Phra Ashoko-FINAL-ENG-with covers-22565

 In February 2022, one typical Buddhist traditional event made big
headlines in all types of media in Thailand: the ordination of Bollywood
superstar Gagan Malik.

 This news heartened and astonished Thai Buddhists as the superstar
who was born a Hindu wished to be ordained as a Bhikkhu in Thailand
after he played Prince Siddhartha/the Buddha and pledged himself
on the path of the dhamma of the Buddha.

 Bodhiyalai, the Buddhist periodical of Chakdaeng Temple,

had earlier included an article about Gagan Malik in its

56th issue, released in may 2020 after the first launch

of the Movie Siddharta Gautama which received 5 awards

from the World Buddhist Film Festival including the

best actor award for Gagan Malik. Later, this movie also
won the best movie award from New Delhi Film Festival.
 For our readers who missed the 56th

issue, the gist of the article is

provided as follows:
 The passion to live the role of prince

Siddhartha Gautama urged Gagan

Malik to dig deep into the life

of the prince, his sacrifice and

the arduous way to achieve

enlightenment. The discovery touched

Gagan Malik’s heart deeply.

Yet what Gagan Malik had learned

from the Buddha’s teachings was

even more touching. Coupled with

his respect and appreciation of the

Thai Dhammaraja King Bhumibol who

dedicated his life for the better life

of his people, Gagan Malik decided Don’t mistake

to follow the footsteps of these Himanshu Soni

two heroes of his. for
 Gagan Malik then implemented his Gagan Malik

wish through several benevolent

projects for the betterment of

Indian people by means of using

Buddha’s teachings as a guidance.
 Among such initiatives are: the Lotus

World project that encourage people

to “do something good” on a daily basis

and to live by the noble Eightfold Path for a happier way of life, the setting up of

a vipassana center for people from all walks of life to learn mindfulness, and the

distribution of 84,000 Buddha images to Indian people. Gagan Malik also joined

the cast of a Thai-Myanmar movie “The Message” to warn people of looming

calamities
 Gagan Malik’s confidence in Buddhism grew over time and finally he adopted

Buddhism officially at Mihintale temple Sri Lanka, a prelude to his monkhood.
 Those who want to read the full article can read it online from:

 This year, in February, Gagan Malik announced to
his FC in his FB: “… Thailand is calling. Time for
self realisation. Time to know my inner self Time
to learn Dhamma Time to understand impermanence.
Time to gain knowledge Time to roll the wheel of
Dhamma in India...”

 Then all types of media were flooded with news of
Gagan Malik’s ordination at Wat Thatthong.

 The traditional ordination ceremony was arranged
on 10th February 2022. It was a solemn but
beautiful and very warm with close participation
of those who loved and admired him.

 We show some nice photos of the ceremony here
to let our readers see and “rejoice in his merit.”

 In conjunction with the happiness and joy of the ordination of the Bollywood
superstar, emergent concerns were raised as well: How can a Hindu become
a Buddhist and even be ordained as a Bhikkhu too? Have his parents granted
him a permission to be ordained?

 We try our best to answer these questions and other
matters that Gagan’s admirers in Thailand may want
to bring into question from the next page.

The interview team from Bodhiyalai had a chance to
meet “Phra Gagan” or “Ashoko Bhikkhu” two weeks after his ordination. We hope
the admirable and enjoyable stories that we heard directly from Phra Gagan as
well as from other interviews would offer an extensive and accurate portrayal of
this exceptional man.

First among the most popular questions:

“Phra Gagan” was a Hindu actor who always excelled in the role
of Hindu mythological gods and characters for all his life. How come
playing Prince Siddhartha just once could convert him to Buddhism?

“Phra Gagan” told us that many factors led him to that. Among those was
a story we dubbed “a miracle of the 200 pimples”
that triggered a chain of events.

Back in Gagan’s younger days, Saman
Weeraman, a famous movie director of
Sri Lanka, met Gagan Malik and expressed
his pleasure to have Gagan in his cast.
Gagan was also pleased to wait for the good
opportunity. The right moment came when
a film maker from Sri Lanka wanted to
make a film about Prince Siddhartha’s life.

Gagan was invited to Sri Lanka for an audition for the
role of Prince Siddhartha and he was eager to go. Just a
day before his departure flight, Gagan woke up to a
shocking surprise, every inch of his face was covered with
pimples, hundreds of pimples. He could do nothing other
than seeing a doctor who gave him a bottle of medicated
solution, and then boarded his flight.

Gagan recalled that he appeared at the audition as
a lean, unshaved young man with dark skin and 200 pimples
on the face. Those young men from many countries who also
came for the audition sneered at him, the audition committee
did not want to waste their time with him but the director
stood firm in his intention to give Gagan a chance of landing the lead role.
Then a doctor came to check his skin, gave him medicated solution and suggested a
visit to a Buddhist temple nearby. Gagan complied, paid homage to the Buddha and
meditated there.
Back to the room provided for him, Gagan put the pictures of the Buddha on
the wall and continued with his meditation while focusing on the Buddha and made a
wish for his success.
The next morning, he found that all the pimples had gone nearly without traces.
This was a miracle for him. In both places, he received exactly the same treatment
with the same medicated solution which only worked the way it should when he was in
Sri Lanka. The only difference was the visit to the Buddhist temple and his deep
meditation. The “miracle” significantly uplifted Gagan and he felt ready for the
audition and to live the role of Prince Siddhartha as best as he could.

The audition was the scene of “the Great Renunciation of Prince Siddhartha”
(the going forth of the Bodhisatta into the homeless life - Mahābhinikkhamana)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P3GSiWjDwc

Gagan could deeply feel how it was like for Prince Siddhartha to leave the
lavish palace and his luxuries behind, yet worse, to leave his beloved family.
Gagan could realize how hard it was to overcome those pains of bereavement, the
overwhelming waves of intense sadness, anxiety and other very difficult emotions.
Yet the prince did what was the most difficult thing to do. He took leave. That was
the greatest sacrifice, not for himself but for all mankind, as what he was going to
discover was the way to end all the sufferings endured by us all.

Hence, Gagan acted according to what he was feeling. When finished,
he found everyone there went silent, their facial expression told how he had
successfully provoked deep emotion. Even the cameraman was deeply touched by
his acting and was shooting in tear. No doubt Gagan landed the lead role.

But the audition did not end there.
The producer and the director came to stay in
Gagan’s house to observe him closely to make
sure they got the right actor who would not
just portray the role but could truly live the
role of Prince Siddhartha, because when the
right actor transforms into the character of
Prince Siddhartha, he could inspire the viewers
to follow the good examples of the Prince and
want to do good things for others too

Hence the successful audition is
a prelude to Gagan’s Buddhist monkhood.

The meticulous movie team coupled *available in Thai version
with Gagan’s dedication to live the role of the
Prince-cum-the Buddha as best as he could,
led him to Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s book
“Old Path White Clouds”.* He relied on this
book as a source of information of the life of
Prince Siddhartha-cum-the Buddha from birth
till the last breath as well as the Buddha’s
teachings.

The more Gagan read the book, the more he was impressed by what he

had learned. He saw the Buddha’s teachings as “treasure” of mankind. Yet he was

shocked too when he realized that such valuable “treasure” discovered in India
by the son of India has nearly vanished from India for centuries.

By the time the movie-making finished, the Buddha and his teachings have

touched Gagan so deeply that he felt his heart and mind have completely become

Buddhist. So later on, when the right time came for him to formally convert to
Buddhism, he took it easily and “had no second thought about that”, as he recalled.

From the point where he merely looked for money and fame, Gagan
interestingly advanced in life through the making of the movie Siddharta Gautama.

From his reading, Gagan discovered how great the sacrifice of the prince-
cum-the Buddha was. While filming, Gagan walked barefooted along a river bank
dotted with thorny plants and sharp pebbles some of which cut deep into his bare
feet. He realized how resigning oneself to retiring from the world was hard. But it
must have been a lot harder 2600 years ago when the prince-cum-the Buddha
trodden bare-footed along a lot more rugged river banks. Those bare feet went
unrelentingly too, in the much denser lush forests with more thorny shrubs and
trees, through thick and thin, years after years, to find the Noble Truths and
shared it to help end the recurring sufferings of mankind. At that epiphany
moment, Gagan was overwhelmed with admiration, gratitude and blissfulness.

For the emaciation scene, Gagan self-starved
And lost 8 kgs to look emaciated enough. He fully grasped
such unbearable physical pain. Yet that was just a small
part of only one way out of many self-mortification
methods practiced by the Prince and ascetics of that time.
Elated and exalted Gagan, now with full faith in the prince-
cum-the Buddha, made a resolution that he too, would
help make other people happy, with the guidance of
the treasure of the Buddha’s teachings. And so he does.

Gagan started his resolution with the Movie Siddharta Gautama free film shows
in many countries including China, Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka where the movie
became the greatest film in 7 decades. With a mobile cinema truck, Gagan could also
show the movie to people in remote, less developed areas as well as to those without
access to movies like prisoners in jail. Through the movie, people of all ages could easily
appreciate the Prince’s great sacrifice to find a way to end sufferings for mankind.
Soon Gagan was known as the propagator of Buddhism.

At the peak of Gagan’s propagation of Buddhism
in many countries, someone sparked an idea to him:
what about India, what would you do for India?

Hence Gagan also launched a number of projects
(as recounted in the following part). The projects are
multifaceted but designed for the same goal to help
people from all walks of life benefit from the
Buddha’s teachings which do not create conflicts
with any belief. In particular, the Indian Buddhists,
should fully benefit from this nearly lost “treasure”
that they hardly know nor correctly understand, as the
majority of them are those in Navayana sect or the new sect established for Dalits
escaping from the injustice and lawful abuses in the caste system of India.

“Ashoko Bhikkhu” (Phra Gagan) recounted that he felt sorry that there was
little opportunity for Indian people to benefit from the “treasure of mankind” which
was discovered in India by the son of India, the Buddha, but the treasure has nearly
vanished from India. So he has to make his utmost efforts to impart the knowledge
of the Buddha’s teachings to Indian people for their better and happier life. The
Buddha’s teachings are about the truth of life and universe and hence scientific.
Buddhism is not a faith, but a clever way of life that all should follow to lead a happy
life. The Buddha’s teachings benefit all but do not create conflicts with any religious
belief. From this point of view, he did not think of converting to Buddhism at first.
even though he realized that he has mentally become Buddhist.

However, it was his endeavour to make the “treasure” known to Indian people
that led him to convert to Buddhism and was finally ordained as a Buddhist Bhikkhu.

The moment of change came when he went to Sri Lanka to consult with Sri
Lankan priests about his plan to help the Indian people. The Sri Lankan priests fully
supported him and offered him an audience with the Sangharaja of Sri Lanka.

Buddhism in India started to
decline soon after Emperor Ashoka
rule from many causes. Over
centuries, Buddhist establishments
were raided and destroyed by
waves of Muslim troops. The latest
milestone was the sack and
destruction of Nalanda University.
Nalanda had been long forgotten
until rediscovered by Sir Alexander
Cunningham’s archaeological
survey. The team found out that
Nalanda’s plan corresponded to
what was described in Xuanzang's
Great Tang Records on the Western
Regions or Dà Táng Xīyù Jì

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda

But the audience was not granted. The Sangharaja of Sri Lanka raised
an adept point that “How can an unhappy man go round and teach people how
to be happy?, that was not proper”, and so the Sangharaja saw no points of
meeting with Gagan.

Gagan got the golden message of the sage remarks: how can a non
Buddhist teach Buddha’s dhamma to Non Buddhists? Without reluctance,
Gagan consented to the wise suggestion of the Sangharaja. He officially
accepted Buddhism on the poson puja day of 2014 at Mihintale, the place
where Sri Lanka received Buddhism for the first time and on the same historic
date in Sri Lanka Buddhist history.

To this question, Phra Gagan answered
with a smile that His family had absolutely
no objection. When he sought consent from
his parents, his father said
“you are not asking me to become a terrorist,
are you?. You are seeking my consent
to become a Buddhist monk.
So why should I say no to your being
ordained for a good cause?”

*2

Next, Phra Gagan disclosed another source of his inspiration to

propagate Buddhism. In the wake of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s so-called

Buddhism revival in India 65 years ago, the Neo Buddhist movement or Dalit

Buddhist movement resulted in the establishment of Navayana as a new

Buddhist sect for the Dalits escaping from the injustice and lawful abuses in

the caste system of India. Though Dr. Ambedkar passed away a few years

after the birth of the new sect, Navayana followers grew from around 0.5

million to 10 millions at present. They form a big “Buddhist population” that

Phra Gagan wants 3 Looking at Buddhism in terms of

of social movement and class struggle

or Ambedkarite movement, Dr. B. R.

Ambedkar found several of the core

beliefs and doctrines such as "non-

self" and the Four Noble Truths

pessimistic and flawed. He believed

that the Four Noble Truths was not

the Buddha’s teaching but the work of some wrong-
minded monks of the later era. He suggested that the
correct root of dukkha is class conflict. Samudaya, the
cause of dukkha, is of course, “class.” His other ideas
about the core of Buddhism included “nirvana” which he
saw as the preparation for moral action to be ready to
rectify the material suffering of inequality. Karma,
rebirth in afterlife, and samsara were not counted too.

So Dr. Ambedkar announced his rejection of Theravada and Mahayana, and

radically reinterpreted the original Buddha teaching to be about class struggle and
social equality and he formed “Navayana” or “new vehicle” sect. He wrote a book,
“The Buddha and His Dhamma,” posthumously published, to be the holy book of
Navayana followers. Yet Some original doctrines, the 5 precepts and the

wholesome course of action, are included in the 22 vows prescribed by Dr.
Ambedkar for the ceremony of conversion to Buddhism.

This first conversion to Buddhism as arranged by Dr. Ambedkar was held in

1956 at Nagpur, India, and was attended by more than 500,000 people. It was the
largest religious conversion the world has ever witnessed. Through the conversion,

the number of Indian Buddhists has increased to 10 millions at the present, 87%

of which are Dalits of Navayana. That explains why most of Indian Buddhists are
not acquainted with the Buddha’s teachings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Buddhist_movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navayana#:~:text=Navayana%20(Devanagari%3A%
20%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%2C%20IAST,Am
bedkar's%20first%20name%2C%20Bhimrao)
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/buddhist-countries%20

This is one of the concerns of Phra Gagan’s admirers:
“Revival of Buddhism in India seems to be an impassable
uphill battle. How could Phra Gagan manage to accomplish
such a colossal task?

The concern might have come from the misinterpretation of Gagan’s sheer
devotion to “roll the wheel of dhamma in India” as he often said.

“Rolling the wheel of dhamma” has a much broader usage in India than
in Thailand where many would connote the Buddha’s setting in motion the wheel
of the Dharma with the Four Noble Truths in the first sermon known as
“Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta”.

Hence the phrase might instigate misinterpretation. However, Gagan’s
idea seems to be far from having Buddhism as India’s national religion nor to
advocating Indians to convert to Buddhism. He actually clearly voiced his idea
that because the Buddha’s teachings have far too long been unknown to India,
he wanted the Indian people to “benefit from the treasure of mankind”. He also
wanted to share the good things he experienced in Thailand. The correct
Buddha’s teachings, the doctrine, Vinaya (code of monastic disciplines) are to
be shared with the Indian sangha. And as Phra Gagan is particularly impressed
by the way the Thai people respect the yellow robe of the Buddhist monks as
the representation of the Buddhist Sangha, he wishes to share this concept
with Indian secular society, as well as the rules and temple etiquette to which
he attaches importance also.

A painting of the first sermon

“Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta”
from Nalanda.

https://rm.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budissem

Phra Gagan clearly illustrated the
Indian Buddhist society in various aspects:
 The Indian Buddhists community is

comprised of traditional Buddhists and
the new Navayana Buddhists
 Both groups have very poor knowledge
of the core belief, doctrine and
even the Vinaya of Buddhism.
Phra Gagan is very sorry about this and
would do his utmost to help them attain
the correct knowledge of Buddhism.

Phra Gagan is of the opinion that it is his duty to do so and he explained why.
For a true Buddhist who already has insight on the Buddha’s teachings, one must
pass on that knowledge to others. It is a noble duty that makes one a perfect
Buddhist. If omitted, one is a true but imperfect Buddhist. Phra Gagan realized
that as he is well-informed of the Buddha’s teachings and he has put the
Dhamma to practice accordingly, so he is a true Buddhist and hence he has a
duty to propagate Buddhism.

At this point, Phra Gagan pointed out how a true Buddhist in his opinion is
distinguished: Not one who believes in the supernatural, that is a superstitious
man. Not one who strictly follows traditional rites, one who is addicted to making
merits, praying without knowledge of the prayers, that is a traditional, religious or
spiritual man. Not one who has firm faith, knowledgeable about the Dhamma but

does not bring the Dhamma to practice, and not the Buddhist by his ID card.

Only one who practices the Dhamma in his real life is the true Buddhist.

Phra Gagan noticed that all religions have religious or spiritual followers.
He fondly recalled the time when his mother was convinced, according to a
Hindu belief, that people have to be reborn 8.4 million times before he can be
born human. But if one wrote down the name of Rama 8.4 million times, he
could attain nirvana in this life. His mother adhered to the belief and spent 7
years writing Rama’s name for 15 million times. After that she spent her life
in a happy, carefree way. Not long ago, Gagan gave her a small Buddha image.
Without any sign of aversion, she happily took it and admired its beauty and
put the Buddha image among her other Hindu gods. She also gave a flower
garland to the Buddha image too. Thai is the nice aspect of the traditionally
religious people.

To answer the question on the number of Buddhist temples in India,
Phra Gagan estimated that number must be rather high to serve the large number
of new Navayana Buddhists. Yet most of the temples are of small size, even just
a small room that can accommodate only one small Buddha statue. Most statues
do not look good enough. So Gagan already gave 53 Buddha statues for the
temples and 3,000 Buddha images to the people. Yet the demand still running high.

On “Buddhist-Hindu relationship”

Contrary to the assumption that the Hindus would harass the
Buddhists, it is the new Navayana Buddhists, now able to vent out their
frustrations and resentment, who seek revenge on the Hindus who made
their life a misery.

To help improve the situation, Phra Gagan plans to cultivate forgiveness
in the perception of Navayana Buddhists. This would be difficult and would
take a lot of time and must be inserted little by little, step by step and
should go along with the cultivation of karuna or compassion.

Once metta and karuna developed, the next steps of compassion and
understanding of others would come at ease. Next, the compassion and
understanding will be followed by self-restraint or control of the senses.
So one would not want to take advantage of nor fight with others any more.

Love and peace must be cultivated in the same way too. One should be
made to realize that only the inner peace can stop conflicts

Therefore, the next time you want to fight with someone, if both sides
know how to develop inner peace, conflicts can be prevented. Even wars can be
prevented in this way as well.

The great compassion https://www.news18.com/new
mantra from Nalanda s/lifestyle/15-lessons-of-lord-
buddha-that-will-help-you-live-
a-better-life-1082827.html

Time and again, Phra Gagan came across these questions:

what prompted you to be ordained, and why you
chose to be ordained in Bangkok, Thailand ?

Phra Gagan pointed out that the Buddha’s teachings pave the way for
better life for all. However, to have a successful trip along this way, one must
have enough wisdom to keep on the right track towards the end of sufferings.
Phra Gagan has already officially become a Buddhist and he has already learned
a lot of the Dhamma, but the facts actually motivated him to learn more from
practicing the Dhamma in real life, and able to do the right things on his own.
But India could not offer him such a chance. So he had to look for the
opportunity in other Buddhist countries. And the best way to fully appreciate
the practice is to live a life of a Buddhist monk.

Why Thailand ? Prior to the ordination, he has visited Thailand for many
time. He recognized Thailand as the center of Buddhism, with countless
beautiful temples, beautiful in the architecture and beautiful in the monastery
life with civilized etiquette, especially the respect of the yellow robes of the
monks. He was convinced that Thailand is the best place to offer good examples
of such important things.

There is another reason to choose Thailand. He felt strangely familiar
with all the Thai things: people, food, living style, friendship, bindings and all.
As he believed in reincarnation, he thought he might have been born and done
something good here in his past life.

And that answer sparkled
yet another question…
Among a myriad of temples,
why did Phra Gagan
choose Wat
That Thong ?

It was because Phra Gagan
had been acquainted with the Abbot
of Wat Thatthong long before his
ordination. Four years ago in 2018,
Gagan came to Wat That Thong to help coordinate the ordination of the Minister
of Justice of Maharashtra. The auspicious occasion started the unofficial
dhamma discourses for him, and with deep appreciation, he accepted the
Venerable the Abbot as his master. What he had seen and learned during the
Minister’s ordination confirmed that Wat That Thong would be the choice of
his own ordination when the time was right for him. He wanted to learn the
Dhamma core belief, doctrine and the Vinaya to impart those on to the Indian
monks, together with the Buddha’s teachings on reducing life sufferings,
developing inner happiness and peace, especially mindfulness, for the laypeople
of India.

In the mean time, the Abbot asked Gagan when he himself would be ordained.
Even though Gagan’s mind was ready for that, he was restrained by the burden he
was committed to. Particularly for the superstar to earn his living, the look is the
indispensable asset. The right time for the ordination had to be an interval of
5-6 months of no film shooting and hair regrowth. That interval finally arrived in
February 2022 and he was ordained at Wat That Thong.

Phra Gagan elaborated on his favorite aspects of Wat That Thong: situated
in the middle of the town with the convenience of access, the complete facilities
of the temple, the great walking meditation tracks and the best is the funeral
halls and crematorium that efficiently enhance the contemplation on death or
mindfulness of death, which he can conveniently practice on a daily basis here.
Wat That Thong’s facilities fit all his needs and confirmed his right decision for
such a well-chosen place.

Another vital factor is moral support which comes from the senior priests of
this temples and elsewhere. He has plenty of moral support and respect from Thai
Buddhists too. All of these factors make his day. Therefore, with deep happiness
inside and peace of mind, he needs nothing more.

Phra Gagan recalled the first day of his morning alm. Out of the temple,
he was immediately touched by the beauty of impermanence: yesterday he was a
superstar. Overnight he was wearing yellow robe of monk, walking barefooted and
begging for food. This marvelous happiness landed him in a buoyant mood, then went
deep down to his heart, reaffirming that he has become a Bhikkhu, begging for alm
and had absolutely nothing to lose.

That was only the first good feeling that happened
to him on that day. It was followed by another set of
happiness and other good feelings.

In observing the longstanding tradition of morning
alm, hundreds of devoted Thai Buddhists came to offer
food to monks near the temple. A number of monks’
attendants were busy with their rounds of carrying
food from monks’ alms-bowls to their food trollies.

But why this tradition keeps
going on and on for so long?.
Phra Gagan realized that alms
given into his alms-bowl were not
given because of him, not because
of Gagan the superstar, but from
people’s love and respect of the
yellow robe of the monks. Realizing this, Phra Gagan stopped
thinking of anything else but was deep in the new kind of
happiness that he had never experienced in India.

Phra Gagan wished such good feelings could be available
in India, along with the sight of Indian Buddhists treating
the monks in the yellow robes with full faith and respect.

Phra Gagan shared another impressive moment during his morning alm.
One day he was asked to enter a house whose owner, a frail old man, could
not get off a chair on his own. The old man was helped to stand up. In his
shaky standing position, the old man picked up his alms with his trembling
hands and carefully put into Phra Gagan’s alms bowl. Every minute of this too,
was unforgettable for him.

The interview team ask about Phra Gagan’s multifaceted
projects in India, some of which are running and some
would start after his experience in Thailand.

Phra Gagan indicated that he intended to launch many projects.
First, the Vipassana Center in Nagpur which would be opened to
people of all faith to learn mindfulness. So they could develop wisdom
to live a simpler way of life leading to happiness.
The 2nd project is a Buddhist
temple in India. The temple, to be built
in a mixed Thai-Indian style, will be
situated in the center of a big city for
easy access. The temple will be a “one
stop service center” for the
propagation of the Buddha’s teachings,
where people from all walks of life can
come to study and practice the
dhamma in their real life to become
a better and happier people. (This one
stop service center is available in
Thailand. It is run by Triratnabhoomi
Association, at Wat That Thong.)

The 3rd project is the building of a big sized
Buddha statue with 84 Feet height to attract people
to the temple. The project is not launched yet.

The 4th project is education sponsorship for
orphans who lost both parents from the Covid
pandemic. The underlying idea of this project is
“only education can warrant the survival of the orphans”

The 5th project is “84.000 Buddha images for
Indian people” The underlying idea of this project is
“where the Buddha images reach, Buddha’s teachings
arrive.”

As the Buddha statues and images would be literally
handed out in a person to person basis, the receiver
would hear and learn something about the Buddha or the
Buddha’s teachings as an introductory part for the
future learning. Thousands of Buddha images had been
distributed but the demand still running high. Even the
non Buddhist including Muslims also want the Buddha
images as well as a symbol of peace that would beautifully
decorate their houses.

After the ordination of Phra Gagan, a large number of
Thai Buddhists donated so many the Buddha’s statues and
images to support the project, dubbed in Thai language as
‘’Revival of Buddhism; from Suvarnabhumi to Buddhaphumi.”

https://www.facebook.com/triratnabhoomi/

Apart from our the interview with
Phra Gagan, the Bodhiyalai team also collected
his Dhamma ideas delivered at various venues
and occasions for a complete record.

Buddhism is not a religion in the sense that
it is not a center of faith, having no god or deity
to worship. The Buddha’s finding – “the Dhamma”
is scientific and explains why humans hurt and how
their sufferings can be overcome. Those who understand the Buddhist principles
and “the correct way of life.” can live a happy life and end all sufferings. Hence,
people of all religions can practice the Dhamma of the Buddha and become happier
and better human beings capable of making a happy and peaceful society without
affecting the core belief of their religions at all.

For this reason, Buddhism can be a link to join all religions together. Buddhism
is seen as the future religion of the world. At the present time, a large number of
Hollywood stars have become Buddhist.

To make a happy and peaceful society, Phra Gagan

opinion that one must start with oneself. Firstly, develop one’s own happiness.
from doing something good for others. It is an easy practice, just learn to give.
Teaching people to give is best done during 5-15 years of age. Do not teach
with words but with action, for example, suggest a child to give some small
things of his to others who seems to need that more than him. Let the child
give it by his own hand and see the happy reaction of the receiver. The child
would be able to feel the happiness of the giver too. Once realized such
happiness, the child is ready to understand the words of wisdom about giving,
metta, karuna and forgiveness. Later on, this learning will form a strong base
for building peace of mind, and thence the peaceful society which can prevent
conflicts and even wars.

Phra Gagan is determined to follow the 8-Noble

Path to end sufferings - Nirvana. But practicing this on a daily basis would also yield
happier and better days that help contribute to building a peaceful society as well.

Mindfulness Phra Gagan attaches high importance to mindfulness.
He would open a Vipassana Center in Nagpur for all.

Mindfulness plays a key role in practicing other Dhamma points by synergizes

with them. Yet mindfulness has to be trained to develop as well. Phra Gagan

has an idea for mindfulness index: as long as you can feel your breath, you are

mindful. In a nutshell, “to live in present, be fully present” (be mindful with full

awareness) is the key to a happy and peaceful life.

Wisdom & Anapanasati

(

Phra Gagan maintains that wisdom is
indispensable in pursuit of the right ways.
As wisdom is developed from samadhi or
concentration, he highlights the importance
of mindfulness, especially mindfulness on
breathing or anapanasati which should be
practiced on a daily basis. Phra Gagan himself
follows this principle and has attained deep inner happiness. He also found that
anapanasati enables awareness of day-to-day business and hence one can always be
on the right track. He concludes that dhamma cures mental sufferings of all kinds.
He jokingly wished that those who rely on addictive substances for happiness would
try to get addicted to anapanasati instead so they could find happiness and peace that
is deeper and much more rewarding than anything they have ever experienced.

Impermanence & worldly conditions

Practicing mindfulness helps Phra Gagan realize the truth
of life and impermanence. As he applied the dhamma to his life,
he could clearly see that being a Bollywood superstar with popularity,
affection and esteem, high income and so on, all come from the “good
look” which is the valuable “asset” that he is lucky enough to have it.
But “good look” will fade, so do popularity, affection and esteem, money and
even people who once wanted to meet him. When that time come, he would be
miserable, lament, bemoan the prosperous days. But now he has a clear and
complete idea of the worldly conditions with both the desirable and the
undesirable ones. He would do his best in th present and when those
worldly winds come, he would be prepared, not suffer, nor be in distress,
or in any pathetic state at all.

This is Phra Gagan’s favorite subject
so he often talked about this subject
as in the picture on the right. As Phra
Gagan practices mindfulness of death
on a daily basis, he affirms that
mindfulness of death is a foolproof way
to change one’s attitude and behaviour.

In early March 2022, Phra Gagan or Ashoko Bhikkhu gave a Dhamma talk at the funeral
service of Mr. Bhichai Rattakul, former Deputy Prime Minister, former Speaker of the
House of Representatives and former President of the National Assembly.

Ways to instil the knowledge of Dhamma in people

Phra Gagan noted that Thailand has a myriad of beautiful temples, yet many Thai
Buddhists are just “good temple-goers” who strictly follow the rites and traditional
ceremonies. For them, all their sufferings are caused by others, and they never look in.
Teaching of the Buddha’s dhamma could not always send the correct messages to them.

Phra Gagan recalled that his “Master” – the Abbot of Wat That Thong, pointed out
clever ways to instil the correct messages of the Buddha in the “not yet ready people.”
as follows:

 Teaching direct and pure Dhamma right from the beginning would be in vain.
 It is better to start with things already familiar to them. There are a lot of

good points in the rites and traditional ceremonies that they love to follow, so
just benefit from that and add some basic Dhamma principles: if they love to
pray, teach them how to pray properly with their mind on the Buddha’s
compassion and try to understand what the prayers teach.
 From that starting point, more essence of the Dhamma can be inserted, bit
by bit, on the topics of their interests and at the level of their understanding.
 This teaching technique is applicable to Buddhists of all countries.

Phra Gagan’s was scheduled to be สิกขัง ปัจจักขามิ คิหีติ มัง ธาเรถะ
in monkhood for two weeks and leave
the monkhood by the end of February ( official phrase for asking to leave the monkhood)
but it was rescheduled to
after the day of Vesak in
mid May. Phra Gagan
Finally left the Monkhood
on 20th May 2022.

Phra Gagan vividly
recalled the very first
minute he put the saffron
robes on. It was like someone
“gave him the water that
quenched his long thirst”.
So he knew from that second
how difficult it would be for him
to leave the yellow robes.
Though deep down he had no
wish to leave the monkhood, he
knew he had to. However, he
intended to be ordained once
again when he could befree of
the worldly burden. Then he
may never have to leave the
serene bliss and tranquility the
under the yellow robe (“kasāva”) again.

Phra Gagan was invited to India in March and April 2022 to enhance the relationship between
Thai and Indian Buddhists. He visited Bodh Gaya, Kushinagar and Maharashtra.

Offering Kheer (Rice pudding milk) Offering Kheer to the Buddha
to the Buddha at Mahabodhi Temple, inside the temple

Praying under the sacred Bodhi tree Navayana Buddhists in Maharashtra

Kushinagar
The Parinirvana Temple
with the Parinirvana Stupa
Parinirvana Stupa: (mahaparinirvana mudra is different from reclining mudra)
This Buddha image is in mahaparinirvana mudra, lying on the right side with the head to the north. His face towards
the west probably indicating the sunset of his life. The statue is a monolithic sculpture carved out of a single block of
sandstone. The image of Buddha was found resting on his right side with 6.1 m long and was rested on a stone couch.

http://oknation.nationtv.tv/blog/print.php?id=794219 Mahaparinirvana mudra Reclining Mudra

Bodhiyalai team presented
a set of Dhamma books
in English version
by Somdet Phra
Buddhaghosacariya

including the latest edition
of “

as “the gift of Dhamma” to
Ashoko Bhikkhu (Phra Gagan).

Bodhiyalai team presented “kāsāva”
and a Buddha statue for the project
84,000 Buddha images for Indian people

(Revival of Buddhism;
from Suvarnabhumi to Buddhaphumi” )

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with the serene bliss and tranquility of the “kāsāva”