Living in a forest meditation cave (photos)

Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Majorie Chiew (thestar.com.my, 2011)

Cave-dwelling Theravada Buddhist monastic under crot or hanging mosquito net

(Ajahn Cagino) Photos from the exhibition on the wandering Forest Tradition life

Scaling new heights: Sometimes there are no roads in the forest so climbing the rocks to get over to the other side becomes necessary to continue the journey, explains Ven. Cagino. Once he pulled this stunt and fell off the ledge. Fortunately, his fall was broken by the branches of a tree before he landed by the riverside.

.

Venerable Ajahn Cagino, 43, lives in a cave with two snakes and eight bats.

 

The cave is 1.2 miles (2 km) from the nearest village in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand. Nestled in a deep valley hemmed in by high mountain ranges that border Burma, Mae Hong Son is isolated from the outside world and is covered with mist throughout the year.

 

“I’ve had enough of wandering,” says the Malaysian monk practicing within the Thai Forest Tradition, which is a branch of Theravada Buddhism.

 

For 12 years, Ven. Cagino had been walking through the remotest jungles of Thailand, before settling down in a cave. It was all part of the spiritual training of a forest ascetic.

 

All those years in the forest have brought out the best in him. Ven. Cagino, who is back in Malaysia on a vas (a three-month annual Rains Retreat observed by Theravada practitioners during the Asian rainy season), is out to raise funds to build an orphanage in Thailand.

 

“When I was a forest monk, the villagers gave me food as alms. Now I want to give back to these impoverished tribal people,” says Ven. Cagino who hails from Seremban....

• Dwelling apart -- free and liberated (sutra)

Life in the Wilderness

Floating to the other shore: Meditating on a bamboo raft for spiritual tranquility.

 

[Ven. Cagino was once an award-winning photographer.] “What used to be the best photo was not the best anymore. At the next photo contest, you’ve to improve your skills and get the winning shot,” he says. “Nothing seems to be the ultimate.”

Mr. Cagino was miserable and disillusioned and wondered if there were more to life than its never-ending challenges. At 27, he turned his back on all material pursuits, sold off his worldly belongings, and eventually became a Buddhist monk.

Over the next two years, Mr. Cagino visited forest monasteries in Thailand and New Zealand to learn more about Buddhism.

Ven. Cagino was ordained as a samanera (novice) at 29 and stayed at Ang Hock Si Temple in Perak Road, Penang, for the next year and a half.

He trained as a forest monk under Thai master Ajahn Ganha for five years and was re-ordained at Wat Pah Nanachat (The International Forest Monastery), a Buddhist monastery tailored to foreigners in northeast Thailand, in the Theravada Forest Tradition.

 

The monastery was established by the late Ven. Ajahn Chah to provide English-speaking monastics the opportunity to train and practice in the way Buddha originally taught his disciples in the forests 2,600 years ago.

 

The Thai Forest Tradition stresses meditation and strict adherence to monastic rules (Code of Discipline). Known for its orthodoxy, conservatism, and asceticism, the Thais greatly respect monks who observe this tradition.

 

A photo exhibition offers a rare glimpse of the lives of Theravada Buddhist forest monks. Silence in the streams: A monk practicing sitting meditation by the running waters of a waterfall (courtesy of Ajahn Cagino)

   

“I want to be a forest monk because Buddha himself spent much time dwelling in the forest. It is a strict, disciplined path,” says Ven. Cagino.

 

During the past 12 years, he was in and out of the forest with other monks. But six years ago, he set off alone into the deep wilderness to experience what it was like to be a forest monk. All he had with him were five pieces of cloth, an alms bowl, cup, umbrella, mosquito net, and walking stick.

“The stick is important as we can make some noise to warn snakes and other creatures of our presence when we’re walking through the forest,” says Ven. Cagino.

 

He described his wandering years as a journey of exploration and discovery, not a time of hardship.

 

“I enjoyed those years even though I know not if there was a meal for tomorrow or where I was heading. I just walked on to see the world,” he says.

 

A forest monk leads a nomadic life as he moves from one place to another to find the ideal location to practice meditation. He usually camps by the river for easy access to water supply.

 

“We stay 15 days at the most at one place -- not too long as we’re not supposed to feel attached to a place,” he explains. “If a place has ample food and shelter but is not conducive for meditation, we must leave promptly. If the place is great for meditation, the forest monk will stay a bit longer. It allows us to enhance our wisdom.”

 

Meal for the day: Monks returning with food offerings from their morning alms round.

 

Sometimes Ven. Cagino would ask villagers for directions to caves where monks had previously stayed. “There may be a fireplace and an old kettle left behind. Sometimes I will borrow a hammer and nails to make a seat for meditation,” he says.

The life of a forest monk is not without its challenges. There are times when they have to track through muddy paths, cross streams and rivers, or climb down cliffs. One can easily get lost in the jungle, too.

 

The forest monk will usually stay 1-2 miles (2-3 km) from the nearest village so that he can go for alms in the morning. He accepts only food, never money. More

A Photographic Journey of the Dhammafarers is an exhibition of 99 photos by Ajahn Cagino to raise funds for Dhammagiri Foundation to build an orphanage in Thailand. The exhibition took place  at White Box, Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malysia then Citta Mall, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Sept. 8-20; Bandar Utama Buddhist Society, 3, Jalan BU 3/1, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, from Sept. 25-Oct 2; and 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya, Oct. 8-9.

Japan: Land of the Disappearing Buddha (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; World Geographic Channel

(The Long Search) "The Land of the Disappearing Buddha"

Underground worlds: Buddhist Russia

Amber Larson, Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; RT News (facebook); Lindsey Bright (curatormagazine.com)

There are habitable caverns all over the planet (Buddha cave/Chatchai laka-mankong/flickr)

RT covers the US well

(RT) Many interesting things are hidden under the ground. In Odessa, Ukraine (formerly Czarist Russia and the USSR, part of Russia's Far East in Northern Asia), man made caves, caverns, and catacombs are scattered across the region -- stretching 2,500 km long, making them the longest in the world, but not necessarily the biggest, however.

These so-called catacombs were home to partisan bases during World War II. In Vladivostok -- the main Russian military naval base in the Far East -- engineers built a fortress at the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, the largest underground Russian church is hidden in Penza, according to RT.

D.U.M.B.s

What greed overcomes the U.S. MIC?

Are there similar deep underground military bases in the United States? Better believe it. They exist under Los Angeles but are most famously concentrated in Nevada and New Mexico, particularly the Archuleta Mesa (Dulce, NM) and in and around the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

These were not built exclusively by the U.S. military, CIA, and MIC (military-industrial complex). Native Americans say they were the home of humanoids referred to as the "Ant People," who live there and saved the lives of humans on the surface from time to time by welcoming them into their subterranean cities, which are not dark or lifeless but fully fleshed out and high tech.
 
Archuleta Mesa and its off-planet inhabitants

Archuleta Mesa, a bluff in the desert mountains of Dulce, New Mexico

 
Archuleta Mesa is the central geographic feature of Dulce, New Mexico, the heart of the Jicarilla Apache Nation.... In 2009, 120 people from around the world and the area attended the Dulce Underground UFO Base Conference. One local in attendance was Horacio Garcia. I know Garcia well. I know his kids and family and have spent time with them.

Big, kind, with baggy pants, bandana often tied low on his forehead and tattoos covering his arms, he is known for his knowledge on aliens. In Dec. 2011, I asked him about the Greys and the Dulce Alien Base.

[He answered,] “I don’t have to tell you anything. In a few weeks, everybody will know. The aliens will reveal themselves,” Garcia said. A few weeks passed, and I felt, thought, saw, and believed the same. If I was looking at aliens or alien artifacts, I didn’t see them. Yet, many claim to have seen strange and bizarre sights in Dulce and Lumberton, New Mexico -- coyotes that turn into humans, big orbs of light floating in the valleys, dogs that run faster than a speeding car, Bigfoot (Sasquatches), cow fetuses with the face of a tiger (government research chimeras) -- and (extraterrestrial) aliens, specifically, the Greys. More
 

It is interesting to note that according to Hindu and later Buddhist cosmologies, "heavens," usually referring to celestial worlds, are described as existing in space as well as underground inside this planet, which Wisdom Quarterly has covered.

Russia, China beat CIA/MIC: "Pipelineistan"

Dictator Vlad Putin and China's President Xi Jinping attend a welcoming ceremony at the Xijiao State Guest house ahead of the 4th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Shanghai on May 20, 2014 (Alexey Druzhinin/AFP).

 

Future "collateral damage," Afghanistan

While the West imposes sanctions on Russia, Russia is making a deal with China as each has something to offer the other, David Kuo, CEO of the Motley Fool Singapore financial Website, told RT. [One of the real reasons the U.S. fulfilled its longstanding plans to invade innocent Afghanistan -- after fomenting controversy by creating "the Taliban" with the help of Pakistani intelligence, demolishing the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and using 9/11 as the ultimate pretext for invasion, revenge, and an endless war on terror/fear in the Middle East and Wahabhi-Islam -- was for oil. There was a plan to build a massive pipeline to facilitate the plans of American and Western multinational corporations. "No blood for oil" protesters aware of this used to say.] More

The lunar "Year of the Horse" (2014)

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; 123newyear.com

Year of the Horse logo (123newyear.com)

  

I had a white pony once but renounced it all.

The year 2014 is considered the "Year of the Horse" according to the Chinese zodiac, which uses the lunar calendar. It begins January 31, 2014 and ends on February 18, 2015.

The Chinese zodiac is comprised of 12 animal signs (one mythical, the others ordinary). The horse is the seventh among them. It symbolizes graciousness, dignity, momentum, and firmness. In Chinese culture, people born during the Year of the Horse are regarded as witty, elegant, eloquent, and charming speakers.

Most of them possess a gift for getting their way by going through the hearts of other people. People bearing the horse sign strive towards seeking freedom and happiness.

• The 12 zodiac signs apply based only on the birth year. Everyone born this year, 12 years before now, and 12 years before then are all that sign. Last year was the Year of the Snake, which will happen again in 12 years. The world's zodiac charts, their astrological calendars, differ from one another, adhering to their own system and predictive value.

Personality

Happy Year of the Horse (photo.elsoar.com)

Horse people are lively, bright, and are known for their physical strength. They can express themselves well when communicating with other people. People born under the sign of the horse prefer to stay at peaceful places.... (Hunger Game's catty "Katniss Everdeen," Jennifer Lawrence, is actually a celebrity horse; expect to see her on a lot of gossip magazine covers in the years to come).

Relationships for Year of the Horse

Lawrence's middle finger mudra (Getty Images)

In matters related to love horse people -- according to the Chinese zodiac -- often suffer bad luck. 

Heartbreak is often experienced by horse people. They need to exercise caution and watch out for feeble bonds that do not survive over time. 

Sometimes their propensity to indulge in overspending or their financial struggles come into their way of maintaining love bonds. They can become too dependent on others, and this makes them vulnerable. They need to watch out for the tendency to bring out feelings too quickly, long before others.

Such candor about love (infatuation) might not be taken in a positive way. And their strategies to resolve their love issues also tend to be their own. (Maybe get the advice of others in stable relationships instead of running wild). More

 

Chinese Spring Festival, 2014 Lunar New Year...
Chinese New Year - Wikipedia
Hong Kong Chinese New Year (Tourism Board)
What Does Your Chinese Zodiac Animal Mean?
Does Year of the Horse Begin January 1 Or Later?
When Is Chinese New Year In 2014?

Buddhist Global Relief, L.A. (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Bhikkhu Bodhi (BuddhistGlobalRelief.org)

Monastics in Theravada Burma tour by foot promoting generosity or dāna (mirror.co.uk)

  

Buddha in walking pose

Join Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Quarterly, Dharma Punx, Dharma Vijaya, Insight LA, and others for a day of compassionate action to promote food aid, sustainable farming, and education for girls and women in Asia, Africa, North America, and Haiti. Where? Santa Monica, California. When? Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. How? Check in time begins at 8:30 am and continues until the walk starts at 9:30 am. We will begin and end at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society (West), 1001a Colorado Blvd., Santa Monica 90401-2809. The distance we will cover is three miles looping through the beautiful beachside city and tourist mecca of Santa Monica (Los Angeles). Register online or donate. To give life a percentage of the proceeds will benefit the Westside Foodbank.

• Info: Tom Moritz (310) 963-0199 (tom.moritz@gmail.com)

(BGRelief) Ven. Bodhi presents the mission of Buddhist Global Relief

at Clodagh Design, New York City in November 2009.

ZEN RADIO: Alan Watts (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich (Letters & Politics, 9-9-13, KPFA.org), AlanWatts.com

1. Disappointment, 2. Craving, 3. Freedom -- a clean cut Alan Watts on American TV

  

Mystical Watts in 60s California

Pacifica Berkeley's beloved history buff Mitch Jeserich finally went overtly Buddhist coordinating an entire show about the late great British-born Zen, Taoist, Eastern Philosophy master Alan Watts. It was the first day of the fund drive, and he would be following up the next day (today) with an all meditation show featuring salesman George Quant and his post-TM "IQM." The wonders of meditation were extolled but slightly sullied by Quant's crass salesmanship. It was like listening to a motivational speaker wing it on stage while thinking that nobody is noticing all the speech errors and redundancies, the misused terminology and overreaching to sound scientifical. At least he has the background for it (with TM and Deepak Chopra Foundation credentials and what he learned in one day at UCLA), and goodness knows selling mantras as a panacea has been in vogue since the 1970s. Just think of that funny scene in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" at the California party. But sales are sales, and it is a fund drive. And if it helps Jeserich meditate more, then it was all for aught.

• PLAY NOW! (Oct. 9, 2013, 10:00 am, download MP3 clip, 10.28 MB)

 

Who cares about Watts (RIP)?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha initiated a missionary movement

It all started in Berkeley, but Alan Watts changed our lives in Los Angeles. KPFK FM remains the only Pacifica Radio station to regularly schedule segments of Watts from the archives. Thanks are due to Roy (of Hollywood) Tuckman, whose Sunday morning show (8:00 am) and overnight ("Something's Happening," 12:00 am-5:00 am) Thursday broadcasts keep Watts alive in our ears and minds. 

Watts was perhaps the first Westerner in America to really understand Zen, the way of the Tao, Asian culture, and Mahayana Buddhism more generally. He, of course, had help from the early Occidentals, those British, German, and French scholars of the Pali Text Society and their Wisdom of the East (Orientalist) translations and interpretations. 

What we have today by way of accurate accounts of the historical Buddha's words and teachings in English owe much more to the work of these European pioneers than that of the ordained monastics in Asia whose missionary efforts tried to carry the message across the sea in the tradition of the Buddha's earliest disciples. 

It was the Buddha who began to set in motion the Wheel of the Dharma by teaching five hearers then sending out 60 enlightened disciples, no two in the same direction, to spread the news that enlightenment was possible for ordinary householders regardless of caste, socioeconomic status, gender, race, or other social barriers. 

Those Buddhist missionaries apparently succeeded far outside of India to the west even before the Dharma spread east to the shores of Vietnam (Indochina) on the South China Sea. They (and their own followers) traveled from modern day Afghanistan and Iran (Baluchistan) up through Central Asia and, centuries later, through the future Indo-Greco empires of Bactria and Sogdia, into Israel (cosmopolitan Jerusalem) and Europe (Kalmykia), Mongolia, Russia, Siberia, and China. The message even seems to have reached Catholic Rome through the Church Father Origen.

Jesus the Buddhist

A wild eyed householder Watts who drank

Saint Issa (Jesus of Nazareth) apparently heard something that called his attention to travel to India/Ladakh/Tibet in search of truth and a mission of his own. (But few Christians will stand for that story being widely told; fortunately, Holger Kersten, Elmar Gruber, the BBC, and others do tell it widely. 

Few would believe that Buddhism was in an arm of ancient Greece (the "West") before it made it to China. Fewer would believe that the Buddha's teachings first came to the Americas from China a thousand years ago. But that incredible journey is documented in Rick Field's How the Swans Came to the Lake. Of course, truth has always been stranger than fiction. And now as then the world get the universal Dharma from all directions. Do we understand it? Alan Watts did.

Nepal: "Light of the Valley" (LA screening)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Roberto Ayala (Public Engagement, LACMA)

LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) is holding a FREE screening (advance tickets required) of the Nepalese Buddhist documentary Light of the Valley: Renewing the Sacred Art and Traditions of Svayambhu on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013 at 7:00 pm.

With a running time of 32 minutes, "Light of the Valley" documents the 15th renovation of one of the most important Nepalese temple monuments (stupas) in the Buddhist world. It has been worshiped continuously for centuries. Following the screening at LACMA, on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Spaulding Ave., the film's producer and the assistant art director and coeditor of the accompanying book will discuss the topic in a Q&A session.

• LACMA's Bing Theatre (not named after Chandler)
• Call (323) 857-6010 or reserve online
• Free, includes complimentary parking