals of Buddhism." As a result, he returned to his native rural district and
occupied a forest tract near to his village, founding Suan Mokkh in 1932.
In later years, Buddhadasa's teachings attracted many international seekers to his hermitage. He
held talks with leading scholars and clergy of various faiths. His aim in these discussions was to
probe the similarities at the heart of each of the major world religions. Before his death in 1993,
he established an International Dhamma Hermitage Center across the highway from his own
retreat to aid in the teaching of Buddhism and other yogic practices to international students. The
area of Suan Mokkh was expanded to approximately 120 acres of forest
However, Buddhadasa was skeptical of his fame; when reflecting on the busloads of visitors to
Suan Mokkh he would say, "sometimes I think many of these people just stop here because they
have to visit the bathroom.
Teachings and interpretations: Buddhadasa strove for a simple, pristine practice in attempt to
emulate Gautama Buddha's core teaching, "Do good, avoid bad, and purify the mind." He
therefore avoided the customary ritualism and internal politics that dominated Siamese clerical
life. His ability to explain complex philosophical and religious ideas in his native Southern
Thai attracted many people to his wooded retreat. His primary teaching mainly focused on the
quiet awareness of one's breathing pattern called anapanasati. However, his personal practice
was very much grounded in advanced research and interpretation of early Pali texts on the one
hand and on his radical private experimentation on the other.
Rejection of rebirth
Buddhadasa rejected the traditional rebirth and karma doctrine, since he thought it to be
incompatible with sunyata, and not conducive to the extinction of dukkha.
Buddhadasa, states John Powers – a professor of Asian Studies and Buddhism, offered a
"rationalist interpretation" and thought "the whole question of rebirth to be foolish". According
to Buddhadasa, the Buddha taught 'no-self' (Skt anatman, Pali anatta), which denies any
substantial, ongoing entity or soul. Powers quotes Buddhadasa view as, "because there is
no one born, there is no one who dies and is reborn". Therefore, states Buddhadasa, "the
whole question of rebirth has nothing to do with Buddhism... in the sphere of the Buddhist
teachings there is no question of rebirth or reincarnation". Its goal is nibbana, which
Buddhadasa describes as a state "beyond all suffering that also transcends ordinary
conceptions of happiness."
Buddhadasa explains paticcasamupadda as the "birth" of "I" and mine through sense-
contact with objects, and the resulting vedana ("feeling"), tanha ("thirst," craving)
and upadana (clinging). It is by relinquishing the notion of "I" and "mine" that selfish clinging
is abandoned, and Nirvana or true emptiness will be reached. This can be done by "not
allow[ing] the dependent arising to take place; to cut it off right at the moment of sense-
contact."
Buddhadasa's views have been "strongly criticized" and rejected by many of his fellow
Theravada Buddhist monks with a more orthodox view of the Buddhist Dhamma. For
example, Bhikkhu Bodhi states that Buddhadasa's approach of jettisoning the rebirth
doctrine "would virtually reduce the Dhamma to tatters... the conception of rebirth is an
essential plank to its ethical theory, providing an incentive for avoiding all evil and doing
good", summarizes Powers.
No religion
From the earliest period of his religious studies, Buddhadasa utilized a comparative
approach and sought to be able to explain "Buddhist's teachings through other thought
systems such as Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism and Natural Science." Through
such a methodology he came to adopt a religious world-view wherein he stated, "those who
have penetrated to the essential nature of religion will regard all religions as being the same.
Although they may say there is Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Islam, or whatever, they will
also say that all religions are inwardly the same."
In his No Religion (1993) Buddhadasa further famously remarked:
...those who have penetrated to the highest understanding of Dhamma will feel that the thing
called "religion" doesn't exist after all. There is no Buddhism; there is no Christianity; there is
no Islam. How can they be the same or in conflict when they don't even exist? (...) Thus, the
phrase "No religion!" is actually Dhamma language of the highest level.

Influence
Buddhadasa's interpretations of the Buddhist tradition inspired such persons as the French-
schooled Pridi Banomyong, leader of the Siamese revolution of 1932, and a group of Thai social
activists and artists of the 20th century.
Religious scholar Donald K. Swearer has compared Buddhadasa to the early Indian
philosopher Nagarjuna, and the 5th-century south Indian scholar Buddhaghosa who has
"overshadowed the development of Theravada Buddhist thought" in southeast Asia. According to
Swearer, the Thai teacher Buddhadasa "stands in polar opposition to such normative figures as
Buddhaghosa" in several respects. Buddhadasa's writings, for example, decidedly contrast with
the scholastic and highly influential Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa. Buddhadasa has been
influential in the arannavasi (forest tradition) of Thai Buddhism, and his ideas have influenced the
radical sectarian movement founder Santi Asoke, according to Swearer.
According to scholars such as Peter Jackson and Daniel Lynch, Buddhadasa was heavily
influenced by the ideas found in Zen Buddhism. Buddhadasa considered the Zen ideas as a way
to reconcile Theravada Buddhism with modern humanism, and thought them to be the reason for
Japan's economic strength.

Tanachod Sangjun M.4/11 No.9