A Joint Effort

The Editors

The Editors

Since 2017 our editors have been working hard to give everyone a chance to learn about samatha meditation on buddho, a meditation system that has brought us all so much good.

In addition to propagating this system of meditation, we hope to make a valuable contribution to the knowledge of Buddhism and Buddhist meditation, emphasizing clarity, quality and depth in our publications.

To this end, we regularly write and translate texts and post other content that we consider to be of high quality or directly related to the teachings of our teacher Ahba.

Herman

Herman (born 1953) heard of Ahba’s existence for the first time in 1983 and immediately felt the deep desire to meet him and by extension to find him, for at that time Ahba had disappeared without a trace. Together with his current wife, he traveled to Myanmar, where a series of chance encounters led him from village to village and from Myanmar several hundred kilometers across the Thai border, to a small originally Burmese Buddhist monastery, where he found Ahba. Later, Ahba would indicate that he had called Herman because it was time to continue their work. Since that first meeting, which made an indescribable impression on him, Herman has practiced  the meditation system taught by Ahba intensively. In 1998, based on his own acquired morality, concentration and wisdom, Herman was ceremoniously appointed as a meditation teacher by Ahba. Since then he has been guiding anyone interested in samatha meditation on buddho, both on an individual level and during retreats. Herman is the source of many of our Dutch translations and checks all our content for accuracy. Nothing is published without his approval.

Wouter

Shortly after Wouter (born 1983) decided to start meditating he met Herman, under whose guidance he began samatha meditation on buddho in 2005. Not long after, he went to Ahba for his first long retreat. The first meeting with Ahba was a reunion between teacher and disciple and the continuation of a path that originated in the distant past and will continue into the distant future. As Ahba put it to him, “In the previous life we made good karma together, in this life we make good karma together, and in the next life we will continue.” Since then Wouter has regularly gone to Ahba for long intensive meditation retreats where he has also repeatedly ordained as a monk. According to Wouter, the desire for results is the biggest obstacle on the Buddhist path today while the patient development of moral behavior and concentration as a prerequisite for insight is of utmost importance. Wouter manages the website, is the final editor and has written and translated a large part of the texts for the website.

Bob

Bob has been practicing samatha meditation on buddho under Herman’s guidance since 2004. He has visited Ahba several times for longer retreats. In addition, he is a regular participant of the retreats in the Netherlands as organized semi-annually under Herman’s guidance. He not only regularly translates texts for the website, but also makes an indispensable contribution to everything we publish through his meticulous textual control of our Dutch texts and his attention to uniformity.

Rick

Rick has been practicing under the guidance of Herman since 2020. In 2015 he came into contact with Vipassana meditation which inspired him tremendously. After several years of practicing this technique, the desire to live as a monk surfaced. During this time Rick came into contact with Herman, who was incredibly good at guiding him in his process. Not long after that Rick started with the meditation system as taught by Herman. Rick would like to spend some time in a monastery when the time is right. Rick supports the website by translating texts and helps with final editing tasks.

Anonymous Help

In addition to the above-mentioned members of the editorial staff who have worked hard on a large proportion of the Dutch translations, there is another small group of practitioners who help us translate texts. These translators wish to remain anonymous at this time. Nevertheless, we would like to take a moment to thank them for all their efforts.