Dhamma Delights

Among Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s unique approaches to sharing the Dhamma is to nourish human beings’ intrinsic need for entertainment—the fifth requisite of life along with food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Entertainment venues are necessary, and should be flavored with Dhamma to help stimulate healthy spiritual inquiry. 

BIA’s creators took this legacy as paramount for their design, establishing a Dhamma edutainment center unique to the world. 

The resulting natural and spiritual theater allows minds and hearts to reflect on and absorb the Dhamma through a variety of means beyond written and spoken words.

Many of these offerings are replicas from Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s Suan Mokkh monastery, such as ancient relief sculpture from the earliest Buddhist shrines in India along with numerous paintings, statues and other artwork from all major Buddhist schools. 

These exhibits are integrated into gardens, landscaping and architectural features that reinforce Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s own teachings on the importance of simplicity and the natural world to cultivating our understanding of the Dhamma. 

Works depicting different forms of formal meditation and mindfulness practice complement inviting practice areas, which themselves heighten the uniqueness and beauty of this Dhamma exposition. 

Come discover these Dhamma Delights on your own at anytime during
BIA’s operating hours or join us the first Sunday of each month for a Taste of Liberation

Highlights

kuti8
1 Kuti
Seclusion, Revelations, Resolutions
Five+Pillars+sm
2 Five Pillars
Teachings you can count on one hand
Buddha-Dhamma-Garden
3 Buddha Dhamma Garden
Nature is Dhamma’s best classroom
zen-ox-herding
4 Zen Ox Herding
Realizing the true self
Buddhist+Mission
5 Buddhist Mission
Eradicating obstacles to spiritual awakening
Nalikae
6 Nalikae Coconut Tree
The ultimate liberation from suffering is within our reach
Stone+Carvings
7 Life of the Buddha Stone Carvings
World’s first biography of the Buddha
Progress+of+Insight
8 The Progress of Insight
The journey to Nibbana
Dhamma+Eyes
9 Giving of the Dhamma Eyes
Receive the wisdom, know the truth
Taste+of+Nibbana
10 Taste of Nibbana Room
Come practice! Nibbana is right at the tip of your nose
Wheel+of+Life
11 Wheel of Life Zen Garden
How suffering arises and ceases
Calm+Abiding
12 Paticcasamuppada
A Dependent Origination riddle
Grandma+Grandpa
13 Grandma and Grandpa’s Beans and Sesame
Dependent Origination folktale
Brahma+Creating+the+World
14 Brahma Creating the World
How humans were created
Owata+Patimokkha+Hall
15 Owata Patimokkha Hall
Gather for the Buddha’s first teaching
Turtle-Whiskers-2
16 Turtle Whiskers, Rabbit Antlers, and Frog Horn
Metaphors for non-self and emptiness
Meditation+Hall
17 Meditation Hall
Many messengers, many methods, one sangha
Calm+Abiding
18 Calm Abiding Meditation
Steps of insight meditation
Monkeys+Clensing
19 Monkeys Cleansing their Ears
Do not cling to anything
Origin+of+Wisdom
20 Origin of Wisdom
Begin with the middle path
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