Hey Kim,

What temple were you a monk at in Thailand?

I taught philosophy and some Buddhist studies at CMU from 2006 to 2012.

I went to Chiang Mai in 2003 for a month's holiday and never really left!

I have been married to a Thai woman for 20 years and have Thai/Aussie 16-year-old daughter.

My next YT script is on Ajarn Chah. He was the head monk in my wife's village in Issan when she was very young.

Many of the Thai professors at CMU thought that Ajarn Chah was a Mahayana-ist because of his heavy emphasis on the void and emptiness in his teachings.

That's okay they didn't think I, as a Zen Buddhist, was a really Buddhist either. LOL.

IMHO - the Theravada tradition tends to a kind of nonreactive, life-less, idea. You just have to look at some of the pictures of the famous monks - they look corpse-like! (respectfully said).

Today I had the most amazing video forwarded to me from my YT script editor.

I would be very interested in what you think.

It is so VERY rare to have someone speak with such clarity.

It is probably one of the best videos on the subject that I have ever seen.

And, its subject is exactly about what we have just begun to discuss - the relationship between anatman and the body/mind & the arising of the I-sense.

I think it speaks directly to you saying this: "I'm practising continually letting go of myself and letting the being experience I experience be what it is. It's not ultimately me, and I have no ultimate interest in what's going on. I can't gain anything real."

Here's the link (I have never seen this woman before in my life but I am so glad I came across this!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQnUctlNqM

Cheers,

Matt