Dr. Tan Kheng Khoo

Happy New Year to all my friends at KFDh.

I want to share a website I stumbled across as I was researching some of Tony Parsons' works (thanks to MikeB for the intro to Parsons!).

Dr. Tan has some interesting and relevant things to say about enlightenment, awakening, spirituality, et al that I hope you will all find interesting and useful. I'd never heard of Dr. Tan before and wonder if any of you have read or otherwise had access to his material?

Also, would be most interested in knowing your thoughts about this particular writing which Dr. Tan calls a "must read" on his site: www.kktanhp.com/a_simple_practice_of_awakening.htm

His homepage is here: www.kktanhp.com/index.htm

Thanks,

John

Hi John,

Happy New Year, and thanks for posting these links. It will be fun to discuss Dr. Tan's ideas. The first thing that jumps out at me is Dr. Tan's statement, on his home page, that "every essay is written after much research and study of many books (10 to 20)." In his essay, "The Path of Awakening," he mentions his own spiritual history, but doesn't say anything that would lead us to believe that he is awake or enlightened. This is important, of course, because in the realm of, for example, surfing, most of us would grant more credibility to an accomplished surfer than to someone who only reads about surfing.

There are other reasons to believe that Dr. Tan's conclusions are mere speculation based on scholarship. He writes, for example, that "in Theravada Buddhism you really have to be a Buddhist monk to successfully practice the path." Dr. Tan should perhaps read this forum. I believe there is a growing body of evidence to support the conclusion that the insights described in Theravada Buddhist texts are being gained by householders around the world as the techniques become more widely known.

Dr. Tan also claims that "in Christianity, only the Catholic monks and nuns in a monastery are encouraged to practice to be united with God." I am not Christian, but my understanding is that there are numerous popular (and less popular) movements within Christianity that are aimed at direct apprehension of the divine or Absolute.

Dr. Tan writes that "the intricacies and difficulties (of the spiritual paths within Taoism, Islam, and Christianity) have produced hardly any 'saint' or 'enlightened' person lately." How many is "hardly any," and how could we know that?

My initial impression is that Dr. Tan has written extensively about something he knows surprisingly little about.

Kenneth

Dr Tan reminds me of another teacher/writer I follow, Bill Bodry. His website is a bit of hard-sell, www.meditationexpert.com/zen-buddhism-tao/index.htm .

But I believe he has good intention in mind and his writing reflect his genuine practice. I have bought a couple of his paid ebooks and found them quite good.

"
Dr. Tan writes that "the intricacies and difficulties (of the spiritual paths within Taoism, Islam, and Christianity) have produced hardly any 'saint' or 'enlightened' person lately." How many is "hardly any," and how could we know that?

"

He seems to be refering to Theravada, Hinduism and Zen in the quote you mention, not Taoism, Islam and Christianity. He seems to be saying that although of the paths he's mentioned these three include the possibility of awakening, unlike the others, they nevertheless don't seem to him to be producing many realizers lately-- in Asia, presumably. Just a clarification.
--Jake

He does seem rather didactic though doesn't he? "We'll never know what (Tolle's and Parson's) realizations are like ... compared to ... Ramana ... Dogen etc..." What the hell is he talking about? I haven't read much, so maybe I'm missing something. Maybe he was good friends with Dogen and Ramana, but for some reason will never meet the still living Tolle or Parsons, and thus has some first hand experience with how the "well known characters" (i.e., the dead guys) expressed their enlightenment in real life, ut will never have such first hand experience of Tolle and Parsons and thus is not able to "compare their realizations". Otherwise he'd just be comparing what these four guys wrote, which doesn't make any sense in the context of his statement. Right?
The issue of radically different processes of awakening between the meditative schools and the schools in which more spontaneaus awakenings occur through dialogue, group participation, in short--- transmission --is interesting however. Particularly since the latter used to be the province of devotional-style paths, it seems, although lately there are more teachers offering this sort of thing without that social structure. I'm thinking of Peter Fenner and perhaps the Great Freedom people, and some elements of the Big Mind process for example.
Jake

Yep, his description of his actual practice is interesting enough, but you can find this stuff or something similar in any decent non-dual teacher without all the eccentric didactic opinions.

"(thanks to MikeB for the intro to Parsons!).
"

YW ... didnt think it raised a tremour but glad it gave at least one person a new avenue of enquiry

"Hi John,

Happy New Year, and thanks for posting these links. It will be fun to discuss Dr. Tan's ideas. The first thing that jumps out at me is Dr. Tan's statement, on his home page, that "every essay is written after much research and study of many books (10 to 20)." In his essay, "The Path of Awakening," he mentions his own spiritual history, but doesn't say anything that would lead us to believe that he is awake or enlightened. This is important, of course, because in the realm of, for example, surfing, most of us would grant more credibility to an accomplished surfer than to someone who only reads about surfing.

There are other reasons to believe that Dr. Tan's conclusions are mere speculation based on scholarship. He writes, for example, that "in Theravada Buddhism you really have to be a Buddhist monk to successfully practice the path." Dr. Tan should perhaps read this forum. I believe there is a growing body of evidence to support the conclusion that the insights described in Theravada Buddhist texts are being gained by householders around the world as the techniques become more widely known.

Dr. Tan also claims that "in Christianity, only the Catholic monks and nuns in a monastery are encouraged to practice to be united with God." I am not Christian, but my understanding is that there are numerous popular (and less popular) movements within Christianity that are aimed at direct apprehension of the divine or Absolute.

Dr. Tan writes that "the intricacies and difficulties (of the spiritual paths within Taoism, Islam, and Christianity) have produced hardly any 'saint' or 'enlightened' person lately." How many is "hardly any," and how could we know that?

My initial impression is that Dr. Tan has written extensively about something he knows surprisingly little about.

Kenneth"

Yes, his bonafides seem a little weak - I was just curious about his ideas on practice. Sound or no?

For my interest, i read his article on samatha and found this quote

www.kktanhp.com/samatha.htm

We can enter into the Jhanic states only when we are able to eradicate the five hindrances, namely (1) Sensual desire (2)Ill-will (3) Sloth and Torpor (4) Restlessness and Worry (5) Sceptical Doubt.
At the first intimations of the 1st Jhana, there is only a very swift dip into it...

This seems obvious now after I see it in writing

"Yes, his bonafides seem a little weak - I was just curious about his ideas on practice. Sound or no?"

It's hard to find out what his lineage is. In www.kktanhp.com/a_simple_practice_of_awakening.htm he listed six religions 1) Theravada Buddhism 2) Hinduism 3) Zen Buddhism 4) Taoism 5) Islam and 6) Christianity, and said in the next line that you need to have a guru or go to this full time to experience enlightenment. His writing on Buddhism and Taoism is like a student paper written after reading books on it.



But here is a gem from www.kktanhp.com/spiritual_practices.htm describing how one proceed to the 8th jhana. (I hope he is writing from experience)

One now has to transmute this fused subject-object into nothingness. By removing the fused subject-object he ends up in Boundless Space, which is the 5th Jhana. Then the next 6th stage is the withdrawal inwards of one's attention to Boundless Consciousness

imho, if one is inclined to read online teaching, it is better to read Bill Bodry than Dr. Tan

Thanks, jin...lin,

After reading more of Dr. Tan's writing, I agree with yours and others' thoughts about him and I don't have a lot of confidence in his first-hand knowledge of the subjects he addresses.

I appreciate the info re: Bill Bodry -- I will check his writings out as well.