VIDEO: Vision for an American Dharma center: Ven. Vimalaramsi (dhammasukkha.org)
In the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, 25 year meditation veteran Bhante Vimalaramsi hopes to build an entire village for people to practice meditation and the Five Precepts. He teaches a type of Dharma that ignores the commentaries -- a strange thing in Burmese Theravada -- and instead reinterprets the sutras directly in at times novel (at times outlandish) ways. He explains that he was inspired to do so by a Sri Lankan monk, who is not named but who is shown briefly. (It seems to be Ven. Punnaji, who is known for irking others with unique interpretations of the texts, as he does in this video on the "real" meaning of meditation). More>>
