Message to the World Buddhist Conference of 2010-ST3TBqMQvw8.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ST3TBqMQvw8

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

in the heart of the user fountains a new

tradition is being born a tradition of

American Forests monks that will follow

the original practices of Buddha after

25 years of meditation practice

Vontae vanilla Ramsay has come back to

his home country of the USA and settled

into a rural area of Missouri that is to

our south from the city of st. Louis so

let's go to the United States and visit

Vontae at his Dhamma sukha Meditation

Center in Missouri and have him describe

what his plans are what we're setting up

here is a place where monks and nuns can

come and teach and practice meditation

and a study center where they can learn

about what the Buddha taught but we're

also going to have space for people that

want to come for longer periods of time

three months six months a year and we

have a large piece of land here we have

over a hundred acres so we'll be able to

facilitate even building a village where

people can come and they can keep their

five precepts and live in community of

other like-minded folks

was in Burma I did many many three

months

I did many many 3-month retreats between

12 and 15 of them I did an eight-month

retreat in Burma and this was the time

in 1988 when they had their social

unrest and they kicked all of the

foreign monks out of the country and

then it took me two years to get back in

the country to get the visa and that

sort of thing then I did a two-year

retreat at Chemeketa with Sydow who

Jonica at the end of two years he told

me that I was ready to go out and teach

but I wasn't satisfied I didn't feel

like I've gotten as much as I should

have

I went back to Malaysia many people were

very interested in having me teach the

Burmese method of meditation but I

didn't feel like it led to what it talks

about in the circus didn't lead to

nirvana the way that I was explained

navona so instead of teaching the

Reposado what I did was started teaching

loving-kindness meditation and that

became very popular in in Malaysia there

was some times I was giving huge

retreats many sometimes as many as 75

people and then at one point I was asked

to go to the largest monastery in Kuala

Lumpur by cash freedom Ananda who has

just since died not too long ago it so

happens that there was a monk that came

from Sri Lanka

that was a meditation teacher and he

asked me how I talked so I explained to

him the way that I was teaching and he

told me you're teaching exactly right

but you're using the language of

commentaries why don't you put the

commentaries down and then go to the

suta's and just use your suta's as your

guide so that's what I did

and as soon as I did that there were

light bulbs going off in my mind I was

understanding everything in the suta's

because I didn't have the overlay of the

commentaries to kind of cloud my

thinking since then I have developed a

way of teaching where I read the suta so

you know that it's not coming for me and

explain what this it does mean so this

has been a very practical and amazing

path that I've been on so this is a

cootie and this is a modern-day cootie

and the that means it is a meditation

cabin for up to four people so over the

next two years what kendama suka

Meditation Center expectant United

International Buddha Dhamma Society we

will be sending Bonte to the

universities to do talks about the

compatibility for the different

traditions to come together and work

together for different peaceful

coalition projects in the United States

we're hoping that they will share what's

working for the layperson

and we can share what is successful with

the meditation practice for people to

ease suffering and then we will work and

continue to teach online and we will

continue to do reaching out for training

monastics to teach in English in the

United

dates no matter what their tradition is

to teach Dhamma English and we will also

expand our program for the disability

project where we have one Kevin and will

add two or three more to that circle and

that's pretty much what will happen the

dining hall and kitchen will and be the

first thing to be finished so we'll have

expanded some of our meditation space

inside up here and then of course we're

going to be building a Dhamma village

which will start in another about a

year's time that will pick up and start

with people moving into our Dhamma

village which is next door to the

monastery and that will help us to

eventually be able to have monastics who

can go on pen depart from our ordination

program in the last few years we've been

teaching people online and we've been

fairly successful with that by using the

computer they can be at home they take

their 5 precepts in the morning they sit

and practice meditation then they can go

to work at lunchtime they take another

little period of time for meditation and

they can come home and listen to a

Dhamma talk and then write to me about

what's happening in their practice and

then they can sit a little while longer

so it's kind of a new way of doing a

retreat but you get the chance to

practice all day long that way we've

found this to be quite successful and

people do progress very nicely when they

do that one of the most recent

developments is Ustream and we are now

getting focused on setting up a studio

where we can do more work right here on

site and with 40 years practicing the

pasta meditation for most of that and

then a year ago a little over a year ago

I decided to

enroll in a retreat that was led by

Bonta Elam Ramsey a friend of mine had

recommended that I do such and it

changed my life in wonderful ways having

been a Buddhist to really see the Dharma

unfold in front of me practicing this

tranquility Insight Meditation was a

revelation within a few days I had

experienced in meditation what I hadn't

been able to do and practicing a

strictly positive technique for maybe

nearly 40 years in industries' so I'm

very grateful to about day for doing

that and as a retreat went on I

experienced even deeper states of

meditation so what we're trying to do is

get back to the original teaching of the

Buddha and the more that I read the

sutras to people the easier they

understand an awful lot of people are

looking for a path that they think is

very complicated but the Buddha's

teaching is very simple not always easy

but very simple to understand this is

the path that does lead to liberation