For some months now, J. Clifford has been writing on the phenomenon of Ram Bahadur Bomjon, also known simply as Ram Bomjon in the news (links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5). To recap, Ram Bomjon is a 16-year-old boy born and living in the village of Ratnapur who allegedly is in the process of transforming into the next incarnation of the Buddha. It has been claimed that the so-called “Buddha Boy” has been sitting under a pipal tree in uninterrupted meditation since May of 2005. According to the set of people who surround and control access to Ram Bomjon, he asserted just before sitting down that he was entering into a six-year meditative state in order to attain enlightenment, a la the original Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. According to the same set of people who surround and control access to Bomjon, he:
- has not stirred from his meditation since May 2005,
- has had nothing to eat since May 2005,
- has continued meditating even after being bitten by a snake,
- and has caused two mute people in proximity to him to begin to speak.
Is this true? To date, it has been impossible to say, since those surrounding Ram Bomjon refuse to permit access to him, suspiciously shrouding him from sight at regular intervals. The committee in control of Bomjon say that any close approach or physical contact will disrupt his meditation (although a snake bite apparently could not). In the meantime, photographs clearly show that Ram Bomjon has moved.
And now, more news has leaked out, thanks to Kantipur, the Nepalese news agency. The first piece of news is that the committee controlling access to Ram Bomjon has liberalized their conditions of access to the boy Buddha: although they once did not let anyone come closer than 50 meters (164 feet) away from Buddha, they have since decided that in order to verify that Ram Bomjon is alive, visitors may now come as close to him as… 25 meters! That’s 82 feet, folks. What’s more, visitors may only remain at the 82-foot distance for thirty seconds. Is standing 82 feet away from a person for thirty seconds sufficient to know what’s really going on with that person?
Second, there have been increasing calls for investigation and empirical confirmation that Ram Bomjon has really been living since May 2005 without eating, drinking or moving. In response, the committee controlling access to Ram Bomjon has made a great deal of inviting two scientific teams to observe Ram Bomjon. The first team was allowed to stand within 16 feet of Ram Bomjon for thirty minutes. They saw that he was breathing and moved his eyelashes, but were unable to gather any other information because of the restrictions placed upon them. Team members reported that “He needs to be thoroughly examined” and “Just by examining the glucose level in his blood, it can be easily found out whether he has eaten or not.” These requests were denied. The second team was sent to the site with similar restrictions, and so was unable to complete a report.
Third, a team of seven Buddhist monks has been sent from the Pharping Monastery to observe Ram Bomjon, also from a distance. Their conclusion? Meditation in Buddhism is unextraordinary, there is not currently reason to conclude that Bomjon is the new Buddha, and “his body must be scientifically examined to know whether he has eaten or not.”
Fourth, security officials report that a large majority of income derived from the selling of Ram Bomjon CDs, t-shirts, and photographs at the site go to Maoist rebels in need of funds.
Let’s review:
- A group of people claim that a boy has entered into a meditative state in which he has not had anything to eat or drink and has not moved since May of 2005.
- They’re calling him the Boy Buddha.
- This same group won’t let visitors within 82 feet of Bomjon, and only then for thirty seconds.
- This same group has regularly used barriers to remove Bomjon from sight.
- Special investigative teams weren’t allowed to physically examine Bomjon.
- Those teams say they cannot verify the Ram Bomjon claims.
- Buddhist authorities themselves say it’s not approporiate to refer to Bomjon as a new Buddha.
- It appears proceeds from Ram Bomjon sales are going to Maoist rebels.
The Ram Bomjon phenomenon has been referred to by many people as a great mystery. I agree, but perhaps not in the manner they intend. To me, the mystery is not how a boy manages to survive nine months without eating, drinking or moving. To me, the mystery is why people are proving so eager to believe that this is the case when there is no affirmative evidence beyond the claims themselves to support these claims. To me, the mystery is why a committee would refuse to allow multiple teams to test those claims. To me, the mystery is why people aren’t more skeptical about the monetary interests of the people who are in control of access to this “Buddha Boy.” To me, the mystery is why people aren’t paying much attention to the respected Buddhist monks who say there’s no reason to think Ram Bomjon is a Buddha.
I don’t know what the resolution to this mystery is. I do, however, have a suspicion that this matter is much more about the desire of needy people to believe something special than it is about the digestive, meditative and exercise habits of a 16-year-old boy named Ram Bomjon.
no more comments from me after this and i wont be checking here, so don’t bother replying to me. I can see, Jim, that you are clearly a very ignorant person. If there is any hope for you, then I hope that hope will guide you to a place free of ignorance. Your life is obviously very shallow too, with no meaning.
This may sound defensive, but it is not, I assure you, I am only pointing some things out ;] bye
btw, i just want to say this generally and not to anyone specifically…many religious people get caught up in so much bullshit, they think they know what truth is or what God is, but they have no clue. The word “God” might aswell not exist because its meaning has become so distorted, and dangerous. It’s really lame when people just accept beliefs just because their family believed in them and brought them up to do the same. Science is good (although limited to the senses right now…except quantum physics). Blind faith is not. Figure things out, people. If you observe and analyse yourself and life, you will realise that God does exist. Not some dude that sits up in a throne in the heavens, but God in reality is everything. Quantum physics says it is a field of energy and information, in a void of energy of information. They say that field is consciously intelligent because it created itself. That is what some people call God. But whatever you call it, it doesn’t matter.
Excuse the lecture, I know it has nothing to do directly with the Ram BomJon thing, but I wanted to write that anyway, and i dont care what any1 says because im not coming back here, so bye.
The rhetorical tactic is called reductio ad absurdum.
You know, Dom, if you are 17 as you say:
You’ll encounter lots of people who will try the same thing in college. There will be a heated, earnest and intense discussion among people about some social, religious, or political subject. Then someone will join the conversation and say, “Well, I’m offended by the whole tenor of this discussion. I think we ALL KNOW why some people are saying what they’re saying here…. I’m just hurt, and I can’t be a part of this discussion anymore with the hateful comments going on…” and then they’ll give a knowing glare and leave the room, leaving everybody to guess and reconstruct what might have caused such dramatic offense.
It’s a passive-aggressive tactic — meaning a way for someone to intuit something without having to prove it, a way for someone to place wild card asterisks where an argument would be, a way for someone to look knowing without demonstrating knowing, and finally a way for someone to ask to be emotionally taken care of.
That’s what you just did. Maybe it passes muster in high school. Maybe it will pass muster in your college dorm room conversation. But you should know that it doesn’t pass muster in grown-up conversation. Don’t just drop off a few comments about how you’re so offended and nobody can live up to your standards, and by the way you’re moving on now. Stick around and have the courage to join a conversation in which what you say is actually challenged as much as you challenge what others say.
If you are up for it, describe the ignorance and shallowness you see in me — specifically. Do you mean that I don’t see the world the way you do? Or do you mean something else? Use your desire to question to tell us specifically what you saw — and didn’t see — in the video. Look up the experience of other people who end up doing something for 36 hours straight, and see what is possible in human experience. Then consider the months Ram Bomjon was said by his handlers to have remained in the same position without eating or drinking, and talk about the possibilities in the same terms — or explain why different terms are necessary, in an explicit and specific way.
Engage other people. Define the words you use. Sharpen your argument. That’s how we all learn and grow.
First of all Jim, I know reductio ad absurdum is your favorite rhetorical device (google the wikipedia article, Dom, for an overview of types of arguments) but Jim, whatever point you are trying to make about the 30 cigarettes and the anti-christ has not been made. I didn’t follow your point at all. Perhaps I need a drink on New Year’s Eve after all.
It’s a pretty good point Dom made that Bomjon sat for 36 hours straight with a camera on him. That doesn’t sound like some sort of prank. It sounds to me like a sincere religious thing. But your point, Jim, about Bomjon being without food for months at a time and still being alive makes me think something about Bomjon’s handlers is not on the up and up. When you get right down to it, what can you now about anyone’s motives. Who can read minds? All you can know is what they say and what they do.
No, Dom I don’t think Jim is either shallow or ignorant or has a meaningless life. I do think he is not good at recognizing spiritual values, or at charting his own spiritual territory. Also sometimes he likes to pick an arbitrary position to argue from just to make the other person think or to see what they will say.
I like the way you merge the definition of god with quantum physics. It’s the closest I have come to understanding god so far. If you are saying what I think you are saying, then you, Jim, me and others are all part of an information and awareness grid that is god.
Hello Jim,
I respect what you are saying, and I would like to state a few points in reply to your post. As I said there was no need to reply, but whether you reply this next time or not doesn’t bother me because I won’t be here.
First off, I would like to say I am not argueing. Argueing is not something I am interested in – I would rather get on with life.
You were saying about human potential. Well from my own experience I know about human potential, and the great achievements that are possible for man. Why? Well, I practice guitar 5 – 12 hours a day, and the results seem to be paying off.
Your point about “passive-agressive tactic” does not apply to me. I need not go into the reasons why, but that was not my frame of mind, and I am not interested in whether you believe that or not, but I am just going to say that is the honest truth.
I can and do emotionally take care of my self.
I was not offended, and I have no standards for people to meet.
I go to college and I do not encounter these things as you say I will. I am only studying music anyhow.
I shall not be sticking around, because I have to get on with things. This is not a matter of courage.
I am not up for those things you were stating, because I should be going now.
I like to be honest about things, and I would like to say that one of the reason’s I’m here is an egotistical one. Even me writing this post now is me being egotistical. I’m trying to defend what you were saying in a sense, but also because, to me, what I am saying is the truth. I will use this information to try and improve myself for the better. Jim, why are you here? and why is everyone else who is here, here? You may say you are here to discuss RamBomjon, but go beyond that, and really try to understand why you are here. Most arguements are an ego-scene. I think we should stop playing mind games.
I hope everyone has a happy new year.
Thank you.
Dom.
Any number of people can sit for 36 hours straight with a camera on them, especially from a distance, as these cameras were, and without a physical inspection of Bomjon, which was also missing. That’s a nice parlor trick, but it doesn’t establish anything about Bomjon’s super-special spiritual status.
My point was to show the weakness in the next standard that Dom set out: hey, you try it! I know I can’t do it! If you can’t do it, then Bomjon must be some super-special spiritual guy. Well, I can say the same about cigarettes, then, can’t I?
I’m here because I write for this blog. I write this blog because I like to share my thoughts, read others’ thoughts, and engage in argument — not in the sense of yer mom yelling at you to take yer shoes off the coffee table, but to set up standards, bring knowledge to the table, and sharpen both through interaction. I write this blog because there are things going on in this world that I think other people may want to know about. I write this blog because I think that politics is too important to be left to the politicians, religion is too important to be controlled by the mullahs and bishops, knowledge is too important to be left to the academics, and generally any life activity of ours is too important to be left up to the controlling institutions that try to massage us into a place comfortable for them.
The point of meditating is not that it is physically grueling, as practicing music for 12 hours at a time or smoking 30 cigarettes would be physically grueling.
If you remember, at one point the original Buddha lived in the forest with monks who physically deprived themselves. He also spent the first part of his life in luxury, since he was born a prince. Neither way–physical overabundance or physical deprivation–was the path to enlightenment, he decided. The string that is not stretched tight enough does not play music. The string that is stretched too tight breaks. Buddha’s way is the Middle Path.
The point of meditating is to reach some sort of inner spiritual experience of detachment from the world, as a preparation for death and rebirth. As I recall, there are also measurable physical effects like decreased heart rate. We can only see that Bomjon was sitting still at certain times when the public was permitted to see him. We can’t see his inner experience. We can’t know if this is really preparing him for death and rebirth.
What’s wrong with doing something egotistical? If the purpose of your life is to promote someone else’s life, then what is the purpose of their life?
I read this blog to stay informed about politics, especially before visiting my conservative relatives, and secondarily to be entertained. I also try to defend spirituality in general from a maintream protestant point of view without defending the stupid things people do in the name of religion. I love Arabs and am often frustrated by them.
If a politician somewhere does something stupid or crooked, you can bet Jim or someone else here will write about it. If someone like Mel Gibson uses profanity or an ethnic slur, they will tell you exactly what he said, instead of beating around the bush. They also track voting records for members of congress and publish a scorecard for each. You can find a link to it somewhere on their front page, so you can see how your elected officials are representing you.
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I wonder if a more appropriate title might turn out to be: “The Boy with the Divinely, (Discreetly Concealed) I.V. Feeding Tubeâ€â€¦.HMMMM?
Does anyone here remember the old Fakir’s “hidden jointed stick platform†levitation trick? If they can hide a support crutch apparatus behind a linen cloth so cleverly, to make it appear that a trickster can suspend himself in mid-air, (or a breathing tube, similarly buried and run into a “buried alive yogi’s†coffin), then what are the odds that an intravenous feeding/hydration tube could be similarly cleverly concealed in a tree trunk, or underground, and run into a vein somewhere in the boy’s body, such as into a hip, leg, etc.?
I’ve seen some pretty clever deceptions in my time, so…
There’s 2 groups of people here. Those more interested in whether he eats or not. The other having a suspicion or some even knowing that he is on his journey to attain god.
I hope one day he emerges as a great spiritual teacher.
We should let him do what he has to do and if thats to be a spiritual teacher, then good. If it’s not then we will have to wait for another.
I’ve been told that spiritual guidance is given whenever a person is ready.
So now we must wait.
i beleive he should be tested then we can sewe if he is lying or this is real stuff this is the only way i’ll beleive i mean lights coming from his head is sign of a very spiritual person, cathcing on fire is simply amazing, when he is tested then we can all be put to rest seeing if he is really a holy indiviual and change all our releigions but if not well what can i say!!
The boy does not claim to be Buddha and I am not even sure if he is claiming not to be eating or drinking. He interests me for after meditation under a wise old tree for many years he may indeed become enlightened by God and have something valuable to preach to us.
I can see why he wants to leave home – his family have created a circus ring around their son and are taking money for the freak show.
After spending a couple more years under a wise old tree I hope God enlightens him – the first people he needs to preach to are … his own family. When your child tells you they want some space – don’t follow them around and set up a camp next to them. When your child tells you they have an important message to tell people in the future – that is enough to be happy with – you don’t have to tell everyone he bursts into flames and doesn’t eat or drink for extra attention. And finally, when a child has a talent – don’t cash in on it for your own selfish means!!!!!
The question often arises if the meditation of Ram Bahadur Bomjon is true or not, but the answer is simple “curious media” and not “curious public” it may sound strange but what curious public of Nepal would have done if there were no media was talk about it to friends and family….but look at it media is making it a movie,a news. I don’t think there were any need for all these things. There are many poor people who do not eat for longer time. I think let “Dorje” do what he think is good for him as an independent citizen and not make a story out of it. If he is next Buddha then even Lord Buddha can’t stop him to gain Buddha hood.
It is all believe and so may it be…….
Interesting posts from the rationalists and spiritualists on here! I suggest those who seek a little more illumination on the very real relationship between science and spirituality read ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. You may find Yogonanda’s discussions on this topic particularly interesting.
However, the modern science as we currently see it (which ultimately requires physical and circumstantial evidence of a phenomenon) is limited by its very nature to urravel the mysteries of what happens during spiritual practice, kudalini yoga, samadhi and other practices. As has already been suggested, one could at best take an ifrared image of Ram Bahadur Bomjon. However, if he had attained cosmic conciousness or another elevated state I doubt you would get any image. Physical objective evidence of an etheral subjective experience is beyond any ‘technology’ I belive we posess.
I think empirical investigation is limited but the basis upon which it is founded (objective justification). Hopoing to gain such proof of Ram Bahadur Bomjon’s state is futile at best. Subjectively, I think the message he delivered in 2007 was as meaningful, eloquent and heartfelt as any other similar message I have heard from the great teachers like Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogonanda and countless others. To that end I believe he must be an enlighted individual. Whether he ‘is’ Buddha, I do not know. He has refuted that too…I personally look forward to seeing the culmination of his meditation and what it will bring to the table of spirituality. I am sure that it will be nothing but good.
This is a fellow being making his own spiritual journey through evolution, whether some believe it or not. Why must humanity cast a spotlight on such an individual, give label’s which he has refuted, and exploit his obvious spiritual determination for financial gain (the family)? Ultimately, whatever he has come here to achieve has not yet manifest – we should therefore at least give him the peace that he requests. If nothing it shows the irreverance modern society has for spiritaul pursuits of this nature.
If you require proof etc, then just walk away! Nothing will be gained to you from trying to disprove a person who delivers a message of hope and spiritual potential.
Hey Mark, funny that you just posted that today. I found out about Ram Bahadur just today and it seems pretty real to me. Watch the Discovery Channel special on Youtube. I also just bought “autobiography of a yogi” randomly last week because I thought the guy on the cover looked cool. it was just $3, so I picked it up and started reading it. Will read the rest of it too i guess.
Good one Eric….that book will become a treasure to you. I will be reading it for a seccond time in the near future, I think it takes a second read to really digest some of the higher metaphysical wisdom contained within its pages. Take it slow and enjoy! Such a small price to pay for what I consider to be truth.
I will watch the You Tube video as well, thanks for that suggestion!
if you are out there in a jungle the most digusting thing you face is probably insects bites esp. mosquitoes etc.
the boy just sat there – courtesy of discovery channel video – without ever moving not that completely is just amazing.
unfortunately for your nit picking about “slight movements” otherwise your article is ok.
like some your commentors said, the ultimate goal of his is to gain enlightenment and other than that nothing else is important and we shall see dont we what he shall be doing when time comes.
from his speech he seems pretty credible.
He is doing meditation just for himself, not for others. As he suggested we have to seek ourselves. The best thing for now is not to bother him and let him seek his goal which is self realization. One day if he achieve enlightenment the flower will rose and one who is near him will automatically get the fragrance.
i think the buddha boy is awesome