Sangharaks*ita

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

SANGHARAKS*ITA

Is anyone here familiar with Sangharaks*ita and his writings? It was his book, "A Survey of Buddhism" that was the very first "heavyweight" book on the Dharma that I read. I picked it up second-hand in some little Theosophical Bookshop close to the British Museum, near Tottenham Court Road. I was quite pleased at the time, finding such a book written straight from the horses mouth (so to speak) This was the real McCoy. I mean, Sangharaks*ita! Sadly, although I enjoyed the book and learnt much, I was somewhat deflated when I found out that Sangharaks*ita was in fact plain old Dennis Lingwood from Romford. Nothing against Romford of course, it has a fine open air market, but still..........where was the authenticity?

Further disillusionment followed. I delved into Dennis's organisation, The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. Apparently it's members were allotted various coloured sashes, this to proclaim their particular level of "attainment". At heart I am very egalitarian and have found that insights and "teaching" can be found anywhere, from anyone. My own granddaughter can be very profound at times, even if a little feisty. Any form of heirarchical structure becomes suspect, at least to me. Whatever, Mr Lingwood (or Dennis) aka Sangharaks*ita, dipped in my estimation, this despite one or two other books of his that I read later that were quite reasonable, if not illuminating.

Well, to keep a short story long, I was gathering merit this afternoon doing one of my twice a week stints in a local charity shop, the Oxfam Book and Music Store. (Hopefully the merit gained from this good work will result in a half decent rebirth, maybe as a duck, who I hear live happily in the Now having nowhere in particular to go.) Anyway, very easy merit to attain as there are very few customers to disturb me as I listen to my favourite music, read my kindle and occasionally strum on one of the many cheap and nasty guitars that pass through the store (about £15 a time in most cases, unless they have all six strings, in which case we add a fiver)

Well, today I just happened to dip into "The Essential Sangharaks*ita" , a rather cheap download on kindle. The book is a large collection of the man's essays written over the years. I chose one, "The Essence of the Dharma", thinking that I might pick up a few quotes to impress others on the forum and demonstrate "insight". It was extremely good. Nothing particularly new, but the simple clarity of expression was commendable. I would recommend it. I'll take a further look at a few of the essays contained in the book.(I'm not sure what colour sash he now wears but surely he deserves silver, even gold?)

My apologies. I could have just asked "Is anyone here familiar with Sangharaks*ita and his writings?" and left it at that. But I was filling up time, tapping into my cyber notebook. A few more customers might just have helped. And I was listening to the Stones, the "Boss" and Neil Young.

And no real apologies for the sheer length of this OP. I have seen longer on the forum. But to make it even longer, after finishing Sangharaks*ita's fine essay I turned once more to the dialogue between Thomas Merton and D T Suzuki, "Wisdom in Emptiness", contained as Part Two of Merton's own book of essays "Zen and the Birds of Appetite". A dialogue I have now read, over many years, a number of times. Always with reward, greater clarity of mind, faith seeking understanding. The dialogue addresses many of the issues raised here on various threads. Recommended. Available at all good bookshops.

[sky]

Not read any of the Books you mentioned, nor heard of Sangha....... I'm more into History but I do also read Sutras/Suttas.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by sky123

Not read any of the Books you mentioned, nor heard of Sangha....... I'm more into History but I do also read Sutras/Suttas.

I suppose I could be called a bibliophile. I love books. I sometimes feel that I have to apologise for this on forums where, when some pick up on this, begin to denigrate "book knowledge" as against "experience". A donkey with a library on its back remains a donkey and I know I bray long windedly at times.. . The forum, quite honestly, is a bit of a distraction for me at the moment, in part a release. Personal matters and family events are very demanding - nothing too dramatic, we all have our problems and circumstances I know.

But books I love and I do read the various texts/sutras/suttas, and fortunately have the finance to fund a library of sorts. On both kindle and hard-back. I'm very familiar with the Udana, Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta Nipata, Dhammapada, the Flower Ornament Scripture and the Lotus Sutra and have hard copies of most. In fact via google blogs and a commercial company (who I think I'm not allowed to name) I have created my own fully illustrated copies of the Dhamnapada and the first chapter (verse sections) of the Flower Ornament Scripture.

My apologies for waffling. I also love history. World history, history of England, whatever.

Anyway, all the best.

[sky]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

I suppose I could be called a bibliophile. I love books.

My apologies for waffling. I also love history. World history, history of England, whatever.

I also love to read and but for Migraines I'd read for hours I have read a few of Zen Master TKN which I really enjoyed and a few of HHDL also enjoyable. I became very interested in Tudor History as a Child and now as a Golden Oldie have had the experience of tracing my Ancestors back to the 10th Century, so many to read about (Over 1,000) I'll need a few lifetimes to Study them all .

I've also never heard of Sangharaks*ita and it took me awhile to figure out why there was a * in his name. Turns out the correct spelling involves a bad word the forum filters I assume. But then I've not heard of a lot of people I read about on these forums.

I usually google them, look for videos or PDF's by them and then learn enough to comment and have a view on them. I didn't find any PDF's of his writings but I found some text about his personal and public life which was negative, but then the internet will tend to have such details of public or semi-famous figures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangharak****a

I briefly watched a public talk by him on youtube and didn't see anything of interest to me there. Maybe some other videos or texts by him are deeper or would interest me. In this video he said quote "Buddha was even grateful to a tree". "Grateful" is not really a word of depth to me. I get the spiritual connection but I doubt Buddha was grateful to the Bodhi Tree I assume he is talking about. In that context he is using the word grateful it sounds like attachment to me.

I tried googling "The Essence of the Dharma" and it turns out a great number of religious professionals named one of their writings this probably because it sounds so authoritative. Makes it sound like what ever writing will follow such a title is true or correct or worth reading.

He had an interesting life and was very invested in Buddhism and being a leader or teacher of such.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by sky123

I also love to read and but for Migraines I'd read for hours I have read a few of Zen Master TKN which I really enjoyed and a few of HHDL also enjoyable. I became very interested in Tudor History as a Child and now as a Golden Oldie have had the experience of tracing my Ancestors back to the 10th Century, so many to read about (Over 1,000) I'll need a few lifetimes to Study them all .

I have an eye condition called Blepharospasm. It causes the eyes to blink and flicker and they can slam shut at inopportune times! Fortunately some of its effect seems to lessen when looking down which makes reading easier, but I take full advantage of my kindle fire as far as changes to light and font size. Luckily, unlike you, I just never get headaches.

As far as ancestors, despite some minor efforts, we never seem to get beyond where a surname change happened around the First World War. Very shady! Something must run in the family! 10th century hey? Impressive!

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

begin to denigrate "book knowledge" as against "experience".

well don't put down the detractors of "book knowledge" as denigrators lol. let's call them advanced or something! zen buddhism was founded by those who wanted to emphasize living it over reading about it. but then they wrote some books eh lol

i tend to include a lot of stuff in whatever i am reading context wise and "book knowledge" is the same. reading etc is involved. contemplating as well.

our memory eh.... everything we read, hear, or even ponder or think about and experience is stored there. the brain can become quite the expert and ramble on forever sounding very wise and authoritative and even "enlightened" whether or not we are living it or being it is another question

but there is a need for knowledge and understanding and of course whether those insights into the nature of myself and the world within and without come from a book or experience it makes little difference. same thing in my view. it doesn't actually ever come from a book, it comes from conscious awareness itself. the words point, the consciousness sees or understands

but i get the whole thing about learning tennis from a book and have never played the actual game. the point of this stuff is to "do it" or more properly said as "live it" but like you point out, our lives have unique challenges to us and us alone, relationships, family ties, circumstances and on and on, we all have unique karma and situations so while something like "Buddhism" has some type of universal appeal for all, the reality is it will be applied differently by all as we all have unique lives and circumstances and karma.

in all of our lives, our lives are the greatest teachers. this is where we live and learn and dwell. where else could we go lol. what is zen? it's the relationship I have with the baby ants in my sink.

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

As far as ancestors, despite some minor efforts, we never seem to get beyond where a surname change happened around the First World War.

I'm a male for this life and I changed my last name to something completely different. So I pretty much ended the line from my fathers last name. Some future person tracing the family tree will be like....what happened here!

[sky]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

As far as ancestors, despite some minor efforts, we never seem to get beyond where a surname change happened around the First World War. Very shady

A lot of Surnames changed because of discrimination against certain Nationalities. As you get further back a lot of People took the Surname of the Area they were born in, that's when it gets complicated but as most are interbred anyway you can usually work out whose who.... One of my Grt, Grandfathers x 12 married four Sisters, talk about keeping it in the Family

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

I've also never heard of Sangharaks*ita and it took me awhile to figure out why there was a * in his name. Turns out the correct spelling involves a bad word the forum filters I assume. But then I've not heard of a lot of people I read about on these forums.

I usually google them, look for videos or PDF's by them and then learn enough to comment and have a view on them. I didn't find any PDF's of his writings but I found some text about his personal and public life which was negative, but then the internet will tend to have such details of public or semi-famous figures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangharak****a

I briefly watched a public talk by him on youtube and didn't see anything of interest to me there. Maybe some other videos or texts by him are deeper or would interest me. In this video he said quote "Buddha was even grateful to a tree". "Grateful" is not really a word of depth to me. I get the spiritual connection but I doubt Buddha was grateful to the Bodhi Tree I assume he is talking about. In that context he is using the word grateful it sounds like attachment to me.

I tried googling "The Essence of the Dharma" and it turns out a great number of religious professionals named one of their writings this probably because it sounds so authoritative. Makes it sound like what ever writing will follow such a title is true or correct or worth reading.

He had an interesting life and was very invested in Buddhism and being a leader or teacher of such.

Yes, the Essence of the Dharma seems something many have a crack at! As I implied, Dennis Lingwood never said anything new, but simply wrote with clarity on what can be a demanding subject (given that the zens say that "Buddhism teaches nothing")

The funny thing, reading his Survey of Buddhism, was that I kept thinking he was being a bit denigrating toward the West, assuming he was from Sri Lanka or somewhere. But no, it was Romford! A bit like Wei Wu Wei. I imagined a wizened chinese sage and then found out he was Terence Stamp, an anglo-irish aristocrat. What is it with these names (asks the Cobbler's Apprentice)?

His books are published under the Windhorse publishing company and I think the FWBO has now been disbanded and there is now a new organisation, but I'm not sure. Whether or not they still favour different coloured sashes I also don't know!

I believe he did have an interesting life in his younger days, having something to do with some mass conversion of untouchables to Buddhism in India.