REVIEW: Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera - Acariya Maha Boowa Nanasampanno

REVIEW: Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera - Acariya Maha Boowa Nanasampanno

The Acariya Mun biography is my all-time favorite book. I first read it during the first half of 2007 and instantly took a liking to it. It was very helpful to my practice at the time and I wrote a review of it for my personal blog shortly after having read it. This is the second of two books on Buddhism that made automatic/instant beneficial changes inside of me when I first read it.

As time passes, I still find it very helpful. It was the first book that I read dealing with Thai Dhutanga monks and because I have been able to learn and experience so much from reading it, this branch of Buddhism remains a major interest of mine, despite most of my studies following the Tibetan Vajrayana teachings.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Buddhism, yet finds themselves blocked by the idea of soulessness, or by modern Western Buddhism, or has problems with common Western meditation techniques. This book also makes good reading if you are interested in the spiritual-psychic aspects of Buddhism, the natural world rather than traditions and etiquette, or the inter communication between humans and animals/other beings. I still find it helpful as a counterbalance to my Tibetan Buddhist studies, in that Thai Dhutanga Buddhism is based a lot more upon nature and a simplistic lifestyle in a natural world. This appears to be a naturally inbuilt inclination from within me..

I once told my son that I was excited to have read such a book - my son having asked me about my current reading. He laughed at me when I told him that it was about a Thai monk who lived in the forests and mountains and communicated with tigers and monkeys, and that the book had explained some matters to me that I was stuck on, which had therefore freed me for furthering myself - as if such a thing could have nothing of relevance for a city dwelling female of 2007.