Don Swearer was never ordained at Suan Mokkh, but he is a brilliant scholar of Buddhadasa Bhikkhus life and works. He had even recommended the revered monk to divide his sermons into series, keep an audio recording of each and every one of them, and compile and transform them into book form later. Since Buddhadasa took up Ajarn Don’s suggestion, we now have a sizeable collection of his works—a real treasure.

The tradittonal artist of Siam had little connection with the credo of the modern artist. He did not try to work in an original, individual style. He did not aim at expressing his own personality or his particular philosophy; in fact, he rarely signed his name to the work. Even as an individual he may have been one part of a painting team, perhaps a specialist in painting architecture or figures. The murals seem to have been planned or directed by one person, and the wat records occasionally give a name, but a close inspection of the various scenes will reveal slight differences of line and technique like the differences in handwriting of individuals even if they are copying the same model.

This lecture "Some Marvellous Aspects of Theravada Buddhism" was delivered by Than Achan Buddhadasa in the second session conference of the Sixth Sangayana at Maha-pasanaguha, Rangoon, Burma, on December 6, 1950. The conference was attended by learned people of Theravada Buddhism. The lecture is another very interesting one which shows learnedness of the lecturer, who was so much honored while being so young. Since it is hardly available for people to read, the Vuddhidhamma Fund for Dhamma Study and Practice republishes it once more to preserve the original manuscript and to benefit dhamma-studying people in general.

The content of this book was delivered about thirty years ago in front of a group of university students who joined the monastic life for only a temporary period of time. It was a time when western culture and modem technology and even political ideological concepts were beginning to exert their respective influences on the Thai thinking and way of life, causing some young people to become western-orientated and seemed to pay no heed to the traditional concepts of values from their own culture.

The content of this book was delivered about thirty years ago in front of a group of university students who joined the monastic life for only a temporary period of time. It was a time when western culture and modem technology and even political ideological concepts were beginning to exert their respective influences on the Thai thinking and way of life, causing some young people to become western-orientated and seemed to pay no heed to the traditional concepts of values from their own culture.