Who Inspired Me

[This post is a response to PeterAtLarge’s question: Who inspired you? I only touch on spiritual side here, even though Peter allows a broader scope.]

Who inspired me? That's a tough question to answer.

I am a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Chinese traditionally practiced a religion which combined Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. I knew a little bit about Buddhism when I was young. When I was studying in the university, I learned that the Buddhist Society organized a meditation retreat, and I grabbed the opportunity. The rest was history.

One teacher whom I respect very much is Rev Sujiva – a Malaysian monk who was trained in Mahasi Sayadaw tradition, and founded the Santisukharama Hermitage. He told us not to fear the pain when we sat. “If you cannot bear the pain in meditation, how can you bear the pain when you are dying?”

Then, I had a chance to work as a contract engineer in California. I went to Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s Metta Forest Monastery a couple of times. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, more commonly known as Ajahn Geoff, was a Theravada monk whose works can be found in Access To Insight. While he taught meditation, he also regularly stressed the importance of discipline and letting go. One influence he had on me was that I started to think beyond Vipassana.

Now I am back to my home country.

Since my university days I mostly associate with Theravada groups, or, more specifically, Vipassana groups. One shortcoming I feel is that we are not so close to the teachers. To the average practitioners, interview in a retreat is about the only time we can have dialogue with them, and the topic is strictly on meditation only. I can’t tell them my career is at a cross-road. I can’t tell them I had relationship problems… I know some of the advanced meditators will dismissed these issues as trivial, but I am a slow learner.

Sometimes I do wish that we have the kind of teacher-student relation so common in Tibetan Buddhism...