Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center – Criticism on the Body of Compiled Sutta References by David Johnson

Dhamma Sukha’s Meditation Center – Criticism on the Body of Compiled Sutta References by David Johnson

The Meditation Center in Missouri has preserved a fine method; it comes from a hidden, isolated school of practice in Sri-Lanka known for its cheerful techniques of smiling and relieving tension in the attention-span as a means of permanently eliminating negative attachment-bias.

But the meditation will be covered in a later article. This one is about the Body of Compiled Sutta References and its flagrant, holy-like lapses of interpretation.

I AM... TheAnonPhantasm. Who I am doesn't matter.

But what you'll see below merits attention.

 First and foremost, this is The Buddhist Airplane, a vehicle that changes on the fly. We'll be taking a tour across the Theravada's most apocalyptic mistakes, as well as dissecting the frenzy of some other traditions. Theravada sits, however, on the spotlight for proudly regarding themselves as the philosophical school holding the largest compendium of preserved texts.

 Sometimes exposition alone is enough to paint the whole picture, but I will try to provide minimal analysis. As some say, “good marketing makes a bad product even more avoidable”.

(I) THE POWER OF ATTAIN JHANA ONE TIME [sic] by David Johnson

“Attain Jhana one time and you will be reborn in High Heaven Realm”

Nice. But the phrase has since struck me as blatant advertisement. Maybe it should have been featured on an outdoor.

Let’s take a look at his commentary:

“The most important idea in backing up Bhante's teaching that if you practiced jhana and experienced any jhana level then you would automatically be reborn in the highest jhana realm corresponding to what you practiced and attained. For example:  If only first jhana then rebirth in the first jhana realm. Rebirth is very pleasant and is one Aeon long there. 2nd Jhana Etc. [1]

 The below sutta goes on for all of the jhanas in the same way but here is the first part. It is suttacentral translation and not very good at all but I am going to change a little bit of the text to Bhikkhu Bodhi's text which is much clearer. [2].

I want to make the point that many people think that to be reborn in a brahma loka means you have to BE IN that jhana at the moment of death. [3]. That appears to not be the case(luckily). You only need to BE ABLE to experience, through a normal sitting you might do,  or two or three as you need that you have been to the first jhana a few times and be able to get back to it again. THEN you essentially have locked it in and only if you commit any of the 5 heinous crimes (Killing an arahant/Mother/Father, causing a schism, wounding a Buddha) [4], then you would definitely be reborn into that very pleasant first jhana realm.   No matter what trouble you may have been in. Even lots of precept breaking previously.” [5]

[1]. It’s difficult to read because he lacks the ability to write. And ‘being automatically reborn in the highest jhana realm corresponding to what you attained’ is not what poor departed Vimalaramsi said at all, at least as far as I’m concerned. This is what his interpretation of the suttas said on behalf of Vimalaramsi. In fact, Bhante had a curious tendency of avoiding mysticism and detailed moral analysis in his talks, preffering instead to focus on expounding Sri-Lanka’s newly found meditating methods in the West.

[2.] Nice punctuation.

[3.] I actually agree. If this were to be true, I’d pity all murder victims on this Earth who would be reborn ‘in deprivation’ because they felt fear and stress, as well as any meditation practitioner who just happened to be very sick at their final moments and couldn’t properly maintain concentration to ascend. Chaos would be the result of such natural laws.

[4]. This is one of my favorites all across the spectrum. According to Johnson, our nearly self-declared prophet, murdering culturally-sacred figures such as the enlightened beings or our mothers and fathers is the only exception to the jhana’s magical powder. (Maybe the ‘Arahants’ have a case for it due to their highly elevated mind, but not the ‘mothers and fathers’. The sutta of the ‘immediate retribution’ is highly problematic. We’ll discuss it later).

[5]. See what he is implying here? If you attain Jhana once during meditation you will rise above any and all morality. In this dream-like world, you can murder, murder and steal, rape and shoot an entire school. If you happened to magically hit that sweet jhana spot right before turning monstrous, the Chaos Universe will lead you to bliss right after you die. And you can even enlighten yourself from the upper realms with no strings attached. As they say, “I fought the law and I won”.

But maybe you need to see more?

Well, if you have that inverted masochist perception the suttas speak of, then press on.

(II). When you are reborn in the formless realms after practicing Jhana (Absorption) meditation your next rebirth may be HELL - not the Human or Deva realm! But Sotapannas and Sakadagamis are reborn into the jhana realm and remain there until they attains nibbana. NO RETURN [sic] by David Johnson

Look at the letters! I’m sure I’ve seen them somewhere else…

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in HELL, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ”

― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

“Let’s be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true. Nothing outside of God and His truth should be sacred to us. And so it is with HELL.”

― Francis Chan

“If Jesus, the Lord of Love and Author of Grace spoke about HELL more often, and in a more vivid, blood-curdling manner than anyone else, it must be a CRUCIAL TRUTH.”

― Tim Keller

We’ll discuss the problematic sutta he is quoting separately.

See where this is going? Do I even need to bring his opinion on actors and...

HELL?

One last thing.

"There is a plague and sickness and Famine in Vasali. the Buddha is called in to help. He says as a result of Karma all the beings here are experiencing this disaster.  It is by Karma from previous lives. He gave the solution to chant the Ratana Sutta for 7 days. He instructs Ananda to chant this sutta in the city for 7 days. At the end the rains came and cleansed the area and the plague and famine were gone. This is a suitable story in this time of Pandemics and Viruses!  Chant the sutta now!" (Excerpt by David Johnson).

By blindly accepting that sutta he believes chanting can shy away plague and famine. Just how many, exactly, christians, muslims and hindi have chanted through History with the power of personal conviction to try and morph the laws of physics at will? David really thinks this will work just because it's buddhism? He behaves like a devout extremist; their existence in religion is widespread like plankton. "Only this is right, everything else is wrong. The false, ineffective logic doesn't work elsewhere but don't worry it will work here because I am right, and this is right and holy, and everything works like magic and you better believe it or you will suffer a lot!".

 Certainly none of these fairy-tale esque events will occur if he chants the sutta around waiting for the devas to descend and perform a miracle against nature. It has never once happened with other religions and it won't happen with Buddhism either. Reality works very differently. If David really wants to help those affected by disaster and famine, he should set up a charity tent near the earthquake epicenter, not "chant charming words".

I think that's enough. You can see where he draws his certainty from: blind faith and superstition. There are, however, some observations in his compilation that are worthy of consideration. I don't recommend you try to salvage them as I did. If you want something useful from the Dhamma Sukha Center that's the opposite of what we've covered here, practice their online loving-kindness/forgiveness videos as a test run.

 Is David Johnson crazy? Maybe. We can’t ignore this glaring evidence and his conviction of the illogical is appalling. What is he doing, then? Something else that isn't his "Dhamma", that's our guess. But if he is truly delirious, then why is he forcing his delirium across the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center’s website? Frankly, he needs to step down from his role as webmaster and his compilation needs to be encrypted in a bin. Their meditation is worth checking out, but Johnson is acting as a counter-force to its attractiveness. I wonder how many people framed the Center – with reason dancing in front of their eyes – as a fanatical sect after checking his compilation by chance. Many people, if they come in contact with this level of deformity and madness, won’t be so eager to try their meditation. Brainwashed instructors may try to shift their blame to said people, cursing they have lost a lot of merit because they have become unbelievers.

 So he should be humble enough to step aside. This incompetent ignorant man should be restricted from delivering face-to-face Dhamma talks, Youtube Talks and Sutta Analysis or else risk compromising the legitimacy of whole organization – which, again, isn't a bad one. Perhaps he can still teach the TWIM meditation. Perhaps… 

David Johnson's commentaries on the suttas are a toxic waste. Be sure to wear a radiation suit when reading it.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

By TheAnonPhantom

(I am The Anon Phantasm. I’ve come from the realm of the hungry shades – no, Mara himself – to deceive you! Whahahaha! Turn back, turn back to safety! I can also be multiple phantasms. Maybe you can guess us out by knowing the writing style? Hmm...)

(This is a zero rights text. I don't care even if I'm mentioned or not, or if the source is linked back or not).