Sujin Boriharnwanaket

Thailand

Sujin Boriharnwanaket’s great contribution to Buddhism is to bring people, through her talks, to a right understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. Her talks are based strictly on the Tipitaka and the commentaries and are given in a clear, straightforward and pleasant way. In them she shows both monastics and lay people that, to practice the Buddha’s teachings, one does not have to adopt a mode of living which is different from one’s everyday life. With right understanding of the teachings one can follow them completely in any circumstances or walk of life.

Sujin Boriharnwanaket was born in Ubon Ratchathani , Thailand on January 13th, 1927 . She received her primary and secondary education at St. Mary’s School in Bangkok . She then pursued her studies at the Pre –University School of Triam Udom before going on to Chulalongkorn University where she studied for two years in the Faculty of Accountancy.

In 1953 she studied Abhidhamma at the Buddhist Association of Thailand. Then in 1966 she was asked by a group of foreigners who were interested in studying Buddhism to teach them Abhidhamma at Wat Mahathat Yuvarajrangsarit. Because of her determination to understand the Tipitaka more deeply she went to Mahamakut Library at Wat Bovornnives Vihara every Wednesday afternoon in order to do research and to have discussions on the Tipitaka and commentaries with both monks and laypersons proficient in Pali.

From 1967 to 1976 Sujin Boriharnwanaket gave public talks on The Path Leading to Enlightenment in the meeting hall of Wat Mahathat Yuvarajrangsarit every Sunday afternoon. Her talks have been broadcasted throughout Thailand by many radio stations ever since that time. From 1976 to 1992 she gave talks on the same subject at Wat Bovornnives Vihara.

It was on the first of August 1984 that the Dhamma Study Group became the Dhamma Study and Support Foundation with Sujin Boriharnwanaket as the first president of its working committee. The main objectives of the Foundation are to study the Buddha’s teachings, to follow them exactly and to make them known precisely as they are given in the Tipitaka through her talks.

Many books have been compiled from Sujin Boriharnwanaket’s talks. These are available both in Thai and English as is her Survey of Paramattha Dhamma, which is a concise, lucid and thorough account of what the Buddha taught. All these books as Dhamma gifts are obtainable from the Foundation at: 174/1 Soi Charoen Nakorn 78; Daokhanong, Thonburi; Bangkok 10600 Thailand ; Tel. (66) 02-468-0239; www.dhammahome.com.

In 1985 Sujin Boriharnwanaket received an award from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhon the Crown Princess of Thailand for her contribution to Buddhism, and in 2002 Mahamakut University conferred on her an honorary Master’s degree in Religion.

Sujin Boriharnwanaket has spent more than 45 years giving talks on the Path leading to Enlightenment. She says that life is only the mental phenomena (nama) and the physical phenomena (rupa), which arise and fall away very rapidly. There is no self, no being at all. To realize this one should develop awareness of the mental phenomenon or physical phenomenon which appear through one of the five senses and the mind. Thus insight (panna) is gradually developed to realize there is no self, a being to which to cling. Sujin Boriharnwanaket pays deep respect to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha through studying the Buddha’s teaching in the Tipitaka and through applying what she has studied.