Dr. Rob
Founder & Director
A former monk ordained in the Thai Forrest Dhammayut tradition in Thailand in 2018, Dr. Rob as he is now known online, began his spiritual journey in 2014 at a Zen Buddhist Meditation Center in New Mexico at the age of 20 years old. These early years were marked by intensive meditation training and deep immersion into Buddhist teachings. In 2018, he made a significant move to Thailand to ordain as a Bhikkhu at Wat Phra Dara Philom Forrest monastery in Chiang Mai, further deepening his commitment to Buddhism.
Dr. Rob is currently under the guidance of Sayadaw Ashin Ottamathara and serves as a Dharma Teacher, focusing on alleviating others’ suffering through meditation and community. His experiences across various monasteries worldwide as a monk and now a yogi have forged strong connections within the Buddhist community, leading him to create a platform for sharing resources and encouraging others to join this path of tranquility and joy.
Dr. Rob’s commitment to helping others through his unique style of teaching the Dharma has never been stronger in the age of fast-food social media. With an emphasis on teachings highlighting childism, colonialism and speciesism, Dr. Rob will continue to push boundaries by challenging ways of thinking through the Buddhist ethos.
Thabarwa Centre
Our Mission
Sharing, Caring, Helping, Protection and Cooperation by Mindfulness and Right Understanding.
Our Vision
The vision of Thabarwa Centre is to provide opportunities for everyone to do a wide range of good deeds on a regular basis.
Thabarwa Is a Place for Everyone
Thabarwa Centre, headed by Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Ottamathara, is a meditation and dhamma centre cum non-profit humanitarian organization working for a noble cause around the world. It is established with unlimited access for general benefit and is fulfilling the most crucial needs of the society continually, persistently, dedicatedly, one by one.
Our centres open 24 hours a day, seven days a week without recess. It is the sanctuary which is fulfilling the requirements of the multitude and the world (loka) round-the-clock without attachment and craving.
Though Thabarwa functions for common welfare, that is not the main objective. The main objective is propagate the Pariyatti and Patipatti Sasana ... to enable the yogis to enhance their power of right understanding by listening to dhamma teachings, practicing vipassana insight meditation and performing good deeds as much as possible with non-grasping, detachment and mindfulness.
About Sayadaw Ashin Ottamathara
Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Ottamathara is one of the world’s foremost meditation teachers from Myanmar. He was born on the full moon day of October 26, 1969. He attended Yangon University and graduated in 1992 with an honors degree in English. Venerable opened his own small convenience store which grew to have several locations and 200 staff members. Later, however, he encountered difficulties with the business. These troubles led him to join a meditation retreat as suggested by a friend. Venerable started to practice vipassana insight meditation in the tradition of Mogok Sayadaw. Later he also joined a retreat of S.N. Goenka. He began to use his apartment as a dhamma distribution center for free dhamma books and CD’s of famous Burmese monks, which he edited for improved sound quality. This became the Wisdom Sharing Foundation known as “From Avijja to Vijja” (From Ignorance to Wisdom), with several distribution locations throughout Myanmar.
In 2002, on the full moon day of October, Venerable officially abandoned his layperson life to ordain as a monk. He was appointed by the Abbot of Devasagara Monastery in Yangon as a vipassana meditation teacher and began teaching to help others realize the ultimate truth of nature. Venerable established the first Thabarwa Center in 2007. In 2014 Sayadaw established the Dhamma Hospital where elderly and patients can live, receive free medical care, practice meditation and hear dhamma teaching together. Doctors, nurses and volunteers donate their time and skills to help those in need. There are now three multi-story Dhamma Hospitals in the main center and many small dhamma hospitals throughout Myanmar and Thailand.
Sayadaw has opened over 100 Thabarwa Centers around the world, as well as several Goodwill Villages where homeless families can receive homes. Other Thabarwa projects include schools for children, orphanages, refuges for pregnant women, single mothers and their babies, and animal sanctuaries. In 2022 he began working for peace in Myanmar as the country suffered from civil war. As a monk and meditation teacher Sayadaw will continue to use his understanding for the benefit of all living beings.
Buddhist Absurdist Non-Dual Avant-Garde Performance Art
~ A new way of teaching ~
Buddhist Absurdist Non-Dual Avant-Garde Performance Art, in the way Dr. Rob uses it on MonkLife, is a living Dharma transmission method. It uses absurdity, unpredictability, humour, ritual, and nondual framing to break the viewer’s habitual perception so they can directly experience:
• the emptiness of concepts
• the collapse of dualistic thinking
• the immediacy of awareness
• the playful, compassionate nature of mind
It is not “random weirdness.” It is a modern koan, performed instead of spoken.
🧘♂️ 1. What “Buddhist Absurdist Non-Dual Avant-garde Performance Art” Actually Means
Buddhist
Rooted in Dharma principles: impermanence, emptiness, compassion, nonself, direct experience.
Absurdist
Uses intentional strangeness to disrupt the thinking mind. Absurdity is a tool to expose how rigid and automatic conceptual thought is.
NonDual
Everything is presented in a way that dissolves the usual split between:
• teacher vs student
• sacred vs ordinary
• serious vs playful
• meditation vs daily life
• performer vs audience
The performance is the teaching. The viewer is the performance. The moment is the Dharma.
Avant-garde
Draws from experimental art traditions (Fluxus, Meredith Monk, ritual performance, Zen-inspired art). It uses:
• nonlinear structure
• sound, gesture, silence
• surreal juxtaposition
• ritualistic repetition
• unexpected tonal shifts
to bypass the conceptual mind.
🎭 2. How Dr. Rob Uses This on MonkLife Meditation
Dr. Rob’s livestreams combine:
• meditation
• community interaction
• humour
• sudden tonal changes
• ritual gestures
• playful absurdity
• nondual commentary
• spontaneous teaching moments
This creates a Dharma field where the viewer is constantly invited to:
• drop expectations
• stay present
• notice reactions
• relax into notknowing
• experience mind directly
Examples of how his style functions as Dharma teaching:
• When he shifts from serious meditation to playful absurdity, the viewer’s mind snaps out of autopilot.
• When he uses humour, the ego softens and becomes receptive.
• When he breaks narrative structure, the viewer experiences impermanence.
• When he behaves unpredictably, the viewer practices nonattachment.
• When he speaks in nondual language, the viewer feels the collapse of subject/object.
This is exactly how traditional Zen koans work — but expressed through performance instead of dialogue.
🪷 3. Why Absurdity + Non-Duality Is So Effective for Teaching Dharma
A. It breaks conceptual rigidity
Absurdity forces the viewer to confront the limits of logic. This opens a space where insight can arise.
B. It reveals emptiness
When meaning shifts, collapses, or contradicts itself, the viewer sees that all meaning is constructed.
C. It dissolves duality
Non-dual framing shows that:
• the performer and viewer are one field of awareness
• the teaching and the moment are inseparable
• the sacred and the ordinary are the same
D. It encourages direct experience
Instead of explaining Dharma intellectually, Dr. Rob creates conditions where the viewer feels it.
E. It uses compassion through play
Humour and absurdity make difficult truths gentle and accessible.
F. It mirrors the mind
The performance becomes a reflection of the viewer’s own mental patterns:
• confusion
• grasping
• expectation
• resistance
• delight
• surrender
This is Dharma taught through experience, not explanation.
🌟 4. How This Fits the MonkLife Channel Specifically
MonkLife is essentially a digital monastery built on play, presence, and community.
Dr. Rob’s absurdist nondual performance style:
• keeps the community awake
• prevents spiritual rigidity
• makes meditation lively and embodied
• turns livestreams into koans
• transforms viewers into participants
• uses humour as compassion
• uses unpredictability as mindfulness training
• uses avantgarde expression as Dharma transmission
It is a 21st century form of teaching, rooted in ancient methods but expressed through livestream culture, digital ritual, and performance art.
🧘♀️ 5. In Summary
Buddhist Absurdist Non-Dual Avant-Garde Performance Art, as taught by Dr. Rob on MonkLife Meditation, is a powerful Dharma method that:
• disrupts habitual thinking
• reveals emptiness
• dissolves duality
• encourages direct experience
• uses humour as compassion
• uses unpredictability as mindfulness
• turns performance into meditation
• turns community into a field of awakening
It is Dharma taught through shock, play, ritual, presence, and nondual immediacy — a contemporary expression of ancient wisdom.
