Association for Insight Meditation

Where did you read about this tenet of Buddhism? At the end of many discourses, one will find the stock phrase:

“Master Gotama has made the Dhamma clear in many ways as if setting upright what had fallen down, revealing what was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, holding up a light in the darkness so that those with eyes could see.”

If we teach the Dhamma skilfully, and explain what the Buddha taught in a way that others can understand, then they will change their own minds. There is no need for us to do that for them, nor is it even possible.

All true education is about changing minds, teaching others how to think skilfully and how to resolve problems. If our purpose is to indoctrinate others, then it may not work, and even if it does our efforts have been wasted.

I always say that you cannot “convert” anyone to Buddhism. Either they understand it or they do not. If they do not understand, it may be due to one’s own lack of skill in explaining clearly, or it may be because they do not wish to understand, because they are attached to a wrong view.

Definitely, one should make strenuous efforts to teach the Dhamma in detail to any who will listen. In a public forum, there will always be those who will not listen, and some who are antagonistic towards the Buddhadhamma, but one can teach the Dhamma anyway, there are those “with little dust in their eyes, who will understand.”

That is my experience in many years of teaching. Even, on Buddhist forums like E-Sangha, I found many who are opposed to the Dhamma. Yet some understood something. Three young men who have read my many posts on forums have become bhikkhus as a consequence. Perhaps they would have done anyway — who knows — but perhaps they might have missed the right path.

Right view is the first of the factors of the Eightfold Noble Path. If anyone does not hold the basic right view, they will not be able to develop the path.

For a detailed exposition of right view, please see the Venerable Ledi Sayādaw's Manual of the Path Factors

I don't know the name either, but it may be Luang Por Waen Sujinno — one of the leading disciples of Ajahn Mun.

Hierarchy within the Sangha depends on seniority — the number of years since ordination.

Reputation is rather elusive as it a matter of faith in a monk's attainments — something that no one really knows about.

There's not many of us in the UK. Most Western bhikkhus are following the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. As far as I know, Bhante¹ Bodhidharma is the only other western bhikkhu in the UK following the Burmese insight meditation tradition of Mahāsī Sayādaw. There may be others, but I don't have much contact with other groups.

¹ The Pali word “Bhante” is a term of address equivalent to Venerable or Reverend. “Bhikkhu” means someone who lives on alms.