MY ORDINATION EXPERIENCE
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- MAN GIVES UP EVERYTHING
In 2015, aged 47 an English businessman gave up everything and travelled Asia to find true happiness. Now a Buddhist Monk, living a simple life in Thailand, he shares the continuing story.
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englishbuddhistmonk@gmail.com
Phra Dan (Bhante Dhammarakkhita, Bhikkhu) is a Theravada Buddhist Monk who lived in India from 2020 and Thailand from 2023. Born in Sussex, England in 1967. Educated by French Catholic Monks. A successful businessman in Estate Agency and Financial Services during the 1980's and 90's. Married, now divorced with 3 adult son's. 2000 marked change and travel including South Africa returning to the UK in 2003 to continue different work and business activities until 2012. Gradually materialistic values turned to renunciation, simplicity and meditation, living nomadically in an old Ford Transit van full time for 3 years. Vanlife and meditation led to Buddhism and a Thai Forest Tradition, Theravada Buddhist Monastery in the UK. During 2015 travelling the Buddhist Holy Sites of India, deep faith reinforced desire for Ordination. In 2020 after 5 years of intensive meditation practice between Thai Forest Monasteries in Thailand and England he was Ordained in India where he lived for 3 years until returning to Thailand in 2023.
Sabe Satta Sukhi Hontu
Really enjoying your channel Bhante, we are around the same age and while monasticism is not this incarnations' destiny, Buddha Dhamma is and your content is great because like Luang Por Sumedho you share your life and as Westerners we really need to hear this thank you and Metta. Ajahn Brahm is also responsible for my practice after confusion trying to understand Buddhism via the more visible Tibetan or Mahayana - for years and years couldn't understand. In the 1990s i came across the Buddha saying 'we suffer because we don't accept what is ' and 'our attachments create suffering ' and i determined to find out what they meant but until Theravada, the Thai Forest Tradition i was oblivious. Once i began to listen to Dhamma daily and work with the Tanhas, 3 poisons, worldly winds and basically allow myself to feel without seeking distraction, i began finally to understand Dhamma. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Thank you for watching and your interesting comments. Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
@@englishmonk🙏🏻
I loved Jackanory when I was little. For some reason you are reminding of those long ago times. Best wishes.
I really appreciate this comment! It so made me smile! Thank you.
Thank you very much for sharing your Experience. Sadhu!🙏
You're welcome it's my pleasure. Be happy and stay well
I'm glad that not only did you speak about your ordination experience but you also go into great detail about your experiences leading up to this moment. Thank you for sharing with us your process. This is very interesting and inspiring. Sukhi Hontu
I'm happy it's useful and appreciate your encouraging comments. Be happy and stay well. Sukhi Hontu
Excellent!! Thank you for sharing. Please continue!
Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
Dear bhante,
thank you for sharing these beautiful videos with us! I, personally, find them extremely helpful: the rich, multilayered intertwining between the Dhamma and your personal life story makes your teachings more tangible, accessible, approachable; it adds a very experiential, "earthy", feel to them.
As I've discovered your channel only recently, and have therefore only been able to go through a dozen or so of your videos, I don't know if you've perhaps addressed this topic already or not, so apologies if I'm covering familiar ground. In your videos - this one and the one before - you say a lot about the your lay life prior to ordination - when you started meditating, how you lived, etc. - but I would really like to know more about your motivations - experiences, thoughts, etc. - that led you to undergo such a profound change. That is, what were the reasons that have lead you to transition from a seemingly quite successful business, husband and father, to a bhikkhu living in a small kuti in Thailand. The reason why I'm asking about this is because I myself seem to have been undergoing a similar shift, and would therefore like to hear and learn from people who have gone through something similar before.
Thank you!
You're very welcome. Thank you for watching and your encouraging comments. I will certainly talk more about what led me from my previous life into this in the near future. I wish you well with your own practice and may you progress happily on the path towards Nibbana. Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
We are from the same generation, but I'm a Londoner. And it was an interesting story your Ordination. Have you ever been tempted to follow the Ajan Chah forest tradition?
I am trained and live in the Ajahn Cha, Thai Forest Tradition here in Thailand
I found some discarded cotton in the form of bedsheets.. would like to make myself a robe. Is there a particular robe style or template I should use or is it kind of the thought that counts😅
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
ua-cam.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
A favourite meditation spot is in a small coastal parking spot…I was thinking of you the other evening as the folks sleeping in panel vans arrived - noone seems to bother them and three or four give some strength in depth…were I not emigrating, I would happily do the same. Your story thus far is inspiring many Bhante 🙏🙏🙏
I could almost be envious! Enjoy your spot whilst you can. Sukhi Hontu
All very interesting. So many wonderful stories.
Another five or so years until my son comes of age, which would make me about 50. Glad to know that the doors to ordination may not be entirely closed, even at that age.
I stayed at Amaravati and Chithurst when I was 30, contemplating whether to take the first step towards becoming a monk, but I wasn't ready.
At least living alone on my little boat feels like being a 'monk' already, much like you were in your van. But I could still simplify my life some more.
I'm almost envious of you on your little boat so don't look too far ahead and miss the wonders you have now. Thank you for your comments. Sukhi Hontu
@@englishmonk Thank you!
There's little to be envious of on my little boat. My bed is narrow and I sleep on thin camping mats. There isn't any standing room, unless the hatch is open. And maintaining a 50 year old boat seems never ending.
But living close to nature, in nature, really, can be lovely. I feel that boats develop their own character over time, and this one feels like a cozy cocoon. Only, she is sitting a little low in the water, because she's a little overburdened with books. If only for that reason I'm going to have to find some of them a new home (although I sense clinging...).
I'm rambling now, but I agree that my time here should be savoured. 🙏
Well enjoy while you can and Anumodana to you for your good effort in leading an alternative lifestyle
I'm so glad that through some complex string of karmic events that even one being has found the dhamma. From the beginning description, there were so many chances and things lining up just right such that you easily couldn't have even found the teachings. I found them off a single thought... "what if there really is more to this random thing Buddhism that I've never bothered with?" and "Why should I be biased? Just in case, I should read a book about it until I've decided if it's valuable..." and it was the most important thought I've had.
So it was study first, then learned meditation later for me, but you had the opposite order of contact it seems. I completely agree that the teachings fuel meditation. Sometimes I read one bit of the dhammapada or one verse from the theri/theragatha and I'm confident to begin meditation rightly.
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu be happy and stay well
Really interesting and thank you for sharing.
I am at Amavarati and we have just had 3 angaragaricas take their ordinations after spending a year in a white robes. Very moving.
Ajhan Amaro tells the visitors they can sit at the front the cushions arnt radioactive.
I enjoy listening to Ajhan Brahms (a little contravesal)
I understand your experience at Nanachat, I hated at first survived a week and didn't want to leave in the end.
I loved Wat Pah Bom Lom.
Thank you and your comment is very interesting too. I'd love to hear more so please feel free to email anytime. Have you had the opportunity to spend any time with Luang Por Sumedho?
@@englishmonk Luang Por Sumedo is here at Amavarati. He is going to France next week and returns 27 July for his birthday. There will be a ceremony and he will give a dhama talk.
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu
🙏 🙏 🙏 Anumodana sadhu sadhu sadhu for sharing your ordination experience. I like story like this very much 😊
I'm happy to hear that from you. Thank you for watching. Sukhi Hontu
Very interesting & inspiring! Thank you. Wanted to know how did you get your food & water when living out of the Van? Before & after Covid?
Water from an outside tap 1.5km away and food, before during and after COVID from a shop 3km away. I was able to cook for myself then on a gas stove.
@@englishmonk Ok🙏
Thankyou Phra Dan 🙏🙏🙏🙏
You're welcome. Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
Thankyou for sharing your life journey.Truely inspirational , I'm very impressed.
You are welcome. Thank you for watching and your comments. Be happy and stay well.