Freeing the Buddha: A Course on Theravada Buddhism

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In this book you will learn about major and practical areas of the Buddha's teaching in ten prepared classes, which includes meditation, the four noble truths, the Buddhist worldview, karma & rebirth, how to channel and contact your spirit guides (the devas), Buddhist cosmology and history, the path to enlightenment, teaching philosophy and why Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism contradict the Buddha.

Brian Ruhe has been a Buddhist since 1991, was a monk in Thailand and has taught Theravada Buddhism and meditation to over 15,000 people in Adult Ed courses at Capilano University, the Vancouver School Board and meditation retreats in the Vancouver, Canada area for 20 years. He follows the Thai Forest tradition of Ajahn Chah and has thousands of videos online.

"As a university instructor, I know how difficult it sometimes is to teach adults, who often hold entrenched preconceived notions and resist direction. Brian's absolute openness and respect for his students is entirely disarming, he takes every question, comment and challenge seriously, using them to present fresh information and insight into the tenets of Buddhism. His lectures are filled with self-deprecating humour, amusing anecdotes, and everyday examples, making accessible what could be rather heavy material. At the same time, I never doubted the sincerity of his spirituality, which comes across without any tinge of New Age hucksterism. He has a deep life commitment to spreading the Buddha's message. In other words, he is the perfect instructor for both neophytes and experienced practitioners.

What I'm doing with this book and in my life's mission is that I'm after people's mind stream. I want to make imprints on your mind stream so that now and in future lifetimes you will be helped by the information that I am promoting. My intention is to steer people in the direction of the real Buddha while encouraging them to work with pseudo Buddhism. With discriminating insight I have loaded this book full of documented evidence that will dispel false beliefs about Buddhism. This book is about loyalty and honesty. I am loyal to Gotama Buddha so I am honest about Buddhism. Even if uncomfortable for you, the reader, once a message is in your mind stream, then it is planted in the most sensitive field of karma-storage and any suggestions that you have registered with your senses will send seeds into your deepest mental continuum. Therefore, the heart and soul benefits of reading this book can flower now or in lifetimes to come. Perhaps in your next life you will be walking down a hallway and instead of looking at a poster on your left, you will look at a poster on your right and see something about a Buddhist talk, and then you will go to that. That's the kind of influence I want this book to have upon you.

For the reader with a general interest in Buddhism, the two parts of this book progress from an easy to read basic course on meditation and the major aspects of Buddhist wisdom, to a provocative landscape of diverse essays that challenge and stretch the readers' imagination. This book was not written to reinvent the wheel and offer up "just another introduction to Buddhism." To repeat the same teachings printed in many other introductory books on Buddhism would only add further pollution to the world by creating more confusion, diluting the many excellent dharma books available. Not only is this a fresh approach to Buddhism, but this book stirs up dust in areas that most people have not thought of. There are Buddhist teachers who will discuss things privately such as Buddhist views on UFO's, Adolf Hitler and the historical Jesus, but they will not give public talks or publish books about these controversial subjects. In this book I have decided to do just that, because I feel that the subject matter is very important and relevant to our lives, our history and our destiny. Buddhism provides a special cosmological perspective on our modern world, and I believe that this should be shared in Buddhist books. Not only does it help us with a mythology, but it helps to promote Buddhism by relating the dharma to new territories of thought in the Western mind. I feel that people can read and decide for themselves what is the truth.

The title of this book Freeing the Buddha was selected because studies indicate that a provocative title can increase book sales from 5% to 15%. Freeing the Buddha does not mean Freeing the Buddha Within (that's been done before). It literally means freeing the Buddha from the false words that have been put in his mouth. The meaning is appropriate because the author is a Theravada Buddhist and a major theme in this book is about how the Mahayana Buddhists have distorted, diluted and deemphasized the Buddha's words. As a Theravada Buddhist I claim greater orthodoxy and seniority over the entire institution of Mahayana Buddhism. Althought this book is very sympathetic to Mahayana Buddhism, "freeing" means giving back to the Buddha the more central importance that he deserves in the Buddhist religion. This book raises awareness for the need to free the Buddha and his teachings from the cultural traditions that Buddhists have been piling all over him, and to free the Buddha from being associated with false sutras. The tendency to "defer to the guru" can be wrong and cause people to be convinced that the true is false and that the false is true. The "Large Scale Concerns" part of the subtitle was taken from a talk by the Dorje Loppön Lödro Dorje in which he referred to the great compassionate view of the bodhisattvas. "Diversity on a Sacred Path" was chosen because these essays explore how Buddhism relates to the diverse picture of humanity in the world. Also, because of the diverse aspirations of sentient beings, there are diverse ways for people to enter onto the Buddhist path to enlightenment. Below the subtitle it states "a dangerous collection of essays." because Oscar Wilde said, "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."

You hold in your hands a strange, and even more dangerous, book. When you know who wrote it, it makes it stranger, and perhaps even more dangerous. Allow me to explain myself.

Brian Ruhe is a tall, rangy, mild-mannered fellow who is about as intimidating as a rabbit. He is, in many ways, the quintessential monk- gentle, curious, bright, non-confrontational. One can easily imagine him back in Thailand, where he was once ordained a Buddhist monk and given the name Buddhasaro, floating about in a saffron robe. his feet barely touching the ground. Yet as you will see from his writings, underneath this dove-like persona lurks an invisible heavy hand, a hawkish intelligence full of fiery stir-up-the-pot, in your face, piss and vinegar. chutzpah. There is rebelliousness and audacity in this book, yet it is the healthy audacity of a mind not satisfied with status-quo rituals and con- ventions. And in a religion as ancient as Buddhism, such edginess is a welcome breath of fresh air, providing ventilation to an old and vener- able tradition that is in need of interpreters who will remain faithful to its message, yet help us to think for ourselves.

Spiritually, Brian is something of a chip off the old block. His root teacher was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a brilliant, radical, and some- what disconcerting Tibetan master who flamed briefly and brightly in Scotland and North America throughout the tempestuous 70s and 80s, before spinning off the earthly Wheel in 1987 at the young age of 48. Trungpa was one of the most intelligent and courageous Buddhist teachers, and like three other radical Lights of this century-Gurdjieff, Osho, and Adi Da (Da Free John), was severely misunderstood by mediocre, fear-based minds.

As Brian mentions in the Acknowledgements, Trungpa's chief dis- ciple, Osel Tendzin (also passed on), spoke about the need for teachers to not "make it up as you go along," but that such apparent conformity. would not mean a sacrifice in creativity. In this book, Brian has accomplished that. He has resisted the temptation to arrogantly revise an entire faith, and yet in remaining true to the Heart of the Buddha's message, he has found fresh and seminal ways to apply the teachings to subjects as diverse as Jesus, Hitler, Nostradamus, UFOs, military strategy, conspiracy theories, twentieth century history, A Course in Miracles, the Virgin Birth, and the failure of Christianity, amongst others.

When I bought a copy of the second edition of Freeing the Buddha - Diversity on a Sacred Path Large Scale Concerns from Brian it was originally intended as a gesture of friendly support coupled with mild interest in what he had to say. As I began to read through it, though, I became very impressed with the sheer originality of his ideas, as well as the sharp- ness to his writing. Nowadays, it seems that inflammatory writing is not only hip, but needed, given the dangerously sleepy state of affairs on our planet. We live in the era of the T.V. beer ad and artificial reality, our wits dulled and our attention spans reduced to that of virtual reality morons. Life has become one big Star Trek holodeck. People are so bombarded with sensory stimulation, and endless forms of stupid technified nonsense, that they need something different in order to notice anything profound and meaningful, such as the teachings of an Eastern holy man of 2,600 years ago.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages