WFB Workshop Sun Oct 4th

The World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) has a particularly interesting speaker and topic in October.

Update: New summary of the topic :

Buddhism is a collection of paradoxes. Perhaps the greatest of these is all Buddhists are striving for a goal – Nibbana – that for the longest time they know virtually nothing about. Most people, Buddhists included, cannot bear living with uncertainty and so over the centuries attempts have been made to fill in the gaps left (deliberately) by the Buddha. Elaborate explanations and descriptions of Nibbana have been fashioned either to inspire or to placate this sense of dis-ease. Although academic, the presentation by Venerable Payutto in Buddhadhamma keeps to the ‘bare bones’ approach delivered by the Buddha. The encouragement is not to try and reach Nibbana by intellectual acrobatics but rather by humble, sustained spiritual practice.

Download : PDF – Nibbana

Topic is :

‘Liberation of the Heart From a Buddhist Perspective’

Presented by Robin Moore

In fact Robin has done a  good number of presentations at the WFB before during his 20 year stint as a Bhikkhu in the Ajahn Chah temples. He finally disrobed for health reasons after leading the Devon monastery as the abbot for several years.

He is now resident (mostly) in Bangkok and busy with his long term epic re-translation of P.A. Payutto’s seminal Buddhist work ‘Buddhadhamma’.

P.A. Payutto is Thailand’s foremost scholar, and some years ago wrote Buddhadhamma (in Thai Phuttatam) as a modern day detailed examination of every aspect of Buddhism, based on his unrivalled knowledge of the Tripitaka (Buddhist Canon). He is a monk, and abbot of a temple next to Phuttamonthon, about 1 hour from Bangkok.

You will likely have seen a number of books by Ven Payutto, including Good, Evil and Beyond, Buddhist Economics, and Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Conditionality. In fact several books are translations of particular chapters from his epic Buddhadhamma, published separately.

Robin has been translating Buddhadhamma for a number of years, one part of which is now published as ‘the Three Signs’ – an examination of impermanence, dukkha and non-self.

While Buddhadhamma is rather technical and will appeal mostly to the scholarly, the excellence of the work is well known. The next chapter for publication is on Nibbana, or Enlightenment.

This is the topic of the WFB presentation – Robin’s summary and explanation on what the suttas actually say about Nibbana based on this work of P.A. Payutto.

• Start 2pm
• coffee 4 pm
• finish 5pm

attendance is free of charge, and there is no need for advance reservation.

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