Flyer for a talk on Thai Buddhism To the Theosphical Society in Canberra. Monday Night at 8. A bit about my planned talk. I will be talking about the esoteric side of Thai Buddhism. Why do I use the word 'esoteric' ? Because what I learnt in my 5 weeks of at the "Tam-a-lan-see" monastery near the river Kwai was from verbal teachings that cannot be found in the west. Yes, those Thai Buddhists in their robes keep this stuff away from Westernised Australians. Why? Well, I think the real reason behind it is that Thai Buddhism practice is interested in power - the accumulation of personal power. Remember Monkey, the TV series about the Monkey god that journeyed to India with Tripitaka to collect the scriptures. Well, the master I learnt from was trying to teach me Monkey's tricks. What I learnt was how to collect power through the use of the Deva kingdoms and creative visualisations. Pali chants are used in Thailand. All this has tremendous parallels with what Australian Aboriginal people call 'Dreaming' and 'Singing'. Parrellels which I was to explore with your help. Why did master 'Shu Foo' pick me out at a friend's house in Singapore and say, "You must come to stay with me, you will be given three chances, if you do not take the third it will be bad for you!" Because he was Chinese and knew that I could see his guides. Visualisation is everything in the esoteric world and Shu Foo was lonely, he wanted to share some of his life with someone. Shu Foo died about 130 days ago. His body lay in his Katti (small personal house) at Tam-a-lan-see for 100 days and then was cremated. His ashes where thrown into the Bay of Thailand, the deed being done by four Thai navy vessels sent by the King. I sense him around and about at times. Perhaps he will come to the lecture. I hope you do. See you, Steven.
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