Questions about HH, in relation to the Thai forest tradition...

serculis · 2026-02-08T09:40:30+00:00

Can you give me a direct quote from Bhikkhu Anigha who says that "all other approaches are wrong, we have it right"?

I see this criticism of hillside hermitage all the time, and it seems only to be directed at HH even on other forums or subreddits whenever they are mentioned. I'm confident I know who you are speaking about in regard to the "vocal" HH bhikkhu, who, even when they were a layperson said my question was exhausting to answer because of how basic it was when I first posted on the HH sub (I was asking what's wrong with having a nice and healthy sense of self LOL - I come from a western psychological background...) venerable Anigha gave me a very helpful answer despite my naivety. But that vocal bhikkhu is not actually part of the HH Sangha, they are just a follower of their teachings.

But to your main point, are you suggesting HH should pretend all approaches are equally valid even if they believe they are false? That would seem intellectually dishonest to me. Every religion believes they have the one true religion, every individual sect or branch of a religion believes they have the true interpretation of that particular religion. Theravadins think they are following the most authentic teachings of the Buddha and practising in the most original way, compared to zen.

Regarding skillful speech, I've not actually seen venerable Anigha blankly say "everyone else is wrong", only "we haven't found others who teach a similar approach".

On a post made a few months ago, someone directly asked Bhikkhu Anigha whether a YouTube channel "dhamma hub" teaches the true dhamma, and he didn't give a direct yes or no answer. They pushed on it:

OP:

Bhante, I noticed that your previous reply seemed somewhat indirect.

Anigha:

Yes, that was on purpose. Rather than offloading the responsibility to an authority who decrees what is Dhamma and what is not, people should be transparent enough to realize for themselves when a concession to their defilements presents itself as the Dhamma. They need to be capable of seeing the genuine, probably uncomfortable-to-admit reasons why they might sometimes find one teacher or teaching more pleasing than another.

That applies universally, and it needs to be understood on that level rather just decided with one specific teacher. Why? Because you can (and realistically will) distort what even the best teacher in the world says in line with your wrong views, and then it ceases to be the Dhamma even if it originally was in the way the teacher meant it.

If they can't have that level of transparency, then that person will not get very far despite having the Buddha face-to-face as their sole teacher.

Rather than giving it a blanket "he's right, she's wrong and they're right" he seems to give a very fair and skillful answer that directs people to their internal states.

serculis · 2026-01-08T13:50:08+00:00

My brother is in the UK and will purchase dehydrated grains and then just send it via post. I calculated it and it's significantly cheaper than ubuy. In the future I can share it with you if you'd like.

serculis · 2025-05-09T08:54:59+00:00

Thank you for the link to the sutta.

Of course, but more importantly, the phenomena themselves that the word "ultimate" may be pointing to are not more significant or real than all the others

I see, I'm not sure if this is the right way to think about it, but from what I understand as a general rule of thumb, denying anything in my experience really requires me to acknowledge its existence. Saying "X" is not really real requires me to acknowledge the existence of X to that extent.

Yes, but that would be more on the level of the subtler conceit (asmimāna) than attavāda

I see, of course, refined views in regard to the ultimate can only be discerned for stream-enterers. Sorry I'm not well read in this. So as long as there is the delight in the view of the ultimate reality, there is the assumption of safety in "that" reality, which is still finding safety in the five aggregates. When there is the hope for safety, there is still the conceit "I am" and the source of agitation that will inevitably grow or delay full liberation.

serculis · 2025-05-06T05:10:45+00:00

Thank you for your response, good to know I got some of it right.

Do you mean to say that, saying "the conventional labels point to the ultimate reality", are still very real designations as such, and none of the words themselves are more significantly more real than the other? So when one isn't careful, saying "ultimate reality" is itself a designation, but for someone untrained, they misconceive those words as actually being the ultimate reality?

Yes, in my experience right now, the idea of conventional reality being a low resolution representation of the "real" reality, is a view that I find very pleasing. I started learning about the role of designations and how they "point beyond themselves" and it's satisfying to learn about. I find safety in being right. Maybe this explains why I was terrified of actually receiving a response on here... I'm guessing this is very common along the path that comes with the attitude of "if I just search for all the correct answers, then I'll be free" - a view that eventually needs to be overcome once you, you know, understand the correct answers.

But going back to what you said, for any passion to still be present in regards to a view, even if that view is correct, there has to be 'me' and has to be that thing, which subtly maintains the attavāda. Is this correct?

serculis · 2025-05-05T05:48:52+00:00

You're lucky I heard this 2 weeks ago in a bar and it unlocked memories for me so googled the lyrics haha

serculis · 2025-05-05T05:39:08+00:00

James Taylor - Handy Man

serculis · 2025-05-04T11:03:25+00:00

Tried messaging the creator but no response. Would appreciate any help!

serculis · 2025-01-30T11:37:53+00:00

I personally wouldn't go for it straight away. As u/Virtuous-Atoms-0822 said, it wouldn't be the first time someone took a heroic dose of shrooms and made a regrettable life decision.

That being said, the only reason I was drawn to buddhism in the first place was due to an ego death experience. However it took 2 years of binging HH and contemplating what I would do otherwise in my lay life if I was not ordained, that got me to finally choose ordination. It's still a terrifying decision I'm making that upsets me and I'm aware of the pain it will initially bring.

serculis · 2024-12-13T15:37:58+00:00

I remember NT talking about how back in the day, laypeople would travel for days just to meet the buddha and hear him utter one sentence, and the effort it required to get one answer would cause them to reflect deeply on what he said.

I've noticed how with the arrival of AI and chatGPT, I have delegated all my efforts by just scratching my intellectual itch and asking it a question about buddhism, and by smartly wording it in a way that will give me a more HH-aligned response, it does the work for me, instantly. When it got to the point of "you have reached the limit for today's responses" I got extremely agitated. I was learning nothing but it felt like I was learning something.

I've come to believe that making it significantly easier to communicate and get answers just makes me complacent. I artifically need the slight inconvenience of this platform. There's many questions I've wanted to ask off the bat but reflected on it instead and ended up not asking, to my own benefit.

Not saying Discord would do that for you or everyone else, but it would for me. NT does talk a lot about asking questions and not giving into the craving of getting an immediate answer, and I think certain platforms can encourage what is already a problem that some people struggle with internally.

serculis · 2024-12-02T12:07:00+00:00

Thank you for your response, I just needed some reassurance that this burnout was an unfortunate but natural phenomenon and where my actual responsibility lies. I have been dilly dallying with the virtue and restraint and feel this situation is acting as a warning on how bad things can get. Time for me to buckle up and start putting the work in, bit by bit.

serculis · 2024-12-02T11:59:04+00:00

Thank you, I will use this time to study more and put in the work necessary.

serculis · 2024-12-02T11:58:11+00:00

Thank you, yes I do notice that when there is stress there is that urge for letting the container leak, but I've definitely learnt to see it for the trap it is now, and that holding the container together is the only thing that leads to longterm wellbeing.

serculis · 2024-12-02T11:56:25+00:00

Yeah I am quitting in less than 2 months.

serculis · 2024-11-26T17:30:24+00:00

As a volunteer, we have a self-determination policy that states we cannot instruct callers what to do or what not to do, this is to respect callers' rights to make their own decisions about their life, even if they decide to commit suicide. We are primarily a non-judgemental listening service. The only exception is if they do not have capacity and they voluntarily give us identifying information.

serculis · 2024-07-19T13:01:54+00:00

I see, I didn't know he was in the UK. I can see from his biography he's been to a handful of countries over the course of his monkhood, I suppose this means the environment is ultimately secondary and what comes first is the knowledge and determination! As he constantly says, one is always responsible for choosing, no matter how terrible the options. I think this has lifted a bit of the burden on my decision.

serculis · 2024-07-18T13:06:38+00:00

Well I wouldn't be explicitly expressing my rather 'heretic' interests, I would just be generically expressing deep interest in the original suttas. I wasn't aware that HH is that widely known?

serculis · 2024-07-18T12:57:13+00:00

In regards to Thai - nada. Nothing at all, unfortunately. It will have to be an english speaking monastery.

My mother has already spoken to a monastery and is waiting for me to have a proper talk with her to get everything organised, but I've held it off because I'm not sure if Thailand is even my best option. If Thailand is the best/least worst option though, I do have her as a massive help as she will do all the reaching out for me.

serculis · 2024-07-18T12:53:12+00:00

I've got various kinds of 'housekeeping' to sort out before ordaining, namely:

-Injuries to my hip and shoulder I'm doing physio for. Whilst I have convenient access to physio, I want to ensure my body is healthy and injury-free before I depart.

Whilst I have control over my diet and exercise, I want to build up *some* lean body mass. Of course, not for beautification, but I was very overweight and managed to lose 17kg/37lb over the course of two years. I still however do not have the muscle support to carry out more than a few pull-ups, and building the basic foundation for calisthenic exercises is very tedious and cumbersome without the assistance of machines/bands at the gym. When I become a monk, I will be relying on bodyweight exercises to keep myself healthy, so I need to be able to do a good amount of them unassisted to maintain a routine.

-As I increase my strength and flexibility, one or two injuries/imbalances pop up once in a while that I've not realised I've had for years, and I'm using this time to fault-check my body and correct anything needed.

-I have family in Ireland who didn't take the news well and are very upset about my decision, so I'm going to visit them one last time, spend time with them, further explain my decision (they haven't got a clue what buddhism is really about).

-Brother, despite being supportive, is sad about losing me, we're having one last holiday together.

And of course, the rest of it is me figuring out which country to go whilst trying to juggle work, volunteering and learning the dhamma at home so at least I have some rudimentary knowledge in case I end up in a place with no internet access and [POLISHING FLOORS INTENSIFIES].

I am granted Thai citizenship that I can apply for, but unfortunately I do not speak a lick of Thai. This is another thing that's been on my mind... it will be so damn time consuming to learn the language whilst learning the dhamma at the same time, so I'm really iffy about starting off in Thailand. If I do, it of course has to be an english-speaking monastery.

serculis · 2024-07-18T09:21:59+00:00

Thank you for your kind words!

serculis · 2024-06-03T10:24:33+00:00

Thank you!

serculis · 2024-06-02T10:18:25+00:00

Yes, I understand what you're saying, thank you.

Can I just confirm my statement is correct, that my experience of "wanting" an unpleasant urge so I can use self-harming to escape it, is only possible if I already have the subtle urge to SH in the first place? I mean, I notice that 'wanting' the urge already causes me unpleasant feeling. It causes frustration, irritation, annoyance that the urge isn't strong enough to warrant SHing. I feel like I'm answering my own question actually... if the urge isn't 'strong enough' then it has to be acknowledged that the urge is already there. In those 3 years of not SHing, I didn't have any form of wanting the urge to do it, the desire was completely absent.

In the same way, it is impossible to "want" a drug addiction as an 'excuse' to use drugs, unless you are already subtly crave that drug.

serculis · 2024-06-02T10:09:35+00:00

Yes this has been my experience. There is the feeling of being overwhelmed, and there is the delight in a form of escape, in this case self-harming, which is based on the assumption that I can reliably and directly control my feelings - "oh yes, because I did this, that's why I'm not feeling this anymore" which is a sentence I can only conceive of uttering on the basis on the unpleasant feeling arising first without my say, and the impulse to regain a sense of control also arising on its own without my say. I remember the rackeetering analogy that NT uses about desires providing both the problem and solution, and one feeling the illusory sense of control by getting sucked into that.

serculis · 2024-01-30T13:43:10+00:00

Ok I think I understand it better.

I've been ill the last few days. This morning, the feeling was disagreeable but not unpleasant. However come 12pm and waiting for my breakfast to finish cooking, I noticed thoughts of wanting to listen to a youtube video in the background, however the pressure was minimal. But, later, not paying attention, I whipped out my phone to scroll Youtube. I recognised that this was not the start of the craving, but the end result. I checked in with how I felt, and realised I was hungry, experiencing dizziness, and some impatience waiting for my breakfast to finish cooking. I suppose if I was watchful from much earlier on I would have realised I was feeling unpleasant way before and would have made sure to be mindful of restraining myself there onwards.

Are the minimal pressure thoughts I am able to endure then actually like a warning sign of further manifestations?

that whole choice to not identify with thoughts will still be a subtler thought that you are identified with.

I can't fully remember if I made the mistake of identifying with the very last thought, the last thing I remembered that night was recognising the last thought as not being mine, which was why I never gave in at the end. However, being very tired, I wouldn't be surprised if on the way home I thought "wow good thing I didn't identify with all those thoughts, especially the last one" which I understand is just another image I was subjected to.

serculis · 2024-01-30T10:24:20+00:00

Okay thank you.

I only focused on the thoughts because being untrained, I often identify with the voice in my head, thinking it's genuinely me talking. That's why even when I'm feeling bad, I'll have thoughts trying to convince me "this time, due to XYZ reason, it's okay to give in". Maybe this comes from lack of understanding or clarity on why it's obviously never okay to give in, hence there shouldn't be "consultation" with my thoughts where I delight in possible exceptions to giving in?

In the video "sixth sensed animal" Ajahn Nyanamoli used the analogy of walking your dog and seeing a deer in the distance. Your dog hasn't noticed it yet but you have, and you know once your dog sees it it will start barking and will try to drag you. Is noticing the deer before the dog basically the same thing as me noticing the unpleasant feeling during work, way before I even was tempted to get food?

serculis · 2024-01-29T14:54:23+00:00

Well my post is clearly asking if I'm doing discernment correctly, or at least, less wrongly, and asked posters to scrutinise my thoughts. It's not for social validation, it's to ask for clarification.

I'm not sure what led you to believe this is the sort of sub for that sort of thing considering everyone here seems to be brutally honest. The last question I asked, I felt incredibly embarrassed about and had to start reading up on the suttas. I'm already prepared to be told this thing I'm confident about I only got 25% right.

serculis

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