Steve Rhodes - My Bio
It was in late 2024 when I finally put the finishing touches to The Sad and Sorry Saga of Sir Geoffrey Hill-Pig Smythe, the children’s book that I’d written about thirty years ago.
Thirty years or so of unbelievable procrastination.
I then had 1,000 copies printed at a high end print shop in Bangkok.
I’d written it in English while living in Australia and my friend Doctor Apinya Fuengfusakul translated it into Thai from her home in Chiagmai, in North Thailand.
It had been a Titanic Task. Everything was done by email – with the occasional phone call if a problem was too complicated to deal with by eMail.
Apinya enlisted the aid of Mr Sangworn Hochaisiwanon to help out with all the complex technical tasks involved in preparing my manuscript for publication as an eBook. He proved to be worth his weight in gold.
I then started to look around, trying to find a market for it.
I sought advice from an old mentor – Phra Ajarn Nawee Piyadhassi, the abbot at Wat Tam Doi Toan – a meditation temple in Chiangmai.
He was also an enthusiastic author of books on Buddhism, and had been through all the dramas that I was going through.
“Why don’t you give them to me to give out to the under privileged children at Nong Montha Village” he asked.
It was a bold plan, and I must admit that I’d never considered it, being a bit on the mercenary side. But then I remembered the old Thai belief that the more you give in this life, the more you will get back in your next life.
He had recently embarked on a most ambitious project which aims to help thousands of children in remote parts of North Thailand to read more, receive a better education, and be absorbed and integrated into today’s modern society while remaining mindful of the old adage Past ignored, future ignoble.
“Your books will be invaluable to them,” he continued. “They can learn to read in both English and Thai and be guided by them to lead good lives and follow the teachings of the Lord Buddha”.
So I gave him the big bundle of books and returned to Australia, where I began to work with Toni on this website – with a view to selling more copies of the book as an eBook, and try to make some more money which I could then split 50/50 with Phra Ajarn Nawee Piyadhassi.
While I’m happy with the way everything has worked out in the end, this will be my last charitable gesture to help humanity as I’m now more interested in helping animals who are suffering at the hands of humans who destroy their habitat, kill them for food and pleasure, and exploit them in so many different ways.
So when I was living and working in Thailand I made this video for an organisation called Care for Dogs and you can watch it here:
It was a turning point. You could write a book about wildlife conservation etc, and many have done so. But it simply boils down to putting quality ahead of quantity.
As one of my colleagues said: “All the wrong people are having babies.” And the environment is suffering as a result of so many human activities.
There is a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Brisbane that my wife and I visit every so often to make merit and offer food to the monks.
While I’ve enjoyed my visits there, one thing has always worried me — the sight of well meaning devotees staggering under the weight of cartons of bottled water and rolls of toilet paper, making offerings of these environmentally unfriendly products to the monks who are, after all, the Lord Buddha’s representatives here on Earth.
The Lord Buddha would be appalled. He was one of the world’s great pioneering environmentalists who had a deep respect for all living beings.
He preached that: All these elements were not for the benefit of humans alone. More than ten million species are living around us with the same rights to live. Nature is not here for the human species only.
Buddha interconnected with the environment until he died. He had an understanding of the middle way — not to harvest more than needed. Nature belongs to all living beings, not only to the rich and powerful. — Extract from “Buddha The Greatest Environmentalist” by Kenneth Lyngaas.|
Bottled water is one of the many environmentally unfriendly products that plague our planet. It is also a rip off of the first magnitude.
The entire life cycle of bottled water uses fossil fuels, contributes to global warming, and causes pollution. More than 17 million barrels of oil are required to produce enough plastic water bottles to meet America’s annual demand for bottled water.
Bottled water is about 3,000 percent more expensive per gallon than tap water, and is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water.
The well meaning devotees who offer the cartons of bottled water and rolls of toilet paper are blissfuly unaware of the consequences of their actions. However, it’s important that they be made aware of them, as the human race is facing probably its worst crisis ever – massive pollution and climate change which, if not addressed, will have a devastating effect on the next generation.
But they have enormous respect for you, and would take heed of what you tell them.
So, at the next Dhamma Talk, maybe you could ask them to stop offering bottled water and toilet paper and find something more environmentally friendly to offer. There are legions of possibilities. Healthy muesli bars, nuts and dried fruits, as well as freshly made fruit and vegetable juices spring to mind.
And think of the results of these actions. Your temple would become famous as a trail blazing organisation which will be lauded by conservationists and anyone else who has an ounce of common sense. Word of your bold action would spread and, if every Buddhist temple in the world followed your example, it would probably help to save the planet.
This may sound like a flight of fancy, but I believe it’s true.
So, in order to kick start this bold campaign, I am making an offering of the following items:
Two hand held bidets to install in both toilets at the temple. But, if they can’t break free of the toilet paper habit, I am offering to arrange delivery of a bamboo based, environmentally friendly toilet paper to your temple.
And to solve the bottled water problem, I will arrange to have a water filter installed in the kitchen and a small supply (for monks only), of special drinking water bottles made by the Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species Limited (FAME). So, by drinking out of one of these, you are helping to preserve Australia’s wild life.
These changes are very quick and simple to achieve and, if everyone did it, the world would be a better place.
Best wishes, Stephen Rhodes (stephenrhodes1940@gmail.com)
Well, would you believe that the old toothless tiger was so frightened of rocking the boat and telling his disciples to change their ways, that he just put my offer into the ‘too hard basket’ and things are continuing along their merry way.
So, if you can’t win a battle to save the world at a Buddhist temple, then what hope do you have when dealing with major polluters such as coal miners and oil drillers?