What the Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery - Softcover

Ward Author Of What The Buddha, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782792031 ISBN 13: 9781782792031

Publisher: Changemakers Books, 2013

Synopsis

There is still a place in the jungles of Thailand, where you can leave it all behind... A cult classic and bestseller in the 1990s, What the Buddha Never Taught is a humorous “behind the robes” account of life inside one of the strictest jungle monasteries in Southeast Asia. In Pahnanachat, the monks keep the 227 rules laid down by the Buddha, including refraining from all killing. But how does a foreign monk cope with cobra in the outhouse, or the temptation of a Mars Bar in his begging bowl? Find out, in this newly reincarnated 20th anniversary edition, with a new introduction by the author and a new foreword by Wade Davis.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Ward is the author of six books, including the best-selling What the Buddha Never Taught and Savage Breast: One Man’s Search for the Goddess. His travel stories have appeared in 13 anthologies, including Traveler’s Tales Best Travel Writing 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Tim is also the publisher of Changemakers Books (an imprint of John Hunt Publishing). He also co-owns Intermedia Communications Training with Teresa Erickson, his wife and business partner. They live in Bethesda, Maryland.

From Publishers Weekly

According to Ward's delightful account of a stay in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, there are many things that the Buddha never taught. One is the extreme rigor of the Pah Nanachat monastery, involving rising at 3 a.m. for chanting, walking on gravel roads in bare feet and eating only one meal a day. Another, Ward concludes, is that all this self-denial and sacrifice is ultimately hollow. The final lesson is the redemptive power of laughter. Ward, a Canadian journalist, traveled around Asia for six years, eventually winding up at Pah Nanachat, which was built to spread Theravada Buddhism to farangs (or non-Thais). Among the motley crew the author finds at the monastery are an ex-gospel singer from England, a former accountant from China and a former real estate millionaire from Chicago. The head monk is an Australian who used to play jazz guitar in his last life. The book is Ward's affectionate, and often very humorous, account of his sojourn in this place of meditation and renunciation. The volume could have been improved by some sharp editing, but its little redundancies and repetitions help capture the often monotonous life of the monk.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Changemakers Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1782792031
• ISBN 13: 9781782792031
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 321