Dear Bhante,

Greetings again. It is kind of bhante to say that he is here to
learn, not to teach. This says much about bhante's teaching
quality, becuse a good teacher learns as much as he teaches, because
he incorporates what he learns into his teaching which comes from
personal experience and not just from books and the written word. I
just returned from bodhi monastery last night. Incidentally the
abbot, Ven. Jen-Chun, is a disciple of Master Yin-Shun who he is
currently visiting in Taiwan. Bhante Bodhi knows about Bhante's
work on the Agamas and Pali Nikayas and wishes to get hold of some
of your written work although I mentioned that I would send him a
videoCD of the talk Bhante gave in Penang in June. I imagine this
would be the GIST booklet printed in Singapore. You mentioned that
it is out of print. I wonder if someone at the Brahm Institute in
Singapore has a spare copy that they can send to Bhikkhu Bodhi at
boshi monastery, 67 Lawrence Road, Lafayette, NJ 07848, USA.

Please let us have your travel schedule for April when you are
coming to Singapore. We look forward to your visit again to Penang
then. Although you may be staying mostly with Dustin, you may want
to know that Peace House has moved to a nearby locality end of
August. We has a special moving in ceremony with dana and special
blessings by a Sanghs of five monks on the occasion.

A Sangha of about 20 monks met in Balik Pulau 42 days after Bhante
Wong's passing away and Ajahn Mahanyano has been appointed senior
monk for the Bodhiyana Buddhist hermitage in Balik Pulau, which he
has accepted for one year. But he is currently spending his rains
in Bukit Mertajam having promised some devotees before the
appointment came about. There are not too many Dhamma occasions in
Penang current, being the quiet Vassa period with much less movement
around the country.

Respectfully yours in the Dhamma,

Oo Khaik-Cheang

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Bhante Sujato" <sujato@...> wrote:
> Hello Dr Oo, Junet, and Stephen
>
> Thanks for your kind messages and feedback.
>
> Dr Oo, you seem to be under a bit of a misapprehension - i came
onto
> the group in order to learn, not to teach, and have indeed learnt
> much. Since we all benefit from the kindeness of others in sharing
> their great wisdom, we should show gratitude by sharing what
little
> we have. I'm doing a retreat in Singapore about April next year,
and
> will probably visit Penang around the same time - i trust you're
all
> flourishing in the Dhamma.
>
> Junet, yes i did give a talk on the structure of the Buddha's
> teachings, and published a book on the topic called The GIST.
Alas,
> it's already out-of-date and revisions are underway. I think that
> certain ideas pursued by Ven Yin Shun and others are leading to
one
> of the great breakthroughs that Gombrich talked about in his book.
> To sum up briefly: the large scale structure of the Dhamma
(textual
> teachings) in its earliest redaction was modelled after the
> structure of the Dhamma (truth of reality) itself, the 4 noble
> truths. This is approximately what we today call the Samyutta
> Nikaya/Agama. I started pursuing such matters almost by accident,
> and the significance of it is only just starting to become clear
to
> me.
>
> It also is true, as Gombrich said, that it is rather a shame that
> practicing Buddhists remain unaware of some of the genuine
advances
> made by modern scholarship - there's a slightly schizophrenic
schism
> between the two that i would like to try to bridge. We need not
> fear, for we are not attacking the principles, but trying to
clarify
> the manner in which the message has been passed down.
>
> Got to go. The Sravakabhumi manuscript just arrived by post and
> demands urgent sttention!
>
> Yours in Dhamma
>
> Bhante Sujato