PHBS is happy to inform that Achan Sobin Namto has kindly accepted our invitation to give a Dhamma Talk "Moment to Moment" at our Centre tonight, 21st Oct (Fri) at 8.30pm. Achan is a Thai Monk of the Forest Tradition.
Friends and devotees are kindly invited to the talk and do bring along your family and friends.
With Metta, PHBS
Friends and devotees are kindly invited to the talk and do bring along your family and friends.
With Metta, PHBS
One of the first teachers at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Bhikkhu Sopako Bodhi (Luang Phor Sobin Namto) was born in Wangplado, Thailand, in 1932. While still young he moved to Bangkok to ordain as a monk and study the Buddhist teachings.
At just nineteen he undertook a seven-month intensive meditation retreat with the great vipassana master Chao Khun Bhavanapirama Thera, who introduced him to a meticulous step-by-step method for developing mindfulness.
For some time afterward he lived as a solitary forest monk confronting all the dangers of the Asian jungle, including tigers and poisonous snakes.
In Thailand and Burma, LP Sobin studied vipassana with the most renowned teachers of the age, including Mahasi Sayadaw. At just twenty-four, LP Sobin himself became a recognized vipassana and abhidhamma teacher ("abhidhamma" means Buddhist metaphysics). He taught for many years at the famous Section Five of Wat Maha Dhatu monastery in Bangkok, as well as in many other temples. He later established and ran a meditation center in southern Thailand.
In 1972, he became Abbot of the first Thai Buddhist Temple ever built in the United States, in North Hollywood, California. Four years later he organized the founding of Wat Buddhawararam of Denver, a Buddhist temple that he envisioned would promote the spread of insight meditation.
Among many commendations, LP Sobin has been recognized by the Mayor of Los Angeles and the King of Thailand for his work in spreading the teachings of Buddhism to the west.
LP Sobin now resides in his home village of Wangplado, Thailand, where he is working to build a meditation center and a stupa to house the relics of the Buddha. The stupa, or "pagoda," will replicate the famous Buddhist shrine in Bodhgaya, India, which marks the place of the Buddha's enlightenment.
LP Sobin's students and friends remark on his warmth, compassion and humor, but also his uncompromising adherence to the original teachings of the Buddha. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading authorities on vipassana meditation and abhidhamma. His tireless efforts to share this knowledge have benefited the world beyond measure.
No comments:
Post a Comment