Phra Dharmakosacarya, known as Buddhadasa Bhikkhu was a famous and influential Thai ascetic-philosopher of the 20th century.
14 Facts About Buddhadasa
2.
Buddhadasa developed a personal view that those who have penetrated the essential nature of religions consider "all religions to be inwardly the same", while those who have the highest understanding of dhamma feel "there is no religion".
3.
Buddhadasa was born Nguam Phanit in 1906 in Ban Phumriang, Chaiya District, southern Thailand.
4.
Buddhadasa's father, Sieng Phanit, was a shopkeeper of second generation Thai Chinese ancestry and his mother, Klaun, was Southern Thai.
5.
In later years, Buddhadasa's teachings attracted many international seekers to his hermitage.
6.
Buddhadasa held talks with leading scholars and clergy of various faiths.
7.
Buddhadasa's primary teaching mainly focused on the quiet awareness of one's breathing pattern called anapanasati.
8.
Buddhadasa rejected the traditional rebirth and karma doctrine, since he thought it to be incompatible with sunyata, and not conducive to the extinction of dukkha.
9.
Powers quotes Buddhadasa view as, "because there is no one born, there is no one who dies and is reborn".
10.
Buddhadasa explains paticcasamupadda as the "birth" of "I" and mine through sense-contact with objects, and the resulting vedana, tanha and upadana.
11.
Buddhadasa's views have been "strongly criticized" and rejected by many of his fellow Theravada Buddhist monks with a more orthodox view of the Buddhist Dhamma.
12.
Buddhadasa has been influential in the arannavasi of Thai Buddhism, and his ideas have influenced the radical sectarian movement founder Santi Asoke, according to Swearer.
13.
Buddhadasa considered the Zen ideas as a way to reconcile Theravada Buddhism with modern humanism, and thought them to be the reason for Japan's economic strength.
14.
Buddhadasa's works take up an entire room in the National Library of Thailand.