Why Ordination?

[@elizabetha6369]

Thank you LBC and thank you Jñanavaca, your taks it's very inspiring 🤗

[@hm7576]

My nephew Satyadasa told me about you and I found your talk very resonating. I too read The Glass Bead Game and counted myself as an existentialist. You mention Douglas Harding’ s On Having No Head and say that he felt very lonely and unable to share his insights. Douglas came to my parent’s house in the 1960, and as a teenager I want to a workshop at his house in Nacton, Suffolk. This was a revelation for me even though I didn’t claim to be headless myself! But it certainly set me on a path of personal discovery in the way that you describe about yourself with the Dharma. I have followed Douglas since then and to be clear, because of the huge publishing success of the little book, he gained a world wide reputation

[@hm7576]

Continuing what I was just saying...in his later life from the 1970s onwards, he travelled extensively throughout the world, holding workshops. He also wrote further books and developed toolkits, which he promoted educationally. After his death, his work is still carried on by followers, if that word is appropriate, as there is Nothing to follow, through the Internet and live meetings. So overall the headless community has grown. You emphasis the importance of sharing within the community as a means of growth. Douglas put huge importance on what he called face to no face experience. The headless way is a real foundation for communion with others beyond superficial transactions. Your comment about his isolation was true for him in the 1940s and 50s but it changed with the western interest in alternative ways from the 1970s and is still true today. I see no difference between Buddhism and what he was saying apart from method and he did believe in sharing with others. He didn’t think the term enlightenment very helpful as nobody can say if they are enlightened or not.

[@londonbuddhistcentre]

Thanks for taking the time to share this, I'll forward your messages to Jnanavaca.