Wbu Forum Nov 2010

Programme : WBU BUDDHIST  SUNDAY FORUM          

Topic             : Dependent Orignination

(one of the key concepts in Buddhism)

Date & Time : Sunday Nov 7th, 12-1:30 pm

Speaker          : David Holmes

 

Former Lecturer for Chulalongkorn University in the Faculty of Arts In the English Department from1992 to 2002 who was born in Canada in 1940 in Winnipeg Manitoba, and, following secondary education attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario where he did a degree in Honours Philosophy, graduating 1993, Prior to moving on to Europe, where he proceeded to follow studies in Philosophy and Literature at Ludwing Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, until in 1996;

When he was offered a teaching post at the University of Maryland’s, Munich Campus, where, for the next twenty-five years, he lectured in English Composition and Literature, American Literature, World Literature, American Intellectual History, with a specialization in  Poetry and Poetics and Creative Writing. He remained in Europe, for a total of thirty years-running during which time he undertook extensive travels, building upon his educational foundation by visiting invariable museums, art galleries, plus further archaeological and other ancient, historical and cultural sites.

Between 1986 and 1992 he travelled yearly from Germany to Kandy, Sri Lanka where he received instruction and training in Buddhist study and practice from The Venerable Nyanaponika Maha Thera and Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi  at the Forest Hermitage located in the Ancient Royal Forest Reserve up in the mountains above the town of Kandy and not far from Peradenyia University, where he also received warm and friendly advice from Prof. Lily de Silva, and kind training from the Venerable Ampitiyta Sri Rahula, who also invited our speaker to stay in the newly-founded, Forest Solitude Hermitage, nearby, in the mountains, as a layman wearing white, to learn the routine of monastic practice with a model teacher in suitable surroundings. This was a rare opportunity, at a time when the standard and command of textual English and teaching and practice in Sri Lanka was peaking at its height, in a way that would not so easily be found today.

From 1986 to today Ajarn David has been associated with the Buddhist Publication Society  (BPS) in Kandy, (which was founded by the Venerable Nyanaponika in 1958 for dissemination of the Dhamma in the English language, following out the mission of the Venerable Nyanatiloka) and he is familiar with most of the texts which the BPS has printed and distributed to more than ninety-two countries in the world as one of the major publishers of translations and commentaries on the classical Pali texts produced in English in the world today.

            Moreover, since the highly venerated Pali-English translator and scholar, Venerable Bodhi, has left Sri Lanka and gone to America where he can get better medical treatment for  a chronic headache condition,

Ajarn David has been helping the BPS in proofreading and editing over one hundred and fifty numbers of the BPS Wheel Series and other reprints of books for reprinting which are now beginning to appear on the Internet, as the BPS staff finds time to process and place them for free download in their On-line Library on the BPS website at www.bps.lk.

            David Holmes took early retirement from The University of Maryland in 1992, and emigrated to Thailand, (following his wish to live in a Buddhist country), joining the Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University, where he taught for nine years and another three at KMUTT before retiring from worldly life to Wat Thamyaiprik on the Island of Koh Sichang, twelve sea miles off the shore on the Eastern Seaboard, in Chonburi province.

            Since 2006, he has been moving alternately, as  an  Anagarika, (a homeless one), between Koh Sichang Island, and Kandy, in Sri Lanka, later living on a raft-house-boat on a lake where three rivers come together and meet just below the Mon temple in Sangkhlaburi in Kanchanaburi province, close to three Pagoda Pass,

            After a quiet and extended stay by a fresh-water lake in the lap of nature in Rayong Province, in mid-2007, thanks to the kind benevolence of Kuhn Laddawan Paovibun, who is a well-known supporter of the Dhamma, he has been dwelling, practicing, studying  and writing in a little house on bank of the River Kwai, in a vast and very peaceful Dhamma Garden in a secluded corner of a noble, park-like estate which is run following the lines of how to apply HRH the King’s advice on sustainable economy, following the larger educational principles of the  story of King Mahajanaka ─ one of the  best known tales in the Buddha’s rebirth stories. The theme of which is Education for the People.

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Location :

Meeting Room, the World Buddhist University, 3rd floor, WFB Headquarters Bldg., in Benjasiri Park, Sukhumvit 24, Bangkok, Time : 12.00-13.30 pm. All are welcome to join the programme free of charge. For more information, please call 02-258-0369 to -0373, fax 02-258-0372, or see http://www.worldbuddhistuniversity.com

The WBU shares the same building with the WFB (World Fellowship of Buddhists), and can be found by our maps below. It is on the third floor. The WBU is open most office hours, and the building can be entered from the rear of the building from the Soi. The front gate that faces the park is generally locked, but there is access to walk through to the rear.

click maps for larger view