-17- The Best Buddha-time Styled Uposatha

~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

You have to see this on the top of Golden Buddha Hill before you can understand what it is. I say again that this is ultimately in compliance with the Buddha’s wish, and it is constructed in the best possible way to follow the style of what was built in the Buddha’s time. It is inexpensive, never harming the national economy. An uposatha (ordination hall) built nowadays costs fifteen to twenty million baht. But we have one as you can see, which is the best because it is economical and best corresponds to the Dhamma-Vinaya (the Doctrine and the Discipline) and the Buddha’s wish. But no one follows our example. Their facial expressions show their dissatisfaction with it.

As you have come here, you should go up the hill to see the uposatha. Maybe you could get some idea about what the Buddha did. It doesn’t endanger the economy. It causes neither difficulty nor chaos – which usually occurs when we do something un-Buddhist. Actually, religious rites can be conducted on the ground. The Pali Canon says that, if we conduct a rite outdoors, and it happens to rain, we can call off the rite. But if there is a shed, a building, or a dwelling, it can be used as the uposatha without having to build another one just for that purpose. But monasteries today still build a separate building for the rites. The real story is that an accepted place for monks to assemble to perform religious rites or to exercise their voting rights by themselves or through their representatives can be an uposatha by itself.

I would like to leave it with you that, after you have seen our uposatha, try comparing it to others that commonly exist all over the country. I still insist that ours is in line with the Buddha’s wish and the Dhamma-Vinaya in the Buddha’s time. It does not undermine the economy. This is because it does not cost tens of millions of baht as is the case of other ordination halls, which have no other use than being a place for a talk – which does not necessarily need such a place. This is strange. I don’t know what kind of a joke people are playing. What is commonly known now as an uposatha never existed in the Buddha’s time, but it appears at present as the ultimate building in every monastery. Please remember that such an uposatha did not exist in the Buddha’s time.

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“24 Benefits of Suan Mokkh,” is a series of weekly posts published to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the foundation of Suan Mokkh in May 1932 in Chaiya, southern Thailand.

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For other Dhamma teachings by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu (audios, free ebooks, interviews, poems), please visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation.

Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives collection (Ref. BW-02-022_002)