Pure Inspiration
Recollections of the great German monk Ven. Ñāṇavimala.
Recollections of the great German monk Ven. Ñāṇavimala.
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Ven. Ajahn Brahmavaṁso – 56<br />
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi then advised that we should pay our respects to<br />
another monk whom I had never heard of before, an ageing German<br />
monk called Ñāṇavimala. It was as if the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi<br />
was saving the best treat for the last. I recall Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi<br />
saying that Ven. Ñāṇavimala doesn’t speak very much so we should<br />
just enter the room, pay our respects and then leave. Ven. Bhikkhu<br />
Bodhi waited outside.<br />
It was over an hour before we left that room. What happened inside<br />
remains with me today as the best Dhamma Talk that I have ever had<br />
the good karma (accumulated merit) to listen to! It was worth the<br />
whole journey from Australia to Colombo to experience. The<br />
Venerable Ñāṇavimala wove quotes from the suttas together with<br />
explanations from his own experience into such a symphony of<br />
Dhamma that I left not with stars in my eyes, but with more like<br />
Dhammacakka wheels in my eyes! They would call it ‘Awesome’<br />
today.<br />
I felt so sorry for the kind Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. When we emerged he<br />
asked where we had been. When we replied that we had just heard a<br />
rip-roaring Dhamma Talk from Ven. Ñāṇavimala, Ven. Bhikkhu<br />
Bodhi lamented that Ven. Ñāṇavimala rarely if ever gives such talks<br />
and he had missed it!<br />
I never had the good fortune to meet Ven. Ñāṇavimala again but that<br />
one chance meeting will never be forgotten. A photo of the Ven.<br />
Ñāṇavimala hangs in our dānasāla (dining hall) in Perth alongside<br />
other great and inspiring monks.
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