Lodewijk van Gorkom

[ikar]

Witajcie Przyjaciele,
Dziś w nocy zmarł Lodewijk van Gorkom, mąż Niny van Gorkom. Ja zrobie sobie dziś małe odosobnienie.

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[dharmozjad]

He was born in 's-Hertogenbosch on 5 October 1925. [...]
Lodewijk was a diplomat and during his career he held posts in many countries like the Philippines, US, Thailand and Japan and was Dutch ambassador of Indonesia and Austria. Self-evidently he met many political leaders, but moreover many world leaders as well. He retired in 1990. During his career his wife always accompanied him. Especially Thailand was of great spiritual influence on both of them. Here Nina, and also Lodewijk, learned much about Buddhism. Anyone who ever performed an internet search for the name Van Gorkom will have come across the name Nina van Gorkom many times as writer of several books on Buddhism.

[ikar]

dzięki darmozjad,

Tu znalazłem krótką mowę Lodewijka podczas pielgrzymki duchowej. Bardzo wspierająca jak dla mnie.

<This is from a talk that Lodewijk gave in India in 2005. He was travelling with Nina and Khun Sujin and many Thai and foreign friends, and was invited to give this talk to a group of venerable bhikkhus.

Venerable Monks,

On behalf of this group of Thai and foreign pilgrims under the spiritual
leadership of Acharn Sujin Borharnwanaket and the practical leadership of
Mr. Suwat Chansuvithiyanant , I wish to thank you for giving us this
opportunity to perform Sangha Dana and to pay you our deep respect. Your
community of monks reminds us of the vital importance of the Sangha, the
third of the Triple Gem, now and in the future.
Last week, my wife Nina and I celebrated my eightieth birthday by paying
respect to the place Kuru in New Delhi, where the Lord Buddha preached the
Satipatthåna Sutta. Nina recited the text to me and I was, again, struck by
the power of this Sutta and its significance for our daily life.
This morning, I received the most precious birthday present one can wish
for: the honour to carry the relics of the Lord Buddha.
The two most important and happiest events in my life were marrying Nina and
our encounter with Buddhism through the hands of Acharn Sujin who, ever
since, has guided us on the Path and who, during this tour, tirelessly
explained the Dhamma to us, wherever and whenever possible.
Looking back on my life, I feel distressed by the amount of accumulated
akusala committed in the past.
I feel distressed by dukkha, by the burden of the five Khandhas of grasping,
so well explained in the teachings: rúpa khandha, vedanå khandha (feeling),
saññå khandha (remembrance), sankhåra khandha (mental formations) and
viññåna khandha.
I feel distressed by the destructive power of the five hindrances, so
forcefully put forth in the teachings, which are: desire of sense pleasures,
aversion, restlessness and worry, sloth and torpor and doubt.
And yet, I understand at least in theory, that regret of the past makes no
sense, that there is no self in the past, and that it is understanding of
the present moment that counts.
And, in fact, I have every reason to be grateful.
Every day, I am encouraged and inspired by Nina¹s tireless efforts to
understand the Dhamma and to help others to understand it.
I was inspired by the courage of Nina¹s father who recently passed away at
the age of hundred and four and who, despite his incapacities of body and
mind, never gave up and always looked towards the future.
And above all, who should be distressed when he hears the voice of the Lord
Buddha: 'Abandon evil, O monks. One can abandon evil, O monks. If it were
impossible to abandon evil, I would not ask you to do so. But as it can be
done, therefore, I say: Abandon evil!', and similarly on cultivating the
good.
On our long journey towards wisdom, we need the support and the inspiration
of the Sangha and therefore, I urge you, venerable monks, to persevere in
your task of preserving and propagating the teachings.
We thank you for giving us this opportunity to perform Sangha Dåna and as a
token of our thanks, I wish to present to you, Venerable Head Monk, Acharn
Sujin¹s book, A Survey of Paramattha Dhamma, translated from Thai by Nina
and recently published in Bangkok. It is a masterful, all encompassing
treatise on the Dhamma and I hope that it will be of use to your community.>
Lodewijk van Gorkom

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