Beyond the Now

Episode #634: Christopher Titmuss has spent more than fifty years teaching Buddhist insight meditation, yet he warns that the very practices intended to bring liberation can become sources of attachment. Having trained as a monk in Thailand and India before helping establish Western insight meditation institutions, he has witnessed how spiritual traditions can gradually elevate particular teachers, methods, and organizational forms into unquestioned authorities. “If you totally identify with one teacher, one form, one method, one technique, one language, or whatever, this might be imprisoning and not liberating,” he cautions. His understanding developed through intensive monastic practice under Ajahn Dhammadharo, the teachings of Ajahn Buddhadāsa, and encounters with spiritual traditions throughout India. His experience with S. N. Goenka reinforced both his appreciation for disciplined meditation and his concern about claims of exclusive authority over Vipassanā. For Titmuss, no single form can contain the full possibilities of the Dhamma. That conviction carries ethical consequences. Myanmar’s continuing suffering under military violence highlights the responsibility of Buddhist practitioners to confront harm rather than retreat into private spiritual cultivation. Titmuss argues for unwavering commitment to nonviolence without identifying with political factions, while distinguishing moral clarity from anger and self-righteousness. He also questions whether secular mindfulness, despite its demonstrated benefits, has neglected the explicit ethical commitments found in Buddhist teachings. His critique extends to meditation itself. Present-moment awareness is useful, but fixation on the here and now can obscure the causes of suffering and the consequences of present actions. Retreats likewise offer valuable training without encompassing the speech, livelihood, relationships, and responsibilities that occupy daily life. Drawing on his experiences with death contemplation and the Buddhist understanding of non-self, Titmuss continues to examine how a path intended to dissolve attachment can remain free of attachment to its own methods.