Teacher's Credentials

Upon being asked to speak to a group at some Universities in 2004, some students requested that it would be nice to include his credentials, as any speaker would, in the form of a curriculum vitae. So, finally, after fours years his students urging him to divulge who he himself had studied with during his years in Asia , it was put into a written form..

Bhante Vimalaramsi has practiced meditation for more than 30 years. His study and search for what the Buddha accomplished has been pursued in a very traditional way. In the older instructional tradition, a teacher introduced a student who was serious in his pursuit, to their colleagues requesting that they teach that student for periods of time on various parts of the Dhamma.

Bhante Vimalaramsi was very fortunate with this custom still being in place during his training and was privileged to study with several monks who held the title of “ Bhivamsa” . This means they had completely memorized 12-15 books of the Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitikas and they had been tested on this passing with a minimum of 90% right! This is not done much anymore in these modern times except in Burma .

The “Bhivamsas” he studied with were U Pandita, U Lakkhana, U Silinanda, U Janaka, U Dhammananda, U Dhammapia. He further studied with The Mingun Sayadaw, who had memorized the entire Tripitika, Sayadaw U Thatilla, who had a pure audiographic memory. Other teachers for long periods of time were K Sri Dhammananda, Venerable Punnaji, Ajahn Yanitra, Ajahn Buddhadasa, Ajahn Cha Lee, Ajahn Santititho, and many others in Thailand .

He also had a 4-day visit with the Dalai Lama during which he had an open door policy to have Dhamma discussions during any time he had free. There were, oddly enough, no other appointments going on those four days!

• Most of these teachers, were renowned Abhidhamma Scholars and had memorized much of the Tripitika as well as teaching Abhidhamma.
• All of these teachers studied in Pali first and then they studied meditation and they were successful in their practice.
• Those in Thailand did not study Abhidhamma but "only" the practice.
• They were all asked to "Forget all intellectual studies" and just do the meditation when they began to develop their personal meditation practices.
• In the case of K Sri Dhammananda, he only studied the scriptures. He gives absolutely brilliant Dhamma talks that are deep and very clear.
• All of these teachers saw the need and encouraged Bhante to learn to present very simply the Dhamma in English to students in the United States .

During the first 20 years of his training, his position as a student was to believe the teacher and to follow their instructions and that's it! During the last 10 years, at the encouragement of an elder monk, he dedicated himself to "direct experience through study of the suttas and meditation practice". What caused this change in direction was meeting a Sri Lankan Senior monk named Bhante Punnaji in Malaysia who pointed out this way for him. The advice given was that he needed to ‘study the Suttas directly and to let go of relying on commentary'. Specifically he said, ‘Read only the Suttas. Then practice.' This was very significant because the commentaries were influencing how he was seeing the entire Dhamma at the time. He was not told to abandon the commentaries but to place them into their original position of references beyond one's own experience of following the suttas.

When he began to do this, he discovered firsthand the interwoven nature of the Teachings. In each sutta Bhante found the elements of the 4 Noble Truths, the 8-Fold Path and the impersonal process of Dependent Origination to be the core of the teachings. He realized that the word sutta literally meant "thread" and that the threads together created a finely woven cloth whereas, one single thread does not equal a cloth! Through his own objective experience, he found that Venerable Punnaji was right! The 8-Fold Path began to come alive with full meaning as he pursued this directive.

So, as you study the teachings, take into account that it is vital to consider the interwoven and interconnected nature with which these teachings can be applied in your daily life. Understood clearly, it can bring you great happiness and can open the door to Peace in your life and for the world.

---

So, as students we submit this to you to verify for yourselves that one can, in fact, find a guiding teacher right here in the United States who has had such a traditional experiential training. As one student pointed out to us this past summer, "It is not necessary to go to Burma to find a teacher who was trained in this way". We hope you will consider coming to the center to study with Bhante at some time. We know it will deepen and expand your practice to do so.

With Much Metta to all.

KK
Nov. 2004